Walk In Closet!!

Carl came home after several days at the cabin and brought along some pictures of the progress that he has made. He had replaced some old paneling with pine car siding when we bought the cabin in '07. Most of the rooms he did are being redone and he carefully pulled off all the wood he had previously done and refitted it for the new spaces. Not only did he save us tons of money, it was a very green thing to do. This is a picture he took of the big closet off the main hallway. Doesn't the wood look great?!! He has some new wood coming on Wednesday, and he will continue to put up all the ceilings and walls. He still seems to be smiling and enjoying the challenges. As far as my part...I have been looking at fabric for window curtains and shower curtains. I have several ideas, but I need some good measurements of windows before I purchase. With all the wood, I think I need plenty of color at the windows. This might be a summer-long project to get all the windows done. Jerilynn P.S. It has been suggested that it should no longer be called a cabin....I supposed Lake House would work. I will miss the cabin. I will love the Lake House.

WIP

Do you have many WIP (Works in Progress)? No, me neither. The necklace is done, but I find it a touch on the boring side. I pulled out some antique brass components and I think by taking the necklace apart and throwing in some of those metal touches, the necklace would be much more interesting. I wanted to do that tonight, but my eyes keep drifting shut! I did some more organizing today and bought a new cell phone that I am learning to use. All that excitement made me a bit tired. Carl is up at the cabin and has reported that the three new guest bedrooms have pine car siding ceilings done! Yea! Tomorrow is more ceilings, some electrical work, and whatever else he can find to do. I take my sister back to the airport tomorrow, too. Just as she leaves, the spring finally decides to pay a visit! The Bead Monkey, a great bead shop on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, MN, is very close to the airport. I will try not to make a stop there, but I just may need a little break to stretch my legs before I head back home after dropping my sister off. Jerilynn

It is 10:30....Do You Know Where Your Findings Are?

Don't you just love, love, love getting organized? My beading findings supplies have been driving me a bit crazy for a while. I had most things in the same place, but there was just enough that wasn't. Plus, with the summer fast approaching (at least the calendar says so...more snow flakes today!) , I needed to start thinking of how I was going to haul up the beading supplies to the cabin. Last year I threw everything in big cardboard boxes and it just wasn't too cool. Michael's had some plastic handled cases that are supposed to hold photos. Each box contained 12 smaller boxes. Perfect for gathering all the findings and putting them all in an easy-to-haul-around case. I made little labels for each small case. How fun was that? Once I was done I decided to finish a few necklaces that needed the final touches. One, above, has five glass tiles, with beads on each side. Not colors I am normally drawn to, but I think it may look good with a tomato red top and jeans. I will let you know. Jerilynn

Really? You Don't Have Any Coasters?

Sooo, I was informed that youngest son and wife do not have any coasters to match their new living room. Actually, I was informed, they don't have ANY of my wool felt coasters. Really? How did that happen? I thought the whole world had an over abundance of those coasters. And to find out that there is a couple of kids just hoping to get some...well, music to my ears! I think what I am going to do is make a few "samples" to show them. I will let them pick out the design and the colors. The first one I made is one with their last initial and their first two initials. A bit traditional, perhaps, but it might be something they like! The coasters that don't make the cut can be put in a drawer as extras. No coasters! Really? Jerilynn

It's Curtains for You!

Kitchen curtains finally got done today for Peter and Katie's new kitchen. The fabric is a dark brown shiny fabric with brown, tan and blue dots. The fabric did some funky things in this picture - in person the curtains look pretty good! I still need to get their bedroom curtains done, then some for Katie's sister, then on to the ones for the new cabin addition. The electric stuff is pretty much done - plumber comes tomorrow to finish up. Carl is starting the pine car siding by the end of the week. We are still hoping that Memorial Day will be the first "shake down" of the new rooms. So far lots of the kids are speaking up for reservations. We should have room for them all! It may not be completely finished, but it will be ready enough to keep everyone sheltered. I hope the studio gets finished soon so I can set up curtain making headquarters up there. Certainly there will be enough room to do a few window panels! Jerilynn

