the time a neighbor placed an old chest on the street for garbage collection. The one drawer that still existed was retained at the bottom for storage of extra furniture. Some of the furniture in these photographs was mine (1940's). Other pieces were added in the 1970's for our daughter and some later than that. The drawer keeps the assortment available for redecorating. During its early years, Santa with his sleigh and raindeers sat near the chimney at Christmas.

PHOTOGRAPHS SHOULD EXPLAIN THE RESULTS:

The top of the chest is an attic room. The front side of the roof is built in two pieces and hinged so that the lower portion can be lifted. It is held in place with an attached wooden prop (see photo). The roof is made with latticed wood strips, the chimney is painted with a brick design and trees and flowers are painted on the outside walls. For the floors we used carpet scraps for the bedrooms and the bathroom and a Formica scrap for the kitchen. My husband cut tiny pieces of wood and created a parquet floor for the living room. There are doorway openings between the rooms and a movable staircase. We added wheels for obvious reasons.

I originally posted here:

http://www.hometalk.com/member/ati7ur1go5/po...

and you can see more on my blog:

http://thejourneysend-journeysend.blogspot.c...

and paint on it. Sometimes we would take the rocks home, but most of the time we would set them back out in her garden and loved looking at them whenever we would come to visit. I am pretty sure because of my Grandmother, I have a love for painting on random objects, like rocks, driftwood, and even junk as you'll see in a little bit. She is now painting with the angels in Heaven, but I had a warm feeling yesterday while I was painting with my children, that she was looking down on us with a big smile on her face.

I have been sick with some sort of horrible cold/influenza bug since last Sunday evening. I was not even able to get out of bed for 4 days straight except to go the bathroom, eat and take a zillion showers -since that was the only thing to make me feel better. I am now able to at least get out of bed, and feel like my energy is back, but it is not. I feel 100% not like myself and I can not even walk around the house for more than 5 minutes without feeling totally exhausted and feeling a heaviness in my lungs. I am not used to sitting still for so long- 8 days now! I was going a little stir crazy Sunday , wanting to go outside hiking or on an adventure, or even grocery shopping -anything , but my body still won't allow me to. So, I decided to keep myself busy and paint.. the entire day.

I gathered a few pieces of barn board and driftwood that I had in the barn and decided I needed more objects to paint on! I ran out of wood, so scoped out a few pieces from my 'junk' pile of stuff I have found in our woods.

When gathering my supplies, I had a few basic ideas I wanted- but still wasn't set on what scenes I was going to paint. I grabbed my brush, my paints, and my junk..and just started, going with the flow, painting whatever ideas came to me with each brush stroke and below are the results and photos of pieces I painted, and some my kids painted. Enjoy!

Old pans before:

Old pans after:

Driftwood/barn board paintings:

My kids and their driftwood paintings:

Look at that, I created several new pieces to decorate my home/porch without spending ANY money! The paint I had in a box from years ago (when I had another side craft business called 'Driftwood Designs' ), and the pieces I painted on were all found in the woods or beach! Now I have great 'new' and fun winter themed pieces in my home and they make me oh so happy, knowing that I spent $0.00 and made them myself!

When painting, creating, decorating your home and even living your life- keep an open mind. If you have an idea but don't see a full picture yet, that is okay- just go with it and allow the ideas and life to come to you in time. Believe in yourself and your ideas and your life will be filled with beauty.

~Kelly

the Hallmark Channel on Tuesday, 1/15/13 at 8AM EST.

The Living Spice Rack is an original vertical garden system that I designed that frees up floor space so you can grow lots of herbs and greens, indoors or out!

I use a repurposed tomato cage and this "spice rack" even spins, like a spice rack should!

Thanks for watching.

Shirley Bovshow