RATS!!!!

I love my rats.  They are one of the most intuitive "pets" I've ever shared my life with. 

Rats are playful, very smart, empathetic, and cute!

I've been collecting various rat beads and charms for awhile now and I found the perfect pink and gold beads to go with some of them.  Viola! a clunky charm bracelet, rat themed, just for me. :)

Garden in Time Clock

I've been wanting a steampunk clock for my living room for awhile now, but had not found the right look for a base clock.  I needed something pretty large since there was a good space to fill on the wall.  Hobby Lobby, my local craft store, put their clocks on sale for 50% off this week and I finally found a great base with metal strips between the numbers for only$25.00 and it measured 20" in diameter. 

starter clock

Then I got busy with my clock and findings supply and started to steampunk.  I didn't want it to look to busy.  I wanted a more refined look with metal accents.  I steampunked a large metal butterfly for the twelve o'clock position and then decided on a rose for the 6 o'clock position.  It looked like a garden was starting to grow.

Steamed butterfly with teal, green, and brown czech crystals

and clockwork gears

Steamed bronze rose with metal leaves and a background

of gears. Ooh a ladybug has landed to see.

Then I decorated the circular area in the middle with a group of gears that grind together into infinity making the garden grown. Of course there is a compass for direction and before to long in wandered a brass lizard followed by a buzzing bee and fly. Ooops someone dropped a rusted old key.  Hmmm wander what it goes to?

A garden's inner workings start to grow, notice

the tiny roses popping up on the gears and such.

Well I finished up the 9 o'clock position with a keyhole to unlock the secret garden and immediately a spider took up residence and therefore I had to place the key in the 3 o'clock position so visitors could go inside and enjoy.  Before I knew it, a swallow flew by taking a gear to incorporate into its nest.

And so here is the steampunk clock that grew up in my imagination and took root on my living room wall.

Feathers, Eggs, and Steampunk oh my!!

Since I finally finished getting new shelves up in my office and managed to get most of my supplies organized, I felt inspired to create.  So out came some wooden eggs I had on hand, some ribbon, feathers and several nest I purchased awhile ago.  I got the idea for the nests from an article in one of the most recent Somerset magazines.

I collaged the eggs with vintage sheet music and pages from an old dictionary and tried to pick matching ribbons to thread through the nests.  Then I padded the nest with quail feathers for the music eggs and pink and green feathers for the dictionary eggs.  I was really impressed with the outcome.  Both nests turned out wonderful and so sweet looking.

Then I felt like steampunking something and sitting there on my table was an unadorned paper mache egg.  It was huge and wow how my mind started turning out ideas.  Recently I purchase some great graphics from Cemerony and Altered Artifacts that had great steampunk items.  After using collage to put on a back ground of vintage music and book pages, I ran handstamped ribbon I purchased from Moonspell Crafts up both sides.  I cut out steampunk paper dolls added wings and actual watch parts to various areas and put these on the egg.  Then all my pretty art egg needed was some fabric flowers and quail feathers to top it all off.  Eureka! It was done.

Simply grand!

Welcoming the dreadsopus :)

Today 2 dreadsopus from Creaturosity of etsy arrived at our home today. Their Mom, Jill, sent them snuggled up in tissue paper for a soft ride.

We introduced ourselves and after a warm cup of cocoa with peppermint, booth girls insisted on settling down to their respective places.

Katie chose the tree in the dinning room to decorate since it had cute toys and fantasy items on it and the birds on the large tree in the den made her a bit nervous.

Katie in her tree!

Michaela settled in to work on cataloging and looking at books right away. She chose the little books to start with to get into the swing of things and get the feel of the library. The birds on the large tree do not bother her as much but I think that is because she is taller than little Katie.

 Michaela sorting and enjoying books!

My latest SUPER GREAT vintage find......

Here it is folks.....

I have always wanted one, forever have I wanted one and now I can say I am a proud owner of a coffin.  Yes, I said a coffin.  It is very nice all blue with silver trim although whether I keep it those colours I don't know for now.  Wouldn't it be AWESOME steampunked?  However, I don't know if I have the talent to do that.

Wait who's in my coffin?

My husband!  Get out of there Rob, right now.  Mine, that coffin is mine.

 
 Next on my wish list:
a hearse

Really?

Fall in New Mexico

 Bottomless Lake state park near Roswell, NM

Fall is coming and I can feel the crispness in the air in the morning and evening.  I love this time of year as the holiday season starts up with Samhain and follows into Yule.

Green chili harvest is big here since it is New Mexico and you can smell them roasting on the weekend in the big wire roasters. 

Being on the edge of the Chihuaua Desert, we don't have a huge amount of greenery around unless it is in the parks or yards, but the desert throws away her heat quickly at night and is slow to recapture it in the morning.  I think she is tired of being parched and hot and is welcoming the coming coolness and maybe some moisture to pack away between the sand grains down below the top layer of dirt. 

Gaea's animals have had it hard this year with the drought and too many of them have come into human populated areas searching for food and water and been destroyed.  It hurts to see.  They are just trying to survive like we are.  So many of us have lost our respect for other living beings. 

I like to call our yard Sanctuary so any creature who comes here can feel at peace for their stay.  Even the little skunk this summer who stayed for several months was welcome.  She/he did spray Shaggy when she rushed it, but that is how nature works.  Her lesson was quite smelly for all of us. 

My daughter would watch the skunk out of her window in the evenings and the skunk played in the grass flattening itself out and slithering around like a snake.  When my daughter tapped on the glass of the window, the skunk jumped up and looked around.  It was gorgeous with a huge fluffy tail a lot longer than its body.

Our grey fox found a mate for the season and I was lucky enough to see it come and go several times through the yard with its partner.  They are so elegant and beautiful.  There is turtle living in the bushes at the side of the yard whom the fairies brought by and I'm not sure where all the cotton tail rabbits went.  They were around earlier in the summer but are absent now.

Time Travelers Team ACEO Contest

I belong to the Time Travelers Team on etsy and this month there is an ACEO/ATC contest.  The winner gets ALL the cards! Fun, fun, fun.

So here are my three entries: