This Week's ABAA challenge & A Couple of Projects

When the breeze coming off the ocean begins to warm up along with the water temperature we tend to declare beach days more often. I have to start to factor that into the time it takes to get a project done. Cuz you can bet that there isn't much that interferes with a declared beach day ;)

Linda and Rosie's Awfully Big Art Adventure challenge this week was to alter cutlery. I had 2 matching spoons I picked up at The junk store so I got to playing around with them. The only other time I've played around with altering spoons was last Christmas when I bent and glittered up a couple for stocking stuffers.

Now if you want to see what kind of magic can be done with altered cutlery take a look at one of my closest bloglandian galfriend Laurie at Laurie's Charming Designs creations. Hers are just plane ol amazingly beautiful. Okay so I thought maybe since the bowl on these spoons was nice and round, without much lift on the edges, they might work for sconces. :) I'm still not to sure what kind of metal they are made of but it's not the usual suspects. Because the stem (I guess that's as good a name as any) was thick brittle I slowly bent the first spoon into a 90% angle hoping it wouldn't break. With that accomplished I went to work on the second spoon. I got that one bent to about 45% before I felt it come apart :( There was no stress cracks warning just one sec. a spoon the next, 2 brittle pieces of a spoon. Huh so much for a matching set of sconces. I have been having so much fun wire wrapping since I made my domino necklace I'll wrap anything that holds still long enough :)

The upper half of the spoon has a bit of decoration on it so I dug out my wire, & some light blue and brown glass beads to wrap a bit.

I couldn't find any little metal picture hangers in LWs work bench so I bent a paperclip to solder on the spoon. HA stumbling block #2. What ever these spoons are made of the solder wasn't going to bind with. :( Never fear E6000 is in the house!!

The bowl is nice and round remember and the perfect size to hold a tea light. Stumble #3 I'm sure somewhere in Mazatlan there is a store that sells tea lights however I have yet to find it. Not to worry I can over come this I used a little clear glass salt bowl that I stuck to the spoon with a blob of TAK (removable stickum) Then I had a few little pink heart candles I shaved down to fit in the bowl WAAAA LAAA a sconce. :)

Since I only had one I hung it on the wall with two little wire hearts I made. :) Doesn't look half bad actually. I made the hearts out of coat hangers but they had been coated with blue paint to prevent rusting. It just wasn't the feel I was going for so I wrapped them with strips of cheese cloth. Did a bit more wire wrapping on the smaller heart :) and wrapped a bit of silk ivy (Ivy doesn't grow here) on the larger one.

Hung a couple of glass heart. Say do you think it's rather noticeable that I've got a small obsession going with hearts?? Na of course not. :) I know when you look at the picture it looks like the spoon is the size of a baby spoon but on wall with no distortions the proportions fit each other.

Next project was a bit of a Birthday card for Larry's youngest daughter in law, Diah. She is Greg's (the youngest child) new bride :) Diah is Indonesian and she and Greg met, and married in Guam. We have yet to meet her or more precisely she has not met us yet. So I don't know just where her "junk a meter" tolerance level is. I made a little vintage card that she can hang if she likes until the humidity and salt disintegrate it. Yes I know that paper isn't the best medium to work in given those conditions, But if I keep the card light and use nothing but paper to make it I we can mail it through our courier service. That way I don't have to scrounge up a Mule to mail it from the US. Or even worse yet it pay the United Postal Service shipping rates for non paper material to the tune of $40 (US) Grrrrrrr!!

Whew the last project was an apron I made for myself from the same pattern I used the other day. Which by the way I can now tell you was actually my "Just Because" gift to LuLu at Coastal Sisters. She was the second comment on the Just Because round robin giveaway. Oh yeah back to my apron, sorry no tassels or rhinestones just a nice soft piece of rayon.

But I did-- (MIKE C are you listening ??) piece a vintage tatted doily in the front neckline. The doily has a center flower that looks like the ones in the material. My very special friends Mike and Kell gave me some wonderful pieces from their linen collection for my birthday :) I've been looking for a way to use some in my sewing. Vintage tatting is very difficult to find here. The cotton threads are so fragile and can't hold up to the heat,salt and humidity long enough to grow old enough to be vintage :(

Okay Gang time to wake up if I managed to talk you to sleep. For me it's kinda interesting to put down the details it takes to accomplish things here. Every single day here LW and I learn something new. Every single day is a new adventure, and with every new adventure we validate our belief that one culture or country is not better or worse, right or wrong then another they are just DIFFERENT :)

Have a most audacious day or evening my Bloglandian friends depending on where in the world you are ;)