Happy November! Now that we are settled at home again, we are just doing the normal stuff. Getting groceries, playing Mexican train with the ladies once a week, and having fun creating things again. I have had quite a few upholstery samples in my possession for about 3 years maybe more and thought of making pillows but that didn't thrill me much. Then last year I started to put together different patterns and colors and thought they would make great grocery bags. It was too late in the year to start a project like that so I put it aside. But I got those pieces out again and got serious about putting them together so I started to create. I am a craft sewer and not a seamstress so these are made to last through all the tugging and filling of heavy items. I put together the first one to give it a trial run and it turned out pretty good. I continued on to make 7 more bags. 4 were small and 4 were large. The small was just a little smaller than the large ones but both are big enough to carry a lot of groceries. I am pretty proud of how they turned out and thought they would sell well since everyone is having to supply their own bags here when they shop just like in the States. I created a group named DJ Creations on Facebook where I will advertise what I make and how much it costs. Because I can't open it up to the world as there is no post office here to mail from, I am trying to keep it local. However, if someone from family or friends in Washington see something they want, they can tell me and I will bring it up in the summer. I did sell three of the bags so far.
Here are the front and back of 2 bags.
I had started a couple of craft projects before leaving for the summer, and never got them finished so I pulled them out and said it was time to start getting some of these unfinished items finished. I had half a breast plate from a turtle I found on the beach some time ago and when I looked at it saw a bird. Now I had to look in my bird books to see what kind it resembled and came up with a blue jay. Therefore I painted the bone to look like a Blue jay and when it was finished I put it on a beautiful piece of drift wood also found on the beach. So now the finished product is a wall hanging.
Next I worked on putting shells and beads on 4 plastic mirrors I bought at the Dollar store in Washington with that in mind. They turned out pretty good. I ended up selling 2 of them to my neighbor.
I then finished a fish that is made from shells, sea glass and big lip button for the mouth and a button for the eye.
I found the head and whisker bone on the beach a long time ago and when I looked at the bigger one I saw a cat face. It took me a long time to actually do something with it, but figured now was the time. I am not a cat person, but I think it turned out good. Made from 2 bones, 2 shells, sea glass and marbles.
Today our grandson David turns 11. All of the grandsons are growing up so fast. It is also our good friend Creela's birthday. She turns 82!! She has a house here in the neighborhood but due to Covid her and her husband are staying home in San Diego. They normally head down this time of year. Hopefully they will be here in the spring. Happy Birthday!!
Next on my creative hit list are moons. Let me explain. When we were in Washington this summer, because our trailer oven doesn't heat evenly, we were searching for a stone designed to do just that. It looks like a pizza stone, but in reality it is a clay stone made for the purpose of high temperatures. We looked in Good Will stores, but didn't find any. Looked online and figured we would just have to buy one online, until we stopped at a Good Will somewhere during our camping time and found a round that resembled a pizza stone but I thought it might work. It was the perfect size so that night I needed to cook something in the oven so I turned the oven on to preheat it and put the stone in. About 10 to 15 minutes there was a big bang and I knew what happened. The stone broke almost in half. I took it out and figured it wasn't the right one for high temperatures and was going to throw it away when I took a closer look at it. The shapes reminded me of two moons with a forehead, nose and mouth area. One was a littlIe larger than the other, but I told Dave I was going to take them home and make moons. My décor at home in Bahia has pictures and ceramic suns and moons which is always displayed down here in Mexico. I found that if you put a heavy sheet of foil on the bottom of the oven it helps distribute the heat better. My next project is to make 2 moons. I drew a face on each half moons and picked out the colors I wanted and started painting. I used a bead that broke in half for the eye on each of them and I liked the way they turned out. What I had to figure out is how to hang them. Since it is ceramic and heavy, I needed something sturdy. I usually use the flip top off an aluminum can and bend it a little and glue it on with Gorilla Glue. But I didn't feel comfortable with that. This was something I wanted to sell and someone would hang it in their house and if it fell and broke I would fell bad. So Dave suggested drilling a small hole at the top of them and using fishing line to hang them. Bingo. Great idea. Dave tried drilling a hole with a regular bit, but unfortunately it wouldn't drive all the way through. Both of us have a dremel with accessories for drilling and such, but we need a diamond bit to make it all the way through. My new neighbor told me she has a dremel and was sure she has a diamond bit so we are going to borrow it and hopefully it will do the trick. Then I can try and sell them. I will have pictures when they are finished.
Next project was a really simple one. I have a small wreath that is made from twigs intertwined. I have some round pieces of scrap wood rounds in various sizes that came from a project Dave did a long time ago. I had one that fit inside the wreath so I painted the round black and then glued it inside the wreath. I had a starfish I found dead on the beach and dried it a long time ago. I decided since it was a perfect size to put on top of the wreath, I would paint it yellow with a little black and gold and make it look like a sunflower. When it was dried and all was sprayed with the finishing gloss spray to protect, I glued the starfish onto the wreath and it is done, ready to hang.
