Finishing Projects

Since this weekend was extremely cold (again), I decided to finish some small projects that have been on my to do list.  While spring cleaning, I was going to throw out a dried flower bouquet when I remembered that I had a white/black enamel handled cup that would be perfect for a floral arrangement.  I used some floral foam to hold the arrangement, but didn't glue it down.  I didn't want to ruin the cup so that it could be used many more times.

I put the arrangement away for now since the flowers were more for the fall.  I am very pleased how well it turned out.   All because I didn't get rid of that enamel cup!

The second project that got finished today was in Ethan's bedroom.  He has a large turtle collection and it was getting really dusty.  I had a wonderful soda crate from Paterson New Jersey that I couldn't part with, so Caldwell hung it up for me.  I didn't want to put any holes in it since there were already open slats in the crate.  He used large washers with the screws to hold the crate in place. I rearranged the turtle collection and cleaned it up.  It was hard to believe that many turtles fit on his shelf.  Ethan wasn't sure at first that he would like it, but after he saw the finished project, he was pleased.  My spring cleaning in his room is now complete!

Notice the 3 framed aluminum pieces on his shelves? He made those when we visited the Wendell August Forge aluminum foundry in Grove City PA.  We had visited the original foundry many times before a fire burned down the building.  They have since rebuilt in a different location in Grove City. You could pound whatever design you chose from their selections onto a piece of aluminum to get an understanding of the process that goes into making a piece of hammered aluminum.  I love hammered aluminum (where at one time I had over 300 pieces) so it was always fun to visit them.  Sometimes we got to watch an artisan at work.  They had a museum of their older designs where one of the pieces on display was a covered box that I had sold on Ebay. I didn't know it was for them until I visited their museum and saw it there.  I don't know if they have a museum in their new place since I haven't had a chance to visit it.  They are still making pieces today and the new location also has a showroom where you can purchase their items.

I was just about to start a pillow project when I realized that I was out of wonder tape.  Too late and too cold to go out to buy more so I'll have to start that project tomorrow.

Have a wonderful week! Hope you find some treasures.