A BLESSED EASTER!

Nothing says spring and Easter like new baby lambs.   Lambs have long been an animal associated with Easter and Spring.

Back in our childhood, the Easter cake was often made in the image of a lamb.  Gary tells me every Easter about the Lamb cake that decorated his family's Easter table, made by his Uncle Joe who was a baker and owned his own Bakery for many years.

You don't see Lamb cakes anymore, I guess just one more sign of an ever changing society from traditional to nothing- resembling -traditional- any more.

Lucky for me, I have the wonderful opportunity to see new born lambs about 4 miles down the road from my home.

My friend Diana and her family raise sheep - for meat production, and for wool... and lambing season is in full swing.

She has been sharing some pictures of the new arrivals on social media with her friends, and I have managed to snag an invitation to take my camera for a visit one day, very soon.

I love her posts about her "renegade sheep", her "good sheep", her "ladies in waiting" and her two huge sheep guardian dogs.  All her sheep have names, and she loves them like they are family...

My friend shares her sheep in wonderful detail  - like the day she not only told us, but showed us about Lyla still being pregnant...

and then just days later her heart was broken after Lyla's labour not only took her two unborn lambs' lives, but Lyla's as well.

And then there is Juno - this adorable lamb...

Juno had a great future, until his mother met with a very freak fatal accident with an implement.  But shortly after there was a Mom who had lost her lamb, so Juno's future once again is bright, as he and his new Mom are well on their way towards a perfect bond.

Brown lambs and tiny little white lambs - 

The life of a farmer is never easy, there is joy, there is heartbreak... there is life, and there is death.

Very much like the true meaning of Easter itself - Life, and Death, and Life after Death!

I can't wait to be at Diana's farm seeing these wonderful little animals, and hopefully catching some

 of their beauty and personalities with my camera.

But for now

I wish you all

 A Blessed Easter.

THE REVEAL!

It's a beautiful sunny warm spring day here in western Manitoba.  Our snow is all but gone at the front of the house, but the back yard is still covered with deep snow, so I haven't been able to get a glimpse of my big gardens yet - but we are getting closer.

It's been a very slow melt here, which is what the farmers want, I believe.  But I am wanting to hurry spring along so I can get outside and get my hands in some dirt!

Today is a sad Anniversary for me.  It is 34 years that my Mother passed away today.  You would think that 34 years would dull the pain and sorrow of losing her, but it has not.  It never goes away, really.  Not a day goes by without her popping into my memory.  Something she did or said will be right there, as if it was yesterday.  She was younger than I am now when she died, and so she is forever young in my memories.  I miss her, and even though I know we will meet again someday, I can't help thinking about all that we have missed these 34 years.

I snatched this from Face book.... it is exactly how I feel today - and everyday.

And Now - 

I believe I promised you a Reveal.

Here is the before and after pictures of my Shaker cabinet.

I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Now I am moving on to the second cabinet, which is not going to be as much work as this one was, because I am only chalk painting the sides and the top, and leaving the glass doors at the front natural.

In the meantime I can start moving some dolls down into this nice pretty cabinet, and the drawers will hold their outfits.

Enjoy this day, my friends - and hug your loved ones...

 

CHALK IT UP TO ...

A special hello to all my regular followers, I love knowing that you always stick around for my posts.  Some of you have been with me from the very beginning, and I honestly and truly appreciate your support.  Much love to you all!

So - I mentioned a chalk paint project I was going to tackle this past week - tackle it - I did!

Until I moved here, I didn't know such thing as a chalk paint finish even existed, but thanks to my dear friend, Lou - who owns and runs our local Uniques and Antiques shop here in town - and if you haven't been to visit - you are missing a true GEM....  thanks to Lou - I have learned all about chalk paint.

Lou re-purposes many different things for her shop, and many times she uses the chalk paint technique.  She inspired me - she even presented me with some Plaster of Paris to get me kick started!

So what is chalk paint?

