Chinese Fortune Cookie Tree

craft, Creativity, garage sale finds, How to, , , , ,
Chinese Fortune Tree
My tree with the fortune cookie leaves and bread twist-tie branches.

Cheri: At garage sales I am usually on the lookout for items that I can use in a collage. I have mentioned before that I like to purchase multiples of small items. My reasoning is; if you have a lot of one item you get the luxury of messing it up and having more to fill in if you really want to try it again. So, I have multiples of various items.

That being said, when you are at a garage sale, do not overlook the free box. This is a great place for multiples. Often, people will collect silly things, like, bread closures, bottle caps, nuts, old nails and the like. I really do not know what makes someone decide to keep these items, but I am always very glad they have.

It was one of those happy instances, when I looked in a free box and there in a bag was about 200 bread wires. They were crinkled up and they looked like a bunch of branches. I had been working on a tree design that I liked and I thought the wires would look great as the branches.

This is how I put together this tree collage. After I placed the branches, I decided the branches needed leaves.  I remembered the fortunes that I had been saving from our weekly trips to China Lane (a local Chinese food restaurant). They were perfect for the leaves after I gave them a little curl. The birds were made from Fimo clay and were left over from another project I had been working on. All of the pieces came together and it worked. I really like that when that happens.

Chinese Fortune Tree
Close-up of the Fimo clay birds and Chinese fortunes.

Red Lantern Before & After

craft, How to, , ,

Lantern
1960s hanging fixture

Loryn: These electric hanging lights were everywhere in the 1960s and 70s. I have had this one in storage for a while. I like the look of it, but I hate the 15′ of cord trailing to an outlet that comes with it. It was poised to go to Goodwill until I realized that a battery-operated candle would be perfect for it.

Lantern
Disassembly

Here I’ve started disassembling the fixture. I cut off the (unplugged!) cord and removed the top metal portion. The bottom metal portion also comes off by twisting off the finial at the bottom. I’ll save the perforated metal diffuser for another project.

Lantern
The original socket and the replacement stem

I also wanted to remove the socket and replace it with a shorter stem (needed to hold the hanging loop on). I happened to have a shorter piece of lamp pipe to replace it with. You could cut the existing piece off with a hacksaw instead.

The next step was to thoroughly wash the metal parts so I could spray paint them. I used Krylon’s Colonial Red, which is a gorgeous deep red. Then it was simply a matter of reassembling the lantern.

Lantern

And here is the finished lantern! The battery operated candle is great because you can put it in places that don’t get much air. I thought a remote control for a candle was silly until I came up with this use for it. The lantern will hang close to the ceiling, and the remote makes it really easy to turn on.

Lantern

Lantern

One last thing: The lantern had a washer at the bottom of the glass shade, so the candle couldn’t sit flat. I found a large rubber flange in the plumbing department of my local hardware store and spray painted it to match. Now the candle will sit flat, and it isn’t very noticeable.

Lantern
Painted flange to sit the candle on.

The finished lantern will go in the hallway outside my guest room, to make a night light for guests. I’ll show it when I get the artwork up in the finished hallway!

Cheap Trick: Dyed Jeans

Cheap Tricks, garage sale finds, ,

I love dark blue jeans. However, they can be hard to find and most often are not in my size or in a style that I prefer. And when you do find some that fit, am I supposed to buy two or three pairs of the same exact jeans?

Also, with the cost of jeans now, I have not been buying any lately. So, Mom and Cheri’s garage saleing to the rescue! Mom picked up 4 pairs of jeans for me on one of their rounds and I ended up taking 3 of them home. The only problem is that they are all in the standard denim blue color. This is not to say that I won’t wear them, just probably not to work.

The other night I was dyeing some pants of my husbands black (he had a bleach accident) and I decided on a whim to throw a pair of the new-to-me jeans in the dye bath too. When they came out, they were the most wonderful shade of dark blue! I am so happy! Now I just have to buy some more black dye and I will have several pairs of wear-to-work jeans.

Photo of me in my newly dyed jeans.
Wow! A sunny day at last!

WooHoo! I never would have figured that black dye would do this to jeans. The other great thing that came out of this dye job is that my jeans don’t have any of the “fashionable” pre-worn spots. Those really irritate me when done on the darker blue jeans. I think they stand out too much, so this takes care of that little peeve of mine.

Camping in the Dunes

camping, Indiana Dunes, , , , ,
Campsite
Our campsite complete with tent, whirligig, clothesline, chairs, tripod grill and wonder of wonders a picnic table and electric outlet. The sidewalk curving in front is part of a walking trail. It was exhausting just watching all of the people determined to exercise. Camping is exercise; jogging on your vacation is masochism.

Kristin and I have always subscribed to the philosophy that if you are going camping, you should sleep in a tent and cook over a fire. That said those things are a lot better to do in the sunshine rather than in the rain.

Sunday night when we were able to check into our campsite at the Indiana Dunes State Park, it began to rain, hard. We are veteran campers and had the tent up in ten minutes and everything else in camp-shape in less than an hour. We got wet, but being wet is not the most terrible thing that can happen to us because our extra clothes and sleeping gear are in waterproof bags and our tent is relatively leak proof. What it is not is mud proof. Trying to keep everything away from the central muddy walkway is a thankless task and continues until the sun comes out.

Tent and the rain
It's raining and looks like it will continue.

