Kite Season at the Castle Shed

Several days ago the neighbor girls were in the culdesac flying their beautiful kites. Hmm, I thought it would be so cute to take a photo of them with their kites in front of the castle shed.

Aren’t they adorable girls?

Hello Kitty had to get in the picture also.

As soon as school is out the girls will be coming to tea and craft time.

My Valentine Table for the Castle Shed

A few days before Valentine's Day I had my glass of wine out in the shed working on the paper mache chandelier and thought I would ask hubby to make me a new table that is similar to the little one in the shed that he made.

I'm ok with not receiving jewelry, flowers or candy for Valentine's day. I would rather have something he makes, a painting or this year a table!

Here he is dismantling an old box that came from a farm, I wanted the sides for the table top.

Dirt and rusty nails all over the place.

The under side of table top.

Final assembly.

Now in place and we had a full moon peaking through the bare branches over the castle shed. All the lighting is solar.

Then it was my job to paint it, I wanted the base to have a creamy whitewashed look.

Now in place I have another honey-do. "Honey, it needs benches or chairs that fit the scene and now that the coldest part of the year is over the flagstone is looking bad, needs a good scrubbing."

".... and after that we need to set the stones in mortar around the base of the shed, we didn't get to that last year."

It's always something. ;)

Painted Paper for Castle Shed Chandelier

Late in the afternoon one day this week I went out to paint crumpled paper for the paper mache chandelier for my castle shed. Here they are pinned to a line to dry in the shed.

 Closeup of a pink sheet. You never know where paint flows in all the creases.

The next afternoon I went down the rabbit hole again and made paper tassels for the chandelier.

Some of the teal painted paper was cut, glued and twisted to add to the paper mache chandelier that was painted in a metallic gold paint.

By the third afternoon I had added more tassels and paper cord. Now I have to decide what to do for the candles. I really want solar powered wired candles with the panel outside so when it is dusk the chandelier candles light automatically like the spotlights do but I don't believe there are solar candles like that, yet. Hmmm, now if I knew more about wiring solar lights I may be able to figure it out but I just want this finished and hanging above my work space in the turret.

For the other turret there must be a dragon. Have you seen the dragons by the front door in the Downton Abbey series? They may be the inspiration for my turret dragon. Here is a screen shot from one of the videos on filming the series, hairy bare legs and white gym shoes would never be on Downton Abbey!

I've made a couple of paper mache dragons in the past, the one for my castle shed needs to be different. Any ideas?

Paper Mache Chandelier for Castle Shed

The weather has been lovely for a week, in the low 70s. The castle shed has been calling, so many projects to do but not when it's cold out there. So I went down the rabbit hole a couple of days in the afternoon when the sun was shining.

 

I decided to make a chandelier of wire and paper mache. It will be just for the decor since there is no electricity in the shed. When finished it will hang from the center of the south turret and will be adjustable in height so I can bring it down to slip in LED tea lights. This may not be my final chandelier but I just had to work on something. Here is the start, wire and masking tape.

Then I wrinkled some white paper and tore it into strips for the paper mache. Exterior wood glue will hold up better during the rainy weather.

Time ticks away too quickly in my imaginary world in the castle shed.

Look at the basket I found at the Salvation Army thrift store. It's a larger version of one we bought in Holland in 1990 for lunch for day trips. This needs a flat base and divider for a tea pot and cups and saucers to be ready to take for a picnic tea time.

The sunny days are doing their job on the solar lights both outside and in.

Then I looked to the right and saw all those lemons. I have given away some and have baskets full on the kitchen counter and still this many remaining on the tree. Better get busy making lemon curd.

Guard Dogs at The Castle Shed and Lemon Curd Soon

It has been a gorgeous weekend in Fresno, sunny and 70 degrees. Maybe that's why two of the three guard dogs at the Castle Shed are laying down on the job.

We've been doggie and kitty sitting since Thursday. Three frisky rat terriers but they have been good, grandma is spoiling them, evil laugh. So with the weather so nice I did a little organizing in the shed and look at that, through the turret window you can see lemons starting to turn yellow.

That means it will be tea time with crumpets and lemon curd soon.

Looks so inviting, time for a cup of tea and work at the medieval table while the weather is so nice.

I can go down the rabbit hole in here.

One of the mini notepads I listed on the Paris Cabinet shop last night
is handy, more about them here.  

And where is kitty? Shadow has to stay indoors.

Grizelda the Witch at My Castle Shed

Years ago when my sons were small I and a neighbor dressed as scary witches. The little children were so frightened on Halloween they would not come down the walkway for their treats.

When I became a grandma I decided to become Grizelda the Clown Witch. Who could be frightened of her? My orange crushed hat has a spider web and a rubber spider dangles from the edge. You can see my green felt hooked nose. In the photo above for my Treadle Lady site I posed in front of the Paris Cabinet and sewed on my German Gritzner treadle sewing machine.

