I go home tomorrow!

YEAH!!! I can't wait to get back to my husband, and to be able to say "I finished." This has been the longest ongoing project I've ever been involved in besides my family. These last two volumes of the book have almost 650 pages each. Add to that the 700 from the first volume, and you have a whopping 2000 pages!!! It will be really nice to see it all in print.

Now I have to go home and get a real job. One that earns money. That filthy lucre that is so necessary in our society. It's been 6 months now since Chuck worked, and we are no longer holding our heads above water. Both of us will be pounding the pavement. I'm not looking forward to it at all. The arthritis and carpal tunnel are so bad in my hands that I'm not even sure what type of job I can do, but I guess I will find out.

I won't be posting any cute projects for a little while, because job hunting takes a lot of time, but I will keep you "posted" on how things are going. So here's the last one for now. It's a really cute paper pocket, and you can even make your own pattern!

You will need four ovals of cardstock, two the same color for the inside and two different prints for the outside. Your ovals can be any size you want them to be, but mine were about 5x7. The two for the inside need to be 1/4 inch bigger all the way around, and cut the edges with some cute scallop scissors or another edger design. Now fold your ovals in half, putting one end toward the other end and gently creasing the middle. Fold the inside ovals with the design tot he inside and the other two with the design to the outside. Put the two inside ovals together, overlapping to form a right angle at the bottom and a heart shape at the top. Glue them together where they overlap. Now put the two outside ovals on the outside (he he) of them and pull the bottom corner all the way down. This closes off the whole at the bottom and allows the scallops to show at the top.

Now, you need a handle. You can use a strip of matching paper, or some ribbon. Glue it to each side where the ovals overlap, and glue a button on top. Embellishments are totally up to you. A little tag with a sentiment is nice, or just decorate the tag and put a card inside. A big flower glued to the side would be cute...just about anything you can imagine is OK. Easy, huh?

Put a little tissue or paper shredd inside and snuggle a really decadent chocolate or some small gift, and its ready to go. These would make cute Valentines, or May Day baskets, gifts for Mother's Day or teachers or birthdays. They will also make cute little door hangers for visiting teachers. Especially if you have a sister you can never catch! Have fun trying out all the different combinations of paper and embellishments, and make yourself a stash to have on hand. You never know when you might need something to hold a small gift or some candy! The one shown at right is made from Birthday cardstock.

Okay. Time to go for now. Keep smiling. Smiles will light the world. May you have enough flour in your cupboard and may your socks all match. Gramma G.

Finished!

Here is the finished product for the last post. I think she turned out really cute. Since I'm not at home, I didn't get to cut her out but had a friend of mine do it instead. He has a nice bandsaw and does a lot of cutting, so he's really good at it. He cut all the pieces from 1" thick lumber, and then for the littlest pieces, like the pin (Which isn't finished yet) and the small feet, he just sliced them into thirds to make them thin! I would not have been brave enough to do that, but he just held the wood with his fingernails and pushed it right through. It was neat to watch.

I made the smallest two into ladybugs, because my youngest daughter collects ladybugs, and I though I might give them to her. But I like them, too, so maybe not! I used the same size wire on all three sizes and I think that was a mistake. The heavy wire was really awkward to work with for the smaller ones. I would use a lighter-weight wire next time. And I don't have any pom-poms small enough for the pin, but I think you can see that the size I used for the others will be too big. The reason she's not done is because I didn't get enough wire from my friend and I ran out! The one in the photo doesn't have her plant poke dowel yet, either. And since the heads are black on the ladybugs, I used little tiny googly eyes. When I get home, I will have to make some more for my ladies on my V.T. beat, but for now I just did samples for you to see.

I love little signs and little sayings, and a friend of mine who knows this, gave me a good one last week that I want to share with you. It says compliments of E. Joseph Cossman at the bottom and it goes like this:
"Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

I hope you will all take this to heart and be persistent in your dreams and determined to have matching socks. Love, Gramma G.

Buzz-z-z-z-z-z-z!

OK...here is a little bee for you. As I said in my last post, he (OOPS! I made it a she!) can be made any size you want her to be just by taking her to a copy machine and enlarging or reducing her to the size you need. I made her about 10" long and made her out of 1"x5" lumber, but I plan to make her small enough to be a plant poke for the ladies on my visiting teaching beat. It's all up to you and what you want to use her for. I haven't learned how to make a PDF file yet, but if you right click on the bee, go to Save Picture As and save it to your documents, then you can print it out and make it the size you want.

Cut her out using a jigsaw or scroll saw, or if you're lucky enough to have a bandsaw, that's good too. Sand her smooth and make sure you get her edges good, too. You can use a file to take some of the edge off if you like the primitive look. Now she gets painted. She is yellow and black, of course, but she could be red and black if you want her to be a lady bug, or any other color you like. After the paint is dry, rub her with a piece of brown paper bag. This will take the nap off the paint and give her a smooth finish. You can varnish her or spray her with acrylic spray if you want, but it's not necessary. Paint her feet/shoes, too. I painted mine as high heels, but they could be tennis shoes or whatever.

Her wings are made of window screen. If you are using the metal type, cut two wing pieces, because only one layer is needed to stay up, but if you use the nylon screen you find everywhere now, you will need four wing pieces because you will need two layers to make it stiff enough to stay up. Otherwise, her wings will flop over onto her body. Do a blanket stitch or binding stitch around the edges to keep the two layers together, and make a little tack stitch where the wings overlap.

Now it's time to finish her. Drill two little tiny holes the size of the wire into the top of the head where the antennae go and into the tops of the feet. Drill two holes just a little bigger that the wire through the body where the legs go. You will need some baling wire, two pieces 8" long and two pieces 5" long. Wrap the two 5" wires around a pencil or small dowel. Glue one end of each wire into one of the holes on the head and glue little pom-poms to the other ends. The other two wires are her legs. Using a pair of needle-nose pliers, curl one end of each wire into a curlyQ. Put the wires through the holes at the bottom of the body, with the curlyQ on the front of the body. Bend the wires in back down towards the bottom of the bee and wrap them around a pencil or dowel, forming her legs. Glue the wires into the holes in the feet. Staple the wings to the back of her body, and there you have her. Just the cutest little bee ever!

The last finishing touches are according to what you will be using her for. If she will hang on a door or wall, she will need a hanger on the back. If she will go in a plant or garden, she will need a hole drilled between the leg holes for a wooden dowel. She would also make a cute key chain fob, or a pin. (If you plan to make pins, I would suggest you use thinner wood so she won't be so bulky.)

Enjoy yourself and just have fun with these little bees. May your bees all buzz and your socks all match! Gramma G