In My Painted Garden

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2025-10-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Making Of A Gourd Bird Feeder Part 1

2022-02-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

We will be posting a Video Series of All About Gourds! In This One My Husband John Will Be Showing How He Starts The Process Of Making A Bird Feeder Out Of A Gourd . If You Have Any Questions Please Ask ...

Thank You and STAY TUNED for more...

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2021 My Husband Built Me A Bigger Gourd Arbor

2021-05-28T19:02:00.001-07:00

After we had such success growing our gourds on our thrown together make shift arbor last year my husband realized we needed to make a real arbor & a bigger arbor for more gourds to grow

These first pictures you see are from the gourd arbor /garden last year and yes it was basically thrown together.... but it worked & worked better than we thought , so that's when we decided we needed to make a better arbor! In all the pictures below is the making of our new Gourd Garden Arbor !!

Last Years Gourd Arbor

Last years arbor after the gourds were removed

Taking down the old & starting the new

deciding how many rows he wants

putting the poles in

This is the starting of the new arbor ...my husbands version of a arbor and his version is turning out pretty good !

aside view of the arbor

The poles are set and he has three full rows of poles with the arch/arbor poles across the top , Then he put chicken wire & fencing and put it on to of the arbor and tacked it down , He also put chicken wire up between the poles so the gourds will be able to climb.

a picture of it from the side

This is the finished Gourd Arbor it measures 12 ft X 22 foot and has 4 rows of gourds growing and one row of sunflowers (which are planted on the outside of the arbor )

It's been about 3 weeks since I took All these pictures and we planted seeds and some gourd starts that I had already started a couple of weeks earlier.

We hope you likes our blog about the building of our newly designed gourd arbor. Stop back by and I will be posting a series about how the gourd garden is growing!

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Thanks for stopping ! Until The Next Time !

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Our 2020 Arbor Gourd Garden

2021-05-09T18:50:00.005-07:00

Last year we decided to put in a gourd garden 2020 , we had put a gourd garden in a couple of years ago & we had plenty of gourds but they were Not good ! by that I mean thin when you put a drill to them to put the bird hole in they cracked almost every time ! So we buy them have for years . So last year I wanted my husband to fix me an arbor for them to grow on I needed to get them off the ground ( our soil here where we live in Tennessee its not good for growing unless you put in a square foot garden. it's full of shale rock ! )

large bottle growing on top of the arbor

Martin & Bottle gourds hanging under the arbor

But where we put our arbor up it was a spot where we have been tilling it up every year wanting to try a gourd garden again & well these are some pictures of our Arbor Gourd Garden of 2020 ! We were thrilled ! We did a video Instagram Series for our Instagram page from the start of our gourd garden, arbor and season ending you can find our page here & Look under IGTV www.Instagram.com/in_my_painted_garden

The gourd vines growing up & over the arbor

We also posted the series and extras to our Pinterest page you can find it here : www.pinterest.com/inmypaintedgarden

We had 31 gourds total 4 large Martin house .some medium martin house about 25 and about 5 bottle & one large bottle that is one of the ones that grew on top of the arbor . A lot of the gourds grew through the top of the arbor like they are suppose too so they hang within the arbor Like the picture below.

baby gourds growing through the top of the arbor

The gourd vines have completely covered the arbor

The inside of the arbor looks like a tunnel

Inside the arbor is so peaceful and pretty, I loved walking through it yes admiring the gourds as they grew making sure there were no bugs or critters on them and just hoping that they would all have a good gourd skin ( the shell ) and that they would be of a good size and somewhat thick ....

Morning Glories growing on the Adirondack Chairs

some of the hanging gourds

These are just some of the pictures from inside the gourd arbor

gourds and winter

We and most folks who grow gourds leave them hanging on the vine that they have grown on through the fall and winter months because they need to cure and dry. Ours this year went through a snow then a ice storm they were covered in 3/4 inch of ice and it didn't hurt them at all ! They did GREAT !

ice on the arbor

They survived the snow & Ice Storm Just Fine

When we cut into our gourds we were thrilled !! They turned out BEAUTIFUL & Thick !!

So this year my husband built me an even bigger arbor for our gourds to grow on ! I will be posting another blog with pictures of him building it ! It's finished and we have gourds that have been planted by seed that some I started in peat pots and seed just planted right in the soil . Last year I didn't start them in pots we just put the seed in the ground and watched them come up !

We hoe you enjoyed our blog post and we hope that you stop on back to our blog and follow us !

Until Next Time ,

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Frozen In Time The Gourd Garden

2021-02-20T19:14:00.001-08:00

The Top Of The Gourd Arbor

We had an ice storm come through last week so I decided to go out to the Gourd Garden & see what it looked like and actually I thought it was just Beautiful !! So I took some pictures and a video and wanted to share them with you ! Video is below !

The Gourds Covered In Ice

A Better Picture Of The Gourd Arbor Top

The gourds are Loving the cold it doesn't bother them at all in fact it helps to cure them. You don't ever want to take them inside or anyplace warm! When I first started growing gourds when we lived in Michigan. I thought I had to cut them off the vine and hang them by string in the house , I soon found out the warmth (until they are completely cured usually about 6 months or so ) will dry them out too fast and they all started to shrivel up or just plain shrivel to nothing reconcilable ! Yep that can happen !!

We hope you enjoyed taking a look at our gourd garden after the ice & snow storm of 2021 decided to cover the garden in a 1/2 inch of ice ! I thought it actually was pretty and interesting the way the ice forms on any and all it comes in contact with ! I'm used to snow being from Michigan but We have lived here 14 years and this is the first time we have had this much ice & snow ! We hope you are all staying safe & warm ! Thank You Checking us out ! Comments Are Welcome ! If You Like Us Please Follow Us On here , Pinterest , Instagram , Twitter & Facebook

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That Was 2020 But This Is Now

2021-02-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

We All couldn't wait for 2020 to leave !! In February of 2020 my husband was working in Georgia & I was at home I got a phone call Feb 16,2020 saying I needed to get to Georgia that my husband needed emergency surgery, he had aneurysm & it burst , my son got me a flight out .Thank God all went good ! So that's how Our 2020 started out & Yes We are All hoping & praying that 2021 A New Year will be the answer for All the bad that has happened in 2020 !!

We are not the first generations to go through a Pandemic our parents ,grandparents , great grandparents all went through them . Nor is this the first pandemic for my generation there has been two one in 1976 the Swine flu & in 2009 the H1N1 that I recall, but actually nothing like this Covid 19 Pandemic & We Are ALL Praying It Ends In This New Year Of 2021 !

