Happy Halloween!

Candy Corn in honor of Margaret.

:)

It's Almost Here!

This wonderful ATC came to me from Linda a couple weeks ago, but I waited until now (two days before HALLOWEEN) to share it. Hard to say what my favorite thing is about this little gem. I love the whole presentation! The card came in the little decorated brown paper bag, cleverly zig zag sewn shut across the top. SO cute, I hated to open it, but I knew there was something inside, so I grit my teeth and ripped!

I love the crepe paper medallion, the black bird punch and the vaguely disconcerting twins, visiting from the set of "The Shining".

The glittery pumpkin lightens the mood... a little.

"After this they left us."

MwoOOOoooHa ha HA HAHA!

Prompted to Do ART

It occurred to me last week that I have been promoting and selling these really cool prompt journals in my etsy shop, but have not taken the time to use one myself. Today I felt compelled to "just do it" and now I can tell you that this little pad of library pocket cards is as revolutionary as sliced bread.


I have, to date, hmmmm, 3(?) art journals with a couple pages done in each. Today I feel that the prompt journal I did a page in, will be the book I work in more often. Hold me to it, if I don't. The pages are larger than an ATC, but smaller than a postcard. Doesn't take much time to fill up a page that small, so there's no excuse for "no time" to do it.





I used gesso and acrylic paints with lots of water and the card did not buckle badly. Just kept layering and scrubbing the surface until the piece felt like it had had enough. Then I went at it with india ink and a dip pen. I pulled out my art college days paint box and found all kinds of forgotten treasures-- that hadn't completely dried out.

With a title like this, something from the Bronte Sisters came to mind, but I didn't feel like pouring over my meager clip art sources. I wanted something more immediate. Scary to draw and paint for the first time in YEARS. I am not proud of my amateurish results, but the art is honest. The really scary thing is, it looks like I painted a portrait of my sister who was killed by her ex-husband two years ago next month.

Some women are quiet because they don't feel they have a voice.
There IS a way to express yourself without saying a word.

I exorcised some personal demons today with this piece.

Halloween Preparations

The pumpkins at Walmart were large and inexpensive this year, so it was hard to resist buying three for carving. Seth was in a grumpy mood after grocery shopping for a couple hours with his sisters, but soon all three kids were busy scooping seeds and pumpkin guts and deciding on facial designs. I also made them say something "nice" about each member of the family, which stifled some of the bickering. No school today or Monday due to parent/ teacher conferences. We will be playing the "say something nice" game a lot, I suspect.

I was impressed with the kids' attention span and dedication to this carving project. I fully expected to be finishing up after them, but I was happy to wrong in this case.

All worked at the kitchen island, standing, for almost 2 hours. Whew! I carved Rebecca's pumpkin but Victoria and Seth worked completely on their own.
I am so proud of them. These are kids that would just a soon watch TV or play video games all day. Now to come up with a few more "old fashioned", unplugged activities.

Tonight, Victoria is making dinner. It's my plan that she does it once a week- plan and cook it. Gives me a night off (sort of), gets her off the couch and she can't complain that we eat the same stuff all the time if she has ownership in a meal once in awhile. She is going to make Swiss steak and cheesy broccoli. Pretty ambitious, but I know she can do it.

Halloween is a whole week away, but I couldn't resist candle testing the pumpkins when the carving was done. We may just put them out on the front porch, lit, tonight.
'Tis the season for early evenings,
crunchy dry leaves,
smoking chimneys venting cozy wood fires,
comforting meals,
extra layers of clothing,
and
cheery grimaces from carved gourds.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Is It Too Early For SNOW?

Going out in the mail today... 24 decorated matchboxes for day 17 of an advent calendar. A swap with Christian Paper Artists. Each box will have a different trinket to reveal. Mine have silver
toned thimble charms I found for cheap on ebay (where else?)


I packaged each of my boxes with a teaspoon of mica-like glittery flakes. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I will definitely post all the boxes I get back in the swap.

P.I.E.

Presentation Is Everything!

Signs That a Hard Winter is Coming to Missouri

The woolly worms (catterpillers) are wearing thick coats this fall and my husband (wearing hooded sweatshirt in photo) is building a fortification at his shop out of split fire wood. His best friend Robby helped (held the wood to be split) as our son looked on.

They figure they have enough wood to stoke the shop's furnace for a couple months.
May need to cut more wood later!
October's temperatures are already unseasonabley cold for Missouri.
Winter will be early this year!

