It's the Weekend!

Hope you stay warm and cozy!

Santa Sticks!

Christmas crafting has begun!  I am so excited to be working on Christmas crafts.  I will be honest and tell you that I start up with the Christmas stuff much earlier than I really should.  If you are one of those people who does not like the stores to put up decorations until after Thanksgiving, then you don't want to be involved with me.  I like to start early!

Which brings me to these Santa Sticks that I made, ahem, right after Halloween.  It has taken great restraint not to post them until now!

Do you remember these sticks from early in the year?  The Santa Sticks are my "holiday sticks"!  Ha Ha, who knew I would need seasonal sticks for my backyard.  Good thing trees always need to be pruned because my son's stick "collection" is dwindling very quickly!  Once I get the evergreen branches in the urn I think they will look a little more at home.  They are a little lonely right now!

These were so easy to make.  I just whittled the tops a little bit to look like Santa's hat, and I carved a little bark off for the face.  Then I painted them up to look like Santa.   For the face I just put two tiny black eyes, I'm not sure you can see that in the photos.  I had a hard time getting these bad photos, sorry.

Have you painted any sticks for your yard yet?

It's the Weekend!

Hope you have a great weekend and can get involved in a little bit of nonsense!

Sketch Book

There has been a LOT going on at Factory 506.  

There is chaos and delay in the glazing department, and I have a ton of painting to do.  So guess how I unwind and put it out of my mind in the evening?  Happy Hour naturally, and then, you guessed it, more painting!

Some recent pages from my sketch book, if you are interested.

I am currently a little bit obsessed with owls!  I want to see one "in the wild" in the worst way!   I am sure that if I ever actually get to see one, it will be all pink and purple like the two above!

Have you ever seen an owl? 

 Mark's cousin Arnold sees them in Central Park!  Totally jealous!!!

It's the Weekend!

What are you up to this weekend?

  I will be doing some painting, some planning, watching my son's basketball games, trying a new recipe in the crock pot and hopefully loading and unloading the kiln!

Speaking of watching my son play basketball, have you seen this great article about the six words you should say to your child?

Hand Print Season Opener!

I warned you that hand print season was coming!  Yesterday was the "Official Season Opening" as I loaded my first victim's prints into the kiln.

My friend Meg graciously offered up her adorable daughter, Kay, to be my test printer.  We did two salad sized plates to make sure I had not forgotten how to do them, paint, load the kiln, etc…

This is how they started, just a plain brown hand and a plain green hand.

Then I dolled them up and turned them into a turkey and a tree and painted a simple border.  When the paint was dry, I glazed them and popped them into the kiln.  Eight hours later…

A little turkey!

And a sweet little tree!

If you don't want them painted, then hide your children when you see me coming!!!

Thank you Kay for being such a fabulous hand model!

More hand prints here!

What to do with old stuff...

I am one of those people who is always cold, and in the cold weather I LOVE having some sort of fluffy scarf or shrug on at ALL times.  

So last week I was digging getting all of the winter stuff out and I found this old fur collar that I bought at a flea market a year or so ago.  (Hoarder) 

I think I paid a whopping $5 for it and I had no idea what I would do with it.  Honestly, I probably felt sorry for it laying around a booth with a sad $5 tag on it.  Look at it, it is stupid!  But it is so soft and I liked the color.

Over the weekend, I decided I had to do something with it.  I took it apart because it was sewn shut and  it had this weird stuffing inside.  I flattened it out and wore it over my shoulders while I was making dinner.  To say it did not get a good review from my husband and son would be an understatement.  It looked like something crawled onto my shoulders and died!  So sad…

So on Saturday morning I woke up with a plan!  Mark helped me rein in all of my ideas and I started sewing, and I don't even know how to sew!  But look what I managed to whip up, despite my lack of sewing skills!!!

It is a little fur shrug…with POMPOMS!  

I sewed a belt that I bought in Argentina onto one side of it and then I lined the whole thing in hot pink fabric.  The belt already had pompoms, but as you can imagine, I am busy making a few more to add to the mix.

Honestly, it took me almost the entire day, because of the previously mentioned lack of sewing skills.  And I didn't have any thread, but luckily I had embroidery floss.  Same thing, right?

I love it and it keeps my shoulders so toasty warm!

Would you ever sew a belt to a piece of something fluffy and actually wear it out in public?  That is a rhetorical question!!!

PS.  My stand on fur if you are interested...  I am not usually a fan of fur, but I am a fan of recycling.  I would never buy fur that is new.  I think it is mean, but this collar died a long time ago, and I felt sorry for it.  I know I am a walking, talking contradiction, but I've gotta be me!  I make no judgements about people who buy and wear fur, everyone gets to make their own decisions, and I am a BIG fan of that.

Halloween Birthday!

Someone at Factory 506 had a Halloween Birthday, and a lot of Birthday Donuts were eaten!!!

And I was very busy at the wood shop making a present for him!  

Check it out…

It looks kind of creepy like this, but it is a holder for some of his pencils.  I cut a piece of a branch, chiseled the bark off, sanded it, then drilled a bunch of holes in the top, and sanded again.  Then I added a ribbon, I couldn't help my self, it needed it!

After I gave it to Mark, he filled it up right away with a bunch of his drawing pencils, and it looks much  better!

I made the card too!

And look at my sweet baby working on his present for Mark!
(He painted a picture frame and put his school picture in it!  It is so stinkin' cute!!!

Happy Birthday Mark!
 It was a great birthday weekend!!!

New York!

I miss living in New York...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9jIsxQNz0M

…where people do stuff like this, for fun!