Buying A Statue Is Not So Simple

A few weeks ago I mentioned to my hubby that I thought a statue might look great in the circle garden in the front of our house. We went to a great place to look at statues and realized that there were many to choose from. Were we funny folks? Would we put cows out front or huge frogs? Luckily I fell in love with a beautiful female statue that I thought would be pleasing to anyone who drove up to see us. But we are artistic people too...so the huge dragon really caught our eye. We both knew. Lady in the public area...dragon in the backyard just for us.

Like most of our ideas it seemed like a pretty simple project.
Here is the circle garden just waiting for a statue.
You go to a statue store, pick something and wait for it to be delivered.
Not so. At first the store did not seem to have delivery options. So I called movers and finally got someone to agree to go pick them up. A week later, the phone call came in to tell me they were too heavy.
"But I told you they were at least a ton each." Did you think I was joking? The statue project was not looking good. I was just about to cancel the sale when Carmine came to my rescue. One phone call and I instinctively knew we had our man. Carmine is a large tree landscaper with all the equipment necessary to also move a heavy statue. All I said to my hubby was I found a Tree Guy!!

He arrived with so much equipment that we were wondering if maybe the statues looked smaller in the centre surrounded by other statues. A forklift, bobcat, and a crane were all needed! Call me crazy...I thought they might just be rolled into place.... I don't think Carmine was expecting such happy customers each with camera in hand to document the arrival of his truck.

Using the crane the one ton lady was gently lowered into place. Not a single flower was disturbed. Carmine is the master! A blue sky day and a successful gardening installation!

The dragon was moved with the bob cat! It isn't every day that you see a dragon going for a ride on a huge bob cat. This summer I will have the opportunity to take some great photos of both statues. For now, we are just so happy that yesterday's grand installation worked out perfectly. We have our statues and a new Tree Guy we can trust with our outdoor projects. Carmine has a website www.applevalleytrees.com. The website was frozen when I checked it today, but I did want to give him my very best recommendation! If you ever need Trees added or removed (which we do) you would be wise to call him! 416-628-4900.

So now we can really enjoy our Sunday! It's raining and overcast so I am going to have a studio day! Yippee! To inspire me, here are my beading links for the week!

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy is getting back to the basics, starting with jewelry making tools. What is your must have tool?

Art Bead Scene
Gearing up for that big bead show coming up? ABS has the top ten tips for your bead buying trip!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe is having a "City of Love" giveaway!!!

Beading Arts
Chapter two of Cyndi's e-book is available for download! "Altered Surfaces" begins the exploration of the exchange between mixed media and bead embroidery!

Carmi's Art/Life World
A handmade bezel results in a new necklace for Carmi called FAITHFUL.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
A set of smokey quartz beads inspires a new necklace.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie celebrates her 1000th blog post with Ten Days of Giveaways!

Jean Campbell
Jean reviews Nathalie Mornu's Leather Jewelry, a bang-up book.

Katie's Beading Blog
Get the 411 about BeadStyle's gorgeous All Star Issue!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei has been answer some of her reader's questions from a previous giveaway post. Read up on what everyone wants to know!

Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Jean is thrilled to be in BeadStyle magazine's July All Star issue, with pals Tammy Powley, Heather Powers, and Katie Hacker who made the cover so beautiful! Come and see!

Strands of Beads
It's Melissa's turn to review Kate McKinnon's fabulous Sculptural Metal Clay.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
The prize for this week's Thursday Giveaway comes courtesy of Green Girl Studios! Find out how you can get ahold of these fine pewter beauties!

missficklemedia.com
The Staples of Jewelry Making