Having a quiet month!!

The month of March was very quiet as regards "thrifting" and "creating", so this is going to be a very short post.  I need to find a few small wooden items (e.g. tables) to paint and re-purpose.  Donations are always welcome, LOL  It's hard to find items like this as I don't drive.

I found this gorgeous frame and found that it matched a few others I have in my apartment which contain lovely crow pictures painted by my dear friend Laurie, so rather than recycle it, I mentioned to Laurie how great it would look with another of her crows in it.  Of course, she was kind enough to whip one up for me and here they are, one without a painting and the other with.

 Aren't they gorgeous???  Thanks so much Laurie.

This is a piece I did myself of a crow on burlap in a shabby chic frame - it's in my Boutique, for sale.

I picked up this shelf and painted it black, an easy fix....

It's now in my Boutique for sale. 

I decided to turn all my jewelry into grab bags in the hope that I could finally sell it all.  It has been a few years since I did all the craft shows where things like this sold very well, but now not so much.  In each bag I have a minimum of seven items which I am selling for $5 a bag.  They are now in my Boutique for sale and also in my local grocery store, City Meat Market and they have been doing very well there.  They are so good to me.  They also are a great little family grocery store which sells locally grown produce as well as organic meat, etc.

I worked on this delightful mailbox. It needed a new coat of paint, another easy fix.

I bought this old wagon, I think it was one of the original 'Little Red Wagons'.  It certainly has taken a beating over the years but it is still in very good condition and strong....

And that's about it.  At the moment I am working on a little table/plant stand, whatever, it can be used for either and am filling holes in the top and sanding it.  When that is done, I will decide what colour I will paint it and whether I will shabby chic it.....

As usual, I am leaving you with a couple of photos of my darling grandkids whom I hope to go and visit in a few weeks, now that the snow is beginning to go away, although someone told me today that it is supposed to snow again either tomorrow or Saturday, enough already!!!! LOL

Katherine, the birthday girl, just turned two....

 Big brother Rhys, mischievous as usual...

 Birthday girl opening presents from Grandma (me)....

 And, darling Rhys again - can't wait to see these darlings......

Well folks, I hope that wherever you are, you are well and happy.  Until the next time, take care of yourselves.

Hugs, 

Movie night with the girlfriends

This evening Helena, Janis and myself did the girls' movie night out.  This time it was to celebrate Janis' retirement from the Library (where I also worked until last year).  Helena, love her little heart, still is imprisoned there for a few more years.  We were anticipating a delightful evening with pizza for supper and chocolate treats inside the movie theatre as we settled down to enjoy ourselves.  Helena and I had bought Janis a gorgeous Pandora ring called Liquid and everything was in place for a most enjoyable time.  Right!! The movie was the most complicated one we have ever been to together and for three hours we sat and asked one another "What's this about", LOL  None of us would recommend this to anyone, but I'm sure there are some science fiction/futuristic fans out there who will think that it is a fabulous flick.  Anyway, the cast contained many a famous name and we expected much.  At least we enjoyed being together and having a good laugh.  I told the ladies that I would pick the next one, so I'm hoping for a good mystery or thriller.

The official synopsis for Cloud Atlas describes the film as:

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

The film consists of six interrelated and interwoven stories that take the viewer from the South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Unlike the original novel, the film is structured, according to novelist David Mitchell, "as a sort of pointillist mosaic: We stay in each of the six worlds just long enough for the hook to be sunk in, and from then on the film darts from world to world at the speed of a plate-spinner, revisiting each narrative for long enough to propel it forward."

