Icebergs Drifting Our Way

How much would you pay to have this view? There are hundreds of people who are paying thousands of dollars to get to Newfoundland and Labrador to catch a glance and grab a photo and taste a sample of these majestic giants that we have floating by our homes!  Yes, this is the view we enjoy from our windows, the glances  we take along our highways or the stares we soak up in our bays. There are some locals I've heard make the comment that "It's just an iceberg", well that's okay if it doesn't appeal to everyone but I love seeing all of them. This is one photo shoot from home that I took in about fifteen minutes in early June, 2014 to give you an idea of their size, shape and the number of them that are drifting by.

This is a close up of the iceberg in the top right of the first photo, notice the varying colours of aqua greens and navy blues in the water. The colour variety has to do with the microorganisms that are in the ocean, apparently the more plankton that's in the water the greener it will be, very rich nutrient based. The blue however, contains less plankton which would mean that it has less nutrients but it would be as clearer water to go snorkel diving into. 

Zooming in a little closer you'll see it has somewhat of a mushroom cap, but you may see something else. That's the fun of viewing them everyone sees a resemblance of something different in every iceberg, each one is so different and unique.

Maybe you see cottage cheese in the one above or a beautiful sculpture? It has a spy hole that you can peer through and see out the other side which makes it very unique.

What a morning I was having here at home, I loved it! The smell of the salty ocean, the sound of the waves splashing and the sight of a glistening sea with all those gigantic, white sculptures is worth thousands of dollars to me! I hope you enjoyed the little sample of  seeing some icebergs, hopefully you'll get the chance to view them in person some day.

*The Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism website has an actual iceberg map with markers indicating all active icebergs to be seen along our coastline. It also has some very interesting information on the topic and of course many submitted photographs. Here is the link http://www.icebergfinder.com/  

Buried Treasure

We are privileged to have long stretches of sandy shorelines where I live and I love to beach comb! The above area was once settled by many homes and in the past a lot of their refuse ended up in the ocean, which makes for interesting finds in the present. Too, our area is known for having very rough seas that no doubt contributed to several shipwrecks that occurred along here many years ago. There have been a couple of occasions over the years where those shipwrecks have become uncovered with the shifting sands.That's the excitement with beach combing, you never know what you'll find when your there!

Even in Winter the sand banks and shorelines are relentlessly being beaten by the wind and the waves which means the beach is always changing.You can go exploring anytime, but you have to dress for the weather as you can see with my sidekick above taken on a cold January day. Jasper is a very, very energetic Bichon Frise who also loves the beach...anytime! This was taken a few years ago and it was after a very violent storm that eroded a lot of the sand dunes there and to my delight uncovered a little gem for me to discover.

It had a plastic brown coloured stopper with internal threads and an orange rubber seal which was unique to me. Curious, I did a little research on the specific details of the bottle and stopper but came up with no concrete source on the origin of the bottle. Have you seen this type anywhere before?

The markings on the bottom of the bottle  were also unique to me as it was 0 comma 5 with a written L  indicating a possible UK origin. If you have any idea as to the origin of the bottle I'd love to hear from you.

I have also recovered old bottles that I knew the history behind them such as this common bleach bottle that many households would have had in them. Today we buy bleach in larger, plastic jugs so it puzzled me as to why the older bottles were so small, was it more potent I wonder? It had a metal screw on cap and it was about a 500 ml size with the word Javex on the side  and base of the bottle.

Then there's the bizarre findings that come about through excavating for a new development or repairs to existing infrastructure. Such was the case when my husband was excavating an old bridge to do upgrades on it due to its deteriorating state. In the process an old, brown bottle was uncovered and brought home to add to my collection, it had been buried for possibly 40 years. It had no distinctive markings other then the scrapes made by the excavator bucket claws!!

Each of these bottles now sits with the rest of my little collection each of them linked to a little piece of our history. Now they have a new story to go with them as to how they were like buried treasure uncovered once again by nature and machine!

Spring to Life

It's that time of the year when all creatures great and small start the new cycle of life to bare and rare or breed and feed their next generation of offspring. There's just something so wonderful about seeing creatures prepare for and nurture their young without the guidebooks that humans use to decide what's best for their baby. The animals just simply are born with that instinct to feed and nurture and at all costs protect their young from any apparent danger!

When I took my mother-in-law for a drive one evening this was the first of many wonderful views we would see, mamma nursing her calf . Mamma, with her maternal instincts kept a close eye on us while the bull just kept on eating were the little things we noted while we watched from a distance. 

The migrating seagulls have returned to mate along our coastline and they have to learn how to provide for their young family. It was so funny that all of the creatures were eating at our evening mealtime,  you'd swear they had clocks to tell them the time! This seagull pair were successful at fishing that day for their meal, they caught a male lump fish. We observed one of them struggling to eat a slippery fish on a slippery dinner plate and yes he lost it, hauled it back up and lost it again! Like all young parents they will get better at honing in on their skills through trial and error!

Driving a little farther along we had the privilege of viewing a group of saltwater ducks that were likely pairing up to start a family. It was very peaceful and rewarding to observe them having an evening diving  into the ocean and feeding.

Along our route back home guess "who" we saw? Yes, we couldn't believe our eyes...or his!!! A great horned owl  nonchalantly perched on the wire with his back towards us, eventually he did turn around and acknowledge us with his grandeur, thankfully.

A few minutes later he flew off hunting for a meal, aren't you glad you are not a mouse or smaller bird that he can get his talons into? But, it's all about survival and for his new family to survive he has to provide for them, to state it simply.

Our evening just kept getting better and better, look what else we spied along the way home... five Canada geese! They were also peacefully swimming, feeding and likely  picking out suitable real estate to build their nest and raise their goslings.

Last, but not least we caught sight of this little rabbit before he sprung off he was quite okay with posing for his pic to end off our evening so picture perfect. Everything had "sprung to life" compared to our observations a few weeks ago and we were so grateful that evening because of it!

Images of Home

Living in a small, coastal community isn't for everyone since it offers a slower pace of life, but there's a bonus in that it offers the time to soak up what's around you. The simple, little things that often get overlooked in a fast paced life and seldom, if ever photographed! The picture above is a little fishing shed that I have driven by hundreds of times, but I never thought to photograph it for a keepsake! It has now become one of my favorite photos, why? Because everything about it looks like "home", all of the items here in the picture tell you that hardworking, humble and honest people live here in this place.

Again, a simple fishing shed doesn't make for a great photograph, but to me it is a flashback of where my relatives once worked very hard to earn a living as fishermen. This holds a special meaning to me now, as some of them have since passed away and I am left with a few, fond memories of them repairing nets or putting away their things after a long day catching and clearing away codfish. That was a way of life that is now no longer exists, it's only a part of our memories and as seen in photographs.

There's no glamour in getting old, but being a hundred years old is a milestone to achieve in human terms, so how about a building? Well the age of this fishing shed I cannot say but it's old enough to get it's picture taken to be preserved before it too succumbs to old age. 

Another image that I saw to photograph  is this old root cellar still standing after it's owners left it behind when they resettled many years ago and the large, old, chippy shed beside it but it makes for an awesome  photograph for me to keep as a reminder of  what "home" looked like.

The next picture has been preserved from a photo session I did 20 years ago, it was an old building then but now sadly, it's gone and the lobster traps as well. But, by retaking the photograph I now have it digitally stored and saved for a later time to share stories of "remember when". 

Living in this slow paced, little, coastal town has allowed me to soak up and photograph all of the beautiful spaces that I'd like to remember later when maybe they'll be long gone. 

Making My Own Mirrors- Sunbursts

My fourth post in the series of Making My Own Mirrors is going to focus on a new, trendy type of mirror that are referred to as sunburst mirrors. They are, as the title suggests a shape of mirror frame that mimics the rays bursting out from the sun with the center being the circular mirror. You may have seen them made with paint sticks, wood shims, chopsticks and other items but I went a different route and used driftwood for two of these first ones. I have a circular piece of particle board cut out an extra 6" larger than my 6" mirror to give me sufficient room to glue the driftwood along the outer ring.

The mirror was attached with a construction adhesive called PL Premium. Next it was time to do a general layout of how I would attach the driftwood sticks to the board before actually gluing anything. 

You'll notice the small gaps because of the curves in the wood so I had to play with the pieces I had a little to get the underlying wood completely covered  in. When you are happy with the lineup begin gluing and I just used a glue gun because the sticks are all lightweight anyhow.

You'd just continue to work along alternating every so often with some longer sticks added into the project to imitate the sun's rays of course until you end up with this. The reflection you see is the glass in my antique door, I'll share that with you later!

By now you should be learning I always like to change it up a little with each new project so out from the assembly line popped this second one using all flat pieces that were originally wood strips from lobster traps!

Both are now hanging in my craft room and I don't think I'll part with them... so I have a spare one made for when my daughter visits again this year and wants what she sees...I'm learning to be prepared!

Again it's made a little differently this time I used items from the dollar store, you'll never guess what!

