Kerry'd Away

Website Review: Craftsy.com

Posted on August 2, 2015 by civilwarrose5

Do you enjoy quilting, sewing, crocheting, cake decorating, jewelry making, gardening or cooking? Do you enjoy learning new techniques for one of your many hobbies? Do you want to learn a new hobby?

If so, then you definitely need to check out Craftsy.com. I had heard about this website last year, but it was just a few months ago that I actually checked it out. I had received an email from JoAnn Fabrics that was advertising a Craftsy class about how to make your own bras. It wasn’t long before I had purchased a few of the classes and was looking through the other classes to see what I might like to learn.

The very first class that I watched was “Making Leather Bags“with Don Morin. I haven’t actually put this knowledge to use, yet, but I really enjoyed watching the class. We have AppleTV so I was able to watch the classes on our TV in the family room, but once I start trying to sew I can pull it up on my computer and watch it from my sewing room. Not only do you get easy-to-follow classes that you can watch at any time, but you also receive a list of materials, a list of sources, and whatever other information the instructor feels you need.

Craftsy is more than just online classes, though. It’s also a community. You can look at the numerous projects that other members have submitted under ‘Projects‘. Many of the projects are based upon various classes that were taken through Craftsy. Other projects are designs that the member created themselves and want to share. It’s a great way to get encouragement and inspiration.

Along those lines, you can also look at patterns that have been submitted and that you can purchase through the site. In the “Patterns” area you will find everything from crochet to quilting to sewing to various paper crafts. There are some free patterns that you can download as PDF files, which is great… and also kind of dangerous!

Finally, the area that I found last week and that I’ve been drawn to every day is the Blog. This is where you can enter various sweepstakes, get updated on contests that Craftsy is running, or where you can just get inspired. Yesterday I spent an hour looking at the various Cake Decorating entries despite the fact that I haven’t done any cake decorating in quite a few years. Today I found a free crochet pattern for a shawl that I am going to ask my mom to look at. If you’re into cooking, they have posts with recipes or posts that talk about different aspects of cooking that you might be interested in. Do you like quilting? There are tons of posts with free patterns, updates on new products, and posts from quilters who have something to share. Honestly, there is so much there that I can’t really give a good description of what you will find. I subscribe to the Sewing and the Wood working blog posts, but I can always go look at the entire blog and read about how to take good pictures with better poses for children. Seriously, on my lunch break the other day I spent the entire hour just reading through dozens of posts all on different topics.

Do yourself a favor… check out Craftsy. It will be worth your time!

Posted in Baking, Crafting, Craftsy, Quilting, Sewing | Tagged Baking, cooking, Crafting, Crafts, Craftsy, crocheting, Quilting, Sewing | Leave a comment

Sugar Control Diet – July 2015

Posted on July 30, 2015 by civilwarrose5

Weight Loss – Remained Steady

Total Weight Loss – 20 pounds

Mood – Much Improved!

New Goal – Find the ambition to exercise more

July was a busy month and I can’t believe that it’s almost over! My weight fluctuated back and forth by a few pounds, but overall I’ve managed to remain around the same weight. A lot of the time just being able to maintain a new weight is the hardest part about losing it. Especially when you realize that you’re taking shortcuts and “being bad”.

Yes, I’ve been “being bad”. Yesterday I recognized that I’ve fallen into an old pattern in regards to breakfast. I know that Jamie is going to read this and will be a bit upset about what I’m about to admit, but the good news is that I’m owning up to it and will work to change it. Due to my work load I’ve been trying to get into work earlier, which means that I’ve cut out 1/2 hour to 45 minutes of time that I have at home to get ready for work. That means that I don’t have time to make eggs or anything else. I simply pour myself a bowl of granola or gluten-free cereal and scarf it down. Jamie, I am taking a ruler to my knuckles right now as I type OWIEhrohwro…. see…

With that fresh realization on my mind I have set some goals for myself in August:

1. Lay off the cereal/granola/carbohydrates for breakfast. Even if it means that I have to prep something the night before and just toss it in the microwave in the morning.

2. SERIOUSLY… look into exercise programs! I am considering joining the Y, but I have to determine if I will actually stick with it.

