Happy New Year and An Old Cupboarddoor Giveaway

Happy New Year to ALL my blogging Friends. In celebration of this New Year I'm having a giveaway; it's been a while since my last one. This is a quick give away so don't "dilly-dally" as I used to say to my children. I know some of us may still be in Christmas mode or winter mode and this piece is not Christmas or winter themed, it's an everyday item hand painted by yours truly. I found this wooden cutting board in one of my favorite antique shops. Its rough surface drew my attention to it. Lots of knicks and cuts show that it was welled used by the family cook. I used elements of a Terrye French design as well as some of my own. It blended well together to fit this board. I love these soft colors; it gives this piece a Spring/Summer feel. I added a vintage cookie cutter and some homespun ties to finish it.

Ok, now for the directions: You must be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post. The winner will be drawn from the comments on this post. It is not required but would certainly be appreciated if you will give note to this give away on your blog and/or face book. The drawing and announcement for the giveaway will be Saturday January 15th. If you are the lucky winner please contact me as soon as possible so I can get this out to you. Due to the cost of postage I can only ship to US and Canada. It is boxed, taped and ready to go, it only needs an address. Good Luck! Pin It Now!

I need a new look.....

A completely new makeover; a little nip here, a little tuck there; some taken off the sides; something added to the top. A new color, maybe some curly Qs. I need to be dressed up a bit, maybe a little less casual and a tid bit classier. I’m tired of the old; I need some sparkle, new life, something that’s eye catching, and something fresh and dazzling. I’ve had this look for so long it has almost become my identity. But then I think about the cost…yep, how much is this complete make-over going to cost me? Will it be worth it? Will it bring some new life to these old tired bones? Will anyone notice? Is it worth all the frustration I will go through? Should I take the plunge? Should I….should I….should I….? I hate to make decisions and all those choices will take me to the brink…..I already feel on the brink just thinking about it! Oh for heaven’s sake it’s only a website!!

My son, Nick the Geek, is a website designer. He not only designs websites, he creates them. He’s been talking to me for a while about new designs for my blog. I’ve been putting it off because I hate to make decisions and learn something new but its way past time to do this so I’m going to tell him to go for it. I need a design that’s easier for me to maintain. I have trouble adding graphics to my blog; Nick told me Word Press is easier to work with so I’m going to take the plunge! I don’t know how long it will take but in a few days (or weeks, I don’t want to push ahead of any of his other clients even though I am his mother; gave birth to him and spent all those years raising him…) I should have a new look. Whew! I feel better already. Pin It Now!

My Christmas Puppy.

Before all the presents went under the tree I snapped a picture of Sadiemae. I thought about putting reindeer antlers on her but I didn't think they would stay on long enough for me to take her picture. I'm surprised she sat patiently enough for this photo.

I've written a few blogs about Sadiemae so most of you know she is a rescue puppy. She's come a long way since the day we adopted her. I have her trained in many areas but of course there are a few things she still needs to learn. Presently, I am teaching her not to eat things that don't belong to her. To teach her this principle, I put a biscuit on the coffee table and tell her to leave it. She whimpers and whines about it but she doesn't eat it. Why am I teaching her this, you may wonder. Ask no more, here is the unabridged answer. I participate in an ornament exchange each year. This year one of the ornaments I received was a salt dough ornament. When I opened the ornament my daughter in law commented on how wonderful it smelled; "Smells like a cookie" she said, sniffing the ornament deeply. One whiff of it confirmed her analysis. I hung it proudly in a perfect spot on the tree. The next day I noticed Sadiemae standing by the tree sniffing. Taking a closer look, I noticed she was sniffing that particular ornament. I stood and watched her for a minute or so and then continued with whatever I was doing. A little later I noticed her sniffing the ornament again but this time she decided to take a quick lick. Another few sniffs and another lick followed; another lick, a sniff and another lick; apparently she had resisted the temptation as long as she could; I watched as she opened her mouth and started to pull at the ornament. My alarmed yell brought her out of her "cookie crazed" stupor. I quickly moved the ornament higher out of her reach. She searched for that ornament for several days. A few days later I was in the basement loading up the woodstove when I heard a crash I thought had come from upstairs. I just knew Sadie had knocked the tree over to find that ornament. After I finally had everything taken care of with the stove, I rushed back upstairs to see the damage. I stormed up the stairs and with great haste and energy entered the family room. Instead of seeing a tree turned over and raked apart by big ol dog paws, I saw a dog standing in sheer shock at her mistress who is usally calm, cool and collected. If looks could say anything, her's would have said "what in the world....? Well, she might not have been guilty this time but believe me she manages to wrangle herself into plenty of trouble. I really do love that dog. Pin It Now!

