It's Almost Yule!!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... I've had that song as an earbug for the last few days.. As we have had some really record breaking weather here!! Here in Portland OR we normally have rain in the winter and lots of it, but for the last week we have had SNOW!! And today into tomorrow we will be getting a huge surge of a moisture laden storm right form the Hawaiian Islands on what is called the Pineapple Express.. and it will slam into a frigid flow of heavy cold air streaming in from Eastern OR , Snow and wind and freezing rain is in the works!!

We have most of our Holiday things ready so not going to worry about it. Here are a couple of pictures from this morning that I took out my back yard, now at almost 8 in the evening we have a lot more snow and the temperature has dipped here in my neighborhood to 17 degrees... Yi Yi Yi that is cold.. for us that is END OF THE WORLD cold.. hehehe

I spent the day making soup and working on some Viking Knit for a chain and pendant I am doing, and trying to stay warm!

ATTACK of the FAIRY FLIES!!!!

Yes I know it has been awhile since I "blogged" (one of these days I am going to set my ongoing spell checker to accept the word Blog, without beeping at me!) and, well I get busy, and actually typing is not the easiest thing in the world for me to do...so I tend to look at a LARGE blank screen with misgivings, but I endure, I endure. The other day though I was going thru my pretty darn large cache of completed jewelry pieces and I spied some tumbled gemstone material and got totally inspired to create, though I *had* sat down at my workbench on the pretense of Cleaning it up!! I have often told people that even on a good day my bench area looks like a bomb went off and then a troop of rabid drunken squirrels had an impromptu orgy amidst the rubble. So, the need to create was probably more of a procrastinatory gambit on my part, and it certainly worked because said area still looks uhhhm, well lived in! I will get back to straightening and rearranging .. hopefully :) What I saw that interested me was a tumble stone of Rhodonite that I had picked up probably in a little bagged collection parcel. Looking at it I saw a tiny little gnat or bug perched on it.. it was one of the very small house plant gnats that a lot of people call "Fairy Flies" as I brushed my hand quickly near it, trying to drive it away, it just sat there on the stone.. calmly cleaning his antenna. I blew on him ( just a guess here on it's gender) and he decided the winds of change had come and he was gone.

Picking up my wire and stone, falling into the zone of creating for a few minutes I became aware that the little Fairy Fly was back, running back and forth across my overhead adjustable light shade. In little zig zaggy patterns he seemed to be watching what I was doing. So I stopped and watched him.. all of a sudden he flies and then lands back on the Rhodonite stone that was partially set in the wires.. Little Bugger! Be Off with ya! For the next hour he showed up and flitted off several times, even landing on my finger and dancing his way down to the stone and back up and then away. I have no idea why this little thing was attracted to this particular stone, it looked clean, there was nothing I could smell or see on it.. Eventually I just ignored him and finished the initial wire sculpted wrap and wove the bail. Cleaning and tumbling it to work harden and polish, then antiquing it and the last step wiring in the one small pearl in the top swirl. At last, the photography. I set up my light box and lights, tripod and got ready.. set my stage and,, there he was again!! Sitting in the middle of the stone as it lay on the White Board. I NOW wanted to get this little critters Picture!! He had been dogging me for at least 4 hours.. zoooming in the viewfinder ... and poof he was gone. I waited and waited and after 1/2 hour just took the picures.. and I have not seen him since. Very strange. And here is what he was so obsessed with. Rhodonite free form flatish tumble stone, antiqued and darkened copper wire and a pearl. Listed at my Etsy store www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com

My First ATC Art Card

I have to say, I have a lot of interests in life.. and I love to learn about new things.. in some ways I wish I was *not* like this, because life can get pretty chaotic when you have many projects and interests going all at the same time. But Art has always been at the top, drawing, painting and other artistic expressions. Unfortunately I have always felt very intimidated by that old Nemesis of many artists. The BLANK canvas. But, I have found a new area that is interesting and quite wonderful, Altered art and altered books, Mixed media, and collage. Especially the format of ATC cards, or artist trading cards. The only stipulation for an ATC is that it be 2.5 by 3.5 inches. Other than that it can be made in any medium.

I have seen so many very very beautiful and inspired cards and art in the last few months.. I am absolutely blown away by the diversity and how wonderfully varied these little pieces of art can be made. So I finished my first card the other day, and it's very simple.. but it made me giggle... I incorpereated a hand drawn little robot that I found on Etsy.. There is a shop by a lady who goes by Spidercamp, who makes the most Hilarious "bunnies that swear" very cute soft fleece little stuffed bunny ornaments, some of which have naughty words embroidered on their tummies! She also makes some "Bunnies of purity" and great cat toys. Her wonderful creations can be found at http://www.spidercamp.etsy.com/ She also has another shop http://www.jessicapierce.etsy.com/ in which she stocks odd and ends of various items, sewing things, fabrics (I found some nice fabric for my quilting ) and bits and bobs good for art and Collage and mixed media, in her own words some "weird things" I love to peruse her shop as I never know what neat or strange odd little item I might see. Last month she had a listing for some of her hand drawn little robots on kraft paper, various sizes, I had to get them , they just made me laugh. And when I received them I had to fight for my little treasures as my daughter spied them and she thought they were grand! She has this thing about Robots.. they kind of scare her and fascinate her at the same time. She has Down Syndrome and is borderline mild autistic so she gets fixated on certain things. So With that I post for your consideration my Very First (albeit quite simple) ATC! Which deals with MY very ** real terror** of Flying Stingy things! I am going to be creating a series using Jessicas Robots that I will list in my shop but the first one I am keeping forever!

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!"