Penny Sanford Designs

Splish, Splash, Pinch, Dash, Sploosh!

Have you ever thought about the germs on your trusty, loyal sewing pins?



I must have seen too many episodes of "How Clean Is Your House: US" where they do lab tests to prove to people that phones, computer keyboards, counters, etc., are crawling with nasty, harmful germs.  So when I spilled my Happy Yellow sewing pins all over the floor in the sewing room recently,  my sweet hubby swept them up into a handy dust bin.

That was great. Quite helpful. And I DO appreciate his help.  But it did not take long for me to think about the OTHER stuff that broom and dust pan handle around here...in a house of four Westies and one creaky old English Shepherd.

Are you following my train of thought here? What do I do with the pins when I sew? Sewing with pins temperarily lined up between my lips or buried in the fabric of my bodice. Hmmmnnn....dirty pins in my mouth.  Germs from the floor transferred to the Happy Yellow sewing pins from the dust bin and forward to my unsuspecting lips. 

ICK! *Grimace* E coli, anyone?

So, little square Happy Yellow Tupperware container was filled with water and a small SPLISH of bleach was added. About 10 percent bleach, or one part bleach to 10 parts water....a "splish" which is different from a SPLASH. The measurment is rather like a PINCH or a DASH is to a cup of liquid.  I'm not quite sure where SPLOOSH fits in with these measurements, but when it is bath time for the Westies,  Gordon asks them if they are ready to go take a SPLOOSH.

Fuzz and thread snippets floated to the top of the Tupperware pin container, and I simply let the accumulated fluff flow away from the pins that I stirred in the disinfecting solution.  Every pin got a good soak in the Splish Bleach solution.

Is 49 years of age too old to still be playing with silly stuff? Actually this is only half of my Happy Yellow sewing pins. The ones I first disinfected are making a fun pattern on my pin cushion (sorry no handy photo, but here is a previous play session with my pin cushion).  Yes, I play with my sewing pins.




And I still play with my BFF Happy Yellow Duckie from my childhood.  This little fella must be 46 years old by now.( I wonder how old that is in Duck Years?)  Our friendship has never waivered, My Happy Yellow Duckie and me.

Even when he was accidentally sent to the attic for many years, I still loved My Happy Yellow Duckie. Even last year when Nemo came to live here on a pair of wash cloths bound with pretty quilt fabric,  I still loved My Happy Yellow Duckie the best.

Yes, I have seen all of the Toy Story movies, as well as Finding Nemo. Many times, in fact. Why do you ask?  *wink*

So BIG JUMBO Happy Yellow Tupperware Canister full of Epsom Salt awaits the next bath along with my BFF Happy Yellow Duckie and Nemo, who cannot escape the quilt binding on the wash cloths nor the anemone made of Happy Yellow sewing pins.

Uh, you might want to give your sewing pins a Splish Disinfecting. Needles too. I'm just saying...

PennyCast: The Eyes of this House

PennyCast for Nov. 6, 2011: 

The Eyes of this House.

(Click on the link below ("Eyes_Master") and then when the page with the podcast player appears,  click the play button to listen to the podcast.)

Eyes_master

This is a short audio podcast of how a simple DIY task has sparked some insightful symbolism to life.  I expanded the blog post of a few days ago on this topic.

Here is the picture of the actual window on the second floor from which two panes dropped to the ground WITHOUT breaking!



The windows on the second floor are perfect Westie Height!



Lillibeth, above, died September 5th of this year.  We miss her SOOOO much!


Jenny keeps a frequent watch out this window for any invading critters.  Even at night, the Westies can smell visiting wildlife around the yard.

The Eyes of this House

We started re-glazing the old windows in this family farmhouse late yesterday afternoon.

There were two panes in one of the windows in the upstairs-guest-bedr00m-turned-sewing-room that fell to the ground back in the summer, but miraculously they did not break.

This is the very window, photographed in the spring. A thick carpet of periwinkle buffered the fall of the glass panes, and the old glass must be quite durable.



It's been too hot, or we were too rushed with deadlines to actually start reglazing the windows in this circa 1870 farmhouse.  Some of the procastinating was my fear of the unknown, having never glazed windows before.

So with a forecast of 35 degrees Farenheit for early this  morning,  it was time to get those old bubbled glass panes back in their proper spot and for me to  jump into reglazing with both feet.

I've volunteered to reglaze every window in this house (and anywhere else on the farm that needs it). It's a frugal step, but I also like tedious, repetative work. Well, maybe I don't automatically LIKE tedious work, but I know how to talk myself into thinking that I am enjoying it. *grin*

What I did not expect was to cry as I scraped oversized layers of putty from the panes.  I cried as I tried to explain to Gordon and Unc why I was crying over the window on my work table. I cried while trying to put this into words last night. (I'm finishing this post Tuesday afternoon)

The emotions are still raw and not quite captured in words in my mind, but as I struggled with the layers of old caulk, I thought about the tenacious, weathered family from which I come. 

The erosion of the old wood on the outside of this second story window brought to my mind the family stories of the natural disasters that left footprints on this farm.  How many storms with driving rain have pummeled these windows? How many ice storms, snow storms, hail storms?

This 141 year old window is quite fragile when compared to tumultuous events in those 141 years of protecting this family. Up here on the second floor, the windows have received less attention and more temperature fluctations, so life's toll is easier to see.

So, why did I cry over the mundane task of reseating a couple of window panes? The contrast of our little petty family dramas of the last couple of weeks compared to the scars and erosion of the 141 year old wood in this 141 year old window...is what made me cry. 

The three of us in this house had gotten caught up in a silly merry go round of "he said, he did, he didn't, it's his fault, it's not my fault"...when the REAL battle was and is how God continues to protect us and provide for us as a family in a never-ending script of quite daunting problems.

God's constant protection could be illustrated by these fragile, beautiful old windows that have never failed to protect us. If the panes of old wavy glass were representative of faith, then our view of the world is filtered through the intangible of faith just as my view of the falling leaves that I am watching right now  through the panes of this old wavy glass... is slightly altered because of the unique character of the old glass.

SO in the weeks and months ahead as I tackle this re-glazing process one half window at a time, I will be removing the old "scar tissue" of cracked putty and paint. Then as I clean each beautiful pane of bubbled, wavy glass, I will be removing the cataracts, so to speak, from the eyes of this old house.

I fully expect to learn quite a lot as I putter along with the putty and glazing points, primer and top coats. It's as if God is saying that it's time to clear off the debris of the past generations and the lingering scars of unforgiveness, jealousy...the old family stories of "He said, he did, he didn't, it's her fault, it's not my fault".  

We inherit those emotions too, you know, from the old family stories.  Cloaked in the shadows of passing along family stories, we also pass along the negative emotions.  Those toxic emotions  in turn hold us back from the kind of life with which God wants to bless us.

