A Glimpse Into My Life ...

Today while I was in town, I stopped over at the New & Used store that is just down from where I work.  The lady who owns the store has the most amazing treasures there - I found something today that I just couldn't pass up, here is a picture to see if you can guess what I got:

Any thoughts on what it might be????????  Scroll down and see if you guessed right. 













Keep scrolling down.
















A friend of mine does weekly Tea Times with her kids and I have been intrigued by this concept for quite some time.  Now, I will probably not do this the same way that she does with her family, but that is the beauty of it ... it can be customized to each family, so this is what I picked up today:

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous - and then look what it does:

I have seen many teapots & cups in this style, but this is the first one that I have wanted to really have.  And the best part about this wonderful find:

Can't go wrong with that, lol. 

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The kids really wanted to go out and do some 'Nature Studies', so I handed them my camera and told them to go for it.  They went out to one of the grain bins on the property and went inside (they are both empty of grain).  Here are some pictures that they took:

These are pigeon eggs.

The pinkish blob in the middle of the picture is a pigeon chick.

And a couple of very nervous pigeons (the others had taken flight when the kids got in the grain bin).

On the knitting front, I have been working on a little knitting bag.  I found the pattern here, it is a really easy bag to make and I love how it turned out (the knitting needles are ones that I got in the last knitting exchange my knitting group had - thanks, Kat ):

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I was asked a while ago to do up a tutorial on how I make the reusable, washable, swiffer type dusters - I apologize for taking so long in getting this done and hopefully some of you find this useful.

The first thing that I do is find myself some fleece - thin fleece works really well for this, mainly because it is easier to sew through than thicker fleece is.  I use fleece because it does not fray, I only cut and sew, which is why I would not use flannel for this project.  When I need to wash mine, I throw them in with the towels and then into the dryer to dry.  A friend of mine gave me the tip of dusting the TV screen first (with it off, of course) and then this give the fleece a bit of 'static' to pick up the dust better - I haven't tried that tip because I find that these do a great job of dusting just as they are.

Here is the fleece that I have chosen - it's a little thicker than what I normally use, but it's what I had on hand.

I like that it is light on one side but dark on the other.

Are you ready to see my super-duper-fancy pattern that I made up for this?
Pretty spectacular isn't it, lol.  The measurements that are done in black is for the bottom layers.  The measurement in red is the part that the duster will slide under.  You can just faintly see some dotted lines in the middle, running from end to end - these are your stitching lines, basically you just divide the pattern into thirds and those are your stitching lines.

Here I have traced around the pattern piece onto the fleece to make the cutting go faster - the fleece is doubled.

Here is the order in how I have them - the larger rectangles are not all exactly the same size, but it doesn't really matter for this pattern ... the dusting job will still get done, lol.

You aren't going to be sewing through all 5 layers just yet, that's why 2 layers are on the right hand side of the picture - don't worry about them just yet.  Stack 2 large rectangles one on top of the other and then put the small rectangle on top of them and have it kind of centered.

Here I am pointing at one of the stitching lines (the dotted ones on the pattern that divide it into thirds), I lay the piece of cardboard on top of the fleece so that I can see where to make the tick marks.  I only do a little tick at the beginning of where I am going to be sewing.  The three layers are pinned together in the middle by one pin, just to make sure that the layers don't shift around on me while I'm sewing.

Okay, the top piece of the duster is now sewn together, you are now going to lay this on top of the other two large pieces of flannel (which have been stacked).

Here, I am sewing all 5 layers together.  Directly above where my fingers are, you can see the first two stitching lines that I did.  Now I am doing one single stitch line down the middle of the other two - I don't use a tick mark or anything for this, just basically eyeball it to make sure that I am going down the center.  If your fleece is fairly thick, you may have to get your kids to run the reverse button at the beginning and end of the stitching line as you guide the material during the stitching.

Here is what the top looks like after it has been sewn.

And here is what the bottom should look like.

Now comes the fun part, lol.  I use pinking shears to make the cuts in the material, not because I am worried about fraying but because I think it gives a little bit of a decorative look.  If you don't have pinking shears, use regular fabric scissors to make the cuts.  I always make sure that I do all of the cuts on the bottom side first (it has just two layers of fleece to cut through), but you can do this part however you feel most comfortable.

The bottom is all done and I am just finishing making the cuts on the top.

Here is how it looks with the handle in place.

A side view of the finished duster.

And the bottom.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful - if you have any questions, just give a holler and I will try and help you out as best as I can. 

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