Thumb on a Chain

Instead of showing you more tile necklaces that we made tonight, I thought you would get a giggle out of the shot of my daughter-in-laws thumb. When gluing on the bail to the back of the tile with super glue, she glued it, quite securely, to her thumb. After some soaking in hot water, and a little pull, it came off, skin included. I gave her the gel super glue to work with instead - not quite so runny and dangerous. She did get all her bails on and went home with some fun stuff. Maybe the method of putting the bail on with the glaze adhesive when the back is sealed is not such a bad idea. I also have a bunch of super glue all over my fingers - just not with anything attached! Friend Wynne also came over to do some tiles and she is hooked, too. (Not to a bail, though). Another fun day. Jerilynn

The Red Chair

This isn't a photo of The Red Chair, but this image that my sister found is quite the flavor of it. It is a little image, 1" x 1". I liked it, but that size of tile necklace is pretty small and I have been liking a bit of a bigger look. Just as I was pondering what to do with it, my sister found a square tile with grooved edges that somehow got sent with the plain tiles. It was the exact size of the image, so I did the regular gluing job. But, instead of a bail, I used 16 gauge dead soft sterling silver wire to wrap around the tile's edges and form a self bail. It is still a smaller image, but the silver swirl and bail dresses it up quite a bit. I had ordered some rectangle tiles with grooved edges, but hadn't used one, yet. Now that I have this one done, I am interested in making more tile necklaces combining the glass and the wire. I hope you had a good Easter. Ours was quiet and I completely avoided any chocolate. Really. Jerilynn

Kitchen Glass Tiles

My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and his son came to visit for the weekend, and, of course, we (my sister who is still here from AZ) had to show our sister-in-law how to make glass tiles. Well, she loved it, made a few necklace tiles right away and then had a GREAT idea! They are undergoing a kitchen reno, and their back splash is small grey, silver and black glass tiles. She was thinking they were looking a bit dull and had the idea to insert, here and there, some red glass tiles with images! So, for the past few hours she and my sister have been looking through the stacks and stacks of images to find some with red. She will need to audition them when they get home but she will have enough to play with. We figure she doesn't have to seal the back because they will be cemented to the wall and grouted in with the other tiles. She promises to send a picture of the finished project and I promise to share it with you when she does! Jerilynn P.S. I happened upon the PERFECT image of a red chair, glued it to a tile, and then...horrors! I found out I glued to the WRONG side of the glass tile. Bummer.

When Do You Come Up With Your Best Ideas?

Have you ever come up with really good ideas in your sleep? Or when you are relaxing in the bath? Those are my two highest good-idea-getting-times. I read somewhere once that your mind continues to subconsciously work on solutions to problems and you don't even know about it until the problem is solved and sent over to your conscious mind. It's like having a whole army of creative people scurrying around in your brain to help you out. I am sure you have tried to think of a name or place and have given up, only to blurt it out of nowhere hours or days later. Your subconscious mind kept trying to help you out. Two times this week I have come up with good ideas in my sleep. The first idea was a landscaping rock idea for the cabin. The second idea is what you see in the picture. As you may know, I have a few (thousand) glass tiles. I have, up to this point, kept them in a cute glass bowl on my dresser. Well, the bowl overfloweth, and the tiles are hard to see in a jumble. I tried to figure out a way to keep them organized, but also cute! Isn't that the whole point of all of this silliness? Last night I could not come up with any idea. But, when I opened my eyes this morning, I had the solution! I bought this wire tree last Christmas from St. Croix County Yard Goods in Husdon, WI. I thought it would be a good display for jewelry at a craft show - if I ever do one!! It was stored in the storage room, waiting for a job. So, I dashed downstairs, loaded it up with tiles, and I love it!! I can see all the designs and figure out what I want to wear. I will have to take some tiles off a branch to get a back tile, but that isn't as bad as dumping out a whole bowl of tiles to find one. Not too keen on the green, but maybe sometime I will paint it black. So, what is the next challenge? Creative mirror ideas for the studio? I'll sleep on it. Jerilynn