Yes, I have MUCH to learn from these old Eyes of this old family farmhouse.

Yellow Towel Therapy

Like generations of women before me, fabric is acanvas for  creativity. Sewing is a binder of pain. Disappointments and sadness are captured in the thread and held captive by the fabric and the thread.



These may look like pretty yellow towels to you, but to me, they represent faith in the future, hope for sunnier days ahead. The binding I've stitched by hand to these towels has been a celebration of color and design.



This summer, I've stitched on these towels mostly while listening to Unc tell his stories.  There is a kaleidoscope of emotions stitched into these bound towels that only I have seen.



For now, the emotional boost of simply walking into my little butter yellow bathroom upstairs and seeing this stack of happy yellow towels is better than.....

The reason I am binding towels is because I needed to do something to save the good towels we had that were beginning to show wear on the edge. I knew that would lead to rips along the edge after continued use. Binding the edge gives the towel a whole new lease on life.

The binding was so much fun that I started doing it on my slowly-acquired new yellow towels. I'm using different favorite fabrics to give the bathroom a cozy "scrap quilt" feel. See this previous post on Jazzing up the Bathroom.

Later on, after I've finished all my yellow towels, I'll take them outside for a more creative photo session.  Same for the older towels getting a fresh lease on life.  Lots of happy stitching hours ahead of me!

A Bouquet of Rick Rack

My grandmother Ora Belle Dunn Hamer put rick rack on my clothes, the clothes she made for my four first cousins, on aprons, on my doll clothes.  One of my first embroidery lessons was putting rick rack on gingham aprons with a decorative stitch.  Rick Rack was an integral part of my formative years!

One would think that with all of that rick rack in my family's Save-Everything-Cause-There-May-Be-Another-Depression history, I would have found a HUGE stash of pieces of rick rack.  Nope.  Nada. 

I've hardly found any scraps or unopened packages of rick rack.  The quest for the booty of Grandma's rick rack stash has kept me digging around in every corner of the attic here in the farmhouse and in Grandma's attic.  I'm going through all the drawers, all the closets, etc. I've not yet given up either!




So I've been casting my eagle eyes over the Internet for some GOOD sales.  I recently found 10 yards of rick rack for $2.00 before shipping.  Out came my "egg money", and I stocked up. Not all the colors have arrived yet, but I just had to show you this beautiful array!

For less money than a bouquet of flowers from the Florist, this pretty little centerpiece is making me smile every time I look at it (which is often while I am working in my studio upstairs).  Unc is carving out some large flat spools (think flat dog bone), but while he takes his time, I've kidnapped the Cherry butter paddles he has made ahead for Christmas. 



I just love this little basket, and it seems perfect to hold my rick rack bouquet!

See that little tat of yellow rick rack on the handle? That little piece was from Grandma's sewing stuff.  Obviously I am very light on the YELLOW portion of the color wheel. Don't worry, YELLOW rick rack will soon be living at this house again!  *grin*



I'll show you very soon what I am making with this rick rack, having just as much fun with it as when I was a child watching Grandma's nimble fingers fly through fabric, threads and trims! Happy memories at her knee. I can hear the hum of her sewing machine right now.

Collecting Tiny Glass Ball Ornaments

Three minutes left in today in which to post this blog post...

I'm collecting tiny little glass Christmas Tree Balls.  Do you know where these can be purchased?  I've several ideas to share with you when I have the little balls to work with...

Bob...Bob...Bobbin Along

I have no idea why the photographer of this picture called it a "Viking Santa".  This looks like a bobbin to me.  A decorative bobbin yes.  I'd like to make pretty bobbins like this for my stash of laces, maybe some trims like ric-rack.



There are more pictures I saved from various browsing sessions on the Internet. (HOW did we survive before the Internet?  Gordon and I research everything, and I'm constantly saving ideas via pictures!
 


These little character bobbins are delightful! I'd like to make them...but HOW?



Heather Bailey did a tutorial on these bobbins (above).  I probably could handle them.

This last picture of the colorful embroiidery floss wound onto plastic bobbins gave me the idea of making a string of Christmas lights with this as a guide.

Patchwork Place made some star block light strings and some thread spoostring of lights. I've bought the star block light strings, and I enjoy them year round.  Now I'd like to find the thread spool string of lights. I *think* Patchwork Place is the name of that company. If not, I'll come back and correct my blog post.

Have you seen other cute bobbins?  Please share!

So About My "Thing" With Bobbins

So a few days ago I shared my relatively new addiction for winding embroidery floss onto plastic bobbins.  Today I want to share some photos of more unique bobbins.

In my quest for the best Embroidery Floss Organization System, I ran across some very creative, organized people who had wound their trims onto larger bobbins (larger than the small embroidery floss bobbins that I am using at present).

Most of these images I found on Etsy, because they are primarily hand made.  IF you know the photographer or website from which I found one of these pictures, PLEASE tell me. I DO want to give proper attribution.



Is there a machine for the scrapbooking hobby that lets one cut out repetative shapes from thicker paper...board stock like these?



This one above was apparently printed and then cut out.  I love the whimsey of these.

One seller on Etsy had some delightful animal shaped bobbins (the next three pictures). I *think* they were cut out of some thin wood-based stock and then burnished.





The pictures following are probably are cut f rom a dense paper-based board, heavier than "card stock". If you know, please let me know. 

 


 






Then these next pictures of creative bobbins appear to be a stained wood?




There are more creative bobbin ideas to share with you, but this is a nice place for a bookmark. I'll share the other ideas next time.  If you have an idea for some pretty bobbins for storing one's laces, trims, floss, ribbon, etc...please share!

Color Therapy

Sometime this year, I decided it was TIME to get all the embroidery floss in order.  We have embroidery floss from at least three generations scattered ALL over this complex of farmhouse, Grandma's house, studio.  (To my knowledge there are no stashes of embroidery floss in any of the barns! LOL)



Apparently I started around May or maybe April. (Thank goodness for easy digital pictures to provide something of a "diary" of one's life!)


 
The organization system I chose was plastic bobbins and those little organizing boxes. Our previous system of lots of dividers in a big drawer no longer worked.  I found some bargains on eBay and started winding.  Sewing friends warned me that it would take forever and that I would be so tired of winding embroidery floss onto bobbins.



Surprise!  I love it!  No, I ADORE it!  I want to buy more embroidery floss JUST so that I can wind it onto bobbins.  When I take a break from floss bobbin winding and then return to it, I'm immediately downright OBSESSIVE about it!



Playing with the beautiful colors is  SUCH therapy.  Also, it is a somewhat mindless little task that I can do while listening to Unc or watching football with Gordon. 



