I'm Dying Here!

Last night I went to bed late after working on my half canopy for several hours.  I was so excited to wake up this morning and have some time to finish and install it.  Well, the bug that has passed from my 3 year old to my 1 1/2 year old finally passed to my husband and he was in bed all day, sick as a dog.  Sigh. 

I was able to get all of the sewing and construction completed once the kiddos were in bed, but it won't get installed today.  Do you have any idea how much it is killing me to have it sitting on my dresser?  I'm dying here!  Hubby's hoping he'll feel better tomorrow and we'll get it up, then. 

I don't want to speak too soon, but this may be one of my favorite things I've ever made.  I am over the moon about it and it's not even hung, yet.  The best part, it was very easy to make.  Just...cumbersome.  I took pictures along the way and will include a basic tutorial on the construction.

So, since that's not completed to share with you, I thought I would show the before and after on the gold leaf frame I mentioned yesterday.  It was a large oval frame for a convex portrait of my client's grandmother.  Somewhere along the way, the frame had been sloppily painted cream and my clients were relying on me to finish it in a way that made sense for the age of the piece.  After looking at the portrait it would frame, I thought gold leaf would be perfect.

I stripped a portion of the frame to see what was underneath, thinking I could stain it if it was a nice wood.  I was very excited when I discovered a beautiful wood grain.  I completed the paint removal only to find that is was a faux wood finish over plaster.  So, back to the gold leaf idea... 

Here's the result.  I used imitation gold leaf and then antiqued it, so it would match the age of the portrait.  I think it turned out lovely and I'm ready to gold and silver leaf anything in my path.  I was asked to do a tutorial, so I'll work on one, soon.  It's so simple; you'll all be pros in no time.