Back In My Comfort Zone...

Year before last I decided to get rid of my old big desk because the drawers would not close properly along with a long list of other reasons it should go. I was downsizing and thought I could use a sweet table that Poppa had made me out of a sewing machine base as my worktable. That big desk held a lot of supplies so I distributed them among the other storage places in my studio/nest. After the desk was gone I had to look in several places to gather supplies so it became a scavenger hunt just to work on a simple project. It did not take me long to realize I had made a big mistake by getting rid of that old desk. For my birthday last November, my nephew gave me a desk that he was wanting to get rid of. Can you believe, it was exactly like my old desk except the top did not have a ledge to support my clamp on lights and video equipment! Needless to say, I was beyond tickled!!! Concrete blocks solved the problem for my clamp on equipment plus it gave my cubby holes for supplies. It feels good to have my *comfort zone* back in creating order!

Kitchen Cart...

When you are a single person, you take on all sorts of responsibilities if you are a homeowner or apartment dweller.  When you marry, responsibilities tend to be divided among spouses; each one having certain duties, usually the wife taking care of the inside of the house and the husband taking care of every thing else...repairs, yard duties and Honey Do's.  We take a lot of things for granted that our spouse does and over the years those things just all seem to get lost/unnoticed in every day living.

Since Poppa has become immobile a couple of years ago, I have had to learn a lot of those things that I took for granted that he did.  It has been extremely difficult for him to relinquish what was considered his job and it was extremely difficult for me to take on those duties, but I must say, I am delighted to learn that I CAN do some things that I never thought possible.  I would have never learned/known this if life had not changed for us.

The first thing I put together was his wheelchair.  From there I have acquired my own tools, small and light weight enough for me to handle...a new lawn mower and POWER TOOLS!!

My most recent project and current creative outlet was putting together a new cart for our kitchen to replace a stainless steel cart that we had.  I love this new cart.  There is room on top for my Kitchenaid MONSTER MIXER and still have space to work.  An added drawer is nice and there is a shelf inside to contain some of my appliances and keep them out of sight but within easy reach.

Today Poppa helped me make banana pudding.  He is learning some things about house duties that can be done from a wheelchair, but I still have not found a way to spark an interest enough that he wants to learn to cook! [ but I haven't given up yet ...]

Our new cart is finished just in time to do some holiday baking.  Learn something new this next year.  Expand and grow.  Love and cherish each other, your family and friends.  Life can change in an instant.  ENJOY THE MOMENT!!

Creating is healing and coziness for the soul...

~Edna~

Winding down...

As we approach the end of the year, things are winding down here as I settle in for a long winter's nap so to speak.  I have put away my sewing machines and cleaned my studio-nest in preparation for things to come in the new year.  There are still several things on my house To Do list!  They will get done in due time with a little patience on my part and baby steps.  Our home has been neglected for many years while I was making dolls and designing patterns and it will take me some time to get things back in order.  Caregiving and our home are my first priorities for now.  Wee bits of free time are spent learning to punch needle embroidery thanks to Doreen Frost of Vermont Harvest Primitives who makes this craft look so easy.  Punch needle is very relaxing to me, it's portable and takes up very little space.

As I snuggle into my comfy chair by the fire wearing my hand knitted warm socks of many colors, looking at my twinkling Christmas tree and flickering candles, visions of sugar plums and new adventures dance in my head.

Wishing you a Magical Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Until next time... ~E~

Rearranging...AGAIN!...

My studio/nest was originally the sunporch when we moved here to the farm.  It has ten windows and a sliding glass patio door.  This room is ever-changing!  We had an antique bed in our bedroom that I loved.  It is very tall and had become very difficult for Poppa to get in and out of over the years. So, for Christmas last year, we purchased a bed frame that does not require a box springs, making the bed much lower.  Had we known at the time, we could have just removed the box springs from our antique bed, added a sturdy system of bed slats and we would have had the same thing without purchasing a new bed frame.  We live and learn if we are lucky.  I'm loving our new white metal bed, but I did not want to part with my antique bed.

Something had to go.  My studio/nest was wall to wall furniture. I also loved the daybed that I had in my studio/nest.  After giving it much thought, we decided to get rid of the sleeper sofa in our living room.  It was uncomfortable sleeping plus we kept it covered all of the time because our big ninety pound black Lab, Sassy Alice, loved to rub against the plush fabric upholstery.  We gave away the sofa, moved the daybed to the living room to use as a sofa and set up the antique bed in my studio/nest, solving several problems.

I get to keep my antique bed.  Now we have extra comfortable sleeping space when company comes.  I have a cozy place to pile up in the middle of the bed for beauty snoozies, watching it rain, sketching new designs, watching television, folding laundry and a nice large flat surface for cutting out my dolls and things out of fabric.  I am happy with this arrangement...for now.

 And I'm not the only one that enjoys this bed.  Dinky Sugar does too!

Free Motion Machine Embroidery Doodling...
A few weeks ago when I decided I wanted to try my hand at some free motion machine embroidery, I knew I was going to need a lot of black sewing thread.  I sat down to make out my supply list when I remembered I had several large cones of black and other colors of thread that I used for my serger.  I did not have one of those large cone holders that you can purchase for use with regular sewing machines, so I turned my serger around and sat it right up next to the back of my sewing machine.  Raising the thread guide, I then threaded my sewing machine as usual.  This worked out perfect!  I saved money; I'm using up supplies and I plan on putting all of this thread to good use.

Do something creative this week.  It's healing and good for your soul.

