Post Thanksgiving Post

Rabbit and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We hit the road to Amarillo, Tx. where Rabbit's oldest lives with her Marine husband.  The son-in-law's family were there also from San Antonio and Corpus Christi.  Lots of delicious food and spirits were beget after giving thanks to the Lord our God.  He has blessed us greatly.

Mom-in-law was going to join us also in Amarillo for Thanksgiving but was attacked by what sounded like "the consumption" or some other awful sickness she probably caught from the littlest grandkids...so she wasn't able to make it.
I would like to share a little guy that I made for her birthday back in October. Click on the image for a closer look.

thimble; wooden knob; wooden spool;

skeleton keys; heart charm and checkers

Now I need to get back to my online metalsmithing class I've been taking from Stephanie Lee.  I'll share the items I make from this class...that is if they turn out nicely.

Autumn - Leaves turning, cool days and Halloween!

Have been keeping the windows open lately, letting the cool breezes infiltrate through each room of the house. These are days I relish.  I seem to become more creative this time of year.  Don't know if the crisp sharp air clears out the cobwebs of my head that have grown over the hot sweltering summer, whatever the reason, I love it!

I can remember when my older sister and I were in Elementary school and on Halloween Day we would rush home from school and run into my bedroom and throw open the closet door and start digging through the toys and clothes searching for two tattered cardboard boxes with clear cellophane openings in the front that were only holding on by one corner at that point.  These boxes held the two kitty cat Halloween costumes that we wore every single year until Junior High School. The thin plastic masks with the elastic band that held it tight to your face and the fire retardant capes that tied around your neck. Similar to the ones found on this website.  Looking at the price of some of these, I wish I still had mine! 



It was never about the costume, it was always about THE CANDY!  Daylight Savings Time had past already so it starting getting dark around 5:30pm.  We sat waiting for it to get dark enough to leave the house and start the night's haunt.  We would walk the neighborhood until we couldn't walk anymore.  Being in Houston, Texas is was still pretty hot and we would come home dripping in sweat, hair plastered to our heads and the masks now sitting on top of our heads, but the candy bags were FULL!  We would empty the bags out onto the floor and our mom would go through all of it before we could start diggin' in.  Oh to be young again and have the stomach to handle all that sugar!



I want to share my latest found object assemblage.  I created this piece to donate to the United Way Silent Auction we were having at work.  After I finished this one-of-a-kind Halloween art piece, I really really wanted to keep it and not donate it....BUT I had already committed to donation and could not back out!  After the auction started I had an idea, I would bid on it myself, but felt bad, so I ask Rabbit to bid on it for me...sad, sad, I know, but it is just so cute!  Well, thanks to my surprise Rabbit won the piece back and it now resides comfortably in my home where it will remain for many years to come.

Shadowland Witch - croquet ball head;

cow horn hat; candy tin body;

sugar tong arms; candy mold feet;

pencil broom stick

Yes, the name on the candy tin is

SHADOWLAND HARD CANDIES!



HAPPY AUTUMN AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Give-away Winner

It's time to annouce the winner of the first jUNKYARD rABBITS art give-away (Mr. Fu Manchu). All names were placed in a bowl and Rabbit drew the lucky winner's name...
AND the winner is ...Andrea Munoz.  Congratulations!!!!
I want to thank all the new Followers to the blog for joining.  The support for my art has been a great boost. 

Blog GIVEAWAY Revealed

The big reveal!  ...as promised.

To be given away to one lucky Follower.

You still have plenty of time to add yourself as a

Follower of our blog in order to be part of

the random drawing that will take place

on Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 6:00pm.

Please remember if you choose to be a

"Private" Follower, you will need to leave me

a message in the comments section below

and let me know your email info.

I prefer that you follow "Publicly"...makes it a little

easier, plus you can add a cute icon pic of yourself!

The winning person's name will be posted

right here after the drawing. If you do not receive

an email from me by Thursday, Sept. 30,

this means I don't have access to your email info.

You will need to leave me a comment

on the blog posting

or send me an email.

Drum roll ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Meet Mr. Fu Manchu

Click on each pic to enlarge.

Croquet ball head with rhinestone eyes;

sugar bowl lid hat with tassel;

victorian lady's watch fob hair braid;

sugar bowl upper body;

glass oil lantern lower body filled with rice of course!

Good Luck to Everyone!

