Making Bahtoos

Many years ago, when Princess Buttercup was a small tyke, there was a toy turtle that said,
"Bahtoo, Bahtoo, Bahtoo, as it walked and hence forth turtles became known as "Bahtoo".
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Grampy woke up in the middle of the night with the idea to make turkeys out of styrofoam balls and assorted other objects. Then a few nights later, it was the idea to make Bahtoos out of styrofoam eggs. Who knows what he will think of next??

Christmas Wrapping

When you don't have enough wrapping paper what can you do? Paint!
Princess Buttercup helped me paint the cardboard box containing her parents Christmas present.
I just thought we would do a tree, but she wanted to add a Santa, and then walls and floor. The next time she is here, she wants to paint Mother, Father and kids in bed waiting for Santa on the other side of the box.

Fat Belly Boy

I recently had the opportunity to spend 4 days with the wonderfully creative,
talented, and original Ankie Daanen making my own version of her "Fat Belly Boy".
Ankie traveled from Spain to Ryebrook, NY where she guided us through the steps of
sculpting, painting, and costuming our dolls.

Ankie's original Fat Belly Boy.

When we arrived at the home of our hostess, Barbi,
we were greeted with hugs, coffee in our personalized mug,
and our own work area set up and ready to go.

We started with the body of our doll.

Then came the hands.

And then the head.

After sculpting, the dolls agreed to a group photo.

Then it was time to paint the features on the face.

After painting, the head and hands lined up for a coat of varnish.

And then the fun began as each of us costumed our doll
and watched their individual personalities come alive.

Diane's Doll

Becky's Doll

Deb's Doll

Clare's Doll

Barbi's Doll

Cookie's Doll

Margot's Doll

Alina's Doll

My Doll.

Halloween Weekend

Happy Halloween

This leaf was outside our front door and looked just
like a Halloween mask waiting to be snatched up
and worn for the day.

Trick or Treaters were greeted with three friendly ghosts,

and one smiling pumpkin.

Another friendly ghost and smiling pumpkins were hiding
at the back door.

On Halloween morning, The Princess worked on a Michael Albert
style collage to pass the time while waiting for trick or treating to begin.

The finished "doggy" collage.

PaPa Bear rakes leaves while The Princess
inspects a wiggly worm.

The "Bag Lady" joined in the festivities.

And it wouldn't be Halloween without the Haunted Graveyard
that our neighbors started a few years ago.

The Princess and the Queen inspected the cage to see
what was inside. Oh, rats!!

The Royal Family scurries away.

Last Flowers of Summer

Last Flowers of Summer

Family ATC Swap

This is our 3rd family ATC swap.
The theme this time was "The Sea".
And we had a surprise addition to our group.


Our 4 year old granddaughter,
the newest member of our group, created this ATC.

Both of my daughters created mermaids.
This one was done by my youngest daughter.

And this one was done by oldest daughter.

My youngest sister created this collage.

My oldest sister did a photoshop sketch.

I used 4 different mediums to create my Nautilus ATC.
I included an excerpt from The Chambered Nautilus by
Oliver Wendell Holmes.