Tattered Saints

In The House...

Finally, my buffet/server what-cha-ma-call-it is in the house.  I had to hire a moving company and pay a huge amount of money, but it is in the house.  What an ordeal.  I will still go to the auctions, but I will never, ever, ever buy another thing that has to be delivered.  If we can't get it in the house ourselves, we will not bid on it.  *sigh*  Sad, but true.  In other news, our company is gone so my time is my own again. I should get out in the studio and do something creative, but I don't really feel like it.  Maybe later.  Well, I'm off to clean up the buffet and rearrange the tchotchkes. 

More Fun For The Feeble-Minded...

It's picture day.  First up, this is what I plan to start working on...soon hopefully:

Here in the foyer sit the drawers to my buffet/server...which is still out in the garage, damn it:

A marble and brass lamp I got at the auction.  I tore the shade up because it was yucky.  I kind of like it this way:

A 19th century walnut French armchair from the same cursed auction.  This is one of two chairs...exactly alike:

Halloween candy container in the kitchen...ooooohhhhh, spooky:

A black candle in a favorite orange colored mercury glass holder:

 
 And that's about it I guess. Company arriving tomorrow afternoon.  Going on a self-guided walking tour of homes Saturday...then taking tea in a convent.  Ah good times, good times.  

Postscriptum...

I forgot to mention in the last post...the guy who "delivered" the server told me that he broke the leg off of it and glued it back on, too.  Crap. 

More later today about what I'm up to...

Annoyed...

I was going to title this post "Pissed" because that describes what I feel better than "Annoyed" but I'm trying to be polite here.  Sort of.  Went to an auction the other day and bought a fabu Empire mahogany server with a mirror back.  Arranged to have it delivered, which is what the auction folks do on a regular basis...if you buy something that you can't haul home in your trunk or on top of your tiny car, or you're just a weakling who can't lift anything heavier than a pencil, the auction people will deliver....for a price of course.  So I make the necessary arrangements for delivery of the server, which I know IS heavy.  The people show up yesterday and drag the server out of their truck on one of those cart thingys...it's on the cart sideways, meaning that it's about 60 inches wide and will not fit through our gate.  Duh.  The guy gets all pissy about it and says they can't get it in the yard through the gate which I realize is true, but they aren't going to be able to get it through the DOOR into the house either because most doors are not over 60 inches wide...the standard door size is 36 inches wide.  Now what ticks me off the most is that the auction people pick these items up and bring them to the auction site, so they are WELL AWARE of how big they are and what it takes to move them, so when they go to deliver a piece, WHY DO THEY ACT ALL SURPRISED AND THROW A TIZZY FIT that the thing is big, heavy and they need more people than two to move it??? Double Duh.  So, my beautiful server is sitting out in the garage, the drawers are sitting in the foyer, the living room is all torn up with stuff sitting every which way AND... we are having company this weekend.  Yeah, it's like that. Here is a picture of it at the auction site...it sure as heck didn't walk in there under its own power:

Lampshade Redo...

I've had this small lamp for years and the shade was unpleasantly plain...kind of like a brown paper bag.  Nothing wrong with a brown paper bag...for toting your lunch or hiding a bottle of booze, but for a lamp?  No, no, no. So, I took an old, torn up book and my Marvy hole punch and got busy making the lamp shade purdy...or at least more interesting than it was:

 



A little Mod Podge, a little time involved and VOILA!  Super cool new lamp shade...

'S Wonderful...

POM Wonderful, that is...about a week or so ago, I got the nicest email from them the upshot of which was, much to my everlasting surprise, that they had found my blog...yes, THIS blog (believe it or not) and they actually said lots of very complimentary things about the blog, my art and my posts!  I know...I was so surprised, you could have knocked me over with a pomegranate.  The email also offered to send me some of Pom's new iced coffee drinks to try...I was thrilled, being a fan of their juice drinks and tea drinks as I am already.  I received the coffee a few days ago and it really is delish...I've had the new vanilla flavor and in a little while I plan to try the chocolate.  Yum.  As with all of Pom's products, this stuff not only tastes good, but is good for you, being chock full of antioxidants and whatnot.  Good stuff...

