A Few Little Fall Decorations

I went into the Dollar Tree the other day to look for Halloween decorations.  Someone I know is going to make their own Harry Potter Wizard Wand using a Youtube tutorial.  The person doing the tutorial used some skeleton decorations that you can find at Dollar Tree and I had to get some of those exact skeletons.   Here is a link to the wand tutorial.  It's a really good tutorial and lots of fun to watch.

While I was in the Dollar Tree I took some time to look for Halloween and Fall greeting cards to frame.  I ended up picking up three cards,  the Home Sweet Home card and the Happy Thanksgiving card were inexpensive and look great in a frame.  These cards were $.50 each and the frames were cheap frames I found at Walmart.

This pumpkin is a free image I found on the internet.  I printed it on regular copy paper, cut it out and  placed some burlap looking scrap book paper (on sale at Hobby Lobby for $.29 a sheet) behind it.  I set it in a 8 x 10 clip frame.  I'm not crazy about the frame and I will probably re-frame this at some point, but I love this.

The one Halloween card that they had that I like is this one.  I painted a wood plaque with purple paint and decoupaged it onto the plaque.  I already had the paint and the Mod Podge, the card cost me $1.00 and the plaque cost me $1.99.  I love this.

I saw a few pumpkins in Hobby Lobby over the last few weeks that are a teal/turquoise color.  I love the idea of adding that color into my fall decor so I bought a small pumpkin at JoAnn's for about $2.50 (used a coupon) and some turquoise paint which cost me $1.99, I think.  I did prime the pumpkin with a coat of white paint (which I already had) before I painted it blue.  Love this.

I also found a beautiful Youtube tutorial on painted pumpkins.  She does such a good job layering paint and she tells you exactly how to do it.  Someday I want to try to make the silver leaf pumpkin.  Here is the link:  Simply Handmade Pumpkin Painting Tutorial

One more project that I will be taking care of is cleaning out my old hand sewing needles.  I have some hand sewing needles that have eyes that are too small for a wire threader to fit in.  At my age, I don't need needles with eyes that small.  I will be donating them to my dear daughter.

Just Getting Over The Hawaii Jet Lag

   Wow, it's taking me awhile to get over the time difference while I was in vacation.  I finally got some of my things back to normal in the house.  I had to clean up my bedroom because when I went on vacation I moved a bunch of stuff into my bedroom to make room in the rest of the house so the cat sitter wouldn't have to search for the cats.  I also shut my bedroom door and put a do not enter sign on it.  It was one less room that the cats could hide in.  This morning before work I also took time to clean out the winter clothes from my regular closet to move into my storage closet.  I even threw away some old clothes that don't fit anymore.

  Here is the lone hexie flower I worked on while I was flying to Hawaii.  Once we landed I never picked this up again.  On the plane rides back, I was too busy sleeping to do any sewing.  I fell asleep every chance I got.  I slept in airports, on flights and even slept on the car ride back home.

     Here's an old project.  I made this quilt several years ago.  It was gifted to my brother and his wife.  I used some of her favorite colors in the quilt and she loved it.  This is the Sugar Flowers quilt pattern by Jera Brandvig of Quilting in the Rain.  It's a free pattern and you can find it here.

Kitchen Drawer Fix Up and Clean Up Project

    I live in a mobile home.  I love my mobile home.  I bought it new 7 years ago and I love the floor plan.  My kitchen is huge and it opens into the living room and the dining room with a door to the laundry room.  It also has a great pantry (no pictures, it's kind of messy in there now and needs to be cleaned up).  My kitchen has tons of cabinet space but I only have three drawers in the entire kitchen.  It's really sad.  I like drawers and I wish I had a few more.  While I'm wishing for more drawers, it's time to fix and organize my existing drawers.

  View from the dining room looking straight to the laundry room door.

This is the view from the dining room looking at the pantry door.

This is the view from the living room with my homemade curtains on the windows.

    Yes, the counter tops were cleaned off to take these pictures.  The counters are normally covered with all manner of kitchen things, dish soap, hand soap, and hand lotion by the sink; dog food, cat food, and dry cereal under the cabinets by the refrigerator, dish towels hanging on racks set on the cabinet doors, and pot holders by the stove top.

 

      These drawers were not built for heavy use.  The front of the top drawer I was using for silverware has come off two different times.  In examining the top drawer for problems when I cleaned it out, I realized that the right side slider mechanism of the top drawer was placed lower than the left side slider mechanism.  I unscrewed the bracket and placed the bracket in line with the left side bracket.  I hope this solves my top drawer problem and I can use it without the front coming off.  I was only using this drawer for small items that I never needed so I wouldn't have to open it.

 

   Bracket fixed.  You can see the hole under the bracket where it was originally placed and it was way too low.

   I have been using the second drawer to store knives, but I have too many in there.  This drawer needed to be cleaned out and I also checked the slider mechanism for this drawer to make sure it was working properly.

     I'm ditching these old, old, old, chef knives [so tired of sharpening them] and I ordered two new chef's knives from Amazon on Monday.

      New chef knives.

 

    This is the bottom drawer and it holds all my large utensils.  I thought the basket would help keep everything under control, but the drawer is clearly too deep.  I weeded out all the unnecessary stuff, cleaned the drawer and put my crazy utensils back in the basket in the drawer.

  Here is the top drawer all cleaned up.

  Here is the knife drawer all cleaned up with my new chef knife set.

   I'm really happy with my drawer fix and clean up.  It was interesting trying to find a good position so I could reach the back board to put that slider mechanism bracket back on.

New Information On Sewing Machine Maintenance

       I do the bare minimum when it comes to sewing machine maintenance.  None of my sewing machines are under warranty so I don't take my machines in for service unless they are truly broken.  I really good about cleaning out the lint in the feed dog and bobbin area after a big project and I will change my needle pretty often, but I don't oil anything on my computerized machines unless it's specifically mentioned in the owner's manual.   The other morning I went on the internet looking for information on oiling my Martha, Bernina 1530.  I found this youtube video on how to clean and oil a Bernina (not specifically a Bernina 1530) but a really good video and super helpful.

Link to video on how to clean and oil your Bernina sewing machine.

      I had about 15 minutes before I had to leave for work so I did a little maintenance on Martha.  I took my feed dog plate off, my needle out, and my bobbin assembly apart, brushed out all the lint, oiled the hook, and replaced my needle.  The video recommends you oil your hook every 3 to 5 bobbins.  I usually change my needle and do a full clean out about every 8 hours of sewing, but I never knew that I should oil my hook.  I did notice that after I oiled the hook, the machine seemed to run quieter and smoother.  It might be wishful thinking, but I think Martha is a little happier these days.