Breaker! Breaker! Come Back!

At 6:00AM this morning, Tessie was packed, in the car and ready to go....We left about 8:30. She had a bit of a wait. Luckily, she had a comfortable chair, Spike to pet and a nice view.



By the time that we got started, she had given up and found her way into the glove box. Walter had a micro fiber dusting cloth in there and she made herself comfortable. I think that she was sleeping, but she won't admit it. We woke her up, getting all of the stuff in the car.
We always seem to hit Cracker Barrel in Marana for breakfast on the way. Tessie slept through the whole thing.



Tessie came out of her shell to enjoy the sunny morning. She kept waving at the truck drivers on the freeway and is now urging Walter to get a CB radio so that she can communicate with them. I don't think that is going to happen... Those days have passed.



We always also seem to hit Arizona Mills shopping mall just about the time it opens. They have a bunch of theaters there and we took a break to see "Cowboys and Aliens". It was a very different western, to say the least. Great fun!









After that we checked into the hotel and Tessie discovered the "microwave" in the closet. We had to talk hard to convince her that she couldn't cook things in it. It was an in room safe.



She is now amusing herself punching buttons and trying combinations. Mind you, the door isn't even closed. If she doesn't stop that infernal clicking, I may try locking her in there. I just heard her groan, "Bored now.....". She is now trying to find something else to play with. This is going to be a long two days. Walter is playing golf tomorrow morning and I get to entertain Tessie....How many aprons can I make in a morning?



Tune in tomorrow and find out.



See you then.

Go Big or Go Home......

First of all, I have to get the "Mookie being weird" photo out of the way. He has a new way of getting comfy. I can't imagine this pose to be comfortable, but he stayed this way for over an hour. Strange cat...

Next, not any minis done today. Haircut, check. Lunch with April and Seth, check. The last Harry Potter flick, check. Minis....Nope.

When we got home from Harry Potter, Tessie was waiting in front of the Mod Living Room. Bags packed. Ready to go. div>

We aren't going until tomorrow morning, but there she was, all gussied up and ready to go. She seems to think that when she is ready, everybody should be ready. She sticks her thumb out and expects to be picked up and taken where she wants to go.

I just ignored her and went about my business. I decided to move my mini kit to a bigger box for this trip. We are going by car to Scottsdale and there will be plenty of room.

That got Tessie away from the suitcases. She picked out a whole bunch of fabric for new aprons. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I couldn't make 12 aprons in 2 days. She will just have to figure that one out for herself.

I am also taking computer and camera along, so you will still be getting your daily fix of Tessie. She did, however, specify that we weren't telling Zar that we were leaving. Does the phrase"Center of attention." ring a bell? I will keep you posted of our progress.

That's all for now. See you tomorrow. Probably from Scottsdale.

A Yearning For Awnings.....

Minka and Kathi had a couple of comments about yesterday's entry that started me thinking. That always gets me in trouble...Thinking leads from one thing to another and I don't get anything done.

Minka asked where I got the fabric for the pavilion. Unfortunately I purchased it several years ago at our Walmart. Ours used to have the best selection of fabric, bar none. The lady that was the head of the department found access to mill ends from some of the great quilting companies and we were getting fantastic fabric for 2.00 a yard! No more. Don't get me started on the sad state of things in the Walmart sewing section now. I firmly believe that they are trying really hard to eliminate it all together. It is down to two aisles about 30 feet long now. It used to be a huge section in one corner of the store, along with crafts. Oops...Off subject.

Unfortunately, that particular fabric had no information on the selvage edge, so I can't pass along any information. Sorry Minka.

Kathi, made the comment that she would like to make an awning on her "grandma's attic" project.


I realized that I had never shown my lazy way of doing awnings. Some people go to the trouble of building wooden frames and stretching fabric from one side to the other... Me? I take some illustration board or mat board and cut three pieces....One for the front and two for the ends. The front is the width of the window frame and as long as you want it to stick out from the window. The ends are a triangle with the longest side the same as one side of the middle section. The short sides of the triangle are a right angle from the wall to the end of the awning front and at whatever angle you want the awning to be.

Other than that, all you need is some scraps of fabric, large enough to cover the awning and hang over a bit on the bottom edge.

