Chalkboard Notepads

 We are anxiously anticipating the opening of the mall that our booth space is in....

gathering up some things to sell and making some things to sell....

 This is a batch of chalkboard notepads....

 The small ones we sold at Winsome Cottage...

 These come with a small leather strap that holds the chalk pencil....

The larger ones in the back are a new size and shape, and I have another spinoff idea from these I'd like to try that's a different look...

Not enough time for all the things we 'd like to make!!!

Factory Cart *Nutting Truck Co.*

 Our first large item for sale....
this will go into our booth space 
(unless someone snatches it up before then) 
*this cart has sold*
which is scheduled to open April 1st 

 A factory cart from the Nutting Truck Co....

 Cleaned up and sealed with many coats of polyurethane...
It's ready to go right into someones living room or mud room...or what a cool toddler boy's bed....

 Patina to spare and still sporting it's original "Nutting" label....

 Wonderful industrial piece...with cast iron wheels...

Wouldn't you love to hear the stories this piece could tell????
Visit our Facebook page for more info and pricing....
*SOLD*

Assembling Molded Leather Handbag

This is assembling the leather purse after molding the front piece.  You can see the post on molding the leather here...

I have all my pieces cut, edges beveled, and stitching holes punched.  The small pieces in the bottom right corner are already dyed with the Fiebing's (leather dye) in Tan.

The hole is punched in the front of the bag for a button stud to be screwed in after dying and sealing the leather...

Here the pieces have all been dyed with two coats of the Fiebing's in Tan.  I use a rag to rub it on so you get some variation in the color with darker and lighter areas....

Here you can see the button stud screwed in to the hole that was punched earlier...

We are lucky enough to have a Tandy Leather store close by.  The gentleman we talked with highly recommended this to finish and seal it and I have to say I really like it.  It is the consistency of vaseline and you apply this with a rag as well.  It doesn't really give a "shiny" finish but you can buff it once it's dry and it has a very nice sheen to it.

Molding a Leather Handbag

We just stitched a new leather purse---

This one is a little smaller than the first one 

(I got as a Christmas gift)

and it's shaped a little different....

So I thought I 'd share some photos of the whole process starting with molding the leather...

Above is a photo of the wood mold my husband made --

you can see a bit of a gap between the two pieces to allow for the thickness of the leather.

The leather piece is cut to fit the general shape and size-- enough to go down around the sides of the wood mold with quite a bit extra...

(this you can see better in photos further down...)

The leather is then thoroughly soaked in water and it becomes very pliable and soft...

The top edge of the leather and mold are lined up and then the leather is tacked down on each side...

Here you can see how much extra leather there is as it wraps down around the side.... 

Using a razor knife he's cutting out around the corners and bends...this is the same idea as clipping your corners when you sew.  The notches allow the leather to bend and flex around the corners better....

This part takes time and patience.  You have to keep working the leather around the mold cutting a little bit at a time to make sure that when you clamp on the top wooden piece of the mold you don't get folds and wrinkles in the leather.

Once all the corners have been clipped, the top part of the mold is clamped down around the wet leather and left to dry.  Ours was dry enough to take off the mold after about a day of drying....

Here you can see the scribe line which is made with a pair of dividers.  It makes a light indention into the leather and gives you a straight line to cut by 

Using the razor knife, the excess leather is all cut away as you cut on the line scribed by the dividers.  We also wet the leather at this point and stamped our flying "V" on the bottom right corner of the bag...
I have more photos of the assembly process I'll be sharing too...

"My One Word" tags

A sweet lady I go to church with sent me a message asking if I would make her some charms...

She's a creative soul as well, and wanted to make her own finished piece so I only made the charms this time.

She decided to participate in this idea from My One Word  
 Instead of making many resolutions for the year, the idea is to really focus on one thing you want to strive for or work towards by choosing one word....

Her one word was "moxie" and Psalms 37:3-6 is her Bible verse....

So this is her instagram photo of the finished charm that she can move from piece to piece as she wants.
This was a fun project especially since we collaborated to complete it.

Grandmother's Necklace

 A hand stamped sterling, brass, and copper necklace with the names of her grand kids....

 A little seed pearl for some added interest...

Another personalized gift item made for a Grandmother----

Hand Stitched Leather Wallet

 A young man we know just graduated from firefighting academy. 
His parents wanted one of our hand stitched leather wallets to give him as a gift....

 My husband made this one, and it turned out much nicer than our first attempt I think....  

Working out some of the kinks....

 He didn't mold this one as much as he did the first.  Just used a stack of several cards to shape it instead of using the wood mold .....

This is a smaller version of the cell phone wallet we make....
A nice "Guy" gift for the man in your life...

Handmade Doll Miss Kate

 These little ladies are so much fun to make....they each have their own little personality!  Each one is made by hand from start to finish with it's own unique dress....no two are alike...

 This is Miss Kate...

 She has a pony tail in the back and a sassy, little pink and orange polka dotted dress....

She'd make a wonderful gift for the little girl (or big girl...) in your life....

Hand Stamped Leather Anniversary Bracelet

This leather wrap bracelet went to Tennessee....

 Her mother-in-law goes to church with me and asked me to make this as a birthday gift....

so I've been waiting to share until I knew she had given it to her...

 The brass circle tag has their anniversary...

Each of the small sterling rectangles has their initials....

A very personal and unique gift....

Reeses Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies

 A friend of mine was talking about these cookies when we were together the other day...

she found the recipe HERE....

And they are soooooo tasty...

I made  them(without the banana chips) to take to our church group meeting the other night....

Here's the recipe below because these need to be shared people....

3/4 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

1 c. chocolate chips

1 c. reeses pieces

1 c. dried banana chips, broken

Instructions

1. In a bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and pudding mix and set aside. In a large mixing bowl cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and honey and beat again. Slowly add the dry ingredients, being careful not to over mix. Stir in the chocolate chips, reeses, and banana chips by hand. (you can leave out the banana chips if you don't like those, or substitute pretzels or chips)
2. Drop by tablespoon onto a baking sheet, leaving 2 inches in between each cookie. Bake at 350* for 10 minutes. Cool on pan for 3-4 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. Store in a tightly covered container.

Handmade Doll

 Meet Miss Clara....the latest handmade doll...

She will be going into our very own booth!

We are getting ready to start selling our things from a booth at a new antique mall opening down the road from us...

 Excited to start out on this new adventure!  We'll see what happens...it's a little scary too.  Wondering if we can do this successfully or not.

But you never know if you don't try--

 and God opened this door wide so we're going to take a big, deep breath and go through it....