Yep, Another Project on My Want-to-do List

I saw this quilt-along at 13 Woodhouse Road. It calls for 30 fat quarters of solid colors and said that The Fat Quarter Shop had a bundle of Moda Bella Solids. Plus, if you use their special code, they were 20% off! PLUS, my sister gave me a Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate for my birthday and I hadn't spent it yet!!! Perfect. The quilt-a-long starts in May. I am sure by then I will be all caught up with projects.... Fun day. My sister and I made a bunch of glass tiles with some ladies from my Bernina V6 software class. I didn't think of taking a picture of all the tiles we made until they were all turned over to get the back sealed with glue. Duh. Too late to turn them over now!! You will have to take my word that some great creating took place. We are going to get together again in May so I will try to remember to take some shots before the back gluing. Jerilynn

Loving These Beads

I think the multi colored beads are from Africa...they are different colors and different sizes. A good mix. I added them here and there with cream, red and black seed beads. I think the overall look is Native American, African, Gees Bend Quilt, or graphic ladybugs. Nice "everyday" necklaces. They are the perfect thing to make when you are brain dead and just want to watch HGTV and wonder how people can call 1.5 million dollar homes "fixer-uppers". What??? How can that be? Jerilynn

Stringing You Along

I had some errands in Eau Claire, WI, to do today, so I thought I would visit the Coldwater Creek store to see what was new and fun. I didn't see any clothes that caught my eye. Maybe because the store was full of warm weather items and it was snowing outside!! Anyway, some of the jewelry they had was very pretty. It seemed as if seed bead necklaces are popular again! They had a buy two, get one free deal going on, but even at that price, they were over $20 each. Yikes. I talked a bit ago about seeing blue all over, and I am still noticing that. So, when I came home, I decided to make a few seed bead necklaces using some blue beads. I can wear them twisted, singly, or in any combination. I put an oval ring on them so that a glass tile bail can slip on the necklaces, too. Seed beads aren't the most fun things to string, but I didn't have much energy tonight for anything except sitting in The Red Chair and watching some television. I was pretty excited, though, to open the blog tonight and see I was over 10,000. Carl reads my blog everyday so maybe he checked in 50+ times just to see me smile. What a guy. Jerilynn

Ice is Gone!!

Addition on the cabin is coming along quite nicely. We took a drive up there today to avoid the WINTER STORM WARNING for tomorrow. Today's shot shows "grass" rather than tomorrow's white stuff. It is looking really good. This will be a busy week, but I guess all weeks from now on will show good progress. I hope to make good progress here at home this week. I am very behind on projects and need to move from The Red Chair and just get busy. So far nothing is on the calendar for tomorrow...I know, a dangerous thing to say. Thanks for stopping by. I am almost at 10,000 visits. That makes me really happy!! Jerilynn

Looking for Summer

Really getting into the summer frame of mind around here. The weather, however, is not. What is going on??? I even heard we were going to get 2" of snow on Tuesday or Wednesday. So, I guess I will just have to have "summertime" in my mind. Thus the dangling tile I made. I just may wear it this week everyday! Also summer related, cabin furniture. I talked a while back about the demise of Maine Cottage Furniture and how sad I was. Well, I did some googling today and read the following news:

