Hi, glad Santa made you happy. Paintingfool, I am sure this is not your first scroll saw--you've been painting too many years to have not wanted to cut your own wood. Is this one a replacement or an upgrade? Either way, congratulations!

I didn't get any tools this year. Was sort of hoping for a replacement for my old belt sander. Guess I'll give lots of hints before my birthday! Ha ha

I love being able to cut out my own wood. I never got into all the fancy scroll sawing--just basic shapes that I could paint on. Haven't been doing much of it lately--maybe will get motivated to do some new projects now that Christmas is over.

Bet it is fun to see all the ornaments at the exchange. How fun is that? You must have a very creative family.

Luvs

Hey, Paintingfool--I wanna hear about the ornament exchange. Describe some of them for us please. I love to hear what people come up with--even if not painted ones.

I'm wanting to cut out some heart shapes to decorate like Valentine's cookies. Got any suggestions for me? I've got some 1/4 and 1/2 inch wood. I'm thinking that I should sand over the edges so they won't look sharp. Maybe paint on an "icing" color and then some lines and squiggles on top of that. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Luvs

Luvs, the ornaments were great. I received a clear glass ornament with hand beading around the top - very pretty, a frosted ornament with a candle painted on the front, two big jingle bells with pine, holley, and red and white candy painted on it. Also, an oragami ball ornament which was really pretty but I have no idea how it was done. One of my sisters gave me a Waterford ornament which was gold with red roses painted on it. She apologized for the painting because it didn't compare to my roses - and costs a whole lot more, but I didn't care, it shows she was thinking of me when she purchased it. I didn't even know that Waterford made ornaments, I thought just crystal. Another sister from Texas gave me a Waterford crystal Christmas tree ornament. They were all so pretty. I am very sentimental and my whole tree is decorated with ornaments I have received over the years, even the ones I bought when I first married 40 years ago. Sounds like I am ancient but I was married at 16! Since my grandchildren were born I have bought a photo ornament each year for their Christmas picture so I am partial to those. My angel on our tree is the angel my daughter made from paper when she was seven years old. It is painted with markers in hot pink and yellow and probably doesn't go with anything but every year it goes on the top of our tree.
I have rarely done anything for Valentines day, even when I had a shop. I do remember a pretty card that was quite popular, it was made from two candy canes put together like a heart on card stock, cut out with one of those fancy scissors and it had a poem in the center. Don't remember the poem though. And a heart shaped wood pin that had tiny little roses painted down one size. If I remember correctly, you can paint roses so you would have no problem with that. If you like to paint faces, I have a heart pin that has the side view of an angel, I believe it is a Brenda Stewart design. Have no idea where it is right now but it was very pretty.

Ahhh, the ornaments sound really nice. It is a good way to exchange gifts, and not so expensive if you need to mail them! Sometimes the postage is more than the item you are mailing! LOL

I'm going to pull out some of my old mags (I keep them for years!) and see what I can find for Valentine's. I am not good at faces--if I were, I might try a cupid pattern that I know I have. Who knows, might just try it anyway. If it is too bad--I just won't post a pic for everyone here to see! LOL Just joking! I want to start making things for some of the lesser holidays that I sometimes just let slip by. Better get busy on it, if I procrastinate on a decision too long--it will be here and gone! Ha ha Have really been thinking about how to make "fake" cookies, so know I am going to try them.

Congrats on 40 years of marriage. You are younger than I am. Yesterday was #41 for me! I was 18 at the time. Hard to believe that many years have passed--time goes by more quickly than we realize. Milestones like this remind me to enjoy each day as it comes and to make them special. You and I are both lucky--some don't make it this long!

Better check the rest of the forum and then get busy. Talk to you later. Luvs

Luvs, you are so right. I am very fortunate, everyone said we would not last but we did, and there were some rough times being that my husband was in the military and from a different country. But we did and we have two beautiful children and now four grandchildren.
BTW, check out the Trash to Treasures, I left a message for you on roses.

I got a new Dremel with a bunch of attachments. That was my only tool this year. My old Dremel was getting tired.

We had our 36th anniversary this year. We got married on Friday the 13th...My MIL is still waiting for us to break up LOL
Happy New Year!!!
Diana

Hi Diana, How funny about your MIL--guess she has a lot of patience. Ha ha The three of us have reached some real milestones in # of years married. However, I remember that Nonacook just celebrated her 50th this past year so she has us beat.

Paintingfool, I saw your beautiful painted roses over on Trash to Treasure--now you know everyone reading here is going to have to head over there to check them out too! LOL

This Christmas was one of the best I can ever remember. Just seeing the excitement in little 2 1/2 yr old GD's eyes made it so fun. She gets to sleepover with Gramma tomorrow night, and I am totally looking forward to it. She's my sweetie.

Luvs

I didn't get any painted items or accessories, but I gave away a few things. Everybody liked them. I painted some purple violets on a frosted ball for my DM and she loves it, she can hang it all year long. I got into clay this year and decorated lightswitch plates with it, so gave a couple to a friends GD's.
I went to Michael's on boxing day and got some small wooden sleds that were only $1, and a couple of wooden boxes. Would you believe I've been painting Xmas stuff since Xmas? LOL.

Blue

Thanks Luvs, isn't Christmas more fun now that we have grandchildren? I didn't think I would ever have any but thanks to Invitro Fertilization, my daughter has identical twin boys. Then my son and his wife decided to have two little girls, I am so blessed. I use to think people with bumper stickers saying ask me about my grandchildren were a bit off, but now I understand, everyone runs from me because I make them look at all the pictures of the kids. I tell them it is payback for the years I had to look at theirs!LOL
Blue, I paint like crazy for the holidays and a bit afterwards but after the holidays I get complacent and I don't paint a lot. I seem to work well under pressure so if I have no deadlines or holidays to paint for I just piddle around. My goal right now is to clean up my studio and organize everything - I have a tendancy to pull out bottles of paint and before you know it everything is on top of my desk and I can't work unless it is in its own place. I would love to see some of your clay pieces - please post.

I have posted pics of the lightswitch plates on Crafts & Decorations under 2 postings, both with Sculpey in the subject. Here are some that I painted without using sculpey.
I copied the first one from an EBay posting.

These are fantastic, I especially love the first one. The grapes look very refined. Are you a member of any painting chapter of the National Society of Decorative Painters? We have chapters in Canada also. I have lots of books and pattern packets to use for my painting but I don't always follow exactly what the instructions say. But I would say you did a great job just by getting it off the internet. The lightswitch with the roses at first I thought the middle rose was a wild rose but then I realized I was looking at the screw hole, my eyes aren't what they use to be! I am going over to check out the sculpy switchplates. Great job!!!

Thanks paintingfool, actually the first one is cherries, lol. blue

Like I said, my eyes aren't what they use to be LOL.
PF

So Paintingfool, Is this your 1st saw? As I said before, that would really surprise me since you are an avid painter. Isn't it great to be able to cut out the piece of wood you want and get started on a project? I need to clean up a bit in my shed so I can start using my saw more again. I have a vacuum out there, but have to confess that I put off actually using it! I totally relate to what you said about getting bottles of paint and stuff out and all over the work area--have to pick up and put away before I can even work on a project. Drives me crazy if I have "extra" stuff sitting in my way when I go to turn a project or want to lay something else down. I put my adjustable arm lamp in the motorhome, so now I want to get one of those "full spectrum" lamps for my craft area--the ceiling light in there just isn't enough for painting by. Goodness, I am rattling on this morning. Better get off here so someone else can post! Ha ha Luvs

Luvs, no I had a scroll saw before but it was stolen with all my other wood tools except for the band saw. The only reason the thief left it was because it was too big. I love the smell of wood and I can cut anything except mitred corners. I have a table saw, band saw, router, and now my scroll saw. I stopped cutting wood for a while because my hubby moved everything to the shed but I prefer the garage.
I got a full spectrum lamp last year for Christmas and it is nice. It shows true color. I love going to the hardware store (I don't like shopping at the mall but I love Home Depot). I always felt I could do just about anything. I have upholstered a chair, made slip covers for the sofa, made my own cornice board and drapes, painted my walls, and make all the florals for all my daugher, nieces and nephews weddings and a few of their friends.
I think I might have been a man in my past life. Once I prove to myself I can do something I usually have no interest in doing it again. That is probably why I have a hard time painting something more than once. In painting I have tried oils, pastels, watercolor, and of course acrylics. I just want to do everything! I learned to sew in the second grade on my Mom's old treadle machine (I still have it). I crochet when I was young and I have tried a lot of other crafts but I keep coming back to painting. Painting and drawing has always been a part of my life, my sisters say I got all the talent when it should have been divided between all the girls (there were a total of 9 girls in the family).

