The Captive and Visiting the Grandkids

Another visit come and gone, 14 hours on the Greyhound Bus there and another 14 hours home.  It's a long trip, but worth every uncomfortable minute.

Whilst I was visiting the grandkids (and their mum and dad of course), I was invited to spend the evening with their day care provider, a delightful lady named Anna, and have dinner with her family.  After dinner we took in this movie, see what you think of it.

This is a Canadian thriller, directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Mireille Enos and Ryan Reynolds.  You may remember Mireille from "The Killing", a series of three distinct stories which revolved around a single murder.

The captive is essentially an abduction thriller, set over time span of eight years. Mireille Enos and Ryan Reynolds play the parents, whose daughter is kidnapped one day outside of coffee shop. The agonising search for leads on the identity of the kidnapper is set over a period of 8 years. Scott Speedman and Rosario Dawson provide strong support as the lead police officers assigned to the case. The audience is already aware of the identity of the kidnapper which allows us to empathise more with the parents and police officers involved.

There are frequent time shifts within the movie, centring around events just after the abduction, six years after the incident and finally eight years, leading to the film’s climax. Some reviewers have criticized this, as there was no indication, the audience is left to work out what has happened.

The main conflict which fleshes out the middle part of the movie are the themes of guilt, the distraught mother blames her husband for the abduction and in turn he blames him self.  I enjoyed this movie, they can't all be terrific but I think it was worth the price of entry.

As usual, I had a great time visiting and as usual, it went by way too fast.  Each time I try to stay a little longer.  Rhys is now in school full-time, in SK and seems to love it, Katherine still has a way to go before she starts JK.  Unfortunately both Niki and I came down with terrible colds (or was it flu) which put a little bit of a dampner on things, especially as my other son who lives in Toronto came to visit for a few days so I had to make an effort to at least go out with him a few times.  I'm still not over it two weeks later.

Just one little project to show you this time, gosh, I have been lazy, LOL  This is a rather unique shaped shelf.  Someone is going to love it for their knick-knacks.  I did it in grey and shabbied it.

It was another busy day at my little shop, The Church Street Boutique and this time I decided to give away one of my hand-crafted pendant necklaces with each purchase.  Everyone was delighted but some were reluctant to accept as they were already getting some great deals, but that's what we are all about, great deals and making people happy.

Not much to blog about this time taking into account my trip and my cold.

Here are a couple of photos of the darlings, they are always a joy to see.....

Rhys's first day at SK

Sweet Katherine

Rhys drying off

Katherine, finding Daddy amusing

And that's it for now my friends.  I hope you are all healthy and life is treating you well.  Until next time, take care....

Hugs, 

Trees galore.

I have a very special friend who blogs almost daily.  I am amazed at how easily she can produce an interesting "read" with no real effort.  Most of her blogs are from her wonderful memories of her childhood, her parents and the beautiful area where she grew up.  Each and every one is filled with so many interesting tidbits, recipes accompanied by photos, especially if she had just baked using her mother's tried and proved favourite recipes.  Ah, I do envy her ability to bring all this to life on a regular basis.  I wish I had half her talent and could blog as often but that is not the case.

This blog of mine is to show you what I have been up to since the last time we came together and to be honest, there really isn't too much to show you.  I have been commissioned by two separate ladies to create button trees.

The first lady had purchased one of my trees and liked it so much that she wanted me to paint one for her, in red and black, to give to a friend who was coming to Canada for a visit.  So, this beauty will end up in Ireland.  I hope it makes it in one piece.

This one wasn't too difficult to create, afterall, I have made about eight others in different colours, but the next commission was a little more scarey.  I lady I had recently met, who seemed to like a lot of my "creations" and had purchased quite a few in one visit to my Boutique, asked me if I would like to take on a project..... to create two larger canvases with trees and, wait for it, antique buttons.  She had quite a large amount of gorgeous buttons which she had saved over the years and after purchasing two of my smaller button trees, she thought it would be an unique idea if I could put her precious buttons to good use and create two larger button trees.  Afterall, what good was it to have all these beauties if you couldn't see them and admire them.

Well, I sure was honoured that she would make that request of me but also quite nervous because I normally don't take on requests.  Anyway, she brought over her buttons and left it up to me how I would do this.  After some research and trial runs, these are what I ended up with....

Gave the canvases a wash of different colours

in the hope that they would fit on any

wall, no matter what colour.

Sketched in the trees and then sponge painted

the foliage so that some of the green would

show through once the buttons were placed.

Painted the trunks,  trying to give them some texture.

Then placed and glued the buttons on the canvases,

being very careful to balance the colours and styles

of the buttons between the two canvases.

I must say that I was very pleased with the final

outcome.  I just hope she will be too.

I found a cute little telephone table and changed it from this...

To this....

It sold immediately.

How about a little loonie piggy bank?  From this....

To this....

Just one more item, a very simple item really but fun to do.....

A kitchen paper towel holder from this...

To this...

That's about if, apart from recycling old picture frames to give them a new lease on life.

Well, that's it for now.  Please stay healthy and happy and I'll catch up with you again soon.  A couple of photos of my darling grands.

Hugs, 

Greyhound, Grandkids and Gadabout!!!

I'm beginning to get quite excited.  In just a few days I will be embarking on the Greyhound bus on my way to visit my darling grandkids and their parents.  It's about six months since my last Gadabout and can't wait to see the changes in the little darlings.  Of course I have Skyped with them but it's not the same as being in the same room with them, cuddling and kissing them and I aim to get me lots of that kind of loving.

Do you want to see what I have been up to since my last post?  Of course you do, LOL

I wish I had taken a photo of the before for this item - that's one of my weaknesses, I forget to do it and then once I have started to refinish, it's too late.  You will have to imagine how this looked just plain wood coloured.  It's much nicer shabby chic'd.....

A dear friend and neighbour needed to have her patio tables painted so I gave them a few coats of off-white paint and another couple of coats of varnish.  They look so nice now outside her patio doors with her flowers sitting on them....

I found these two chairs at one of the Thrift Stores and they were pretty ugly......

and with some inspiration and lots of hard work, I turned them into something very pretty and they are now in my Boutique waiting for their forever home.

I changed this flower basket from this...

into this.....

My biggest project was working on two end tables.  Actually, they were quite beautiful in their original state but there would be a better chance of them selling if I shabby chic'd them.  Not everyone likes the idea of painting good wooden furniture but it seems to be the trend these days.....

This is what they looked like before I transformed them....

and finally, into this....

I hope you like them.

A little black shelf I did....

and finally, a family sign, measuring just over two feet.

A box which could be used for so many things, shabby chic'd with a French decal...

and a shelf which could go with it...

That's about it for this post.  As usual, I will finish off with a couple of photos of my darling grandkids.  Did I say that I was excited at going to visit them soon?  I will get lots of new photos when I'm there.

Little Katherine (Kat)

and Rhys, who will be turning five when I'm there.

(being silly)

Well my friends, 'til the next time.... be healthy, happy and take good care of each other.

Hugs,