Well....I finally got back to the rocks. I laid the rest of the porch this afternoon.

OK. So I have been dawdling. I had coupons to spend. What can I say? I went to Michaels and bought an unfinished shelf. I saved 6.00 on that one. Then I had to go get the new Steven King book at Borders....40% off. And there is no way you can go to Borders without looking at the craft section. I had a 30% off coupon for one book. I got a book on making copper wire jewelry. Altogether, there I saved over 27.00. That can't be all bad.....

Back to the front porch. I got about half way across with the rocks. Tessie was watching. She made herself comfortable on one of the ruffly dish washy thingies in the doorway. As I got closer and closer to where she was setting, I could tell that she was getting antsy...."You are going to fix the door sill so that I don't trip every time I go in and out. Aren't you?".

I think maybe she is just a wee bit prone to exaggeration. Most of the time, when she is going in and out, she doesn't even use the door. She zaps.

I am more worried about her customers. I know that, if someone sues her, I will be blamed for the accident. So I did a double thickness on half of the underside of the door sill so that it slants towards the outside. It worked pretty well.

As soon as I had it in place,before I had laid the rest of the stone, she had to try it out. "Well, I guess that will do. Now about the rest of the floor....Get to it and do it!"

I promptly left the room and took a short nap. I will show her! I did, eventually, get the rest of the stones laid. With her hanging out the window and directing me where to place things, it was finished in a hurry. I just wanted to get away from the boss.....

She is complaining now that the sidewalk has writing on it. "I don't want people to trip over all of those letters."

"Tessie, they can't possibly trip on printed letters." I said.

"They will get distracted and fall over their own big feet whilst reading. And besides, who wants to read about eggs anyway? What kind of rocks have egg messages on them?"

Does anybody want to answer this question for her? No. On second thought, don't try. I have the feeling that if we try to explain, she will insist that I tear it all up and use real rocks......

All I have to do now is take a ball stylus to all of the grout lines, patch the edge cracks and paint it. I have to hurry and get that part done before she figures out the it's egg cartons and not real rocks. Gotta go!

See you tomorrow.

Sidetracked Twice.....

Remember the mess that Tessie and friend made in the workroom yesterday? I have been attempting to clean it up and put things in their place without much success.

I did get the Clockwork cottage returned to the family room, so at least I can walk around in the workroom without leaping over it. That thing is pretty high and I was getting fatigued doing the cleaning that way.

Anyway, every time I made any progress, something seemed to pop up in front of me that lured me away.

The first one, I do believe, Tessie zapped onto the floor under the worktable so that I would be tempted to start doing the foundation of the teashop. Yes!!! I found more egg cartons. There was enough hiding under there to do it. I could have sworn that I used them all. That's why I think that it was Tessie's doing. She really wants the work done on the teashop.

I finished doing the gluing and then went back to work. That lasted less than 30 minutes.

Then I found the wire whisks that I bought to rework as Christmas gifts. I found some that I could alter and make them fancy on top. Hey! They make Altered Trading Cards. Why not altered whisks?

I did a small one of these for April to stir with when she is making cosmetics. Seth liked it and wanted a "real" one for cooking. Seth, if you are reading this, don't look at the photos!

That took me over an hour to finish. The wire on those are reallllly tough to bend.

Did I mention that required taking out tools and a couple of boxes of beads.....One step forward in the cleaning and another one backwards. At least I didn't have to jump over a house to put the beads back....Yes. I did put the bead boxes back where they belonged.

I went back to the kitchen to see if the rock work was dry and ready for painting....Yes it was. Unfortunately, before I can paint the rock work, I have to rescue the whisk.

Tessie was sitting on her favorite tape dispenser, hugging the whisk. She was whispering "Pretty. Sparkly. I wonder if I can make it fly?"

Seth, if you are reading this. You are on your own. If you want the whisk, you are going to have to fight Tessie for it. The last I saw of it, it was floating around the room with Tessie on the handle! They are both gone now. I have no idea how she did it or where she is going with it.

I need to go work on the room some more now and see what other trouble I can get into.

See you tomorrow.

Reading All the Signs.....

Tessie pulled all of the Fimo from her locks and stomped off. For a while it was very quiet except for a bump, thump and a squeak now and then.

I went back to work. I finished doing all of the Fimo rope building.

As far as I know, I created this idea with the sticker out of my own little head. Most people go through a whole lot of trouble doing liquid clay transfers. I don't, if I can do it an easier way. After everything is in place, I paint a coat of liquid poly clay over the whole thing, making sure that all of the nooks and crannies are filled.

Then I stuffed it in the oven right on the tile and baked it at 275 degrees for 15 minutes. The liquid goes clear and the sticker is sealed. I have done it with regular paper also. I have no idea why no one is doing this. Maybe they think that it won't last or maybe change color or something. So far I have had no problems with the process.

I put Fast grab in two spots high on the back of the sign and propped it up on the side of the building. Tessie came to see and approve.

