Faux Flowers, Big Basement Cleanout, Busy Busy Bee

HELLO SPRINGTIME!

I've been very busy with lots of different little things. I've had a week to recover, and am back into etsy and orders and spring and cleaning, organizing, packing, healing, applying, and general running-around-ness.

What am I recovering from? Cleaning my parents basement. Sounds silly, but it needed it. My sister even flew to Mass from New Orleans to help. It was THAT bad. It used to be a party place, where we would have grand family events. My baby book (which I came across in the basement) said my first Christmas hosted 45 guests in this basement. It had been since turned into a dumping ground for EVERYTHING. We came across two church pews, an authentic dog-tag making machine, a full size carousel horse,, four loose bowling balls, an old fashioned scale, three accordians, two mannequins with non-matching body parts, 17 bags of dolls, and boxes upon boxes of who knows what. Well I do! I feel like I am the information system for anything you will ever need, just ask and I can tell you in which square inch to look.

Five kids went to collegs and dumped all their childhood "treasures" down there, and when through with college, dumped all thier college "treasures" down there too. I'm guilty. We pulled out a 7x5 foot steel boat that I welded together for a gallery show in 1999. I swore it was temporary.

Heres the BEFORE photo (look theres people at the far end of this room, two people! to get an idea of the vast expanse of mess), the next post will have the AFTER (for suspense and drama).

edit: oh why not.. I posted it below.

So once that was over, with a trip to ikea and a party that appeared to be '70's themed' (only because we have a vintage pinball machine, pong and a jukebox still full of the best of the 70's) the party, "cleaning party", and my sisters trip ended.

Then came the cough. Im still working through it and healing up just fine, but pretending/hoping it has nothing to do with the basement. She wore a respirator, and since my allergies were masked, I didn't. We will see. Im hoping it just came about from fatigue. We both lifted on average of 30 extremely heavy boxes/objects everyday for 2 weeks. Im not exaggerating. It was exhausting. But felt really really good to get done.

Plus I got to spend time with my sis, of SUPERDUPER fame. HURRAH!

Heres the shiny AFTER: (okay so it may arrpear to be an average basement with a wacky floor, but this is a real triumph.)

Why am I packing? (re: first sentence of post)

Johns got a pentathlon on Saturday in New Hampshire. Its the Wildcat Wildfire @ Tuckermans Ravine. For all of you who haven't heard of one, its a race with FIVE events. Goodness! He will be running, kayaking, cycling, hiking up the mountain and then skiing down. Yep. And I am the support crew in charge of making sure his transitions go smoothly. If I forget to give him his life jacket, guess who's not getting a beer.




EDIT: John came in SECOND place in the race! WOOO!

What am I applying to? It seems like all the huge fall shows I want need to have an application in RIGHT NOW. So, lots of paperwork for me.

I don't have the proper amount of time to tell you everything else Ive been doing, but I had time to take some photos of a new medium/project I'm playing with. It's FUN! Heres the flowers that I made with air-dry clay. It was my first attempt, and I think they came out pretty well. It makes me think that i can get them to look pretty real if I practice.

I hope to make some lovelies for my etsy shop and see how they take in the bridal world. Im hoping to have some more done when I have a chance to breath. I want them to be my 'fun' project. They are quite soothing to make.

I mixed the colors to get this bright marigold. Sort of looks like a pansy to me.

These are lighter than air. I still have to wrap them in floral tape and give them wires or bobby pins or whatever they might need. What can you see them turning into? Pins? Corsages, hair pins, necklace, rings even? Let me know, I love your input!