Stick a fork in me...

'Cause I am DONE.

Done with the new tables for the sewing room, anyway.  The room's not 100% done, but it's at about a 95% solution, which means I can work in there tomorrow and finish up projects for friends.

I'll have to see if I can dig up some before shots, but here are the end results.

The long shot:

The serger table:

Eventually, that shelf will be stained pink.  As soon as I find the pink stain.

The sewing table:

All in all, I think it's a great improvement and gives us way more room to work in there.

Now, I'm going to eat something and fall over.

Nicknames...

Or, since the good Lord knows my real name is all over the internet, I'm wondering if it's funny or silly or stupid to use nicknames.  A lot of my friends from my Usenet days know me as SoldierGrrrl, or SG.  My beloved husband has been JMA, or SapperSgt, or Decurion, or Dekarch or... wait, I think that's all of them.

In my earlier post, I referred to my beloved as Beloved Boy, or Badger Boy (mostly because he was channeling a badger with a rash this morning) but I don't know if I should find funny names, or still with real ones.

Any thoughts?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Getting back in the saddle... I hope! (Picture heavy!)

Lord, but it's a been a while since I updated this thing.  Then again, it's been a while since I did anything crafty, too.

But now, I have a storm of ideas swirling around in my head.  Lots of projects, which I'll try to get better about updating.

First up, at the request the very patient Beloved (Badger) Boy, the back door.  We installed a HUMONGO dog door for the Moose, and well, since the Moose now lives on a horse ranch, the door is slightly oversized for Moxie and Louisa.

For an idea, this is the door, with Louisa in mid-jump:

This is Moxie:

Not only is the door HUGE, but it's about five inches off the ground, and Moxie's not getting any younger so it's getting harder for her to make that jump through the door.  I made steps for her, and she decided she'd rather pee on the floor than approach the Dog Mugging Steps of Doom, so we needed another solution.

Because I am brain-damaged...creative... I thought of the ways would could do this without spending between $250-$645 for a new door.  I mean, it's not that I'm totally cheap, but daaaaang.  That's a fair chunk of change.

I ordered a new, MUCH smaller dog door from Amazon, and then went to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore to see if I could find a door.  Not a whole lot of luck there, but I did pick up a door for $10 as a backup.

It's missing the glass, which caused me to go through some major brain contortions to figure out how to replace the glass without paying another small fortune.

I was thinking about an MDF frame for the inside of the door, with a plywood frame for the outside with two pieces of Lexan, and moulding and this and that and the other thing... when I realized I could do something similar with the hole left by the HUMONGO door.

So, here's the idea.  I'm going to pull the door off the hinges, and remove the huge dog door.  While I've got the door on sawhorses, I'm going to scrub it down really well and tape off the nine-light.  I want it as clean as it can be, and right now, it's pretty...well...it's not clean.  Let's put it that way.

I'll measure the hole in the door, then cut wood to over that (including a bit lower so we can install the new smaller door at a better height for Moxie).  After cutting, I'll put the dog door template on the wood, making sure the two pieces are clamped together so the holes are in the exact same spot.

Then, I'm going to use a heavy-duty construction adhesive, and probably some bolts, to attach the two pieces of wood with the hole for the NEW door.  I'll have to cut some out of the door, because the bottom on the new door will be lower than the bottom of the old hole (does that make ANY sense?), but I can do that with a jig saw.  (I hope.)

Then, I'll secure the new pieces of wood to the door, and insulate the large open area with spray foam.  After that, I'm going to put some paint on the door (because I can), and install the new dog door.

As a recap:

Normal 9-light door:

Our current 9-light door, complete with HUMONGO door:

Proposed door repair:

Yes, those are hand-drawn, so don't laugh at my mostly-kinda-sorta-to-scale images.  It's an idea, at least, and gives me something to show the Badger Boy when he gives me the hairy eyeball as I babble on about yet ANOTHER project...

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

St. George- Heavy fighting

St. Sebastian- Archery

Archangel Michael- Light fighting

I have decided, I think, on the scrolls for Baronial.  I should now get started on them.  *headdesk*

Sooooooooo...

Baronial scrolls...I can has to do them. 

I am, evidently, batshit crazy.  I mean, we all knew this, but now, there is  proof.  (Again.  Like we needed more, right??)

I have been asked to do the Bryn Gwlad fall Baronial event scrolls.  Yes, three of them.  One for heavy combat, one for light, and one for archery.  Honesty, since the event is "harvest festival" themed, with no real time or place nailed down, I was at a bit of a loss as to where to start looking for ideas.  There are TONS of illuminations out there, and when you've got "use your judgement, I trust you!" as your guidelines, it can get intimidating.  FAST.

So, I poked The Laurel Brain of Awesome and Niceness (really, she's amazing.  And REALLY sweet.  And doesn't mind me asking six million questions, thank God).  She did a bit of thinking and mentioned that the event falls on the feast of Michaelmas.  From Wikipedia: "Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel (also the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September. Because it falls near the equinox, it is associated in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days. In medieval England, Michaelmas marked the ending and beginning of the husbandman's year, George C. Homans observes: "at that time harvest was over, and the bailiff or reeve of the manor would be making out the accounts for the year."^[1]"

So, she suggested maybe using St. Michael, at least for the heavy scroll, and I think it's a fabulous idea!  After doing some research, though, I'm going to use the Archangel Michael for the light scroll, St. Sebastian for the archery scroll and St. George and the Dragon for the heavy scroll.

Below are some of the images I've been looking at for the scrolls.  (Yes, St. Sebastian is usually depicted as a human pincushion in his undies.)

The Archangel Michael.  Yes, that's a dragon.  Evidently, St. George was not the only dragon-slayer. 

This is a very modern take on it, I think but it's still GORGEOUS.

St. George and the Dragon.  I REALLY like this one.

St. Sebastian.  I think I like this St. Sebastian the best.  And yes, he's always in his undies, doin' the Human Pincushion.

I think this is the most striking Archangel Michael I've ever seen.  I'm in total love with this.

An awesome Archangel and Dragon.  I think if I didn't include the wings, this would make a decent St. George.

An amazing Archangel Michael. 

It's a pub sign, but still.  WOW.

I'm guessing this is a post-period Russian icon, but it's still a great depiction of St. George and the Dragon.

St. Sebastian.  I don't think I like this one as much.

The last St. Sebastian.

So, there was this mid-centry modern buffet...

That I figured I'd try as a kitchen island.  When I picked it up, it seemed to be in pretty good, solid shape.  No HUGE areas of peeling veneer (at least not that I noticed right then...), no rotting wood, the bottom looked nice, and it was a go.

I suck at taking pictures of projects, so you'll just have to pretend you can see all the steps.  Oh, and pretend you don't see my disaster of a deck.  That is SO getting pressure washed and painted this fall...

 So, I wasn't originally going to put the finished project up front, but Blogger had other ideas...

The doors, primed and ready for that first coat...              Aaaaaand the first coat.

It shall be mine!

I'll be picking up the buffett/island thing tomorrow.  We shall see how it looks. 

So, if my kitchen had an island...

 Normally I can't stand mid-century furniture, but I think with some black paint, and some granite tile on top...

 I'm wondering if I can fill in that huge circle spot...  Or maybe a really spiffy knob would help...

However, I think this would be good storage for the grill and the mixer and rice cooker (which makes pretty spiff cauliflower, by the way).

Any of these granite tiles would look good, I think, although the middle one is closest to our faux-granit countertops.

Since the tutorial *was* a bit confusing...

 Make an "envelope" of fabric.  (I used paper here because I have no fabric at work.)

 Squish it so that the side seam lays on top of the bottom, where a seam would be, if you'd used two pieces of fabric, and so that it forms a pointy bit.  Stitch across that pointy bit, perpendicular to the seam.

 Cut said pointy bit off, so that you only have a seam allowance.

Ta da!  Boxy bottom on a bag.  Hope that helps!