Thursday, January 18, 2024

Standing Towel Holder

 


Standing Towel Holder

 

Supplies:

One piece of laser poop  1/2´ in diameter x 1/8´thick

One round toothpick with decorative end

Drill with a 2 mm bit

One sheet two ply paper towel

One white plastic stir stick 5 ¼” long and 1/8” in diameter (optional)

12” ruler with cork backing

Scissors

Pencil

Glue

 

   

 

Take your piece of laser poop and drill a hole in the centre of it. Cut the top of the toothpick to 1 1/8” length. Put glue on the cut end of the toothpick and insert it in the hole.

 

Tip: Using a bit of double-sided tape to hold the laser poop in place while you’re drilling.

 

   And there you have your towel holder!

 

To make the towel, take a sheet of paper towel, separate it and measure a strip 7/8” wide on the bottom layer (it’s smoother and less decorative) and cut that strip.

 

      

          

 

       

         

 

Cover the lower part of the toothpick with glue, then carefully wrap the strip of paper towel around it. When that’s done, put a dot of glue about ¼” from the end to hold it in place.

 

Option:

 

For removeable paper towel, cut a 7/8” piece of the plastic stir stick, cover it with glue and wrap the paper around it as above.

 Wrap this strip of paper towel 


around this 7/8" of plastic tubing. 

A white line on a red surface

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 This will fit over the toothpick.

For fun, I took a pen and put a green stripe along the edges of the towel on the right.

BUT

That was a few days ago. Then I thought of a different way to do this that doesn't require laser poop, a drill or a plastic stir stick!

Supplies:

A flat 1/2" button

1 decorative toothpick

1 7/8" piece of paper towel

some nail polish 

and some glue


Cut the toothpick to 1" and paint the decorative end with nail polish.
Stick the toothpick in a piece of floral oasis to dry. Put a toothpick through one of the holes of the button and paint the button with nail polish and put in in the floral oasis to dry.
Take your strip of paper towel
Cover the lower end of the toothpick in glue and roll the paper towel around it.
Cover the lower end of the paper towel with glue 
and position it on the button.

Quick and easy!

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Did you get Toffifee for Christmas?

 If you did, I hope you still have the trays they come in as you can make some lovely salad bowls and matching salad plates from them! Silver on the outside and gold on the inside.

Here is the salad bowl and six side plates.

With a pair of manicure scissors, cut out the piece that holds the actual Toffifay candy. That will be your salad bowl. Then cut out the corner pieces around it for the salad plates.

Easy-peasy! 

Instructions for making the salad to fill them are here. I made some salads for a friend of mine and her husband told me that he spritzed them with some of her hairspray to keep them in place. (And he wasn't a miniaturist!) You get ideas from everyone.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Final pictures of the attic


Here are Holly and Jonah on Christmas morning after they have opened the last piece for the Advent calendar attic. You can see the book that I made to go along with it next to the attic. Each page in the book tells the story behind each of the roughly 60 pieces that are in it.



And here's the attic as they've arranged everything in it.
                                         

I already have a list of 16 things to add to it next year.

They loved reading the stories that went along with it and there were even some surprises that Sean and Julie weren't aware of.

I'm glad I decided to just go ahead and send the pieces that were ready this year instead of putting it off another year.

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Merry Christmas!

Vern's Attic arrived and Jonah and Holly were quite excited to receive it.

I knew I had taken a picture of it before I packed everything up. (It was on my phone?!?)

Here they are unpacking the box.


I'm hoping they'll send a picture of it tomorrow when they open the last package to complete it.

So I was all set for our club Christmas party on December 5! Santa's elves had delivered my Secret Santa gift from me and delivered my gift from my Secret Santa, Shirley B. It was a box of delightful Christmas minis.

Gifts, wrapping paper, cup of hot chocolate with a candy cane stirrer, plate of cookies, a Christmas candle, a tiny decorated tree, a wreath and a teddy bear, along with a tiny personalized Christmas card.
Love the pipe cleaner teddy! Mine never looked as good as this one!


Unfortunately, I woke up the morning of the party with the absolute worst sore throat (felt like it was full of razor blades) and ended up sleeping through the party. Tested for COVID on Thursday - Negative. Thought back about 45 years and thought, "Oh, no, I have tonsillitis." Got an appointment with my doctor on Friday. He's only a couple hundred metres away but I had to get my sister to drive me there as I didn't think I could walk that far. He gave me a really powerful antibiotic and some wonderful mouthwash to deaden the pain in my throat. 

