I Did A Thing

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This month 5 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My “Secret Subject” is:

It’s a mystery . . .

It was submitted by: https://Bakinginatornado.com

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It's a mystery to me why I never allowed myself to paint or to draw. I contended for years that I could fuck up a stick figure and then I got into pins. Enamel pins. 

I couldn't find a particular pin I wanted--a frankenstein and Bob Belcher mashup--so I decided to try to research how to design it and get it made myself. And I did. I drew him up. I drew his wife Linda as the Bride. And I sent them in for a pin design, made some online shops, and apparently created something that a lot of people didn't know they needed until they saw it. Since then I've added a few more designs that I've drawn myself, and when I started using my cat to help me advertise, it turned into some themes and cosplays that helped me flex my drawing muscles even more. Every time we do a new character I get to draw something to add to the photo series--another character or a prop. 

And then 2020 happened. I was wholly unprepared for the mental toll that a pandemic would have on me. I started drawing more. I started doing quick fixes at home painting things that needed touch ups and trying to make the surroundings I were stuck in easier to look at. 

I cleaned some cabinets out and found an old ceramic piece of my aunt's that I had never displayed. I've spoken of her before in relation to trauma because she died when I was young. My grandparents had offered her money to lose weight so she had gastric surgery and ultimately died of a brain aneurysm puking from the side effects of the procedure. And then despite being responsible in part for her death, they did the same to me as a young adult. I took some of her things for my apartment after that...I had a morbid connection to her in death that I'd never had in life. Those things stayed with me through good times and bad for a couple decades now or nearly. I decided to paint over the old glaze and make it something I didn't hide in the cabinet like I did with all those memories. 

It was plain gray and black before

It looked amazing. To me at least. And my brain got so many good feels from painting and creating that there have been a bunch more painting projects since--a dresser, cabinet doors, my entertainment stand doors, hiders for my window a/c, a whole mini-mural on my wall, a redone lamp, fixtures in my bathroom, a drink crate turned shadow box... There have been so many the last few months keeping my mind busy when the anxiety and the cabin fever take over. 

It helps. It's not therapy but therapy? In this economy? Ha. Ok.

I had convinced myself that I wasn't or would never be as good as others when it came to this particular craft so why try. Why bother. I'm not a perfectionist, so why would I ever deny myself something that would bring me so much joy out of fear that it wouldn't be good enough? Good enough for who? I'm going to post these pics with the full understanding that this isn't probably anyone else's taste, not people who read this blog. But the mystery is solved. I don't give a shit, and I'm going to do what makes me happy instead of being hesitant to take the leap because I'm not as good as someone else. 

I sculpted and painted the horns

Dresser with skull knobs

My kid says these look like sleeping vampires (there are 3) on

Haunted saloon for my cats

Halloween figures I repainted

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Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornadohttps://www.BakingInATornado.com

Part-time Working Hockey Momhttps://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/

The Crazy Mama Llamahttps://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Wandering Web Designerhttps://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

That Lamp Really Ties the Room Together

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week 14 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. 

My “Secret Subject” is:

Tell us about something that you have either repurposed or something that you’re currently using but could see repurposing in the future when you’re done with it.

It was submitted by: http://Bakinginatornado.com 

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One of the things I like to do most in all the world is get up early on the weekend (early for me) and go hunt for treasures and old vinyl at thrift and vintage shops. Maybe the flea market. I can buy pretty much any record I want or find any particular treasure I may be looking for on the Internet, but sometimes you don’t know you need something until you spy it sitting there on the shelf or in the bin in all its dusty glory beaming at you from its spot and beckoning to you with promises of imperfections and just the right amount of quirk. Something clicks and you just know it has to come home with you. Sometimes I’m even like that with new records. You go digging through racks when you see some miraculously in a store and next thing you know, you are 100 bucks in the hole and 4 more records have been added to your collection. It’s black (and sometimes colored) circular magic of the sort that begs to be bought calling to you with its siren song of nearly orgasmic pleasure and who are you to refuse such magic? 

I, for one, know that refusal is absurd.

