Harvest Effigy Wrapped Doll

is finally finished. I tried different faces, even a leaf masque, but it just wanted to be the yarn-wrapped face. DH says you can see all sorts of faces in the yarn patterns, so it actually works better that way.

It is totally done with wrapping, and the base is a small wooden spoon, with arms of mountain laurel that had died with the drought, wrapped with multi-colored yarn, and leaves made from grunge for the body bottom.

It is holding beaded raspberrys and beaded Fall leaves at the ends of its arms, and has pheasant feathers, oak leaves, grass flowers, and golden wheat for the headdress.

It was fun, it was faster than beading, but I think I still prefer the slower beaded method of creating...I will have to try another one and see.

The leaves were created as a challenge from imaginationartprompts group ( see link in links section) and the tribal doll challenge from crazyartdollz group (ditto).

Effigies are important to tribal life, as they represent that which is important, and cherished, within that lifestyle.

This effigy shows a bountiful harvest, combined with the beauty that is Fall, and the coming of the Restful Season. It clearly shows great Joy in celebrating these ideas.

Water Garden Elements

I have four of them, which I cannot sink, as I usually do, as we have been renting ( I HATE renting, but it's better than living in one's car!). They are putting out lots of new growth, despite the cold weather. I think they are happy that it isn't 100+ degrees.

The daddy longlegs was hunkering down, hiding from the mama longlegs! Maybe she wanted him to rake leaves! LOL!

The ladybug is the Asian variety that most folks around here curse, as they are so prolific, find their way inside homes, and proceed to die and stink up the place. They have a very specific odor when crushed, dead, or alive. I love them, however, as my home is a jungle, and they keep the aphids away from the impatiens and Key Lime tree.

Elements for a challenge, which grew and grew

Pics of the Russian Leaves, first for an imaginationartsprompts challenge, and now for the Tribal Wrap doll, which has become my Harvest Tribal Effigy....doll pics to come- still have the masque to make

Pics of Fall in the Great Smokies

the Beadin' Path's Masque 'Contest'

which I find more of a challenge, was full when I tried to enter it a few weeks back, as they had limited it to 70 participants.
Then it was re-opened, and was to be 100 participants! Even though the deadline was oct 31, you betcha I emailed Heather, and now I have a lovely full-size masque, dead-white, to express my inner self by next April.
Funny, but the idea for this one must have been rattling around in my head already, because I envisioned how I wanted it to go right away. Not all the details, but the main idea and focus!
That's a first!
I got hooked on making masques about 30 years back, when some friends and I bought plaster of paris and bandage material, covered our faces in vaseline, then laid the material over our faces til it dried enough to remove. We then cut the masques out while they were still slightly damp and easy to cut with large scissors.
I glued sequins on mine, added some ties, and it was a piece of art that I carried everywhere until it got squashed in the move to the mountains.
I also made 'arms', by covering the tops of mine, but never embellished them. I just laid them below the masque as part of the 'exhibit'.
You better believe I have alot more aspirations for the upcoming challenge!

All work and no play

Sure does put a crimp in any sort of creative venture!
This is the fourth 'day off' in the last two weeks, that I wandered into the store, intending to drop off the bank bag and mail, and just say 'hi' to my friends working there, when all Hell broke loose! Today it was three trucking companies, with furniture and rugs.....you would think they would call ahead, to let us know they are coming, but that actually costs an extra $20 per shipment!
So, instead of coming home, finishing my tribal wrapped doll challenge or the last panel for the COPS exchange, I was sweating and grunting..
Guess I will just be glad that I am healthy and strong enough at 54 to do so, and get a shower, read a bit, and go to bed.
The rain has begun once more, a soft pitter-patter that is lulling me, and luring me off to slumber land, where, as Shakespeare put it, I will knit up the raveled sleeve of care.

colors of Fall

Yeah, this topic has probably been written to death, so I will try to take another tack.

I have been listening to folks talk about this color change, ever since it began in earnest four days back.

The main themes?
"Oh well, we might as well enjoy it, because it is going to be over in a day or so".

"It peaked yesterday, so let's all go back to our little lives"

"Guess that's it for this year"

Sad, I find it.

I have been enjoying the color change, from when it began with one little puff on the end of a branch, overhanging a blind curve on Shephard's Creek (which can be Shepherd's Creek, Shepard's Creek, or Sheperd's creek, depending on what the state called it on the four road signs assigned to it- confuses the tourists, I bet-LOL). The rest of the tree was a stolid dark green, and to this day, refuses to change anything but that one branch. It is almost as if it were saying "I changed, so now leaf me be!"

There is a section of road, where two peaks meet in a saddle, and the bright gold that begins there, then flows down the hollow from that saddle, appears to be as if liquid gold is running down the side of the mountain.

The far flung peaks of Norther Tennessee are a patchwork of reds, rusts, golds and yellows.

Individual trees have caught fire, and are all colors at once.

A maple in our yard has the most soft versions of this, being orange, yellow, red and rust, with tinges of green, in the lightest of shades- most pleasing to the eye and very soothing to look at with a cuppa in hand, while sitting on the deck.

Think I'll go do that, and charge the camera, so I can share with my friends who don't have this show every Fall.

Over it, indeed!

Raining-yea!!

It has been softly falling since about 5am...the first decent rainfall in months.
I will not complain if it goes on throughout the day, forcing us to get creative at The Shed, finding places outside to hang things so they don't get wet.
I will not complain if it goes on, and we have a huge order arrive, and have to take the boxes inside to open them, strewing styrofoam everywhere in the store.
I will not complain if it goes on through the CHS first halftime this year.
I will dance outside in this rain.
I will celebrate with the frogs, this, their probably last warm rain of the year.
I will kick up my heels through the leaves that carpet the ground.
It is raining, and that is enough!!