I glue the three pieces together to make sure that the awning is at the right angle and large enough to cover the top of the window, but not too large.

By now you have probably guessed that this is not an exact science.

Since I was using a patterned fabric, I could just wrap it around in one piece. If I were using stripes, I would cover the ends, going up and down and then the center section separately.

A good trick is to cut the front and side edges with fancy scissors. Make sure that they will work on the fabric first. I used Fiscars scalloped pinking shears. Some of the paper trimmers won't cut fabric at all.

One way you can sometimes get around this is, first coat the back of the fabric with white glue and let it dry. That makes it easier to cut....You will just have to experiment with that part.

You can also draw a pattern on the back of the material and cut it out with regular straight scissors.

After you get the front edges the way you want them, simply trim the back edges flush with the board.

I told Tessie that they were to shade her eyes...She took me literally and plopped one on her head and then started complaining loudly that she couldn't see with it on....

I put one on the bathroom window and Tessie announced,
"I still can't see in very well. Could you make the glass clearer while you're at it?"

I don't think that is a good idea....

I put the other one on the bedroom window. I didn't put any trim on them, but you could if you wanted to go to the trouble.

I am going back to the pavilion now....No more sidetracking until I finish it.

See you tomorrow.

I Don't Sew....Sewing Is Women's Work!

I guess it is up to us women to finish the pavilion. The above was Zar's announcement at the beginning of the tent top and curtains....In other words, anything fabric related.

It's not really a wise idea to antagonize women with needles and pins. Doesn't he know that?

I couldn't find the larger pin board, so I am having to make two curtain panels at a time. It's OK though. Each wraps around a corner. There are only four to make that way. I measured the side 7 1/2" wide by 8" tall and added a half inch to each way for hems. I only hemmed three sides with glue, turning under a quarter inch. I used Aleene's Tacky for this. Then starting at the bottom I did the usual pinning in of pleats. I won't go into the whole process, since it is covered in several tutorials elsewhere on the blog.

While the first pair were drying, I covered the four triangles of the roof with matching cotton fabric. Then I put them together with strips of fabric on the inside of the pyramid shape. That leaves it flexible for getting it square in the next step.

I cut a square, 1/4" larger all around, from the illustration board that I am using. I covered the bottom side of that so that the ceiling in the pavilion would be covered. I left 1/2" extra to wrap around to the top on all four sides. This will be mostly covered by the pyramid.

I put fancy braid on all of the seams with glue.

By that time, the curtains had dried enough for Tessie to bring one in and try it out. I will be adding a tie back to match the trim above. Over the top of the curtains, there will be a valence. I will probably have that finished for tomorrow's blog.

You may be wondering about the wood around the bottom. I am going to use that as the bottom of a railing to keep Tessie from having another spill over the side.

I am debating keeping the stained glass in the tower roof. Once I get this pavilion on top, that will be part of the view. I am not sure that Zar will want to look at that 24/7. It might be better with a plain shingle or slate roof....Still thinking about it. That was one reason that I didn't glue it on.

Now. You may be asking what manly men do whilst the women sew....No wait....We didn't do any sewing at all! Zar does gluing all the time. I think that we were had. He just wanted the morning off....

I found Zar and Spike(also manly) on the roof where the pavilion will be, trying it out...

Tessie left for parts unknown...It's a good thing that she did! It seems that Zar, with his spare key(for emergencies only), took it upon himself to raid Tessie's Tea Shop.

There he was on the roof, hot chocolate in one hand and a book in the other. He had three chocolate cupcakes, a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a fresh out of the oven pan of cinnamon rolls. He is in so much trouble when Tessie gets back!

I asked him why in the world he would do this? His reply? "I was depressed because these pants do make me look fat. I needed something to cheer me up. Chocolate does that, you know."

And that doesn't sound an unhappy girly thing to do???

I think that sounds more like Tessie than Zar. I am going to have to make some adjustments on his latest attire quickly. If I don't, I may have to make even larger clothes for him...And I had better make more cookies, cupcakes and cinnamon rolls before Tessie finds out they are missing....Woman's work is never done!

See you tomorrow.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors....