3. Spend more time doing stress-relief activities. This will probably end up conflicting with #2 as I don’t consider exercise stress-reducing. In fact, it tends to induce stress because I have to actively work in the time to exercise, which stresses me out because then I’m decreasing the amount of time that I can spend sewing, playing piano, reading, or blogging.

So those are the goals that I’m going to work on in August. If I can only really do one of those then I will be happy. I love the fact that I’ve lost so much weight by changing my diet, but I know that I can be healthier and in better shape if I just give it a little more effort. The biggest problem for me will be overcoming my DNA which predisposes me to avoid most forms of physical activity that is considered to be “good for you”.

I did manage to have a break-through of sorts this past month. If you know me then you know how much I LOVE my sweet tea even though I’m a Yankee. When I go out to eat with my friends I usually order unsweet tea and then add stevia to it in order to make it sweet. Well, this past month I bought some unsweet tea at the store, which I could just brew my own but that would require me to think ahead and actually do it. I was busy and just wanted something to drink so I drank it without sweetening it. I wrinkled my nose the first few times, but now I’ve grown used to it and have begun drinking it like that all the time at home. YIKES! Can you believe that I just admitted that?! I am drinking UNSWEET TEA! *faints*

This coming weekend I will be experimenting a little more with stevia. My garden has supplied me with three nice-sized zucchinis and I’ve been itching to make zucchini relish. My parents made it when I was younger and I prefer it to your regular dill relish. I have gathered up all of the ingredients and will attempt to can some on Saturday. The recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar (YIKES!) and I balk at putting that much into my relish. I know that stevia can have kind of an off-putting taste if used in the wrong amounts, but I’m going to attempt to use it in my relish this weekend. I bought a baking mix that is part stevia and part cane sugar. My thought is that if I can at least cut down on the amount of regular sugar being used then that’s better than using full-strength sugar, right? The baking mix that I bought says that you use 1/2 cup of the mix for every 1 cup of full sugar. Again, I’m not sure how it will work out, but I’m going to give it a shot. I will post on my blog how things go.

The other good thing is that just recently my stress has been reduced BIG TIME at work. My incompetent boss was let go, so the tension has been greatly reduced in my department. We still have the same work load, but now we don’t have to worry about an incompetent moron messing up our quotes or having to fix something that he messed up. This should help my overall well-being a lot.

I guess that’s it for now. Wish me luck with my August goals!

Posted in Sugar Control Diet, Weight Loss Challenge | Tagged Sugar Control Diet, Weight Loss, Weight Loss Challenge | Leave a comment

Failure to Sell

Posted on July 27, 2015 by civilwarrose5

This past weekend there was an annual craft sale in my area that has always been a huge draw. I can remember walking through the park to look at the various vendors’ wares and being jostled because there were so many people also at the park looking at the wares. So when my friend, who lives right next to this park, offered to let me and my mom set up a tent on her lawn to attempt to sell some of our crafts I took her up on her offer. After all, the vendor fee for the park is quite steep and my family is kind of cheap. Also, I wasn’t sure how well my stuff would sell so I didn’t want to pay a lot of money to set up a booth and then not sell anything.

I didn’t have much to sell, but I took the day off of work on Friday to give it a shot.

The crowd wasn’t very big on Friday, but I figured that was due to the fact that a lot of people were working. My mom did okay, though a good portion of that was because she sold a quilt… to my friend.

Very few people commented on my stuff. In fact, the most comments were about the beer that I had on display to show off our six-pack holders. I wasn’t selling the beer as I don’t have a liquor license and the last thing that I needed was to get in trouble with the law.

The show was Friday and Saturday so we hoped to do better on Saturday.

Nope.

Again, I didn’t sell anything. My mom sold a few things, but not nearly as much as she had sold on Friday. We were talking with one of the vendors from the park and they claim that after the poor turn-out on Friday that quite a few of the vendors packed up and left. It also didn’t help that there were two other large events happening this weekend within driving distance of our area. Typically the craft show is the only thing happening on this weekend in July, but not this year. The other vendor was hopeful that next year would be better because nothing else is scheduled to coincide with the craft show. My mom has already put in her reservation for a different spot on my friend’s lawn, so hopefully next year will be better.

