Redheads Have Way More Fun!

Don't tell Tessie that I got this shot! This morning she came to me whinging and whining, "I still have paint hair! Zar didn't do his job... Some hair stylist he is!"

By the time she was done, the whinging and whining had turned into ranting and raving, so I took her in hand.

The nice thing about her hair is, it is about the easiest style that you can do with mohair.

I took of her old hair. That's when, with camera in right and hair in left, I took the photo. If she ever finds out, she is going to have a hissy fit. That's the worst kind in her repertoire.

After peeling it off, I pulled out the "hair drawer" and she pawed through all of the colors. I knew that she would pick the same color that she always does, but she likes to have a choice.

She settled for her "natural" red and we went to work....We didn't invite Zar to help...

I took one end of the braid of mohair and fanned it out. Then I cut it across the end in a straight line, making sure that the very end turned under, towards her face.

As I was trying it on, she told me, "I could have been in that "Tangled" movie. Seventy feet of hair is nothing. OK, so she was a blond....That's OK. Everybody knows that redheads have waaaay more fun!". Then she followed that with, "Take me for example."

I kept moving. I glued the hair around her head, with the trimmed end circling her face. I cut the hair off at the back of her head, very close.

Then I took three strands of the hair, about six inches long. Each strand was about 1/8" wide.

I made Tessie hold one end and I braided the other. Then I wound it around into a snail shape, tucking the end under the edge and simply glued the whole thing to the back of her head, covering the cut ends at the back.

When we had everything in place, I called Zar into the room for the finishing touches. We put a purple band around the bun to match today's apron. Tessie pulled the plug on him when he tried to use the dryer on her finished hair. So, instead he shot hairspray on the whole thing and she was done.

Now on to the rest of the day. We are going to a movie and an early dinner to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year's Eve!!!

See you tomorrow.

Tennessee Spinners and Calendar Art....

The only minis that I worked on today was cutting up gourds, to see how many baskets, large and small I could get out of each one.

I knew that each of the small Tennessee Spinner gourds would yield three, if I was lucky. Incidentally, the Tennessee Spinners are sold on Ebay if you are interested. I can't give you the name of a particular seller. I haven't bought any from there yet....

Each gourd has lots of seeds inside. I am going to try to grow some, once it gets a little warmer.

As you can see, the top row in the photo is all one gourd. It gave me five pieces to work with. Two will be large the other three may work for mini. We shall see when I start coiling.
Here's a close up of the smaller ones. The steps are, wrap a piece of paper or tape around the gourd and cut on the line that you draw. Then drill holes about 1/8" apart around the cut edge.

Stain the gourd or paint it if you wish. Sometimes people just wax them with paste furniture wax. I prefer them darker.

I will continue with the rest of the instructions as I go.

The reason that I didn't get much done today was, I had to run some errands and visit the baby person that has been added to the family.

Tessie was very happy with a couple of the things that I did. I went to the mini museum and renewed our membership. This year,when the membership was renewed we got two calendars. One for me and one for Tessie. Very cool.

She still is not paint free in the hair. Zar did the best that he could. I am afraid that I am going to have to step in and do more.

On the way home, spur of the moment, I stopped at 22 st. Antique Mall. I benefited on this stop. I found a tatting pattern book from 1944 and a full box of #5 Perle cotton in black. That was a color that I needed. I am almost out of 310.

The only problem with this book is the bright red nail enamel on the cover....Now Tessie wants some. She is crazy if she thinks that I am going to sit down and give her a manicure. She would have it ruined in 10 seconds flat.

She will probably benefit from it though. There are some really neat patterns for edgings and some small doilies that she could possibly use. Those will have to wait. I am going to absolutely, positively, get back to the townhouse bedroom tomorrow.

See you then.

She's a Closet Diva....

No. Not the cat. Widget is a he. I just had to get the cute photo of the day out of the way first. This is what I have to contend with whenever I get my basket of Perle cotton out to work on needlepoint.

The "she" that I am referring to is.....Altogether now......Tessie!

I am starting on the second floor now. I have to finish the closet first because of the dividing wall between it and the bedroom. That wall is in two sections.

As soon as I got the rod installed in the back and the floor covering in place, she started loading up.

This is the person that seldom carries a purse/bag or ever wears shoes. She crammed five purses into the shelves and put eight pair of shoes on the rack at the bottom.

To her credit, for once she actually hung all of her aprons up. Well, not all. I should say, her most regularly worn aprons. It won't last. She will take them down, one at a time. She will wear said apron for a couple of days and then throw it in the annex. That's where aprons go to either die or get replaced in the closet by me.

