Our Lady of Guadalupe

Growing up in New Mexico and being around a very religious culture, I’ve always been drawn to the images of Saints and the retablo’s that you find throughout New Mexico.

I love the style of these images where they look old and weathered and are made in funky old frames and boxes of reused items.   

So, I decided to make my own religious item using the patron saint of Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is also the Patron Saint of the Americas, for all favors in sickness, all evil and War.

 I took and old board cut it to size, 

painted some beautiful turquoise blue on it, 

 cut out my pattern with my handy dandy plasma cutter 

and held it there with some rust painted tacks.

A humble adobe structure The Santuario de Guadalupe is located in Santa Fe and was built by Franciscan missionaries between 1776 and 1795, this is the oldest shrine in the United States honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Mother's Day has winded down and all the kids have gone home.  Had a lovely breakfast made by all my boys, not just for me but all the Mother's in our family.  It was a crazy, hectic kitchen indeed.  I just sat back and watched.  I was very thankful I didn't have to clean up today!

Although I wasn't with my Mom she was of course in my thoughts. I painted her a picture of a little corner window at her house, flanked by the biggest old apricot tree I have ever seen. 

Mom, I love you and I hope your day was as beautiful as you are!

Here's a little walk down memory lane

 

Wow, Mom don't you wish we had these days back!

 

Blue Heron ~ Osprey ~ No Fish

We headed up to Willow Springs Lake this weekend ~ finally getting the fishing boat out of the garage.  What a beautiful day it was.   No Chores, No Phones, No Crowds just soft breezes, brisk air and sparkling water and the promise of catching some fish.

 Spotted this lovely Great Blue Heron ~ I think he had better luck fishing then we did.

 Then the Osprey ~ scouting for when we actually caught something he could swoop down and snag an easy dinner.  To his dismay that never happened.

Local River Otter scouting for Fish

Me & River Otter Giving up on the The Fish That Got Away

 $80 for Fishing License's

$60 for Diesel Gas

$30 for Lunch

$20 for Umbrella

Time Together Alone ~ Fresh Air ~ Beautiful Scenery ~ No Fish

Priceless

Easter Design - Not just for Eggs

How about these for Easter Decorations!  

I finished the other barrel, added a few little "stars" and was totally entranced by the shadows that these cutouts produce.  Junk is beautiful!

 I see shadows a lot these days, in fact when I'm on walks or driving I always look for the shadows, sometime they are more beautiful then the object itself. 

I hope you all had a lovely Easter - I miss the days when I used to get a bunny or baby chick for Easter.   

How come I don't get one of those anymore?  

Here's a few more shadows to share with you.  

This is the Easter Bunny of Lochness!!!

Resurrected & ReBorn Morrocan Inspired Barrel

Finally!  

 This barrel has been REBORN

I've got one barrel done, another waiting in the wings.  It took me awhile to make some stencils, decide on how I wanted it to look and get the time to play again.  I honestly don't put a lot of time into thinking of design, layout, etc.  I may wait awhile to do something because I just don't feel it at the time, but I'm just not a big planner.  Sometimes that to my benefit, sometimes not.  I kept this fairly simple and I'm likin' it. 

I had orginally thought of using these as lights in corners of my garden, but after seeing this barrel and the possibilities of what I can do with it I may transform it into something much larger.  I'm thinking  if the two barrels were side by side with a steel table on top, it could be the front of really cool bar/table, or a display table for all my plants.  I'll be thinking on that one for a while.

If you have any ideas - Please do share! 

InSulaTors ~ What do you do with Them?

I've been Spring Cleaning getting rid of stuff I've grown bored of looking at ~ it's really so I can go find more treasured junk, but truly I'm just purging a little.  Anyway, I had all these old InSulaTors in my window sill that I've collected for a long time, but you couldn't really see them.

Can you see them?  Exactly my point!

Since I love glass and colorful bottles, which are all thru my house I just had to figure out how to showcase these beauties....sooo here's what I did.

I gather some old wire, old beads and crystals

and I twisted and beaded and pulled all those items together in crazy designs, nothing is every thought out with me I just jump into it.  If I was a jewelry maker I'm sure I could of rocked these out, but I like Funky, Organic and Whimsical designs.  So after twisting, and twisting and twisting things

Here's how my window looks now!

Whalla, TaDa, Viola

(those are weird words)

Can you see them NOW?

I'm really aspiring to do this

This Beauty makes me Weep

I've been struggling with life these days, feeling overwhelmed and underwhelmed.  Creativity is eluding me and avoiding me.  I looked at my biorhythym and it was spot on - my emotional state had bottomed out.

I do this when I don't have a carrot hanging in front of me to chase and the world seems bleak.  Now I'm not trying to make you guys depressed, but sometimes we all have our ups and downs, right?  We all struggle with our reasons for being here, for getting up and the way the world has felt lately it has been more difficult for many.  So we take it day by day and hope that tomorrow will be better.

Then, this beauty is mine for the day - and she does make me weep every time I see her ~ because of her beauty and innocence and she reminds me of when my son looked just like her. 

 My son always laughs at my weeping saying... "Mom, are you ever going to stop crying when you see her?"  I say, probably not, because in my heart she embodies the beauty that nothing else can compare to, she reminds me of when I was a new Mom relishing in a love I could never have imagined could be.  Life is a constant transition and I have to go with that and adjust.  I saw this poem somewhere and perhaps that's the trick.....

Live to the point of tears.

Life is not a Path of Coincidence Happenstance & Luck

But rather an Unexplainable meticulously Chartered course

For one to touch the lives of others and make a difference in the world.

Live to the point of tears.

Junked Steel - My Drug of Choice

I'm addicted - I have a problem - I need to go to rehab!

I'm a Junky

If it's steel it calls me from all corners of the junk pile - it sends out just a little shine to catch my eye.

 It starts out weathered, dirty, old, but with that beautiful rust I love, but then I go crazy and take it off.

THE RUST!!! What did you think??

Then it gets the bottom cut off of it and gets all polished (I hate that part), and 

gets a cool design welded on it - just for fun.

It gets a paint job and a truck hitch welded on for hanging

Then I hang it in the tree right next to the neighbors' bedroom and when the wind blows it goes 

BONG, BONG, BONG

really loud!!!!!  hee  hee

My BAD!