HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I'm an eternal optimist, so I'm expecting great things for 2013.  What are your expectations, thoughts, prayers for the coming year?  Post them here.  I have too many to list, but here's a poem I wrote about one of my concerns.

The rich get richer and the poor are poorer.

For extinct middle class there’s no restorer.

Do our founding fathers look down in horror?

What has happened to our mighty nation?

Decisions show no rationalization.

Repeated untruths cause mass vexation.

Darkness lurks as I observe dilution,

the ripping apart of our constitution.

Let’s bond together and demand a solution. 

                                    Laura Crumm 2012

The Message

Angel wings, soft heavenly light

and Holy voices filled the sky.

A special babe was born that night. 

Shepherds fearful of the sight

were soothed by angel’s voice on high

and angel wings, soft heavenly light.

Divine messengers taking flight

told of a newborn baby’s cry.

A special babe was born that night.

“A Savior, our King, was born tonight.

In a lowly manger you’ll see him lie

‘neath angel wings, soft heavenly light”.

The shepherds left the grazing site;

time to worship drawing nigh.

A special babe was born that night.

They knelt in solemn reverent rite,

remembering the quiet sigh

of angel wings, soft heavenly light.

A special babe was born that night.
                             Laura Crumm 2012

Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas Card

As I was running thoughts through my head about this year's Christmas card I ran across one that I made several years ago.  The photo is one of my favorites.  It's a polaroid emulsion transfer that was a popular process in the 1990's and early 2000's. 

It's made by printing a slide onto a certain type of polaroid film which I'm told is no longer available.  After printing the slide onto the film with a printer made for that purpose, the emulsion side of the photo is soaked in water, then transfered to a paper or other suitable surface.  I have used tile, and even metal as well as paper.  I love the squiggly lines around the finished product that are made by the edges of the emulsion.

 This picture was made by sandwiching two slides together in the printer.  One was a photo of birds on a bush in the snow.  The other one was a photo of a full moon and clouds. 


 

Friday Faces

How about this one?  I found it by a trail in the woods around the corner from our house.  I can't remember what those things growing on the stump are called.  There's a name for them.  That's about the coolest face in nature that I've seen.  It even has moss for hair.  I don't walk the trail much anymore.  My old sore joints won't cooperate.  It's a very interesting place for the nature lover.

Here's a shot of DH (Dear Hubby) on the trail.

Another face hunt coming up next week.



 
 

Finally a Pathway

Last summer I worked off and on building a pathway in our back yard.  Finally finished it. I can't keep the falling leaves and fir needles off, but the maple tree was cut down last week so no more maple leaves.  They're beautiful, but messy.  We had them all over the back and side yards.  It was impossible to rake them up because our yard consists of shrubs and wood chips.

Here's photos of the work in progress and finished product.  At the end is a bridge that spans a dry river bed.  It needs to be painted or stained.  Haven't gotten that far yet.  Maybe next year.

  

I've Been Featured

I've had the privilege of being featured on Eyelah's blog..  Check it out.

http://eyelah.blogspot.com/2012/11/thursday-etsy-shop-feature-recycle-room.html

Thank you Eyelah!  

She has a great blog.  You should also take a look at her etsy shop.  She makes beautiful clutches and pouches. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Eyelah

Standing Guard

A few months ago I made a garden guy to stand guard at the end of our driveway.  He's holding a house number  sign.  For Halloween I decided to give him a pumpkin hat and a jack-o-lantern.  

As some of you know, creating garden art and cake dessert/pedestals is my hobby of choice at the moment.  I had planned to give it up a year ago because my craft/junk room is a sight to behold... and not in a good way.  Now I realize I'm so addicted that I need intervention.  Oh, well, hubby has gotten to the point that he ignores it, or at least he doesn't complain about it.  He probably thinks it's a lost cause.

Here's my garden guy.  He's made of a tall wrought iron candle holder (painted blue), metal pipe for arms, a coffee pot for the head and a light shade for the hat (underneath the plastic pumpkin hat).

 

Friday Face

Time again for a Friday face.  It's been raining so much here that I've had very little opportunity to search for and photograph faces.  I need to photograph some of my new glass flowers to list in my etsy shop also, but today was the only dry day I've seen for awhile and I was gone most of the day. I'm not going to complain considering what the east coast is experiencing.  We live in the Pacific Northwest where there are very few wild acts of nature to contend with. 

