Mother's day 05/12/09

I hope every Mom has as nice a Mother's Day as I did. I got the only thing I asked for...help demolishing the bathroom at the cottage. I even got some extra helpers...my brother and sister in law. My husband's Mom came along to to keep things light!


Here is my daughter helping to rip out ceiling tiles. Note my new electrical panel! Lights!

My sister in law and brother in law worked hard to pull tiles and remove remaining bathtub framing.

My son and husband were out mowing the lawn and gathering an armful of Poppies that were in full bloom on the property. Aren't they beautiful? (See photo above.)

After burgers at a local "Drive-In" we came home and I opened my gifts.

My jewelry-making daughter took this lone vintage earring and turned it into a brooch for me. It SPARKLES!

My 16yr old son made this sweet charm bracelet out of Sculpey clay. He baked all the pieces right under my nose. I never saw a thing. The charms are: a cross, our dog, pepsi logo (I'm addicted), a heart, watermelon (my favorite food) and an ebay logo (I've been selling there since 1995!). His sister put all the charms together on the bracelet.

Work at the cottage 04/25/09

I've been getting work done on the bedroom at the cottage. I love the blue we picked out for the walls and it's so pretty with the sun shining through the large windows.

While my mom was visiting, we hit a few garage sales and I got some GREAT treasures for the cottage.

I got this really pretty bed for $10. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but it was painted fluorescent yellow and green and was upholstered in maroon. But I saw past that, to what it would be. Here it is:

I painted it in white, re-upholstered it in a tiny taupe houndstooth and covered it in an old hobnail cotton bedspread that I had. No pillows yet. Look at the pretty detail in the siderails and foot.

Here is more detail in the carved roses on the headboard:

Now, I know this is absolutely crazy but check out this adorable side table I picked up for $3!. There are 3 huge brass flowers that spring out on the base. They are like tulips on steroids that have been bronzed! Inside each of the flowers is a light bulb that lights up when you plug the thing in! How great is that?! Anyway, the flowers look just like "Audrey 2" in the movie Little Shop Of Horrors so I have loving dubbed this little table "Audrey 3".

At the same sale where I purchased Audrey 3, I bought this massive mirror for $15. Is it gorgeous, or what! 

My amazing daughter used lots of elbow grease to get this old fridge to shine! This is the old thing I bought last month for $25 from a farmer who had it out in his barn. It is an old HotPoint with a tiny freezer on top. But the best thing about it is its PINK interior! It is too SWEET and too perfect for my old kitchen. It's a little shabby on the outside and I may paint it in the future. But for now it is fine.

How to make a barrister wig 02/24/09

Our Homeschool Teen Club is performing "Wind in the Willows" in April. My daughter is playing the role of "Mole", my son is working on sets and behind stage and I am working on costuming. Our costume committee has done a fine job with all the outfits and they are almost complete.


One of my tasks was to figure out how to make a judge's or barrister's wig. You know the kind...it looks a little like a George Washington wig. I searched everywhere on-line for some simple directions and came up with ZIP! So I'm hoping this will be helpful to others who might want to make their own instead of shelling out the $30-$40 to buy one. This cost me less than $5 and took about 3 hours to make.


I bought a cheap fiber Christmas tree skirt ($2.00 after Christmas sale), like the blanket of snow you might put under your putz Christmas houses. It is the same rolled polyfill batting that is sold at fabric stores. I used a ballcap for the base ( after I removed the bill) and just started molding the batting around it. (Everything was handsewn. I didn't bother dragging out the machine!)

I made a seam down the middle for a part. I gathered the back together then added a "ponytail" made from two flat pieces hot-glued together. Then I tied it with a black grosgrain ribbon.



For the side rolls, I took long strips of batting (approx. 5" wide) and rolled them up like pastries, sewing them shut with a running stitch. I left a little flap so I could sew one roll to the next. I removed the wig from the ballcap base and tried it on periodically to make sure it fit and looked right.


I had a hard time figuring out how to make the "bangs" because they are supposed to look like a "crewcut" in the front...not easy to do with fiber batting. I cut 3-4 lengths of batting 2" wide, clipped the top side of each row and glued them, one below the other across the forehead area, then "fluffed" them out.
The last thing I did was to take a black sharpie and draw in some "grey" hairs to outline the various parts, especially the bangs and the swirled up end of the rolls. Without the black outline, the whole thing looked like a bright white towel sitting on a head!

The young man who will be wearing this wig in the play tried it on and was happy with it but asked if I could add a few more rolls to make it longer, so I'm going to do that. You could make yours as long or short as you want.

I must get moving. I have one rat tail and 16 weasle tails to complete by Friday!

