NEW PROJECTS....

I have vowed to let go of my stash of fabric scraps, have even filled four garbage bags with them.  No they have not quite made it to the garbage can for pick up, but they are in the garage except, of course there has to be an exception, for some flannel shirt scraps I have been saving for several years.

 

This is left overs from making shirts the last four years or so and I just could not bring myself to throw them out, but I had an idea.  They would make some nice pillows with appliques and piping.  I, however, have never worked with let alone made my own piping and know if I plan to sell an item I must keep my costs down so they can sell at affordable prices, therefore, I needed to make my own piping.  I found some cord in my many stashes and devised a plan and went to work.  When I was finished I was very proud of the outcome, but needed more cord.  Home Depot here I come, thinking I could find something that would work much cheaper than I would be able to find at the fabric store.  After searching their inventory I came up with some nylon rope.

 

And after combining my new purchase with my coveted fabric scraps my first set of pillows are now complete.

 

I am just in love with this set and hope I feel that way as I continue on my journey to rid my sewing room of fabric scraps.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!

I should start by saying my camera has finally died on me, but we have had a long and successful relationship so there are no new pictures for this post.  Hard for me to believe it is almost time for Santa Claus again, but the snow is on the ground and although it has been cold we have certainly had colder winters.  It is this time of year that I start thinking of warmer weather and places.  Friends from South Carolina called to let us know that they are predicting Christmas day temperatures of 80 degrees, and we are not even going to make it to the freezing mark, but I plan on celebrating with a few close friends and a good meal tucked in my warm home.

Holiday parties and get-togethers have been celebrated, Christmas packages have been mailed and have hopefully made it to their destinations, my few decorations are now up and I have managed to de-clutter several closets and donate to my favorite causes.  I didn't however get my Christmas cards out, so to those that are used to seeing a card from me I apologize.  I'm thinking I should start a new tradition of Thanksgiving or New Years cards instead.  I'll need to give this more thought.

My year with our little mercantile and gallery is quickly coming to a close, it's hard to believe it opened 8 months ago for the season.  Anne will close on the 24th for the winter and re-open again in the spring.  I believe I am her only vendor that has sold every single month she has been open this season and her holiday open house was a tremendous success.  Lots of people came through and they were shopping.

I have had several items that sold within just a day or two of my delivering them.  Someone paying for something I made, whether it is a piece of furniture, jewelry or something I sewed is the greatest compliment I can receive, but when they come back in and ask for more it puts me over the top, unfortunately since most of my items are one of a kind there have only been a few times I was able to re-produce, but have tried to accommodate those requests when I was able to.

So as this year comes to a close I need to work on my new years resolutions and give thought to what I want to accomplish in 2016.

And with that I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK ALOT LIKE CHRISTMAS.....

Well not at my house, my house is just a mess from leaving the hubby and dog alone for three weeks (have to wonder how the vacuum, dishwasher and washing machine all seemed to quit working while I was away !!!!!) and rushing to get our little mercantile ready for all the holiday shoppers.

Taking advantage of those free bedsprings I was blessed with this summer I made Christmas decorations.

There are some pretty trees

 

and I do hope these are the only snowmen I'll be able to build this year (wishful thinking)

 

 

Maryanne is now ready for all the holiday baking and will be on loan to the mercantile through the month.  Couldn't decide which jewelry she should be wearing, so made a few sets.

 

Spending the last few weeks making the Christmas merchandise I have delivered all of it to Anne so  I can now focus on getting my Christmas boxes out to be delivered before Santa comes.

IT'S AUCTION TIME !!!!!!!!

The biggest event we submit the hubby's art to each year is the annual C.M. Russell art auction and it is with great pride that I can now share this year's acceptance.

 

This year's piece is a 100% wood hand-carved 1890's cattle car, appropriately titled

 

"BOVINE LIMO"

WHEN YOU GET AN IDEA.......

I had been giving a lot of thought to tablewear recently.  I love setting a beautiful table and even a themed table.  Of course, these days I make most of my napkins, placemats, table runners, centerpieces, etc.  The one item for my dinner parties I have issues with are napkin rings, so I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I can do to make my own unique ones, then I came up with an idea. 

