Happy New Year!

Dear Diary,

I secretly started a Christmas Tradition so many years ago I can't even recall when. It was and still is one of the best ideas I every had. I buy myself a Christmas gift or so just in case I don't like what I get. Everyone wins because I'm joyous and not pouting over the holidays. I think it all started when I was married to Voldemort and our first Christmas together, he bought me red long handled underwear. When confronted with my bitter tears and hysteria his thoughtful response was "Well, you've been saying you're cold!"

Enough about that.....

Isn't this Fairy adorable! My scanning does not do it justice. It is brighter and a lot more colorful in real life. I bought it for myself for Christmas at Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio's Etsy Shop. When my sister Sarah Ann was visiting I found the perfect frame for it. Marsha is so creative and full of energy! I love following her blog and seeing what she is up to. Ya'll check her out at http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/

I know what this little fairy is thinking. She hates to do laundry, there is always a pile of laundry on the floor and she just discovered that she put Ian's favorite white South Park T-shirt in with the darks and it is now a faded dingy looking blue. Hence the dunce cap!

New Red Monkeys!

Dear Diary,

I have been making Monkeys for a few days. Red sock monkeys - Scarlet's sisters. My friend who/whom I would take an enema for (I really love her cause this is worse than a bullet!) wanted me to make a red sock monkey for her friend. I don't know this friend but I'm sure she is wonderful. So I finally found some red cable socks at target. After making Miss Rouge, I noticed that her stuffing kind of shows through. So my next trip to target I bought girls red tights. These were thicker and the stuffing does not show through so much. Now I have made a sister named Cissy Crimson. I think I'll have to switch colors because I can't think of any more monkey names that have to do with red. Unless Holly Berry would work.

The last week of school I learned about the legend of the Holly Berry. I thought that was so funny because it sounded so much like Halley Berry! Do you think her mother realized this when she named her? When is Halley Berry's birthday? I hope it is not around Christmas.

Tonight I started making a small red sock monkey out of 2 1/2 to 5 size red socks. I think I'll name her Holly Berry.

The top picture is the one made from the cable knit socks - she is definitely not as graceful as her sister made from girl's tights. But that's another story.

Christmas Family Newsletters

Dear Diary,

I wonder if everyone makes fun of the family newsletters they receive? We certainly do. I love to get them with Christmas cards and I love to find out what is happening in friends'and families' lives but just can't hold back the sniggering. Maybe I'm just jealous.

I tried to write a Christmas letter earlier. I stared at the screen for about 5 minutes then wrote:

December 18, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Holidays!

Same Shit Different Year.

Love,

The Schells

Please excuse my mood today.

P.S. The picture above is one I mocked up using photoshop for one of my sister's friends. (She was in her Halloween costume. Got the man off the internet.)

Would you like to swing on a star?

Or would you rather be a toddler in the early 60's

Dear Diary,

I haven't written in a while! I have been having trouble with my printer uploading pictures from my camera memory card. I couldn't figure out what the problem could be till my daughter confessed that her memory card got stuck in it and she had to remove it with a paper clip! We have also been busy at school and here at home and blah, blah, blah... But enough about my angst.

This is a picture of two of my sisters. Janice is looking so happy and Sarah Ann looks like she is not getting enough attention. I have Adobe Elements 5 and just got Adobe Elements 7. Blah, Blah, I've only had time to install it no time yet to play with it. But I did create a picture of Janice using the above and Adobe Elements 5. It was good clean fun! Usually when I collage I have glue stuck everywhere, unidentifiable grit under my fingernails, and a mess spread out over and under the table. But, Collaging with Adobe is mess free!

The inspiration for this piece is the song we used to sing in music with Miss Tubbs at Fairview Elementary - "Would you like to Swing on a Star". (I don't know if that's the name but it is definitely the chorus!

Have a great week!

