It's A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

My husband and I took the train into The City.

Everyone calls Chicago 

THE CITY.

That distinguishes it from all of the other cities, I guess.

The train was crowded.

I sat next to a giant sunflower seed eating gerbil.

She was disguised as a woman.

For 1 and 1/2 hours

this gerbil/woman

methodically ate sunflower seeds off of an actual sunflower head

which she held in a bag on her lap.

1. Pluck seed

2. Put seed in mouth

3.Crack seed with teeth

4. Fish seed out with tongue

5.  Chew

6.Spit shell in hand

7. Deposit shell back into giant Sunflower Head bag

8. Repeat

The amazing part is that it had - rather - a rhythm to it

and

SHE NEVER STOPPED!

Not once.

Although, surprisingly enough

she was able to continue talking.

It was oddly fascinating.

And disgusting all at the same time.

Not as bad as the time I rode the train and watched a man shave.

Or, as my friend observed-

watched a man clip his toenails.

Yes.

It's FUN to ride the train into

The CITY.

We walked to the Wrigley Building

(The building that gum built)

Yes, folks, I'm here to educate you

To see a large crowd of people

and

THIS!

No.  Those are just skyscrapers.

THIS!

Can't tell?

Wait.  I'll get you closer.

It'a a giant 26 foot statue of

Marilyn Monroe

From this scene in Seven Year Itch

I don't know why she's there.

It's Chicago!

We do things like this.

Taking wedding pictures under the 

Amazonian Marilyn is apparently

another thing we do.

We also like to set babies down next to the giant foot

and

stare, gawk and laugh at Marilyn's "nether regions."

Every man there HAD to stand under her dress and look up!!

It just had me and my husband laughing our heads off.

My husband refused to stand under her dress and point

so that I could get a good picture.

The artist had the good sense

to paint undies on our dear Marilyn.

I knew you'd want proof.

So, I took a picture.

She's pretty cool in a Sci-Fi sort of way.

We left there.  Found some cool beverages.

AND - decided to take the river taxi to China Town.

I took some nice photos of the river while we waited.

The river taxi drops you off at a nice little park in China Town.

We walked from there to the restaurant and had a fabulous dinner!

We ate too much.

Had a great time.

Missed our train by 1 MINUTE!

Had to wait 2 hours in the train station...

But, it was a perfect day.

A beautiful day.

Cue Bono

here

I'd Catch A Grenade For Ya

I had the day off yesterday.

The short story is:

I blew a tire 

on the way to Michaels 

to buy these beads:

And, while I usually try to buy Czech beads

or handmade beads

these just called to me when I first saw them

I should've bought them then!

All was going well until  the tire blew out.

And I had to wait for the tow truck for an hour.

Then I had to wait another several hours to get the tire (s) replaced.

4 hours later.

I was at Michaels.

So,

I did it.

I finished the grenade necklace.

And-

I Love it!!

It makes me laugh.

Hopefully, someone else will love it.

I made this too.

It has more of a calming influence.

There you have it.

My schizophrenic mind at work.

Have a great weekend!

Here We Go, Here We GO

Here we go again!

Even though my daughter hasn't been in school for a long time

for some reason 

Labor Day feels like the end of the year to me.

September is the beginning.

Fall is coming.

Yay!

Winter is coming...

I'll think about that tomorrow (she says)

and so forth.

Time marches. (cue violin music)

Thinking of that,

I made this.

This is the

skewed view.

Ah.

Here we go.

Then my brain took a sharp left turn

at

Albuquerque.

I am currently working on this.

I call it -

Before the Bathtub Bunny.

Made some cute pumpkin and spider earrings.

Leaf earrings.

Spooky BOO earrings.

Black Cat earrings.

And finally.

I started working on

the grenade necklace.

It's different than I was actually planning.

It's not finished

I don't think that there's actually anything called

a G50 Grenade

but it sounds cool doesn't it?

I think I'll add a ceramic heart to it.

I think it's going to make all the difference.

Don't you?

Thank you Bruno Mars...

Oh, I'd catch a grenade for you.

Put my hand on blade for you...

Famous Potatoes

Did you know that

"Famous Potatoes"

is the slogan used on Idaho license plates?

That's right.

I'm here to educate you.

I changed up these old 60's earrings.

I added olives.

I'm not sure why.

It seemed like the right thing to do.

At least that's what these beads look like to me.

This is the photo after I edited out

the "famous potatoes."

Rule #1 in taking a photograph.

Always, observe the background and  foreground 

before snapping the picture.

Obviously,

I didn't see the potatoes.

Hopefully, they aren't too noticeable.

I thought about adding a disclaimer to the Etsy description.

Something like,

Famous Potatoes not included.

