Our Old House - Adding Lace Applique to French Doors

As most of you readers know, we have been in this quaint old house now for four years. We fondly refer to it as Our Old House (re: This Old House on PBS).  We love the house for all of its well-built sturdiness, original woodwork and classic Craftsman style.  It is 103 years old and we do not want to remodel it, we just keep making it better while retaining its original style.

The wide open doorway between the dining room and my Loom Room never had any type of doors on it. I can see a few marks on the wood frame where a curtain rod might have hung across the opening at one time.  Since I keep a lot of messy fibery work in that room, I wanted a way to close it off. Between looms, spinning wheels, sockknitting machines and sewing machines, Steve and I decided to figure out a way to close it off. This was shortly after buying the house in 2012.

Steve found these great french doors on Craigslist. They were from an old church that was being remodeled.  We snapped them up for $75.  Great deal!

We added tracks from a heavy duty closet door slide mechanism and a top wooden strip to cover the sliders and rails. I stained them to match and we added some little cast iron drawer pulls as handles. 

Now we could close off my fibery tools from inquisitive little grandtot hands, or closing off my clutter from the rest of the house.  At one time I had even considered mounting some type of sheer curtain on thin rods or springs to block the visual path into that room. But with the sliding doors passing each other in close range, that did not lead to any easy hardware to mount some curtains.  I just kinda let it go. 

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Fast forward now four years later....

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Friday I saw this bolt of lace being sold on the local Facebook Buy Sell Trade page.  I contacted the seller and made arrangements to pick it up.  I bought the whole bolt.... about 20 yards of this lace fabric that is well suited for my Loom Room.  I have never seen lace like this anywhere so I snapped it up! 

What PERFECT FABRIC for me!!!   

I have an old treadle sewing machine, 

I have three spinning wheels,

I used to live in a log home,

I love to cook so the cookstove is fitting

and I am from Wisconsin so that means butter!~   LOL 

Now... most of you probably think

that I am going to sew some curtains, right? 

Wrong! 

I saw this technique a while back on Facebook and saved the link: 

http://www.littlethings.com/lace-window-treatment/

Yup... I am going to cut out panels of lace the exact size of each pane of glass on the french doors.  By using the simple cornstarch and water solution in the instructions shared above, I will adhere the lace to each section of glass.  If I tire of it or do not like the outcome, I can just wash it off with warm water to remove it. 

I carefully cut 4 pieces of each of the 5 different motifs --- I have 20 total panes on the french doors. I starched each one to stiffen them up to make them easier to work with. 

 Now it was time to mix up the recipe.. this was amazing!

You take 4 tablespoons of water and 4 tablespoons of powdered corn starch.. mix them up until dissolved and it is a waterly liquid similar to milk.  Okayyyyyy

Now, in a separate container (I suggest a large 4 cup pyrex mixing cup) you heat up 1 and a half cups of water until boiling!   I used the microwave about 4 minutes.

Pour the liquidy milky stuff into the boiling water and it instantly makes a thick gel!  Like soft pudding!   Amazing!!!

In the instructions on that link, she used a bristle brush to apply the gelatinous solution to the glass. Sometimes those type of brushes lose bristles. Instead, I chose foam brushes.  I covered the flooring underneath with a thick towel to catch drips, and I had a roll of papertowels at the standby in case I needed them.  

 As I started to brush on the gel, 

a certain someone wanted to see what I was doing....

All of the rainbows you see in these pics are from the leaded glass window behind me.

Wow! This was really easy! 

It was not messy and I worked one pane of glass at a time.

I would say to be sure your lace is cut to the exact size,

because once it is on the glass, you really can not trim it at all.

I made a little pre-planned diagram of which block to put where. Then I would not end up with any two blocks of the same motif next to each other. Also I flipped some blocks reversed so not all the cabins were the same way or all the sewing machines or the spinning wheels. 

I found that once I set the fabric flat on the window, I could easily press it into place on the thick gel. I could hold it in place on the bottom edge with my fingernail while brushing upwards with more of the gel on the top of fabric.  The gel is warm, so you have to work kinda fast to keep it thin enough to brush over the lace. 

