Bathroom Remodel

When we were working on this house 25 years ago, the builder's wife talked us into getting a jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom (no shower, just the tub). Well, the tub wasn't very practical - took way too much water to fill it so we didn't use it much. Then when you did use it, black yuck would come out of the pipes. On top of that the tub also cracked badly. Approximately 21 years ago we pulled out the carpeting (yes, she talked us into carpeting in the bathrooms, too - another mistake) and I laid peel-n-stick tile. I also painted over the wallpaper and rag rolled & stenciled the walls - heck it was the thing to do back then. I'm almost embarrased to share these pictures.

For years we've been talking about redoing the bathroom. We got one estimate and it was way high. One thing & another got in the way - gas went up to $4.00/gallon & all money went into my tank just to get me to & from work. The economy tanked & there was worry about keeping a job. There was also the issue about finding someone we trusted to do the work reasonably. We found a couple of reliable, honest contractors and got bids that were more in line with what we thought was reasonable.

FINALLY the end of February of this year we decided to go ahead with the project. It was completed in March & I absolutely LOVE it. Unfortunately the bathroom is not shaped such that you can take pictures of the whole thing at once.

We had them remove the tub, toilet, sinks & countertop. They created a new, doorless, walk-in shower, tiled the floors, did tape & bedding repair, texturing & painting and added new sinks, toilet and tiled countertop. I stripped the cabinets and refinished them. Big difference!!! The contracter & workers were all great.

Welcome Spring

I've said it before, you have to love Texas weather. We welcomed spring this year with record snowfall. Friday March 20, it was close to 80 degrees. March 21, I was working late in my studio & around 11:30 pm decided to call it a day and let the dog out (it had been raining earlier) front one last time before going to bed. Imagine my surprise to see approximately 2 inches of snow on the ground. There wasn't any on the street, but I wasn't too concerned as it was Saturday night & I wasn't going anywhere the next day. Well....this is what I woke up to the next morning - 10 inches of SNOW & it continued a misty snow until early afternoon. My family in Fort Worth didn't get any snow & it was sunny all day on Sunday. Monday our highs were again close to 70, so the snow went away fast. It was pretty, though.

Tiles

I'm participating in a tile swap on one of my online groups. The criteria is to create 2 x 2 tiles, swapping out 8 of each set (2 sets) & receive back 16 tiles, plus the two you created to keep yourself. It's really not as confusing as that sounds. I used polymer clay for my tiles (big surprise). One set has a foil & chalk ink technique for the background & the other set uses alcohol inks. I'm rather pleased with how these turned out & I'm looking forward to receiving my swap tiles back. I've seen pictures of most of them & they are all fabulous - this is going to be a great swap. Thanks, Nancy for hosting.

Valentine's

I hadn't played around with altered or paper arts in quite a while. I decided to do some items for Valentines this year. The first picture shows altered recipe boxes. I got the recipe boxes from the Fun Finds section at Michaels. I sealed them with gesso and had fun with several different types of paint. I stamped and embossed, added grungeboard embossed hearts, rusted jewelry components and stamped shrinky dink images to create a less traditional Valentine. I filled them with chocolate and travel size lotions, bath gels and such to give to my friends.

I also did some bookmark tag Valentines with hearts. I covered the tags with decorative paper, did some stamping, some masking, inked the edges, added hearts, ribbon, Prima flowers and such to make more non-traditional Valentine's.

One of the art doll egroups I belong to did a Queen of Hearts swap. I used a dollar store porcelain doll as the base for my doll. Her wings are wire and screen, she is covered with tissue paper and painted. She has stamped embellishments and a brass pressing crown.

The local polymer clay guild meeting is on Valentine's Day this year. Our swap theme is nature, so I did the turtle pins. We are supposed to wrap our swap items and I thought since it is Valentine's, I would wrap them appropriately. I made pilow boxes from red gloss cardstock and added Prima flowers and ribbon.

SNOW!!!!

Happy birthday to me, it snowed all day long on my birthday. In fact, it was record-breaking snow for the day & the year in this area. DFW airport officially reported over 12 inches of snow. I think our area reported over 8 inches. Unfortunately I had to change my birthday plans since I did not want to drive in that mess. Snow is very beautiful as long as one is inside and doesn't have to get out in it or go anywhere. It should all be gone within 2 - 3 days if it warms up like it is supposed to do tomorrow. I took these pictures this morning after yesterday's snow. It snowed almost 24 hours straight. The first picture is the view up the road from my house, except you can't see the road, or the neighbor's driveway.

The second picture is the view out the back door. I love the way the snow made the little antique fence around my herb garden look. The next picture is the view out the front door looking up in the trees - they almost look like lace. We were lucky and didn't loose any branches. In parts of Dallas, many trees split due to the weight of the snow. It was expecially hard on live oak trees which keep their leaves year round.

The last picture is Zeke in the backyard. I was able to get one picture of him before he noticed I had the camera. He acts like the camera is going to steal his soul and will disappear if he sees a camera or if he thinks you are taking a picture with the phone. He was also less than impressed with the snow and like me enjoyed it much better from inside.

