My favorite artist is.........

Mother Nature .............what a wonderful color palette she uses!

Island of Misfit Toys..

I have always been drawn to things that are forlorn and tattered. Nothing makes my heart sing like a dolly with her face all cracked and faded, or a stuffed animal that might be missing some parts or has patches of stuffing hanging out. I try to give these little misfits a home to live in and a place where they will be loved no matter how they look. To me they are perfect just the way they are!
I thought I would share some of my favorite "misfits"

This little one creeps my kids out the most but she is my favorite, she has a face only a mother could love.....
This little sweet has lost the paint on her eyes but she still has her arms and legs.........

This little guy has lost his arms but he is just as cute as can be..

This poor bear has no eyes and many ragged holes, but doesn't he look well-loved?...

This doggie has to be in the worst shape of all but somewhere some child loved him to pieces!

Altering Time

Well, I finally finished up 5 of the clock pieces that I have been hard at work on! I have so much fun working with the wood clock cases, to me they are a perfect canvas on which to create. Luckily, I still have a few more to work with!

For this one, instead of creating something inside the opening, I added everything to the case itself. I loved the clock workings and added them to the front .
Love this poem!

I got to use one of my new tintypes that I bought a couple of weeks ago.

This one turned out to be one of my all-time favs. I think I will have to hold on to this one for awhile as it will be hard for me to let go! I love the case and the photo of these to sweet babies.

I wonder if these were fraternal twins or maybe they were not related at all.

I was able to use sea shell on this one, I just love digging thru my collection and picking the best ones to use.

I finally found a use for some of my old square nails, they kind of remind me of spokes on a ship's wheel.

This is another fav , plus it is a real working clock, i love using the old wheels too, this way time will keep rolling on....

yeah, more tintypes and a beautiful poem too...

This is the smallest of the cases, the carving on the wood is so pretty, I did not want to cover it too much.

What a perfect family in a perfect little home!

I'm a DeMenganite!

I had planned to spend all day yesterday on altering the clock cases I had been working on but after a quick trip to the book store, where I picked up Michael DeMeng's newest book, that did not happen! I spent most of the afternoon with this wonderful book and artist. First, I just went thru and looked at all the stunning photos, then I went back and read the book cover to cover and since I had such a great time laughing and learning, I went back and read it all over again!

Then of course, I had to go back and reread his first book "The Secret of Rusty Things" again. His work just inspires me so much and I just think he is one of the most amazing artists ever. How lucky we all are that he shares his creativity by writing these wonderful books.

I would so love to be a fly on the wall in his studio to watch him create but with my luck he would smack me with a flyswatter, paint me and liquid nail me to one of his creations.....lol.....

weekend finds

Well we finally had a beautiful weekend here in OH and I was able to do some flea marketing. I picked up a couple of old books, some vintage jewelry and these wonderful finds...

I found this old photo album full of tintypes, when I got it home and took all the photos out,I had this amazing collection of 100 tintypes!

I was also able to get this great collection of old clock cases, I can't wait to use these!!!

A recipe for Easter fun...

start with 188 plastic eggs filled with candy (I was able to fill them all without sampling the candy.....that is supreme will-power...lol..) gather up 5 kids(these are the gang that I babysit for)

and then let them go!! The bigs boys all gather together and run to the same area

this smart little cookie took off by herself and had her basket filled in no time!

closely inspect each egg to make sure they are plastic...

keep adding to your bucket..........

then gather around and beg to open up the eggs!!

I hope that you all will have a wonderful Easter holiday with your family and friends too!