Ashley's House

Tomorrow there will be an event to raise money for a project very close to our hearts. They are raising money for a smoke trailer used in training children of all ages what to do in the event of a fire.
Ashley Weir was Mira's very close friend all through school. From third grade on.
We will be donating 50% of our profits to the Ashley Weir Scholarship Fund. So I hope we do well, so we have something to give.
They already have the trailer and take it to schools or anywhere people want them to bring it to teach children about fire. They really want to get a flat screen T.V. and a DVD player for it. They play educational material during the tours.
There will also be a table set up with prints of Jessi Evans Art With the proceeds going to the Jessi Evans Scholarship Fund. Another girl that left us way too soon, I still can't type about her without choking on the words. So anyone within the vicinity of Norris City Crossroads church come on out and help support these causes.
God Bless!
~Ginger

Bread Yet?

   Between Craft Shows and sewing it seems I am spinning in circles. It has been a wish of mine to make real home started sourdough with no packaged yeast. Just the water and flour. It has finally happened. Tuesday was the first time I felt it was stable enough to use. So I carefully followed all of the instructions for bread using just my own homemade starter and after hours and hours my rolls were in the oven. ..... I went back to my sewing room, i had been working on several things in there all day. BIG NO-NO. I forgot I was cooking. One hundred and five (105) minutes later as I walked up the hall, The aroma hit me. Fresh bread! Oh man, so disappointed in myself. It did not burn, it dried. Like pottery. Fortunately as I was making the starter instead of throwing away the excess I kept one other starter, so I could give some away. It is so simple if anyone wants to do it. Here is what you have to do.
   One cup warm water to one cup of flour. Stir it up well, cover and set on top the refrigerator (preferably in glass container) until it gets all bubbly and smells yeasty (24 hours). If it isn't bubbly just wait. According to everything I have read it can happen in 12 to 36 hours.  I have a starter friendly climate and mine did well. After it is bubbly feed it 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water. Wait again until it is bubbly. You might have water on top, that is fine (called hooch) just pour it off or stir it in. I kept mine. Now the next time it bubbles divide it in half. Throw half away and feed the other 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup warm water. Instead of throwing mine away - I made another starter.
   After you have done this several times and it is obviously a good healthy starter it is time to feed it again then putting it in the refrigerator. Feed it once a week with 1/2 C f;our and 1/2 C water. Throwing 1/2 away before feeding.
   To make your bread take the starter out and feed it 1 C flour and 1 C water let it sit on the counter until it is bubbly all the way through to the bottom. This is called a sponge. Make sure it is bubbly on the bottom too, it will look like a slow boiling cream soup or something. (you won't see it boiling, it just looks like it has been)  After the sponge is ready take 2 C of it and put in a bowl with 2 T soft butter 2 t salt and 5 t sugar, mix it up and start adding flour until you have a soft dough. Mine has taken anywhere from 2 to 4 Cs. Not sure why such a difference. Just use the dough consistency to get the proper amount, not the recipe. Barely dry enough to be able to knead. Knead for about 10 minutes.or until a finger hole poked in pops right back out. Let sit until it doubles in size. Punch it down, shape into a loaf and let rize again. Sourdough start with no added yeast takes longer to rise. A LOT longer to rise. Best to start in the morning or let the last rising rise overnight.
   My best advice is to not sew once you pop it in the oven.
   Enjoy!

Crochet? Anyone?

Our event today was rather slow. Things just did not work out as planned. Not anyone's fault, just the way it goes sometimes.
  So we had other sorts of fun instead. One woman was teaching some crochet stitches to another woman. Several other vendors watched this interaction with some amusement. If you have never watched someone get crochet lessons, it might be worth your time. ;)
  Tomorrow is supposed to be another show if it isn't raining. Maybe it will be a bit better..
God Bless

~Ginger

Little Doggy Ruffs

  We have an event tomorrow to raise money for a local animal rescue. We wracked our brains and Mira finally asked me if I could make some doggy cuffs. She even came up with the label idea. I have seen dog leg warmers before although usually crocheted or knitted. So I made one and we put it on Thea. She did not mind it at all and when she would take it off she brought it back to Mira to put back on her. I did not get many made.  Oh well..  This is something I think I will continue to make..
God Bless.
~Ginger

Work, work, work, or not.

 I have been wanting to get a lot of items made up for our next two events. It just seems something happens everyday. There are so many things I want to blog about yet it seems there is never enough time. My sewing room is almost finished, just have one more cabinet and table to move back here. Things will be much easier with it all in the same place. Tomorrow evening we will be setting up in Carmi for Saturdays show. Then in one week we will have another event here in town. I would like to post some pictures of our displays, however if I remember correctly this weeks event will have limited space. We will see.
God Bless
~Ginger

Duct Tape and Baling Wire

  A silly fun fact I thought I would share. What is in a name? We changed our name from one that did not indicate what we did. Through long hard discussions we decided on ~ Emporium ~ It has a nice ring to it and denotes many items. Mira makes many things including her duct tape line. She does wooden wall decor, canvas wall decor, lanyards, beaded everything, crochet and so much more. I myself sew about anything, crochet about anything, do bead work and I bend baling wire. Yes! Baling wire or electric fencing. I bend it into rings, bracelets, and more. My favorite bent wire item though is my tree. So when we were trying to come up with a name Duct Tape and Baling Wire was at the forefront (for a minute or two anyway). We were afraid people would be disappointed when they realized we did not really carry nuts and bolts etc. ~Ginger

Another OOPS Day.

  For weeks I have known Ellie's leaf collection was due yet I could not remember to grab my printer. (It was on loan to someone) So here it is the last day. We had a visitation to go to. Meds to go fetch for Ells only to get home to find her leaves in a horrible mess, labels missing, everything in a jumble. At some point I might explain about Ellie, she does not really process information like we do. It did not occur to her when the leaves fell out of the "pressing" book that they needed to be laid flat again and the labels put back with them separately....- Then we discovered her list and instructions were not here. Her Dad had just lost a close friend so I hated to bother him, I did finally call him but he was not back home yet. A friend finally told me to just Facebook it. Within 5 minutes I had the list.
The End
Maybe tomorrow I can craft or sew again. Fred lost her clothes again so I need to make something else sparkly..
Good night..
May God Bless..