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 weatherchanges.
I'll keep this one short for a change and will leave you with a picture of my darling grandson Rhys............
Tonight I went to the movies with my friends from the Library. This is the movie we went to see. It was excellent. If you get a chance to take in this one, I would recommend it. Can you believe it, it wasn't even full of course language, a few little naughty words here and there but on the whole it was easy on the ears. The entire cast worked very well together. Worth watching, or should I say, "two thumbs up".
Queens native Josh Kovaks has managed one of the most luxurious and well-secured residences in New York City for more than a decade. Under his watchful eye, nothing goes undetected. In the swankiest unit atop Josh's building, Wall Street titan Arthur Shaw is under house arrest after being caught stealing two billion from his investors. The hardest hit among those he defrauded? The tower staffers whose pensions he was entrusted to manage. With only days before Arthur gets away with the perfect crime, Josh's crew turns to petty crook Slide to plan the nearly impossible...to steal what they are sure is hidden in Arthur's guarded condo. Though amateurs, these rookie thieves know the building better than anyone. Turns out they've been casing the place for years, they just didn't know it.
A few weeks ago, I bought a couple of oval frames from Value Village - didn't have a clue what I was going to do with them but knew that I would come up with something. This is how they looked then..............................
This is what I ended up doing with them. I found some file folders in the Queen's Cupboard, a local antique, etc. store and thought they would make a perfect centre for these frames, which of course, I painted cream...............
I'm not quite sure where they will end up yet, but I'm positive that they will find a home somewhere in this apartment. I might have kept them as they were but the pictures were a little washed out. They look better on here than they did before I painted them.
Tomorrow I have to go for my monthly back injections, Ouch!!! I hate having to go because it hurts soooo much. I'm confident that they do help, at least with the sciatic nerve they do, but the pain in my back is still unbearable at times. I had thought that things would have become much better once I retired, but they haven't and I sometimes think that if I hadn't retired when I did that I couldn't have continued to do my job. As I keep reminding myself, there is always someone who is worse off than me, so things could always be worse, couldn't they?
I have another Craft Show on Saturday. This one is at one of the local churches and I'm hoping that it will be better than the two I did last weekend. After that, I just have one more in my apartment building and then I hang up my gloves for at least six months. I think the first one of 2012 will be in May.
Well dear friends, time to go, but before I do, if I could just ask a favour of you all, without you even knowing who this is (but God does), could you offer up a little prayer for a friend of mine who is having surgery this week, that all will be well and for a speedy recovery. Thank you so very much, the more prayers the better and I know that many of you do believe in the power of prayer. Goodnight and God bless.
I've been looking forward so much to sharing my first refinishing job of a chair, especially in re-upholstering one. It was such a challenge for me, especially with the painful arthritic fingers of mine, but I did it, and I am so proud of the outcome, may not be perfect, but it's good enough for me. I will try and show you step-by-step what I did.
This is how it all began. I bought this old chair from "The Queen's Cupboard" and knew immediately what I wanted to do with it.
Notice the beautiful detail carved into the wood? I was sorry in one way to cover it up with paint but, hey, this is what I bought it for.
Same here, beautiful detail. Is that straw, or horsehair, not too sure?
Look at the beautiful spindles - yes, I was feeling more guilty as I went along, but, I wanted to change it.
This is where I made my first attempt at covering up the seat - didn't have a clue how to do it and couldn't find anyone to give me advice, so I went ahead and took care of it, top and bottom.......
Next it got a paint job, cream of course, since I have been on this cream kick, I love it.................
This is the cushion I used as padding for the seat. I found it at our local Value Village. I had searched all over Kitchener with the help of my darling daughter-in-law whilst I was there recently visiting her, my son and my gorgeous grandson Rhys, and didn't find one, but when I saw this one I knew that it was "the one"................
I sewed (by hand, I don't own a sewing machine) a circular cushion cover from a square cover I bought at Fabricland and then tacked the whole cushion to the newly painted chair with decorative nails. It looked rather neat, but I wasn't sure if that was the look I was going for so I decided to trim it with cream lace. I painstakingly sewed the lace around the seat (took about 4 hours using a large needle and a pair of pliers to pull the needle through, whew), but when finished, I was in heaven. It was the look I had been aiming for, see for yourselves...................