The beautiful Happy Yellow Tupperware Mixing Bowl was a gift from Facebook friend, Jeanne H. in Alabama! It is my OFFICIAL Embroidery Floss Winding Station!  You can imagine my mood when I was winding all the many shades of yellow in my yellow bowl!



The "You" mentioned in the above picture is reference to the Facebook friends who shared their opinion on which floss organization system they liked the best.  As always, I receive some spot-on advice from my Facebook friends! (Thank you!)



The larger bobbin was purchased in the 80's, and I've not found it since.  Actually the smaller bobbin works just great, and I love the little rings to hold the little bobbins together when working on a specific project.

My floss winding took a break while I waited on more boxes and more plastic bobbins to arrive. I've started back and have to limit my time with it just to prolong the pleasure.  I even bought more floss...twice so far this year...under the guise of NEEDING those colors. 



This latest picture was taken in the upstairs guest bedroom turned into a sewing room this year. I need to blog that journey as well as share what I've been making that is using up embroidery floss FAST!

I've not shared how many boxes I have filled with bobbins of embroidery floss. I'd like to turn that into a guessing game with prizes.  Plus, I still have more floss to wind onto bobbins.  *Happy Grin*

Need Fabric!

It never fails.  I buy 1 yard of fabric...my minimum purchase.

Fabric settles into my stash, gets to know its similarly-hued neighbors.

Said fabric slowly reveals its charm over a year or so in my stash.  Then one day, I pull this piece of fabric and FALL IN LOVE with it!

One yard is NEVER enough, so over the next few years, I comb the Internet looking for more of my new fabric love.

Sometimes I succeed. 


In a spirit of optimism, here are the two fabrics I am looking for now.  They are reproduction feedsack or 30's fabric.  I cut off the selvage with the name and a smidgen of the print...but I cannot remember where I stashed the little selvage/name pieces!  LOL

So if you happen to run across either of these two fabrics, PLEASE let me know!  If you just happen to have the name of the manufacturer or the name of the fabric collection, please also let me know!



See the green and pink daisy 30's reproduction fabric? I had enough to make two pillowcases.  The dot print on the pillowcase cuff is also one of my fabric searches.  The dot fabric is Makower (I think) and the pattern name is something with "Party" in it.

I need to just make a list with photos and post it...Putting that on my To Do list, page 357.

PennyCast 2: Molly and the Turkey.

Mollyandturkey

A Lilibeth/Belle Memorial Podcast

Memorialpodcast

 

Bath Time for Westies

Well, *fiddlesticks*!

I was trying to get in a post before midnight, and I just managed to erase half of my post. Fresh start:

We give the five Westies baths in the bathtub every couple of days and sometimes every day. Westies easily develop allergies to food or items in their surrounding. The stress our rescued Westies have endured in previous years leave them very succeptible to skin issues.



A bath with Epsom Salts not only kills any fleas, it lets their skin soak up Magnesium, soothes their little arthritic joints and dries up skin issues. Yes, Westie skin can dry with too many baths, but Epsom Salt leaves dog skin and human skin soft and moisturized. I don't know the chemistry of Epsom Sal+ Water = soft moisturized skin, but it works.

For these family baths, we've worked out a system.

I get in the tub (the Epsom Salt soaks are good for humans too) and wash the Westies in the tub with me. Gordon's role is to find, catch and bring the dog to me. They love their bath time, and they are SO playful when they are first out of the tub, but they also like to play Hide and Seek from Gordon before the bath.



These are a few shots of Lillibeth and Maisy getting their bath. From their expressions you would think I was torturing these babies. Not. Maisy Mae enjoys her bath so much that she tucks up her hind legs, props her chin on my tummy and floats in the soothing water. NO, there is not a picture of that!!!



This is a close up of the tatoo in Lillibeth's ear from the puppy mill. Charlotte has one too. All of the puppies we rescued from that blankety-blank puppy mill in 2007  had tatoos in their ears. They did not have names, only numbers.




This old deep cast iron bath tub with its butter yellow tile in the bathroom upstairs has become a Happy Place for me. These pictures, taken at night with the strong overhead light have such a vintage feel.  They bring back memories of my childhood, playing with the plastic tug boats and yellow duckie. Somewhere we still have those bathtub toys.  The yellow duck has a place of pride atop the towel cabinet.

More to share about the fabric binding on the wash cloth...in another post, hopefully tomorrow! If you are already my friend on Facebook, then you are ahead of my blog postings.

Happy Bath Bubbles!

First English Peas

Tale a look at our first "mess" of English Peas, grown in our garden this year.

Unc tells me that Grandma grew them every year. She would put a little flour in the juice to make a light creamy broth, like one does with New Potatoes.  Sadly, I have no recollection of eating fresh-from-the-garden English Peas as a child. 

Grandma's great cooking is probably why I love English Peas! These fresh ones were the best I have ever tasted. Frozen or canned has been my only (remembered) exposure so far.

This was our first and last harvest from this year's English Peas. Next spring, we will be READY to plant oodles of English peas. I'd love to fill up the freezer with them!  Now to research and find a variety of open pollinated English Peas so that we can save seed from  year to year.

Below is another favorite crop that is greatly appreciated by our taste buds each spring.  (By the way, Maisy Mae is a puppy mill rescue I need to tell you about. She has blessed our family since July 3, 2010.  Yes, I am WAY behind in my blogging.)

Baby asparagus spears from some asparagus that Daddy planted 40 or 50 years ago. Every year we say we are going to add to the asparagus bed...then the summer heat whips us into air conditioner worshipers.

Next Year.....

Do you know what your Tupperware is doing??

Rememer the commercials, "It's midnight. Do you know where your children are?"  Or something to that effect.

If you've read any of this blog or followed me on Facebook, you have gleaned that I have a small fondness (obsessive passion) for Yellow Tupperware. Here's a recent photo of the Tupperware that is within arm's reach of me right now in the Sewing Room.



Trust me, it does not begin to show the scope of my addiction to Happy Yellow Tupperware.

The big salad bowl on the left was a gift from Facebook Friend Jeanne in Alabama. Think of it as Friendship Tupperware-ing like Friendship Gardening.  She sends me her piece of Happy Yellow Tupperware and I send her something I made.  This large piece is perfect for my floss bobbin winding project. Details on that new obsession in another post.



The Lettuce Crisper is wonderful to hold the washcloths I am binding plus the pre-cut binding for washcloths and towels plus the thread I am using.  Yep, I shared this photo yesterday. I also realized after I posted yesterday that I had covered the topic of binding wash cloths earlier on the blog...like just a bit over a month ago. GEE, I'm slipping.



The little rectangle lunch box holds my Free Hand Embroidered Felt Dog Project. They are for sale in my Etsy store. These sales are like "egg money" or "mad money" or money for a "pout present". More on this little endeavor in a later post.   Fifteen percent of the gross goes to Westie Rescue (or Scottie Rescue, or Cairn Rescue or Yorkie Rescue, etc.)

