Red Valentine Birdie

Love is in the air!!

I love the way this birdie turned out.

I put her on top of a mound of "ice cream" of vintage lace.

I cut the the flowers out of the same wool then stitched them on with silver thread.

I added sparkly centers with silver glittered pins.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Remember this sconce

Heres what it looked like when I purchased this sconce.

I gave it a coat of primer

Ta da!! It is painted with soft pinks and pearl. I highlighted the raised area. I put in vintage lace, a very vintage millinary rose, I added the glass glitter to the leaves. I copied a vintage card that I had and added the heart...topping the whole thing off with my little pink bird that I dyed to go with the rose. It's going on Ebay!

Valentine Birdie

Valentines is just around the corner...I added a little silver sparkle to my birdie and pins, and glittery cherries, perfect for the New Year!! I gave it all a spritz of sparkle I also added a tag that I made using a copy of an original 1890 valentine handmade card. I'm putting this pincushion on my Ebay

Funny regift give-a-way

We have been managers of these Townhomes for over 7 years...We have NEVER received a gift from the owner. We have only met him 3 times...So Out Of The Blue...we received a box from this man...ummmm we were really excited...tore open the box (after shaking it, of course) and lo and behold....FRUITCAKE!! WHAT??!! FRUITCAKE...nothing in 7 years...then FRUITCAKE!. Who eats Fruitcake??? So, do you guys believe in regifting??? I'm going to give this BEAUTIFUL YUMMMMY expensive fruitcake to the first person that comments that they WANT it!! Yea!! I just know I am going to find SOMEONE that wants this DELICIOUS fruitcake.LOL

UPDATE

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**Connie**

I would call her the winner, but really! Its a FRUITCAKE!! LOL

I think if anyone else tells me they like fruitcake...that Connie should

share the gift...what do you think!! LOL

Here we go...

Now we are into the countdown to the New Year.
We woke up Christmas morning to SNOW???? nope, just so cold everything was white LOL.
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! One of the things we do, is to go to a movie in the afternoon. We went to a cute new little Theater in a tiny town of Indenpenance. Stacey and I went to see PS I Love You...we were the only ones in there. That was pretty weird...but the movie...we bawled the ENTIRE movie!! No one said to take in tissues!! It was neat, we were able to laugh and talk...and not disturb anyone...every once in awhile one of us would be sniffling and the other would "SHHH!" like people due when disturbed...then we would laaaaaugh, then onto sobbing again! Dean went and saw I am Legend, he said it was really intense.
Now I'm off to put notices on everyones door, how to dispose their tree...1/2 the people don't listen!
I'm off to sew up some birdies today!

I'm making progress!

Not only am I making progress getting well, I even got a start on a couple new projects. I found this gold wall thingy...any one know what these are called??

I sprayed the one on the left with "upshot" primer. The one on the right is the way I found it...I have paint it!!
It turned out really pretty, I used a few pinks and a touch of Pearl for a finish. This is how I start out...by trying out different items... I will show you the end result soon.

Little story # 2

Ok, you know how when you don't feel good but things still have to get done...
I have a tenant that lives here that said all of a sudden her front door won't stay closed and she couldn't get the dead bolt to hold (the building shifted)
well...its kinda important to be able to close and lock your door...
so I bundled up...(did I mention that I'm also the maintenance man too LOL) and took her locks and knobs apart...found out what the issue was... So...when I was finished, I tried the key and it was a bit hard to turn and so was the knob...
I just wanted to go back to bed!!!
So I ran to the utility room grabbed a can...and went back and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed this stuff into every holes and crevice...it usually drips so I had my rag and was wiping it down....but the cloth kept sticking....so I kept spraying and spraying....
Now here's the problem...when I'm walking, driving...I don't wear my glasses....when the rain is coming down in buckets...(like it was) I don't wear my glasses, so...they usually live on top of my head....
ok, back to the story...
I finally put on my glasses and looked at the can of "PERMANENT BONDING ADHESIVE SPRAY"....OH CRAP!!!! (what else could I say!!)
So, I ran back to the storage shed...right next to where the BONDING spray was, was a can of WD 40...now my locksmith said not to use it, it will get gummy inside the lock...Well, it COULDN'T get any gummier and stickier then it was so...I sprayed and prayed ,and sprayed.....and prayed, I DID NOT want to have to replace those locks again!!!She didn't call me to say she was "stuck" in her house...so all is well.
Well, I hope you enjoyed a little laugh about me....the bed sure did feel good when I got back in it!!!

