Paper Lanterns

Paper Lanterns

On these colder, darker days of winter we need to do all we can to brighten and cheer our homes. I love the cozy glow of the fire in the woodstove and the soft radiance of strands of white lights hung around the house. Something I saw several years ago at someone's house was a strand of origami paper lanterns. They were so lovely. And so simple. All it was, was a set of origami boxes/ balloons on a strand of white Christmas lights. I already knew how to make the little origami boxes/ balloons so I decided to make myself a set. The first set I made was actually a bit expensive because I went and bought two packages of fancy origami paper. This time I only spent about five dollars, $2 on a strand of twenty white lights, and $3 on a 100 pack of colorful 6"x6" scrapbook paper. Scrapbook paper is ideal for this project; it comes in just the right size, a variety of beautiful colors and patterns, and you can get a whole book of it for a few dollars. It is a simple project to do. It only requires some time and quite a bit of paper folding. During a movie is the perfect time to do it. If you want to make a set for yourself, here is how.

Start with a strand of 20 white lights and a pack of 6"x6" scrapbook paper

 

Take out one sheet of 6"x6" scrapbook paper

1. Fold paper in half diagonally
2. Open up and fold diagonally the other direction
3. Bring the corner of the triangle up to the center point
4. Bring the other corner up to form a square

5. Open paper up so inside is facing you
6. Begin to bring the two creases on opposite sides of the paper together
7. As they come together it will form into two triangles
8. Flatten and place on the table

9. Bring the two corners up to point. Flip over and do the same for other
two corners, forming a square.

10. Fold two corners of square in, meeting at the center,
repeat on other side.

11. Next fold free corner and tuck into previously folded corner.
Repeat for all four.

12. Pull open slightly. Find the end with the hole and gently blow
in a puff of air until the balloon inflates.
13. Insert white light into the hole. Jiggle gently until it is on securely.
Now make 19 more and you have a whole strand!

 

The Finished  Light Strand

Pretty Lanterns Hanging Above My China Cabinet

Farm Sign

We made a sign to hang at our Market booth. I think it turned out pretty well.

New Store

I have a new Etsy shop! And I just listed my first item!! Click here to visit!

Maternity Skirts

I have had fun lately making myself some maternity skirts now that most of my other ones don't fit any more. So far I have made three from scratch, the denim and two florals and one from an altered thrift store skirt, that is the khaki one.

The Day's Work

Today was a busy day. It started off early with watering the whole garden well. I knew it was going to be a hot day today so I wanted to make sure to soak everything. Then I went over and milked the neighbors goats and did other chores while they are away.
Most of the rest of the day I spent working on my dress. I feel like I have made good progress. Most of the complicated work on the bodice is finished. That is exciting! I haven't taken any pictures of the work in progress. I really should though, to show how messy I am when I sew. I do have some more pictures of the garden though.


The tomato rows are just starting to fill in nicely.


One of the watermelon plants growing well in the hot weather.


A transplanted volunteer tomatillo.


The sunset this evening was beautiful after a hot, busy day.

More Dress Fabric

On Saturday we took a trip to Solvang. It is quite a drive from here. Solvang is a cute Danish town with lots of little gift shops. The main reason we went was to look for bridesmaid dress fabric because there is a place with dollar a yard fabric there. We ended up not finding what we wanted but did get some flower girl dress fabric. We also went to some thrift shops and to the bakery to get pastries. On the way home we stopped in San Luis and found the bridesmaid fabric. Overall it was a fun and productive day.


Oriana and Melissa on the drive down


Bridesmaid and flower girl dress fabric

The Perfect Dress

It has been a lot of trouble to find just the right wedding dress, one that is modest and beautiful and affordable. So I decided to make my own. That way it will be just the way I want it. It will be the perfect dress. I bought ten yards of matte satin fabric, a pattern, some trim, and thread. The pattern needs quite a bit of adjusting to make it right. I have started working on that and I made a mock-up bodice last night.

New Books

I received two books for my birthday. The first is Wild Color by Jenny Dean. It is a wonderful book on making dyes from plants. So far I have tried three dyes. I will have to post pictures sometime. I have been wanting this book for a long time but it is out of print therefore hard to find(at least for a reasonable price). My sister was able to find it online and she got it for me. I have such a great sister.


The second book is The Rim of the Prairie by Bess Streeter Aldrich. It is a sweet, simple story that takes place in a small prairie town. It is beautifully written. The characters are so real. You feel like a part of their joys, heartache, laughter, and trials.

Etsy

There is something new over in the sidebar!!

Introducing our new Etsy shop; The Cricket's Song.
Right now we have some greeting cards and soap listed over there. I will be working on a new logo and adding more items soon.

Experimenting

A year ago I found a fascinating book called Wild Color. It is all about making dyes from plant materials. I have been wanting to try some of the ideas in there for a long time now. So, last week I experimented with making a dye from eucalyptus leaves. Here is a photo of the results. The rusty orange yarn in the foreground is what I dyed, the green yarn is one I bought. I thought the two colors looked pretty together. Isn't the orange an interesting color for eucalyptus leaves to make?

Spinning

Two weeks ago I finally got around to washing the fiber that I sheared off of Willow last spring. It was quite a process. It took a lot of hot water and soap to get it all clean.


The fiber after I cleaned it.

I also ordered a drop spindle and it came last Friday. I have started to try a little bit of spinning on it. I don't really know what I'm doing but it seems to be working a little. But it is very slow and the yarn is lumpy.


My new drop spindle with a little bit of yarn I spun.

On Saturday I got to go to a Weavers and Spinners show. It was really fascinating. There were many handmade items for sale in the room downstairs. There were some cute felted hats and purses and some beautiful naturally died yarns that I really enjoyed. Most things were pretty expensive so I just looked, but it was fun to get ideas for things I would like to try to make. Upstairs there were spinning and weaving demonstrations. It was interesting to see it being done. It looked so easy watching someone else doing it.

I needed to shear Willow again this fall but I waited too long and her hair became to matted to use. I finally got around to getting it done recently. It was much easier than last time because she wasn't as jumpy. It was sad to have to throw all the fiber away though.


Willow with her new haircut.

Soapmaking

For awhile now Melissa and I have been wanting to try making soap. It took us awhile to get together the ingredients and supplies to actually do it. On Wednesday we finally had everything we needed so we tried making a small batch. We used a simple goat milk soap recipe that we got from the Majestic Mountain Sage website. The soap has goat milk, palm oil, olive oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and lye in it. We scented it with lemon essential oil. The whole process was a lot of fun and pretty easy too. This morning we just took it out of the molds, now it has to cure for several weeks before it can be used. It turned out very nice. It is light and creamy and smells wonderful. I forgot to take pictures of the whole process but took some just after we finished.


The pot we used as a double boiler to melt the oils.


The bowl the soap was in.


Just after we poured the soap into molds.


The finished soap out of the molds.