Spooky things.................!

.........our very old black walnut tree loaded with nuts this year...............
.......the "outdoor cats" eyes glaring in the dark! They're sleeping on heating pads on the seat of the golf cart under a big shed out of the weather.......do they have it made, or what???!!!!!!

.........and my October beaded ghost pin is finished!!! I wish her little orange seed bead eyes showed up better, but her required rhinestones are the two letter "0"s, in the "boo". And there is actually a space between the top and bottom parts of the exclamation point; it doesn't run together like it seems in this photo. I haven't decided yet what my November dolly will be....stay tuned!
.........and another spookier photo of the old walnut tree against the grey sky; it looks like it's reaching lots of "arm" limbs up to grab birds as they fly by! Hmmmmm...........wonder if animals celebrate Hallowe'en like we nutsy humans do? (They probably see us all costumed up and run as fast as they can in the other direction!) Heh, heh............

Reading and beading..........

These are my latest two library books I've enjoyed reading........both about the southeastern coastal waters and towns and people! If you love the ocean and beaches and good stories, these are for you, too...........my fantasy life is to live like the eccentric old lady in the big old "cottage" right on the sea's edge. She rides a bike to "town" and dresses in long, loose vintage clothing with beaded and embroidered scarves and big hats; and spends days abed among fluffy pillows reading to her heart's content! Ahhhh......
we old women can still DREAM, can't we???!!!!

And this is my latest project: an embellished evening clutch/purse using vintage bridal satin from old dresses........this is the front. Click on the photos so you can see the white-on-white beads and sequins! The scattered tiny dots on the front are little pearls, and on the back I used Swarovski delica crystal glass beads..........love the sparkle!
This is the back of the purse, using pieces of the daughter's debutante gown from the 1960s. (This is a commission piece for an elderly friend who, like me, cannot bear to part with gorgeous vintage needlework and fabric and handmade thingies!) Now her grown daughter will have a meaningful surprise birthday gift soon, and it will bring back memories of her southern heritage as a debutante at the ball many years ago!

The lining is just a white-on-white design cotton fabric, and I used little pieces of white "hook-and-loop" for the unseen closure under the flap. This was a joy to work on, because my favorite part of any project is the fun of digging through my stashes for just the right embellishments, and seeing it all come together. Of course, it's especially nice when the customer first sees it and says, "Oh, how LOVELY it is!" Thank you, my creative muse... now we're off to try our hand at painting glass Christmas tree ornaments like I did for many years awhile back. With the economy bottoming out, I'm having to resurrect all my latent talents and pray my hands don't shake and my eyes hold out, because Christmas is coming! And Santa needs help!

Hallowe'en is near!!!

Check out our cousins next door and their roadside display of wonderfully handmade and painted plywood Hallowe'en ghosts and pumpkins made with sharp sticks to put into the ground! LOVE that candy corn!

Here's Don, master craftsman with his saws and tools, showing me around the whole great menagerie of "spooks" he's made to sell......he said wife Ann and their cute little grandkids helped paint every one of these!

I love the big black cat sitting on the moon; be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them and enjoy the wonderful detail they put into their art works! They've been selling like hot-cakes; I hope they will make some for the upcoming Christmas season, too! (Thanks for painting my little pumpkins and black cat I got for my yard, Cuz Harley and Kendal!)

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.........and look what I found in friend Betty R.'s yard Sunday! A wonderful stuffed "pumpkin man" sitting in an antique wheel barrow, surrounded by some of her gorgeous flowers and greens........ is he a happy camper, or not?!! You should SEE the cute Hallowe'en thingies in her pie safe on the deep front porch, and her little groupings inside the house! I hope she'll take pix of all her decorations and put them on her blog to take us on a virtual "tour"!!! (Check out her blog listed near the top of my side bar on the right here: Love 2 Sew; or Knot Sew Square.) Thanks, Betty, for the "interruption" Sunday and the quick tour of your place!

Haying time.............

This little bronze yard marker has been lost in the weeds for many years; I found it recently while mowing and brought it home. It got a new coat of white paint and I stuck it in the ground across our driveway where the deer herd crosses most nights. I wonder if they will "obey" the instructions?!
Heh, heh............