This was a face I found in my own back yard.  I spotted it on my fence this week.  Hope to venture out into the communities next week and find more.

Friday Faces

I've been AWOL for awhile, but I'm back.  We've been having beautiful sunny autumn weather here in the Pacific Northwest.  I took a walk in the woods around the corner from our house today and found another face.  You might have to use your imagination, but it IS a face.  He has his head tipped a little to one side and his mouth open.  

I've been selling some of my garden art at a nursery here.  I'm planning to keep making birdbaths and some of the other larger items through the winter and try to get them into a couple nurseries next spring.  Gotta get rid of this glassware and ceramics!  I can barely tiptoe through my workroom. 

Happy face hunting.  They're out there.  Take your camera and go for a walk. 

Friday Faces

This isn't a face I found in nature or architecture.  It's one I made from a teapot.  Is that cheating?  I intended to post only faces that weren't made by the human hand, but I've been a little busy this week.  This garden guy has a body, but I'm only showing the face.  I really do enjoy painting these faces.  They take on a personality all their own.

Fleeting Summer

We had a chilly, wet spring and beginning of summer this year.  We finally began to have several days in a row of up to 70 - 80 degrees and humid while most of the rest of the United States was sweltering in extreme heat. Now it's getting close to autumn.  So much for summer.

It’s nearly August
and summer has arrived,
hot and humid
after a wet, cold Spring.

Though perspiration
drips from the brow
like a trickling stream,
no grumbling permeates
the air, no heavy sighs.

Soon the autumn mist
will fill the valley.
Trees the color of jewels
will welcome September rains.

Bone chilling dampness
will fill the air
and there will be a yearning
for fleeting sultry summer days.
                            Laura Crumm 2012

More Friday Faces

This afternoon I was photographing some of my glass flowers for listing in my etsy shop when I decided to walk around the yard and see if there was anything else of interest to photograph.  There's a pile of cedar chips at the end of our driveway that will eventually be scattered in our yard.  Somebody had put a few pieces of the bark on the front porch steps and low and behold....there was......you guessed it....a face!!  How's that for timing?

You never know what treasures you can find if you keep your eyes, mind and imagination open.  Here's a challenge.  Find a face in nature, architecture or anywhere.  Photograph it and email it to me at laurastheme@comcast.net and I'll post it on my blog.   Happy hunting.

Friday Faces on Saturday

I didn't post on my blog yesterday because my husband had surgery so I'm posting the Friday Face today.  We were gone most of the day and I was exhausted when we got home.  He had his nap time.  I sat in a hard chair all afternoon.

I found this saw blade in a thrift store.  I immediately thought, "Eyes, nose and mouth".  When I got it home I began to see 'EYEBROWS, nose and mouth'.  I'm thinking of painting the whole thing yellow like the sun (see the short rays around the edge) and painting eyes on it.  What do you think?  Then I'll hang it on a fence or maybe on a trellis where I'm starting an art/sculpture collection.  Stay tuned for before and after pics.

Friday Faces

Over the next several weeks I'll be posting a few photos of 'faces' that I've photographed and also challenging myself to photograph more of them.  They can be found everywhere if you really look....in nature, architecture, etc.  This one was taken on an icy winter day.  Would you have seen the face in the ice?

Spooky, isn't it?  If there are any photographers reading this I also challenge you to find faces to photograph.  Let me know what you've found.

Time For Birdie Dinner

This is my newest garden art project.  I created a bird feeder from two clear bowls, stainless steel chain and a few blue and clear 'bling' items.  This is definitely different than what I've done previously.  It's going into my etsy shop soon.  Now I have all kinds of possibilities running through my head. I just hope the birdies think it's the greatest dinner plate around. 

Gift Flowers

I've been working on some glass flowers for my four nieces, like, forever it seems.  Thought I had them all done.  Then I lost one!!  I can't imagine what happened to it.  I'm so bummed out.  However, when she visited us last month she picked out some glass pieces that she thought would be a good replacement.  Here is the finished product.  The photos don't do it justice.  It sparkles beautifully in the sun.

 They will all be in the mail soon.  I promise, girls.

I Won...

Last month I entered a giveaway on The Hot Glue Hangover blog.  Lucinde from Lucilight was giving away two postcards from her etsy shop.  I had never entered a giveaway before...and I won!  I received two beautiful postcards.  Thank you, Lucinde.  Check out her shop. It's awesome.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucilight

Joyful July!