Now I will say that 2020 for our Etsy Shop www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden in January it started out GREAT but then I put it on " Not Open Do To Family Emergency " in February when John had the aneurysm , for a month until he was healed enough. So the day we opened back up we had our first sale and honestly for our small business we had a Fantastic year!! We had many return & new customers. We are So Very Blessed, Grateful & Thankful

Our Original Beach Dreaming Gourd Birdhouse

Our Unique Old English Cottage Gourd Birdhouse

Colbalt Blue Sunny Sunflowers

Blazing Red Sunny Sunflower

So I am a girl who also likes to sew ( I have sewn for years , one Christmas I made hooded lined robes for my 5 granddaughters ) and of course I did what a lot of people did I started sewing Face Masks for my Family and friends. I used a basic pattern I found online but had to do a lot of adjustments so it fit my husband the way he wanted. He wanted elastic that went around his head instead of around his ears . I also added to the chin area and nose , so that when you talk it won't slip off the nose & chin as easy . The nose has a removable wire piece that forms to your nose & you remove before washing .

My husband & I were at the store standing on our 6 foot spot in the checkout line and there were two women in line in front of us, one of the women turned around and said to me " I really like your mask " & I of course said Thank You ! My husband said " My wife made ours " Then she said " Well I guess that's the new normal to look at peoples masks " Hopefully Not for long !!

My husbands that I Made

I have made my husband 8 of them so he has one to change out every day and an extra one and made my son one also. They have to where them at work.

This is The One I Made My Son

This Is One Of My Masks & Yes I'm Smiling !!

Yes of course I made me some also this one is " Betty Boop " ! Same as my husbands I adjusted mine to go around my chin farther & my nose that way when I talk it doesn't

slip off our nose ! Yes they are lined with white cotton and also have a pocket for a filter pocket . For my filters I use the Small coffee filters I fold and cut them to size.

Bouffant Scrub Caps

Then my daughter-in-law is a nurse and asked me if I would make some Scrub Caps for her . Again I looked up a basic pattern & altered it to fit, this one is a Bouffant Scrub Cap it fits short or long hair , it has a small piece of elastic at the bottom back so the cap can slip off and on with ease NO TYING !

My Daughter in law she asked me to make her Holiday Scrub Caps

A couple of her co workers had me make them some also , I just Love the way they turned out and I have a lot of material! So a couple of days I will spend in my sewing room & sew and the other couple days I will be painting working on our gourd birdhouses & Gourd Birdfeeders so we can keep our Etsy Shop stocked !

So I had a couple of phone calls & some emails asking me if I would make Scrub Caps & Face Masks ! So I decided that I would make some more of the Scrub Caps & Face Masks &When I'm done I will post them on all our Social Media sites , If anyone would like one just let me know

Here are a couple more Scrub Caps I made for an order

I Know I haven't been on here in awhile but I really Love connecting with people , customers, friends !! We Love what we do as our craft/art . I like to bring you into our gourd garden from seed to cured & into our studio ! The " In The Gourd Garden " Video Series is on Our Instagram . We did that this summer through our Instagram & Pinterest pages ! We went out once a week and did a video of how the gourds were growing . We still do have some still hanging in the garden so I will post on here our Blog, Instagram & on our Pinterest page .If you have any comments or questions feel free to ask I might be able to help !

but if you would like to check out the " In The Gourd Garden " Video series its on our IGTV on Instagram & Pinterest or our Facebook page . Thank You !! We Hope You Enjoyed Our Blog

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Lets Get 1000 Likes

2018-01-31T05:52:00.000-08:00

Here we go ...We have 888 Likes and are 112 likes away from !,000 So we are going to have some giveaways..
To be entered into the giveaway #

LIKE - Our Page - In My Painted Garden

COMMENT - If your name is picked which gift would you pick from the pictures ( your choice of an ornamental gourd or your choice of Salt & Pepper Shakers )

SHARE THIS POST

PLEASE Invite Your Friends

When we hit 950 we will gather all the names of the people who completed the first 3 steps and draw the first winner !

Then when we hit 1000 we will gather All the names again of the people who completed the first 3 steps and draw the Final Prize !

Thank You So Much,

OH MY .... Did You Say Wood ...

2018-01-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

I started out by just buying and collecting old wood items for another medium to paint on along with doing my gourds and this is just a small portion of what I have. I have gone to many garage sales in fact the kids table and chairs above I had picked up years ago in Michigan they were all just plain wood, we also brought a stack of old barn windows with us when we moved. So I my husband if he would get the table and chairs out for m because I decided it was time to paint them . Yes while he was getting the table I had him get some windows out for me

The windows frames were all painted at one time with white that was now all chipping off or better said "very weathered " ! They also needed some caulking around the glass .
So my hubby took the windows and sanded and caulked and cleaned them up for me so I could paint the base coat and embellished them with all the flowers and leaves. With all the beautiful flowers and leaves in our world to choose from but I can only paint so many.

So I chose to paint one window with some pink Roses and the other with Sunflowers. So I started out on one corner with the leaves then stand back and take a look at it again to decide if I was going to paint Roses and Sunflowers and leaves in all four corners then I just went on from there...

I also found this shelf at a yard sale it was a long one and I fell in LOVE it.had four pegs for hanging whatever you would like and hearts in the middle. I decided I would stick to the same theme as the windows and painted them with the chalky Blue ( I really like that color )
I added roses and wisteria with vines and greenery.LOVE the way it turned out !

This is the childs table and chairs that I picked up in Michigan and also brought it with us when we moved to Tennessee. I wasn't sure I was going to do with it at first. It started out a natural wood , I thought about it and wanted it to be used by either a boy or a girl ( I raised 8 boys ) so I knew I had the chalky blue and had picked up some chalky pink so had that figured out .

I used stencil Alphabet to trace then painted the traced area

My next was what to do to the table .....LIGHT BULB MOMENT " A CHALK BOARD " and the alphabet letters around the outside of it ...as you can see in the pictures the way I did them ..

Did thisi around the whole table

Letters all painted on ..Now to paint the chalk board on

These are the chairs that I had picked up to go with the children's table.. I stripped them down took off the seats of the chairs and painted them all separate . Of course in the Blue and Pink to match the table I chose to do the outside frame of the chair in the pink and the seats and back in the blue

The seat bottoms removed and painted

Working on one of the chairs

So this is what I came up with they basically all match especially in the chalky blue paint..

This is what the finished shelf looked like 4 pegs and 3 hearts about a 4 foot shelf

I just LOVE painting on my gourds but there are many many different painting surfaces " just about anything " ! Of course these wood hand painted items were to big to sell on our Etsy Shop . So the first place I took them was to Shabby Lane in Historic Nolensville Tennessee . We have sold our items there since she opened up 4 years ago .and it is such a Great Shop ! Within a couple of weeks we sold All of what you see in the picture !!