12/19/2008

When winter sets in sometimes our Homeschooling gets off to a slow start in the morning. It's chilly and no one seems to want to leave the warmth of cozy blankets. Recently, the kids woke up and held a  dog party on my bed. . Hubs is not fond of having a dog on the bed, let alone all THREE at once! But we waited til he was off to work.

Below is a little treat that God blessed me with recently....Just after Thanksgiving I was driving down one of our country hwys and a glint of COLOR flew past my periferal vision.  I turned the car around, pulled over and dug around in the glove box for my scissors. "What are you doing, Mom???" Me: "I think I saw something..." Usually, the kids know better than to ask too many questions. The last time I stopped on the hwy they saw me get out and chase a purple crinoline rolling down the grassy median like a fluffy tumbleweed! (But that's another story...)

I got out of the car and sure enough, there were 2 or 3 separate vines of Bittersweet growing twisted among the bare tree branches. It took about 5 min for me to snip away with my scissors but I managed to gather a good bit.

Even though it was almost time for Christmas decorations, I couldn't resist spreading the berries throughout the house for one last touch of Fall.

October-FEST! 10/19/2008

Fall is so beautiful in October! My 2 apple trees are just bursting with apples! The branches were so heavy with fruit that they almost touched the ground. We've made apple cobbler, applesause, apple butter and more. 

 

I put a sign in the yard that read "Free Apples, U-Pick" and we had lots of takers. I hung a canvas bag full of sacks and recipes from the trunk of the tree to make it easy. By the end of the weekend there were only a few sacks left in the bag and a couple of recipes left. One person even stopped by with his own ladder.

Fall also means it's time for the Applefest in one of the neighboring towns. They have a great flea market and lots of food!

It was a beautiful day to be outside! Eva spent some time with the shetland ponies. There was one pony that was SO small, barely bigger than our golden retriever!

October also means it's time to break out the Halloween decorations! I like to do this on my birthday, but I was in Calif. at the time. But as soon as I got home, the decorations came out.

Here are some of my favorite things. I have pared-down my collection quite a bit this year, but I always manage to find room for my Dia De Los Muertos eskeletons.

I "church" them up by adding some plaques with verses from Ezekiel Ch. 37 to remind us how great God is and that death cannot hold us. We will rise again because of what Christ has done for us. God breathes life into what was once dead. I am so thankful for Jesus.

While I was visiting in Calif. I was able to make my nephew's Halloween costume for him. He wanted to be R2D2! I had so much fun doing this! My brother even helped out a bit with the silver duct tape.

Happy Reformation Day as my DH would want me to say!

New Porch! 09/04/08

We are working on the porch! It is not complete but here are some photos of it in progress. The ceiling still needs to be replaced; new cement steps will be pored and the rails still need a little work. But notice the nice little corbels that my 85 year old uncle made especially for me! :) It will all be so homey with a coat or two of white paint! 


The above two photos are "before" pictures. There were two "posts" which consisted of 1x4 boards nailed up around existing rotten posts. When we pulled off the boards we found what looks like original posts.  I'd  to have them displayed or used somewhere inside. 

When I was working on the house last week, I noticed a car come by. Twice he just sat there, once in front of the house and then on the side street (we are on the corner.) As I looked closer, the sign on his car door said County Assessor... Boy, with all the activity on our little place, the tax-man is chompin' at the bit! Anyway, I went out to say "Hi" and see what was up. He was nice and said he was just making the rounds in the neighborhood. (Uh-huh...) He let me look at the file he had on the cottage. It said the place was built in 1902, not 1904 like the realty info said. It also showed a small barn on the property. Well, that's no longer there but they were still assessing taxes on it! We took care of that mistake pretty quick! He said, "Well, there go your taxes!"

More Work done! 08/17/08

We spent the weekend doing more painting and papering at the cottage. Take a look at our progress!

Before: Mustard & Plum walls with peel and stick tiles on the floor (and on the backsplash!)

After: New floors installed, wainscot primed and a .25 cent roll of pink vintage wallpaper covers the upper half. We still need final paint, backsplash, tile countertops and sink but we are making progress!

Before: Another angle

After: That little place on the wall where it juts out is an enclosed chimney. It would have been used to vent a wood burning stove.

Before: Blood-red living room, looking into bedroom.

After: Creamy butter Yellow with white trim. I had to mix the final color myself. When it comes to yellow, I always pick out the wrong shade and then have to tone it down.

Before: Looking into the tan bedroom. Note the lovely mattress on the floor and the wolf-print blanket over the window.

After: Painting in progress

Another "before" of the same room. The previous tenants left all this junk for us. Trash.

It's hard to see the pretty blue color but it is Laura Ashely's Pale Sapphire #1. 

Before: Inside the bedroom looking out toward the main room.

After: Same room, different color.

My slave labor :) They are hard workers and never complain. All they ask is for dinner at Lehman's, the Mennonite restaurant down the road.