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Sea Lion - A Mythological Beast

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Done for a Challenge on Art on the Darkside

Vintage Seed Packet Challenge

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Soartful Seed Packet Challenge

Billy Can & Can't

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Done for the 'Pairs' challenge on Three Muses challenge The Plaster-of-Paris figurines, showing a pair of boys on a chamber pots, date from the 1908 or earlier. They used to sit in my Aunt Gertie's washroom. Knowing that her health was failing she asked us each to pick a favourite item from her ornaments. Passing by the Royal Doulton's I chose "Billy Can and Can't. They are Billikens With their pointy little heads, grinning faces, slitty eyes, round bellies and hands tightly pressed against the sides of their naked bodies, billikens were a craze. From about 1908 to 1911, Americans gave them as good luck charms in the form of tiny statues, postcards, coins and banks. My Billikens were probably given out as Carnival prizes.

In a Mirror - A ghost of time gone by

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Challenge #47 - In a Mirror - A ghost of time gone by Done for a Art Creations Friday

Day of the Dead Remembrance Altar

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An altar in remembrance of My Aunt Gertie Done for the Day of the Dead Challenge on Art on the Darkside I remember my Aunt Gertie well. She had standards. Her standards were the standards of her day and she applied them firmly and with an air of righteousness. When she grew up and married my dad, my mother used to dread Gertie’s coming to visit the house. Gertie would check for dust and looked under things, She sought imperfections and found them! She would call these imperfections to my mother's attention. “Now, Phyllis, perhaps you didn't notice but there are dust bunnies under the couch...” etc. There must have been an orgy of housekeeping before she came to call or, God forbid, if there was an unexpected visit, despair. Gertie, however, was not given to unexpected visits. Her premise was “Let them do their best. I'll still find something wrong!” She was a widow with no children. Her apartment was perfect. In the dining room there was an oak dining table and a glass-

Rooster Booster

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Now, the story of Rooster Booster, my mother kept chickens and had a Victory Garden. It was part of the war effort to grow your own food. She started out with Bantam chickens which are very small. She had hens and a rooster and the hens laid tiny eggs. Later, she got some Leghorn chicks and they guaranteed that these chicks were all female but one of them slipped under the radar and and he was male, very much so. When those little chicks were growing up Rooster Booster, the Bantam, used to pick on that Leghorn rooster chick. He gave him such a hard time. Of course the Leghorn chicks got bigger. The Leghorn rooster started to get tall and lanky. As an adolescent he was still scared of the Bantam rooster who would chase him around. This little Bantie rooster chasing around this big old Leghorn was quite a funny sight to see. One fine day the Leghorn rooster realized that he was bigger! He turned on the Bantam and, well, that was the end of Rooster Booster. You could say that it was the e

The Dark of the Moon

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Done for a Halloween Challenge on Art on the Darkside