It was sort of like that the day I found the bowling pin 

in my favorite vintage warehouse. That’s right… I said warehouse. You can’t see it all in just one trip and the best part is that by the next time you go, so much has been added that you fail to see everything again. No two trips are ever the same even if you go 13.45 days in a row.

So there I was scanning dusty shelves, turning over boxes, checking prices, and getting lost in nostalgic bliss filled with plastic 90s lunchbox dreams when I saw it. It was just a regular bowling pin to the untrained eye. But for me, it begged to be brought home and, under my careful creator's vision, turned into something amazingly necessary.

But what?

Décor?

A bookend?

A pair of bookends if I find another?

A doorstop?

A lamp?

A fucking lamp.

That.

Is.

Genius.

It was rather genius actually. See, my favorite movie in all the world is The Big Lebowski. Jeff Bridges as The Dude living a serene life of Creedence, White Russians, and weed is about as iconic

as it gets, and I have to admit he is a bit of an idol of mine. Who else could deal with kidnapped trophy wives, cut off toes, harassing policemen, wrecked cars, fucking strangers in the ass, a batshit crazy converted Jew with PTSD, marmots, fucking nihilists, porn, and a pissy rug with such decorum? In the midst of insanity, I want to be able to drink my beverage, man, and to look someone dead in the eye with the calmest of demeanors, my hair partially pulled back to stay out of my drink and say, “This aggression will not stand.” The Dude, El Duderino, His Dudeliness… The man is a testament to appreciating the little things in life and letting go of all the bullshit around you. And I can dig it. So, it’s no wonder one of the first things that popped into my mind when I saw the bowling pin was The Dude himself, the avid bowler and Eagles hater, and that infamous scene where he dives between the lovely legs of some lady bowlers to enjoy the view.

The film itself is a Coen Brothers cult classic that sort of left the critics in shock after the gritty and violent Fargo the previous year. Lebowski had all the portentousness, wit, and quirkiness that the Coen brothers bring to every film they make, but it lacked the violent overtones and splashes of gore. I mean, Fargo did feature a murder by wood chipper scene after all. In place of those, we got a peace loving bowling enthusiast flanked by a weird-looking underdog and an over zealous ball of fury. In a way the two films juxtaposed one another. Fargo seems to be a commentary on the failings of the American Dream in small town USA or perhaps what that dream might look like to the different archetypes found in the middle of nowhere, in Bumfuck. The lengths one man will go to find some modicum of success and the finer things as interpreted by his bumpkin idea of culture is exaggerated as are the accents and the characters, but they still tell an all too familiar story to anyone who knows the struggle of how differently things work in poverty stricken Nowhereville. The story is manic and driven and all about the depths of depravity. In contrast, The Dude is the story in Lebowski. The plot jumps and hems and haws along with very little actual storytelling, but that's not a bad thing. The significance lies with the characters, with the distinct message that no matter how much shit gets thrown your way, you ask for some Kahlua, man, and you let it ride. You still have a hot bath to soak in with a bit of weed and a beverage at the end of the day.

I abide.

And so there are some very distinct Lebowski features in my living room decked out with its movie theme with this repurposed bowling pin lamp being a bit of pride and joy for me especially since I made it by hand. And if you don’t like it… well, that’s just like your opinion, man.

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Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

http://www.BakingInATornado.com Baking In A Tornado

http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com/ The Bergham Chronicles

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/ Spatulas on Parade

http://www.thediaryofanalzheimerscaregiver.com/ The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver

http://dinoheromommy.com/ Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://www.southernbellecharm.com Southern Belle Charm

http://notthatsarahmichelle.blogspot.com Not That Sarah Michelle

http://www.angrivatedmom.wordpress.com/ The Angrivated Mom

http://batteredhope.blogspot.com Never Ever Give Up Hope

http://mybrainonkids.net My Brain on Kids

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/ Confessions of a part time working mom

http://thelieberfamily.com The Lieber Family Blog

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com Someone Else’s Genius

Ask Me About My Crafts

Today is Secret Subject Swap day! This month 14 bloggers have signed up for the Swap challenge. We each submit prompts ahead of time which are distributed and handed out about 2 weeks before the post date. None of us know who got which prompt until today when we all sit down to read and comment and discover it all at the same time. So, sit back and enjoy a cuppa whatever you love and enjoy the adventure. There will be links to all the other blogs who participated at the end. 