"Maine Cottage Furniture's entire line of products could be available again in three months. The company's brand name, customer list and furniture designs were sold this week to Russell & Mackenna, a Maryland-based furniture company. Larry Strassner, president and CEO of Russell & Mackenna, said he expects to start taking online orders for Maine Cottage products within the next couple of days and delivering painted furniture in about two months. Other products, including upholstered and wicker furniture, take about a month longer to make. In 10 to 12 weeks, he said, "Maine Cottage will be fully back in business." Around that time, the company may start selling Maine Cottage products through other stores, he said. Maine Cottage Furniture, which opened in 1988, went out of business earlier this year and closed its stores in Yarmouth, Charleston, S.C., and West Palm Beach, Fla. KeyBank, which had a lien on the company, took ownership of its intellectual property, which it sold to Russell & Mackenna, and assets, which it sold this week to Marden's Surplus and Salvage, a Maine-based discount chain. Strassner said Tuesday that he plans to spend time today with David Peterson, the former president of Maine Cottage Furniture, to learn about the company's "inner workings." "It's been a friendly acquisition," he said. There are no plans to reopen Maine Cottage's retail locations, Strassner said, but he might open stores in the future. The first one could be in Annapolis, Md., near his company's flagship store. Russell & Mackenna opened six years ago. It sells its cottage-style furniture to 33 dealers along the East Coast, from Bar Harbor to Miami, Strassner said. The company has nine employees and plans to add a few because of the acquisition. Strassner said he's considering hiring former Maine Cottage employees. "We had a lot of respect for the brand. They have really appealing products," Strassner said. The Maine Cottage brand is more recognizable than Russell & Mackenna, said Strassner. The purchase, he said, "gives us a chance to accelerate our growth."

Isn't that great news? I love Russell & Mackenna's furniture and colors and NOW that will have the Maine Cottage Furniture look ,too! I will keep an eye on this breaking story and report to you now and then.

On another note, I received two of the patterns that will be introduced at Spring Market and they look great! I am sure the third pattern will be coming shortly. I guess I better start thinking of some new ideas. Fall market will be here before I know it and I don't want to have to scramble. Of course not. Jerilynn

Wind Beneath Our Wings

What fun day! Ellen and Mike and Kali were in town again. A fine start at the Chippewa Family Restaurant with pancakes galore! We then made lots of tiles with Sister Sandy, the creative image wind beneath our wings. Peter and Katie and Ben joined us for dinner and everything tasted pretty darn tasty. A game of cards, apple pie, lots of laughing at Benjamin's antics. Tummies full of good drinks and comfort food, a happy day. Jerilynn P.S. Notice the darker tile where the bird is looking longingly at the fish and visa versa. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but tonight I think the grass is pretty green right here in The Red Chair.

Hancock's of Paducah Purchase

I bought just a few things during my stop of Hancock's of Paducah. They have a back room in the warehouse where they keep the jelly rolls and fat quarters and other collections. It is a bit overwhelming and very easy to just throw in this and throw in that. Before you know it, you have a hefty bill! The above fabrics, however, are what I finally took out of that room. I see solids in quilts all over the place and love the modern, clean look. One of the little pack of squares I gave to Ellen (she is starting her stash building!), and the other two things are for me. Again, I don't need more fabric, but I thought it was a good idea to have a bunch of solids. In the next few days I will show you what else I bought. Don't you think, though, that it is time that I start showing you some finished projects???? Jerilynn

Hallo, Rote Stuhl!

We are back home! Yea! Once again this blog is coming to you from the comforts of The Red Chair. A while back I showed you my Scrabble Tile message system, and my sister was all prepared to put "Hallo, Rote Stuhl" to greet me. We foiled her plan, however, by showing up a bit too early. I studied to be a German teacher, so the translation of the message would be "Hello, Red Chair"! Perfect. Also here to greet me was my package of fabric that I ordered from Marmalade Fabrics to make the table topper that is from a stitchindye.blogspot.com tutorial. This is the same person that created the color wheel potholder pattern that a made a few months ago. I love her style and her book, fresh*quilting. Her patterns and quilts are colorful, fun, and full of life! I would suggest you add her blog to your list - always something interesting going on over there. Now that I have my patterns all written and the samples all done, I can start on my want-to-do list. This table topper looks quick and fresh. Tonight, however, I am enjoying being back at home, in The Red Chair, catching up on emails and mail. Jerilynn

