September 6, 2011
-
These Projects I've Been Talking About
I've made a few mentions of working on a project the past week. I was working on a church float for my town's Labor Day parade. The last three years now we've had a float in the parade. The theme 3 years ago was Fishers of Men. We had a few kids on the float who acted as fishermen and what not. Last year our theme was Blossom in God's Love.
All those "flowers"...all folded by hand. They were tissue paper. You take a few sheets and fold it accordion style and then tie a pipe cleaner around the paper and the fold it out. I can't teach art. Anyway I could make one of those with my eyes closed. I can't remember how many of those we made but there were so many man hours involved. I think there were a few nights when I went to church from 7PM to 11PM and just worked on making flowers. In the flowerpots are the fruits of the spirit and the watering can on the cross represents God showering us with whatever you think God showers us with. We won for best religious entry and the grand prize entry. No money, just trophies.This year's theme was "God's Word is Our Treasure"
See that...this was my project. I worked with a guy on those "treasure chests". He took some old plywood and put some old wood paneling on the sides and glued some ropes for the handles. He put a false bottom on the inside and then propped it up at an angle. Well I spray painted a bunch of poker chips, huge novelty pennies, shower curtain rings, and some cups I found at Dollar Tree. I glued in a sheet of gold paper and hot glued the pennies, poker chips and some gem stones to the sheet of paper and then we laid in the cups, beads, shower rings, and a crown inside.Here's the others:
They really gleamed so I had to take my flash off.
Here's an upclose shot of the treasure chest.
That's the guy acting all secretive. We had it parked in the shade so it wouldn't sparkle so we could work on it. Also notice we re-used the flowers from last year.
That's what it looked like in line-up.
Matthew 6:21...the flowers sort of block it.
And in case you couldn't make it out, we put a crown around the cross.
After the parade I went to 3 cook-outs. I was only invited to 1. This family next to the church was having a cook-out and they were grilling up some brats so I just walked over and had a couple and then the pastor had a cook-out for his family and I drank some of his fancy beer...a smoked rye ale...damn tasty. Then I went to my parents' and ate pulled beef sandwiches. After lunch my aunt wanted to go for a ride so we took off and went out to see the countryside.
We even came across some Amish working. They don't observe Labor Day but then every day is a labor for them.
That kid was totally wearing wrap-around sunglasses. How can those not be considered technologically advanced?
They were cutting wood and I can only presume that the wood would be used to make a barn.
They even had the kids out mowing.
Can anyone tell me what this building is? Hint: it was located at the end of a driveway.
I came across a Catholic church in a small town, population 25, that had a tree in front of the church. It had this little sign in front of it.
A local grocery puts this up and people flock to the store but when I hang that sign outside of my house I get arrested for prostitution.
I love it here.
Comments (63)
You're selling your beef?!
Awesome job . . . completely.
And the pictures of the countryside . . . sigh. I do miss it up there. Muchly.
I wanna crash bbqs!
Very cool treasure chests. That's pretty impressive. Not only was it a simple, cohesive design, but you reused some of the previous year's float decorations. Go, you.
That's a bus cozy! Although, it does look a little like an outhouse.
Okay, what is it?
That first pic of the farmhouse and road is almost enough to make me envious. Almost.
"the advantage of easy origami is twofold"
the flowers are beautiful. nice job.
@ShimmerBodyCream - oh yeah, I got some grade D tube steak on sale here.
crafty, creative stuff at the top, nice green photos at the bottom, enjoying life, are ya?
@adventofreason - I love it here. When I lived in MN and would come to visit my family and friends the small things were always the things I noticed most. Take that road for instance, nothing like that where I lived in MN, everything was flat.
@BenelliMan - it's better than crashing weddings...seriously...at least here it is because people are pretty friendly about it.
@Prolixity_Split - I can't believe how much time I put into those things and also how many times i was burned.
yes, bus cozy and it even had electricity.
@TheSutraDude - thanks, those trophies we won on account of the float are somewhere hidden within the catacombs of the church.
@DivaJyoti - pretty much except for all the hours put into that stuff, it's prevented me from getting out and seeing the nature. I'm actually planning on different routes to take to get photos of the changing leaves.
