While I Was Out: Random Phone Pictures Edition!

As any of you who have been following for a while know, things are never quite "normal" at my house. For crying out loud, this happened in my backyard:

Krampus Peek-a-Boo! I see you!

That's my sweet, adorable hubby, by the way. He was the stunt double for our creature actor. Truth be told, though, I think he just wanted an excuse to run around the backyard and scare people. 

Now, that was back in...February? I think? Anyway, things are still bonkers around the Smith crib (see? I'm hip and with it), which is one reason I've been MIA so much around here. I thought, for fun, I'd sift through my camera phone pics and see what popped up. Maybe they'll better illustrate the weird.

So, we made a mascot head. This is (just the head) of Punchy the Fighting Owl. The rest of the costume is still in progress, but the hard part is done. In case you're wondering, we made the body out of insulation foam and a hard hat, the eyes out of layers of screen door mesh and acrylic paint, and the whole thing is covered in polyfill, felt, and furry cloth. Oh--and about 612 hot glue sticks. We ended up sort of making the whole thing up as we went along, but the inspiration for the design came from this Instructable.

No. I did not make my own DIY Redneck Wine Glass (sold in other stores for $15.99, apparently). We're in pre-production for a couple of shorts, so my "grocery" lists are a little...funky. I had to run into Dollar Tree to look for a laser pointer, a car phone charger, some rubber snakes, glass stones, paint supplies, and a fake goldfish. (Oddly enough, the hardest to find item on that list has been the bag of rubber snakes.) I saw this set-up and couldn't resist snapping a picture. Then, I went home and glued (no kidding) 436 amber rhinestones onto leopard material.

I know I've mentioned it about a gazillion times on here, but Thomas and I have been working really hard to clean up our backyard. Because we're gluttons for punishment, we decided to add a water feature to this strange little random patch of dirt that lay in the middle of a rockwork embankment. Here it is at the OMG-I'm-almost-finished-with-this-bleepidy-bleep-bleep-thing-and-I-ran-out-of-rock-! stage. It's finished now, though, so I'll have to take a picture and let you guys see it in all it's waterfall-y glory.

Good Lord, we need to power wash the courtyard! Here's Thomas, doing his best Vanna White impression to show off the piece de resistance in our backyard makeover: the movie screen. It was a DIY project, made from movie screen material bought off of Amazon, and some lightweight wood pieces from Lowe's. It took about five minutes to screw together the wooden frame, and then the fabric is just stretched over it and stapled. We've hung it onto a couple of fence posts using picture hanging hooks, and the screen lives indoors when not in use.

And, because I've just been so bored, I decided to completely renovate my closet. This is still at the "in progress" stage. I've still got a ways to go on organizing, and then I have to empty it all out and paint. Expect a blog post on this when it's done...if it's done...

And, most exciting of all, I took the puppy to the vet. Trust me, he wasn't anywhere near as happy as he looks.

There's a lot of really cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks. Fighting Owl Films is doing a panel at Pensacola Paracon, and then Thomas and I are (most likely) going to the Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival. Our short, C.U.P.I.D., was accepted, so if you're in the area in August, you should go check it (and the rest of the festival--should be awesome) out. 

Have a great Monday, y'all!