A Peaceful Piece That Inspires

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This piece altered and painted by Dore (ME)

Letting the piece define its French rural style, it started out as a six drawer chest and none of the drawers were in any shape anyone wanted to take on. I on the other hand saw the possibilities considering it's unsightly appearance, I had to alter it into a piece that would demand rustic attention while allowing it to hold onto it's history letting it tell me what it wanted to be.

Trying to not offend the pieces original purpose I removed all six drawers, then cutting out the six divided drawer supports and by leaving the main center support to the chest it allowed me to add random, less then perfect, plank boards across the center support and the bottom creating a salvaged feel to this now new chest of storage, giving the piece breathing space.

Colour was important in keeping with a piece that would lie firmly in a country side home. I knew at first glance of completion this piece had to be grey, a colour that would quietly complement any French room with a sense of calm.

It was on it's way to being that perfect piece but, I had to give it that weather-beaten look showing off the different layers of pealing paints. It had to show distressing that matures over time that looks as if it were clinging onto its history it acquired on its soulful journey with a worn-out softness of a darker white.


In my garage I select which chest of drawer get to continue being what they are and which ones move onto a new goal of proudly displaying, rather then being hidden away in a drawer. This piece achieved my goal for a simple French home that proudly displays a French life.



Decorating a home with recycled and up-cycled pieces and objects of desire make a home feel good, promoting individuality and a peaceful place that inspires.

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I would like to think a French artist painted this amature oil painting on stretched canvas and I think I will due to the fact that it is not an artist signed piece.
The fishing boat art 16" x 20" was a treasured find at my local thrift shop for less then it deserves, I was happy to have rescued it for $1.49 yes a dollar and forty nine cents, a perfect French flea market brocante piece and I am pleased to become its new guardian, a keeper of lost pieces.

One thing painted in this artful piece that just did not make sense was that the artist painted a perfectly round quarter size bright tangerine coloured moon or sun in the center of the clouds, I took it upon myself to remove it and paint a glow of it in it's place leaving this peace hauntingly beautiful and a peace that tugs at you soulfully.

A couple of days later I was able to pick up this outdoor house lantern at the same thrift for a bit more then the painting at the price of $5.45 I loved that it had a patina of rust and lots of weather-beaten grey to it and the dome glass panels were seed glass pitted perfectly. I knew it would be a perfect fit to my new painting arranging a vignette around the two pieces while letting it speak French as if they were treasured finds from the south of France.


"Creating and inspiring French country living"

Inspiring Hands That Create Opera

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Turn up volume, enjoy the music

Hands that have created French opera, I am taking ownership to the deed of my own opera theatre. I became a creator of an opera theatre that nudged me to feel something deep in my soul while tugging at desire to create with all the passion I could find, letting the opera theatre sing its own story.

Another set of hands that created opera are the hands of a dear friend Anita, at http://wwwcastlescrownscottages.blogspot.com her opera theatre leads to la piece d'inspiration (the piece that inspired) After then seeing Anita's beautiful opera shows and her grand stage of opera it was all I could think about creating next.

I artfully created paper doll mice who sing opera beautifully.


In my hands a perfect thrift find, a crumbling old mantle clock concealed what beauty it could be. I then took this empty box with a broken door to my home studio where fragments and pieces with history find themselves allowing me to give new life to an overly tired box that once held a clock. It was a perfect piece of French brocante, not valuable but not worthless, altering what it was, to what I envisioned it to become, giving it a life to treasure.

Opera lessons in creating rustic European romantic history, I then added theatre drapes for the last curtain call across the stage made from vintage ephemera book pages adhered to scalloped trim and by twisting wire and beaded pearls together I was able to create a grand theatre chandelier. Painting with plaster and paint I gave the walls centuries of historical decay and neglect making it a magical theatre that performs operatically romancing a heart.


My daughter Hannah now in college, inspired the role the mice would play in being included in the opera. She had a doll house that I created for her when she was 4 where people did not live, but small sweet mice did at her request. It only seemed fitting that village mice would play a roll in singing the opera in their new opera theatre. You know what they say, "It's not over until the fat mouse sings"

Inspiring hands that create opera with French brocante. I added all the embellishments from my salvaged brocante pieces to a plain nothing box. After it was given opera life my daughter Hannah had a request that I gift it to her, so someday she can pass it on to her child (tear) For now it has found a perfect place as part of the French flea market decor in her bedroom.