Paris Cabinet Inspired Corbels for the Castle Shed

On Friday I talked with hubby about shelving for the turrets in the castle shed. I wanted something inspired by the lovely and graceful Paris Cabinet. It only took a finger running along the right corner to find a shape.

I drew the shape on a sheet of paper and in not much more time than a blink of an eye hubby had cut out 4 corbels.

In another blink I painted them gray and layered white for a distressed look.

The shabby roses from last week's post look even shabbier but still so beautiful I put them on my painting station to admire. 

We get no rain in Fresno during the late spring and through summer and already the sun was beating in on the glass windows of the south turret. In my sweetest voice I asked hubby to make screen windows and take out the glass to catch the breeze in the shed. The painting station is now uncluttered and look at the corbels and shelves.

The north turret also got corbels and shelves. A future project will be a glass front cabinet for storing table cloths and place mats for outdoor eating. The tray and silhouette canisters are listed on eBay.

The front doors are next but I keep distracting hubby with more honey-dos.

Shabby Roses at the Castle Shed

The shabby roses are the arrangement from last Friday evening's dinner party out on the patio in front of the garden shed.

Time flew by so quickly I didn't get a chance to photograph the table before everyone arrived. This was taken on Monday after the party.

Little Mr. Gargoyle has a home, though it may be temporary, I think he needs a partner so each can guard one side.

The chalk board still has the welcome, soon to be erased when I plan another get together.

Aged Copper Finials for Garden Castle Shed

Finally the copper finials were finished and aged. Aren't they great? I love them and so does my little gargoyle.

Here is hubby putting them on and hammering in place.

Now I'm bugging him about the door, isn't that just like a wife? My honey do list never ends.

The turret painting station got a little clean up. I cut and hemmed a piece of canvas drop cloth to fit my work table. The little shelf Jan built for me a few months ago is just right for quarts of paint and mason jars work just fine for brushes and paint sticks.

Last we we added several shelves to the left side. It's filling up fast.

I just "LOVE" how my castle shed is working out.

Scrubbing Potatoes at the Castle Shed

Is that potatoes my guy is scrubbing? We've spent a couple of busy days at the castle shed. While he was scrubbing I was painting our second table and more chairs.

Oh, they are not potatoes! For now the rocks are just arranged abound the base. Later we will set them in mortar.

We're having a small group of friends on Friday so we've been planning the seating for nine. I had hubby bring out the eight foot top we use over our dining room table. Usually I cover it with a table cloth but decided for a casual outdoor dinner I didn't want to use a table cloth. Here it is with a primer coat.

 By the end of the painting session I was turning green.

That's a bright green table! Not sure if it will stay that way but for now I do like it. Will do a reveal in the next post.

Roses and Fairy Doors at the Castle Shed

It's full springtime! We have a couple of rose bushes tucked along the edge of the yard. The yellow rose is so fragrant, they should all be so.

A couple of weeks ago Jan made a large custom order of doors and windows. It was for a lady in Atlanta for a large tree in her front yard and some for gifts. 

They have three coats of UV varnish to be suitable for the outdoors. Above are a few more he made for the Paris Cabinet Etsy shop. The doors for outdoors are thicker and have a sawtooth hanger on the back to hang on a small nail. The shop section where they are available is Here.

My favorite is the lavender door with a touch of shimmering gold on the window, really makes it look like light coming through. Hubby is so talented at painting these incredible little doors.

 

We have had tea and meals in front of the garden shed and have really enjoyed it.

We still have much to do to finish the garden shed. Oh, it's calling me for tea!

The Paris Cabinet Etsy shop's home page is Here.

Tea with Scones & Lemon Curd

The table and chairs looked so inviting in front of the garden castle shed on Saturday that I decided we should have tea, scones and lemon curd for lunch while there was still shade.

The sheer table cloth has a home in the shed so it's easy to spread it on the purple table and it's all set for a quick tea time.

The lemon curd is home made from earlier in the week, I blended some cream cheese, sour cream and touch of powdered sugar for a little mock Devonshire cream to go along with the currant scones.

The teacups and saucers are perfect for a little Easter weekend tea, sunny yellow with pops of color.

The Myott shield on the back reminds me that we still want to make the Amersfoort city shield for our castle shed.

It's pretty special, here it is on the Koppelpoort, a medieval gate in the Dutch town of Amersfoort.