What a busy month this has been!  My brother from Oklahoma surprised us with a week long visit.  Then one of our nieces and her husband from Texas came the following week.  We had such a good time showing them the beauty of western Washington state and catching up on family news.  Now I'm back to the garden art routine, trying to get more glass flowers as well as a few other items made for my etsy shop. 

We're still having four legged visitors, too.  I found a deer dining on our red twig dogwood.  Of course I shot her....with a camera.  I stood right there watching her eat my plants and she watched me watch her. 

Check out my etsy shop periodically.  I hope to create some new types of garden art.  My mind is racing, but my body is having trouble keeping up. 

Birds of a Feather...

Five years ago we moved from a house in the country with a view of the bay and Olympic mountains.  We had decided it was time to move into town.  We couldn't find a lot to build on that had that wonderful view so we settled for a non-view lot.  I do sometimes miss the view we had, but it has been replaced with wonderful wildlife, some of which we didn't have there.  We've frequently seen deer around our property and now we have a doe and fawn hanging out in the city property just across the fence from us.  For the first time we have a couple of white doves and we've seen mother quail with their babies.  It doesn't get much better than this.

                                                       Quail surveying his domain





















Dove on birdhouse.  Great place to perch.

Something New...Something Blue

I've been so busy creating my garden art and have enjoyed every minute of it....but I've been eager to try a few new projects, too.  Here is my newest non-garden art.  I want to try my hand at several craft items involving paper in all or part of the creation.

In this wall decor I crumpled tissue paper to use as the background.  I glued it to mat board cut to fit two thrift store wood frames that I painted blue.  Then I cut six white silk flowers in half and glued them at the tops of the tissue-covered mat board so they appear to be peeking out from under the frame.  Tiny rhinestones sparkle as flower centers.  I had found two Wedgewood plaques in a local thrift store.  I glued each one inside a frame onto the tissue paper covered background.  The one in the oval shape frame is off center for a little added interest. Hope that makes sense.  I put two screw eyes and picture wire onto the back of each frame  and they're ready to hang.

I plan to try lots of other paper crafts when summer is over and there's less demand for garden art so stay tuned.  

Do you remember the hen & chicks/sedum planter that was one of my projects in September, 2011?  This is the way it looks now.  The wire planter is totally invisible.

As if October, 2012 we will have lived at this location five years.  We've been working on landscaping ever since.  We're getting old and tired. It's been slow going even though we've made a lot of headway from a bare building site to a yard almost full of shrubs, flowers, flowering trees and fruit trees.

The rhodys are blooming along the driveway,

as well as peonies....

iris....

















snowball tree....

















and ninebark.











Sometime in the next month I hope to finish a pathway that I've begun and start another one on the other side of the dry river bed.  Hubby built a 2' x 16' raised bed adjoining the front porch.  We've planted a dwarf rhody, a dwarf nandina, two cinquefoils, an evergreen azaela, two heathers and two geraniums.  The geraniums will spend the winter in the garage.  The cinquefoils are questionable for that bed.  I'll see how they look this winter.  I would like to have all, or mostly, evergreen plants there.

More to come so stay posted.  Now, please excuse me while I go take a couple of aspirins and rub my sore joints with arthritis salve.

We Had Company Today

They've been hanging around here the last couple of days.

 Pretty mama

Watch where you're going.  There might be a car coming.

Isn't the little one a cutie?  Sometimes his mama has a hard time keeping up with him.

Grandma's Sewing Machine

A few weeks ago I wrote about my friend, Greg Hill, who was repurposing my grandmother's antique sewing machine.  He is so talented!  Here is the final result.

Against the wall in the dining room  Above it is an old painting by a Swedish artist.  I think it belonged to my other grandmother who was Swedish.

We decided to leave the drawers with the original finish.  We just couldn't mess with that wonderful patina.

The ruler across the front to the right of the drawers was originally on the top of the sewing machine at the front edge.  Greg was able to save it and put it along the front of the cabinet. 








Each number and letter on the ruler was inlaid.  Incredible!










He painted the brand of the machine copper.  Below it are the letters 'USA'.  I'm going to paint them copper also.










Reconstruction by  http://gregsresurrectionstore.blogspot.com/

Can't Stop Gawking

I've discovered two sites lately where I'm spending way too much time looking and drooling.  One, which most of you probably know about, is pinterest.com.  I've joined but haven't posted much because I'm still trying to find my way around.  That is on my soon-to-do list.

