If You're Going to Make that Curtain, You Need to Know How to Make Jump Rings...

Jump rings are so cheap and easy to make, there is really no reason to buy them ready made.

 Tightly wrap your wire around a smooth rod like this pencil. (Note: wood pencils don't work as well because the wire tends to "bite" into the wood.) Something plastic and straight works best. For the curtain project the rings don't need to be perfect. For jewelry, make your rings very tight and close together.

 Once you have wrapped your wire, slide it off the rod. This is why you need a rod that's smooth and straight.

 Use flush cut pliers to snip the coil into rings.

Enjoy your pile of jump rings. That's it!

Grown-Up Popsicle Stick Project

It's been a rough week here in Red Scorpio Land. Besides making super cool bracelets and arbitrary art projects, I also have a small flock of pet chickens, and those dang birds were giving me all sorts of troubles this week. But we'll save that story for another day. Today we are talking about one of my seemingly random whims, and the awesome popsicle stick "bead" curtain I made.

My husband and I like to have our dinner out on the front porch when the weather is nice, but at a certain time in the evening (dinner time) the sun sets just so in the sky, causing my dear husband to squint and turn in his seat at an odd angle. I offer to switch places with him, but he is a gentleman through and through and of course says, "I'm fine" and goes on eating his dinner while the sun blasts him in the side of the face.  My left brain contemplated a solution to this problem while my right brain demanded it be adorable and creative This is what I came up with:

it's a Mermaid

And this is how I made it:

First step, eat a lot of popsicles. Just kidding! You can buy already popsicle-free sticks at any craft store. First step is to drill a hole in each end. I have a Dremel drill press which makes this step pretty easy, but it is tedious and requires your undivided attention. Not my favorite part of this project but obviously crucial. I tried drilling more than one stick at a time but it took longer to get a nice straight stack of sticks than to just drill them one by one. If I make more of these curtains, I will probably make some sort of jig to simplify this step and speed the process. It is very important to drill them in the correct spot (close to the edge), and to make a nice splinter-free hole. This curtain took 329 sticks.

Lay them out super straight, making sure the columns line up properly or your image won't look right when the curtain is hung. Tape them into position. You may be tempted to skip this step and just decorate as is, but I think that is a bad idea. You need the sticks to remain in position for your image to look right, and these little buggers do not want to stay in formation on their own. I will skip the plain masking tape next time and just use more blue tape to make it easier to peel the sticks off when it is time to string the curtain. Before you flip the curtain, number the top row of sticks with a pencil to avoid any mix ups.

I sponged on watered down red paint for a stained look, then ironed on a stencil cut from magical freezer paper and sprayed it with silver paint. The image looked sort of washed out so I traced the outlines with a red sharpie. Next time I will use a bolder design and more high contrast colors. This image is a little too subtle, but there was not a whole lot I could do at this point so I just went with it.

Once the paint is dry, it's time to string the sticks together using jump rings. I made my own, but you can buy them already made. They are super easy to make and much much cheaper, but they kill your hands and wrists, so it depends on what is more important to you. I like to think that pain builds character. Yeah. Carefully peel the sticks off one column at a time and chain them together. Hopefully you took my advice and numbered them. It will be much easier to keep track if you did. You can either add a ring to the top hole now or wait until you attach the curtain to the rod, whatever you prefer. You will save a half step by adding the ring later when you attach it.

This curtain is 47 columns wide, so I drilled 47 pilot holes one popsicle-stick-plus-a-smidge apart, then screwed 47 eye screws into the dowel. I also screwed 2 into the top of the dowel for hanging. They only had large eye screws at the 99¢ store and really didn't feel like going to Home Depot, so that's what I used. I would make a special trip to the HD for small eye screws next time because these were too big and industrial looking.

So that's it. It looks pretty, even though the design is way too delicate, and it makes a lovely sound when the breeze blows, like a soft muted wind chime. Most importantly, it keeps the sun of my sweet husband's face. Sounds like a winner.

Another "Down & Dirty" sewing project...

