QueenMarcyOriginals

The Queen's New Jewels !!!

This is the clasp I made in Deryn Mentock's class.  We sawed it from a copper sheet, filed it, textured it, patina'd it, made a bezel and soldered it to the clasp, inserted the stone!

Here it is after the beads were added to make the completed bracelet:

And this is the charm bracelet I made in Deryn's other class, using 3 empty watch faces.

And this is the necklace made from vintage parts created in Diane Cook's class.

These are Deryn Mentock's sample pieces (the teacher).  I could only dream to be as awesome as her!!!

So now I'm off to mop floors.....what a change of pace?????  The Domestic-Challenged Queen cleaned toilets yesterday, can you imagine?  I'm losing my queenly dignity???!!!!

Loves from the Queen

HELLO.......FINALLY! Photos from The Art Retreat at The Prairie.

I gave up on the iPad working with my blog, so I am using hubby's "real" computer.  I wanted to share some of the photos from the art retreat in Round Top, Texas.

This is the Ranger Lounge, used to cook, eat, drink and take classes

The photo above is Danny, he lives on site and serves as groundskeeper, maintenance man, carpenter (building a barn now) and HE IS THE COOK......a very, very good cook!!!!

Below is a shot of the landscape outside the building

These are a couple of "staff" members, serving lots of love and attention:

This is looking out the front door of the main house (where I stayed).  It is out in the middle of NO WHERE, believe me..............

This is Rachel Ashwell's shop, she owns this place....very expensive items in the store!

This is one of the cottages, which are the living quarters.  Most of them are just a bedroom and bath for one or two persons, very roomy.  The main house where I stayed had 3 bedrooms plus a kitchen, dining room and living room.

It was absolutely wonderful and I can hardly wait to go back.  They will be doing these retreats twice a year now, this was the first one.  Tomorrow I will share the awesome items I made in the three classes I took.  I know you are burdened now with the anxiety of it all, but please don't lose sleep, I'll have them posted within hours, ok???   Bah Hah Hah....

Loves from the Queen

No Recent Brain Farts

Gee I must be getting better, no catastrophes to report. My art retreat in Round Top, Texas (population 92) was fantastic. Unfortunately I cannot share photos on this friggin blog account. At least Typepad did respond this time and I know what the problem is. Of course for a techie like me, I don't understand how to do something to fix it. I spent six hours on it yesterday with no results except a lot of very bad cuss words.....Let's drop that subject or else I'll need another drink.... Round Top, Texas is about an hour's drive from Austin and the weather was warm but a wonderful breeze. The lodging was The Prairie by Rachel Ashwell. She is the decorator who invented "shabby chic" and has written many decorating books. She bought this place a couple of years ago and has renovated it in her "shabby" but adorable style. The floors and walls may be worn out old barn wood with white Muslin triple-ruffled sheets and fabulous French chandeliers! There are five or six old cottages on the 40-acre ranch which are the guest rooms with bed and bath. A big old barn type building is the kitchen and dining room. Very rustic but in good taste and out in the middle of nowhere!! I made a necklace with old vintage jewelry pieces, a bracelet with three vintage watch faces which we gutted and put other stuff inside and the best thing of all (which I still cannot believe I actually made) was the clasp/focal for a bracelet. It began as a sheet of copper and we cut it, sawed it, textured it, patina it, made a bezel and soldered it to the base and then set a jasper stone in it! I wish I could share a photo but will email a picture to you upon request. It is awesome and now I have to string some beads to it. Everyone there except me was from Texas, but they were all very sweet and fun and talented. One gal told us the story of meeting her cowboy husband. He was a REAL cowboy who did rodeos and stuff. She was at the rodeo and saw this tall, lean cowboy with his hat and boots and tight Wrangler jeans. She said "ooooh, that there is nice looking" and told him to turn around so she could see his FACE!!! Too funny. Well I know this is boring because The Domesticately-Challenged Queen has not exploded anything this week????!!!! Oh but listen to this....I opened the door to the shower in Texas and was met face-to-face with a Scorpion!! He was about three inches long (but again, I cannot show you the picture of him smiling up at me....). Up until that point, I thought I could really live there...... Loves from The Queen

I HATE THIS BLOG

Well I am back from the art retreat in Texas and I wish i could share photos but this Typepad account is still not working and I have begged for assistance for three months now. If anyone knows about Typepad and how to get my toolbar back, please let me know! To anyone who is following my blog and would like updates, I am just going to send a mass email since my blog is a piece of shit!!! So give me your email address please at queenmarcy@bellsouth.net and i will add you to the list. Sorry and pissed at the moment....... Loves from The Queen

The Domesticated Queen's Hubby - First & Final Brain Fart

Ok so I spend 5,438,291 hours cleaning glass and mirrors in the bathroom? Hubby walks in later and I ask him how it looks. Of course, being the smart southern gentleman that he is, he rants and raves about how clean and pretty everything looks. Then....and then....he walks over by my vanity and looks at the mirror and says: "You missed a spot".... The emergency room doctor says his broken bones will be healed up nicely by 4th of July........