I had a few errands to run this morning and, on the way home, I managed a quick stop at 22nd Street Antique Mall....Something told me that I should....Something was right.

I told Walter, the other night that I would like to find a high table that would just fit the Clockwork Trailer. I did! I just barely got it into the back of the HHR, but I did it with a shoehorn and a bit of shoving and pulling.

As I unloaded it and brought it into the house, Zar and Tessie sat on the edge of the C. T. base board. When I hinted that I could use some help, they both pretended that I was invisible....They did do some "Oh-ing and Ahh-ing" while I was struggling to get it in place., but no help at all.

They both insisted that they would ride on the base board whilst I transferred it to the table.

As usual, Tessie the Graceful, got too close to the edge as I sat it down atop the table and fell off. She only managed to grab the edge with her fingertips.

Of course, I was to blame and was the one that got yelled at for carelessness. I did try to tell them....Honest, I did.

Zar was quick to the rescue, as was Spike. Zar pulled her back onto the board while Spike licked her face. I am not sure how that is supposed to help. Tessie snarled at him and he ran for the roof and safety.

I quickly pulled away, with the excuse of taking a photo of the whole table. It is almost exactly the right size. This is probably not where it is going to stand permanently. It is behind the dining table and hard to get to, to get a good view. It is about six inches higher than the table so it's good for viewing. I don't have to bend over or sit down to look in.

Here it is from the other side. Tessie took the high road. She is staying on the roof, lying down and looking over the edge.

She is now babbling about her near death experience, "I could have been killed! The horror! Zar, you are in for a law suit if you don't watch it."

Zar simply stood his ground and hissed through his teeth..."If you don't be quiet, I am going to throw you over the edge myself!" And then...."If you don't like it, just go home!".

I am going away now. I am going to ignore them both and start the pavilion. I did start putting the stones around the edge before I left. I may not have gotten a lot of mini making done this morning, but I did accomplish all that I set out to do.

See you tomorrow.

Do These Pants Make Me Look Fat?

I fixed the skeletal issues for Tessie and Zar last night. Surprisingly, Tessie wanted her same dress....She did however specify that I should pack fabric for our trip to Scottsdale this weekend...Walter golfs and I sew.

Zar is complaining loudly that the new suede pants and vest make him look heavy. I am afraid that I have to agree. Maybe he is just gaining weight...Maybe I added just a wee bit too much padding. Whatever the cause, I have the feeling that, vane as he is, they are going to have to be fixed soon. Maybe it's just the photography. You know the old saying about the camera adding ten pounds...

This morning I added wood strips to the base of the trailer. I did one of those "make it do or do without" things. I had some 1/2" quarter round molding. I simply turned the rounded side to the center and the straight side to the viewer. It worked just fine...Only a tiny problem. I was about an inch and a half short... or I should say the board was...

Solution? Another escape route for the mice and frogs. Hey! They need more than one entrance. I learned that from the Rock Squirrels that live on the other side of our back fence.

I am going to do egg carton stone around the edges. I went to put the wash of charcoal gray on there a little while ago and found that, for some reason, my old bottle has turned a very weird "snotty" consistency and water won't thin it down. Very strange. Oh well. I have black and white to mix together. They will do.

Anyway, here's the story so far. It is starting to come together. I can't believe that my six year old's attention span has stuck to it for this long...Maybe, for once, I will actually finish a project before going back to the other twenty that I have in the works...Maybe...

See you tomorrow.

Mondays Are Boring....

Why is it that every Monday I feel compelled to clean the house and do the laundry? I think that I was brainwashed at an early age by a set of linen tea towels.

When I was about ten, my mom put me to work learning to do embroidery....Yup...Seven towels. One for each day of the week. Thank goodness they stopped making those sets! Unfortunately, I got in under the wire. By the time I had finished two of them, I was begging to stop.

Monday was wash day. Tuesday was ironing....I seem to remember doing that before permanent press.... I never got to the one for cleaning. I think that was Thursday or Friday.

Later, I was thankful that I had gotten as far as I did with the towels. I did enjoy the embroidery and still do it to this very day, when the mood strikes.