I wasn't sure my idea would work, but I set things in "plaster"

needed to get a little creative, but prayed my vision would work out

Now I can't wait to do more.....

IT'S BEEN AWHILE ..................

I've been very lax with posting any of my new works this past month, not because I haven't been working, but because I've been computer lazy and since I plan on being away for awhile I had better catch up on some of my new pieces.  Apparently I have not only been computer lazy, but camera lazy as well as I never took any before pictures and had to run down to the gallery to take pictures this afternoon for this post.  Thinking my New Year's resolution had better be to do better in this department.

I have done a number of new canvases...these are just a sampling....

A few new furniture pieces have also found their way to the gallery....

along with some new organizers...

 

I have also contributed a lot of "fall" home décor and new jewelry pieces, but didn't get those pictures before they found new homes.

MORE COWGIRL DECOR

I love expressing myself in my furniture re-do's but I am finding pleasing myself during a furniture make-over makes if quite difficult to give up the piece, however, I do enjoy the checks at the end of the months, so I try to enjoy each piece for several days before they head out to find new homes and this piece is no exception.

WHO DOESN'T LOVE THEM SOME FRINGE !!!!!!

For so long I have wanted some fringed stools and with some luck I was able to come up with a couple of rather dull stools. But after I sanded, painted, waxed, added foam and covered each stool with faux tooled fabric I completed each of them with some upholstery nails and "fringe", they are now far from dull.

Now, I am faced with the ultimate question, do I keep one or both ?????

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS.......

Or in my case when I have been blessed with a pile of old picket fence boards you have to make something beautiful with them, so after a few days I came up with this...

I cut the boards to the size I wanted, kept the original paint, only giving each board a light sanding before attaching them all together.  I the gave the entire piece a light coating of polyacrylic to keep the boards from doing any additional aging, as I think they are at that "perfection" stage right now.  This piece can now be an indoor or outdoor wall hanging and a place to house fresh flowers from the garden.

FALL IS ONCE AGAIN UPON US......

Fall is no doubt my favorite season, not crazy about what comes next, but I can enjoy the next few months.  With fall comes, football, hoodies, hot chocolate and pumpkin pies.  I love the colors of fall and with that I have been working on some "fall" items for our little gallery.  I made a delivery yesterday and although my intentions were to take some pictures I didn't, however I did remember to take some shots of today's deliveries. 

Montana loves their high school and college athletes therefore only appropriate that I too remember our players and while watching the game I am giving the fans a place to put their beer and snacks.

 

This is a little jewelry organizer I made from a piece of a broken room divider, again throw no useable broken items away, you never know what you might use them for.

LIVING IN A SMALL TOWN....

I was born and raised in a small town and no matter where my life has taken me I have always been most comfortable in that small town environment.  Moving to rural Montana there are a few things I have had to adjust to, can't buy diesel for the truck, the restaurant closes at 2 pm and I have to go 20 miles to do any major shopping, but here in Belt we do have access to all that really matters and these past few months I have had the opportunity to participate in our new mercantile and gallery, not only have I have been able to make things I love and people have actually paid money for these items, but I have met some wonderful local artists.  I never knew before Anne opened her store what talent was living amongst us and I have been fortunate enough now to have acquired a few new art pieces (okay, I know, you are thinking where am I going to hang new art, but I did find room).

My new pieces done by artist Kim Lockman of Belt, Mt.

 

I need to take some photography classes or maybe get a new camera, but I don't want to do either, so please accept my less than quality photography skills.

 

I do love quality art work and Kim's work fits the bill for me.

YARD SALES EQUALS NEW MERCHANDISE !!!!!

Had some great success with yard sales in the last few weeks and have already refinished a few pieces which will be headed to the mercantile in the morning.

 

A little three drawer chest that was unfinished with a little water damage when I brought it home, but after a paint and paper treatment, I gave it some new drawer pulls and now I just love it !!

 

Since I decided the first spool lamps I made I must keep, I have been on the hunt for more and got lucky enough to find a few.  I'm anxious to see if others share my love for these lamps.

 

Had to have the hubby cut a few weeds to dig out a full size bed spring, but since I was able to pick up the whole thing for the FREE he didn't complain too much.  I put some of the bedsprings to use and now a couple of new wine racks are now looking for a new home.