Ok, that's enough blogging fun for today. Dinner is ready and the Westies are stalking me. Picture the Australian Game Hunter in Jurassic Park when the Velociraptors finally trick him and catch and eat him. That's a good image of what the Westies are doing to me right now. We only feed them twice a day. Poor things.  LOL

Binding Towels

This is a quick blog post because I am DETERMINED to blog SOMETHING before midnight!

(See the towel in the mending basket behind the hyacinths?)

To help our towels last longer, I have been binding the edges just as one would bind a quilt.  This has added years of life to some towels that would otherwise end up in the rag bag. By binding new towels and washcloths before we ever use them, I hope to make them last many, many more years.

To bind towels, I cut a strip of fabric 3.5 inches wide for a large towel, and three inches wide for a washcloth or hand towel. Then double it and stitch as you would make the binding of a quilt. The result is a double layer of quilt fabric over the edge that has begun to ravel.



So far, I have only cut across the width of the fabric, but one could cut a long length-wise piece if one wanted to bind a towel without any piecing of binding. 



The wash cloths are fun to do especially. It takes about an hour of all hand sewing to add a pretty fabric border. One could cut that time drastically by using a sewing machine. I love the warm "home spun" look the stack of bound wash cloths give to the bathroom.

Right now, my washcloth binding "operation" is housed in a Happy Yellow Tupperware lettuce crisper. It's perfect, and it makes me smile when I look at it on the bedside table.  LOL

The Happy  Yellow large towels made from 100 percent American Grown cotton are just beautiful. This is one of them underneath the tall pincushion (that Unc and I made).

I've also thought about making binding out of some left over blocks for a very pieced look. These 12 inch  x 12 inch scraps of a large towel are bound with left over binding. The patchwork look of these salvaged washcloth-sized towels is delightful to use and just look at if you are a fabric lover like me.

I've been plodding away at this for about a year, at least, and I still have lots of binding to do. "in my spare time" or when I want a project that does not require any thinking.

Recently I bought four large towels made from 100 percent AMERICAN grown cotton. They are wonderful and I will be blogging specifically about them.



These last three yellow washcloths are Ralph Lauren that I found on eBay as a bargain. The  yellow washcloths in the lettuce crisper are much thinner....but they are good for scrubbing behind ears and such.

Ok, let me upload this and I will have actually gotten a blog post posted before midnight! YEAH! I DO want to get back into the habit of blogging more. It's just always after midnight before the house is quiet and then I think, "I'll wait until I've had some sleep before I blog."

Attic Safari

My Facebook friends have been great encouragers for helping me work TOWARD an organized life. It's going to take a while. Like years.



I'm going through four generations of stuff, with extra stuff from childless great aunts.  So, taking this task in bite sizes, Gordon and I have delved into the attic several times so far this year. Then I share pictures of my "found treasures" before putting them in their proper place. 



First I must try to get the stains out of this old pillowcase remnant. The embroidery work is just beautiful. I don't know who stitched it or who cut off the rest of the pillowcase but saved the embroidery. I think a 30's reproduction print....a small blue calico, would work well for the body of the new pillowcase with a solid color supporting the scalloped edge and crochet work. What would you suggest?




A picnic basket holds my stash of trims. A rolling multi-drawer cart for spools of thread. A big glass cannister for wooden spools of thread. Another big glass canister for buttons, etc.


 
Mysteries about what I have found on these Attic Safari's are just as much fun as finding the little "treasures".

This cheap imported porcelain doll made to look like an antique has a deformed arm. Both arms will only bend in the same direction. I'll make this into a tree topper for a Christmas Tree and no one will ever know she has a wonky arm. Who bought this, why, and did they know the arm was installed incorrectly...?



I think this catches you up on the Attic Safari's so far...at least all I have photographed and shared on Facebook. What is the best "hidden treasure" you have found in your storage area?

 Are you on Facebook? If so, lets connect there as well. You have to click "Like" on my page to get the posts and leave comments.

Making a Valentine Tree, One Heart at a Time

(I started this post on February 8, 2011.  Now,  almost three months later, lets see if I can finish it!)

For the first time ever, we have a Valentine Tree in place in the front hall! That was in February of this year. The Valentine tree is still up in the front hall!


The plan was to make ornaments for the Valentine's tree, then take the hearts down and make ornaments for St. Patrick's Day. The next holiday I wanted to enjoy with this tree was Easter.  Something happened before St. Patrick's Day which I will be sharing with you soon.

So today, April 27, 2011,  my Valentine Tree is still proudly displaying a mixture of new embroidered or beaded hearts I have made this  year.  Like this:

--and this (I did a re-think and took off the little white lights.)
 

--and this



--and this




--and this


No,  I REALLY had too much fun with the sequins!



You saw I was already making felt sequined tiaras for the dogs to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Well, I've got some beaded dog collars in mind for future beading enjoyment. Way, way too much fun with the little beads and sequins! *grin*


I've started saving pictures of vintage bead work on dresses, purses, etc...just for inspiration!

 

--some porcelain Margaret Furlong heart ornaments I have been saving for this very purpose


--and some heart yo-yo's made from my FREE pattern.  Obviously there is room for plenty more Valentine-themed ornaments, but I wanted this project to last for some years ahead.

So..That catches you up on our activities around Valentine's Day. If I find any more pictures that I forgot to post with this installment, I'll share them later.

Jazzing up the Bath Towels

See...second day in a row...I am blogging. I'm determined to get back into the swing of daily blog posts. 

This will have to be short.  I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. Bad storms swept through and continue to cause destruction moving east and northeast. Arkansas was slapped around a good bit. Five deaths was the last I heard.
--------
What started out as an effort to prolong the life of our towels, has turned into a fun expression of whimsy...playfulness...love of fabric and color...desire to be different...



I started binding the towels with the frayed edges, using the quilting method of doubling the binding...making it two thicknesses of fabric. Lots more to share about this Towel Tissey, but at another time.



For now, just enjoy these three new wash cloths bound in some of my favorite quilt fabrics. Every time I see them in the towel cabinet or use one, I smile and enjoy afresh this tiny bright spot in the day to day chaos.

Blog, blog, blog

This post is to break the silence. I miss blogging. I've missed YOU!

Every day, almost, I think about what I want to share with you. I have oodles of photos edited, compressed and ready to post on this blog. But, for a variety of reasons, I have not blogged in months.



We're getting ready to watch the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton.



I've made two beaded tiaras on felt, one with "sapphires" and one with "rubies".



I need to make two more so that all the girl Westies will be properly dressed to watch the wedding on television.

Just LOOK at that face! Would you not do anything in the world for these precious eyes?