Here's the peaceful sight I see on my morning walks since the hayfields got cut and baled! I love this curving path winter and summer, spring and fall.

Here are a couple of "hay balls" near our house and yard; you can see our little log tobacco barn in the center of the trees. Click to enlarge and you can see it much better! DH says these bales weigh about 1,000 lbs. each! I'm glad somebody's cows will have hay to eat this winter when it's cold and sleeting! Something new this year: the man wrapped some of the bales in a webbed plastic sheeting instead of just twine..........hmmm. Wondering what I could do with a piece of the netting in some art projects?!

Gobble, gobble!!!!!

This turkey had gotten inside the fence the other morning when I went for my morning walk..........the other five were outside in the pasture and took off. She spent a few minutes running up and down the fence before she remembered she could FLY up OVER the thing to get out! Duh.
This is Mr. Cotton Blaylock and his security blanket..........he's growing leaps and bounds and is gonna be a gorgeous doggy! (He's another of my many four-legged "cousins" here in the neighborhood!)

The lichen growing on this stick is the "normal" kind I see around here all the time, but this fat piece with long arms is a new one..........isn't it delicate and beautiful???!!!

.......told ya!

........see how pretty the other wreath is on our little log cabin door?! The one-room barn used to be a tobacco curing barn WAY out in the country in Warren County here, and my DH and nephew numbered the pieces, took it apart, re-assembled it in our side yard many years ago for my retail shop for my handmade arts and crafts. That lasted for nine years and was lots of fun to decorate for each holiday, and to know that people liked my work enough to drive out here and pay REAL money for it!!! Heh, heh........
.......check out the old weathered wood the barn door is made of.......oh, if it could only talk!
I've been addicted to the "Lincoln Rhyme" novels by Jeffery Deaver for years, and this latest one is as good as all the rest! One of those I just couldn't put down and hated for the end to arrive. Hurry Jeffery, and whip out another one soon!

And this little beaded dolly is my first in a year-long series that I'll be making for the Beaded Journal Project.........since we have to finish one each month and Christmas is nearing, I chose a small size! All mine will be this same shape and include rhinestones/parts of vintage jewelry. This one is carrying a little "scepter" that used to be part of a ladies' pin and still has its original little stones intact. Her face is cut from a piece of fabric, and the rhinestones are on the tips of her crown, but they don't show up well at all here. The next dolly is almost done for October, and is turning out to be a really cute "ghost"! You'll see her later in the month............

Autumn is here!

Isn't this the prettiest little square wreath, and can you believe how the berries match our weird pink/red door?!! And I'm also surprised I got it because I do NOT like "artificial" thingies........floral thingies especially. Unless they look REAL! I had to keep feeling these fuzzy leaves the whole time I was looking around in the local florist shop........ I ended up buying the two matching ones she had; one for the back door here, and the other I'll show you later on the log cabin door in the yard. That one is mighty pretty also against the old weathered wooden door.

This "quilty" story was pretty good, and I finished it up quickly.........I've been avoiding art and reading a lot recently. Love to just "get lost" in good stories or read about interesting people. (Preferably somebody much worse off than my family's puny little problems, so I'll feel better!) Heh, heh.........I know........I'm a sick old woman. Thank God my mama loved to read and read to me as a child and instilled the love of books in me!

And here you see an example of "October's Bright Blue Weather", which was part of a poem Miss Sadie Limer taught me in the third grade, way back in 1953! She took our little class on an outing uptown and pointed out that wonderful, special shade of BLUE that comes to the south in October, and I never see it that I don't think of Miss Limer. She was very old-fashioned, very strict, and we were scared to death of her, but for some reason she made us WANT to learn the lessons and to please her! And she was one of my first early art admirers; she always encouraged us to make handmade cards for our parents for every occasion and holiday. My special cards were for Valentine's Day, and long after I was a grown married woman, I made and mailed her my special handmade Valentines every year. They were filled with calligraphy and lace and paper doilies and little red stick-on cherubs and hearts of gold and glitter..........I wonder what became of them after she died. I STILL love to make valentines, whether out of papers or fabrics or metal..........so I guess I've moved on up to being a "mixed media" artist in my old age!