Fun With Chickens

 I haven't blogged my day out with son number three for my birthday, we'll go back to that later. I did come home at the end of the weekend with a rooster though.  A lovely year old Chantecler named Mr Mister.  Here he is with Joshua.

 He has settled in nicely and is great fun to watch as he explores his new home.

 Marty is working hard to get the coop finished as we are expecting a couple of Chantecler hens in two weeks to join the flock.

                                 Our little brown hens are checking out the progress.

                           Some of the meat birds here are sunning on their perch.

 The coop so far. It's coming along. I am hoping that by the end of the long weekend it will be habitable.

                                                  Rooster reclining in the sun.

Singer Sewing Machine Re-Do - Complete

 The boys brought Marty's finished piece into the house on Sunday afternoon. It is supposed to be in the entryway at the other house but he wanted me to enjoy it for a while first. So, it will abide here for the time being. It fits perfectly, next to the front door, in the kitchen.

                I have a small stash of old hardware and I chose this for the drawer pull.

            Another shot of the great spalted maple top.  Loving that grain and colouring! It's wonderful to see my vision come to life.

On The Workbench

 A while ago I found a great singer sewing machine for a great price at a yard sale. It seems as though almost every lover of antiques has at one time owned a great old cast iron treadle machine. Who can ignore the wonderful cast iron or the well made and stylish old sewing machines?

My dear husband wasn't thrilled with another project tucked into his workshop but he has finally gotten to work on its transformation.

 The original cabinet was all delaminated due to weather exposure.  It's burn nicely in the wood stove.  Marty did save me the little drawer that tipped forward from it though. It was in fine shape.

A new top with a drawer has been built and awaits some finish and a drawer pull.  He used some spalted maple with lovely natural black lines in the grain. I thought it would play well with the black cast iron base.  It is headed to the entryway at the other house. I'll post when its done. Have a great weekend!

Tour Weekend

The weather was pure perfection! Gentle breeze, cool temps and warm, bright sun. We had our usual warm cider in the old Heinz Bean warmer. Joshua wired up a funky old speaker with fun, vintage sounding music from the Good Lovelies.
We left the dogs in the house but Gumdrop barks so and get the others going and Odelia was quite beside herself, missing out on all the action. When Marty brought her out, she just sat, and didn't say a word with all the traffic. What a good girl.
Even Isabella, the dress form, was ready to greet people.
We set up a tent to handle the extra art we wanted to share with people. I even hung up some of Aaron's pieces. A few folks who know him were happy to see his work. It's been well attended this year, so far. I met new folks and even had a surprise visit from a faithful customer. Thanks!!
I'm almost out of apple cookies. Must make another batch this morning!

Marty's Mission Style Stair Rail Project

Marty was commissioned to create a new railing system for a home locally. It was a huge job engineering-wise but turned out very nicely and the people are thrilled.

Once he got started it was decided he ought to put in a hardwood floor to match all his work. That had to happen first, then the railings were installed. It's been a busy three days!! Gorgeous floor (pre-finished, although he had to create a bull nose moulding and match it to the purchased flooring for the top of the stairs.)
Here is part of the railing installation.

Now the next step. No pun intended.
All done. The owners will be painting and doing other renovations to the area. It's going to look wonderful.

Local Business Fair

A couple of big days have arrived. Today, Jacob and Aaron are graduating from their two year programs at college. For the boys this is a stepping stone to further education but a big one nonetheless, having home schooled them for so many years, it is good to know they "made it mainstream" too.
Tomorrow is our local Township of Augusta business fair. It was open to only those who live and or work in Augusta township in order to draw attention to all our little part of the world has to offer. I hear there are thirty vendors.
I wasn't sure what to do for the one day fair but a friend had a wonderful suggestion: bring photos of the inside of your shop to give folks a peek inside and encourage them to actually visit.
There have been a lot of changes this season so it was a good idea to make note of them. I'm pleased with how the pictures turned out, and tucked into frames, they look great. These are just a few. I made some flyers too, to hand out along with our business cards. I will be there for the morning and Marty, the afternoon. The council folk have put a lot of work into advertising and getting the word out. It will be interesting to see what kind of attendance we get. Aaron will be at the market for the morning too. Busy, busy.

