A Few DYI Recipes :)

Back in the post-Flintstones age crafting and DIY first started to have a public following. That would have been the late 60s early 70s. Back before all the cool art mediums, tools, amazing inventions were found and created, we were forced to find every day things to create different effects. Now 40+ years later and I'm rediscovering all the old make do recipes. :) Actually some I have always used, finding that the new super dooper miracle medium is harder and way more expensive then the old tried and true. Like white school glue or Elmer's as most of us refer to it. Everyone has a bottle of Elmer's around some where usually in the junk drawer in the kitchen. It's the perfect all around glue, water soluble, so it cleans up easy, non-toxic (whatever that is suppose to be) and dries clearish. :)

But did you know that before Modpodge was "invented- developed" by Jan Wetstone we all were using Elmer's thinned with water?? :) Modpodge is basically white glue and water, but cost about 3 times more then a bottle of Elmer's. In fact I always used white glue because controlling the thickness is always easier for me. Besides I really hate to pay for a name when I don't have to!!! So for decoupaging. I generally mix water into the glue a little at a time until the mixture is the thickness of Half &Half / cream. You can make it thicker if you like, it requires less coats but it tend to create more bubbles that way.

When crackle mediums became all the rage they were always treated as this magical aging medium. We were told they were difficult to use and impossible to get good results unless we took classes bought specially books and of course used official professional crackle mediums. But then again there was a whole bunch of us out in the real world that had for years been using Elmer's to create crackle finishes. It's another easy peasy nobrainer recipe. Paint the piece you want to crackle with acrylic or latex paint. You can always opt to have the bare wood show through the cracks. Once that layer is dry paint a generous amount of glue on the surface. I like to use a sponge brush, it doesn't leave brush marks and it's easier to spread a nice consistent layer of glue. When the glue has dried enough to have a "skin" covering the entire surface, paint over it with latex or acrylic paint in the exact same way you would paint over a crackle medium. Now you need to exercise just a bit of patience. Unlike with the crackle mediums it take a few more minutes for the cracks to appear with the glue. But appear they will!!

If you have read very much of my blog you know I think Shoe polish/wax rules!! :) It really is a one stop patina shop!! You can use it with your paper projects to add patina to the surface or edges of paper. It will "age" and add patina to your new-old antiques. It will cover scratches in furniture, it will give wood, paper, leather, and concrete a lovely agged,buffed finish. Gads I bet I've used a dump truck full of shoe wax by now. If I could only have one medium in my arsenal it would always be shoe wax!!!

I always keep natural or tan around along with brown and black. The next time you want to put a nice buffed surface for protection without shine on a paper project use a bit of tan or natural Rub on a layer then buff with a clean rag, you can keep repeating until you get the thickness and look you want :)

Bleach pens are sooooooooooo cool!! If you have ever used bleach in a paper or cloth project where you were "drawing or writing" with the bleach you know how easy it is to completely ruin the project in the blink of an eye, a slight breeze, or slightly shaky hand :( Not with a bleach pen. You can control the lines you are drawing and because it a gel it doesn't bleed into the surrounding material!!! And it works dang good to remove stains !! :) I was reading an article the other day where they were using bleach pens to "hilight" certain areas on photographs. I'd love to play around abit. Have any of you guys used bleach on photos before??

One last recipe tonight. There are all kinds of cool, caustic, and complicated patina producing mediums for metals. But good grief there are a bazillion out there and they all do different things. More importantly for me is the inability to find them here. But I still want to be able to really corrode a metal up sometimes. Enter another one of those old DYI recipes. Now this one really works and I don't even want to think about how someone figured it out. Not to worry it's not as caustic or toxic as the accidental mixing of ammonia and bleach, but for sure you want to do this outside. Oh and don't be leaning over the tub watching things happen and breathing in the fumes. In a ceramic, glass or heavy plastic container make a bath of half bleach and half white vinegar. Place the metal pieces you want to 'patina up" in to soak. You are going to have to check back every so often to see if your pieces are corroded up enough. I will tell you that the process is slower then many marketed products but it does produce a good job. I can get decent green verdigris on copper and brass