Published Design & Give-away

Bunny has another exciting announcement!  I am officially a published book cover designer.  A very close friend of mine has spent the last several years fulfilling one of her life goals, writing a prayer book and getting it published.  Wanda Lewis has written a very inspirational prayer book and I had the great pleasure of being asked to design the cover of the book along with furnishing her photographs of nature to be placed in the book along side her encouraging words.  The book is called "OUR PRAYERS How Unto THEE We Come".  This is a great book to give to a loved one as a gift.  Order now for Christmas!  Click here to take a look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In my last post I mentioned that I was thinking about doing a give-away here on our blog.  I am in the process of creating a piece of art for this fun event.  All you have to do is add yourself as a follower to our blog and you will be entered to win.  The winning follower will be announced the week of September 27.

Please be sure that when you add yourself you are added as a "PUBLIC" Follower.  If you choose to follow "PRIVATELY" I have no way of knowing that you have been added unless you notify me via a "Comment" at the bottom of this post.  

Here are a couple of pics of the items being used in the give-away piece. Hum? What could it be?

Best of Show - Two Years in a Row! YAY!

The OMOT Show this year was amazing.  There were so many GREAT entries from co-workers and their family members.  There was a lot of photography in this year's show.  All the First Place, People's Choice, and Best of Show will be displayed at North Park Mall in Dallas beginning September 19.  I believe the show runs for two weeks.  Winners from businesses all over North Texas will be displayed.  If you get a chance please come out and take a look at what great artists there are that have real daytime jobs.

I first want to show off Zach's project that we entered in the Sculpture category.  We thought is was very worthy of being in an art show and it really should have won a ribbon, but sadly did not.
This is a Tennis Shoe, make entirely of masking tape.  Yes, the whole shoe is nothing but tape.  It is the exact size of his actual shoe that he used as a model.  When Zach was younger he use to make wallets out of duct tape, so he had lots of practice with the sticky substance.

Just look at the detail he put into this!
Even the stitching...Amazing!

My one photography entry this year is titled "Southern Relics".  While driving on the back roads of Louisiana this past Spring, my eye caught a glimpse of something under the trees.  I made Russell turn the car around...which wasn't as easy as it sounds, being that we were in the middle of swamp land.  There sitting under a huge oak tree was this old truck.  The way the sun was shining through the trees onto the truck gave me the sense that the Lord was putting His spotlight on an old relic that was still a thing of beauty.

Now for the ribbon winners.  On the last post I showed you two of the pieces I placed in the Sculpture category of the show..."Big Cheese" and "Lunchbox Kitty".  
"Big Cheese" won Second place and "Lunchbox Kitty" won Honorable Mention.  The third Found Object Assemblage I entered won First Place and BEST OF SHOW!!!
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"...I really should rename this to "Bird Girl"...so much shorter.
After seeing the movie and reading the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", Russell and I took a trip to Savannah, Georgia.  We fell in love with the great Southern atmosphere and the hospitality of the people who live there.  I wanted to create a piece of art that represented the historical charm of that part of the country and the 'bird girl' statue truly does that.

Cookie tin body; clock head; jello mold skirt.

Bird... head: electronic's knob; body: whistle;

tail: violin tail piece; feet: curtain clip

Base is an antique telephone box
with metal furniture feet.

Thanks to all my followers who come to our blog and leave comments, I truly appreciate your love and support in my little hobby.  I would like to get more followers here, so I have been thinking about doing a little GIVE-AWAY!  A little something I will make and give out to a random follower.  I'll post more details about it later.  If you are not currently a follower please sign up, it doesn't hurt, I promise!  Send our link to others that you think would be interested and encourage them to sign up also...OKAY!

It's Time Again for the On My Own Time Art Show

The art is going up and it looks like it is going to be a great show this year.  The OMOT show is organized and produced by the Business Council for the Arts.  As you might remember my digital illustration "Horse Feathers" won Best of Show last year.  You can view the 2009 catalogue here.

I am very excited about the pieces I entered this year.  Two pieces have already been revealed here on our blog.  They were Christmas gifts made for family members..."Big Cheese" and "Lunchbox Kitty".  Since I hadn't been in the studio almost all year, I had to borrow back these pieces to put in the show.

I was able to get in the studio for a few weeks to put together one large Found Object Assemblage project to place in the show.  I have also entered an enhanced photograph.  These will be revealed after the judging of the show...about two weeks from now.

And even greater news, Rabbit's son, Zach, decided to enter an art piece he did for school.  Zach is an undergrad at the University of North Texas working towards an Art degree.  His project is so awesome!  He is actually competing against me in the Sculpture category!  I'm pretty competitive, but it would be great if he won.

