Sylvia's Simple Shots

 This tealight candle holder is likely the replacement for my Advent Wreath which is broken parts.

I bought it for $5 at a Thrift Store between Christmas and New Years. I like the lines, the fact that it holds 5 candles, and that there is space below to add decor for occasions throughout the year.  It will stay out all year long.  At a thrift store on Tuesday I found these beautiful tealight holders in green, red and amber glass.  Gorgeous blown glass holders. They are Christmas colors.

I have a year to find other candle holders.  I would like to have crackle glass ones again, crystal would be nice, cut glass as well.  What I want is the shadows on the wall which I had with the other one.  I recognize that my lifestyle is going for downsizing so this will be smaller than the other one. 

I bought this Stampin Up punch recently.  I think I will be making watercolor ornaments for Christmas cards and this was a good price.

It is from the Gleaming Ornaments Punch pack which included 2 punches and a stamp set.

I will be designing my own images to trace onto the watercolor punchies. 

You can see I was working of the lines for the hanger on the right hand one.

I was looking for a small scissor sharpener for my embroidery scissors.  I visited a couple of fabric stores and found this one.

I would say it is not the top quality but it has improved the sharpness of the blades so I can cut embroidery thread reliably.

The price was not as high as the Fiskars one I was looking for but the same basic design.

It has improved my experience so for that I am grateful.

It is dangerous to go into a fabric store.

I did come out with 3 small remnant pieces for about $1 each. Check out those flowers on the lace! I hope I can dye them, we will have to see.

The other two pieces are 100 cotton so they will dye nicely. Gauzy fabric to create texture easily on my big embroidery project.

I did buy heat and bond hemming for quick basting of my embroidery projects.

Another World War II story.  The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff.

I love strong female leads and Eleanor Trigg is no exception. This story runs in 2 time lines - 1944 London and Paris during the war and 1946 New York just after the war.

She works for the Special Operations Executive in London for the British Forces. Their male agents are being captured. There is the language and they don't fit in as well as needed. Eleanor is "just a secretary" but she proposes using women which would be less visible. Once the project is approved, she recruits female agents who will be working in occupied France assisting the resistance forces. Radio operators, couriers, and as it turns out much more dangerous tasks. 

Marie and Josie are 2 of these women.  They are sent to Scotland to train in the highlands. Combat, firing a gun, repairing radios, endurance training, learning cyphers to code messages being transmitted and received. 

Grace finds a suitcase at Grand Central Station one day and inside finds photos of 12 young women.  She is compelled to take the photos and she is not sure why.  She eventually learns the suitcase belonged to Eleanor who was killed that day just outside the station. When she returns to the station to put the photos back the suitcase is gone. 

She does eventually learn the names of the girls most of which perished in France just before the D-Day battle.  She learned who Eleanor Trigg was and her purpose for being in New York that day.

Very good book.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found a few things at the Thrift Store this week.

There Christmas section upstairs was open so I had to have a look.  I found a PartyLite bird tealight holder. I own a silver one and a ruby one so this will make three. Perfect.

The little LED Christmas tree will come in handy and all it needed was a new battery.  The string of snowflakes works.  All of this for less than $2. 

I have been looking for a swivel peeler for about 6 weeks. When I visited one of my sisters she just used the peeler to create carrot curls instead of grating it.  I thought it was a genius idea.  

My old stiff peeler did not so such a great job.  The ceramic peeler was just what I wanted and for under $1.

My sister and I decided we needed to swap things that were going in both directions. We decided to each take a bit of a drive in meet in the middle.

We had lunch at Wendy's then hit the 2 Thrift Stores in town.  I found this tea strainer brand new in the box for less than $1.  I have been looking for one since I misplaced mine. It retails for over $10 so that was a bargain.

The shape could not be better, a little teapot shape.  I have not seen one of these before.That will pair great with Lemon loose tea I found recently and really enjoy.

I also found pillowcase for cotton for the bags I am going to sew.

My trusty 2" circle punch bit the dust while I was preparing tags recently.

When Michaels had a 40% coupon in mid October I bought a new one. I do have thinlits I could cut circles with but the punch is so handy.

It really comes in handy for a lot of things.

I have decided to buy my bread at Cobs. Yes, the price is high but it is very good quality bread.  I can pay the same price at my regular grocery store and not get the same quality.

I find with this bread, I can cut the size of slice I want.  I can eat 1 slice and not feel triggered to eat 3 more slices which I found happens with the grocery store bread.

The loaves are bigger than my regular store and it is very wholesome and very good.

It is more expensive but I eat less so it works out.

This is the Country Grain Loaf.

A small little book with a great story. The Music Box by T. Davis Bunn.

Angie Picard as moved from the city to the mountain country and her home town. She is a teacher and enjoys her vocation. She has had a lot of challenges in her 31 years. She returned as a young widow.

Melissa Nealey is a newcomer and is quiet and shy and in the eight grade. She and her father Carson have moved from the city. She loves music and has a music box left to her by her mother when she passed 3 years ago.

In a crisis, Angie steps in to help Carson and Melissa through a health crisis.  She cares and loves on them and much healing takes place. 

