Handpainted bird houses.....

Gardening is a fairly new interest to me....I am still learning by my mistakes! Mostly I can keep plants alive now but they don't always grow how I imagined they would. My mother tells me the Latin names and if they like sun or shade etc. Often this doesn't help as my garden is north facing and seems to have a bit of both. She has given me some beautiful books which I love to read but either I can't find the plants in the garden centre or they cost too much. Gradually over time I am getting to know what likes my boggy clay soil which is rock hard in the summer.

 

 I am trying to make my garden into outside rooms decorated with found items...mirrors...painted objects....hanging things and anything else I can make that will withstand the weather...

 

 

I bought this bird house in the pound shop and painted it with acrylic paint....I gave it a coat of varnish and it still looks pretty after two years.....

 

 

The left hand bird house above was in a sale in Sainsburys a year ago....It was already white so I just added a pattern. The right hand one was from our local charity shop which cost £1. It has a nice texture but was painted with a tacky design. Firstly I painted it with left over garden paint which had been used on my bench....then I rubbed a little pale blue acrylic over it to show up the texture. A little bit of pattern on the roof and around the hole added enough extra interest for me. A quick varnish does help protect painted items but they are still affected and weather.  I don't want the pain of putting my things away so they are left to mellow and have been out all winter.

 

Longing to be out in the garden again....x

 

I have my work cut out today.....I am designing a flyer to hand out and to post to my eBay customers. I don't think eBay will be very happy if I message them through eBay.....so I have to write and slip a flyer in with each letter.

I have been selling on eBay for over five years so I have picked out my regular customers ....and that is a lot of letters...a lot of stamps!

I nipped around to see my post office ladies ...bought the stamps ...got stuck chatting ..now I am behind as normal.

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I have a face book page for my customers...lovely ladies who are now my friends. Caroline, who I call my mermaid lady had sent me a message reminding me that she would like yet another mermaid. She has two gorgeous daughters and has been buying my mermaids for them and herself ever since I began making them. Caroline asked me to make her a mermaid similar to one which is on my old blog...a more grown up design...more of a decoration...

This is one of my little mermaids...the way I make them now....

This is the new design for my big mermaids .....

I made and sold several of these a few years back....I printed them .....

sorry the photo is not very good...

This is the mermaid Caroline would like, I sewed on sequins and embroidered the tail...she has a more realistic bust..a quilted tail and has a string of pearls. You can see the date on the photo... 2007... Sorry the photo is awful...I had a cheap, rubbish camera. I still have the pattern I designed, so I shall make some more, but I really do not like her face.  A few adjustments here and there are needed..... 

 This is another old photo that I found on my old blog. A mermaid clock I made from mdf...I went through a wood working phase. I love to paint wooden things but it takes me to long cutting out the wood.  I nearly sliced off my thumb right through the nail using a band saw. That was enough to put me off....shame....

If I ever come back to this world....I hope I shall be a hunky... fit... carpenter....



Handmade fabric bird decorations ....

Today started off with a broken glass...not the thing you need before your morning cuppa.

Having told Charlie many many times ...not...to take water to bed in one of one of the tall ,thin glasses...I was somewhat annoyed that it lay smashed beside his bed.... Accidents happen...I have broken many glasses. I did not care about the glass, but I do care about cut feet...especially as Charlie is allergic to antibiotics.... Luckily he had not cut himself. I cleared it all up and sat in the sun to drink my tea.

I drink my tea in the garden every morning of the year, unless it is actually raining or snowing. When it snowed I put on my wellies...tucked in my pj's and put a coat over my dressing gown. I cleared the snow from my seat and sat on a newspaper....

I like the fresh air and space...because my house is small I feel shut in...

I finished my fabric birds so now I can put them on my shop...

I have tried many ways to do birds eyes but I am happiest with using these little iridescent sequin flowers and tiny black beads....I have to use a very very thin needle as the holes in the beads are really tiny.....

I also did a bit more work on my butterfly wall art thingy....I don't know what to call it !

This is work in progress as I am not quite sure what to do to it....or what to do with it ...

Today has wizzed by......

Garden art....things I have made for my garden..

I thought you might like to see some photos of my garden....Last year I did a lot of work out there to transform a muddy mess, and make it my own....My garden gets flooded, it is clay soil and it is hard to grow anything...or was.....I raised borders and dug up the grass, laying a patchwork of slabs, wood and pebbles.....A friend decked the top area and the very bottom is half done as the summer went and we ran out of time.

This was how it looked half way through the summer....

I wanted some garden art ,I have loads of ideas but only made a few things as most of my time was spent working, planting tending my veg. and watering....I bought galvanised wire and dug out my beads, buttons and old broken jewelry......these are the tings I made with very little cost...I used only a third of the wire which only cost £3.50.....