Altered Big Bottom Bonnie Bag

I don't think I showed you the insert bag I made for the last clothesline bag I made. I took my Bonnie Bag pattern and customized it to fit neatly inside the tote to keep all the messy stuff and "valuable" stuff inside. It works pretty good for that very job. This is our last day on the road home from the beach. Our stop for the night just happens to be very near Hancock's of Paducah. For you sewers out there, you know that this isn't your chain store Hancock's. Nope, it is a HUGE building full of quilting cottons, books, patterns, notions, and tons of decorator fabrics. I decline to tell you how much I spent, but the resolve not to buy any more fabric went away as soon as I walked through the door. In saw lots of fabric that would make great cabin curtains, but I want to wait just a bit. I have some curtains to make for a couple of other people first. Home tomorrow...Carl then starts the interior work. Fun days ahead! Jerilynn

Another free form wire necklace made at the beach

-Here is another aluminum wire base necklace. The flowers are beads drilled on one end, wire run through, and gathered into a flower shape. Add a few wire swirls, some colored wire wrapping, a couple of leather straps...done! Before you add all the embellishments, though, you have to pound on the wire base with a hammer to flatten it bit and harden it. Only hit my fingers twice. Jerilynn. P.S. We are on our way back to WI starting tomorrow, so there may be a couple of days of blobby silence. Or, I may be so bored on the 24 hours of road time that I chat a lot!

Story about the test picture

So, you have already seen this picture, on the test blog post, and maybe on my Facebook page. Well, this the official blog post about this necklace. As I said previously, I took a class from Bobbi at Buttons, bangles, and Beads in St. Pete Beach. She is a fabulous wire artist, and I was fortunate enough to be here while she was teaching this free form wire necklace/flower class. I learned how to make flowers out of top drilled beads. Then she taught us free form wire work, making a base out of aluminum to wire the flowers to. The wire forming, once it is started, needs to be a continuous bend of swirls from one side to the other. It reminded my so much of continuous machine quilting...a solid flow of stitches from one area to another. Loved it!!! I also loved the colors of wire available in aluminum...less expensive than doing wire work in silver or gold, and much more fun. This piece is big and showy, but I think you could do a quieter one that would be very wearable. I went back to the bead shop today and got more wire. Isn't it fun how one craft just leads into another? Jerilynn


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Yea! I think this might work!

Test picture!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We are experiencing technical difficulties!

Well, the good news is that the beach is beautiful, the weather sunny and warm. The bad news is that I can't get a picture to load to this blog. I made a great free form wire necklace today at Buttons, Bangles and Beads in St. Pete Beach. The teacher was Bobbi, who is a fabulously talented wire artist. You can find some of her stuff at Mywiredimagination.com. If I can get a picture to work I will show you my necklace right away. If I can't figure this out, I will have to wait until I get back home. I miss our daily chats, but it won't be too long! Jerilynn

cabin curtains

Hello! I thought I would show you possible curtain fabric choices for the three guest bedrooms at the cabin. I thought this fabric would be colorful enough to brighten up the rooms, but not fight with scrap quilts I would use. Each room could have a color. What do you think? We just got to the beach a couple of hours ago and the condo we rented through VRBO is very nice. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have a new picture to show you - not one I took before leaving home! Jerilynn

Hello from Florida!

QWe are here safely, and I am loving all the green! Tired, but I do have one more Wisconsin Cottage Furniture to show you. Another Carl-made creation. I will take a beach picture for you tomorrow! Jerilynn

More Cottage Furniture and....We're Outta Here!

