WEEKEND ART BY Nina

For the next few weeks its all about critters...

recent creations in the studio

My latest hair color. No more light blonde and no more brunette. I have found a happy medium and love the reddish tinge.

I made these blinds out of the annoying credit cards that the credit companies keep sending me.. I attached them together with paper clips :)

Creating art has always kept me out of trouble. Well, most of the time. Here are some masks I recently made out of 'sculpey". I used goat horns to create the "unicorn look"...

WEEKEND ART BY Nina

Well that's it for architecture art. Next week I will start with animal art........

WEEKEND ART By Nina

barn series, Alberta

homestead, Alaska

school house, Michigan

shack in Georgia

old weathered barn, Alberta, Canada

WEEKEND ART By Nina

the Alamo - San Antonio, Texas

Mission style schoolhouse, Texas

Alaska cabin

Alberta grain elevators

WEEKEND ART By Nina

its all about buildings....

Opossum queen: Texas trapper :)

I caught this little booger last night. Poor thing had some nose injury from trying to get out of the trap. It not the same one as last time. Very young, almost cute. I think I have a colony under my house.

opossum
Main Entry:
opos·sum
Pronunciation:
\(ə-)ˈpä-səm\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural opossums also opossum
Etymology:
earlier apossoun, opassom, Virginia Algonquian, from Algonquian *wa·p- white + *-aʔθemw- dog
Date:
1610
1: any of a family (Didelphidae) of American marsupials that usually have a pointed snout and prehensile tail; especially : a common omnivorous largely nocturnal mammal (Didelphis virginiana) of North America that has grayish to blackish fur with white on the cheeks and is an expert climber2: any of several Australian phalangers

WEEKEND ART By Nina

"StINkY dAmN pOsSuM" this is post #100!

OK, I have had way too many critters under my house this summer. I have lattice around the base of the house and about a 12-16" crawl space in certain areas... so many living things can break through the lattice and LURK.

My friend Truvey lent me a TRAP the other day. I set it 2 nights ago and trapped what turned out to be a very pissed off local stray cat.

Last night I trapped a POSSUM! This is one of the weirdest creatures I've seen. Its rather like a hybrid of all rodents rolled into one grinning, gnashing, gruesome, and forboding little beast.

This morning I had to rush to work so I put the possum in my hutch so that he could have water for the day, and tonight I am releasing him to the wild. If only I knew someone who cooked "coon ass" food. I have heard possum meat is OK, kinda greasy.

So this evening I e mailed Lynn about my experience and she emailed me this recipe. I am hungry as I write this but not too-too hungry :)

Life is never dull at 109.

By the way, the possum doesn't have a mustache. On his nose you see what is actually a chicken feather.

Uncle daddy's southern possum stew

Yield: 1 servings
Possum
Dumplings
Sweet potatoes
Onions
Salt
After hunting with a lantern in your hand all night, take the possum you have bagged and break his neck by putting your foot on the possum's head and pulling up on his tail. Use boiling water to scald Brother Possum. In a large pan, dress the animal by pulling out those hairs on him. When all is well done, cut Brother Possum into four parts. Add salt and boil the meat until tender. Make your dumplings and add them slowly to the boiling meat. After the possum has boiled about an hour, put the parts into a baking dish. Peel sweet potatoes and slice them thick. Place the slices in the pan around the pieces of possum. Add onions if desired. Bake for 1 hour. This is a Sunday dinner for 12 people with the dumplings.

happiness is...

An armload of buff orphies.... Today I bought 4 buff orphingtons for my coop. They are my favorite kind of chicken - big, buff and fluffy! Of course, Diamond dog is totally neurotic over the new arrivals. She always does this. I think I need to call Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer. Diamond screeches and howls over new chickens for about 3 weeks. I have to keep her in the house a lot. Soon, this annoying attitude will get out of her system. I hope.

heidi and I

FINALLY I look like an actress. Or rather I looked like Heidi Hills more than 20 years ago when I was 25. This is Heidi.

THIS IS ME at 25

WEEKEND ART By Nina

These are a little early for my weekend art post - but now I have to work weekends!

ENJOY!

MY table

I just finished painting designs all over this little 36" diameter table... It took weeks but it was fun thing to do every evening for 1/2 hour. I am not sure what to do with it other than have it has an art piece. Maybe I'll sell it to some gyspy on Ebay who tells fortunes/tarot or reads palms :)

WEEKEND ART BY NINA

........for those who appreciate the maritime life! ....................

a world wide web

nothing like a spectacular weave! I found this web in my back yard... ran out with the camer and a black piece of cardboard to offset it!

weekend art by Nina

Finally finally, I got my camera hooked up today and am still figuring out the software. THIS is fresh art. I just drew this darling starling for Truvey's birthday next week.
Leroy came over today with files of pix to download on my computer. Since I lost all my pix and Leroy and I have shared the last 7 years (so many festivals and parties!) many memories have been resurrected! REMEMBER always copy your files to an extra disc! I didn't but thanks Leroy for bringing back my memories!
MORE next week!

JULY memories

July is a weird month. We had 22 days of rain here in S.Texas in June, and its almost as bad in July... I have never seen so much rain. The Brazos river is 2 blocks from me & has a very high bank on my side but is starting to crest on the other side. It hasn't been a great summer. I truly believe the global warming is here to stay... ice caps are melting more, rivers are over flowing, and more rain in certain areas.

I am still working at the home depot. If I can stay there a year I can do anything. For good survival retail work ya have to be people savvy, patient, positive, take abuse (as in tolerating bullshit and not complaining) clean, efficient, smart on the computer, fast and good at multi tasking.

July memories:

July 1997 - I left my husband in Canada and immigrated back to the US. My mom was dying of brain cancer and I became her caregiver for 10 months. Her death was hard to take.... After a vicious brain surgery, she reverted into a child and her life flickered like a dying candle flame for many months. We had fun while we could, drank tea, went to cafes... & played lots of scrabble. I also became a new single Mom during this time. Tough years 1997-98. I have not remarried but stranger things can happen.

July 2002 - in July 02, 4 months after my dad died of liver cancer... I bought a dumpy house in an old treed area of Richmond, Texas. Richmond is the 3rd oldest town in Texas. I knew the house had potential. I took out a home equity loan and paid a good carpenter friend to do a full renovation. It took 7 months but I am still living here as an independent woman.

Soon, in AUGUST I will start posting my personal art work every Sunday.
See ya then!