Unexpected Gifts!
UNEXPECTED #1
I was working outside at the Cross House when Rebecca and John drove up. They had a gift for me: a reprint of a glorious 1877 edition of a French design book!
There are 40 color plates, each depicting an actual project in Paris. On the back of each plate is the address of the home, and other information. Now, I lust for a salle de bains just like this one!
Stunning.
The designs all predate the Cross House by two decades but if anybody has a house from the 1870s and would like to be the epitome of Parisian chic than this book is a must! I have so enjoyed looking at all the plates. Thanks Rebecca and John!
UNEXPECTED #2
I noticed a small box sitting on the porch of the Cross House. As I don’t have my mail delivered to the house I was curious about the box.
From Jackie! From Canada!
Going inside, I opened the box…and was quite surprised!
Inside was a small piece of very old wood with a handle attached…
…and this curious pattern in, I think, leather. I assume this is a faux finish thingy? It is fascinating and maybe Bo will know something about it. I do know…
…that New Kitty likes it. Thanks, Jackie!
UNEXPECTED #3
Elizabeth sent me an astonishing gift: Two cookies glazed with Cross House stained-glass! My finger shows how small the cookies are!
How is this possible? Note how Elizabeth even reproduced the mottled colors of the stained-glass! I do not dare eat such beauties and was thinking of placing them in shadow boxes on a wall in the house! Thanks, Elizabeth!
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Yes – you are correct in the Gift #2 is a graining device for faux finishes. I have a set of cylindrical graining devices in original box that is labeled “Davis Patent Grainers with Improvements” They come with a little leaflet titled “The up-to-dat Grainer” with a 1904 copyright that talks about the process and how to achieve various effects.
Yep, a graining tool. Perhaps the next lost art you can learn to reproduce the faux finishes of your interiors!
Yes… I happened upon a graining device very much like this one, Ross, in a bag of old paint brushes in a thrift shop. You load the piece with thin paint or stain and slide it along the surface of wood, rocking it along the way for various and quite convincing grain patterns.
Yay, the cookies arrived unscathed! 🙂 if you let them dry out for a few weeks, they can be mounted in a box with a silica packet hidden within the box somewhere to prevent any decay – Now that I have some practice, I think I can do a better job and make nicer ones to send you sometime! Hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!
Wow! Amazing, Elizabeth!
Ross!
You are so beloved!
What a Merry Christmas & astonishingly beautiful gifts!!!
You are so kind, thoughtful and such a gentle spirit that people want to help and kindly provide these amazing “finds!”
The absolute pIece de resistance ….drum roll please……are the astonishingly accurate Cross House 🏠 stained glass window cookie glazes!!!
Elizabeth is such an amazing creative genius!!!
Patricia & her amazing art (guidance for the parlor walls, stencils & various other genius ideas) & then Elizabeth with these miniature Cross House stained glass windows that are cookie glazes!!! Those two rival each other in their creative genius-ness!!
Ross we all just ❤️love you & fall over ourselves doing amazing & nice things we all know you will love & appreciate!!!!
Hugs and happy holiday wishes to one & all Cross House bloggers!
Graining tool. I’ve used one. You can buy them new. You undercoat the wood, then apply a glaze to it. The tool is drug through the glaze and REMOVES part of the glaze. When you rock the tool back and forth while dragging, you get the grain look.