I was up until the wee hours this morning finishing my first batch of Halloween windows for ‘08.  Took them up to my shop in Sturtevant today along with a few other Halloween goodies.  Halloween in August?  I took the cue from one of my favorite haunts..Hobby Lobby who has their Halloween out in full force. For me it’s never too early for Halloween, I could make it and show it all year as I never get tired of the season of mischief with its spooks and goblins! The Lobby also has its Christmas out which I would not even look at as for me Christmas is a different when less is more concentration on the true meaning. The above  is a picture of just the beginning of my ween display.   

A great find from Indiana..a vintage McLoughlin game board with black cat images..how cool is that!  I am sure to regret that it is now available for sale in my shop at Sturtevant but alas..you can’t keep it all!

So tired..must sleep!    

Took my grandkids on a back to school shopping trip Wednesday.  Can’t believe it!  Hannah will be starting 5th grade and Emma kindergarten so off we went to get shoes and while the girls were trying some on the very nice sales lady made a reference to me being their mom..I of course said..I’m grandma not mom..she remarked I looked too young..thanks for making my day but then I know that I started young..20 when I had my first.. so I am a young grandma and I admittedly don’t dress age appropriate..no belly showing but I do still wear my torn jeans and wouldn’t be caught dead in a Christmas sweater…anyway we left the store got in the car and looked at my receipt and there it was..my first senior discount!!!  The young girl at the counter didn’t even ask she just gave it to me! I had to laugh at my temptation to go back in and give her back her $5.75..wait a senior minute here girlie don’t ya know…I’m 53.. my body may feel 63 but my insides are going on 40!

 I’ve been busy working on some Halloween windows for my shop in Sturtevant…which reminds me..Volume 2 of Somerset Studios Holidays and Celebrations will be out in just two weeks where one of my Santa windows will be featured. How cool is that for an unknown artist like myself!  Thanks Somerset! 

Stinky is finally coming around and playing with Chessie. She acts like she is igoring him but then wags her tail until he jumps on it…A girl kitty after my own heart..if you want a boys attention ignore him then tease him..works everytime!

Weekends sure fly when you’re out hunting up goobey /jubey.  That’s what I call the pieces and parts I buy that fortunately most people don’t look twice at.   The discovery of altered art has certainly changed my picking fingers to say the least….Goobey Jubey is what I now search for the most and on this trip I found some mint condition vintage suitcases to drag it all home in….sweet!

These vintage crow figures probably from a target shooting game were for me the find of the trip! My heart skipped a beat when I saw them in a case…I am now thinking Halloween assemblages.

Witch pez to make molds from.. Danny Duzit a scouring material that will make great halos and cat tails, dolls for more jarheads, spice tins for angel bodies, coin wrappers for ghost bodies and these cool porcelain insulators for I don’t know yet.

Hmmmmmm, I have material from a late 1800’s coverlet.. these might look good wrapped in coverlet pieces for a Santa body.  If my hands could only keep up with my ideas I’d be…..well I guess I don’t know how to finish that thought, probably just empty headed and that’s never good!

This suitcase haunted me before I got to the next row of booths at Coachman’s Antique Mall… I gave in right away as I knew I could not leave these stripes behind.  I will probably do a college collage, a-1930’s- raccoon -coat- theme using stripey.

And this little gem below I couldn’t wait to start so I did!  A vintage male torso store display  that I have already altered using a Ken doll head that I have had for some 20 years.  Kenhead was just sitting in a Ken doll case waiting for me to find his recycled purpose in life and now his time has come. Kenhead will be a part of what will turn out to be maybe my quirkiest work ever.  My version of Brawny the quicker girl picker up-er, all brawn no brain…you know the type, eye candy not much upstairs, a Boy Bimbo.  Because the boy species of bimbo is rarely acknowledged even though they exist in greater numbers than the female bimbo I decided to give them them their due, less they remain without recognition ;-)  I mean how unfair would that be..ha ha!  I get a kick out of poking fun at men..evil yes but forgiven.

As much as I loved shopping in Indiana it was good to get home to my sleeping Chessie and my Granddaughters art toes!

Look closely….Chessie got a new do.. a kitty fauxhawk..what can I say except a very hip cat.

Sorry I am still no better at posting the type and pic in a more professional way but I wasn’t born with the puter gene like my daughters generation…so  have patience with me as i would rather spend the time in my studio than reading wordpress for dummies right now! later!

Busy getting ready today so that I can leave for a weekend of shopping at some of my favorite Indiana antique haunts.  Chesteron and LaPorte have 4 of my all time favorite shops..can’t wait!  I will show and tell when I get back on Sunday…have a great weekend!