Don't know what project I will start next but I have lots of things I need to get rid of so I will be busy!!
The next project is a small wreath. All kinds of fun things used to make this.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful. We have had warm temperatures in the 80's a day or two in the low 90's with a nice breeze. I love sitting on my deck in the afternoon when it is like that, drinking a beer and reading a book. Then just looking out on the water and the mountains and watching the birds, dolphins and whale sharks zipping by. It seems as though summer is sticking around for a while. There was a couple nights there was no breeze so our fans ran all night. Every time I think it is going to cool off, we get another warm day.
On a Tuesday, the ladies Mexican Train day at our favorite restaurant, we sat outside and played. There wasn't much of a breeze and it was a hot day. All but a couple ladies were in full shade, and 2 were in part sun. I was in the shade but sitting at one end of the table and felt the heat. I started just dripping with sweat!!! Get this----no one else seemed to be sweating!!! I'm sitting there wiping my face and neck and was miserable. It was also a humid day and that is when my body turns on the faucet!! LOL!! I was never so happy to leave as I was that day.
Thanksgiving is approaching so I am getting everything I need to make dinner. We have invited 2 of our neighbors and a friend who lives not far from us to join us.
Wednesday was my busy prep and cooking day. I made a pumpkin pie and put it in the oven. While that was baking I peeled the apples and sliced them, added them in a bowl and seasoned them. When that pie was all put together, the pumpkin pie was done so I switched out the pies and now the apple is baking. Then I cut up vegetables and jalapenos to add to the bread stuffing in the morning, which has been drying all week. I cooked the vegetables on the stove until soft and let it cool and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. The turkey was thawed and the giblets were boiling in a pan to make broth for gravy. The giblets will go to the the neighbor dogs. Once I rinsed the turkey and dried it I seasoned it and wrapped it in foil and put it in the refrigerator. My refrigerator is really small but I manage to get everything in there. Dave is forewarned about opening the refrigerator door slowly. LOL!! By this time it was mid afternoon and I was done. Tomorrow, Thanksgiving day should be more relaxing for me.
Happy Thanksgiving!! There is so much to be thankful for. Our families, friends, good health, and 2020 ending soon and hopefully the pandemic will too!! It has been a hard year for everyone. This summer our visits with the grandsons were few and far between, but at least we got to see them and also family. I will be happy not to have to wear a mask anymore but am convinced it is a good thing to wear when you have a cold. I will be glad to get back to hugging as most of us now are kind of afraid to do that, trying to keep social distancing active. There have not been the gatherings with others like we have had in the past down here so look forward to getting back to seeing our friends all together and laughing and having a great time with food and drink.
Today was a much more relaxed day for me. All I had to do was to cook the turkey, potatoes, and green beans. When the turkey came out to rest, the stuffing was taken out of the turkey and put in the oven to brown. My guests were bringing sweet potatoes, relish tray, and cranberry cream cheese jello salad. This is the first year since cooking a turkey that it was done way earlier than expected. With it being stuffed we figured about 5 or six hours. But it was put in at 8 and done at noon. We are talking an 18 pound turkey! Amazing. Dave carved the turkey and the bones were saved for soup. I was able to clean up and wash pots and pans, put them away and was ready to entertain. My guests arrived at 3 and we sat down to a tasty meal. We always try to have a small group of friends over to share it with. My table isn't that big so have to keep it small. Sorry for the bad photography! Forgot to close the drape. Dave is on the right, then on his right is our neighbors Cheryl and Lee, then next comes Peggy a new neighbor and my friend Maryann.
Remember I said that summer was not giving up it's grip? Well I do believe that fall has arrived. The days are much cooler and we have had some cold breezes. I know it is getting cooler as my feet are starting to get cold now when we are sitting watching TV at night.
Today, the day after Thanksgiving, the wind started early and is blowing pretty good. It is supposed to be like this for about 3 days. It is still sunny, but temperatures are in the low 70's with a brisk wind. In other words we are having to wear more clothes. LOL! It's a day to relax, read a book, play some games or whatever. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
One of our neighbors are heading back to their home in Mammoth, on Monday, so another one of my neighbors suggested we gather on Friday night to have girls night out at her house. So that is what we did. We said and shared stories and likes and dislikes. We had some munchies and champagne, wine, and Tequila. We invited the guys to come join us after about 3 hours or so!! It was a fun time.
Today, Saturday there was a neuter and spade clinic in town. Two of my neighbors are involved with taking care of the dogs and cats after surgery in order to get them to wake up. I went into town to get a handful of grocery items, propane and fill our water jug for drinking. Pretty quick trip! It is really windy today and is supposed to start calming down for a couple days and then it looks like December will start off blustery.
I leave you with pictures of art I made a long time ago and thought I would share. Rock art. A whale shark which we have all summer until the end of November and a Mexican Siesta.
This is a sign made from a fan blade.
This is one of my favorites. It is a shell and sea glass candle holder. First picture is how it would look with a candle and the second is the top view so you get an idea of how big it is. Hope you enjoyed my fun made stuff.