I guess that technically I did sell something this weekend. I had made these hooded towels a few years ago, but never ended up needing them. They had been sitting around so I decided that I would give them to my mom to sell with her hooded towels. She sold three of these towels this weekend, two of which were mine. I told her to keep the money, but she refused. It’s kind of disappointing that the things of mine that sold were the ones that I grabbed at the last minute.

The other thing, though, that happened was the real reason why I think my mom and I were supposed to be there this weekend. On Saturday we noticed two women walking down the sidewalk and pushing a girl in a wheelchair. My mom and I looked at each other because the girl in the wheelchair reminded us so much of my older sister, Chrissy. Chrissy has been gone for 8 years, but when we saw this other girl both of us had to hold back the tears.

Later in the day when these women came by again to head back to their car my mom had to stop and talk with them. The girl in the chair was playing with beaded necklaces like what Chrissy used to play with, and when we approached to say hello she got very excited, smiled, and started to make noise like Chrissy used to. This girl has different issues than what Chrissy had, but the similarities were just hitting very close to home for us. It turns out that this family lives near the town where I live, so I gave the mother my name and phone number. I told her that if she ever needs anything or any help to please give me a call. She said that she will probably have me come over and visit to get to know Kristin, this way if they are in need of me to babysit she will feel comfortable leaving me with her. I completely understand and have no issue with that. I know what it’s like to be limited as to what you can do, or being in a tight spot, and not being able to find anybody who can stay home with somebody with these types of disabilities. I have always said that I would like to be a resource for a family like ours, since we never had that option. I need to go get brushed up on my CPR and First Aid training, so I’m going to be looking into that. But I truly feel that this is the reason why I was at the craft show this weekend.

Posted in Crafting | Tagged Crafting, Crafts | Leave a comment

Book Review: Lady on the Hill

Posted on July 20, 2015 by civilwarrose5

I have just finished reading “Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon” by Howard E. Covington Jr. The writing was engaging, informative, and kept me coming back for more. In fact, I was disappointed when I finished this book because it seemed like there was always something new and fascinating that I was learning with every turn of a page.

I picked up this book after returning home from my sister’s wedding. While we were out and about I asked Jay if we could stop by and visit this lovely estate. He had never seen it, and being an indulging husband, we spent almost an entire day there. I would have enjoyed spending more time, but it was hot and I was tired.

First off, if you’ve never been to the Biltmore Estate then you definitely have to put it on your bucket list. You can watch documentaries on it or programs that show it all lit up at Christmas time, but until you’ve actually visited you can’t even begin to really imagine the splendor, grandeur, or immense size of this place.

When George Vanderbilt had the house designed, along with the land surrounding it, it was purposefully designed that you wouldn’t see the house at all until you turned the corner to head up the esplanade. When you turn that corner… WOW. Out of nowhere sits this gigantic mansion.

As you near the front of the house it just continues to grow. It truly is an American castle.

The house was opened in December 1895, but it really wasn’t complete at that point in time. In fact, the Music Room wasn’t completed until the 1970’s when George Vanderbilt’s grandson, William Cecil, decided to complete it in order to fulfill his grandfather’s dream.

Yes, this is a gigantic house and yes, it is the epitome of American excess (as Jay would say), but what fascinates me more are the stories behind the house. That’s what compelled me to pick up this book, “Lady on the Hill.”

I wanted to know how the house went from a private residence to being a huge tourist attraction in western North Carolina. How do they afford to keep it open? What obstacles have they run into? Do they still live in it?

Many people think that if you’re rich then you have no worries and everything is given to you. When you look at the Biltmore you think that the Vanderbilts must have had more money than brains, yet without the brains they wouldn’t have had the money. As it was, this huge house was a drain on George Vanderbilt’s income and before he died in 1914 he was trying to figure out what he could do to get extra money to make ends meet.

“Lady on the Hill” is the story of not only a great house, but also a great love. George Vanderbilt envisioned that Biltmore would be a self-sustaining estate, and though he never saw that come to fruition his descendants have worked very hard to make that a reality. Perhaps you think that all of the marketing gimmicks are just that… gimmicks to pull the suckers in, empty their pockets, and send them out the front gate a lot lighter in the pocketbook just so that those greedy Vanderbilts/Cecils can get even wealthier.