I went back to clean up the mess and found that Tessie was trying on shoes. She couldn't resist all of the clay scraps and made herself a pair of flip flops.

This is probably the only time you will ever see her in shoes. They lasted as long as it took me to snap the photo. Then they were torn off and wadded into a ball. Nope. No baking no shoes for her! Her only word to describe shoe wearing is "ICKY!". Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Did I mention that she was not happy about the unfortunate Fimo-Silly-String incident of yesterday? Remember at the top of this blog I said I heard bumps, thumps and squeaks? Those were a sign of things to come.....I should have listened more closely and I should have gone to see what was happening....I didn't.

After I finished cleaning up the mess, I noticed that Tessie had disappeared once more. When she disappears without saying a word, that is a very bad sign.... Usually she at least says good bye unless she is up to something.

I grabbed the camera and was about to put it back into the computer room where it belongs when I heard a whoosh and another thump. I detoured to the workroom, following a flash of red hair and an orange pinafore....

The revenge of Tessie the Terrible is complete. This is what I found. Tessie and George had their heads together(upper left). Both were grinning and will you look at the mess on the floor? Between the two of them they managed to dump half of the contents of the shelves on the floor!

Tessie looked me in the eye and said, "Repeat after me. I will NOT mess with Tessie!"

I looked right back at her and said, "Tessie! You put everything back right this instant or I will encase you in Fimo and bake you!".

Her reply? "You gotta catch me first!". Then she vanished and left George holding the bag, so to speak.

I don't blame George. I know who is responsible.

Anyway, I am having Wednesday Witches minis here today. It looks like I have my work cut out for me after they leave. Tessie is nowhere to be found. I suspect that she is hiding in plain sight so that she can watch and laugh as I clean. Back to business.

See you tomorrow.

It's Not Nice to Annoy the Worker Bees......

Tessie is home. She couldn't wait to see what I had done to the teashop....Not a lot....Needless to say, Tessie was not happy.

She immediately started hassling me about the lack of progress. She also insisted that I start the sign for the exterior so that everybody would know that it was hers.

So I whipped out a planning pad and started drawing up a sign. This is what I came up with. If you want to try it and don't do lettering, you could find a simple font and do the design part on your computer. Just remember that you have to have the width of the ropes of clay as the letters and at least that between the letters.

It has to be fairly simple, what with the technique that she wanted me to use on it. I stuck one of the extra teapots on and sketched it out. She insisted that teas had to have the "e" on the end. I kept erasing it. She kept putting it back. Finally we came to a compromise. An extra loop on the end of the "s" satisfied her. I look at it as a flourish. She looks at it as correct spelling.
I rolled out a piece of white clay at the next to thinnest number on my pasta machine and cut it to size.

Then I took my infernal extruding machine and squeezed out long ropes of black Fimo in about the same thickness as the handle of the teapot.

When you are using this technique you have to do all of the details first and then surround them with the contrasting colored ropes.

First I did the "Tessie's Teas(e). Can't forget the "e".

Then I stuck on the teapot and a couple of flowers that match. Here you can see the three layers of the sticker. The ropes are even with the second layer. The third sticks up above it.

The next step was squeezing bunches of white to do the background. That infernal machine literally squawks in protest when you are extruding the ropes. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard, so I do it in steps. I can only stand the sound for so long. I know it's not just me. My friend Maureen has one and it is equally as irritating.

Evidently I don't work fast enough. Tessie started helping.....It was fine but she kept sticking her toes in the edge of the sign and wiggling them around. She said,"This feels just like walking around in spaghetti!".

No. I didn't ask how she knows that. I don't want to know the circumstances that found her taking a walk in pasta. I know she had a wild weekend, but I still don't want to know.

I was getting most annoyed at her. I fixed the corner three times and then I lost it. I made her get up and move away from the signage.....She kept inching closer.....It's not nice to annoy Casey when she's working.....

I ran out of white, so I grabbed the infernal machine once more and started twisting the handle.....That will teach her!

See you tomorrow.

Missing In Action.....

I knew that I shouldn't let Tessie wander off by herself. She is still not back..... I was starting to worry until her dragon flew in and dropped a rock, with a note attached, onto my head about fifteen minutes ago. It says, and I quote, "I am having too much fun with the rest of the witches. I am not leaving until about midnight. Don't worry. I should be home by the time that you get up in the morning. I expect the teashop to be in order when I get back. You are working on it, aren't you?" And it was signed,"Tessie The Terrible!".

I showed her! I haven't done a lick of work on the tea shop all day. I did some yard work and then I started deep cleaning the kitchen. I found stuff in the back of cupboards that I suspect Tessie bought and stored away. I certainly don't remember buying pickled bat ears! It was a very tiny can, so it had to be hers.

Anyway, since I don't have any work to show you, I will do the best I can with a couple of photos of old work and several websites to keep you busy.