Melissa and Angie share their love of music and life brings healing to Angie as well. 

The traveling was good to attend the reception Saturday afternoon.  I met a couple of my aunts there and shared with the other artists in attendance.

The 12x12 pieces were hung by color.  There are many wonderful works in the show.  It was a good time to connect with others in the group.

I did visit Michaels again this week with another 40% coupon for basic card making supplies. 

Fairy Light Memento

After Mom's Funeral in April and the internment of both Mom and Dad I felt a need to have a memento to remind me of their love, commitment and my gratitude for having them in my life for over 60 years.

I love glass and have enjoyed looking at vintage, crystal and depression glass on several You Tube channels. 

I decided that I wanted a Fairy Light as my memento.  I could light it when I wanted comfort and a tangible reminder of them.  The vintage ones are hard to find and very expensive. Contemporary examples are more reasonably price.  One of them is by Fifth Avenue Crystal and those still were running about $100 on line which I was not prepared to do the online thing. I could not find anything in my area on Kijiji so I put out the word what I was looking for as most folks did not know.

About mid May I got a call from one of my sisters that she had found a Fifth Avenue one for $30.00 on Facebook. I said YES!  She was kind enough to pick it for me.  Towards the end of May I was able to collect it from her house but with the craziness going at my house it stayed in the box for a while longer.

I did start my plans for how I wanted to decorate it and light it.

This some pictures from on line because I did not take pics of mine before I started.

As you can see the base where the tealight would sit is not flat so I needed something to fill in that space and allow my tealight to sit nicely and safely.  I looked at several ideas for something small and clear like vase filler or seed beads.  Vase filler was going to be way more than I needed and clear sead beads with out silver lining were not available.  Durign the few days I spent with my sister in late June we visited a Dollarama and I found these.

These clear plastic diamonds were small enough to fill in the space, they were clear and the price was right.

Once I was home, I poured the bag of the smallest diamonds in the base and then set the clear plastic tealight holder on top.

It was perfect. They filled the cavity below the tealight exactly the way I needed.

The bottom right hand photo is seeing the candle wax completely melted in the clear plastic tealight holder and you can see the diamonds below.

There is the risk of spilling the diamonds out of the base as they are just sitting there but that is okay.

I knew I wanted green and blue glass beads so the light would go through them.  Dad's favorite shirts which Mom made for him were forest green and Mom's favorite color was blue.  Not cobalt but a true blue.

The Fairy Light offered 2 places to put some sort of decoration.  The indent on the shade and the one just above the base.

Here's my first attempt with EBeads on the base.  It's hard to tell in this photo but we received a small locket at the funeral.  We cleared Mom's stuff at Easter and we had slated her clothes to be donated. When the time came my sister could not send Mom's favorite dress to the thrift store and she decided to make it into mememtos for the kids and grandkids.  She put a small piece in the lockets for the boys and the girls received a scarf from the fabric.

The locket is still a memento from both Mom and Dad.

During this time my mind was working on what to buy for beads.  I did enjoy the Fairy Light a few times lit late at night.  

As you can see in the above photo only the shade is lit with the tealight at the top of the base.  I made the decision a few years ago to limit my use of real candles and switched to wax for scent.  I do have a few real tealight candles because sometimes in photography nothing but a real flame will do.

The thought crossed my mind that if I could find a light which the Fairy Light could be placed on then it would not be fire and the base would be lit as well.  

The brainstorming began.  I have an etched crystal block which has a LED light in the base which lights it up. Okay, that one has several colors of lights that rotate through - red, green, yellow and blue I think.  Well I knew I did not want colored lights. Now, I want a white LED light round base.  I put that into Google and stuff came up. They do sell LED light bases for crystal and glass figurines, etched glass items, and gemstones etc.  Again, none easily available in retail stores in my area. But I persisted!  Eventually, I found round puck light which can be placed under your upper cabinets.  They are battery operated and light when you press the center of the puck. I brought a tracing of the Fairy Light base with me to make sure that it would stand safely on this puck. I was a the big orange store which on line indicated there was 16 in stock.  After asking several customer service reps for assistance I received what I needed. A couple of guys checked the inventory and sure enough there was supposed to be some in stock.  A sharped eyed young man said there the right number on that box way up there! Up they went and brought down the box, I check the diameter against my tracing and walked out of there with 3 for less that $20 and the AAA batteries were included.

This is starting to fall into place.  Beads are next.

I decided that Michaels would by my starting place for beads.  The day I was there the shelves were mostly empty.  Supply chain issues? I don't know. I found some green faceted beads in the size that would work but no blue ones.  Another girl in the aisle said she was going to visit a Michaels in a city south of ours as there were fewer customers there and hoped the selection would be better.  After giving that some thought I decided to follow here lead.  Into the car and headed south on the big highway.

Sure enough, there was the same green ones in the the 4 different sizes and cobalt blue ones in the 8mm size which were on sale! One of the green strings was 8mm. Perfect.  They were faceted.

I used strong beading cord left over from my Christmas tree project. 

I placed the green and blue glass faceted beads alternating the colors until I had enough to go around the shoulder of the shade.  I tied my knot then added a few more for dangles.  I added an EBead and a silver crimp bead at the end to keep the beads in place.

