Wood Scraps

I am still busy building bird houses.
Seems everyone wants one.
I found I had a lot of wood scraps left over, so I decided to make napkin rings out of the small pieces

Ottawa Winter Carnival

We are celebrating "winterlude" ( our winter carnival ) here in Canada's capital of Ottawa.
Here are some of the ice sculptures that were made from different people around the world that come to this sculpting competition. As you can see, there were some pretty amazing pieces.

Busy Building Bird Houses

I have been very busy building bird houses. I ordered the pattern for these bird houses a couple of weeks ago and last Saturday, I started cutting them out on my scroll saw.

Just last night I finished painting them and putting them together.

I still have to fill in the nail holes where they were attached and then coat them with an outdoor varathane.

I can't wait to hang them at the cottage!

Butterflies, Dragonflies, Ladybugs

I came across this butterfly picture in a little curio shop near our cottage last year. I was very happy at how well it matched my wallpaper.
I also found an old window frame (without the glass) and decided to make it into a cabinet for the bathroom at the cottage.

The frame had to be sanded and primed, then painted. We made a box from 2x4's , the size of the window and used bead board in behind.

We then made three shelves and added hinges to the window frame, and attached it to the box.

To finish it off we added a handle and latch now we have a place for all the bathroom stuff.
This is a towel bar made from copper plumbing pipe and curtain rod mounts.
Great for hanging all the bath towels after your bath, or a dip in the river.

Doll House Project

Here is a doll house that I built years ago, when my daughter was small. She is 26 now.
It was a kit that had to be assembled. The wood was unfinished and each individual piece had to be painted, then glued.
First the walls went up, then the roof. Windows were installed and then each piece of trim had to be painted. The shingled roof had about 500 pieces, that were glued individually.
It took a few months to complete, but I enjoyed watching it take shape.

Operator? Information?

This Telephone Booth was purchased at a yard sale a couple of years ago for $50.00

It needed a lot of work to restore it to this state, but was well worth the effort.

Apparently the woman that owned it, used it to store her pool noodles in, next to her in-
ground swimming pool. A lot of the windows were cracked and had to be replaced also.

Much of the dental molding had to be replaced around the top frame.
We dismantled most of it and took a small piece of the wood to the hardware store and they matched the paint perfectly for us.

When my husband was replacing the windows, he noticed that between the panes of glass
( they are double paned) there were pock marks on the glass, he suspected that some sort of large vibration that caused friction between the panes to grind together produced dust between them. The wood is made of white oak and was hand assembled some time ago. My husband thinks this particular booth was made in England and had been exposed to bomb blasts of the second world war. The booth could have been protected from the actual blasts but some of the concussions of the bombs going off could have sent the vibrations through it. The need for metal was great during the war years and this could be why the booth was made of wood, or it was an interior design and would give credit to the theory that it wasn't exposed directly to the elements or bomb blasts, just the concussions.


The floor of the booth is made of red and black 2 1/2 sq." ceramic tiles.
It is completely wired for electricity and is just waiting for a payphone.

The start of the wall painting project.
You can see the final results below.

Finishing The Family Room

I found this print a couple of years back, and it reminded me of being in Paris.
I love the little cafe, and the buildings are so detailed.
I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice to duplicate those buildings onto the wall.
So I took out my pencil and started drawing on the wall.
I started with the brick arches because I thought how hard can it be to paint
bricks?
I have taken a few painting courses over the years, like tole painting, where you just paint small objects, but I have never painted an entire wall.
I thought, what if I don't like it?
Well, the great thing is you can just paint over it.
I used chalkboard paint on the door and wallpaper for the brick, on the wall with the doorway. I painted the window over the doorway and added the exit sign for a bit of whimsy.
The white empty space will eventually house a small bar fridge, cupboard and counter.
The telephone booth is a whole other post. Stay tuned.
I am pleased with the end result, but I will probably add some white fluffy clouds and maybe a few more buildings behind the phone booth!

My Favorite Miniature Chair

Miniature Chair collection

Here are a few miniature chairs that I collect. I keep them at the cottage on my fireplace mantal.
I have about 15 in the collection.

Bird Hotel

Here is another table I have been working on. It used to be a telephone table that belonged to my Mom. It was painted brown with a rusty drawer handle. So I sanded and primed it. Then paintd it white. I used a birdhouse stencil and traced it with carbon paper. For the handle I used a black rustproof paint.
Then I started to paint the house itself. Just a few more touch ups and it will be done. Great in the gazebo at the cottage, along with my other painted tables.

What's at the cottage?: Bird House Gift Basket#links

What's at the cottage?: Bird House Gift Basket#links

Bird House Gift Basket

I found these adorable bird houses at Walmart. Of course I had to have one for the cottage.
We are going away this weekend, to visit a friend, so I thought I would do up a gift basket to take along.
I just found a box and wrapped it with paper.
Then I added a bird seed bell with some shredded paper.
I then popped it into a cellophane gift basket bag and tied it with ribbon.
Hope they like it!
I can't wait to hang my bird house up in the spring, I have a few bird houses at the cottage and they are very well used.
There is one that a red squirrel occupies every year, it looks like a log cabin.
I also have one that looks like a train station and is very well used in the spring, when the birds lay there eggs.