The Thriller-ettes, Run Amok!

I haven't written much here lately, but I have been busy, creatively speaking! And, the women who have been being creative with me? They have all run amok!

It began in August 2009 when I invited my Jazzercise classmates to join me in learning how to do the dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."  A handful of women said they'd like to learn with me, so we spent September and October learning the steps. On Saturday, October 31, 2009 --- Halloween --- we performed it for the class and we recorded it. (Love the technology!) We had so much fun, which is evident from the film and I thought, "Well, that is that!"

In spring of this year, I suggested we might want to practice so we don't forget everything we learned and that we might want to video record it again. They were in agreement, so off we went every Thursday evening, a half hour before Jazzercise class, into a small room with the ipod, practicing the steps.

It was along about May that we began to discuss costumes. We didn't really do costumes last year, so we thought it would be fun to put something together that had a bit more style and then, the creativity kicked in. All of us would wear dresses, gloves and hats, as though we had climbed out of our coffins just to dance!(Much as any good zombie would do!)

Then came the question, 'Could we dance in a cemetery? Which cemetery?'

What a great idea! More creativity, running amok!

After looking around, I identified the Evergreen Cemetery off 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale, that had lots of the right kinds of headstones and grave markers and was really old ... established in 1910 ... so after repeated phone calls and e-mails and a meeting during an early morning thunderstorm, I obtained permission from Julius to use the Evergreen Cemetery as our "set."

Since all of us work outside the home, finding a time when we could all meet at the cemetery proved to be a bit challenging, but finally we did identify a Tuesday in early October that would work, so meet, we did! We performed it twice for the camcorder (Thanks to my darling husband who was the camera and sound guy!) and drew a small audience from the street. (Is this how movie stars feel when they're shooting "on location?")

Having never uploaded anything to YouTube, it took my dh and I a little time to figure it all out, but a few days ago we were finally successful in posting it to YouTube.

Thriller Dance in Evergreen Cemetery

Many of our friends have viewed it and the feedback has been positive ... we're funny ... it was fun ... we're fearless ... AND, we can dance! I find it to be so joyful when people enjoy what we've done and I think my fellow zombies agree.

So, there you have it.

It takes a good bit of creative energy to put together something like this, so that's why I haven't been writing on my blog so much lately. But, I have definitely been creative and I've found others, like me, who share the spirit and have enjoyed running amok with me!

We'll be performing for the final time this year at 7:30 PM on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the Wicked Manors Halloween Street Party in Wilton Manors. If you're in the neighborhood, come by and watch us, live! Talk about "Creativity Run Amok!"

Summer's done. :o(

Lots of people around here are glad that we're moving into the cooler weather season, but I'll miss all the creativity of Mother Nature. While I haven't had much time for making things, She's been busy, busy, busy! And, I've got the pictures to prove it! Un-retouched photos from early September, for your review:

 A monarch butterfly chrysallis hangs out on the window casing in front of my house, just a few feet from the milkweed plants where they began their life as caterpillars ...

I was lucky enough to be on hand when this beauty emerged ... a male Monarch butterfly. You can tell the males by the two large black dots at the bottom of their wings, close to the butterfly's body.

And, what would summer be without beautiful pink flowers? Now for autumn ...

What constitutes an "art journal?"

I've been pondering this subject for quite some time now.

For several months I have been visiting blogs and web sites of those gifted artists who make beautiful art journal pages and I've just been drooling all over myself. I've purchased a couple of Stampington publications devoted to art journaling and the images within those pages are a huge source of inspiration.

I've begun tinkering, so to speak, and I decided today was the day. To share, that is.

Here are a couple of my journal pages, although I'm not exactly sure you'd call them "art."

I have a cabinet full of spiral bound notebooks dating back to the 1990s. I have used them to keep up at work and in life. There are always lists. Memos to myself so I don't forget something important. Tags and scraps from throughout my day or week that I want to keep for whatever reasons. Little drawings and doodles that often appear during phone conversations. Song titles, book titles, web sites ... things I want to remember ... writing them down helps me to remember. Sometimes it helps transfer the information from short term memory to long term memory. Other times, I'll remember where on the page I wrote it down, making it easier to find later.

So, there you are. My first "public" art journal pages.

I like doing this a lot these days. It took over a week to fill these two pages, I think because summer is a slow time in my neighborhood. Other times I've filled a page in one or two days. I think as I do this more and see what other artists are doing, I'll become more adventurous. In the meantime, I'm having fun and I'm sure that's the most important thing.

Reclaimed Wood Plant Hanger

One day in July, I stumbled across Under The Table Dreaming, a really cool blog with all kinds of how-to's for stuff around the house.  I was charmed by the reclaimed wood plant hanger/birdfeeder and considered how one might fit in my backyard. I liked it so much, as a matter of fact, that I sent the link to my darling husband, who happens to be very handy with anything wood.

His response: "Okay. When?"

We made a trip to Home Depot and picked up Gorilla Glue and two small plants. We spent a lot of time discussing the design and exploring how we could adapt it for longevity in the south Florida sub-tropical environment. With high humidity through much of the year, it's always a factor for consideration whenever working with wood or textiles. DH (being an engineer educated in Germany) added biscuits to the joints before gluing for added stability.

