Eureka Springs Zombie Parade

The Zombie Parade took place the day after Halloween.  Funny story..... they have lots of parades in Eureka Springs and they usually take place at 2:00 PM or 2:30 PM and I am usually late. The parades aren't very long so if your late your usually to late, and miss the whole thing.  I was determined to not miss the Zombie Parade so I insisted we go down early, 1:30 that way I won't be late and will get a good seat in the park to watch the parade.  There are benches along the street that face out, perfect for parade watching... and for people watching, that's fun too.

All is quiet when we get there, the benches are empty so I have my pick. I stake out the perfect spot. It's in the shade and it's a little chilly but that's okay, I'm dressed warm and Lynn bought me a cup of hot coffee at the shop across the street. Okay I am ready, bring on the parade.

This is the street the parade will come down. As you can see I have a perfect view.

And a street musician is playing his banjo.  I am a lucky gal, perfect spot and free entertainment while I wait.

2:00 PM, no crowd is gathering and I don't hear any parade sounds. 

2:30 PM. still nothing. 

3:00 PM My coffee is cold, so am I, what the heck is going on, still no crowd and still no parade. Lynn is out and about, he doesn't like to sit still for very long. He wanders back, I'm shivering and complaining .... did we get the dates wrong ..... he looks it up on his iPhone. Turns out the Zombie Parade is an evening parade and will not start until 6:30 PM.   Makes since when you think about it, Zombies don't walk around in broad daylight.   Silly me!!

Grumbling under my breath I gather up my belongings and head back to the house for a nap and a bite to eat. 

At 6:00 PM we head back down town..... let me tell ya there is a crowd this time.  My perfect spot is buried in a sea of Zombie watchers I can't even make it up to the park,  I'm stuck on the street with the other late comers. 

Lynn had to drop me off and takes the car back to the house.  No parking any where.  We live close to down town but I'm still not able to go up and down Jacobs Ladder.  

I got a few fairly decent photos of the parade but most were to dark.  

This Zombie is having a handy snack.  Get it? "Hand"y snack?  Yum!!

The Zombie Incinerator .... no explanation needed.

Interesting family, the mother and younger daughter are Zombies and the father and older daughter are Zombie hunters.  Must make for some interesting times around their house.

This was my favorite Zombie Isn't she a beauty?

A trio of Zombie friends out for an evening stroll.

There were many more Zombies, the parade lasted for about an hour. There was a troop of Zombie dancers that performed as they marched and there was a ensemble  that put on a show in from of the park.  I however missed most of that. I missed my perfect spot, I couldn't even get in to the park area. I was down the street trying to see over and arounds the folks in front of me.  Next year I will know..... go down at 4:00 PM, take a sack lunch, a thermos of hot apple cider, a blanket , wear long underwear, gloves, hat & scarf.  Sounds like a plan for the Christmas parade..... I will let you know how it goes. 

Okay here are a couple clay things.  I'm just playing around with items I already made, seeing how they would look as wall art.  Nothing is attached as yet. Please tell me what you think. 

I got out some of my inches and set them on a 5" mirror tile to get a feel of how it would look.  If I do this I will make matching inches and outline the mirror in clay.  

The clay is attached to the mirror on this one, the fish isn't attached yet. I will make a few more sea creatures to go beneath the fish.  This also is a 5" tile.

This is the house tile I just made and more inchie tiles in the corner,  Again I will make a clay border, this tile is larger, 8 inches.

The ceiling in my studio is wood painted white, works pretty well for taking photos of mirrors.

The next few days will be busy getting ready for Thanksgiving plus about 1/2 our family members have birthdays this week so I doubt I will have time to blog. 

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving .... I love Thanksgiving, it's a happy time to be with family and the food is my favorite. especially the left overs, I won't have to cook for a week!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Halloween in Eureka Springs

Holy Cow!! has it really been 2 months?  I do not know where the time went.... it's true... time flies when you're having fun.  The autumn has been so glorious here that we just couldn't sit in the house, we went for rides every day. And up until the last few days the weather has been so nice.

