it's starting all over again

the air is cooling down, considerably. wind is whipping.

ten bags of stuffed animals are awaiting their winter work of insulating our walls. i hope they are excited. this is a great calling for a stuffed animal. i mean, do you think their parents ever expected them to be involved in a great endeavor such as the Shanty of Misfit Toys?!

i'll post pictures of some of the fluffier ones when i get them on wednesday.

Baby, it's almost over

Ah, so sad...
I pulled up to the Medicine Lake parking lot today, this balmy day, and our little shanty town is no more. It looked bleak, despite the sun, despite the chick-a-dees and their pleniful mating calls. There were only 8 shanty's left standing, one was being dismantled as I walked across the slushy ice. Three are in David's charge, and his back is out, so, he's waiting to find people to help him.

It was nice being on the ice alone. It was so quiet, peaceful. I listened to Pam Kay's show "Stone Soup". I ripped open walls and freed the animals, only to stuff them into large garbage bags for their trip to their new homes. It was cathartic. It felt good to clean it all up. I felt like I was cleaning up 6 weeks of a wonderful experience to make room for something new.

Marlaine came later, and we packed it all up in under 3 hours. Then we had lunch at a Thai restaurant in Plymouth. My food was pretty blah, but with three different condiments, I was able to enjoy it. We made a trip to Sharing and Caring Hands, and delivered 11 huge bags of brand new stuffed toys for the kids. The woman who accepted them said the kids will really love them. I'm so glad these animals will be loved. I'm so glad that this little thing will make some kids who may not have much to look forward to happy. I'm SO GLAD to have lightened our load!

Then we went out for coffee, and Mar sent the rest of the animals off packing. Some to her sister Char, and she'll take those to Siberia this spring, giving them to an orphanage. The others went to foreign-adoption agencies in the states, one in Maryland and one in Atlanta, I think.

Any way, it's almost over.

I have some vintage hand made stuffed toys I"m going to try and sell on craigslist. I have two huge bags of animals that we deemed not good enough for donating. These will go to ARC. And I have a stack of mail that we received while residing on the ice. I want to scan all these and post them here, on our virtual "scrapbook".

On Saturday the big-burley men, our husbands, will take it all down, flat pack it on a snowmobile trailer and take it to Marlaine's backyard, which will be it's new home. It will become a greenhouse. Not a bad life for an Art Shanty.

Last weekend on the ice

It's a bitter sweet ending to our time on the ice.
It's been an amazing, cold, exhausting, fun, expanding experience.

This is what's happening in our little shack, on Saturday February 17.

Join us for the Unstuff and Pack Party.
"Unstuff" the animals from the shanty walls and pack them for
their trip to a Siberian orphanage, and to other kids in need. Or, stop by to pick up a bag or box of animals to deliver to local shelters.

Sale of unique vintage stuffed animals, going on all day. Proceeds go to support the Art Shanty Projects.

Also, bring $20 to buy a great winter hat! We're selling them for an artist California. Apparently there's a better market for winter hats in Minnesota......

1:30 Chicken-wild-rice soup on ice. Bring your own spoon and cup.

It was gnarly cold on the ice...

...this past weekend but we had a great time, once again. On Saturday, Karen and I had a guest artist named Lindsey building mobiles for our shanty. They're beautiful and quirky and more tricky to build than we thought. The art supplies were spartan, making the task even more challenging: we had some string, a few chopsticks, a pair of wire cutters and a whole lot of oddly weighted plastic and plushy toys. Lindsey rocked the shack with her ingenuity and perseverance.
No one showed up for the first hour or so on Sunday so I kicked out the jam with some MC5. My taller half Kurt threw some cassettes into my bag before I hit the ice and I was pleasantly surprised to find my favorite boys from Detroit tucked in there ready to rock.
Knot-tying with Peter was a smashing success! What more could you ask for than a bunch of people jammed into a shanty learning how to tie the 'king' of knots, the bowline.
At about 3p Kurt showed up woefully underdressed with his guitar. After his fingers regained some feeling he played all my favorite country songs. A few visitors trickled in and out for the rest of the day and David came over to record some guitar songs and watch the darkness filter in through the Misfit Toys. Another fabulously cold day ends on Medicine Lake.

February 3 and 4

So, it's going to be COLD, but we'll be at the shanty, giving our Big Buddy heater a run for its money.

Saturday Feb 3
11-4- Activities happening all day
Animal Hunt. Search the other art shanties for our hidden
stuffed animals.

Mobile Building Workshop, using leftover stuffed animals

Paint the ice rink and lake.

Pick up an animal in need, give it to someone who really needs it.

Anyone who stops by our shanty can join us for a hot card game of
"Go Fish", or be invited to read a story or two.

Free sled rental.

