Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Pumpkinella -- Wild Thing of the Pumpkin Patch


Pumpkinella was the Wild Thing of the Pumpkin Patch.  



Nights, she'd string together a boa of leaves, wrap it around her neck a few times, and take off for an evening of drinking, dancing, and driving the farm cart fast.




Her name was legendary among pumpkin patches near and far,
 and many a pumpkin in distant lands longed to spend just one night
with the vivacious hard-living Pumpkinella.

Then, one fine fall day, a car pulled up beside the pumpkin patch, disgorging what appeared to be an army of small children.  
Each had a quest: 
to choose the perfect pumpkin to carve for Halloween.




And what could be more perfect...
than Pumpkinella?
She was chosen quickly, unceremoniously
dumped in a wagon, and hauled to the
checkout where here measurements
were taken and she was sold for a handful
of coins.


The other pumpkins wept.




That night Pumpkinella underwent a ritual endured
by so many of her sisters before her.
Her brains were scooped out, dumped on baking sheet,
and toasted.

Lips that were once the finest in Pumpkin History 
were re-carved into a crooked grin.
Her eyes, once long-lashed and outlined
in vegan organic eyeliner
were now defined by the blade of a pumpkin carving set.


A candle was placed where her brain once resided.
Pumpkinella was Pumpkinella no more, merely a front
porch jacqueline o' lantern.


But when the festivals were over, and Pumpkinella
was tossed in the compost heap, a few seeds who
has been missed in the mass scooping trickled out...
to make new Pumpkinellas who would dance and drink and sing once again.

Pumpkinella can be found on etsy.

Monday, July 30, 2012

In the Garden of the Blue Maneki Nekos

A maneki neko in front of a business is said to beckon business with its left paw upraised.


And one in a home is said to beckon wealth with an upraised right paw.  


Photo by Ryan McD


But a maneki neko in the garden brings a different kind of wealth --- 





Flowers that bloom in abundance, seeds that fall to the ground and multiply into fields of blossoms...






...nests where baby birds flourish, feeding on the flora and fauna growing around them.



Photo by Jonathan Zander


And when you think about wealth, isn't that what it's all about?

A maneki neko bouquet can be found on etsy.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Soup's On... or a Soupcon of Beadery

Welcome to my stop for the 6th Bead Soup Blog Hop Party.  My partner, the lovely and talented Dyanne Everett-Cantrell, sent me my "soup" ~ a focal bead, a clasp, and some goodies to go in between. (You can find Dyanne's blog here.)  My task was to create using the elements she gave me.



To be perfectly honest... I was stumped.  For one thing, I've never worked with a clasp this large.  I usually make bracelets and pendants and earrings and charms... and didn't think it would work for those... which left me in the Wide Wide World of Necklaces.

Dyanne recently started lampworking and made the focal bead herself.  In fact, it was her first focal ever.  I wanted to do it justice.

Its shape and colors seemed very Salvador Dali-esque to me, and for a while, I thought that's how I would go.



But how else would I evoke Dali?  I found some cool mustaches on etsy, but they were shipping from Israel and I, of course, had agreed to ANY REVEAL DATE AT ALL... meaning today -- the first reveal date.


So it was back to the Bead Cave...


...where I panicked.


(In the Bead Cave, no one can hear you scream.)

I needed to make something eclectic, something not-too-symmetrical, something that made me try new things but was still me, so I thought I would make a triple-strand necklace.

That probably sounds like a no-brainer to many beaders, but I'm a wire wrapper.  I am crimp bead challenged.  I failed jump rings 101.  I'm not a pretty-things kind of jewelry designer.  And I rarely plan ahead.  I have a story in my head and then I jump in and start making.

So I thought and I thought and I thought.  


I dipped into my stash of aventurine and ordered some cool Swarovski crystals.




And then I started.  Three separate strands, each different and unique, all blending together.  Here's what emerged.


A strand of aventurine and seed beads...




...a strand with the green lampwork beads and sterling chain and the aforementioned Swarovski crystals...




...and a wildly eclectic strand...

 

...with the focal bead at its center.





Put 'em together and what have you got?  




A little chaos...




... followed by order...


... followed by matching earrings.



 I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my silver beads and talking charms.  An anklet!  I would...








... and wish that I hadn't dropped the last bead...


...only to have the cat run off with it...


...and drop it down the floor heater.

Remember that part where I said I didn't plan?  Well... even without that last bead, and even if my ankles were half their size, I was going to need more inspirational talking charms and some more of those silver beads.



Back to the Bead Cave for me.

But for you... get on the Blog Hop Train (AKA The Bead Soup Blog Party) and see what other beady delights await!








Buggy Thoughts





If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.  ~American Quaker Saying


Nothing seems to please a fly so much as to be taken for a currant; and if it can be baked in a cake and palmed off on the unwary, it dies happy.  ~Mark Twain
 


We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.  ~Bill Vaughan


When the bee comes to your house, let her have beer; you may want to visit the bee's house some day.  ~Congo Proverb



The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
~Alexander Pope


Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?  ~Author Unknown



Cockroaches really put my "all creatures great and small" creed to the test.  ~Terri Guillemets


Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today.
~Ogden Nash


The mosquito is the state bird of New Jersey.  ~Andy Warhol


Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing.
~Christina Georgina Rossetti



Plenty of beaded critters
Charmed Jewelry for Every Whim at http://stores.ebay.com/Cornerstoregoddess
More jewelry goodies for you at http://cornerstoregoddess.etsy.com

Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Frog, a Stick, and a Whole Lot of Ladybugs


by jack prelutsky





A frog, a stick



a shell, a stone


a paper clip,
a chicken bone.



a feather quill


a piece of string
a lady bug,


a beetle wing
a greenish wad
of bubble gum

 

assorted keys
and cookie crumbs.


a maple leaf,
a candy bar,
a rubber band
a model car.
potato chips,



and soggy fries
plus something
i can't recognize.


a broken watch
a plastic cow...


that's what's inside
my pockets now.


ladybugs, feathers, and a whole lot more