Paintingfool, we have even more in common. I too love the smell of wood. In fact, when I go to Home Depot or Lowes, I will walk back to the lumber section even if I don't need anything just because I like the smell.

Also, my DH moved my saws and sander to the shed, and I preferred it in the garage too! Ha ha

I don't have a band saw, and I haven't really mastered the router. I have two scroll saws, a belt sander, circular saw, jig saw, dremel tool, and share the "chop" saw (can't think of it's name right now.)

At our last house, I had a wonderful setup for my crafts. Saw area on one side of a three car garage by the windows. Had a workbench, bookcases for wood pieces and supplies and storage for lumber. Off the master bedroom, there was what was supposed to be a sitting room--I claimed it for my craft room and had my painting desk, three bookcases with shelves and doors and my sewing machine on a wonderful narrow desk--the room also had a see thru fireplace and overlooked a golf course. Never appreciated how perfect I had it! Ha ha Now that we downsized, I paint on a counter in the laundry room with only a tiny little window up high and my saws are crowded into a shed with too much other stuff including the lawnmower which takes up way too much space! Couldn't convince DH to insulate and finish the inside so it is too hot in summer and too cold in winter--and isn't arranged well to be efficient. I really need to figure out a way to make it better so I would use and enjoy it more.

I will do some minor "construction" projects like fixing a split board or repairing a loose rung on a chair. I've even build a birdhouse on a stand. Want to build some boxes to grow vegetables in--I got some solid wood shutters for free that I think I will use and then will put some rollers on them so I can move them easily. I have always wanted to make a cornice board but never have yet. I've sewn some very simple drapes and made curtains for GD's room. I mostly sew craft stuff, haven't made clothes since high school.
Wish I would have learned to crochet--I love the doileys and things.

I agree about painting something I've done before--that's why I will often make three at once so I can use two for gifts and keep one for me! Otherwise I give things away and never make any for me! Ha ha

You sound much more adventerous than I am, I've not had a desire to paint in anything except acrylics, and I mostly like to make things for my home or gifts.

Wow, nine girls--how did your Dad survive that? Ha ha

I hate the idea that someone stole your tools--never understand why they think it is okay to help themselves to something another person has worked hard to obtain. Just burns me up. I've experienced having our house broken into once a long time ago--never forgot how that felt.

I need to get some wood cut tomorrow and get some projects going. I was really restless today when my GD left. That's my clue that I need a project to work on. Ha ha (Not that my house couldn't use a good cleaning--but will have to squeeze that in somewhere too.) LOL

NIce chatting with you. Fun to get to know people better. Luvs

Luvs, I don't know where these husband get the idea that everything should be stuffed in the shed, I have to move the riding lawn mower and the push mower just to get inside the garage. Although, I have to tell you, we built the shed because I have oodles of Christmas decorations. I use the tall garbage cans and the rubbermade totes and even after storing so much in the shed, I have the ornaments and sentimental items stored in a closet in the house. We have a large 3000 sq ft house and even though we talk about downsizing, I am just not ready to give it up - don't know where I would put all this junk (that's what my husband calls it). His biggest fear is that I will die and leave it all to him - when I get mad at the kids, I threaten that I plan to leave it all to them!! Scares them to death LOL.

I have so much stuff - a whole armoire full of fabric (love fabric), three armoires full of painting stuff, a large book shelf eight feet long with 12 qt rubbermaid containers, two to a shelf filled with wood balls, angel wings, doll hair, jingle bells, etc. All very organized. And I have a large desk for my painting and a file cabinet filled with painting books. I finally went through my painting magazines - Decorative Arts Digest and Tole World, clipped out the projects I liked and put them in a binder. But I still have every edition of the Society of Decorative Painters painting magazine since 1985. I just can't get rid of them yet, good they only publish six times a year. I have a TV/VCR combo in the room also so I can watch painting tapes.

I have boxes of cypress knees that I love painting Santas on, and gourds I just moved to the shed. I have wood cut outs (larger pieces) stacked on the floor until I find a use for them. I have the computer in my office (another bedroom). I did get everything cleaned up this weekend except the top of my desk. I am attending a Sue Scheewe seminar the end of this month so I need to find something to paint on - those large wood cut out might be just the thing.

