Here Is Your Blindfold, M'Lady.

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At our last dance practice we had an interesting proposal.

Remember I told you about the young man who knows how to lead in dancing? He was given a short opportunity to talk about it with the other gentlemen. It was WONderful!

His sister also had a terrific idea.

She suggested that the girls be blindfolded, and be completely unable to dance UNLESS the boys actually did the leading.

Brilliance!

It was great! I would love to use this method over many practices.

In the dances, very often it is the ladies who do a larger percentage of the footwork. If the young man does not know how to lead, he could begin to feel unimportant and non-participatory. This really caused them to see how important their part was.

So cool. Wish I had pictures. It was great, and you can imagine the laughter as the girls made their best attempts.

I think Michael is coming down with the flu. He was very tired today, and is achy.

But he did a great job on finishing up the bed. He, Seth, and Mikka did the sanding.





I made an error. My dad had loaned him a dremel, since ours is no longer working, to sand down the nooks and crannies in the scroll work. I assumed he knew that's ALL it was for. But he used it for sanding the rest of the pieces as well. Needless to say, it was a little rough. So Michael spent a lot of time trying to sand out as many dips in the wood as he could. It is here that we find them...

Whoops.





Our power sander is missing, along with our jigsaw, sadly. But with a bit of old fasioned elbow grease and 100 grit sandpaper, much of the roughness was removed.

And while I worked on my sewing...





... he got the rest of the pieces done for me to put together.





Budget project - no available batting in my closet. I had to use stuffing. It's a little lumpy, but I choose to call it "Period Correct".





Here's the little reversible spread I made for it. I used available scraps from my sewing and fabric stash, and then used those for the paint selection.





And with the pillows.





I don't want to paint it. I love the natural wood, and would just clear coat it. But Maddie likes pink, so pink it shall be. Likely tomorrow.





Since it will have a thick coat of enamel, I won't tap these nails in and putty over them. The real reason - I'm not sure I have putty that's not dried out.

If you have an interest in making something like this, the wood for the project cost about 20 dollars. It was made for an 18 inch doll. I bought a 4 foot piece of 1x2 pine; a 4 foot piece of 1x8 pine, but 1x10 would give a better look; and a set of pre-cut scroll decorative pieces.

If I'd been doing it myself, I'd have taken step by step photos, but I was off picking apples.

Cut the bed base and rails to 22 inches, and then cut your headboard and footboard into whatever decorative design you choose. The headboard on this one was about 9 inches high, and the footboard was about 6 inches high. Glue on the decorative scrolls.

Use wood glue and small nails, I like paneling nails, but headless nails are nice for a less obvious look. Use 1/5 inch length. Affix the rails to the sides of the base first, then affix the end boards next, making sure you keep the whole thing level, so it's not catty-whompus when you are done.

I might add these to my ETSY, don't know.

~Faith

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