More Diversions

Painted Telephone

It isn't safe for any solid colored item to sit around here too long as I am likely to throw some color or design on it. The new white telephone hung on the kitchen wall but a few days when I decided it needed a bit of color. A base of acrylic colors was applied and then I drew on this base with Opaque marking pens, and Sanford waterproof pens. A coat of acrylic medium, which dries clear, was applied to keep the design from scratching.

Crack Repair

Older homes are prone to acquire cracks as the foundations shifts over the years. Ours is no exception. Rather than hire a contractor with the associated mess. I used the crack as an opportunity to paint a vine on the wall to disguise it.

Crack Repair II

Another crack at the corner of the door gets the same treatment.

Wine Label Box

What do you do with the pile of wine labels you have soaked off of wine bottles over the years? Ihave pasted them on wall over doors and unside cupboards. This time I pasted them on a wooden box That Lyle had made and then put wheels underneath. The result: a nice mobile stand. of course with a clear actylic coat on top to limit the wear on the labels.

Gecko Sculpture

I always liked that Geico commercial with the gecko. with an aluminum wire armature and a paper maché body and that was needed was a skin of bright paint!

Plastic Swimsuit Forms

The clear plastic forms used for display of swimsuits seemed a challenge to decorate for the garden fence. I painted the swimsuit in place on the under side and then sprayed the whole underside with silver spray paint.

Blue Burlap Window Dressing

These are simple enough to make. I have had one of these covering the large window on our front door for decades. you begin by carefully cutting out and removing threads of the weft and then tying together bundles of the warp to create the design you wish.

In the 1980's it was Centennial time for the small town of Claremont, South Dakota. It has a population under 200 people. Folks from the surrounding towns participated to help make this a success.

My brother, Floyd, decided to put together a small float to honor the small Bank of Houghton, which had gone bankrupt in the early 1930's. The old bank building still stands on the Main St. of Houghton. It has passed through several owners over these many years but never saw life again as a bank. It is now used as the Post Office. Floyd loaded a flatbed trailer with a small chicken house from an abandoned farm and pulled it into the yard to have a paint job. The fellows nailed the flat facade to the front of the building to mimic that of the bank building and gave it a coat of paint.

Since I was there visiting at the time, I got to do the fun part. Lettering the front and painting in the appropriate doors so it resembled the old bank, in a very rustic fashion. After all, we were dealing with an old chicken house. One of the windows became the "Drive Up Window" . After my job was finished, the men sawed an eight-foot branch off a nearby cottonwood tree, crammed it into a window on the right side of the building, and hung a sign from it reading "Claremont Branch". These people learned a long time ago how to make their own fun and give others a smile.

The American Legion group led the 100-float parade with a patriotic display of the flag. A High School band blasted a wide path down the street. The local farm implement sales business made sure their finest tractors were pulling a piece of the latest in farm equipment. Local residents and farmers showed their antique cars, fire engines and tractors. Some just showed off their newest tractor. Local 4-H groups gathered aboard decorated flatbed trailers pulled by tractors. There are still horses around and those who had them rode or led them down the street, sometimes in working harness pulling old farm wagons. Local church groups sold food from booths set up along the parade route.

Claremont was given an energy infusion that day and is now twenty years into its second one-hundred years. I admire the ability and resourcefulness of the people in these small communities to cooperate and make their own fun.

Wooden Tray

This little tray was discovered at a thrift store. It was well-made and had wooden round door handles for feet. A bit of sanding and some new bright paint and it now has a new life. Sold

Door Collage Seed Catalogs

I suppose a lot of you have been thumbing through the spring and summer seed catalogs that arrive in abundance. The seed companies seem to have separate catalogs for each season, and also separate catalogs for vegetables, roses, perennials and annuals. We can order seeds or plants already rooted and anxious to explode in color, just for us.

But wait! Take a look at those catalogs. Those flower photographs are quite colorful. I had been throwing out the catalogs each season until my sister told me she had cut them up and papered the lower portion of her bathroom wall. That idea was too good not to borrow and modify, and that's what I did.

Certainly the interior side of the door going from our kitchen to the adjoining garage looked fine, but the other side was plain paint. It was a good place to do my version of seed catalog craziness.

I saved all the flower catalogs for a few months and even sent away for a couple of Iris catalogs to get a wider variety of flowers. Each picture was cut square on the paper cutter and I used a diluted solution of Elmer's Glue and water to stick them on to the door surface. A small roller squeezed out excess glue and make the pictures flat.