Kerry'd Away

Summer Cross Project – 4-24-16

Posted on April 24, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Here is the top half of my Summer Cross as of 4-6-16. This was right before I started all of the outlining that has to be done on this project.

I had taken another picture after this, but I want you to see the dramatic effect that some simple lines will have on a piece…

Isn’t that neat?!

Jay looks at it and doesn’t understand how I can enjoy working with all of those little ‘x’s and outlining it all. Yet, I don’t know how he can enjoy working on the sheeting of an airplane. There’s nothing therapeutic about that!

The majority of what’s left to stitch is a LOT of words. The actual cross shouldn’t take me too long to finish. I’ve been working on this for a year, though, so who knows how much longer I’ll be working on it.

Posted in cross stitch, Faith | Tagged Cross, cross stitch, Faith | Leave a comment

Gluten Free Cooking Advisor

Posted on April 19, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Gluten Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes

It hit me the other day that it’s been almost ten years since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Wow. Ten years?!

Things have come a LONG way since I was first diagnosed. Back then I could only shop at Wegmans for my gluten free specialty foods like pasta, breads and treats. Now even Aldi’s has a large selection of gluten free products!

Even with all of this progress and the tremendous variety that now exists, I still have days where I feel like crying or screaming about how it’s unfair that I can’t eat the delicious bread sticks at Olive Garden. Yes, there are lots of substitute gluten free products, but a good portion of them are NOT good. To be honest, I find that I still prefer to make most baked goods myself. I always have the different flours on hand that are required to make my very favorite baking mix so it’s not a problem for me to whip up a batch of flour and then make whatever it is that my heart desires.

Gluten Free Kitty Litter Cake Dessert

I am amazed to discover how many people are scared of trying things on their own. For me it doesn’t matter if the recipe was written to use regular flour or not; if it sounds good then I want to try it. I’ve had some flops. Some BIG flops. I’m sure that Jay remembers the tantrum I threw after I couldn’t get the Kahlua cookies to work correctly. I scraped the whole thing into the garbage and refused to bake for the rest of the night.

Gluten Free Airplane Sugar cookies

Lately I have actually been sought out in order to assist in making a luncheon gluten free at my church. I made some suggestions and offered up a recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup so that the woman who was attending the retreat (and is both gluten and dairy free!) would be able to eat, too. I was told the next day that it was a great success and the woman who made the soup did a terrific job!

Gluten Free Vanilla Blossom Cookies

Last night as I was standing on the deck talking to the neighbor he asked where the best place was to buy gluten free grocery items. I told him what I had observed, what I typically do, and a few other suggestions.

And no, I don’t eat gluten free baked goods all of the time. I would be HUGE if I did that!

July 2006

Ten years ago I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. My mom and I didn’t have anybody to ask questions of because not even the dietitians knew much about gluten or the gluten free diet. I remember breaking down in the middle of Wegmans because it was all so overwhelming. I learned to read ingredient labels, and in turn my good friends learned how to read them as well. I learned what worked for me and what didn’t, and then I experimented. Some people say that if they had to follow the gluten free diet they would die. Well, I’m not quite that dramatic, but it is quite the learning curve. I have often wondered why I was the one in my family who was diagnosed with this disease (it’s a genetic disease, but none of my immediate family has it). Why is it that I have to be the one to sit around and smell the wonderful food as coworkers, and even some members of my family, don’t bother to remember that I can’t eat everything that they can.

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason as God has a specific plan for all of us, whether we like it or not! It’s said that He doesn’t give you anything that you can’t handle, despite any argument that you might present to Him. I think that God gave me this cross to bear so that I can be a blessing to others. So that they don’t have to wander alone in the gluten free desert He has set me in their path, to lead the way to the deliciousness that can be had if you know what you’re doing.