So this brings up to the end of our class of home remedies for the die hard, artist, crafter, or do it yourselfer :) Maybe there is a recipe or two that you might find useful or maybe you have one you'd share??? :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

Yeah It's Double Feature Night!!! :)

I thought I might do a little home recipe posting tonight. With a few of my tried and true all you can do with Elmer's glue, kiwi shoe wax etc.... You know when in a pinch substitutes you can whip up in your kitchen sorta thing. :)

But I think I will save it for next time. I have fun movies tonight Yeah!!! Yipeeee, Yaaa Hooo break out the pop corn, sodas, Junior Mints and Mike &Ikes!!!!

Oh but these aren't just any old movies I'll have you know. Our first feature tonight is guaranteed to make you giggle till... This one is courtesy of Lulu of Coastal Sisters my little Bloglandian sister. So go a head press the play button and giggle your heart out with this one :) Just remember to save some of your popcorn for the second feature! :)

Now for our second feature we have Dylan's mom and dad to thank. And by golly I think the apple doesn't fall to far from this papa's tree. Dylan's papa's nickname was Scooter. He earned this by perfecting the crawling method of pulling his leg up under him and then lunging forward. It was rather crude and there certainly was nothing aesthetically pleasing about the maneuver, but man could that kid move!! It appears that there is a Scooter II in the making!! Oh my gosh is this what they mean my payback??

Thank you guys you are the best Bloglandian friends, to let me share my grand baby pictures. And double thanks for all the "oh my gosh how cute" and "how adorable" LW and I have come to realize that there are a few draw backs here in Paradise. Only seeing our grand baby once a year is sure one! :( Thank goodness Dylan's mom and dad realize this and are so good about sending grand baby pictures!! :) And for the first time in Peder's life he remembers to call his mum every so often!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow my bloglandian family depending on where in the world you are ;)

Shifting a Paradigm or When is a Candle Stick a Necklace

And how was everyones holiday weekend?? Ours was very quiet. Since yesterday was the midterm elections there wasn't even any alcohol sold. The only places that can sell alcohol on election days are restaurants. Now if you were paying attention you would have noticed that yesterday was Sunday. Elections on Sunday?? Yep elections are normally held on Sundays for a number of reasons. The major one is that this country still works on a 6 day work week, with Sunday being the only day off. This way everyone who wants to vote has a chance without having his pay docked, or having to ask for time off.


I don't have an infinite source for vintage chain or findings or even for old jewelry for that matter. I have been taking apart my older stuff (but I didn't bring very much down with us) One of the goals that at the top of my list to do when we go up to the States in November is to hit some places and (dare I say it out loud??) stock pile a bit. I started working on a new necklace yesterday and really did some digging in my infinitesimal collection of old patina chain and stones. Hmmm if 3 of something defines a collection them holly mackerel I've go a collection of chains :) Okay so there I was thinking about my limited options. I have a rather over the top Bohemian in all it's glory set of candle sticks that sit on the corner of my desk. I brought them down with us, and they have been sitting out growing vintage for nearly 3 years. Since we are 8ish blocks away from the beach the chains and metal beads have a most wonderful patina already :) As I continued to feel sorry for myself I notice the candle sticks just sitting there, in need of a good dusting when one of those "Oh My God" moments struck :)

Disclaimer: that orange tub is not the top of my desk! :)

Will you look at that!!!! There's chain (yeah a bit small but workable) & some kind of metal beads both very nicely aged to perfection. There are also some really cool rough cut glass beads in wonderful muted colors.

