Christmas Notebook

We have a friend, Gary, who makes beautiful stained glass. I recently shared on Facebook the stained glass angel he made for me. I thought I’d share more of his work here. He certainly deserves the credit.

Gary surprised me one day by stopping by with a gift. The stained glass angel! In my absolute favorite color…cobalt blue! The wings are a rippled, shimmery iridescent. I took this picture early one morning as the sun came through the east window.

From outside…

DH asked Gary to make stained glass for our upstairs bathroom, as a gift for me. I received the bottom piece on Christmas Day one year and the upper piece later the next year. It was so nice to take the curtains off that window, once the stained glass went in. The picture shows the ornament mobile that hangs in front of the window. My sister Genny put that together.

From the outside…

Here’s a close up of the bottom panel.

The downstairs bath features Gary’s work, too. I found this antique door in a shop near my sister’s house. The entire thing is held together with square cut nails. Even tiny ones, holding the window trim in place. I designed the windows with irises because I love the flower. Do you see the tiny butterfly in the window to the right? How Gary managed to cut the white glass to fit around the butterfly is beyond me!

A detail from the window:

Here’s Gary, just after the installation.

The room we call the “library” (functions as our family room) was originally a family parlor. In a 1921 remodel of the house, it became a dining room, with a built in buffet. We replaced the very arts and crafts style windows in the buffet with ones I designed and Gary made for us. They fit the color scheme and style of the house better than the original ones did.

Gary, as he installed the windows.

Gary even made ornaments using glass from a hanging lamp a friend made for me when I graduated from high school. The lamp was falling apart, but I loved the glass with its dark shades of blue and green. Now I hang these in the window year round. They remind me of my friend Terry who made the lamp and they remind me of my talented friend Gary who has a generous and loving heart.

~~Rhonda