On each tiara, I'v tried a different method to secure the tiara to the hair of the not-so-willing models.



This is Maisy Mae. You have not met her before. She was rescued from a puppy mill, and she came to live with us July 3, 2010. More about her soon.

That's it for now.  I've broken the writer's block.

Repair Obsessed

I think it happened slowly, over years, perhaps...this obsession about repairing stuff. 

My Darning Socks tutorial was blogged here.

Economics are a factor, of course, but I think my views were originally shaped when I read in the book,  Gone With The Wind, about the  old families being proud of the pre-war Irish Linen that had been repaired beautifully. It was more of a status symbol to have beautifully repaired table linens than to be nouveau riche and have brand new table linens to show off.  It would take a whole blog post to try to explain that from the perspective of a 13th generation Southerner.

So in this journey of frugality, recycling or reclaiming, I've been trying to tackle the clothes repairs as the clothes come out of the dryer. While folding clothes, if I spot a problem, I try to repair it that day. I make myself repair something every day before I can sew something for fun.

In order to not become discouraged, I also refuse to think about the huge tub of items awaiting repairs that I could not finish on some particular day. They are mostly out of season clothes now, so maybe no one will miss them until next spring!  HA!


So lets review this Repair Thing that continues around here. 
This week:
1. Repair power steering belt on old workhorse farm truck
2. Stumped on repairs to dryer because the replacement parts have changed. Yep. The dryer is only 17 years old!  LOL  To be continued.
3. Repair one burner on gas stove. First time in over three years that burner has worked. YEAH, Gordon and Unc!
4. Computer repairs in progress. If a Cobbler's family has no shoes, then a Computer Geek's family is last on the list to have computer repairs
5. Fence in back yard has been reinforced and raised higher. Mackie (our Westie Special Forces dog) had learned how to climb the fence. I kid you not! Thank you, Unc and Gordon!!!
6. Wood burning fireplace has a new hatch for sweeping ashes out of the fireplace, down a little tunnel to be removed outside.  OK, still have to move shrub with stickers that is blocking the exit door, but "We're Making Progress", my mantra.
7. Lots of progressive maintenance like sharpening chainsaws, sharpening scissors, sharpening knives, sharpening meat grinder parts, etc.

I'm sure I've missed some stuff. It has been a busy week and we have all been tired to the bone at the end of the day. On top of that, poor Gordon has a cold.

Now for sewing repairs, the original purpose of this post:
1. Repaired rip in sheet fresh from dryer. Ok, this is overkill, I admit. I was also practicing my quilting stitches. It is like a WAR on REPAIRS attitude...If this rip thinks it is gonna grow in my lifetime, it has another think coming! This sheet had better disintegrate before this repair fails! LOL



But I have discovered why you see old vintage fabric items, quilts, clothes, etc...with repairs done in fabrics that have NO color relationship to the colors in the item to be repaired.



The little woman of the house was just too darned tired to get up and go find a fabric scrap in the right colors! It took all of the OCD that I could muster to go find the tan piece for the top side of this sheet repair. By the time I got to the piece for the underside of the sheet, I could have cared less if it was Fuchia!  LOL

The sheet is one of our utilitarian sheets, not one of my "good sheets". No one but Gordon and I will see this sheet. It doesn't matter if the underside patch is not quite large enough and is not a good match for the sheet. (Can you hear me strugging with my perfectionism?)

2. Repaired a hand towel that had a frayed edge. I also darned a hole in a towel and darned a hole in a pair of pants. Sorry, no pictures. Those last two items are already back in service. We'll have a whole post on towel preservation...later.

 

3. First on this afternoon's agenda was performing a Squeak-ectomy on one of Jenny's rabbits. It had to be restuffed, and a huge gaping hole had to be sutured. Jenny was very involved in the squeaky rabbit surgery, and she kept trying to steal the patient before it was out of surgery.

4. The Marriage Quilt: I've mentioned it before on Facebook, prompting a number of questions. I promise to blog soon just about this project, but here is the quick concept.

The yellow chenille bedspread was our first bedspread for our king size bed. It has been with us for almost seven years. It has faded from a buttery yellow to an ecru. It is almost threadbare. It started ripping in places, but because I have slept with this chenille almost every night of our marriage, I just cannot part with it. It is my Linus Blankie.



So I decided to start covering the repaired rips with pretty fabric. Fabric that represented something that ws going on in our lives at that time. I'm sewing patches on both sides of this chenille. One day it will be entirely covered in pretty quilt fabric and hand quilting. It will be something of a crazy quilt or a string quilt, but with more symbolism.  You'll have to wait for the separate post to learn more of the symbolism of this "Marriage Quilt".

This Repair Obsession has even sparked some new projects. I've been playing with wood filler on some of Unc's rejected turned wood items. When I've finished with this holiday decorating project, I will blog it in detail. It morphs something my family did during the Depression to decorate for Christmas into an equally frugal decoration with a more modern twist.*grin*



Practicing with wood filler is preparing me for some of the renovation projects to come. OK, now that I have done two sewing repairs for today, I get to play... IF I have any energy left! LOL

What have you been repairing lately?

"Thrilling" Quilting Magazines - Humor

This was meant as a joke on one of those geek or tech joke sites, but the joke's on the humor website. I suspect many of us would indeed think this section of the magazine rack is indeed THRILLING!

I found this picture on that joke site the other night but had to reboot and lost the link. I'll try to find the original source of this photo and will post it here when I find it.
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Here 'tis:  http://wins.failblog.org/2010/10/21/culture-jamming-win-needlepoint-gives-me-a-rush/#comments 

Hives can help you LEARN!

I started this blog post about two weeks ago, and I am STILL "enjoying" hives!!! They are not as bad as they were in the beginning, but the itchies are slowly working their way around my body, not leaving any inch of skin out of the fun! Today it is my face and hands and arms.  *Ahhh, the ADVENTURE"....

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Hives have been helping me learn, grow, expand my mind. My first experience with Hives. Our Honeydew melons are all ripening. They are toooooo delicious. I was eating Honeydew melon for breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks.

Apparently there is a known allergic reaction to Honeydew melon in some people. Who KNEW?  Mix allergic reaction with a bit of extra stress and POOF....we have HIVES!

That's all I want to say about the H word right now. Two sleepless nights and three sleepless days and it looks like we're headed into another sleepless night.

So to distract my mind, I have been reading and absorbing from the Internet. I've also been looking at some 10 year old magazines like Colonial Homes, Martha Stewart, House Beautiful, Country Homes, etc. The two avenues of mental absorption have intersected often.

There's a bigger picture I want to chat with you about later, along the lines of timeless style. For now, I have enough concentration to share with you some of the fun stuff I have found online lately.