****UPDATE******

Cans are now separated!!

A little story

I woke up early this morning, I'm propped up here in bed with my kitty's and hubby and box of tissues. Yesterday I HAD to go to the Christmas party. They keep track of who shows up...my daughter offered to drive me up to Portland (she really just wanted to go to Ikea! lol) So that was nice. I am so fortunate to have a daughter as a best friend. I have had a chance to read some wonderful stories here in blog land...I thought I'd share a short one. One year my brother was going to be coming home from Collage. My mom had bought a huge box of chocolates for the occasion...now, that was a BIG thing!! We never had deserts, or TV in our family.
I found the box of chocolates hiding up in my parents closet...so for two weeks I would sneak in and take down that beautiful box of candy, I would take out a few pieces, turned them over, dig out and eat the insides************AND PUT THEM BACK!! Then my brother came home, mom asked me to get this box of chocolate. OH! What was I thinking???? So I brought it to the living room. It got passed around.....the room got quiet. Mom was quiet shocked...I HAD to confess, there wasn't anyone else to blame it on!! ...There was a lot of laughing!! I didn't even get in trouble. Needless to say, it was never forgotten and always the topic at a get-together.**********************************************Thank you all for all your kindness about being sick! I think I'm on the mend!

I KNEW it!!

I KNEW that I was going to get sick...! Stress does it every time..goes right to my throat which gives me a touch of a fever. I'm going to take a couple of days off and see if I can keep from getting worse.

Busy Busy

I know everyone is busy this time a year...mine isnt fun. I have been cleaning and painting 4 large townhouses...I just dont understand why people dont understand what the word "clean" means, my stars!!! Nasty nasty! I have to laugh (sadly), what I'll do for money...cleaning up what others should have cleaned! I have been scrubbing and painting so much my hand is throbbing! It also means crafting gets put on the back burner for a few more days! Give me a couple more days and I'll be back on a happier note.

Ice cream Pincushion

I, for one....LOVE ice cream anytime of year!! It is packed full of vintage lace..Yummmy! Whats your favorite kind of ice cream...love egg nog, this time of year! I'm sticking this on my Ebay
This travel suitcase looks a little washed out...bad lighting. I take this when I know I'm going to be sitting in the car for a bit, I use it as my traveling sewing birdie case.

Birdies ready for flight

These birdies are ready to take a long flight south...All the way to Australia!! Hope you like them Jenn and Jacqui!! Natasha...yours are next!! Hang in there!!

I was at Micheals yesterday...a gal that was working there said "Next week we get our first shipment of SPRING stuff" can you believe it!! I must say, for all the rain we've been having...I'm ready for spring...but in Dec???

New use for broken Storm branches!!

I saw one of these when I was visiting in San Jose last year. I keep a little notebook in my purse so when I see something I like, I draw it out, when I got to the car I scribbled like crazy.. When I got home I had get one made while it was still fairly fresh in my mind, So, I gave them a shot, only took about 3 tries to get them the way I wanted . I think they turned out really cute. I still need to find branches for the large one, for antlers.

Time is flying by

Time is just getting away from me...my daughter Stacey has the sweetest cat in the world, he's only about 3 years...got those nasty crystals in his bladder so we had to take him in to get his bladder flushed out...we almost waited to long, so Stacey is so upset, hes what helps her to be able to live alone. The next morning when Stacey woke up she had a phone call from her boss, giving her another complex that now makes 4 , she also works for him on an hourly bases doing other jobs like evicting people from all 14 complexes,plus her job at the Picture People, so yesterday I thought she was going to collapse, she was soooo stressed out. Her kitty comes home today. My husband took on an extra job as a "rider" for the local UPS driver. Its the first of the mo. and I have quite a few people move out of our complex due to the rent increase, so I have to get those ready to rent, cleaning&painting. Just thought I would share a touch of a "day in the life" of Laurie. LOL..

Sweet Cherubs

I almost cried this morning...My eye was a little itchy, whenever that happens I put some ointment on my finger and tap...well, the crusty(I cant stand the word scab) slipped off onto my finger...so I ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror...Whoopie!! Its all healed up, just a bit pink of the new skin...wow, I kept looking in the mirror all day...it is so clean and smooth.

Ok, I just had to share that with you. But look at these sweet cherubs I used glitter on the battery operated light and I glittered the part that is holding the pincushion. I added a bit of glitter to the bird. I did add this to my ebay.

We are having such a wind storm. We have these HUGE old tall trees that sway in the wind, I'm always afraid they will fall! We didnt have any snow. This storm is suppose to blow across the States.

Spoonful of Sugar***Birdies

I just added these two birdies to my EBAY, I have been listing quite a few goodies We're expecting a touch of snow today, but a big wind storm is on its way. Im going to take off and visit a couple shops, hope you all have a great weekend!

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I found these cute little snowflake cello bags. This is how I packaged up this birdie

that I have sitting the *Snowball*

that is on my ebay.

More painted snowmen

Here are a few more pictures of snowmen that I have painted

I am putting these on Ebay

Where ever there is white there is glitter!!

So the top one is a wooden candle holder, you should have seen it in it's previous life...

it is much happier now!

The bottom two pictures are the same salt shaker...I think it would be happier as a sugar~shaker.

There are 3 sweet snowmen painted around, in between there is a heart, birdhouse and a tree.

I'll have more birds on spoons to show you tomorrow.

"Tis the Season~Salt shaker and Pepper grinder

Here's my update..."Tis the season" for red and green...Looks like some socked me in the eye!! Its all red and bruised now...then I have to keep ointment on it, so its a REAL shiner!!lol I'm posting a few things I will be adding to my ebay tonight. I have had this "Scarlett" for about 30 years and I knew the lady that owned it...it is really old and beautiful.
I don't know if I have mentioned it, but I teach a painting class on Tue. mornings (my day off) and then another one on Wed. eve...I always like to have a project on hand to work on, I just finished these salt shakers and pepper grinders...They are so cute and festive. Then I finished this deep pink birdie, which is sitting in the sweetest pale green sugar bowl. I added a vintage flower that is light and dark pink with a hint of green. I made my glitter pins using Martha Stuarts Dk pink glitter.

Birdie Landed on a Snowball!!

I just HAD to get something put on my EBAY . Look how cute this little *snowie* snowball looks!! I am so excited..it is sooo sparkly and glittery. I made my pins look like a fluffy shimmery snowballs!! I used vintage lace. I sprinkled the whole thing with different glitters..It is soooo cold out (it really is) that her cheeks are rosey. Obviously Im feeling better today. My skin is healing, it itches and tickles a bit...my eye was twitching all day...good thing I wasnt around anybody, they would have thought I was flirtin' with them. lol.

Birdie Elf's are busy!

The Elves are working!! Birdies are being made...they are landing on spoonfuls of sugar!!
I had to get out of the house today. My hubby took me out for a drive in the country....I'm not ready to see people yet! The swelling has gone down a lot more..I cant wait, its going to look sooo nice when Im all healed up!. So, being at home with not being able to do much, I got busy on all my back orders for birdies...all of you that are waiting...thank you for waiting. I was able to dye some wool...I cooked up some mint green, pale pink, a deeper pink, some blue...yummy colors!! Off to work I go......

Friday morning update

Thank you to everyone that wished me well. I thought about what I was going to say on my blog this morning as I was waking up. I decided to leave out what a horrible experience this ordeal was. I am thankful it is over, but my eyes are still swollen, I can barely see out of them. It hurts to blink...The vicadon...hummm didn't really take the pain away, didn't put me to sleep, I'm not impressed! My best friend has been a frozen bag of peas, to try to keep the swelling down. Well, my kitty's wanted my bag of peas, one of them grabbed a corner and ran off with them. I was laughing so hard...so I grabbed the bag before they got off the bed with it. I thought I would open it up so they could see it really wasn't anything they wanted...well, those critters... LOVED them. they were eating the frozen peas like they were the best desert! Pretty funny. Well, I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Anticipation

My two much anticipated days are upon me. I will have my new crowns put in today!! yea!! I have sooo much to do today...to prepare for tomorrow. It is kinda sad to think I will lose a day in my life. I have to be at the clinic by 6:15 AM Wed. to get this ugly mole removed...then on to pain pills, which will knock me out for the whole day. The clinic is right down the street from my daughter, so we are going to have a "girls night" I am going to sleep-over so she can take me . That will be fun. Stacey and my hubby are going to do all the Thanksgiving cooking. Stacey wants to do a turkey breast...after watching all the cooking shows...now the funny part of that...shes a vegetarian...how does that work?? My husband and I both want the 'ol green bean casserole, with canned green beans....Stacey just shudders. She makes a delicious fresh green bean and corn casserole, so we will have both! So here is a shout out to all my wonderful friends in blogland "HAPPY THANKSGIVING' ! I will be back on Fri. and give you an update!!