So, what's the point of all of this ranting? I never seem to have the time on Monday to do anything else. Bah Humbug....Then it leaks over into Tuesday....Drips on Wednesday and so on...Until Sunday when I notice that the laundry hamper is once again full and the furniture dusty...


I did take the time out this morning to figure out how to do the peaked roof on the pavilion. Actually, it was quite easy. They kept telling me that the high school geometry classes would come in handy. They were right.

I made the frame for the pavilion 7 1/2" square and 8" tall. I didn't want to go too high with the roof. Maybe an inch or so higher at the center.

I got out my handy dandy quad rule paper and went to work. I made the base of each side 7 3/4". It has to sit just a bit outside the frame, so that the curtains on the corner will be covered.

Then I made an equilateral triangle with that as the base. I drew a line 3 7/8" up the center and drew lines from that to the corners. I first tried it out with the paper to see if it was going to look OK. It did.

Next I drew four of the triangles on mat board. I taped these together and tried them out. Just right. If you want to do this for any kind of roof all you have to remember is the longer the center line on the triangle the steeper the pitch to the roof.


There will be curtains in each corner of the pavilion and a fancy valence around the bottom edge of the roof to cover the top of them.

Unfortunately, that will have to wait until tomorrow. Since I don't plan on doing any ironing, I imagine that I will finally have time to finish the trappings for this part of the Clockwork Trailer. I also have to make a railing to go on the sides and back. Zar wouldn't want to get sued if someone falls off of the roof.

When I was putting out food for the squirrels and birds this morning, I found this in the Nandina bush. Evidently, when I was cutting dried seed pod stems a few months ago, I missed and cut one of the unopened bloom branches. Now I wish that I had missed more. I never thought to try drying the blooms on the plants. The buds are not falling off and remain firm. They seem to be begging to be part of a mini garden. This will take some experimentation, but I am definitely going to try for more of them next year. They look like partially opened tulips.

I noticed yesterday, while taking pictures that both Tessie and Zar are in need of medical attention. Tessie has a dislocated elbow and Zar has a disjointed hip. It looks like I am going to have to spend some time as "Dr. Casey" later today. I know that they will both be wanting new clothes to go over the new bones. Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.

Triple Threat....

OK....I guess that watching glue dry isn't really a threat. It still has to be done. I started building the frame for the pavilion this morning. It is going to take at least until tomorrow because the glue does have to dry thoroughly between steps.

As you can see, I simply cut wood the height that I wanted the pavilion and some more the width. The corner posts are 1/4" square walnut and the cross pieces and braces are plain old bass. I needed more strength in the uprights.

I put together the two sides, one at a time in the gluing jig to make sure that they were square.

I cut some 1" diagonals for the corners of the top. They will be covered with the pavilion tent when finished.

Next I turned the frames upside down and glued cross pieces between the sides and added the little corner pieces to those too. I put the bottom cross pieces in place to hold everything square.Now it has to dry some more. That's the hardest part of the process. Waiting for glue to dry is boring, so I put Zar on that job. He has to make sure that everything stays in place and the whole thing doesn't fall apart.

Meanwhile Tessie and I are still sorting beads and.....(don't tell anybody) I started another cabochon.

Tessie is still hoping against hope that they are all for her. "Don't hold your breath, Tessie...."

If any of you seriously want to try some of this, here are two books that I highly recommend. They tell you everything that you need to know, if you have never done this kind of beading before. Even as an experienced beader, I love them. They not only are informative, but they have lots of pretty pictures. I am a sucker for pretty pictures...I got both of them from Amazon. The one with two authors is a couple of years old. The one by Sherri S. alone is brand new.

Anyway, that's my triple threat for the day. Glue drying, beadwork and book reviews.

See you tomorrow.

Missing the Curve....

I looked at yesterday's entry and realized that I didn't show you the curves that I did for the stairs. Here you go.

Keep in mind that I can't attach the staircase to the trailer until I get that fixed in place on the base. I can't do that until I go get some lumber to build up the bottom of the base....One thing leads to another...

You will be happy to know that I tackled Tessie and rescued the key before she could flush it. Zar is now wearing it on a chain around his neck.

