A Few bits and pieces I've just finished

I've just got a spare 10 minutes before I have to start all the night chores. Been working hard for our market on Sunday, we have so many markets where we live around the Mornington Peninsula area, I suppose it's cause we're in driving distance for day trips of the City, but still touristy, it's very competitive and we're forever trying to capture people's interest, my poor old brain hurts tonight from thinking, the other thing is these markets are very strict on Handmade, homegrown, etc, so no way can we just put in second hand goodies

Here's a few ideas I came up with this week

Below

I'd already had the shadow box thingy, just had to paint and distress it, you know what that's like with all the little corners and angels, attach a print to the back which had to be resized and repainted in to suit, sealed and varnished, hangers on the back and there it is, you could actually put little salt and pepper shakers or something inside, might even just put it on our website not sure

Below

We've found trays to be very popular, bit time consuming again with all the painting of the actual tray and attaching the print isn't easy either, anyway I do love the end result

This last idea below is one of my favourites, an instant fire place screen, or hide your junk screen, made from an old wardrobe door panel, some shapes attached for legs to make it freestanding then painted and distressed, I love it the way it is, to take it to the market I will have to hand paint on some roses so as it passes as being "home grown" will see how I go tomorrow, you may see it on the website as is.

This was it before I got to it

I've been tagged

I've been tagged with the Name Game Tag. The rules are as follows - You must state the rules before you state the facts. The facts are to name one thing relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you do not have a middle name then you choose the middle name that you wish you had. Then you tag one person for each letter of your middle name and let them know they have been tagged.

My middle name is Elizabeth after my Mum

E - Ellie (Elizabeth) my beloved daughter and my Mum Elizabeth (no longer with us) but who I think about everyday

L - Love for all my family

I - Imagination which I seem to have to have lots of doing what I am

Z - Zeal for the same reason as above

A - Adoration once again for all my family and friends

B - Beware of some people and situations

E - Eyes watching out for colours, flowers, new ideas

T - Touching and feeling things, why do we do that, specially before we buy something

H - Honest and Fair which I try to be - I hope!

I'm not going to tag anyone, it's only my 2nd week blogging, I think all the other bloggers I know have already been taged.

"Ellie"

I was just going through my photos to find some interesting shots of Shops we've supplied to as I would love to do a posting on that side of things. Along the way I found some photos of our daughter Ellie, without knowing it she has been a wonderful inspiration to me for pretty, pretty, girly themed paintings I've created in the past, her room is absolutely full of pretty perfume bottles, shoes etc. etc. on and on!!, just anything girly for her, not necessarily pink

She has a pink Motor Bike, bought on ebay of course!

The brother Todd had to come home from work and have a go!

All Pretty now at her 21st birthday, not so long ago

Even Ellie's little cat has a "B" for Bella sparkly tag attached to her collar

This posting was a bit of fun....thanks so much for taking the time to read!

Getting ready for another Market!

We've got another big market this Sunday, I'm frantically trying to come up with new ideas for the market and our website, here's a few finished bits and pieces

On the left is a new idea I'd like to try, I've got loads of smaller sized frames that need painting up and distressing, thought they would look great with cards from our Gift Card Range originally designed by Ali Regan, have you seen her new website Miss Ali's, http://www.missalis.com/ it's really worth taking a look at. Thought these would be perfect gift ideas with Christmas coming up.

These oval frames are reproduction ones, my first reaction was to have them potrait way with single floating roses, funny how sometimes things are meant to be, I'd resized some prints during the week for an order, I'd made them too small, just so happened they fitted perfectly into these oval frames, I'm really pleased with the end result as I think they have loads of character, I've just listed them on our website, http://www.gailmccormack.com/catalog.php?category=4 if they don't sell they can come along to the market with us or maybe stay home with me!

To Rose or not to Rose?

I'm still trying to get through all my frames, this particular one I've had primed and ready to paint for ages, it's one of those made in China ones, frame and insert all in one, sort of a false distressed look to the frame, it's quite large and I thought it would look effective with simple Vintage China, no roses or buds or leaves dropping around. In one of my past posts I mentioned how I can't stop collecting shabby chic treasures for props in my photos, I'm just as bad collecting vintage china for my still life paintings, most of it's all chipped and cracked, nothing matches, still useful to me.

This is my finished painting, I was just about to list it on our website, but just didn't feel right about it, I think I do need to add a few roses and little buds. It's a bit too plain looking I think, glad I stopped and re looked at it, I'll sleep on it but I think tomorrow the roses will be added

Any ideas would be welcome
Gail

THANKS FOR YOUR ADVISE much appreciated, I've decided I love the painting the way it is NO ROSES, I've listed it on our website http://www.gailmccormack.com/catalog.php?item=114&catid=8&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D8

p.s. do you like my beautiful fresh pink roses above from Dingley Market

Our Weekend Markets

We were so lucky with the beautiful Melbourne weather for our markets this weekend. We had two markets to sell at, the first was Red Hill on Saturday, a huge market which has been going for approx. 30 years, it closes over Winter, this one was the first market for the new season, the photo above shows a tiny section. I always advertise our upcoming markets on our events section on our website http://www.gailmccormack.com/

A few zoom in photos of Tony's hand crafted furniture, completely made by him from scratch. It's funny listening to some of the passers by commenting how nice that "Tatty old piece of furniture" would look with a fresh coat of paint!! do we take that as a complement?


I plan to do a blog on some of his pieces used as shop fittings, they look wonderful.

Above is a sort of Shadow Box Tony made and attached a print at the back, how gorgeous would that look with real tea cups and maybe cup cakes sitting inside. Hope he can make some more for our website.

That's about it for our market stall, I thought I took more photos, musn't have though, anyway you get the general idea.

Now one of our favourite stalls at this Market, The Scout Devonshire Teas, can you see in the background the big camp oven, that's where the luscious scones are baked, the billies are bubbling away on the top ready for a cup of real Tea, oh Yum, real cream in the scones, all proceeds going to the Scouts, when you watch them set up and dismantle all the smokey ovens and billies, specially on the hot days, you really have to admire them, that must be why I support the cause and buy and eat the scones, I support a local community project!!

Lots of interesting stalls at this market, how about this one, a potted lemon tree which they've somehow attached a section of trellis in and trained the lemon tree to grow around the trellis, just lovely, an instant screen.

We always come home with beautiful fresh local fruit, vegies and flowers, see my last post for my scented pansies.



That was our Saturday market, on Sunday we had another market at Dingley, a much smaller one held in the Community Centre, not nearly as many people but nice, a bonus about this one is we can take Guss with us.

The only photo I have of today's market is when our son Todd (remember we wouldn't let Guss the dog leave home but let Todd) came to visit Tony for Father's Day

Woops I've done it again!

We had a market to sell at today, we don't often have Saturday markets, I was feeling really deprived because I'd missed out on going to Garage Sales. Well what do you know on the way home from the market I came across a Garage Sale, the property was breathtaking, I happened to have my camera and took a few photos, you can't see properly but the sea view was spectacular. Red Hill is a beautiful part of the Mornington Peninsula, I'll try and get our Red Hill Market posting on next.

Funny things was I'd bought these beautiful scented pansies (never heard of scented pansies before) from our market and was thinking I doen't have a nice vase at home to put them in, what do you know there was one at this Garage Sale, I also bought the silver rimmed, glass coaster, they were a bit tarnished so I've polished them up and just love them, what else could you do with them do you think, I've truelly got heaps of coasters.

Thanks for reading

Gail