Drizzly Day

It's been a rainy, drizzly Sunday and the whole house has felt fairly blah with the ickiness we're seeing through the windows. Sitting here reflecting on the day, though, we somehow accomplished quite a bit more than I would've ever expected.

Dear daughter finished a needle felting order that will be delivered next weekend in plenty of time for it to be the Valentine's Day gift it's intended to be - well, two gifts, actually, as she created two very different critters for our beloved customer to present to her two very special people.

While she was doing all of that, I put together my outline for the week so I can complete as many projects as possible in between meeting my writing deadlines. I also took time to learn some new, incredibly helpful things from Dana at Made and managed to fix a minor issue I kept running into with my sewing machine, thanks to some very detailed Fixya posts. Seriously, how did people do this for so many years without the Internet??? Fascinating.

And to top it all off, I got my major horsey project underway and almost ready to start sewing...until I realized I'd miscalculated how much trim I needed. So it's all pinned together and waiting for 4 more yards of trim - really, my measurement was more than a little off that time, wouldn't you say? The great news is, if this turns out like I hope it does, I could absolutely see myself making quite a few more of them (and definitely at least one for my little spotted mule). I can't wait to show off the final result.

Pyrography Saturday

Pyrography: The art or technique of decorating wood or leather by burning a design on the surface with a heated metallic point.

My husband  loves pyrography. He buys a new woodburning kit every few years because they're like toys to him. His latest investment includes a leather burning attachment and I can't wait to see what he does with some of the design templates we found at Firestarter Pyrography (how great a name is that, by the way?!!) since he is just starting to venture into the leather burning. I have a very special project in mind for him if things go the way I hope they do! ;~)

Today I want to showcase some of his completed work because, with the weather being a bit warmer, I'll be taking them all outside to put a finish coat on them in the fresh air and get them ready to sell. Enjoy!

3 Frame Hanging Picture Frame

Top Frame

Middle Frame

Bottom Frame

Draft Horse in Harness (not for sale)

Bull Rider Treasure Box

Awareness Ribbon Cross

"Ride on Faith" Barbed Wire Cross

8 Horse Hitch (not for sale)

All Out of Sorts

Today certainly didn't go as I'd envisioned - I've been feeling a little out of sorts. Don't get me wong...I'm certain the day was still productive, just so completely not in the way I had planned. And I am 100% okey dokey with that.

Being as I wasn't quite myself today, I rolled with Pink instead of my typical country music mix and was inspired to put those stunning pink magnesite chip and slab beads to work today. I paired them with silver glass beads to make a double strand necklace and added a magnetic cowgirl cross pendant for a little extra flair. If I actually had pink in my wardrobe, this piece would definitely be a keeper. But I am not a pink girl, so this hot little number is ready to sell.

 

I also decided to revisit my cutesy Little Buckers to see how I could improve them. I wasn't very fond of the glued-on hair in my first batch, so I once again employed that handy masking tape and yarn technique I learned when I worked on that poor rag doll of mine. Lo and behold, it worked like a charm and I now have a new herd of Little Buckers with sewn-in manes. I'm learning wonderful techniques every day and it's just fascinating how all of this information and such detailed instructions got passed from one person to another long before the age of YouTube!!!

 

Aside from all of that, I started getting things ready for next week. A multitude of old beaded necklaces and bracelets are gathered for a jewelry recycling festival to be held in my craft room. Several are outdated or poorly made or just plain unattractive, so they're getting a new lease on life soon. I also threw a handful of old rusty horseshoes in a bucket of Coca Cola for the night to help knock off the rust so they can be incorporated into some future projects as well. Looking back on the day, I guess I accomplished more than I realized.

Shake Your Tail Feather!

Late last night I had a tail bag epiphany. Ok, technically it was really, really, really early this morning, but anyway that's not the point. The point is, I was trying to think of a way to make the tie tabs stronger on the tail bags I'm making, because that seems to be the first thing to blow out since they bear all of the tail weight once the bag is in place. I started GoodSearching around (trust me, this gal uses Google plenty, but GoodSearch is always my first choice because it helps raise funds for a local non-profit organization near and dear to my heart...but I digress) and found some patterns for drawstring bags. What an awesome idea!!! The strings are much stronger because they're super reinforced, as is the neck of the bag. This is what I came up with on the first go-round (I'm totally in love with the horse print fabric, so I tucked plenty away to make some pillows, too).

 
Why didn't someone else think of this? Oh wait. Ok, ok, so someone beat me to the punch long ago. I guess I just always used the trusty two-tab lycra tail bags any time I've actually needed them, which hasn't been very often at all, and never had reason to look any further. But that's quite alright, because my eyes have now been open to a whole new world of exciting options!

I performed several trial runs last night to perfect my pattern and ran it past the Mister this morning to get his input - he's a more technical thinker, whereas I'm more an "oh look at the pretty, shiny stuff" kind of thinker - and improved my design. I sprinted off to my fabric stash, pulled out a little something in red and quickly cut enough to make four 36 inch long bags. Then, I zipped off to stitch them together and voila, here's what we have so far.

