Life's Changes

  I see I haven't posted since Sept. 25th! Time sure flies! There have been some changed here on Mulberry Lane. In mid October my 90 year old mom moved in with us! She is in good health but has a little short term memory loss and didn't like living alone in her house anymore. She's adjusting pretty well except when she forgets why she lives here. My 25 year old daughter, who was still living  with us, basically traded places with mom so her house wouldn't be left empty. My husband and I work different shifts so someone is always here with mom.
 I thought I'd show and tell you all where I get my artistic leanings from. My  mom has done a lot of drawing and painting through her life time. Here are some of her paintings...

 

Here is a watercolor she painted of my dad shortly after he past away in 1991.

My mothers dad, Benjamin Johnson was also an artist and a sign painter.  Of her six siblings there were five who did art work of one kind or another. Mom said when they were growing up they would all sit together in their living room and draw. I wrote about my two aunts who were artists at Hallmark in this previous post...

http://mulberrylanefolkart.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html
 My grandfather's sister, Ella was also an artist and poet and headmistress of a women's College in Midway, Ky where my grandfather met my grandmother, Jennie May. Here is a painting by my great aunt Ella...

                This was likely painted in the late 1800's . She died in the early 1950's in her 90's
                                   Here is a picture of my mom, with my two sisters, Julie and Paula at her 90th birthday party last August. I'm the one in the middle.

    Here are some of my latest projects! I did some wood burning of horses, and also of a collie dog, when I was a teenager, and decided to try it again. I'm thinking of doing custom animal portraits!

 

    These are for sale in my Etsy shop.    And, I was reading this blog (I just love it)...
http://yesandamenblog.blogspot.com/search/label/barnyard   And decided to try drawing this little sheep. They are so cute. I want to draw some of the baby lambs next!

Since I'm also back to working full time there is never enough time to do everything I'd like, but I'm so thankful to God for my many blessings!
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually,let God be magnified. Psalm 70:4

                                                                                Much Joy! Jennifer
    

What's New on Mulberry Lane?

 I was on summer lay off all summer from my "regular job" at Graystone Graphics. I've worked there for 16 years. We print tee shirts and sweatshirts, etc. for Senior High School students among other things, and ship all over the country. I work in the art department  there, and I arrange the student's signatures or typeset names in their design and hand trace the signatures.  I guess you could say I get paid for forging signatures! : )

I so enjoyed being off- to work on my wood crafts and one of my other favorite things...Garage Sales!  Here are some of my best buys... This antique violin for $5.00! It just needed a minor repair and strings-$47.00 and it's worth about $350.00. I already have a violin so I'm selling this one on craigslist.com.

  I also got myself some great tools for my workshop...a variable speed Dremel tool which I use for wood carving- $3.00!!! (I wore out my old Dremel tool.) A trimmer/router - $10.00 -which I used to remove a lot of the wood from the heart tray pictured above! ( It's for sale in my Etsy Shop-http://www.etsy.com/listing/56018211/heres-my-heart-handcarved-wooden-tray )




And this nice miter chop saw for $20.00! Very handy! My husband gets to use my new tools too!

I also got lots of vintage items to sell in my new shop on Etsy! Check it out!!!...
                   Old Bittersweet Vintage Shop 
My shop banner is an old street sign from a street nearby!  I thought it made a great name for a vintage shop, as old things bring back memories of people, and things, and days gone by, and that can sometimes be both a little bitter/sad, but also sweet! And my Avatar (Badge picture) is one of my Aunt Janice's little watercolor paintings she did in the 60's when she worked at Hallmark! (See my Post about her if you haven't already ... http://mulberrylanefolkart.blogspot.com/2010/04/buried-treasure-and-jealous-aunt.html )  

I  got a lot of frames that I'm making into chalk boards for my shop too! Here are 2 of them. I'll be adding more to my shop soon!
Mulberry Lane Folk Art

And! I found this great old crown molding that I used to make this birdfeeder! Here it is before I painted it.

                                 And here is the finish! I call it a Victorian Bird Feeder!
I hope you enjoyed my ramblings on about my summer! I guess if you were bored you'd be gone to something else by now! I'll be back soon! Having a wonderful time, wish you were here!...Oh You Are Here!... well uh... anyway...  have a nice day!  Jennifer

August Giveaway!---We Have A Winner!