More Divas

This is the cover and pages I did for my book. St. Hoardica is the Cover Girl, complete with glow-in-the-dark clock dial halo.
Then there's the Shabby Chick with mica-like flecks of chunky glitter.

The Pattern Pixies are some of my favorites.

A Diva pebble from Linda that I plan to hang from my binding (just needs a jump ring soldered to it- Linda offered to take it back for the modification. I may attempt soldering myself first).

At the back of the book, I included everyone's notes that came with the Divas.

Why not?

The Divas Are Back!

Another swap complete with the international Queen Bees 5. Well, complete when I mail Carole's pages to her! These first pages are by Linda.

Diva Too!

Linda again with an attitude loaded model.

One of my favorites. Can you find the diva?

FOUND her!

A diva caught in a photo booth by Patty.

Another by Patty sporting a butterfly chapeau!

Carole's "Free Radical Fighter" who just doesn't want to have to think about her undies! A New Zealand thing?

On the reverse... A public service announce-ment on excessive sunbathing. hee hee

Margaret's divas considered an oversized love seat purchase (or is is a skinny couch?) One diva wisely talked the other one out of it. How would they ship it home from Switzerland?

Close up of Margaret's deadpan dialogue. I laughed out loud the first time I read it!

Finally, Margaret's divas did some mountain hiking, sporting impractical shoes and gigantic cowbells. These girls know how to see the globe!

A few more divas in my next post. Can't show them ALL at once!

Why "Ruby Floy" ?

Artwork curtesy of Rebecca, my soon-to-be-5 year old stamper.

Anna emailed me," You need to do a post explaining the name of your etsy shop".

Okay, Anna, this one's for you. Hope you're reading!

Ruby Floy was the sign in name I came up with when I bought and sold (mostly sold than bought) stuff on ebay. It's my husband's paternal grandmother's name and sounded nice and old fashioned like the name of someone who would own an antiques shop. Grandma Thompson, who has never been in the retail business, is 87 now, a strong Nazerene woman who never forgets to encourage us to "seek Jesus first" in her monthly letter she writes in wibbly wobbly cursive handwriting. I don't think she knows I use her name because she's not up on all the internet stuff. She has never been on a computer. She won't even use the electric typewriter given her so her letters could be typed and legible. She even hand writes each of her Christmas letters.

Anyway, Ruby Floy became my etsy name by default. I wanted to buy a journal from Cindy of Useful Books, and to quickly register on etsy, I just used my ebay name. I didn't know I couldn't change my sign in name later (on ebay you can) and besides, I wasn't thinking about opening a shop at the time I registered. Now I think it's worked out fine. It's still a good name for someone who runs an antiques business, or in my case, a Junque Shoppe. Ha!

Ruby Floy

Your place for a la carte rummaging and affordable original art pieces.

I live a block away from our town's post office and even occasionally work there (yes it's true, I am the substitute post mistress!) so your purchase is mailed within 24 hours of payment.

I live in a small town where no one throws anything out, so I have a large inventory of vintage and antique stuff (that I can't post fast enough for sale!) that I sell for less than Big City prices just because I can. I always wanted to have an antiques store and now I have a virtul one. But not just any antiques store. One that caters to creative types like myself. I stock what I enjoy, so am pleased when someone else enjoys my stuff enough to buy it.

Life is good.

(Pssst, Patty. Time to start stocking the shelves of your etsy!)

What's Brewing?

Along with the fabulously wonderful Junk Gypsy Journal, Anna had also included this little seasonal gem. I am not a big Halloween person, but I can't help but smile and want to invite a few friends over for a good cackling time involving cups of hot, spicy beverages and candy corn.

And there's more of that black tulle I like so much!

And Anna is making good use of the type writer I exported to her in CA.

You GO Girl!

You need to see her jars of potions.

(scroll down to her Sept. 29. post)

Anna knows how to "do" Halloween!

Anna Knows Me

A long while ago, I saw this awesome Junk Gypsy Journal Anna made for Ashlyn and decided, "I want one!" So I emailed Anna and asked pretty please if she could make me one too and I would swap her something.

After many ideas, I finally made her this and sent it off, hoping she would find it a good trade.
She did.
And now I've got my own Junk Gypsy Journal to complete with some of my own personal finds.



Anna knew just what phrases to include.
They describe me to a "t".


I just love the black tulle fringe!





That fine line, Dave Barry refers to, is a little blurry to me.
hee hee hee

Thank you, again, Anna.
My life is now complete!