My new collaboration - Garden Sign

I am very happy with my latest artistic collaboration. It is with my next door neighbour, five-year-old Elly.

Elly and Manon have a joint garden. It is really nice. But it suffers from the many dogs who relieve themselves on it. Elly and Manon decided to put in a sign asking the dogs to behave differently and use the water bowl they installed.

They decided what words they wanted on two signs. I cut two pieces of pressed board and inked on the words with a Sharpie. Then Elly applied her design skills to colour the letters and add attractive images. I sprayed on polyurethane to add water protection and affixed the signs to an old broom handle.

This morning we planted the sign. Manon put out the water bowl and a refill can and Manon and Elly did a formal ribbon cutting to launch the sign.

The ribbon cutting ceremony

[By the way, if you have any comments for Elly, I will pass them on.]

Using the new sidewalk chalk

We finally had an excellent day to try out the new sidewalk chalk and went with a modified Easter theme.

Previously: Giant sidewalk chalk for Manon

Valentine Dinosaurs

 We had another cold spell and went with a Valentine's Day theme for the dinosaurs. The red in the hearts came from a red-coloured herbal tea. 

Ice dinosaurs

 

Manon and I are experimenting with an artform that is new to us.

Apparently many people make hanging ice ornaments with heart or circle shaped cake pans. 

Oddly, the easiest cake pans for us to find were of a brontosaurus and t-rex.

If we get a sunny day this week, they will probably look really neat.

Giant sidewalk chalk for Manon

 Manon is not the easiest person to shop for, so I like when I can find something to make that cannot be found in the stores.

In this case, it is giant sidewalk chalk that is pretty easy to make.

I bought a bag of plaster of Paris at Preston Hardware and we've actually had about eight bottles of tempera paint in the craft cupboard for more than a decade.

The Instructables calls for using old Pringles containers, but we had a bunch of poster tubes that we were going to discard.

Apparently, the chalk will get used soon if it dries up before we get snow. But I suspect they won't be used up by Canada Day.

Now I am being watched

I might have thought I was safe from being surprised by things looking at me because all the googly eyes are in my pockets.

But on Monday, I noticed the melon was missing his eyes. I wondered where they were gone.

The next morning, when I went to get my coffee, I found out.

This fellow was ready to give me my morning cup of coffee.

Then on Wednesday, this is who greeted me in the bathroom.

More fun with googly eyes - Fruit Friends

Today I was inspired by the gifted Miranda Hart to use the googly eyes to make fruit friends.

Here is a taste of her show that features Fruit Friends:

And it is possible to watch all the episodes on Dailymotion in your browser without paying any extra money. It seems to good to be true, and it may not last long, but it looks like all 20 episodes are currently available at https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6t6c7