I LOVE to paint ! I have never taken classes and I know I am still learning everyday, for me it is therapy, relaxing, calming ,sometimes for me it is frustrating and challenging because of my RA. I have my good days and Bad days,but I Thank God for my husband John because on my bad days he ( besides doing All my cutting of the gourds ) he will jump in and help me paint , he always does the shows with me . I don't think I could do it without him !. We also couldn't & wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for All our Fantastic Customers !
So I hope you like what we do and Please stop by our Etsy Shop and take a look around ;

If you have any questions or comments Pleas leave a comment I would LOVE to talk to you !!

and

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Maple Street Bell Buckle Tennessee Craft Show 2017

2018-01-01T16:32:00.001-08:00

This is Maple Street/Bell Buckle Arts and Crafts Show 2017 and what fun it was and always is ! The mornings are brisk as usual, still dark when we arrive, we get to park at the house on Maple St where we set up our booths... than the sun comes out and warms the day up and boy did the day warmed up in many ways......
The church here on Maple St. always puts on a big breakfast for anyone who want to have some breakfast to start out their day they serve biscuits & gravy , scrambled eggs, sausage patties, grits, coffee & orange juice, which they serve Saturday & Sunday of the show weekend. The Church Breakfast is by donation and believe me it's a GREAT breakfast !

As the day gets going on this Saturday morning the people start to fill the streets and Not one by one ! Usually where there is one person starting to walk down the street there is about 10 or more crowding right along..but that is a good thing ! This show is one of the biggest in Middle Tennessee !

We have been at our spot on Maple Street in Bell Buckle since 2013 and We Love our spot !! Each year brings more and more people and alot of return customers ! The return customers say I come year after year and we love that your in the same spot ,,,or I told my friend or family member where you are located and the New customers usually say I will be back again next year - will you be in the same spot ?

Lori, Linda & Jim

Myself, Linda , John & Jim

Then there are the other vendors who have been there for over 10 - 15 years or longer whom we look forward to seeing every year !
We have Jim, Linda & Lori who have sell Beautiful Quartz Stones, ALL kinds of gems & precious stone for collection or jewelry making, if your looking for it I'm sure they have it ! Jim & Linda say they are retiring this being their last year and Jim's daughter Lori will be taking it over . He says they will be back to check things out... Sure going to miss them but I'm hoping they will miss All of us to and come around to visit.

Randy & Vicki

Jack

Then on one side of us we have Vicki and here husband Randy, they sell All kinds of metal signs and they sell a lot of them.
On the other side of us is Grandpa Jacks Concessions Food Truck. and he has some amazing fried pies ! His customers come back year after year for those fried pies and Great conversation,. His stand is family family owned and run by Jack, his wife and daughter . This is also his full time job he sets up his truck in Fayetteville Tn everyday.

Below sitting with me is my sister Sandy she tries to come & help us at every show. I Love having her there with me to help or not .

my sister Sandy & Me

Our Booth

Craft tents everywhere

These are just some of the pictures that I took as I was walking around ,,, As you can see in the picture above they have All kinds of activities for the kid..

If you are able to make it around the whole town and see everything than you are lucky.. The town of Bell Buckle is not a very big town at all ! Main street with the majority of the business is a block long, The town has old time values , it does have a new gas station/convence store on the edge of town across the train tracks and sits on a corner .

So if you have never been to the Big Craft Show in Bell Buckle, then it is a must to stop by and check it out . If you LOVE handmade crafts as much as we do this is a GREAT craft Show not only to visit because it's a 2 day event and actually if you want to see everything and I mean really want to see everything then it probably would take the whole 2 days ! For us being a vendor it is a good show to do we have alot of customers and even if they don't buy We love just listening and talking to them ..

We hope you enjoyed your visit to the Maple Street/Webb School/Bell Buckle Tennessee Craft Show !!

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I Think Their Dogs ..... Well Maybe ??

2017-07-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Once in a while I see something and I decide that

" Yes I Can Paint That " ! It opens up my curiosity and creativity spot in my brain that says "you Accept The Challenge " of trying to push myself beyond my comfort zone and to try New things ! This being one of them !! I had never painted a animal before and I really wanted to try, If you don't try you will never know and that's about how I leaned to paint in the first place. I never took a lesson, I leaned by watching videos. But these dogs on domino's I didn't have a clue....

I had saw some domino's that someone had painted on ..Some were painted with beautiful little flowers and some had animals on them . Soooo I got on line and started looking for the best price on domino's & are there alot of domino's to look at and of course all different prices ...but the most important things about the domino's is they needed to have holes all the way through them so I could string them .

I think I found them online at EBay they came in a bag of like 50 or 100 for a really good price ...just what I wanted ! They come with a finish on them so you have to lightly sand them with some light grit sand paper, so the paint will adhere good to the domino's. .

See these have two holes drilled all the way through

A key chain ring

Then after I finished one I was so AMAZED that I really could paint a animal dogs to be exact ...I tried a cat and I bet out of the painted Domino's below you could pick out the CAT right away ...

Some of the Pet Domino's I put on key rings and some I put on a necklace but I actually think I like the Key Rings better

So just goes to show you that if you really want to do somethlng ....you really can ....Now I know that my hand painted dogs don't look the best but these were all first tries ...HONEST...these were the first and only ones I have done so far ... I have lots of domino's all sanded. and ready for painting Although I will have to put a hold on painting them for awhile because we have been Soooo Thankfully Busy with orders from our Etsy Shop for our gourd birdhouses ....

I hope this little post might have inspired you to GO AHEAD and Try IT !! YOU KNOW YOU CAN DO IT !!

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My Nostalgic Romantic Lantern Addiction

2017-04-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Aren't these lanterns just gorgeous...I just fell in Love with them when I saw them and All sorts of painting ideas started running through my mind !! Lanterns to me remind me ( especially all these Lanterns ) of the "ROMANTIC PAST " .. You know ...Don't you ?

We call this one the Bubble Gum Lantern

These are the little Lanterns

The lanterns are of all different sizes and the glass in them are very unusual .The small ones above are about 8 inch's H x 14 in. round . I painted One large rose on each side of these with green leaves . All our Lanterns come with battery operated candles , the small ones of course come with tea light candles. These small ones we have listed in our Etsy Shop www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden.

We absolutely Love the one we call the bubble gum lantern all four sides have curved glass. On the bubble gum lantern the lid latches and when unlatched it flip open and you put the candle in from the top. On most of those I have hand painted three roses on all four sides. with some green leaves .

