Inside a String Instrument

My first impression was that this was the inside of a concert hall. But then I realized it was the inside of a string instrument. I'm not sure if it's a violin, viola, cello, or a bass. 

It takes me back to the days when I used to play the violin. I'd peek inside it and see the paper label inside. I'd look at all the lines, the spacing of the tree rings, marvel at how beautiful the instrument is. 

I had no idea the inside would look this beautiful as well. I think it makes sense that it looks like a concert hall - every time you play the instrument it's like a little concert inside. I think it would be cool to design an actual concert hall to look like this. 

Cool Cat Envelope from Japan

There's so many times I think I should open a Japanese import store because of the number of cool stuffs I find in Japan. But then I figure the fact that there isn't one already means no one around here's interested. Well, maybe me plus a couple friends I know, but that would be it. 

I love shopping in Japan, there's so many stores just full of various knick-knacks. I think the ones I like the most are filled with interior decorating items. I haven't given this much thought but I imagine that due to the general lack of space in Japanese homes, women there like to choose neat items to decorate their houses with, to maximize the space they have. I think it's great to surround your life with neat things. I'd much rather spend a little extra on something I really love than to have something mundane. 

I've written so much already without talking about the cat envelope. 

This looks like it could be a pochi-bag, a bag that parents/relatives would put money in for kids for New Years. Or maybe it's not. But it's the Manekineko, the good luck welcoming cat. I love how the illustration has been framed so you don't see all of the cat even with both sides of the envelope next to each other. But you'd still know what it is if you saw the front of the front. And it's rather appropriate to have this cat, if it's got the proper hand up (although you can't see) since I imagine it would be the hand welcoming wealth. 

Melted Crayon Art

I usually talk about stuff I like but this post will be different.
I just had to get it off my chest.
I DO NOT get what the big deal is about  *melted crayon art*.

I found out about it on Pinterest and people seem to think it's sooooooooooo cool. And I sooooooooooooooo don't see what's so neat about it. To me it just seems like a big waste of crayons. Unoriginal, unimaginative.





Here's an example of a better one. It's good enough that it's been sold on Etsy.
Not bad. The melted crayon's been made to look like dark and gloomy rain. Ok.... But $79 for this? Really????? I think $8 is even asking too much, IMHO.





Then there's ones like the picture to the right where people just glue crayons to canvas or cardstock and melt the crayons with a hair dryer and they love how the wax drips down. Seriously????

Maybe it's something that I have to do to "get" it. Maybe it feels really good to watch the crayons melt down? Well too bad I don't think I'll ever find out what the appeal is. I won't be wasting a box of crayons on trying this out.

If someone reading this can enlighten me to the great appeal of melted crayon art, well... we'll see if that's possible. :-P

Locker Storage Cabinets

Seeing this brought back memories from when I was younger. I used to think it would be neat to some day have school lockers in my home to use for storage cabinets. I thought it would be cool to have it in my bedroom to keep my clothes and other things in. I think I glamorized lockers because I never had the generic lockers throughout my school years. In elementary school we had cubbies at the back of the room. In middle school and high school we had lockers but they had wooden doors and no locks. So seeing these standard issue lockers that all other American kid supposedly grew up with made me have a special place in my heart for them.

I still think it would be neat to have lockers in the house, but I'm not all tickled fancy by the thought like I once was. Guess time does that to you. :) 

More on the Bird House Key Rack

I had talked about the bird house key rack idea in an earlier post, and I found some things at a store last weekend that made me think of it again. 

I thought this bird house could be a good candidate for being used as our bird house key rack. Add some hooks to the bottom, mount on the wall. Easy Peasy. I like the orange star on it, and the size. It would come out a little from the wall though, so I wonder if you could saw it in half or more so it's only a couple inches thick. But then that might look weird.

This one isn't a bird house but it seemed to go with the theme. I like that it's already got the hooks, and you can clip pictures, notes, messages, etc to the bird cage section. This one isn't exactly my taste but I thought it was neat.

Koi Fountain

It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is a koi shaped water fountain. 

It's about 3 ft tall, so it's a good size fountain. 

Since I like koi and water, I was instantly drawn to this. 

I'm curious if this is meant for indoors or outdoors. 

I would imagine indoors, but I'd imagine you'd need quite an entrance way in your house to display this. 

I mean, where else would you put something like this? 

Just trust me, it looked neater in person.

Green Gargoyle

 I recently spent an afternoon painting pottery with a friend. There's these studios where you can go, select a piece of ceramics such as a plate, cup, or something ornamental like this gargoyle (technically a grotesque since it doesn't have a sprout), and paint it. I really enjoy doing this, and should make time to go more often. This was only my 3rd experience (aside from some minor pottery exposure in grade school.) 

The studio I went to the previous times had closed, but I was able to find another place in town. This place is only open part-time, as it is a side business run by a school art teacher. She didn't have as many varieties of items to choose from, nor as much variety in paint. I debated whether to free-hand something like a cup, or just paint something that already had form. I had tried to prepare for this visit by coming up with ideas of things to free-hand. But this grotesque was too neat to pass up. 

This is what my grotesque looked like before it got fired. Even though I was using green glaze, the grotesque looked all gray. And I was using a sea sponge to try and get a mottled effect, but I couldn't tell if that was going to come out or not. This is one of the challenges and appeals of painting pottery for me. 

And this is what my grotesque looked like after firing! It didn't come out quite as dark as I wanted. I should have done a few more layers of glaze on this. But I think it kind of looks like oxidized copper, and I like the variations in the color. 

I'm already trying to plan my next visit. What to paint next??