Welcome!

I have a number of new followers this morning. The first one is a mystery guest with the name Val. I am not sure if this is a good friend of mine incognito or someone else. Val, is that you?

Next We have Grimdeva of Cauldron Craft Miniatures Http://cauldroncraftminiatures.blogspot.com/ Lots of spooky stuff to look at there.

Then there is Hanna and Leijona http://hannajaleijona.blogspot.com/ There are lots of fuzzy pets and other beautiful minis there.

Also there is Kathi of Beautiful Mini Blessings http://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/ She is new to minis and is working on a beach cottage. It is fun to see her progress.

Go visit all of the sites. They are worth the trips.

Welcome to all of you! Come on in and stay a while.

Prattling About Pens Again...

I went to Walmart this morning. I should never do that when I have minis on my mind. I can always find something that needs purchasing.

Since the other day when I discovered the bottle in the nose end of a pen, I have been especially interested in the ten foot long section filled with writing implements. I struck gold! First I found 10 Papermate colored pens for $1.39 Four purple ones for Tessie, two green, orange and red.

Down the row a couple of feet, I found these. They are the cheapest pencils on the planet. Twenty four Unison Mechanical Pencils for 4.99. Granted I paid a little more for them, but I reasoned that I have a lot of other mechanical pencils that the lead and erasers will fit. So I am really getting my money's worth.

I could write with the pens until they ran out of ink, but I decided to sacrifice the $1.39 first and have some fun. I found that each will yield a number of pieces. I did have to use a saw to separate the pieces, but it was worth the trouble.

I took a few minutes and sawed the clip off of the cap. then I sawed a tumbler off of the top end of the same piece. The pitcher was finished with a slice from the barrel with a side sawed off for the handle. I glued it on with E-6000. The top end is the last piece on the other side of the table. I pulled out the point, removed the metal piece and cut off the end. That yielded the bottle and the smaller glass. The top end of the barrel yielded the last glass. There you have it. Five pieces were made from the one pen and all of that barrel that Zar is holding could be cut up and used for jars or more large glasses. I would say that's quite a haul for one 14 cent pen!

The orange ink leaked slightly when I pulled the point from the tip. That is why the bottle in the center looks kind of marbleized. I think that it makes it all the more interesting.

I haven't done anything with the pencils except take one apart. You can see the pieces that it yielded in the second photo. The writing tip does screw off of these. Basically you can have bottles of 8 different colors, 3 each for about 20 cents a piece even before you start cutting up the other pieces. There is a nice threaded end and a plain end on the barrel for jars and glasses or cups. The top end pulls out and had two different diameters on it. the larger one has the clip attached. I think that may be sawed off. We shall see.

As you can see, Tessie immediately found the purple ones. That's 20 pieces from the pens....And at least 3 new puce bottles from the pencils. Who knows what else they will yield? I am going back now and see what other pieces I can find in the pens and pencils.

See you tomorrow.

Public Enemies.......

We went to see the new Johnny Depp movie today. I can't say that it was the best movie I have ever seen. When I got home I made the mistake of mentioning it to Zar.

He got it into his head that if he took his time machine back to the 30s he might need to defend himself from all of the violence. So he set to work adapting a rifle that he found, for his protection.

If you poke the photo you can see the additions more clearly. I am not sure that I understand what he's doing, but he claims that the rifle will shoot around corners when he is finished. Something sonic, I think he said...

He wanted to test it, but I told him no way. I don't want to be sitting in the living room and have a bullet hit me from around the corner in the kitchen! He is going to have to wait until the time machine is finished and go somewhere else to shoot it.

He has taken to working on my table until his workroom is finished. I guess I had better get to work if I want any peace and quiet. Here's a photo of the adaptation. He is really liking all of the new cogwheels and other parts. I have separated them into a box in neat piles so that he can see at a glance what he needs.

Tessie found the box and her favorite piece. She scolded me for not hiding it and poofed it away.

When she reappeared she started sorting through the pieces. I asked what she was doing and she replied"If Balthazar can make a gun, so can I! I have every right to defend myself and besides I want to play with the springs and cogs."

The two of them worked quietly for a while at the table. When Tessie finished what she was doing, Zar exploded. Well not literally. He was extremely upset because Tessie had taken the liberty of using one of his dueling pistols for her adaptation. Her only comment was, "What was I supposed to use? A slingshot?"

She has turned his pistol into a water gun. See the little reservoir on top? The wheels release a little water each time she needs it.

She told him that she might need protection too, if she goes with him. She said, with an evil grin"It can also be filled with pepper juice."

He replied loudly, "You are NOT invited! The time machine is only going to have room for one! No witches OR women allowed!"

With that, I had to confiscate all weapons, parts of weapons and hide the peppers...... Things are back to normal.

See you tomorrow.

Award Time!

Dora over at Miniaturas Dora http://miniaturasdora.blogspot.com/ has given me an award. My Spanish is not very good, but as I understand it, it is for the love of reading. That certainly fits. If I'm not doing minis or housework there is a book in my hand.

The rules are, I have to pick up a book that I have at hand, turn to page 161 and write the fifth sentence on that page here. Then I have to pass it on to five other blogs.

I only have a couple of books in this room. One is the Universal College Dictionary. Another is a travel guide for London. No writing on page 161. So I settled on a large volume titled Paintings in the Louvre. I got lucky with that one. The fifth line on page 161 is in the discription of the Mona Lisa. It says "The subject is thought to be the wife of a Florentine, Francesco del Giocondo." Granted, it's not very exciting, but it is 5:27AM and I don't want to wake up Walter to find another book.

