Back from Kansas

I made it back from teaching in Kansas last weekend. I was at Mrs. O'Leary's http://www.mrsolearysart.com/ in Wichita. The first photo is the front of the store and the other one is the back. Love the sign below. It's on the wall in the back. The store is in a great area of downtown Wichita. All the old buildings are wonderful to see. The area is called Old Town.

Here are a few shots from inside the store. Lots and lots of nerchandise to see and buy!

This is a holiday area with ribbons, stamps and great samples for Christmas.

This is the tool area. Jewelry tools, torches, bench block, copper tape, hammers etc..

Joni (the owner) was working on stamping dominoes to take to a show in Houston, TX this week.

Magazines and paper galore!

There is a great section of beads to pick from. That is what is in this area. Below the table are plastic containers filled with beads.

Lucious colors of sari ribbon and fibers.

Lots of ball chain bracelets and necklaces.

They have a wonderful selection of color copies of art to pick from.

I loved this old cabinet of drawers. Each drawer is labeled with what is inside. Knobs, charlotte dolls, rhinestone buckles etc..

There are colorful shirts to buy too!

All kinds of speciality ribbons as well as regular type ones.

This area is like a soda fountain. They have popcorn, bottled drinks and candy to buy.

This is a vinette I thought was great! Love the bottles!

This is at the front of the store on the right side of  the front door. The merchandile area where several people have items to sell like antiques, finished jewelry they have made and altered things.

This is on the left side of the front door. Lots of soldered jewelry Joni has made to sell.

Look at all the letter charms!!

This is VERY clevor! Taking a suitcase and making a shelf out of it.

Colored dominoes.

These next two photos are some art on the wall in the hallway of the store. I am not sure who made them but they are fabulous.

This is the bar that Joni and Mark own. The Brickyard. This is the front door outside, down just a little from the front door of the store. It leads into the outside bar area. There is an inside area also, but I did not get any photos of it. It's really large inside as well as outside in the yard. The photos below are of the outside open area. The building was an old casket factory. It is huge!

Upstairs above the store is two aprtments and the level above that is for storage. There are four levels I believe. The bar is on the lower level. It is really cool and Mark is a top notch cook! We had hamburgers and pizza on Sunday for lunch. YUM YUM!!

I took the photos outside the fence on the street and alley.

Lightpost downtown naming the area.

 One of their customers (Ronda http://www.myartfulnest.blogspot.com/) painted these two murals on the windows in the back of the store. Aren't they great?

This is Yeager the store cat. He is so beautiful but be careful when petting him. When he gets tired of you he tries to scratch you!

My friend Mary and I had a great time teaching at the store. My students did wonderful jobs on their projects in class and I made some new friends. Joni and Mark and their daughter Faron are great hosts. I hope to come back next year and teach again. Check out their blog http://wwwmrsolearysart.blogspot.com/

I will post at another time about my tour of Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City. We stopped in there on the way up to Kansas. Plus I did take some photos during my classes at Mrs. O'Leary's, so I will post those later too. Have a great rest of the week everyone!

More Halloween

This cute guy is outside and I forgot to take a photo of him last week. Patti painted him and he was her swap at the Banders meeting at my house last Sunday. She did a great job on him!

My other Art group meeting was last Wednesday evening at Joyce's house. This is Rosalyn's swap item. She got wooden churches used for birdhouses at probably Hobby Lobby and then decorated them up! Love It!!

This whimsical card is Joyce's swap. It says "wear it well". The scary pumpkin is Mary's swap. It is mounted on a canvas and has a bird on top. Wonderful ideas!!

The project we were to work on that evening was from a book by Judy Wise and Stephanie Lee. The book is working on plaster and wax. I can't remember the title at the moment but it is a great book. Check it out if you have not seen it. I took a board and spread joint compound on it. Then made marks in it with stamps, bubble wrap, a comb and round lid. Let it dry overnight then painted it with watered down acrylic paint. Let that dry and added another light layer of joint compound. More paint then put latex paint (white) on it and heated it up with a propane torch. Bubbles appeared and burst. I sanded everything then added gel medium to seal then black acrylic paint in the cracks. Sealed again with gel medium. Not sure if I totally like it yet. The gel medium sorta looks like wax when it dried.

