Ribbon drawer organizer project

I have noticed that a lot of my time is spent trying to find the materials I want to work with. So I thought I would work on a few organizer projects to make life easier for me. My first idea was to make something to organize my ribbon and lace collection. I thought a box frame with some dowels to put the spools onto would work nicely. We had saved a few of the old wooden drawers from our old kitchen cabinets. These would be perfect. I knew they would be good for something! The condition of the drawers weren't too good but I figured a little paint would work wonders. So here is my project...

Materials:

1. Old drawer
2. Wooden dowels (I used 1/4 inch but for wider drawers 3/8 inch would be better)
3. Wooden wheels or caps to fit on the end of the dowels that can be removed to add more ribbon spools
4. Ruler/T-square
5. Drill with bit to make holes in the drawer slightly larger than the dowel diameter
6. Paint primer
7. Top coat paint
8. Paint brush
9. Hand saw to cut the dowels to length
10. Sand paper



Steps:

1. Measure positions for the holes for the dowels. First I decided the depth within the drawer I wanted the dowels to sit. They need to be far enough out to allow for larger sized spools. I chose 3 inches from the back of the drawer. I made 3 marks down the side of the drawer 3 inches out and then with the ruler connected these marks to make a line.



I chose to space my holes 4 inches apart. Starting at the bottom of the drawer I measured and marked the spacing I wanted.


Then I made the same marking on the other side of the drawer.

2. Drill holes: With my cordless drill and a drill bit larger than my dowels I drilled holes at the positions I marked. Keep the drill straight vertically so the holes are straight. I had some tearout of the wood as the drill pushed through -- but I wasn't trying for perfection.



3. Before I started the finishing work I "dry" fit all the dowels just to make sure I had drilled the holes properly. Once the dowels were in position I marked the length I needed with a pencil so I could cut them to length. I used a hand saw to cut them.



4. Prepping the wood. I cleaned and sanded all the wood surfaces that were a little rough including the dowel ends. Then I brushed off the drawer so it was ready to paint. I also removed the old drawer handle and saved it to put on after the painting was finished.

5. Painting: First I painted the wood with a white primer paint. When all sides were finished and dried I painted the top coat. We have many old cans of paint around and I chose this Robin's egg blue. I did have to paint two coats to get the proper coverage. I chose not to paint the dowels because I was anxious to finish up on this project.

6. I replaced the drawer knob and fitted the dowels and their ends together. Then I added the spools of ribbons.




Yeah! All done! I was a little impatient and didn't organize the colors much but may do this later when I have more time -- or maybe not since I never have more time. I definitely want to make another because I have more spools to add. I have a few narrower drawers to use. Also I would like to add a square of fabric that hangs down from the top to cover the spools and protect from dust and sunlight. I set the drawer at the back of my work table and I love it!

What I would do differently -- next time... I think the dowels I used for the wider drawer were a little too small in diameter for the span of the drawer. They tend to sag a bit when I have a lot of heavier spools on them. And I think that the spacing of 4 inches might be a little tight -- 4.5 inches would be better.

Little Sunshine explores my garden treasures

I love overcast mornings so much for photographing items for my shop. It makes such a difference in the photos. I brought my little yellow bird, named Sunshine, out for a photo shoot early this morning. Instead of struggling to get 5 good pictures almost everyone I took was pretty.

Here she is sitting in my hypertufa bowl amongst the moss. I love the rounded stones we collected up along the coast of Maine. I still haven't filled in this bowl with plants yet but the moss is slowly spreading outward.




Here she is exploring my cement cast split leaf philodendron. This leaf was difficult to cast but I gave up on trying to get the slits and cast it as a solid leaf. I love how the green algae is filling in the indentations.




Here she is eying my hypertufa Tibetan stone. I love the rustic carving on this cairn. Eventually I would like to make a larger stone for one of the gardens. The creeping jenny that is dangling down the stone walls are so beautiful too. They are spreading like crazy too!


I think she likes the nasturtium as much as I do! I have them planted in an old metal chicken waterer (that rusted out and leaked). I planted some sedum in the ring at the bottom.






Sunshine has discovered my pitcher plant terrarium. Last fall I scooped up some of the pitcher plants my husband gave me for my birthday and planted them in this terrarium so I could enjoy them during the winter. They needed to be misted regularly (with rain water I collected) but did amazingly well. Collecting rain water during the winter was a little fun though! Of course they are loving the outdoors now and are doing so well that I decided to leave them in the terrarium. Every now and then a big rainstorm drowns them but then I just drain it out with a little tube (siphon).


I love these these bright red Impatiens that brighten up the garden all summer long. Sunshine is sitting in another leaf casting while she admires the garden.






She has found my bright blue glass globe and copper waterer. I love the blue on this copper sculpture. If connected to a hose water will come out the copper ring and everything will rotate as it sprinkles the garden. It was handcrafted by an artist in Maine and we bought it at a town craft fair as we were driving through.

Hot summer days!

The girls could barely move outside the pool yesterday it was so hot. So with a few neighborhood friends the pool was busy all day. My husband and I took turns keeping an eye on them.