Morning Glory Lanterns

Here is a set of tall white Lanterns with sculpted design on all four side and the door opens in the front.We have hand painted purple morning glories with bright green leaves and vines. We have taken these and a few other Lanterns to Shabby Lane in Historic Nolensville Tennessee, where we have many of our other items that we make like our Birdhouse Gourds .

Tropical Pink Flowers, Ferns &Butterflies

These are just a few of the Lanterns that I have bought and painted so far .

Small Purple Lanterns

Large Peach Rose Lantern Lit Up

Large Peach Roses Lantern

Small Peach Rose Lantern

Small Peach Rose Lantern Lit Up

Large Pink Rose Lantern Lit Up

Large Pink Rose Lantern

The Small Purple & Pink Rose Lanterns

I sure hope that you think my Lanterns are kind of - Old Fashioned - Romantic and maybe Timeless. The kind of romantic beauty from the past ....Yea I know it;s just I think it would be nice to bring a little bit of the past to our home decor...

P.S. Stop by our Etsy Shop for some Unique One Of A Kind Gifts -
We also take Custom/Special Orders
Want something we don't have send us an email at - inmypaintedgarden@yahoo.com

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The Hatchable Gourd Or So We Say ...

2017-04-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

Now this is different ....well maybe not but we are fixing to make our Pine cone Cottage birdhouse in a totally different way ...at least try . This is why we are calling it our " Hatch able Gourd " you know kinda like well hatching an egg ??

We just decided to cut one of our gourds in half,in a way that we thought we would be able to use for one of our birdhouses or pine cone roofed birdhouses.. So here you go ....I don't know how many of you have actually ever seen the inside of a dried gourd ....so if not I will explain a little .....

On the inside of the gourd is a sack that is full of the gourd seeds. After the gourd is dry which could take anywhere from 6 month to a year depending on the size of the gourd. like egg gourds , martins or bushel the smaller they are the quicker they dry ! We leave them right out on the vine in the garden where they lay even after the vines are all dried up and dead. After that they are usually all dried & in most, the the lining shrinks away from the sides and the seeds will shake around ( this is where the Maraca it's little musical shakers come from)

This is what a gourd Maraca looks like

Usually we clean out the gourds through the hole we put in the gourd to make the birdhouse and believe me it is a little time consuming to be able to pull out All of the lining and the seeds ! Sometimes the seed sack inside the gourd doesn't pull away from the sides but that's not to much of a problem....the problem is when the seed sack dries up into the size of a softball and is hard as a baseball and you still have to get tat sack out if you want to use the gourd especially if your using it as a birdhouse ! There have been times when just the gourd cleaning scrapper and the oversized hemostats or your fingers just won't work you have to pull out the big tools ,,,like a drill with a long drill bit on it to be able to drill at that seed sack ball little hits at a time until you get it to break apart ...that is if your steady enough not to drill through the gourd in other places by mistake...

Finally after all the lining with the sack of seeds is removed is when we can decide how we want to finish it . This is what we have done to this " hatch able " gourd so far ! We ended up taking the top and layering it with pine cones ,now to finish off the bottom of the birds house lets see if we can come up with a Unique way of making this birdhouse a bird home !

We hope you enjoyed this little blog post of the anatomy of a gourd...the first time I every decided to use gourds as my painting pallett it was so ...cool that when we arrived at the farm, the farmer was so gracious to take us out in his fields on his 4 wheeler ( there was still snow in the ground it was like April ) and educate us on the growing and harvesting of gourds. He even let us pick right out of the fields ..We had such a GREAT time that I/We havebeen hooked ever since and it's been about 18 years .... Still LEARNING but having FUN ...

Would Love to hear from you ..

Do you have a question about gourds or painting on them ?
How did you get started ?
Do you use gourds ?
Do you paint on gourds ?
Do you paint ?
What is your hobby ?

Please leave a Comment below

Until The Next Time,

So stop by our Etsy Shop and check us out ....We try to keep the Etsy Shop Garden Fresh (New Items ) & Full...

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Popping Pine Cones For English Cottage Gourd Birdhouses

2017-01-23T07:18:00.001-08:00

It's time to get busy again pulling pine cone petals for " Our Pine Cone Roofed English Cottages ". It takes a lot of time and patience to do pine cone roofs .

It takes cutting them all to different sizes, your fingers and hands get ALL sticky from the sap on some of the pine cones and the pine cone petals . It will wash off after you wash them a few times but take note to plan on sticky fingers and the glue sure doesn't help with the fingers sticking together.

These have pointed tips

You have to pull the petals all the way off the stem so you get the whole petal, Don't worry in the process you will break a lot of them ( which means they would not have worked in the first place they were to thin ) Luckily we have trees with pine cones that for me work out pretty good. I would LOVE to get my hands on some of those big hearty pine cones.

A Closed Pine cone of course these won't work

After we pull all the petals off the pine cone we just fill up gallon size baggies, zip them shut for further use. It takes an amazing amount of pine cone petals to fill a gallon size bag, Also it takes many many to do one roof on our " Old English Cottage Pine Cone Roofed " Gourd Birdhouses .

I always start off by painting the top of the gourd black where I think I want to start the roof. The reason for doing this is so of course none of the white will show through , You could actually paint it any color you may want too, I just prefer to use black or brown ,

This is what they look like when the roofs are done , of course I'm still doing the roof on the one on the far right. The two in the middle are base coated with the colors I am using for the birdhouses, one is a Slate Grey and the other is Itilain Sage.

Yes these are the finished birdhouses. you can see the Pine Cone Roofed Old English Greyatone Cottage Gourd Birdhouse here at Our Etsy Shop : https://www.etsy.com/listing/493177808/unique-pinecone-roofed-old-english?ref=shop_home_feat_4 As you are reading this I am getting to list the Itilian Sage Cottage Gourd Birdhouse .

Of course We are NOT done with only these two ,,,,we have many more to come and a New way of making our Pine Cone roofs will be popping up in our Etsy Shop soon, So keep on checking back ,
We would LOVE for you to give us some ideas on :

What colors shoud we paint some of the next birdhouses ?

Any other suggestions you might like to contribute ? We would Love some feed back ...

Thank You for stopping by . We sure hope you enjoyed reading what we LOVE to do !

Until The Next Time,

and

www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

READ ALL ABOUT IT !!! NEWS FLASH !!!

2017-01-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

Our Etsy Shop has GONE International !! We are now open to sell our items from our Etsy shop over seas to Canada, United Kingdom & Australia !