My “Secret Subject” is:

March is National Craft month. Are you a crafty person? What have you created in the past, or what would you like to create?

It was submitted by: http://thelieberfamily.com

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Crafty.

Without trying to sound completely full of myself, I am one crafty bitch--in every sense of the word.

Craftiness, of course, has several meanings. Clever, accomplishing goals by sly methods, creating objects, decorative or otherwise, by hand. Yes, yes, and yes. I am, indeed, pretty crafty.

Craftiness of every sort is probably one of the main things I picked up from my mom growing up. If something was broken, she would take it apart to figure out what was wrong and try her damnedest to get it back together and working. If she wanted something, more often than not, she would make it herself—like the doghouse she built for our Australian Shepherd Katie and the picnic table that lived under the pecan trees in the front yard. She was also pretty fucking handy with a hot glue gun and some fake rosettes. She still has a hat she decorated years ago with said rosettes and some lace ribbon hanging on a wall in her living room.

I’ve been known to invoke the power of craftiness a time or two in my day much like my mom before me. I’m responsible for the décor in my house from the paint on the walls to the colors of the frames that hold my records, band flyers, and pop culture themed prints. I have a Cyndi Lauper album in a frame I sprayed with black glittered paints as well as a wisteria purple color because doesn’t that seem fitting for the girl who just wants to have fun? I also have a knack for lamp creating. In my living room, I have a lamp I created out of a bowling pin (The Big Lewbowski) and an antique I bought in a thrift store that I rewired and turned into a High Fidelity themed piece. For my room, I took a lamp I found at Goodwill and used old record inserts to decorate the lamp shade. I plan on using a small cable roll to make a Johnny Cash themed lamp for the other bedside table next. It’s going to be quite an involved project, but I have faith I’ll get it done. I’ve also turned my tv stand doors and my all my living room tables into collages of movie images and covers. In my kitchen, I’ve really gone for a mid-century décor and have been able to replace my light fixtures with vintage pieces as well as doing some small touches like covering my light switch plates with vintage mushroom style shelf liner (my kitchen has tons of vintage mushroom décor as is). I've been known to make a pretty tasty cupcake and definitely some delicious cheesecakes of all types. My favorite so far was a pumpkin cheesecake covered in homemade salted caramel dip. And to top it all off, I make my kid's and my own Halloween costumes every year either using already made pieces as a base or starting from scratch.

I’m not quite as crafty as others. I’m certainly no Pinterest mom. I don’t make yogurt from my own vaginal secretions like that one woman or scrapbook every memory (though I’m often envious of people who have the time and energy to do so). I’m not so clever that I could fashion a life saving, bomb shelter from a few toilet paper rolls and my own bras like an alternative culture, huge boob having, non-mulleted MacGyver. But let’s face it, that’s alright because my bras are their own bomb shelters anyway. I’ll save you all.

And, of course, if you're one of those people who thinks it counts, I craft with words. Some of the things I've posted on this blog in the last year are some of my most prized examples of crafting, in fact. I'd like to think the places and feelings I create with with words would rival even Pinterest projects. 

 

White Russian cupcakes

Zombie Angus Young

Red Riding Hood took down the Wolf

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That's my Swap. Hope you enjoyed it! As promised, here are the links to the rest of the participants: 

http://www.BakingInATornado.com                          Baking In A Tornado

http://stacysewsandschools.blogspot.com/                        Stacy Sews and Schools

http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com                      The Bergham’s Life Chronicles

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com                          Spatulas on Parade

http://dinoheromommy.com/                            Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://themomisodes.com                                          The Momisodes

http://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com                      Climaxed

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com                       Someone Else’s Genius

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch               Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://thelieberfamily.com                                            The Lieber Family

http://www.southernbellecharm.com                            Southern Belle Charm

http://singlemumplusone.blogspot.com                           Searching for Sanity

http://sparklyjenn.blogspot.com                                  Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

http://www.smalltalkmama.com                                Small Talk Mama