The mixture of 

• 4 TB cornstarch dissolved in 
• 4 TB of water .... 
• then added to 1 and a half cups of boiling water

That is enough to do about five of the window panes. (mine were about 9x12)

Then go back and make a new batch for the next five panes. 

I spent about an hour or so doing the application process. 

I made a little template to pre-cut the curve 

just right for the top four blocks.

Easy clean up with water, 

and toss the brushes away.

Now I stood back to admire my work:

VOILA!!!

It is still drying as I took these pics. 

As it dries, it gets more translucent.

  I love it!!!

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Now.. for the extra lace.  I have looked all over the internet to see who sells lace like this. I can not find it anywhere, so it might be a *one of a kind* thing.  Soooo I am going to whip up some long curtain panels to match to put on the windows on the other side of the Loom Room. 

ON EDIT:
Here they are at night ...

Making Plans- Twenty Working Days and Counting Down

It is here--- the final countdown.

In a mere 20 workdays (not counting Saturdays or Sundays or Thanksgiving)  means that my darling Steveio will be RETIRED!

After an *almost-retired* time in 2012, he changed gears and changed jobs to a better state position at High Cliff State Park.  He was only going to finish out his last few months there. They needed help for the summer and he wanted to get away from his other state position.  He had put in 35 years at the Wisconsin University of Green Bay, and he was going to retire back then.  We sold the house and we were going to hit the road in our motorhome.

 But---

Things changed.  

In 2012 his mom was dying of cancer. His father was recovering from cancer. His uncle had cancer, then both his brother and sisterinlaw had cancer.  On my side, we have a brother and brotherinlaw and sisterinlaw surviving cancer, and lost both my dad and my stepdad to cancer.  That much of a loss in four years REALLY makes you sit back and take notice.  Being close to family is what we needed to do.

In the past four years we have had two preemie grandchildren born, and things were scary. We felt that we were needed to be here to help out. They both made it, thankfully. Our children suffered some losses of babies that did not get born. All of our grandchildren are pretty young yet, under the age of 8. We have enjoyed spending time with them. Hopefully a lot more before they get too old to want to hang with Granmuddah and Granfaddah.

Sticking around for them has been pretty important too.  I do not think we could get in enough visiting with them if we were on the road full time.  Every second is precious to be with them, and every second away would hurt from both sides.

So, I guess changing our mind and not hitting the road was the best choice for us. We did live in our rig full time for 7 months and it was fine. We were prepared to live in our motorhome and had it all figured out. We were comfortable, and made plans to get back to Wisconsin for the the holidays for the family. We planned to be around in the summer months when the kids were out of school. We do like travelling and exploring new places. The road has beckoned, but we decided that maybe it is better for us not being Full Time RVers

Working another four years at High Cliff has been enjoyable for Steve. He said it is great to work with Happy People!  Ya know, people on vacation, people enjoying nature, and people who love to work in a natural setting like a park.

The years are wearing him down. He said he is getting tired of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 12 months a year, for 38 years.  It is a very physical job. He turned 58 this year. He started working for UWGB at the age of 20. That is a long time to be with the same employer in this day and age. He is a reliable responsible person and has worn many hats on the job... many times more than one or two or three or even four hats at the same time. He is always willing to go the extra mile and help out and be a team player. I guess that is why he lasted so long at the same place.  I admire that in him.

Now that we are settled in this cute little house in a small town, we are comfortable and cozy.  We have cut our housing expenses by 2/3 from the previous home in Oconto.  That will make it easier to retire. We can keep the house as a home base and also travel when we can manage it.

Steve is still thinking of finding some work, very limited part time, or perhaps work on repairing things and selling them. He is great at small engines, woodworking and helping me fix up old looms and spinning wheels and fiber tools to resell them.

I guess he will have to decide what he wants to do after working so hard for 38 years. Perhaps he needs to just relax a while.  We both do. I have been disabled/retired since 2003 but I keep working at home in my studio and selling in my online store. I can keep doing that wherever we are. As long as I have a post office to ship out orders, I can keep on doing what I am doing.

Sounds like I am rambling. Hey?  But a lot of folks considering RVing full time read my blog. So I thought I would write about both the ups and downs of it.  It is a big decision. We decided. Then we decided back!  haha

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Tonight, after a good meal in our pretty diningroom, we are now curled up in the livingroom with a glass of wine, the fireplace going, and we are both futzing around on our computers. Him looking at Craigslist and Ebay stuff.. .me writing a blog.  LOL a Modern Couple!

That brings me up to this winter. Usually Steve takes most of his 6 weeks of his hard earned vacation in the winter months... when the park needs him the least.  We try to head south for about 5 weeks of vacation--- either to the desert or to Florida by Mom.  He saves a week of vacation for taking a day here or there during the summer if we need to have a long weekend.

This winter might be different. He will be retired by Christmas, with a few vacation days to use up between then and New Years.  By Dec 30, 2016 he will be officially retired.  We already signed the papers in Madison and made provisions for healthcare and pension.

After going over our budget and our calendar we are thinking we might instead STAY HOME this winter!  OH MY! That will be a REAL change for us.  The rig is winterized and settled in for a long winter nap.  Our idea is that we can then save up to afford a nice long trip in the Summer ... to places we never get to otherwise.

Like:

Out West! 

 Out to the Rockies... 

Out to Glacier National Park! 

Up into Canada to see a few friends. 

Loop around Lake Superior like we did on our honeymoon 20 years ago. 

We would even like to manage a summer up in Alaska??? 

It is a little easier to leave our home in the summer months and not worry about the furnace breaking down, or the driveway not being plowed, or the sidewalk out front not being shoveled (one year we got fined twice by the city because the guy we hired did not show up!)

So ... I think our plan is snuggling up close to the hearth and home this winter with a retired crazy super active speed demon worker. That might be a challenge????   I am asking him to make a list of all the things he wants to get done inside the house and we can whittle away at that.  There is always something to do on Our Old House.  We do not like to modernize it, just keep it in good repair, and keep its original charm.

For example, the foyer and upstairs hallway need painting, a bedroom needs paint, our microwave vent hood could be vented to the outside instead of inside the room. The garage can use some work with a new work bench and re-arranging and installing his garage heater unit for a workshop. He might even insulate the whole garage as a workshop.  I think that would be just dandy.  I think we can keep him busy.

Everyone is asking him what will he DO all day long????   I tell friends and family:

We are going to stay in bed all day 

and make mad passionate love! 

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In yesterdays blog I hinted at a new project I was going to do.  Well, I started it, but then we took a nice afternoon nap.  Sometimes us old almost retired folks have to do that.

Here is a hint... these are some great french doors we bought four years ago off Craigslist. They came out of a church that was being remodeled.  We set them up as sliding doors on a track between the diningroom and  my Loom Room.  This is the BEFORE pic:

I am gonna do *something* to them.... 

 perhaps tomorrow I will finish it. 

Chef Mason and Primitive Gatherings

We are due for a HUGE temperature change in Wisconsin.  We were up to 67 today (I even turned on the AC in the car to cool it down after being parked in the sunshine)  down to a low of 24 tomorrow with snow and single digit windchills!  Blustering winds of 45 mph are blowing in some difficult weather.  They are already having power outages around due to trees falling on the power lines.  Just two towns south of us is totally out of power.  I sure would not relish being a power company worker in this weather.

Yesterday was sooo nice and warm, it was a perfect day for a picnic!  I picked up grandson Mason from school and let him choose a place for some fast food.... this time it was A&W for chicken strips.

Ahhh okay.  But for a change, we went to his favorite park.. the Blue Park he calls it.  We took out a blanket and had a picnic!   It was sooo nice out that I let him play for two hours. He found a little pal to hang out with and they were hunting for BigFoot and playing Follow the Leader.  I did my share of swing pushing and *look at me* attentive watching as he went from activity to activity.

About 2 pm I said it was time to get back to his house and start making supper.  I told him that this time I had a cool MACHINE to let him use! That sure perked up his ears and off we went home without a complaint of leaving the park.