In my ten years of wandering the gluten free highway I have helped people in the Celiac Disease support group that I used to belong to; friends of my parents; friends of friends; friends of extended family; fellow parishioners; and even random people in the community. I probably will never know how many people I have actually helped in one way or another, but that’s okay. Knowing that I helped make it possible for one woman to attend a retreat at church without her having to stress about the lunch hour makes it all worth it. Also, I have managed to hook people on my gluten free Stuffed Pepper Soup, my gluten free Cheesy Chester Chowder, and my gluten free Macaroni and Cheese makes me smile. 🙂

Posted in Baking, Celiac Disease, Faith, gluten free, Sweets | Tagged Baking, Celiac Disease, Faith, Gluten free, sweets | Leave a comment

Train Coffee Table – Part 3

Posted on April 17, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Can you tell that I’m teasing you with the coffee table pictures at the beginning of my posts? You can see it in this picture, once you get past the excitement of Jay opening an airplane box. By the way, this is the same level of excitement that he shows when opening up boxes of model railroad track. Ask me how I know…

Now that our road pieces are dry we can continue working on them. First you need to paint them black, or whatever color you want them to be. If you were going to make a brick road then you would paint that finish on your road pieces. Jay decided to go with regular asphalt. To make the lines on the road he used masking tape as stencils and sloppily painted the yellow on them.

See how nicely that turns out!

If you have miles and miles of roads this might get a bit tedious. At that point you could probably just not put the lines on at all. When people ask you about it you can say that the state workers haven’t had time to put the lines on in between breaks. Add some yellow cones, orange barrels and Men At Work signs for realism. Do NOT add construction workers because this will turn your scene from a fairly realistic one to a fantasy-filled layout. At that point you might as well add some zombies and dragons.

Use the same masking tape stencil idea to make lines in various parking lots that you might have in your layout.

Don’t forget to add the curb stops, too!

We aren’t quite done, but you have to feel a sense of accomplishment so add all of your details back into the display to see how good it’s looking.

We have some more details to add. On either side of your crossings you might need to do some detail work. Don’t forget to add the markings to the pavement on either side of the crossings, too.

Add some dark shading around the roads and buildings. After all, it’s not often that you see grass growing right up to the edge of the roads. At least, not where I live.

For the last time add your details and secure them. If you have telephone/power poles in your layout be sure to add the lines running between them. I believe that Jay used black thread for this scene.

Again, make sure to view it from all angles to check everything out. Is there something missing? Does it look odd in one spot? Did you accidentally leave a spot bare and it doesn’t jump out at you until you walk around it?

And here it is! Jay built the frame and enclosed it in glass.

He wired it up to a controller and plugged it in. It’s a very interesting piece of furniture.

As you can see, we have it sitting in our front living room. It’s not often plugged in and running, though.

Recently Jay decided to use an Arduino board to control the train. He did a simple program and tested it out on the coffee table. Once it was proved to work he then moved it downstairs because he’s going to program it to do some more complicated things on the big layout.

While he had the top piece of glass off he decided to clean the tracks. The trains don’t run very well if they are dirty.

Luckily he was closely supervised to make sure that he was doing it correctly. Chester sure is a good supervisor!

Posted in Crafting, model trains, N Scale Train, Trains | Tagged Crafting, model trains, N Scale Trains, Trains | Leave a comment

Train Coffee Table – Part 2

Posted on April 15, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Hopefully you enjoyed the first post on the Train Coffee table. Chester enjoys the coffee table, even if you can’t see the finished product very well in this picture.

Shall we see how the table continues to progress?

By this time your mashed potatoes/cake icing should be nice and dry.

So where do we go next? To be honest I’ve never worked on a train layout at all, so I’m learning the process right along with you guys.

Once you have all of your track pretty much set you want to start adding the details. After all, what fun is it to watch a train go around a plain track? Nope, you have to build a little scene so that the engineer doesn’t get bored.

The details are what really sells a layout. The mashed potatoes/cake icing have been painted to look more like a built-up area of rock for the train to run over and a car to pass through. Figure out what buildings you want or what features you would like to add to your scene.

If you’re going to have buildings then you need to have paths on which to drive to get to them. You can make your roads in various ways so there is not one correct way in which to do this. It appears that Jay decided to use a thin hobby grade plywood for his roads.

Be sure to view it from different angles to see if you like how things look. Does it make sense? Are you going for realism? If so, can the cars really make that sharp corner to cross over the tracks? Since it’s all about the train do you really care about the vehicles that won’t move?

Here are our road/pavement pieces. They don’t look like much, do they?

