Anniversary....

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a great day.  I wanted to share a little story with you.  40 years ago, a little girl named Rhonda Jean was given a new life with a future full of possibilities.  She was 10 months old when she left Foster Care and was given her forever family.  A family that had a terrific Father, a loving Mother, a great older brother, and countless other wonderful relatives.  Rhonda was adopted.  Here is a picture of Rhonda on the first day with her new family.  She is sitting on the table with her new Great-Aunt Thelma (the twin sister of her new Grandmother).  They are at her new Grandparents home.

The little girl's new family decided since she was getting a "new life" she might as well have a new name too.  And in case you hadn't guessed, that little girl is me.  Thank goodness they changed my name to Holly.  I don't think Rhonda fit too well.  So thanks to Mom and Dad for adopting me!  I am thankful to them for the life I've been able to live and for a loving family.

It seems ironic to me that the home they brought me to on my first day in the family is the very home I now live in.  Life really does come full circle.  Well, thanks for indulging me on this little trip down memory lane.  Thanks for stopping by.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  I hope this finds you all happy and joining a very wonderful couple of days!

My brother and his family arrived safely on Friday.  Tonight my cousin Jason and Uncle Larry will spend the evening with us at Mom and Dad's.  We will eat and play bingo for wonderful bingo "gifts."  And tomorrow my Aunt Barb and Uncle Martin are coming to celebrate and eat dinner with us.  Then we will open gifts.  I look forward to spending this time with my family.  Here's wishing you and your family a very wonderful Christmas!  Thanks for stopping by!

Free...

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a great weekend.  Do you have all your Christmas shopping done?  I do, but then I didn't have that many to buy for.  I wanted to show you what my brother and sister-in-law found when they were cleaning their garage and sent over to me.  It's cast iron and very heavy.

It has just a touch of rust on it, but nothing that can't be fixed.

I love the little page holders that are also cast iron.

My sister-in-law didn't want it but I'll take it.  I love free stuff!  They also sent a large box of foam, so I'm all set to make some cushions!  Thanks guys!  Well, I still have a few orders to finish and then I can start in on new stuff for next year.  Hope you have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

More headboards....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  Well the weekend is almost here.  I wanted to show you the set of headboards that my Uncle Bill got for me.  It's a matching set of twin headboards and footboards.

This picture shows just the headboards.

This one has all four in it.  He got them from a guy that runs a local auction house.  He got all of them for $30.  Which is $7.50 each.  Not too bad! 

Notice the rolled edge of the center piece on the two footboards.  That exact same thing is on the headboards.  I think they are going to make great benches.  I can hardly wait to start building.  As soon as our Christmas company heads home, I need to start working on getting things made for the craft fair that I've decided to attend this Spring.  Normally I don't have a booth in the Spring, but I'm going to give a whirl and see how well I do.  But that means I only have three months to get everything done which sounds like a lot of time, but it all depends on the weather.  Have a great weekend everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.

Cream bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I wanted to show you a bench I made for a relative.  There were 12 surviving siblings in my grandfather's family and one of his sister's daughter (my mom's cousin) bought a bench from me previously for one of her daughters and ordered this bench for one of her other daughters.  Are you confused yet?  She wanted a cream colored bench like the other one she got.  So this is what I came up with.

 To me it has a more primitive look to it, unlike the other benches I make.  My uncle Bill had given me this  headboard this fall and I knew when I saw it that this is the bench it would go with.  Did I mention that my mom's cousin ordered this back in the late spring, but she didn't want it until December.  So I put it off while I worked on everything else until it was almost December.

 I forgot to take pictures of the original headboard.  I found portions of spindles to made the arms.  And I painted it with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old Ochre.

Then I waxed it with clear wax and added the saying using black paint.  I have a stencil that I used for this.  It's the same one I use on all the large benches, but since it's smaller only part of it fits.  I delivered this and my mom's cousin loved it.  I sure hope her daughter does too. 

And on a sad note, the last of my grandfather's brothers passed away this week and I'll be going to the visitation later today.  He was 89.

And today, my nephew Ridge heads out for Marine Boot camp.  I wish him the very best!  And I'll miss him!

Well, thanks for stopping by.

Snow...

