My Art........ Felted White on White

I am a dabbler. 

 I like to attempt many things, never really applying myself to one in particular.

Hence, I was not a good student.

One of the things I like to do is make felt.  I start with pure sheep wool that I buy carded and washed.  Before it is spun.  When I first starting felting I decided I was going to be "pure" in my art and use raw wool.  Far too smelly......the house smelled like a barn. 

Felt is one of the oldest forms of fabric.  Felting occurs when you add water, soap and agitation to wool.  You ended up with a lovely soft pure wool fabric. 

Anyone can felt.  It makes a lovely project for children.

For one of my larger pieces, I made 12 felted "tiles". 

All from a white Corriedale sheep.

Without using a stitch, only agitation, I created designs that I felted onto the back of my plain "tiles" that I have made first. 

The dyes used in wool making can be toxic, so I like to create with natural colored sheep.

The textures create enough shadows and dimension, that color is really not necessary.

When working with natural wool and no color, the challenge is you have to create something with relief to make it anything at all.  Far more difficult than working with colored wool. 

 Pattern is easier to create with color. 

I challenged myself to use only one material and one color.  Here I added some gorgeous lamb curls.

I mounted it on white, matted it white and framed it white. 

It ended up being quite large.  4' x 3'.  This piece was accepted into a juried art exhibition. 

It is a very organic piece and process.

Here is is in our reading room.  It has been resting on this table for 3 years.  I am not sure where it will end up, so I haven't put a nail in the wall yet. 

This is how I began.  Wool roving layered, then wetted with olive oil soap and water,

rubbed on a bamboo mat.

I am linking up today with Faded Charm Cottage for White Wednesday



Sarah Richardson's Cottage Living Room and a Feature on Remodelaholic

All images from http://www.sarahrichardsondesign.com/

I am so luck that Cassity over at Remodelaholic is featuring my dining room today on her busy interesting blog.  Pop on over to see her continually updated blog and amazing homes.

Last week I posted some pictures of Sarah Richardson's kitchen that was featured on her show "Sarah's Cottage".  This show featured her Reno of her own island retreat.  It appears that a lot of people outside of Canada have not seen this show, so I thought I would treat you to a few more photos of this gorgeous place. 

It wouldn't be Sarah's House if it didn't have a fabulous mix of fabrics.  In every room she does, the pillows are just so great...love the mix of denim, icat, floral and stripes.  

I find it very restful.  The view takes center stage here, not the furniture.  It all blends seamlessly into the surroundings. 

If I remember correctly, she added some white paint to the finish on the tongue and groove panelling to avoid that yellow pine look that pine gets with age. 

An old office chair gets new life and a lovely vignette above the old dresser. 

The seating area in the kitchen.  Can you picture having coffee here in the morning with friends.

What I really like here, is that the colors are mixed up.  It would have been typical to repeat the clue palette from the living room.  This is more eclectic and unexpected 

With only water access, all of the materials and furnishings had to arrive by barge..

All photos http://www.sarahrichardsondesign.com/

You can also see more of Sarah's work HERE and other great Canadian designers on the

 Canadian House and Home website.http://www.houseandhome.com/

The Dog is on UK Time, Reno Dust and Tomorrow is my Tax Audit.

The subway tile is partly installed. 3" x 6" subway is a huge pain in the butt to install. Not hard, but time consuming, back aching work.

Feeling pretty grumpy today.  My ancient Labrador Gracie has been on UK time now for about 6 months.  I used to have to wake her up in the morning, but suddenly over to UK time.  Made even worse by Canada's switch to Daylight Savings this past weekend.  Too old to manage the stairs, she sleeps in the living room.  When she wakes she stands at the bottom of the stairs and barks.  And barks.  We've tried the old "don't spoil the baby" routine and just let her bark, covering our ears with the pillow.  We've tried letting her out for a pee.  A biscuit.  Last night Mr. Raz slept on the couch beside her.  She just keeps barking. The Valium has not helped.  She can't even stand up when she takes it.  So we've been up since 4 am.  Maybe she needs a holiday in Bath.

So I am grumpy. 

 And it doesn't help that Razmataz was selected for a tax audit which happens tomorrow.

  It's kinda like being at the airport.  When security or immigration looks at you a certain way and you know you are innocent, but you worry they may have some secret knowledge or you've been mixed up with someone else...........you get a little anxious and sweaty.

