Silpat

Forgot to tell you about the Silpat on which I baked the biscotti logs. (See January 5 post)

Last summer, at one of the garage sales was a box of free stuff, at the bottom of the driveway. I usually do not pay attention to those 'free boxes' but this one caught my attention. Half way out of the box was this Silpat. As the lady saw me inspecting it, she said: "take it, its free, AND there is nothing wrong with it. I just don't like how it feels" Woohoo for me!
I brought it home, washed it and now I'm using it.

The Silpat keeps the bottoms of breads and cookies from overbrowning--I have a tendency to overbrown. Since my oven's thermostat has, long since, given up its duties, I have to bake like my ancestors did.

My stove is a 1942 Maytag Dutch Oven. I appreciate it immensely. There is a wide space between the burners, which serves as a holding station.

I'll leave you with this:

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Isa 62:6-7

In His hands, ^__^

Crocheted hot pad and more garage sale finds

I got my hair highlighted today--DH loves it!

So I crocheted this hot pad/pot holder for my 'hair lady'. She is really sweet.
I had just learned this 'bullion' crochet stitch and wanted to practice it. It is a fun stitch to make. It was going to be a circle, but ended up being...a...whatever-you-call-it shape. My 'hair lady' was very pleased with it since she recently redid her kitchen to all-white.

The hanging loop is made of Romanian Cord--thanks for the applause.

Next, is the beady garage sale find.

Several bags of patriotic beads, and many tubes of more beads. Plus a Strong's Dictionary (not the concordance) brand new, never used [they got it as a gift, and were not interested in it] all for $10.00--If I'd had to buy them at the store: the book is $19.99, the tubes of beads are about $2.00 each. And the bagged beads about $5.00...all in all, about $60.00. I never figure retail prices of stuff from garage sales, but these were all brand new/never used/never opened.

Loooooove red, white and blue.

I found this stiffened, crocheted bowl at another sale, with more odd balls of yarn--all synthetic, good for something I have not thought of yet.

It holds all the beads until I find a more permanent place for them.

Now THE FIND of the month. (with the long re-enactment)

Mrs. #5 called me to alert me about a garage sale in their neighbourhood. I went right away and found some canning jars, yarn, zippers (no picture of those) and...

this beauty...

I saw it, when I was there, but did not think I needed to get it since I have an electric mill that I use all the time.

While driving away I thought that Mrs. #2 would like to have it since she is always experimenting with different grains (her mill does not have a size dial)

I was sharing this information with Mrs. #5, later when I saw her.

When #5 and Mrs. #5 came by later: #5 had the hand mill in his hand (she had told him). He had gone to the garage sale, and found a bunch of 'guy stuff' i.e., tools, iron pipes, sheet metal, what...ever guys like. He did not tell me if he paid the full price or not. But it was a huge blessing that they got it for 'me' (meaning our family...whoever needs it)

It is a French-made Samap brand (Mouline Cereal Manuel--Hand Grain Mill)

After taking it apart and thoroughly scrubbing and washing, it looked very nice.

It clamps on a table or counter

Then you pour the 'most wonderfullest' wheat...and crank away...

And crank...and on, and on...

It took about 7 minutes to mill one cup of flour. Since it did not come with instructions, I had to wing it. Got very coarse cracked wheat, until I figured that the top beige 'bolt' is the regulator.

The flour is just as fine as my electric mill (Magic Mill Plus III) or any store-bought WW flour.

I'm thinking I'll make some white bread--oh no!--and add this to it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Here is a new one, if you want to see.

I'll leave you with this:

"The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." Pro 10:22

In His hands, ^__^

More gs finds, striped hat finished

I very much enjoy portraits of domestic life. The great painters of old caught the vignettes of daily living so exquisitely, that one can gaze upon any one of those portraits and be transported to that day and time.
Some people become tired of looking at these and sell them at garage sales, and I find some of them, bully for me!

Feeding the chickens

Knitting a sock

Wing chair that I have always wanted. After sitting in it for a few seconds, I offered the lady $20.00, she thought for a long time, and then took the money.

