The old lady's cupboard

Essamplaire sale Nov 2 - 8   20% off all kits, books, charts, antiques.

http://www.theessamplaire.com/
There's a small scroll at the bottom of right hand column about it. 

 

Hello people.  All day yesterday I sat outside on my little stool and scrubbed an old cabinet inside and out.  I purchased it when we first moved here from a garage sale at the little farm house on the highway.  An elderly woman, short and round, was always outside tending to her front flower gardens.  Obviously painful for her to stoop and bend, but she used her cane and took her time.  I never had the opportunity to meet her, and when she passed the family immediately had a sale.  I entered the tiny house and made my way among the lookers, not for a sale, but wanting to see what surrounded her daily.  There was really no room to move around and after leaving the house I saw a few gentlemen sitting in the back garage.  I went to talk to them, asking for information about the woman who for some reason, I was sort of drawn to.  The woman lived alone and was not a very pleasant person from what they told.  (Maybe that's what drew me to her, crab to crab.)  I saw a cabinet on the wall and asked if it was for sale, they said no but for $10 I could have it.  What?  They removed it and Mark later went to pick it up.  It's been in my garage for 30 years, all the time wanting to clean it and use it inside.  Is it an antique?  I doubt it. 

But it has the flush doors that are mortise and tenon with a small beaded edge, and the flat panel is a 1/4" planed pine board, not plywood.  How do I know?  They weren't glued and the doors keep coming apart (rubber bands for now).  They must have used it to store oil cans and grease guns because it took forever with Lestoil and Simple Green to remove the layers. 

Now it's finally in the house and I'm staining a dark walnut after the scrubbing lightened the wood.  Quite large to hang at 36" wide x 43" tall.  Quarter sawn oak sides and shelves, very hard figured pine elsewhere.  Not a showpiece for sure, but I am still drawn to it as I was to the woman.  I purchased wrought iron handles and hinges but not sure if I will change anything yet.  I want to remove all furniture in my tiny parlor and have this on the wall or setting on a table, a farm table with chair in the center, and sampler walls.  I saw the Mary Goodburn sampler (All My Scattering Moments) and it got my attention so there is still hope.

My 20 times daily visitors are here now.  I didn't think they would eat grass seed but they were in the straw scratching away ever since we had it put down.  I guess I have to call the landscaper back.   Remember him?

Look both ways troop!  It's hunting season!  See that wide cleared area?  The gas company right of way which they cut down every fall, just in time for hunters to have a clear shot.  That's not why they do it, but it coincides with the season.

Have a good week!

Thanks for visiting.

 

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And the box will be mailed to...

Cynde Marschner.  Please email your address to me Cynde, you're no-reply and I can't contact you.  Thanks to everyone for playing along. 

 

I'm having a hard time once again with Sally.  The tree next to the house (identical on each side) was stitched by a lunatic crab and she messed up three times on rows that affect height.  Count em.  Three.  So it's higher than the other side's tree and I don't know if it will be noticeable since the house separating them is so large.  If it is, I will rip out the entire tree and start over but want to wait until I get further into the other motifs for an overall look.  Of all the reproductions, this one had to have matching sides.  If it isn't noticeable, I will leave it, but it certainly kicked sand into the crab's eyes. 

 

I'm taking a break for a day or two, maybe work on some labels, but I'm getting to a point where I don't even want to look at new charts.  Maybe things will change and a few Santas will draw me back in.  How can you not want to stitch a Santa?

 

Hope November starts off warm and sunny. 

And stays that way.

 

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Millions? WHAT?

Greetings folks.  I decided to check blog viewing numbers which I haven't done in a while, to see if they are declining.  Yes they are.  But I also happened to spot a number I never paid attention to.  Total pageviews.  Holy crap it's over 2 million. 2,008,983 to be exact.  I figure about 8,983 are my own views, looking up something I forgot, which I happened to do again today.  I should have kept a journal of giveaways because even though I definitely have a problem with memory and "placements", some of those items I'm searching for aren't even here.  And I don't remember giving them away.  Geez I had a lot of giveaways.  But I also saw posts that featured my purchases of new charts and wowewow I'm excited.  I saw several I didn't remember having and I like them.  See?  Still getting double bang for my buck.

 

So here's the deal.  Giveaway. HA!  Who knew? 

While checking my box inventory I came across one that either never sold, or I didn't offer because of a flaw.  Right now, I don't see anything wrong.  It's a small 5" square paper mache box with Mary Antrim's sampler.  Distressed and aged.  I lost almost all labels with the computer failure but would like to offer more boxes for the holidays.

 

Interested?   Leave your initials in the comments on this post, name to be drawn Sunday November 1 at 8 pm. It really really hurt my crooked fingers to type November.   Whoops.  Did it again.

 

And just in case you smell something while reading this, it's been a crockpot kielbasa kraut day and there is no candle that can rid the house of that.  It's like an entity. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it seeps through your keyboards. 

I'm having a little party tomorrow at 11pm for my final Golden Girls and Frazier until next year.  I wish Hallmark would keep the midnight shift out of the Christmas Countdown.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

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Give me an A!