Fairies to Come Live in the Garden Castle Shed

Late winter and now spring has been busy with many things to do. We are rather spoiled, not enjoying working in cold weather so the garden castle shed project has been slow, here is a peak at it now.

After many comments from family that the light gray looked like primer and many discussions I agreed, it just didn't feel right. Maybe it was also that it popped out too much. We are very happy with the beige color and Jan did the door frame so I could paint it. Over the next few months, as time allows, we will build the doors, add vertical trim, do the stone base and many other details. Finishing the copper finials is next. That stalled problem project has some new solutions so it will be soon.

We brought out some of Jan's beautiful hand painted fairy doors to be photographed. These are just a few of the designs he has made.

It's time for the fairies to come live in the garden castle shed.

 All the detail looks so dimensional but they are perfectly flat, paintings on wood.

His doors are available by clicking here.

The Blarney Frog Visits The Garden Castle Shed

A handsome frog visited the garden castle shed on St. Patrick's Day. There he is, in the middle of the table waiting for a kiss.

 

The prince was waiting for his Irish soda bread. The reason an X is cut in the top of Irish soda bread is to release the fairies! So we put out some of Jan's fairy houses for them to make a home.

He had it with orange flavored sweetened butter, yum.

Recipe is from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.

Have a great Paddy's day, we are off to a pub.

Visit from Amy

Amy was my first guest for a quick spot of tea in front of the garden castle shed. Jan and I met Amy when we signed up for a recent eBay class at adult school. She manages the senior center at Manchester Center and adult school registrations.

We noticed photos of various chickens on the bulletin board so I asked and Amy said they were hers. We had such fun chatting about the chickens she raises. I never knew they could be pets.

In our chat I also found out Amy loves having tea and has a teapot collection.

I invited Amy to stop by one afternoon on her way home for a cuppa and a sweet treat. When Amy took a bite of the cake I made she recognized it and asked if it was a sherry cake. She grew up having it and told me how her mother decorated the cake. Then we discovered how much we both love Van Gogh! She spent two days in Amsterdam during her college years and spent both days at the Van Gogh museum.

Amy brought me gifts! After she left Jan took a photo of me holding the teapot and 6 fresh eggs from her adorable chickens. The teapot is made in Portugal, very nice! Just before she arrived I quickly wrote a note in chalk.

My sons grew up having the sherry cake and now my grandsons love it so here is my recipe that a friend gave me about 1978.

Many cake mixes now have pudding in the mix and it works both ways, just the cake mix with pudding or adding a 3 oz. box of instant vanilla pudding. The recipe says use an angel cake pan, I've always used a bundt pan and spaying with Pam Baking now bakes with an even color.

The cake is good plain or goes well many ways, with ice cream, a drizzle of chocolate syrup or topped with cherries. A can of cherry pie filling, slightly warmed, is easy but Trader Joe's dark morello cherries makes a good topping. They are not sweet or thickened so you have to do both.

Drain the liquid from a jar of Trader Joe's dark morello cherries into a sauce pan. Add half a cup of powdered sugar and a tablespoon of cornstarch. Whisk till dissolved, then heat and keep stirring till thick. Add in the cherries, remove from heat, mix in just a couple of drops of almond extract, not much.

Serve cherries over wine cake, have a cup of tea and enjoy.

Wild Harlequin Floor for Garden Castle Shed

A harlequin pattern for the floor of the garden castle shed has been on my mind but I decided it couldn't be a plain diamond pattern, it had to be wild.

Last Thursday I went out with a pencil to draw the big wavy lines to form the wavy diamonds. Friday afternoon was fun to be on the floor painting the wild shapes. By 4:30 Jan brought me a Blue Moon to celebrate! 

The floor pattern was a success but I can't say the same for the turret finials. Here I was cleaning off the flux after soldering, looks a mess.

The solder just didn't flow nicely, there were gaps in the seam so I turned it over to fill in.

 That didn't work! The whole seam popped open. I could scream!!!

 My brain works solutions during the night and I did wake up the next morning with a better solution. I will use a folded piece of copper on the inside and sweat solder it together at the same time I add the finial and flag. That will have to wait till I'm in the mood to do all the frustrating solder clean up.

In the mean time the garden castle shed still looks bare with no finials on top. I'm not happy with the color of the window frames, the lights are temporary, Jan needs to make the doors and frame when he has time and add the trim and window mullions. We've got lots more to do besides that but it's a process. It's been five months since the day I built the little foam core model that evolved into something much larger than originally planned.