School's Out For the Summer

Bunny back....I know it's been awhile!  Sorry, I've been ill and been busy.

School may be out for the summer but there are still rules that should be followed at home.  Every family should have these rules posted in their house.  I can't take credit for the words, I found an Etsy seller who had posters for sale...but for the life of me, can't seem to locate the seller now to give credit.  I wanted my version to look more like a chalk board.  So I painted my board black, typed and printed out the words, and then transferred the words using graphite paper and a scratching method.  It took several nights to do this since my hands get tired easily.  This is the finished product.

This project was given to the step son's favo-RIGHT girl for her 21st birthday. 

She is very representative of all of these. 

Happy Birthday A!  We love ya!

Things and Deals and Stuff

So sorry for the delay in posting.  Rabbit and I celebrated our anniversary at Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana over the weekend.  It was a wonderful gift from a wonderful man.

I promised pics of the loot we brought home from Antique Week. So enjoy.

sewing machine drawers; cast iron flowers; brass keyhole;

Triumph stickshift knob; brass picture nails, etc.

chrome drawer pulls; sheet music holder;

chrome sugar bowl; brass clampers;

wooden thingy (can you guess what I will turn that into?)

coffee sack burlap; crochet balls; belt buckles

If you have seen my art you will know how most of

the items above will come in handy.

Rabbit's loot

Rabbit came away with these items: an old microphone; guitar neck from the estate of Rusty Cox, a Texas Hill Country musician; some 45 brass shells; and an old goat head.  Rabbit had to buy the goat head after the conversation that happened...

we're in the booth with many other women, he picks up the goat head and turns to me and asks... do you want an old goat?  Okay ladies, can you guess what my response was?  --No thanks, I already have an old goat.--  Ha! Ha!  A lady standing near by  looks at him and tells him, you set yourself up for that one, didn't ya?  It was hysterical!  Poor Rabbit...gotta love him!

A few more pics of some interesting things we saw in the fields of Central Texas.

skeleton made of various cow bones

(at least that's what we hope they were)

honey comb

Rabbit with a childhood favorite "The Shamrock Dino"

Dog in a pot.

Texas Antique Week -- Warrenton, Round Top

Waves and waves of rusty metal, crisp linens, chippy furniture, cowboy boots, garden ornaments, stained glass, old screen doors, broken doll heads and art.

These babies were priced at $425. We have one in our

kitchen we made.  Bought the industrial whisk for $8

at antique store and the light kit at HD for $15...

homemade...priceless!

And lets not forget all the taxidermy, including a sequin covered boars head!  ...yes, what every person wants in their house!

Wonderful weather was the order of the week, except maybe the great gusts of wind blowing tent flaps too hard and knocking over a vendor's collection of glass gee-gaws.  We had a great week in Warrenton and Round Top.  If it isn't there, it doesn't exist!
 
Rabbit and I hopped our little paws off day after day looking for those one-of-a-kind treasures from the past that grab at your heart strings when you lay eyes on them, and then take your breath away when you look at the price because you know you have just found the bargain of the week.  Your heart is beating rapidly knowing that you can probably get it for even less...maybe, just maybe. 

I had been searching for a european linen bed sheet to place on the bed so that the doglettes could sleep on and not hair up the nice comforter.  I figured since linen is "in" right now and it is easy to wash, it would be the perfect thing...that is until I saw how expensive they were.  Even ones with stains and repairs were in the $75 range...kinda high for a dog blanket.  Then into a booth I walk, no vendor around, there was a small bed covered with some stray rose printed sheets from the 50s and laying neatly folded under a pillow was a white euro linen sheet with no price tag...dang, where was the vendor?  I turn around and a cute little lady walks in and sees that I'm holding the euro sheet, I ask, how much for your linen sheet?  I'll take $15.  Gulp!  I thought, it must have holes in it somewhere or a big nasty stain that even boiling water and lemon juice can't get out.  I unfold it and take a closer look...not finding any flaws except a slight yellowing in one area.  She sees I'm inspecting it closer and says, well, I could take $12 for it. 
SOLD!

We just can't get enough of the rush that these adventures bring to us. This year we made sure we couldn't buy anything large by not bringing the BAT (big-ass-truck) along to haul stuff home in.  We had to limit ourselves to the smaller treasures of long ago.  Next posting will be of those.