 

I chose to use silver lined EBeads for the string of beads on the base of the Fairy Light. Again, I chose deep green and cobalt blue for color. I tied the cord tight with 3 knots.

I added the hinged locket on the string and let it sit over the knots.  That worked out really nice.

One of my sisters had the lockets in her stash of craft stuff and brought them with her.  It was great to be able to have something from that day.

As you can see it is hinged so I may put a bit of Mom's dress in it.

I

I am so happy with how this project turned out. It took almost 3 months for all the pieces to come together but it is so gorgeous.  I will enjoy it for years to come.

I love you Mom and Dad!

Small Gift - Oil Diffusers - Felt Stacks

These are my felt stack oil diffusers.  I up cycled tealight holders to hold a stack of felt circles.  The circles were cut 1.5 inches in diameter and stacked until they filled the cavity of the holder.

 I believe this one has 10 layers of royal purple felt. I added a silver flower accent topped with a 12mm crystal glass faceted bead.  The purple thread runs from the bottom through the accents then back down to the bottom of the felt stack where it was securely tied.  The heavy glass holder ensures that oil drops don't damage the surface the diffuser sits on.  

I worked with a winter theme for this diffuser.  I chose a blown glass tealight holder.  I cut 1.5 inches felt circles in turquoise, aqua and light blue felt and layered these into the stack.  I topped the stack with a white diecut snowflake and a 12mm clear crystal glass bead.  The accents are held in place with a turquoise thread.  Starts at the bottom through the accents and back down the other side of the bead then back down to the bottom.  The thread is knotted securely fastening the layers together.

This diffuser features pink and grey felt stack.  The holder is a clear glass heavy with smooth sides.  The felt stack was topped with a white diecut daisy and a 12mm clear crystal glass faceted bead. This accent is held in place with grey thread which starts on the bottom, thread through the accents and the goes back down the stack and is tied securely on the bottom.  The glass holder protects the surface from oil drop damage.

Small Gifts - Oil Diffusers - One of a Kind

Martini - I created this unique essential oil diffuser with a small martini glass.

I dyed a felted wool ball with a couple of shade of ink.  A few drops of each Nick Bantock Sap Moss and Chartreuse Leaf was added to water to cover the ball. The ball was wet with clear water then immersed into the dye.  It was left there for a half hour.  I squished some of the dye out so it would dry more easily.

The first one I dyed were left overnight and still had to be put in the microwave so this one just went directly there.  With about 15 seconds bursts and cooling down in between it took a few minutes to dry it.

I then put a long round toothpick through the "olive". I then punched a small circle of red felt. To attach the pimento to the olive I put a small green ebead on the bottom end of a green thread and pushed it through the olive with a sharp needle. I just caught the red piece and brought the thread back down to the bottom.  I made sure I went passed the toothpick on one side going up and other side going down.  The thread was knotted just above the ebead then the thread was run through the olive and cut to the surface to hide the end. The glass protects the surface from oil drops.

Mickey Mouse - I found this authentic vintage Disney Mickey Mouse candle holder at the thrift store. I cleaned up the old wax and removed the paint on the outside.

I cut a piece of black felt for the bottom of the holder having the ears and face now black. I put 2 black felt balls in the ear spaces.  

For the nose I put an aqua felt ball to which I sewed on a black wooden bead to finish off the nose.  The nose was threaded to the base felt shape when I attached the nose bead.

I imagine that the nose is where I put the drops of essential oil but it is all felt so it could be placed anywhere.  The glass holder protects the surface from oil drips.

Christmas Tree - I chose this clear glass tea light holder in the shape of a Christmas tree.

I created a felt stack of 1.5 inch circles to fill the tealight space. It took 7 layers to make it high enough and alternated red and green circles.

I added a silver metal flower which could represent a poinsettia in the center top of the stack then added a red polka dot glass bead in the middle.  These accents were stitched to the stack with a red thread which runs the full depth of the stack.  The thread was well knotted on the bottom and tied off

The diffuser can stand as shown or lie flat on a surface.

I've called this one Caffe Latte. I made this oil diffuser with a 2.5 oz Bodum Praveena double wall glass.  I cut many layers of brown felt from 1" at the bottom to 2" at the top to represent the coffee.  Just making the next layer just a bit bigger than the last one. A lot of cutting by hand. Then I added the the cream layer again going a bit bigger.  I added the cinnamon heart on the top with an amber sparkly glass bead on top.  The stack was stitched together with brown thread. It looks pretty sharp. It would fit right in for scents in the kitchen.

Aqua Bouquet - This oil diffuser features felt flowers in a fine art glass Ulpukka bud vase made by Iittala in Finland.

The felt flowers are aqua with silver glass e beads as stamens and threaded onto twisted silver wire. Each flower also has a silver bead at the end of the wire to ensure no rough spots. 

The wood spiral in the vase helps to provide structure to the composition. 

Place your favorite essential oil on the felt flowers and enjoy the scent in your space whether that is the office, the living room, or the bedroom.  This vase will fit in almost any place.

Super happy with these one of a kinds.