We didn't do much house or yard work due to the heat but enjoyed a bit of reading and for me a little needle felting. I also did the final wet felting of some of the felted squares that I made in the early spring. With a little water and soap and two sheets of bubble wrap I rolled and squeezed until it firmed up quite nicely. I want to make some small purses with these. I took the bantam chicks out of their "house" and put them in a little wire pen that will help protect them from predators but give them a little chance to scratch in the grass and dirt.



These are a few pairs of wedding birds I am working on. One is a custom order.




We stayed up late playing "The Settlers of Cattan" with the girls in the air conditioned bedroom. It was a fun game now that the girls are getting the hang of it.

Summer days

We have been enjoying a few quiet days at home. Everyone in the family has been reading Harry Potter and I too have finished this morning. I really enjoyed this book so much. In a way I am sad its over.

I am still facinated by the treasuries on Etsy but have yet to catch one of my own. My little wedding birds are included in a new treasury called Primary Blue by cynmb.


This treasury includes a cool concrete relief sculpture of a light bulb by scenicartisans. I really love their work! This is a nice reminder to me that I should allocate a little free time to do some cement work that I love to do during the summer. I can't believe that it is already August. It looks like the girls will have a longer summer this year with the delay of school starting pushed back into mid-September due to the budget issues. As much as I like summer I know the girls will be anxious to be back with their friends too. And next summer we will pay with a much shortened summer.

On becoming a hermit...

Our family enjoyed a long camping weekend at Hermit Island in Maine. I must admit that the packing and unpacking work involved in a camping trip is clearly not my favorite task. We keep all our camping gear in plastic bins now stored in the basement, but its been a few years since our last real camping trip so some of the gear has scattered. We did get a new inexpensive 3 tent (attached) thing to replace our older tent. When the kids were small the old tent was perfect but everyone is getting bigger now (too big to step over anyways).


This was actually an unexpected trip for us too and since we had just returned from a week away from home it was even more difficult to get things together. The campsite was beautiful and wooded and we were visited by a few deer and their fawns while we set up camp. The girls were great but we suffered through the usual grumbles about "too many bugs" and "yucky bathrooms" but those are the realities of camping for the most part. The beaches and rocky shores on the island were beautiful. My husband spent one afternoon working on a pastel drawing for me. This is a (shadowed but the best I could do) photo of his drawing. It depicts point of land/ocean on Hermit island called "The Bathtub". During high tide it is a deep channel but at low tide is a nice warm wading channel. We jumped in while the tide was still high and the water cold and swam up to the shallower end of the channel.



The kids explored and captured hermit crabs and built castles. We brought our large Frisbee and had fun with this too.

My teenage daughter carved her new boyfriend's name/initials in each beach and some trees too!





All starfish used to profess her love were returned to their home rocks after briefly being used. Her wood carving drew a little blood too and stained the log a bit.


She was also thoroughly immersed in the latest Harry Potter book. It must be good because at various points in the books she was sobbing with tears running down her cheeks. It was almost too painful to let her read further but she was obviously enjoying it.

After dinner we enjoyed a late night around the campfire visiting with friends and their two boys. We ate marshmallows and s'mores and told funny stories as well as a few scary ones (goat man, swamp monsters, and the bloody finger). Everyone had fun. Then after a visit to the flush toilets we crawled into our sleeping bags for the night. My husband started reading aloud the first chapters of the Harry Potter book but I was so exhausted that I fell asleep after the first few sentences.

When I returned to Etsy today I noticed I had 4 items from my shop in 4 treasuries. Wow! Thank you everyone for including my work!




I love the beautiful treasury called Pond Life submitted as a poster. It was created by beadedeyefairy. My own little ponds are enjoying the frog visitors and the many dragonflies! Their treasury would make a beautiful poster and I am honored to be included.

The treasury called UglyKitty's Grandma's Favorites by UglyKitty is so adorable too. So many beautiful things to look at!

The treasury Heartfelt Genius features one of my new little birds. It was created by heidihibbard.

The treasury Mine, all mine by Morrgan is another beauty!

Felt small

This is a cute little treasury on Etsy by Catswilleatyou with needle felted creatures. My little bluebird was included.

I am too tired to write anything else right now so I am going to sleep.

Birds, birds, birds

Last week I during my vacation I was busy working on a few custom orders, but I also wanted to work on a few small birds. The firmly felted birds I have been selling take a considerable amount of time to make. These little birds are a lot easier for me and they don't require any wiring, sewing, or bead work. I am going to make a bunch of small ones of various varieties. They would look great wired to a branch or hanging from a string.





The sun came out unexpectedly so I finally had a chance to mow the lawn. I enlisted my daughter to vacuum the pool and she complained excessively. I pointed out that I would rather do that than mow. My morning glories are climbing furiously up their strings now and our vegetable garden is awesome. We are having fresh salads every night and broccoli and Swiss chard. I love the summer! The rest of the year I can barely eat a salad but I could eat fresh greens everyday from our garden!

One of our bunnies died while we were away. A lot of tears were shed over the loss of Bumper when we returned. He was about 11 years old. I did have a good idea and moved our little feathered friends - the 3 bantam chickens - into the little hutch. They have all their feathers now but are still so small. We have a small weasel out there that would love to snack on them. And the added benefit is that the bunny cage has new inhabitants so the kids are happier.