She had asked $30.00, a great buy at that price. It had lived in someone's touch-me-not room. It is pristeen. Now it lives in our family room-turned library. It is very comfortable. The winter knitting chair, now.

It goes well with my knitted afghan (our children gave me the yarn one year--it is king size)

I needlepointed the leopard many years ago. I still love it.

Now...the machine knitted cap for #3b. If you remember the flaw...I used it to be the fold up place--very convenient. I had to knit a couple more stripes, since it seemed too small.

Kirtchner stitch makes it look like a tube.
Another view.

And, one more view.

I sewed it along one side and rolled the other side. It did not look quite right until I folded the corners down and stitched them.

Last but not least. The back of the pink sweater for #2c. I had to hold it down with something...it is not blocked yet, and it wants to curl up.

Seeing that I have many other UFOs it is difficult to show you all of them. Sometimes I prefer knitting and other times sewing; sometimes crochet, and others embroidery; sometimes wool combing, others spinning.

You will see things while they are WIP and when they are finished.

It has been warmish again--rather it has been humid--over 80% humidity. One of our DD living in an arrid state misses the humidity, here is some humidity, just for you #1! i.e., clingy hair, damp garage floor, mosquitos, fruit flies, mouldy bread--after 2 days, etc., etc., etc.

Fans are going, and the gnats are falling into their trap. [some apple cider vinegar, a little water, and a couple of drops of dish liquid--they are attracted to the vinegar, and the detergent breaks the water tension--gnat gone!]

I'll leave you with this:

"But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach" Rom 10:8

In His hands, ^__^

Garage sale finds

Several years ago I walked into 'my' needlepoint shop and saw, on the wall behind the cash register, the most eye catching saying that I had seen in a long time. They had the canvas in the shop, but it was too expensive for me. I have been back to the store many times since, and the price has not gone down--in fact it has gone up.

Being the homemade housewife that I am [and having designed many needlepoint canvases before] I thought I could put pen to grid paper and replicate their canvas...well, I have that project, like, 4 millionth on my list of things to do--so it's been not, ever, on my mind--except when I go to the shop.

Yesterday, I stopped at 4 garage sales, 2 had nothing I wanted or needed. One had a bag of remnants of crochet thread for $1.00, and a bag of acrylic like yarn leftovers for .25c I could not pass them up. It is not that I needed the yarn, but it had a skein of crochet cotton that I can use, so I got it. The price was right.

Here they are, all pretty. You can see that most of them do not have too much cotton left. It will be just enough for a lacy edge.

Bag of yarn

The blue ball of yarn had 'something' inside, so I peeked. Under the beautiful blue, some pearl gray, not bad.

This sea green gem is a tightly wound WOOL...socks maybe? What a find!

This is the actual skein that I was after in this bag. Crochet cotton.

The last garage sale--YOU GUESSED IT--had the nice needlepoint saying on the chair next to the lady taking the money. I thought it was her back pillow [the chair was wrought iron] but, I thought, 'it does not hurt to ask'...sure enough it was one of the items that her friend had placed at the sale and she had to call her to find out how much she wanted for it. While the lady was calling her friend, an old elegant lady walked up and seeing the piece {which was made into a pillow} acted interested in it too.

All the while I was about to tell the elegant old lady that I had dibs on it, and she could not, even, look at it...but I displayed my dignity and smiled at the elegant old lady, politely; and with an air of condescension quickly turned to the garage lady.

She said, 'my friend wants $2.00 for it, is it too much?'...I had my hand in my wallet before I could say, 'not at all!' and handed her the $2.00 before she could tell her friend: 'she'll take it'

Good thing I was faster than the elegant old lady, and grabbed 'my' needlepoint piece in a flash!

This is a clever saying to have in such a shop. A shop owner must have come up with the idea.

I don't know where I'll put it...it is not a practical pillow...maybe I'll take it apart and frame it...then the project goes back to the 4 millionth place on the list...until then it will live in the front room somewhere...just decorative...a thing of beauty [I know, that is debatable]

I'll leave you with this:

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time..." Ecc 3:11a

In His hands, ^__^