Log Cabins

For a very long time my favorite style house was the saltbox. I think it is in my genes to love that style house. My ancestors were some of the first to settle in this country and several of them built saltbox homes that are now either museums or historic homes. I just love the plain, simple look. Lately my taste has shifted to the more primitive rough-cut log cabin. Wouldn't a hearth like this one be the greatest thing ever? Salt glazed pottery on the mantle, a beaver pelt drying on a willow frame by the hearth, maple syrup boiling down in a kettle over the fire and whitewashed walls. I must admit that I don't want to skin the beaver and tan the hide, nor do I want to make every family meal over an open hearth fire, or many other things that the early settlers did, however this look is perfect. Outside view of this log cabin. It is a new cabin, built at Historic Sauder Village, representing the French fur trader that might have established an outpost in this area to trade with the Native Americans. Love the windows! The inside includes the above hearth in one large open room. At the end opposite the hearth is the "store", a mini general store where the bartering and trading went on.

End view of the Trader's cabin...

Another favorite of mine, a two story log cabin that houses the broom makers at Sauder Village. My family might fit better into this cabin!

While I still like the salt box and sure wouldn't turn one down, I think the prim cabin is now my favorite dream house. ~Ann

Recycled Wool Sweater Project

Have you been to garage sales yet this year? I stopped at one that had a free box and in it was this 100% wool sweater. I looked at it, proceeded to look at everything else she had for sale and just couldn't leave with out it. First photo is after felting in the washer and dryer. I knew I wanted to try my hand at making a purse out of it. The raglan sleeves did have me a little stumped as to how to proceed. Cut apart...

Finished purse! I used a sleeve for the handles. The stitching is not blanket stitch, but just a simple over the top stitch. I had the 5 buttons in my stash and lined it with osnaburg that I had on hand. The yarn was another garage sale purchase - a wallet breaking 25 cents! I couldn't believe that the yarn was a perfect color match to the stripes in the sweater.

Hope this spurs your creative juices the next time you see a 100% wool sweater, take it home and see what you can come up with. ~Ann

Working and Weaving

I can't believe that the whole month of May went by without me commenting on my blog or reading any of your blogs! May brought with it the season opening of Historic Sauder Village, where I work as a costumed interpreter in the basket shop. Since our school doesn't get out until the end of May I was working 6 days a week - 5 in school and one on the weekend at Sauder Village. Whew! I'm glad that school is out. I might have been around had I not had numerous baseball games and track meets to attend. Our DD runs track and both boys play baseball plus our oldest DS played on a basketball league on Saturday mornings until Memorial Day weekend. It is all worth every moment that I spend sitting watching them develop their athletic abilities, but something had to go in my life and unfortunately it was my blogging activities. BUT I'm back, school is over and summer break started yesterday. YEAH! I love summer.

I did manage to find enough time to make the baskets in this picture. Our sales in the Basket Shop are wonderful. I was a little fearful with the economy the way it has been, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of baskets that we've sold.
I have developed a medical condition, it's called "Seasonal Carpal Tunnel". I'm sure that some of you have suffered from this condition as well. It's caused by repetitive spraying of stain remover on baseball pants that have red clay and grass ground in all over. My sister did get a kick out of my self diagnosis, I told her just wait a few years as her son is only 4 but will be on the ball fields soon enough.

For posterity purposes I must publish these next 2 photos on my blog. Our oldest son LOVES baseball and will play any position with eagerness, except catcher. His current team is lacking in the catching department and his Coach (affectionately known as Dad) forced him into playing the position. In his 7 years of playing ball he has never before been the catcher, as a proud mother I must say "Good job behind the plate Chewy".

Can't wait to catch up on all your blogs and see the wonderful projects that I know you've all been working on. ~Ann

UnPrim Project!

Robby from Cash Strapped Crafting had a link to this project on her blog a while ago. It's a cork board message board. I took a couple of different pictures so you can see the colors better. I didn't follow the directions exactly (I have a problem that way!). I did use Heat and Bond to attach the background fabric - a very dark brown. The directions say to sew all the other pieces together. I thought I could do it easier with my glue gun. YES! It worked. This will now live in my DD's room. You can see the blue paint on her walls, as with all pictures, this blue is much brighter than it is in real life. This past summer she wanted to do away with the "little girl" feel to her room, at age 14 she decided that pink was not her! She did a great job, took down all the wallpaper and got the walls ready to paint. I was VERY hesitant about painting her walls blue, as much as I love the color blue, I've never seen a blue wall that I liked. We spent a while in the paint section at Menard's and this is the color we came home with. DD and DH painted her room one Sunday afternoon while I was at work, what a beautiful surprise to come home to! I told her that her dad and I would now be moving into that room!