Domestic Brain Fart #5

Well I pulled the chicken penis joke on my hubs and he just looked at me and said "that is the neck".....so it wasnt near as funny as I had hoped it would be!! But of course the joke backfired on me. I did not think leaving that in there would hurt anything, but the area around that piece was bloody! I cooked the chicken according to Pillsbury directions but I guess it was not long enough or else having that "thing" in there caused it?? Geez...will I ever learn. I had a memory of the first time I baked a chicken during my first marriage. Of course it was when I had my crabby mother-in-law and others to dinner. I did not know then that all of the gooey innards were in there and just put it in the oven without taking them out first. We cut into it and blood splurted out!! This was the same one-and-only meal I made for inlaws after she took the potato skins I had peeled and cut more potato off of them saying I wasted too much! I had heard or read somewhere that if you shake a little salt on top of coffee grounds it takes the bitterness away, so I did that.....except I am the kind who thinks if a LITTLE is good, then MORE is better?? We had saltwater coffee that day too - what a disaster everything was that day!!! I cleaned bathrooms today, so did not get into much trouble except having a hissy fit trying to get the toilet bowl cleaner bottle to open up. I can tell you we have way too much glass in our master bathroom! One wall is floor to ceiling mirror, two huge mirrors over the sink countertops plus two shower doors and three glass panes the size of the shower door surrounding the shower which was inside and outside! My poor right arm is hurting so badly that I had to sit down and have a medicinal cocktail....it feels better already....amazing!!! I just told my hubby that he cannot take a shower and mess it up, I want to gaze at it for a couple of days! I am beginning to see why we paid the weekly housekeeper so much.... Have a great evening. Loves from the Domestically-Challenged Queen

Domestic Brain Fart #5

Well we survived dinner last night, so that's good! I was cleaning out closets today so not much of a chance to get into trouble. But I just went up to get the chicken and dressing ready for the oven. First of all, I have learned that the front of the chicken is stuffed with yucky things I do not want to eat, so I knew to pull those out. However, there was this big "thing" sticking out of the rear end which I assumed was either the neck or else this was a rooster and he had a mighty big penis??? But it would not budge and I couldn't pull it out so I just baked it like that which I am sure will be okay, but I'm not going to tell my hubby. When he cuts it up to serve, I'm going to pull it out and ask him if he wants to eat the chicky's doo-dah......this should be pretty funny, don't you think? Lordy I don't know why that man puts up with me except for the entertainment value?? And then, and then, I was mixing up the stiffing...oh no I meant to type "stUffing" but came out stIffing.....hahahaha, here we go back to that rooster again??!! Anyway, to get back to the real brain fart....I wanted to crack an egg into the stuffing but wanted to put it into a small bowl first and mix it up a little. So I cracked the egg, put the shell into the bowl and dumped the egg insides into the garbage disposal.....uh, shouldn't that work the other way around? So I cracked another egg and did it correctly that time. Now that my silly brain is working, I wish I had o e of those rubber chickens. I would put on the plate and ask my hubby to cut it!!! Darn, why didnt I think of that sooner??? Loves from the Domestically-Challenged Queen

No Domestic Brain Farts Today!!!!

At least not yet, but I haven't cooked dinner yet.......

I had a wire weaving class today so was not home until now to have any domestic brain farts!

It's cocktail time now and I was just thinking....maybe I should cook before I drink? Maybe that would help, but not near as much fun!! Hahaha.....

We just met our new neighbors and they are an adorable English couple. Tally Ho Mates! As it turns out, we had met them at the golf club several months ago and really liked them! My friend Molly tells me that the lady is a really good cook. So maybe she can be my mentor?? Or else we can try to look real pitiful and they will feed us.....

The neighbors on both sides of us are about 237 years old, so not our "type" yet. This will be great now!!

If you don't hear any fire engines in the next couple of hours, then dinner turned out okay and I didn't burn the house down.

Loves from the Domestically-Challenged Queen

Domestic Brain Fart #4

Okay I spoke too soon yesterday! The crockpot did not explode, but my meal was terrible, so terrible I dumped it into the disposal and ate leftovers! I used to make cured pork chops and new potatoes and fresh snapped green beans in the crockpot and it was really good. I could not find the smoked pork chops so used regular ones instead.....big mistake! The meat was dry as a bone, the potatoes were hard as rocks and the green beans were coated with pork chop slime!!! YUCK!!!!

So now that I have conquered the vacuum cleaner, I guess my future brain farts will come from cooking????

Today I am cleaning out clothes closets, so surely I cannot mess that up???? Stay tuned.

A couple of my blog followers (yes I actually have two) told me about some of their brain farts which were pretty funny. I need more so I don't feel like I am the only domestically-challenged queen out there?????

Domestic Brain Fart #3

I just typed a post and lost it, what the hell is the Typepad account doing, besides aggregating the poop out of me????

Anyway.....surprise, no brain farts today!!!

Okay, we'll there was this ONE teensy tiny issue....hubby showed me how to tilt the handle on the vacuum cleaner, so I got the lower level swept without incident. Except when I was wrapping the cord back up on the machine.....even though I had part of the cord wrapped around my foot, I did not fall down (but damn close).......

The good news is that I have dinner ready and the crockpot did not blow up or anything!!!

Loves from The Domestically-Challenged Queen