Weighing In!

I love painting on "delicious surfaces"! I spend hours searching through antique shops looking for appealing and unusual pieces that will become perfectly prim folk art works. Some of my favorites are old scales. Here are a few that I have painted lately.

The first features a laying hen on her nest of colorful primitive eggs. She is a Terrye French design. She now resides in Ohio with my friend, Linda, who is a collector extraordinaire.
Another chicken is featured on this vintage scale (also a TF design). She is painted to look like old muslin. Terrye is a folk artist who lives in Oklahoma and creates the most delightful patterns ever!

Here is one of her latest designs painted on a scale for my collector friend, Shirlee. This scale was in fabulous condition considering its age. Shirlee reports that it is living happily with her vast array of prim collectibles.

Finally, I found this rusty old scale at a recent tag sale. It require a lot of preparation before transforming it into a piece of Americana folk art. It is going to live with my artist friend MommaB (Vickie) in her home that is filled with all sorts of treasures.

For more of Terrye's exciting work, please visit her site... http://www.thepaintedpearbasket.com/

Harvest Moon Clock Box

This is a clock in name only.... I removed its non-working parts and replaced them with a new face painted as a Harvest Moon. I saved the hands from the old clock and attached them to Mr. Moon (aren't they pretty?). I love to rescue items and give them a new life. I always think about that old holiday cartoon about the island of misfit toys where they are all broken and unloved. Well, this clock box is feeling feisty with his twinkling eyes and rosy cheeks. The wood finial that I attached to the top is painted to resemble a pumpkin. This was a fun piece to construct and paint!

Let's Have a Parade!!!

I have been looking and looking at this tricycle that I bought months ago. Do you do that too? Sometimes I have to really think hard about what I want to do with a piece that comes my way, especially something as unique as this little vintage inspired jewel. The lightbulb went off yesterday as I thought about the Halloween Parades we used to have in elementary school. This was long before things got so complicated .... we children would walk home for lunch (remember when we could do that???) and change into our costumes. No premade outfits for us! We had homemade costumes that were ever so much better than the "prefab" Ernie and Cookie Monster you buy at K-Mart now. Then we would rush back to school for our parade that ended with a great party in each classroom. I decided that these gourds should have a parade, so I painted them up and perched them on the tricycle (after all, everyone knows a pumpkin needs some sort of transportation!!!). Hope these guys make you smile!

More Building Block Houses....

Oh, I just love making these little guys! I decided to go ahead and make a set for Christmas, Halloween and an Americana set for all the patriotic holidays! I continued using all sorts of ephemera to cover the sides and bottoms of the houses. A large variety of three dimension items such as rusty stars, an old brass key, buttons and typewriter keys were used for embellishment. I am going to make a set with a chicken/rooster/egg theme for my kitchen I do believe. My dearest put his foot down sometime back about halting the addition of any more feather fowl there but these will be small so maybe I can sneak them in!!!! :o)

Little Building Block Houses

I found a bag of the most precious old building blocks at "the yellow house" antique shop last week and I am just now getting to play with them. Isn't it fun to take something and turn it this way and that until that little light bulb in your head goes off and you have idea??!!!??? That is exactly what happened with these little houses. Actually, my work space was a huge mess with buttons and snippets of papers scattered here and there. Out of that mess came my idea for the blocks and since my band saw is only a paintbrush throw away from where I work, I was sawing then sanding to add even more "age" to the blocks. Here is what I came up with. A little prim village of cottages covered with ephemera, antique buttons and stamps. I think I am going to make a set for each season.... Christmas, Halloween, Easter, 4th of July!!!!! FUN! FUN! FUN! The workspace will stay in disarray for a while longer ---- I am having a swell time!

What an inspiration!!!

Do you ever fall in love at first sight? Oh, I don't mean the "romantic" kind of love, although I do believe in that phenomenon having been a victim 30 years ago myself! I am referring to the kind that you feel when you see a little vase, a piece of silver plate or, for me, a precious antiQue doll trunk. I found this gem at an estate sale not long ago. The outside showed that it had been well loved by its previous owner but the inside is in almost perfect condition with the original paper and hanging rod still intact. I used one of my Terrye French patterns for inspiration and painted this "twilight" angel on front. I cut her wings from my collection of vintage sheet music and applied another piece on the back. All that was needed for finishing touches were the ribbons and lace tied to the handle along with a cast iron key.

Transformed Traincase

I found this great traincase at one of the consignment shops I love. It is bigger than most and a perfect container for books, file folders, or anything!!! The design is one of my own in the springtime series. I love the hollyhocks that are growing beside the cottage. Sadly, I have had no luck with any I have planted so these will have to satisfy my longing for those beauties. I decoupaged wallpaper bluebirds and a picket fence around the bottom. My dearest reminded me that everything I paint lately has been pink. I guess I need to switch from this phase but I dearly love that color and just can't help myself!!!

Spring Challenge

Old Farmhouse Gathering on Etsy has issued two celebration challenges to be posted in the near future. One is for Spring and the other is for Easter. I love a challenge.... the chance to stretch my creative thinking is always a good way for me to "turn up the volume" as Ina Garten would say. I have completed two out of four projects that I have planned and I am pleased with the results so far. The first is a wonderful piece of vintage 1934 sheet music, "I believe in Miracles" that I have painted with an apple tree branch and a bird's nest. Just to guild the lily I added ephemera, wood buttons and and old key. After all, isn't the promise of Spring really a miracle?

The second piece is perhaps my favorite of all gourd pieces that I have created. This is a little peep all ready to celebrate the first day of spring. She has on a polka dot party hat and is carrying a little "chicken wire" basket filled with spring berries and eggs. She stands atop a bandbox that has been decoupaged with vintage sheet music and trimmed in robin's egg blue. Her wings and tail are cut from gourd pieces as is her beak. I love the quizzical look on her little tilted head. Is there anything sweeter than a little downey, yellow chick? Her papier mache cone party hat has a whimsical little medallion that says simply, "Bliss." Her momma has instructed her to stay inside the little picket fence until she is old enough to venture out on her own. I would say that is a wonderful idea! This little chick has been named KaDee for one my precious nieces.

My little bird friends......

The mockingbirds are once again preparing for a new family! They have begun to build a nest in my now bare crepe myrtle. Mr. Bird takes this construction very seriously and makes a great show of flapping wings and loud cries if anyone, including Suki my dog, gets near. I decided that this would be the perfect inspiration for a painted and decoupaged canvas. The bright blue egg and robin are the ideal heralds of what Shakespeare calls the "best season of all." Now, off to my little studio to see what else I can dabble with today.

Capturing Fairies

Do you remember as a child when you would take a jar your mother had given you and go exploring in the grass, seeing what you could find to trap and observe until it was released? I spent hours capturing various bugs, butterflies, worms and other "critters" and watching them through the glassy walls of my container. Having a wild imagination, I believed that one day I would find a fairy or other little nymph that I could keep for as long as I wanted, sitting her on a table and watching her for hours. Years passed and those illusive fairies remained hidden from my view until I can now capture them in bottles, jars, glass bubbles and shadowboxes. What fun to make up whimsical stories about them, to tuck moss and twigs here and there and even add a tiny nest with eggs. At last my quest has been completed!