Dear Friend remembered, and more!!

Only a few months ago, my ex-colleagues and I lost a very good friend and co-worker to cancer.  She had struggled with this "devil" for over twenty years, always silently fighting and putting on a very brave face.  She had the most wonderful sense of humour and would have us in stitches, sometimes at the most inappropriate times, especially when the head honcho was close by and would almost catch us carrying on like silly teenagers.  Ah, those were the days.  I hope that she is now resting in the arms of her Creator and with those she loved.  The reason why I am mentioning her is because many years ago she gave me a beautiful angel as part of a Christmas present exchange, and every year since I have brought it out of its place of honour in my curio cabinet to top my tree.  This year, it felt so different as I placed it on top of my little Christmas tree, the memories and emotions came flooding back and I uttered a small prayer for the repose of her soul.  Rest in peace my friend.  Here are a couple of photos of the tree, graced with the angel.

Now on to other things.  As usual, I have been working on this and that and will be putting them in my Boutique in the hopes that someone will take pity on me and my hard work and buy them, LOL   I nearly always forget to take photos before I begin a project and this first one is no exception.  I found this in an almost abandoned shop a few weeks ago and got up the nerve to go inside and ask the owner if he was thinking of selling it.  The sweet young man gave it to me, so I dragged it home on my shopping cart and here it is..... oh, I did buy him an apple juice and muffin the next day from City Meat Market for his break.

Talking about City Meat Market, here is a wooden piece I did and they bought it to go along with a welcome sign that I sold them earlier in the year....

I just love those people, they are the kindest, sweetest people I know and all their produce is top quality.  There is nothing that they won't do to assist you in your shopping needs, even going out of their way to bring in special items for you.  In my case, they keep me stocked up in ice-cream, pralines and cream of course!!!!  Merry Christmas Rosina, John, Lori, Jamie, Christian and their families.

I found a really old, beaten up piano stool at one of my local thrift stores - it really was in a pitiful state, but not too far gone for me to attempt to revive it.  It still has a few more sonatas worth of life in it.  Here is the before picture, followed by the afters........

I even sawed about 1/2 inch off the legs so that I could fit them with little caps as the original feet had been removed.  I looked online for feet but the prices were just too high to justify me buying them as my prices in the Boutique are very reasonable.  Just have to give it a little more "protection" and it will be ready to sell.  Do you like it?  This is one of the things that I would love to hold on to but I can't keep everything I like - my apartment isn't small by any means, but enough is enough, LOL

Okay, the next two items are magazine racks.  I guess they don't have to be used as such.  I thought one of them would be ideal to use as a Library "holder".  Books and DVD's borrowed could be kept here, easy to see and easy to find when due.  Here they are......

From this....

To this.....

And, from this....

To this....

I made a dear friend a set of three cushion covers to go with a table runner that she had bought for her coffee table.  I wish I had taken a photo of a covered cushion to show just how pretty they looked.  This is the cover, freshly ironed.....

I painted two mirrors - they were white but I think they look so much more elegant painted black...

Re-finished a shelf, from this....

To this....

I chopped off the duck.

And my final projects for this month are wooden signs for that delightful man in your life who likes to have his own space.  Here I will show you the work in progress.....

Let's see if I can find a couple of photos of the little darlings (my grandkiddies, Katherine and Rhys) to end this post..............

Thanks to Anna their most loving day care provider for the photos.

If I don't get around to posting again before the New Year, I take this opportunity of wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  May Christmas be everything you need it to be and the New Year bring you good health and happiness.

Hugs,  

Delightful evening with the girls

I always look forward to my Tuesday evening out with the ladies from the Library.  Tonight it was Helena and Janis and we went to the early show and dined on pizza and coffee in the theatre.  So much fun.  The movie we saw was "The Place Beyond The Pines", starring three very good actors, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper (I do so love me some Bradley) and Ryan Gosling, who by the way hails from London, Ontario, Canada where my sons and I lived for many of our Canadian years.  Lovely city.

