Sharbot Lake

We have returned from our second holiday at Sharbot Lake, Ontario this summer.  A handful of days with no electricity (no distractions), no running water on our site (what better excuse to lounge by the lake), cooking over an open fire and heating water to wash the (very few) dishes.  Going to bed early to read by lantern light.  Perfection.  Here's why we will be going back again and again...

Beautiful views...

Lovely areas to swim,

 

 or make a splash,

or meet a new friend.

 Celebrating a birthday with flat-pack items that can squeeze into an already overstuffed truck.

 Walking around, looking for signs of wildlife,

 and wondering what lives in little nooks and crannies,

 and why things are the way they are.

Checking out some interesting growth,

 and some unusual things we have never seen (incidentally, this is called Indian Pipe and is a sign of a healthy woodland...and it is the strangest plant I have ever seen in person).

And this is just a snippet of why we love the town of Perth so much.  This is INSIDE a building. We went into town the day it was supposed to rain at dinner time (which it did) so we wouldn't have to try to cook over a fire that wouldn't stay lit.  See...we learned from last time.

I hope you are all enjoying your holidays as well.

Back from Holidays

We have returned from our "long awaited" holidays and are back into our regular routine as of this morning.

Hard to come back when the view from your campsite looks like this:

 

 Can't wait to go back!

Tent weights...

...for craft shows and for camping.

I haven't done an outdoor show in years, but last year when visiting Artwalk I saw so many of the vendors tents blow over in the wind that I decided I needed some tent weights for my upcoming show in August.

I have seen people use cinder blocks, buckets of sand, jugs of water, work out weights, and pvc filled with cement.  You could purchase a variety of different weights (google it if you wish...the variety is pretty amazing), but you know me...I'm all about using what I have on hand.  Here is my version:

We have just finished replacing some metal and brick pillars on our front porch with wooden columns, so my husband generously offered to cut the pieces of pipe into 2 foot lengths for me.  They were already heavy as they were so I thought they would make a good start.

I had this bag of concrete left over in the basement from some other project,  I do believe it's about 3 or 4 dollars if you have to buy one.

The only thing I had to buy was this package of eye hooks.  I bought the biggest I could find, and a package of 5 cost about $4.00.

 I only mixed enough cement to fill one pipe at a time since I didn't want to mix the whole bag (the instructions are printed right on the bag if you haven't done it before).

I scooped the wet cement into my piece of pipe.  Make sure to use something long to tamp it down as you go.  You want to remove all of the air pockets and make it as heavy as you can.

I let the cement set a little before inserting the eye hook.  Give it a little jiggle to make sure all of the cement forms down around the threads.  In the picture above, the second one from the left is most solid.  In the future, I would sink them all that low.  The other ones can't really be pulled out, but they do wiggle a tiny bit.

The weights will be getting a test run on our "dining pavilion" (the canopy I will be using for my craft show) when we go camping in a few weeks.  That should determine if they are heavy enough as they are or if I need to make some more.  For the actual show, they will be wrapped in burlap or fabric and tied shut with a ribbon - you know, to make them look pretty.

For those of you anywhere near the area, here is a list of vendors that will be at the show.  There are going to be pioneer games for the kids as well as music and buskers and demonstrations of old-fashioned skills.  I'm quite looking forward to it.

Linking up with: Homemade Mondays over at Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity
                         From the Farm Blog Hop over at Fresh Eggs Daily
                         The Backyard Farming Connection
                         Eco kids Tuesday at Like Mama Like Daughter 

Working my way through my Grandmother's Stash

 

Around the time my grandmother turned 95 or so, she was no longer able to remain in her home full time.  She was able to keep her home, and go spend a day or so there at a time, but for the most part she was in a nursing home.  During one of her visits to her home, she packed up a rather large fabric stash for me and sent it my way via my parents.  She has since passed a way, and for a while, I couldn't bring myself to cut into most of the pieces.  Since then, though, I have been working my way through the stash bit by bit - because that is, after all, the reason she sent it to me in the first place.  Enter:  the picnic bowl cover I saw on Meadow Magic.  I thought the fabric pictured above would make a lovely set of picnic bowl covers...

  ...and also in the stash was this piece of quilted material that I used as the inner layer.  Exactly enough to make two covers.  I simply cut my two kinds of fabric to the same size as the quilted material, serged 3 edges, and flipped it inside out.  I then folded under the last edge and sewed it shut, continuing all the way around the rest of the square to make it neat and tidy.

