Hello Again

Well, hello. I missed everyone. I can't believe that it's been so long since I posted last. I sort of got derailed on wallpapering the Fairfield. I ordered paper from my favorite company and received the wrong paper--happened twice. The first time I thought it was my fault, so I let it go, but when it happened again, I did more checking and some of the papers were number incorrectly, so I emailed the company. They are very nice and good at making things right, so I had to wait for new paper to arrive and by then I was on to another project.

This is the wallpaper that I ordered for the little kitchen, surely a popular 1920s motif, cherries. My husband's grandmother had cheery wallpaper in her farmhouse kitchen, it was old. 1940s, I would imagine. I do think that it will go nicely with the green checked floor. However, I am learning  that the interest and the  beauty of these delicate, small prints get lost because the prints  are nearly microscopic. My advice: choose bolder prints that have more depth and detail, even larger images like the William Morris print that I chose for the dinning room. 

By the way, the company shipped the correct papers without charge.

The second paper has a linen-like look will be paired with a blue print for the living room.

I have another challenge for the Fairfield. I decided to wash the windows; not recommended. They, as you know, are acetate, which has not only yellowed with age, but is also dusty and dirty, so I decided to wash an oval window--with poor results. The white window "panes" washed away. 

As luck would would have it, I found a package of acetate 12x12 sheets by Cricut at Michael's and I purchased two paint pens to try to recreate the window glass.

  

                      

I am quite impressed with the acetate, but as I searched the Cricut website, it does not seem available now, but it is available on Amazon. There are other alternatives such as transparency sheets that teachers use to make over head project transparencies--really? They still do that? Anyway. Priced them at Office Max, and just as I thought I had to buy a box of 40 or so for a hefty price--don't remember how much, but it was cost prohibitive. My package has 6 12x12 for about $13. 

I have two different paint pens, one seems to have thicker line. I need to work on drawing very straight lines and figure out how to prevent paint pooling at the end of a stroke. Any suggestions? With some more practice, I will be able to replace my spoiled window "glass" and the will the rest of the window look yellow--because they are--but will I need to redo them all? 

Aside from making windows, I realized that I can cut stencils for card making by cutting images out on the Cricut. Actually you can make stencils out of paper.

I was very pleased with the results using pastels to create this pretty card.

I'm still teaching myself Cricut Maker tricks. Here are two more cards that I designed by merging or attaching the swan to a square, a very simple technique.

 So I left work on the Fairfield to make cards for veterans. Our DAR chapter makes greeting cards for the residents at the Cheyenne VA rest home. We work in my basement as a group and I made a lot of cards on my own. Last week I shipped 23 Veteran's Day greetings to the Cheyenne VA and 60 Christmas cards to a group in Michigan that sends greeting cards to overseas troops. Personally, I made 97 Christmas Cards.

Here's a sampling of my work. I had both of my Cricuts smokin'. 

Now I'm working on Christmas ornaments for family. Can't wait to show them--after Christmas, of course.  And I spent the day cleaning in my craft area, trying to reorganize so that I can more efficiently store supplies.

Finally, I had fun sorting through the goodies that I ordered from Bindels in The Netherlands so that I can make chandeliers and sconces for the Fairfield.

And there you have it. It's been a rough Fall. Personally our household is well, but we empathicly suffered with the those who were displaced and lost property in two wild fires that claimed so much of Colorado's beautiful mountains. Four fires burned. The Cameron Peak fire began the end of August and burned nearly 205,000 acres. We lived under a shroud of smoke and ash for weeks. Then a second fire near the Colorado/Wyoming border nearly merged with the Colorado fire the end September and if that wasn't bad enough, a third fire flared up burned so fast that nearly merged on the southern border of the first fire. Estes Park, our favorite mountain village was threatened and evacuated. One day by 2:30 in the afternoon it was nearly dark--orange dark from the smoke of those two fires. It was darker than a total eclipse of the sun. Finally a 4th fire erupted in Boulder, threaten so many homes, including a good friend's. Though evacuated, they were very lucky not to lose their house last 23 neighbors did. It was pretty grim.

Finally it snowed enough to not totally put the fires out, but the fire fighters were able to contain them and I think now they are out.

And this darn virus. This second time around, cases seem to be hitting closer to home. Our youngest granddaughter came home from school with the sniffles and we were with her on that Friday night. She was tested Monday, taking until Friday to get the results. Negative, thankfully. 

My task tomorrow will be to move the Fairfield from the garage where I've been working on it to the basement workshop so that I do the wallpaper. That will be a chore, but it's too cold now to work in the garage. 

Oh one last thing, so, so excited. I follow a miniaturist, Panda Miniatures, on Instagram and she announced that she and her fiancé  will be participating in an HGTV show, The Biggest Little Christmas Showdown, premiering Nov. 27 9PM EST. I'll be watching!

I do hope that you are all well and working hard in your own workshops. It's good to be back.

Have a great week. And Thanks for dropping by.