Time for me to brag!

DD decided the other day when she saw me thumbing through my encyclopedia of stitches that she wanted to learn how to stitch. So I started her off with a simple stitch and a simple letter to make up.

All straight lines, capital letter E, and crossstitch. The E is outlined but the rest she had to sort of count, you know, she had to keep track of where to put the needle on the aida.

And she did a marvelous job!

I'm so proud!

I got an award!

Thanks to Miggins for sending this award to me. This was truly a surprise. It did take me a couple of days to get around to this post. You know...Christmas stuff... LOL

You should go over to her place when you have a minute and check out the scripts she has for PaintShopPro. I love using her scripts for the doodles on my own scrap pages. And I saw that she has a couple that I haven't tried yet. I'm falling behind.

So I guess I need to do the award thing. I have to tell 5 things about myself and then send the award to 5 others. Well, here's the 5 things about me:

And now for five blogs to get the award:

Easy Custom Blogs - my blog would look ordinary and dull without all of the blog beautification tips from Jeanette
Elegant Word Art 2 - In my opinion the finest word artist on the web. Bethany knows words!
Gunhild Storeide- Gunhild doesn't just have freebie elements on her site. She gives art tips, too. And she knows her stuff! I've made some really gorgeous stuff because of her tips.
The Scrappin Cop- I get the greatest little animal templates from here. My favorite so far is the penguin. Buy her commercial use license if you want to make stuff for distribution. One look at her designs and you'll see it's well worth it.
SuperMomScrappin- And the best for last, my friend Amberlee. I would not even be here designing if not for her influence. She got me started in the digital world. I can design individual doodads and papers, but Amberlee can do what I frequently fail at. That's putting together layouts that really POP! She can do so quickly what can take me DAYS to do. She's awesome!

Layout trouble

Have you ever had a picture that you really wanted to journal exactly what you were thinking when it was taken? A picture where it is very clear in the expression on your face that you want to really kill the person holding the camera?

I have one of those pictures, well two actually, in a layout that I'm working on right now. I can't just leave it out because it's part of a larger project that documents the first year after we adopted our daughter.

The layout is going to be in a bound book but the journaling probably shouldn't be as truthful as I would like for it to be. Or should it?

I wonder if I should print off a copy of the layout, traditional scrapbook type, and put a sticker on the back journaling my exact thoughts at that moment the picture was taken. And then make the book version, um... sanitized.

This is intended to be a history for my daughter. Ultimately it will be a set of books documenting as much as I can for her. I have to tell the truth, but where should I journal it? There's always the chance that a certain person will pick it up and read it.

But the pictures are there. And it was an important night being that it was the first night in our new house. But it was really the wrong time for a photo-op. After a long day and a 350 mile drive with a baby with a cold, it was REALLY the wrong time for pictures. But the picture taker just wouldn't wait until morning. I still had a flippin' crib to assemble and there I am sitting through 'Just one more dear'. Even DH got....ticked after a bit.

How would you handle it? Two separate books? One truthful for the history and one...sanitized for outside eyes?

*ugh*

Mmmm...yummy!

I just had to show you the layout of my very first pies. I made these for Thanksgiving when my friend Amberlee and her family came to visit. I'm truly grateful that she has two growing boys... it kept me from growing too much eating all of the goodies that I made for that weekend. LOL

Oh but it was all so good!

I had never made pies before. I never really had the need to do it. I've always watched my mom make pies so I knew HOW to do it, I just never had the occasion to do it.

So for a first time making pies, these turned out very nicely. The crusts are just a little rustic, but I like things distressed. Ya know?

Old Sewing machine legs with a new life

You've seen them at garage sales or antiques barns. You'd love to buy them but hadn't the first idea of what to do with them. You even cry a little at the thought of disassembling an old treadle sewing machine just to discard or sell the legs. Those heavy, cast iron, indestructible legs.

Hmmm...