Hit the jackpot

I'll start off with the bad news...my cup with the bird in it on Ebay, just fell off and busted...Good News, I have more cups. Now for the goodies I found at my local Goodwill. This suitcase and all these little shoes. Im trying to finish this set. a salt shaker and pepper grinder...Do you like the snowmen and birdhouse and trees? I'll show it when I get it finished

Watercolor tags and cards

I found them!! I put them under a book to flatten them. I love this light pink one. I used my Spellbinder to emboss the pink paper, then I sanded to make the snowflakes stand out. I cut the the scallops using my spellbinders, I love it, and it is sooo easy. I want to purchase the "tag" die. I have sparkle up every picture, they dont all show...but I used Stickles on every one.Now I need to figure out if I should put them on ebay or etsy...do you all have any advice for me?

Handmade Bears

This gal is my absolute favorite. She is made with the softest long mohair.Her head is a little droopy..I love this vintage dress I found, she hasnt taken it off for about 15 years...poor thing. lol.
Here are the smallest ones. The one in the center is 3". I only made 1 !!
This gal is kinda scruffy. I made it from a vintage mohair coat that I picked up at a thrift shop in Santa Barbra. Then the pads were made from the softest vintage leather jacket. This vintage silk jacket is handmade and close to falling apart, so I don't move it around very often.
I bought the bottle brush tree at Molly Mo's sale today. I've been looking for a good size one. I now wish I would have purchased the smaller one too. Isn't that a neat vintage bottle. I got that this morning at our goodwill. Things always look so much better when you get them away from their environment. I was going to show you all my cards that I watercolored and got made into cards....but do you think I can find them. I know I wanted to flatten them...but where???

Winner! Needles!

And the pencil and snowman card go to....Cathy Meyers...Thank you for your nice comments! Ok, I am to stressed out to put a photo on tonight...I went to the Dr. today for a pre-op for getting my mole removed. I waited in the office for 55 min. then the Dr. spent all of 4 min. with me. This is what the Dr. told me...he is going to put a needle up through my gum up into my cheek to a nerve that is up there, then he is going to put a "contact" in my eye to protect it from the lazer...I dont wear contacts for a reason!!! I dont like "things" in my eyes!! Then he said he was going to put numbing drops in my eyes. Then he will lazer, and wipe, lazer, wipe, lazer and wipe, untill it is all gone. Then when I get home I get to put frozen peas across my eyes...after I take my vicadon......I just told you what he said....Here is what I heard...."I'm going to put this foot long needle up your face as far as it will reach, then Im going to put a saucer in your eye, after pouring novicaine into my eyes", then " I'm going to lazer, sandpaper your face, lazer, sandpaper, lazer, sandpaper" "oh yeah, you might want some vicadon to kill the pain!!! "
My only question when he was telling me was....WILL IT BE ALL GONE. He said "yes". Its rainy and ugly out so I think I'm just going to crawl into bed. I'll come back tomorrow and show you the goodies I've been working on, and Im going to a sale tomorrow."Molly Mo's". Isnt that the cutest name!!

Painting a 100 year old Mansion

This building is a Historical Home, over 100 years old. It is located on Orange Grove in Pasadena Ca. It use to be on the property of Ambassador University, it has since been sold. It was also on HGTV Homes across America...Homes of Pasadena episode.

Well, my part in all of this....I was commissioned to restore the painted fresco work that is all around the whole building. I had to cut in the background first then after painting and blending...I outlined the whole design. I used a cherry picker to get up and down. One of the fun moments was when Disney was making a movie in the mansion next door. I was invited to have lunch with the crew...boy did they ever serve great food. This is the corner I started on.