With today’s technology it might help for you to take a picture of your layout (like one of the pictures above) so that you know exactly where each piece should go once you remove them to finish.

Jay decided to fiberglass these pieces. I’m not sure why. Theoretically he could have just painted them and left it at that. Perhaps he was going for a smoother finish so that you can’t exactly tell that they are wood pieces.

Again, there are a ton of ways to make roads, parking lots, and other types of pavement. Do a Google search. You’ll be amazed!

As we wait for the fiberglass to set up and dry we can make the frame for the table. Also, be sure to play with your train on the tracks to prove that your layout is good.

Posted in Crafting, model trains, N Scale Train, Trains | Tagged Crafting, model trains, N Scale Train, Trains | Leave a comment

Train Coffee Table – Part 1

Posted on April 12, 2016 by civilwarrose5

When I first started to date Jay he was all about his RC jets. We were at the flying field a good chunk of every weekend. Yet, just like every diamond-in-the-rough there are different facets to Jay, too. His mom told me once that he goes through spells of his hobbies. He was full-bore into skydiving, then he built his own full-scale airplane and flew that; there were the gas helicopters that he flew constantly; EDF technology came along, got better, and he got into the jets; his wife enables him and he gets heavy into 3D printing and his CNC machine. At some point in there he was into model trains, too. Well, we’ve come full circle and he’s getting back into the trains. He’s working on a large lay-out right now, but let me show you something that he did before I met him that I think is really neat.

Back in 2009 Jay was apparently bored. As he was watching TV one day he looked at his coffee table and thought, “You know what would look good on that? A train!” Except, he wasn’t thinking about painting a train on it. Nope. He was going to build a train track to run a locomotive around.

To do this he first cut a piece of plywood the same size as the top of the table.

Lay out your track and figure out what you want to put in the scene. How many switches? Are there going to be any crossing gates? How many lines do you want running?

Get some of your rolling stock out and see how it looks on the track layout. Does it look good? Are there any changes that should be made?

Once you have your layout done you want to lay down the ground cover and the cork bed for the track.

At one end of the track there is going to be a raised overpass so we need to raise the track and begin to prepare for the building of the pass.

Be sure to mask your track with tape so that you don’t mess it up.

I’m not sure why Jay started using cake icing over here, but perhaps it makes the work easier to do?

Oh, wait… I see the bucket of plaster in the background. So perhaps it wasn’t cake icing that he was using…

Remember to build it up on BOTH sides of the track.

A lot of masking tape will be needed. You don’t want to get plaster in places where it doesn’t belong.

Also, you apparently need a LARGE amount of caffeine to get through this building stage.

Once the plaster is dry make sure to remove all of the tape.

This is a neatly-done job.

Right now it just looks like the track is sitting on a pile of mashed potatoes, but in the next installment you’ll see how it gets finished and improved upon.

Posted in Crafting, model trains, N Scale Train, Trains | Tagged Crafting, model trains, N Scale Train, Trains | Leave a comment

Astroflora Shawl Done – Almost…

Posted on April 10, 2016 by civilwarrose5

I started crocheting this shawl at the beginning of March. It’s an easy project to work on when I’ve had a rough day and I don’t want to worry about counting stitches or looking at tiny little holes in my cross stitch linen.

I finished it on Saturday 4-2-16. I still have to block it, but all of the stitching is done.

The bad thing about this project? It makes me want to do more crocheting. I have an addictive personality, so that’s not a good thing! I have so many other hobbies now that I don’t really need another one!

I tried to get a good picture of the detail. When you look at it closely you can see the star-shaped flowers that make up this shawl.

I’m hoping that once I block it the detail will really pop out. Again, because I used the variegated yarn it might not pop out as nicely as a solid color would allow the design to really shine.

A way to feed my newly-found crochet habit, though, is to crochet edges on fleece for babies in Haiti. As part of the Dresses for Missions we try to send not only the dresses, but blankets, caps, shorts, and little things like that for babies. You see, in Haiti they usually end up putting the babies on the floor to spend most of the day. If I can crochet for the comfort of the babies, then I’ll gladly toss that into my bag of tricks, too.