Merry Christmas

At this time of year when I ponder the birth of Christ, internally I question things that surround His birth. Some of these questions sound like this...why would God, the Creator of the universe come into the world in such a lowly estate? Born to a poor family, born in the humblest of conditions; at a time when the nation he was born into was enslaved to another? Why would He choose to have His birth hearld to shepherds by an angelic host, yet give a sign to wise men of the East? Why that time in history? Why not a time when there was comfort and help? Why would He in His wisdom choose these things. Then I think of the times I was poor and made due with the least of things. I think of the times when I have had no choice or was enslaved to something I could not let go of. I remember the times He hearld a great truth to my heart and other times He gave me a mere sign which I followed and found the pearl of great price. I recall times when I needed help or comfort and could find none; when I felt forsaken and alone. Perhaps God in His wisdom wanted to know all of the human condition. A palace could not compare to His home, nor could the comforts and riches of the wealthy compare to all that He owns. When has He ever been helpless? alone? poor? When has He ever needed someone to care for His needs? When has He ever known hunger or thirst? Over 2,000 years ago, He experienced it all and He truly knows what we are going through. What a wonderful Savior!

Merry CHRISTmas to my blogging friends and family. Pin It Now!

I love Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”; Each year we watch it as a family. When my kids were young we watched it in the Muppet version and we are doing that again with the GKs. I love to see the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge from the miserly, mean spirited, ba-humbugging, man he was, into the man who gave unconditionally from the heart. CHRISTmas had come to live in his heart and that brought change. If we could each imagine our future in the way we live our lives today how would we change? I know I would make changes.
I want to share with you a few quotes from this wonderful book. If you haven’t read it or haven’t read it lately, maybe these quotes will inspire you to do so.

"External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty."
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"Ghost of the Future," he exclaimed, "I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?"
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour."
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Of course this story is not the Christmas story, the Christmas story is about the wonderful birth of the Savior, the Redeemer and Restorer of mankind. You can find this true account in the books of Matthew and Luke in the Bible. I hope you will read this beautiful story, it is one of the greatest events in human history; the second is the Easter story found in the same Book. Pin It Now!

Snowman Ornie Tutorial

Top Hat Snowman Ornie
I have finally gotten myself together for the snowman ornie tut. The last ornies I made were for gifts so I didn’t’ have those around to use for my photos, I had to start from the beginning just like you. I hope you enjoy making these, I can tell you they certainly look cute on the tree. As a disclaimer I should add, I am completely responsible for any mistakes in this Tut, spelling, grammar, syntax, and other written errors but please permit me a few errors as I am typing this as fast as possible to get it on my blog tonight. I have a bedtime of 8PM since I get up at 2:10AM and it is now 6:30PM. I have no time to do this later in the week for I still have Christmas shopping to do plus preparing for my Sweetie’s birthday. So, if you read this and there are a few simple errors please excuse me but if I have completely baffled you and you have a question, feel free to email me at mntpeeps@yahoo.com. OK, lets get started...



Supplies:
Round wooden balls at least 1.5 inches.
Black Felt
Red Fleece
Americana paints: Black, Buttermilk, Cadmium Red, Burnt Orange.
Toothpicks
Christmas greenery
Rusty bells
Small tags or round tags
Rusty wire.
Cinnamon
Elmer’s Glue
Glamour dust or Diamond Dust.





