Shelibean my craft tester – Butterfly Loom

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Last November my Bff surprised me with a special gift of a ‘Butterfly Loom’. She has one and makes beautiful motifs for a coverlet she’s making.
I’d never tried to use the loom. I wanted to try to make motifs, but I was afraid I couldn’t do them right. The other night I was surfing around youtube and looking at some craft videos and happened on a beginners video for the ‘Butterfly Loom’.
I watched it and realized that perhaps I could make butterfly loom motifs too.
When I got the loom out and sit down on our sofa, Sheli started sniffing the loom and tried to take it from me.  So being the obedient human I am, I gave him the first motif I made. When I was working on my second motif I noticed Sheli was napping with his head laying sweetly on his new motif. I tried to sneak around and take his photo, but he roused up and made an even cuter pose. I apologize for the quality of photo, I took it with a cellphone.
Seriously, it does help me to test the strength of a yarn project to give a sample piece to Sheli. He’s goes at his job of tester with gusto and seriousness. He chewed, pulled, tugged, tossed and chased the motif and it held up real well, so far, Which really surprises me considering the way the motifs are made. Just yarn wound around the toothed edge and knots tied at the meeting points.

Here’s a gallery to give you an idea of the Butterfly Loom.

I’ve made a few motifs and am getting better with each one. I’ve an idea as to how I want to use them. Hopefully, my idea will work out and if it does I’ll post a photo of what I make with them.

The weekend was really nice. The temperatures were comfortable, the sun was shining and we even opened a window or two. My husband painted our utility room. I did a smidgen of Spring cleaning in my craft room. Unfortunately the nice weather has passed. It cooled off alot during the night and our temperatures are forecast to drop way down and we may even get a dusting or two of snow this week. It’s now what we used to call pneumonia weather. Hopefully the cold front won’t last and we’ll get back to the business of warm weather and plans to enjoy the great outdoors.

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend
and will have a wonderful week.

🙂

edited in: 4-5-2018
The other day I recieved an email via my contact form asking about where I got my butterfly loom.
I couldn’t remember where I got mine, so I asked my BFF and she said she got them from ebay. I sent a reply and said I got mine from ebay. (What I should have said was mine was a gift but came from ebay. I’m forgetful in my old age. :/ )
After I sent the reply, I went on an internet search to try and find places other than ebay that sells them.
I’ve searched, as much as my limited knowledge of the internet allows, and I found only ebay and one other website that sells butterfly looms.
I’m adding a link to the butterfly loom site on this post.
If you know of another place that sells butterfly looms, let me know in the contact form and I’ll add the link here on this post.

ButterFly Loom – https://www.butterflyloom.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

Nothin’ but blue skies from now on

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IMG_7569Yesterday, was a dreary overcast day with a heavy winds that thankfully was comfortably warm. The temp was in the high 70’s and We loved it!!! We had a really good day because my husband got an awesome report from his heart surgeon.
Even with the gray of the day we were happy and the song ‘Blue Skies’ came to our minds and we even sung a rough rendition of it off and all for the rest of the day. lol Yep, We are two old silly-hearts… and I wouldn’t have it any other way…
I stand in awe of My husband’s good nature and positive attitude through ‘it all’. He’s a peach, my fellow is. 🙂

Yesterday afternoon, we took Sheli for a short walk and he doesn’t like the leash, as you can see in the photo. He still had a jolly good romp. He loved chasing the leaves to the end of the 15 feet leash and make us run walk fast after them too. This was the first time that we didn’t have to carry Sheli back to the house from the walk. So, our little guy has finally grown stronger and has more stamina. We didn’t think that day would ever come, and it may never happen again. Sheli’s quite spoiled and enjoys being toted around, especially if a neighbor dog barks or a loud car goes by or a butterfly flies to close or or or. lolIMG_7568

We had a harsh storm last night. We were under a tornado watch most of the night. I had our emergency stuff gathered together in our safe place or what we think would be a safe place in case we had to make a mad dash for safter area of the house.
Sometime during the night, the power was off. I don’t know for how long. I just know ‘the instant silence and complete dark’ woke me up like it always does. The storm was raging thunder, lightning and rain. I was so tired that I went back to sleep after a few moments. Sometime later a loud clanky sound woke me up. The power was back on and my husband was looking out the window. He told me what I was hearing isthe utility folks outside making a lot of noise fixing the lines or something.

The sun is out today and now the ‘Blue skies’ are ‘smilin’ at me’ for real. The temperature has cooled back down in 50’s though, but it’s all good. 🙂IMG_7573

I reckon this is all for me at the moment.

Here’s hoping you all have a pleasant weekend.

🙂

Blue Skies
by Irving Berlin in 1926

Blue skies smilin’ at me
Nothin’ but blue skies do I see
Blue birds singin’ a song
Nothin’ but blue skies from now on

Never saw the sun shinin’ so bright,
never saw things goin’ so right
Noticing the days hurrying by,
when you’re in love, my how they fly by
Blue days, all of them gone
Nothin’ but blue skies from now on

(At this point in the song, depending on the version,
it changes into like a singer or artists choice…
so I’ll stop with the lyrics right here)
🙂
Maxine Sullivan – Blue Skies

🙂
spcr1

Longing for Spring & Shelibean

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IMG_7539I went outside for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. I wanted to stay out longer, but even at 65°  with the sun partly shining, the wind was still awfully sharp.