I took some photos of my Halloween decorations around the house. I got this great mask at Target!

This is in a vase on my kitchen table. The two wand I made for swaps this and last year and the cat is a project from Paper Cowgirl Wicked Tea http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/ last year.

This also sits on my kitchen table.

Love the little pumpkins and the bottle brush tree. You can see the back of a cat paper doll behind the tree. I should have taken a photo of it. It is really cute. My friend Sammie made it. Not sure whose stamp she used though. But the arms and legs move.

Black tree with Stamp n Up stamped circles on it.

I made this card several years ago. Love the pumpkin cup. His eyes jiggle.

My husband loves this cat! I bought him in Georgia a long time ago when visiting a friend there one Fall. He came from a grocery store there. How funny! His fiber optics change colors. I made the eyes in the white pumpkin. It's lighted also but you probably can't tell from the photo.

My cute little BOO letters Donna J made me! The bat has a new friend this year. We made the cat this time at one of my art group meetings. The bat was from last year. Wonder what Traci will come up with for us to do next year? LOL

I have forgotten where I saw this idea of the lace on the pumpkins. I made it several years ago too.

This is a new wreath this year. My friend Carla got it for me. I need to put lights on the mantel to help make it show up better. I added the crow to the wreath. He is hard to see in the photo but sits inside on the bottom.

Got this little girl at Canton, I think last year.

These guys came from Canton too. Except the owl. He is from Michael's. All of this is on the fireplace mantle.

I have a few other decorations around the house but these are the main things. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!! I am going to be sitting at home eating pizza and watching The Exorcist. I have not seen that movie in years! Hope I don't get to scared!!! LOL

Art Group Meeting Swaps

 I hosted the October Banders meeting at my house this past weekend. Of course Halloween was the theme. I have to use all the Halloween serving dishes I have at least once a year! Love this holiday!!

 I ordered cupcakes from a local bakery we have here in Rowlett. It's called Brendals http://www.brendalscakes.com/ . They make really good cupcakes! Red velvet, chocolate, wedding cake, lemon and other flavors. To die for!!

 This was the project we did. Mary helped get it all together for me. Bless her! The pumpkin image came from Olive Rue http://www.etsy.com/shop/OliveRue?ref=ss_profile . This shop has really great images to use for all kinds of projects. Just order and take them into your graphics program to resize. I printed them on t-shirt transfer paper and we ironed them on the linen like fabric bags I sewed up. Stuffed them with rock salt that Mary added lavender oil to. So they smelled lovely.

 The hostess gift and swaps I received were wonderful. This graveyard scene was made by Suzy. You can't see from the photo but it lights up and she added items like a witch and mice to the windows. You could see them when the light is on through the windows. Really cool! She made a good box for me to store it in too!

 The painted pumpkin can is by Mary and it had pencils, stickles and dipped pretzels in it. She also made the crow sculpture. Covered boxes with paper and added the crow on top with moss at his feet and berries. Love the rosettes around his neck! His is so whimsical!

 Jeanne bless her! She did not make it to the meeting because she was out of town but sent this with one of the girls. It's one of her masonite cut outs. she added stickles glitter to the pumpkins eyes and I love the bag! Barbara made the bracelet. Cute!! She had on a skull bead bracelet and necklace I wish I had gotten a photo of. They were very interesting and great colors on the skulls.

 This is a fabric hat and wooden BOO letter blocks by Donna J. I love them. She gave me a few years back blocks that say NEST. I can add these to my collection of word letter blocks. She did a great job on the hat too.

Carol made the web purse. lovely fabric for the purse and the little ball pull has beads sewn on it. Olga did a fantastic job on the Day of the Dead skull. Very detailed artwork.

It was a great time had by all. Lots of wonderful friendships we have in this group. I appreciate them all coming out to my house to eat and mingle.