Operation: Fall Chores

Around Bliss Ranch there are plenty of fall chores to take care of before Winter arrives.  Because our Winter is cold.  And full of snow.  Grrrr..... so depressed now.

The Chore Doctor

Anyway, it's not like anyone jumps up on the weekend and says "HEY let's go rake those beautiful Autumn leaves mom".  And...there is this Random Act's of Craftiness challenge going on over at His and Hers.  And.... my craft is random that's for sure!

So I have combined the challenge of getting the leaves raked
with the link party challenge at His and Hers.

The challenge:  This is the first month and a mystery item is revealed for participants to make something out of.  The item.....  game parts.   Has to be original.  As far as I know mine is original and I'm using "parts" all right.  Go check out the challenge, a gal can even earn a ribbon for a big fat FAIL.  Wonder if a big fat guy counts?

I started with this naked man.  Because really who doesn't like a naked man in that portly shape with all those ailments?  We'll call him Milton.  Milton Bradley.

You will notice Milton is not anatomically correct and neither is my redo.  Milton's skeleton 'bread basket' isn't anywhere near his stomach.

Operation:  Turn naked man into fleshless skeleton

I got my craft thing going on - really quite funny if you were watching me.  I turned a naked man in need of hospitalization for his ailments, into a Fall chore chart.  Have you ever considered that?  I didn't think so.

Remove his wrenched ankle?  You get to pick up the tools inside and outside of the garage.
Take out his Adam's apple and your job is to pick the rest of the apples on the tree and toss the ones on the ground to the chickens.
Water on the knee........ clean up the pool area.
Spare ribs....... choose what goes on the grill as a reward when done.
Broken heart...... pick up all the broken toys/junk and haul it away.
Charlie Horse....... get the ducks and chickens winterized.
Writers cramp...... RAKE.
Etc.

Moms Cheshire Pumpkin Grin

The rule is everyone plays.  Draw a card (the originals from the game).  Remove the body part that the game card directs and check the corresponding sheet of paper for your chore.  Doesn't even matter if you make his nose light up, in fact it's encouraged because then you get two chores.

Played every weekend till it snows or the chores are done. 

Operation Fall Clean Up

Everyone Wins!

Operation Party-Link here:

Random Acts of Craftiness @HisandHers
Wildly Original Bewitching Fall @IGottaCreate 
All Star Block Party @FullCircleCreations

Glass Globe Pumpkins

Fall.  I  love  it.  Not just a little,  a lot.  

I don't usually start to decorate till October, and when I do it normally has a spooky twist.

The Little Chest Redo

I picked up a little chest at a garage sale filled to the brim with toys. 

The lady said she didn't feel like picking through all that tiny little tykes playhouse furniture so just sold the chest with the toys inside. 

She apparently didn't know people buy those 80's toys on Ebay for several times the original cost.

But I did. 

Scarecrow

 A few years ago, six apparently, in 2006 BB (Before Blogging), I decided to make a scarecrow.  I took a few photos of the process, but not a full tutorial like maybe would be nice for ya'll or you all as we say in the North.  I think at the time I planned on making two and wanted pictures to refresh my memory of the process.  

Meet Punkin Noggin.....

Punkin Noggin started out a semi round form of old rusty chicken wire. 
Yes even six years ago the rule was don't buy stuff to make stuff.

Can you see that chicken wire?  It's right in the center there next to the trashcan.  We have a brown trash can now, maybe it would blend in better.

You make a round form with the chicken wire and then balance it with wood shims nailed to your work place so you can work on all sides.  His melon gets pretty heavy.

The long paper thing at the bottom left will become his stem.

You start to mud him.  It helps if you know a drywall contractor who happens to keep drywall mud on hand, because when you want to make something you want to make it NOW. 

But you don't get to use the regular premixed stuff.  No you must use the dry kind you mix with water, it's called something technical like 20 minute mud.  At least at our house.