It is a mixture of acrylic paint, Plaster of Paris and water.  You can buy it in any store that sells paint, but be prepared to pay up.   A tiny pint of this specialty paint can cost you as much as a gallon of any other paint.

I am cheap - and the projects I want to work on are large, so I decided to brave my fears and mix my own.

There are many recipes on the Internet for this, but I chose this one, only because it makes a larger batch than some of the others.

2 cups acrylic paint ( colour of your choice).
1/3 Cup Plaster of Paris ( can be found in most hardware stores)
2 tablespoons of water.

Mix well until smooth.  I thought it would be gritty, but surprisingly, it's not!

I found a very inexpensive gallon of already already coloured paint ( Glidden) in Walmart.  It was half the price of the paint that I usually use, but I actually have used Glidden a lot in the past, and have always like the finish.  Speaking of finishes - this gallon was Eggshell.

So my first project is a shaker TV cabinet that we have had since the 90's.  Its been in every room in our former house, and quite a few in this one as well.
Here it is in the kitchen 2 years ago, before I changed the kitchen and moved it into the basement family room.

We haven't used it as a TV cabinet since the wide flat screen TVs have been the thing, but it is a great storage cabinet, and I plan to use it in my doll/ little girl room.

Here is my before picture (missing the 2 drawers)- it is sitting in the newly painted doll room...

After taking the doors off, I lightly sanded the cabinet and then wiped it down with a damp cloth.


First coat:

When you do a chalk paint you are supposed to lightly sand between coats, but my first coat was so thin that I waited until after the second coat.

Here the cabinet is finished, now I am working on the doors.  As you can see I removed the panels from the doors.  I am going to do something chic with the panels, I am also painting the wooden knobs the same colour as the wall.

Next post I will reveal the finished project - I think you will be surprised!

So I'm off to finish my first Chalk Paint Project....

Until later - 

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

Happy First Day of Spring!

It's been quite awhile since I have felt like writing, I apologize for abandoning you, but sometimes it is a good thing to disconnect from our normal for a little while.

Looking out my window as I write this, it looks nothing like spring - it is actually snowing here, and its cloudy and gloomy - not what one wants to see at all on the first day of spring - however the calendar says warmer weather is around the corner, so we should be thankful that winter is mostly behind us now!

Winter - well, for me it was a challenge this year!  I usually embrace winter, but this one was brutally cold, and I think what really made it overly long and tedious for me was the inability to get out of the house.

I had a very nasty flare up of Plantar Fascists, and pretty much from early December until just recently, I have been unable to walk.  It made me so miserable and grumpy.  I couldn't get upstairs to craft, or write blogs... I couldn't go for walks with my camera on nice sunny days - it really affected me a lot.

I also have been stressing about my eye.  I have a retina thing going on, and have had to change my specialist appointment twice, once due to weather and once to a nasty flu bug, that still has me coughing 4 weeks later.

But this is all behind me now, I hope.  I seem to be having more energy, the days are longer, and the snow is melting. 

You know my mind is on what lies beneath the snow in the back yard.  I have started a few perennial seeds - I have some nice Shasta Daisy's growing, and a few Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea growing in pots, some herbs and a few other plants, and in a week or so, I will start my vegetable seedlings for my garden.

But my big project, came as a surprise one day, when Gary announced he wanted to move out of his little theater room into the big family room.  I jumped at the opportunity to seize another spare room, and along with it a new project!

He had painted the walls a cranberry red, which was really nice for a theater room, but way too dark for what I want, so I have painted it a soft grey-green colour.  It is going to be the new doll room, but also I am making it a special room for our two new soon to be little grand-daughters.  I will put a bed in there, and I am going to even make a canopy for it using a hula hoop and some sheers.  The room will be theirs to play in, to sleep in - whatever they want to do.  I have cabinets for my collectible dolls, so they will be safe from little fingers, but still they are dolls - if little girls want to play with them - they will be able to.

So the room is painted - I shampooed the carpet, and now I am going to try my hand a some chalk painting projects. 

More on that next time....

Gosh it's good to be writing again....

Happy Spring everyone!