I found this adorable hat at the 99¢ store, only problem was the dang thing wouldn't stay on my head. No worries, I've got a remedy for that problem and it involves my trusty sewing machine, Sew (pronounced "Sue").

I made some lovely ties from some fabric scraps and attached them to the hat. Pretty easy! It probably would have looked even nicer if I weren't too lazy to change Sew's thread. I could still add some embellishment to cover the stitches. I tried to make a matching band but the hat is too slopey so I took the lazy way and just covered the stitches with some white paint. It looks fine, you guys.

plain hat. looks good on Pooh though.

scrap of fabric folded wrong side out, pinned and pressed

straight stitch along the edge, then diagonal at the end for a fancy point

turn out and pinned to the inside edge of the brim

then stitched into place

looking good, Pooh!

Sew magical!

Sewing is magical and here's a quickie project that proves it. I work from home, therefore I do not wear pants with pockets. Or zippers or buttons. Confession: I wear denim leggings all the time. Like, all. the. time.

But I am forever wishing I had a pocket, especially to carry around my phone. Recently, I picked up a couple of tool aprons from Home Depot for a buck or two, and then I magically transformed them into a cute little work apron to tote my phone and other necessities while I wear my stretch pants.

don't judge me because I'm messy

Here is the original apron. Kind of ugly, right? (Yes, that is my pressing table and yes, I know it is messy and cluttered. I tried to crop that part out. ) Another thing I didn't like about the original is it has two large pockets, and I would prefer more and smaller pockets. We can kill 3 birds with one stone here and cover that gross Home Depot ad, make the pockets smaller and increase the amount of pockets.

there are always scraps of red plaid fabric lying around my studio

I am a plus sized gal, so I dolled-up two aprons and then tied two of the strings together sort of permanently in the back and then wear the apron by tying it on in the front, which cured another of my pet peeves, tying aprons behind my back. I am not good at it. Here, I have attached a pocket by taking a scrap of fabric, folding the edges under and stitching it into place. I wasn't super concerned about straightness or anything like that. This was a pretty down & dirty project because that is how I roll.

no need to turn under the T-shirt.

stitch verrry close to the edge

of course I carry two pair of scissors, doesn't everyone?

For the next apron, I cut a piece out of an old T-shirt and pinned that down and stitched it on, then fancied it up with another scrap of plaid fabric. There are now 13 pockets of various sizes between the two aprons! Here they are with some stuff stuck in them.

And here is my model, Pooh, showing of the finished product. Please ignore the pile of crap behind him.

I have been a busy bee, cranking out bracelets like mad.

Now I'm getting ready to start something totally different and I am excited about it! Details soon...

Homemeade Yogurt: Check!

I finally did it you guys. I actually followed through and made the yogurt. And it went pretty well, I must say. Although for some reason I doubled the recipe and made a gallon of yogurt and now have enough to feed a small army. Why do I do these things?? I think I must have starved to death in a former life because I habitually make way too much food.

So making the yogurt was fairly easy. I used the recipe from Jennifer Reese's  Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, an amazing book and one I highly recommend. I make "cheese" so I have some basic equipment such as a thermometer and cheesecloth ( real cheesecloth, AKA butter muslin, that cheese makers use and not the gauzy stuff you find at the grocery store). Yogurt itself is just two ingredients, milk and yogurt with active cultures (also referred to as "the starter"), 1/8 cup of yogurt to 1/2 gallon of milk. (DO NOT do what I did and double this recipe unless you have 20 people living in your home). I used some ripe plums, pluots and nectarines I had on hand to make the fruit "jam", basically cut up fruit and a little water boiled into a chunky syrup. Mmmmmm!