I took this photo after we were unpacked and tucked away. It is raining and you can see that some of the campers had more deluxe accommodations. Kristin and I both think recreational vehicles are cheating when you want to go into the great outdoors, but if anyone wants to exchange our tent for one of those I don’t think we would turn you down.

Kristin
What do you do in a tent when it rains? Play with your phone.

We love our electronics. Kristin is reading a novel. Because the phone has its own light, you don’t have to hold a battery operated lantern 2 inches from a page to read. Light is something that we don’t think about much anymore since the invention of the lightbulb. Not much can be done without the sun if you do not have electric light. You can adjust lanterns all you want, but in the end you just end up going to sleep when the sun sets and getting up when the sun rises.

Lynne camping.
All of those electronics and where do I start?

An electric hookup allowed us to take the electronics. We didn’t have wifi, but we took a lot of pictures and having a computer to empty the camera card onto let us shoot as many photos and videos as we wanted.

Lynne camping. We knew the nights would be cold and were prepared, but posting to facebook had to be fast. Staying warm was only possible if your were completely zipped up and mummified.

The following photos are of the inside of the tent. It seems to be getting smaller and smaller, but I suppose that’s because we are getting more and more camping “bling.” With the cots we added this year, the slope of the tent became a problem. It’s not that hitting the ceiling will hurt your head, but that if it is raining touching the tent wall can start a leak that cannot be stopped.

We use the coolers for side tables and stuff all the rest of the gear under our cots. We have found all sorts of uses for the dense foam that is a yoga mat. When it is raining, throwing them on top of the tent provides extra protection from leaks and after the rain they can cover the mud in the walkway.

TentCoolers as side tables and gear waiting to be shoved back under the cot.
tent
Kristin's side of the tent. Notice the blanket under the two sleeping bags and the wool blanket on top. We were able to take real pillows this year. There is more room for fluffy luxuries in a Subaru than in a rubber raft.
tent
My side of the tent. It may be a tad messier than Kristin's side.

The next photo shows Kristin poking at the ashes of our previous fire to see if there are any coals hot enough to get the fire going again or if we have to start from scratch. We ran out of fire-starter quick because of the damp weather and the camp store did not have any in stock. We have carried tealight candles with us for a long time, because I had read somewhere that they were useful in starting campfires. I never used them because the fire-starter did the job. It turns out that tealights work better, because they stay lit longer and can set even the wettest wood aflame.

Campsite
Campsite fire. Usually when we camp on the river, we forage for our own firewood. We had to buy wood at the campground store and the wood was not much more than kindling which burned quickly. Just enough to prepare a meal, but not enough for warmth.

Kristin is doing the dishes. Our one enamel cooking pot serves as our dishwashing basin. We did not have to conserve water as much in the campground as on the river, but this way the pot gets cleaned the same time as the other dishes. A good thing, since we would rather be doing other things than washing pots.

Campsite
A woman's work is never done. This is one reason I generally refuse to camp with men. They wander off and go fishing when cooking and washing dishes are mentioned. When it's just us women we trade chores. I'll cook, if you wash. Or I'll get water, if you put things away.

My pants are rolled to my knees because of all the mud. If the cuffs get wet, it could take all day for them to dry. We use a tripod when cooking. It holds our cooking pot and sausages can be set around it at the same time. Plus, it is really cool to raise and lower the grill to control the temperature of the cooking process.

Lynne camping.
I am setting up the grill and tripod for breakfast. When it's cold, oatmeal mixed with dried milk tastes wonderful. A handful of dried blueberries and brown sugar makes it a feast.
CampingIt’s early in the morning and the fire has just been started. I’m carrying things from the tent to the table so we can begin to prepare breakfast.

Even with rain, extreme heat or extra cold, camping is something Kristin and I will always love. Your life is reduced to sleeping and eating and doing what you wish during the long, lovely hours between.

Daily Squiggle

365, Creativity, Drawing, Squiggles, , , ,
Live squiggle walking
Walking is healthy for squiggles too.

I used markers to color this squiggle. The blue of her blouse and the orange stripes of her skirt are complementary and the green tights and red stripes of the skirt are complementary. It’s an interesting combination but I would not wear green tights even if I received many compliments.

I wanted her to be looking at the world. Too many people exercise in their own little bubbles of heart rate and ear buds. If you are lucky enough to be in the fresh air, use all your senses to be in it. You are not a tourist in nature, you are nature.

-Lynne

Crafty Challenge Two-Five Dollars

craft, Craft Challenge, Creativity, ,

Photo of a five dollar bill.

With our first official Crafty Challenge completed (incredibly successfully too!), our eyes – and itchy crafting fingers – are looking forward to our second challenge. This one is a bit more focused in an odd sort of way. Instead of a specific material to work with, our limits are money and where that money can be spent.

The rules:

  1. There is a $5 limit.
  2. The money must be spent in a hardware store (a home improvement store counts).
  3. You can only use materials that you purchased with the $5 from the hardware store.
  4. Projects must be presented on October 23rd.

All of the Crafty sisters are hardware/home improvement store junkies. In fact, Loryn and I can spend hours just wandering around Home Depot, not really spend any money, completely solving a specific repair, craft or decor difficulty and both feel that we had a great and productive day. We are all also incredibly thrifty and bargain savvy (I think I have unofficially declared Cheri Queen of the Bargain), hence all the garage saleing, so this particular challenge is right up our alley.

So, wish us luck and tune in on Sunday, October 23rd when we will post our projects. I can’t wait to get started! I promise I won’t procrastinate this time.