The other site is craftgawker.com.  I could spend hours gawking at these to sites.  In fact, I have.  I've seen dozens of crafts that I would like to try, but I'm too busy gawking.

I've been so anxious to start other craft projects other than garden art and cake pedestals.  I'm not giving up those items, but have so many ideas for home decor, paper products, jewelry.  There's so much to do, so little time....after spending hours on the computer.

Stay tuned for new eye candy.  I'll get busy soon. 

Darn Computer Virus!!!

I was without a computer for over a week. What a bummer! What I once thought was a luxury has become a major necessity. That sneaky virus got past my virus protector.

At least I used some of my extra time to work on my garden art and cake/dessert pedestals. One of the banks here in town has some of my items displayed in their lobby. WhooHoo! Great advertising! As always, you can access my shop at etsy.com/shop/RecycleRoom. Here are my two newest listings.

And this is my latest sale.  I'm going to miss her.






By the way, my neighbor gave me a wonderful work table for my craft room. What a delight that has been. Gives me plenty of room to create.

Hope to be back here sooner than later next time.

%&*#@! Computer and Dust Bunnies

I contacted a virus last week and so did my computer. Not the same virus. Mine was easy to remedy. The computer, however is a disaster. I'm using the one at my local library until mine gets well. What I thought was a luxury 15 years ago has become a definite necessity!

Do any of you read Pickles in the comic section of your newspaper? Opal, one of the characters in the strip, a wannabe artist, decided to start a brand new project. Sculptures made of....what?...dust bunnies! How cool is that?!! There was only one problem. The next day her dust bunny 'bunny' sculpture was a pile of dust bunnies. Oh, well. It sounded like a good idea at the time. I have plenty of material to work with.

Check back again in a few days. Maybe my computer will be well by then. The doctor is working on it.

I've Been Featured.....

One of my garden art flowers has been featured in an Etsy treasury.
Thank you, Sherry(RecycledBySkattur). Mine is third from the left.

Grandma's sewing machine

Many years ago I brought home my grandmother's very old White treadle sewing machine. It wasn't in very good condition. Some of the veneer had come off. I sold the sewing machine head and kept the cabinet thinking that some day I would decide what to do with it. Well, a few days ago a neighbor offered to give me a table for my craft room. The only place I could put it was where I kept the sewing machine.

We have a friend who is a carpenter. Let me rephrase that statement. He's a wood artist. He's repurposing the cabinet into a buffet table for our dining room. It's going to be SO COOL! He has already taken it apart and what really excites me is that he was able to remove a ruler in one piece that was attached to the top of the cabinet. The numbers on the ruler are ingrained. He's going to leave it in it's original condition and attach it to the front of the finished buffet. You can watch the progression at http://gregsresurrectionstore.blogspot.com/

Winter Has Arrived!

It's here. It's been snowing the last few days in this normally mild-winter climate Washington state. It's beautiful, but I wish it wouldn't snow on the streets. It's cramping my style. I drove downtown yesterday....very carefully. Haven't ventured out at all today, but I did tromp through the snow long enough to get a few photos.

This is our Witch Hazel in full bloom. I love the winter blooming plants and shrubs.

Close up shot of the Witch Hazel blossoms.

Winter Jasmine. I want one of these on each side of the house, one near the dining room window.

I like the black and white appearance of this Japanese Maple photo.

And one more across our back yard and the city property across the fence.

Pertaining to Pedestals

I'm having so much fun with my new craft items...cake and dessert pedestals, soap dishes, candy dishes. The process is the same as creating the garden art, but it gives me a new slant on the same type of craft. Of course, the most fun is in the hunt for pieces to form the finished product.

When I saw this plate I knew I had to have it. I searched through my stash at home and thought I had found the perfect pieces for the pedestal.

Then I saw this candle holder in a thrift store. I knew for sure that it was going on the plate. What do you think?

Moody Monday

We've been having some gray, dark days in our neck of the woods. I guess I shouldn't complain. It's January and no snow yet. Actually the temperatures have been rather mild.

It's been a good time to stay inside and work on my garden art and home decor. I have several new listings on etsy, but hope to get a lot more done before the end of the week. I also have been wanting to branch out into another type of craft as well as what I'm doing now, but don't seem to have the time. Too many family health issues. Too may dust bunnies!!!

Check out my latest etsy listings. I've added more glass plate flowers. The inventory was getting very low.

Happy crafting to all of you in 2012!!!