If you and I were already connected via my Penny Sanford Fikes (everything) page on Facebook, you would be familiar with some of these topics.  We've had some fun conversations about some of these!  To join me on that Facebook "fan" page, you have to click "Like" to the right of my name to get the posts when I post something.

1. Slide Curtains
 

Beautiful and colorful when back-lit as in these pictures.



Intriguing from a family history perspective.

But Not necessarily a good idea.The slides will fade, get scratched, collect dust. Even assuming you have scanned all of your family slides into digital versions, hard drives do fail. Sometimes the information cannot be retrieved from those failed hard drives. I know because Gordon has been retrieving information from dead hard drives for people.

Even burning the digital versions onto a long lasting, good quality CD or DVD is not fool proof. Those images will degrade even in digital form! 

Maybe this artist nabbed these at a yard sale. Then shame on whoever did not hang onto their family pictures. Someone in the family will care one day! 

This is the photographer and artist who created these now famous slide curtains. Yes, she knows all of the points I have mentioned above. Apparently she has been told...thousands of times. These images went viral, but she is a great sport about the "kerfluffle" as she terms the Internet ripple effect of her creativity.

It's still a creative visual work of art as are the slide lamps...even if you are NOT going to do this to your family slides!!!  Oh yes, I KNOW you are NOT going to do this to your family slides...are you? I have faith in you to PRESERVE your family history at every opportunity!

2. Pop Tab Light

I see a little tab from a soda can on the ground, and my knees pop and I moan as I bend over to pick it up. Mauricio Affonso sees a pop tab from a soda can, and he sees art. This is a truly elegant light made from hundreds of the little buggers!



I find some of the up-cycling, recycling, re-purposing ideas a bit lame, but I would hang this in my house. How he made the little pop tabs stick together I don't now. One cannot weld aluminum, can one? (Need to ask Unc and Gordon about that. They've promised to teach me how to weld.)

Good ole Mauricio has won awards with this design and is probably responsible for the proliferation of items made with pop tabs from soda cans. Just Google "Pop Tab" under Google Images. There is even a Pop Tab bra, Pop Tab Chain Mail (think Crusader costumes), Pop Tab jewelry, etc.

I'm already saving clothes labels for a Label Quilt, Fabric selvages for a Selvage Quilt. Campbell Soup Labels, all cardboard boxes to use in the garden, my own hair from my hairbrush for a "ratt" made from my own hair, buttons, wooden spools, old bottles and dozens of other items I find as I go through the accumulated ephemera of several generations of this family. We even save soda pop cans to give a friend who hauls them to a metal-buying yard. I guess I should go through the half a dozen garbage bags of saved cans and retrieve all the little pop tops now.  Maybe make some Christmas ornaments out of them?

If some of these categories of items I am saving sound outlandish to you, just hang on. I WILL get back into blogging regularly, and these are all topics I've shared and discussed on Facebook which is apparently DOWN this afternoon.

Facebook must be overloaded this afternoon. I can't pull up my page, etc. Then, I'm using an old computer while my old-but-faster-than-this-desktop laptop is in the laptop hospital. My work efficiency on the computer today is about like the android in Aliens 2, disemboweled, moving in slow fits and starts. One day, we will have personal computers that are as powerful as a Cray computer. *sigh* I need mine NOW!

Quilted Vehicles and a Quilted Gas Station

That's right. Cars and vans with quilt blocks covering them. Even a Quilted Gas Station. If this is a new fashion trend for vehicles, then I am afraid we might miss out on this one. Our gravel country road would cover it in dust after just one trip into town.

But lest you think I am dreaming this up, here are just SOME of the DIFFERENT vehicle quilts I've spotted around the Internet. 

Now, this quilt-covered van was not the very first one in the country. Here's a quote from the blog that detailed this quilted van.   http://www.alaskaquilt.com/blog/acqcblog.html 

"Creating car quilts is a Willamette Valley thing

"The idea to create a true “car quilt” was born when Peggy Christopherson saw a car quilt made by Karen Wells of nearby Jefferson, Oregon. Karen had quilted her PT Cruiser in 2008. She based her quilt on a car in Florida she saw on the Internet.

"Taking photos of Karen’s car to a guild meeting in spring 2008, Peggy convinced members that they should make a car quilt for Lebanon. And so it began. The result is now there are 2 quilted cars in Oregon of the 8 to 10 such vehicles in North America.

"Springing to life in 2008

"The car quilt was made over about 6 months in 2008-2009 by 6 to 8 quilters using 100’s of orphan blocks, batting, backing and binding. All this material came from the entire Guild. The finished cover is “sort of street legal” on a 2005 Honda Odyssey van. At fairs, shows and other events is now takes 5 to10 minutes to get fully “gussied up.”

"After they created this cover, they discovered how truly unique it is. Thus they decided to use it to promote quilting, the Guild’s Quilt Show 2009, Oct. 17-18, 2009 and Lebanon in general."

 

This one was from the Vancouver, B.C. Annual Canadian Route 66 Association Picnic, August 2009. If one could blow up the picture, one might see what is on the big block at the very front of the car. Source: http://wetcoastscootin.blogspot.com/2009/08/experienced-norton-rider-tames-scooter.html

 

From the Portland, WA 2010 Northwest Quilters Show comes this Quilted Bug!

It is the creation of Janice Jones, Maureen Orr Eldred and Carol Gier Becker. Look for it in the upcoming year at many other quilting events!  So when one sees this Volkswagon Bug on the road, what color does one declare for that Bug Punch game?

Here is a link to "The Making of the Quilted VW Bug" on Flickr.




This quilted car was included in the big blog post about 2009 The Sisters Quilt Show in Sisters, OR.
No details were given on this quilted car, but it looks different than any of the other quilted cars I am posting on this blog post. Source:  http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

This is Liza Eastman of New Zeland. She is a free spirited quilter who has won awards and has been involved in some national and international quilting movements. This quilt looks painted on her car, don't you think? Any idea the brand of this car? Source: http://www.virtualbay.co.nz/lizaeastman/

One might assume this quilted car was created to promote the New England Quilt Museum, perhaps? Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbirdbye/2816819239/



This was a quilted car that showed up at the 2009 LQS Quilt Walk and Antique Car Show last August. Sorry, I could not find out where or what LQS stands for, but gleaning from other blog posts, I think the even took place in Oregon. If you can identify the town or the sponsoring quilt organization, please share. Here is the source of this picture: http://snippetsofaquilter.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

Is a quilted car still considered a quilted car if the quilt blocks are made with paint? This car, actually was painted with nail polish. The source site has A BUNCH of painted quilted cars, and perhaps a quilted fabric covered car somewhere on the site. I did not look through every picture, and the site did not provide a search bar. Still, if your guild wants to make a quilted car, this might be a good place for some ideas: http://artcar.blogspot.com/2008/12/nail-polish-quilt-art-car-by-jill-bell.html

The site does have a category of FIBER art cars, so that probably contains some quilted examples.
http://artcar.blogspot.com/search/label/Fiber



I would never have known about the Quilted Gas Station had I not visited this site: http://artcar.blogspot.com/search/label/Quilted%20Gas%20Station

From the site: "This Quilted Gas Station was the brainchild of artist/activist Jennifer Marsh who came up with an idea to bring greater attention to the world's dependency on oil. She put the word out to fiber artist all over the world to submit 3x3 foot squares to cover the abandoned gas station. This old gas station located on the way to her studio was the perfect candidate to be covered in 5,000 square feet of fabric (colossal handmade blanket). With the help of other artists from 15 countries and more than 2,500 grade-school students from 29 states, Marsh covered everything including the pumps, light stands and signs. With more than 3,000 fiber panels, crocheted, knitted, quilted and stitched together she managed to cover this 50-year-old gas station that on a cold nights is the perfect place to stay warm."



