Besides being full of giving and receiving (heavy on the receiving), April has also had a big dose of making and re-making.
I found a white wicker shelf at the thrift store one day and it was such a throw back to my childhood years that I felt compelled to buy it.
We never owned one; my mother (rightfully) thought they were terrible dust collectors.
This one had collected a lot of dust over it's many years, but was otherwise in good condition.
Since I'm always needing shelving/storage in my little studio (and I prefer to rescue, rather than buy new things)...
...and since the price was right...
I brought this little baby home and got out my trusty black spray paint.
There wasn't quite enough in the can to finish the job, so I had to run the hardware store for more.
Now, some people get light headed and dizzy when they use spray paint.
I get light headed and dizzy when I stand in front of the spray paint display.
Oh, my!
I can't tell you how long it took to tear myself, and my overworked imagination, away from this!
The little shelf was painted on April 12.
It's still sitting in the studio waiting for the Prince and I to have time to hang it.
There is another spray-painted item sitting in the studio waiting to be hung.
It's my new guest book holder.
It was rescued from the thrift store by Miss Mary Mack, who intended to repurpose it, but never got around to it.
When I inherited it, I realized it would be the perfect holder for the studio guest book.
I've had lots of guests in the studio over the years, and I like to have them write a little note while they're here.
The old 'guest book' was a bunch of shipping tags, which each guest duly decorated with beads, rubber stamps, drawings, etc.
Last May I had a roll of adding machine tape appear in my studio (I know not whence it came) and after I'd moved it around for awhile, I decided it would make a great new guest book.
This is how it was kept:
(Does anyone else remember those pink sponge rollers? I hung on to a few I used for the goilies when they were little; the clip came in handy here.)
The thing about this guest book is, I didn't read any of the entries as they were written; I told my guests to just 'write and roll'.
I had it for nearly a year before I unrolled it and spent a glorious half-hour enjoying all the comments and reliving all the moments recorded there.
It was awesome.
Get yourself a guest book.
Or, better yet, let someone else get you a guest book.
When I turned my new holder over to paint the back side, this is what I found:
I didn't paint over it; these are real people and I have them all 'imagined up' now.
Another item in the April re-make category is the big credenza I bought last year at the thrift store (half price, mind you).
This ginormous hunk of furniture is going to be sitting in my foyer (hopefully before May is over).
I was sorry to discover that the drawer knobs are not removable, but I've started sanding and painting this piece black and it's looking good.
I sure do hope it looks finished before too long.
Sigh.
In the April things-that-were-made category are the little duckie cupcakes Able Baker Dana and I made on the 20th.
I still say they looked a bit deranged.
Also made, on the 21st, were the little almost-chocolate bunnies.
The family has since split up; Baby Girl likes to chew on the ears of Tall Bunny, so she took her home on Easter Sunday.
And, of course, PeeWee was claimed by Miss Mary Mack.
Pudgie lives on at the Big House.
Of course, they breed like rabbits, so there will probably be more next spring.
The last thing-that-was-made which shows up on the April inchie line-up, was the first of 50 invitations to an upcoming (very special) wedding shower.
I am working this weekend on finishing these.
I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon slicing paper.
I made an interesting discovery, too: If you buy a new blade for your rotary cutter, it does not matter how long you keep it in your studio, it won't do you a bit of good until you actually unwrap it and install it in the paper cutter.
Amazing, but true.
The scoring blade always works...
After all the paper was cut and scored, I lined the inside of the card, folded some of that wonderful Japanese paper tape over one edge, and glued down the sides to make the pocket.
I cut some blooms and leaves off a stem of silk flowers...
... and used glue dots to secure them to some small twigs I cut from a tree in our back yard.
The project is at this point right now...
...and, though I'd love to finish them today, I'm expecting my visiting-from-out-of-town brudders, seester-in-love, and Me Darlin' Mither for a pizza dinner and game night shortly.
And guess who's making the pizza?