I love talking with you - will chat more later.

Wow, I wanna come play at your house! Ha ha How fun it would be to check out all those bins of "goodies".

You sound like me--hate to get rid of something because I just "might" need it for a project! And you had a whole store before--mine are just things accumulated along.

Sometimes I will be looking through a box or bin and say "Oh, I forgot I had this. I really should make ______" then I end up putting it back in the box and forget about it again.

I quit cutting out so many wood shapes because I seldom got around to painting all of them. Used to think, "Oh, I want one of these and this and this" and would cut out a whole bunch of shapes. Now I just go cut out what I am ready to work on.

This conversation is reminding me that I really do need to go thru some of my stuff and see if I can weed out some more of it. I have found that my tastes change over the years, so something I was just crazy about a few years back may not even appeal to me now!

That's why I like to save my painting books and magazines too--patterns I wasn't interested in before, may be just the thing I'm looking for now!

I'm also getting better about being able to adapt a pattern to a completely different surface--that was sort of hard for me before--thought I had to do just what the designer had made. Silly, isn't it?

I've tried to cut out some of the patterns so I could get rid of the magazine--but so many times if you cut one, it will ruin another one. I find that I like having them sorted by season--then I can pull out a stack and look for patterns I might want to use. I've gotten more "picky" too--don't by as many as I used to.

Want to hear my "pet peeve"? Hate it when they don't give us the full size pattern. Many now have to be enlarged 200%. I am fortunate enough that my DH has a home office with a copier in it--otherwise I would have to go pay to get them enlarged. That's just not right IMHO.

Better finish checking the forum and drink my coffee. Retirement sure is great--two years ago, I would have never been able to do this every morning! Not unless I got up even earlier so I could still make it to work on time. Ha ha

Luvs

I'm also one of those people that go to the lumber section of Lowe's every time I'm in there. ha Start taking deep breathes. MMMm DH just laughs at me. I've been pushing DH to finish our "work" garage so he can set up my saw this spring.

Gosh I can only dream of having the craft rooms ya'll describe. Mine has always been my dining room table.

Blueiis~ love those plates!!

Paintingfool~ my DH had 9 kids in his family, but only 2 girls. They are my best friends. I am the only girl in my family and was so happy to finally have "sisters". Can't imagine the fights for the bathroom ya'll must have had! ha

~Anj

Luvs, when I first started painting I thought I had to buy every brush and tube of paint the teacher needed for the projects. I didn't understand that the reason we had a different brush and different colors of paint for each project was because they were trying to make bigger sells, duh!

Anj, we lived in the country when I was young so if the bathroom was occupied, we went to the outhouse, LOL!! We were very poor but my father made sure we had a two seater. We were so poor we didn't have a jump rope, we used our dog - no joke. She would lay there and we would jump back and forth over her. One of our favorite games was to take the baby pine trees, pull the top down as far over as possible, get on, let go and see how far the tree would throw us. I know you are either in complete shock or you are laughing like crazy but it is true.

I still laugh when I think about the things we use to do, we had no TV or computers, we had guns. I learned to shoot between the D and W on the BuD Weiser can that was set atop the outhouse. It didn't take long to learn that you had to make sure everyone knew you were in there before target practice started.

I could keep this up but you would probably think I am nuts. Later

Girl, you forget I'm from the south too. My mama grew up with an outhouse and the sears catalog for toilet paper! My best friends g-ma had one that we had to use when we stayed at her house. It always had the biggest spiders in it I ever saw. I was petrified, but when ya gotta go, ya gotta go. ha
When I was little our favorite thing was playing in the woods. We made huts out of bent over trees and our trampoline was a big web of kudzu that grew from the ground up to the treetops. We also played on wild bamboo. We'd bend it over, run and ride it down the ditch to the bottom. Our best swings were the big vines that grew around the trees. We'd cut them off at the bottom and swing and swing. All the neighborhood kids would be lined up to take a turn. ha We made trails all over those woods. We'd climb wild cherry trees and eat and eat,blackberries, muscadines, mulberries, sand pears and honeysuckle. We made homemade go carts with whatever pieces parts we could find and no breaks and ride them wily nily down the steepest hills we could find. Best times of my life.
I'm a pretty good shot too. When you don't have tv and computers and video games you find a lot of fun things to do. And don't forget chasing lightning bugs after dark! ~Anj