I have always been a squeaky clean rule follower all my life when it comes to things like this.  My records are impeccable, but it bothers me still.  I am looking forward to it being over. 

 But Reno's make me happy.  Here Simon is marking the level line.  Something not often done in this house before.  It will end up taking 2 men 2 days to install just the subway tile.  In the meantime, I have been hatching plans with Simon for taking out the kitchen wall and adding a bathroom.  Never sure how I could fit a powder room in on the main level, I had a light bulb moment at 4:30am and ran it by Simon today who said it would work. (it's all to do with the plumbing stack)

 The bead board is up.  Now the beams will be added and the moldings.

The medicine cabinet arrived and is installed.  It reflects a lot of light back into the bedroom from the adjacent windows.

I hope you all had a great weekend and your week is off to a good start.

Bizarre Bazaar

Vintage Treasures make wonderful Christmas gifts.  Our handmade soaps, vintage aprons (pinnies)

sparkling silver and vintage diner cups, all wrapped up with hot chocolates for gifting. 

 Have you been to a Church Bazaar lately?  Pretty well the same from coast to coast and country to country I imagine.  Hand knitted mittens, wreaths, angels and the usual bake table with banana breads wrapped in a poly bag with some red curly ribbon. A great way to raise money for the church, but seriously, many of them leave me yawning.

We decided this year to breathe new life into the starchy Church Bazaar
by having a booth of our vintage smalls. 

You would have thought we were selling panties and dirty magazines.

 Despite prior approval from the Bazaar Board of Governors, we were met with considerable hostility and great unfriendliness by several of the members.

Told on one hand to get our stuff into the basement with the "garage sale bits", then told we wouldn't sell anything because our prices were outrageous, I was smoking mad and ready to pull out before we had even finished setting up. 

 Handmade gift bags, a gorgeous oil painting......

 Vintage milk bottles with Christmas greens.....a perfect recycled gift for a teacher or friend.

This morning, feeling quite uncomfortable about spending the day in

"hostile" territory, we arrived at the church fueled with strong coffee, with my beautiful daughter in tow for added support, (and to show that the 20 somethings love vintage) and wearing our little vintage pinnies (aprons) which by the way are making a BIG comeback.

When the doors opened and the people flooded in, they gravitated towards our booth and we entertained the crowds with snippets of history about their purchases, ideas on how to "gift" vintage, and stories of our adventures in finding them.

They LOVED it.  We were by far the busiest booth and did quite well. 

Was it my bottle of Henricks Gin (empty) that got them worked up?

 So, having donated to the Church and put our hearts into making this day a success, I want to say that I am sorry if we don't look like Presbyterians in our cowboy boots and pinnies, or whatever it was that got your goat, but the Church Bazaar is a-changing.......Handmade is wonderful, and Vintage is a way to recycle and re-use, and people love it. The Church Bazaar needs to get progressive and keep up with the times.

We had a blast.



A giveaway at Marley and Lockyer

Ness over at Marley and Lockyer has the most generous giveway of some of her handmade goodies.

You have until next Friday to enter.  Click the link above.

The Reno

Things have been moving along well on the Reno front.  Since this room is really just a boring box, with no extra inches to panel the walls or add bookshelves, my only option was to create drama with the ceiling.  Here the awful spray stucco ceiling has been levelled with strapping and the spotlights installed.  We confirmed what the window installers told us a few years ago, that we live in a crooked house. 

The ceiling is now ready for the bead board.   

The view into the bathroom which is now flooded with natural light.

The basket weave tile is down.  I have loved this floor for 10 years at least.  To me, it is as classic as a black dress with pearls.  It will never go out of style. 

Ok, I can't calculate square footage too well.  We ran out, and now have to wait for a delivery from Montreal to get 3 additional tiles.

Status report

Bathtub-delayed

Toilet-delayed

Tiles-Shortage

Sink-Arrived and gorgeous.

Taps-Incorrect.  Returned for exchange

Sconces-Back ordered.

Friday Photo Challenge-Shadow-Linky Fixed

Hi Everyone.  I hope you have all had a good week.  We had so many beautiful entries last week, I am excited to see this weeks.  In fact, I have been really enjoying this challenge.  I just love to see everyones take on the theme.  We have such a variety of people that enter, and from all over, so it is always interesting.

This week the theme was Shadow.

I love to use wall sconces and chandeliers that have prisms on them because they create nuch an interesting shadow with the light refecting off and through the glass.  The photo above is in the basement next to the fireplace.  The fireplace is so simple, it could manage a little sparkle and glam beside it.  The sconce was a cheapie from Home Depot.   