NEED SOME SHELVING ????

I have been in the storage mode lately so I dug through the garage and came up with a couple of items for some unique wall shelves.

 

An old wagon and old sled, clear coated with some shelves added will give someone a special storage piece.  These are headed to the mercantile.

ARE YOU GOING TO DO MORE FURNITURE ?????

I have been asked this question a lot in the last few months, so I went to the garage to find a few small pieces to work on and like anything I have to live with the item for a few days so they can tell me what they want to look like all anew.

 

These little tables have now been completely made over and I have been able to pull out power tools for this project, I cut down the top of the white table using my jigsaw and had to use my electric staple gun on it as well.  I married the little brown table and mirror to create a gorgeous little piece.  Of course both pieces got brand new paint treatments.

 

 

Now these two "tired" items will be someone's perfect accent pieces.

UP NEXT.........NOW FINISHED

I recently purchased a box of old lamps at an estate sale, not because I liked the lamps but because I once again had an idea in my head.  I wanted to marry a portion of these lamps with some old wooden spools I had been hording for awhile.

 

I am in love with these.  Two old things makes one new and unique item.  I purchased vintage light bulbs for them which for me is like the icing on the cake.  Love the filaments in the bulbs and this was needed as these are not lamps that you should put shades on. 

 

Now my issue is do they head to the mercantile for sale or do I keep them.  Decisions, decisions......

PERFECTING A CRAFT.......

I have posted a few times about my love of working with resin.  I have used it for many things over the last few years, but as with anything the more you do the better you become.  With that in mind I have been thinking about how I could improve on my resined canvases. 

My photography skills don't show the extra that went into this piece, but this canvas has 5 separate pours on it and was poured on an unpainted canvas.  I used decoupage to put all my pieces on the bare canvas and then poured resin sanding in between each pour.  Since I allow resin to sit for 24 hours between each pour it does require some time and patience, but the outcome is awesome.

The other thing I have had issues with when working with resin on canvas is the resin bubbling on the back side, but one of my late night thoughts gave me an idea.  I rubbed Vaseline on the back of the canvas and it worked perfect, although the resin still bubbled it was so easy to peel off.  I just love it when a late night thought actually works !!!

UP NEXT ..................

I plan to spend my day putting together some flea market/yard sale finds and with any luck this idea in my head will be amazing.....

STAY TUNED FOR THE FINISHED PROJECT

AND NOW FOR THE FINALE !!!!

My little kitchen cart has finally been finished and delivered to its new home.  Can't tell you how happy this makes me as it was such a pain in hands and my "a--".  I have been thinking about it for months, but now it's not only out of my garage but also my head and it frees me up to think about other things, fun things, I hope !!!

I can confess it's not perfect, but the new owner was happy and so am I....

GOLD CADILLACS AND GOOD FRIENDS !!!

On a recent trip a memory came back to me and with the help of Google I found a cocktail recipe for a drink I hadn't had in 30 years.  A recent invitation to spend some time with good friends at their cabin in the mountains seemed like the perfect opportunity to try this drink.

Many years ago I made several visits to a little restaurant in California's gold country and the one thing I remembered most was their signature cocktail "Gold Cadillac".  My Google search led me to the restaurant and also the news that it had been sold and was now closed, but did give me the story of how this cocktail came about and the recipe for it. 

 

My only thought as I blended the ingredients was hoping my memory wasn't going to let me down and I'm happy to report that it was hit with all and the perfect libation to end a perfect day !!!

I MUST LEARN THE MAGIC TWO-LETTER WORD !!!!

My grandmother taught me that please and thank you were magic words, however as I continue on this journey of mine I now realize that sometimes the most magic word of all is "NO" if I have any hope of stopping to use all those "magic" four letter words.

After having spent the last 10 days on a project I have been putting off for months I am sorry I didn't use this magic word when I just said "sure.  After seeing a kitchen cart I had re-done last year a friend purchased a well used one in hopes that I would bring it back to its glory.  Knowing I had a lot of work ahead of me I came up with every excuse in the book to not begin this particular project, but having come home from another road trip I knew I had to get this item out of my head and my garage, so I began the process.