There are also little round beads. I'm sure there is a name for them in Beadanese but I don't know what it is. They look like seed beads on steroids. :)

Oye this photo is on the blurry side, but you can sorta get an idea of the rustic red and yellow cut beads. They have a few air bubbles in them and are on the way cool crude side of awesome :). Waa Laa a pair of pliers and a bit of work and now my candle sticks are ever so sleek and swelt and I have a little larger stash!! :)

I went into my favorite of the two bead stores the other day, with the intentions of buying a sting of bronzeish iridescent pearls and maybe something in dark moss/sepia colored stones. Gads I found about 3-4 really nice color and size pearls. Yikes but the prices were around $10.00US a 14inch string. I know they are not as expensive as they are in the States. But I don't sell my jewelry and my inheritance and I were separated at birth, I don't have anything coming in the front end to replenish whats going out the back end,. :) I did find one string without a price so hoping it might be less expensive I took it to the counter and asked how much ?? The clerk looked up and said "treinta" pesos ( 30pesos 0r about $2.50US) Wow TREINTA????? si Treinta it's a promotion in fact everything on that wall is $30 pesos.

HAPPY DANCE all the way back over to the beads. SO smiling like a cat with a canary I walked out with 4 strands of pearls a cool tear drop mossy colored stone string, a warm soft faceted green glass string and a lovely limonada colored green faceted glass bead string!!!! :) :) We might just have to take a trip over there again this week ;)

I am now home pretending it's Christmas morning and I'm having so much fun playing with all my new toys!!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

Happy Fourth of July

Well Happy Birthday to those of you in that little corner of Bloglandia call the United States!!! This is not a holiday in Mexico so there won't be any fire works to scare the girls and the little kids half to death. But that won't stop us from wishing you guys a Happy Celebration :)

Maybe you started the day with a bit of a parade??

I love this one is the little girl dressed to be Lady Liberty or is she dressed to be a French revolutionist??

How about a huge community picnic ?? Or maybe just a picnic in the park??

Maybe it's a huge family picnic in the back of Grandma's back yard. With crazy Aunt Venita who brought her famous pineapple upside down cake. And lets not forget Cousin Nel's green jello mold with julian carrots!!! EEUuuu oops I mean Yuuuum :)

Or maybe it's a picnic for the young folks??? Just home from the city where they are going to college?? Then a walk, a bit of poetry, good conversation, well you get the idea :)

Or did you decide a whole weekend out in nature was the perfect way to celebrate??

Nothing like hitching up the camp trailer and heading for the hills, or lake, or the mountains.

So few decision have to be made. There's no one you have to impress No top hat and tails required for dinner. One can really dress down, say only Black tie required !! :)

In fact it's a chance to let your exuberant Bohemian nature out to dance the holiday night away!! :)

Whatever you choose to do for today's celebration do exercise some caution on who you ...

This evening LW and I wish for you to have clear skies, and a most amazing pyrotechnic show!!

As for us, we are off for our "Saturday Night Date" Have a most audacious today or tonight depending on where in the world you are ;)

Of Cameras & Slides & Pink Point Shoes

Oh my gosh someone let her get close enough to the camera to play with all the buttons. Actually the truth is I have graduated to using my Kodak Easyshare software. Yes I know it's no photo shop. But then even after Nancy spent hours one afternoon tutoring me by the time I got home I had no clue how to get my picture into photo shop much less do anything with it. :( So for me right now Kodak is something I can work with and come away with all my screws intact and tight. :) I think it's way cool that when you want a B/W or sepia photo these days all you have to do is press a button. Remember when 35mm Black&White film was the only print film you could afford to buy?? Color film was so expensive the only time you used it was for weddings, christenings and 25th/50th wedding anniversary parties. Boy developing color film was also enough to force a family to eat beanie weenies for the rest of the week! :)

So what was the solution to the horrendously expensive color 35mm film?? Why slides of course. With slides you could have all the color pictures you could ever wish for. Because slides required special equipment (mechanical you know) to store them and show them the official family keeper of all things photo was the Dad. He had a special place in the hall closet where he had all the slides organized by year, event, and family vacations. Each slide sat in it's correct box in order, facing the right direction and of course right side up :)

As technology and our disposable income increased slide projectors became more hi tech. And then the screens gads they went from the white bedsheets taped to the wall to those cool portable folding roll down screens. Oh and then there was the invention of the amazing time saving slide carrousel's. No more taking a slide out of the box, holding it over the projector light to check for correct positioning, placing it into the little slide gizmo that pushed it into the projector.... "Well Holly Hell I'll be a God Da... Shhhh Papa the kids are listening, and the Reverend's hearing aids are turned up"....