First of all I did a tiny bit of claying. I signed up for a one on one swap that had a "flower" theme.  I  discovered I don't do a lot with flowers, at least not normal flowers.

First I made these canes

Then I made a matching necklace and earring set, seen here.... along with the required twinchie. I had to wait until they reached my swap partner in Greece before I could show them to you.

Close up of the twinchie, I liked it a lot.

So I made a bigger art piece along the same lines. I plan to use it on a journal cover or wall art backed with a mirror.

And I made a few beads embellished with wire.

Now that its gotten colder I will be staying in more and hope to make more wall art pieces.... of course we have to do the holidays first!!

Speaking of holidays, Halloween in Eureka Springs is a sight to behold, really, it is so much fun. You should all come here next year, you will have a ball.  Even the adults dress in costume, Carol & I doing it next year, yes indeedy, the guys too, they just don't know it yet. And we hope to entice family members to join us too.

 The town is filled to the brim, folks come from all over to go trick or treating.   All the fun is up on the hill by the Crescent Hotel and goes down Prospect Street, then on to White Street and around past the Witch's house. Yes there is a Witch's house, I forget to take a photo but I will, there is an actual house shaped like a witch's hat.  I took these photos with my phone, it was dark and they aren't very good but you will get the idea.

This was the first person we met... she was very sweet but informed us she is not in costume, just her normal clothes.

This guy is either Father Time or Moses, you be the judge.

Here is a family of trick or treaters.

 Another family having fun

See the happy smiles.  Candy will do that to you, always makes me smile!

Here is a daddy with a bunny tail

Close up of the daddy bunny holding his little lady bug.

Cowboy and his Zombie side kick

Not sure who this guy is but he has a great smile.....

And here is the lovely bride, isn't she a beauty?

Swamp man, I love this costume!

The Walking Dead, pretty cool!!

The Big Bad Wolf!! Scary!!  The 3 pigs got away before I could get their photo

A big box of Whoppers, yum!!

Most of the houses were decorated,I mean really decorated, here are a few.  Again not good photos, next year I will go armed with my camera.

There were many many more  .... you get the idea, it was FUN!!

The next day was the Zombie Parade.  I will show you photos tomorrow.

Thats it for today, thanks for stopping by.

WIP Zentangle Polymer Clay Journal Cover

It's hard to find time to play with clay when you live in a resort town.  We have had lots of company,  our son Brad, who lives in Oregon, came for a short visit, he hadn't seen the cottage yet or his Dads boat so we were thrilled he was able to come.  His visit prompted a visit from daughter Heather, grandsons Nick and Brandon,  granddaughter Amanda, her hubby Cory and of course great granddaughter Lydia who was the star of the visit.  The rest of the family couldn't make it but Brad will be back for Christmas so they will see him then.

This is our Lydia playing with the colorful big stuffed  lion her Uncle Brad found in a Eureka Springs shop. She is such a sweet happy baby!

The shops here are filled with an abundance of wonderful creative things, I will have no problem finding birthday and Christmas gifts this year.


Now the other impediment to my claying is there is so much to do and see here, concerts or shows almost every weekend and so many good restaurants, plus the weather has been beautiful. My favorite thing to do is sit on the porch and watch the hummingbirds, I just can't get enough of them. Not sure what I am going to do when they go south for the winter.  Of course there will still be the deer and other critters to keep me entertained. Even though we live just a couple blocks from the historic district  we still have deer wandering through our back yard.

Anyway I have stayed inside a bit the last couple evenings and worked on a few things.  Used the last cane and some of the scraps to make mirror image tiles. I textured the backgrounds and used "Perfect Pearls" to add the shine.

I also made a mirror image pendant  from scraps.  I textured the background with sandpaper and shaded it with PearlEx powders in green and gold. I used PearlEx violet on the embellishments.

