Jeepers Poncho Makes Six!!! & A Couple of Finished Projects

Course if you read my blog very much you know that there are two humans LW and I who live here. We share these digs with 5 rescued dogs :) All the way from Rubi at just over 2&1/2 lbs to Talli at 80 lbs. Two Chihuahuas Rubi and Charli, a street dog Nena, 2 labs Nickie, Talli. Our friends Luci and Toni are headed to Mexico City for a couple of weeks. Soooooooo Poncho their Chihuahua on steroids has come for a sleep over with Rubi & Charli. That give us 6 in one house with no I repeat NO yard :( LW feeds and walks the big girls. I feed and clean up the little guys. Aw heck you know what they say (I still haven't been able to identify they??) what's one more when you already have 5 ?? Check back with me in 2 weeks I'll let you know then :)

Heather of Humble Beads is having an awesome giveaway in celebration of her Studio Tour :) She is giving away $50 of her hand made beads!!!! But as the commercials say you have to act fast cuz all this is gone tomorrow :(

The guy (Toni) who cuts our hair is a true Junker extraordinaire!! He is not above pulling "good stuff" out of the garbage. I sometimes think that he and I are the only 2 in Mazatlan that really get it :) That's okay though cuz it gives us more junk to hunt. Well Toni found this great brass wall sconce laying on the top of a pile of construction garbage at an old house being redone. So he asks the owner what he intended to do with it, owner said he was throwing it away. Well Toni doesn't have to be told twice, he said thanks and tucked it under his arm and off he went He sprayed it black and added some black artificial crystals to supplement the clear ones that were left on the sconce. Oh and he pulled the old wiring out of it.

Last week we did a small trade and I took the sconce home. Black is great in his shop but I want it for my girly girl room well I think I do for now. I confess I forgot to take a before picture :) I took off all the crystals and slathered it in crackle medium When that was dry which took a whole day. Maybe that's what they mean when they say not to use in high humidity?? :) Okay when it was finally dry I gave it a nice thick uneven coat of white paint And let the crackle to it's magic.

Once the paint was dry I dabbed a bit of raw umber here and there which gave it some nice greenish brown "liver spots" :) Then I went after it with my most favorite antiquing medium... Okay all together now "Brown Kiwi shoe wax"!!

When I had enough brown on I rubbed on a good coat of tan shoe wax. Then grabbed the shoe brush and gave it a good buffing. I think it turned out great!! Looks like it has a good hundred years of repaints and good livin don't you think?? Oh and Tristan the way I keep it from coming off on my hands is first use light layers, let them dry, buff then add another. Just like they do when applying the hand rubbed French wax finishes. I will also spray clear finish on when I've used it on something that doesn't absorb well.

I rehung the clear crystals and hung some great looking dark amber and blue gray glass beads. Couple of candles and I'm really lovin the way it came together :)

Nother trade. Lee was looking for a home for her old king size Battenburg lace duvet set. I gave her a call asked her if she wanted to trade her duvet set for jewelry She said sure!! I made her this bracelet and earrings. use some of the same pearls I made Martha's birthday gifts with.

On the earrings I tied a few blue, pink and black threads from the fabric I used for the wire wrapped beads.

The fabric is scraps of vintage hand woven and embroidered decorative pieces. They were removed from worn out clothing. The are the decorations on traditional Guatemalan dress clothes. Many times the collars and other pieces are recycled from one shirt to the next. There is so much work that goes into the traditional indigenous patterns that it would be a crime to throw it away when the cloth of the shirt wears out.

Then just for fun I added an old glass top typewriter key with an L on it. :)

And finally I decided to make a little bracelet for myself with three more old typewriter keys. I bought these on eBay and I'm having tons of fun playing with them :) I finished it off with a few wire links cuz my Bloglandian sister and wire bender wizard Sharon says the secret is practice practice practice :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)