New Zealand album

                        

A few scenes here from the wonderful Coramandel Peninsular on the North Island.  The whole country is spectacular, it's hard to pick a favourite part. All highly recommended!!!!!!

Home made photo Album

This album is made by sticking 3 or 4 pages of the T,V. times together, paiting with emulsion paint and I varnished the outer cover as well. I tore the edge of the paper instead of cutting it...well that's the way I like it. The beauty is I can add as many pages as  like.   The name AO TE AROA is the Maori name for New Zealand, so called because when the Polynesians first sighted the land, they said it looks like a 'Long white cloud' which translates to Ao Te Aroa.

A pretty little chest for a child

I bought this in a charity shop, painted white (badly) and I thought 'this is just right for a little girl'. Well, the first time I took it to the sale...it SOLD! Brilliant. Wish I could find more like this one.

It has only taken mne about an hour to put 2 photos on!!! As usual Sue Allan at the other end of the phone telling me what to do. HELP....I find it all SO complicated.

Large dining room chair

This is the chair I found thrown away on the Kings road. it took a lot of work to get it like this. Hope some one buys it before christmas!!!!

Bavarian pine shelf

This is one of my favourite pieces of furniture. I brought it back form Bavaria because our son was throwing

it out!!!! It fits in very well with our other old pieces of pine. It should be called my 'Memory Shelf'. On the top are my African pieces, nothing of much value, a bit of drift wood from the Limpopo river, a little warthog made from mud,a  hand carved African couple.It's all abit of a mish mash but I like it.

WOYWW

I went to the Kings road with my daughter, looking for rugs. On the way to the shop we passed an old pub with a pile of rubbish outside...a magnet to me.  The pile was full of old furniture andIi wished we'd had a bigger car but all we had was a tiny Toyata Yaris. Anyway with a lot of difficulty we managed to get two large dining room chairs, VERY heavy, so not pine...but quite plain and ugly.
 This is the first one, now cleaned up, painted and decorated and varnished and ready for the sale on saturday. So, fingers crossed it will sell.

   The horse shoes take a lot of cleaning up and hardly worth it really as there is not much room to decorate. people seem to like them though.

WOYWW

My worktable today at the Stamping Ground

Today I thought I would have a change from painting so I covered one of these stone jars in decoupage, just nice wrapping paper cut up, glued on and varnished. Not so keen on it but some one liked it enough to buy it, so that's o.k.

Th other one is just my usual flowers. I must practice some new flowers. I call these 'Utensil holders',but of course they would be great for flowers as well.

I thought I would start 'Christmasy' things  so I cleaned up this tatty old candle holder and, sprayed it black with cellulose and them 'tried' to paint holly!

 The little heart is cut from a piece of hardboard found in the garage.

 I am always looking for old curtain poles as they are ideal for making the uprights for wellington boot stands. Bases are not a problem as we seem to have plenty of wood in the garage. The bases have 2 coats of yacht varnish on to protect them in wet weather.

Hen Can

I thought I would have a change from flowers, but I am not so sure. hens are much harder to paint than flowers. I shall have to practice!

Daisy Jug

This wa a very cheap and nasty looking 'brass' jug, but in good condition so I thought it worth transforming.  I like the colours of this.

Two little chairs

These two little chairs would do for twins. They are really small, to suit 2 year olds, a boy and a girl.  Well, I have twins, a boy and a girl, but they are grown up with children of their own AND older than 2 years old! I think they are quite sweet,just because they are so tiny.

Little old milk can

A little milk can, found in  junk shop in keighley.  I love this metal, too nice to paint. In fact it really shouldn't even be decorated!!! Anyway it is and there it hangs on my lovely old bavarian pine hanging shelf.

WOYWW

This is my entry for the WOYWW

This is the first time I have entered this challenge and am totaklly lost trying to do anything BUT Sue Allan is sitting right here by my side. Thank goodness for Sue!!!!

This should say WOMDRT ( what's on my dining room table)  A very dirty paint splattered oil cloth, and articles at various stages of recycling and decorating.

Storage tin

This is an espresso coffee tin. It makes a really good storage tin as it has a sealing screw top. It is 10 cm diameter and about 17cm. tall. The flowers are Marguerites and I think the blue and white together are very pretty.

Coffee Table

My daughter gave me this old wooden coffe table. I painted it a soft green and decorated each corner with different folk art flowers.

Click on any corner to enlarge.

Old Plane

This is an old wooden plane found in a junk shop many years ago. This design incorporates fruit and blossom and leaves. I didn't varnish it but rubbed danish oil into the wood which gives it a nice sheen without a shine.

Bavarian Milk Churn

My daughter bought this for me at a recycling yard near Munich many years ago. It was my best bargain and cost only 5 deutchmarks...what a bargain. I undercoated it and then sprayed with racing car green cellulose paint.  It stands about 65cm.high.  I would never sell this but have decorated other ones from England.The flowers are painted with acrylics and then varnished.  They are all freehand as I do not like stencils and never use them.

Wooden Cutlery tray

I bought this in a sad state from a junk shop in Yorkshire. It was very scruffy, but sound. As an'antiqu' I guess it would be worth more undecorated but as this is 'my thing' I couldn't resist painting the flowers on it. I now use it for bits of drift wood and intersesting large seeds that I collect.

Wooden key Rack

My neighbour passes me bits of wood...to burn, but actually it was just the right thickness to cut out this key holder.

Wooden Box

This old wooden box is about 26cm square.  All I did to this was decorate it.

This watering can was thrown away dented, leaking,  and no good for anything. My husband renovated it and spray painted it black and then I decorated with acrylics and varnished it.

Small milk churn

I painted this many years ago. I found the churn ( is it a churn?) in a junk shop, very dirty and dented.  I painted straight on to the metal, and then aged it.

My first post

Paper Mache bowl
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    This was my first attempt at papier mache and not very good. I mixed egg boxes, water and PVA glue in a food processor.  It is quite lumpy  and I'd appreciate any advice on how to improve this..

  I painted 2 coats of acrylic, decorated it and varnished it.