@godfatherofgreenbay - I didn't realize you were religious like that. do you go to church a lot?
@godfatherofgreenbay - I built a couple floats back in middle and high school, so I vaguely recall spending entirely too much time folding tissue paper and attaching it to chicken wire. I think it's pretty awesome that you managed to save some of it to reuse. I hope you find a use for those treasure chests!
That's a fancy bus cozy. We don't see 'em too often here in Michigan, but the fancier ones here have windows. Don't think I've ever seen one with electricity.
The last picture is absolutely gorgeous. Do you ever sleep? Your community and family activities must keep you very busy!
@godfatherofgreenbay - maybe I'll give Wisconsin another chance. Every deployment, we go to Fort McCoy. I'll message you the next time I swing by there
Great float. Some of those pictures remind me of home back in PA
nice pic
nice pic
Your work is really beautiful! The spray of flowers and treasure chests are so detailed, it looks like your worked your hands off.
I could have worded that better. My bad. It's early.
Amish kid: rumspringa? They don't always leave home but they're still allowed to explore non-amish fashions (dressing english), methinks. And cigarettes. Those people know how to party.
OMG - is that an outhouse?
I'll go to Carlin for this one (beef sign): "Selling is legal. Fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal?!"
Your hometown looks an awful lot like mine. I see why you love it. There's nothing like looking out in the morning and seeing forest and farmland that seems to go on forever. It's so peaceful and spiritual.
I think those were the type of folding flowers I made in girl scout camp as a kid. I don't remember if we did anything with them other than make them, and we didn't make that many of them. That is a LOT of flowers and shiny stuff.
I love the landscape pictures. Open country and big sky, not at all like Jersey. ::sigh::
Wow! Those floats look great. I don't really know of Labor Day parades around my area, but the city next to mine has the largest 4 July parade in the area. My church used to have floats and tons of people working on them and riding them during parades but we've downsized drastically so sometimes we're lucky if we even carry a banner.
Good job on the floats!
I love your projects
Great shots of country side and the Amish working. Great post 
You are from a very beautiful place. Nice work with the floats, too
We could never quite gets ours to work out right.
@DivaJyoti - yep, pretty much every week but see I don't really talk about it hear because I'm of the opinion that I won't force my beliefs on others, maybe that's something that working in public schools has taught me.
@Prolixity_Split - I never made a float in high school for a homecoming parade. I don't think I even did that in college. This is my only real experience with floats. My high school was a private school so a homecoming parade was stupid because we'd probably just march around the block. My college was private and the people of the town didn't always cotton to us which would explain why when walking with a girl we had apples thrown at us from cars.
I think the pastor said we'd re-use them for a potential Christmas/Epiphany play.
Yeah some of the bus cozies around here have electricity because of the cold weather and they equip them with space heaters so the kids can stay warm.
treasures indeed.
@sleekpeek - I get by on a little sleep although there are some days when I just crash and get about 12 hours.
@BenelliMan - we could go to Target Bluff or Ed Thompson's Tee-Pee for starters and then we'd go find cook-outs. The best time to come is during football season on Sundays because people get tanked before the game starts and then we could get at all the food.
@npr32486 - thanks, Wisconsin and PA have similar geography which is why so many Germans settled in both and also why there's so many Amish settlements in both states.
@dmcx2010 - @James2012 - thanks, glad you liked
@ZombieMom_Speaks - I burnt my hands off is more like it. Little stones, big fingers and hot glue guns don't mix
The Amish around here are so strict that they don't offer that Rumspringa. They moved out here because they saw the settlements in Pennsylvania and Indiana as being too liberal and modern.
Not an outhouse but a bus cozy. See it gets pretty cold here if you didn't know and kids in the country have to wait for the bus so they need some place to keep warm because the house sits too far from the road and running all that way to the bus is nonsense. They make these little huts at the end of driveways. This one had electricity, most I've seen are just built up with a lot of insulation so they offer some warmth.
I love that quote.
I don't have that view although one of my windows is obscured by a pine tree and an oak tree and on the other side I get a view of the library.
You should've seen my view when I was in high school. I lived in the country on a horse farm and woke up seeing the pasture and it was a low area so most mornings there would be fog in the pasture...so beautiful.
