Glimpses of Spring

Hi Friends, Well, Spring is officially here. It's been a little hard to see this week-end, as we've has snow, sleet, rain and ice but nothing too bad. I felt sorry for the two little tulips that were trying to bloom. But nothing last forever at this stage, so the next week looks a little better. I have put out some of my Spring decorations and thought you might like to see. I really like this little rabbit with his basket on his back. I've seen him in several shops.

Aren't this little bunny eggs cute?? My DIL gave them to me several years ago.

I love this old print of Easter morning. Choirs are becoming a thing of the past I fear, like so many wonderful traditional things.

A collections of little lambs. Hope everyone has a beautiful Sunday!! Give thanks with a grateful heart.
Linda

Improved Art Studio

Could you create in this? What a mess and totally uninspiring!! One of my New Year's Resolutions was to FIX it! The following pictures show the transformation. Of course, a lot of it was just putting things where they belong! Ha. I thought I would share my make-over with all of you at Jen's Make-over Open House.

After painting most of my furniture, nothing good, mostly lamintate stuff, it made such a change.

Still trying to decide to paint my sewing machine cabinet also. I'm thinking, yes.


Made skirts to cover up the messes under the tables. $1.00 a yd. at Walmart.



A recent find at the Goodwill, $2.50. Needlepoint and brown velvet. Beautiful!!1




This my storage closet. I need to re-organize it a bit, too.


I decided to use a spool cabinet I had been using as a jewelry box to store other small items as well. I have almost filled it up! Amazing how much I got in it, though.

I cut wallpaper strips and pasted them on the outside of these plastic drawers. I looks pretty good. There are more pics on the next post also.Thanks for visiting. It's so fun to see all the other make-overs !!
Be Blessed, Linda

My Re-decorated Art Studio

Hi everyone, Hope you are enjoying these first few days of Spring. We are finally getting to see glimpses of Spring around here. It seems like it has been a long winter to me. I decided it was time to get my art studio looking more like "Me" as opposed to just a room with my worktable and supplies in it. When we moved into our house in late 2004, I was lucky just to get it all in one room without it looking pretty, as there was still a lot of finish work to be done (our job) and I couldn't justify taking that much time with my room. Anyway, in January I started moving out furniture one wall-at-a time and repainting a Spring Green and at the same time, painting the furniture, mostly laminate stuff from the eighties, off white. It was really tight quarters as my room is not all that large. I do however have a wonderful walk-in closet to store all the ugly stuff! ha! I suppose I have way too many interests, but it keeps me happy and on track emotionally if I can just go somewhere and "make something" . I'm sure you all know what I mean. So, this is the first wall as you come in the door. It is a laminate countertop sitting on two old sewing machine stands. Since this picture, I have made a skirt to fit under the lip to hide the unpresentables. My rack for the scrapbook paper was found at the Goodwill-2.98! SCORE! This surface is great to paint or glue on because you can easily wash it all off.

This little cabinet is a curio cabinet I bought from a good friend when she had to move her parents out of their home. It is perfect for my miniature stuff that has yet to find a permanent home. It is sitting on a little chest end table.

Then I have a stack of three drawers with various materials beside my sewing machine cabinet. This is the one piece, I still need to get painted. Then, the closet door. The clock I made from the plastic top from one of those cardboard table thingies, (from the seventies probably) I painted it and decoupaged wrapping paper pieces on it, then crackled it. The clock fit easily inside the back lip. The beautiful quilt was given to me by a special friend when we moved away. It is a treasure and she picked the very colors that I had in mind for my room. Coincidence? I don't think so. Thanks, Gayle!

A painted plastic thing with velvet glued on and painted plastic cherub (from the cake decorating shop.

This is the facing wall of the room. My husband made shelves to hang over top of this 3 drawer chest, from a hospital sale. On top, my little glass house of miniature dolls, a beaded lamp, an apothecary jar with white shell buttons, and three stacking boxes from Hobby Lobby.
My miniature General Store and Victorian Bedroom Room boxes sit on the shelves.

Then, this is my favorite workspace, sitting in front of two large windows that face southwest. It is wonderful to bask in the sunshine there on a winter afternoon. I love it. My work table was a find at the Goodwill. I has a laminate top somewhat messed up but I can deal with it and most everything will clean off that I get one it. I made a skirt for this table also. The table cost me $25.00.