The six stories are:

• South Pacific Ocean, 1849. Adam Ewing, an American lawyer from San Francisco during the California Gold Rush, has come to the Chatham Islands to conclude a business arrangement with Reverend Gilles Horrox for his father-in-law, Haskell Moore. He witnesses the whipping of a Moriori slave, Autua, who stows away on Ewing's ship, and convinces Ewing to keep him hidden, then to advocate for him to join the crew as a freeman. Meanwhile, Dr. Henry Goose slowly poisons Ewing, claiming it to be the cure for a parasitic worm, aiming to steal Ewing's valuables. When Goose attempts to administer the fatal dose, Autua saves him. Returning to America, Ewing and his wife, Tilda, denounce her father's complicity in slavery.
• Cambridge, England and Edinburgh, Scotland, 1936. Robert Frobisher, a young English musician who is gay, finds work as an amanuensis to famous composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher the time and inspiration to compose his own masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet". Ayrs wishes to take credit for the piece, and threatens to expose Frobisher's scandalous background if he does not comply. Ayrs is shot by Frobisher in a confrontation between them, and Frobisher flees to a hotel. There, he finishes his masterpiece and shoots himself only moments before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives to save him.
• San Francisco, California, 1973. Luisa Rey is a journalist who by chance meets an older Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy regarding the safety of a new nuclear reactor, but is killed by hitman Bill Smoke before he can give her the report that proves it. Isaac Sachs, another employee at the power plant who seems to find her familiar, also gives her the information, but he is killed by Smoke, who runs Rey's car off a bridge. With help from the plant's head of security, Joe Napier, she evades another attempt against her life, that results in Smoke's death, and exposes the plot to use a nuclear accident for the benefit of oil companies.
• United Kingdom, 2012. Timothy Cavendish, a 65-year-old publisher, has a windfall when Dermott Hoggins, the gangster author whose book he has published, infamously murders a critic and is sent to jail. When the author's associates threaten Cavendish's life to get his share of the profits, Cavendish turns to his brother Denholme for help. The brother tricks him into hiding out in a nursing home, where he is held against his will and treated poorly by the tyrannical Nurse Noakes. Cavendish and a few of his fellow "inmates" then plot a successful escape.
• Neo Seoul, (Korea), 2144. Sonmi-451, a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) server at a fast-food restaurant, is interviewed before her execution. She recounts how she was released from her compliant life of servitude by Hae-Joo Chang, a member of the local Resistance, and other rebels. They reveal to her that fabricants like her are "recycled" into food for future fabricants, and hold off a brutal armed assault as she broadcasts this information to the world before her capture.
• The Hawaiian Islands on post-apocalyptic Earth (dated "106 winters after "The Fall", identified as 2321), a tribesman named Zachry lives a primitive life after most of humanity has died during "The Fall" and is plagued by visions of his people's perception of the devil, "Old Georgie", a representation of his guilt for not interfering in the murder of his brother-in-law, Adam, at the hands of the Kona Chief, leader of a tribe of vicious cannibals. He is visited by Meronym, a member of the "Prescients", the last remnants of a technologically-advanced civilization. In exchange for saving his young niece from a venomous bite, Zachry agrees to guide Meronym into the mountains in search of Cloud Atlas, an outpost station where she is able to send a message to people who have left Earth and now live on other planets. After returning, Zachry discovers the murder of his tribe at the hands of the Kona. After killing the Kona Chief and a number of his tribesmen, Zachry and his niece join Meronym and the Prescients in a journey to a new world.

A seventh time period, about 25 years after the Hawaiian one, is featured in the film's prologue and epilogue. In the prologue, a lone Zachry delivers a monologue, and his location is not revealed. In the epilogue, Zachry is revealed to have been telling these stories to his numerous grandchildren, with two moons in the night sky and Earth visible as a pale blue dot. Meronym emerges from their home and they embrace.
(Courtesy of Wikipedia).

This week is turning out to be a very busy one.  This morning I had breakfast with two other lovely ladies, Claire and Illa, then this afternoon I went and had a key made for another friend Carol and finished off with the disastrous movie.

Tomorrow I have to go and get my monthly back injections and attend a wake in the evening - this will be the first of two this week.  Before I know it, it will be the weekend again and I'll be at the Boutique again.  Retirement sure is busy.  Janis is going into her third week of retirement and she is absolutely loving it and has no regrets.

