My Grandpa lives on

What to my wondering eyes should appear, but two old wooden skeleton keys seen here:

I just say the word, and the word  being that I'm looking for old skeleton keys, and my glorious Mom finds these two in my Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They are passed away, but my parents still have their house filled with old treasures. A lot of their stuff has been donated to grandchildren.  But a lot of their things remain. I am the fortunate inheriter (that's probably not a word) of their neat stuff.

Along with a lovely box of Christmas presents, these keys were thrown in.  Can you read this cute note from my Mom?

If you can't read it, it says "To: PeaHen Crafters, made by Grandpa George."  Queue the sappy music where my heart melts.  First of all my Mom is a saint and the most wonderfully nice person in the world. Secondly my Grandpa George was awesome.  And now I have a piece of his art and his own craftsmanship in my house. I am so lucky. Here is a pic of my Grandpa George when he was about 19 or 20 when he worked for the CCC (California Conservation Corps.)

I wasn't quite sure if I was "allowed" to do anything to these keys and they did look cool already in their au-naturale form, but I thought they would last longer if I sealed them with some paint and sealer.

I took great care to sand them lightly so they wouldn't lose any of their shape.  Then I gave them a coat of Valspar's gray primer. 

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted them both the same color or different colors, but I decided to go with two different colors to mix things up a bit and also so they didn't look store bought, but home made. The first color I chose was acrylic paint called Calypso Blue by Americana. This was left over from my Pinterest Acorn challenge.

The next color I chose was this Textured Metallic Specialty Finish by Martha Stewart, left over from my bathroom mirror project. The best part of this entire craft is that it was absolutely free. Holla!

Once the paint dried I used Valspar's clear finish spray to seal them.   I chose some light blue with brown stripes ribbon to hang them on the wall. It was hard deciding where to hang them, but I thought they would look best in the entry way with some other framed art and holiday decorations. Although these will hang all year long.

The gray one hangs just below the blue one.

This is obviously a close-up of the blue one.

And here are my two new favorite things to look at when I arrive home:

May you rest in peace Grandpa George. We now have the keys to the past, and a bright future ahead.

xo

Cathleen