I am passing the award on to these people.

Josje of A Beautiful World http://josje-bouwt.blogspot.com/

Jodi over at Creager Studios http://creagerstudios.blogspot.com/

Kim at Flowers and Art http://flowerkim.blogspot.com/

George the Miniguy http://tallminiguy.blogspot.com/

Sans at Dollhouse Diaries http://sansdollhousediaries.blogspot.com/

Pass it on.

Thanks for the award, Dora!

Two of a Kind.....

The feud continues. This morning Zar pleaded with me to make him a spray bottle that would fit his hand. He was having difficulties with mine. He specified that it should be the same color as mine. He liked that part. However, being a staunch Techno-Victorian, he wanted one with a metal sprayer. None of this silly plastic stuff for him. He is getting as bad as Tessie. He followed me around repeating "Casey.....Casey.....Casey" with about 5 seconds in between each one. He kept it up until I gave in and tried to help.

Do you have any old gel pens, preferably, or ball points laying around doing nothing? I was sitting at this desk the other day reading something on the screen and saw one in the flower frog on the side of the desk. I couldn't resist. The six year old started taking one apart. I untwisted the writing end. It was a perfect size and shape for a bottle.

A little side bar here....Did you know that the clear barrels on some of them can be used to store parts? The pink and blue one in the photo both have two ends that screw off. The top end is solid and the bottom end has a small hole in the screw part to accommodate the pen point. The hole can be sealed with a drop of glue. Then you can just screw off the top and put tiny things inside. Since they are see through you can easily tell what you have stored in there. The screw top can also be used for a plastic drinking cup. Some of the tops are like a little plug and have to be pried out. They aren't as easy to work with.

OK. Back to the subject at hand. Some of the pens have a clear screw off end on the writing part. Some are molded in one piece and you have to cut them off. The one that I made Zar's bottle from was the kind that just screws off. No fuss, no muss. I simply took a tube filigree finding that could be pried apart at the seam and forced it open. then I took parts that I clipped out of earring backs and made the trigger and barrel. Last, I glued a watch stem on top for the cap. It was about 10 minute's work including finding the glue, needle nose pliers and the side cutters.

That worked so well that I started messing with parts of the pens that you see on the table, excluding the whole green one. This is what I found in them. Zar now has several bottles, a couple of beakers and two jars.. I used various watch parts and the rose colored jar has a top made from a hubcap from a model car. I need to put bottoms in them all, but that will be simple with some transparency plastic. Some of the pieces had to be sawed with my miter box to get a straight cut. I used good old E-6000 to put everything together.

Now about the spray bottle war......It seems that Zar couldn't find Tessie. So he confiscated her rubber chicken and threatened to pickle it. It is now in a jar on the table. He thinks that Tessie will come to it's rescue ant he will be able to blast her.

We all know that Tessie is always two steps ahead. I left Zar's drink tray in the bedroom the other day when I was working on the secret room. Tessie found it and is threatening to pour it all down the drain if he touches a feather on her chicken's body. Never mind that the chicken doesn't have feathers. She wants her chicken back.....and Zar has to empty the spray bottle before she will give the drink tray back to him.

I think that Tessie won this round. We all know that Zar always needs a wee bit of whiskey after a tussle with Tessie.

I am going away now and let them fight it out on their own. May the best witch win......

See you tomorrow.

Painting and Repainting.......

Tessie heard rumors that Zar was preparing to try out some colors on his bathroom wall this morning. By the time I got around to checking in, she had already started helping.... She is really good at making "suggestions". Meaning Zar should paint the room one of the trial color patches that she painted in big splotches on the wall. she managed to get some of the color on her right hand and the sleeve of her shirt. Guess who had to help her clean it all off?

It was a real chore because she doesn't care for getting wet. She's afraid that she might melt. I have told her over and over that it's a myth about the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz" melting. No amount of explanation can convince her that that is fiction. She stomps her foot and says "I don't believe in fiction! Everything is true!"

Anyway, I shooed her out just in time. Zar came in and went into conniption fits over what she had brushed on the wall. He proceeded to paint over what she had done with Williamsburg Blue. He also put on the first coat of white on the ceiling.

About that time, Tessie reappeared. With hands on hips, she demanded to know why he hadn't painted the walls a nice shade of puce......That resulted in Zar going for her throat. I had to break it up.

I am not sure how Zar is going to put the second coat on, unless I loan him a brush. Tessie loaded her bottle of dark puce, as she calls it on her skateboard, picked up the brush and wisely started backing away towards the door. As she did, she pounded Zar's toe with the handle of the brush. There is a chance that this was not an accident, because she pulled back on the brush, grabbed the neck of the bottle and vanished in a puff of smoke.

I haven't seen her since. I think that she is laying low. She knows that Zar had taken control of a water bottle with a spray nozzle. He is stalking her. Or he would be if he knew where she was. I wonder if he will think to look in the top of the cat tree....... I certainly hope that there is nothing to the melting part of that story!

See you tomorrow.

Come On In!

There are three new followers this morning. We have Evelien of Eefmini's http://effminispunt.nl/ She is making a really neat curved staircase. Lots of minis.

Next is Pink and Green Mama with a blog of the same name http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/

The third is niknik. She is Russian and unfortunately I can't type Russian. But I can put in her blog URL. http://niknikm.blogspot.com/ She has some wonderful sculptures/dolls on her blog.

Welcome to the party!