 The picnic bowl cover at Meadow Magic used fabric loops at the corners with caribeener style clips to hold down the corners, but I wanted a quick project.  She also referred to one that uses grommets in the corners, but I didn't have any on hand.  What I did have on hand was a handful of alligator clips and a variety of red beads from my sister.

I put a bit of beading wire through the alligator clip, strung on a couple of beads, and viola!

I made two covers and then sewed the rest into a rather long tea towel.  I will need to make some smaller ones I think, since this one is on the largest bowl I own...I guess I wasn't thinking.

 Here's a shout out to Kathryn at Kathryn's Brain.  On her "things that work" post last week, she said that if you bite a match while cutting onions, your eyes won't water.  It reminded me that I had heard if you light a candle, your eyes won't water - a huge problem for me.  I cut all the onions on the board without my eyes watering, and N was mesmerized by how much the flame was crackling, snapping, and fizzing during the process.  And since he was in the kitchen...

 ...I put him to work...(he's on a stool there...he's growing, but he's not quite that tall yet!)

...so we could have two pots of soup instead of one.  Ta-la!

Linking up with: Stash Bash with Crunchy Catholic Momma
                         The HomeAcre Hop #7 at the self sufficient homeacre
                         Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder
                         Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia
                        

Using what I have - Camping Seats

A little while ago I found a fantastic idea for crate seats at a day in the life of miss kranz via pinterest. I thought they would be positively fantastic for camping...bring up the camping gear in them, and then sit on them once they are empty (or still full, whatever).

I happened to have some empty milk crates and a bunch of scrap materials so here we go:

I would guess that milk crates are standard size, so I am including my measurements.  You may have to adjust if you are using a different crate.

For each seat, you will need a 13" x 13" piece of wood for the top (or whatever the dimensions of your crate are) and a 12" x 12" piece for the insert (so the seat doesn't wiggle around, you know).  My husband happened to be out in the garage one day, so he willingly cut them for me from a trunk we had taken apart.  So far - all scrap.

Then I cut 13" x 13" squares from some 3 or 4" foam (this used to be a cushion on said trunk that was taken apart, but lately, the cat has been sleeping on it).

 It was pretty thick so I had to go through it layer by layer.  It took three passes to cut through it. 

By all means, feel free to use thinner foam depending on what you have around.  I had planned on adding a layer of quilt batting over the top to smooth the edges, but I was all out.  I did happen to have a baby blanket that had a stain on one end, so I cut out 4 squares 19" x 19" to layer on top instead.

The "blanket" goes on the bottom, then the foam, then your larger wood square on top.  Pull the blanket up snugly in the middle of one side and staple in place.  Then do the same to the middle of the opposite side, then the middle of the two remaining sides.  This will help make sure it is all neat and tidy and doesn't shift around while you work on the corners.

Keep the corners as neat as possible so that you don't have a problem with the second layer.

 It should look something like this...

I actually really really like them just like this...but they are for camping, so can you imagine how dirty they would get?

Now repeat the process with a nice sturdy fabric (I cut three squares from the old cushion I mentioned before, and one square that was left over from last week's floor pouf).  I cut this fabric a little bigger so I would have plenty to work with to make the corners neat even over the first layer.  Once your centers are stapled in place, pull the corner down, staple it, then tuck in and pull while it is held in place with the staples.

Last step: lay the 12" x 12" piece of wood in the centre and drill a screw into each corner.

I inset the screws to avoid drilling through too much fabric.  My plywood was 3/4" thick so I used 1 1/4" screws on three of the seats.  The seat with the thickest fabric (and not so tidy corners, I must admit) did not hold with 1 1/4" screws because there was just too much fabric in the corners.  I used 1 1/2" for that one, and I put a screw in the middle of the seat as well as the corners.

The 12" x 12" wood piece fits just perfectly inside the milk crate, while the rest of the seat sits on the rim.  It is sturdy, and quite comfortable actually....and it was all scrap/ re-use/ things I had on hand.  Total cost for 4 camping seats with storage:  $0.00.  If the fabric wears out, I just need to unscrew the 4 screws and change it.  I may consider doing something about the crate itself down the road...I am not overly fond of the red plastic, but it's camping, so I won't be picky!

Linking up with: Backyard Farming Connection Hop #19
                         Keep Calm Craft on over at Frontier Dreams
                         Eat Make Grow Blog Hop - no Buy February at Foy Update
                         stash bash over at Crunchy Catholic Momma
                         a new blog hop I found over at Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity
                         Creative Friday over at Natural Suburbia
                         The Homeacre Hop over at the Self-sufficient Homeacre 
                         Eco Kids Tuesday at Like Mama Like Daughter