She managed to squeeze in various other objects that have nothing to do with wearables....Unless you count the sock monkey that was made of her last pair of socks, before she started going barefoot........I think that was in about 1945.... See how she is holding the shopping bag just over the line? this is her idea of putting new things away. The next step will be to drop it straight down....There it will stay until someone takes the trouble to put it away. It won't be her...

OK the door is now in place. I did notice that the apron that she was wearing yesterday is nowhere in the closet....Off to a good start....

All was good until she got a look in the mirror a little while ago. White paint doesn't match red hair. You should have heard the howling and carrying on!

She is now with her private hair stylist....Remember the last time Zar got a hold of her head? Yup! The electric hair dryer is in play.

If you want to see what happened the first time she was talked into using it, go here. http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2010/06/good-morning-im-balthazar.html And this is how it was put together...
http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2010/06/every-girl-should-have-one.html

I am going to be brave and go see what Zar did to her hair this time. I also want to check to see if he is still alive and in one piece....

Then I am going back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Over Half Way There.....

I just realized this morning that I am over half way finished with the townhouse. I am tired of working on it, in case you can't tell....

Starting at the top and working down, I cleaned it up this morning. I want it done!

It was in worse shape than the last time I had to muck out my workshop! The workshop looked clean in comparison.

I had to take everything out and start over. There was dust on everything.

The roof garden is now officially finished, as is the top floor workroom, bathroom and hall. Everything that needs to be is glued in place.

As I moved from the top to the bottom, so did Tessie and Zar. I had the feeling that they had a list and were checking to make sure that I did everything properly.

No. They didn't offer to help.

Actually, I just noticed that I need to put a bit of trim around the top edges of the workroom and bathroom. Of course I figured that out after I put everything in place.....Oh. Baseboards in the bath.....

In the bedroom and closet, I need to finish installing the wall. Then I have to do all of the trim, glue down the floor coverings and add more furnishings....Lots to do here.

I stole the clothes rack from the closet and put it in the annex for Tessie's aprons, so I am going to have to do that again. Grrrrr. Oh! It needs curtains! Rats!!!

The bottom floor is the worst. I haven't even started doing kitchen cupboards, appliances and lighting.

I am in pretty good shape for furniture in the living room. Tessie still insists that she wants mid century mod stuff in there, so it is essentially finished. Score one for Tessie!

Anyway, we are ready to start. I am still knitting second socks for two more pair. No more minis today. The Terrible Two are just happy that I made it this far. Bug beer, cold cuts and cookies for everyone!

See you tomorrow.

Just a Little More Time....

I am slowly, but surely getting into the after Christmas mode. I actually did some mini-ing this morning....Hey! It's not much, but it's a start!

I finally glued the two panels on the front of the townhouse. The middle panel is warped a little. That's why I didn't like it as an opening wall to the front of the house. That sucker is going to stay glued in for all eternity now......Well at least for as long as I need it to stay there.

Tessie is relieved to find that I am actually doing anything to her abode. Zar is hoping for closure, so that I will someday get back to the Clockwork Cottage.....Someday.....


I am very proud of myself this year. Usually the week after Christmas is when I figure out that the workroom will never be clean again. This year I made it a strict rule that I would NOT pile anything on the floor. That seems to be where it always starts.

The piles that you see on the chair and desk are all that I have to clean up. I can do that in a flash....Now all I need is a little time to do it.

This is one of those days when I am doing laundry with one hand, cleaning with the other, and knitting with my toes.

Speaking of knitting, I finished April's Christmas socks....OK....They were only two days late. Sorry about that, April. I am happy to report that there will be enough yarn left over to do socks and a hat for the baby.

Just before Christmas, I entered a drawing on "Stitching 'n' Knitting" http://ourknitalong.blogspot.com/ . Teresa Fox was giving away a few socks to keep your tatting shuttle warm...That's what happens when you both knit and tat. Anyway, I was one of the lucky winners. Isn't the shuttle sock the cutest thing!?

I will have the warmest shuttle in Tucson! Thanks Teresa! I love it.

Last but not least, look what I found!

The printer's tray in the back was something that my friend Sue brought to me at the last Wednesday Witches meeting. She knows that I collect such things and she wanted to get rid of it. Thanks Sue!

While rearranging stuff and putting away, I found the gourds in the basket. They were some that I bought a couple of weeks ago at the antique mall. I also found the five larger gourds in the closet.

Guess who is going to be experimenting with more gourd baskets. I think that some of the tops of the smaller ones can be cut off for mini baskets, but I want to do some larger ones also. Those should only take me a couple of years to use....That's in between minis, knitting, tatting and other needlework....

