Once I spotted a plastic T Rex toy, I found my joy, and went about turning the T Rex toy into Chompy the Christmas Dinosaur decoration. Chompy not only delivers presents to the good little girls and boys, but he also takes care of your enemies and those who give you grief.
Let’s make Christmas Dinosaur Decorations!
Pin this Christmas decor tutorial for your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
You will need:
I added a new seating area with a tempered glass topped side table to my front porch. I’m a little concerned about placing hot coffee cups directly onto the glass and am in need of a coaster or two.
Let’ s make some outdoor coasters!
Save this quick coaster tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
I considered sewing a set of cute coasters from outdoor fabric until a very windy day reminded me that I need something with a little more weight. Otherwise, I’ll have to keep rescuing my porch decorations from my neighbor’s yard.
While poking around on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest @condoblues pretty please?) for new and different beginner friendly crochet stitches, I kept coming back to projects using the moss stitch. I recently made Stitching Toghether's Moss Stitch Ear Warmer pattern (a quick and easy scrap yarn project, by the way) and liked is so much (and got compliments when I wore it) that I wanted to try to make her matchingCrochet Moss Stitch Scarf pattern
I need a thicker winter scarf. Fortunately I found a skein of yarn in my yarn stash I bought to make a practice crochet project that I forgot what I had planned to make with it.
Ain’t that just the way?
(To quote my favorite mini- series, Over the Garden Wall.You can watch it here. ) (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)
So I got these two crazy kids together and crocheted a cute winter scarf
While drooling over wood crochet hooks and doodads on line (talk to me folks about yarn bowls. Are they good for large skeins of yarn?) I came across this weird sling shot shaped thing called a lucet (it is also called a lucet fork) that has been used since the Viking era to make cords and I-cords.
I didn’t think much about it other than a lucet looks like a cool tool (a lucet looks like this ) I may not use often enough to justify it taking up space in my cramped craft room. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
Until later on when I needed a drawstring for a crochet project and wanted something less bumpy than a row or two of traditional crochet stitches.
You can braid/crochet/knit the round style cord that I wanted to use as a drawstring on a lucet. Which I didn’t have, couldn’t buy locally, and really didn’t want to wait for it to be delivered because I really wanted to finish this quick little bit and call the project done.
There is nothing I enjoy more than an evening on the sofa snuggling with Lacey, enjoying a cup of tea or a glass of wine, and the sight and smell of a candle burning in the living room. Hygge at its finest!
Also, burning a scented candle clears after dinner cooking smells which means I’m content and practical. Go me.
I always seem to have a decent sized chunk of wax left when my candle wicks burn out. I’d look at the candle jar and think someday I should melt the wax down and make a new candle out of it. A few times I did but mostly I didn’t.
Making new candles out of old candle wax usually involves rigging up a double boiler with a can in water in a pot on the stove or digging through the hard wax to remove the metal wick tab so I can melt the leftover soft vegetable candle wax in short microwave bursts. It was much easier to put the spent candle in a box with its comrades and light a new candle from my small stash and invoke a Someday that never comes.
Someday came in the form of a crazy freak storm that took down electric power lines all over the city and we sat in the dark for days on end. Naturally, I had more used up candle nubs than I had candles to burn for light during that time. I figured it was time to come up with a quick and easy way to recycle old candle wax into new candles so I wouldn’t be sitting in the dark again. Also, it would allow me to enjoy the scented candle wax I never can seem to find the next time I need to buy candles.
One of my fellow renaissance festival performer friends, painted a set of wood peg dolls for her daughter to look like some of the characters from our show so she has a period toy to keep her busy/quiet/not fussy if she is visiting with her family – dressed as a fairy.
Her peg doll toys gave me the idea to make wood peg doll gnome pin favors for my fellow fae performers. Our little Honorary Fairy wanted a mini me too (and my heart exploded into a million pieces of joy.) I asked if she wanted a pin to wear or a gnome peg doll to play with. She asked for a gnome peg doll so Nissa can play with all of her peg dolls of our village.
My homemade gnome peg dolls are quick and easy to make. You can make them for children or with children. You make them as detailed or simple as you like
As of this writing, I’m calling my DIY peg doll gnomes, Nissa Tomtesdottir Elizabethan Action Figures because who hasn’t wanted to have their own action figure?!
Yesterday was the official start of the Fall Season and the weather decided to cooperate.
With a 20 degree dip in temperature and overcast rainy day. Which makes it a perfect opportunity to brew a cup of tea, break out a cozy afghan, and count the minutes until tonight's chili dinner finishes cooking in the Instant Pot.
Let's get this party started! Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!
One of the first questions I get when I'm wearing my Dutch clogs (called klompin. You can guess why) is are they a comfortable shoe to wear? I've had my shoes for awhile, broke them in during outdoor show rehearsals, and the opening weekend (12 hour days) of the festival I am performing in.
My answer is :
Fortunately, I found an unworn pair of wood shoes in my size on eBay and was able to get them much more quickly than ordering a new pair from the Netherlands. The correct size pair looks giant compared the original shoes I bought, take a look.
We're celebrating Labor Day this weekend in the US which we traditionally consider the end of summer. Our agenda is full of BBQs, gatherings, and lot of head scratches for Lacey.
One of the funny things about being a historical entertainer is creating three layers of clothing and still be considered unseemly (by historical standards) even though you are not showing any skin because you are still in your underwear.
But one of the fun things about creating historical clothing is the chance to really go to town with the embellishments! For example, I just finished the machine embroidery on the collar and cuffs of my 16th century Danish chemise. The next step is to cut out the pattern (this Easy Noblemans/Noblewoman's Shirt Sewing Pattern by Alter Years
) with a few modifications to make it in the Scandinavian style and sew it together. (I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
I’m performing a fae (a fairy. Well, actually, I’m a gnome) character at an outdoor renaissance festival. True to a gnome’s (and my own) Scandinavian roots, I’m fair skinned and burn easily in the sun. I’m also not fond of standing out in the rain without an umbrella either.
In the past, I carried a waterproof bamboo parasol but that is not really going to work for the over the top Shakespearean fairy esthetic I need to create. Can we talk about how difficult it is to design a mythical creature described as looking like a human the size of an 8 year old boy and looks like she belongs with a group of fairies who look like natural elements like this this acorn green man wall decoration (you can buy it here.) (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) Elizabethan fairies look less human and more like trees, flowers, animals with a humanish face. The more human-looking Tinkerbell type of fairy we are more used to came about during the Victorian era.
I figure the best way to do that is make a waterproof canvas bamboo parasol in the shape an ivy leaf.
I'm in rehearsal for a show (all things being equal given the current health climate.) I'm hard at work breaking in my new character shoes!
This is an immediately slapped shoes on my feet after opening the box
photo. You are supposed to wear thick socks which makes them more
comfortable.
I quickly learned why the Dutch call clogs klompin.
Many parents are buying school supplies before their children start school (a few schools have already started!) It's much easier to tote that stuff back and forth to school, or anywhere really, in a backpack.
I almost always use my old college backpack instead of giant purse to hold our stuff. I almost always end up with a backache and at least one migraine during the trip too. I thought that is just the way it is when wearing backpack and after some research, I realized I couldn't be more wrong!
Once I learned to look for certain strap configurations, where the backpack sits on your back, and the proper size for my height (bigger and tiny small is not always better) I bought a backpack that hasn't given me issues and wrote a guide so you know what to look for too. You can read my comfortable book bag backpack buying guide 7 Tips for Buying a Comfortable Backpack here.
Let's get this party started! Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!
My new Bernette sewing machine says it can sew everything from light chiffon fabric to leather. I need a new belt bag/pouch and figure this is a good project to get my feet wet and lean how to sew leather.
Since everything worth doing is worth over doing (and I bought a cute machine embroidery file from Urban Threads) I am going to machine embroider the leather before I cut and sew it into a purse!
I admit, I had concerns about sewing and embroidering leather. If you sew a
mistake and remove the stitches the holes left behind in the leather hide will
not close like fabric will. But with practice, patience, and a few
sewing hacks, you can embroider leather and the results will look fabulous!
The tomatoes on my plants started to ripen with a bad case end blossom rot last month because there wasn't enough calcium in the soil to allow the tomato plant to grow well (this was news to me.)
I gave my tomatoes a good dose of this exact organic tomato fertilizer to get the calcium party started. I also started watering my tomato plants with a few teaspoons of powdered milk dissolved into my watering can. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
The only reason I used powdered not fat milk instead of watering down regular milk is I bought the no fat milk by mistake and didn't realize it until I used to make a batch of failed yogurt. Turns out my yogurt's loss is my tomato's gain.
After a week of having more little fails than successes laying bathroom
tile and sourcing material for a new costume commission, I finally have
a big, fat, huge win! My tomatoes are ripening and there isn't any black rot eating away at the end of the tomato!
Let's get this party started! Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!
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If you garden, one of the best zero waste ways to deal with food scraps is to compost them.
So what do you do when everything breaks down into a lovely full bin of compost?
Make compost tea and fertilize your lawn and garden the natural way! My husband and I couldn't have turned the sad chunk of clay pretending to be our yard into dark, rich soil without adding compost to the soil when we plant and compost tea fertilizer later in the season to keep them growing.
Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!
This is a big holiday weekend for our readers in not one but two countries!
Today (1st, July) our Canadian neighbors are celebrating Canada Day! This
Sunday (July 4th) my fellow Americans will celebrate Independence Day!
My husband likes to celebrate the Fourth of July by wearing his Captain American shirt to backyard BBQs. You can learn how I made this quick and easy Captain America t shirt here.
I hope you have a happy, fun, and safe holiday weekend (or regular summer
weekend for all of you non North American readers!) And if you are in the US
and Canadian heat wave areas, please drink plenty of water all day, take it
easy, and please try to stay cool in the shade!
Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!
Last weekend I got a little bit of normality back and went to a shortened version of Celtic Fest Ohio, a celebration of Irish,Welsh, and Scottish food, music, dance, food, shopping, did I mention food? and drink.
But I really had to work for it - as a volunteer!
And I worked my butt off - hard.
A huge thunderstorm knocked out the electricity in the area and flooded a section of the park (the water was waist high in that area during the storm) greeted me at volunteer check in. It threw me a curve because my assignment changed slightly due to a bunch of volunteers not showing up like they promised 😠.
It was nothing I couldn't handle because I used to put on large scale events like this and curve balls and Plan B are the norm. Besides, waiting for power to come back on so I could get my cash box gave me a chance to pop into some of my friend's booths for fully vaxxed IRL tackle hugs. My emotional and spiritual gas tank started to fill and it felt wonderful.
Lacey realized that all of the plants in our patio garden are herbs and vegetables and tries to sneak snacks from the small pots whenever we go outside. I needed a fast (and hopefully less expensive) solution to organize all of the new plants we bought from the garden center.