I decided to continue to show you some of Carl's furniture...this headboard is in the lower level bedroom. The colors are a bit off, but you can tell how cute it is. We are going to Florida for a few days to help an older relative, and spend a few warm days at St. Pete Beach. My sister will be here to help with my parents and to keep an eye on things around here. I hope to continue to send some blogs your way, but I am not sure how much "creative" time I will get. I will keep you posted, though, on anything exciting! Jerilynn

More Cottage Furniture

My sister is here from Arizona to visit us for a month...and look what she brought along in her suitcase! Isn't it cute! I thought it fit right in with the Wisconsin Cottage Furniture blog from yesterday. I think this is going to look great at the cabin. It folds up and makes a little carrying handle. Very clever. We might use it on the patio or as a bedside table or end table. I thought it was pretty wonderful that it fit in her suitcase and made it here with nary a scratch! Thanks, Sandy! Jerilynn

Wisconsin Cottage Furniture

I mentioned to Carl a couple of days ago that we were going to need some nightstands for the new cabin bedrooms. He can't start doing his part of the addition, the interior work, for a few more weeks. I suggested that he could do that building now, because once the interior work starts, he will be busy for a couple of months. Blink, blink. Eight nightstands done (one was still on the workbench when I took this picture). I will put a primer coat on them and then a couple of coats of some fun colors. Not sure what colors I want yet, but be assured that a few of them, at least, will be red. I think it depends on what fun curtain fabric I can find for each room. Carl has made several items of "cottage furniture" for us and family and friends over the years. Some designs have been quirky, some traditional, some almost mission style. All are solid and well-made. I got the idea a few years ago for Carl to build some things for us after seeing a fabulous catalog, Maine Cottage Furniture. I would order their catalog every year and pour over every picture. Their items were so colorful and whimsical; their fabrics were fun and bold. All were very, very expensive. I would point out various pieces of furniture to Carl, show him the price, and he would laugh. All eight nightstands totalled $160, and that included a new saw blade for his circular saw. Add primer and paint, and we could be up to $25 each. Maine Cottage Furniture had a blog that I had on my favorites list, and I would check it every few days or so for some good ideas. I had noticed the past few weeks that no new updates were happening. I did a little google sleuthing and found out the company abruptly went out of business at the end of March. No warning to their employees or to customers who had paid in full for the very expensive furniture that would never be delivered. I am so sad for all of these people, and sad for me. No more looking at their great designs and talking Carl into making it for a fraction of the cost. Their blog is still up, and you can read their old posts here. A similar company, Russell & Mackenna has some pretty fun painted furniture, too, so I can still dream about their stuff and get some good ideas. Maybe some day a slick catalog and colorful, idea-filled blog will be called "Wisconsin Cottage Furniture". Made by Carl. Jerilynn

No Electricity was Used for this Blog Post

Finished the rest of the glass tiles pendants I made yesterday. I scraped off the extra glue and put on the bails. Yes, I still have only one neck, but it sure is fun having lots of choices to decorate that neck. I was going to sew today, but our electricity was out this afternoon - don't know why, but it was. By the time it came back on, The Red Chair was very comfortable, then the three season porch was all warm and sunny, then Carl made us both a cocktail, then disc 5 of Glee Season 1 got put in the DVD player, then it was time to update the blog and I didn't have anything to show. But, earlier, while the electricity was off, I managed to finish up the tiles. Aah! A blog post! Jerilynn

Our Old Cabin, No Fooling

Ha! I fooled a couple of people on April 1, did you? Mother nature played a trick on us here in Northern WI, also. Enough snow already. We want it to get Spring, so that Summer can happen, and we can go to our cabin! The picture is of a glass tile I made today. A friend came over to learn how to make these and, of course, loved it. Easy and quick and not too serious. The above image is a posterized image of how our cabin used to look - pretty cute and very cozy. There is a part of me that is going to miss the old place very much. I took a picture of the cabin a couple of summers ago and used Photoshop to posterize it. I have the resulting print framed, and it looks like a colored pencil drawing. I think I may have shown you this in an older blog. My sister took the picture of the print and shrunk it down to glass tile size. I am so glad she did - I now have a little tile picture of the cabin that I can enjoy wearing. It will help to remind me of all the fun times that we have had at the lake. Jerilynn