It looks like the coming year is going to be full of things to keep me busy.

Tessie and Zar are nagging me to finish cleaning the workroom and get back to mini-ing. I had better get to it and do it.

See you tomorrow!

Lots of Minis for Christmas!!

A wonderful Christmas was had by all! Zar and Tessie spent most of the time in the tree, but unfortunately, those photos didn't turn out well....So....On with the ones that did.

April and Seth have a very small house, so we ate breakfast in the living room in front of a roaring fire.

Tessie and Zar were the bravest of us all. they sat on the hearth. See the rock that Zar is sitting upon? That rock is not a rock! Well it is a rock, but it has a couple of stickers on it that makes it a gift certificate to Summet Hut, an outdoor store here in Tucson. Very original idea!The Terrible Two had a great time exploring the rest of the house. They don't get out much..... Here you see them in the hallway. This is how April drys some of their Casey Sox. Tessie and Zar decided that this would be a good place to hang out, just in case Santa might make a second trip and fill the socks....It didn't work.

They came back to the living room when they heard the rustle of wrapping paper. Wise choice!

They made a haul!April got Tessie a bunch of fabric from Cactus Quilt Shop. It's a store that she goes to quite frequently for classes and fabrics. The mother of one of her friends owns it.

Tessie is in love with the roosters. She wants curtains, aprons and anything else that I am willing to make from it.
I did quite well in the mini department also. Look at this! It is hand blown glass! Walter got it at the Mini Time Machine Museum Gift Shop. Actually I got two! The second one is even smaller than the first! Aren't these incredible?!? The photos don't do them justice.
Tessie and Zar received these birds from the newest member of the family. More on that in a minute.

The dragon with the crystal in his paw and the fancy egg shell was from Walter. He knows what Tessie and I like.

We are fighting over this one.Just call them Auntie Tessie and Uncle Zar! April and Seth adopted a newborn baby boy a few days before Thanksgiving. He is now a month old and having Seth and April for parents, he is going to have to get used to having his photo taken.....Often. They both enjoy photography. We get the benefits of their efforts. As a grandparent, I get to say that he is the cutest baby ever and nobody can argue.

April took some of their photos and framed them for Tessie and Zar to take home....We can clearly see whom she likes best!

The photos are all wonderful and they gave us larger ones that are equally as nice. I have a spot in mind for mine.

Tessie and Zar have yet to make a decision. For the time being, Zar's will go by the head of his bed in the Clockwork Caravan and Tessie is hanging hers in the living room of the townhouse, finished or not.

Anyway, I hope that you had a nice a Christmas as we did! Happy Boxing Day!

See you tomorrow.

From Tessie and Zar!

May your Christmas be full of joy and happiness!

Happy Holidays to one and all!

See you tomorrow.

Knitting My Little Fingers Off....

Yes. I am still knitting. 2/3 of a sock to go. I am not going to try to get Seth's or April's other socks done. They live here in town and I can run the second socks over to them anytime.

I'm sure glad that Tessie and Zar agreed to move the party elsewhere. The cat tree is coming in handy as a place to store the presents until we go to the kid's house tomorrow.

The only trouble is, Tessie and Zar seem to thing that they have proprietary rights to anything left on the tree now. Look closely at the center shelf....

I took time out to make more cookies this morning. I won't give you recipes. They are standard Chocolate chip cookie bars and Spritz cookies. The recipes come on the Chocolate chip sack and in a recipe book that comes with the cookie press.

The Terrible Two had a great time making mini furniture this morning. I fear that it will not last very long though...

Walter walked into the kitchen and grabbed an arm from Tessie's chair and started munching on it. At this rate, the furniture will be gone before tomorrow night.

Oh well...Merry Christmas Eve!

See you tomorrow.

Getting Down to the Wire....

This morning I made cookies. This morning I ate cookies. This morning Tessie and Company insisted that I share the cookies.

They had to hold a gun to my head to get their share.

I don't make these very often, because I start eating them as soon as they are cool enough to break apart.

For a change of pace, I am going to give you the recipe and stand back. Never get in the way of people that like chocolate or crunchy cookies.

These are the easiest, fastest and the most yummy for the time spent making them. They take less than ten minutes to put together.

They are called.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saltine Cookie Bars

Line a large cookie sheet with foil and butter it well.

Lay a single layer of saltine crackers on the foil, covering the bottom.

In a sauce pan, bring to a boil, 1 c. butter and 1c. sugar and boil for 2 minutes.Pour over the crackers and spread evenly. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 4 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle a 12 oz. package of chocolate chips over the top. When chocolate is softened enough, spread it around evenly.

