Last Call!! Followers Are Special GiveAway...March 1st!

Today is the last day to sign up as a follower and be included in my "Followers Are Special" Giveaway! (I'll announce the winners on Tuesday morning!)

Read all about it here...

I am so grateful to all of you who follow this blog, that I want to have a special drawing...just for you. Just sign up to be a follower and I will put your name in the hat for  my "Thank You" to my followers giveaway. 

The drawing will be on March 1st.  I will give away three desk calendars for 2010--CrossStitch Pattern a Day, Sticker-A-Day, and Mary Englebreit on March 1st. Why? Because Followers are Special!!!

Family Fridge Chat..using Magnetic Letters

Message left by daughter who left for class at 6am

Sometimes you get an idea that is so GREAT...that you just have to share it ASAP!  Family are dropping by to grill out on the deck because it is so beautiful outside..spring is almost here!! So I don't have time to say much, but this was too good to pass up.

                               Message to friends who were staying overnight...from the boys

Sometimes we discover our children's dreams and aspirations...

I got a set of magnetized letters for my granddaughter to play with while I'm busy in the kitchen.  Then I thought, well, she might try to swallow them..better put them up high for now.  The rest as they say...is history.

Message left by my computer programmer hubby...(see if you can de-code it!)

Little did I know that in spite of this high-tech age of non-stop communication, that I could foster better communication..right here at home and it didn't require a single electronic gadget!

Somebody was having a bad day...Hmmm...

A picture is worth a thousand words...so I'll let the pictures do the talking here. (I had no idea that my kids were not too old for magnetized alphabet letters!)  We bought two sets...because one was just not enough....priceless!

Left this one for my hubby while I was gone to a tournment with the kids..it only took him three days to find it....all brains..no eyes--Ha! (It scared him half to death! He thought someone had gotten into the house while he was out.-Ha!)

Happy Homemaking!!!

To Pris, The Thorne Rooms

Hi Pris,
I am lucky enough to be able to go by train to Chicago; I visit my daughter, Katie. She is the product manager at the flag ship Victoria's Secret Michigan Ave. store. I go to the Art Institute when I am there and sit in front of the rooms! It's fun to listen in on the non-miniaturists' comments. I love the whole Art Institute, the Impressionists make me cry. I always wanted to work in a museum, loved art history.
I bought the book, too. I look through it all of time. I've read the philosophy of the Kupjacks, make it look real, things don't have to work, light comes from somewhere else, you don't leave lights on when you leave a room, you don't leave doors and drawers open in real life so don't do it in miniature. I believe that way, too. Makes it much easier to blame it on a "philosophy" as to why I don't make my kitchen cabinets open! Ha!
Now you would think that I have also been to several Chicago miniatures shows, not a one! I know I would need a LOT of money, so I don't even go. I have never been a "window shopper", when I see something I want, I want to buy it, right then. Now that I am making the furniture and stopped on the corner cabinet I don't need anything. I am a practical person, I work with a budget. I really love making all that I do, but it came from need. I was not satisfied with what I could afford so I taught myself to make the things I liked.
Katie lives within walking distance of "Think Small by Rosebud". It is a very nice miniature store and I have fun shopping there when I go to Chicago. They have a workshop in the basement for the miniaturists to work on their projects. The houses are put on wheels and wheeled away when not being worked on to have room on the tables for others to work on their houses. It's great, you just go upstairs and get what you need, keep a list, and keep on working. You should see the houses! Some are replicas of homes in Chicago; I admire all of the miniaturists there. The last time I was there I needed help picking carpet out to match fabric and paint; ladies came from everywhere to help, even offering from their own stash. Nice people!
Inspiration can come from anywhere, be on the look out! TTYL Kris

W.I.P. Wednesday ....what I'm working on

I spent all of Saturday working on learning how to cover a couch cushion and managed to finish one. It turned out great! The rest will be much easier, I'm sure.  I also finished the hooded bath towel and will be sending it out tomorrow.  One of those posts will be up by tomorrow. 

