Rustic Brooms and Creepy Trees....

Oops! I accidentally pushed the publish bar right after I loaded the photos...Rather than re load them, I decided just to edit. Hang on. I will actually write something as fast as I can.

I was out in the back yard this morning, feeding the squirrels and birds, when I noticed that there were some dead branches on the rosemary bushes. This is not a bad thing.

They make wonderful trees and other rustic wood pieces.

I brought some in and in a matter of minutes I had a small new tree growing in front of Cordelia's house.

I simply pruned the branches to the shape that I wanted and glued on foliage from the train store. I think that they call this reindeer moss. It makes a kind of creepy tree because there aren't really leaves, just green prickly looking stuff. If you keep it misted with water every so often, it stays nice and soft. It lasts a long time if you take care of it. I have some trees that I made back in the early 80s that are still going strong.

When I finished that, I decided to make some brooms from what was left of the twigs.

I usually make brooms with plain old dowel handles. Tessie insisted that these would be better. Contoured to fit the body....She considers crooked twigs contoured...

Anyway, I pulled out a piece of Penelope needlepoint canvas and started unraveling the edge. Then I cut in about two inch lengths.

First I tied a bunch around one of the twigs, with the end of the broom facing towards the top of the handle. I just used brown sewing thread. If you are worried about the straw coming loose, you can use some white glue to hold it next to the stick. Next I gently bent the straws down towards the bottom, tied them with another piece of the straw wrapped around the neck several times, then trimmed the ends. More efficiency for sweeping with a straight across bottom.

Tessie was so pleased that she agreed to help clean up the mess from the tree. It seems to work pretty good.

Maybe I will put her to work on the kitchen floor where I dropped the sugar canister the other day....Four pounds of sugar is not easily gotten rid of. I have mopped and mopped and it still feels sticky here and there.

I guess that I should go try again. This time, on hands and knees.

See you tomorrow.