Hi Everyone!  Sorry I've been absent this week.  My foot is on the mend, but it's not 100% yet.  So it's been hard to be motivated to work out in the shop and stand on a concrete floor, so needless to say, I'm behind again.  And tonight is my work Christmas party, so I'll have to try to squeeze some shop time in this afternoon and tomorrow.  We had snow Thursday late afternoon and into the evening.  So this is what I awoke to yesterday morning.  I love snow.  I love to watch it snow and how wonderful it looks right after it snows, before it gets trampled and dirty looking.  So I had to snap this picture before the dogs (who love the snow almost as much as I do) hit the yard and messed up my pretty snow picture!   

 And then this morning we had fog that frosted everything.  I loved how it looked so while I was waiting for the dogs first thing this morning, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures.

And when I turned to go back in I saw the start of the lunar eclipse, so of course I had to take a picture.  Did you see the lunar eclipse this morning? 

I promise to get back to some more projects, hopefully I have something to show you tomorrow.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Let it Snow....

Hi Everyone!  My foot is still recovering so I don't have much new to show you as I haven't been able to work on anything this week.  But I did want to show you one of the little signs I made for the last craft fair.  You may remember the window I painted with the snowman, well I put one a piece of scrap wood.

I think it turned out to be cute.  I sold it at the last craft fair and received an order for one more.  I hope you have a great weekend.  I'm going to try to get caught up on some orders this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Farewell and Good luck to my nephew...

Hi Everyone!  Well, my nephew was here.  And we had a wonderful time.  I took a few pictures of the Christmas tree at Union Station in Kansas City while we were waiting for his train to arrive.

And here is my nephew and Dad minutes after he got off the train.  I hadn't seen him in person for almost two years.  And it was two years too long.  It's hard to believe he's 18 and joining the Marines in a matter of days.

And here he is with my mom shortly after we got him home.  We had a great time.  Played lots of games.  He loves to play card games or the tile game (as my Mom calls it).  We laughed a bunch and just enjoyed having him here.  He helped Dad do some chores around their house and helped Dad and I move some farm equipment back into storage.  Which was a lot of help, especially after the tongue of the hay rack landed on my foot leaving me to hobble along.  It's not broken just bruised really bad!!  And boy did it hurt!  The swelling is coming down which is good, but it's made it difficult to get orders filled.  So hopefully this weekend I can get caught up.  Mom and Dad took him to meet my sister-in-law so he can spend time with his Dad before he leaves for Marine boot camp on December 12th.  I will miss him and wish him well on this new phase of his life.  Good luck Ridge and be safe!  I know you'll make a great Marine!

My mom's tree...

Hi Everyone!  After our Thanksgiving meal, I put up my mother's Christmas tree, so I thought I'd show you how it turned out.  I made her the tree topper star as well as the snowman ornament in the middle of the tree.

 I really like how it turned out.  And she was very happy to have someone put it up for her.

I also gave her one of the trees I had left over from the craft fair.  Have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.

Jenny Lind headboard bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Tuesday!  I am spending today with my nephew Ridge but I thought I'd share with you one of the benches that I made for my last craft fair that did not sell.  This is what it started out looking like.  It is a Jenny Lind headboard.

I made this one armless since I did not have a footboard to go with it.  I took the feet from another headboard (one that I didn't like and used the back to make a sign out of it) to make the front legs of this bench.  Then built the frame work.  I had originally wanted to make storage in the seat of this one, but I ran out of time.  But if you look at this, it only needs the bottom of the storage part.  Maybe I will rework this one and add storage to it.

I painted it with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Graphite with a little black paint added to it to darken it a bit.  I upholstered the seat with my usual fabric choice (it's just been so popular).  And I added the saying to the bottom, Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often.  But since it didn't sell, I think I'll finish off the storage in the seat and then it will be ready to go for next year.  Well I'm off now to spend quality time with Ridge before he heads off to Marine Basic training!  I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by. 

When in doubt...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  My dad and I picked up my nephew Ridge from the train yesterday and I'm so happy he's here.  I have to work today so he's spending time with my parents.  I wanted to share with you one the signs I made for a client in the middle of getting ready for my last craft fair.  It's a gift for a friend of mine to give his sister.  He wanted something that said wine in it and this is what we came up with.  I hope his sister likes it.

It has a base coat of wine and black then a top coat of white then has been sanded to reveal those colors.  I hand painted the lettering in black.  It's a simple font, but I think it works.

I thought it was a clever saying and I think I might just have to make one to go in my shop.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Live, Laugh, Love sign...

Happy Saturday Everyone!  I hope you all survived the shopping yesterday.  I had to work, so no shopping for me.  I wanted to share one of the signs I made for my last craft fair that did not sell.  It's one of my favorite sayings.  I made one of these in large scale for the Red Oak Craft Fair and decided to make one smaller for this fair. 

