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I don't usually run...

I run around, I run around like a head with my chicken cut off, I run out of time, I run errands, oh, yes indeedy I do that sort of running. But lately I feel like I have so many things I want to do and to-do I quite literally caught myself running down the hallway. That is just ridiculous. Seriously. Running.
Then last night I decided to browse on the web - in direct contrast to running around. Perhaps it was because I was tired from running and just needed to sit. On The Farm Chicks site, I noticed, hummmm, that the editor-in-chief or Country Living magazine will be at the show in June. Now, perhaps one is thinking...so???.......and to be honest I am thinking so??... I have had a subscription to Country Living magazine for like, 30 years...and the editor-in-chief and a couple editors will be at that same show I will be...and I am a vendor, and like they will be looking at my things.......maybe. Oh. I think I am going to have a star struck stupid attack. So silly.  Okay, so I went from running, to feeling paralyzed. I am not sixteen for gosh by golly sakes, get a grip on it girl. Go back to that magic room and feel the calming magic.

Winning a box of bobbins on eBay triggered this little project, wrapping bits and doodlydoos on them.

Etsy is my friend

This post is just so all about me..but then, this blog is all about me. Some shameless self-promoting going on here...

Actually, I am having a good self talk. I really do like Etsy. I just don't really like trying to get all the pictures right and figuring out what to say and how to make everything look right. I think it is hard to sell something with just pictures and words.

I wish each person could just feel and lift and smell and hang each bag on their OWN shoulder. When making each of these bags, I would think..is this cute enough? I hope so. I like it, will anyone else. Then today...

as I am handling them again, I just feel in love all over again with them. Dang...they are so cute, so fun, so vintage. I do love them. Is that okay?
I love the fabric, the vintage-ness, the fun doo dads - what can I say, I'd be happy to keep them all, but then, I guess having - ummm, I think I have about fifty, and that really is a bit much, eh?
So...go visit my Etsy shop (in side bar) and tell me, did I get it right? Do you get the feel for what fun bags they are?
Don't hate me for loving these bags and like going on and on about them, 'k?

Fiddle dee pins

Why do I want to begin every post with "fiddling with"? I guess it is because most of what I do is fiddle and unfortunately, I don't mean the making music kind of fiddle, that is, unless one counts the song in my heart.
I actually began to clean the magic room...straighten up, sort out, reorganize and became quickly and easily sidetracked.

These were fun. I still like the raggedy look when doing things. Maybe it is my silent rebellion from all the 'picking out' I've done over the years.

And I like HeartRocks...

Did ya' know?
Hope you have some time to fiddle today and make some "heart music" of your own.

Made in China - Not.

Isn't there just something soothing about doing the same thing over and over? I privately admit I quite like it.
The rhythm - the procedure with my hands as my mind travels here and there, thinking about my dear Mom, our Grandchildren, planning the next little camping trip, skipping and hippity hopping too and fro. Relaxing. Pondering.
 
While I enjoy the feel of the soft vintage fabric. Working in an assembly line fashion (thank you, Henry Ford for the great idea). First the pressing, then the cutting. making straps, folding hems, attaching ties, trimming threads and then pressing again. I love the pressing.

The reward of seeing a tall pile, completed, pressed, folded, ready to sale.
No, not made in China. Each one carefully made - step by step in a Magic Room in the Pacific Northwest by my hands while my mind traveled, imagined, thought, pondered and prayed about my life, my incredibly blessed life.

Follow your heart.

Working on a little project to submit to an online magazine.

In the meantime something to provoke thought....and we like to have our thoughts provoked, don't we?
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Steve Jobs

Oh my heavens, that is so hard sometimes. I love the quote...I love the thought...but sometimes I walk from room to room in a dither. Are you following your heart?  Oh, our hearts.
My heart really does want to do the RIGHT thing? That is what my heart wants. So. What. Is. The. Right. Thing?
For me! At this wonderful season of my life.
I guess the hard part of that question is - I must find my own answer.
Please, dear Lord, lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.

What a conundrum! or Good Heavens, is there a doctor in the house?

Regardless of any bad experiences we've had with the medical profession. Oh, I know we all go to a doctor we are dissatisfied with from time to time or leave a doctors office scratching our head, thinking, "What did he/she say?" or  "I paid good money for THAT?"
That is not the conundrum; conundrum - anything that puzzles, I know, you know the meaning of the word - I just needed to say it in more than one way..conundrum? puzzled?, there I said it even twice more..oh..I could say it like ten more times and still feel - well, puzzled?
The conundrum is which is worse the 'rupture' or the cure?
Remember I suggested that I'd like to try all the recipes in this great old book my great grandmother made? No longer baby...there is no way - not even a chance, given that the book also contains

Remedies.
That's right fellow friends of all things vintage. Remedies. Vintage. Remedies.
As politely as I can say, this is snake oil. Remembering the book was put together in the late 1800's early 1900's and penicillin wasn't even widely available until 1926, I guess snake oil was a welcome chance to feel better, get cured, be done with it.

So now without further dilly-dallying, filibustering, postponing here is the cure for rupture, and by the way, I think I know what is meant by rupture - but let's just leave that to each person's interpretation. Spelling it out at this juncture may be a bit untoward, if you know what I mean.
Rupture Cure - exactly as written in "My Grandmother Made a Book".