Keep in mind that I've only made bags so far from the fabric I have on hand. Now that I have a specific design ready to go, it's time to start shopping for the the most ideal textiles - yay, shopping!!! I just can't wait to try out one of these sparkly red ones on a dandy little mule tonight and see how it looks. I'm sure it will do nothing but enhance his masculine features for sure. ;~)

Common Sense

That's right, on this day in 1776, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet "Common Sense". Fast forward 237 years and I'll fill you in on what I've been up to on January 9, 2013. :)

This morning I was pleasantly greeted by the custom-made spool rack my dear husband crafted and installed at my sewing station. He was even thoughtful enough to include notches for my chopsticks and extra bobbin holders at the top. It is a great little piece of craftsmanship and I adore it wholeheartedly.

Now, while he was doing all of this, I laundered 7 horse sleazies in need of mending before sewing together shells for 6 John Deere pillows - heck, I even successfully completed one for a fine young lad I know who just happens to be a major league fan of good old John Deere.

     

And then.... surprise visit by my dear horsey friend who loved the tail bags I made over the weekend. Shocker, she brought along another little bit of fabric for me to make a few more for her, as well as all the fixin's to create a custom horse cooler blanket. This is a huge undertaking for me so I need nothing but positive thoughts to get me through a project of this magnitude. I'm a little bit nervous and a whole lot excited to see how it turns out. Never fear, there will be pictures of the end result for all to see.

Tuesday Task List

The task list is getting longer, which is great because I am definitely enjoying the work. So far this week I've finished some of the jar lids that I'd previously painted with chalkboard paint. I don't think they're turning out too bad after all and they'll make dandy little filler projects to pass the time.

I managed to work out a plan for the 12 inch long tile after discovering a stack of leftover scrapbooking stickers from one of dear daughter's school projects. It is now a "Sights to See" sign and I'm pretty happy with the end result. Well, nearly end result, because it still needs a final coat of polycrylic before I can call it totally complete and ready to go.

And now, most exciting of all, the hubby is making me a custom spool holder to mount on the wall above my sewing machine. Is it sad that I'm such an extremely inexperienced sewer and yet this excited about a piece of wood with multiple other pieces of wood protruding from it and being screwed to a wall? Oh my.

I haven't revisited the Ace of Spades coasters yet, primarily because I'm really not sure where to go with them. Besides all of the sewing and crocheting fun I've already planned for myself, I have some very specific jewelry laid out and at least 4 new pyrographic designs in progress. I love mapping those and watching them come to life in the wood - it is truly one of my favorite forms of art. Tomorrow night I am picking up a gorgeous old window frame out of what used to be a milk house. I can't wait to transform it into something great - I already have a plan for that gem. Oh, and let's not forget the pile of leather that keeps staring at me, too. Whatever shall I do with that? Hmmmmmm. Yes, yes, yes, I believe I have enough to keep me occupied for a day or two.

Totally Sidetracked

Apparently on a Monday it doesn't take much to totally shift my thoughts elsewhere. And I'm ok with that. I think Mondays should be completely unplanned and unpredictable for precisely that reason. Today started out on a high note and looks to be wrapping up the same.

In this afternoon's mail were two highly anticipated parcels; one for me and one for the daughter, each from new-to-us vendors. We placed our orders since the start of the new year and paid for standard shipping, so we had no expectations that these orders would arrive any time prior to now. The shipping time and pricing for each order was agreeable, yet we were pleasantly surprised by the above-and-beyondness of both vendors to welcome us as new customers.

My order from Sedona Stones included a typed note which stated, "Sorry for the delay in shipping your order. Over the holiday, we relocated our warehouse and ran into a few technical difficulties. Everything is up and running and better than ever. We have included a free strand of keshi pearls!" Fantabulous...I can make at least one more necklace than I was planning at no additional cost with that pretty green strand seen on the right side of the picture. By the way, don't you just totally dig my circa 1960's bright orange countertop? Because I do! :)

When my right-hand girl opened her shipment from Living Felt, the invoice included a handwritten, personalized note that said, "The 5x5 foams are supposed to be on sale, so I am sending you an extra pack of needles: our awesome 42 gauge - ENJOY!" What a fantastic way to start two brand new relationships. If this is how they treat customers who have not encountered a problem (we didn't realize there was a delay in shipping or that a price had been mistakenly not listed on sale), imagine how well they treat customers who do have an issue. I am definitely looking forward to long-term business dealings with these two companies.

Now besides all of this excitement, "what exactly did this chick accomplish today???", you may be wondering. Well, I was asked to mend those horsey items for my friend, so I started out repairing one tail bag and ended up making six brand spanking new ones in a variety of sizes and colors. Tomorrow I'll work on getting the rest of the horsewear reparation completed.

After all of that, I put together some charms for future necklaces and bracelets. I call them "Hope is the Key" charms, and you'll see that is because of the Hope ribbons and the keys featured on each one. I love these dangly little things and am very anxious to put them to use.

And then I pinned together some John Deere fabric to make a handful of pillows after I get my hands on some green thread. I have one more sewing project planned for the night and then hope to work on my niece's hat/scarf/mitten combo crochet project that's taking me far too long to complete. Until next time...