Refrigerate until hardened and break into cookie sized pieces.....My idea of a cookie sized piece is about 1/4 of the slab!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feel free to experiment with toppings. just be sure to use at least one package of chocolate chips.

This morning I made it in a little larger pan than I usually do. The same amount of sugar and butter was fine. I added a few white chips to one end of the chocolate chips and some peanut butter chips to the other. Sometimes I add some nuts on top, after spreading the chocolate, if the mood strikes.

Anyway, I am now going back to the kitchen to see if the Terrible Two and their friends left me anything on the plate...

See you tomorrow.

Pre Party Party....

There was a trial run this morning. Tessie and Zar pushed, pulled and zapped as much furniture in the cottage as they could, just to see if it would all fit.

They are now rethinking the plan... Half of the furniture that they had in the tree is still in the tree...

The trouble is, as soon as they got everything in, people started arriving. There is now a pseudo party going on. So far, there are nine people in that tiny house and Tessie is making noises like she should have a larger party place!

This one isn't even finished yet. They didn't finish the woodwork or the window trim inside. They are very sneaky. On the top floor, they covered one window with the tree. They shoved a chair in front of the opposite window. The middle window now has a fireplace in front of it...At least they didn't try for a real fire in it. No chimney is involved...

In the bottom, both windows are just holes in the wall. I am going to attempt to shoo everybody out later and put the frames around the windows. This may be a difficult procedure, since I will be shooing nine people, two dogs and a tiger out of the house...You have heard the saying, " Harder than herding cats...".

Anyway, as things stand, the pre party has started. Maybe after I bake some more cookies, I can put out a plate of those and lure them out.

Wish me luck! I am also still knitting....

See you tomorrow.

Tom Sawyer Has Nothing On Tessie....

OK. The cat's out of the bag. I gave Zar and Tessie orders to finish the party house. I served an eviction notice on the cat tree, after Mookie tried to eat some furniture on the second floor. He wasn't to blame. He hadn't been up there for months. He just wanted to see who was in the tree that he isn't using....

Anyway, I told the Terrible Two that they had 24 hours to get out. They only agreed after I said I would help. So now I can openly take photos and get the darned thing finished.

This morning, I made Tessie a paint roller. This, in theory, will make things go faster.

She picked Sachet Pink for the main floor. Ceramacoat as usual. Then she proceeded to try to make it look like loads of fun, so that she could foist the job off onto Zar....He is such a sucker.

After she finished the main room, he took the roller and paint tray upstairs and did a very sloppy first coat of Dusty Mauve. It looks like I am going to be doing the second coat.
The two of them put it in their contract that they get a 15 minute break every hour on the hour and that includes potato chips, cookies, fudge and bug beer.

They got as far as the potato chips and fudge on this break.

While they are breaking, I will give you the recipe for a paint roller and tray.This one is super easy. I took a bamboo skewer and cut it down to four inches. Then I drilled a hole in one end. I sanded the ends to round. They could be painted if you wanted to get fancy. Not necessary.

Next I took a 2" piece of 24 gauge wire, it could be larger, and wrapped it with white chinelle stem for 3/4". Cut that off at both ends. Bend the wire around the end of the chinelle and stop in the middle. Bend the end away from the roller and then put glue on the end and stick it into the skewer.

Go back to the first photo for reference. Now for the paint tray....Super, super easy. I took a Listerine breath strip packet and simply pulled the front off of the back. Then I filled the back part with the paint. That's it.

Back to the knitting needles! I have two and a half socks to go...

See you tomorrow.

What Is Christmas Without a Tree?

Never leave the house to go shopping for a couple of hours, if you don't want things to change whilst you are out! That's the lesson I learned for today.

Last night I thought that I heard the usual banging around in the family room. This morning, when I arose, It didn't look like they had even removed the cover from the party house. Not a good sign.

I didn't ask questions. I just went on my merry way to do some late Christmas shopping. The real mistake was not starting the shopping months earlier.....You know the feeling.

I found a few things and also got sore feet.

I knew something was amiss when I came home, entered the back door and not a sound was to be heard....Then I strolled into the living room and saw this!

The party has started. At least the decorating part has.

I confronted Tessie(and Zar) with, "What did you do? How could you?"

Tessie stood up to her full five and a quarter inches, looked me straight in the eye(she was standing on the third level) and said..."Well the cats seldom use this monstrosity. We decided that we want our usual Christmas Tree Party and this is the only tree in the place! We've got dibs!"

Zar was a big help. His comment was, "Yeah. What she said!" All the while fidgeting and pointing at Tessie.