By Tuesday I was feeling well enough to meet up with some MEE members for coffee at the Enjoy Centre and have a wonderful visit.

Having lost a whole week, I was really in a dither. The Book that I do annually for family and friends had to be finished and put in the mail. Spent the weekend copying, collating and binding it and finally for the copies that had to be mailed on their way on Monday. DS Marie received hers Thursday so that was a big relief...and a minor Christmas miracle!



 Then, minor panic time again! Out condo Christmas potluck dinner was on Tuesday and I hadn't even started the roombox/vignette that I give as a door prize every year. 

I decided to use a Michael's photo box as the container this year. Size is good: 11 1/4" wide x 7 1/2" tall and 4 1/4" deep. Plus it has a lid so it's easy to store. The only drawback is that the inside of the box is black so it has to be covered.

Used white cardstock for the ceiling.

Added wallpaper. For the floor, I cut a piece of white cardstock and covered it with dark green velvet for a carpet.

The tree and skirt with gifts is by Louise Z. who is a dealer at our annual Show and Sale.
 The table was from Dollarama and 'painted' with red marker. The Christmas cactus, chair, ottoman, and Barbara Brear book were from my stash. There is a pair of glasses on the end of the table. The picture is from the back of a calendar and is framed with a coffee stir stick cut and then coloured gold.

Only baking I got done was a HUGE batch of nuts and bolts. Still have some wrapping to do but not too much.

Leanne and I will be spending Christmas with my sister, Shirley. Her friend, Marilyn, will be cooking Christmas dinner and we'll be joined by Shirley's grandson  and his family. Will be a wonderful day!

I hope that you all will have a wonderful holiday with your families and loved ones.

Thursday, November 30, 2023

The Attic - finished!

 

I finally finished  all the 60-odd contents of "Vern's Attic" on Sunday. Got them all packed up in daily packages for the Advent calendar for Jonah and Holly.

Got everything written up in the book, printed and bound.


It took about 12 hours to write and print the book and another 8 or so to pack everything up and number all the packages.

The bare-bones of the attic.

Sent everything off to my Dear DIL Julie, who will look after the distribution of this as an Advent Calendar.

I could have sworn I had taken a picture of the attic with the pieces in it beforehand but evidently I didn't. A small part of the delay in posting was trying to find at least one picture of the attic with something in it.

It will arrive in Peterborough tomorrow morning - just in time!

I already have ideas for half of new things for next year and I've asked Julie to listen for anything else that Sean might mention as they furnish it with what I've sent so far. (And I'll probably print out the book for DD Leanne so she can suggest additions since it was her idea in the first place.)



Tuesday, November 14, 2023

SORRY

I ran into a few problems with the roombox design.

Then suddenly it was mid-November and I'm in a real time-crunch for a Christmas gift so that has to be my first priority right now.

My dear husband Vern died in July 2011. Shortly after that I began "Vern's Attic" which was a project that was meant to share my memories of him with our grandchildren who were 3 and 5 at the time so they could have some memories of Grandpa Vern. 

I guess maybe I have kept putting off completing it because it would mean finally letting go.

Earlier this year, I told my DDIL Julie that I would give it to the grandchildren as an "Advent Calendar" .

The attic itself will be the calendar then each of the memories would be put in a capsule to be opened each day. 

I will write a story about each of the things in the attic and put the stories in a book that will go along with the attic.

So you can understand why I have to delay the work on the roombox.



Thursday, November 2, 2023

A bit of a catch up - and back to the roombox

First of all, I want to tell you about something I just noted about the piano I told you about the other day. I think this is probably the fourth piano I have bought over the years. All the others have had just printed keyboards. This one has a keyboard that actually has individual keys! You can run your fingers over them and the ebony keys are raised from the ivory keys! WOW!

Now that I have shared that - back to the roombox.

My original idea was to have a second smaller room which would be a bathroom.

Then I was watching HGTV and thought, "Oh, my. I should make that second room into a walk-in closet."

Got out my Clothes, Hats, and Shoes bulletin boards...

and thought, "Oh, yes. I can clear most of this from my stash if I do that."

So now I'm trying to decide what to do with that second room.

BUT I need to show how to put the room together....

And part of it should be adding wallpaper and flooring ahead of time....

So I guess I will figure out where to put that wall for the second room, wallpaper the bedroom portion, and just leave the second room decoration for later.