Oh my gosh remember how your parents always invited all the neighbors and family over for a huge BBQ in the back yard so that they could show off the vacation pictures. Or when your grandparents came for a visit and the Christmas slides where hauled out, you know the ones where you are sitting on Santa's lap screaming bloody murder in total confusion because were you not told just this morning "Not to talk to Strangers"??

But nothing could compare nor prepare you for the most embarrassing night of your life... when the slides are dragged out with desert the night your first boyfriend comes for dinner!! :( OH MY GOD if I live through this night I'll have to run away with the circus or join a convent :)...

Jeez look at the time, I seem to really have wandered off track, or maybe I was just getting in a bit of practice for my golden years ;) It's rather sad how the advent of digital cameras were the nails that sealed the demise of all things slides. Then again I suppose it has also prevented all kinds of emotional scarring to any more generations.

In case you were wondering what's up with these ever so cool pictures that I have taken. Since I was a little girl I have always wanted a pair of point shoes. Oh not because I wanted to be a dancer, I just thought they would be so way cool to decorate my room with. Well I never managed to convince any one back then to give me a pair for Christmas. Then when Mette was little, her "I love all things ballet" phase was so short I still didn't get point shoes. A few months ago I was killing time with a walk through eBay. And guess what there was 3 pairs of well used pink point shoes listed. They looked like they had lead a long memory filled life. The opening bid was $1.99 and no one was bidding. Now how can that be, surely they deserve a bit of respect and care for all the support they provided!! SO I made that opening $1.99 bid, and 4 days later I was the new care taker of 3 pairs of well lived pink point shoes :)

One pair is now hanging on the wall in my Little Art Corner. I fill them with things I love, they make me smile when I look at them and they are great to practice my photography with and of course they do provide me with hours of play time with my Kodak Easyshare :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

The Garter

I'm sure I'm not the only one in Bloglandia that keeps a blog for more then one reason. I admit that when I decided to create a blog, the main reason was to connect with that small group of artists, junk-meisters, keepers of the flame of all things vintage. That merry band of folks that get it, who think it's quite normal to bend down pick up a rusty piece of ???, stick it in your pocket, and add it to your stash, just because it's cool, and it will look great... I also tend to use my blog to keep my family and friends who are miles and miles away up in the Northern Lands caught up with our "going ons". It works swell, When there is something I want them to see I can post a picture and like magic they can see it. This is perfect these days as Mette and Joe's wedding keeps hurdling forward. She calls and says "Mom can you....." or I call and say take a look at this and let me know. In case you didn't figure it out that's what I did with the dress I bought for the wedding :) So tonight's little show and tell project is the bride's garter.

Before we go any further I'm going to warn you that I'm more then a bit nervous about this. Like me, Mette has rather strong feelings about what she likes and doesn't. She is also 27 years old and 27 or so years younger then I am. I will confess that I have a fairly good idea of what she likes and doesn't. But where I'm the junk...treasure hunter in the family she is not. Soooooooooo here is the Bride's garter (how does that song go She's a little bit___ and She's (He's) a little bit rock and roll)

I started with 1&1/2 inch white silk ribbon sewn at both the top and bottom. I added 1/4 inch silk light blue ribbon a half inch from the top, which made the casing for the elastic. Then along the bottom I added a thin piece of vintage cotton embroidered edging.

There is a small fabric store that carries the beaded, silk, embroidered materials used for Quinceanera and wedding dresses. When they mark down their bolt ends I like to buy a quarter of a meter of different pieces. Then I can use the embroidered/beaded decorations as appliques in projects. That's what the center flower is. I cut 3 of the flowers out of the lace netting holding them Stacked then together and stitched a tiny pearl bead on the edge of each petal.