I decided against doing that.

I made these too.

I love these deep yellow orange beads.

They just look yummy.

Between the famous potatoes, the olives

and the oranges all this beaded food is making me hungry.

I'm going to go find something to eat.

OH!

I almost forgot.

I made these too.

Made ya smile!

Not Bud Light but BUG Light!

So, my husband is standing with a cup of coffee in his hand.

He says,

"Usually the shirt is off."

"uh-huh"

I'm concentrating on taking a picture of myself wearing

my latest creation.

A wasp necklace.

"What are you talking about?" I mutter.

My husband says,

"When people take pictures of their boobs or whatever

they are usually not wearing clothes.  Just saying."

Which of course made me bust out laughing.

Oh.

Pardon the pun.

Then he says,

"WHAT is THAT?!"

"It's a wasp sealed in plastic.  

I just know that there's someone out there 

who right now 

wishes she had this necklace!"

I marched myself into the bathroom

 to gaze upon the beauty of this splendid piece 

in the bathroom  mirror.

When I was met with this sight!

It

GLOWS

IN THE DARK!!!!

hahahahahha!!!

There you have it.

My bug light necklace.

I think I'm going to put it in my Etsy store.

I'll see if it gets any bites!

And stop groaning.

I can hear you, you know.

Vintage Cheese Graters and Flying Saucers

I saw on Etsy someone was selling rusted and painted 

cheese graters.

They were being used for displaying earrings.

I happen to have one.

It's already rusted.

from years of use.

My family used to joke about the rust.

Really they were horrified that I still used it.

It was CLEAN!

It was just

well, 

rusted.

I had a neighbor ask to borrow it once.
One look at it and she said,
"No thanks, Kathy.  I'll drive to the store and buy one."
A kitchen object is really bad when you'd rather buy one than borrow one.

Much to my family's delight
I finally replaced it.
But,
I couldn't throw it away.
I've had it since my first apartment.
It's been a good friend
and given me more than a few
scraped knuckles!

Imagine my delight when I saw
an alternative use for it!
I put my Etsy earrings on it.

It makes a snazzy carrier/holder for earrings.

And it will save me a few bucks in tetanus shots.

I bought these vintage beads a while back.

They looked like flying saucers.

You may be asking yourself

"Why would you want these?"

The answer is...

 I made these:

See!
They are HUGE!
They are made of
vintage Lucite and look like crystal.
They are very light weight, too!
And let me just say,
Do NOT
take a side view, closeup
Of.
Your.
Face.
when you are over 50
unless you have
TREMENDOUS
Self-Esteem.

Root C Anal

So, I went back to the dentist to finish up the 

root canal from hell.

And I said,

Doc.  

Next time.  

Smack me with a brick.  

Zap me with a taser.  

Then, I'll hand you an obscene amount of money 

and it'll save us both a lot of time and misery.

He wasn't amused.

Sheeshk.

Some people have no sense of humor.

Speaking of sense of humor-

I made this necklace

out of a tiny Gin bottle charm.

I added tiny glass beads inside

to look like ice.

In case you like your Gin "on the rocks."

I soldered the whole thing closed.

It's kind of cute.

I'm not sure when they were passing these out.

I know it's old.

I'm hoping they didn't use to appear in those

children's gum-ball machines.

What did you get Jimmy?  says Mom 

Golly Gee, Mom!  I got a bottle of GIN! says little Jimmy.

My humorous stuff doesn't usually sell.

We'll see what happens with this one.

It's a JEEP thing!

This one has gotten some interest.

I'm sure someone out there wants to wear a teeny-tiny

one inch Jeep around their neck.

Who wouldn't?

I even found an old Jeep key to go with it.

I reworked this one.

It's another weird little necklace.

Cinderella's broken glass slipper pieces.

Contained in a bottle to wear around your neck.

Create your own fairy tale.

I've been working on this one for a while.

I keep putting it down and then picking it up.

Do you ever do that?

I liked it before I took the picture.

Now, I'm not so sure.

The ivory flower beads,

well,

they remind me of teeth.

It kind of takes away from the charm

don't you think?

Perhaps I won't list that in the Etsy description.

Charming pink bracelet with teeth like beads.

No.

Doesn't flow, does it?

I'm happy with these!

Same tooth beads but somehow they work here.

I have this just waiting to be made into a fabulous piece of jewelry.

Nothing sells like a grenade necklace!

Inspiration from Bruno Mars.

Click on his name if you've managed to miss out hearing this song.

And, what's this?

Yeah.

It's a staple.

In the butter.

Dangerous butter, again.

I've really got to stop crafting in the kitchen.

Either that 

or remember to

refrigerate the butter.