This Made Me Chuckle

 

A Thrifty Mirror

 Hello lovely chums, I thought I would show you one of the projects I've been working on during the last few weeks.

I did start working on it in our garage but the weather has been so perishing cold I brought it into the house to paint. Much to Morgana's delight as you can imagine.

I had been looking for an unusual large mirror for the dining room for some time. I really love the gilt 18th century ones but they come with a hefty price tag.

This one is for sale at £650. But some run into thousands.

Of course my house is not a grand 18th century country house, rather a marriage of Victorian stone with 20th century extensions. It has to be said it is not the prettiest of houses, but I grow to love it more and more.

The Victorian mirror I found on Ebay had been purchased by a local couple, well over 20 years ago, when they were on a motorcycling holiday in the UK. Found in an Antique shop, they had it sent to them and it arrived very badly damaged. They had fixed it up a bit but you could see the cracks and mended breaks in the dark wood.

It was my lucky day when they decided to sell it. I secured it for £10.

I started by giving the wood a good rub down and clean. Then using left over paint from my kitchen, I gave the mirror a coat of white paint, then two coats of a nice dark cream. Once they were all well dry I took some sand paper and 'distressed' the paint work slightly. I finished it off with some champagne coloured gilding wax. I'm very pleased with it and it works very well in my dining room.

A Tender Moment

 I'm not really a big Bocelli fan but I loved this sweet duet he shared with his daughter Virginia.

Yew Trees

 

A friend shared this image today with me and in turn I wanted to share it with you. Two ancient Yew trees flanking the doorway of the medieval church of St. Edward in Stow on the Wold. Said to have inspired J.R.R.Tolkien's 'Doors of Durin' in the lord of the rings.

 Another view from the front. I think the trees are wonderful. We have an ancient yew in our local church yard of St.Helen's, thought to be over 2000 years old with a girth of 33 feet. 

The yew was of great importance in the pagan religion, and it's obvious that these Christian churches were built on pagan sites to encourage pagans to adopt the Christain religion.

So naturally powerful.