Mix up your goo in a old sheetrock screw bucket if you have one, and use that goo like paper mache.  Dip strips of fabric (I used old sheets cut up) and put it on the chicken wire.  Let dry, do again, and again until all the chicken wire is covered. 

Then you just keep smearing mud on fabric and shaping it as you go and eventually you get a gray blob resembling some sort of alien gourd with a stem that resembles a super size umbilical cord.  The stem is a metal clothes hanger with newspaper twisted and taped on.  You mud that too.  If I recall there was also some duct tape involved here somewhere.

Now you might want a beautiful, perfectly shaped pumpkin...... I did not.  I wanted to put a bit of the scare in the word scarecrow.  Halloween has never really been cute to me.... I'm the girl who wanted to be a witch year after year, and I was very afraid of witches, had nightmares about them.  Guess that's what's called facing your fears at a young age.

His body consists of grape vines from the woods and an old trench coat from a garage sale that I ripped up.  It was recycled from a costume.  No, no one was a flasher at Bliss Ranch.  Instead arms were flung open with the statement "wanna buy a watch" fully clothed underneath.

All the vines are twisted around a wood "T" and staple gun staples were strategically shot in, to hold it in place.  The whole thing was sprayed with varnish to protect it, and the head has about 10 coats brushed on so it wouldn't get mushy left out in the elements. 

Must of done something right because it has weathered 6 Octobers.

Now that I'm a blogger, I suppose if I was making another one, I'd probably have to use chalk style paint and wax it.

Brawn taking my friend for a walk down to the end of the driveway where he was put on a metal pole.  Punkin Noggin, not Brawn.  This is a good view of the stem and top and you can see how big he is.

Punkin Noggin.  He's outstanding in his field.

Punkin Noggin is gonna get you at these parties:

DIY Pumpkin Projects with Donna @FunkyJunk

Make the Scene Monday @Alderberry Hill 
Sunday Showcase @UnderTheTableandDreaming 
Cowgirl Up Party @CedarHillRanch 
The Style Sisters 
Fall Party @SarahDawnDesigns 

My big headed punkin is haunting at
The Primp your Pumpkin Party with Debbie Doos,
Fox Hollow Cottage Doos,  and Mom 4 Real Doos
BOO!

Mosaics & Tombstones

This was July.  I've been sitting on this post since then when a BFF took me on a birthday adventure, and it's a bit of a *departure* from my usual posts.   I wanted to wait closer to Halloween just for a spooky effect, but I don't really want to creep anyone out.  Mostly I was just in birthday age denial, yet happy to be around to celebrate another.  Nothing makes you appreciate getting older more than visiting a place where that opportunity no longer exists.

So what kind of friend takes their best garage sale'n pal to a cemetery for her birthday?  One that knows you have an appreciation for mosaics silly!  Dii (I did not make up her name for this post) didn't mean to take me to a cemetery it just so happened it was on the same grounds as this amazing quaint chapel.

 This is the Lakewood Memorial Chapel.  

Minneapolis, on the shore of Lake Calhoun.

From the web site:   
Mosaic interior ....created by designer Charles Lamb and many consider it the most perfect example of Byzantine mosaic art in the United States. In 1909, Lamb traveled to Rome to enlist the services of six mosaic artists who had just recently completed a project in the Vatican. The artists created more than 10 million mosaic pieces, called tessellae, from marble, colored stone, and glass fused with gold and silver. The artists then traveled to Minneapolis to assemble the work inside the chapel. Upon completion in 1910, the Lakewood Memorial chapel was the only building in the country with an authentic mosaic interior.

 Did you catch that?... 10 million tiny pieces.  1909, completed a year later.  Someone better than me do the math... if they worked 365 days how many tiles a day is that?

Pictures of course do not do it justice.

 

Dii is a mosaic artist in her own right, she's the one who turned me on to smashing china.  Dii actually plots out things in a pattern, me I just smash something and glue it on randomly.  I don't have the patience, you know that lazy crafter thing, and I can't even imagine doing the whole interior to a building in tiles the size of a fingernail.  

