Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

"This added part is an update (Sunday, 6th Jan.): as you will see from my comments beneath, I had trouble posting my photos.  Imagine my horror when I found out that after all that hard work uploading them to Picasa they didn't even show up in my blog.  I have been spending the last two or more hours trying to figure out how to get them back on and thanks to a lovely lady named Rae Ann, I tried it her way, using HTML and it seems to have worked.  I hope that I don't have to do this every time I blog because it sure is a work out.  Sorry for any of the photos I couldn't retrieve - I don't save every photo I take.  Hugs, Chris"

For the first time, I have been having trouble in uploading photos from my computer onto my blog.  I have always been able to do it so easily but now I find that I have to go through a Google based programme called Picasa.  Is everyone else who uses Blogger in the same boat?  I'm sure that once I get used to it, it will be as easy as pie but to get started it means that I have to transfer all my photos into individual albums from which to draw the photos which I wish to use in my current blog.  Phew, I am so tired of doing this procedure this evening that I just might take a break and go and do something else until I get my breath back, LOL

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and are now looking forward to a peaceful and healthy New Year.  I know I am.  I had a very quiet Christmas, spent with my eldest son and we enjoyed a very nice repast, made by moi, took all day to cook and was polished off in about 30 minutes - doesn't that happen to everyone?  My three sons and family joined together and bought me a fabulous new TV.  I had been resisting getting a new one because the old one worked just like it did the day it was purchased, but with technology constantly changing, I couldn't have my DVD player and the Digital Box connected at the same time and plugging in and unplugging became a bit of a nuisance.  That gave the sons, DIL and grandchildren something really special to be able to get for me and I truly appreciate it.  Why I resisted for so long I just don't know.  Here's a picture of it - aren't I spoilt?



As usual, I have been busy creating and refinishing items for my Boutique.  It's not like I need to do this to fill empty spaces, no, on the contrary, I barely have room to move in there.  I guess you could say that I am addicted to being crafty.  These are a few things that I have been working on over the holidays......

I made some animal magnets.  I had leftover animals from a previous craft, bookends which you will see in my previous post, and decided to put them to good use.  I just hope that someone will take pity on me and buy a few.

A couple of crow pictures which I found on the net and painted

on canvas, giving them my own individual look.



I'm sure this little group reminds you of a famous singing group.  I made silhouette images and mod podged them onto a painted canvas and then framed them.  I was quite a fan of these young men in my heyday, and even received a beautiful smile from one of them when I saw them live.  I'm not kidding!!

I spent quite a bit of time painting and shabbying these beauties - if I didn't already have a nice set of glass end tables I would consider keeping them for myself and they certainly would go with my decor - they have a mirror insert......

I also did this small table and shabby-chiced it too.....

I painted a few chalkboards for the kiddies as well...........



Kellee and Kathy, two delightful ladies with whom I worked at the Library did this unusual Christmas tree for the Main Library just in front of the Circulation Desk for all to admire - what a neat idea...

My dear friend Laurie from   http://iloveacloudyday.blogspot.ca/

came around with a large slice of brownies which she had just made, in fact they were still warm.  They were peanut butter and chocolate chip, something I had never tasted before in a brownie, and they were delicious.  I would have posted a photo of them but they disappeared so fast - my son thought they were great, as did I.

Well, that's it for this post.  I am ending it with some photos of my most favourite people and then I'm going to give myself a headache and work on uploading more photos to Picasa.  Let me know what you think of this programme and if you find it easy to use.

Have a fabulous weekend.  I'm working at my Boutique in the morning so I had better get cracking and figure out this Picasa thing and get to bed.  'Til next time.  Hugs,



Church Street Boutique

Saturday was the first day that the Church Street Boutique was open.  All-in-all, it was a very successful day, not a great deal of people came through but then we haven't even started to advertise.  I think that advertising will be the next thing on our agenda and I will have to investigate different sites where we can advertise for free for hobbyists.

The three of us, Carol, Gary and myself are very satisfied with the way the "boutique" is looking (not bad for just over a week's work - we only signed the lease about 10 days ago), and we are hoping that it will become a place where our friends, both old and new, will stop by, pick up a few gifts (especially now that Christmas is fast approaching) and perhaps have a cuppa with us.  I am providing (thanks to my son Gareth) a microwave, coffee pot and electric kettle, as well as the coffee, creamer, sugar,  teabags and mugs to get us started.

Here are a few photos I took of how it looks today.  We are trusting that it will change as we sell and replace items.  Check it out.............

I paid the "boutique" two visits today to sort out some items and price others.  Carol, Gary and myself did the rounds of Value Village and Habitat for Humanity looking for items from which to create our masterpieces, LOL and we actually did find quite a few choice pieces.  Must have been the day for it as other times you can drop by and find nothing.  I spent this evening painting up what I had bought and of course I will show you in the next blog, so until then, have a wonderful week.  We have lots of rain at the moment, as I "speak" it is battering against the windows.  Fall is almost upon us and it never fails, as soon as the kiddies go back to school, the weather changes.

I'll keep this one short for a change and will leave you with a picture of my darling grandson Rhys............

and his beautiful little sister Katherine



A-crafting we will go!!

You have often heard me mentioning "The Queen's Cupboard", a place where I have purchased many interesting items and refinished them either for my apartment or to sell in my craft shows, well, she (Pat) has moved her business to a new location and now is in the midst of painting and re-organizing everything.  This, of course is a very, very large undertaking.  She hopes to re-open for occasional shopping days by May.  Her new location is now in the building behind the Bush Plane Museum, where the Potters Guild is housed.  This is artwork done by my son of the Bush Plane Museum many years ago before he left town to seek his fortune, which he never found by the way, unless you count a beautiful wife and darling son, which certainly is more precious than silver or gold......................

Going back to Pat.... I went to visit her to see how she was coming along and was delighted to see that she had almost finished painting the whole area, with the help of another delightful lady, Carol.  Well, I ended up coming away with a few more birds, which she so graciously gave me, insisting she didn't want anything for them, so I paid for her lunch at Tim Horton's.  Aren't the little birdies adorable?

They have been squeezed into the little white cream china cabinet which you see at the top of this blog, which is quickly becoming a haven for lost birds.

So, what else have I been working on?  Do you want to see the small horses that I have just refinished?  I picked these three up at a local Church rummage sale a couple of weeks ago and immensely enjoyed  working on them...............

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Here are two more fabulous paintings by my dear friend Laurie of.....   http://laurie-whentheboughbreaks.blogspot.com/   If you are ever interested, she does sell her work, she just doesn't "flaunt" her talent, a very lovely, humble lady...................

I did pop into Michaels for a few minutes the other day to see what it was like.  My eldest son and his lady took me.  My gosh, it was overwhelming, but what I saw I thought it was also quite expensive.  If you are making anything with the intention of selling it, then I think it will be hard to get your money back, at least in this town.  Remember the larger horse that I refinished a few weeks ago?  Well, an unfinished wooden one was $40 and when you add the cost of all the other products you need to complete the project before you know it you will have spent at least $60.  Perhaps as time goes by they will reduce their prices.  We used to have a store called White Rose here and that closed and it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as Michaels.

A little while ago I bought a couple of pillows from a new quilt store in our Mall - they were only $5 each, so how could I refuse them?  I thought they would add a smidgen of colour to my living room, considering I have more "cream" in there than does a barnful of cats!!

Well, to finish off for this evening, how about another picture of the most handsome grandson in the whole world, or at least in my world, LOL..........

His dad, my son, "photoshopped" him onto one of his pieces of art.

'Til we meet again.