I sanded for days as this cart had been repainted many times over it's years and the last painting was latex paint that had been heavily brushed on.  Just a hint, never use a brush on metal.  I then gave everything  a nice bath to soak the layers of grease and grime.

.
The pieces have made their home back in my garage the last few days as I worked on the painting and today I gave it a light resin coat to give it a nice hard non-scratch surface.  Tomorrow I will re-assemble the piece so that I can deliver it to its owner first thing Saturday morning.

I will share a picture of the completed project once it is back together and I can only hope it's owner will appreciate all the hard work I have put into this piece and I hope the next time I get one of these requests I will remember my new "magic" word.

CAKE DECORATING "101"

What happens when you give a four year old her mother's box of sprinkles to decorate a cake ???

Well of course you must use them all (LOL).

Just some of the perks of being a Granny !!!!!

ANOTHER ROAD TRIP ?????

After a couple of fun road trips it is time for yet another one, only this time it is by air and no art involved, only family and friends.  The suitcase has not been unpacked but dirty clothes have been laundered and I am ready to head out again.  After visiting some grandchildren on this last trip I am really looking forward to seeing more of them.  I miss these little guys so much and never realize how much until I do see them and with any luck I'll have a few come to visit this summer as well.

 I showed you my "bandana" bag I made for my last road trip and after I got home I knew I wanted to make a few changes and as the hubby said "I knew you couldn't not start up those sewing machines".  He's right I love making things and Anne is after new merchandise, but I will not start any new projects for several weeks.  Although I really enjoyed my new "big" bag I filled it up and wished I could put it on my shoulder and had time to think about how much I like a little bling, so changes I made.

 

First I took off the store bought black handles and replaced them with an old worn belt that I had cut in two thereby making the handles long and supple enough to be able to carry the bag on my shoulder.

I then added a concho to each side and some rhinestones that I glued on to the fabric.

I now have a big enough, shoulder carrying blinged up bag for my next trip as well as many adventures to come.

A TIME FOR REFLECTION...AND A TIME FOR FUN........

When it's time to grieve I believe one needs to take all the time they need, not to force the smiles or hide the tears.  Some may not understand your way, but we all need to take the time we need which is exactly what I have done this past week, however, I now feel it is time to get up off my couch and work my way back into my life as a road trip I have been looking forward to for some time is only a matter of hours away.  These last few years it's been all about the "ART" and I feel fortunate to combine art shows with some fun.

I get to spend the next art auction celebrating Wild Bill Hickok days and while contemplating all the things I wanted to see I knew I wanted to make a statement doing it.  A couple of months ago while digging through some of my secret stashes I came up with some bandana's I had purchased years ago.  I used a few of them to make a bag for sale in the mercantile, but knew I wanted to keep the next one I made.  So with two bandanas, some batting, lining and interfacing I will have a bag big enough to carry all the new treasures I plan on finding.

 

Although "Jack Daniel's" is not something I can drink I love the way I was able to work the bandanas so that I was able to create this wonderful border all the way around the bag.

 

As another trip is planned immediately after this one it's going to be awhile before I get back into special room but I'll give you a sneak peek as to what I'll be working with next and I do hope to find many treasures to re-work as Anne keeps asking for more merchandise for the mercantile.

 

 

Always remember to always look at things not for what they are but for what they could be !!

I LOVE A CHALLENGE.......

I have been fortunate enough to have been given a few challenges in the last few months and I love a creative challenge.  After having delivered magnets to our little mercantile I was asked to come up with some "Montana" magnets.  Taking this challenge with me on my latest road trip I was able to come up with not only an idea but also found the supplies I needed.

 

I couldn't wait to get home to get started on these and am very pleased with the final result.

 

Now that this challenge is complete it will be a short while before I can begin my next challenge as I have a few projects I need to complete before the road calls my name again.

LET'S GET CRAFTY.......

I was offered a challenge to come up with some refrigerator magnets.  So after much thought and research I came up with an idea I thought may work. 

As always I first gathered some supplies and got my craft on !!!!

I poured some plaster, painted, resined and added magnets and after all my work I ended up with these.

This display is headed for our mercantile, but I just couldn't resist making a special one for my refrigerator.

 

Now it's time to put away the supplies and sewing machines for awhile so that I can attend another art show and auction and with any luck hit a few new fabric stores !!!!!