Well, many years ago I came upon a garage sale that had two legs from an old sewing machine. $10 and they were in fine shape. No rust on them at all. That usually means that the machine was kept inside for a long time and was only just dismembered. *cringe* I love old treadles. I have one that's still in one piece and functional. I even have extra belts and stuff.

But back to the $10 legs. I didn't know what to do with them but I couldn't resist them. It's a good thing that I bought them. Later that summer, another garage sale, there was an old, homemade tool crib for $5. It was a little musty and stinky but some scrubbing and baking soda will take care of that. What to do with it?

Believe it or not, it didn't occur to me to put the two things together and make a table until two years later after a flood wrecked our basement. After the basement got redone (very nicely I might add) I ended up with extra paint.

BZAP! You might think that these ideas BZAP-ing me might be painful. No unsightly marks as of yet but they do have a tendency to keep me awake at night.

I painted the tool crib with the extra paint. I then attached the tool crib to the sewing machine legs and looked to see what the weak and wobbly spots might be. That's when I noticed that I had more screw (or bolt) holes in the legs. I could have another shelf under the tool crib. I also needed to put a board along the back for stabilization. So I was off to find scrap in the garage. Which I found. Measured what I needed. Cut, painted and screwed the boards in place where the holes in the legs lined up.

That table is the one in the top picture in the layout below.




The table in the lower picture in the layout is a more recent creation.

There are some folks that live not too far from here who have this huge barn and they have frequent sales of antiques. I've gotten a fair amount of old photos and really old sewing patterns from there. And a jar or two of antique buttons.

And the legs from an old Singer treadle machine with the pedal and wheel all still attached. Just no machine. $15- SOLD! It was pretty rusted. But rusted cast iron really only needs a good wire brushing and scrubbing to bring it back to life. Since the antique value is dependent on having the original machine still attached (and even then this one would have only been worth about $100) I went ahead and spray painted the iron legs with matte finish Rustoleum paint.

And then it sat, in our entry way, for about a year until I could figure out what I wanted to do next.

When I did my shelves in the craft room I ended up with the extra sheets of plywood. I asked DH if we could team up to clean the table saw so I could get this wood cut down to the right size.

Once it was cut I started Mod Podging the book pages to the plywood. Then I attached the wood to the top of the treadle legs with nuts and bolts.

I just might go back and take a look at the other treadle legs they have at that barn next summer. I have another spot that would look wonderful with an unusual table.

I'm so impatient!

I love how certain things look when I paint them. I really do. I do a pretty good job when I feel like taking the time to paint. I'm like my mom that way. More than a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to a paint finish.

But more often lately I haven't got the patience to wait for paint to dry. Not to mention all of the surface prep before you even can get the brush wet.

I needed two boards for my shelves in my craft room. I got tired of the big plywood sheets being up there. It was just too difficult to manage all of the stuff that ended up there.

Sometimes a huge flat space isn't the right thing to have. I needed to make it smaller. You know, so that there is less of a chance that little stuff doesn't end up hidden right behind something just a little taller.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to find something only to find it AFTER I've finally given up and gone out and bought another one. Granted, you can't really have too much Mod Podge in your stash...well....

So I went and got the two boards from Lowe's. They didn't have to be perfect because the wood was going to be covered with paper. Two plain 8 foot long pine boards for $20.

I have quite a stock of old Reader's Digest Condensed Novels. The library had a whole shelf full this summer and I cleaned them out. I use the covers to make other books of my own (more on that another time) and the uncovered guts have been piling up, just waiting for an idea to hit.

BZAP!!

I spent about a day and a half pasting the pages of these books onto the wood and now I have two fabulous shelves. No sanding down the edges to avoid splinters. No priming the wood so the paint will cover evenly. Just Mod Podge and an old book that would have ended up in the landfill anyway.

I even had plenty of pages left to cover some Slim Jim(beef jerky type of snack) cans to keep all of my tools in. The cans are like Pringles (potato chip) cans. But that's another project that needs its own layout.

