carving skill

For this is Halloween

Today is the aftermath--all the pumpkin insides are being sorted through to bake the seeds!

if it's KISS boots it must be Halloween?

AHHM...yeah. I want to ride! While trying to conquer my love/hate/fear relationship with the bike I go into problem solve mode. I've tried maneuvering it around in the garage and driveway because I want to be sure I can manage the weight and size of it. Part of the problem is my legs are short. Another part is my lack of confidence. I'm taking teeny, tiny baby steps, like having training wheels on my first bicycle to get myself on the road. Since the accident in 2002 I've wanted to, but not braved getting out on my own. I remember I was okay when things were moving along but had problems STOPPING, and especially stopping on hills. I found these boots in Kanoe's garage and managed quite well yesterday. I plan to have lifts put into my Harley boots or into a pair of racing boots but until that happens, these will work. I'm experiencing the agony of de feet today from the height of these, but I'm not afraid of heights! I'm looking into lowering the bike-even a half an inch would help!

crafting

As we started craft night I realized I would need to come up with my own idea of something since I don't have a household that needs an assignment type of chart. Here's what I decided on....'olelo no'eau...Hawaiian sayings....this one is from the Baibala (Bible) in Corinthians. I used the Cricut to cutout the vinyl letters and although a professional sign maker told me the layering should go dark to light--when I did the first round of cuts the layering wasn't working for me. I decided on the large letters in the background ("LOVE IS..") to be light and the next layer to be darker. After I was finished (and getting those darn letters straight is more of a laughing matter than anything else) I thought it needed more. As I've been researching Hawaiian tattoo patterns and their meanings I found a combination that I myself would have on my body (some place where the sun don't shine on it). This is the sketch step. It is all that I have time for just now. In a few days I will handpaint in the details. I like it a lot. It's about 12 " x 24 ". Noe says I should sell these for twenty bucks!

Craft days

We don't have enough going on, you know, so we decided to have a craft day once a week. This is our first completed project. It is a chart for Family Home Evening assignments but could easily be used as a chore chart for your family. The gals wanted to learn some basic woodworking so I brought the saws and sanders and router and some of the husbands loaned out their tools towards this activity! We ordered some steel to be cut ; the little glass pebbles have the assignments glued to the backs, along with a magnet. We tried to glue the photos to the glass but that wasn't working too well. We cut vinyl letters from dark brown vinyl, which matches the painted wood so the words look like they were cut out of the metal. Photos of family members go under the magnets so everyone will be able to tell who is doing what. Upholstery tacks keep the metal on the wood piece and add a bit of ornamentation.

Our goal is to make some needed things, some decorative things, and/or to finish unfinished projects. This one was 2 weeks in the making by the time we collected and ordered materials.

Invitation and decorations

That Cricut machine I got from Wes last Christmas is really coming in handy!

Prom Theme

Prom Night

Every year Noe and Brandon have a party for their adult friends. This year they chose "prom night" for their theme. Invites were sent out to several couples, along with an RSVP and then the hustle and bustle began around the house and yard. From what I hear couples have been combing the local thrift stores for gowns and suits. Some people have gone out shopping, some gals may get a pedicure in preparation for the event.

I am the designated photographer, but I'm just doing the pre- and post-party stuff. I'm over the cut off age, AND I don't have a date. So far we have 2 strobe lights, a black light, a few thousand downloaded tunes, lights, and decorations and I believe a fun time will be had by all. One lady actually said, "Hey, it's one prom night we can get lucky at!" Everyone has arranged for sitters and some people are joining to go out to dinner first!! Each couple is to bring an appetizer.

One couple doesn't have a sitter so I guess Trishana and I will go out to eat and maybe go and see "Where the Wild Things Are" or watch their new blue-ray DVD's!

palm tree detail

I was in a rush when I shot the photos, and also when I posted.

It is finished!

I was sad to leave the mural in the restaurant. Somehow I got attached to the entire project--the guys working around us; feeling like I was on the beach eating Hawaiian food and swimming in the ocean. I'm really homesick now!

When I walk in and take a look at the work I can't believe that Betty and I did this! I suppose I need to have more pride and confidence!

rock my world

I spent a lot of hours on this section!

close up

This is a view to the right of the mural.

close and personal

This is the middle of the mural.

up close and personal

This is the left side of the mural.

finished mural in unfinished restaurant

Although looking back it seems like we did this in a timely manner, we tried to do this in a week but on the last night we were just too drained so we went back and dilly-dallied for a few extra hours. It took us 88 hours to get to this point. I'm pretty happy with it, and believe me, I am my own worse critic!

