The Mother Bear Project

This is the first bear or any stuffed animal for that matter I've made. I saw it on DIY Knitty Gritty and just had to make one. I've named her Luanna. I think she turned out pretty good considering the amount of uncertainty and questioning what I was doing. I have since bought some brown yarn and will try another bear, but I think I'll try it in the round to eliminate all the seaming; this will require steeking which I haven't done before though.

The Mother Bear Project
is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear.

The simple gift of a hand-knit bear with a tag signed by the knitter has touched children with the message that they are unconditionally loved.

Sweet as a Nectarine

It was a debauchery of drinking and canning this weekend. Friday night's drunkeness with Lance, ME and friends ended at about 3 AM after a quick visit by yours truly and Lance to Dave's place of work. It's amazing how much a horseshoe shaped street can really mess with a mind that's liquored up! Then finalizing the night with some very pathetic pool playing before crashing.

Saturday morning was a trip to the dermatologist for a quick 8:15 am check up. Yes, I know my eyes are bloodshot, but aren't I here for my skin? Ugh, that was enough.... home to bed! Got up at about 2-ish and shortly after went down to Eastern Market mostly to get some black cherries. I did get the cherries plus a few other things: A pretty bundle of Glads', a yellow plant of some sort, and a vendor was clearing out his peaches for $1 a case. Yes, a case! Cha-ching!

Oooh oooh, I'm gonna can some peaches. Oh wait, the side of the box there says nectarines. Hmmm. Well, still a good deal and there has to be a zillion things you can make with nectarines too. After Googling like mad I found several recipes and instructions for canning them albeit the instructions were for using pressure canners rather than a water boiling canner - such small details.

I made some awesome nectarine muffins which I found at the All Recipes site granted the recipe is suppose to be both nectarine and peaches but what the heck they are quite tasty! I bet these would be good with a little lemon and blueberries. I also made a Spiced Nectarine Cake which is very very tasty, but just a little wet. I'm still pondering over how to arrange the nectarine slices in a concentric circle. I wonder if I'd made my circles of fruit with the tips facing the sides rather than the middles if the sides would have held up better. Very good nonetheless and I wouldn't hesitate to make them again. Well that used up ohhh about 12 of the 40 or so nectarines. I canned 3 quarts which is to be determined at a later date whether or not that is a good idea; I do have that fear of one of my jars exploding and creating a huge mess... will one of these be the one? Canned nectarine update: I used 2 of the cans for various thing, but they didn't have the right consistancy and I wound up dumping the 3rd jar. It wasn't a complete failure, just not as good of a result as I'd hoped for. I gave 6 to the neighbor and 8 to Lance. There's about 20 still in my fridge... maybe I'll make more muffins for the GLR trip? Maybe some nectarine smoothies are in the future for this weekend. I wonder if I can freeze the slices for a short period of time. Oh, I also canned 6 jars of the Black Cherry jam, which I've come to really enjoy with toast.

Sunday was the "Free at Last" hash hared by Coxcycle in South Lyon prior to which Mark, Katie and Dave ran 12 or so miles. It was a good time and we all were eager to run up the tab at this uncommon "no hash cash" event.

More about cleaning Brass; Experiment

For the latest round of brass cleaning I decided to do some experimentation. I had read that not only will boiling your brass in baking soda remove the paint, but to shine up the brass you can boil it in ammonia, rub it with ketchup, rub it with Worcester sauce, and rub it with a lemon dipped in salt to name a few. So I tried everything but the lemon since I believe that was more for cleaning copper pots anyway.

I had two lock plates both of which I began by boiling off the paint in the baking soda. Then I polished one as I normal would using just Bar Keeper's Friend and the other I used several experiments. For simplicity sake I'll call them sample A and sample B. Both samples started out looking pretty much the same as shown below. Oh and Sample A went through the following sequences while Sample B was simply cleaned with Bar Keeper's Friend.

Both pieces looked like this

Sample A; the following experiments were conducted in the order listed:

KETCHUP: I basically just swiped the ketchup on a paper towel over the brass and immediately a more golden color appeared.

WORCESTER SAUCE: Again I wet a paper towel with the Worcester sauce and swiped it over the brass. While it did clean the brass slightly, it didn't do as much as the ketchup did with the same effort.

AMMONIA: Next I dropped the piece with the two semi cleaned spots from the ketchup and the Worcester sauce into a mixture of ammonia and water in a ratio of 1:8 and let it boil for 5 minutes. Upon inspection after 5 minutes, it does seem to be slightly lighter, but hardly clean.

I dropped in in the ammonia again for another 5 minutes after which there was no noticeable change at all between 5 minutes and 10 minutes.

KETCHUP: So I wanted to see how well the ketchup would work so I smeared ketchup all over sample A and waited a few minutes. I scrubbed it lightly with a tooth brush. Rinsed it and inspected. While the ketchup does indeed clean brass, it does not completely clean it. Although, if someone were looking to take blackened brass to an antique look, I'd say try the ketchup method otherwise stick with the Bar Keeper's Friend.

Lastly I cleaned the piece with Bar Keeper's Friend and it has the same exact look as the one the I only used the brass cleaner on.

I think I only have one more round of brass cleaning to do. I'll definitely keep with polishing it up with the Bar Keeper's Friend.

How to Remove Paint from Brass

I've been very slowly working on painting our upstairs bedroom. Slow... yes... it's been like 6 weeks since I started the project. Ya know it all started when I simply wanted to hang the new Ikea panel drapes. Next thing I knew I was patching a hole... then another... then another until the room was all spotty. That's ok though, the room needed a paint job anyway.

I really, really wanted to do a quick paint job but DH seemed to continue to prod me into doing it in the more thorough manner that he's used to seeing me do my projects. "Ok, I'll remove the paint from the fixtures and the hinges." Honestly, I was already armed with a can of spray paint that I figured would just fine.

It had been a while since I removed paint from the brass hardware and I wondered if there was a better product or a better way to get the job done. I really hate paint remover; it's so messy! Googling brought me to a very simple solution to try. For this paint removal trial I would need a large pot that I won't ever use for cooking again and a lot of baking soda. I got a big pot from the thrift store for under $10 and proceeded to embark upon this experiment. So I needed 4 tablespoons of baking soda per 1 quart of water and of course the painted hardware. I decided to try it out on one of the brass door plates; probably not the best thing to try it out on, but it was handy.

I placed the brass plate in the pot with the water and baking soda and boiled it for 40 minutes. Yes, I said boiled it! The results were amazing as the paint really did slide right off. After rinsing the piece it had a patina look to it that I hoped would come off. I used some Bar Keeper's Friend and a toothbrush and scrubbed the brass. It immediately revealed the original golden hue. I let it dry, polished it up a bit, then sprayed it with a clear lacquer finish to protect the surface. WOW. So the pictures below doesn't do it justice since it wasn't totally polished and since I'd just broken my other camera. Check out the pictures of the sconces though!

This is the finished hardware. These brass pieces are all from 1914 when the house was constructed.

I then decided to try my luck with removing the paint from the sconces. HOLY CRAP, they are beautiful! I hope they work still ;-o

1. Painted sconces
2. After about 30 minutes in the boiling baking soda
3. All clean, but not polished yet
4. After polishing with Bar Keeper's Friend then lacquering
   
   1.
   2.
   3.
   4.