The Sweet Potato Queen gets a suck-up gift

Dear Diary

(The reason why I use this opening is because of my older sister Lucy. She thinks blog writing is a peculiar pastime. She can't understand why someone would want to share their hopes, dreams, and personal angst with the world wide web. For her benefit, I try to start each tale off with dear diary . But like most other things - Sometimes I forget. Here's to you Lucy!)

I was looking through some old pictures and found these of the lovely Sweet Potato Queen. She came out to Arizona in January 2008, all the way from Madison, Mississippi. She was on her book tour. I'm sure you have all heard of her books! My favorite is The Sweet Potato Queen's Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner. (I know this is supposed to be underlined because it is a book title but I don't know how to do it!)

I made Ian's birthday cake using one of the recipe's and it was so good! I almost went into a diabetic seizure.

The first picture is of me giving the Sweet Potato Queen a Palo Verde Gal with a sweet potato on her dress. I had heard she (Jill Conner Browne) liked to get suck up gifts and as I was in the mood a week before she came I decided to make one.

The second picture was a gift I gave her as conversation fodder. I had been to the local Fry's grocery store the day before. Pushing my cart and humming to my self when I spied a side stack of Instant Sweet Potatoes! I let out an audible gasp and touched my right hand to my fore head. (If canned sweet potatoes aren't bad enough!) Since I knew I was going to see the Queen that week I thought I'd buy those for her. I was sure they were not sold east of the Mississippi.

As I suspected, It was a shock to her too. She said her Daddy was probably rolling over in his grave! I totally agreed with her.

Thinking back, I bet Arizona was a test market for those because I haven't seen them since. I do know that no self respecting southerner would ever seriously buy those to bake.

www.sweetpotatoqueens.com is Jill Conner Browne's official website. My sisters have been to the parade and parties in Jackson but I never have been. They had a lot of fun stories to tell when they got back. It's on my list. I'll make it one of these years.

Running on half a hormone pill

Look out world, I'm running on only one of my hormone pills! How can I have some left in one bottle and none in the other? I guess I must have had too many hormones some other time. It's a good thing I have my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. pill box now!

I'm behind on my blogging and on my blog reading! But I did stop in Mystic Paper yesterday! Mike was teaching a class on using glimmer y supplies. It was funny to think of that big guy teaching about shiny, glittery, fairy princess products. I bought some fun things.

Frank and I took a business trip to the Lone Butte Casino. His company put the fire sprinklers in. So, we had to check them out and while we were there we thought we might as well gamble.

To make a long story short. Frank lost his money pretty quick on the blackjack tables and I didn't have enough time to lose all mine since I had found a pretty lucky poker machine. I spent what I had left and a little more at Mystic Paper. It was good to see Kim. She showed me the art Judy Bidwell has just had published in Sew Somerset. I was super impressed.

Well, I better go to school. The party's over.

Sisters Beeswax with alcohol ink and acrylic

This is what I made in "The Amazing Wax Man" Mike's class. It is a picture of my younger sister Janice and me the day our father dressed us. Momma must have been in the hospital having a baby because on the back of the picture my Dad wrote a note about how he is the one that picked out our clothes that day and I guess it was such a big deal and he had probably never done it before he needed to capture the memory with a picture. This is one of my favorite pictures of Janice. She has such a happy look on her face!

We learned how to use alcohol ink with bees wax in the class. I wish I could remember how I mixed those colors like that. I love alcohol ink and want to take another class on how to use them soon!

Attempt at Beeswax Collage

Dear Diary,

I took a beeswax class from "The Amazing Wax Man " Mike Putman. He does such fabulous beeswax collage art. Afterwards I was so inspired that I drove down to goodwill and bought an iron and a crock pot so I could "bee" a cool artist like Mike. I made a few awful looking pieces then put my new purchases away. Then "The Amazing Wax Man" offered another class! I borrowed some of his ideas from that class to make this collage. My friend in Columbus - Leslie, also makes wonderful collages with beautiful papers and old family photos so I borrowed from her also. I really wanted to do something personal so I used my Momma and Daddy's old pictures. The piece is mounted on a 5x7 board but I couldn't find a frame to fit so I decided to mount it onto another board covered in scrap book paper. I can't decide whether I should beeswax that paper or not. ( any advise out there?) then trim it to fit inside the frame. Mike had distressed some metal pieces that really looked good but I can't remember how he did it so I just had to wing it when it came to distressing mine. I got the 3-D pieces from Mystic Paper. I love that store and I love Kim and Jennifer! I just have to visit them if I'm down to get recharged.

