Thank you so much for all the compliments! As for everyones kind remarks about "my creativity", Im glad someone other than me sees it as creative .... ;)... my family thinks of it as me being somewhat insane. Even my neighbors have a tendancy to shake their heads as if Im nuts after they've seen what Ive come up with, lol. Jan I do have kids, 3 of them, but their older and so used to what I do its no big deal to them anymore, as my oldest son says, I baffle him but what I do is awesome. My only GD hasnt seen it yet but Im sure she'll try to pick it up or pick off the "suckers". Karen I hate to sound naive, but the inspiration album? Katishooked... again, hall of fame?????? Ok now that Ive asked my questions on to the main questions of how Oakley was made- We sanded all the pcs and primed everything with Rustoleum primer for plastic or metal. His tentacles are 1" waterline pvc. We used 3- 10 ft lentghs due to trial and error, each tentacle is 2 ft in length with the "hand" end being cut at an angle. We used a hot box to get them soft enough to contort around landscape timbers and larger pvc for the bends and twists. The "hands" were flattened by holding pcs of wood firmly on them until they cooled down. The flattening and contorting is definitely easier with 2 prs of hands. We did try using a blow torch first to soften the pipe but because its more of a contained heat area it would start to burn, melt and puts off a horrible odor. -it actually becomes to hot to touch (gloves dont really help, DH learned the hard way)and catches fire quick. After a couple fires, we resorted to the hot box. You have to work rather quickly with the softened pvc and use pliers to do alot of the handling. He was painted before assembly. Once assembled, his suckers were glued on and he was painted again with an automotive clear multi colored glitter coat. Unfortunately the pictures dont do the colors justice, hes jade faded into blue on the lower half of the tentacles with the glitter coat, when the sun hits it, its awesome. Oakley was alot of trial and error, and a royal pain but he makes a great addition next to my tipsy pots! I have 2 other BBs that we started today, I hope they turn out as well as this one did. thanks again, you all have inspired me to go ahead and be a little more "insane", lol. lisa

Oh those ice candles are sooooo cool. We had some one year when we lived in Red Cloud Nebraska and had ice/snow storm after storm. They started 'blooming' all over town! Seems everybody else loved em too! Yeah, I'm located in the 'bellybutton' of Kansas - anybody want to be worked to death you're more than welcome! I warn you, hubby is a workaholic; I'm planning 'escape' routes for myself already.... All the pumpkin places we've been to have mazes, etc. We have only 14 acres, mostly trees apple/peach trees, 1/4 acre of asparagus and blackberry lanes. But none of those places offer funnel cakes, and we had apple cider slushies in Topeka at Rees's fruit farm and fell in love with em... Luvstocraft we have something in common; while tearing down old barns and the double gambrel garage, we've set aside old stairs in ONE piece put together with pegs, old windows, screen doors, railings, old tables and hen accoutrements for our future plans. One corner of our morton building looks like a junk yard. We did discover somethings morning after the tornado we didn't know we had; bowling balls! They had been used by previous owner for his pigs to roll around with their snouts, and were dug up by the winds from the windbreaks and distributed all over the orchard and back yard...can't wait to take advantage of alllll the bb ideas on this site!!

Diane I pray that your Tommy will get to be with you for a very long time :-)He is gorgeous. Love his white *boots* Pam lol about your comment for the snake rofl. So Pam...the cats get along with the fish? lol We used to have a 55 gal. tank and I loved it. Until it burst and I had all the water and fish everywhere. I believe that was the end of having fish in the house lol Even though the kids were still with us ha ha ha Can you share pictures of your precious family members? Mike you made me laugh lol. Me and everyone else here probably have the same problem. to post just ONE picture of each lol You did good ha ha ha What is the fur around Tehya? Did you brush her? Or are they ruff housing? I am sure Arrant is looking down and is happy to see that he is not forgotten, but that your love is shared with all the fur babies around you. Cassie what a heartbreak to loose your fur baby so quickly. We all who have lost a loved family member know what you went through. Is your Jerk just an indoor cat? Cause can you imagine calling him outside? Especially with folks walking about! roflmao. Good thing you are not walking a dog amongst folks and calling him back. ha ha ha ha ha I swear I most have a name block right now grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Marquest (?) I love Ferdinand's name lol Feel so at home lol and he is gorgeous too. Hope they all get along :-) after that 1st meeting who is showing Ferdi who the boss is lol Lucy

@lisaam-- we had a dog (actually our most recent prior one, Jane) who was a rescue but seemed to be part pit, lab and maybe some other delights. Anyway, whenever I would cut up veggies she was thrilled to get some. Mostly it was cucumbers (and yes when I peeled them she was thrilled with the peel. also slices:) and I think sometimes green pepper. I was told it was actually fine and good for her. Our new dog, Wally, is not a fan.