@leaflesstree - There was a girl at my college from Jersey and she just marveled at the prairie. There have been tourists here from Jersey and they think we're so backwards because we have to be careful of animals crossing the road and we have to drive to go to stores and we don't have all the stores or eateries they have out there. Who needs restaurants when I can go out and catch or shoot my own meals?
@Cestovatelka - my town was the only place that had a Labor Day celebration and everyone in a 30 mile radius would come and then another town decided to have one and that severely cut into my town's celebration. Oh well, we also have what is called Cesky Den.
we had about a dozen people working on the float but what pissed me off is when we had planning meetings there would only be 3 people at the meetings and when it came time to design the float everyone had to say they wanted this. I just wanted to scream, "THEN COME TO THE MEETINGS!"
You certainly put a lot of effort into these projects. Excellent job!
@bmojsilo - glad you enjoyed, I'm not always a fan of the Amish especially not when I catch a horseshoe nail in one of my tires.
wow... now i know who to turn to if i want to appear rich, with gold, bling² and everything (that cost much² cheaper)
@SasGal - glad you enjoyed, I love this area. I'll have to get more pics when the leaves start to change and also take some video at my uncle's farm.
@godfatherofgreenbay - Yes, I can see how that would ruin your day. But this whole post was perfect. Great shots.
@starmanjones - yes, it was
I am impressed by the floats. When my church did floats while I was growing up, it was a couple of haybales we sat on in a flatbed of a truck.
We did have candy though, so there is that.
Also... oh my, the country side. I would like to explore.
@ohveryoung - thanks, I think I put in at least 20 hours just working on those boxes and that was just me doing all the painting and gluing and applying to the float.
@maniacsicko - I took a couple of the goblets I spray painted gold and I'm going to use them so I can feel like a big shot.
@bmojsilo - well thank you, I'll get some more shots when the leaves start to turn colors
@godfatherofgreenbay - ahh, sounds like a treat
@opticalnoise - oh years ago we did that but I have taken it upon myself to make designs that are more appealing than haybales. I have designs for the next ten years.
We had candy the first year I designed but we only had four walkers and they got so far behind that it was pointless.
I've wanted to just get out of the car and walk but there are so many "no trespassing" signs that I'd fear getting shot.
@godfatherofgreenbay - I bow to your creativity and drive
I don't think its a crime unless you actually sell it
I love the deep lush green of the rolling farmlands
@godfatherofgreenbay -
i miss seeing those little farms all over the place. if nothing else, wisconsin is beautiful.
Nice float.
Since when does beef wobble?
Looks amazing! But also those floats look like a ton of work!! At least people watching the parade got to enjoy it
Very nice job. Oh, and is that hut thingy one of those places where the kids wait for the bus in the mornings to stay out of the cold. We have those huts around here and it took me forever to figure out what they are. Booo for cold weather coming.
I've got family in that general area (although not there, in specific). It is gorgeous.
dig it. keep the faith, man.
You live in a beautiful place. Did you win anything for the float you made this year?
@ElevenStones - yeah, I suppose I should walk around with that sign around my neck.
@StrawberrySunrises - it most definitely is beautiful, I love it here.
@Sir_Sparrow - it started wobbling right after it stopped weebling.
@ShamrockLover - I'd actually rather have the cold weather than the hot weather. It's easier for me to warm up if I'm cold than it is for me to cool down if I'm hot.
there are so many of those bus cozies around here but that was the first one that I saw that had electricity.
everyone I've talked to in the past couple of days always remark about how they enjoyed this year's float and how shiny it was. I'm thankful that we had a sunny day. It really made all that gold paper and paint sparkle.
@Wait_by_Moonlight - I love it here. I actually live on the western side of the state in what they call the coulee region. It's so beautiful. There was a brewery here that always talked about being brewed in God's country. Yep, it's that beautiful. Too bad the beer wasn't that good.
@complicatedlight - I try
@LadyofWaters - I haven't heard anything so I'm think that maybe because there were only two religious entries that they didn't get trophies and the firemen probably gave the grand prize to their own float so they wouldn't have to buy a trophy for that.
Nicely captured.
Comments are closed.