What many people don’t realize is that it takes a LOT of money to keep up a house of this magnitude. It also takes a lot of money to continue to preserve the history that lays behind these doors. Again, if you’ve never been to the Biltmore you need to go. It’s like walking back into time, except you are able to get a glance of what it was like for the upper echelon of our society. My ancestors were all a bunch of dirt-poor farmers who would have thought that they were living in the lap of luxury if they’d been given an extra stall in the dairy barn that used to be on the property.

Anyway, this was a real eye-opener into the behind-the-scenes operational stuff that I find to be interesting. If you have the desire to learn more stories about the house after it was built then this book is the one that you need to read. You definitely won’t be disappointed. You can imagine sitting on the back porch of the Biltmore Estate with the book on your lap, looking out at this scene…

Posted in Biltmore Estate, Book Review, History | Tagged Biltmore Estate, Book Review, History | Leave a comment

Summer Cross Update – 7-15-15

Posted on July 15, 2015 by civilwarrose5

This summer has been flying by and it seems like all of my projects are being put on hold. I haven’t actually worked in my sewing room since the beginning of June. *sigh*

I have made a lot of progress since my last posting in May. I just haven’t remembered to take a picture. Then I have been so busy since the middle of June that I haven’t actually touched this project since around the 9th of June or so. The past few mornings I’ve actually managed to find some time to add a few stitches here and there.

I guess that’s a little bit of progress. I wish that it was more, but I’ll take what I can get. You would think that I would spend more time with these flowers as compared to my real gardens since these ones won’t aggravate my allergies. This is the time of year, though, where I have a hard time justifying time spent inside stitching. I feel like if the weather is nice that I should be outside doing something. My hope is that once the weather goes to pot again (and in this area that could happen at any time) that I’ll get more time to work on my inside hobbies.

Hopefully it won’t be almost two months before I can post another update on this project!

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

Foot Detox Bath

Posted on July 13, 2015 by civilwarrose5

Before I begin this post, I want to warn you that I have pictures of the foot detox bath that I had this past weekend. If you can’t handle icky stuff, then you might want to skip this post altogether. The pictures aren’t HORRIBLY gross (no blood and guts), but it is a bit nasty.

The salon where I get my pedicures has recently started offering these foot detox bath sessions. I was curious because every time I was there the foot bath tubs would be set up, but nobody was actually getting one done. I talked to the girls there and they absolutely believe that it works. I like to try new things, especially ones that won’t hurt me, and so I made an appointment.

I had done a bit of quick research this past week to see what others were saying about it. The overwhelming reaction was that the whole foot detox thing is a bunch of malarkey. The claims of the water changing colors due to the toxins being leeched from your body was actually credited to chemical reactions happening in the bath between the electronic array (the green thing in the bath), the salt that is added, and the particular minerals found in the water.

Perhaps I was a bit skeptical when I walked in, but I went along with everything that I was told. I had to wrap what was essentially a heat pad around my waist to help warm up my insides and thus helping the toxins to be released easier. I didn’t mind this part because my back had been bothering me all week due to the amount of stress that I’ve been under at work. In fact, the heating pad was my favorite part of the whole experience.

As you can see from this picture the water was already beginning to turn an orange-brown color. I think that this was just about 5 minutes into the whole thing. I watched this part carefully and I could see that the color was coming directly from the array, which the girl told me would happen.

This picture was about halfway through the session. The sessions are 30 minutes long. As I was sitting there the salon had another client who was in the middle of getting a pedicure. Now, I LOVE pedicures because you get to put your feet into that bubbly warm water and then you get a foot massage when they are putting lotion on your feet and legs. Then there’s the obvious result from a pedicure… pretty toes!

It just felt weird sitting in there with my feet in water… and there was no bubbling or massaging or anything. When it was all done the girl did a good job of rinsing off my feet and drying them… but no pretty toes 😦 As I was putting my shoes back on I felt a big let-down. I guess that I didn’t feel like I had actually received a service of any kind because you couldn’t actually see any results and I didn’t feel any different.

