When are you too old for a lullaby? Hopefully never. I filmed some video on our vacation to Four Mile Creek and Lake Ontario in New York. I compiled some of the video of the nature scenes to a german lullaby. I thought it would be nice to watch slow paced nature scenes set to peaceful music. I hope you agree.

This is a really cool and easy project! Definitely something you wouldn’t want young kids to do alone- as you need to use the oven.

I purchased old records from our Salvation Army to use for this project. I simply warmed the oven to 225 degrees fahrenheit. Then, I put a small pyrex mixing bowl upside down on a cookie sheet. I then balanced the vinyl album on top of the small pyrex bowl. I put this all carefully in the oven for about 3-4 minutes. I watched for the record to start drooping downward. (This lets you know the vinyl is pliable.)

After removing this from the oven, I then put the record into the inside of a larger mixing bowl. (This helped it to keep the sides upright as it cooled.) It cools really fast, so I bent the sides of the record up like a bowl, and gave it pretty little waves and curves.

It’s addictive! I melted like 8 bowls in the following half hour. hahahah! Don’t know what I’m going to do with all these bowls- I guess Christmas gifts! But it sure was great fun.

This lot had an old yellow & brown house sitting on it. We called it the “banana house” because it looking somewhat like a rotting banana. It was ignored by the adult children who inherited it for years, until the city tore it down. I wonder- does the city now own it?

I would really like to figure out how the city intends to sell it, how much they want for it and if I can purchase it (or at least lease it)?

My intention would be to create a community garden. Ideas include: growing vegetables for ourselves and the poor (all neighbors participating), maybe a lavendar field for all neighbors to participate and learn about lavendar and perhaps sage, and what we can make with it. Another idea I have is to lay out a labyrinth for the community to come and walk.

I’d gladly take responsibility for this land… but I’ve heard that in Niagara Falls, it’s not always easy to just purchase an abandoned piece of land. I’ll tell you what I find out.

I saw all of these at http://www.bumperart.com

I think I’ve mentioned that we live in an area that is frequently invaded by Canadians armed with credit cards and a falling American dollar, who come to shop shop shop. They don’t have Target in Canada, and their grocery selection sucks… so my town is completely invaded.

Most out of town plates I see are from Ontario- but I spotted an Alberta one the other day. It was on a truck that had wording on it that read, “Real Trucks Don’t Need Spark Plugs”. What the HELL does that mean???

Also, the personalized licence plate made no sense to me.

FTMCMRY

That’s the licence plate. What does that mean????

I have come up with a few ideas:
“Fuck the Mighty Camry”
“Full Time Motor Cycle Mary”
“Fort McMurray”
“Free the Mean Cat, Murray”
“Free Time Makes Carlos Mean Ray”

Does anybody know what any of this means???

For last Christmas, I made my daughter a monster to live at college with her. There was some hanky-panky going on with the roommate and the boys next door smelled of marijuana a LOT so I decided she needed a monster to protect her. Hence, HUGO was born:

I made Hugo from old clothes, (reuse, recycle!), primarily old blue jeans and somehow dark green denim jeans I swear we didn’t own! hahaahha…

So, Hugo lived at college since January and came home this July. However, I was informed by my daughter that he was the only one of his species at the dorm and was sort of lonely. She decided he needed a mate.

Keeping with the Reuse & Recycle theme, my daughter and I set out to shop for fabrics at the local Salvation Army thrift store. We wanted her to be soft so we shopped on the pajama aisle and found some good fleece & terrycloth items. We brought the supplies home and began to work on our creation. Hugo was caught sneaking into the dining room, (I mean birthing room), to see her:

After all, he was used to trace around his body to create her silhouette:

We worked hard to create Hugo’s life partner:

Soon, she was born and they were united:

But then, she got pregnant and had a fetus in her pouch. (It was really a chocolate Teddy Graham). So, we got to work on the baby monster right away. We learned from the two that baby monsters are born with only one eye and sort of shaped like an amoeba/peanut. I guess they get their second and third eyes with maturity.
A baby was born from the mommy’s pouch:

The happy family will leave with my daughter for the dorms tomorrow morning!

Sorry we haven’t put up any blogs this week. We are on vacation in the wilds without wi-fi. We will be back at the end of this week and will let you know all about our adventures. Poppy and Iris.

