Inspired By The Truck

The second to last bead embroidery design, done in purples, teal and light green. 

Inspired by my sweet baby's truck, even though there's no green on it.

As an aside, I have entered a contest to win a journal on Crafty Ady's blog!  Please check her out and wish me luck!

My New Toy & What I Used It For

I've had a new craft prepped for about a month now, but it needs a drill in order to assemble it.  I figured it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have a small drill around the house anyway, since my squeeze's is in his truck and, last time I saw it, also covered in grease and grime.  So he took me to Home Depot to pick out a small one for myself.  Surprisingly I couldn't find one by Dremel.  It has all kinds of attachments but no drill bits.  So this small Ryobi is what I ended up purchasing.

And also picked up a goody pack of bits and stuff.

This is why I needed the drill.  This is a small piece of driftwood that I found either here or on the west coast, I just can't remember.  I brought some with me from my last trip to the Pacific Ocean last spring, but now it's all mixed in with Cape driftwood.  I made these dangling fringe pieces with crystals, and all that was left to do was put the holes into the wood, so as to attach the fringe.  Those two jewels on either end will go on top for the hanger.  

The hardest part of this for me was doing the measuring for the placement of the danglies and hanger.  I suck at math, and my question of, "Is half of six and a half, three and a quarter?" emitted a bemused and sympathetic chuckle from my honey as he answered, "Yes."  I selected the smallest drill bit and brought the wood outside to drill.  While it looked and seemed to me as though I was going straight down, the holes on the other side didn't line up well at all.  Russell suggested that I reverse it and that way I was ensured that the danglies would be even, and probably no one would even notice if the top beads weren't perfectly aligned.  So that's what I did and it worked out perfectly. I really could not have done this without his help!   

Now it was time to make the hanger!

It was really hard to get a decent photo of it.  It doesn't look bright enough in the shade, but there was also bad shadowing in the sun.

Heritage Museums & Gardens, Part 2

This building used to be primarily military-themed, with lots of old flags from the beginning of our nation, weapons and an amazing collection of tiny lead soldiers in historically correct battlefield dioramas.  Now it is the Special Exhibits Building, and this is where the Rockwell exhibit was housed.  No photography was allowed inside, but the exhibit was awesome! It was a treat to see how he created some of his most famous illustrations and next to the original, painted illustration itself.  

This bee landed on Hannah and she wanted me to take a pic before she shooed it away.

This was another simply fabulous gate.  The columns are made using stones and sand from Sandy Neck Beach, with solar powered LED lights in the lantern tops.

The subtle bambo windchimes were a stroke of brilliance by this young artist.

She painstakingly wrote beautiful prose on the left & right, front & back, sides of the gate.  Because she was woodburning the letters, it took her twice as long.  The artist was there and she told us that she had a mishap when she realized the gate was upside down and she had to sand it all off and start over again.

Another gate that kind of reminded me of pink flamingos for some reason!

No trip to Heritage is complete without a ride on the carousel.  I was sooo stoked that Sue brought up our taking a spin on it, because I readily agreed!!

Shooting myself in the center mirror before the ride started.

My trusty steed.  Giddy-up.

Of course I pick the one with as many colours as possible....

The most amazing Japanese maple I have ever seen.

Automobile museum in the Round Barn.

View of the Flume Fountain from the upper path.

This is also one of the gates

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Heritage as much as I enjoyed shooting it!

Heritage Museums & Gardens, Part 1

I met my friend Susan and her daughter, Hannah, at Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, one gorgeous day in mid-May, to see the beautiful rhododendrons in full bloom and take in the "Norman Rockwell: Beyond the Easel" exhibit, which runs through September.  I hadn't been to Heritage in years.  It used to be known as Heritage Plantation when it opened in 1969, but at some point in the 1990s the name was changed to drop the unfavourable and un-PC 'plantation' name.  The history of it can be found HERE.  

Sue, Hannah & I didn't go in most of the buildings or check out many of the trails, because we were kind of in a rush to beat the crowds to the Rockwell exhibit that day, but I will go back eventually to do the rest of the place.  There is one building, the Round Barn, that contains beautifully restored automobiles from the early 1900s, one of which belonged to actor Gary Cooper.  

Here is Part 1 of the trip!

LOVED this super ornate sundial.

Upper portion of the Flume Fountain.

They are also having a Garden Gate exhibit. I need to go back and shoot all of them.  This was one of my faves from the ones I saw.  They will be available for sale in September.  Wonder how much this one would cost? It's soooo me.

Old East Windmill.

Flume Fountain

Sundial

Another gate.

The writing says, "And The Tree Was Happy".  That bug photo bombed me; I didn't notice it till I got home and uploaded the picture.

This was a cool gate as well.

The tops are made from coiled wire.