~A Snowy Day to Plan Some Projects~

Wow…do we have the snow~ 12 inches of it!! (6 inches snow, then 1/4 inch of ice, then 6 more inches of snow) It’s snowing right now, but it is only suppose to be an inch over-night. It has been a while since we have had this much snow…it is usually a few inches here & there and now the weather man is calling for more accumulating snow on Monday, but said it is too soon to say how much. 

I helped Mr D. shovel the driveway on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday, plus I shoveled the back patio and a path through the yard for our little doggies…it was so deep that they couldn’t even walk through it. Needless to say, I’m a little sore today, but that made today a good day to kick back & relax and look through some patterns. Unless you were these guys…who thought today was good for this.

  They are not spoiled or anything!   LOL…

 Here are some painting patterns that I picked out~

 Remember the rolling pins that I’ve been painting on that I want to list on-line for sale…well, I’m having problems finding things the right size to paint on them except for long skinny raggedy dolls. I like the raggedy dolls, but I don’t want them all to have the same kind of design on them. I came across this pattern that I purchased from Terrye French on eBay last year. Here they are painted on skinny metal canisters, but I think that some of them will fit on the rolling pins really well.

 

   These two patterns I’ve been wanting to do for myself ever since I purchased them. I have been looking for months at the GW, the thrift shops, flea market, and garage sales for a  tin tea kettle and a old child’s toy washing machine with no luck. I’m sure that I will come across a tin tea kettle at some point, but I’m not so sure about the toy washing machine. The pattern also suggested an old box or a tin can, which I know will be easier to find. I just want it to be something unique and that when I see it…it will talk to me and say~I’m the one you’ve been looking for…paint me!  LOL… 

I have a link to Terrye French’s website “The Painted Pear Basket” on my side bar if you want to check out her patterns. I just love her books and patterns!

This is a quilt pattern that I picked out~

  I got this pattern at our local quilt shop here in town a few months ago. I want to hang this wall-hanging quilt in the middle of my big quilt that is on my quilt shelf. I think it will look good layered with my other quilt. I started pulling out some fabrics today for it…I got the background ones picked out just fine, but am having a hard time deciding if I want to use wool or cotton fabrics for the flower pots, flowers, and the birds. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I would love to here what you would do.

Well, it’s getting late here…so I’m taking my weary bones, a heating pad, and the 2 furry kids upstairs to get some sleep. Until next time….    blessings, Cindy

~Thrift Shop Finds & My Favorite Painting~

I had planned to post yesterday, but had an unwanted surprise instead! When I went into the laundry room to put some clothes in the dryer…I was welcomed by water leaking out of the bottom of the water heater. I called Mr D. at work and he came home so that we could go get a new water heater before the winter storm hit. My father and him worked on draining the old one, taking it out, and getting the new one put in until late last night. Had some problems and  they had to go back out this morning in the bad weather to get some items that was needed to get the new water heater hooked up. Happy to say that we got hot water back this afternoon! We have about 6 inches of snow and it is now freezing rain. It is going to switch back to all snow tomorrow morning and we could get up to 6 more inches of snow…maybe 12 inches total!!

On a more fun note…I had a chance to get to one of my favorite thrift shops over the weekend and I found some goodies.

 I picked up this flower pot for $1.99…the design goes all the way around the pot. I might use this at my work area for pen and pencils.

 Also got these little applique stitcheries to put in our master bedroom. The top ones says “Love Grows Here” and the bottom one says “Our nest is best”  They were $3.00 each.

 I had seen this candle holder on my last visit to the store, but didn’t get it on that trip. I kept thinking about it and how good it would look by my tavern shelf once I gave it a make-over. I was so happy to see that they hadn’t sold it. I paid $1.99 for it and this is what it looks like now…

 All I need to do now is get a candle to put in it…and I might get a rusty tin star to put over the heart cut-out. Still trying to decide about that.

I wanted to share with you my favorite painting that I have. Remember the towels from my last post that I put embroidery on…they were for a local artist here in our community, who is the MIL to my close childhood friend Vickie that I have know since we were 10 years old. (It sure doesn’t seem like 40 years have gone by.) I have known her MIL since I was in high school…and have many of her paintings in my home.

  But this one is my favorite because I told her what I wanted….a porch with a swing, a quilt on that swing and germanium’s in wooden boxes. I’ve had this picture for over 15 years and I still love it as much today as the day I picked it up. She captured so perfectly what I wanted!! (Sorry about the flash being in the picture. I took several and it showed up in every single one of them. grrrr…) I have another painting of hers that is my next favorite…it is of an old bed with a quilt on it that I will share later as it fell off the wall and the frame came apart, so it needs to be glued back together.

Until next time…    Stay warm. I plan to stay inside and catch up on reading your blogs while the snow falls outside tomorrow.      blessings, Cindy

~Country Furniture & Some Machine Embroidery~

 There isn’t much going on at my home sweet home besides still working on the kitchen. My sister called me yesterday and ask if I wanted to meet her at our favorite craft store…Well, of course I did!! I picked up this pillow for the back of my sofa.  I know I could of made a pillow like this because I do have a small professional embroidery machine, but this design is actually longer than my largest hoop. I would of had to use a split design and hoop twice…but since the pillow was a 28″ x 10″ for $14.00, I decided to just buy it. 

Speaking of machine embroidery…this is what I have been working on this week. It is a set of bath towels that is a special order. These towels were a Christmas/Birthday gift from a close friend of mine to her MIL. She wanted something simple but elegant…and I just love how they  turned out!

 Bath Mat.

 Hand Towel…did 2 of them.

 Bath Towel…did 2 of them.

I was going through some photos of items that Mr D. & I had made when we had our shop…and I came across pictures of some of the furniture pieces that he made in the past. Thought I would share them with all of you.

Here is 2 different fireplaces that he made the mantels and the front facings.

 He made this one for my parents.

  This was one huge fireplace…as you see the opening on the fireplace is as high as the back of the wing back chair. I just loved this primitive decorated home and wish I had taken more pictures. This is the only other picture I have of this home…Mr D. also made the bookcases for their library room.

 

The next 2 photos are of pie safes. The blue one he made for his aunt that lives in Tenn. and the other one was sold through our shop. We found that we have some tins left and I put it on the “honey-do-list” for him to make me one.

These next 3 pieces are country cupboards that he made and were sold out of our shop.

And the last 2 pictures are of custom cabinets that he built along a whole wall in the basement of this home. We took these photos after they were installed unfinished…the customer wanted to finish them herself, but oh how I wish we could of seen them after she got them all done. She painted them black and then sanded the edges for a country look. I just know they looked wonderful!

Mr D. has made several pieces of furniture in our home…our dining room table, end tables, server, wood chest, shelves, and wood lamps, etc.. I’ll share pictures of them later as I am going to be repainting some of them after I get the kitchen done.

Until next time,           blessings, Cindy