It's Beginning to Look Like Spring at OakCreekCrafts

Welcome To Our Shop!

Spring is just around the corner, and there's a lot of optimism here at the store!  In case you haven't noticed, the days are getting longer!!!

To remind everyone now that Valentine's Day is past, we are looking forward to celebrating St. Patrick's Day!

This little lady is wearin' the green, and she also serves as more than one decoration.  You can put her on the shelf for St. Patrick's Day, and leave her up until Mother's Day.  Better yet, give your mom this doll as a gift to let her know how you feel.  She's in our shop at www.etsy.com/shop/OakCreekCrafts

This cute little guy will help you celebrate Easter.  Don't forget that it is Sunday, March 27.  Yep, early this year!  Let's hope that he gets a chance to plant his carrots.  Made of reclaimed burlap and denim, he's also designed, floppy ears and all, from tea-dyed muslin.  His pants are made from reclaimed blue jeans.  HOP on over to the shop and visit him.
www.etsy.com/shop/OakCreekCrafts

Here's a great idea for using an old industrial spool.  This makes a really cute candle stand for a battery operated flameless candle!

The "trunk" of the spool is covered with burlap.  Then I sewed and stuffed some stars and hearts made of homespun fabric. I used hot glue and burlap stars to finish, and added a strip of matching homespun along the edge of the bottom, which is covered with burlap so that it won't scratch surfaces.

I then added a battery operated flickering candle (not included in the price of the candle stand).  This looks great on a mantle, shelf or table.

I hope you enjoyed our little tour.  There will be more coming in another week or so.  It is getting to be tax season, and you all know how THAT goes!

Please stop by again very soon...

Bye for now!

Letting Go

Letting Go of Friends

There comes a time when one has to let go of someone; last week I let go of a good lady from the Women Of The Moose.  Her name is Dolores.  Just because they have passed doesn't mean they leave your heart and memories.  Like I stated in a previous post, Dolores inspired me to crochet again.  Now, every time I pick up a hook and some yarn, I will think of her and the happiness she gave to all of us.

This week, I will be letting go of another wonderful Moose Lodge member.  He was known as Whitey, but his real name was Donald. He always had hugs for me and others.  Whitey held the honor of Pilgrim, which is the highest rank a man in the Moose fraternity can hold, having been awarded the Pilgrim gold blazer.  He is now in the big Lodge in the sky, and we will hold his memorial on Thursday evening and the funeral itself on Friday.

Letting Go of Things

I have decided to start letting go of things, and I do have a lot of them. Before my father passed away in 2005, he gave me his 1993 Ford Taurus.  I have driven and treasured this auto since then.

We had the chance to purchase a newer vehicle, and I will be parting with my Taurus this week.  It sounds funny to some people, but every time I drove the Taurus, I felt like my dad was there with me still.

I know he would want me to move on, and so I am.  You'll have to excuse me, but I guess I'm just a sentimental old fool.

The items below will be featured in my shop that are of the vintage/antique classification.  Some are already on my site; there will be others coming as I can get pictures and decide on the price.

My daughter already stated that she's not the least bit interested in old "junk".  She is a modern gal, so to save her the trouble of dealing with all my stuff after I've gone (she's far too busy to list and sell them all), I've decided to give my things a new home with someone who will appreciate them as I have.

These pieces have the bee hive DunnBennett seal from Burslem England.  I've researched and found out that this company eventually became Royal Dalton.

My aunt gave the gravy boat and soup turine to me a long time ago. She purchased them at a second-hand shop in La Crosse and they were very old then.  She has long since passed away at the age of 100.

If anyone knows about this pattern and the value of them, please let me know!  There were similar ones listed on E Bay and they had expensive prices.  However, I could not find one in this pattern.

This next item came from my first husband's grandfather's lake cottage. We found this when we demolished the cottage to put up a year-round home.

Maybe you might know someone who is interested.  It's not on my site yet, but I'm working on it!  This old enamel ware coffee pot is quite large and in very good shape, in case anyone is interested in shabby chic "cottage" decor.  I took this because it reminded me of my grandma and grandpa's farm near Sparta, Wisconsin.

Well, that is it for this week!  Hope yours is a good one.  Stay tuned for more.

Wonderful Roots

Country Girl At Heart

I've always been kind of a nostalgic nut, growing up on classic country music being performed by the likes of Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and many others.  Besides my love of gold old country music, I am a country girl at heart.  Even though I grew up in a metropolitan area, I will say I hate cities.  I admire those folks who can live in all the hustle, bustle, and night life.  I'm just not that way.

Back in the 1960s

When I was still in elementary school, my dad's mother became ill, and Grandpa was taking care of her.  Back in those days, when men and women got married, they stayed that way until death came between them.  There were no senior apartments yet as far as I knew. Grandma and Grandpa lived on a farm in the western part of Wisconsin, between Tomah and Fort McCoy.  Because my dad's parents were elderly (in their 80s), our family would get in the car and travel up to the farm every other weekend.  Even with taking care of Grandma, my grandpa still kept a huge garden and grew the best tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, potatoes, carrots, and put them up by himself.  He also had a root cellar where everything was stored, from canned goods to preserves, to all types of root vegetables.  

