This is little off subject I think but Joan talking about making things with toilet paper rolls & oatmeal boxes made me think of all the fun I had making forts, school houses, or a fine house- all out of the refrigerator or appliance cartons. The ones we got were around a new appliance & had wood frame & heavy cardboard or maybe even lightweight paneling with reinforced corners. They did well in summer rains(I added some kind of roof) & in winter dad had gotten 1 for me to retreat to in the basement. I put 3-4 of them together on a vacant lot & "taught" school, played house with other neighborhood kids or fought off cowboys or Indians as we often changed which ones we wanted to to be. There was a tree on the lot, so we could escape the fort & go up in the tree & be lookouts, of course the lake was right below so we had to watch"on land & sea" it was quite a job & we were very serious about it. Too bad I didn't have my camera yet! I was shy but always road after the appliance truck & asked if I could have the crate, I think we ended up with 4 on the lot, they were very heavy but delivered right to spot I wanted.So disappointed when torn down & new house went up in there. Dad really started something fun by bringing that 1st 1 home tho. Jan

Linda, I love your horses!! I have one - my girls and I named her Bessie - that has sat out in my flower bed for a couple years, patiently waiting for inspiration to strike me. And now I think, thanks to your horse, it has bashed me in between the eyes!!! I do have some jewelry I've gotten at the Goodwill, that I know she needs to wear, a gorgeous triple strand of pearls that has to be some type of bridle and some funky, huge clip earrings, etc. I'm so excited now! I need to decide what to put on her body, but now I have a direction to go - thank you, thank you!!!

I found this elsewhere: "Q: I want to make all my ugly plastic planting pots look like concrete pots. How can I do this? A: There's an easy way and a not-so-easy way to accomplish this look. Let's go with the easy way. There are several products on the market that can be sprayed on to create that concrete look. One I like in particular is a spray paint from Krylon. Simply clean and dry the pot, then spray the surface. You will have a concrete look in no time. If you want to be a little crafty and add some dimension, spread on a plaster compound and cover it with sand. Let that dry, and then paint the entire pot." I couldn't find any paint by Krylon that said "concrete look", maybe you will have better luck. If you wanted a smooth concrete look maybe you could use a flat grey primer then lightly sponge with just a shade darker (or lighter)?

Ditto what SILVA said. Viewed on closeup on Flickr, this is mind-boggling. Those teeny weeny pieces and the details are awesome. This kind of work w/drive me crazy. I'd never have the patience to work on something so detailed. I read back over this thread, and I don't see anything about an auction - is this gonna wind up in an auction for charity??? If so, how w/you be able to part w/something so beautiful, and something that took so much of your time and thought, and wouldn't you want to display this in your home?