Channeling Mother (or the dining room is finally put together)

I look so much like my mother did, that it sometimes scares me. I need to find and scan a picture of me, Mother, and Carson (who will hopefully be back to blogging soon!) when the three of us appear to be sisters.

Every once in a while, I do something that makes me think I am becoming more like her. Some days that is a good thing, and some days not. ;-) Today was a good day. Thanks to a book that Sarah blogged about, "The Big Ass Book of Crafts," I created some modern art for my dining room. I was fairly apprehensive about the end results, but I approached it with a positive attitude. Both of my daughters agreed that it turned out better that the one in the book.

I started with the colors from the rugs in the den and hallway. (Yes those are my toes that I failed to crop out.)



I proceeded to make a huge mess at the kitchen table, ue to the severe lack of a studio. In fact, Sweetheart said, "Oh my god," when he came in and I thought it meant he hated the painting.



Turns out he thought it was acceptable to go on the walls, and so did I. (Yes, my poor elephant teapot has a broken trunk and I don't seem to have any glue in the house.)



Then, I went to the antique store and spent under forty dollars for several items I found interesting, and hung them up on the other wall. I had the boomerang from an old antique store purchase more than ten years ago. The funky old key was from Mother's house when she made a similar arrangement (maybe even before I was born). The red item on the left is an old fashioned nutcracker. The miniature bowling pin is a prize from someone whose high score was 267. The vertical piece on the right is a wooden shoe size measurer. The horizontal piece on the bottom is a hand carved bat that was painted and appears to have been used at least a few times to play baseball by a child in Mexico.



My favorite item was purple glass that I found fascinating. There were several, and I had no idea what they were, but I loved this and had to have it. Turns out it is an antique buoy from the pre-plastic days. I was so glad that I picked it up not knowing. I may have to get more for the bedroom when I get ready to finish that up.



If I can manage some similar bursts of energy in future weekends, perhaps the house will be "finished" sometime this decade.