schickHouse

Two Flowers

Click on the link to view one of the amazing photos David created yesterday.

Odd and/or Interesting

miniature art (understatement). 

proton beam radiation.

meat water. what flavor would you pick?

contact lens jewelry.

hyper-realistic sculptor.

my dad sent me that first link. which i guess just fueled me on to meander through our bizarre world via the internet. i enjoyed my time there, but i'm glad my sphere is less disturbing, at least to me.

Chapple Butter

this past indian-summer saturday we ventured over to boehm's for their annual apple fest. we wanted to buy some of their famous chapple butter and also listen to grammy & aunt doris play in the reunited orchestra. it was all completely wonderful. and my always-serving husband even took the children home around lunch time to feed and rest them, while i stayed to listen to the second orchestra concert. (i even took my camcorder.) oh, and as a bonus, there was a caricaturist there for free! so, i now am the proud mama of four adorable little cartoons.

 

Wacky Wendy!

to prevent stir-craziness (and to spread out all mama's excitement about being back in familiar territory), we've been getting out a little each day. today we drove through refton looking for the parrot lady's place. since shelby has decided to keep a feather collection for next year's fair, i thought that'd be a place of great finds! alas, i believe the parrot shop is gone. so, on we went to the mall, which apparently is becoming much fancier than it was when i left. now, i was just hauling the clan there to check on a few items from the latest gymboree line i've been infatuated with. i parked at the bon-ton entrance since that's where we'd run into the apple store.

unsuspecting us noticed confetti outside on the sidewalk. hmmmm... upon entering we were greeted by a giant walking, waving elmo. i see... then mama noticed the spit-shined floors. this bon-ton was looking top notch. turns out that after two years of construction, this very day was their grand opening. ha! as we were making our way to the end of the store, this incredible lady caught our eye. how could she not? outfitted with red and orange platforms and an oversized black top hat with subtle rainbow stripes, was it the glint in her playful eyes behind those red-rimmed specs or the flash of her quick-cutting scissors that pulled us in? perhaps it was her entertaining banter or the colorful scraps flying about. we paused for a moment. then mama realized that God had blessed us with coming across a world-class entertainer/artist right here at the mall. to quote wacky wendy, she goes "all over the world doing this nonsense." she is a paper hat artist. she is a clay sculptor. she is henri matisse, robert sabuda, and dr. seuss all rolled into one. she is incredible. 

i know i will not be able to do her justice in this little blog, but i was just so enthralled. after we got back in the car, i told the children i think the best thing we got today from wacky wendy was inspiration. "what's ins...pir...ation?" gotta be quick on your toes with these sponges. i replied, "inspiration is getting ideas and getting excited... to make our own art." while we were waiting our turn for hats, shelby heard wendy say that she is an artist. shelby turned around quickly and flashed an excited smile at me. she already knows she is an artist. i love that. when it was shelby's turn to pose for our hat-making friend, i told wendy that shelby is an artist, too. (because shelby was a little too shy to tell her.) wendy was all excited and doted on that for a while. then she said if we could find an empty bag, she would give us all her scraps from the morning for us to make art with!!! now, most of my small pool of readers will realize that a bag full of colorful scraps of quality paper from an artist is like a bag full of columbian chocolate ice cream for grammy slice! i don't know if shelby was more excited or if mama was. 

on the way home, wacky wendy was the topic of most of our conversation. shelby wants to make a hat for wendy, put it in a box, and mail it to her. cyrus wants to dictate a thank you letter. and elle mae wants to draw a picture of wendy for her. i am so excited to help them because i think we'll be able to show wacky wendy just how wonderful she was today, giving us hats and, especially, inspiration to last for a lifetime.

For My Bros

found it at this site. it's a coaster set made out of perler beads. i know what you'll be wishing for for Christmas! ~bec.