So come check us out ! Hope to see you soon !

www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

32nd Annual " Dickens Of A Christmas " 2016 - Franklin Tn

2017-01-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

Well off to the 2016 - 32nd annual Dickens Of A Christmas Festival in Franklin Tennessee ! It runs the weekend and this year it falls on Dec 10-11. I was unable to attend the festival last year as I had just gotten out of the hospital. So this year I was bound determined to go ! I had gone with my sister a couple of years back and she was not able to go with me this year , my husband had never been..... so guess who went with me ..... He LOVED it ! It's like stepping into the past .. Beautiful period of time, towns people dress in the Amazing dresses of the past with the large hoop skirts and the proper sometimes whimsical hats .The theme of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

The whole downtown of Franklin is shut down and the streets are lined with crafter's selling their goods .

It seemed like every time I turned around to take a picture, a Dickens Character would be walking by or standing on the street talking to somebody or taking pictures with someone ....That must be why they call it A Dickens Christmas ....

Bob Crachet , his wife and Tiny Tim

Lots and lots of people and crafters ! More than I remember from the last time I came here .,which was only a couple of years ago.

They had the old fashioned English policeman which are called "Bobby's" and yes we saw a few of them walking around and standing on street corners ....but nobody really knew if they were present day police dressed up as a "Bobby" or if they were just dressed for the " Dickens " Festival ....hummmm

This young mother was walking with her little boy pushing him in an old fashioned sled. They were in front of us and I stopped her and asked her if I could take a picture of them and she was just so happy that we wanted to take a picture of them.

A Group of Carolers

Jacob Marley

A Snow Opp picture !

Christmas Future

Just getting to the Dickens Festival

English Bobby's

Bronze Chimney Sweep

Caroler's

I hope you liked walking around with us and enjoyed the videos
of the " Annual Dickens Of A Christmas " in Franklin Tennessee. It is so much fun to even just go to Historic Franklin on any given day just to walk around downtown . They have so many Unique Crafter's and yes there is definitely something for everyone !! Lots of live music from up and coming singing artist to old time Christmas caroler's standing on corners. Dickens character's asked if you would like to be in the picture with them.Being my husbands first time he had so much fun , he couldn't believe how the Historic town of Franklin goes all out at Christmas time and Yes he said he would be coming back next year with me !! I could see about setting up our booth there but I/We really enjoy walking around and looking at other crafter's goods.

Until The Next Time ,

Yes We Do ......Custom Orders

2016-11-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

We do Custom Orders ...Doesn't matter if you order something from us at a festival or if you order from us online from our Etsy Shop or from our Face book Page - In My Painted Garden, we do Custom Orders ! Some have been a challenge on how to do what some customers would like on a gourd and make it a birdhouse ...Actually the birdhouse is easy to do but figuring out how to do the image on the hand painted gourd can be a challenge but we put our heads together ( my husband & I ) and we Get -Er- Done !

This was for a customers best friend

We have alot of our Custom orders come from when we do our shows. We will watch people talk about the birdhouses , then turn around and ask us if maybe we could make a certain gourd for them and these are just a few of the orders we have done .A lot of the orders also come of course from our Etsy Shop!

We are more than Happy to take on a challenge and see if we can produce what the customer wants. If we can figure it out & make it happen then YES we do ! But All of the ones posted here are special orders from our customers....... repeat customers and new customers !

A Big Hockey Fan in Tennessee Ordered This Guy

Sometimes we amaze ourselves by the way they end up turning out and we sure hope our customers think the same that they are "Amazed " by our work ...This customer wanted a gift for Fathers Day, she asked if we might be able to do an umpire because her Dad has been one all her life. We asked her her if she might have a picture (she wanted his sun glasses on) we said he would be a character finish of him....When we delivered him up she absolutely Loved him !!

This birdhouse was for a fellow worker of my husbands The "One Eyed Minon" is this mans sons favorite cartoon character so he asked my husband if we could make a birdhouse for his sons birthday present and this is how he turned out ...We had so much fun doing him and just Love the way he turned out ....what do you think ??

This one with the Pine cone Roof is another one of our popular birdhouses , but this one takes alot more time to work on because of cutting and putting the pine cones on one by one . We Love the way these turn out , some have porch roofs, some have window roofs . Once I start on one of these there hard telling what kind of cottage I will end up with.

This is Our latest Custom Order and it has drawn alot of attention because it looks so three dimensional....He turned out Fantastic ! We still have a few little touches left and then a couple of spray of polyurethane and a chain ....he will be already to go ...to his new home that's is ...

This was just to show you that "We Do Custom Orders" it usually takes anywhere from 2 to 5 days from start to finish it just depends on how much work/painting has to go into the birdhouse.So if you have SPECIAL Birdhouse that you don't see in Our Etsy Shop just email us or message us on on Face book page..In My Painted Garden.
Please Let Us Know What You Think ...We would Love Some New Ideas ... Please Leave a Comment Below !

Until The Next Time

Happy Holidays & Happy Shopping

www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

https://www.facebook.com/inmypaintedgarde/

2016 - Maple St - Webb School - Bell Buckle TN Fall Festival

2016-11-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

What A GREAT BEAUTIFUL weekend it was for a FALL Festival !! Light sweatshirt in the morning and in the afternoon a T-shirt..We were back with all of our fellow vendors and a few new ones added to our area .My husband and my sister Sandy came and helped. We went over on a Thursday evening to set up and was looking forward to seeing Miss Susan & her hubby Joe that's who's property we are set up on. GREAT people !!

As everybody was opening up

Our Tent

We came back and finished setting up , there were so many vendors in the small town of Bell Buckle that everybody had to maneuver around each other to get to their spots , but lucky for us the vendors of Susan & Joe get a parking spot on their property also .Which makes it great for her vendors, we have a place to pull into , can drop our tent and things off and then go park . They are such nice people , they make sure you have what you need & if you need anything or have a problem consider it taken care of. They even pitch in and help and Love talking to them !! I met them 4 years ago she had an open spot and put me there and we have been there ever since ...

Yes this side of the street is called the Webb School Show.The other side of the street which we were on was called the Maple Street Show and then YES there is another part called the Downtown Show,! Whew... But I'm sorry we never made it to the Downtown Show to take pictures this year , but if you look at last years blog post there are pictures of downtown. We were just to busy this year to do to much walking around.

Most of these pictures were taken as we were walking all around the town. Also these pictures are a combination of the weekend of Saturday and Sunday the two days of the show. It's always a Great show, the 4 years we have done this it has been the kind of weekend you want for a Fall Craft Show with crisp mornings and nice sunny afternoons that just had a touch of warmth ...to warm for a jacket .