Between Goodwill, the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby, and a really good sale at Hobby Lobby I managed to get this pile of fleece for blankets. I spent a few hours the other night attempting to square up the fleece and round the corners. I say, “attempting” because I’m not a quilter so I’m not very good at the whole ‘squaring up’ thing when it comes to fabric. When I was researching different ways to do these blankets I found that most of the women who make these like to use about 1/2 a yard per blanket. Considering how these are going to be used I decided that I would use an entire yard per blanket so that they could be folded up for more padding. If they last then maybe they can be used to cover up the children as they grow. Either way, it should be an interesting experiment!

If you’ve known me for any length of time, or have been following my blog, you’ll realize that what I typically end up doing is researching a topic, trying to figure out how I want to go about it, and then I jump in with both feet. That’s what I’m doing with these blankets. The leaflet that I borrowed from my mom goes into this whole explanation about the math and how you need an even number of holes for this pattern or an odd number of holes for that pattern… and it made me tired. I sit and look at numbers all day so I haven’t wanted to read the information on the patterns to understand it. I will at some point, but for now I’m just going to wing it. If it doesn’t work out then I’ll go back and read the information on the math. I used the special wheel for my rotary cutter that puts the holes in the fleece for crocheting, and since it seemed to work out perfectly, I’m hoping that I won’t really have to worry about the numbers. Am I lazy or what!?

This isn’t crochet, but I really want to share it. This is the winter head band that I had asked my mom to make me a few years ago. Actually, it has to have been around 5 years ago that she knitted this for me. Anyway, this is my FAVORITE winter accessory.

This isn’t a good picture, but this is how it looks when I wear it. I always get weird looks, but I don’t care. It’s not a hat, it’s essentially just a big circle like some of those headbands that you see people wearing when they ski. Except, I wanted a wider one because I couldn’t find one that felt like it completely covered my ears. Plus, I have sinus issues and this one completely covers my forehead and helps to protect my sinuses up there from being assaulted by the cold. It obviously does not keep airplane landing gear from landing on the top of my head, though.

My mother-in-law wanted one, so my mom made her a purple one with the fun fur. Then Jay’s grandma saw our headbands and wanted one, too. Considering she’s in her late 80’s I didn’t think that she would want a silly-looking one with the fun fur. I had my mom make her a plain one. Boy, she was NOT impressed. She wanted one with fun fur! So I had my mom make her another one and this time she was pleased as punch!

I don’t knit, but I know that my mom won’t be around for ever so I might actually have to learn how to just so that I can make my own head band when this one finally bites the dust.

Posted in Crochet, Dresses for Missions | Tagged Crochet, Dresses for Missions, shawl | 1 Comment

Summer Cross Project – 4-8-16

Posted on April 8, 2016 by civilwarrose5

My poor, neglected and unloved Summer Cross! This is how it looked at the end of January. This is how it sat for two months…

… without a single stitch added…

It’s hard to fit all of my hobbies into the couple of hours that I get after work each day and so this one got put off to the side.

Finally I managed to get all of the words stitched into the upper right corner of this piece. The words are just backstitching, but it feels like they take the longest to do.

This was as of Wednesday evening. I had a few minutes to work on it while I was waiting for Jay to come home from work.

Here it is as of this evening (4-8-16). The other night I finally managed to get the first stage of Jay’s birthday present finished so now I have time to work on my cross stitch. I don’t know if you can tell, but I have started outlining the flowers. The sticks are all outlined, along with the bright orange impatiens (?) and the strawberries.

It feels good to be able to sit and put stitches in this again.

Posted in cross stitch, Faith | Tagged Cross, cross stitch, Faith | Leave a comment

Lots of Traveling!

Posted on April 5, 2016 by civilwarrose5

I’ve been a little absent from my blog. Things have been super busy around here and I haven’t had a lot of time to blog. Also, I’ve been working on Jay’s birthday present, but I can’t tell you what it is right now because he reads my blog.

So, what have I been up to?

There was a Home Show that took place locally. My friend Patty and I attended and I took pictures of these decorated rain barrels. There were some really neat ones, but I loved the cat one the best.

