Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Halloween Ghost Lights

I finished my usual Halloween goodies for my three nieces just in time this year.  Right after I finished, I came down with the COLD FROM HELL as I've been calling it.  I hadn't had a cold in over three years but this one has been a real doozy.  I guess it's making up for the years I missed.  Ick.    Anyway, I had finished making these cute little Halloween Ghost-A-Glow ghosts and packed them along with tubes of mini M&Ms and Halloween cards for Ava, Bailey and Taylor  -- my three favorite little people.  

The pattern was pretty easy.  It's free from Red Heart and can be found here.  These are crocheted and it's pretty much a type of Amigurumi.  Here's a pic of my three after I finished them.  

My ghost lights.

 Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent pic of what they look like when the battery operated lights inside them are turned on.  You get the idea from this picture from Red Heart:

Courtesy of Red Heart site.


They actually put out a pretty good glow in a dark window.  Hope the girls like them.

With this darned cold, I've lost a week of recording time although I finally felt like doing some editing.  Glad I had so much already in the can because, even though I feel much better, you can still hear the cold in my voice.  Grrr...  I have two books and a short story I want to have finished by the end of November.  This will free me up for the month of December to concentrate on the holidays.   

Saturday, October 17, 2015

FIVE BY FIVE Art Event at the Tampa Museum of Art



Last night, George, Linda, Duane, and I attended an art event to benefit the Arts Council of Hillsborough County’s individual artist programs.  This is the fourth year the event has been held but the first time any of us had attended.  George and Duane both donated art.  George sent two of his photographs and Duane donated a painting.  The rules for this event are basically that the art must by 5" x 5" in size and if it's three dimensional, the depth can't be over 5 inches.  There is no entry fee for the artists who donate and each artist may donate up to two pieces.  Each piece of art is priced at $25 and the artist is not known to the buyer until after it's been purchased.  Admittance is free to contributing artists and is $10 per person for everyone else. 


Duane and George -- our two artistes.

Since this was our first year of involvement in this event, we discovered the hard way that you need to get there early -- well before the 8pm opening -- and stand in line for the doors to open.  Because the art was available to view online, I'm sure many people had their hearts set on certain pieces.  I know I did but the place was literally packed by the time we got there -- at almost 9pm.  Duane's son had been there before it opened and he said the line was very long and you could barely get up close to see the art due to a crush of people craning their necks to see what they wanted to purchase.   Because I'm short and a bit claustrophobic in crowds, I'm not sure how I would handle that.  It was still very crowded when we went in despite many of the pieces having been sold.  Have to wait and see next year.

Happily, both of George's photos and Duane's painting sold.  Here are their entries:

UT by George Howlett



   

Wig by George Howlett


 
Gulls over choppy water by Duane K. Reigel

You can't tell from these pics but Duane's painting was a bit three dimensional.  It consisted of drywall with drywall mud, acrylic paint, and seagulls made of blank card catalog card stock.  (She just knew those cards would come in handy someday...)

Duane and I each purchased art, too.  I bought two photographs.  Here they are:

The Old Window by Neil Sperling
Optical Theatre by Stephanie Schulte

Duane's purchase was fairly thick and was described as 'felted eco print.'   Here are two pics to give you an idea of the size and texture:

Flirt of Fall by Barbara Kazanis
Duane holding Flirt of Fall -- a thick piece

We're really looking forward to next year's show.  It's such a great cause and a wonderful opportunity to purchase art at a very low price while benefiting working artists.  I don't know who purchased George's UT pic but I did speak with the woman who bought the Wig picture.  She's a gallery owner in Tampa so we know it's going to a nice place.  I should also mention that entries were welcome from all over the world, not just locally.  I think my favorite part was not knowing who the artist was and just selecting a piece because I liked it.  I tend to purchase art that way, anyway, and we found out after our purchases were made.  There was an alphabetical list of the artists and their locations on the FIVE BY FIVE homepage.  Also, all of the artists in attendance wore special stickers like Duane and George are wearing in the picture above. 

'Til next year!