Yep that would be my hubby sitting there

Just a few pictures of our set up inside our tent

It was so Great to walk around and see all these people who were also enjoying what they came to enjoy a FANTASTIC Fall Festival....

On Saturday and Sunday Morning the church on Maple Street puts on a nice breakfast of sausage patties ,scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits, gravy, orange juice ,coffee and milk. The town Boy Scouts are greeting you and putting on a fund raiser of selling Delicious Krispy Cream Donuts......yummy !!

There's my hubby, our son Dustin and his wife Jessica

My husband caught me in an early morning picture ...oh well

If you want food...there's All kinds which I'm sure you know at any type of festival or fair, food is also a must ! If you also notice there are familiar foods like burgers , hot dogs and fries...but then there's the unusual foods and LOTS of Fried deserts

No Shortage Of Food Choices Here...maybe too many

Busy Shoppers

All in All it was a Fantastic Weekend ! We had alot of return customers, met alot of New customers and even a few people who had been to Shabby Lane in Historic Nolensville and asked me " you sell at Shabby Lane" don't you and I said yes , we have bought your thing from there "We just Love that store " !
Needless to say it made us feel GREAT to know that our work is recognized and bought over at Shabby Lane , Then buy also again from me at the Maple Street Fall Festival !
We just Love doing the big Craft Show on Maple Street 9n Bell Buckle Tennessee...Hope to see you there next year..Clear Your Calenders For the middle of October to come to BEAUTIFUL Tennessee!

Stop by and check out our Etsy Shop for your Unique Christmas Gifts !! In My Painted Garden - Our Etsy Shop

Until The Next Time,

Happy Thanksgiving,

I Think We Will Go Naked ....OOPS ....Natural

2016-08-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

OK well what I really mean is my gourds are going Naked ....Oops Natural at least the ones that have the BEAUTIFUL Marbled finish of their own , but Not all of them have a Beautiful Natural finish!

When your gourds are growing in the garden , there is really not a lot you have to do to take care of them. They just vine all over the place and make their own way in the garden ! Now if you really want to get technical your can go out and pollinate your own flowers but that's for a different blog story. The SOIL is the key to a GREAT gourd garden .! But at the end of the growing season DO NOT PICK THEM you leave them right where they lay until spring and by then most of them have fallen or wilted off the vines and they should be all nasty looking MOLDY and the more they are molded that means that the gourd has gone full circle and usually the more moldy the thicker the gourd ! I have had customers tell us that they were all molded and threw them away NO not unless they have collapsed or caved in or you can put your finger through them then they are rotten and THROW them away !!

But when they mold just right when you wash them off you see very often a BEAUTIFUL MARBLEIZED mold pattern. Sooooooo hence the idea to just paint a few of them on the natural gourd to see what they would turn out like !

Natural Gourd

We bought and alot this year on a quite a few of them ( we still have 6 more giant bags of gourds to clean ) we started seeing that there was some BEAUTIFUL marbled patterns left from the mold, Usually we paint the whole gourd with a color then paint the design on them . Here's a few samples below " the Blue one I painted below with Colorful Hydrangeas is very similar to the one I painted on the Natural Birdhouse gourd with Bright Hydrangeas ...

Gourd painted with Blue Surface

side view

Natural Gourd with Hydrangeas

We put a post on our Facebook page asking what people think ,

Both side by side
We really like both of them , but I get really picky about the plain gourd, I won't use them for a Natural look unless it has a NICE marbling going around on it .I'm sure we will continue to do both .We put a post on our Facebook page -inmypaintedgarden- asking what people liked better The Natural painted with a design or The all painted one with the design painted on it .
So please leave a comment below and tell us what you think Natural or Painted ? PLEASE HELP >>>OUR CUSTOMERS OPINION MATTERS !

Thank You for stopping by our blog and we hope you enjoyed it ! Please comeback again !
Until The Next Time

and

A Trip To The Gourd Farm

2016-07-26T15:23:00.001-07:00

This is Larry Eckler the owner

What a GREAT weekend for a trip to the " Gourd Farm" I had called a couple of days ahead of time to make sure they would be open and to make sure he would have plenty of the gourds that we use the most ! As you can see yes they did and even more !! We have been going to the same gourd farm since I first started painting gourds

" Eckler Farms " . The first couple of years we were able to go to his farm during harvest time, at that time you are able to go out in the fields and pick what ever was ready (which was almost the whole 4 fields ) he would drive us around drop us off we would make piles of what we wanted then he would come get us and the gourds and take us to another field and we would do the same ) it was so much fun !! Besides being fun he taught us alot about gourds about seeds, growing them and about harvesting the gourds ! The moldier the better !!

But since we moved to Tennessee , the pictures I post of my gourd garden here are beautiful ! They vine all over the place with lots of flowers and gourds but my gourds are thin the whole gourd I think I have had maybe 4 or 5 good ones ! I only use quality gourds! The area where we live in middle Tennessee is more slate than soil and gourds need a sandy type soil .

So therefore we take a trip when needed usually once a year because Ecklers have Great quality gourds ! ( I will post a link to his website below ) So we took a trip to his farm it was a Beautiful weekend and when we got there Larry Eckler came and greeted us and showed us where all the specialty gourds were like eggs and mini bottles and well you can see in the pictures All the gourds we had to choose from ! He had bins and bins of all sorts of gourds like martins, large bottles. apples canteens, snake , swans,. Then in side one of the barns were cleaned apples, eggs, long handle dippers .

Egg Gourds

This green house had soo many egg gourds that seemed to stretch on for well...you can see for yourself it doesn't seem to end . In the picture below is a bin full of clean dried apple gourds

Cleaned Apple gourds

Those are long handled dipper gourds

Also in the same barn next to the apples were the cleaned long handled dippers ( We haven't really tried to make anything out of the dippers yet )

A bin full of mini bottle gourds

In these pictures here I had taken them inside one of the big barns and all the bins were full. In the background there outside this barn are many green houses and my husband & son decided to check it out. It was full of GIANT Hot House tomatoes. They also sell a variety of vegetables and seeds ,

Here are just a few of the gourds we were setting aside as we were picking what we wanted and needed. Unless you have crates and a trailer which we don't he asks that you bring your own garbage bags or what ever is needed for what you buy!

a bushel of gourd eggs

Larry Eckler s Farms is well known and when we were there many many customers for the fresh vegetables !

My husband loading up and tying up the gourds for the trip home.

We had a GREAT Big haul of those BEAUTIFUL Gourds that are now ours for us to make our creations for y'all !

