Wire Cloche {gilded shells}

Can you see my small gilded shells? Look closely, they are in there I promise. I have more shells that I gilded but I need to apply gloss enamel to them.  A week of rain has slowed me down in myriad ways.

I have had the wire cloche and basket urn for a while but decided to add the antler, rope ball, wine corks, and shells.

This is my favorite gilded shell. I left the end alone and am glad I did. I used Martha Stewart Gilding paint. The paint has to be glossed as the silver is real silver and will tarnish. 

Please note that this paint is extremely toxic and really you should use it outside. I was outside and still got a fantastic headache while painting with it.

Linking@

joy and peace

Olive

Shells On The Buffet

My vast collection of shells has been arranged on our dining room buffet. 

It would be more accurate to say a portion of my collection. 

Maybe I have a shell collecting issue.

The egg basket holds five or six large conch shells and is quite heavy.

The green foot stool was Joe's mothers and I was thrilled when I found it in one of our storage rooms at the old house. The Johnson Brothers Old Castles of Britain pitcher I recently found at an estate sale along with plates. Look for a future tablescape with those.

My collection was amassed over a couple of years of thrifty shopping. 

Many were given to me by kind strangers.

I party on the internet here at:

Potpourri Friday 

Vintage Inspiration Friday 

happy summer

Olive

Shells-Cat-Quilt

Seashells

On the coffee table.

Table shot in Tranquil Effect by PicMonkey. 

Not staged, that's the newspaper over there.

 Coffee table bits. 

Don't know why I like them I just do.

That little alabaster urn is from a local thrift store and it had four birds on it and one was broken so I simply removed all of them. That is not a cloche. It's a piece of a light fixture used as a cloche.

Look who had to check out the pinwheel quilt. 

Clovis thinks it is his now.

It has been an interesting and craZy week so far, at the old house, with The Shelley Puppy and Clovis. Shelley wants to play and Clovis wants none of it. Shelly gets in the litter box and makes a big ole mess. Shelley is still eating/chewing everything.  Today when I showered I gave him my leopard bedroom shoe  and said "Go ahead eat it ". When I stepped out of the shower he was asleep on it. 

That was precious.

Linking with:

Vintage Inspiration Friday

joy and peace

Olive

PicMonkey and Cross Process

PicMonkey
 is user friendly and similar to Picnik.
 Like Picnik it will eventually have premium features that they will
charge for but now the entire photo editing site is free.
I have not determined how to save the image in my computer while using
PicMonkey and keep an original of the image.
If you know please tell me.
I am sure it is simple and I am being dense.

Edited image in Cross Process.

This is the page you see after you Upload your image to PicMonkey.
I resize all my images to 800 pixels x 1200 pixels or less in size.
They are much larger initially.
Then I sharpen the image as needed.
I try not to crop but there it is if needed.
The five symbols to the left take you to the following:
Basic edits (shown above)
Effects
Touch up
Text
Overlays
Frames

I monkied around with exposure and Cross Process with these shell images in our den.
Each image is a tad different in color.

Here you see the Effects menu represented by the wee chemistry bottle to the left.  
Cross Process is at the top.
You will recognize many of these from Picnik.

Overexposed or just right?

Cross Process adds a green or blue (I use green) hue to an image. 

I use it for outside shots and shots with brown hard surfaces mixed with greens.

I am totally jazzed that PicMonkey has Cross Process. 

 I have used it with vintage vignettes too. 

You can fade it all you want.

This image, taken with my old camera last summer, is in Cross Process. 

 The effect makes the greens prettier and the blues stand out and the browns browner.

 I could sing this effects praises all day.

Do try Cross Process and Picmonkey. 

You might like it.

joy and peace

Olive

~ finding a seat~

The living room was rearranged, last weekend, because it had to
accommodate a large number of people. 

Extra chairs were brought from upstairs for our teens to use.

This petite rocker might have to stay right here for a spell. 

It is usually in our guestroom.

We also pulled this bench into service.

And my favorite chippy green chair. 

It was terrific to see all the occasional pieces of furniture put to use for our teen weekend.

 Most of those shells, in the basket, have been given to me by strangers at garage sales. 

When I express a love for shells folks usually tell me I can have them free of charge.

It is refreshing.

That generosity.

Linking with:

Table Top Tuesday 

Wow Us Wednesday

joy and peace
Olive 

Thrifty&Pretty

Estate sale finds from Saturday

 

 

The hand painted tray was $7.50. I bought it to sell it but I really like it and the more I look at it the less likely I am to sell it.

The little topiary tree and burlap pillow are Goodwill finds. I know I have told many of you that I broke up with Goodwill last year. A new Goodwill opened, near the yellow house, with a book store and the prices seem to be more reasonable so I am dating the Goodwill again.

I need to find one more tray.

Joe and I have bought a lot of books from Borders, which is closing, and they are taking over the hearth, the room, and the house.

Joe found two very large fish bowls of shells for $12.00. We had a lot of fun sorting through them. I was able to fill a large cloche with the smaller ones.

Some small coral was included....be still my heart.

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday 

Tabletop Tuesday

grace surrounds us

Olive