The Garden Bench Takes Shape

Remember what it looked like? That old art board? And those bits and pieces from a discarded garden bench found waiting for trash pickup?

Well, they are kind of pathetic looking still but any day now, they'll be recycled and reused in the garden areas outside my home.

After removing as much of the grit and grime and pieces of wallpaper covering as possible, I used some left-over Christmas project red paint to cover the drawing board another friend was discarding.

Unfortunately, the screws and bolts didn't quite fit in all the right places, probably because the original bench was made with slats of wood and the way the armatures are set up, they didn't like one big piece of flat board. But I worked around it, using wood screws in places where the original bolt-type screws didn't work.

They are refurbishing a place just a short block away from me so I'm off to see if I can find a piece of wood to use as a back for my new garden bench. As soon as I do, I will attach it and put the project to use.

Wish me luck.

This year's Cat Present

As usual, I'm making a crazy cat of some kind for my friend, Lynne, who has a huge collection. Most of her stuff is stunningly beautiful; some of it is whimsical; some of it is cute. I think I'm the only one who ever makes a gift. (But to be on the safe side, in case the gift turns out to be totally disappointing, I buy something nice as well.)

If you're read this last year, you know the cat I made was worse than crazy; it was downright scary.

This year I decided to try some kind of painting/collage. I started with a canvas and sketched in a silhouette of a cat staring at a full moon. I used a coffee saucer to make the circle (and as you see, I didn't stay in the lines precisely when I painted the moon.)

Next, I tried something different. I used some grout I had left over and filled in the cat sketch with the grout. When the grout dried, I painted it black, then used some of last year's leftover cat material to glue something I thought would resemble bamboo. (It didn't). Since that didn't please me (and it was too much trouble to try to remove it, I gathered some twigs and glued them down.

I'm thinking this is close to ready. Maybe, after I sleep on it, I'll add something more. I don't know. Meanwhile, I'm going shopping to find a "nice kitty" to wrap.