Saturday, Day 5

Wow! I think it's coming along! I should've moved the trash can but was too lazy!! Tomorrow we'll take the day of rest and Monday we'll put in a full day and see where we are at. The tree in front will mean some ladder work for us!!

It's not poop!

Defining the rock pile

I think that at first it looks like dinosaur poop, but if you take a look at the right side you'll begin to see actual and separate rocks--boulder sized! While Betty works on the plants, etc. I've been working all over--the clouds, the water, and now the rocks. Which goes to show how much time it takes to work the paint around. I move around the painting because when I layer I have to wait for a section to dry--while it's drying, I work something else. It also helps me to step away and take a good look. The rocks were frustrating me, but when I stepped back to work on something else I was pretty happy that the poop pile is beginning to look like rocks!!

large leaves close up and personal

Betty worked this section and put in all of the details. They look awesome in the space!

foliage and wave detail

The foliage and distant palm trees are in, the wave details are okay and will need just a little bit of work next session. We'll work the foreground sand and seashore and the large palm tree....and rocks....

Projecting

I think if you click on the pic it will enlarge and you can see the projected lines on the wall. Betty is tracing some stuff in...to be painted later!!

Everything is out of order--e kala mai!!

I was thinking backwards and then forward--but I think you can follow the progress of the mural. I'm tired but wanted to get something posted......and I plan to start out a bit earlier than the past few days because we won't have workmen underfoot, at least, I don't think we will! Saturday of a long weekend and I don't have much of a life except for this mural so I plan to camp out at the restaurant for much of the weekend!

Friday, October 9th, Day 4

Today we accomplished a great deal. Most of the surf is rushing in and the greenery to the left is popping out of the mural for all the details that Betty painted in. We'll have to see if she continues to work it tomorrow. We step back a great deal and sometimes move to work on a different part of the mural because we get tunnel vision and keep working and re-working a part we're obsessing over! We need to let go and move on!

Loriann says she notices we're really anal! She comes in thinking everything is already nice, but she notices us going back to put in more layers of color, shading, and highlights. We want it to look right to us!

Well, it must look right because we get held up sometimes by the crew guys who imagine sitting on the beach around having a beer or a maitai drinks. I heard that after hours last night one guy ran towards the beach trying to take his shirt off to dive into the water!! Hilarious!!

As we work the guys are putting in the kitchen equipment and countertops and painting back rooms and bathrooms, setting tile flooring, carpets, lighting, sound systems, etc. People knock on the doors wanting to take a look and asking when the restaurant will open, what will be on the menu, etc. As for me, I keep thinking about Hawaiian food!!

Day 2

I can start at day 2 because you can see what we did on the first day--all day--we painted SKY. We're working on nearly 25 feet by 10 feet of a wall. The wall was prepped and primed for us--and next time I'd prefer NO TEXTURE--what was I thinking? Anyhoo--Betty put a sketch of our ideas on 3 transparencies and we projected them one by one on the wall to decide where to tape off our horizon. We discovered that no matter how long your extension cord is, it's best not to move the projector with it on because the bulb burned out from the vibration of the movement. That set us back in time because then we ran around looking for replacement bulbs but this projector has been in storage for several years and the no one carries the bulb we need. As we put the word out for a more modern one, we then had access to 3 projectors!

It took us all day of mixing paint and glaze and after trying a roller, sponges, and cheesecloth we figured out what we liked best was to put a few colors on and smear it with our hands in rubber gloves. The result was awesome to us, stuff blended, there were no brushmarks or streaks. Wherever we thought the color was too yuky (really artistic term) we would strategically place a bank of fluffy clouds!

So, for day 2, we traced some of the outlines using the projector, and then began basing in our large portions of color. Betty put in the first layer of sand and started outlining the large leaves in the foreground to the left of the mural.

Restaurant mural, end of day 2

Today we roughed in most elements by using the projector again-a second projector, that is. There's a bit of a coastline at the left with some spindly palms and the large leaves at the left front. The palm tree trunk that seems like it's growing in the ocean is just that we've not worked on it's foundation yet. The plan is for this large palm to go through the ceiling and have some palm fronds draping across the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling. I was a little too anxious to make it look like something was going on and now I'll have to work the sets of waves through the palm and fix the trunk later. You can see the sand in the foreground and the beginnings of a pile of rocks and land with more palm trees.

3rd day of the mural

We have the first layer of the clouds and Betty is working on the details of the large leaves in the foreground. By the end of this session I have worked more details on the rocks to the right, you notice the palm trunk is no longer growing out of the water and I put in 2 sets of waves, not shown here, because I forgot the camera!