Stories of family, creativity, and diverse distractions.

Author: Michelle Page 33 of 40

The Mouli Salad Maker – kitchen gadgets from the past

There are any number of tools that let a cook slice and grate foods. I have a couple of hand graters and a food processor. But one of my favorite tools if I don’t have a lot of food to process is my Mouli. It “slices, chops, shreds, grates, and shaves ice” according to it’s manual.

Image shows a metal kitchen tool with 5 discs with various patterns of opening.
The Mouli Salad Maker with it’s five cutting discs.

It really is a Thing-a-Ma-Jig! Another beading tool.

In my last few posts, here, here, and here, I’ve been talking about beads and beading projects. Here’s a look at another tool that allows you to do interesting things with wire and beads.

Image shows a metal board with holes in it. Some of the holes have pegs of assorted sizes and wire is wrapped around the pegs.
The wire jig and some wire.

A quick project: Memory wire bracelet

Last week, I showed some of the tools I use while making jewelry in this post. One of my favorite quick projects are memory wire bracelets. Here is the process that I use.

The image shows several beaded bracelets on a tan background. The dominant colors in each bracelet are aqua blue, yellow, red and purple.
Most of these are single wrap, but you can do multiple wraps like the purple one.

Generations in family photos: a glimpse back in time

It’s neat to see pictures of family gatherings, but I really enjoy those with multiple generations in one picture. Browsing through the pictures, I found a couple of really good ones, including one with 4 generations!

Beading – Tools of the Trade

In this post, I talked about how I store my beads. I use them to make jewelry and to embellish quilts and other projects. My Eternity quilt, that I talked about is this post, uses beads as the major stars in the galaxy.

The image shows two hammers and several pairs of pliers and a small hand drill laid out on a felt mat.
The major tools, laid out on a bead mat: ball peen hammer and leather head hammer; a pin-drill and reamers; diagonal cutters, round-nose pliers, needle-nose pliers, metal flat-nose pliers and plastic flat-nose pliers.

A visit to an old fashioned country store – Durfee’s Dry Goods

Aaron Bradford Durfee was born on October 8, 1891. Bud was my (Michelle’s) great-grandfather. I never got to meet him, but I did get to spend time with my great-grandmother, Anna Hardy Durfee, in Sundance, Wyoming where they lived since 1944.

Beads, beads, beads…..and more beads????

When I was looking for a good storage solution for my beading supplies, I searched through a lot of options. I wanted something that would hold a variety of items and keep it organized. I ended up using containers designed for beads and containers meant to hold fishing flies. There are plastic boxes and watchmakers tins. Here’s a look around my beading stash.

The image shows several small round tin containers with clear lids. the containers have an assortment of beads inside.
These are watchmakers tin containers.

Sometimes the shirttail is shorter than you think…

Walt had a good post on the fun of finding shirttail relations when you are doing family history. Sometimes, it isn’t as far a trip as you might think.

I was browsing some pictures and found a picture of Georgina with one of her cousins, her cousin’s future husband and some of his brothers. Delores Wellman married Cletus Freitag on February 14, 1939.

That’s a spicy (or not so spicy) meatball!

I’ve already done a couple of posts, here and here, about prep cooking. Here’s another favorite – meatballs!

Image shows a rack of meatballs on a foil covered pan.
Cooked and ready to enjoy!

Why not to wait until the last minute to get ready…..

New masks!

It was a busy week last week, getting ready for GenCon. I spent some time making us a few new masks for the event. I didn’t think it would take as long as it did, so was finishing them up at 9 pm the day before the event.

I wanted a pattern that would showcase the fabrics well, so found this new pattern online. If you do the measurements and move to the next size if you are close to the top end, you get a great fit. I did add a wire using a slightly different technique.

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