Tuesday, September 15, 2009

In an octopus's garden...

I had a really rotten weekend thanks to discovering that my son has been using the space behind the entertainment center in the living room as his personal trash can. There was a waist high pile of empty juice boxes and other stuff back there. I only discovered it because I had taken the TV out of its regular niche to do some re-organizing of the entire cabinet.

Here I'd planned to spend a nice relaxing Sunday watching some football and working on jewelry while the kid was at a play date.

Ummm...nope.

Instead, I got to spend three hours cleaning up the toxic waste dump behind my entertainment center. Of course, I made the kid clean up what he could, but due to the location, there was a lot of stuff that he couldn't reach. Heck, there was stuff even I couldn't reach. Not even with the vacuum cleaner extension. Some of it is going to have to stay there until I can get someone to move the entire entertainment center.

If I can ever get the new flooring picked out, that might happen sometime this century. Can you imagine, though, if I hadn't discovered the problem...and the carpet guys went to move the furniture and six months' worth of trash fell out onto the floor?

Obviously, I'd get the mother of the year award for that one.

Needless to say, the kid did NOT get his playdate. Instead, he got grounded. Which means I got grounded, too. I've got to come up with a punishment that doesn't punish me as well as the kid...and also doesn't involve putting him up for sale on eBay.

I did make something at lunch yesterday, but I'm not sure I like it:




I wanted to do something similar to my "Memoire Collection" pieces only using an undersea theme instead of just flowers.




I found the shells at The Beadin' Path.






Then I needed something to fill in around the shells and I started thinking how so many coral reef animals look like flowers anyway - tube worms, anemones, etc. So, I used some flowers, too.






I added in some crystals and some triangular seed beads to act as fillers.







Then I added this cute little pewter fish charm from Michael's.





The clasp and chain also came from Michael's. Because I like to get my cheap on, yo!



And voila! My little undersea garden was born. What do you think? Does is look like a slice of life on a coral reef? Or does it just look like I've lost my mind (which, after the trashtastic weekend, is entirely possible)?

KJ

9 comments:

Barbara/myth maker said...

You haven't lost your mind.. though I think I might if I found the 'entertaining' trash!
The necklace is lovely... choosing different beads for the ends looks good, and I like the cluster of sea goodies in the middle.

Winchell Clayworks said...

My nephew did the same thing, only his trash stash was behind the couch. Finished? Over the shoulder it goes... my brother-in-law coulda killed him. Of course, what made it worse is that he just sort of shrugged when confronted...

TesoriTrovati said...

I am so laughing with you Kelly! Imagine my horror when one night I sat down on the floor and at eye level, under the side table were some wads of black chewing gum...(from the lump of coal gum they got in their stockings last year...this year, actual lumps of coal might be in order). I was livid. No one fessed up but since there are only two little mouths that would eat such rancid stuff, and it wasn't me or daddy, it was pretty obvious. Actually I am quite certain it was my daughter...made them start to scrape...but then it was almost bedtime...then I made the mistake to look under the other tables...and my teak and leather glider rocker. Oh! The horrors! Little black balls of goo everywhere! I haven't looked again as this was months ago (but my recent bee problem has me looking up rather than down).

I like the direction that this underwater garden is going...I think that you need more of the orange/coral color to balance out what is there (that is what my eye sees) and I would add more detail all around that, no gaps. How about some seaweed and starfish? Bling it up a bit more and get your tropical paradise on!
Enjoy the day, KJ!
Erin

Davinia said...

Are you kidding? I love it. It's gorgeous. Sorry about all the trash, that must have been a lovely surprise. There is light at the end of the tunnel. My son who turned my hair grey and gave me wrinkles and who I thought would eventually be the death of me,(Lord... I'd could tell you some stories) is now a wonderful, responsible, caring and helpful young man. So there is hope.

Kristen said...

oh my gosh, you and I must have been seperated at birth... you sound exactly like me when I rant about my kids. Only their hiding place for the "toxic waste dump" is in my once beautiful cream colored leather couch. We've had to rip the lining off the bottom of it so the "stuff" falls through to the floor and doesn't get stuck so when you sit down you don't get an ass full of leaking juice box. LOL! Kids!!! Love the necklace, it's very charming.

Silver Parrot said...

Oh, you all make me feel so much better. I swear when this stuff happens I just can't help picturing things getting worse and worse and me raising a delinquent who flunks out of school and ends up in prison (and still never learns to throw his trash in the proper receptacle). You see, I found a stash of stuff behind the couch a few months ago, but it was MUCH smaller. Little did I know it was but the tip of the iceberg - he'd switched to throwing stuff behind the couch because he'd filled up the space behind the TV! ARRGGH! And yet, when he's not causing a flood that destroys the entire 2nd story of the house or making landfill out of the entertainment center, he's a REALLY good kid. I would put it down to being a boy, but I grew up with a brother and HE never did stuff like this. He's got two boys and THEY don't do stuff like this. But, at least I know that some other kids out there behave this way and you all haven't sold them on eBay (yet).

Silver Parrot said...

Erin - are you saying I need to ADD orange/coral color? Or are you talking about the yellow snail shell at the top of the piece and saying it needs more of that? I agree it needs something for "seaweed." I wonder what I have that would work...

dochoamom said...

Ha ha Kelly you are a riot... how much do you think we could get for them on e-bay??

I never buy hersheys kisses anymore becuase those teeny tiny little wrappers are all over the house... Um.. my dresser and the floor around it always have store tags that have been removed but not thrown away by Missa... even when there is a dresser top trash receptacle!! 1 foot away... and now add the dog to the mix, I am forever taking those damm tags out of her mouth... (its a game too)...

I too have found, gum, candy wrappers, etc... in behind places... right now we are being visited by ants... and now I won't even keep the trash can in the house.. the other day it was ants in son's room all over a tube of liquid candy/gum, that the dog found, punctured and left on the bed... FUN !!! so sorry to say that it might get better when he is older but it might not...

Love, Deb

dochoamom said...

Oops forgot about the necklace... I agree with Erin add more coral... But love it...


word verification...

reshi - the art of adding keshi pearls in a rush... ha ha ha