Friday, already?

Another week has come and gone, and with it, a whole entire month too! September was a blur! A blur of painted driftwood signs and clay creations, not necessarily a bad thing, but time flies!

Here are the finished signs I was commissioned to paint for The Cottages. Numbered signs for each suite, that are changeable depending on if the guest wants to be disturbed or not. Color coded so other guests can see at a quick glance who might want to be invited, to say a pool party, or card game. Tranquilo= do not disturb and Fiesta= well means, ready to mingle

The Cottages also have a new washer and dryer for guests to use, and an outdoor restroom.

Another one, for the pool area...

One more is on the way, a vacancy sign to hang out front, and a smoking section sign didn't get pictured. It's a chunk of wood that sits on a table, and the smokers will know to congregate there. It was really fun having such a large project to work on, and get paid! Thanks Kim for trusting me!

As far as clay creations go, we have been busy painting mini plants. 

Having fun with cactus too...

And another wild one...

Mike did a firing yesterday, so we will have new things to paint. I've got to get the last sign finished for Kimberly, and continue getting other works in progress done. Going to ask Jenny our closest tienda if she would display some of our artwork, and see if any of the weekend tourists are interested. It would be nice if we could sell some of this...make room for more.

In other news, we have had some great presents from our fishermen neighbors, crab for no reason.

And we gave out apples and oranges to the neighborhood boys the other day, Alfred had his son Andy working nets with him, so we gave him an orange too...and got at least a pound of shrimp!

Such a great group of people! We certainly love our life here on the beach! Another reason...

This picture is actually Alfred trying to get his nets done before dark. He commented on the picture on Facebook, that he loved this life too.

Life is good here on the coast of Ecuador, fruit truck later today, fresh bread and a walk on the beach. Stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Finished projects

So what do most of you do when you find you need a napkin holder? You probably look around and find you have one, or two in a cupboard, that is not the case for me. But I didn't have to look too far, with a little imagination, and about an hour for paint to dry, I had a new napkin holder.

It started with a bottle of floor cleaner that I had just emptied, rinsed out and had sitting on the table, waiting to go in the "plastic to be upcycled pile". I liked the rectangle shape, and with knife and scissors, Voila! It started out kinda like this one.

The next project completed this week was the regalo (gift) for Patricia. She's the neighbor girl who turned 15 last weekend, her parents own and operate a small tienda on the corner a half block down. I took it to her yesterday and she loved it, said it was very pretty (Linda) and she was happy (feliz).

Mike put a hanger on the back, so she can hang it on the wall. What 15 year old girl doesn't like personalized flowery artwork? Next and this one may not be finished, I made a Welcome sign for Jenny's tienda.

It may need some outline, or more detail on the palm tree, not sure. Mike liked the palm tree so much he wants one for us. And with the leftover orange paint I mixed, I gave another plastic BBQ bottle a fresh coat. Makes a pretty little bud vase, maybe tomorrow (our anniversary) I'll have some flowers to put in it.

While I'm talking about plastic upcycling, here is a votive holder made out of a yogurt bottle, a little colored twine, and a seashell, turned out very nice.

Oops, this one doesn't have the seashell, I guess I did add that later, I've since added orange colored twine as well, nice candle glow anyway! I have probably five of these scattered around in amongst the plants and driftwood in the yard. As sunset winds down I light them and we sit for another little while listening to podcasts, or audio books and enjoy the sound of the Ocean.

I would certainly be wrong to not include the two (actually there are three) dresses I made for Veronica this week. The one above is a onesie our friends Marty and Jaime brought back from their trip to the States in December, it had been "lost" in the scrap fabric pile. 

This one I remade probably three times, it's made out of a pair of swim trunks we bought for Mike, but after getting them home and trying them on, realized they must be junior. So, Veronica got two dresses, I tried using the lining as the under, but it didn't have any give and so made the whole dress pucker funny. I tried again, but still didn't fit right, then I remembered I had orange Tshirt fabric, and TaDa! Much better, then I made this orange tank top with the flowered skirt, all she needs is a pooka shell necklace and she's all set!

We have Shadrach wearing necklaces now too, he used to be so funny and act like he was being strangled, but I guess he's lightening up and "going with the flow", tranquilo here at the beach. Those pictures will come at a later date, I think I've shared enough crafty stuff for one day. 

So stay tuned, the adventure continues!