Tie-Dyed: Peace, Love and Rock 'n Roll Guitars

Love it...just love it to pieces.

First time we've done tie-dyed looking stars 

with our guitars and I'm just crazy about it.

Fun Mom to work with and she had great ideas.

Feeling of Flying

Stacey and I took "the gang" roller skating for 

a birthday celebration for Ryan.

I'm of the age I had to think....mmmm...aren't you

gettin' a little old to be roller skating???

Obviously Stacey isn't.  Here she is with that

Feeling of Flying.  I captured this moment of her as she 

swung around a curve on the rink.

I remembered that feeling of flying.

That's why I put the skates on.

Uhhh...half way around on my first pass I was

on my butt. Jake slid by and said...Grandma,

you okay? I was.  I fell on my pride.

But I gotta tell you.....a few more passes around and

 I got the Feeling of Flyin'....it was worth it.

Foamcore layered PARTY NAMES in silver and white

White on silver or silver on white?

I like both combinations.

I think I like the white on silver best.

What I really like is that big swashy "N".

Each cut-out name we make seems to have

it's own personality.

"Nyree" is in a font called "Feel".

"Taylor" is in a font called "Honey Script Semi-Bold"

Funky Shopping Fashion Girls for Party Centerpieces

I saw these funky little shopper girls at TJ MAXX.

They were made of metal and about 14" high and only $13.

I loved their attitude.

I didn't buy them but I thought....mmmmm....how cute 

they would be if they were about 24" or more and made

with foamcore and glitter....maybe even some real

fabric.  Yup...that's what I thought.

I'm keeping them in mind.

Here's a couple of ones we did that fall in that

"funky" fun category of fashion shopping girls.

PARTY IDEA: Snowy Faux Winter Walls

I'm always on the lookout for party ideas.

These snowy winter walls in J.Crew's window

in the Mall stopped me right in my tracks.

 

Look how big this wall is compared to the mannequins.

It was about 12 ft. high by about 16 ft wide.

What a simple and inexpensive idea for a 

big impact.

I can see snowflake placecards stuck in the

crevices. I can see party giveaways on the

shelves.

Paper and a staple gun and a support frame

behind it...maybe wood...maybe just foamcore.

The side view shows just how easy it was.

These other walls were carved and painted 

styrofoam.  There were deeply carved and coated with special

foam coating that made it very hard to the touch. I had

to touch them and look at the wood frame on 

the back side. It was very "stage-scenery" like.

I could see chair lift tickets strung on

a big rope draped on it.

Such different materials for each one but such 

versatile ideas for hardly any material cost. 

They both certainly made me stop & look.

Creative Christmas Trees: Paris, Fish and Feathers

Here's the last of my favorites from 

the Festival of Trees.

I can make this flower.

I know I can.

It would make a great base

for a centerpiece....

especially with some lights.

I really liked this Paris tree.

It had everything you could think of that

reminded you of Paris.

 

If you didn't already "get it", the

words were spelled right out.

This feathery tree was snowy

and elegant.

But my favorite was this one.

I can stop thinking about how

they were made.

It really knocked me out.

I don't have a fish themed party

right now...but when I do....

watch out.

 

Creative Christmas Trees: Fun for Kids

More Christmas trees from the Festival of Trees in Allen Park, Michigan.

Since this blog post is all about the cutest trees with a kid theme, who better than Snoopy to be a tree topper.

This one surprised me with a really big (and probably heavy)

doll stuck into the tree right near the top. It also had other toys like the football you can see on the left, but the doll is what caught my eye.

This one was crammed to the max with Christmas books of all sizes. What impressed me the most was the attention to the details. The pages had little corners turned over and even though it appears very full, it was artfully arranged right down to the books under the tree as well. See... it even won a ribbon. My picture doesn't do it justice. It really made you stop and look and appreciate the time and patience that went into it.

  

Okay...this one just killed me. It was over the top wild and crazy. I'm not sure I'd want it in my house but it did make me smile. It also won an award. I guess it should have won an award just for the audacity of it. You have to realize how BIG this was. That lavender guy was about 10' long. If he was real, he probably could eat a little kid....so much for being "kid friendly"!

Creative Christmas Trees: Vintage Movies

Talk about a centerpiece placed on top of a tree....this is one. All it needs is a base to sit flat on the table and ...viola! 

This tree was loaded with vintage movies.  Okay...so now THAT could be the table name for the guests to find their seats.

Creative Christmas Trees: Money Tree

This was by far the most expensive tree at the Festival of Trees in Allen Park, Michigan.

