stitchin' update

Thought I'd update you on my "Reading dragon" project... All the cross stitching is finished. Right now, I'm working on Mr. Dragon's hair. Since I don't have a punch needle, and am not sure what to even buy to do it, I decided to do it using the Turkey stitch. Which works, but this was my first attempt at this stitch and it takes a lot of time.
The dark spots in his wing are metallic floss. The teddy bear is stitched with wisper floss--which is fuzzy. I'm really rather disappointed in the wisper floss, because once stitched, it's not as fuzzy as the "bare" floss is. I've back stitched the bear, but the rest of the picture still needs back stitched and beads and charms added.

Just a closeup of Mr. Dragon's hair. It's variegated floss. I could cut the loops, or leave them looped. I think I'll wait to see if I can fluff some before deciding if I want to cut his hair or not.

I took this side view so you could see the variation in height of the loops in the Turkey stitch.

I hope I can finish this soon. My goal is to have it finished over the weekend...stay tuned!

My new Old Crap

Guess what! Miss Kat found my camera. she whined about having to find "my" camera, but in the end...she's the last one to use it, and it was right where she left it. But, I have it now, and took a couple of shot of some of my "new" old crap... The dishpan. Note that it' missing one of it' handles...but no one knows the story anymore. It sure shows its age and wear and tear. No matter. I'll either use it as a decoration--you know, something to gather dust--or, I'll plant flowers in it.

This is the dish cabinet. It's pretty dirty right now. I think one of my uncles started stripping it--or maybe that bare spot on the doors is from years of people opening and closing the glass doors. The back is bead board backed by solid oak boards. Three shelves in the top section. One shelf in the bottom section. We can only get one drawer open right now, so we'll have to work on that. But, a good wash, a good sanding and a little TLC, and she'll clean right up.

I can remember this cabinet sitting in the kitchen at Grandma's--before the tornado. It's been in retirement since 1973. It's time for this beauty to join the world.

Family treasures

Yesterday, Kev and I took Mom her table. It was the table that Grandma had out in the Trailer house for ceramics. Grandpa had made it many many years ago, when he was in High School. So, it was made before 1941. It's one of the things he specifically asked Mom and Sandy to find a home for. Mom decided she could use it as their kitchen/dining table, but it needed to be refinished. 20+ years of ceramics had left stain, and paint, and glaze and what all all over the table. I volunteered to take it to my house to strip and refinish it.

Two years later...it returned to Mom. (I'll post pictures later, promise!)

I started out sanding it, but the ceramic paint tended to eat up my sandpaper, so I got some stripper and stripped it, then sanded it. The table is made of black walnut. It's very pretty; now that you can see the grain of the wood again! Grandpa made it so you could add a leaf and make it bigger, but we couldn't find the leaf, so Kev said he'd make one--probably not out of walnut, because that is hard to find, but Mom said she didn't care because she'd probably cover it with a tablecloth anyway.

Anyway...after I got it all stripped and sanded, we decided to just finish it with Tung oil. Tung oil is a natural finish, and it gives wood a nice glow and brings out the natural grain. It also seals the wood--but not as much as poly does. With the age of the table, I really didn't want to use polyurethane. Tung oil is also food safe, which was another factor that made me choose to use it.

Kev and I took it down yesterday. And, once we got it out in the sun...I decided it probably needed another coat of oil. We took the oil with us, and applied it at Mom's. While it's not factory perfect, it is a pretty table.

Sine Mom now had her "new" table, we took the old one out to the farm. We figured that Andy, or another of the grand kids might need it in the future. It was a nice day for a trip to the farm. While Dad and Kev were messing with the table, I examined the stuff (really old crap) that's still out there. I looked at the kerosene cook stove and at the really old electric stove. (I kinda am thinking about maybe fixing it up to put in my kitchen...once we remodel...but don't tell Kev...yet). I also found an old washer that my 2 off-grid SIL's might be able to use.

I found Grandma's old dishpan--enameled dishpan--the same one that Daddy swears he used to wash dishes in. I carted it upstairs to take home--along with two washboards one of which is glass. I looked at the old canning jars and almost grabbed a couple more half gallon jars, but refrained. I did find a square milk bottle, and grabbed it. I then looked at some orange crates and some wooden cheese boxes, but decided to leave them there for now. Then I picked up this thing and asked Mom what it was. It was sitting by the old enameled bedpan, so I thought that it might be a urinal, but Daddy said it was the enema thing that held the water/liquid and then the hose was attached to it and to the unfortunate person on the receiving end. I decided that I really don't have a place for it...

Then, I informed Kev and Daddy that they needed to carry Grandma W's dish cabinet up.

I have been begging (and nagging) Kev to get it for several years now, and decided that yesterday was as good of a day as any to get them to carry it out. The menfolk didn't whine too badly, and carried it out. It's had a little termite damage, but it's minor. Kev and I will have to sand it down and he'll have to reglue some of the doors, and we'll have to replace some glass, and maybe some hardware, but I'm excited to finally have it where I can fix it up. I'll post photos of that project too. (But, you all know me right? Cause once again, I can't find the camera...)

I know just where this will go--and I plan on putting my scrapbooking and other craft "stuff" in it. I can't wait to show you how pretty it is!

Alabaster Caverns

Last weekend, we went to Alabaster Caverns in Freedom, Oklahoma. It's only a drive of 1.5 hours from home, so it was a fun, quick trip. The only drawback was the snowstorm that blew in that morning...well, that and the wind, but it is March! The Herrons came down and went with us. We all had a great time. When we got to the Caverns, we missed the most recent tour of the cave, so we wandered over to the hiking trails, and the scenic overlook. Miss Kat took this shot while we were hiking.

The caves are a part of a huge canyon and cave system. There are 6 caves in the State Park and 3 hiking trails. And, by canyon....I mean Canyon. Rough terrain. We read about Cowboys roping bears and about wolves that roamed the area through the early years of the 20th century.

Think about that...Bears and Wolves...in Northwest Oklahoma, on the Great Plains in the 20th Century...

The kids found one cave that they ventured into. Well, Kim, Bob, and the kids ventured into it. Kev had to stay a ways back down the trail (because cowboy boots weren't working too well on the wet, slick, rough trail) and I stayed outside the cave (because I'm not completely crazy!) You are allowed to go into all the caves, but I thought that someone should stay outside...just in case.

After playing around in the cave and on the trails, we finally got to tour the main cave. Alabaster Caverns is a gypsum cave. There are several types of Alabaster in the cave. In this shot, you can see the white gypsum sparkling in the roof.

Also a part of the cave is the Bat population. There are 8000-10,000 bats who live in the cave. This was a group of 50 or so bats. Thankfully, they stayed up on the ceiling where they belonged.

We had a great time, and all decided that we want to go back--maybe not for the big cave tour, but we definitely want to hike the entire trail system through the canyon. It was a great ending to our Spring Break...even if the weather was crappy!

A lovely story about ME...

One day, long, long ago, there lived a woman who did not whine, nag or bitch.

(That would be me....)





But that was a long time ago and it was just that one day..



THE END.





(I got this in an email and it just makes me laugh, so thought I'd share it with you all! Hope it made you laugh too.)