Don't throw ideas from glass heads

Back in my teenage years I first saw a glass head.

I loved it and really wanted one buuuuuut it just never happened.

Thanks to wandering around a discount store I finally scored one for about 7 dollars!!

Isn't it terrific?!?!!

I am so excited about all the possibilities it could hold.

Flowers for spring, a hovering light bulb, Christmas lights, the ideas just flood.

The only dilemma is how to keep it in there?

So I found a candle and the top cover thingy fit pretty good. 

I then added a little duck tape to thicken it up a little and then wrapped rubber bands around that for a good seal. 

So can you guess what I stuffed it with? 

No?

Ok I'll get closer 

Figured it out yet? 

yeah, old school media aka cassette tapes. 

I also threw some silver glitter in there and a couple of guitar picks.

I love it :) I even found a pair of really old school (70's) head phones to put over her glass ears.

It's just plain fun.

Oh and to answer any questions about the Kiki Throne he has not slept in it.  He has slept next to it a few times.  Rooo  being who she has decided it was worthy of her nap time and has now claimed the throned. 

The king has lost his throne, truly.

All hail King Kiki

I looked up at my Mother's Day flowers and was sad to see they were dying.

I also noticed one was glaring back at me.

I recognized that glare...

Been seeing it ever since this little Rooo cat joined the family. 

Not by her but himmmmm

Yessss, it has been hard on him with a cute kitten who has no boundaries or problems invading personal spaces.  Who sneaks up and randomly sniffs his behind.

He just doesn't have a space of his own, not that he ever wanted one but things have changed.

I stumbled across these baskets someone gave me a few years back. 

It looked like a perfect Kiki throne, just needed some spiffing up and flava..

Oh yeah, uh huh, it's his birthday sing it.

So went to StuffMart and got a cheap pillow. 

Brought out some spray paint. 

Got all fancy with the tape and more spray paint. 

Oh look its Chevron (do I get some brownie points or what?) 

Made it official on the other side 

Found some fun fabric on the internet for cheeeap. 

And Bam! just like that a Kiki Throne. 

I was going to sew it but then I'm like why? when he's not gonna dig it up or move it.

So I safety pinned it on the underside so I can wash both the fabric and pillow when needed.

Now to find him and give it a test run.

Here kikikikikiki

This may be continued

What's new pussy cat? wahhh wahhh wahhh

This is Roooooooo

She is our new edition to the family.

My mom has also moved in with us.  I would post a pic of her as well but haven't done that yet.

Rooooo came by her name for her love of being with my daughter and various hidey holes that her sweatshirt holds.  Riding around in her hood is her favorite.

This was the investigation of possible spot....the sleeve

"Sleeve Kitteh" here to snatch yo food ninja style.

So with much antics of the new kitten and busy schedule with mom, I haven't been as active in my "new" craft room as I had hoped.

Buuuuut have manged a couple of things.

Like this small revamp.

Don't look behind the curtain!!

Ok, see those boring 2x4's I didn't get to paint?  What? Can't see them?

Yeah, they do blend into the yellow fabric, don't they?

So I painted them grey.

I was not thrilled :/

So I tried a stencil

Ok a little better but what about a little white in there.

Ok, getting better but it really was still missing something.

I searched frantically for inspiration....

I found this in the free bin a while back, loved the cover and am going to use it for something.

But this insides were up for grabs.  At this point it may seem I just undid everything I done do. hahaha did ya get that?  I glued the pages on in random places.

Waited for it to dry and then ripped it off!

This is what I had remaining.

What do you think?

It's kinda got a hip-cool vibe to it.

So give me an opinion.  What do you really think?  Is it really cool or just crap?

I am not afraid of honesty :)

Lost in my mind

I have a major confession.

The below pictures are real.

They have not been photoshopped.

This is really my art center.

Actually this is my art center after I cleaned a spot.

This is literally my brain.  Stuff I see I want to remake.  Stuff I can't throw away because it is needed for something I can't remember.

Having switched to wood heat because gas heat is outrageous, has now left my craft center cold and cluttered.

