Bee Balm

I felt like the Bumble Beezle needed something, she looked incomplete.  Or as Debbi would say "unresolved."  She needed a little oomph.  Some addition that would build her narrative and give her context.  That idea took root and bloomed. 

The grass tuft, stem, and flower center are made from polymer clay, the petals from a silk flower. I inked the petals up a bit.    

Bulletin Bored? Try this.

The bulletin board over my studio desk was so beat up and fugly, I was sick of looking at it. I almost threw it in the yard sale pile.  But then I thought: hmm, I have some of that wonderful Tula Pink charm pack left and some decoupage medium. A couple hours later here's what it looked like.  No way it's going in the yard sale now.

And here are a two sculpts I'm working on, now re-energized by my colorful inspiration board:

This is my first attempt at sculpting something humanish.  Her head is Sculpey, the up-do is paperclay painted with watercolor.  Still working out the body.  So far its a Diet Coke bottle, one of those miniature glass ones that are so cute.

This is a Sculpey Bumble Beezle.  I used very high speed film to capture her in flight.  Thinking about adding a flower for her to hover over.  Gonna let it sit a while and ferment first.  This was the first piece where I used wire armature for the legs-- that's how I got the bend in them. I think more flying Beezles are in my future.

Pop Goes the Beezle Give Away

I know, I fall off the grid. Go dark. Wander off the reservation and don't blog for weeks then twice in one night.  Some call me inconsistent and unreliable, I prefer spontaneous and unpredictable!  

I've been spending all my available time toiling away in the studio cranking out bunches of Beezles.  I have the cracked cuticles to prove it and everything.  Here's a sneak peak at some stuff I've been working on....

An unbaked head in progress.

A baked head being fitted for atennae.

Some thimble-sized goody buckets to fill with teeny-weeny candy.  

Now, I'd like you to meet Nikolai: a Vampire-Beezle-in-the-Box.  He vants to come live with you. He's actually not at all dangerous, despite his Nosferatu fangs.  His collar and sleeves are cut from real leather. His head and hands are made from paper clay. I stamped his fabric body with the signature Beezle x.

Nikolai likes long flights after dark, sleeping in till after sundown, and type A positive women. Turn offs are wooden stakes, garlic breath and daylight.  Think you might be a match?  Well here's your chance to find out.

I'm going to give him away to one lucky follower.  

Here's the deal - if you are already follow my blog, you are automatically entered in the contest. If you're not a subscriber and would like a chance at winning Nikolai, then for Beezle Pete's sake: subscribe!  Just join in the right hand margin under "Mixed Maniacs" or add www.praterposte.blogspot.com to your blog reader.  I always love your comments, but to enter the drawing you have to follow, ok?  Cyber-stalk me.  Here's more info on following if you need it.

In a week or six (kidding, kidding, just a little blog humor there, ha ha, it won't be six weeks, five maybe, but six?) I will chose a winner at random.  

The first time I did something like this was in honor of my 100th post and I shipped the blog candy all the way to Norway.  For my 200th I gave away a copy of Mixed Mania.  However, considering the infrequency with which I've been posting I may not hit 300 before I'm too old and arthritic to type, so might as well give something away while I can still point and click.

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!  Promise to fill you in on the mystery Beezles soon.  I know, a real cliff hanger, try to cope. 

Greeks Bearing Feta. And Fabric.

My mom, Barbara, aka World's Greatest Cook and honorary Greek, won a recipe contest!  We are so proud of her, but to those of us who have dined at her table, this is no big surprise. My mom can look into a near empty fridge and whip up something fabulous.  It was hardly fair for the other mere-mortals who competed. 

Having mastered many Italian and Greek Delights, Mom even took some Cordon Bleu classes back in the day.   While other kids were eating sloppy joes and mac n cheese and fish sticks - the Karounos kids were dining on homemade Chicken Kiev.  In the 70s ok?  You couldn't drive over to the warehouse club and get them frozen back then.  That is unless you were driving Michael J. Fox's Delorean and time traveled forward a couple decades to Costco. But then you would have had to have known about a movie that hadn't been made yet and it all gets very Mobius Strip-y and circular and self-reflexive and none of that has anything to do with Chicken Kiev.  Look.  The point is Mom was ahead of her time cuisine-wise and we ate really well, ok?

Anyway, (try to focus here, will you people?) there were over 100 entries -- the winner is pictured above and looking cute as a button in her red capri pants, wearing the glasses we gave her for Mother's Day. She was awarded a gift certificate AND..................wait for it.......her Athenian Pasta recipe added to the menu!

The chef added shrimp to Mom's recipe, but for those of you looking for a great vegetarian dish, especially during Lent, here's her original formula for Athenian Pasta.

1 lb. angel hair pasta (prepare in pot as directed on package)

Use a large frying pan to prepare the following ingredients:

1 Pkg (10 oz) ready to use (cut and clean) fresh spinach

1 lge can of petite diced tomatoes incl. liquid

1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese

2 tbsp. grated Romano cheese

1/4 cup pitted Calamata olives (for that unique touch)

2 small cloves of crushed garlic

salt, pepper and basil, olive oil

Sauté garlic in olive oil, add pkg. of fresh spinach and cook until limp (drain some of the liquid from frying pan)

Add diced tomatoes to pan and stir to mix

Lightly salt to taste, pepper, sprinkle basil and grated cheese over mixture

Cook down (about 15 minutes), then add Feta cheese, Romano cheese & quartered (pitted) Calamata olives

Stir, leaving feta not completely melted

Add mixture to cooked pasta and blend

Serve with more feta and Romano sprinkled over pasta and spinach mixture

Ok, now that your tummies are full, how about a feast for the eyes?  Something to satisfy your creative hunger?  And this second course is still in keeping with the Greek theme - some hot mezes, if you will.  Heck, this is like saganaki hot, only without the cheese. Or the singed hair.

Vintage Cate, or YiaYia Katina (did I translate that correctly?), that nice Greek girl over at A Charmed Life (also Features Editor at Cloth Paper Scissors and author Mixed Media Self-Portraits and a whole bunch of other impressive stuff) is giving away some delicious fabrics. And you thought we only gave wooden horses. 

Just follow the link and comment.  It's a win-win: you get a chance at the yummy fabrics and I won't be in deep ca ca.  Make sure you tell her I sent you or it won't count and she'll think up some way to (ahem) repay me.  

Kali orexi!

 

Beezle Adoption Center Now Open!

Etsy shop has Beezles.  

You can click on the little Etsy badge in the right margin.

What?  Stop looking at me like that.  They'll go to a good home.