It wasn't the most creative...but it was very eye catching to be sure. It was in a large plexiglass box about 10' high. (Of course, with all that money on it!)  I think it had $1,000 on it. It was part of the raffle.

I have some of those spirals. I bought them at the Dollar Store.

I thought they would be great in a centerpiece.

The tree toppers on all these trees really were "centerpieces" in themselves.

On most trees they were the most spectacular part. I've got more pictures of these tree top centerpieces coming. Stay tuned.

No Drug Deals Allowed

So I'm passing thru Detroit on my way to Allen Park's Festival of Trees.

 (I'll soon be posting some beautiful and creative Christmas tree designs I saw 

but FIRST...I must share this picture.)

It made me do a double-take.

First, because I don't get to see signs like this in our lovely Wolverine Lake. 

(not that we might not have a drug dealer or two hidden somewhere...

...but 2 would hardly warrant a sign.)

Second, because it made me laugh out loud.

Really...do you think this sign would stop a drug deal?? Really? (as Seth and Amy would say on SNL) Do you think "signs" run off drug dealers?

Well, maybe if a Police Officer was standing right next to it.

FACEBOOK Fan page for Marlyss & Stacey

For those that are on Facebook:

Stop In and visit us.

Become a Fan.

Leave a message or just look around.

I think Facebook is fun. It's like all the other social media pages. 

Once you get use to it, you're hooked.

There's going to be a point where my butt just grows into 

my office chair. I've heard that really happens so I get up every

once and awhile and walk around. But I keep coming right back.

Gotta check that email you know.

(By the way...if you are on Facebook and want a longer profile picture like this one, you can upload a bigger one that is exactly 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels long. It has to be exactly that. I know first hand because my first one was 200 x 612 and it wouldn't work.)

Big oversized hair curlers

I've always loved this picture. Big things are just plain fun, aren't they?

They make us smile or laugh. Maybe because they are so outrageous?

Could you just see 3 big rollers in her head...one on each side and one in the back.

What would really be funny is to see her try and sleep with them in!

Ok....I have a weird sense of humor.

Here's what we really did with the rollers....make a centerpiece.

But first we had the chance to have a great photo opportunity.

Life is good.

Old person in a drawer

  Yup...it's true. I have a head in a drawer.

It's big. It's life size.

It took a whole lot of cernit clay to make this head and it isn't even done.

I had a vision.

It was going to be a life sized cleaning lady. I was going to have her holding my vacuum which always seems to be out...never put away...because something ALWAYS needs to be vacuumed around here.  (I think it has something to do with the glitter and all the packing material that gets tracked around here....maybe I can blame the cat?)

Anyway...she quietly resides in a big deep drawer in my laundry room. I look at her every once in awhile and sigh.  I call her a she...but "she" looks like she could be a he too. Maybe he/she could sit on my couch reading a paper. If It ever has a body!

Well..I plan to finish it...yes I do....yes...really.

Curb Appeal

Sometimes I wonder about things.

Like why you would have 2 fences on the front street side of your house?

One of them a big not-so-pretty stockade fence.

Spooky but real.

If this was a backyard fence blocking your view of a big garbage dump or something like that...well, I would get that.  But on the front side of your house when you don't have a bad view?  Makes me curious. Are you keeping something in or something out?

This is a house on a street nearby with nice homes nearby. Gosh...I'm so glad it's not right next door to me. I'd want to bring cookies over or something.

Every time I see it, I wonder.

I could make up a great story about it and tell it around a campfire in the dark. My story might be more interesting than the real thing...but maybe not.

Dance Centerpieces in lime and turquoise

Here's some fun and funky and colorful dance centerpieces.

There are 3 layers here. The middle layer and a dancer on both sides.

I love these fun colors but then I always love anything with lime green!

Turquoise is tricky lately. It seems that Krylon and some other companies are not making a true turquoise anymore. What's up with that. I still like turquoise....come on....bring it back. We had to have some special paint mixed up to get our old favorite shade of turquoise.

I like these dancers though. They almost look like they are moving in front of your eyes.

UPDATE: (March 19, 2010)

Here's a couple of new pictures of dance centerpieces from 2
separate parties. Each had a dance focus but in different color schemes.

At one party we had the name of the party person on it.

 

At another party we alternated the word "Dance" with

the party persons name.

Jerusalem Wall/Pink Floyd Wall

Here's a collection of "WALLS" we've done.

The top one is a Jewish themed centerpiece....the front side and the reverse side with the wall and the camel. Each foamcore brick was separately cut out and painted and then applied on the reverse side. I love the variegated colors.

