Building Permit

Evangeline has informed me that there is no more room in the attic.  She has two lovely outfits en route and there isn't room for so much as a hat pin.  She has packed her bags and is checking in to the Ipswich Grand Hotel until such time as I can provide her with an appropriate abode.

I have filed for the necessary permits:

and tomorrow begins construction on the new north wing of Evangeline's Attic!  Stay tuned!

Birthday Present For Evangeline, or, How To Hang a Tapestry

Yesterday, when Evangeline came home from work at the mortuary, she found a large parcel waiting for her.  She hauled it up to her attic and opened it to find a lovely French Aubusson tapestry inside with a little note in delicate script that said, "Happy birthday Evangeline, we love you."

Clearly this treasure did not belong in the attic so Evangeline set to work hanging it in the largest and loveliest bedroom in Barkley Manor....

Well, actually, I won a pair of miniature tapestries on Ebay.  I won them for $7 each.  They are about 10" square and they look like they are actually meant to be sewn inside a fancy border on an accent pillow.  But as it happens they are perfect scale for Evangeline:

I used these in Evangeline's library and at the time I hung them on the wall using small glue dots but I always wanted to make a proper hanging rod for them.  I have recently disassembled the library and turned that space in to a larger bedroom for Evangeline so now is the perfect time for me to hang the tapestry properly.  For this project I am using the tapestry on the left.

To start with I trimmed up a bamboo skewer to be slightly larger than the tapesty:

Then I whittled down the ends a bit so they would fit inside some small knobs I have that will work nicely as finials.  The small knobs are by Tim Holtz and can be found at Michael's.

I then sprayed the skewer with gold spray paint.  It's easiest if you stick it in a piece of styrofoam, spray paint it, let it dry, then stick the painted end in the styrofoam and spray the unpainted end, let that dry and you're ready to go:

I glued one end of the skewer into the screw hole of he knob:

I made hanging hooks out of some other doo-dads by Tim Holtz.  I believe these are meant to pin small notes or ephemera on to craft projects.  I used a pair of needle-nosed pliers to bend the stick pins into hooks:

In the picture above, the two hooks on the right are what they look like when you buy them at the store.  The two on the left are after I bent them using the pliers.  In the picture below you can see how I then used wire cutters to trim off the sharp points and used the pliers to bend the remaining piece inward to close the hook:

I threaded them on to the skewer:

and glued the other end of the skewer into the remaining knob and hung it above the fireplace in Evangeline's bedroom.  Happy Birthday Evangeline!