Until next time...
~Edna~

It's about time...

I have been sewing for 65+ years, either by hand or sewing machine.  In the back of my mind I have always wanted to do free motion machine embroidery but it seemed like a daunting task and I never took the time to explore that form of sewing.  Modern computerized sewing machines makes it very easy to drop the feed dogs with just the touch of a button instead of having to put on a darning plate.

We have this very functional ( not so pretty ) electrical panel box on the wall in our utility room.  I finally decided to cover it up with a wall hanging and I'm tickled at my very first attempt at machine free motion embroidery.  As usual I did not follow the rules of using a stabilizer or a hoop and just did my own thing.  I love the way it turned out...and did I mention, I love rabbits?

Painter's canvas, black sewing thread, natural sewing thread, left over pieces of a quilt that I remade into something else, cheese cloth, buttons, thread fibers, twine, lace insertion, crochet, rusty safety pin, muslin; attached to the panel box with a magnetic strip at the top.  I love the frayed edges, loose threads and free flowing machine doodling.

Take some time to do things you have always dreamed of.  Discover the possibilities!  An accomplished desire is sweet for the soul.

Want to know what I have been up to?...

Head on over to my At Home with Edna blog and find out...

Winding down...

Summer is winding down and not soon enough for me I might add.  It was 112 degrees yesterday and we have not had any rain in weeks.  Getting rid of all of my kilns and supplies in my Workshop has allowed me to move my work table out of my Studio/Nest to my Workshop.  Since the weather is so hot, I decided to devote this time to re-arranging my studio/nest where I spend most of my time.  Getting rid of a few things and moving the furniture around has given me the feeling of much more space.  It has taken me since January of this year but I have cleaned and semi-decluttered every nook and cranny in this 12 x 20 room, plus my craft closet.

This room was originally a carport.  The lady that had this house built added a double carport and enclosed this room with ten windows and a sliding glass patio door.  The one brick wall was red antique brick and all of the wood siding was country blue.  The floor was a brown printed indoor outdoor carpet.  There were shelves over all of the windows and sliding door for books.

Over the past twenty one years since moving here to the farm, we have made many changes to our house and this room.  It now has central heat and air vents, insulated windows and insulated curtains.  The floor has been replace with wonderful easy to clean vinyl tiles.  The country blue shades have been replaced with 2" white shades.  We added a sliding vinyl door cover and every thing has been painted country white. Poppa built a book shelf and we changed out the old ceiling fan with a white one with more lighting.

This is my cozy comfy nest and my haven from the outside world.

As the weather cools I will be cleaning out my workshop if the Good Lord is willing...

April already...and almost gone!

I don't know about you, but this year seems to be flying by...and I don't seem to be getting much accomplished!  We have had rain almost daily for months and we seem to have settled in to a "cozy in and wait until the weather is better mode".

I am working on some handmade Christmas gifts and I did finally manage to get our old buffet repainted, but every thing else has been put on the back burner for one reason or another.  Spring fever is as good an excuse as any.

Here is our buffet before...

...and here is the after including new bird knobs.

I have no idea how old this sweet piece is.  My Mother inherited it from her mother in law in the mid 1950's.  They don't make sturdy furniture any more like the old antiques.

Between decluttering, organizing, redoing and rearranging, believe it or not, new design ideas are spinning in my head.  Finding time to get them out of my head and into reality is another matter but coming in the near future hopefully.

Until next time...blessings to you.

~E~

Feeling Better...

I am feeling much better and have finally been able to do some fun things.  I repainted our dining table...before

and after.

I can't decide if I want to paint my maple chairs or not...painting all of those spindles will be time consuming.  Do you think I should or should not paint??

I also managed to finish a Tussie Mussie Doll which is currently listed on Ebay HERE

and I also finished up a Burlap Stocking that can be used for Valentine's Day.  It is listed in my ETSY Shop HERE

It feels good to be creating again and semi back to normal...well normal for me,  which is not considered your average normal  :)

Grateful for Sinks and Socks and Such...

Our kitchen drain and our washing machine drain are connected.  The water had been draining slower and slower until it came to a screeching halt about two weeks ago.  So, we have been basically *camping out* in our own home for two weeks until us *do it yourselfers* got the problem solved.  It took two and a half days of digging and repairs, but I am a happy camper again.  Have you hugged your kitchen sink and washing machine lately?

While I had all of the *stuff* out from under our kitchen sink, I decided to paint inside the cabinet and put down vinyl tile on the bottom of the cabinet.  Another project marked off my to do list!

BEFORE

AFTER

I also added a French Market Bag to my utility room to hold onions and potatoes

I am happy to report that I am half finished with the mate to the other gray sock from last week's post. Half finished in only one week!  I hope the other half goes as fast and won't take two years to finish.

Count your blessings, be grateful and have fun!

Until next time...

Wonderful Autumn Days...

I have been enjoying the season and the cooler, rainy weather. Did I mention I love rainy days? They put me in a creative mood but for the last few months I have been trying to heal a bad right arm which makes creating difficult.

I did this cloth, handpainted Thanksgiving Lady sitting in a rusty can for our dining table back in the year 2000 when I was having fun painting and doing Ebay. She is again gracing our table this year and she brings back sweet memories of the good old days. I can already smell the turkey roasting and pies baking in the oven! I know it's early, but...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Daisy Pillow

Still in pillow making mode...This raw silk pillow was inspired by a $95 pillow I saw online. The graphic is from The Graphics Fairy.