  I've added new tabs to my 'pages' at the top and one is called "Sneak Peeks".  This is the page where I will add pictures of posts that are in progress.  Tomorrow, I'll be posting my grandmother's secret tip for making a store-bought apple pie taste homemade!

I thought you might enjoy seeing a few 'samples' of upcoming posts.  Now that I've combined my three blogs, you might want to do a little exploring today by clicking on the labels.  There's lots of new stuff to see!

Enjoy!

"A Happy Meal!" but it's not from McDonalds!

A day in the life of a hobby-farmer.

..from two years ago, in the spring.....

You will find, as your children get older, that each one has a special dream. Jacob's is to hunt. He has finished his hunting safety course, and has his own gun now, and he's studying very hard, but the real question was...could he really do it..or would he be afraid to take the life of an animal to put food on the table? He doesn't want to get 'the big buck' with lots of points, but he has a strong desire to be a 'hunter/provider". ( Is his last name "Pearl"?)

So how does a mom help make a dream like this come true? Well, she says YES when he asks her to 'please buy one meat chick".

And she helps him scald and pluck and clean and fry it when it's time to do so. I wasn't sure we would have the courage to dispatch a live chicken we had raised, but unfortunately, meat chickies (rock cornish hens) are bred to grow fast and will die of a heart attack if you don't process them by a certain age.

 

(Mrs. Happy is the White Hen on the Left)

Last week, after much searching on the internet for how to do this humanely and correctly, Tim, Jacob, and I took the plunge and dispatched "Mrs. Happy". She was not happy at the time as the weather was getting hot and she was miserable due to her huge size. I have to say God prepared me for this, because my daddy was an urbanite who wished he was a farmer. So I had already helped dispatch and pluck many and many a chicken. I don't like it..but I can do it.

We entered the 'pioneer' era of Little House on the Prairie...and processed our first meat chicken. Tim and I were very proud of Jacob that he handled the situation with fortitude and no squeamishness. It wasn't easy, but he took a little step into manhood in bearing up and doing what needed to be done. Mrs. Happy is in heaven now(if chickens go to heaven), but we all enjoyed the gift she gave us. (Except Andrew who is our 'nurturer' and to whom every animal is a pet.--he had mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner.) Honestly, it was pretty hard for me to. All of my chickens have names...all 35 of them!!

Next time we will buy five white chickens and nobody is going to name them!! Tim feels confident that Jacob will be able to help him take care of processing other animals once he begins to hunt. He will only be allowed to hunt for the purpose of bringing in food...but we know he will be able to handle the work required.  (We once had a friend who named a goat "Goat-burger". It didn't work--when they moved to California, Goat-burger retired to a neighboring farm.)

We will certainly have to 'cull' some of our flock later on as we can't feed 35 chickens who aren't laying eggs, and I know I will be able to count on our little man to take care of it for me. What a guy! (I should think raising girls would be so much simpler! Sigh...)

PS. Yes, the chicken tasted delicious!

Ruffles, Frogs, Hair and Prizes...Oh My!

I am going to be a very busy bee today...

In fact, I was busy yesterday and today will be pretty wild too, but hopefully, I will get this all done so I can settle down to my patient mother's couch cushions, which I'm 'attempting' to cover. I have little experience here, but I've read a few books and the cloth is all ready to go.  We'll see...  But first I have to get some birthday packages out the door. The towels you see will be made into a hooded bath towel for my grandson's birthday gift.  That was the 10th! I'm a little behind to say the least.

Yesterday, I made half a video of cutting Christian's hair...   That means that the sides are cut and the top is still long. He said that was fine--he thought he looked great. Did I ever tell you that boys are easily pleased? I need to patch all four videos together because my camera only takes 30 second videos. I've never done that so it will be a new thing to learn how to do. I didn't finish because we had to head off to debate club. We are getting the kids ready for the next tournament.

Then I finished the post on my sewing blog DC's Creations for how to add a ruffle to a blouse to lengthen it.  I also made a video showing how to use a ruffler foot. If you like to sew, you will love that foot!  I used it to make this T-shirt dress and to fix my blouse which was just way too short.

Well, I tried my best to get the prizes sent and thought I had it all put together on Tuesday. But when I went to fill the kits, I discovered that the black tote bags I had purchased had neon colored straps..yuk!  The green paint didn't match the leaves for the antique yo-yo's tote bag, and the black buttons for the travel tote were actually dark blue. Is that not exactly how it goes?!!

And when I went to exchange all of this at three different locations, after the debate meeting, they were out of black tote bags, there was no olive green paint, and since I didn't have a receipt, they wanted to call $3.00 buttons (2 large) an even exchange with $1.10 buttons.  That's a loss of four beautiful big buttons!! I just couldn't do it.  Why I didn't just buy the $1.10 buttons right then, I don't know. I think I was a little discouraged. Sigh..  It was just one of those days.  Talk about sidetracked!

Ah well, I'm enthusiastic today, in spite of the fact that my daughter came home from college class with a new diet plan for us to do 'together'. Oh Joy!  I just love protein powder and cream of wheat!  So we are going shopping together and I'll share the 'joy' with you on a later post.  Older kids do tend to keep us accountable. She's the reason I wear mildly modern styles rather than my old t-shirts and blue jeans.  I guess I'll be using that doggone exercise machine that I brought home from my father's house after all.  (Sewing is so much more fun!)

Well, she had dinner ready when I got home with the boys and my unsent packages, so I can't complain. It's just one of those busy kind of days where you make a lot of progress, but don't quite finish anything. (Except my blouse of course! Yeah!)

I don't want anyone thinking everything is 'perfect' around here. It never is.  I get a LOT done more by multi-tasking and jumping ship as Don Aslet says than by working meticulously down an orderly 'to do' list.  Check out one of my favorite resource books, "The 48 Hour Day" (new for $2.90 plus shipping) and you will see how I get so many things done and still have a great time! It will change your perspective on time management...for sure!

Answer to Daisy

Hi Daisy, I thank you for your kind words about the kitchen. I have an Ethan Allen Catalog, I think they still publish them, it has beautiful room settings, that I have copied, but the most important thing are the measurements. I will convert to 1 inch scale to make my furniture. As I said I made everything in the rooms, except the pottery and the red step stool. I sell the kitchen chairs, I have examples in the blog of these slipper chairs, ( January 8, 2010, Furniture for Sale, Too). I can make them in your fabric, I sell upholstered furniture at cdhm.org.
I know Ethan Allen has a web site, Google them up and look at all the beautiful furniture and get some ideas, think of how you could go about making something. Use the skills you have and make it as close to the picture as you can. Break it down in parts, what you can do and can't. Find the things you can do, gain skills and confidence doing those and move on to something else. That is how I did it. And I read every how-to article I could get my hands on. Books, don't pass these up at the shows. I have so many, if I got one thing out of one book I thought the price was worth it.
If you have a used book store go in and see if they have any miniatures how-to books. I was very surprised when I found them at my used book store. She gets them in every so often, some of them are old, back in the 1970's, these aren't so good. You have to sit down and look through them to see if there is anything in them that can help you. For ideas I look for decorating books, they are a hoot when you find the old ones. I have an old Ethan Allen catalog from the 1960's. Home Depot has lots of beautiful books on trim and how to use it, those are good when you are building your doors and windows. They have books on bathrooms and kitchens, books and books, I love books.
Another place to look is the antique section of the used book store. There a lots of books we can use there, too. I would love to be able to make pottery and china so I buy books that show shapes and patterns. The teapot on the kitchen table is one I made from Fimo using a picture from a book on English porcelain and pottery, "The World of Wade, Book 2". I love Clarice Clift, I hope I spelled her name right, anyway that book had some things in it that looked like her style. I haven't found a book just on her at the used book store, yet.
Information, I collect information and resource books. My problem is remembering what I have, so every once in while I take a quiet afternoon or evening and look through a big stack and make notes and stick tabs on the pages I want to remember. Before a project I will go through and make copies and stick everything in a folder just for the project and refer to it all of the time.
Magazines, they have them on country, cottage, shabby chic, just about every decorating style. Next time you are buying groceries take a look at these, I bought many just for ideas on how to decorate a room box I want to do . . . . in . . . .the . . . . F. .U. .T. .U. .R . .E . . . . .
I have many, to say the least.
Lots of resources, look around. TTYL Kris

How to Use a Ruffler Foot to Alter a Blouse

As you know, I posted a How To on duplicating store bought clothes by making your own pattern. One of the things I warn you about is using the same cloth to make the duplicate that was used for the original blouse.