The area around Tomah is indeed God's country.  Grandpa's farm was up in the hills and sat on approximately 80 acres.  My sister and I used to LOVE to go up there!  After all, their farmhouse was heated by wood stoves, and they had a really neat crank telephone on the wall!  Grandpa's barn didn't have any animals in it anymore, but my sister and I had wonderful times playing there.  He had a hay mow where we played hide and seek with each other.  Yes, this farm was my happy place filled with warm, fond memories.

During the summer, my sis and I would tag along with my dad and we'd go out to the woods and pick wild blackberries.  I have to admit that we had more of these beauties in our stomachs than we collected in our berry pails.  I will never forget how wonderful they tasted!  We'd make our way back to the farmhouse where our mom would be waiting for us with an anxious look all over her face.  "Are there enough berries to put on the ice cream?" she inquired.

While we ate the sweet berries over our ice cream, I remember my dad talking about how ice cream used to be when Mrs. Ranney made it.  It was nice and yellow naturally--no artificial color to it.  And it had real vanilla, not the imitation stuff!  He used to say it was the best vanilla ice cream in the world.

Mrs. Ranney was one of the country folks around when my dad was growing up around the Tomah area.  She made this wonderful chilly treat and even sold it in some of the stores in the area.  So....I'm going to share this wonderful recipe with you all!  By the way, it is great in the winter, because if there is snow on the ground, you can use it in the ice cream freezer instead of ice; your ice cream will be creamier that way.  Oh, but do not forget the rock salt (yes, the kind you use to melt ice on the sidewalk).  You have to alternate some snow (or very finely crushed ice), then some rock salt, then some snow, and you get the idea!

RANNEY'S BEST HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

• 1 quart milk (use whole milk; it's so much better!)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 T. flour
• A little salt

Mix the above together and add:

• 6 Eggs

Put all into a double boiler and cook until thick.  Chill.  Then put into the ice cream freezer and add 1 quart whipped cream.  Don't be tempted to do this with half and half.  Use 1 quart of real cream and whip it before adding to the cooked custard mixture.  I use about a tablespoon of real vanilla when I add the whipping cream to the cooled custard.  Put into the ice cream freezer and freeze.  Makes about a gallon.

You don't have to limit yourself to vanilla either!  My grandpa also had lots of raspberries along the garden fence.  You can use those; fresh peaches are also great.  Use your imagination.  I found that using farm-raised eggs will give your ice cream a much more yellow color, if the chickens were fed corn.

Stay tuned for my next blog....and good-bye for now :)

Just Thought You'd Like To Know...

I thought you'd like to know about OakCreekCrafts.  You can find my shop here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/OakCreekCrafts

I have some wonderful things that I created for Christmas and other times of the year.  I started out crafting (actually, I became my mother, who was much better at crafting than I am) a long time ago.  I needed some kind of outlet and it needed to be therapeutic.  I guess crafting is better than compulsive gambling can be.  However, one must be careful and not get carried away.  I, for one, can get carried away.

When you're a crafter, ANYTHING can suddenly become useful.  I experienced this on my recent trip to Cuba on a church mission trip.  You must understand that in Cuba, almost everything is recycled and re-purposed.  This impressed me very much.  There was a pile of items on the building site that was searched several times for items that would "come in handy" for the new church building.

One crafting skill I never thought I'd use was cutting wire for the rebar (used to reinforce concrete).  Coincidentally, I just started working with wire to make wrapped rings, necklaces, etc., during 2015.  I think my friend and I cut a mile of the stuff so that the rebar could be wired together and then the concrete poured around it.

Who would think?  Jewelry-making skills used to help build the foundation for a church!  I really got blessed by that.

Below is a picture of one of the fellow missionaries searching for something needed for the building of the new church.  There was also a broken ax handle that needed a piece of wood to replace it.

Memories of Dolores Stenzel

Here in the frozen tundra, February is the sign of wonderful spring weather to come.  It's also a time to think about all the special loved ones in our lives.

Last week, we lost a very dear friend.  Her name was Dolores, and she was wonderful at crochet.  The two of us were going to attend a fall craft fair together, but there was a conflict in schedules.  Other crafts were her specialty as well.  I will surely miss her.  Dolores was a member of the Women of the Moose Chapter 345.

I'm not sure how many of you know about the Moose, so I will tell you.  The Moose organization has been around since 1913.  It was founded at first as a social club; then went on to help children (google Mooseheart International), and also the elderly (Moosehaven).  When I was told about the children at Mooseheart, I signed up to be a member immediately.  My annual dues are well worth it.

Dolores was a wonderful Woman of the Moose.  She was kind, generous, and very encouraging to all the women who were fellow co-workers in the organization.

Visitation for Dolores will be on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at Rozga-Walloch Funeral Home, 4309 South 20th Street, in Milwaukee from 4PM-7PM.  There will be a ritual by the Women of the Moose at 6:30PM.  Funeral will be at 11AM on Thursday, February 11, 2016 after which she will be laid to rest.

Whenever I pick up my crochet hook and some yarn or thread, I will think of Dolores.  She inspired me to start again at this wonderful craft.

This month, I'd like to add that love never fails.  It's a simple truth that whatever the outcome, if you love someone, love will come back to you, even if it isn't coming from the person you direct love to.  It will come to you in another way.