Ok, so step one is make sure everything is clean since you are basically leaving milk out all night to spoil. Don't want any bonus cooties in it, right? Heat the milk to 185º over medium high heat, or just before the boiling point if you don't have a thermometer. You really should get a thermometer though. It takes out the guess work and they cost like $5, maybe less. You can stir constantly or just let it do it's thing (guess what I did).  If you use a non-stick pot, cleanup is super easy. The milk skin peels right off and dogs and chickens go nuts over this special treat. While you heat the milk, let your yogurt starter sit at room temp. Once the milk reaches temperature, pour it into a clean non-metallic bowl. I used my crockpot (turned off) because it has a lid and it's kind of insulated. Wait for the milk to cool to 110º and then mix in the starter. It takes forever for the hot milk to cool. Ms. Reese suggests using an ice bath if you are impatient. I just puttered around the kitchen, occasionally checking the thermometer and stirring. When it finally cools, mix in the yogurt very well and then cover it up and bundle it with a big towel to keep it as close to 110º as possible while the friendly little bacteria work their magic. I was paranoid about keeping the yogurt at the correct temperature. This is probably the one thing that kept me from trying to make this for so long. But Jennifer Reese made it seem like no big deal and I trusted her. She was right, because this morning I had a crockpot full of yogurt.

You don't need cheesecloth to make yogurt, but you do if you want to take the extra step of straining out some of the whey for a thicker final product. Supermarket cheesecloth will work, but the weave is super loose and so you'll need to double it up, and still stuff will leak through. Also, you can really only use it one time, as opposed to REAL cheesecloth or muslin which can be washed and used repeatedly. You can also use and old sheet or thin cotton towel (washed of course) or plain old muslin from the fabric store. Line a colander with your cloth and spoon in the yogurt, then wait half an hour or so. Put your colander over a bowl to catch the whey and use it for baking. Chickens and dogs love it too. I pour it on their food and they lick their bowls clean. The dogs do, the chickens don't, because their tongues are weird and tiny.

I will definitely be making this on a regular basis, but only a quart at a time. And I will let it ferment for 8 hours as opposed to 12, since the longer it sits, the tangier it gets and this was pretty tangy. If you make your own yogurt, please let me know how yours turns out in the comments.

crockpot full of yogurt

fruit at the bottom

Hubby's yogurt ready to go

this is what's left after filling 6 small containers. Yikes!

La Dama, Where Are You?

For the past few days, I've gone into my studio with basically no plan and just start working on what ever grabs my attention first. Let me tell you, that is the worst way to try to get things done, especially for scatterbrained me. With a plan in place, I function like a well-oiled machine, without a plan I am lost. This heat wave has messed with my mind, not to mention my schedule, and I'm struggling to get back on track.

Friday I was in my studio resining tiles and sweating my ass off. I have to do it in a controlled area with no dust blowing around. so no open windows or doors and no fans. It was hot as hell in there that day. I had so much sweat inside my gloves that my fingers were all pruned up. Not fun.

Today I had a plan: go to the store, go to the library, come home and resin before the studio gets too hot. Simple. Checked off numbers one and two, no problem, but when it came time to resin...problem. First of all, one of my tiles turned out like shit so I had to re-do it before I could resin, then as I was counting out tiles to resin I noticed one was missing. I count the tiles multiple times during the long process of making the bracelet because the little buggers get separated from their bracelet partners on a regular basis. Like today, I needed to resin two tiles of a nine tiles bracelet because the resin started to get unworkable and I've learned it is better to stop at that point because any tiles resined at that point look like crap and have to be redone. That's why I started making bottle cap rings. I hated wasting that much resin (sometimes almost half of what I prepared) every time I finished tiles. So today I counted one set, two sets, and the third set came up short. Fricking annoying, since I have made great effort to keep my workspace tidy & somewhat organized. I counted all the tiles again to be sure I had not made a mistake. Still short. I looked carefully at the tiles to see if I could tell which one was missing, and also to make sure I had actually made nine in the first place. Amazingly, I was able to figure out the missing tile was 'La Dama', one of the Loteria cards, now if only I could find the dang thing.  Distracted from my plan, I searched high and low for that tile and did not find it. I began to doubt my memory that I had really made it. I thought about making a new one but I just know as soon as I do the original 'La Dama' is going to show up and really piss me off. So I am moving on to "Plan B", which is string tiles into bracelets. That should keep me busy for a while and give 'La Dama' a chance to reveal herself.