The reason I mention this is that that was one of the mistakes I made in the learning process. I copied a knit blouse, but used a cotton plaid cloth. The hips were just a wee bit to snug and really, the whole blouse was just a bit too short.

The first thing I did when the blouse was short, was to rip out the lower seven inches of the side seams so I had 'walking room'. I hemmed the raw edges of both sides. You often do the same thing on the lower sides seams of a long skirt.

So far so good, but when I realized that it's shortness was driving me crazy, I decided to add a ruffle. All well and good but now I have a these flaps.

I needed a solid lower edge of the blouse to attach the ruffle to. So I decided to make what I call a "V-patch". I laid the side seam of the blouse out totally flat and spread the front and back flaps open in a "v" shape. Then I slipped a square patch of matching fabric underneath. I pinned the hemmed edges right on top and top-stitched through all layers. I folded the lower edge of the patch and hemmed it just the same as the blouse.

To add a ruffle to a blouse with a ruffler foot.

 

• First cut off a strip that is about 2 times longer than the actual width of the lower edge of the blouse.

•   Next hem the strip with a narrow hem.

• Then attach the ruffler foot to the machine. You have to loosen the screw and remove your original foot completely, attach the two fingers of the ruffler foot around the post and screw that normally holds a foot to the machine, but at the same time you have to hook the claw on the right side of the ruffler foot around the post that holds the needle in place. (It's the screw you loosen to remove and change the needle.)   Pictured first is the WRONG way to attach it.

(Wrong way) To the left, the two fingers  of the arm that attaches the foot to the machine is ready to grab the post and the screw and be tightened down. However the long claw arm is not in the right position. It needs to be hooked on to the post of the screw that you turn to loosen and allow the changing and removal of the needle on the upper right side of the sewing machine post.

(Right way.)Here, they are now both headed for the right position at the same time.This is a little tricky, but can be done!

HOW THE RUFFLER FOOT WORKS:  The ruffler foot won't work without the up down action of the post that holds the needle. That claw has to be in place. It loosely holds the post of the screw that you turn to remove the needle. When the needle goes up and down, this causes a little upper plate of the ruffler foot  to scoot forwards and backwards which pushes the cloth forward each time to make a pucker.  There is a lower plate and the two meet and pinch together. Your cloth needs to be inserted between the upper and lower thin metal plates of the foot and slid between the pinch. 

The cloth should not be directly in contact with your lower feed dogs and completely under the ruffler foot.  (Actually the reason for this, is that you could put another piece of cloth completely beneath the ruffler foot and it would allow you to make the ruffle and sew it to the blouse at the same time. This requires some practice so I'm just showing you how to make the ruffle by itself!)

• Once you have fed the ruffle strip in between the two thin plates of the ruffler foot, lower your presser foot.  It won't work if you don't do this.  (See Ruffler Foot Video Part 1) in previous post.

• Then you also want to decide where to set the little flat plate with the holes on the back of the ruffler foot. The hole furthest to the left allows you to sew with no ruffle action at all.  

( That way, after you have made the ruffle, rather than removing the foot and putting a regular foot on, you can just sew normally by putting the two pieces of cloth that you want to sew completely underneath the foot as if it wasn't a ruffler foot at all. If that was the case you would not slip anything between the two ruffle plates. Just put everything completely under the foot and against the feed dogs like normal.)

• Setting the pucker width.  The next hole has a 12 on it. That setting is for a very tight ruffle..like gathering. The next hole to the right is a 6. It gives you a pucker every half inch or so.  The hole furthest to the right #1 allows for a pucker every inch or so. It results in a gentle ruffle.

