Penny Sanford Fikes's Profile

The Lye Soap is in a new "Undisclosed Location"

Armies of ants follow me all over this house, deploying Seal Team Six Ants to fast rope off of my homemade lye soap seconds before a brutal vinegar death. Charlton Heston would be proud of our tactics! (Movie Naked Jungle) Continue reading

Posted Jul 7, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Can I Stash Spray Paint?

One can build a "stash" of colorful spray paints, can one not? What started out as a "Just bring me all the spray paint cans you can find in any of the farm buildings" has turned into a spray paint... Continue reading

Posted May 10, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Hand Embroidering Felt Dogs

Watch as Penny demonstrates how she creates the designs of her "Felt Dogs". Continue reading

Posted Apr 10, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Easter Rick Rack & Ribbon Tree

This "tree" with balls of colorful rick rack and ribbon was an idea I had for Christmas 2011 for the Sewing Room. Christmas came and went. Blue January came and went. Valentine's Day came and went. St. Patrick's Day... Now,... Continue reading

Posted Apr 7, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Gamble Plantation Brooch

Hubby Gordon here. I shot this video of Penny working on the Gamble Plantation brooch. The Gamble Plantation is the only remaining sugar plantation in the state of Florida. It is now part of the Florida State Park system which... Continue reading

Posted Mar 22, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Pinterest Interest

Ok, I'm hooked on yet another form of Social Networking. Pinterest. It is something of a visual palate cleanser, like a sorbet course cleanses the palate in an elaborate multi-course meal. Here's my Pinterest account. At this moment it shows... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Splish, Splash, Pinch, Dash, Sploosh!

Have you ever thought about the germs on your trusty, loyal sewing pins? I must have seen too many episodes of "How Clean Is Your House: US" where they do lab tests to prove to people that phones, computer keyboards,... Continue reading

Posted Jan 26, 2012 at Penny Sanford Designs

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PennyCast: The Eyes of this House

PennyCast for Nov. 6, 2011: The Eyes of this House. (Click on the link below ("Eyes_Master") and then when the page with the podcast player appears, click the play button to listen to the podcast.) Eyes_master This is a short... Continue reading

Posted Nov 6, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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The Eyes of this House

We started re-glazing the old windows in this family farmhouse late yesterday afternoon. There were two panes in one of the windows in the upstairs-guest-bedr00m-turned-sewing-room that fell to the ground back in the summer, but miraculously they did not break.... Continue reading

Posted Nov 1, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Yellow Towel Therapy

Like generations of women before me, fabric is acanvas for creativity. Sewing is a binder of pain. Disappointments and sadness are captured in the thread and held captive by the fabric and the thread. These may look like pretty yellow... Continue reading

Posted Oct 28, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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A Bouquet of Rick Rack

My grandmother Ora Belle Dunn Hamer put rick rack on my clothes, the clothes she made for my four first cousins, on aprons, on my doll clothes. One of my first embroidery lessons was putting rick rack on gingham aprons... Continue reading

Posted Oct 20, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Collecting Tiny Glass Ball Ornaments

Three minutes left in today in which to post this blog post... I'm collecting tiny little glass Christmas Tree Balls. Do you know where these can be purchased? I've several ideas to share with you when I have the little... Continue reading

Posted Oct 3, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Bob...Bob...Bobbin Along

I have no idea why the photographer of this picture called it a "Viking Santa". This looks like a bobbin to me. A decorative bobbin yes. I'd like to make pretty bobbins like this for my stash of laces, maybe... Continue reading

Posted Oct 1, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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So About My "Thing" With Bobbins

So a few days ago I shared my relatively new addiction for winding embroidery floss onto plastic bobbins. Today I want to share some photos of more unique bobbins. In my quest for the best Embroidery Floss Organization System, I... Continue reading

Posted Sep 30, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Color Therapy

Sometime this year, I decided it was TIME to get all the embroidery floss in order. We have embroidery floss from at least three generations scattered ALL over this complex of farmhouse, Grandma's house, studio. (To my knowledge there are... Continue reading

Posted Sep 28, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Need Fabric!

It never fails. I buy 1 yard of fabric...my minimum purchase. Fabric settles into my stash, gets to know its similarly-hued neighbors. Said fabric slowly reveals its charm over a year or so in my stash. Then one day, I... Continue reading

Posted Sep 25, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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PennyCast 2: Molly and the Turkey.

Mollyandturkey Continue reading

Posted Sep 13, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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A Lilibeth/Belle Memorial Podcast

Memorialpodcast Continue reading

Posted Sep 7, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Bath Time for Westies

Well, *fiddlesticks*! I was trying to get in a post before midnight, and I just managed to erase half of my post. Fresh start: We give the five Westies baths in the bathtub every couple of days and sometimes every... Continue reading

Posted Jul 24, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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First English Peas

Tale a look at our first "mess" of English Peas, grown in our garden this year. Unc tells me that Grandma grew them every year. She would put a little flour in the juice to make a light creamy broth,... Continue reading

Posted Jun 5, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Do you know what your Tupperware is doing??

Rememer the commercials, "It's midnight. Do you know where your children are?" Or something to that effect. If you've read any of this blog or followed me on Facebook, you have gleaned that I have a small fondness (obsessive passion)... Continue reading

Posted Jun 4, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Binding Towels

This is a quick blog post because I am DETERMINED to blog SOMETHING before midnight! (See the towel in the mending basket behind the hyacinths?) To help our towels last longer, I have been binding the edges just as one... Continue reading

Posted Jun 3, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Attic Safari

My Facebook friends have been great encouragers for helping me work TOWARD an organized life. It's going to take a while. Like years. I'm going through four generations of stuff, with extra stuff from childless great aunts. So, taking this... Continue reading

Posted May 5, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Making a Valentine Tree, One Heart at a Time

(I started this post on February 8, 2011. Now, almost three months later, lets see if I can finish it!) For the first time ever, we have a Valentine Tree in place in the front hall! That was in February... Continue reading

Posted Apr 26, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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Jazzing up the Bath Towels

See...second day in a row...I am blogging. I'm determined to get back into the swing of daily blog posts. This will have to be short. I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. Bad storms swept through and continue to cause destruction... Continue reading

Posted Apr 26, 2011 at Penny Sanford Designs

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