Candy Shop Facade, almost finished

Hello dear readers,

It's only a small project but it takes time to make.  It is also an opportunity to show how to make a relatively easy shadow box which looks very pretty hanging on a wall and can serve as a nice gift.

Before gluing on the window frame,  The bricks received two layers of Mod Podge. Also, I added regular, white painted bamboo skewers to the square ones to make the frame larger.


With cover, unglued yet, just for demonstration.

The display on the shelves is already glued on. (looks ugly before covering.)

First, the bricks were glued to the sides.  You can see the cover being glued, held by clothespins.

While the glue was drying, I made egg carton "slates" for the roof.

The door, with a postbox and frame. The knob or handle is still to be done.

I hope to finish the project within the next few days.

Enjoy a beautiful Sunday with blessings!

Candy shop's front

Hello dear readers,

Not much has been done this past week.  Everyday issues caught up with me.  Here are a few pictures of the shop's front.  Nothing glued fix yet, just to show you how it's done.  As I told you at the beginning of this project, it is also a sort of tutorial with a few tips.


Painted bricks on cardboard with an opening for the display window.



Front and sides.

Made and painted a frame for the window. I used square bamboo kebab screws.  Look out for them, they are cheap but very fine and easy to work with.

How it looks without the frame.

I like it better framed.

4mm square beside regular bamboo screws.

This will be the door, not finished and not glued.  I just show it here for you to see the color.

I chose not to decorate this project with my ceramic "stones".  I just want to show different ways of facades anyone will be able to make from easily available craft material.

Tomorrow is our New Year's Eve.  Monday and Tuesday are our celebrating our New Year Holidays.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to readers who celebrate with me!

I wish you a lovely Sunday with blessings.

Candy shop sweets

Hello dear readers,

Here is what I managed to make up to now.

These are for the window display.

Just for demonstration.  Nothing is glued in place yet.  There may be more.

The inside of the box, painted. The shelves glued in place.  I had some rose lace strips which I glued to the back of the shelves. It looks bad now, but when finished, only the shelves will be seen. It is impossible to see the two holes I drilled in the middle of the box, below the top.  I put a thin wire through these holes to allow the box to hang on a nail in the wall.

For the lollipop sticks, I shaved a toothpick to make it narrow.

Painted a drop of red nail polish on the cookies to make it look like jam.

The chocolate bears are brown painted beads.

The little glass jars came with ugly plastic stoppers which I hated to throw away.  Here you can see my attempts to make something out of them. Cups!  The handles are cuts from a narrow drink plastic straw.

Hope to finish this project soon.

Have a wonderful, creative rest of the week with blessings.

Candy shop slow progress

Hello dear readers,

Working with my great-grand-daughter Dana was pure joy. On Saturday, she came and stayed with me for a few hours.  I wanted us to make candies for the shop together, but Dana had other plans. She wanted to make pipe-cleaner animals.  She created one little teddybear working on it for almost one hour and was very happy with the results.  Then she made a small pipe cleaner basket and filled it with tiny yellow foam balls (food for the teddies). I gave her another little bear, a dog, and a cat.  She was gloriously happy with the lot.  We glued the two teddies and their food under a transparent cover to keep them safe from predators (little brother).

For the candy shop, we made Ferrero Rocher boxes.  We used the original wrappings from the candy itself.  Punched 1.5 cm circles out of the golden sheet and 0.5 cm circles out of the brown paper cup.  Dana cupped each golden circle with the end of a rubber topped pencil, put a small bead inside and rolled it into a ball. Then she cupped the brown circles and glued the golden ball into each. It remained for me to glue 8 balls in two rows onto pieces of a clear acetate,  wait until they dried and cover them with chewing gum blisters.  Dana stuck the original candy label on top of each blister.

Time passed away too quickly. My daughter Galia, Dana's grandmother who lives close by, came to take her back.  She was staying with them for a few days but had to go back to her parents.  They live in the Ashdod, a town one hour by car far from us. It will be long before I see her again as school starts next week.

To summarise Dana's visit:  Not much was accomplished for the shop. Between the two of us, a few Ferrero Rocher real-life candies are resting in peace within us.  I learned new dance steps and new versions of old pop songs played on Dana's cellular phone.  Sorry, no photos. There were only the two of us and no one to take photos.  There was a lot of laughter and joyful "ohs" as well as bright suggestions about the shop's door, leaving me with instructions  "For a knob make a cupcake. For a handle make a lollipop".  Needless to mention how much I'll miss Dana.

I wish you the best with blessings!

Candy shop facade

Hello dear readers,

The flower shop is still pending.  While waiting for the perplex front, Meantime, I started a new, small project, a hanging candy shop facade.  It's also going to be sort of a tutorial in series.

Didn't have any shallow box at hand.  Instead,  a cheap wooden backgammon box (About 3/00 US$) cut in the middle yielded 4 shallow shells for 4 hanging shop facades.  I only had to cut some scrap wooden straps, found in the trash, (luckily the same width) and glue them to the open part of the box.

From the scrap piece, I cut one length for the shelves to be glued onto.

6 wooden tongue depressors were bound together and cut uniformly. Each 2  were glued together. making 3 shelves.

Tomorrow, I'll glue and paint.  My sweet 12 years old great granddaughter Dana, will come and work with me. We plan to make some candies together.  I am very excited about it.  This is the first time one of my offsprings shows interest in my hobby.

I wish you a lovely weekend with blessings.

The Barbecue

Hello dear readers,

Wish there was some escape from the melting heat we are enduring these days.  Finishing the barbecue project provided a refuge by spending more hours at home with the a/c on full time.
Not so sure about the photos, photography is not my strong point.

The patio

With plants

Complete with barbecue, etc. 

The cute Dalmatian is a gift from Jennifer.

The beautiful spider plant and the two lovely plants by its side are gifts from Carmen.

The geraniums in their egg-carton planters.

All ready for the people to come and enjoy their meal.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with blessings.

Witchy Chic Gifts from Germany

Hello dear readers,

Nobody was more surprised than me to see Baalatova, with her usual "Haughty, Hard to Satisfy" facial expression, smiling smugly. To my knowledge, this never happened before.  It was very strange to suddenly hear her humming mysteriously making me wonder what was going to happen. And then arrived a  totally unexpected, surprise parcel from dear Birgit full of magical gifts.  Can it be possible that now that she has her magic wand back, Baalatova cast a spell, making Birgit send the parcel?

I should have known something was cooking. Some weeks ago Baalatova demanded a special space for a garden.  Thanks to Birgit there will hopefully be peace and quiet for the next two months, while Baalatova is working on her garden.

I shall also have to start seriously plan a bedroom for Baalatove, with new shelves to accommodate these fantastic potion bottles and other awesome items, all crafted by my incredibly talented friend, Birgit.

THANK YOU DEAR BIRGIT FOR YOUR  KIND GESTURE, GENEROSITY AND, MOST OF ALL, FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP!

Here is a glimpse of the almost completed barbecue project.

I wish you all pleasant and cooler days of Summer with blessings.