It may have something to do with the cement floor sucking the life out of you through your feet. 

It could be the spiders looking down on you from the rafters.

It could just be life is so busy to remember this forgotten area of my house.

So I had an idea and inspiration.

Idea: actually use this instead of dining room.

 Inspiration: yellow and white with black awesomeness

Le sigh*  I do sooooo wish I could make it look like that.

But I don't have that kind of budget so it's off to the dollar store, (I will show you that later) and using what I have.

One of the things I have is this divider given to my by my sister.  This is the other half of the downstairs rec room area.  Nobody uses it because it's cold as well.  So it will become my husband's storage area for music equipment and softball equipment. That will make me happy to have it in one place instead of many. 

So I have a pretty big task ahead and will be gone for a bit.

This is what I have started, a easy build desk out of a core door and file cabinet drawers. 

I was going to paint everything white but got to impatient and covered it in white paper and then sealed it with plastic and yellow duct tape.   Cost?  ZERO, it's stuff I had in my scary pile.

OH, I almost forgot...UPDATE on KIKI 

This was Kiki after the vets, he couldn't stand and had to use the couch and stood like a tripod.  I had no hope for him.  It was soooo sad and many people were praying.  There were many things going on that we had been praying about.  One of our friends had been diagnosed with cancer that went from 1 to 3 in a day.

Yet this I know.....God is good. 

Kiki is healed!!!!  In  a week from being kicked, his breast plate turned back in and he was able to not only walk but leap as well.

Also our dear friend has also healed as their cancer is back to level one and has not spread!!

So amazing Jesus healing pets and people I love TAAAAA-DAAA!

Stuff that has been happening

This is our cat Kiki.

Isn't he cute?  We love him very much.

Last Monday I found him in the yard just sitting and staring.  It was odd and he hadn't been in to eat in over

24 hrs.  Which just doesn't happen,....unless something is wrong.

Something was wrong.  I picked him up and he cried.  Not meow but cried.  I ran him inside, didn't see any blood but something was wrong!  I brought him to the vet hosp and dropped him off.  They called later to let me know there were no wounds but he was dehydrated and running a fever.  They gave him fluids and then found out he had bruising and an odd lump.  They wanted extensive tests and quoted a price.  I was sad, we can not come up with that kind of money.  I told them and they said to pick him up.

I went to pick him up but they wouldn't release him because the dr had ordered x-rays and decided not to charge us.  Yay for good dr.s that really want to help.  So he stayed another night.

The next day they said we could take him home.  I had hopes it wasn't as bad as I thought.

When I got there and asked for explanation of what was wrong with Kiki.  I was shown the x-ray and told that someone had kicked him so hard that it broke his breastplate in two.  That there is now a inch gap and it is a compound fracture. 

I had recently watched Priest and was wishing for some swords to hunt down the evil that did this to poor Kiki.

I brought him home in tears because there is nothing we can do for him.  My husband went to the vet hospital to get more information.  I grew up on a farm and animals with this much damage get put down because you love them.  I don't want him to live in pain the rest of his life.  We found out that the 800 dollar surgery would be no guarantee to make him better and he wasn't in as much pain as it looked.  He just will no longer be able to jump, climb, run, or protect himself.  Which is still really sad.  So poor Kiki will no longer jump up and stick his face in my laptop to see what I'm doing.  Truly my heart is broken, he has always been my muse.

The one more broken hearted than I is my sweet husband.  It is his cat and sometimes an extension of himself.

So the apologies were from many things going on in my life that has kept me away from my blog.  There are more things but I usually don't share that on here.  There truly is a season for everything and even in the midst of this one there is still hope, and peace.

With our anniversary coming up and what spare money we had vanishing I made a reminder for my husband, that I can change every day or every minute.  I saw the idea out there in blogland, so no, I am not the original.  I also found it before I found Pinterest which means I have no link to the original.  But it is a good idea and a simple craft.

Find glass frame, this one was found at Goodwill for 99 cents.  Make a print out of  "I love you because".

