Oooooo Scary?? Not to me!!!!

Ahhh!!! This BEAUTIFUL beautiful fellow, has graced my front porch for almost 6 months and this morning he.,, (I am assuming a he as it looks as he has the large pedipalps maybe?... ) made a Huge web right between the top of the porch posts directly above my front steps. And this is a big big guy.. a good three or more inches with legs outstretched. I LOVE spiders.. I know.. ladies are going to get the willies here,, but I have always been utterly fascinated with Arachnids ..I used to live in what was considered one of the number one spots in the world for Black Widows and as kids my siblings and I would play with them all the time.., Well I did. They were All over the place. My dad built us a very nice little club/ play house from old 4 x 4 posts and power poles, and it was not uncommon to have to go in and clear a spider out before we could go in and play. Anyway this one is just a plain old garden spider.. but what a lovely one ... so HAPPY HALLOWEEN and Don't be scared.. this little (huge) feller does more GOOD in controlling unwanted pest then in being a pest himself!

I wanted to do some handpainted Spider pendants for Halloween but time slipped away from me and maybe I will get some done for next year. I did though Actually get a few new items listed in the Etsy shop... I have been trying to do that for a week!!

http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! and don't be scared of spiders... :)

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Today was my daughters scheduled day for her community inclusion outing with her provider, which is great for my little pill as she gets to see and do fun things without old stick in the mud "mom". And it provides me a few hours of time where I can have quiet time to work on projects or just do simply nothing! One day I actually lay down for a few hours and read and napped!!

Well this morning the Kid was sick, she was really quite bummed as she knew her trip to the Pumpkin Patch was not going to happen as planned.. hopefully she will be feeling better on Thursday and make it out there, she has plans on getting 2 small sugar pumpkins for carving on Halloween eve, and then we will turn them into something good to eat the day after Halloween. Like pie or Pumpkin custards. So instead of getting some jewelry done, I have been heating soup and doing other "mom" things that we all do to comfort kids who are feeling under the weather. I also took a picture of some luscious figs that we got from our nice neighbors tree that hangs over the fence between our properties. This year the figs have been very beautiful and there seem to be more of them, I adore figs in baking quick breads. I made some really delicious Green Tomato Bread about a week ago and put some cooked and finely chopped figs in. The tiny fig seeds give a nice little crunch to this scrumptious moist dense cake. Here is a picture of probably the last of the figs for this year. I will cook, chop and freeze them to add to breads or cookies later. The fabric the plate of figs is sitting on is a UFO that I am working on, a string quilt top that is about half done... (I had a boo boo with it the other day and had to fix it so it was at hand to stand in for a background for the figs)

I also heated the last of the soup I made a few days ago and it is so true that a soup gets better the next day, the flavors have a chance to meld and marry. Split the last with the kid when I convinced her to eat a little. Then I put a big pot of water and frozen chicken carcasses on to make some homemade stock, to make another big batch of this.

Ummm! I have to admit that cooking is not my major forte in life, though I do consider myself a good and proficient cook, I just don't really enjoy it as much as some. But I LOVE making soup and stews. I once made an odd ball soup from Lettuce and other salad leftovers that my brother said was one of the best soups he had ever had. :) High praise as he is a very good cook and makes a chili, and Barbecue that are incredible. Well now on to other things that need attending to.. I keep hoping to get back to my workbench and get a few more items made and listed in the Etsy shop. http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/ But today is snuggling with the Kid, reading stories to her, eating soup and listening to Bluegrass on the XM Radio what can be better then that. :)

Blades Repurposed Material Earrings

In the spirit of Re cycle, and Re purpose I came up with these earrings that use small discarded industrial cutting disks as an "out there" and on the Edge design element. Steel disks, copper wire and freshwater pearls.. the feel is Post Apocalypse and a Beyond Thunderdome style... the disks are a matching pair that fit together and work in a scissor fashion rather then being a sharp edged blade... My Dad, who passed quite a while ago worked for a comapny that designed and machined Industrial blades like these and all kinds from Humongous ones used in the rubber and paper making and baking industries to tiny blades for precision work in surgery.

The silver colored steel wheels were antiqued and then wrapped and embellished with wire stones and pearls. I then brushed and buffed the high points to bring out depth and contrast. A beautiful pewter like luster with a nice oxidized mottling on the steel give a lot of visual texture and interest to these Indie Punk, Post Apocalypse Goth style earrings.

The edges aren't sharp and they can't cut you if you run a finger along the edge.. they have a nice almost coin edge on them. The pointy "tips" are,, pointy! But not very sharp so they Look Dangerously Daring without being hazardous to you... I have 3 pair all different in my Etsy shop

at www.AtabbycatArts@etsy.com and I have lots of different ideas on varying the themes and style and look. I wore the pair I made for myself to meet 2 new members of my family last night and I got a "Whoa Those are Cool!" from the 20 to 30 year olds in the mash of family.

I think Aunty Entity would more then likely approve!

Dyed magnesite square beads and wrapped freshwater pearls. Pink "puka" shells and wrapped freshwater pearls.

Saki Sox She really Rocky Rocks!!!

The other day I finally got some decent pictures of the feral cat that we have sort of supported over the last few years. We recently discovered that He was in fact a She...though we have never seen evidence of her having kittens so she is either fixed or sterile.. I don't think she is fixed as every so often we have male cats that come around and spray all over our porch to mark territory... so Mr. Socky Sox is now just Saki Sox. Saki as in Sake the Japanese wine.. I just boo booed the spelling. This cat is very adorable, and has obviously been socialized at some point in the past, but she is a little wild and very reactive. She has nipped me on three occasions the little bugger.,., I want to paint a couple of jewelry pebble pendant rocks of her and sell them on my Etsy shop.. maybe doing a sale to give to a cat rescue group.. Anyway here are a couple of pictures of Miss Saki Sox.






Note in the first picture the coy look and her darling little feet!!! She is quite the Cutie :)




Saki says "I am Sooooo Adorable!"