The Glass House at Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

 

 

 

 

Last week my husband & I went camping for the first time since we got married. A friend invited us to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge in south eastern Oregon. We are not really campers, we are glampers. We like to be comfortable and need a comfortable bed to sleep and good food to eat. I didn't think Chris would want to go but he was all excited and tricked out our truck for the camping trip. It was a long drive but it was well worth it for the things we saw were AMAZING. My friends & I went rockhounding and looking at saw some petroglyphs, but the coolest thing I saw was called the Glass House. The camp host told us about his house that was built in the 70's and later abandon in the 80's, now the property and the house is owned but the refuge. I was not able to find a lot of information about the place. One Facebook post from the Royal Order of Antelope said " The house was built by some eccentric California Winemaker who died in the house. The glass panels are actually thick pieces of plexi". I have yet to find a lot of information about the original person that built the house. It was bought by the Friends of Hart Mountain in 2009, I found this, which is all photos from 2012 but no real information and I found this which stated the original owners arrived by jeep and helicopter. When we were there it was obvious there has been a fire in the house and there was some burned wood outside the front door. The house is very high up overlooking Hart Lake. The house is built into the side of a plateau, the doors on the north and south side open so you can get a cross breeze going through if you open both doors. On the day we were there only the front (south) door was open, the back door was padlocked, so there was no breeze...it was HOT. Almost too hot, I was able to go inside for about 5 minutes before I had to go back outside to cool off. It looks like people have stayed in the house recently as there was clean bedding and some spices in the spice rack. The house had some interesting metal work and a simple but very functional layout inside. I'm not sure if the furniture if from the original owner but the bed in the place looked cool and so did the table in the main room. The house is hard to get to unless you have a jeep, that much is very true. It took us about 40 minutes to go 10 miles. You really do need a vehicle that has high clearance. 

We also saw some very cool petroglyphs on the way to the house. We stopped and took a few photos, but again it was very hot about. Me being a fair skinned Scottish Lass it's hard for me to be out in the sun too long, but this trip to see the petroglyphs and the Glass House was well worth the sun exposure. 

Pants, Totes and a Bunny

My husband wore his pants the other day to the bar. Of course they all know I make almost all of my husbands clothes and area always amused at the loud clothes he will wear. This outfit I think was very reserved compared to others. The pants fit but there are issues with the waist. As I stated in a prior post I had made the pants too small. Now they are too big. They are kind of baggy when he tightens his belt. The issue is the beer gut, it drops down in front. We use to joke that pregnant lady pants were the way to go because they have a stretchy front. But he wanted pants, big boy pants. Not just the light weight baggy pants with an elastic waist that I have made him in the past. But nice cotton pants that look good. I decided to break down and make a muslin. I have it all cut out and I will start putting it all together...making him try the pants on every chance i get.  

I love Martha Stewart. I still read her magazine, watch her cooking show and browse her web site. I like all the suggestions she has for crafting. I have a problem with the amount of $$$ she will spend on supplies or ingredients to make something. Such as the Felt Tote Bag. She suggested making it from heavyweight felt. The bag it's self is about 36" x18", so you would need a 36" x36" piece of felt. The nice pieces I found start at $70, of course there are some cheaper fabric for about $30 for a 3x"x36"...but really anything more the say $20 for a tote bag is kind of ridicules. One comment on the martha stewart site suggested jean material. What a great idea, I tried it..see above. The jean tote is kind if rough, I think it's better if the seams are enclosed instead of exposed. I thought it would look nice but now that I look at the bag it looks messy. I bought a bolt of yellow wool fabric from City Liquidators (see prior post about Fabric World). I thought I would try to felt the wool and make a tote bag. It worked in a way but the wool fabric is a little too lose. I may need to wash the bag a couple more time to make it felt up. I do like the bright yellow color and the black bias tape together..I call this my Bee bag. I want to try some free motion stitching on the bag, an out line of a bee. I'm happy because the City of Portland has 
recently banned the use of insecticides believed to be harmful to bees on city property

Sunday we went to my sisters for Easter dinner. I decided to dress up in my bunny suit. We had a nice dinner with the family. 

I MADE PANTS!!!!