Of course, the first thing we had to work on was his RECIPE... we wrote letters with both his hand and mine on the marker, and reading off the letters as we wrote each item. He may only be four, but he sure knows his letters and is enjoying making up his recipes.

Now it was time for Grandma to take out her MACHINE.....  

Although it says it is for apples, it will also do potatoes quite well. I find the smaller slices of uniform thickness cook up better in casseroles and even for potato salad.  No thicker hard lumps and no squishy mushy overcooked pieces.

I have two of these machines, one for house, one for the motorhome. I like the suction cup Norpro base type better than the clamp on base type from Pampered Chef.

These are just the right thing for a four year old boy to operate.  I stuck on the potato, and he does the cranking.  While I clean up the unpeeled sections he misses with a knife, he yanks off the core portion from the spikes so I can slice that up too.

 He had quite the little factory going and cranked up TEN potatoes! 

Next he had to mix in all the pieces of ham among the potato slices.

I took out a wire whisk that was another fascinating tool. I explained to him about the milk and the corn starch and how we were going to whisk them up a bit at a time so we do not get any lumps. Look at him go!  His whisk is a BLURR! Pouring it over the casserole and adding some dabs of butter on top. Then he sprinkled the seasonings and helped me find the tin foil.  We had a bit of an ooopsie of the tin foil popping out of the box.  We rolled up the extra 17 feet that accidentally unrolled.  Sorry Heather and Dan for the wrinkled tin foil in your drawer......  haha

We put the tin foil on and slid the pan into the oven.  But... ut oh!  We quickly took it back out because we almost forgot the final step..... his job was sprinkling on the cheese.... oh my!  He knew how to do that because of making the pizza and the lasagna the last two times he cooked with me.

When his daddy came home at 3, we gave him instructions on when to turn on the oven.  

Now it ws time to make one more treat... we had waited for big sister Allegra to come home from school to help, but we did not know it was her Girl Scout meeting so she was not coming.  Oh well, she would miss out on the dessert making, but Mason knew what to do.  He requested Rice Krispie bars which he has made a bunch of times at my house. But THIS time he requested that we add chocolate chips to the bars!  He made sure I brought a bag along with my goodies.... so we whipped up a batch.  

 Of course, the Master Chef Mason gets to lick the bowl! 

This was my last day of helping out to take care of him. Next week Auntie Kimmy has recovered enough to take over her duties again.  I was gifted with these wonderful notes on the kitchen counter... to take home and hang on MY fridge!

awwwwwwwwww

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Today was the special Winter Event sale at Primitive Gatherings in Menasha WI.  It is a quilting store with quite a large internet shopping presence in the quilting world, and has another shop in California.  Their patterns and kits are available in many quilting stores across the country. 

https://www.primitivegatherings.us/

I am fortunate to live only 25 miles away... so I set about my morning to get over there and take advantage of some sales, some free patterns and use up a generous gift card I had gotten for my birthday from my loving hubby!~ 

The parking lot was full up by 9:30 a.m. 

and I managed to find a place

 just as someone was pulling out. 

I took a few pics when I came in, but a clerk snapped at me *NO PICTURES UNLESS YOU ARE BUYING!*   Huh?  I stammered that I WAS going to be buying but I wanted a few pics for my blog... free advertising and all ya know?  She did not seem to care about my explanation. Then I said I get over 20,000 readers a month and she waved me off.  OH well, I guess that means I could take some more pics?  So I did.  LOL

Downstairs some women were working on a *make it - take it* project.  You buy a little kit there at the store and the clerks help you put it together right in the classroom. Now that is a cute idea!

I bought some matching Moda fabrics to some that I had bought from their summer warehouse sale.  Now I have enough of these colors to go into my next quilt.  If you spent more than $25 --- you received a free kit of wool fabric and the pattern to make a cute pincushion about Wisconsin and Home.  They also gave away four free wintery patterns for some fun things to make and a coupon sale book of coupon codes to use every month throughout 2017. They had drawings every half hour to be present to win, and free refreshments in the lower level by the classroom. After two hours of looking around and enjoying the displayed projects and getting new ideas....   I left with my treasures and headed on home.