Making Faces

It was mentioned on BAD (see link in links section) about drawing faces for art dolls, and being stumped or even afraid, to do so.
Where does this come from, I asked myself?
We all happily drew circles, albeit crooked ones, with two dots for eyes, and a curve for a mouth, when we were young.
Progressing beyond that seemed difficult, at best, and horrific, at worst.
Are we our own worst critics, or was this instilled in us, by teachers, parents, friends?
Why haven't we gotten over this?
I am currently in a challenge at IAP (Imaginationartprompts@yahoogroups.com ) for leaves, that ends this week.
I think I will toss into that group, this conundrum.
Maybe there is a resolution I cannot see, besides the one my art teacher gave me, years back- draw them til you are sick of them- UPSIDE DOWN!

i ain' 'fraid a no ghost

http://darkartsmedia.com/DevilsTrampingGround.com.html

Devil's Tramping Ground....just outside of Mars Hill, NC.

Ex- H has been there, with friends, and had a really strange experience, complete with green glowing thing hanging onto one of the friend's backs, and the cross that they took to protect themselves being dropped there, never to be found when they returned next day.

Pic is of the Deep Creek Ghost. Found on Wunderground pics. Not by me. Though I have felt it....wet, and cold, even in high Summer.

So, who else has seen ghosts, or felt them??

Guess I am getting ready for my Fav Holiday!

Listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula on audiobook, looking for ghosts.....

A birthday celebration!

Just thought he would like public pics of what happened on his birthday dinner at El Pacifico!

By the by, this is a Mexican tradition for family and friends, to remind you of the sweetness of life!

Up into the air they go! or using recycled materials

We are challenged for storage here at our little mountain home, though there is plenty of square footage. Abigail was originally meant to be a weekend Summer cottage, so we have exactly three small closets, and about 10 running feet of cupboards.

So, getting creative about storage, especially things we might want to look at, or get to often, menas putting them on the walls.

There are three 4' x 8' bookcases, four smaller ones, and my desk, but still wasn't enough room.

So, in honor of this being an environmentally friendly blog day, I went to my recycle wood pile, grabbed a few lengths, and created two shelves in the studio, for my dolls and beading mags! Even the screws and hardware are 'saved'.

All righty then!

Joetta's hope pattern

as requested....just right click on the pic and select print.

Happy Holidays to come!

Fall musings

Our new kitten, part Himilayan, part bobcat (his daddy's mom got caught in the yard and was seen by their family, enjoying her rendevous with such, and daddy is 2 foot long, weighing about 22 pounds, with a shortened tail) all Boy and Purr, is loving the plants that came in during this week's cold spell. I had wondered if he would jump in to them, shred them, or what, but he seems content to play with the dead leaves, and hide in the larger buckets, to jump out at
Callie, our soon-to-be 2 yr old calico tortoiseshell whirlwind! Callie had been feeling a bit left out, being adopted at 6 months, but never having been allowed to play as a kitten. She had been adopted by the shelter at 6 weeks, and lived in a cage til we brought her home. Puffin, our 14 yr old matriarch, let her know that kittenish behavior, like being jumped upon, was not acceptable to her Highness!
Now the two 'kittens' are often seen as one ball of cream and black fur, or playing hide and seek in the foliage.
For once, bringing the plants in has not been a chore to be done, but a joy to all!

Puffin is seen on her Throne, as befits her Highness- a long-haired sheep pillow from NZ. Callie and Yoda (cream-colored male is he) are the same size this week- with Yoda at 10 and a half weeks old! When we got him at 6 weeks, we could hold him in our hand!!

who wants to clean house??

not me, that's for sure...though I did laundry, and put away the clean dishes, plus blew the acorns off the deck...isn't that enough?LOL!
Found much more fun things to do....like these new patterns for Christmas ball panels! YEA for a day off!

Endless Summer, approaching Fall

As the days shorten, and the flowers give their last best, I am drawn to all those bright and colorful beauties. I know I will find myself in the garden section of the megastore down the road, soaking up their hues, as the cold approaches, and greys/blacks/browns of winter take over the outside world.

While my home is not short of green Life inside, the flowering plants do not fare well. In fact, our home becomes a jungle for five months, giving the cats places to hide and jump out at their buddies!

Still, I will find myself missing the vibrancy of reds, purples, and yellows, so have saved a few to enjoy as Time marches on.......

Ahhh, at last

I don't know why, but utube was not being correctly found last night...I had to delete some of the vids I wanted, to keep the HU vid. Sometimes it still comes up as something else, but hopefully, that will quit. I did what it asked, gave all the right tags, and correct name, and ended up with condo rice! I guess she gets into everything, like it or not!
Must pay bills, must pay bills....am I the only one who waits til the last day? I just don't like giving anyone money before I must. Funny, but before I had kids, I always paid the day I got the bill....must be something in the water!
Happy Day to all of us.

Now that I am older

And somewhat wiser, I do things I never would have dreamed when younger...

Shy? Long ago, yes.

Six foot, plus, and shy? That seems silly. But, that is how it was.

Now I don't color my hair, and I let it grow long and wild.

I wear skirts all the time.

Spend my time dreaming, and creating the dreams.

Enjoying my DH's company.

Loving my family- DH,Kids,Cats,Dogs,Bird and Fish.

Wishing I didn't need to sleep, but enjoying it once I get there!

Grateful for all of it- the great, bad, ugly, and sometimes boring.

About Time, and then some

I don't know what took me so long, or if this will even work, but I am giving it a try.
Blogging....who knew?