I'll bet you'd like to see what I did with the plywood that I took down, wouldn't you?

See you tomorrow!

I just have to brag

Sometimes having an only child can get a bit exhausting. When you haven't really got any kids around for them to play with and no family nearby then the mommy and daddy become the only playmates. For the most part this is fine except for those times when work actually has to get done.

I'm the first to admit that housework gets pushed aside so that more creative and intellectual pursuits may fit better into the schedule. I'd much rather spend the days expanding her knowledge base than cleaning the cobwebs from the corners. Though when those corners start looking as if they might spring to life on their own, that is the time for said child to find solitary amusement. Even for just a few minutes.

Well, last Friday the whining began. "i'm booooored!" she says to me. "You have more toys that I had when I was little" (this is true) "How can you be bored?" "I don't know. I'm just bored. I don't know what to do"

Now I'm at the point where if she's bored, with three rooms full of toys and a craft room full of paper, crayons, pencils, fancy scissors and glue, then I'm putting her to work on folding the clean towels.

At that moment I was on chat with DH while he was at work. After determining what time he'd be home so that I know when to start dinner, I relayed the above conversation to him.

He quipped, "Tell her to build the Parthenon with her blocks"

Hmmm...that's not a bad idea. So off I go to Google the Parthenon, found two images. One a photo of the front(I think it's the west portico...I'd have to check), and the other image was a floor plan diagram of where everything is located in the building. Pillars and all.

I printed the images and gave them to her and said build this.

And she did:



This is one smart kid. I can't wait to see what she can build next.

I really need to buy film

Digital cameras are great and all but they really have their limitations. I need to buy real film for my real 35mm camera.

We have a juvenile male red-tailed hawk just hanging around on the neighbor's tree across the street. And the zoom on the digital camera just isn't cutting it.

But here's the picture as best as I can present it.



Isn't he a beauty? He pounced on something one of the times that he was perched there on the neighbor's brand new tree.

I hope this bird decides to stay.

It's ready!

I'll be wearing my coat tomorrow if it's cold out. Hah! "if" it's cold out. Now THAT'S comedy!

And I finally have pictures!


I'm still thinking about what to do with the wrist and waist bands but for now they're ok against the new material. Actually the waist band is perfect against the black material I used. The front flap looks a little weird but I might cover that too and then put frog closures and new buttons. I wasn't in the mood to try to cut and sew around each little snap on the front. I just have one little seam on the right sleeve to finish and then I can start with the real fun. Decorating my coat.

I've got a bunch of copies of Belle Armoire , that altered clothing magazine from Somerset Studios. I've wanted to make something artsy to wear for a long time but for me it needs to be something functional. I'm a blue jeans and t-shirt type of girl. I don't dress up. I just don't like wearing things that are purely ornamental. I love looking at them, but my clothing HAS to have a function. At last I have both!!

So the first bit of ornamental sewing has to be the quilting. I have to find some line drawings to fiddle with...oooh! I've got it, I have the Chinese symbols that make up my daughter's name from before we adopted her. Plus all of the other calligraphy that I've done in the past year. Those will make superb quilting designs.

I guess that means that I'm off for today to make up my quilting patterns for the coat. Plus I have to find my white tracing pencil....

OK so I'm really getting behind

I was supposed to put up a picture of my coat. I didn't even get a chance to work on my coat this weekend. I got the family room cleaned up and ready for the Christmas tree. I even *gasp* cleaned out the fireplace. That hasn't been done since before we moved in. But it is now very clean and loaded with large pillar candles. It looks lovely! I'll have to start looking for more candles on sale.