Then there was a whirlwind trip down to my sister’s in North Carolina. She just bought a new house and was feeling a bit overwhelmed. My mom and I went down to help her do some painting.

This is her living room. Can we say 70’s?? The orange shag carpeting is the best. With all of the paneling it was too dark, though.

This isn’t the best picture, but you can at least get the idea. We painted an accent wall a light creamy beige to help lighten the room. This was taken at night, but you get the idea.

I think that it turned out pretty good.

A week later I was heading out to Toledo for the Weak Signals RC show. Jay and I went with our friends Dave and Patty. It was a good time, but we were disappointed in the number of empty booths. Apparently the booth fees are getting too high so people are opting to skip the show.

The next day my mom and I traveled a few hours away to attend a Sewing Expo. I had never been there, but since it was so close I really wanted to go. There was a LOT of quilting stuff there, followed by machine embroidery. Bringing up the rear was general sewing and then garment sewing.

My mom really enjoyed it because quilting is her big hobby. She also crochets, knits, sews, and fixes old treadle sewing machines.

I did manage to find some blue lace for $.50 a yard (I bought 20 yards… all that they had), some nicely-priced thread and a LED bulb for my 301A sewing machine.

There were some interesting quilts on display, though.

Because I’m not very involved in quilting I had never seen one where the main design actually falls off of the quilt. Also, I like the shadows of the candles on top. Nice touch!

There were lots of women around so I couldn’t get directly in front of all of these quilts to take better pictures. You’ll just have to deal with what I was able to snap.

This one intrigued me because I had never seen this style before. I love this one.

Being a farm girl I had to take a picture of this one. It’s full of applique pieces, which I know my mom absolutely hates. Just like I’m a lazy baker, my mom is a lazy quilter. She doesn’t like all of the fussiness that is required with applique. I can’t say that I blame her. I would probably skip it, too.

This isn’t the best picture, but I had to include it. I LOVED these cats. Aren’t they adorable??!

Posted in Quilts, Sewing | Tagged Quilts, Sewing | 1 Comment

Egads! It’s a Spad! – Part 11

Posted on March 23, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Jay has been commissioned to work on other projects, so poor Chad had been neglected for a while. Then this past weekend Jay decided that he was going to work on the next steps of preparing Chad for flight.

Except… he ran into a few issues. When he was telling me about the problems he ran into and how he fixed them I asked if this was something that other guys might want to know as they were building their own Chads. He said that it would actually be really good information to have, so I’m posting it here for those of you who are using these posts to help you as you build.

*******Disclaimer – the following pictures are what I was given to post. The notes were on a sheet of paper with no indication as to which picture should accompany them. Therefore, please forgive me if the posted picture does not correspond in any way to the text.********

WING TUBE ISSUE

“After building, found wing tubes & sockets were a loose fit. Wing tips wiggled .060″ to .070″ up and down.”

Man, there is nothing worse than a wiggly wing tip!

“Scuffed aluminum tubes and cleaned. Coated them in multiple layers of medium CA using my finger. I built up the surface and sanded until I had achieved a snug fit.”

(A warning from Kerry – be careful where you stick your CA-coated finger. Now is not the time to be picking your nose or scratching in impolite places.)

FIREWALL and MOTOR BOX ISSUE

“I built the motor box centered on fuse diameter of firewall. After bracing with triangle stock I fit the cowl over the firewall and motor blank. The motor was not centered. GRRRRRR.”

Jay 3D printed a motor to use for fitting purposes as he’s still not allowed to purchase the actual motor. Seeing that dollar amount will surely give me a heart attack!

“I had to cut the motor box loose and move down 3/8″. DO NOT CENTER ON FUSE DIAMETER RADIUS.”

See… it’s capitalized so you know it’s important!

“You need to include 1/3 of the oil cooler distance at the bottom of the cowl.”

Even though Jay’s using an electric motor it still has an oil cooler distance. Maybe I can find a doll-house sized Igloo cooler and write ‘oil’ on it. Then I’ll place it on Chad when Jay isn’t looking…

“I then reglued the motor box in the proper position in order to center the motor in the cowl.”

Cowl… that’s a strange word. At once I’m reminded of a cow and an owl. Perhaps that’s where you get warm milk at night when you can’t sleep?