"Luke is a high-wire, motorcycle performer who travels from town to town with the carnival. While passing through Schenectady, he tries to reconnect with a former lover Romina and learns that she has given birth to their son Jason in his absence. Luke decides to give up life on the road and provide for his new found family by working as a car mechanic. Luke's boss notices his ambition and talents, and proposes to Luke that they work as partners pulling off a string of spectacular bank robberies. This puts Luke on the radar of ambitious rookie cop Avery Cross, who is also has an infant son and is dealing with the menacing and corrupt detective who runs the local police department. The consequences of Avery's confrontation with Luke will reverberate into the next generation when their two sons must face their fateful, shared legacy."

This was a pretty good movie and brought out quite a range of emotions, but bottom line was once you cross the line between honesty and corruption, the consequences can be very harsh and lives ruined.  Go and see it if you can.

My lovely friend Laurie gave me a fabulous set of hat boxes for me to sell at my Boutique.....

and these two came from some dear soul in my apartment building............

I love getting donations and enjoy spending time on some that need work, revitalizing them and putting them in the Boutique for someone else to enjoy.

I added two more scarves to those I recently knitted.  Such gorgeous colours out there.....

This is the crow table I just finished and it's now for sale in the Boutique.  Just waiting for the "right person" to come along and fall in love with it.....

You haven't seen many photos of my Boutique for a while - it's always improving and we are continually finding new items to display..........

The Bushplane Museum here in the Sault http://www.bushplane.com/

asked me for a donation for their Mother's Day Luncheon and this is what I gave them....

Well, that's about it for now.  Hope you are having a great week.  Hoping to see these two little darlings in the next month or so.  I have to have some tests, e.g. cat scan etc. so as soon as that's over, I will be heading down on the Greyhound for kisses and cuddles.

'Til next time.  Love, 

It's getting warmer

It was Janis' birthday, so the usual crowd from the Library, Janis, Helena, Kathy and myself took her out for pizza and a movie.  This is the one she chose and we all agreed that it was good for a laugh, but found that there was a lot of unnecessary swearing.  Don't understand that because the movie would have been just as funny without all that crap.  Anyway, a great evening was had by all and we all came away smiling, just don't take any children with you when you go to see it.  I thought Jason Bateman was very cute, seems to me that he gets yummier as he gets older, or is it me???

"Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (Melissa McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Miami, where the queen of retail buys whatever strikes her fancy. There's only one glitch: The ID she's using to finance these sprees reads "Sandy Bigelow Patterson"... and it belongs to an accounts rep (Jason Bateman) who lives halfway across the U.S. With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Bigelow Patterson heads south to confront the woman with an all-access pass to his life. And as he attempts to bribe, coax and wrangle her the 2,000 miles to Denver, one easy target will discover just how tough it is to get your name back."

I have started knitting again, even though my fingers are not as flexible as they used to be.  I had seen these pretty scarves and didn't think that I could make them, they looked so difficult, but no, they really are quite simple, but painstaking.  These are the ones I have made so far and I will have them for sale in my Boutique on the weekend..............

I hope they sell because now I have the bug and I'm running low on other ideas.

Just finished a batch of "Hooker Boards".  They seem to be quite popular.  I love making these and distressing them to make them look like they are old.  When I first started to make them I used heavy, cast iron hooks which I shabbied.  I must say, I prefer the boards with those on but I can't get those hooks any more.  These are my new ones............

There is a delightful new store just opened in our city - it sells the most scrumptious British goods.  I have a hard job just walking past it without being pulled inside to see what tempting new stuff he has to offer.  For my local "followers", if you haven't already heard of it, here is the link............

https://www.facebook.com/justbritishontario?fref=ts

Here are a few things I picked up on my visits, bringing back so many memories.  I have yet to pick up a bag of dolly mixtures, my favourite candy when I was a little girl............

I made a few pin-cushions and that's about it for the last week or so.........

So dear friends, that's about it for now.  Here's the little "pickle boy" Rhys, eating his dill......

and Katherine (aka Kit-Kat) with kitty

Enjoy every day.  Hugs,