Sunday Feb 4
Same as Saturday
Guest musician, Kurt Allis will be stopping by to rock our shanty. We don't know what time, but if our shack is rocking, come in!
1:00 Peter Haakon Thompson will stop by to show us how to tie knots. He is a master knot-maker
1:30 Gumbo on ice. Bring a bowl and spoon, we'll dish you up some yummy, hot soup

Clothing Exchange and Chowder on Ice

We're having a clothing exchange on Saturday, January 27, officially beginning at 1:30, but you can come on by anytime.
Bring your baby/kid clothes - clean, still useable - and we'll hang them on a clothes line. You can take and give. We'll keep the leftovers and donate them to a worthy cause (hint, Marlaine has an 18 month old son, and Karen has a daughter fitting in 24 month clothes).

Chowder on Ice on Sunday, January 28. 1:30
We're making chowder on the ice! Bring a cup/bowl and your own spoon.
First come, first served. Mommies first.

All events subject to change without notice.

One Mommy Kitty, Two Sisters and a Clarinet

Another exhilarating weekend on the ice has come and gone. My sister, Lorraine was visiting from Charleston, South Carolina and brought her clarinet to play on the ice to anyone that would listen. She's actually pretty good, not too many flat notes. Karen was with us on Saturday ready for action with her unmistakable knitted cat hat. We played a rousing game of Go Fish with a visitor named Jennifer and we all came to the conclusion that the once benign card game has malicious undertones that none of us caught as kids. Karen won and gloated. Lorraine hit the frozen lake, struggling to figure out X-country skiing. She fell three times on Saturday. By Sunday, another visitor to our shack took mercy on her and showed her the finer points of skiing on a frozen lake. On Sunday I played Go Fish with a 5 year old boy named Amery. He won and didn't gloat. He also borrowed our food coloring and painted a beautiful snow angel over by the Norae Shanty. If the batteries worked on my camera I would have taken a picture. Once again, the ice trumps electronics.
I also started to record my reading of "The Little Prince" over at Pitman's K-Ice Shanty. More recording this coming weekend...Stay tuned.

THIS WEEKENDS SCHEDULE

SATURDAY JANUARY 20, 2007

Saturday and Sunday.
Open 11-4
All day: Animals in Need, Ice Crack Painting, Free Skate and Ski Rental (one pair of each, size 9 only), Free Sled Rentals (one sled is a swimming pool, the perfect size for large dogs and adults)

Hang bird houses
Lunch, all welcome, bring your own
Story time
Go-fish card tournament, http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/games/gofish/gofish_play.htm
Snack and chat
Go home

first shanty weekend passes with success

the first weekend out in our shanty of misfit toys was a great success.
how do we measure success?
*we had a WARM shanty.
*the shanty did not fall over.
we are a bit wind-swept and tired, but very happy to be part of such a glorious project! www.artshantyprojects.org

DAY ONE January 13, 2007
very cold, cloudy, not much wind.

we couldn't quite figure out our heater. it kept turning off. but, sean (or shawn or shaun) from the Art Cars came in and got it running great. soon we had a very warm shanty, which made us very happy.

we had a small design flaw in the shanty in which there was a large gap between the roof and the wall. about 4 inches. so we got creative and started stuffing our extra animals up there. it worked great! they plugged the holes and i always like to give a stuffed animal a job. we found out from one of our visitors that this is called "chinking". our friend ole confirmed the term. the things you can learn on the ice.

we had scheduled story-time, but no one showed up for it. as luck would have it, a little girl and a bunch of other people came in to look at the animals and to warm up. the little girl decided she wanted to read books to all of us. it was a beautiful thing. we love when things just happen.

we gave our dinosaur to the knitting shanty. he was cold. he needed a scarf.
we got our welcome packet from the postal shanty.

DAY TWO January 14, 2007
started out sunny, which made our shanty warm. slowly the day grew grey and colder. it snowed at night.

the heater was a cinch! a toasty shanty.

we added many fun things to the shanty. bird houses, more cushions, blankets, slippers, a plastic swimming pool with a rope attached to it so people could pull their friends around. marlaine pulled me, and i pulled her around on the ice. it was a blast!

our dinosaur was returned to us. the knitting shanty made him leg warmers, a little hat, a scarf and a sweater! he was styling! he sat outside on the bench all day, greeting people.

the postal shanty delivered our first mail! we received two letters from people who visited our shanty and had fun.

we had a chalkboard posted outside today to list the activities.
it went something like this:
paint ice cracks (we had water dyed with food coloring to pour into all the cracks in the ice. i've wanted to do this for years! it was fun)
lunch, bring your own
reading of "the little prince"
snack and chat
go home

but on the ice, you really don't have to do anything on schedule. stuff just happens.
we talked with a man who flew this enormous kite over the lake. the kite has a camera and he took pictures of our shanty town.

a beautiful day.