Happy Halloween

Hope you all had a lovely Halloween.

Mummified fairies

    Went to a ren-fair recently.  while there my daughter got infatuated with mummified fairies.  A person at the fair was selling some, but they were well out of my daughters price range and mine.  I knew we could make them on my own at a tenth the price. So I said I would figure it out and teach her how to do it.  I did just that and helped her with making her first one.  Because she did most of the physical work and I did the brain-work of figuring it out.  I am going to let her post it on her blog.

She has uploaded the first part of her tutorial today the supply list.  She is planning on a three part series on how to make our version of this item.  She also plans on making a few fairy houses to place these fairies in.  She wants to show the process in that too.

ROSE PETAL BEADS

These beads will keep their fragrance for several years and are stronger than you would imagine.  In time with use and wear they will turn a polished red Sienna color.  My mother-in-law had a set of beads like this before she passed that one of my sister- in-laws wanted.  I thought it was an intriguing idea beads for every day use made out of roses never heard of it before except for rosaries.  My middle daughter wanted to make some so here we go with the experiment.  If you try it, it would be nice as a mother's day gift or a way to use up those dead valentine roses or any other rose you are given.  This way you get to keep the gift of the flowers for years to come.
 
supplies

• water
• 1 enamel pan with lid
• 1 lb rose petals red
• silk thread
• closer for strand of beads if it is not  long enough to go over the head
• needle for piercing hole or wire can be used
• beading needle for stringing
• newspaper for drying purposes
• cookie sheet to rest beads on while drying

To make rose petal paste

1. The heat of your body causes the beads to give off the sent  of the rose petals from which they are made.
2. In enamel pan place1 lb of rose petals ( usually red is used for this) with just enough water to cover petals.
3. Simmer for one hour but do not boil.Cover  pan and let mixture stand over night.
1. Repeat this step three more times. ( 4 days total)
4. By the fourth day ,the petals and water should have become a smooth paste consistency.

To  form beads:

1. Take a small amount of paste and roll it between your palms, try and form balls that are about 1/4 inch in diameter
2. Pierce each ball with a needle or wire to form bead for stringing.
1. let the beads dry on newspaper in a warm area like above fridge somewhere warm but dry. 
3.     Thread the beads onto silk thread for your necklace.

Daughter"s new blog and project after project

 Sorry for the poor quality of the photos in this post i am leaving them by way of my phone.

My middle daughter has decided she wants to do a blog.   She is a very talented teen who has just as many hobbies as I do.  This will be the place where she places her craft projects and things that are of interest to her.  The name of her blog is "little bits of this and thats".  She only has one post at the moment but I expect great things from her as she does kirigami, bead-work, amigurii, crochet, knitting, reworks dolls.... the list goes on and on should be fun to see what a teen who grew up with crafts all around her comes up with.  That is her on the left

 I knitted a sweater about two weeks ago it was my first attempt at doing a steek.  Actually i am very happy with how that part of the sweater came out.  I may go back and change the buttons on it though so that they are mother of pearl and not so scary bright.
This sweater is made mostly from wool o bought at thrift stores there are two colors the purple and green that I did buy at a normal store but they were on clearance so all total thew  sweater was probably less than 8 dollars out of pocket to make.

My family also like to celebrate talk like a pirate day so yes costumes are always in good form at our house.  We went to krispy kream donuts and got a free doz for each of u in costume.  Yep 4 doz donuts that did not even last 4 days.  The daughter with the pirate hat on and not a head scarf is the one that has started a blog.

I also did some more knitting these stockings are held up with a garter belt.  They are made from 100% wool and I am proud to say I have achieved another one of my goals in knitting to make a nice pair of winter stockings.  As you can see from the work in progress photo of the cream stockings these where made from the top down.  Which is real traditional.  I just like to be able to make socks till I run out of yarn which is harder to do with this technique.

 I actually have two more in the works.

One that is a rust color with metallic fibers and one that am just making to see if I could reverse a thigh down stocking into a toe up stocking.  That pair is made from self striping Paton's wool for socks.  that i bought on clearance the store only had two scans not the same dye lot so the socks are not a true match.  But I was fine with that as I was just trying to figure out if i could actually reverse the pattern.  So I did it from the toe up and let the yarns end where they would ( which was two rows different than one another) then added cream for the cuff.   Those should be done in the next day or two.

Of course school has started and the craziness of plays has started up again.  I am not doing as much costuming this year as last as most of the plays this year the students already own clothes that will work well for them.  We are doing " trail of dreams" "our town" and "A midsummer nights dream" this year.

I have started to teach myself how to do face-painting why well because no can never have too many skills.  My kids are pretty good sports in that when ever I want to practice one of them lets me use her as a canvas.  I hope to get better at it but not too bad for a few attempts.

At the beginning and end of this past summer we went and saw jousting tournament performed by the "knights of mayhem".  If you have never seen them and get a chance to you should it is fun.

I also had two real long tours I went on during the summer one to the east coast and one to the Midwest states one was with the 7th grade as a year end trip and one was with my children's concert choir.  Both were amazing trips with lots of historical site.  It was great seeing Washington DC, Jamestown, Mt Vernon , Maryland temple, National cathedral......the list of places it to long it was also great to see religious historical sites that are related to my church like Carthage jail, Navoo, liberty jail, winter quarters.... all in all a very busy rewarding summer

As always what is most important to me was my family and spending time with them.  They have grown so much not sure if my blog readers would even recognize them any more  pretty soon I may not be the tallest female in the family any more.  My oldest daughter has already lost that war with her sisters because one of her younger sister who has out grown her in height.

One of the projects my children and I worked on over the summer was making bracelets made out of beads that we made out of rose petals  it is amazing how light weight these bracelets are because of that.

Below are some photos from the end of last school year from plays Little women, A comedy of errors and Shakespeare week yes of course more costumes.

These last two photos are from the green room.  Photos from little woman the cast relaxing and getting last min instructions before taking the stage on opening night.  You can see them in the costumes I made last school year.