This is what my water looked like when I was done. According to the propaganda that I was given, this color means that there were a lot of toxins removed from my liver. Okay… I guess.

I don’t know. Maybe there’s something to it, but after reading the literature out loud to Jay (and getting a good laugh at how they spin words to make it seem like a heating pad is the latest and greatest in technology) I just don’t think that this is a service that I will take part in again. They say that it takes multiple sessions to really detoxify your system. Again, perhaps it’s the skeptical part of me, but at $45 per session with the recommendation being two sessions a week for five weeks, and then maintenance sessions once a month, I think that this is just an easy way to make some money.

I could easily be falling into the people who scoffed at Galileo when he claimed that in fact the Earth actually rotated around the Sun instead of the other way around. “Come on, Galileo, are you going to tell me that WE are moving around the Sun and it’s just sitting there in one place? Do you think that I’m an idiot?! I can SEE the sun moving through the sky! Tell me another one!”

I suppose that if I had seen some actual results, or feel like I had some actual results, then maybe I wouldn’t think that it was a complete farce. To be fair, I might have sabotaged the results without realizing it. You see, I did a 5K walk two hours before I went for the detox bath. I did this 5K walk on non-exercised legs as I hadn’t had a chance to get out and actually start walking. So Sunday and today I am definitely feeling it. My muscles all ache and yesterday when I got done from doing the first shift in the kitchen at our church festival I had absolutely NO energy to do anything. In fact, I took a nap and then just sat around watching TV for most of the evening.

Would I recommend this to somebody? Maybe. If money is tight, but they are trying to get healthier, I would tell them to skip it and instead just try flushing their system by drinking lots of water and eating cleanly. I won’t be paying for another session because I have a foot bath, Epsom salts, and a heating pad here at home. As I was leaving I made an appointment for a pedicure next month. I’m already seeing images of glittery blue toes… 🙂

Posted in Health | Tagged Health | Leave a comment

Sugar Control Diet – June 2015

Posted on July 5, 2015 by civilwarrose5

June 2015

Weight Loss – Overall, remained steady.

Total Weight Loss – 20 pounds

Mood – Stressed… still!

I decided that since I’m not on a very strict sugar-controlled diet anymore that I wouldn’t post every week or even every other week. It will probably end up being at the end of the month that I update anybody who’s interested on my progress.

My sister got married this month, and as you can see in the picture, she had somebody make her a gluten-free groom’s cake. It was delicious! The woman who made it actually used marshmallow in the fondant and it was heavenly. At least for me, who is a former marshmallow addict. When I was out of town for the wedding I did my best to behave, but I’ll admit that I had more sugar in those few days than I’ve had in the last six months! It was interesting, though, because my system felt ‘off’ for a few days after that. Perhaps it was more than a few days. I think that it might have been a week before I felt like I was back to my new normal.

I will also admit that after we got back I weighed myself and I had gained four pounds. Yikes! It has taken me the last two weeks to take those four pounds back off. I know that I have to physically do more now if I want to continue to lose weight. The diet took the first 20 pounds off, but if I were to be completely honest I would love to lose another 20. In order to make that happen I will have to actually start exercising regularly, which I dread. I don’t mind going outside and working in the yard or taking a walk, but I hate knowing that I have an obligation to work out. I hate knowing that I am paying money to a facility so that I can go sweat on their machines or in their classes. I tried to do that for motivation a few years ago, and it didn’t work. It just irritated me. lol.

The other thing that I think is somewhat detrimental to my fitness goals is the fact that I am still dealing with a LOT of stress due to work. My boss is completely incompetent at his job and nobody seems to be able to do anything about it… so they do nothing. Last week I told Jay that my job is hazardous to my health; I’m either going to stroke out or else have a heart attack. Luckily I have something in the works that could possibly alleviate that stress. In a few more weeks I should find out for sure.