A dear friend, Dawn, asked me if I could paint a sprig of holly on a red cushion cover she was hoping to use this Christmas and even though I had never taken any requests for painting on fabric I decided to give it a try - she said that if it didn't work out she wouldn't be upset, so, pressure off, LOL  I think that it turned out pretty good and so did she..............

I've also started my own tool collection and one by one I am bravely trying them out.  These are the ones I have already.......

The only one I haven't tested out yet is the last one, the cordless drill.

I put together a few Christmas baskets which I hope to sell at the Church Street Boutique.  I'm hoping that "business" will pick up soon as I have put a tremendous amount of work into this new interest.  I can honestly say that it's not so much the money that I want from it, although lots of that would be very nice, no, it's having an outside interest, something which I have been toying with for a couple of years and which has recently become possible.  If it doesn't work out, then at least I have given it a "go".  Here are a couple of the baskets I made - there is quite a lot in them, including about six or seven items of my handcrafted jewelry...

As usual, I keep blabbering on, so I shall finish off with a couple of photos of my darling grandkids...............

My favourite grandson, Rhys

And my favourite grand-daughter, Katherine

Okay dear friends, I will say ta ta for now or as they say in good ol' U.K., TTFN.  Have a wonderful week and I will visit with you all again soon.

A special visitor

The Governor General of Canada, David Johnston, was here last week to help celebrate The Sault's 100 years.  Also visiting was Dr. Roberta Bondar the first Canadian female astronaut in space.  I was very honoured to be able to shake her hand and briefly chat with her.  What a delightful lady.  (She is the one with the medals.)

You know I am always talking about "The Queen's Cupboard", well, through our acquaintance with Pat and our constant visits and volunteering at her store, we Carol, Gary and myself (her faithful volunteers) have decided to rent a space in the same building as Pat and take our "stuff" out of her store and put it into our own space.  We are quite excited but also apprehensive as to what the future may hold and will be quite happy if we are able to make enough from our work to at least pay for the rent.  More than that will be a big bonus and exceedingly welcome.  This is what it looks like now and of course I will update as we get it ready for moving in..........

We will share the space and the responsibilites as equally as possible and as you can see from the above photos, our work is cut out for us.  It is afterall, a warehouse and as such, there are things that we will not be able to change and we are hoping that with a good coat of paint, it will come alive and be a splendid place for us to display our "creations".  We are thinking of calling it "Church Street Boutique" featuring, etc. etc. but that could change of course.  As they say, "Nothing is written in stone".  I, for one, will be so happy to find a new home for all the crafts I have been making over the years, including my jewelry and artwork.  Please wish us success and perhaps those who live here in the city can come and visit when we open.

Anyway, enough about that.  Here are some of my latest projects.....

I tried my hand at painting a crow on a jute shopping bag.  So far I have only done two as I want to see if anyone will buy them before I make more.  They did take a long time to carefully, but lovingly paint.

Here are some more primitive items I found at the local thrift stores, lucky me.......

I also put together some jars of cotton balls and added a water-slide decal which I bought from "The Polka Dot Closet", you can check this fabulous blog out here.....    http://thepolkadotcloset.blogspot.ca/    and hope to sell these in the Boutique once we get it going....

Here are a few more sets of cushion covers I have made - I must stop now until I sell some more - have only sold a few sets but am hoping that once we are in the boutique and we can display things properly, they will sell better.

Carol does a wonderful job on refinishing old chairs and giving them a bright new look - they are perfect livening up a corner or in a sunroom.  She is having so much fun with this and has also tackled revamping and revitalizing old lamps and making them superb.  You will just have to come and see for yourself.....

Here's a sneak preview.....

Gary has been at this for a lot longer than we have and is experienced in antiques as well as refinishing tables and bookcases.  He really is very good at what he does.  He will have a variety of things old and new for you to browse around and hopefully, when everything is in place, you will happily leave us clutching some delightful new acquisition.  We can only hope!!  'Til next time.