Push Pins Anyone??

You know how you go into a store with great expectations and then all you find is plain, boring, everyone else has kind of stuff?

Well...here is my story for the day!

Figured I might need a cork board for the nursery. You know...with this whole aging thing, my mind is definitely not as sharp (get it...push pins...sharp!! Okay, maybe it was just me that giggled at this one??) as it used to be.

So, now I have a cork board. Even managed to find a great spot for it. Hung it up. Looking pretty good.

Now, what does a cork board need. It needs little pieces of paper that are hung up with push pins. Off I went to find push pins, but being me....ordinary push pins we know just won't do. In the store, I managed to find the back wall that has all the push pins on display. Can you say ... DISAPPOINTED! Not one package of cool looking push pins. All I found was the ugly prime coloured ones (not saying that these don't fit the colour scheme of other folks....just not me). Went and got the catalogue...nope...just plain old dull blue, red and yellow. Now tell me, how boring is that??

Back here at home...time to do an internet search for fun, exciting and cool push pins. Whoa.....have you priced out fun, exciting and cool push pins?? Huh, huh, huh?? Hmmmm, so obviously that was an easy decision, the nursery was NOT going to be getting any fun, exciting and cool push pins.

Back to the drawing board. Now if you have been following my blog for a while now, you will recall that last year, I kind of went on a button buying spree. Not any type of button but real wooden buttons. Now with the joy of Ebay (and I do type that with a smile on my face), I was able to find buttons. Off to the bidding part but I am a firm believer that if anything goes over my maximum bid of $2.31 it wasn't meant to be mine. Over 1800 wooden buttons later.... :)

Now here comes in the ingenious part....yeah....I know....you already figured this part out!

Now I have fun, exciting and cool push pins for the nursery :)

Rainbow Chests

I had a few trinket chests that I decided needed to be completed over the last few days. Once you take apart all of the tiniest little screws that I have EVER had to work with and then make sure that you don't mix up all the hardware with the chest that it came to....the fun begins. Usually I make sure that all of the paints go hand-in-hand and are coordinated in their rightful colour schemes. This time....well, lets just say that I kind of went off kilter!! As I only use environmentally safe paints (everything is water-based, even the Varathane!!) it is easy for me to paint in the workshop with little ventilation required. Plus, using water-based paints make the drying time feel like a snap! I decided this time to start with the outsides of the boxes, not sure why...just did. All my colours are usually dark and jewel-toned for the exterior just to make sure that there is great coverage and the different shades of the wood don't show through. The insides are a bit easier as they are usually filled with little trinkets. Don't worry though, they still get the exact same treatment as the exterior does, having two coats of colour and then 2 coats of Varathane. The only difference is that the interior gets the matte finish of the Varathane and as I love shiny and sparkly things....the outside gets the full gloss :)  While painting away, I was looking at all of the other colours I had on the shelf and things just started to fall into place. So now I ended up with a rainbow of trinket chests.

Even better then all of the above!! I sent my daughter on a shopping spree (as she actually lives in civilization where there are stores!!) and asked her to pick me up 20 more bottles of paint. So off she went...with two kids in tow. I get a call the next day saying that my granddaughter Rebecca was allowed to pick all the colours of paint for me. Now you have to picture this...we all know that paints are arranged on shelves that are closest to the floor correct? Well my granddaughter will be two in September and she was allowed to just pick whatever colours she wanted. How special is that :)  I may not even want to use any of the paints now as I will want to treasure them forever. I figure that once my 'care package' arrives I will actually label each bottle and say 'hand picked by Rebecca'. As I use each colour the memories of knowing who picked it will flow through me and make me smile. I will even save the bottles so I can show her when she is older that she helped her Amma Emm :)

Back Home

Well after a 10 day trip down south to do a massive shopping spree I can guarantee you the nursery is well stocked all the way from new tools, wires, decorations, clear baubles and over 1000 flower heads.

A big thank you goes out to Sherry for her great printing job. We now have our 'adoption papers', disclaimer forms and box labels all ready to be cut.

Slippers for everyone :)  

As the nursery likes to be visitor friendly, 

I thought it would be nice to have slippers available for guests.

A new book by Faye Durston for inspiration :)

Much needed supplies. 

New paints for the company colours and my favourite paint brushes

Pretty coloured wires for bodies!!

Plastic baubles for a new project (it's still a secret)

More wooden boxes for the trinkets to be stored in. 

I managed to buy the next size up as well for larger doors. 

 Floral foam for the teacups.

Lots of new yarns for faerie hair. 

I managed to find the most interesting textures. 

And finally but certainly not the least.....over 1000 flower heads!

While in the hotel room I was able to separate most of them into their own little baggies 

but as I continued shopping I finally ran out of time. 

The next few nights will see me getting these flowers ready to be sorted.

The Spree

Well a trip to Alberta and the VISA is just a hurtin!!
Where to start, oh where to start!

As I have so many parcels to go through, I have decided to do this by project :)