He said he'd never used Gorilla Glue before, so it was a guess how it would perform. Glue's a funny thing, you know ... and, one thing that affects it a lot is the amount of water in the air ... that humidity thing. Which we have in abundance here in sunny south Florida.

I was pretty useless during this part of the process, so I took pictures while dh worked. Once he had it all glued together, he put these clamps on it and we had to wait for it to dry. Don't the clamps look like torture devices? I can imagine someone being ... oh, well ... never mind.

I have lived in my house for 23 years and all the trees in my yard were planted by me. The live oak that hosts one of the plant hangers (dh made two!) was planted when my youngest daughter was four years old.

She's 23 today. (We moved in five days before she was born.)

It was a little, skinny, sapling tree, given away by the city to promote planting native trees on private property.  I think it was the beginning of the local NatureScape movement.  Today, it's quite majestic for a young tree, offering shade, habitat for cardinals to nest, and a place for this cool hanger to keep company with a flourishing young staghorn fern.

You may notice that this planter doesn't use the wire for hanging as Stephanie does on Under The Table Dreaming.  DH drilled two holes in the top of the frame and used nautical rope in lieu of wire, again for added stability.  The second plant hanger is suspended from the roof truss of my little, pink, gardening shed.  I planted moss rose in the pot to bring some color to the area. It's shaded by an orchid tree and will be keeping company with an abundance of tropical plants. 

It wasn't a difficult project at all. You have to wait for the glue to dry, and there was some wood cutting involved, but, aside from those two things, it was a really simple project. Simple to me, of course, because dh did all the hard work!  Thanks, honey!!

Great Room!

    

When my darling husband and I married in 2005, each of us had a home with lots of stuff. He had lived on his own for 13 years and I had been living on my own for nine years. We had known each other for six years, through mutual friends, but it wasn't until we started taking ballroom dancing classes that we really got to know each other and fell in love.

When we married, it took about six months to decide which house we were going to live in together. Once that decision was made, it became a process of merging all our "stuff" and doing it with style and authenticity. I'm posting photos of the room where we spend the most time together ... the "Great Room."  I've lived in this house since 1987 and love that it has a fireplace made of stones from North Carolina and a vaulted ceiling. There are also a lot of trees on my street which provides habitat for native wildlife.

The one thing that neither of us had was a nice sofa. Mine was ratty and worn. So was his. So, when we had the new tile floors laid, we decided to ditch the sofas and shop. So, we shopped. And, shopped. And, shopped. In April of 2007 we attended a theatre in Delray Beach and there we saw the sofa we wanted. But, of course, it was an antique and not for sale. So, the search continued.

Finally, over Labor Day weekend in 2008, we were shopping in furniture stores looking for a new mattress (we settled on a Tempurpedic, which we love!) and guess what? We found our sofa! From the Tommy Bahama furniture line, it was solid wood with beautiful details and we had a terrific selection of upholstery materials to choose from ...

It was a wait of nearly two months, but, finally, one day in late October, the furniture store called to schedule delivery of our sofa. It was still another two weeks of toe tapping and finger drumming, but finally ... it arrived. Since then, there hasn't been a single day when I haven't admired it and said to dh how glad I am we bought it. I am absolutely certain I can live with it forever! Yes. I know ... I may have to reupholster or replace the cushions at some point down the road. But, the sofa? It's destined to become an antique on its own some day!

Below is our new storm resistent door. We've had it for nearly a year now, and it took six months to get used to all the extra light coming in. We kept looking to see who left the door open!

The pendulum clock next to the door belonged to my mother and was a gift from my aunt last summer. I love the quiet of the house, with just the sound of the pendulum ticking back and forth. It's soothing and very peaceful.

More recently, we created an art gallery. He had art. I had art. It was stacked here and there because we couldn't seem to make up our minds what to do with it. Then, one Saturday afternoon not too long ago, I said, let's hang it and, together, we created our very own little art gallery. I enjoy it every day and I think dh does too!

It has taken quite a lot of time to merge our lives and possessions together, but as the room takes on its new style, it is emerging to be a room filled with beautiful woods (dh's cabinets are from Italy), Persian carpeting and artistic details that we brought with us or acquired since we joined forces.

I don't know if the Great Room will every be finished. We're working on the kitchen now. DH has built custom cabinets for the kitchen area and we've selected the stone for the counter top. But, one thing is certain ... it is a great room, furnished with love and affection and the shared joy of coming home every day to our artful life!

I have long admired those blogs with photos that have cool borders. So, today, I googled "Photoshop Borders" and found step-by-step instructions here, and, "Voila!" it was done! How cool is that?

Not much time to actually make art, as in painting, cutting, pasting, etc.

Doodles and lists will just have to do!

Shades of Pink

I cannot recall when I first became enamoured with pink. It must've been a long time ago, because I can't remember ever not liking pink. This past week I've been lucky to see pink flowers all around.


These lovely little pink flowers grow on the corner one street over from my house. I passed them every morning last week and was charmed by their beauty, so on Friday morning, I stopped and took some pictures.


Good thing, too. When I drove by this morning (Monday) the flowers were all gone!




Bought a bunch of peonies at Whole Foods Market for ten bucks and Boy! Did I get my money's worth! They lasted for days!

How could you not like a pink peony? Splendid flowers!