The winner of my Heart Birdhouse is Carol Anderson of Firecrackerkids Primitives! Here's her shop-- Go by and check out all her great Primitives--http://www.etsy.com/shop/firecrackerkid

Thanks to everyone who entered and shared on their blogs and facebook, etc. And thank you all, so much, for all your lovely comments and support! Blessings! Jennifer

Where Country Folk Create Blog Party- Primitive Peddler Cafe Members

  This morning before I got into this post I decided to peek at a few other members blogs to look at their creative work spaces. Wow! Some of them are quite fancy! I'm just happy to have a freed up bedroom to put all my uh...40-some years of art stuff into! And my garage workshop....well you'll see. I've been trying to get organized and it is better than it was...anyway here goes...I'm having a hard time with blogger this morning. I could not get it to let me write under my pictures. I made the little shelves and paint holders behind my chair. My cork board is full of templates and stencils I've made. I painted the great white heron to the left of the window and two things above that are artworks my two daughters did in elementary school. I built all my work tables and shelves in my garage. I use all the power tools myself--table saw, scroll saw, bandsaw, drillpress, router, nailgun, belt sander, and sometimes a Dremel tool for carving. I let my husband use my tools for his own projects sometimes. I'm not a feminist, but I really love working with wood - it's lots of fun, but hard work too. hey...do you think I should put a curtain on that window? Now I gotta get out to the garage and make some more birdhouses!

 

August Giveaway!

                                                            My Heart Birdhouse!

                        I'm doing my first Give Away for the remainder of August. 
                                   Only one more week to enter the drawing!
  The Give Away is a drawing for the Heart Birdhouse on August 31,2010 at noon central time. To be in the drawing just do any or all of the following and comment here what way or ways you promote my give away you will get an entry for each :

•  Your comment on this blog = 1 entry + ...

•  Blog about the give away, or add a picture and link to my shop.

• Mention the give away and link on facebook.

• Twitter about the give away with link to this blog.                                                                          Blessings to all!
• P.S. While you're here you might enjoy reading my previous post--A Labor of Love--A work in Progress ! If you like it, comment on it and I'll give you another entry! Thanks! 

A Labor of Love - A Work in Progress

   For several years I have wanted to make a large Noah's Ark. I wanted it to be somewhat patterned after the Noah's Ark toys that were made in the 1800's that people made or purchased for their children to play with on Sundays. Their children were not allowed to play on Sundays, in what they thought were foolish ways, as they might play on other days, but must play more quietly and reverently on the Lord's day. You can see some examples of these antique Arks here...http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/noah%27s_arks.htm
   This summer has been the perfect time for me to get at projects I've wanted to do, because I'm on lay off from my "regular job". But the more important reason to make my Noah's Ark now is my grandson Isaac. He's going to be 4 in October, and he's at just the age to really enjoy playing with it. And since he moved far away from Grammy last year I wanted to make him something really special. So I thought he also might like to look at some pictures of how grammy made his Noah's Ark, and maybe some of you would too. While I was at it I also made one to put in my Etsy shop. My Noah's Ark bank is 1 foot long so I decided I wanted this ark 2 feet long and basically doubled all the measurements on the small ark.

I cut the 24" board and made the end pattern and the cut the base on the band saw...

Then I cut the "house" ends and sides, cut the door, and assembled them...

 Then I started drawing and making patterns for the animals and Mr and Mrs. Noah...

I  made thin plywood templates to mark my animals and cut them on the scroll saw.




I filed and sanded all the edges ...

I base coated the ark and all the animals, and detail painted the animals.

                                                                                                              

I detail painted the rest of the ark, went back out to the garage and attached it to the base, and put on the roof. I painted the roof, then sanded the animals and ark to give them the "time worn "look.Then I added the dove to the top and gave it all a hand rubbed wax stain.

The finished Noah's Ark! I hope you like it Isaac!,

                 And I hope someone will want the other Ark I made to sell in my Etsy shop too!
                                                              My ark collection...