I bought a men's pant pattern when Josephine's Dry Goods was closing in Downtown Portland. When I bought the pattern I looked at the size it said 34-36-38-40...I thought that meant waist. No it did not. When I finally pulled out the pattern the waist size only went to 34". My husband said he was a 36. So I took an on-line Craftsy class on how to enlarge and reduce ready made patterns, it was called Create Any Size: Grading for Sewers. I found this to be very helpful. I had asked my husband over and over about his waist size and he kept repeating that he was a 36...that's what his Levi's said & they fit!! So I enlarged the pattern to a 36" waist. Well guess what...they were too small. I had completed the body of the pants and put on the waist band, had my husband try them on and he immediately stated they were too small. I said they were a 36", I said that I needed to measure his waist...my measurement came to 42". He then asked me if I was saying he's fat...what? NO...I'm saying you're not a 36". An argument occurred and he stated again that the Levi's were a 36". So when he left the house I measured the Levi's that he claimed fit him...the tag did say 36...but in fact the waist measurement was 39"!!! So I removed the waist band and the darts in the back of the pants. I did not want to give up on these pants because it was only the second time I have put in a front zipper and I was quite proud that it worked and looked decent. I had him try on the pants again, I ended up putting smaller darts in the back of the pants & I made a new waist band that was 40".  Today I had him try on the pants with the new waist band and he loved the fit. They are snug but not tight. He can wear the pants with out a belt and they will stay up. The fabric I used was from a couple years ago, I bought 4 bolts of fabric from a woman on craigslist for $60. At that price it's as cheap as muslin fabric. I don't like to make simple muslins...I like to make wearable muslins. These pants are quite loud and they are a nice medium weight cotton. Now that I understand the pattern, I can make him a pair of Jeans or some nice wool pants. The pattern is Vogue 8719, and it's a fairly simple pattern. This project took me about 10 hours total, the next pair should only take about 5 hours to make. Or maybe I will make a pair of pants for me!! 

As a reward for completing the pants I made a couple more triangle bags. These are heading to a friend that requested one...and today is her birthday. Some cute Melody Miller fabric with a crushed penny from Portland.... Happy Birthday!! 

We finally repaired out front stairs!!! I do not have a before photo but believe me they were awful, moss had grown in the cracks and the treads were rotting out. We painted the stairs several years ago in an effort to make them last and it worked. But now it was time to really fix the stairs, mostly I wanted a clean look when you came up the front stairs. I mean it's the first thing people see when they approach your house..so make a good first impression. Rotting stairs are not a good first impression. 

Yea!!! I saw my tote bags in the store again. This time it's the illustration my niece did for me of a hedgehog wearing glasses reading a book. They started selling over the spring break and they ordered 25 more hedgehogs.  I was delivering 125 bags of the skeleton carrying books, that bag is doing great. 

A couple days late but I finished a Christmas Western Shirt for my husband on Saturday. I had wanted to get it done before Christmas but I was working on a wool shirt for him (a wool shirt was much more necessary than a linen Cowboy shirt). The pattern is McCalls 4520, it's out of print but there are a couple other similar patterns floating around out there if you are looking for a western shirt. I will say I'm disappointed by the lack of mens patterns at pattern companies. But then there is little variation to mens clothes, you can only do so much with a shirt or pants...other than using unique fabric...everything seems to be the same. That is good if you are going to make mens clothes as all you have to do is learn a few basic techniques and you have it. I have found a couple of small pattern makers that have some interesting styles like Buckaroo Bobbins. Though I have not made any of their patterns it was nice to see other options for mens clothes. Sorry kind of a rant there on mens patterns.

I just love the christmas material used on the front and on the cuffs, it's called Holiday Break & it's by Michael Miller. I bought it a couple of years ago with some other cute kids western themed holiday fabric. Now I will work on my Cowgirl shirt, it's going to be pink with the Holiday Break as the yoke. We will again have matching Christmas Shirts.

The Rumple Minze is from my brother...he gave it to us with a jar of hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, candy canes and chocolate mints. Just add hot water & booze and you have a nice warm jar of happiness.

Clothes I have made for my Husband

 This is some nice tiki fabric that my husband picked out at the fabric store. He's standing with Mitt Romney at the State fair…he's trying to look like Mitt that is why he has a strange look on his face. 

Down in Yuma by the Colorado River, the shirt is a nice tropical print. 

We are down in Mexico getting glasses for my mother and myself. My husband also picked out his fabric at the fabric store…sexy Cowgirls.  

My husband is wearing his Day of the Dead shirt and his friend John is wearing the travel shirt. I made both of these shirts for my husband, he was nice enough to share this shirt with his friend when he was in town for a book reading. John Law wrote a book called "Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society".

 My husband wearing the cowboy shirt & chicken pants I made for him last year.  

A simple black linen shirt that goes with everything…including his sexy cowgirl pants.

My Husband loves the clothes I make for him and often comes into my sewing room to see what I'm doing. It's easy to sew for him as I have a couple of patterns that I have altered to fit him and make the same shirt just using different fabric. He also loves what I call pajama pants, all I had to do was add pockets to the pants. There are many more shirts and pants I have made for him over the years, these are just some of the ones he wears daily.