But after you go to the gourd farm you still have to clean ALL of the big gourds we brought home . So we decided to fill this little pool we had with water and let the gourds soak in the water so it would be easier to clean all the mold off

Then we sat there with scouring pads and started scouring the gourds clean. Believe me it takes a while to scrub all the mold off of them . For the little bottle and egg gourds I usually (unless it's nice out ) will fill up the kitchen sink and scour them clean, But usually the ornamental gourds are not as moldy at all as the big ones !! YES I sanitize my sinks after I use them for my gourds..

After the cleaning is the cutting and primer ...that's what your looking at in the picture below .

It's Fun to use gourds as our painting canvas but it takes alot to get to that point as you can see. The cleaning and cutting is the hard work of it ALL it is Very time consuming but after all that it is WORTH it to us ! All in all it was a Great Trip, A Beautiful weekend! We were able to get stocked up for another year of hopefully making Unique , Fun , One Of A Kind Birdhouses, Bird feeders and what ever else we decide to come up with .
We hope you enjoyed viewing our trip to Ecklers Farms . Please stop by our Etsy Shop and check out our Creations !

and

LINKS

www.ecklerfarms.com

www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden

In My Painted Gardens New Garden Duds

2016-05-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

We decided it was time that we invested in some shirts and hats for us to wear at our shows and around town to..... well you know....put us out there...and if anyone decides they like the shirts and hats we have a few extra shirts they sent the wrong size so...and will order more ..but for now We have ours to wear !

These are the hats one is white and one is khaki ,they have adjustable straps in the back and we really like them !

We have not gotten the " hoodie " yet but these are next on our list !These long sleeve shirts are also on our list of clothing that we would love to purchase before the fall

We order All our business related items from Vistaprint. We have ordered from them from the beginning and we have never had any problems ! They ship Fast, Never have we had a problem if for some reason the order was not right ( for instance on the size,the girl that I talk with said the shirts ran pretty much to size so I normally wear a medium so I ordered but the shirts I was inquiring about were very form fitting needless to say I needed a large I called them they apologized and sent me two large shirts and got them two days later ) GREAT SERVICE !! We have ordered business cards,letter heads,flyers,envelopes, car door magnets signs, coffee mugs , pens,paper, you name it !! Yep and our new business duds . we will drop you the link below and maybe mention us PLEASE.. Although you probably have already heard of Vistaprint if not I encourage you to check them out.

Tell Us What You Think ??

UntilThe Next Time,

Here's the link to Vistaprint ; http://www.vistaprint.com

The Real Blogger Status: HTTPS Availability For All "blogspot.com" Blogs

2016-05-05T11:32:00.001-07:00

ALL MY BLOG FOLLOWERS AND READERS PLEASE READ THIS SO YOU CAN STAY CONNECTED TO MY BLOG " IN MY PAINTED GARDEN !! The Real Blogger Status: HTTPS Availability For All "blogspot.com" Blogs: The rollout of SSL, for "blogspot.com" published blogs, continues. All "blogspot.com" published blogs will now offer H...

Searching For The Cones Of The White Pine

2016-03-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

We like to use a certain kind of pine cone for the roofs on our gourd birdhouses and here where we live in middle Tennessee it is hard to find the pine cones we like.Our son said that when he took our dog Kaiden to the vets office ( he lives in the country here) anyway he was walking him around by the tree line and came across some pine cones and told us about them. So we finally made it there last weekend , it was a BEAUTIFUL weekend so we parked attheVet"s office, it was a Sunday ant the office was closed. Yes we asked them ahead of time if it would be alright to come pick pine cones. When we got out of the car all we saw were lots of pine cones , " JACKPOT" or so we thought so !!

No these were the wrong kind of pine cones,,,,, These pine cones were very tightly formed together and the tips on them were so VERY pointed and sharp NOT the kind we use but a good start to our hunt!

At the Vet's office wrong trees and cones

At the VA Hospital White Pine Trees

Then we remembered that when my dad was in the VA hospital here which is only about 20 -25 mins away but still in Murfreesboro. I had a bunch of Kroger shopping bags in my car so those were going to be used as our bags to carry ALL our pine cone TREASURES !! well hopefully !! We had also hoped that they had not mowed yet, YEA they had Not ! We got out of the car bags in hand and looked at the ground it was covered with the " BEAUTIFUL WHITE PINE CONES "!!

Look at All these Beautiful White Pine Cones !

Yes Yes Yes ! We hit the "JACKPOT OF WHITE PINE CONES " When we walked up you saw all these red pine needles laying All over the ground and laying in the needles were white pine cones nestled down in and on the red needles!!

All thered pine needleswith the pine cones nestled about them

This was our first haul of pine cones four full bags of Beautiful White Pine Cones and there were so many more that we decided to go back home and find some more bags or boxes or what ever we could find , we definatly needed to get as much as we could before they started mowing and then we would have to wait until fall to gather more.

So we headed home found what we needed and then back to the VA only this time we drove around to the other side and YES there were many more WHITE PINE CONES" !

Heres my husband doing his share of picking up as many of the pine cones as we could.We really didn'thave to be very picky about the cones they were just ALL so perfect ! So we just grabbed and filled as much as we could fit in the bags and then we dumped them in a big plastic tub.

The plastic tub we filled up

Yep this is the final haul of the second trip back to get the pine cones. We ended up with a Total of a Full plastic tub and 6 full bags of the " BEAUTIFUL WHITE PINE CONES "

We are pretty sure we will have enough to pine cone roof every " ENGLISH COTTAGE GOURD BIRDHOUSE " for maybe the next couple of years. !!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our blog " Comments Welcome "

Until The Next Time ,

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In The Begining- Did You Say Painting And Gourds ,.....

2016-03-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

I LOVE painting! I am self taught and I have SOOO Much more to learn ! I first got interested in painting when our boys were in school, Our son Kurt would come home from school every day and watched the painting channel usually Donna Dewberry & Folk Art One Stroke Painting. He NEVER painted and NEVER picked up a brush to paint, "he said he just liked watching her ! " I have bought almost all the early books, DVD, Vidoes and I watched and practiced and still practice but hopefully one day I will be able to meet Donna Dewberry and take some classes , it would be Great to go to her Dewberry U in Florida ,I would Love to be able teach Folk Art One Stroke painting someday. We have 8 boy's and All have different interest of course. They are All grown adults now, five of them have children of their own and we have some Beautiful grand children

Our son Kory & his lady Ashley do crafts , they do barn wood & wood signs & wreaths & many other crafts check out their face book page, which we will post the link below, they also do custom orders. If you check them out you can tell them you jumped over from In My Painted Garden's Blog . . Another son Zachary is a tattoo artist .