When my son Doug and Lisa came over with Davis their heads were shaking. Doug lovingly said, "Mom, you are such a geek." Yes!!! And I love being one. After a couple of years of teasing that stopped and about the 5th year Lisa said, "I want to be a clown witch." Another "Yes!!!" So I whipped up her adorable costume, a much cuter version with a short sassy skirt.

After becoming Grizelda the Clown Witch I designed and made a Halloween quilt with a hand painted scene. Several years ago I asked hubby to paint the scene that I designed for my quilt so I could make Halloween cards, the quilt didn't photograph as clearly as I wanted. Here is the painting he did, propped up on a chair in the castle shed the other day.

When my grandsons were small they used to point to the witch in the quilt and say, "Grandma, that's you." What a compliment! The books on the shelf in the painting are, Potions, Witches Who's Who, Pumpkin Cookbook, Frog Care and it was the title of the last book that sealed my identity, Clown Witch Costumes.

Last week I put up spider web garland banners to decorate my castle shed and then posted the PDF file for sale to make them in my Etsy shop. Here is link.

On a quiet evening this week I took my wine glass and lap top out to write at my medieval style table in my castle shed. I had a little story idea about what is happening in the painting. I propped the painting in front of me so I could tell the story, suitable as a night time story for little children, no scariness. It will be posted in my Etsy shop soon. (Here is the link to the story card.)

The castle shed is so enticing, a great little place to escape and write or work.

Here are party favor baskets I designed a few years ago and made a fresh set.

 And pillow boxes that coordinate, great for Halloween treats.

Are you ready for Halloween or a bedtime story?

Looking Back a Year to My Garden Castle Shed

It's dusk and we just came in from having dinner outdoors by the garden castle shed. The solar lights are on and it looks complete though as I've said many times before, there are still lots of projects to do but for now it's satisfying.

Looking back here is the day Jan dug up all the plants in that corner of the yard.

Here was my foam core model that was to be only 8 feet high turrets and storage only in turrets. As work progressed we decided to make the whole form into storage and 11 feet high turrets. I wouldn't want to go back to that day in September 2014.

It's a little dark now but had to be in a good night photo from my castle shed.

Copper Sconce for Castle Shed Torch Lights

Wow! The design worked out great.

Remember the August 3 blog entry? I described the pattern making process from paper. There were 9 paper patterns and it was number 8 that I liked the most. It's been melding in my mind how to make it. My jewelry making skills are for small pieces of jewelry as in my MaDil Designs Etsy shop.

The skills and tools are a little different for something much larger. Finally I figured out the best way to make it out of copper sheeting.

Do we have a copper sconce or a patat frit holder?  Dutch hubby keeps calling it that. In the Netherlands french fries are served in a paper cone holder and he keeps drooling wanting a batch topped with the traditional mayonnaise on top.

It looks like a perfect torch light sconce to me. 

Now on to make the second one and mount them to the castle shed. They just may appear for sale in my Etsy shop for sale by next week as indoor electric sconce lighting. There are ideas rolling in my head.

Can you visualize them under the torch lights? The final decision will be to leave them shiny copper to age on their own or verdigris them as I did the roof finials and flags.

Jones Serpentine Hand Crank Machine Base and Labor Day Weekend

What a gorgeous labor day weekend already. Last night we had a TGIF taco night for five neighbors that came over. There is nothing like a good soft taco, a little beer or wine, music in the background and friends you enjoy.

This afternoon we took a bike ride and now I'm sitting at the medieval table in my castle shed with the doors open and the sun setting. It's 84 degrees with only 20% humidity, very nice.

A few years ago I purchased a Jones Serpentine hand crank sewing machine, from about the year 1890. Some people call it the cat back. The feet have holes in the bottom and hubby made me a base with dowels to hold it in place. It's been unfinished wood for too long so I primed it a couple of days ago and will be adding a little teal color to the base so it won't be such a harsh contrast from the black sewing machine to white.

I grabbed a couple of containers with some mixed paint, one was green, the other blue. With a stir stick I pulled out a little of each into a small pie pan I use for mixing small amounts of paint. 

Since the paint has a little carpenter's chalk in it the drying time is about 10 minutes in the nice low humidity weather. The south turret where my painting station is at is perfect for afternoon projects with a little sun still coming in through the screens.

Quick as a snap it dried and I put the machine back in place, each foot over the protruding dowels.

Here it sits on my new medieval table before taking it back into the house.

The shadows are getting deeper.

Soon the solar lights inside the castle shed will come on and a little later the torch lights. Haven't made the light fixtures yet, sigh. Still lots to do but it has come a long way and has been a very enjoyable process.