It throws light down the wall and creates beautiful shadows.

You can see the light reflecting through the crystals.

 When the basement was done, we had blown the budget so badly due to unforseen things like foundation cracks and water damage, I have Zero in the budget for accessories.

The snow plow clipped some branches off my tree outside, and I brought them in and out them in this large vase on the games table.

 

I filled the bottom with gravel I stole from the kids playground.

I really love the way the light creates a shadow in this wall.  I don't need art there.

Next week the challenge is PATTERN.Photograph an interesting pattern or something that creates a pattern.  I am NOT a pattern person. I will have to dig deep.

Add a Link to your blog and your "Shadow photo challenge" Here.

Sarah Richardson's Cottage and A Special Customer!

Sarah Richardson's own cottage.  My favourite thing is her use of three different types of seating.  The bench, the armchairs and the painted vintage office chairs.

All photos on this post are from www.sarahrichardsondesign.com

I don't know about you, but I've been missing Sarah Richardson lately.  I love her show Design Inc., and especially enjoy her "Sarah's House" Sarah's Cottage" and "Sarah's Farmhouse" series where she fearlessly guts a house and gives it a complete redo. All of her shows are in re-runs right now, and I am missing them.

 Earlier this year, I did a series of posts on her Farmhouse project, a property she was intending for resale.  You can see my post on the bedrooms HERE plus other rooms in my blog archives.  I was pleasantly surprised to read in this month's Canadian House and Home magazine, that she ended up keeping this house as a weekend retreat.  There are some great pictures of the Farmhouse all done up for Christmas and her lovely little girls, as well as an interview with her co-star Tommy Smythe.

I was wondering about her new series Sarah 101, and discovered that it is scheduled to run in January 2011.  I must say, I am looking forward to it.  And especially because, Sarah actually bought a vintage armchair from the SHOP, and I believe it will be used on one of the new episodes.  I can't wait to see what she did with it.  I won't show you which chair yet, but I am hoping it does get featured of course.

By far one of my favourite projects of hers is her Northern Ontario cottage situated on an island.

I love the color scheme and the mix of furnishings and materials.  All very clever and perfectly suited to the property.  Penny tiles are my favourite. Combined with the open shelves and the charming cupboards, this could be my dream room. 

The beauty of reclaimed wood. 

Notice how beautifully the support pillars are incorporated into this island. 

If I remember correctly, this cottage is Off the Grid. 

Please note that I am merely a fan of Sarah's designs.  I do not work for her or know her.  Every time I feature some of her work, I get emails from people wanting to know the name of the fabric on her chair or where she had the fabric paper backed or the color of the kitchen paint.   I DON'T KNOW. 

I do know that her website has loads of info www.sarahrichardsondesign.com and also www.hgtv.ca provides a list of sources, paints etc for all episodes. All of these photos come from

www.sarahrichardsondesign.com 

Project Genesis. Beauty in The Ordinary.

At the risk of pilfering Jacqueline's inspiring blog title and concept (You can see it HERE), my Project Genesis contribution this month is based on what Jacqueline does best on her blog.  She sees Beauty in the Ordinary.  Even her blog header is always a gorgeous inspiring photo of something everyday and ordinary.  But it's all in how you see it.

Looking around my house yesterday, I noticed the window sill in the kitchen.  A few garlic bulbs on display, tomatoes from the garden ripening up inside.  A milk bottle with now-dried roses. A little antique bottle of glass beads.  I have no idea why they are on the window sill. A glass paperweight holding down a little note that came with my beloved dog Moochie's ashes.  I kept it because someone who performs this task, felt it important to include it.  They did something out of the ordinary to make this little card special. And it was to me.

 And then I noticed it.  Beauty in the Ordinary.  The simple things.  Nothing elaborate.  Nothing staged. Nothing bought, imported or contrived.

And I realised that making the world better, saving the planet, being green can start with something so simple.  A focus on finding Beauty in what you have and what is around you. 

And seeing the ordinary as extraordinary.

I glance at this little handwritten note on this printed message card every time I am at the sink.

It makes me smile.  It makes me cry.

It's a good Philosophy. Seek it.  Live it. Share it.  Believe it.

BEAUTY IN THE ORDINARY.

To see the other great contributions to Project Genesis, click Here to visit Suzan at Old Grey Mare