I don't really think that he will need it. Once Tessie saw what was behind the door, she lost all interest...In fact, she had just one word to describe what she saw, "Boring!". Then she went into a snit and asked, "What's the big deal? My bathroom is much nicer than yours. At least I don't have to leave the house to use the facilities! And I don't have to share mine with spiders and mice that live under the stairs.". Maybe she has a point....


She is now on the other side of the stairs encouraging her tree frog to visit the creatures living under there....

Last night I finished this pendant while watching TV. The center cabochon is a piece of a page, cut out of Veranda magazine and then covered with resin, in the cleaned out shell of a cake of eyeshadow.

This one is all beadwork. No basket coiling. The leaves are glass beads and the odd shaped gold ones at the bottom are freshwater pearls.

I see one little spot on the right side where I need to straighten the beads. Otherwise, I am very pleased with it.

The only problem with doing all of this beadwork is, I am finding out how messy my beading stuff is. I can't find anything.

I pulled out all of my bead boxes and hired Tessie to help me sort it all out....Two cookies and a small glass of cranberry juice was all it took. She is a sucker for the glitz. That will keep her busy for the rest of the day.

Back to bead sorting. See you tomorrow.

Surely He Can't Be Serious.....

How to follow the curve... What did we do before Post-it-notes?

I needed to make a template for the top part of the stairs. I took the easy way out. Unfortunately, I only had regular stick post it notes. The super stick ones work much better. That's why I have the blue tape on them.

I followed the curve around and overlapped the notes as needed.(We will ignore the blue tape.)

Then when I had them pretty much following the curve, I took them off as a whole unit and sketched the curve on a piece of copy paper.

I cut out the curve and then took the typing paper back to the trailer. I taped it in place and pressed hard on all of the lines of the steps. That gave me a rough pattern. I cut that out and made a few adjustments to make it fit. Then I did the other side the same way.

After I was fairly certain of fit, I cut the pieces out of illustration board(same weight as mat board, but cheaper)

I glued them in place. While the glue was drying, I cut a bunch of half timbers and made a window. There is still the big window in the kitchen of the trailer. I am going to have to get Walter to make a run to the golf store for a new roll of led tape....He will just have to suffer. Going to the golf store is such a burden for him. Sure it is....

Anyway, here is the staircase. I still have to do some trim work and put on a banister of sorts. I am thinking posts and chain. We shall see...The staircase works, but is a bit precarious at this stage.

Now about the under stairs area... That's what the title is about...

Zar made a sign to put on the door that says, "Zar's Private Office"...I told him that it would NOT keep Tessie from trying to get into the bathroom. If anything, it will encourage her to try. Private?

He should know by now that "private" on anything is a magnet to her. He then tacked on lots of other threatening signs. Then he added the largest lock he could find. Poke the photo if you can't read them.

Immediately, Tessie wanted in. Zar stood his ground, saying, "It's my office. It's locked and this is the only key. I am keeping it on my person at all times. Awake or asleep!"

Tessie countered that by grabbing the key out of his hand and disappearing.... Poor Zar. I do hope that he doesn't have to get into the bathroom before Tessie comes back! I do believe that she is going to be very disappointed when she sees that it is only a toilet. I just hope that she doesn't get vengeance for the ruse by tossing the key in said toilet and flushing it...

See you tomorrow.

By Guess and By Gosh!

I now know that it takes me, a witch, a mad scientist and an Apache to finish a curved staircase that winds around a curved mobile home roof.

That's how difficult it was to get the angles right! It's not pretty inside, but that will be covered up in the end.

I cut, measured, cut some more, cursed a tiny bit, and whittled with an Exacto to get it right.


There were no exact 45 degree or 90 degree angles in the whole curved area.

I still have to paint, stain and cover the outside, but I did get the building part done and it looks pretty good from the front side, where it counts.

As soon as I got it put together, Tessie had to run up and down a few times to make sure that we did it right....Mind you, the glue wasn't even dry when she started.

At least now I know that it's not going to fall apart right away.

Before I even got to the painting and staining....the boring part, the rest of the crew was on to other things.

I found them camped out on the roof. They put a makeshift "pavilion" together from a box top and some chopsticks to see what it would look like. It's not the right size or shape, but at least they know that it is going to work.