I wanted to see the cemetery, this is art too.  It was the most well kept cemetery I have ever been to, especially for its age.  No I don't hang out in cemetery's but I'm no stranger to loss.  I really prefer to visit them in this fashion than have reason to go.

 Reading the names on the skyscrapers tombstones it was easy to see why it was so well kept; these are the movers and shakers of the area buried here.  The namesakes and founders of towns and businesses across the state. 

And then there were the ones that caught my eye...... 

I kid you not, Griswold and Chase were next to each other. 
You know... Chevy Chase and the Griswolds from the Vacation movies?

 

This was my favorite stone.  The lettering just looked all vintagy and cool.  

 Some make you wonder the significance of the design.  Why did Rosie get a log?

No matter how old I get the last name of butts will always be funny. 
Probably because I'm thankful it's not mine.
Seymour was not next to it.  I looked.

 And everything in it's place.....

 The deceased mortician from our town was named Grimsmo.  Appropriate huh?  The current mortuary owners are friends of ours and employ one of my sons from time to time for things like vehicle washing or extra hands for what ever is "needed".  Occasionally it makes for interesting dinner table talk.  And yes often we find humor in it, but don't doubt for one minute the admiration we have for that family.

Old cemetery's are historical places.  I found this one very interesting.  Just ponder for a moment how fast time goes by.  Death is certain and that fact wasn't any different 100 years ago!  Someone still felt the loss that each one of these stones marks yet only 100 short years have passed and no one is left that even knew the people buried beneath the oldest ones. 

I said ponder, not dwell.

Fifty Cent Fall Wreath

I am a lazy crafter.  

I know I'm not alone, I know who you are, like me you have made no secret of it.  I have been pinning and pinning.  Beautiful fall wreaths.  Just take a look at my Pinterest wreath board .  I had good intentions, that is till I stumbled on a fifty cent garage sale wreath.  I can't buy the fix'ins any cheaper and then there is a time factor, oh and that lazy thing.

Twigs for new stems

It needed a little love and it really isn't anything like what I envisioned or pinned.  But I can get over that, it was only fifty cents.  Really all it needed was some hot glue and new stems made with twigs from the yard.  The craft box has lots of Autumn odds and ends, so I tucked in a bit of fabric, some of that gray mossy stuff, some ribbon, and a few dried corn... shucks?  Husks?  What are those corny things called?

Mudroom Door

In any case I have a fall wreath on the side door.  Hanging on September 1st ahead of the game, unlike the summer wreath that never happened.  For .50¢.  The metal #4 happened to be the right color so I stuck it on there too - for Fall, the fourth season.  Notice all the nice little twig stems in the pumpkins and gourds?

And did I mention that it cost me fifty cents?  

This sparked me to change the front door deco too.  That lazy crafter thing entered again.  Why spend all that time creating a new wreath when all I really have to do to change it up is slap on some fall flowers and chalk in orange.  Right?

So that's what I did.  Done.  I didn't even erase the welcome and I see it looks like crap.  I'll put some nicer chalking on there when I get a minute or I'm not lazy.  Or when I have to erase that to write welcome Winter.  

I might just make one of those beautiful wreaths I have pinned.  I have a few more doors I could put one on.  Did I mention that one only cost fifty cents? 

 

Linking up at:

All Star Block Party @FullCircleCreations 

 Tuesdays Treasures @ MyUncommonSliceofSuburbia

  What's In The Gunny Sack 

Make It Pretty Monday @TheDedicatedHouse 

  Make the Scene Monday @ AlderberryHill 

 Bewitching Fall @ IGottaCreate

Live Laugh Linky Thursday @LiveLaughRowe 

Transformation Thursday @TheShabbyCreekCottage

Truncate Test Post

This is a test.  A truncating test.  The whole post is gibberish, so don't respond.  After I see how this works I will be removing this truncating-test-gibberish-post.  There is talk of line breaks and little icons I never knew what they were, but I see it now, it's like a paper split in half.  Gonna click on it right here.......

