Can't Wait To Start Mowing...

Old Chest Restored

I started this project some time ago (see previous post, July 14, 2013) and finished restoring September 2013.

I Just Did...

What do you think about my twins, are they not beautiful?



While at the beauty salon having my hair cut, I noticed the hair on some of the busts (used by students to learn their cutting skills) was quite short. My first thought was how expensive it must be to have to keep buying new wigs for teaching purposes. So... I had to ask just how expensive it was. Come to find out, the heads are made of rubber. When the hair gets too short to work on, the heads get tossed. My second thought was "I want one". I didn't know why I wanted one--I just did.

I could probably use one (or two) for many reasons.

1. Owing to more people buying homes in our neck of the woods, the deer are liking our veggies more every year. Fencing what we can, scattering hair, soap, and spraying helps. Oh my why not dress up my garden with twins in lieu of a scarecrow?

2. As a passenger in our car?

3. I am about to sew my first bucket hat. Perfect for trying out proper size!

4. Seated somewhere in our home (I love it)?

So Much Fun!

We took a ride in the tractor down our hedgerow to pick some apples. I picked dozens of really small apples and spent the day peeling apples and making some okay applesauce. Off we went to pick more apples from our neighbor's tree, made more applesauce and baked a five pound apple pie. YUMMY!



A basket of apples from our Tim Horton's Apple Man Buddy--these we ate!

Not a Complete Disaster...

Eight pepper plants yielded just four jalapeno and 2 green bell peppers. Out of six tomato plants we picked just two red tomatoes. Around three dozen beautiful green tomatoes, which I brown bagged to ripen (they spoiled before they ripened--frost damage). Saved by our Tim Horton garden buddy...dropped off three dozen beautiful large bell peppers, weighing a whopping 13 pounds in all. I made two dozen stuffed green peppers and froze the rest. Also, a dozen zucchinis from one plant and our corn was wonderful. We froze four dozen ears of corn and shared another four dozen. And, we ate lots and lots ourselves. We only had enough butternut squash for ourselves and a few for sharing with others.

What Worked For Me

The hardware on my antique chest was in bad need of cleaning. After going online and trying three different solutions, this is what worked for me:

A mixture of baking soda and lemon juice.  I used about one half box of baking soda and added lemon juice until the mix was about the texture of honey. I made enough to cover all my hardware and soaked overnight. The next day I just rinsed, washed in soapy water, using a sponge, and rinsed again. Easy--no toothbrush, no scrubbing .

What didn't work as well:

1. Soaking in coke overnight.

2. Soaking in a mixture of flour, white cider, and salt overnight. I made more of the above-mentioned lemon juice/baking soda mixture (enough to completely cover all the handles).

This as a picture of mixture #2 above:

They came out pretty good!

Sanding done:

Now I am off to Google for some advice on choice of stain...

Behind Schedule!

Oh golly! I do love the Internet. BUT...in seeing a link on "How To Convert VHS Tapes to DVD", I had to purchase a screen capture device. Spent a couple of months converting my tapes to my computer. I am in process of restoring this old chest and catching up with our gardening. I know--excuses, excuses!

Under Construction!

Hopefully, I will figure out how to better organize my tabs. In my lifetime!

Another Garage Sale Goodie

One just can't pass up a chair priced at only one dollar. I sanded and painted this rusty metal chair for our grand girls (in case Mom ever has a need for them to sit for a bit). How silly, right???

There Ought To Be Diplomas for Bloggers

I feel like a senior just starting third grade--blogger has upgraded once again. I am already liking what I see, but now I must try and advance to the next level! Will I ever graduate? What I really want to do is show off my latest project. I, for one, can never have enough cupboards. I didn't like my canned goods being above my kitchen counter; I needed the space for my glassware and such. I dragged out an old metal cabinet from our furnace room and gave it a face lift. Today I spent my morning organizing and reorganizing every cupboard in the house!

Little Silly Dolls

My first time making Silly Dolls.

I found the pattern on Flicker (JacqueLynn's photostream), along with lots of other stuff she shares. I tried to add a Click Thru to link you to it, but it is not working--YET!

Some More Redwork

I love to embroider tea towels. I do these when riding in the car. Daytime I try other projects--needlepunch, curtains, pillowcases and such. Evenings I cross stitch while watching TV. If time permits, I squeeze in some housework.

One Of My Favorite Things To Do

I am not a great driver but a great back seat driver (everyone has to be great at something). This seems to be an annoyance to most people, maybe because I am constantly screaming "watch out". I knew I had to find a hobby to take my mind off the road--when a passenger in a car. I taught myself how to embroider and now have a stash of redwork. I have no idea what to do with them, but problem solved! I think the following images probably came from a blog "Redwork In Germany".

What Works For Me

I am relatively new to needle punch; keeping fabric tight was a major problem for me. My solution:

Another problem is buying balls of 3-strand pearl cotton floss in store, rather than online, and single quantities. I will have to think on this a bit, I am working my brain to the bone as I type!

UFO Finished

Quilters have tagged a unique meaning onto the term UFO. They're not objects flying around in the sky (unless we toss them around because they're so ugly). A UFO is an Unfinished Object--the remnants of those quilts we start to make but never seem to finish. I started thinking SPRING and pulled this little guy out of my stash, gave him some legs and a tree limb to perch on and Ta Ta--my needlepunch finished! Off it goes, into the whatever drawer.