I have white blinds on these windows, but I like them all the way up and decided to use some of my vintage hankies as a valance. They are just clipped on . May do something different in the future, but for now, it suits me just fine.

Oops, this pic is out of order. Anyway, one the other side of my worktable, I have an old thread cabinet. ( I'll show you it in more detail in a later post). Then, another white 3-drawer hospital chest. My TV sits on this and a stack of wallpapered boxes as well as a wicker mannequin a friend gave me. Then, those eighties bookcases on each side of a butcher block table holding my sorely neglected dollhouse. I really need to get it finished up. I did decide to paint it a plum color. It looks lighter in this picture. The bookcases hold lots of stuff as you might imagine.

A few dried roses from a recent bouquet. They are Sterling Silver, we used that kind in our wedding. They are so beautiful!

The little red box is my collection of miniature Santas. I make Santa Dolls also.

This is back to the counter where we began.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. It has been fun to fix it up like I wanted to. I will show you some more pictures later. This is Sunday. We had such a good lesson this morning about how the Lord is leading us all through the desert to the Promised Land. We have His Word and His Spirit inside us to show us the way, so be brave and take the next step, He is there to help you.
Be Blessed Dear Friends,

Linda

My Collections

Yvette ~ The Charm House is hosting a day of collections. So I thought I would share a few of mine. First , I love miniature dolls. Some day I have in mind to do a miniature doll shop to show case them all. In the mean time, they are happy in this terrarium.

I also love mother-of-pearl buttons and found a pretty jar to put them in, so I could look at them all the time. They are wonderful for collage projects, jewerly, etc.

These satin white cherubs are something I have always enjoyed finding at thrift shops and garage sales.

Next, I have quite a few cottage type prints. Most have thatched roofs . They are hung in the guest room.

These are a few of my "Mother plaques. I have quite a few and have most of them in the master bathroom. They are so charming and have beautiful verses.

Next up, my blue and white dishes and cobalt glass.

Isn't it fun to see all the different things we find that touch our hearts in some way? Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed Monday.

Linda

Fabric Collage Bible Cover

Happy March everyone!! I thought I would show you my latest project. For many years I have intended to make a cover for my Bible that was more to my liking than the commercial ones available today. They just didn't seem to be ME. So the other day I decided it was time to do it and forget about the laundry, house cleaning, etc. that is all around me. It seems I usually pick work instead of fun. I NEED TO GET OVER THAT!!! Ha. Anyway, I used some cream-colored twill that I had. It was fairly heavy and yet soft enough to sew through by hand with a needle and thread. I measured my Bible laid out flat for the dimensions and added about 1/2 " around the edges, plus another about 1/2" to the width dimension so it would have a little ease to fold closed. Then I decided how big I wanted the inside panel to be. It can only be the size of the top and bottom of your Bible. Then add enough another inch for seam allowance and hemming on one side. Then I added pockets for the inside also. They went up a little beyond half-way. I hemmed the tops of these and added a piece of old crocheted trim I had. You could use so many things for this.

On the front I used a old gold-lace border from something I had. I stamped a scripture on a smaller piece of fabric and glued this inside my gold frame and trimmed it out with small braid trim and small lace. I glued 4 velvet leaves to each corner. On top of these, I stitched 4 large mother-of-pearl buttons and a smaller lavender bead.

Down the spine of the cover, I wrote another favorite scripture on twill tape and stitched it on.
Then I sewed all the layers together and included a strip of another crochet trim to use as a closure to button on the back. After I was sure it all fit my Bible, I started whip stiching the rest of the crocheted trim around all the edges. I did this with the Bible in it so I would be sure to only get one thickness of fabric in my needle. It was stitched down the midddle so it was half on the book and half off.

Another large button, a pin, a cross and a locket were then added as well. I wish my picture had turned out better. Jewelry findings and charms were added at the top. It wasn't hard at all, but did take a little time. I think it turned out pretty well. OH, do you see that the trim in the left hand side of the "V" at the bottom doesn't line up? I fixed that later! Ha. It was fun to do something for me for a change and not for an order or a gift. Maybe you could come up with ideas too. I would love to hear from you! Happy creating, I have pictures coming up soon of my newly organized art studio.!!!

Enjoy the creative talents God has given you.

Blessings to you all, Linda