Christmas Nostalgia and a little Brightening of Canned Ham

I have no art to show for myself (I'm not sure I should be considering this an art blog anymore!) but I wanted to share a couple of images in keeping with the Christmas season, and a few canned ham progress pics.   The Santa and Reindeer above in the window of my house is a new, very old find, that I was really excited about.  I'm guessing it's from the 30's or 40's, and came in it's original box with it's crumbling, yellowed instructions.  It's meant to be on a lawn, but there was no way we were risking it out there, so my husband had the idea of hanging it in the window and creating "clouds" to cover the plastic wedges that are supposed to go into the lawn.  I just love it.

The Santa above was a recent gift from a friend - she had been in a thrift store and the owner had acquired a box she was disappointed to find was just full of "old Christmas things" and was selling them for next to nothing - my friend paid $1 for this cutie!

 As far as the trailer, we've been working on it weather permitting - so not much.  It seems the rain has been waiting for weekends lately - normally I'd love nothing more than a rainy weekend, but now it's just frustrating!  I've been getting some painting done though, all that wood is slowly disappearing and it's starting to look lighter and brighter in there. 

 The blue below is the tarp covering our still missing front window.

      I want to wish all of my blog friends a wonderful holiday season - I'm sure it's flying by for you as it is for me, so slow down when you can and enjoy it while it lasts!!

Murphys and some progress

 We recently spent a weekend with two other couples at an amazing place in Murphy's - an old gold-mining town in the foothills of Northern California.  They have a Day of the Dead festival every year and we decided to go and check it out.  It's a beautiful part of the state, especially at this time of year, with lots of wineries and little shops. Unfortunately my husband was taking the pics of the actual festival, but I took pics of the property we were staying on, so I thought I'd share a few of them.

My hubbie on the back porch.

There are amazing historic buildings on the property - this is an old Wells Fargo stage stop/post office.

This charming little building is used partly as an art studio.  She allows artists to set up on her property for plein air painting workshops.  Occasionally we'd come upon individuals unexpectedly as they were painting.

This was our own Day of the Dead altar, an homage to our departed loved ones.  The town was full of them - one business had one set for Prince, and was blasting his music.

As far as the trailer, we've been making steady progress, although most of it not photo worthy as it's on the roof. Next weekend is our drop-dead time for having the top on and it being all water tight, as once the Holidays come things will just be too crazy.  But I've been finding time to do some painting inside, and have new upholstery in the works.

We finally through brute force and a screwdriver wrested the clock from the wall, and of course there's a massive hole behind it.  I shall be getting a new clock!  Oh, and as you may notice, you can no longer see sky through the ceiling!

This is one of the drawers of the lower kitchen area, in progress.

Slowly but surely....

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, my American friends, as I doubt I'll have a chance to post again before then.  Can you believe it's that time already?

Canned Ham Progress - The Bad, The Bad and the Ugly

Before moving on to the ugly, this is the one thing I've gotten done art-wise. Trying again to create a page that doesn't detract from the page already there.  I WILL complete this journal, someday.

 So many projects, not to mention art, go through a really ugly phase before starting to look good - and this project is no exception!

You'll note however that the damn clock is still there!  I WILL conquer it sooner or later though, hopefully without destroying the paneling.

Guinness thinks we're building him quite the doghouse.

Above are the old roof panels, and below are the new ones.  Kind of a shame we'll barely see any of it!

I've been spending most of my time scrubbing 50 years of grime off of the aluminum surrounding the windows, and then polishing them.  It hasn't been pretty, gloves, mask, oven cleaner, steel wool, metal polish, - the kitchen looked like a disaster zone, but you can see a proud grouping of the smaller windows all clean and polished, below.  I think my favorite thing about this trailer are the louvered windows, opened and closed with a little hand crank.

I've also removed all the cupboard doors and drawers, and sanded and painted them.  They're going to be a light cream color except for the lower part of the kitchen area, that is going to be the green from my inspiration old enamel hooks piece that I posted previously. I may tone them down some and distress them, I haven't decided yet.  I tend to start twitching when contemplating something so flat and one dimensional, and want to grab sandpaper and some stain.  Drawer pulls will help of course, I still need to decide on those.