What memories!! We had the best time in the woods and had no fear. There was an overpass not too far from our house and we would take card board boxes, open them and use them to slide down the hill. I still love blackberries and honeysuckle. We were able to have ice cream with the old hand turned bucket but we had to take turns sitting on top of the ice as it churned. The only really bad thing for me was the cold - I never felt warm during the winter and to this date I still hate the cold. But my first memory of art was living out in the country. I would draw pictures in the dirt, I still remember the way I would draw a girl, she would always have the big southern style dress. We had crayons and we would color the funnies in the newspaper. Our drawings and strung construction paper was always on the Christmas tree even though we didn't have lights. Also, we learned to be self sufficient and you had to work around the house. It was nothing for us to chop kindling wood at the age of five or six with an ax that was bigger than us. It was a wonderful time because my mother's idea of occupying our time was to say - go outside and play. Now, it is too dangerous to let kids out of the house by themselves or to wander (misspelled??) the woods. It didn't hurt having a very popular name in our county either, most people were afraid of some of the extended family - they were just good ole boys who just loved a good fight.

I am so glad I learned to do the things I did, especially with the guns, because someone broke into my house once when I was pregnant with my daughter. The gun stopped him from hurting us (I didn't kill him), but I sure scared him. I don't think he expected to see a pretty young pregnant girl standing there with a big old gun. He was begging not to be shot and he ran and crawled out of my house. Of course, I have never been the same since then as I am afraid to stay by myself at night.

I too have sat on the ice cream bucket many a summer day. ha What fun to remember things like that.

Someone broke into my house when my DD was just a baby too. We live in a split level and I went upstairs to look out the window at the person who was banging on my door. He walked back to his truck and I had no idea who he was, thought he was leaving so didn't worry about opening the door. As I started back down the stairs he kicked in the door and all I could think of was he was between me and my baby. I ran at him screaming for him to get out and slammed the door on him. He looked pretty surprised and kinda stumbled back. He had cracked the doorframe all up so it wouldn't close all the way so I ran downstairs and locked the door there, grabbed the baby and ran out the back to my neighbors house. He was looking for a kid selling drugs out of the house next door, but got the wrong house. The kid ended up in jail and thankfully we've had good neighbors there ever since. My heart still races when someone knocks on my door. Wonder if I'll ever get over it. It's been 12 years now. I always keep a bat within reach...don't leave the guns out with the kids around. And don't think I wouldn't knock someone out of the ballpark if they came into my house uninvited. ha Glad we both made it thru those experiences ok.
I think I learned to be "tough" from my little g-ma. She was a tiny little woman, but she'd haul her big gun out at the drop of a hat. ha She fought off a purse snatcher in a parking lot one time, not because she had any money in her purse, but because the purse was new! ha ~Anj

Ok, I'm not gonna mess with either one of you! Ha ha I was laughing as I read your posts. Didn't grow up in the South--but did grow up on farms in the midwest. Had some of the same experiences--remember using the cardboard to slide down hills, spent hours sailing a piece of wood (boat) down the creek and running after it, and sliding around on the ice on that same creek in the winter. Always three or four of us off on adventures--climbing up a big hill behind the houses and digging out our own caves and playing all kinds of pretend games. I've sat on the ice cream maker when it got hard to turn too! And the outhouse--the winter time was the worst! Remember riding in the back of pickup trucks, going on hay rides, floating in an inner tube in the pond--why does it all sound so dangerous now? LOL I'm afraid that kids now will never learn to be as self sufficient and able to "make something from nothin". I cringe when I remember how we took turns riding down a steep hill in a wagon with no brakes! I grew up with two brothers, so had to do everything they did--was a real tomboy back then. There was lots of work too--hoeing the garden, helping Mom can vegetables, cleaning out the chicken house (hated that one!) even helping in the fields when putting up hay and harvesting crops. Favorite times were the get togethers with extended family--everyone brought food (and there were some really GOOD cooks) and then we'd eat that wonderful homemade ice cream on fresh baked pies! How did we have so much fun when there was so little money? Guess we were just more creative. Had fun in spite of our circumstances. Loved it when we'd have a bonfire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Or someone playing the guitar and having a sing a long. I always think we miss out on allot because DH and I ended up in Ca., but then I talk to sisters and cousins, and they just don't do much together now either. Too bad--it was really fun. Thanks for making me remember all those happy memories. Luvs