"This Quilted Art Car was created by a group 30 crafty women from Queensland, Australia's quilting community, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a quilt exhibition. This is the kind of car you can get cozy with on cold winter nights....You don't have to worry about finding your car in the mall."
Source: http://artcar.blogspot.com/2009/01/quilted-art-car-from-down-under.html

That's all I'm going to post on this topic tonight. I would like to find THE FIRST quilted car cover that started this "fashion trend". Thanks to the Internet an idea like this spreads all over the world in such a short time!

I can understand this would protect a car's painted finish underneath. I can understand the advertising or promotional value of such a quilted car cover. If someone gave you a quilted cover for your car, would you use it? *grin*

The Sky is Pregnant

The weather is pregnant this afternoon...fretful, heavy, very uncomfortable, pensive. The air feels claustrophobic.

A few grumbles of distant thunder signaled the slow beginnings of labor pains in the sky. Then, just a short while ago, her water broke with a 2/10ths of an inch of rain.

Now the labor pains and grumbles and sharp pains of lightning have picked up. We anticipate the delivery of a nice bouncing baby thundershower very soon.

Just like a nervous father-to-be, we are all unsettled, restless, waiting on the rain to arrive before we can settle down and focus on an activity.

We need the rain on the crops and the garden!

Here is a quilt picture to go with today's weather. It is the quilt on a guest bed upstairs. I did not make it, but I love this particular section of the quilt and hope to incorporate the concept of this design into some as-yet-unplanned future quilt.

Frugal Tuesday; Good to the Last Drop

For some time now, I've been squeezing the last drop from many purchased items. Then it dawned on me that MAYBE not everyone realized how much we throw away in "empty" tubes of toothpaste or hand cream. I have some suggestions for extracting the most from the plastic to metal tubes of toothpaste to hand cream.


Then consider the concentrated products, like liquid dish soap or liquid laundry soap, that we slip into using in the same quantities we once used the non-concentrated version. I'll share what we do to be certain we don't waste concentrated products.

Then there are items we just will not buy because we cannot get the last drop out of the container. Squeeze bottles of mayonnaise are wonderful, but we don't buy them. We go for the quart jar that one can squeegee with a flexible spatula. Those quart jars used to be glass, and we could put up summer tomatoes in those quart jars. Now the quart jars are mostly plastic, but we still save them for multiple uses that I will share with you in this post.

1. Tubes: My new favorite way to squeeze the last drop out of toothpaste and other tubes, both plastic and metal, is the little pink squeeze thing in the picture above. All my life, we have used the handle of a toothbrush to squish the toothpaste toward the cap and then have rolled up the end. That's better than nothing, but it does not work on these plastic containers that unroll, as you can see in the picture above.

If you have a plastic tube or metal tube of the many, many products that come in tubes, from glue to hemorrhoid ointment, something like that pink squeegee tool works better even than the little tools that help you roll the tube, because so many tubes today are made from a material that just will not stay folded!

I found the pink squeeze tool at Walmart, in a package of two. It was in the toothpaste area on the end of an aisle for impulse purchases. When I find them again, I will be getting LOTS of them. THEY WORK! if you know of another source for these, please let me know!



The luxurious and delicious Crabtree and Evelyn Lavender Hand Therapy was a gift, but it is worth every cent of its $15 price tag. This is a metal container, and there is hand cream still in this tube. After squeezing the lingering cream down to the cap, my uncle cut open the tube with his pocket knife.

 

There is enough of this fabulous cream for at least three applications. I've finger-squeegeed the flat sections, and have the cap end in a zipper plastic bag for my next application.


 
My favorite hand cream, the Neutrogena, has a short plastic tube that would not work with the pink squeeze tool. When I have squeezed as much as possible from it, I cut off the end and scrape out as much as possible with my finger. Usually I can get five or more applications by cutting open the container.

As I scrape the sides down toward the cap, I cut off more plastic to make it easier to access the wonderful cream. Keep the tube you have cut open with scissors in a plastic zipper bag to keep it from drying out.

2. Concentrated products: Lets use Dawn concentrated liquid dish washing soap as an example.

Human nature and habits being what they are, it is SO EASY to slip back into squirting the same amount of soap into the sink from the concentrated bottle as I once did from the non-concentrated version. When you buy a concentrated version of a product you are not paying a premium for the water that dilutes it appropriately for use.

I've saved multiple Dawn plastic squeeze bottles, and now, when we buy a new bottle of the concentrated soap, I fill the empty bottles and add water to the appropriate consistency so that none of us use more than necessary. It takes just a few minutes and DOES save money over time.

If you don't have a collection of bottles waiting to be filled with the properly diluted product, start with the bottle you have and add water as you empty the bottle. Save that bottle, and divide your next purchase between the bottles, etc.

One step beyond that. I dilute shampoo and dish washing soap a bit more anyway to stretch the product. I once read that Americans are addicted to seeing suds. Suds do not translate to guaranteed cleanliness. if you are washing your hair every day, for example, you don't need full strength shampoo. Think of how many products are on the market to remove shampoo BUILD-up!!!

3. We DON'T buy mayonnaise in squeeze bottles. I explained above why we prefer to buy the quart jar. Same with mustard.

The ketchup bottles I refill with a generic version of ketchup. Hubby got it into his head that he only liked a certain brand of highly-advertised ketchup. Of course it was one of the more expensive versions. I've been putting generic ketchup in his favorite ketchup bottle for years now, and he has never noticed the difference.

Actually, Unc likes brand name Dawn dish washing liquid soap. I refill those brand name bottles with a generic version. 

Now, there are many more great ideas being posted on my Facebook page for squeezing the last drop out of purchased products out of a container. Take a look and share your ideas either here in the comments or on the Facebook page.

I KNOW there is much I have to learn from you, and I look forward to reading your ideas!