My next big project is figuring out where to get the bench seats reupholstered, and with what.  My mind is spinning.....

Canned Ham - The Before

She's home!  Last weekend we got her moved - a day I thought would never come!  And so now, the work has begun.  There are some water stained panels inside, and after trolling the internet looking at nightmare restoration projects, we decided we needed to peel off the aluminum skin from the front and top to see just how much damage there was to the frame.  A million screws, nails and staples later we got to see what were dealing with, and I am so relieved to say it's not bad!

The corners have some staining and we're going to need to cover or replace some paneling on the inside, but overall - WHEW!  The top looks similar but the aluminum is in worse shape up there so we're going to replace those panels (depending on how much that costs).

So, now for the inside. Ready to enter this time warp?

 This clock WILL NOT COME OFF!  I think the whole cabinet is going to come off with it by the time I get it down...

The orange curtains were made by my friend Val when she was about 12.  She's given me permission to replace them!

This is the bed area, with one of the table benches pulled out partially blocking it.

The empty space above is where the fridge goes, if we can (please god) actually get it running. It's the original propane one.  

So, that's it - lots of work to do, and lots of decisions to make!  I'm wrestling with how original I want to keep it - I'll keep you updated as I go and will welcome any advice!

A Little Art, Early Halloween, and Design Inspiration

Very little art, would probably be a better description.  I've done a couple of pages in my fabric art journal, just playing around.  I've reached a point in this journal where I've done all of one page in each spread, but doing the opposite page is always difficult for me because I don't want them to take away from each other, my anal retentive nature wants them to coordinate. The page on the right below was such an attempt, although I don't think I really succeeded.  I should plan the two pages at the same time and do them together.  But I don't.

And since the weather has been surprisingly cool here lately, and since my next few weekends are booked up, I decided to decorate for Halloween early.  I figure if I don't have to have the air conditioner on while decorating for Halloween, I'm good!

I found a couple of these orange pillows at TJ Maxx and I just love them. They'll be perfect until I decorate for Christmas since they're not actually Halloweeny.

And now, a Canned Ham update!  We're finally going to be able to bring our new little 1962 vintage trailer home in a couple of weeks.  So my mind is spinning with what color I'll paint it, how I'll restore the inside etc.  So I found this little old French piece last weekend, and instantly new that this was going to be my design inspiration!  Not sure if I can actually customize the accent color for the outside to match this, but I'm gonna try!

A Mixed Bag

 I had a quiet weekend at home, and managed some good quality time in my studio.  I'm very grateful as my weekends are booked up for the next month - not sure how that happened!  And it was too disgustingly hot outside to do anything else anyway!

I worked on a mixed bag of things, some that had been started and never finished, and one impulse page in my fabric art journal done on plaster, below.

The flower here was created on a separate page, and cut out and added here with foam tape so it stands above the page.  I tried to get a better picture of that in the second picture.

If this one looks familiar, I've created a similar flower before based on the same picture.  I find these so fun and relaxing to draw and paint.

I also decided to tackle one more man/bird, and made him a little mask as well.

I'm not sure if he's going here

Or here...

I may not be posting much, if any, in August, but I'll still be checking out your blogs whenever I get the chance!

Flowers and a Canned Ham

I've been in a fabric and plaster mood lately apparently. I did a couple of pages in my fabric art journal, still working on flowers.

This is an illustration from a very old book that I just played with.

This is a hanging made with layers of old fabric,gauze, lace, plaster and ledger paper, hung with a sweet old child's hanger.

And, the best for last, a Canned Ham!!

This is my good friend's 1962 childhood trailer that's been stored at her Dad's for many many years. This style is known as a canned ham, for obvious reasons. She's giving it to us, and we finally got to see it last weekend!  It is completely original, orange, avocado green and brown upholstery and all!  It's in good shape considering how many years it's been sitting outside unused.  We're excited about restoring it - I'll keep you guys updated with before and after pics.  Of course first we have to get new tires on it and figure out how to get it home!