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Showing posts from 2021

A Shade Tree for Christmas

 I started thinking about Christmas early this year, specifically decorating for the holidays.  Maybe because my grandson started talking about it in October and was begging to get that decorating process started as soon as we turned the calendar to November. Actually, my thoughts were more about whether I would or wouldn't decorate.                                              (This was my Victorian tree approximately 40 years ago.) I have decorated a lot of trees in the past 60 years and the thought of pulling out all the trimmings this year, when I knew I would not be entertaining, seemed a little pointless. But, then I had an idea of something I wanted to try and that got the ball rolling.   Many of my trees have been quite traditional. Here is one in the holiday colors of red and green.  I opted for an angel rather than a star as the tree topper, and I did choose to set it up on the back porch.  That location might seem a bit strange, but I am on a corner and have a sidewalk t

The Domino Effect

  I have admired Young Girl in Green by Tamara de Lempicka since I saw Michael Chippendale's version of it on The Stencil Library blog of April 10, 2013. His reinterpretation is done by painting the image on thousands of dots. When completed the image looks abstract up close but is recognizable from a distance. When I saw the puzzle shown above at the Puzzle Warehouse I snapped it up immediately. After completing the puzzle I knew I didn't want to toss it back into the box and store it on a shelf.  The only other option was to brush a thin layer of glue to the back side.   I found a frame in the garage that was close to the right size but not perfect. So I painted a small border over the existing painting. It needed to be approximately 3/4 inch down each side and about 1/4 inch at the top and bottom. Once that was dry I brushed a layer of glue onto the painting inside the frame and quickly positioned the puzzle inside the border I had painted. By having the glue on the back of