The big middle swash of wall is a closeup of the bottom picture. It was an 4ft. x 8ft. wall that was used to leave message in. It replaced a traditional Sign In Board at a Bar Mitzvah. We used real cardboard boxes for that.

We took boxes with a hinged lid and sprayed them. Then we mounted them on a 4ft. x 8ft. piece of foamcore and put supports on the back to make it free standing. People could write a message and put it into the cracks in the wall between the stones. When they did that, it actually went inside the box. Later the messages were removed by opening the boxes.

The gray wall from was the Pink Floyd album. Again they were individually cut out bricks mounted to another layer of foamcore after they had each been sprayed a variation of gray. This was a Sign In Board and you could write on it anywhere...on any of the bricks. Thanks Ina for suggesting this

 cool idea that we could run with! We really enjoyed working on this Sign In Board.

Bricks and walls and stones make foamcore look like something it isn't.  How fun is that!

Art Fair Favorites

Here are some of the things I liked the best at the Great Lakes Art Fair.

Of course, I liked this. It has foamcore in it. How could I not!

What a creative use for strips of black foamcore. I could even see this as a party centerpiece with photos of the party family in the cubes.

I have a whole big bag of gourds in my garage that I wanted to do something just like this with.

This lady put a cute little animal inside them but I wanted to put woodland fairy creatures inside.

Maybe someday I'll get to carve into those gourds. In the meantime I'm not letting loose of them because I've got a plan.

I adore this ladies purses.

I don't ever carry a purse though.

I use zipper pockets in my clothing instead.

But I admire these at every Art Fair I go to.

She's at a bunch of them and I'll bet she does very well because they are gorgeous.

These life maps were so unique.

Who wouldn't feel very special if someone took so much time to create this extremely personalized gift. I was impressed.

Yard Art.

Yes, I own a piece or two of Yard Art.

I have a grandson who is intrigued by the idea of welding things together. Although he is only 12, I see some welding tools in his future. Not for working though. For creating stuff.  And then I can have more Yard Art and more things to hang on my wall. I like that idea.

This bookseller had the best booth in the place.

It was fairy enchantment. So, of course, I was drawn right in.

And, of course, I bought his book "Thistledom". He extracted it right from this nook in the tree.

I am enchanted.

I love Art Fairs.

Great Lakes Art Fair foam trim signs

Who goes to an Art Fair and takes pictures of the Art Fair signs? Me! I loved them.

I guess I may have loved them partly because they had glitter on them and were painted a bright yellow. I've always loved yellow.

Or, maybe I loved them because they used styrofoam moulding...just like the stuff I used around my ceiling.

I had some fun with that stuff. I got it locally at a place called Gingerbread Trim.

It was soooooo much less expensive than real wood and so darn easy to use.

Look how easy it was for the folks that made these signs to attach the sign on the back. Straight pins...no nails needed here.

Here's my moulding.

I even did the frame around the mirror in a different kind of the foam moulding.

And I also did a shelf under the mirror in the stuff.

Yes...I did get carried away with it.

(I used more than straight pins to hold it up though.)

The bow is wood.

I did take pictures of real Art Fair items too.

That's coming up later.

Halloween box of leftovers

A few years ago we did some Halloween decorating for a private home and also for a club. I have a big box of stuff that has been hanging around ever since.

This year me and the younger set of my tribe dug into it and did some decorating.

I think this skelton head is the perfect addition to my woodsy little chair on my front porch with the little wooden "love" doll...don't you think.

So special.
Makes me filled with delight ever time I walk on my porch.
Oh yeah..not. (I can't wait for the next season....come on Christmas!)


For a few years this witch lady was just too scary but not this year!

She was brought out of the box by special request.
"Remember that witch that used to scare me?", Haley said.
"Where is she?"

Ahhhh...I think I can find her.

Yup...here she is in all her glory.

She use to be wearing a shirt that said "DETROIT....where the
weak are killed and eaten". I'm not sure where THAT shirt
went. Maybe I wore it out??

I remember using this guys head on a silver platter.
We put fresh parsley all around it and it sat on the food table.
Wasn't that so appetizing!

Jacob found a better use for it this year.

We found some glow in the dark chalk in the box and drew some body outlines in the street.
Then the kids laid in the outlines and we put eyeballs
and detached hands and feet around them. Yeah... I took pictures. I do that.

They had great fun ...I mean really lots of giggly fun!....but the pictures were... ahhhh.....disturbing. I think we crossed a line.
Two cars of people stopped and asked if we were alright.
Yeah...I said....we're just fine .....really....we're just getting ready for Halloween...

we're a little off center...but we're just fine....honest.

Who wants to decorate with cute little clowns and sesame street characters?
Not anyone I currently know.