Tag Archive for: bathtub

this is my dam halloween costume hoover dam sweatshirt

2010 Edition: Halloween Costumes for the Water-Obsessed

in /by

For 2010, we’ve gone DIY! All these water-themed Halloween costumes are homemade. This year, use your skills, creativity and ingenuity to fashion a killer look and unforgetable water statement!

this is my dam halloween costume hoover dam sweatshirtTHIS IS MY DAM COSTUME THIS YEAR: Thirsty in Suburbia exclusive! I made this for myself on Cafepress…perfect thing for recession trick or treating around your local Hooverville. (While I was at it, I made a shop so you can get one, too! Yes, I know, it’s expensive…but who can put a price tag on this level of awesomeness? Check out the mug, too! http://www.cafepress.com/thirstyinsuburbia).

pollution mermaid halloween costumeTOUGH YEAR FOR MERMAIDS: This costume won the 2008 Etsy Costume Contest in the Green catagory. Your 2010 interpretation could be even more timely with sad-funny BP references. Find a thrift shop prom dress and get busy! Great way to recycle that old motor oil. Source Link

Read more

Soak Up The View From This Fab Garden Bench

in /by

Some people can look at things cast off and thrown aside and imagine something new and wonderful. Katie’s artistic eye and creative vision gave new life to an old tub as a charming, one-of-a-kind garden bench, made of 100% recycled and reused materials.

Before, this sad old soaker appears to be awaiting it’s ride to the landfill. But Katie (from the UK near Northumberland) was already formulating her plan.

After husband John (update, oops! John is the blacksmith, and Geoff is the husband!) tackled the tub with some patient cutting and griding, the shell looked like this:

Now things really get awesome. The emerging creation needed some feet, so Katie “thought that cobbler’s lasts might do the job.” Some scrap metal and some welding  wraps up the final “step.”

Last, a good scrub, a dreamy spot under a beautiful spherical twig arbor, and this all-recycled treasure is ready for it’s second, more pastoral life.

All that’s left to do is enjoy it, right? Maybe not! Some refinements are being considered – “we’ll put some taps on maybe and Geoff thinks we should stand it on a bit of lino, with a bath mat perhaps? I will make some seat cushions for it – its a bit cold on the old bum.”

Just makes me smile every time I look at it! You can see more on this unusual garden bench at Katie’s blog, http://whatkatiedid.typepad.com along with tons of other clever and inventive creations made from reused and recycled materials.

Houston taxpayers get soaked?

in /by

When Houston’s Water Museum and Education Center opens in the Fall of 2009, visitors will be greeted with one splashy Texas-worthy monument to mandatory public arts funding.

This $500,000 “bathtub bouquet” (conceptual drawing shown here) will be installed at the outer traffic circle of the new WaterWorks facility and is designed with a hidden water recycling system (thank God for that). Not that it has to “represent” or “mean” anything, but I wonder what the artsy “talking points” will be about the work’s message… there’s plenty of water here, fill ‘er up and splash ‘er out! Whatever, I admit it…I really like it, there’s something irresistable about it.

 As reported on www.chron.com, the Houston Chronicle’s online site, 

Its title, Tubbs, is a pun and tribute to country-music legend Ernest Tubb. Its creator, Philadelphia-based Donald Lipski, is an art-world legend, with work in more than two dozen major museums and a hefty portfolio of public art commissions.

Funded by an ordinance that sets aside 1.75 percent of city capital-improvement project budgets for art, Tubbs is one of eight public commissions set for completion in 2009, say officials with the nonprofit agency charged with managing the city’s art collection.

“We want to have the country’s next great civic art program,” said Jonathon Glus, CEO of the Houston Arts Alliance. “Houston is poised for it.”

Lipski landed the Public Works and Engineering Department commission by answering an HAA open call for artists in June 2007. A five-member panel of department representatives, art professionals and stakeholders met twice — first to review submissions and select three finalists, then to interview the finalists, review their designs and select the artist.

Although the commission was originally budgeted for $350,000, public-works officials agreed to add $150,000 after “reviewing the scale and potential of the Water Museum commission.” That enabled HAA to negotiate a $500,000 contract with Lipski in June, according to HAA’s civic art capital report for fiscal 2008.