This afternoon I picked up something REALLY COOL

for a home decor window project

and I will write about it tomorrow when I start working on it! 

Bah-Zah-Nah!!!

Our middle grandson, Mason, needed a babysitter to pick him up from his pre-kindergarten class and hang out with him until daddy gets home around 3 pm.  His normal babysitter, Auntie Kimmy, had back surgery and was not able to do it for a few weeks.  With some careful scheduling, his mommy arranged for a few of us grandmothers, aunties and friends to help out.

I get four days of the calendar to spend with my little guy, picking him up from his pre K school ....

 (2 times he rushed out so fast to see me

 that he even put on his jacket inside out!)

Each day we chose a place to eat out for lunch. It was his idea. So far we have had McDonalds, Subway and Taco Bell.  Yummmmy (not)

For an interesting afternoon activity I decided that each day little Mason hung out with me, we would cook his family a supper to come home to. His sister Allegra is in school until 3, his daddy picks her up and comes home to relieve the babysitter, and his mom works till much later at the bank.  It might be nice to come home to a prepared meal, all done by the hands of a four year old!

The first day we did PIZZA!   We went to the store and shopped for all the ingredients. I even let him pay the cashier and help carry out the bags to the car. He carried them into the house and helped put all of the ingredients in a row.

We cheated a bit with pre-made crusts and canned pizza sauce.... but he arranged all the pepperoni on one and the sausage meat on the other.  He said that he liked sprinkling on the cheese the best!

The next planned babysitting day that we met up, 

little guy Chef Mason made

  BAH ZAH NAH

(his word, not mine) 

Here is the recipe:

(I helped him with the writing)

We worked on the sauce and he helped with browning up the hamburger. He stirred in the spices too.  When it was time for boiling the noodles, this grandma took over.  Once the noodles were cooled, he was able to help construct the pans of the Italian Dinner he was painstakingly working on.

He was pretty happy to have MORE cheese to spread! 

Then he prepared garlic bread to be baked later by his parents. 

  

What a great chef.

Plus he made an extra pan for me to take home...

Grandpa and I had dinner made by Chef Mason too~! 

Yesterday we worked on Chicken Veggie Soup....  he insisted we needed to make a recipe again. (I helped with his letters, but he is learning)

He learned to carefully chop up veggies with a dull knife, and put them into the cold water in the pot. He filled the pot up so full we did not have room for any noodles. We set it to simmer all afternoon while we played with toys and games.   I told his daddy they had to cook the noodles up separately and add them to the bowl as they scooped up the soup.  They are the fun bow tie noodles that kids like to eat.  We bought a bag of oyster crackers to serve with the soup.

He was so excited to make what is Grandpa's favorite thing to make. He said he is ''Just Like Grandpa'' now.

Tomorrow I go back again, and I think we are going to try his daddy's favorite food: Scalloped Potatoes and Ham.  I am thinking we can even manage to make a pan of rice krispie bars with chocolate chips.  That is Mason's request of a thing to make.


We had a lot of fun... not just cooking, but being silly together.  Yesterday we had some awesome battles playing volleyball with a balloon in the house.  He won three times and really wore this grandma out.  LOL

We got in some leaf-raking.... and shopping....  he loves the AutoTrader freebie magazines in the lobby at the grocery store.  This kept him busy while I drove, and he chose what kind of cars he wanted to buy. That was one of our oldest grandson Jameson's favorite thing to look at. Little boys dreaming of cool cars, and being able to have a free book full of them to oogle over. How cool is that?

When getting supplies at the local grocery store, 

they have this fun shopping cart for kids! 

The creative play of a ''fire chief'' on the job

 with his helmet and fire-fighting gear.  

While out in the yard raking leaves, we had a fun discussion

about mayors in town making rules about where to put your leaves.

He liked the idea of the mayor being the boss.  LOL

Mason helped make this garden plaque last year.... 

I am thankful to spend some one on one time with each of my grandchildren. Each one is unique and interesting and funny.  I cherish these days, because soon they grow up too old to want to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. Their innocence and excitement over the littlest things is refreshing and precious.

Stay tuned to our next adventure.....