So.... There they sit. I guess that I am going to have to shoo them away if I want to get any more done today.

They look so comfortable. Maybe I will grab a Dr Pepper, pull up a chair and join them for a few minutes break time.... Who needs paint on their steps anyway?

See you tomorrow.

Out of Cove....

OK. We are coming right along on the staircase. I put it together, stained the steps and half timber, painted the walls and then glued the pieces together. I sat it up next to the end of the trailer and then discovered that I only had a couple of short pieces of cove molding left. Not enough to do the rest of the steps that lead to the roof...Rats!!!

Rather than run to the lumber yard and pick up a couple of feet of molding, I opted to go back to doing coiled basket jewelry.

I finished this one with the bird last night. I am very pleased with it. So is Tessie. She is trying to get it away from me for a wall hanging for the townhouse. So far I am keeping ahead of her.

I started this one last night. I am not sure what the stone is in this one. I finished the coiling this morning, but I still want to put some bead work on it, so I can't say it's done.

This is much more fun than making boring old baskets. Every one turns out completely different.

Don't worry. I am not stopping on the immobile mobile home. I just need molding...When Home Depot next opens, I will get the cove.

Meanwhile, Tessie and Zar can at least get to the roof without climbing the walls.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Waiting for Glue to Dry....Again

Zar put together the enclosure for the staircase this morning. I cut the pieces from Crescent Illustration board. It matches the lines of the steps and the back will be where the door goes.

We have to wait for the glue to get good and dry before going on to the next step.

So to put my time to good use, I decided to finish one of the coiled pieces that I started yesterday. When I finished the coiled part of the piece, I decided to take Phyllisa's advice. She said that she liked the beaded cabochons better than the coiled.

I had thought of adding some beads, but I didn't do it as I went. I did it the hard way.

I went back with beading thread and needle and added beads where needed.

Here you see the end result. I think that this is as far as I am going with this one.

For a first try, it isn't bad and I definitely like doing the pieces with wire rather than cord. The cord is just too flimsy.

The photos really don't do the piec of mother of pearl justice. It has all of the colors of the thread in it.

I turned this one into a bar pin. It just didn't look right as a pendant.

Anyway, I am off to finish the laundry that I didn't finish yesterday. Then I will get to work on the staircase. Tomorrow I will have something to show for our labour.

See you then.

Sidetracked Sadie....

You can just call me that today and today only. I haven't done a lick of minis.

I went to meet April for coffee. When I got home, I started the usual Monday chores. Load #2 is in the washer now. One bathroom is officially as clean as it's going to get.

Break time!!!

This is what I was doing last night. See all of the cabochons laying in the boxes? Between the stones and the ones that I made with resin, there are 52 all mounted on backing and ready to use.

Why did I take these out and start sorting? My friend Jo just took a basket class that wasn't really a basket class. It was really a jewelry making class. she started with a cabochon and was shown how to work around it with coiled basket techniques, to turn it into a necklace. The two that she turned out were very pretty.

When I saw them, I decided that it would be a good way to use up some of these cabochons.


As I was digging through the trays, I found five beaded pendants already started. The four outer ones are actual stones. The one at the center top is one that I made from a piece of a page from a magazine, a metal liner of an eyeshadow tray and some resin.

Walter says, if something sits still long enough, I will bead it. He's right, but thanks to Jo, I am now trying the coiled basket technique to see what I can do with that.

Here are a couple of pieces that I started last night. I am using over dyed floss. Three strands of that over hemp on the left and over cloth covered wire on the right. I think that the hemp is interesting, but the cloth covered wire is more controllable. The right one is a piece of mother of pearl that has been sawn into a flat piece. It is hard to see the beauty in the photo. I will have to try to get a better one if the piece turns out.

I am seeing all sorts of possibilities with these. I used a buttonhole stitch on the left one and let it twist around the hemp on the top left corner. I am thinking that some of my lace making stitches could be very interesting and adding beads is a possibility too. Poke the photos if you want a closer look.

I am off now to change the loads in the washer and dryer, then clean another bathroom.....Then maybe a couple of lace stitches whilst on a break from housework.

See you tomorrow.