In the center of the flower I created a fabric wire wrapped bead. Mette had sent me a couple of small scraps of the fabrics being used in her gown. It's those scraps that are the fabric, I used sterling silver wire and small seed pearls to wrap with. In the center of the bead is a tiny blue glass heart.

On each end of the wrapped bead I attached cream colored freshwater pearls and small blue crystals.

At the bottom edge just under the flower I hung 2 links of seed pearls and blue crystals on one I attached a heart and key milagros On the other is a small pearl and gold pendent. This was my Christmas present from my Mother the year she died.

Around the sides and back I stitched embroidered flowers and leaves that were also part of the material that the flower was from.

When I finished, I had a bride's garter without frilly lace, bows or sequins. We, Mother and Daughter are in perfect agreement in our distaste of wearing those. I did manage to use something old , something new, something blue. All that is missing is something borrowed. The pearl is hers now and maybe there will be another young woman who will incorporate a final gift of love given by her great grandmother into her wedding :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

A Give Away & A Chair in Need of a Haircut ??

First let me tell you about a little give away. There is a remarkable young Bloglandian sister who lives in Puerta Vallarta (Mexico) which is about 7 hours from us on the coast of the state of Jalisco. Let me introduce you to Sara. She is a young Mexican single mom, who works full time to support herself and her daughter. Sara's mom also lives with them, so there is 3 generations of women caring, loving and supporting each other. Along with working full time Sara tries to feed her artistic soul with any free moments she can steal (sound familiar??) She also is working in her spare time (??) establishing her own translating / interpretation business.(Psst she speaks better English then I do). No small feat for any young woman up north. Here it's even harder. As I've mentioned a couple of times women here are a long way away from getting to the "glass ceiling" What that means for her is no bank is going to lend her start up money, nor is her employer going to cut her any slack in order for her to establish a foot hold. For every interpretation job she gets she has had to bust her bottom, without any referrals to get!! :)

Hmmmm you might ask just when does she have time to post on her blog Locuasia??? Well she squeezes a little time from here and there, but that's understandably sporadic. Be that as it may Sara is celebrating her 50th post with a bit of a give away!!!!!! I would like to invite you all to bop over to her blog (maybe when you finish reading mine??), leave her a huge atta boy, and sign up for her give away. When you get there take a look around her little corner of Bloglandia.

Okay now about the chair needing a hair cut. As any professional junker..er..treasure hunter knows, you never say no to an offer of free jun....treasures. A friend is having a new chair made for her living room and needed a home for the old wicker one she had. It would be the one pictured above. Of course I said yes even as I could feel LW eye roll behind me :) Gads that man has earned his wings and halo living with me!! The thing is the chair has been used a bit as a scratching toy for 3 siamese cats. There is a spot on one arm and on the top of the back that have been given a bit of "character". But it's just perfect for my girly girl room :)

That's little miss Rubi Ru checking out a bit of the wicker from the hair cut to the chair.

As you can see some places are rather narly

My plan is to give both places a nice close shearing and the use a bit of shoe dye to add back the color to the raw places. Then whip our my super secret, antiquing medium (Kiwi shoe wax) and buff a nice hand rubbed finish on it. I thought about painting it white but I really like the honey color of this wicker. I guess I I always paint it white if the shoe dye-shoe wax trick doesn't work. :)

Of course if all else really fails I can drape one of my Mum's hand made antique antimacassars on the back to cover it.

Huh have you been smelling home made Bolognese sauce while you have been here visiting??? Well your nose hasn't failed ya. Since it's still a bit cool, the clouds have the sun covered, and the humidity is still livable I threw together a big pot of sauce. LW will help me get it filled into dinner size portions that we'll freeze. Anything that keep us far away from the hot stove is a way good thing!!!

Yum a bit of pasta, fresh grated Romano and life is GOOD!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)