• Once you have inserted the cloth strip for the ruffle, and you have set your pucker spacing, and lowered the presser foot, all you have to do is step on the pedal and gently feed the cloth, keeping the raw edge straight while the ruffler foot grabs and tucks the cloth under the needle allowing it to sew the tucks in place.  (See Ruffler Video Part 2)
• Let the machine do the feeding..you just keep the cloth loose and available for the foot to pull on. Take it at a nice slow speed.  (See Ruffler Video Part 3) for close up view.

Now, to add the ruffle...

Rather than cut off the blouse hem and sew the ruffle to the blouse with the right sides together, I just laid the raw edge of the hemmed ruffle, just under the finished hem of the blouse, pinned it in place and top stitched it down too.

(This is the ruffler foot setting I used #6)

I did zig-zag the raw edges of the ruffle first to keep the cotton from unraveling.

(This is a tight gather using the #12 setting)

I really think it turned out to be a pretty cute blouse for someone with my figure and shape. I was afraid the ruffle would add too much to the hips, but in a way, it may have 'camouflaged' them instead. My sleeves should have been puffier to make this a really balanced design..I'm serious considering re-doing them too.

Ah well..the ups and downs of designing your own clothes! But hey, I like it just fine and I love the cute ruffle. Hubby likes it too, so I would say it passed muster! Don't you?

Pictures of My Current Project, Put On Hold!

This is an unpainted pine catalog corner cabinet my daughter left here at home when she moved to Chicago. It was free to her, now free to me! This all started in "Miniature Collector", they had an article about a miniatures store, the owner's mother had decorated a beautiful antique Queen Anne corner cabinet with a dollhouse inside. I have always wanted a dollhouse in a piece of furniture, a baby house. Suddenly I remembered the corner cabinet Katie left and now I have my baby house! Hope you enjoy the pictures, I have had fun figuring out how to make everything.
I didn't make the pottery, that's a weakness of mine, love Jane Graber. Didn't make the red step stool, that's Aztec, I think.
Made the doors and trim around the front hall, it's all poster board! Used my Dremel and it's workstand to make the turnings on the kitchen cabinets and the center island. The hall floor is from a rubber stamp from Michael's, big square block with different sides to stamp marble, how cool. The furniture is all from Ethan Allen, with a few changes I've thrown in.

If you have any questions on how I did anything, just ask and I will gladly try to explain it here in the blog.

The rug on the kitchen floor is a copy of one from the Internet printed on the ceiling paper from a previous blog entry. The counter tops in the kitchen are painted to look like red granite and the baker's rack has painted black granite. No, the kitchen sink in not a china one, I made that from wood and painted it, several times. The faucet is from aluminum tubing and wood, I turned the handles with my trusty Dremel and workstand. I didn't like the door hardware available so I made mine from wire, it's twisted, painted black and I used a diamond paper punch to make the escutcheons. The banjo clock on the wall is from a picture I found on the Internet. I laminated very thin slices of wood to create the curved outer box of the clock. I did make the teapot on the table, my experiment with fimo.
I have more to do to the back porch. I made the door and screen door. I made the windows, the ones I can afford seem so chunky. I want 4 murals to represent the seasons. I have a goose, and I am going to dress her!

The fabric on the couch and chairs by the bay window have been reduced on the printer. I do that alot, the color isn't always the same, but it works most of the time. I reduced the fabric for the chairs in the kitchen, too. I bought a coordinated set of fabric from Keepsake Quilting for the living room. I used Jacqueline Kerr Deiber's instructions to make a piece of caning for the back of the chair in front of the desk. I didn't drill holes in the chair, though. I laminated an oval and sandwiched the caning between it and the chair back.

Going to do a bedroom and a yellow and blue "ducky" bathroom on the top shelf, that is if I ever get back to it.

I especially love that this cabinet is in my workroom, with me, and that's where I am basically all of the time! This is my little dream house.

Kris

P.S. Yes, that's the lady leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" I had to make one for myself. Don't where I'm going to put it, though.

P.S.S. I don't know if you know this, I just learned it, but if you click on a picture you can make it bigger, full screen.