Coasting along, still

I have not been painting much, so just to get back into the game, I thought I'd muck about with some of our coasters:

... my favourite ...

I used Folkart Metallic paints.

And then, there were four bottles!

What can I say, I'm not good at titles!!! :(

Here are four bottles I worked on at various times over the past month or so, finishing up with the long, slim one, with gold swirls . . . .

This first one is an old Bol's grenadine syrup bottle - which I painted with little yellow flowers, all over. I came back and did the top and bottle borders in yellow, to try to tie it all together: all yellow-and-green.

(this is with Ee Lynn's mum, now)

This next bottle was a lovely, sweet dessert wine bottle, and it represents my never-ending quest to paint a red, red rose. And, as usual, it has ended up a yellow, yellow rose: one with a red centre; and one, with a black centre. H E L P !!!!! Hahahahah!!

Also, while I was it, I tried my hand at some chrysanthemums - which look deceptively easy, but really are not easy at all. Will be going back to mums again, methinks!!! 

I nearly flung this next bottle - used to hold Martini - out the window: it was that hard to get a bloody design down on it!!! After many mis-tries, I finally decided on daisies. And not my best effort at daisies, either. But, ahh well . . . .

This last bottle is one that Chuan found on the beach. He felt that it had an unusual shape, and he thought that I would like it. I did. It was frosted, BUT it had some horrid writing in red - the name of the drink - down one panel.

To get rid of that, I splotched on black, metallic paint all over that panel, and also on the panel immediately behind it. I thought it would look odd with just one black panel. Then, I worked the scroll-work on both black panels. I also covered all the other panels with metallic black scroll-work, but they're meant to be also-rans, and not the focus of the piece.

The bottle is about 13-inches tall, and looks really stately. I think it would look perfect with a red, red rose in it :)

Re-purposed medicine box

Years ago, my dad made this little box/cupboard/cabinet - and it housed our medicines, and served as our medicine chest. Over the years, it got old and dusty, and when he passed away, and mum moved out of the old home, I couldn't bear to part with this. After all, he had made this, like so many other things in our house, and I couldn't bear the thought of it being left unwanted somewhere.

So, it has sat in a storeroom, gathering more dust, until my husband decided to clean it, and give it a nice, bright coat of paint. He used the left-over paint we'd painted our walls with, and it looked spiffy and new.

BUT: The red cross that dad had painted on the front door was hard to 'hide'. Even after a third coat, you could still see it peeping through!! That's the power of red, or dad's painting!!!

So, Chuan suggested that I paint something on it. And I did.

Here's a shot of the newly-painted box. See what I mean about the cross??!!

I slipped-slapped scrollwork on the two side panels.

A view of the door, and one side-panel. I 'edged' the door, and the side panels in gold
metalic paint (which doesn't photograph well; with or without the flash). Especially,
on the door, it sorta lends a 'frame' to my roses. I also splashed metallic gold on the knob ;)

Christmas-ing up my place a little

I've resisted the urge to do this for three years, I think, but this year, I thought I'd do a little bit to festive up the place a bit ;)

So, here are some pictures of some 'corners' of my home. I've yet to take shots of the candles, and votives and candle-holders of snowmen and Father Christmas, and loads of others... well, maybe later. And maybe not 'loads'! Hahahahah!!!

Isn't this the cutest snowman ever? Hahahah. My daughter gave him to me, for Christmas years ago.
I painted that poinsettia, and the paint isn't quite dry, as can be seen. I just free-handed the outline in gold,
and when it was dry, I filled in the red, and then the green.

Another side of the same fabric box (from Ikea), with holly, this time. 

This is the one-stop-centre at my home: everything gets chucked here: handbags, car keys, money, sunglasses, everything!!! It has
a life of its own, and will be weighed down with stuff, and beg to be cleared. Let's see how long it stays this way . . . .

I love these big, red balls! I've also got a couple of green ones, here, but they hiding ;)

This wooden soldier is my mum's, and he stood sentry at her place,
until she moved in with me a few years ago. He says he's happy
 to stand guard near my radio, cd player, and never-used-tv! 

SO: the 'real' reason I was so enthusiastic about painting Christmas-y stuff, was to finish up my gold-glitter paint. Even after all
the projects I'd thought of, I still had some left in the bottle. I found this box (Ikea again, how ever did you guess?!!!), and decided
to free-hand this design until I was down to the last drop :)

It now will sit pretty on the table int my reading corner -  just inside the door, next to me rocking chair!

This was the first project I did, actually: the placemats, for Chuan and me. I free-handed the outlines, and then decided that
I would only fill in the green and the red. Otherwise, it would be overkill, I think. See those wispy bits? I was going for
those christmas-tree-type spiky leaves. I think I failed miserably here :(

The two placemats I did: and we'll be eating off them - on plates, of course! - tonight, and all through the Christmas season. They are really very easy to
look after: just pop them in the washer, and then the dryer, and they're clean again, and good to go!

My doodly pig!!! Chuan gave me this pig, with paints, a lonnnnnnng, lonnnnng time ago, for Christmas. I never got round to painting
it, poor thing. Yesterday, when I wanted to - the paints were all hard as stone. Surprise! Surprise! 

A view of its other side ;)

And there it is, sitting pretty on a dresser :)

Thank you for dropping by!

More old bottles

From a Johnny Walker, to a small Jack Daniel, to a soy sauce bottle, and an emptied mustard bottle: they're all here :)

... pansies and forget-me-nots

... roses

... another view

... and another

... the biggest bottle: daisies

... drying on the shelf

... drying with the mustard bottle with scrollwork

An old glass container made to look older!

This one is actually a glass bowl that we got free with Fernleaf milk. Over the years, we lost the cover, and this has been sitting on a shelf somewhere, gathering dust.

I wanted it to look like it was earthenware - so I slapped on creams and browns for the background, and worked in copper and black for the scroll-work. I quite like the way it's turned out :)

... sitting pretty in my living room