This weekend was gorgeous, though, so I spent most of the days out in the yard working. We had a tree cut down, plus the neighbor had a tree cut down, so I had a lot of clean-up to do in the yard, plus the stacking of the wood that we are keeping for our fire pit. Then I helped the neighbor a little bit with their extra wood, and finally today I transplanted a GIANT hosta plant and started to prep the area by my driveway for some sidewalk pavers. My muscles are sore and my arms are bruised, but it was nice being able to get so much done.

Next weekend is the Chicken Walk that I signed up for at my church, and then later that morning I am going to have a foot detox session at the salon where I get my nails done. I’ve been curious as to how that will work, so I decided to splurge on one. I will definitely take pictures and give you an opinion on how I think it went. Maybe drawing some of the toxins out of my body will help me to be able to run more efficiently and I will be able to lose more weight. Too bad that they couldn’t do a little liposuction when they do the detox. 😉

Posted in Sugar Control Diet, Sweets, Weight Loss Challenge | Tagged Sugar Control Diet, sweets, Weight Loss | 1 Comment

Newest CNC Wine Coasters 7-1-15

Posted on July 2, 2015 by civilwarrose5

Do you remember the Wine Glass Coaster set that I showed you earlier this spring?

The first round I did a light shade of stain for the bottle and darker stains for the wine glass coasters.

Our church has a summer festival and the choir decided that we were going to put together a wine-themed basket for the Chinese auction. My contribution was one of our wine glass coaster sets.

For this set I decided to flip it around. I went with a darker bottle and lighter coasters.

Also, can you tell that I’m trying to get better at taking pictures of our stuff? I’ve done some reading on photography boxes and I have to get friendly with Photoshop. This picture isn’t the best, but it was my first attempt.

My favorite thing about this latest round of coasters, though, are the new charms that I made.

I’m not good at beading and I really have no desire to make jewelry. That’s why I have a mother; so that she can do the jewelry thing and make me whatever earrings I want.

But I’m so excited to show you what I found and created…

Gummy Bears!!

I know that the picture doesn’t show off the bears very well (again, I need practice), but in person these are the most DARLING things!

These were glass lampwork beads that I found and instantly knew that I had to use them for my wine charms. Luckily I already had glass beads that matched the colors almost exactly.

Gardener’s Delight…

This came as a set with the watering can, wheelbarrow, an all silver butterfly and a stupid silver tag that said ‘blossom’. Seriously? You’re going to do a garden-themed charm set and not even include an actual flower?? That just didn’t work for me.

When I was trolling the bead area of one of the craft stores I came across these pretty butterfly charms. I grabbed those up (they were on clearance!) and then I found the little rose charm and knew I had to use that one. There was no way I was going to use a tag that said ‘blossom’.

Elixir Labels…

I think that these would go great around Halloween.

I had inherited a large container of beading stuff and luckily in there was a selection of black, gray and smoky-colored glass beads that I think really go great with these tags.

Roses…

Okay, so these are another favorite of mine. I would be very hard-pressed to say which is my favorite: The Gummy Bears? The Roses? It’s a difficult decision!

Also, let me just say that sales are a dangerous thing and especially beads that are on sale. It quickly adds up!

I had purchased these pastel glass beads, but really didn’t have a plan for them. Then at the store I found these polymer clay rose beads and the light bulb went off.

So, after I had made all of these I had to decide just which set of charms to include with the coasters for the wine basket. Should I go with the gummy bears? What about the humorous elixir tags? Maybe the roses? I texted my mother-in-law and asked her to come over and help me with a decision. She knows a lot of the people at church and what kind of thing would draw the attention of the wine drinkers (and there are a LOT of them in our church). The winner was…

Posted in CNC Router, Roses, Wine, Wood Work | Tagged CNC Router, Wine, Wine Glass Charms | Leave a comment

Dresses for Missions Update – 6-28-15

Posted on June 30, 2015 by civilwarrose5

I haven’t spent a lot of time in my sewing room, so it’s been a few weeks since I’ve made any dresses. Here is one that I can show you, though.

Dress #29

This fabric had a funky v-pattern to it, but it had enough colors in it that I knew I would be able to find lace in my stash to use on it.

I’m not sure how I like the result, but it’s different.

I had been itching to use this ribbon for quite a while and finally decided that this was the dress it was meant for.

Except, I’m not so sure that it really works.