This is what took up most of my time.... a journal cover that is the WIP ..... I like playing with zentangles so I just started doodling and this is what I have done so far. I still need to come up with a border and add a few design elements. I first cured the clay and then drew the designs with my Microperm pen.  I'm not very good at zentangles yet but I hope to improve with practice. I will take more photos when I finish it.... not sure when that will be.

I hear my hummingbirds calling me..... they make a cute chittering sound..... so I'm heading outside.

Thanks for stopping by.

Border Cane Beads

There is so much to see and do in Eureka Springs that I find it hard to find time for claying and blogging. Our weather has been so beautiful, it was actually chilly early this morning, and it's mid august, usually the hottest month.  We do love it here!

 I did manage to make a few beads from the canes I showed you in my last post.

Closer look at the long beads and the folded beads.... not sanded yet. They are approx. 2" long.

Another view of the same beads after sanding, not much difference in the photo but lots of difference to the touch, nice and smooth now.

Rustic heart pendant

Pendant with the long beads...,

and the long beads with some little round beads and a couple mirror image beads

I think I will make more of the small round beads and use them with the heart pendant, then I can make earrings with the long beads.

I am working on more canes.... which I will post when they are finished.

When my back is healed and I can venture down Jacobs Ladder again I will start posting photos of shops and restaurants.....

That's it for today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Surprise Lilies in my yard... and Border Canes

I love to garden and when we moved here in April I had big plans for our terraced back and side yards. Then I injured my back and wasn't able to garden at all. My morning routine is to enjoy a cop of coffee on the upper back deck. I can sit out there is my pj's listen to the birds sing and watch the squirrels play in the big oak tree. I always felt a little disappointed when I look down and saw weeds growing where flowers should be.....  then last week I looked down in the back yard and saw these beauties swaying in the breeze..... it took my breath away! Seriously it took my breath away.... It was a gift, a wonderful beautiful gift, one that I can look forward to every year.  Surprise Lilies!!

This is how they looked from the deck.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

and here is a closer look.

I also found them along the front of the house and by the garage.  When driving around town you see them everywhere..... such a wonderful sight!! Do you have Surprise Lilies in your yard?

Now on the claying.  I am enjoying making canes again. I originally planned to make a Border cane to go with my Fox cane...... and ended up with these.  Often my muse leads me in a totally different direction.  Never fear, I will try again for canes to go with the Foxes.

Closer look at the Border canes

This is my favorite

Fun canes I made with the scraps.

I am working on beads from the canes and their scraps that I really like, will post photos when they are done.

That's it for today.

Thanks for stopping by.
R

Little Fox Cane

I finished this cane last week but couldn't take photos.... my camera battery ran out and I couldn't find my charger, ordered a new one and had to wait for it to arrive before I could take photos. Trying to find things in my new studio is very frustrating, right now I am looking for my micro beads, I know they are here somewhere.  I need to put up more shelves so things will be in plain site instead of tucked away in drawers..... aaaagggghhh!!!

Okay I made this Little Fox Cane

I like foxes so when I found a fabric pattern with cute little foxes I thought it would make a nice cane. I started with the head

and worked my way down

I have gobs of scrap clay so decided to use some of it for the back ground. In order to make the cane square I made a tree effect on the left

When the the cane is flipped over and the "tree" sides put together it looks more like a tree, as you can see with the two canes at the bottom.

I usually don't make canes this big so I ended up with way more foxes than I will ever use. I used one of them to make a couple kaleidoscope canes. I plan to make Little foxes jewelry and will use these to make matching beads.

There is a ground hog that lives under our back porch, I named him Phil.  Isn't that clever of me?  He suns himself on the back step every morning. My cats are not fond of Phil and refuse to go out in the backyard because of him.... and the deer... they don't care for them either.  I thought having a resident ground hop was kind of neat until I read all the damage they can do with their burrowing. We may have to call someone to relocate Phil.  

This is poor Corny sitting in the window keeping a eye on Phil. She is not a happy cat and has voted to have him evicted..... the sooner the better. 

That's it for today. I am now working on a border cane to use with the Foxes. 

Thanks for stopping by.