This is what it look like when I got the background in.this is cutting in the background.My cherry picker, It was had to get it to reach up and over that roof that is jutting out, they actually had to cut a couple branches.this was quite a reach to get into the corner. And there was a fountain that I had to maneuver the cherry picker around
The hardest part was the medallions that were up underneath...there were soooo many, I wish I would have counted them. I had to keep my head bent backwards and I had to get close to reach them...not fun.Here I am...guess it was a little hot that day, I remember the OJ trial was going on, so I listened to that none stop, it was fascinating. I made me a little cabinet to hold my paints so I could lock them up at night and have something to set them on while painting.Let me know what you think...I am quite proud of this...I remember being scared to death to commit to doing such a huge undertaking. It got recognized by the Pasadena Committee of Restoration of Historical Homes

Painted Shovel and WINNER

The winner of the wooden snowflake is....Alison Gibbs. Please email me lm.sm@juno.com and give me your address!

What a day I had...I went to the dentist at 9:30 this morning...they had to cut, saw,pull, yank to get my 4 old crowns off my 4 front teeth...and I thought I didnt need novacaine!! Then they scrapped cleaned, pushed my gums...2 hours later I left with swollen gums and something foreign covering my 4 teeth, feels like sand paper yuk!! I have to make sure I dont bite down on anything for 2 weeks until I go in to get my pretty new teeth. I was tired of having 4 different colored crowns, my two front teeth I knocked out when I was in grade school...a swing came back and hit me...then a year later I tripped and landed on a brick and knocked out both of them... well, that was probably more then you needed to know!!



Last night I painted this old shovel, I havn't added my varnish,stickles and glitter to it yet. These have always been my best sellers at my sales...oh ya, all my chairs sold.. I had 8 of them.

Chrismas pink roses and holly S&P

I just finished these today. The top I painted white then put a pearl finish on it, then on the bottom after painting it pink I sponged on the white pearl. It has a rose painted on both sides. Im putting them on Ebay tonight...wish me luck!

Addicted!!

I figured it out!! I'm addicted to getting comments on my blog!! I LOVE it! LOL. Thought I would share a picture I painted last year. I had it hanging in my office ALL winter. I like it so much it spent the summer in the bedroom...I just brought it out again...here it is... I had SOOO much fun painting this. I feel bad, I don't know who the artist is, she put it in a decorative painting book. She's the same one that did the snowmen that I put ice skates on. This measures 2feet wide and a whopping 3 ft long. I had to get a projector out to enlarge it! Let me know whatcha think!

Just Because ~ Giveaway

I enjoyed having a GIVEAWAY it was so much fun, I just had to have another one! I painted this little snowman in a cup on a 5 1/2" wooden snowflake I then sprinkled Sparkly Snow glitter all over it. Just leave me a comment. I will pick a winner on Thursday evening.

I took a break during the sale I was in, on Sat. I went to the cutest little shop. Joy the owner of AntieJoy had her store all decked out for the holidays! I should have asked her if I could take a photo. Shes going to have a open house where she really opens her house. (ok, now I don't know how to change my font back to normal~lol!) Anyway, she is featured in Romantic Country in this issue that is out now. Here are a few goodies I found in her shop...look at those spoons, they were just calling out my name!! Jenn, do you like the vintage ice cream glass??? Then she just gave me the cup on the left and the 4 little pink plastic doilies. Im going to try them out, spritzing Glimmer Mist over them on a tag...I'll let you know how they turn out. Oh yes, I did sing the praises of Glimmer Mist to her. lol Have a great weekend!!

Bistro Letters

Aren't these letters great. I got them a couple of years ago at a salvage place, I'm changing my decor and I'm putting these on Ebay I love the old chippy look. Im going to make it quick tonight, I'm ready to fall asleep. What is it about cold air then going into where it is warm, a glass of wine...and Im ready to sleep!! Today was the first day of the Sale I was in. I worked the cash registers for 3 hours, it is always fun to see my stuff fly out the door! I will get back into making more birds real soon, hang in there with me...I'll get to them!!

Mt. Hood/ painted things

First I thought I would share a photo of Mt. Hood. Well, part of it, We took a trip to Hood River to the apple orchards, I laughed, when I got home I had only pears...I REALLY like pears. It was such a beautiful day we did this whole loop around the Mt.

Did I mention that I went through a phase of woodcarving. Here is a sweet little bunny that I carved and painted. I use to teach a bunch of woodcarvers how to paint...boy could they carve, but they didnt know what a paint brush was. LOL.

I picked up this metal container for a buck. I made the snowballs by covering balls with spackle and glitter. I like aqua and silver together.

This is a large wooden snowflake. I sprinkled glitter on it with the last coat of varnish. I will be putting this one on Ebay tomorrow.