DIY Pallet Look Headboards

 They started out as nice smooth clean pine boards......

After they were beat up

Cut to specification and turned into a simple frame of splintered mismatched wood.  They were beat with a hammer and gouged with I don't know what because I wasn't home when that step was done.

Then I took over.

I brewed three lipton tea bags in boiling water and let cool.  Overnight.  OK, I lied, it was two days before I got back to it.  The tea was nice and cool at that point.  Then I brewed three more because I didn't make enough the first time.  When the tea cooled I loaded a spray bottle and sprayed tea evenly on the boards, like misting plants.  Even though I have never misted plants.
The boards looked the same after the tea spray.

Nectar of the Gods

It wasn't till I brushed on the vinegar and steel-wool mixture that the tea reacted and turned a lovely shade of brown.  I let them dry.  They stunk like an old salad. And so did I.

Left one tea sprayed only.  Right one after vinegar/steel-wool solution

Two headboards.  Similar but not identical.  They have been knicked and knacked and tea sprayed, and vinegar steel-wool brushed, and then......random boards were whitewashed for that grayish driftwood look.  They are starting to have a pallet look to them.

Annie Sloan wax was used.  Dark on a couple boards that I wanted to have a burned look, and the rest of the boards were waxed with clear.  I have yet to buff them.

I think I love them.  But they are not mine.

Remember this......

Rock N Roll Dresser

A rock'n and roll'n dresser for a 13 year old about to rock.  A patient 13 year old I might add.  He has been waiting since August of 2011 for me to finish his room redo.

I've been waiting for inspiration.  I'm thinking when those two headboards make their way into his room it just might be the inspiration I've been waiting for.

Linking the boards up at:
Make the Scene Monday @ AlderberryHill
Newbie Party with a Twist @DebbieDoos
Sunday Showcase Party @UnderTheTableandDreaming 
Monday Link Party @CraftOManiac 
Make it Pretty Monday @TheDedicatedHouse 
What's in the gunny sack @TheGunnySack 
CowGirlUp @CedarHillRanch

A Tale of Two Totes, or Three

At a garage sale in May I got this heavy wood tote for a buck.
Didn't need it, but it was only a buck.
I may have a tote addiction, it's not like this is my first one.

Before

The tote was already white when I picked it up, then I painted it more white with some ASCP in old white, which was really the new white as far as the old tote was concerned.

In March I had found a post from Angie over at KnickOfTime with a *Bliss's* seeds graphic.
As soon as I saw the Bliss part I knew I had to put it on something.

I printed out the graphic in reverse on wax paper, wet the sides of the tote and put the graphic on.  Since by now you all should know I hate typing out tutorials, especially when I basically follow the tutorial of someone else, so it should come as no surprise that I'm not posting a tutorial. The wax paper method can be found all over blogland, but this is the tutorial I used here. 

Then the tote sat some more.  From May till the end of August to be exact.  In it's very white-unsanded-unwaxed-but-with graphic-on-form,  I used it on the table with flowers in it.  I remember taking the pictures but can't find them.

This weekend I got out the dark wax, some stencils, and finished the tote.  I did this to justify why I have several more totes in the garage.  As if to say to the world, I will finish those totes someday too.

 I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I will probably use it this fall with leaves and fall stuff in it.  Like this tote;

Think I picked this up for a buck at Goodwill in spring.  I don't have a before photo.  Well I do, but can't find that one either.  It was all sorts of colors.

I painted it old white, added some metallic orange and waxed it with dark wax.  All the totes were sanded with steel wool for the extra scratchy look.  Like this tote turned dog feeder;

This tote was a guest post I did for Linda @ItAllStartedWithPaint.  You can see the before photo over on her blog.

These are just a drop in my tote bucket.  I told you I might have an addiction.

Toting my totes to party at:

UnderTheTableandDreaming 
Make it Pretty @TheDedicatedHouse 
Twisted Party @ DebbieDoos 
Cowgirl Up @CedarHillRanch 
Wildly Original Party @IGottaCreate