Her bedding is dark brown, if you shop at Kohl's or look at their flyers, you've seen the bedding I'm talking about. The bed skirt is a blue with a brown stripe on it, the quilt is the dark brown and the sheets are a combination. Not at all prim, just her taste! One last photo with a close up of the pocket fabric. On the accent ribbon, I poked blue brads from the scrap booking stash through the middle of the ribbon. Both DD and I thought that jazzed it up quite nicely.

I know that any of you can turn something like this into a prim project for a prim area in your home, it was SUPER easy, fun and done in a flash. ~Ann

Basket Shop

I thought I'd share photos with all of you of the Basket Shop at Historic Sauder Village. Looks exciting from the outside? Once the flowers are planted a little latter in the spring and I hang baskets from the porch rafters it will look a little more welcoming! Once you step inside, it's a different story! Thanks to my fellow weavers, Anita, Barb, Cinda, Dinah, Joan, Marcia and Sara the shop looked great for opening day yesterday. This week at Sauder Village is Quilt Fair, where our quilt shop hosts classes and events in conjunction with a large display of quilts made by people from all over the country. The display is in our large multi-purpose Founder's Hall. It's always amazing and breathtaking to see the quilts. I always think of the hours and hours it took to create all these lovely masterpieces.

Every day (except Mondays - we are closed) the Basket shop is staffed by one of the weavers mentioned above (or me!) to share our knowledge of basket weaving with our guests who come to hear the story of life in NW Ohio from the late 1700's to 1910. I enjoy everyday that I work, I've met so many interesting people, both guests and fellow employees.

I'm still having Internet problems, the reason I haven't posted in a week. Hopefully everything has resolved itself. Not having the Internet is horrible! Have a great week. ~Ann

Baskets & Robots

I had a pile of baskets that needed to be stained and this past Saturday was beautiful! (I even got a sunburn on the back of my neck) I sat on the deck, finished up a couple of baskets and then stained several with boiled walnut stain. I use this stain on baskets that don't have color in them, more antique looking, prim baskets. All of the baskets that have colored rows in them are stained with my "secret" recipe stain, I mix a couple of different Minwax stains together to create a custom color.

My favorite one of the whole bunch is this 10" egg basket. This is stained with walnut dye. I love how the reed takes the dye differently, some areas are darker than others. Very Prim.
Our youngest had to make a Rummage Robot over the weekend. The halls at school are now over run with all sorts of robots. All the items used in the robot had to be recyclable materials. This back view shows the jet packs(Saline solution bottles) that Daniel had to include, all robots need jet packs!

Front view of "Flash", AA Batteries for his antennae, 9 volt for his ears and pop tabs for his teeth. We found a round plastic plate that we glued to his stomach and Daniel filled it with items that can be recycled; bits of newspaper, batteries, plastic. Not a prim project, but a fun one never the less.

Hope you are all having a good week. ~Ann

My "New" Dry Sink

This is my newest treasure! I actually bought it a year ago and moved it into the house in October '08. I am totally in love with this piece. The first several pictures are the before - Unfortunately this end was beyond repair and DH had to replace it completely. We have no idea why the holes were in the end.

Loved the warm red paint on the inside of the sink. The base of the sink part was also beyond saving, we had to replace that as well as the top part above the drawer.

This shot is pretty good to show you how dilapidated it really was. It leaned one way and was over an inch shorter on one end than the other. Do you see the patch on the far left side? It serves NO purpose, just a strip of wood nailed on with over a dozen nails. This makedo patch is my favorite part of the whole thing.

DH said the whole thing was a "pincushion" for nails, they were pounded in all over with no purpose. DH took the entire thing apart, we sanded what we could salvage and then coated it with a wood hardener.

I found this at a garage sale, debated, went on with my errands, stopped back and it was still there. Since it was in such bad shape, I called DH to see if he was up for a re-do, "go ahead and buy it" was the response. I still didn't buy it, but went home and picked him up to go back. I'm really surprised that we came home with it...when he saw it he told me he didn't realize it was THAT BAD!

I wanted to keep the mouse holes in the doors. You can see on the right door where we had to replace the frame, I need to figure out how to darken this up to make it match the rest of the front. I did replace the drawer pull, I didn't like the porcelain one that was on it when we bought it. It now has a wooden knob.

I covered the new end with a feed sack. Found this one at the Elkhorn Wisconsin Flea Market - if you've never been there and live anywhere near you need to go. The feed sack advertises a Wisconsin company (my sister lives in WI) and the feed sack was made in Toledo Ohio (I live in OH, an hour from Toledo). My ideas for decorating this were immediately squashed! Frito the cat decided that it was a perfect height to look out the front windows and spends almost every afternoon sunbathing in it. The kids make sure he's comfy - it always has at least one fleece throw in it for his comfort. Spoiled rotten cat!

Hope you enjoyed my re-do. ~Ann