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.

Snowy night

This is what it is like tonight here in the Sault, winter is back, Ugh and I did so want to go out tomorrow to the opening of our new Michaels store.  Maybe it will clear up by then.  Apologies for the rotten photos but it was blowing quite a bit and of course, very dark outside on my balcony.......

Lots of projects on the go, nothing completely finished except for one item.  I had bought a cheese server from a kitchen store in the Mall a little while ago (it was on sale) and decided to turn it into a cloche for birds.  It had a pretty design on it, but that didn't go with my idea, so, of course, I painted it cream, except for the glass top.....................


Here are some before pictures.............

Then painted.........................

Then I had to decide how I wanted it to look.  I tried a couple of variations until I settled upon the one I thought looked just perfect for it.  First I tried it with twigs......................

But settled on a base of moss and added a couple of birds, small nest and a few eggs.  I'm happy with this.  Don't know how long I will be "into" birds as decorations but for now I'm enjoying the "tweetness" of them all...............

How about a few pieces of my jewelry to fill in some space, LOL.........

And how about some of my dear friend Laurie's beautiful paintings which I have framed......................

To end this post, a cute little photo of my darling grandson in his funglasses....................

Nighty, night all.

To a caring and loving home!!

Yes, my friends, the curio cabinet (from "The Queen's Cupboard") has arrived, yesterday to be exact, but I had a few things to do to it before I could write about it.  You remember what it looked like in the store (check out previous posts).  This is what it looked like when it found it's new, loving home.............................

And this is what it is looking like now that I have started to fuss around with it.  Doesn't mean that I will leave it like this but I had to rustle up a few things to make it feel welcome.................

For some reason it has taken on a bird theme and, notice the cloches?   Yes, they each have a birdie inside them also.

I finally decided to paint a mirror that I have had for over 30 years.  It has followed us all around to every new home we have lived in and this is how I repay it for all it's loyal service, but I LOVE it, I'm just surprised that I haven't done it before now.........................

Here is some artwork I have just framed.  I took cheap Dollar Store frames and painted them cream and gave them an aged look.  I think they make the prints look so sharp.  The first four are my son's paintings and the last one is my dear friend Laurie's (from:  http://laurie-whentheboughbreaks.blogspot.com/  ). I'm not that good at taking photos and can't seem to get them completely straight, but you'll get the idea.  At least when they are up on the wall they will be straight, LOL

Well, that's about it for now - just had to let you all see the beautiful curio cabinet.  After it had arrived I had to do a little work on it.  Unfortunately the door wouldn't close, probably because the dampness of the paint made the old wood swell, so this afternoon I spent about 3 hours sanding the top and bottom of the door and now it closes like a dream.

Finishing off with a new photo of my darling grandson that my son sent me today, can't wait to see him and my new little grand-daughter (when she arrives - just two more months for the latter) .............................

Have a great weekend.  Talk to you again soon.  Oh, and I cancelled my Etsy Account.  It wasn't doing anything for me and I decided not to put more money into it.  I think there is a knack to it, but it escapes me.  So, it will be the Craft Shows again this year.