Nine Days Until Christmas!

Good Sunday evening, everyone!

 

Can you believe, nine days until Christmas?

 

I was going to be such a good blogger this month, but it just didn't happen...

 

And, if you've left me a comment and I haven't responded, I apologize!

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Crazy busy, here at my house...

 

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I sold my little Fairy House



 and shipped Ellie's ornament to Lulu in England...



I wish I could have crawled in the box and gone there, too!




But then there wouldn't be anyone to get all these projects finished...



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I have packing and shipping supplies all over the house...



Here, the kitties decided that they liked the rustle-y tissue paper...



Not the best photo, but Leo and Tallulah seldom lie so closely together...



"Like hens", we say.



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Mr. B cut some more gourd "roofs" for me...



One of the gourds was originally going to be a birdhouse,



with the hole already cut.



It had been out on the patio since early spring, when I was working



on the first Fairy House.



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I brought it inside earlier this week so I could mark the roofline to be cut.



It was inside for a couple of days before it was cut.



Afterward, Mr. B brought it in for me to see...



A black widow spider was nested up in the top of the gourd!!



Horrors!!...She could have decided to come out and look for prey...



(Shudder....)



I won't be bringing anything else inside that anything could be hiding in...



I can just imagine her coming out on me



 when I had the gourd on my lap, marking it!

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We have lots of fields and a lot of construction nearby...



and LOTS of black widows...



Last summer, we counted 25 in the outdoor basement escape/window well...



They were outside, but just on the other side of the glass!



I'd only seen a few in my entire life, until we moved out here...



I don't know what it is that they are attracted to...



Maybe it was their territory to begin with and humans are the intruders!



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Okay, here are
the spider-free future Fairy Houses...;^)



I'm experimenting with using Creative Paper-Clay to make little dormers.



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Here, I've painted the bases with an ochre-colored acrylic I mixed



to closely match the natural gourd color,



to help seal them and cover imperfections.



Then, I dry-brushed them with some metallic acrylic,



for a little more glimmer...



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This is my very favorite metallic acrylic and my favorite color,



too ~ Lumiere Metallic Bronze.



Actually just more of a deeper, richer gold than it is "bronze";



I use it in place of "gold" often.



Love it!



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Finally, I'm actually going to attempt to replicate



something I really loved on Pinterest.




This chair has been in our family for years and years...



It belonged to my Great Aunt Anna.



It was in such rough shape, with thick, bubbled varnish...



then it was in the fire...



I think it's actually just rough enough to be en vogue, now!



Here I am painting the undercoat in that rosy-grey color I'm fond of,



(Can you believe it is warm enough to spray-paint outside?)



Then I'm going to give it a light coat of white and sand it down.



The Pinterest photo showed a small antique birdcage on the seat,



filled with vintage pink ornaments.



 (I'll show that photo later.)



After looking on eBay and seeing how expensive



actual antique brass wire birdcages are



(and mentally putting the whole idea on a back burner...)



I just happened to go past a display of them in Hobby Lobby



and all metal decor was 50% off!



There were fancy ones, but I picked one that looked the most like the



vintage ones, pretty simple.



I'm also going to put "dark" silver ornaments in it, sort of a pewter color.



I love the pink, but thought these would go better with the rest of my things.



More on this in a couple of days...



I will try to finsh it in my free time! :^)



Have a wonderful week, all!



♥