Caille's Ship Mural

 Caille's Mural
Two years ago I drove to Seattle and stayed with my son and his wife and my grandson Caille's home. They had a painter prime and paint the wall of his bedroom in preparation for a pirate ship mural. We went to the library and checked out several books on ships and pirates and planets.
Then I made some sketches and got a few supplies at Michael's Crafts. Caille and I spent a couple of days sketching the design out and he helped with his own drawings behind the door.

Then using a mostly monochromatic color scheme we painted the details and then embellished the sky and edges with a sparkly dimensional paint. It turned out very cool.

BOSOPO

This is our new Chicken Coop which I'm calling BOSOPO for Benevolent Order of the Sisterhood of the Perpetual Ovulators. I designed it and Bill built it. We have a little trim to finish but it's quite nice and accommodating for the 17 hens we have. The double doors open to a grain and garden storage closet that is 30" deep and the single door opens to an 8' x 9' space for the girls with linolium flooring for easy cleaning and a small door/hatch to the fenced chicken yard.

Wood Carving

This is a wood carving I made for Bill for Christmas from a chunk of  pine that was in his woodpile. I loved the rough curvy bark on one side and so he cut the back and bottom level and I used his chisel and a knife to carve the relief. It represents our local Kolob mountains as well as other formations in the Southern Utah area. I stained it with a red oil stain and polished it with mineral oil. It is about 12" long and 4" tall.

Grandma Doll

This is a doll I made for Bill's granddaughter. She is a Grandma Dahl doll and is free standing. Her dress has pockets for a small tape player, mini books and a cassette tapes. Bill and I read various stories onto tape and his granddaughter can listen to them as she holds the grandma doll. She turned out really sweet and soft.
She is made from fleece and batting with a large paint stick holding her up inside and wire armature for her arms, which can bend. Her hair is a soft yellow yarn and her eyes are made from buttons and craft foam. She has boobies and a sparkly heart as well.

The American Dream

I've titled this piece, "The American Dream" and it has already been sold but I'm selling 8 x 10 signed prints for a mere $20.00. Paula Deen riding Jesus riding a T-Rex and Sarah Palin with a ball gag and a bevy of Tea Party supporters has something for everyone. It's acrylic on a 16 x 24 canvas.

School Bus Art Studio

When I was a little girl I saw an article in the Sunset Magazine about creative play houses. One of the featured playhouse was an old schoolbus.

 I promised myself that when I had kids I would acquire an old bus and convert it into a playhouse for my own kids. When we bought our first home with a large yard I started to scout the junk and salvage yards but the lowest price I found was about $600.00, which was $500.00 above my meager budget. I kept my eyes peeled for a low cost bus and then a few months later when we were on a walk near our home in Cedar City, Utah I spied an old 1962 Bluebird school bus behind an apartment complex. I found out who the owner was and called him and asked him if he'd sell it to me. He told me he was just happy to get the bus off his property and that I could have it. I thought I'd won the lottery. So for $50.00 in towing fees I had the old engine-less bus towed a few blocks to my home and carefully maneuvered into place in my back yard.

The kids and I spent the summer gutting the insides and scraping, sanding, power washing and painting the bus with some mistint paint we'd gotten from a paint store. The girls chose a pepto bismol pink for their interior half and my son chose a steel grey-blue for his half near the drivers seat. It was a big project and the whole neighborhood was in on the fun and when it was finished the old metal walls rang with the sounds of dozens of neighborhood kids running through and playing every sort of imaginative game and adventure inside. There were slumber parties, birthday parties, puppet shows, pirate adventures, and sometimes they even pretended they were at McDonalds and would give me food orders through the drivers window and I'd bring out goldfish crackers and Koolaid and they'd pretend they were out to lunch. It served it's purpose for many years until I moved to a new town nearby and then I paid the same tow truck driver to move the bus to my new larger property in New Harmony. 

There it became tool and garage storage since the little cabin was so tiny and there was nowhere to put the many tools needed for yardwork and renovations. It fell into a sort of chaotic dusty filthy mess as stuff accumulated and the space was forgotten. Then last year I decided to renovate it and turn it back into my own space again since the kids are grown and gone. I wanted it to be a great art space for arts, crafts, sewing or just a fun place to enjoy reading books and bask in the abundant natural light that came in from the banks of windows on the North and South sides.

Guest Bedroom

We're almost finished wtih the guest bedroom. It wasn't in as bad of shape as the other bedroom and we've only spent about $100.00 so far but we still need carpet, new beds, and some trim work. I've got the bedding and will finsih the curtains soon and have painted some thrift store furniture to go in the room. I designed it to be a fun bedroom for kids with twin beds, table and bookshelves and some books and toys to make it a fun place to be for my grandkids. It'll have to also serve as my office until we can build an addition. Here's a slideshow of the remodeling process.

http://www.slide.com/r/5JFUOVUC3T_zlsgo_FEeU0IIEBeJTvs1?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original