Frugal Tuesday: Remix Deodorant
Frugal Tuesday: Making Soap Last Longer
Frugal Tuesday; Vinegar as Air Freshner

Good Neighbors and Farm Fresh Food!

Gonna catch you up on some pictures of the farm-grown fruit and vegetables we have been enjoying so far this year...and those veggies shared with us from some good neighbors. Isn't it nice to have good neighbors like this?

This is a collection of photos from the last few weeks. Our tomatoes have not yet come in so we were thrilled with these beautiful vegetables. In return, we were able to give them figs and an icebox watermelon and other vegetables.



Once again, my uncle Charles K. Hamer, age 84, is working every morning and late afternoon in the garden and loving every minute of it. He is also good at freezing food. He loves his garden, and the garden, in turn, is keeping him vibrant and healthy!

I had not shared it on my blog, but we lost a freezer earlier this year, and it WOULD be the freezer with most of the vegetables we put up last year! "Spilt milk", so we will just work harder to put up more vegetables this year.



The bulk of the vegetables in our garden will come in later, essentially a Fall garden. We started our own seed this early, trying to use up an over-abundance of old seed. For various reasons, we had to re-plant a couple of times.

The rabbits enjoyed the first planting of beans, and crickets have eaten up peas and string beans at least once. That's ok...we have a special , non-chemical weapon for those crickets! We are planning to introduce weeder geese to the farm this fall, and that will take care of the crickets!

Repairing the garden and orchard fence to hold in the geese will take care of the rabbits. "We're making progress," my mantra! If it were not for the crickets, the menfolk might not be motivated yet to fix the orchard fence...so there is a silver lining in most "calamities"!



We like to start our own seed and acclimate the plants to this Mississippi heat. They do better overall than store-bought plants grown in a hot house. We need plants with vigorous roots, not lots of foliage and root-bound roots!



The seed we saved last year for tomatoes were extremely viable, so we will save seed again. Open pollinated plants like heirloom varieties work great from saved seed.

We are working toward growing only open pollinated vegetables so that we are not dependent each year on the seed one can find in the local stores or orders far in advance of planting season. We are watching seed prices rise, so saving our own seed is yet another frugal step we are taking.



So far, Unc has put up 17 bags of peas, thanks to some generous neighbors, 6 bags of squash from our garden, 2 quarts of okra from our garden, 8 quarts of mulberries (it was a good year for mulberries here), and 6 quarts of blueberries (the best our blueberry shrubs have done to date.)



This is what we were harvesting last week.



No more blueberrries for this year.



Every day, Unc and I are enjoying an afternoon salad. Gordon does not like vegetables, so he is missing one very delicious treat!



In another blog post, I will share with you our "discovery" of a herb that has more nutrition than lettuce. We have been cutting it up for years, thinking it was a weed. It has proved to be a DELICIOUS summer lettuce substitute. No lettuce would be living in this Mississippi heat right now.



Did I make you hungry with these pictures?  *wicked grin*

Frugal Tuesday: Vinegar as Air Freshner

This has got to be a fast post, and I had another Frugal Tuesday idea to share with you from a previous week.

We stopped using plug in varieties of air fresheners after I found some scorch marks above the plug in fixtures in three instances in this house.

To save money and to also try a very green, environment friendly version, i use little containers of white vinegar around the house. We have tucked these air fresheners under beds and in corners...so i just filled them with white vinegar when the original stuff has evaporated.  Easy Peasy.

The scent of the vinegar disappears quickly after you pour it from the bottle into whatever container you plan to tuck it in. After that, it does it's thing, and you only think about it when the vinegar has evaporated and you need to refill.

There are some valuable tips along this avenue of frugal air freshener solutions from my Facebook friends on my Everything page, including one lady who shared the side effects of chemical air fresheners on her household pets. I'm pretty sure anyone can read this linked page, even if one is not a member of Facebook. If you cannot see the comments/ideas, just let me know.

Sleep time. Still lots to catch you up on.

Frugal Tuesday: Remix Deodorant
Frugal Tuesday: Making Soap Last Longer
Frugal Tuesday: Good to the Last Drop

Finish Friday; Body Pillowcase and Two Cold Packs

Another thing I recently started on my Facebook account is "Finish Friday".  Pick a small project or two you can finish before Monday. It's amazing what completing projects, however small, can do for your energy and self esteem.

We all get buried under the interruptions and "challenges" of life. Or should we call them the "opportunities to grow in patience and learn wisdom"?  *cheeky grin*

So my Finish Friday projects from last week was to finish sewing together two pillowcases to make a long pillowcase for my body pillow. I've made pillowcases for that favorite long body pillow from a Laura Ashley "Bramble" valance and from king size pillowcases that are too long for our pillows. I even made one from some very soft denim that has embroidered little roses as a border design.

For some odd reason, I had not made a pillowcase for my body pillow from anything YELLOW! You know me and Happy Yellow!  So this used two pillowcases from one of my favorite (and long since discontinued)  Ralph Lauren sheet designs. I think this pattern is called "Sophia". They were a bargain from eBay.

When I make pillowcases, I use French seams. I love French seams. I have nightgowns I made 30 years ago that are still intact because I used French seams! Here is a good tutorial online for making French seams. I also use pinking shears to trim the first seam. 

I can hear you asking why I still have nightgowns that I made 30 years ago? Well, I made them so pretty and lacy and dainty that I only use them for travel...so they have lasted REALLY well!  *laugh at myself*



Then I finished the second of two home-made cold packs. After sharing with the Wise Women friends of Facebook my dilemma of ice packs that always manage to leak eventually, I made two of their suggestions. One is filled with rice and some herbal essential oil. The other is filled with flax seed and some herbal essential oil. 

I wanted to see which held it's soothing cold temperature the longest. The weight of the cold pack was also a consideration. A heavier cold pack placed over throbbing eyes and face works for me.

Because flax seed pillows I have made in the past shifted willy nilly over my face, I sewed channels in these two cold packs.

Here is what I learned that will guide me in the next project of making cold packs.

1. Neither the rice nor flax held their healing cold temperature nearly as long as a zipper plastic bag of ice cubes.

2. Keep these cool packs in a zipper plastic bag when you store them in the freezer or they will QUICKLY absorb freezer smells.

3. My personal preference is for the combined weight of both cold packs. It is nice that neither the flax seed nor the rice can roam around in its ticking prison, but next time I will make the cold pack longer so that it hangs over on the sides of my head better. I liked the channels, but next time I will make them horizontal or make the channels over my eyes larger to put more weight directly on the aching eyes.

I'm still pondering how to make an ice pack that will hold ice and not leak and not break and last more than ten nanoseconds. Any suggestions?

What small project or projects can you finish before Monday? Pick something, anything, and see how good it makes you feel to complete something!