Refinished dresser

This is my latest project: refinishing an old dresser that I got at a DI 3 years ago when I moved here from Virginia. It sat out on my little porch all winter long waiting for the weather to get warm enough to work on it. The spring never was warm enough, so I started on it in July and finished it a couple of weeks ago. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I got all the ideas and how to's off of Pinterest! I used de-glosser instead of sanding it, I primed it with a premium Kilz primer, used a french antique glaze method inspired by something from I saw on Pinterest and did the finish detailing (the tree branches and vintage clip art decoupage) like a chest I pinned recently.  I did the branches and leaves freehand with acrylic paint, and added new handles. I had to wood putty over the old handle holes and drill new ones. This now will have a place of honor in my bedroom instead of being relegated to the back of a closet.

Oregon Coast

I spent last weekend at the Oregon coast with my kids and grandkids. A good time was had by all!

Aaron decided to taste the seaweed.

Jay and Ellie taking in the fresh sea air.

The first time I have ever been to the Oregon coast when it was warm enough to play in the surf. (And I've been here several times).

Emma loved the sand.

Sammy and James finding stuff to play with. Sammy had to be kept on a leash, he runs without regard to where he could end up-big waves, tall cliffs, etc.

We also went to an airplane museum. Sammy really wanted a soda.

Erik and Sammy just chillin' .

Erik, Tom, and Andrew exploring tide pools.

We all had a great time and hope to continue the tradition.

I recently visited the Red Butte Gardens in order to take photos of the flowers, especially the roses. It was the wrong time of day (noon) to get really good pictures but I managed to get some. There were lots of pre-school groups there on that day, also.

The kids were taking an "edible plants" tour.

I used the background defocus feature on my camera for this pic.

Last full day in England

I thought I'd spend my last day doing more tour bus stuff-get the live guide and take pictures of London, maybe go to the Tower of London.  The weather did not cooperate-very cold, blowy and rainy. My shots of London are taken through rain coated bus windows. I got the whole story of why the Union Jack looks like it does, though. Not going to repeat it, you can look it up. When we got to the Tower of London, I knew that it just wasn't a day to spend there, so I stayed on the bus with my new friend-a young woman from Orem who was in London for a week with her husband, who was then working. It is such a small world. I decided on a whim to get off the bus at Liberty of London's and get out of the rain for awhile. Liberty's is a small department store; world-renowned for its fine floral fabrics, stationary and clothing. It was a delight!!! I took pictures of displays, floors, walls, trying to capture the atmosphere.

Here are some of the things I bought.

Some of their famous cotton lawn fabric to make a tunic from.

Some cards with artwork that I want to copy.

A needlepoint kit and some pencil that have a Liberty's pattern on them.

Some chocolate, which although very prettily packaged was just okay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday afternoon at the Tate Modern

 

I spent Sunday afternoon at the Tate Modern museum. I felt a little schizophrenic, going from the V&A to the T&M! First I had lunch at the very nice Tate restaurant. Since it was actually not raining, I sat outside, in the sunshine, put my feet up and sketched my surroundings while waiting for my food.

 

I ordered fish and chips and oh boy, was it good!!! I love fish and chips and this was the best I have ever had. The Damien Hurst exhibit was amazing-the biggest show done on this guy in 20 years. They had all his famous stuff: dot paintings, butterflies, cigarette butts, dead flies, cows and sheep cut in half, pharmacies. I didn't stand in line to see his diamond and platinum skull, though. My feet hurt too much. I couldn't take any pictures, so I pulled some images from online so you can see some of his stuff.

 Don't be fooled into thinking he does pretty stuff, there is something disturbing either in his work or regarding its meaning. I was glad I got to go. I didn't get to go to the Apsley house, there was not enough time, but I pretty happy with the day except for feeling guilty about doing it all on Sunday!

Sunday morning in the V&A

 

On Sunday, I decided that I needed to step up the pace and save my feet. I would spend one day touring by taxi to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Aspley House and the Tate Modern-I had a timed ticket for a Damien Hurst exhibit there. These were fairly close to my hotel and so wouldn't cost too much. I loved the V&A, of course, I could have spent days there. They were having an exhibit on British Design, from the 50's to 2000. I made some sketches while I was there:

 

I made some more sketches and took pictures of some exhibits. (I wasn't supposed to take pictures, it turns out, oh well!)

British silver exhibit

Statuary Hall

Indian exhibit, you come around a corner and this is right in front of your face! I was fascinated.

I don't know what period in time this is from or what it is, but isn't it wonderful?

 

 Then I went to the Museum store--

 

A day in London

 

My Tate British Picasso bag

On Saturday, I spent the morning touring London on a big, red double-decker bus. We drove around Kensington Gardens, the Marble Arch, 10 Downing St., the hospital where Princess Diana had her babies, churches, abbeys, Tower of London, lots of bridges across the Thames, museums, Trafalgar Square. The architecture was astounding, I love ornate stuff like that. I didn't take pictures because it was lightly raining but I wish I had now. After a couple of hours, I got off the bus across the street from Westminster Abbey and walked a few blocks to the Tate Britian, where I had a timed ticket to the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibit. The exhibit was kind of small and had maybe 3 of Picasso's really good works and facsimiles of others. Anyway, my favorite part was Picasso's sketches of costumes that he designed for a London ballet company,  just because I remember loving these as a teenager, teaching myself art history with a series of books that my parents had. When I saw canvas bags in the gift shop with these drawings, I had to have it! I used this bag for the rest of my trip and I love it. The rest of the museum was closed for renovations except for two galleries. What a disappointment! I was hoping at this point that the other museums that I planned to visit would be better.

 

I got back on the bus and got off in front of Harrod's department store. I went right into the food court because I had heard that it was pretty amazing. It was! Talk about sensory overload. The walls, ceilings, floors were beautifully tiled, mosaic-ed and painted. The food stalls were works of art. And then I found the biscuit tins. I kept picking up one and then finding something I liked better as I moved down the aisles. Finally I settled on three that I liked. One was a teddybear soldier which I gave to my grandson Sammy, the other two are pictured below. The one with four sides is artwork by a famous art deco artist named Alphonse Mucha. He was prominently studied in last semester's history of graphic design class. The green one is just pretty. I bought some cartons of take-away food for my dinner and rode the tour bus home.

Harrod's food court

Food court

More food court

One side of my Mucha cookie tin.

Erik and I ate the cookies when I got home. They were pretty good.