Give me a B!  So much easier to alphabetize than motificate.  But I will start the other bottom side this evening anyway.

 

Your recent comments have been so uplifting and so sweet and I thank you for that.   I replied to Kimi that if crabs had lips, they would certainly be smiling.  And I am!  So maybe the claws are loosening a bit.  Here's something else that made me smile.

I found more elderberries in the freezer and couldn't resist.  Such a unique flavor and brings back memories of the "old days".  It's hard to even find elderberry jelly anymore.  I guess because of the tedious cleaning process of those tiny little balls. 

 

To us, well worth the effort.  I have enough for one more pie and hopefully we will find some bushes along the roads next summer.  This is not the hard blue berry that is found on some brush.  They are very dark and shiny clusters.  Used for centuries as a folk remedy (respiratory illness and wounds), the juice was used to treat a flu epidemic (Panama) in 1995.

When making the pie, I took out my Tupperware bins that hold sugar and flour and once again they are tacky.  Seems this happens after decades of use but they are still the best for storage.  Since they are old enough to not have a recycle code, I do not want them in the trash.  So I found a method that works for me to remove that stickiness on the exterior.  Last time I did this was almost 10 years ago so the remedy lasts for some time.  Baking soda loaded onto a rag for a good scrub.  Dawn will clean it before or after the soda scrub but never removes the tacky feel for any length of time.  I have used this simple and inexpensive powder to remove the brown buildup on glass casserole dishes and also shine the crap out of chrome appliances.  My friend was downsizing and throwing away all her Pyrex because of that baked on brown, and I used a toothbrush, scrubby, and knife tip for seams, today they are like brand new.  Thank you Arm&Hammer.  Then I got the bug to clean the stainless pot/pan bottoms with Bar Keeper's Friend, and on to the flatware I went.  My arthritis needed Advil but everything shines.

 

I think I'll be able to handle a needle tonight while watching Jurassic World.  And finishing off the pie.  Usually I'm not careful and munch while stitching, but I won't take a chance with those dark berries.  Maybe I should kill off the pie now, just to get it out of the way.  Ya think?

 

Have a good one!

Thanks for visiting.

 

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The vine the stem the pen the putz

How was your weekend?  Gone in a flash?  It will be Christmas before we know it. 

I stitched the vine's flowers around the house and used eyelet in the center instead of Rococo which I think is the same as Queen.  The vine is stem stitch which is very easy to do, even though I forgot and had to look up the video again. 

Since I don't want to keep checking placement on the graph, I outlined it with Frixion.  The pen doesn't take to coarse linen very well but I have a light outline to follow and also marked the flowers' stems which I know I would forget to do.  This will go really fast and then after pressing, Frixion will disappear.  Even if it didn't, I would outline anyway and have the stitches cover it.  Do you?  Or is this another no-no to add to my long list of stitching indiscretions?

Originally I was planning to leave the vine out completely, just because

1. I'm so anxious to get this over with

2.  I'm lazy

3.  I do what I want, even on reproductions

4.  I'm a putz.

Faye is the Carolina Stitcher, I am the Pennsylvania Putz.

At this point, do whatever the hell I have to in order to finish this wonderful sampler.  On all points, I'm approaching 65, stuck in two decades of menopause, crabby, a reckless stitcher, and do whatever the hell I want anyway. 

I guess that crustacean still has its claws in me.  And I'm allergic to shellfish.

 

Hope your week, this final week of October, starts well and ends even better.

 

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A new word .. motificating

Hi hi hi.  Crabass here. If all the things going wrong would have happened in the summer, would I be as crabby?  We'll never know, because it's Fall, going into November, starting Hallmark's 24/7 movies over and over and over (no GG and Frazier!), I need to force myself to stitch, do not want to be online, and everything seems to be changing.  Except the crabass part.  I don't know if too many nuisances at this time of the year are the culprit or if my menomoods are marching to a different tune.  Whatever.

 

 I completed the motifs on one side except for the vine encircling the house and will move to the other side.  I greatly enlarged the motifs on the copier and colored the symbols which helped a lot.  Really.  I think struggling to discern the - v / ø was making it frustrating and the chart was small enough that coloring did not make a difference.  The blown up motif, first at 150% and then that copy at another 150%, was so much better and without doing that I doubt I would have continued working on it.  The house is still in tent stitch and needs to be crossed.  Damn.

 The good news - I have this handsome fellow on my mind for a sack (Kathy Barrick).   That gives me hope.  I see him with the birds and a few motifs, not all.  Maybe I really do have a problem with motifs.  Or maybe just a thing for sacks. 

 

I also want to do Plum Street's Merry One.  Haven't ordered anything yet because I went to one online shop to order them along with a few pieces of linen, and they didn't have Kathy's.  In true crabass style, I slammed the laptop shut and walked away.  I'll try again in a few days.

 

Pat received the October ornament and sent photos of it hanging on her door along with her outside decorations.  Look at her fabulous old cart.

 

Well that did it.  I tagged the photo "pat" and when I searched to import it, the photos of my friend Patti came with it.  It will be a weepy Saturday.  I think those days are good for the soul though. 

 

Hope you have a fabulous weekend. 

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

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