Thanks, POM WONDERFUL!!!!  You really are...wonderful!

Ch-Ch-Ch Changes....

Oh Glory Be...Oh Happy Day....Typepad has made changes to everything.  I hate change.  Just when I get used to doing things one way, we have to re-learn everything.  Oh joy. 

I'm getting ready to make the quilt sandwich.  I have to figure out where to lay it all out first.  If the workmen are coming today, I can't lay the quilt out where they will be walking through.  If they don't come, then I can do it wherever I want.  So, I wait for that all important phone call.

Went to an art trade show over the weekend.  It was fun.  I got some wood panels to do my paintings on and I got some Paverpol.  So many fun things you can do with that stuff. 

I'm trying to decide if I want to sign up on twitter and/or facebook.  I don't really want to, but I wonder if it would help if/when I start to sell my art again.  Or would I end up being unpopular on three places instead of just unpopular on one??  Who knows. 

Nothing much else is going on.  It's raining today.  Bummer.  More later...

Now I Remember...

Yes, now I remember why I never wanted to make a quilt.  I always thought quilting was the most futzy, fussy, picky, ticky, particular and therefore IMPOSSIBLE thing to do.  I've almost got the quilt top done, but this thing is driving me to contemplate going on a running hissy fit.  I thought that by purchasing pre-cut (presumably perfectly machine cut) squares, I would have much less trouble getting corners to match up, etc.  Oh my, no.  I'm having a dickens of a time getting corners to match.  Why??  I haven't the foggiest idea.  My seams are good...not perfect maybe, but certainly no excuse for the difference in the sizes of these squares.  I thought after the first quilt that I could do much better on the second one, but I wouldn't say this one is much better.  Other than the fabric being really nice and pretty, that is.  I've got four more strips to sew to the quilt top and then I can sandwich everything together and start quilting.  I'm not going to give up on this one, but I think I can say with a fair amount of vehemence that when it is finished, it will be my last quilt.  Unless I can figure out how to match corners.  I cannot even fathom how people make the more complicated quilts with points and all.  Can. Not. Imagine.  I hate perfect, prissy, picky crap like that...I'm much more of a slap-dash artist.  Perfection scares me...nothing should be perfect...Nature is not perfect...how can a mere human create perfection?  *shudder* 

 
 

It is rather pretty in its imperfection, isn't it??
 

A Day In The Life...

I've been keeping busy...practicing my folk art-style painting.  This is a painting on an old cigar box I've had for just about forever:

 

A couple of recent pillow creations:

 

 

This is a hideous cat basket that I plan to re-do very soon:

In addition to all of these artsy endeavors, I've been perusing this fab new magazine:

I'm so good at entertaining myself...

Tuesday Thoughts...

This post is probably going to be one of those where my mind wanders around in circles that baffle normal people and makes me wish I could stifle that little voice that lives rent free in my head.  Everyblog seems to be talking about THIS book.  It looks interesting I guess, but do I REALLY need another book about making stuff? What the heck IS a Kanzashi, anyway?  It sounds Japanese...

 I don't know.  I feel like I have too much going on right now.  I still haven't finished the cloth and clay doll I started...what...three months ago?  I've got the new quilt to work on...got all the strips done, just need to sew them all together.  I'm also s-l-o-w-l-y getting stuff together to make an altered shrine per the class I took from K.C. Willis.  Which brings up a good question...when in the world is she going to get the next class up?? Geez Louise...I paid for the three classes back in May, I think it was...this has got to be the slowest start up of any class in recorded history...and I DO mean slow.  *sigh*  The next class is supposed to be on altered books which I have some familiarity with already...I was hoping to learn something new and wonderful...preferably BEFORE I'm eligible to apply for Social Security.  I'm still not spending any time out in the studio.  I've been making runs out there and dragging stuff back into the house to work on...dumb...I went out there a little bit ago and one of the smoke detectors is chirping due to a low battery...that's damned annoying.  Well, that's about it for now.  More random-ness later, I guess.