Today I went to work in my shop located within School Days Mall, Sturtevant Wisconsin. I have been in and out of that mall in different capacties since the late1990’s.  One thing has always remained the same, a top notch staff that takes care of all of the selling so that I can be out doing whatever. Works great for me. They also have a wonderful group of dealers there, I never leave without buying something very cool unless I am short on time.

This is Kathy, she is the manager of the mall and the main reason everything runs so well.

My shop entrance.

One of my window’s that I have used a transfer technique to apply pictures of vintage seed packets. The images are transparent.  I sell alot of these at Sturtevant.

I love this old road sign and I should have kept it having been born in 54 and turning the same in December.  Whoops too much information.

This is the display of the pottery that I pictured yesterday. I love displaying the items as much as buying them. I don’t think I will ever be cured of the antique bug that I’ve had for the past 25 years. I have always had an appreciation for old things even before I knew anything about them.

One of my floral windows. The first type of item that I made and actually sold.  I am pretty much done with these..moved on to assemblages for now.

Cool 1950’s totem pole that I bought an estate sale. Could have kept this too but if you could see my back yard…no place left to put it, obsessive compulsive about yard goodies I am.

Here is my bird house now in my shop. Didn’t have any luck on ebay this time around, you just never know….

End of booth tour I am now going to publish this and with any luck it will look presentable. My internet mentor Judi has been tutoring me on making my blog look better..I tried Judi..but you are probably still going to want to tweek this!  She is too good!

This is what I found when I broke my one day a week graj sale rule, the rule for me that was only made to be broken. I met a very nice lady that was selling some of her mother’s things as she could not keep them all. They will have good homes I assure you as I am taking this load up to Sturtevant tommorrow and the pottery collectors will love to have them.  I not only broke my rule once but twice last week as I went to a few sales on Saturday too…that is where the cool phone came from.  It’s adapted so that it can be used it on todays phone jacks..very cool but I don’t keep many collectibles for myself these days due to my new obsession, collecting art supplies and collage embellishments. The staff at Hobby Lobby know me by name now.  I should own part of the company.  

This is a picture of Stinkerbell, real name Tinkerbell, but I renamed her, I am sure you can figure out why. She has been very upset about the arrival of Chessie and no matter how many times I try to explain to her that I got him so she wouldn’t have to be an only kitty she wants nothing to do with him, hissing at him if he even looks at her. When Chessie grows up to be a handsome young man maybe she will get over it but I doubt it.  She’s making it very clear that she has been misunderstood. She liked being the only kitty.  She is very independant…alot like her mom.

And now it is the end of another day of good creative intentions. I spent half of the day today finishing my technicle article that will appear in Somerset Gallery December 2008,  and sent it off to Editor Jennifer Jackson.   I guess that counts as doing something creative but my Kitty Went To Heaven project, a tribute to Boscoe is still sitting on my work table begging to be finished.  Tomorrow for sure but wait I have to go to Sturtevant, ok then Wednesday will be work all day in my studio day, for sure…… well hopefully.

My granddog Hannalise posing on her raft

Are there any of you in the near vacinity? Those with a passion for altering anything they can get their hands on….with a love for scouring fleas for the perfect embellishments while 100’s of ideas roll around in your head? Do you anxiously await every issue of Somerset Studio, Cloth Paper, Scissors or  Altered Arts Magazine?  Do you dream of being the next Claudine Hellmuth or Tim Holtz…or am I really all alone in my altered world here in Lake Villa Illinois?

I did meet a lady last Sunday at the Grayslake Antique show that was selling items just for mixed media artists so the trend must finally be catching on here. I would love to form a group to meet with say once a month for swaps, technique sharing…. maybe even organize our own shows.  Please email me if you are interested! Dancing altered alone…fun… dancing altered with friends… priceless. 

Thursday is the only day I allow myself to graj sale. With a graj and studio overflowing with…hey this would make a great substrate or I could do this with this stuff, I am on restriction.  Anyway I excitedly went on my way to some carefully picked sales when I just couldn’t help myself.  I broke my other rule of no cold sale stops and followed several signs into an interesting neighborhood.  The graj was open with pennant signs flying everywhere. I got out of my car and heard the lady yell…no early birds!  I don’t open until 9:00. It was 8:20. How rude I thought, keep your old worms!   I wasn’t intentionally an early bird.  I hadn’t read her add only followed her bread crumbs.  Seems only reasonable to me that If you really don’t want early birds then don’t put your signs out or open your graj until you are open.  It also just goes to show that my book on graj sale etiquette and pricing needs to be written!  I mentally (not really) took her signs down and immediately felt better, ( I’m not perfect just forgiven) until I got to the sale that I intended to go to first and saw a dealer hauling away what I coulda - woulda bought.  Just goes to show sometimes the early bird gets the worm and sometimes they just have to go to sales on Fridays too.