Little Projects

Here are some projects I have been doing instead of getting ready for Christmas. Well, I did finish my Christmas gift project yesterday- and wrapped all the presents. But you may remember that I have been doing some remodeling at this terrible time of year. Terrible because I started it at the beginning of deer hunting season, which means DSH was not the least bit interested in helping me with it. And terrible because I still have stuff from our bedroom piled up in the guest rooms, with company arriving on Friday. So finally, Sunday night we hung our paintings back up, and I am so happy with our serene new bedroom. I avoided painting the closet walls until after Christmas, but I did make this cute little collaged wall hook to hang in there. I used one of the prints I won from folk artist Violette, and re-collaged it with tissue paper, painted laundry sheets, ribbons, sequins, glitter, beads, fuzzy fibers, Lumiere paints, and gel medium. Now I am inspired to do some more fun things in the closet. Wait- that does not sound right! Make more creative closet organizers, I mean! Maybe I will keep it neater if I have things I love in there to hang stuff on.

After having my spackling/sanding/painting supplies put away for all of two days, I took a look at the sink area in my kitchen and decided something must be done. For some reason, our builders put wallpaper behind the sink area with a too-short backsplash. Not a good idea, as with constant splattering, the paper starts to curl up and the sheet rock to turn brown and crumble. Maybe if we had re-caulked even once during the last thirteen years... Anyway, I peeled off two sheets of wallpaper above the sink, sanded the stuck paper off, removed old caulk, repaired sheet rock with joint compound, painted with semi-gloss enamel, and recaulked. I was going to put up replacement wallpaper in that spot, but guess what- after all these years, the old paper does not match the bright white background of the new. So, I hung this old quilt of mine over that area. It was from a pattern called something like Birds, Blooms, and Butterflies. I call it My Country Garden. I used hand-dyes in gradations of color, which has been running since 1995 onto the white background. I think I finally got all the excess dye out with Synthrapol last weekend.

Finally, my last project. This one might not get done until next Christmas. I was unpacking my Christmas stuff and came across this ugly wooden Christmas sleigh, which I remember seeing at my in-laws' house each Christmas. I was trying to think how we ended up inheriting the sorry-looking junior-high shop project, when I realized it must have been made by my own personal husband.

Unbeknownst to him, I have been beading it to the hilt, and it will someday be all shiny and sparkly. I am not much of a beader, and didn't know you had to let one side dry before turning it to do the next. All my carefully placed sparklies went sliding down the sleigh. But, I think it will be pretty when it is done.