I will be adding this to my Etsy shop, so if you're looking for something like this to give as a gift to someone, look for it here .  Thanks for stopping by!

Black Friday....

Hi Everyone!  I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving day.  I had a nice day!  So are you one of those early morning Black Friday shoppers?  I am not.  I'm not real big on crowds and since I don't have children, my shopping list is actually pretty short, so I don't make it out for those great deals.  But I'm always amazed at the stories I hear.  Plus, I have to work today.

Etsy shop

In case you're looking for something different to give as a gift, I have added some signs and Christmas ornaments to my Etsy shop.  Or if you need a handpainted sign to give as a gift, send me an email.  I just had to get that plug in there.  Thanks for indulging me!  And thanks for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving!...

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you are all celebrating with family today!  I will be with my family and after dinner I'll be putting up their Christmas tree while my mom puts up the rest of the decorations in her house.  Because of course it has to be ready for my nephews visit on Sunday!

So I hope you are enjoying your day.  What special things will you be doing?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Small tree stool...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday!  Can you believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving?  And then the Christmas season will be upon us.  Are you ready for it?  I wanted to show you one of the things I took to my last craft fair. 

It's a little decorative stool with a tree back.  I've sold one other one a couple years ago and decided to take this one to the fair this year.

I added the rusty sign that I painted Happy Holidays on.

Here it is at the Craft fair.  It actually sold the night before when I was setting up my booth.  But my customer left it there until the next day so others could see it.  Sorry about the plastic in the background of that picture.  That's the table where I store items I'll need that day like bags and plastic bags to cover the trees with.  Thanks for stopping by.

Storage bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Tuesday!  I will be spending the day in the shop trying to get orders filled.  But I wanted to show you the bench with storage that I built for this last craft fair.  I showed you the in progress pictures of it a couple of weeks ago.  Here's what the headboard looked like.

And here it is built and painted with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old Ochre.

I then waxed it with clear wax. 

And I upholstered the seat.  I left the plastic on it at the craft fair as little kids with sticky hands love to climb all over them if their parents aren't watching.

This bench sold fairly early to a nice young couple with a couple of kids.  I think the storage in it was the kicker.  I love to watch people when their making that decision to buy.  And I get almost as excited as they do when they say they are buying something.  But let's face it, it's a big purchase, literally!  They left it at the fair until almost the end of they day when they came back to pick it up, so a lot of people were able to see it.  Must get busy now on those orders.  Well, thanks for stopping by!

Small bench...

Hi Everyone!   Happy Monday.  I wanted to show you one of the benches I took to my last craft fair.  Do you remember me showing you this as I started it?

It's a twin headboard that I decided to make armless and with storage.  I also didn't make the seat as deep as I normally do as I've heard several times people say they want a bench but just don't have the space for it.  So this one is not deep but just the right size to put your shoes on.  Plus it has built in storage for an entry way to store you gloves.

This is how it turned out.

I can't tell you the color of the bench because it's a color I mixed myself.  I actually painted it first with Annie Sloan's Chalk paint in Coco, but it was too dark to go with the fabric for the cushion.  It just made it look dark and flat.  So I mixed a color with some paint I had on hand and that was the wrong color.  It had a slight green color to it which was not the direction I wanted to go.  So I mixed a country tan and antique white with a drop of black and came up with this color.  Which I think worked better with the fabric.

And here it is at the craft fair last Saturday.  Unfortunately it did not sell.  My mom made the cushion for this bench for me.  I'll be storing this for a while.  I'm trying to find a fair to go to in the spring.  All of the ones I attend are in the fall.  So if I can find one, then I'll be a bench up on my build list.  Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Wonderland Window Art....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I hope you are all doing well and gearing up for the upcoming holiday season.  It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week!  Where as the time gone?  I wanted to share with you one of the things I made and sold last Saturday at the Craft Fair.  I painted another window.  If you've been following along, you might remember that I picked up a bunch of windows for FREE that were curb side when they replaced the windows in a beautiful Victorian home by my parents home.

I painted this one on both the front and back of the window.  The face (the eyes, noses and mouths) were painted on the front side and everything else was painted on the back side of the window.  The hardest part was painting the letters on the back since they were backward, but I think it turned out pretty well.  It sold right away at the Red Cross Craft Fair.  I wouldn't have minded taking it home with me, so maybe I'll have to make one for myself.  Hope your weekend is great!  Thanks for stopping by!