Sheilajeanne

Handstitched, although Canadian, I've had traditional English tea, complete with the fancy finger sandwiches, and the multi-tiered serving stand. And more than once. There used to be an old-fashioned English restaurant in a village not far from where I lived that served it, and I've also had it in several other locales. At no time EVER has tea included a burger, let alone onions!! You Aussies are NUTS!!

Handstitched, I have a plug-in battery charger that will start my vehicle in a pinch. I actually needed it the other day, when I left an interior light on inside! I use it more often to start the lawn mower in the spring. And just about every Canadian has a set of jumper cables, and knows how to use them! I gave my niece a set as a Christmas gift, the year she moved to Manitoba to study at a college there! Chuck, good luck with the hunt, and may there be no accidental shootings!

Yeah, I guessed you might be high up! I don't need to worry too much about my battery - my vehicle is in a heated garage, plus I had to replace the battery a couple of years ago. The new ones seem to last a really long time - my Rav4 is a 2010, and that was the original battery! Over the last 3 days, I made one of the most important preparations for winter. I replaced my elderly oil furnace with a modern natural gas furnace. The price of oil has gone through the roof in the last few years. Last winter, I paid over $800 for just half a tank of fuel, which is the minimum my provider will allow me to purchase. The new furnace is much much quieter, and more efficient. I hope heating with natural gas will give me a break on winter fuel costs. I'm also planning to get someone to line the fireplace chimney, so I can use it without being afraid of setting my roof on fire, and the chimney that used to be for the oil furnace should be blocked off to keep out critters and rainwater. My craft room shares the room with the furnace. The blower on the old one was so noisy, I'd jump when it switched on! Nice to have a much quieter fan.

Wow, snow, and you are quite a way south of me! It was just over a week a go that I had to turn the AC on - last night we nearly hit the freezing mark, and last weekend, Wasaga Beach, which is just to the north of me about 20 km. got some of the white stuff. It will pretty soon be time to get the snow tires on the SUV!

Okay, thanks! I was really trying to puzzle out just how the bag was put together. So, from the looks of it, the body of the bag is made out of just one piece of leather, correct? The only seams are the vertical ones on the sides, then the horizontal ones on the bottom edges. I originally thought there was a seam on the bottom where the left and right sides of the bag were joined together, and that's why I wanted a photo of the bottom! Now I see that's not the case. Very simple construction!

As for forgetfulness - hands up if you've ever bought a duplicate leather working tool because you forgot you already had that particular tool! Just found out I had 2 plastic gizmos for drawing circles and corners...one is still in the package, so I'm wondering if Tandy might take it back!

Cool! Love the colours! Again, I'm curious as to how the bottom is done. Can you please show a picture of JUST the bottom? What did you line it with?

It took quite a bit of searching, and I kept coming up with fake silicone hands, but I finally got it! Here's the link, if anyone wants to give it a try! https://www.etsy.com/listing/1389838800/leather-hand-pdf-pattern

How to get blood on leather? Um, I think we ALL know exactly how to do that... There's a reason I keep a box of band-aids handy by my work bench! You'll show us pictures when it's all done, right?? RIGHT?? Sounds like a really cool project!

Yes indeedy!!

Yes, we've forgotten how this old sort of tech worked! Both my mom and my dad told us what it was like to live in the era before all houses had electricity. The farm my dad grew up on didn't get it until the late 1940's. My mom's family were without it until they moved to Weston in the 1920's; a small town that has now been absorbed by Toronto. I have one thing from that era - a pewter candle holder that belonged to her family. And at a recent family reunion, one of my cousins held a lucky draw for two glass kerosene lanterns that had been passed down from our grandparents. I declined to enter, as I'm getting up there and have no children to leave the lanterns to, and I don't want their history to be lost.

That's a 'Court Jester' reference, isn't it?

The funeral parlor that looked after the arrangements for both my mom and dad gives the families candle holders to remember their loved ones by, as so many people/faiths/whatever you want to call your belief system/ have the habit of lighting and burning candles to remember their loved ones by. You might have a business opportunity here (thought the ones this funeral parlor gives out are sculpted metal.)

