Shoes, Shoes and more Shoes

OK, so I have a lot of shoes.   Hate me if you want but it's really a passion.  The ones that sit by the back door are usually the ones I wear all the time.  But . . . I have them in every room of the house (well just about every room); I have them at the back door, the stair landing, a closet in my office is dedicated to them, a few in the basement closet and a couple of boxes of boots and cast offs in the dungeon part of the basement. Sad but true, I love them all and really can't part with many . . . so I hoard . . . well maybe not hoard but close . . . alright . . .  after 8 years of a PILE of shoes at the back door and having heard enough from all of those who enter I finally bit the bullet and fixed the problem.

Here's the before.

Before

While I hate self assembly, sometimes the price to do so is a bit more cost efficient; and because I am a "weekend flyer" reader I saw something at JYSK that I thought I would go and have a look at. Once there I "liked" it but didn't LOVE it and was going to settle on something I wasn't 100% happy with when I turned around to start to leave with the "wrong" one and I found this! IT WAS PERFECT . . . and I can paint it . . . 

Product Package

Once home, I open up the box and stack the items to ensure I have everything and get down on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor and start assembling. After 10 minutes I am swearing like a trooper and have been up and down the stairs more than once because it just doesn't "fit" right . . . well perhaps I should have used the proper screws in the proper place and it would have gone faster . . . I have to break for dinner . . . which really means I have to rest because I am sweating so bad . . . and a 1/2 hour later, I'm back at it . . . two hours later and it's done. I think it looks fantastic but I AM going to paint it because I can never leave things as they are!

I added a handle - this one was from my original garage door (the door is now the top of my work bench in my new garage)

And a bit of bling

And it's organized

Some of the shoes in the original picture have gone to winter storage but what's in the shoe storage now is about all I'll be wearing (ok, so I might have to rotate some if I purchase more which I'm trying not to do) but for now it's boots and runners.

TOTAL COST:  $82.00
TOTAL TIME:  2 (and 1/2) hours

Fall Decore

I love the fall . . . really I do . . . it's my favourite time of year and I look forward to all the beautiful colours and cool crisp air.

I had the privilege and great honour this week to help out for a fall craft at work.  My good friend Lorie is the guru in our office for doing our "Last Friday of the Month" every month (except during the summer when it is put on hold due to holidays/vacations) and she always has a theme.  This month was (obviously) Fall.

She had seen an interesting post on Pinterest and she decided to roll with it and asked if I would like to help . . . are you kidding of course I did . . . I'll drop anything when crafts and creativity is involved.

She brought in four used tomato cages and purchased $15.00 worth of leaves and bobbles at the Dollar Store.  I brought in the pumpkins and indoor mini lights and we went to work.

There was no "plan" per se; we just used what we had and went for it.

We inverted the cages and wired the tops with craft wire.  Then we placed the lights on the cages and started creating.

Here are a few pics of the "work in progress" and the finished ones.  The pictures do not do them justice - I either need a new camera or lessons on how to use the one I have!

TOTAL COST:  $15.00 (wine extra)
TOTAL TIME:  1 lunch hour!

Acrylic Art Painting Class

More about the Radium Girls'Weekend . . . Saturday was my sister's turn to teach us how to paint on canvass with Acrylic paint. As I mentioned in a previous blog my sister was in charge of this one . . . she is an amazing painter and artist and I learnt so much from her . . .  which how makes her an outstanding teacher - I feel  if I can do anyone can . . . I tried painting about 14 years ago and hated it but this was a totally different experience.  I was amongst friends (and not that I wasn't the last time - this was just "different, I loved what I did this time)!!!!

Step 1 - decide on a canvass size . . . she chose a 16" X 20" canvass

Step 2 - choose the subject matter (Corn flowers)

Step 3 - graph out the chosen subject matter on a piece of 16" X 20" paper and photocopy for everyone (she made four)

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Step 4 - Paint the canvass with your background colour 

 Step 5 - before the background colour is dry sprinkle salt on the canvass

Step 6 - once Step 5 is dry wipe the salt away

Step 7 - take the subject matter and place a piece of carbon paper in between that and the canvass

Step 8 - trace the subject matter on the canvass (being very careful not to rub your hand on the paper so that it transfers to the canvass)

Step 9 - look at the black and white version of the subject matter to see "value" (dark and light)

Step 10 - start painting the stems and flowers with the darkest "value" first

Step 11- continue on with the lightest "value" of stems and flowers

Step 12 - move on to the centres of the flowers the same way (we painted all of ours the same colour)

Step 13 - keep adding light and dark as you see fit . . . here are the finished products

TOTAL COST:  $15.00/person for the canvasses and brushes (cheap ones) - we all drank our own wine!
TOTAL TIME:  4 hours and some

The experience was priceless - I was totally amazed at how they all turned out - would I do it again . . . maybe! ! ! ! !