This May Look Boring, But....

Today marked the arrival of a very early birthday present. Right now, it is just a bunch of cut wooden pieces, like the other two parts of this post, but I am tickled pink! Marilyn D. found enough pre-cut pieces of the project that eventually became my flower shop, Floriana, and had enough off-cuts left that I have all the components to make another version of this project. Thank you, Marilyn! Swirling around in my brain right now is a tiny French bistro, to complement Floriana while at the same time being its own project.



As a group, we were going to make market stalls this Spring, but the pandemic means we can't get together for the near future. Another project's components Marilyn dropped off are the pieces for the covered market stall. Mine has long been intended to become a Christmas market stall, and I hope we can work on this together via the internet.



From such humble beginnings, etc.! I also have two other things ready to work on, as long as the isolation continues, once my arm is healed. One is another small display I hope to use for shows, made from an off-cut of MDF and a commercially made wooden base.



That's how Boutique Pulchinella started, and it will be interesting to see what this piece ends up as. As well, in the Carpenter-in-Chief's workshop, are the components for my wooden shoe factory room box. What this means is, that even if the stay at home edict continues, I will have things to keep me busy. This is a good thing! Also, I found the container with my electrical components, mostly LED lighting, so hopefully I can finish the build of  the candy shop once we have the false roof made to hide the lighting battery pack.

The snow is gone, as you can see through the patio door.  I am doing strengthening exercises for my arm along with stretches with weights. Now I am off, briefly, to the $ store to pick up paint, glue and wire, allowing me to continue once my arm says go for it. We have been very lucky here in our small province; no new Covid cases for more than 2 weeks, all 118 diagnosed cases are well again and home, and not one death has been attributable to Covid here, despite the aging population in New Brunswick. We are, however, still being very careful to stay well here, keeping our social distances and lining up outside shops until it's our turn. I hope you are well too.

Display on the Way

A few months ago, I picked up a new (old) package of self-adhesive, chipboard letters. Although I suspect the adhesive is probably no longer viable, I will use the letters to identify my display vignette for shows. The other items are also on the way; the little gray thing will become an autumn wall-hung
floral display, and the item in the clamps is the French-style planter for the trellis in the background. At the moment, the letters spell out, Boutique Pulchinella....



I am really pleased with the way the display itself is going. The upper portion for the signage is ready for the lettering. I deliberately aged it, as I wanted it to look old. The cheap paint I used - white over gray - is starting to skin over a bit, but I let some of those pieces remain, as they look like the sign has been repainted many times in its existence. If you enlarge the photo the detail will be more obvious.

The molding below that will be part of the retainer for the removable backdrops. The piece of trim at the base will become the bottom track for that. I can't really work on it any more until I know the thickness of the plexiglass I'll need, bit I can do the tiling. A bunch of lavender is in progress for the gray pot on the post; the post itself is being auditioned for a short pillar fragment, although I think I'll likely go with a square one. Pillars are fairly easy to cobble together from left-overs of wood; yes, I am still playing in my scrap pile! Although, I do have that partial baggie of round woodsies, they might work nicely for a round pillar. Hmmmm.