Bits and Pieces

Downloading more than one photo into blogger is always SUCH an adventure. It's sort of a "Shuffle Up and Deal With It" game. So, here we have the lightbulb angel. You can see the bulb, the fun foam wings, face and yarn hair. I painted the bulb first with craft acrylic paint and then dried it with the hairdryer. Decorated the bulb with marker pens. The foam wings got a coat of paint and some marker details also--if you have glitter pens--add that. Stickers don't stick all that well to the bulb. Then I got the hot glue gun going and stuck the wings to the bulb in sort of a wing shape (V), then glued the face on then added the bundle of curly yarn (I wrapped the yarn around my hand five times and then tied it with another length of yarn and then cut and trimmed the loops. All the wings, faces and hair got made before the bulbs got painted--assembly line work. the halo is a glitter pipecleaner cut in half and twisted into a loop.
After posting my first pear painting-and having already given that painting away to a friend--I decided to try and paint the pear a few more times before eating it for lunch. So these are Pear Two and Three. I kind of like them. And I didn't eat the pear. It's still sitting on it's model plate waiting for the next artistic moment to strike. It never seems to get any riper--very odd.

If you are wondering why I am making angels and painting pears instead of quilting--well, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is my sewing area AFTER a full afternoon of cleaning. There is literally no place clear of "stuff". Over to the left is a cart--seriously overloaded--of quilts finished and ready to be finished. The cart is going to collapse under it's own weight at any moment and close off the entry/exit to this room. When I go in there to "clean" i make piles and then try and figure out where to put the piles. Next to the overloaded cart is a stack of large plastic containers of fabric I no longer find charming. I usually dig into them when asked to "make something" for a donation--placemates for a Thanksgiving Basket or a baby quilt. the fabric is lovely--it just isn't dots in vibrant colors. My fabric of choice right now.

Now isn't this sweet. The angels are napping. Reminds me of a blog picture of a Birds Bi-annual Holiday Party. The stuffed toy birds were all falling over and looking quite tipsy--perhaps the angels went to the same party???

Now my afternoon is going to be taken up with COOKING. The only holiday event I haven't cancelled this year. No tree, still. No presents. I did send out 10 cards. I made them and got tired after 10 so that was it. Hard to decide who got one. I plan on making Date Nut Bread with walnuts. I'm the only one here that will eat it--so more for me. Then I'm going to make a pork roast with potato dumplings and sauerkraut--- nice peasant food on a cold icey day. I will also be making cookies. An apricot ( oh, no! no apricots) cookie from Martha Stewart and Jam Thumbprints from Barefoot Contessa ( oh no, need coconut!). Shopping is in my future.

Speaking of peasant food---the library is having a Russian Tea on Monday afternoon for 25 kids and I am supposed to be making the Russian Cookies. Tea Cakes and fried Twig Cookies. The Tea Cakes recipe looks ever so much like Mexican Wedding Cookies and also like Pecan Crescents. The Twig Cookies are very much like the fried Slovack cookies my grandmother made. The menu will be rounded out with Cabbage Salad, Rye Bread and Tea. ( we decided to skip the pickled herring salad). We have a Samovar (220volts which Carol is going to plug into a 110v recepticle) She says it works out okay but takes "forever" to heat the water. !!!!!!!!!!! This is going to be a VERY interesting library program. Monday, 3:45. Get there before the fire department hoses down all the cookies.