There could be some veg tan mixed in with the chrome tan. I suspect the deer tan may be veg tanned. Or else they've just named it that due to the color...There's an simple way to tell: dampen the surface and try tooling/stamping it. If it will take a tool mark, it's veg tan! I had to do this once with a piece of mystery leather someone gifted me. Yup - wouldn't stamp, so chrome tanned. If leather is mouldy, you can tell by the smell usually. Edit: there's obviously some non-leather mixed in with that. Some of the pieces look to have a woven fabric backing. Could be either so-called bonded leather, or an imitation leather like Naugahyde.

Just a correction, Sup - it wasn't my table the Shabbat candles burned - I am not Jewish. It was a lady I was working for who was suffering from M.S. Yup, never leave candles burning unattended! My parent taught me that, and they both spent their early years in homes that used candles and coal oil lanterns. Okay, have one candle holder I'd trust for that. It's a chunk of limestone, about 8" by 6" by 3" deep, with a natural depression in it that's just the right size to hold a tea light. My husband found it somewhere. I left a tea light burning in it overnight, the evening he suffered a stroke, and was taken to hospital... :'(

So, how many deer do you get on average? :D

LOL, Chuck and Fred!

One for deer hunting season:

Chuck, I'm not much worried about starting a fire, though to be on the safe side, yeah some testing might be a good idea. I once saw the results of what happened when a Jewish family left their Shabbat candles burning in a bowl they THOUGHT was fireproof, then went out somewhere. The result was, even though it didn't catch fire, the whole house was severely smoke damaged, and the dining room table ruined. Cost thousands of dollars to clean the house from top to bottom. Sooo, never ASS-U-ME as the saying goes... In my case, I was just REALLY pissed off that the finish on my desk was damaged! They also often call tea lights 'warmer candles' and they ain't kidding!

Sup, I thought the holder would act the way the glass tea light holders do, and be thick enough to protect the top of my desk. I was quite surprised when it didn't! Makes me wonder if the glass holders are safe when the light burns down! I have 3 holders I know are safe - two are made out of stone, and one has a REALLY thick glass bottom.

A young kid was looking at a memorial plaque that was at the back of the church. The priest came over, and they boy asked, "What are all these names, Reverend?" "Those are the names of men who have died in the service," the priest replied. The boy's eyes got really big. "Which service, Reverend - the 8:30 or the 10:30?" For the horse riders on this forum (yes, I know what this feels like...)

Just a word of caution about tea lights. I have a ceramic candle holder that will hold two tea lights sitting on the bottom. My mom gave it to me, so it's pretty special, because she's now gone. The bottom is about the same thickness as a dinner plate. I set it on my desk one night, with two candles in it. As the tea lights burned down, they caused the bottom of the holder to get so hot that it damaged the finish on my desk! So, if I were to make that candle holder, I'd have it resting on something heat and fireproof when the candle is burning.

Reminds me of this funny story: Guy was cutting the grass, wearing sneakers, and managed to run over his foot with the lawn mower. A trip to the E.R. followed. After the doctor had removed his shoe and what was left of his sock. the patient asked, "What d'ya think, Doc?" "Well," the doctor replied, "offhand, I'd say your mower blade needs sharpening. You've still got all your toes!"

DanMatha, good news! And, yeah F**K CANCER!! One of my oldest friends was just diagnosed with a tumor in her liver. It's a secondary tumor, and they think the primary is in her pancreas. And pancreatic cancer almost never has a good outcome.

Sup, yes my thought exactly. But how is it any different from pork fat (lard)? Or beef tallow? Even neatsfoot oil is just processed fat from the lower legs of cattle: The fact it was processed didn't stop the mice from nibbling on my tack! I looked up how to make pork lard for cooking. You can do it yourself. You basically put the pork fat in a strainer, and heat it in the oven for 4 or 5 hours, with a Dutch oven or other large pot underneath the strainer to catch the fat. That's all there is to it - just make sure all cracklings are removed. We've come to expect that everything we buy in the store goes through some sort of complicated process before being sold. And that isn't always the case. https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-render-lard-and-why-you-should-use-it/