First the photos. This is a 1/4" scale adobe house that I scaled down from a half inch pattern in Nutshell News years ago. The whole building is about 5 1/2" square(including the front patio) and 2 1/2" high.

It is constructed from 3/8" foam core and the beams are very thin barbecue skewers. The windows are made of plastic canvas painted black.

I made all of the furniture and accessories inside.



This last photo is of the wicker chair that sits on the front porch. It is made of sewing thread and #32 jeweler's wire. It is between 1/2" and 3/4" high. Sorry about the fuzzy photo. I didn't have time to drag out the tripod.

Now about the websites....

http://www.frillsandfancyezine.com/ This one is a wonderful doll magazine with all kinds of useful information in the back issues. A lot of them are either for mini dolls or can be adapted.

http://home.mindspring.com/~byrachelle/id9.html This one is a tutorial on how do do a nightgown that looks like it is smocked.

http://mishellyszoo.homestead.com/diyprojects.html Miss Shelly has been around for years, but her project page should be checked out every once in a while. She does put new things on and they are always fun to play with.

I am now going to go ignore the teashop and do some more kitchen cupboard cleaning.

See you tomorrow. Hopefully Tessie will have returned..... Oops! I mean Tessie The Terrible!

While Tessie's Away......

Casey starts to play...... I was having such a good time. I crocheted another one of the washy thingies. Then I moved on to potholders to match.....Then Zar showed up.

Darn! I thought I was free until Tessie's return on Monday. Nope. You might know that she would do something to mess things up.

Zar came in carrying the mesmerizer. He said that Tessie paid him big bucks to keep an eye on me and to make sure that I kept working on the tea shop. Mercenary that he is, he didn't even mention his cottage and the fact that I wasn't working on it.

He told me that Tessie said that he should stand over me with the mesmerizer and keep me working. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the silly little gadget doesn't work on humans.

It didn't matter much. He was waving it around with one hand whilst trying to teach Beau to bark for a biscuit with the other hand.

I decided to go along with it for a while and went and printed off a page of tea and coffee boxes. I sat there for an hour and a half mindlessly cutting and folding as I watched a version of "The Time Machine" that I hadn't seen before. It was from a couple of years ago. Not the best version I have seen. Kind of weird in places. It felt like they made it up as they went along.

It did what I wanted it to do though. After about 10 minutes, Zar was totally involved in what was going on. It didn't matter that the time machine was only in it for about three minutes in the whole movie. He was enchanted.

I finished all but a few of the boxes that I printed. The only problem was....The movie ended before I ran out of boxes.

The spell was broken. I looked up to see that Zar was determined to have me finish the boxes. He was standing there with Tessie's Steampunk water pistol in his fist. He squirted me twice and threatened to empty it on me if I didn't get back to work.....He who has the weapon is the boss. I have to go finish the boxes now or I will be drenched with about a quarter teaspoon of water. Oh NO!!! I might melt!

Alas, Tessie will be back tomorrow with wild tales to tell....See you then.

Prior Proper Planning....

The tea shop is back on the family room table and all is right with the world. It was way too neat in there yesterday.

Poor Zar and his cottage are still relegated to the floor of the workroom. He is not a happy camper.

I cut, painted and installed baseboards and door surround this morning. Tessie came to inspect an declared, "This project is going way too slow. I need to have it done so that my customers can have their tea now!".

She zapped out and then back in. To my surprise, there was a door in the doorway. Not a door that fit....

"This is the kind of door I want." she said, "I need to be able to see who is trying to get in."

I am beginning to think that this is going to work more like a members only club. Maybe witches only? That's how the "Witch's Warehouse" is.

Only card carrying, bona fide witches may join. They do open it to the public a few days before Halloween each year. Of course all of the really good stuff is hidden away on those days. About all you can buy there if you're not a witch is bug beer, pumpkins and a rat or two. There's not much call for those by the general public though.

Anyway, Tessie disappeared once more and then she reappeared with miscellaneous bits and pieces of furniture. She has been watching my methods. I always zap in some old furniture that is about the size of the pieces that I think will fit in the new building.

In this case, she showed up with a couple of cheapo Michael's hutches and a Chrysenbon oak table with one foot missing.

"This will give you an idea of how much furniture we cram into the space." she said. This was said like I had never done it before and needed instruction.

"I expect you to have the windows and curtains done by tomorrow. Then you may start on the shelves and counter that I need. We will want skirted tables. Two of them. At least 4 chairs and then we can sit down and talk about the rest. That should keep you busy for at least the weekend." She said this just before she whooshed away.

She came back in a flash. She said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I am off to a coven convention until Monday. The work I left you should be done by the time I get home. See you then...." Gone again and this time she remembered to zap Spike too. I didn 't even get a good bye in before she left.

She is getting altogether too bossy. I may have to go on strike to show her who's boss.....Sometimes I wonder who's boss..... Maybe another long talk is in order.....

See you tomorrow.