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!"

Peach Carrot Banana Bread!

I realize it has been awhile since I "blogged" anything... I'm an imperfect person in an imperfect world (lol) Anyway today I was perusing the Etsy forums boards and saw a posting in the ECT category that piqued my interest, it was Foods you HATE... well there are not to many foods I really hate, but I do have a few that get the old gag reflex going.. one is cumin the ground herb. Don't care for it.. urg.. but the worst offenders for me, starting at the bottom of the list and going up to the most hideous.... I Hate liver, of any kind ... organ meats in general are gross. I do like beef heart every once in awhile. But it has to be cooked properly to make it tender. But the ultimate grossest food on the planet for me is Fruit Cocktail. Yes this innocuous canned staple in many households is for me.. utter poison. One of my earliest memories is the huge looming head of my mother coming at me with a big spoon of fruit cocktail and a maniacal smile on her face... and there is just something insidiously icky about super sweet syrupy mushy canned fruit that chills me literally *to* *the* *bone.* And the WORST possible way to eat fruit cocktail is in Jell-o ... I cringe people, I have gooseflesh as I type, the stomach is churning even at the thought. BUT the KING of all time bad ideas for fruit cocktail and gelatin type side dishes or desserts ... Lime green jello with the fruit cocktail encased within,, some added crushed canned pineapple,, and WHY for the love of ALL that is Sacred.. COTTAGE CHEESE! My Mother used to make this.. a lot.. in fact it was kind of a delicacy in our household as I was growing up.. and everyone loved this abomination of so called foodstuff .. except me. sigh.. My Mother who by her own admission is not a fan of cooking, raised four kids and a husband on very strange concoctions ... her "Stew" was in reality a thin greasy soup afloat with half cooked carrots and mealy potatoes. Her soup, always had a grey cast to it, plus for some reason she would throw a few tablespoons of lentils into the pot and after the soup was done the empty lentil skins would float on top resembling baleful little eyes staring up at us.. We nick named this soup, Frogs Eye Soup which ticked Mother off greatly. Another of her signature dishes was a casserole that was basically boiled "baking" potatoes mixed with chunks of hot dogs ( the turkey and or chicken kind) doused with half a bottle of catsup. Ummmmm.. (not)

Now one dish she made that I did like was Meatloaf in bread... yes IN bread. She would get a huge loaf of Italian bread and carefully cut out a large oval from the top and scoop out the soft white bread leaving a large hollow. She would then mix hamburger, eggs, chopped onions and the few herbs and spices she used with the extracted bread crumbs and stuff it back in the hollowed out loaf.. baked in the oven for about an hour, replacing the "top" the last 15 minutes. Surprisingly this *IS* very delicious. Mom would let it cool for a few minutes and then sliced it. The outside bread is crisp and the meatloaf is moist.. slathered in catsup.. Now that was Good! And she made good deviled eggs.. So it's not like she didn't know how to cook at all.

This morning my dear daughter and I made Peach Banana Carrot Bread,, with lots of ginger and cinnamon.. oh it smelled so good baking! Still does,, and I took pictures... Enjoy!

My New Etsy Shop AtabbycatArts

I have recently made the step and opened up an Etsy Store, I have so much stuff that I make and I have to create things... I seriously am compelled to not remain idle.. lol. My Etsy shop is

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

I will be putting scads of things in there over the coming weeks,, but the main focus I have been undertaking is getting lots of new pictures of all my jewelry that I will be offering and of my painted rock critters... so far I have about 18 items of jewelry in the shop and want to add some painted rocks soon.. I know times are hard and the economy has not made it easy on handcrafters .. but Please in the up coming Holiday season,, Won't you think about buying local handcrafted items for gifts this year... The big outlet stores are great for bargains but most of the items in these mega stores and you *know* who I am talking about.. are imported and that takes away jobs and income from Americans. Make a pledge to support the citizens in our country and buy local and or Handmade items... Good for our economy and our Country.

Above is a picture of a Viking Knit chain and pendant that I am offering for sale on http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/

The chain is handmade from copper wire in 24 ga the Pendant in copper 20ga wire is a piece of beach glass I found and a little blue bead in the top swirl, I did a wire woven bail and the whole piece is meticulously handcrafted from start to finish... I even took the brass end cones and turned the edges over to make them smooth rounded and pokey free!

Please feel free to take a peek at my shop and convo me if you have any questions about anything I offer.

Regards :)

Summer

Gosh it's been quite awhile since I posted, one thing after another and life in general... I have been working a few pieces of jewelry and a quilt, the jewelry I'm pretty pleased with! The quilting less so..


A pair of copper wire hammer textured spiral heart earrings with pearls. The inspiration for them was Sherry Dancing Feather who is probably my all time favorite jewelry Heros. I wish wish wish I could someday take a class from her but until I get rich (hystercal laughter) so I can travel to TX. I will have to merely be wistful and emulate her genius.

Another piece I completed was this copper wire sculpture pendent with a pretty dyed howlite or magnesite free form cab like nugget... my dear husband brought this back to me from a trip to the Oregon coast when he went with his mom and siblings on a family outing several years ago, I loved the color and just had it laying around until early one morning I picked it up and started wrapping it, it flowed into shape almost unconciously and I think it might be one of my better creations. I wove the bale with 24gauge copper and then tumble hardened, and applied a patina.
I hope that I can someday find other nuggets of this, I would love to make some earrings that could go with it. You can buy this piece at www. AtabbycatArts.Etsy.com