Happy Summer!

It has finally started to heat up here in the Rockies.  Normally June is a fairly wet month for us but this year, not the case.  I have been busy with the garden and out of state company.  Hub's sister from Illinois was here for a short visit and we had a bbq for the family.  My five year old granddaughter stayed the week with me while her mommy was out of town.  It was great fun, but busy.  We went to the movies, went shopping, had a picnic, went to the park, walked in the woods, and went to a mini amusement park called Tiny Town.

I did finish up a couple of items for the fall shows:

I bought a couple of these oars at the thrift store.  I painted one of these a couple of years ago and it sold immediately.  I still see it show up now and again on Pinterest.

 This one has been rattling around in my brain for a while.  I bought this white spindle at a Home Depot a year or two ago.  The moulding I purchased at the thrift store for $1.  I glittered the "wings", painted a wooden ball and drilled holes across the top of the head for the wire hair.  (I sell these little wire springs in my Etsy shop)  Added a halo and some pips and you have the perfect 38" tall skinny angel!

Have you checked out my Etsy shops?  I have lots of supplies at this one  and antique and vintage items at this one.   

Have a great week, my friends!            

Birthday Week!

This, my peeps, is my birthday week.  No big celebrations planned, just excited to have made it another year.  Before my daughter Brandi went to Heaven, she and I always celebrated birthday week.  We always did little special things for each other each day.  I miss that.  Its times like this when I miss her most.

Over the weekend, I was going through some of my stash (I listed some doll making supplies on Etsy) and I ran across some chair spindles that I saved from the trash last summer.  They were from a couple of chairs that were sitting on the deck and were being ruined from the rain.  I tore them apart and threw the badly damaged pieces in the kindling pile and salvaged the spindles.  I really didn't know quite what to do with them but here is what I came up with:

Here is what I did:  I drilled a hole into a large wooden ball that I had on hand, just big enough to fit the dowel end of the spindle.  I cut the spindle off so that the widest part would be on the bottom (for stability)  I freehanded the wings and cut them out of very thin plywood (I had the scrap)  I painted the ball flesh tone, the wings and base (a scrap of 1 x 3" cut into a square) white and put a coat of crackle over the already brownish colored spindle.  I recoated when dry and where needed.  Paint white over the crackle but make sure it is really dry before you do that.  Add glitter to one side of the wings.  I use modpodge to adhere the glitter.  Assemble.  I screwed the spindle to the base and put wood glue in the drill hole on the head.  I glued and screwed on the wings.  Then trim.  Moss and tiny grapevine wreath on the head, draw in eyes with black sharpie, blush cheeks.  I put pearls around the "neck" and glued on some rusty bells.  What do you think???

I have a bunch of spindles, so I am going to try some shorter ones, and vary the wings a bit.  Any ideas?  Let me know.

I also finished one of my big angels:

I added a candle box and a hand tipped silicone bulb.  I really like her but I worry about transporting her to my shows.  Any ideas???

Better get to work.  I have so many projects in the works.