Quick and dirty window screen and a towel rack face lift

So I have this older window in my bathroom, that I can’t afford to replace yet and it has no screen in it.  So  came up with this quick and cheep window screen using things from around the house or bought cheaply from the dollar store.  The first thing collect all your required tools and supplies, I used some tulle I had lying around for the “screen” part and some square plant stakes from the dollar store.

so now we measure and cut the pieces, I used my handy dandy wood glue and a random nail I had around the house to hold the corners together.

next I draped the tulle over my frame.

I then popped some staples around the edge (just like recovering a chair) and trimmed the tulle up nice and neat

when the hole thing was dry I popped it into the window.  I can now have my window open with out the bugs.

  

This is the before and after of the little hand-me-down shelf I use for my towels in the bathroom. It started out as a bras colour but over the years was starting to look really .. well unattractive.  did I mention I like tremclade all most as much as duck tape!  Well I wiped all the dust and dirt off and started spraying .. a can and a half latter it was white and looks much better in the bathroom that is purple and blue.

I Finally got to wear it!

I thought I would do a quick post for my regency bib front dress. The Family and I went to Fort York, in Toronto, back in June for the War of 1812 celebrations.  I took my recently finished dress with me so I could get some pics of me wearing it in a setting of the same time period. Although the pics aren't so great I had a good time at the fort with the kids.

 

Me looking not so impress outside the officers mess.  While I was actually wearing my dress I found a few things that need shall we say adjusted... I need to make a tuck in the bodice so the shoulder will stop sliding down.

some of the volunteers that were roaming around

the Encampment, they had 200 tents set up that weekend

The York Regency Dancers, they are based at Fort York. 

They were a  lovely group off people we had dance lesions while we were there.

And a picture from one of my budding photographers!

Homemade Lactose Free Butter

 

Well this week I stumbled upon a book at the library on country cooking, and thought I would give butter making a whirl (lol no pun intended). Turns out it supper easy and pretty quick too.

What you need/ I used:

Food processer

Heavy Cream (AKA Whipping Cream in Canada)

water

bowl

Cheese cloth 

 

 

 

So I was absolutely gitty in the store when I discovered that they now have lactose free Cream, hence the lactose free butter.  So you start by setting up you food processer with your chopping blade.  Pour your cream into the food processor and start, my food processor only has a high and a low setting, so I used High.

 

 

 

 

After a few minutes you’ll notice it’s turned in to whipped cream (haha duh right  :) ), You want to keep whipping it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You want the buttermilk to separate from the fat, this only takes 5 – 10 minutes.  The fat turns itself into a ball and the milk will sit on the bottom.

 

 

 

Next you want to turn it out into your cheese cloth, I think I had about 4 layers or so sitting in my canning funnel so that the buttermilk can drain into the bowl underneath.  Now pick it up and give it a twist, you want to do this over your bowl.  You want to get as much of the buttermilk out as possible.

 

 

When you have got as much of the butter milk out as you can out need to rinse it, for this I took my butter still wrapped in the cheeses cloth and swished it a round in a bowl of water, give it a wring, I did this a few times.

 

The next step is to put into a mold of some sort, I have a collection of little silicone molds from the dollar store in varying shapes and sizes.  I line my mold with plastic wrap, for easy clean up, and storage.  So now push the butter into our mold, and place in the fridge to harden before you try and take it out of the mold.

 

    And the finished product, after about an hour in the fridge it hard enough to take out of the molds, I then wrap it in the plastic wrap that I lined the mold with and pop it back in the fridge or into the freezer.

Regency Bib Front Dress part VI

  

It’s  done! after many days of staring at it Finally picked it up and finished it.

I finally machine stitched the sleeves in, stitched the bodice to the skirt, and hand stitched in the lining around the arm holes and

along the skirt.

 

 

I finished hand sewing the side openings, and the button holes for the front , added all my buttons

I finished stitching down the Bib and added the ties as well.

And the finished dress :)

And from the back …