Bamboo fencing for a garden border, it was perfect with the pointed edges and all!! Note: I didn't use the gorilla glue I used the PL Premium that I used to glue the mirror to the wood base with as well. This project was a little more tedious as I had to add a wood spacer in between each set of sticks so that the top layer had a base to rest on when I glued them in place. Sorry I didn't get a picture of this but if you try this project feel free to ask me any questions on what I did. Here's the finished product resting on my table waiting for my daughter to lay claim to it!

Okay so this concludes my series on making mirrors and to be honest if you saw me now you'd say "Well she doesn't own a mirror for sure"! I hear ya!!! But in the meantime, the main thing is to get creative and use what you have old, new, recycled, painted, etched it can all be tried when you make your own mirror!! 

Making My Own Mirrors-Monogrammed

Have you ever wanted to save something from the trash not because it was pretty, but because of how long it's been in your life?? I did, it was a mirror like the one above it has been in my life since I was a small child and has survived three house moves, numerous paint finishes and all the glass cleaners you could name!  I personally think that anything that was  from the seventies generation although could use a makeover by now, don't you agree?? Since my own makeover will cost a lot of pain to my body and my wallet, I'll just focus on the 70's mirror for now!!! That I can handle!! 

At  first I tried to strip off all the old layers of paint with a mild stripper, the first layer of paint was white from it's life hanging in my hallway. Next, I would find the black speckled spray paint that replicated the counter finish in my bathroom and last was a gold spray paint (daughter's bedroom) over the original gold finish! Whew, the mess I made only to find the layers of paint were covering a crack in the frame so as I said in an earlier post on to plan B! The old frame couldn't be saved so I glued the mirror onto a piece of plywood that was cut out for me by my handsome assistant! 

The mirror was octagon shape so that's the pattern he used to cut the 1/4" thick plywood allowing for an extra 3 " border to be decorated later. The roll you see is self adhesive shelf liner which is what I used to make the monogram stencil. Using Microsoft Word on my computer I picked out a font that I liked and gradually enlarged it to a size that would comparably suit the mirror size. With that print out I then used carbon copy paper to trace over the shelf liner so the letters would be visible to me when  I  began to cut them out with my xacto knife and scissors.

Now that I have my stencil I can peel the backing off and reassemble it onto the mirror. As with the other mirror project you should clean your glass with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth first before you paint. I chose Martha Stewart's frosted glass paints for this project and I applied it with sponge brushes, one coat each of the two ocean shades.

It needed a few days of drying time in between since I learned that if you apply the second coat any sooner, it will only make the first layer soften and rub off, you need to remember beauty takes time!

Next came the driftwood pieces being glued onto the plywood with a glue gun in a puzzle piecing  format, there is no wrong way to do it. Then it' ready to display, which my lovely assistant did he hung it in the front entrance for me as per instructions, hehe!

Making My Own Mirrors-Window Trick

I love big windows because they give you lots of natural light, but what if all that you have is a small window such as in a basement apartment? Would you like to learn how to make it look like a large window? Better yet, would you like to make your window bigger and better in very little time with very little money? Have a look at the dreadful before pic of my tiny window that I wanted to be a focal point in my craft room.

Do any of you remember the song by the group, Abba entitled "I Have a Dream"? Well that was the theme song for the renovation of this basement space, I waited 18 years for my craft room! I wanted it to be different, creative and most of all beautiful but on a small budget so I couldn't ask for a large window for my room...yet! So what I discovered that could solve my dilemma and maybe yours too was called a faux transom. Faux meaning false or fake and transom describes a smaller window above a larger one being separated by a wooden or stone bar. Therefore a faux transom could become a decorative feature used to enhance a small window such as in a basement apartment or if you have small windows with very tall ceilings. So what do you need to make such a thing? Most everyone already owns one and if they need to buy one it is a cheap, easy to find item, you guessed right if you said the mirror.

This is another before shot of my craft room and you'll notice the common behind the door mirror hanging there, it was the length of my window width. So when it was turned on it's side it could fit  perfectly between the window and the ceiling, well with the carpentry skills that hubby has he made it fit. Seriously, with a few pieces of 1" X 3" pine strips the mirror was elevated to new heights!

The mirror wasn't glued to the wall or anything it was just framed around as if it were a full window but there was a dividing strip that became the resting base for the mirror. Then to spice up the plain look of the mirror two smaller strips were secured to mimic the bars you'd see in a regular window.  I chose a driftwood green wood stain for the walls and pickling white for the window trim and I loved the finished result, do you?

So at the end of the transformation I could tick off all the boxes in my wish list,  it now looks like a large window, it's different and  it's creative but most of all beautiful and budget friendly!