If I get fed up with the lacey look I can just snip the stitches and gently remove the lace. I'm so in love with this chair.
Before I leave for the night, I should show you what I also found at Value Village that day. I don't think I have shared this before, if I have, then forgive me as I've got "the old age" as my darling son Dave calls it..................
It looks just like the real thing, but I doubt that it is, just a very, very good reproduction. It looks really good in the spare green bedroom. Have a blessed Sunday and a fabulous week.
Last week I mentioned that I had been re-introduced to a friend of my son and his wife who used to live in my hometown. Whilst chatting, I found out that she (Kim) had written and published a very interesting book about her travels. I was quite impressed and purchased one copy for myself and one for our Library because it is written by someone who was born and raised in the Sault. Way to go Kim. In case you are reading Kim, the Library was very pleased to receive the donation.
Kim began her travels just after she and her husband (Kyle) were married and he had to go on one of those "awful" business trips. This one was to Barbados, poor things and was for a week. Anyway, this is where Kim thinks she caught the travel bug!! From there it was to Singapore, Switzerland, Malaysia, Thailand and even Canada - the rest is history. I believe at this very moment they are planning their next trip. Here are a couple of pictures of the front and back of the book.................
I hope one day you just might be able to read it for yourself - if you can't find it, you can always come and visit the Sault and check our local Library, LOL.
Remember just recently I had completed my refinishing job on an old microwave stand?
Well, even though I was thrilled with the job I had done, as this was a first for me, I felt that there was still something missing and I was toying with the idea of painting magnolias on the sides to match up with my gorgeous deacon's bench. That idea went out of the window when I found two "plaques" at Value Village. I didn't know at the time what I was going to do with them but bought them anyway, afterall, if I didn't like them, and had no use for them, it was only a couple of dollars. I painted them cream and a light went on in this old brain. "Stick them to the sides of the microwave stand, I says to meself". To make a short story long, and after many attempts of holding them on with glue, I ended up screwing one in at the top and then covering the screw with, yes, you guessed, cream paint!! I like the final effect, how about you?
AFTER
Actually the photograph doesn't do it justice. Did I show you a picture frame that I had recently distressed? No? Well, you get to see it now and in it is a pen and ink drawing that my son Dave did for me many, many years ago when he still lived at home. I treasure it so much.
I guess this is it for today. I have to get laundry done and pay a visit to the Library to pick up a couple of DVD's that are on reserve for me, sort through my jewelry because someone wants to take a selection to another town to sell on consignment and I have about five or six other Craft Shows to prepare for this month, starting this weekend. Busy, busy. Okay, keep out of trouble.
I'm finally home, safe and sound, from my delightful visit with my son, DIL and scrumptious grandson. I previously posted a few photos of him in his lion costume, so you don't want to see that again, so I will just post an ordinary (fantabulous) photo of him. Aren't grandmas a little over the top?........................
and
Okay, now that I have the bragging over with, this is what I have been doing since I returned home. I had considered buying this mirror before I went away but thought I should wait until I came home (didn't want to be labeled a compulsive shopper, LOL) and I hadn't changed my mind about wanting it, so I took my shopping cart and trudged down Queen Street to a quaint antique/whatever store called "The Queen's Cupboard" and said to myself that if it were still there, then it was meant to be mine. Imagine my delight when I found it - I had to search around a bit for it because they had moved it, but it was there, waiting for me. Here it is...................
Isn't it adorable? Actually, I should have started this blog with mentioning a couple of things I bought whilst away, not big items, just odds and sods that I just HAD to have. I found a few nice picture frames which I am painting cream of course. I'll show the finished project when I have decided what to put in them. I found a cute little jug......................
and a third frame which I intended to paint received a reprieve from my paint brush when I discovered that the picture inside was of magnolias and heavens to betsy, the bench and two trunks which are in my living room are decorated with hand-painted magnolias, so I'm keeping that one as is and have to find a place to put it............................
matching the bench....
Today I went to Value Village and I found some treasures. Get a look at this....
So, this is in the "green" bedroom of course.
I found a few other things for painting but that's a story for another day. I can't believe that I have been retired for five months already. I am so busy, having so much fun, that I hope it continues and I never get bored. I imagine the winter will be hard to get through, not having a vehicle, but there will be good days I am sure. For now, I am "Retired and Loving It". Have a good one.
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