I'VE PAINTED EVERYTHING WHITE! STOP ME, PLEASE!

I should never have bought all that white chalk paint because it turned me into a maniac and I ran madly from room to room, painting everything I saw--tabletops, chests, bookcases and my ancient chandelier, which as you can see in the small photo was painted in dark reds and greens.  The tabletop in the small picture was dark, damaged and depressing.  Both have now been painted matte white (many, many coats of chalk paint) and waxed.  If the floating butterfly looks familiar it's because the original was created by   Kerryanne at Shabby Art Boutique  I made two copies of it and glued them together.  I also printed the butterfly on fabric and put it on a pillow.  The other pillows have fabric versions of two of my collages.

                                                                                                           When I forced myself to

 put down my paintbrush (after painting many other things, but I shall spare you)I decided to recover the pillows on the sofa.  I found some lovely cotton dishtowels at Home Goods and decided to  make a ruffled pillow cover. I  cut the stitches on the old cover made from Pottery Barn napkins and made something new.

   

                          I wanted a different look so I made the ruffles very long and only slightly gathered.  This pillow used two of the dishtowels, but there's one left--just enough to cover a smaller pillow.  I have other ideas, but.....

you will have to wait until next week.  Besides, my hand hurts from all that painting.      



This week I'm linking with Rooted in Thyme and Shabby Art Boutique.  Their links are on the right.

A BURST OF CREATIVITY!

After all  my Christmas goodies had been carefully wrapped and put away for another year, I suddenly became wildly creative!  My cats thought I had lost my mind as I was darting about my cottage, assembling paints, card stock, twine, glue and a bird I had created months ago just waiting to find the right spot.  I had found two unpainted frames near the dumpster where people leave the strangest things (I prefer to call them Found Objects.)  Many a found object has been rescued from oblivion by an artsy lady and stored in her craft room until she finds just the right use for it.  I painted and distressed one of the frames and decided to use some cardboard hearts from my ever expanding stash.   The hearts were covered on one side with pastel papers and on the other with paint in shades of teal and aqua.  The cards were carefully arranged so that

                                                            the colors looked good next to each

other on both sides.  I then strung

the hearts on twine and attached

each end to the frame, the aqua

sides facing the living room and the

pastels facing the kitchen.

But it needed something more--my bird!  Alas, the bird was only covered with papers on one side.  Of course, I didn't have any more of the same papers, but I made do with similar colors.  My bird was duly glued to the middle of the frame and

VOILA!

I was finished.

There are more projects I want to tell you about, but we'll wait until next week.

This week I'll be linking with Shabbilicious Fridays at

Shabby Art Boutique.  Find their direct link to the right.

THE WHITE CAT EMERGES FROM THE FOREST

I am one of those crazy old ladies who feeds stray cats.  They are always shy, but seem thrilled to be given a hearty meal and a bowl of clean water.  My darling Molly was a feral cat, but over the weeks of being fed and given a soft bed under the bushes, she lost her shyness and eventually sat on my lap.  She came inside a couple of times to investigate and the third time she stayed and is now a part of my family.

The strays come and go and sometimes one disappears, but I don't like to think about that.  But one day a beautiful long-haired white cat was sitting at the edge of the forest in back of my "cottage" when I looked outside.  She was staring intently at my windows and glimpsed me as soon as I appeared.

Smiling, I asked in a soft voice if she was hungry.  Her blue-green eyes grew very round.

"Would you like some food?"

Well, of course she would.  Word had gotten around the woods that a lady was very generous with the cat food (the good kind) and all you had to do was stare intently at her back windows until she spotted you.  Within a few minutes the lady  would appear with a big dish of hard and soft Fancy Feast.  White Cat would run into the woods and hide (she remained completely visible of course and continued to stare intently at my face.)  I would cheerfully announce that lunch was served and disappear into the house.  She would creep out of the forest, looking around to make sure she had not been seen and then fall upon the food.  I would run into my bedroom so I could watch her eat.  She broke my heart.  The poor cat ate as if she were starving and licked the dish clean.  After that White Cat was a daily visitor.  Sometimes she came twice in one day.  And she was not fussy; she ate whatever I would put in front of her.  When a storm was predicted a few weeks later, I worried about her.  I had taken to placing towels warmed from the dryer in her favorite spot and watching her sleep there during the day and through the night.

I knew the storm was coming so I took out her dinner and set out the warm towels  in a protected spot.  My three black indoor cats were of course very interested in all this as they sat on the windowsill watching intently.  Naturally, they disapproved as they believed the food I was giving White Cat and the others was rightfully theirs.  So I climbed into bed, got under the covers and hoped for the best.  As always, I was soon joined by the Three Musketeers and we all sailed into Dreamland.

The next day I was horrified to find that a huge tree trunk had fallen at the edge of the woods, bringing with it broken branches and tangled vines.  White Cat's bed was covered with vines and small branches and she was gone.  White Cat was easily frightened and must have been terrified when branches began falling on her.  I did not see my beautiful cat friend for three days and I prayed that she would return unharmed.

On the fourth day I looked out the window and there was White Cat looking as she always looked--hungry.