Bird Wedding Cake Topper

One of my coworkers is getting married later this year and she wanted birds for her wedding cake toppers instead of the traditional bride & groom. I made her the whimscal cake toppers as my wedding gift for her.

Texas Beader's Retreat

Vicki & I attended our third retreat last month. The retreat sold out so our friend Lisa wasn't able to join us - hopefully next year. The first piece I worked on at the retreat was a beaded purse. The focal piece is a polymer clay face I bought from Kim Cavendar at the polymer clay retreat I attended in September. The purse is made entirely from recycled jeans. The handle is a denim belt from a dress. After I finished the purse, I worked on a bracelet and necklace in autumn hues to match a jacket I made (bought the fabric at the Houston Quilt Show a couple of years ago). The other piece shown is what I did for the challenge - a travel jewely pouch.

Edie's Shoes

I love the whole idea and concept of bartering. Last summer my friend Edie had a fabulous polymer clay bead that she had done in colors I don't normally use. The piece really spoke to me and I wanted it badly. Edie wouldn't name a price, but I kept after her & she finally decided to let me have the piece if I would agree to do her a pair of shoes. What a great idea to swap art for art! Here are Edie's shoes.

Sprocket Gears

As I've mentioned before, I like to use Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears in my jewelry. I've done pieces for myself and for some of my friends for birthday presents. Here are some more examples for your viewing pleasure. I wore my necklace and bracelet to the Texas Beader's Retreat in January and they were a huge hit. I bet you couldn't find any of these gears at any of the area Michaels stores after the retreat.

ELVES
I made elf ornaments last year for my coworkers for their Christmas presents. I'm just now getting them on my blog because unfortunately I thought I had moved the images from my camera to my computer before deleting them, but obviously hadn't. Luckily my Aunt took pictures of them and I was able to get the pictures from her. These are polymer clay over aluminum foil balls. I made two for each of my coworkers, as the both have two small children.

I always have time to create over the holidays and this year was no exception. At first I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but looking around my studio, I noticed several body-less heads and decided to complete them. These two heads are from the workshop I took from Joyce Cloutman this past summer.

The first little head was turned into a tree-doll ala Cyndi Mahlstadt's style from the workshop I took at EDAC. The birdcage is actually a pendant that I found at Michaels from Blue Moon Beads (I don't remember it it was the Tokens or Lost & Found line, but it was one of those). When I saw the birdcage, I knew I wanted to use it on one of these tree-dolls. The little birds are also from Michaels.

I decided to make a wired body for the 2nd head and turned it into a little forest elf. I gave him a bit of a belly. His hat is a piece from a potpourri blend with little acorns glued on top.

His hair is tuffs of rabbit fur and his shoes are polymer clay.

Now there are a few less body-less heads in the studio.

When I made the ornaments for my co-workers, I made an elf face for myself and this was another of those body-less heads floating around the studio. I thought maybe I would try doing a cloth body for him, so I used a pattern I had which seemed to be the right size. Once I made the body, though, it reminded me of a frog. That gave me the idea to paint the body green and add spots and create a frog-elf. I added spots to his face as well.

When cleaning out this weekend, I found the silver leaf server. I think it works great as a "pad" for him to sit upon. I'll have to color it with alcohol inks to get the right color.

Snow again

It snowed again this past week on December 29th. It also snowed on Christmas Eve, but I didn't get a picture of it. They say we are in an El Nino year which gives us a colder, wetter winter. I am not thrilled. I don't like the cold & really don't like the frozen precipitation.

This is the view off of my back fire-pit patio area.

At work we have an annual ornament competition (mainly to decorate our department tree). This year we were each given a clear glass ornament and a prize was given to the most creative ornament. Originally I was going to do an elf face, but felt that wasn't creative enough. I came up with the idea of doing a naughty/nice ornament. I knew I wanted to have the naughty side sticking his tongue out, unfortunately due to the hair, you can't really see the expression on the eyebrow. One side is nice & one side is naughty. I had to do one face and then bake the ornament and then do the other face. The biggest challenge was to get the ears to look good from both sides - I'd sculpt one side & it would look good, but it would mash out the other side. Once he was baked, I had fun finishing him - the stocking cap is the top from a sock. His hair is a strip of rabbit fur. He was really fun to do - oh & I got first prize (a gift card, which I took to Michaels & got a great book on painting fairies, angels & mermaids in watercolors).

My dear friend Lisa is never shy about letting you know what you've done that she absolutely loves (and she is very appreciative of most of my art). Anyway, when she saw my first gear necklace, she went on & on about how much she loved it. She is such a dear friend and it is always so much fun to do something for her and watch her when she receives her gift - there is never any question about how much she loves and appreciates the time and effort that go into creating a one-of-a-kind handmade gift - which makes it a joy to do for her. Lisa's birthday is in early December and I made her a sprocket gear necklace of her own - I also decorated a great heavy duty box I got cosmetic samples in for her present, so she can reuse it as well. I used Tim Holtz sprocket gears and (surprise) more of the Madame Delphine line on this piece - it has a real steampunk look to it.