I am slowly realizing how allergic to everything I am. A couple of years ago I found out I have celiac disease, which is just a fancy way of saying I can’t eat most grains. Before the gluten/celiac thing I developed a sudden allergy to brocolli one of my favorite foods.

This winter my feet started itching horribly. I couldn’t see anything wrong, but I wanted to rip my skin off. I just assumed I picked something up at the gym and went out to purchase an arsenal of anti-fungal products. After a couple of weeks of applying cream, sprays, and powder in an exponentially growing number of times a day it struck me that something else must be wrong.

I bought some hypo-allergenic laundry detergent and was immediately cured. A week later everyone wanted to know why the clean laundry smelled so bad. One problem solved, another created. I went on a quest. I tried several detergents. All had a problem. I was beginning to think I either had to suffer varying degrees of itching or stinky dingy laundry. Another problem was the cost of the products. Why do so many “natural”, “organic”, “environmentally friendly” products cost so much more than regular products and then work half as good?

I was totally prepared for another disappointment when I picked up the Arm & Hammer Essentials especially since it is priced at the very low end of laundry detergents. The itching stopped, I started hearing positive comments about the smell of the laundry. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, it hasn’t. I am not entirely sure of the “all natural” claims of this product. I have read some reviews claiming Arm & Hammer uses “optical brighteners” in this product. If you are looking for a laundry detergent based on environmental friendliness you may want to do some more research. I am just happy to have the laundry smell good, look bright and no more itching all at a reasonable price.

Wednesday is “Family Day” at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Niagara Falls. I don’t know exactly what relevance the “family” thing is- but it means that almost all clothes and shoes are 50% OFF in the entire store. So we love to go. (I’ve been shopping at thrift stores since I acquired a taste for vintage clothes in the 80’s).

On this day, my mission was to find some good fleecy clothing that I can take apart and use the fabric as material to make a craft.

I was browsing through the nightgowns and bathrobes, really focused on the fabric and sort of realizing in the corner of my eye that Iris was coming down the aisle toward me. Well, I assumed it was her.

I kept looking at the clothing and sort of noticed that Iris was creeping up on me slowly so I took my time to look up and see what she was up to. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Iris had been replaced with this wicker monster!!!

I burst out laughing in the middle of the store like a teenage kid. I haven’t had such a good laugh with Iris for months and months. It felt great to be kids again- and a few other shoppers joined in the fun.

I only wish we had bought that wicker thing- it somehow could have been incorporated into a great Halloween costume!

I guess we should have seen this coming. We are the typical animal rescuing, find a home for a stray dykes. Lately we have even slipped into the recycling, organic, farm market shopping types. Still it was a real shock.

We have been really excited because the house next door has been being renovated after sitting empty for five years. We found out the new tenants were a baptist minister and his family. To try to head off any tension we fixed up a welcome basket and headed next door to introduce ourselves. They were very nice and didn’t even bat an eyelash. So far so good. Next like any normal family a puppy appeared. I noticed the puppy was all tangled up while I was outside one afternoon. I told Poppy I was going next door to let them know the puppy was in distress. Poppy tells me not to bother because she has already been over two or three times and by the time the neighbors come outside the puppy is untangled. Another case of us trying to rescue an animal from nothing. This has happened to us before.

This morning I take the dogs out and notice a cage sitting in the middle of the neighbors back yard. A few minutes later the dogs sound the predator alarm and I see this beautiful bunny rabbit hopping along the fence. I call Poppy out and we put the dogs in. Now we are speculating on how the rabbit could have gotten loose and why the neighbors couldn’t catch it. Poppy heads next door to let them know we can help them catch the rabbit. It appears no one is home. Poppy and I head next door to rescue the rabbit. The rabbit is very friendly and I have no problem at all picking him up and putting him back in the cage. Not counting the big patch of poison ivy I had to go through to get to the rabbit, but it was worth it to rescue this poor defenseless creature.

An hour later the neighbors seem perplexed to see the rabbit safely in the cage. Poppy heads outside to tell of our heroic rescue. She comes back in, I ask if they were glad we rescued the rabbit. Apparently they have had this rabbit a long time, it loves to play in the yard and then it will hop back in the cage when it gets tired. The neighbors seemed sort of amused, but maybe there was another look also. Oh my God, we are becoming the crazy old meddling dykes next door.