You can’t tell, but I used black lace on the bottom, too.

When we were out of town for my sister’s wedding my mom and I ran to this thrift store that sold stuff by the pound. This is a great thing for us!

They had all of these bins on wheels so that you just walked by and rifled through them. They would wheel one out and replace it with another one from the back. I had never seen anything like it. Nothing is sorted. Clothes are in with blankets that are in with sheets in amongst curtains and perhaps a spare table cloth thrown in for good measure.

It was like digging for treasure. When you approached the next bin you never knew what you were going to find. Who knows… there could be a piece of buried treasure underneath!

My mom and I managed to get an entire cart heaped up with stuff. She was looking for 100% cotton shirts and skirts to use in her quilting. She cuts them apart so that she can use them in her scrap quilts. Getting material this way is a lot cheaper than buying it off the bolt.

I was looking for anything that I could use for my dresses for missions; cotton sheets, cotton pillow cases, or sheets that may not be useable for dresses, but had a really pretty lace/edging on them that I could cut off.

This is most of my haul. The folded piece on the bottom left are the pillow cases. On the right you have various sheets and the green thing with lace is a skirt that had some bad stains on it, yet most of the material is still good. The bright pink sheet has a big ol’ bleach spot in the middle, but that’s okay because there’s still plenty of sheet left once I cut that part out. On top of this I also found three or four lace curtains, a lace table cloth, and two sweatshirts for Jay. All of this for about $20 bucks.

Some of these sheets are very pretty with their eyelit edging. The peach sheet has some rips in it, but I can cut around those.

I just wish that we had a thrift store by the pound around here. Although, on second thought it might be a good idea that we don’t have one. After all, I don’t know how often my wallet would be able to take the beating!

Posted in Dresses for Missions, Faith, Sewing | Tagged Dresses for Missions, Faith, Sewing | 1 Comment

Father’s Day Calf

Posted on June 28, 2015 by civilwarrose5

Last weekend was Father’s Day. My dad is somewhat hard to get anything for because he’s not into the typical “dad” stuff.

When I run across something and I think that he will like it I typically pick it up because otherwise I may never find it again.

This year I ran into that problem when I went to the local garden center. An idea came to mind, and after mulling it over for a week I decided to follow through with it.

When I was walking through this section of the garden I ran across something that I thought would be perfect.

A concrete calf!

I saw this little guy and thought that he was just the cutest thing ever. The only problem is that I have zero artistic ability. I am hard-pressed to paint a flat wall decently. How was I going to paint this up to actually look like a calf?

Like usual when I don’t know how to do something, I looked it up online. I did a lot of reading and research before I decided on a plan of action. I sealed it with a coat of latex exterior paint (the same stuff that I used on the porch and deck last year), and then waited for it to dry.

What breed should I paint it as, though? My dad isn’t a dairy farmer so I didn’t even consider Holsteins (the black and white ones that everybody knows).

(Picture is from the website Cattle.com)

Growing up my dad had a Limousin bull, Larry. This bull was not very bright and he began misbehaving so we sold him, but he was a good-looking cow. Also, I figured this one would be difficult enough to be challenging without frustrating me enough to just give up. Otherwise, my Plan B if this one didn’t work out was just to paint it up as an Angus cow (all black).

Somehow I managed to mix up the color pretty well. It was almost the rusty brown that I wanted. The difficult part was getting the lighter color around the eyes and nose to appear natural. To me it looked like I had painted a bulls-eye… ha ha… get it? Bulls – eye….

Even though I wasn’t happy, I kept soldiering on..

And this is what I ended up with in the end. He stood around in our library for a few weeks before we took him up to my parents’. When my dad saw him he was surprised and a bit amazed. Of course, he couldn’t guess which breed he was supposed to be. Maybe if I’d hung a sign around his neck that said, “Hello, my name is Larry” he would have figured it out.

Jay was quite impressed with it. So much that he was tempted to go out and buy another calf to have me paint one for our yard. I told him that we didn’t need a calf in our yard. I might try painting another concrete statue again, but definitely not one that would require a lot of detail work. I’m definitely not THAT good!

Posted in Garden | Tagged Calf, Garden | 2 Comments