Here is a picture of… this… umm…

It’s like my grandpappy always used to say… a centered motor is a happy motor. And if the motor ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!

This just reminds me of a bull and Jay is pulling on his nose ring.

Here’s a tip from a farm girl: Don’t pull on the nose ring of a bull that you aren’t familiar with. Make your introductions first and ask politely if you may tug a bit on his nose ring. In this case it’s definitely better to ask permission than forgiveness!

I hope that these pictures and Jay’s notes helped. If you have any other questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to ask. Even though Jay is making Chad electric he has enough experience with gas engines that he can probably steer you in the right direction.

Hahaha… STEER… get it… another cow reference… hehehehe

Posted in 3D Printing, A-1 Skyraider, RC Planes | Tagged A-1 Skyraider, R/C, RC Airplanes, RC Planes, Spad, Ziroli A-1 Skyraider, Ziroli Skyraider | 9 Comments

Dresses for Missions Update 3-19-16

Posted on March 19, 2016 by civilwarrose5

I keep posting teasers about the fabric I’ve been purchasing, but I haven’t really done anything with it. Now that I have my 301A up and running I’m hoping to put it to a LOT of use!

This poor dress has been hanging around since the end of January. I had finished it, but never took a picture of it. Also, I hate to turn the dresses in as singles. It always looks much better if I can hand in a group.

This was a batch of dresses that had been sewn together, but not trimmed. I shouldn’t have taken so long in trimming these out, but I just got busy.

Also, by the time that I got to these dresses I was done with orange and yellow. I would be happy if I never have to trim out an orange dress again.

This was the 11th in this series of dresses. This particular one is also the first one that I used my 301A to stitch the trims. This one isn’t very fancy, but it’s cute.

Here is the 12th, and LAST, of this series of dresses. No orange!! Woo-hoo!

I had a little more fun with this one. As you can see I wanted to pull out the blue in the fabric so I used a bright blue for the arm edges and the ties.

There was some brown in the main body of the dress and I had this wide brown lace that I thought would look darling at the bottom of the hem.

I used a narrower brown lace at the top, but this time I wrapped the top of the lace with a lime green satiny ribbon. Then I made a bow (of sorts) and sewed it on top of the lace. Here’s a good tip… if you accidentally sew a piece of the lace where it’s not supposed to be sewn you can use a bow to cover it up. You can’t tell at all that my lace has a bit of a hiccup in this spot.

Not a whole ton of sewing, but at least a little bit was done. I have some non-dress sewing to show you, too.

Since my 301A didn’t come with a cover I had to make one. I dug through my stash and found this material that I can’t use for dresses because it’s got too much polyester in it. Also, it turns out that this was a valence. So I folded it in half, made some reference points with pins and serged it up. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s functional… just like me.

I also want to point out how you never can tell what bargains you might find at a goodwill or thrift store. In the middle is a cut of fleece that I found at my local Goodwill. I estimate that there’s about a yard of material right there, and fleece goes for around $6.99/yd at full price. This was marked at $1.49, but it had a yellow tag so on that day it was 75% off the price… which made it around $.47! For less than $.50 I managed to get a nice piece of fleece that I can make into a blanket for the Dresses for Missions shipments. On the right is a homemade skirt that I found. It’s a very long homemade skirt that will never in a million years fit me. However, I ended up getting it for around $1.89 (it was one of the tags that was marked down that day) and there has to be around 2 yards of a heavier cotton/poly blend fabric. I’m not sure what I will make out of it, but I can always use black fabric. Finally, on the left is a nylon windbreaker. I am slowly beginning to gather the materials to make myself a new lunch bag. I was going to purchase a waterproof oxford material for the outside of the lunch bag, but then I decided that was ridiculous. I would pay close to $12/yd for that material. All I need is something fairly waterproof and easy to clean. I decided that I could find a really nice quality nylon windbreaker and so that’s what I did. This cost me around $1.89, too. I walked out of there with everything totaling $4.40. Not too shabby!

Posted in Crafting, Dresses for Missions, Faith, Sewing | Tagged Crafting, Dresses for Missions, Faith, Sewing | Leave a comment