IMG_7535I noticed some of my day lilies are trying to grow.  I guess they’re longing for warm Spring weather like we humans are. Of course it’s possible these few sprouts are reconnaissance and they’re checking to see if it’s safe to grow yet or not. 😉

IMG_7518For the first time in many years I bought some flower bulbs. I don’t know what came over me, But there I was standing staring wistfully at the beautiful flowers on the packages in the display and suddenly I wanted some flower bulbs. I expressed my goofy thought to my husband and he thought it was a good idea. So I bought a couple packs of bulbs and I’ll probably buy some more as last-frost draws nearer. We also bought a few packs of seeds recently and some onions sets for the garden.  Now, once again we’re longing for the last-frost so we can play in the dirt and feel the joy of gardening.

When there was a lull in the wind gusts for a few minutes I sat in a lawn chair on my back-porch and pretended that it was Spring . Sheli sat in a chair next to me, but wasn’t happy about being outside because he doesn’t like being outdoors. There’s too many scary things going on for one little guy to take in all at once.
He became entranced for a minute watching the neighbors and I took the opportunity to get a photo of him being still.
Sheli then barked and insisted on sitting in my lap.
Yep, my little ornament is quite the guard dog. lol
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I hope you all are having a good week so far.
May the rest of your week be filled with warm
outdoor temperatures & springtime dreams.
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For Barb, I wish a cool Autumn breeze
to comfort you from Oz’s Summer heat.t110008

spcr1

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie & chicken broth

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The other day I saw a photo of  Bisquick chicken pot pit and of course that made me want to make one. I’d never made it before. Thankfully the recipe isn’t too complicated and I had all the ingredients on hand. It turned out really pretty and mighty tasty.

Here’s a link to the recipe: Bisquick Chicken Pot Pie

Here’s my adjustments and changes to the recipe:
I used Pict Sweet frozen vegetables
I used 1% milk
I used Egg Makers (liquid eggs)
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp thyme
I baked my chicken pot pie in a deep baking dish (about 8-inch x 2-inch deep). I didn’t think any of the pie plates or pans I have would have worked very well.
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The recipe calls for cooked chicken. It didn’t specify how to cook it. I needed to make some broth anyhow so I took care of 2 food stuffs at once and boiled the chicken with some herbs, onions & sweet peppers. The chicken turned out beautiful and tasted really good. It worked great for the pot-pie. I was going to make chicken salad with part of it, but my husband and Shelibean decided that it was the perfect snack to nibble on in front of the tv. lol

Even though I used skinless boneless chicken breasts, I still strained the broth 3 times through 8 layers of cheesecloth.
(Then the next day it occurred to me that I should have used a coffee filter to strain it through. It would have been less work. I hope I can remember the coffee filter the next time I make broth.)

I let the broth cool and pour one cup portions into square plastic containers then freeze them. I take the frozen broth ice cube out of the plastic container and put them in vacuum pack bags, date them and put them in the freezer for future use.
I love the way these look.
(Does that make me odd? lol)
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We use alot of broth in recipes and since salt is a problem in the processed foods, salt-free homemade broth is a welcomed staple to have on hand.

The sun is shining and the temps are warming up. It’s 57°, if the wind would stay calm, it would be a lovely day to go for a walk and look for signs of green.

I’m so happy to finally dare-to-hope that maybe Spring-like weather might be here soon.

Hope you all have a lovely day!
🙂

spcr1

A few clothes-pin hints for yarn & looming

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IMG_7474My above photo is some of my left over yarn wrapped around clothespins. I did this to show that I think it’s a neat idea. This idea could be used for embroidery thread, yarn, ribbon, twine or most anything stringy to help keep them neat and tidy.
I searched and tried to find the original poster for this idea. Unfortunately that website is gone now, so here’s a link to the next to the oldest one I found: factorydirectcraft

IMG_7178My favorite stitch in loom knitting is the e-stitch or e-wrap stitch. It’s makes a rib type pattern and I like the look of the finished project.
The e-stitch is simple since it’s just wrapping the yarn around a peg. It can be used for cast on as well.

However, the most irritating and frustrating thing about using this simple stitch is if you let it loose for a nano second while wrapping the pegs , the yarn will spring to life and unravel like a joyous snake of rebellion.

I resolved the unraveling issue, sort of. After I wrap several pegs, I put a clothes pin on the yarn sort of between a couple of the wrapped pegs and then continue on wrapping. I move the clothes pin along as I get further around my loom.
If you use this method you may notice that the clothes pin overlaps the pegs on some looms.
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This next tip comes from an idea sparked by my Bff. I complained about when I was looming, if I had to leave my loom to do something else like housework, when I’d come back to looming, I couldn’t remember if I was going left or right. I ripped out more than one project because of this memory lapse.
My Bff shared with me that she had resolved this issue by using a pencil gripper to set down on a peg a dozen or so ahead of the way she was going. That way whenever she sat down to loom again she knew which direction she was headed.
I didn’t have any pencil grips, but I did have other things that would work just as well.
*Use something that can’t be knocked off the loom peg: stitch marker, clothespin, safety-pin or a pencil gripper
Place it on a peg several pegs in front of the direction you are going in, move the clothes pin along as you go further around your loom.
If you use this method you may notice that the clothes pin overlaps the pegs on some looms.
clothespinmarker

These are things that work for me, they may not be right for you, but I wanted to share them anyway.
I hope some of the tips maybe helpful in making your crafting adventures more enjoyable.

Wishing you all a sunshine filled week.
🙂
spcr1