  Leave lots of space to write with a dry erase marker.  He hasn't noticed it yet as I had the empty frame hanging on the wall.  I wish I could write all pretty like but then he wouldn't realize it was from me.

I wandered outside today to discover my water lily bloomed! 

That is amazing because when the raccoons show up for fresh sushi they usually have it with a side of water lily root.  I think I even caught one of the fish still in there as well.

or it could be a leaf.

So then I wandered over to the other side to check my other "still" alive plants.

They are beautiful!  With all the bright colors :) 

It makes me smile and then I forget I wanted a really big sword.

It really is OK.  Life continues on and we grow with it, we weep, we laugh, we build stronger relationships, we lean on God to get us through.  We are broken and jacked up and yet amazingly created. I've never been in control and I am thankful for that. <3

Random projects and ideas that may never happen

I have finished stage one in my on purpose designed bedroom.  This piece is finally painted and put back together.  Wow! white takes along time to accomplish. After primer and 3+ coats of gloss white here it is.  Just a little tada

This is the next one (I forgot to take a before pic again), remembered after I painted the top drawers.

(yeah, those are my boots..... and these boots are made for kickin')

Ok, so last weekend my family got the flu and I got nothing accomplished but stumbling upon an impromptu garage sale, I found this for 3 dollars.  I couldn't resist!!  How could you not want a giant smiling frog? 

Then I got sick, while everyone went back to work and school.  I finally made it back to the living room after days of confinement to bathroom and bedroom.  Yeah, so not fun.  Sitting there looking at my forgotten friend who I was going to give to my great niece.  When my son walked in and said "hey, that looks like Frogbone".  "Who's Frogbone?" I asked thinking it was some new band.  "You know the frog you drew" he replied and I still just stared at him in my fog of oblivion. Then it finally dawned on me "OH, the cartoon band that Kiki is in"  Waaaaaaay back in my posts, I posted the story of our cat Kiki and the children's book I wrote (still not published) based loosely on him.  Well the book wasn't enough for the muse he is.  I also created a band called "The Woodland Tree-O" and his alternative personality Fat Cat.  Frog Bone is his sax-man and Chip Punk his ax-man.   This is a live action shot.

Then the promo pics of the band.

Frog Bone who has his roots firmly planted in jazz....groooovy, grooovaay.

Chip Punk is actually mellow while off stage but knows how to shred when the lights come on.

Fat Cat will always be ready for a jam day or night, stage or tree.

So, that is why I bought the frog.  It was subliminal, I am meant to do a room with them as the theme.

I even found material 5yd bolt for a dollar.   I've got yellow, orange, and pink.  This could be so awesome, now I have to find someone who would let me.

Have I every told you about Kiki?

He's one of our cats and has issues.  We got him from the shelter and when we brought him home we didn't see him for weeks.  He had been abused and it showed, he so wanted to be petted but was afraid to let it happen.  We would stretch our hands out to him and he would slowly inch closer only to stop ,just before reaching his hearts desire, and pat himself by rubbing his head on the floor.  Months went by and he finally allowed us to lightly pat him and he would lean into it with a big ole cat smile.  When realizing we had tricked him into enjoying this kind of attention he would precede to punch us and run away.  Well, the years have gone by and now you can't get him off your lap. 

 He has inspired many stories and drawings for me as well as songs I have burst into for no apparent reason.  This is Kiki.   Now I write all of that so I can show you this.  I wrote a kids book about him but it's for pre-K kids.  It's a wordless book so they can read the story.  There is only one sentence in the beginning and one in the end so adults can participate.  I keep hoping it will become published buuuuuut I'll just leave that in God's hands.  So here are a few pages just to share :). 

How could you not find a story in these pics?  I used different mediums to give them different texture.  I have made 2 books so far and another still in my head.  This is the case for Kiki and his adventures as told to me by my husband.   I've also done paintings with him and his friends in a jazz band but I'll show that another day.

PS if you read this please comment so I know someone was here.  Sometimes all I hear are crickets.....