I sure wish I could remember how to link a name to a site. I would have linked Mystic Paper. How do I do that?

SCARLET

I have a young friend that works at Lowe's as a specialist in the flooring department. She is just a great girl! Well, she had a baby girl this summer. One day we were talking about sock monkeys and she told me she would like a red one for her baby. I really wish I had stitched eyes instead of using buttons.

More Girls

This is not a very good picture, but here are a few more Palo Verde Gals. I'm getting the itch to start climbing that tree and look for some good limbs for the girls.

My First Doll - Leslie's Birthday Doll

The first doll is hanging on the top right of the wardrobe. They have evolved through the years.

Palo Verde Gals

Dear Diary,

My sisters and my friend, Judy, have been encouraging me to post pictures of my art. These Palo Verde Gals seemed to be an appropriate start because they were the first Art I ever had published. They came out in the Spring 2005, Art Doll Quarterly - Show and Tell section.

The day I got the magazine and saw the dolls was the same day our Whirlpool front load washer and dryer were delivered. I hate to say this but my excitement over being published was pale in comparison to how I felt about my new washer and dryer. I remember feeling guilty because I should have been more excited about being a published artist but that new washer and dryer were incredible! Before it was taking me two days to finish the laundry and now it was only taking me one! I felt like I was in love for the first time. I now knew how my husband felt about his truck.

How the Gals came to be

Back in August in the early 2000's, I was trying to think of something to make for one of my incredibly talented friend's birthday. We have been friends for a real long time (since 1973!). Through the years she has given me so many wonderful, unique, gifts. If you have been to our home, you have seen her silkscreens hanging in almost every room. Well, Leslie was "into" primitive cloth dolls. With that in mind, I decided to make her one. Usually when I create something, I have a picture of it in my mind. The finished project never turns out like my imagined project. This is good and bad. I sent Leslie her birthday present and she loved it.

My sister, Sarah Ann saw it and she wanted one, then she told my other two sisters about them. Lucy wanted one since Sarah Ann and Leslie had one. I told her I wasn't going to make her one because she had never even seen one and might not like them. She said, "Well, if I don't like it I'll just stick it under the bed and pull it out when I have company and say, look what my sister made! Isn't it awful?" To make a long story shorter, I made a frenzy of dolls! I gave allot to friends, family, and even sold some at Two Plates Full, Southwest Gardner and a boutique in my home town. I have about twelve partially made at this moment. It has been too hot to climb the Palo Verde Tree so they don't have arms and legs. But I don't have that excuse now.

Science Project

What A Night! I have been working on my science project, I mean helping Ian with his project. Seriously, I really didn't have to do much (just proof read and edit). I thought we would both be up all night squalling and working, working and squalling, but, he finished it about 8:00 p.m. He built a Bohr model of the Silicon atom. Then he had to type a paper about it. He was assigned this project in October. He got the procrastination gene from me.

squall ¹ (skwôl)

n.

A loud, harsh cry.

intr.v. squalled, squall·ing, squalls

To scream or cry loudly and harshly.

Blog Block

Dear Diary,

Was so surprized (I like to spell it that way) to see comments on my blog already! It is great to have blog cheerleaders!

I have had Blog Block since Mike told me it was ready to go. Do you remember when you were young and got new shoes? That's how I have been - logging on to my blog, staring at it, admiring the pictures, and wondering where it will take me. ( Now I sound like Forrest Gump!) I'll post this then try to write another post. Maybe it gets easier.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Lisa

Welcome to the House of Hullabaloo!

Welcome to the House of Hullabaloo!

The stories and adventures of a southern gal!