Marty's Mission Style Rotating Bookcase

It's done! I think it looks great and can hardly wait to get it into the house. It will go in the living room to replace the antique one and the antique will go upstairs. Marty used Maple for the shelves and fumed the Oak upright pieces, then stained them charcoal to create the stunning contrast and architectural feel to the piece. Each plug is handmade of Maple as well.
He cut his own Oak veneer, steam-bent it for the round base and manufactured the workings to make it rotate smoothly. I love the little Maple spline detail on the bottom shelf. Lots of work but so worth it!

The Learning Curve Gets Me Again!

Just a note here to let you know that I had to re-build Marty's blog as I didn't know that you needed two separate accounts in order to manage two different profiles. After a few long hours, I finally got it fixed by deleting one blog and making a new one. The link at the side will take you to what is now officially Marty's furniture blog. Sorry to those of you who might have tried to visit and found nothing there. It was only a twenty-four hour blip in Blogdom. Hopefully it will be running smoothly from now on. You learn something new everyday, even if you don't want to. :)

Thoughts of Summer

Marty is off to do some work for someone and Aaron is down at the Market today. I will post pictures of that soon. I decided Marty needed his own blog to showcase the furniture and other things he creates in his workshop. You can check it out here. for the moment, I have not left many details on some of the pictures, as he is better qualified to comment on his own work. However, you can drop by for a visit if you like.
He built this Croquet set many years ago and it has provided fun for family and friends every summer. He even turned the balls himself.

Regional Contact Update

Kahie and I even made some Artist Trading Cards. This is hers.

Well, three full days of activity, spread over three weeks, ended yesterday when we finally got to meet Kathie Donovan, one of the hosts of the show along with the return of Peter the cameraman. Kathie is the sweetest lady I have met in a long time and her optimistic personality and enthusiasm is catching. It was interview day. The one I was dreading. I had dashed off to bring Jacob home so he and Aaron look after the dogs. (Joshua was at work.) They ended up spending much of the day in the workshop so there would be no distracting sounds in the house. Howling puppies aren't good for interviews.
Marty was first, then some exterior shots, then lunch. After Marty went back to work it was my turn. First we made some ATCs together and then it was time to chat. After the fact, as is often the case, I have all manner of articulate thoughts to present in response to some of Kathie's questions. It was fun and scary and exhausting all at once.
Okay, the question on everyone's mind now is: When will it air? Are you ready? Next Saturday, May 9th, at 6:30 PM on CTV Ottawa. They did tell me that it is possible to watch previously aired episodes on-line. Here is the link to the Regional Contact page. Then you scroll down to find the episode you want and click on it. Voila! If the link gives you trouble just go to CTVottawa.ca and then scroll down until you see the regional contact link, click, and go from there. All that work will be edited down to eleven minutes. Hard to believe.
So today I will begin to put everything back to where is belongs and pick up where I left off a few weeks ago.
Thank you to Kathie, Peter and Jason for all your work and for the chance to meet and share!

More Camera Time

This time it was Peter who came to do more filming. He concentrated on finished pieces of Marty's furniture and some of my artwork. Another long day but very pleasant. The big wrap-up on Thursday.

A New Project For Marty

Before we actually moved into this house, I discovered the "I Sell" magazine filled with ads from all over this end of the province. There was a cryptic description for a "rotating bookcase" and they were located near our new home. I called Marty and convinced him to check it out. He bought it and although it is showing some age and neglect it has been full of books in our living room for three years now. Dust aside, he is knocking the whole thing down and restoring it to its original beauty. He is also designing a new one to build. What fun! "After"pictures to follow.

More Furniture

A number of Christmases ago, Marty built me this trapezoidal bookcase. Naturally the original plan was for something shorter and I wanted it much taller so as usual, he was left to continue engineering all the angles for the difference in size. He has always been very long suffering when it comes to my quirky ideas for improving things. Alas, I feel it is his signature piece and it has always gotten a lot of attention. I store my personal DVD collection in it~ away from all the guy stuff the rest of the family enjoys.
Here is Marty's croquet set. He even turned the balls! Many fun afternoons have been spent with guests playing the game. Until next summer....