Instructions: Paint the wooden ball with Buttermilk. Once dry, dry brush the cheeks with Cadmium Red. Dot the eyes with Black and dot the mouth with Black. Paint a tooth pick with Burnt Orange; once it is dried cut the tooth pick down to size. Drill a hole using the appropriate sized drill bit and glue the tooth pick in using Elmer’s glue.

Hats: Please use the hat directions from these two previous Tuts. You will find the pattern and the instructions at the end of this tutorial. It is time consuming to adjust the patterns for these on Blogspot for some reason. If they are not adjusted right they don’t print out correctly. Maybe someone knows an easier way of adjusting the parameters for patterns and can share their secret with me. Don’t forget, the instructions and patterns for the location of the top hat and red hat are at the bottom of this tutorial.


Glue the hats to the top of the head. Add a trim of Chenille around the red hat by using hot glue. Adjust the red hat as desired and hot glue in place. Hot glue on the Christmas greenery, add the tag and the rusty bell. You can also add snowflakes ( cut them from paper using a snow flake cutter) just hot glue them on.

Add rusty hanger.
OK, you are done. Aren’t they cute??? This is a copy righted pattern so please do not copy it to sell as your own pattern and please give credit where credit is due. Make as many of these as you want for yourself, for friends; sell them in your shop or online. I firmly believe that when we give something, something comes back in return. We can enjoy blessings when we freely give something so someone else can enjoy it. So enjoy making these guys, enjoy giving them as gifts and if you put them in your shop, I hope they do so well you won’t be able to keep up with the orders.



These little guys are great to hang on a gift bag or add them to a Christmas wreath. Add names you like to their tags. Adding a round tag would look cute. My DIL picked out one as I was making them and said she would like to have one, and wanted to name it herself. I told her to pick out as many as she wanted ( I was making 6 of them), she picked out 3 and gave 2 of them their own special names. She named one Fredd, another one Bob. She wanted to give the name Bob to one because her husband (my son) is always calling people “Bob” when he can’t remember their name. If I can’t remember someone’s name I call them “Ishcabibbles (Ish-ca-bibbles)” I wonder how that would look on a snowman’s tag. These would also make great as jack-o-lantern ornaments when Halloween rolls around again. Paint the ball orange and add a pointed hat with Halloweenish embellishments. They would look really cute on a Halloween tree.





You can find the inst/pattern for the red hat at: http://www.theoldcupboarddoorblog.com/2009/11/snowmansicle-ornaments.html

You can find the inst/pattern for the top hat at:
http://www.theoldcupboarddoorblog.com/2009/10/jack-o-lantern-pokes.html Pin It Now!

Finally

I have started painting again. I can’t tell you how much I have missed sitting down in my studio, picking up the brush, squeezing some paint on my palette, dapping the brush in the paint then letting my brush fly. Can you hear the big sign of pleasure?

Maybe you are like me and have boxes upon boxes of craft supplies that need to be used. Maybe you have said “one of these days I am going to use that” or “I’m going to use up these supplies before I buy any more”; I have certainly said this often enough. Well, I have finally used some items that I have had in “one” of my supply boxes for a few years. This is a 1” wooden ball that I bought for something else but never used. I made a hat out of felt, added a rusty bell, some winter greenery, red berries and some snow glitter. I think he turned out pretty cute. I’ll be adding a tut for this soon so stay tuned.


Remember the snowmansicles I made last year? You can find the Tut for the snowmansiciles by clicking on the link at the end of this post. Anyway, they were such a hit. If you made any for your show, how well did they sell? Several have told me they had a sell out on them.
Remember the snowman pokes? I gave away the pattern for those free last year; if you didn’t get it, just email me, I’ll be happy to send it to you. Those pokes are still great sellers at craft shows. A friend of mine sold out at a recent show and took orders for 15 more. I can see why, they are just toooo cute!
I’ll also be sharing a Christmas meece pattern with you. I’m not showing a picture of it yet so stay tuned for those.
I have really missed working on my blog. I hope I haven’t lost too many followers by being away so long. Anyone who works outside the home will understand why I’ve been absent. There are only so many hours in a day……

You can find the Tut for the snowmansicles here: http://www.theoldcupboarddoorblog.com/2009/11/snowmansicle-ornaments.html Pin It Now!