We don't burn wood fires because DH is allergic to dust, DD is allergic to oak(so no burning the stuff), and I'm allergic to ever cleaning out that fireplace again.LOL

This year I drafted everybody for the decorating. Usually I'm the one doing all of the cleaning and decorating and this year I just wasn't up to it. So DH brought up the tree from the basement. That's a heavy tree. I set it up. (DH, dust allergies...you know) Then I put up the garlands on the mantle and hearth. Arranged the lights through the garland. Then set up my growing collection of nutcrackers. DH and DD were in charge of decorating the tree and they did a lovely job. This is the first year in a long time where I wasn't completely exhausted after setting up the tree. Though I did take a short nap with the candles and the Christmas lights going. It's so relaxing in there.

This week I hope to finish my coat. It's very nearly finished. And it's so very cold outside. *brrr*

New blog-wear for Christmas

I've decided that even though the Christmas spirit isn't quite with me yet that I'd give it a try to decorate the blog for Christmas. Tomorrow I'll try to tackle the tree.

I'll include the credits for all of the frames in a sidebar a little later. I did a book for a family member for a Christmas story that was written many years ago. It turned out well. I wanted to play on the artwork that I did for that book here on the blog. It goes well with the theme of Christmas with family over the years. It won't be easy for me this year. This is the first year that my shopping won't include the pet store.

Well, nothing will change that and I'll just get my keyboard wet. :(

I heard that it snowed today in Houston. And that it was all of 32 degrees outside. *ouch* I always try to count on it being warm somewhere in the northern hemisphere in December even if it's only 50 degrees out. That doesn't seem to be the case this year. I checked the weather where my aunt lives and it was just as cold. I know she can't be happy about that. She's like me, can't stand it if the temperature is below 87 degrees. hmmm...wonder what it's like in Ecuador....oh! Volcanoes...never mind. I'll put up with the snow and cold. I don't want to deal with seismic instability of any kind. I like boredom. Really I do.

Good news! After several months of dread we finally called a repairman to see about fixing our television. WooHoo! It's fixed and for only $240. Just one of the electrical connections that finally wore out after all of these years. There's every possibility that it just might last another 12 years. Movie night is back!

I'm down to the last three little tiny strips of fabric before the basic covering is done on my coat. Just in time, too. The temps are dropping quickly out there. I came up here to do some computer stuff and my Wacom was cold. It doesn't like to respond when it's cold.

Well, I'm sort of bored with computer stuff today so I'm going to grab my coat and do more work on it. I'm hoping that it'll be photo ready tomorrow for the first "after" pictures. Just remember, this is just the fabric covering. I haven't done the fancies yet so it still looks a little rough. But it's so comfy that it'll keep me warm in spite of my weight loss. You know, that is the only thing that sucks about losing weight. Losing that insulating fat layer is not quite so comfortable in the deep chill of winter. And it technically isn't winter yet.

See you tomorrow for coat pictures, I hope.

Another great Template!

Scrolling through the freebies at Digifree tonight I spotted a layout and followed the link for a template. WOW! The blog is Passion Scrap de Sandrinette and the post with the template is here.

I did two layouts based on the template. You know I can never do anything without tinkering with it a bit. I always change things around. This template and layout that she came up with is fool-proof.



I can't wait to do some more like this. It is so elegant and easy. This is very pleasing to the eye and I am so glad she thought of it.

What a great template!

I'm taking more time to play and look for templates to help me put together some layouts. I might be a pretty good artist but sometimes I'm just a terrible scrapper. I really need templates sometimes to help me remember how to compose a pretty page.

So I went looking around at Digifree and went to Les Digis de Steph for her newest template. She had several layouts that others had done using the template and one of them inspired me to scrap a couple of pictures from a few years ago. Pictures of DD and her first snow. She was 18 months old, home with us from China for only 6 months at that time. Gosh she was so little! I'm so glad that I stay at home with her. I haven't missed a thing that she's done. I've been here for every minute of her life since we adopted her and I am so glad of it. When it means that we eat hamburger and chicken, I have to recycle old coats to make them warmer to last longer, anything at all to save money so I can stay home with her. It's so worth it to do with patchwork clothing to be able to watch her grow up every day.




And yes, that is me wearing the old coat that I'm fixing up. This is the before picture. LOL