Refinishing a Sewing Machine

At some point in my childhood my mom taught me to sew on a treadle machine.  Then she got one, and then another.  I was given one when before she died and I never had room for it.  Then this summer I picked it up from my dad's.  Its mechanics were smooth, but it needed parts and was a bit worse for wear to be honest. So I decided to paint it.

The machine before.

Nickel plated under the grunge

Rusty Irons, but they are still smooth working

Her digits. These tell me where she was made and when. (Elizabethton, NJ Sometime between 1 SEP and 8 SEP 1925. She has 25,000 sisters

Pardon the crap in the garage.... her wheel is rusty too!

I wanted to paint her, but how should I go about it?  On the way to work, on that long, long drive I decided to paint her like a fire truck.
So I had to strip her down.

she's all naked

Then I used Rust-oleum self etching primer to prime her.  I closed off all the holes and taped off the workings. I did not paint her underbelly because I didn't want to disassemble her all the way...
Then I painted her with Rust-oleum Gloss Red.

I promise the light makes it look orange.  She IS red.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut decals out of goldleaf vinyl. And I applied it to the machine. Then I used diamond plate vinyl to trim her out. I bought some parts to replace what was missing too.

Then I clear coated her with Rust-oleum clear gloss.

Ta-da!!

Front of Machine

The wheel

The back

The face

I'll post the cabinet and irons after I finish them.  This gal really turned out.  I wonder what momma would have though.

You have GOT to be S**ting me...

The dentist visit I wrote about last time was bad, did you know it got worse.  Nerve damage.  Specifically Trigeminal Neuralgia, type 2 if I understand it correctly.  Unrelenting, God-awful pain 24/7.  The dentist said that was what was wrong, but I wound up with a referral to an endodontist, who said the tooth was good and referred me to the ENT, who gave me prednisone to no avail.  Then while at my GP for the blood pressure med I take, I told him about it.  And here we are.
600-800mg Advil every 6 hours and 100mg of neurontin.

Im hoping that this will ease up and go away, if not forever then for a really really really long time. It can. Otherwise Im in for hell for the rest of my life.  They call TN the suicide disease.  On a day I forgot my meds, I see why.

But seriously, a filling ruined my face.  You have got to be shitting me.

But it would seem it happens from time to time.


I won the crap lotto.  Why is it I can't win the powerball.....

Spinning From The Dentist and Other Medical Adventures...

There is no end to the suck that is Meniere's.  A dentist appointment, which normally sends me into a panic attack anyhow, set off my vertigo and left me with a horrible case of BPPV that lasted weeks.  To top it off, the magic didn't end there as I was enveloped in a horrific jaw pain that the dentist, an endodontist, and the ENT can't figure out.   Im still in pain with a few days of 800 mg advil and the last few days of prednisone left to go.  My family doc is going to see me this week and we get to have a chat about why I have to see him twice a year now for stable BP (this costs money you know) and what he recommends about the jaw.  Since TMJ isn't covered by our insurance, I have to pray he calls it something else or they will "retro" reject the other visits.

I already owe almost 1100.00 for the colonoscopy (thats after insurance), and who knows how much for the dental visits that keep me ready to scream. Or grind my teeth, which might be the problem anyhow.



What the heck are we even paying premiums for if we have to pay so much for everything anyhow?

Next time no filling, they are going to have to pull the tooth.

Yay we have insurance!  BOO that we can't afford to use it!

House Acquired. Mission Accomplished, sort of...

Its been a while since I posted.  We finally found a house that we adored.  It is perfect for us, well perfect in that it met both size and cost requirements.   Things are looking pretty good.  Then I went to the dentist, and then I had several vertigo attacks in a row.  Oh and then we found termites the inspector said weren't there.

So we acquired a house.  We are still in the "cant have kids yet but the clock is ticking" land.  Uncertainty has fallen upon me as the vertigo has returned once again.  It was triggered by dental work, and now Im dealing with BPPV.  Thats where head position triggers a short, but uncomfortable spin.  It makes lots of things difficult. Imagine not being able to look up or down for weeks. Yea, its like that.

So we have a house.  Whoot!!  

Im hoping that everything else settles down and the house is a blessing not a chore.

So my mission was to find a house, have a family and live happily ever after.  So part of the mission is accomplished.  We just need kids to complete the mission, right?

House Hunting: Part One Our Economic Recovery after Meniere's

A dear friend sat me down and did the math with me.  Now that I'm working full time again (finally) Don and I can afford a house.  It will literally be cheaper than rent, and good lord, we can afford a house!

Our path to even this point where we are even thinking about a house, has been long and hard.  When we first got married we made good money.  I made a LOT working at two fire stations, and we were doing quite well. But when you lose a job, you lose a lot more sometimes, like insurance.  Although we had some disability retirement and disability insurance (NOT the same as Social Security Disability), we still went from making 60,000 a year between the two of us to far less than 30,000.  It doesn't seem like much, but when you half your income AND have no health coverage AND have new health expenses you didn't have, things get tight QUICK.

Thank God I found the job I have now, and was promoted. I thank God every day.  We don't make what we did when I was working at the fire station, but we are getting there, slowly.  And we have some things paid off now too.  So we are in good shape again, financially.  It's about time.

So once we realized what we were paying in rent we could do even less and get a house, well we have started looking.  Our economic recovery after Meniere's has been slower than I'd like, but it could have been worse.  I also thank God its been on the good side of bad.

Looking for a house when you know you have serious balance issues is a chore.  So far everything we've liked online has been under contract or not good for the kind of loan we are going for.  But I look at all of these houses and wonder, can I make it up the steps?  Is the bathroom designed to keep me from falling our of the shower? Do I need to factor all of this in, or do we add rails and handicapped bars later?  Lots of questions you know. LOTS.

Its exciting to be looking for a house. Very exciting (and scary).