Rupture Cure -(requested) --Boil fifteen eggs hard, remove yolks and cut them up and put them into spider. Put over a slow fire and stir constantly gradually increasing the heat. It will soon dissolve into a creamy looking substance which as the fire grows hotter, turns brown and looks like coffee grounds. Stir rapidly all the time. It will smoke and smell terrible and you will feel sure it is burned up but keep at it patiently and after a while it will dissolve into a black oil. Strain and bottle this. Apply this oil every night, making sure the rupture is back in place. Every morning make a healing salve, made as follows. Mix together a little new unsalted butter with one quarter as much beeswax and after melting  add a few drops of oil of spike. This is very healing and prevents the rupture getting sore on the outside. This treatment is to be continued three weeks or more. I have used it with good success on ruptured colts.  Mrs C.R. Powers, N Dak
Another conundrum - whether to laugh myself silly reading this or feel sorry for our ancestors who had no other medical help.
A conundrum indeed.
I also read a great little blog post about something similar. Oh, ladies and gentleman. I have to say thank you for the corner WalMart and modern medicine!

Happy Heart Day

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY FROM MY HEART (rockshome) TO YOURS

My favorite lines from this verse...

Mend a quarrel.

Seek out a forgotten friend.

Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.

Write a long letter.

Share some treasure.

Give a soft answer.

Forego a grudge.

Forgive an enemy.

Listen.

Listen.

Listen.

Apologize if you are wrong.

Think first of someone else.

Appreciate.

Be kind.

Be gentle.

Laugh a little.

Laugh a little more.

Speak your love.

Speak it again.

Speak it still once more.

 

When garage sale shopping..look under the tables

I know there are these really complicated ways to like get printing onto fabric...and all those ways seem to escape me. There are great lines of products to assist even the more inept person in doing this. Google shows 210,000 hits when I entered "printing on fabric".
Okay - I'm  back - sorry - I just read a few of those 'hits' and learned some very interesting things...but I digress. I am talking about just words on fabric (although I just discovered some pretty interesting ways and did the googel-fooling-around-wasting-time-click-one-site-and-then-another-seeing all the eye-candy, doodley googley doing.  I now have to admit 'simple' ways one can print images and many other things. Oh...I will be trying a few of these ideas)
But we must go back to the original place I was going with this post. One my Valentine this year. I wanted words to be stitched onto the background. So to the rescue - in getting those words on my fabric is -

my trusty Underwood typewriter. Found at a garage sale for a mere $4.00. Yes, folks you know how I feel about garage sales and how things should be arranged. These tips are for having  a garage sale. I also need to do a post on shopping at a garage sale. Look under the table, look in those cardboard boxes that aren't unpacked from storage,  look in all those various shaped and dusty-dirty boxes that are stuck under the table.
That is where I found Miss Underwood...under the table. Miss Underwood -Underthetable. And did you know Staples carries typewriter ribbons, yip regularly old Staples has regular old typewriter ribbons, "that was easy."

And typewriter ink does not wash out or run when wet. Now back to that google-doodling thing..my next post may be how to put really cool images on fabric...hummmm

How to decopodge and age paper for a vintage look

Ingredients..

1. Prepare base: I am using a book cover for the background.
I cut it off with a razor and then sanded the edges to make it look well...older..

2. Adhere the paper to the background, with glue. I used the  Elmers school glue (and an old paint brush)  Mod Podge can be used. It takes longer to dry but is 'sticker' and good for doing around a corner or a metal surface etc. Don't panic if the paper wrinkles it will flatten out upon drying.

For the paper -  I like sheet music, or dictionary pages or even newspaper. (Newspaper is fragile and messier but looks great.) Any paper will do. I sometimes tear and use pieces or sometimes just one piece. The torn pieces add a nice raggedy look and 'age' with more contrast.

All glued down...notice I don't worry about getting an even layer of glue on the top...just overlap and slip slap it all down. I did keep the red book edge, and even went back and trimmed it straight with a razor.  (If not "aging" the project put a couple of coats of the glue or Mod Podge on to seal the surface good.)

3. DRY DRY DRY...let it completely dry. Either wait - or dry with a blow dryer or heat gun.
4. Then the MAGIC - that brown shoe polish. Just start to rub in on...

Amazing, huh? The torn edges look great and it is blotchy. I didn't try to do the blotchy part it just happens all by it's self.

A couple other ideas...for my Valentine piece.
I put down just one piece of music.
Printed off on my inkjet printer the words for the song
Spritzed - with a sealer (any kind of clear spray varnish lacquer will work) - so the words wouldn't run
Glued it all down
DRIED thoroughly
Then washed with gesso to create washed out filmy looking words
THEN rubbed with the shoe polish

I love shoe polish. Clear can also be used for pieces. It gives a protective wax finish and is so soft and smooth to the touch.

Gentle and Loving

Having a life threatening disease changes you. It does something to the inside-where-you-live-part-of-you and makes you and your life different.
I no longer have a life-threatening disease (thank you, dear Loving Heavenly Father) but something inside has changed. I want to be different.
First a picture. It is our son with his China doll baby and her Great-grandmother, who happens to be 97 and mostly blind and can see only shadows and shapes.

Can you feel what I feel when I see this picture? Gentle and loving. Gentle and loving. Both the Grandson and the Grandma. See it?
That is what I want to be...more gentle and loving.
So my Valentine this year....

"gentle and loving in deed and in thought"
From the song by Janice Kapp Perry
(wait for the song to load..click on words and music - enjoy)
I’m trying to be like Jesus;
I’m following in his ways.
I’m trying to love as he did,
in all that I do and say.
At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,
but I try to listen as the still small voice whispers:
"Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in added and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught."