Just Foolin' Around...The Mind Wanders

This is what the third day really looks like....Not that washed out color from yesterday.  It is a rich kind of walnut brown.  Now we're talking stain!

I just looked up and saw the menagerie that is growing on the top of the computer screen... Miniatures are everywhere.  Walter even gets in on these.  His Woodstock. My Russian pig.  His Blue Devil Duck.  My Russian pig.  OK so I am repeating myself.  I like the Russian pigs.  It all started with his duck....I had to have something to fight back...Crazy Russian Pig.  I found another one....He was surrounded....A couple of days ago, Woodstock appeared.  I'm kind of worried about the smug look on his face... It's about time for me to retaliate.

I went through one skein of yarn on the Potato Chip Scarf this morning....And attached a second skein.  There is no rhyme or reason as to how this yarn is dyed, so it is easy to attach a new piece anywhere,

Some people are unfurling the double helix that is the scarf and turning it into ruffles....I am going to have to wait until it is long enough to try on....I have a feeling that, with this yarn, I will look like a mad clown if I wear it like that.

Can you tell that I am not accomplishing much in mini today...I guess I am not really in the mood.  I think it was that thousand or so shingles that I stuck on the roof yesterday that did me in.  When I was done, I was seeing cross eyed. 

I am going in way to many directions right now.  I will probably put away a few projects until after Christmas now and concentrate on the ones that need to be done.

The Russian Cottage may not get much attention for a while.  April doesn't get that until she gets a place with more room.  Unfortunately, tiny houses(hers) in real life don't lend themselves well to tiny miniature houses...

I will be back to minis tomorrow.  This afternoon we went out shopping for a new sofa and chair for the living room.  Success!  Now all we have to do is wait for it to get here....

See you tomorrow.

The Morning After.....

No way, no how, was I going to leave the house this morning with all of those crazy people running every which way, trying to find a bargain!

I actually got a bit of work done. 

I have come to the conclusion that I have to put away the heat gun and let things dry naturally. 

As you can see, the wet vinegar solution looks darker in the third try.  

I made the mistake of using the heat gun immediately and the results was, the solution didn't soak into the wood enough to turn it a darker brown/gray.  I will do another section and let it dry naturally.  I am sure that it will be darker that way.

I worked for about four hours this morning and finally finished the Tudor Wall House roof!I am cross eyed, but am patting myself on the back for finishing that awful job.

Tessie tested it for "slide capabilities".  Too short.  She just slid right off the end.  It's just a good thing that she can catch herself by zapping to another location.

Zar and Spike just sit and watch in amazement when she disappears into thin air and comes up in another location.

The trip to Phoenix, yesterday, was uneventful.  At one point, the electronic road sign over the highway announced that there was an accident 17 miles ahead.....It was stop and go traffic for about half an hour.  We never did see any accident....Just A lot of sitting and waiting, then creeping ahead at a snail's pace.

 

It did give me time to knit the start of an interesting scarf.  It is called a Potato Chip Scarf....(Bet you can't knit just one).  

The pattern is so simple that you can memorize it in about 30 seconds and go on your merry way.

I found the pattern somewhere on the Ravlery site.  The actual pattern is here.  http://oceanwavesquilts.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/02/potato-chip-scarf.html  I think that they might be right.  If this one looks good on, I will probably make more....Mindless knitting for TV and travel.

Since it still feels like a holiday, maybe I will go knit some more.  Walter is out golfing and I have absolutely nothing to do....Yeah...Right..... 

See you tomorrow. 

Day Two....Happy Thanksgiving!

OK....It doesn't look a lot darker than day one.  It is.

After 48 hours, it looks like this.  I used the heat gun to dry it or it might have turned out a bit darker....I have to hurry.  We are headed for Phoenix in a couple of hours. 

By the way, Happy Thanksgiving.  The turkey on the board if stolen from the Christmas Kitchen Island scene. 

I realized that the turkey isn't really fit to eat.  It is over 25 years old and counting!

Now that I have taken the photo, I notice that it could use a good dusting. Oh well That will have to wait.

Maybe I will put up a tutorial on the turkey if anybody is interested.  Sorry for the short post!

Happy Turkey Day to the people that celebrate it and a good Thursday to the rest.

See you tomorrow....I should have lots of time....I am NOT going anywhere on Black Friday.  That is much scarier than Halloween!

Day One of the Stain....

OK...I just put a coat of stain on a piece of scrap bass wood.

Doesn't look like much, does it?  Just wait....Wait....

Twenty minutes later, when the stain is dried, here it is again...

Surprise!  Instant ageing!  It turns the wood old and gray looking...

Incidentally, if you do this, be very careful.  See the spot in the upper right?

That was just one drop of the stuff that dripped there.  It not only stains, it spreads.

I started with my brush to the right and level with the edge on the left...The brush was pretty damp when I started. Thus, more leaching into the wood where I started.  By the time I got to the left side, the brush was dryer.  Not so much spreading.

I think that I am going to leave the steel wool in place at least until tomorrow to see how dark it gets.  Since I had a couple more bottles that were half full I started another one.

It can be thinned down some with more vinegar, but you are doing it by guess and by gosh!  You never know what is going to happen, so it is better to stop it where you like it best.

Each wood comes out differently.  With the light wood, you get completely gray....If you start out with something like walnut, you get browner tones.  It is all a matter of experimenting to see what happens.

This one is short.  I have to get ready to go see "Bond....James Bond"  a little later.

Tune in tomorrow.  Day two may be way darker....Just wait.  I locked Tessie in the workroom for asking the stain question one too many times....

See you tomorrow with more results.

"Is It Stain Yet???"

I was cleaning out cupboards yesterday and found four bottles of half used vinegar.  So....Stain was started.  Other people would find all that vinegar and make pickles or salad....Nope.  Not me.

I took about a quarter of a roll of steel wool and stuffed it down into the bottle.  Closed the cap.  shook it to make sure that the steel wool was under the liquid.  That's all there was to it.

Tessie showed up three minutes and asked, "It it stain yet?".  It takes a few days, depending on how dark you want it to be. 

She tends to be just a tiny bit impatient....That's her style.

I figured I should do something else to amuse her if I didn't want her asking the same question every seven minutes.

I got out the shingles and did three more rows on the Tudor Wallhouse.

That was enough of that.  Those tiny shingles, tweezers and icky glue are only fun for just so long.  I was into the second hour when I quit. 

Then  I heard from the roof, "Let's go look at the stain!"  By the way.  after I took the photo, I unscrewed the cap and took it outside.  Pressure builds up in the bottle.  Walter was not happy with me when it spilled on the back porch....Can you imagine what it would do to a rug?

My next and last project for the day was working on the tiny table some more.  I decided that the best way to fill in the hole was to call attention to it.

I cut a piece of mat board the same size as the hole.  Using liquid Sculpey as glue, I used slices of a bunch of cains to cover the top. 

Then to add insult to injury, I covered the porcelain knob on the drawer also. 

You will have to enlarge the photo by poking to see what it looks like. 

The last step was to apply a couple of coats of Future Acrylic floor wax. 

I still have to do more patching and refinishing on the wood. but I think that I am going to like it when it's done. 

I hear Tessie yelling from the kitchen, "Is it stain yet?".  I had better go peel her off of the window and get back to work....Now it's the no fun part.  Icky vacuuming.

See you tomorrow.