So my son Kurt got me very interested in painting , in fact the first gourd I ever painted was an Uncle Sam birdhouse gourd

Maybe you ask " Why Uncle Sam " ... There used to be a daytime TV program that when I got home from work I watched or tapped..The show was an hour long and show cased crafter's from around the world . One segment in particular was about a woman who painted gourds , I had tapped it and absolutely FELL IN LOVE WITH GOURDS !!

This is Our Family 24 years ago

So we searched out gourds (we lived in Michigan at the time ) Found a GREAT farmer who has a FANTASTIC gourd farm . He took us out in the fields and we learned alot , then we picked what we wanted . So every year to couple of years we try to make a trip to the farm where we have bought our gourds since I started painting on them and we buy enough to fill the back of our panel van from top to bottom and front to back and hopefully that's enough to last for a year ! We have had to have some shipped to nus and BELIEVE YOU ME --- SHIPPING --YES EXPENSIVE !! But then again if you are having a shipment of like 25 to 50 big birdhouse gourds shipped or even a big box of small ornamental gourds shipping is expensive . That's why we try to keep our cost down a bit . But if you have ever shipped any place it depends on the weight and location , rural or city. I myself find that USPS (United States Postal Service) has worked out GREAT for Us . They have always been on time and I have compared prices and they are the Best for Us.

When we bring them home my husband gets to work and sets up his little washing station and gets to cleaning them and set them in bins. Here's a short little video snip it of him cleaning them . Enjoy >

Next step of course deciding which ones are going to be birdhouses and bird feeders. Then to decide weather to make them character players ,flowered, pine cone roofed or anything else we can come up with

These are just a few of the birdhouses and bird feeders that we have done, some of these are sold but can be ordered , some are Custom made and some are for sale now..

This Pink Gourd Bird feeder is a custom order that we had done for a customer she bought a few of them in different colors and flowers and sayings for when her friends birthday came along . We had a fun time painting them for her she told me the colors and what she wanted like flowers, butterflies, ladybugs . So yes when we say custom orders WE mean Custom you tell us everything and We DO It Your Way ! We Love It !

This yellow Unique Whimsical Pansy was one that was just painted & listed at Our Etsy Shop

An assortment of Our Football Player Birdhouse Gourds , we can do any Team Player. We also do Baseball and Hockey Players in birdhouse gourds !

We really hope you enjoyed a little look as to how we got started painting and with painting on one of NATURES PALLETS gourds !

Until The Next Time ,

Our Face book Page - https://www.facebook.com/In-My-Painted-Garden-170385616339261/?ref=bookmarks

Our Etsy Shop - https://www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Kory & Ashley's Face book Page - https://www.facebook.com/Country-Crafts-by-Ash-179317462079702/?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

Donna Dewberry Offical One Stroke - http://www.onestroke.com/

Little Gourd Players Step In With Friends

2016-02-25T17:15:00.001-08:00

We have been trying to catch up on all my painting and these little players are a Big part of our product line...

This is how we start with the process of making my ornamental gourd little guys...

We have a couple of crates full of these small ornamental bottle gourds. These little bottles We Love to work with we can make snowman ,football,baseball players,we can make pumpkins with ghosts on top for a Halloween decoration or even painted stacking pumpkins. Actually the possibilities go are kinda endless if you let your imagination go "WILD '

I get out my painting pallet ( it's really just a foam plate, they make GREAT inexpensive ,durable painting pallets) Plus they are so darn CUTE when they are done and Great little gifts !!

After we are done deciding who or what we want to paint them as then it's time to take them outside to my finishing station,where we put on the final spray coats of the urethane (my spraying station as you can see is when it's nice outside is actually a hanging pant stand where we hang them on it to spray on the primer , urethane and where they dry.

These are just a few of the little players that we have done and sold and made more . Some were custom orders where we put a name or number on them (FOR FREE) You just have to contact us via email is best.

These sets here (the band boys above and the Graduates were Custom Orders that we have done .

We do All kinds of character ornamental gourd people and these are just a few of them and of course working on alot more .

These are the Halloween ornamental pumpkin/ghost gourds, they are just a cute little way to decorate inside at home or for the office, for your children or maybe grandparents,coworkers,they make cute little gifts.

We do baseball (does your child play baseball ) or maybe a Favorite Team -school etc.

Or how about somebody serving in the Military (these were actually done for a customer )

Hope y'all enjoyed taking this little tour of our "Little Gourd Players" and All the other characters that we can make out of these little bottle ornamental gourds. Don't forget that if you need a UNIQUE One Of A Kind Gift for that SPECIAL hard to find person , Just drop us a comment or email or visit our Etsy Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/inmypaintedgarden and we will help you with your CUSTOM gift needs!

Until The Next Time,

P.S. Would Love to hear from you....

The Making Of A Birdfeeder - Custom Made

2016-02-12T11:01:00.003-08:00

Yes this is my hubby getting ready to cut a bird feeder out of a gourd, this video snip it shows basically what he doe's .

These two pictures here show you just how thick most of our gourds are ,yes there are some that are thicker and yes there are some that are not so thick.,But for the most part we have been pretty lucky getting our gourds from the farmer that we have been buying from for years ! He has always had great quality gourds, the first year we went out to his farm it was durning picking season and he drove us around on a gulf cart all around his huge farm. He talked to us the whole time and we learned so much from hem from the soil to growing and how to pick out the thicker shelled gourds! He lives in Michigan (we are from Michigan moved 9 years ago to Tennessee ) and we try every year to go back to him and get our gourds and if not I have them shipped to us from him. We have not found any around here that compare to his , but to be honest we haven't looked around very much ( we like our round trip, road trips to Michigan !)

Hubby has the bird feeder holes cut and now he is cleaning it out with our gourd cleaning tool to make sure that all of the seeds and seed pocket out of it. He also has the holes drilled in the gourd for all four perches and we had already sprayed it white. So after he is all done cleaning it out it will be ready to put the finishing base coat of color.

Here is the finished cleaned out bird feeder gourd ready for the finishing touches...you know like hand painted flowers,vines and leaves and maybe some butterflies...

Or maybe some custom orders likes these matching Redskins Bird feeder and Birdhouse that we have made for a really good repeat customer !

Or maybe this custom order that we did for another customer

We can do just about any gourd birdhouse or bird feeder that you may want to order for that Special Occasions, Birthdays, Anniversaries , Just that Unique hard to find gift !!

If you don't see it in our Etsy Shop ,Just Let Us Know and We will Take Care Of You !

Until The Next Time ,

Check Us Out At :

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