I looked up and on the very top, Santa was perched between two trees. Nobody seemed to notice. He was checking his list....There were a great many checks on the "Naughty" side....

Below him and to the left is our one and only wrapped present for the year. It's something that I got for Walter. I can't tell you what it is. He reads this.

The next step down, Esmerelda, Spike and Buffy were settled in with beer and cookies. I question their taste in party food.

Yes, there are real lights around the edge of this layer and the next one down. I went and looked in the drawer where I keep the batteries....All gone.

Going down.

The spinning sister seems to be happiest when left alone. With drink in one hand and three pizzas to keep her company, can you blame her? She is putting up with the tiger cub, Theo, kind of. He had best draw back that paw from the deluxe pizza box though. She is Tessie's older sister and a witch to boot.

Inside, Tessie has the best room in the house(as usual).She moved in some of the mid century modern furniture and she has the tree from last year. This is the only room with actual lights. The fireplace is flickering. She stuck one of those little battery operated tea lights behind the screen. They also managed to get one of the LED lights stuck to the ceiling...I am going to have to investigate that....Bubble gum or Velcro?

After I got over the shock, I decided it wasn't so bad. I did tell them that it was up to them to keep the cats out of their party if they insist upon staying in the tree....It IS Mookie and Widget's tree. Not theirs.

As everything stands now, it looks like interest has been lost in the party house.

Maybe if one of the cats tries to take a bite out of one of them, they will change their minds.

Either they will go back to the party house or I am going to have to clean up the mess that they started. Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.

Gingerbread and Gold....

When I got up this morning, the outside of the party house was essentially finished. Tessie used the up and down bouncy thing about 150 times....Allowing for a few that she didn't jump up and down hard enough. Those didn't cut all the way through the index cards.

There are 14 different pieces on the front alone. They decided that it was too much work to make six for each side on top of that. Too much jumping is a bad thing....

Next, they went to work on the door.

They used the illustration board from the center of the door frame. They trimmed it down a bit, to allow for the thickness of the covering. They covered it with scrapbook, Christmas card stock. Then Tessie rummaged through my gold sticky things and found door decorations. The design in the center of the door is actually a window. It is cut out behind the gold sticky stuff so that she can see who is outside. It is the same design on the inside.

She also pilfered two fancy door knobs that I was saving for a rainy day....I guess that's OK though. It IS raining today. We have had more than our fair share this year.


I knew I shouldn't have baked cookies and made fudge so far ahead of Christmas....They finished the door and found the fudge....That was the end of the work night.

When I looked, the cookie jar was half empty and the fudge was scattered around the inside of the fridge. It looked like someone had dug through it and found the largest pieces and left the small ones.

It's a good thing that they don't know that I am recording all of this. They would probably jump up and down on the camera, like they do on the gingerbread punch.

At least I know that Walter and I have not been sleepwalking and getting into the cookies! Here's the proof. They even enlisted Spike to do the heavy lifting!

I do hope that this doesn't slow down the work.....

See you tomorrow...

Illustrating What Can Be Done...

We went over to April's to decorate their Christmas tree yesterday afternoon. Tessie and Zar stayed home and worked.

Since this house was five dollars at a thrift store, it was just a shell. No trim or other parts were included.

Tessie and Zar raided my store of Illustration board and went to work right after we left.

Tessie took a scrap of paper and did tracings of the arched windows and door. then they laid that down on the board and traced around it. they did another line outside of that for the outer edge of the frames. Then they cut them out and painted them.


The then glued them in place and clamped them until they were dry.

They found my stash of clips and mini clothespins for that task.

I recorded a conversation between them that went like this.

Tessie: "It's blah! It needs fancy trim."

Zar: "Where are we going to get fancy trim? Casey doesn't have any."

Tessie:"No, but I know where she keeps the jump up and down on punches.".

So, they disappeared out of camera range for a while. When they returned, Zar started poking index cards into the punch and Tessie jumped up and down on the lever that cuts fancy corners.

I used these self same corners when I did Hubert's Haberdashery. That must be where Tessie got the idea.

What you do is cut out five of the design and glue them in a stack. They come out about 1/16" thick when you do that. Let them dry and paint them. Let them dry again and stick them to the building. Fancy fretwork is the result.

They have only just started fancying up the party house. At least the outside is almost finished.

On to the inside......If they don't decide to quit...

April invited both of them to come over and sit in her tree on Christmas day. I don't think that I am going to tell them that until they finish the house. I want to see them finish it. Don't you?

See you tomorrow.

The Brush Off...

The camera is still working...The Terrible Two continue to keep me out. I caught this image early in the evening.

They have been watching me work, it seems. They are staining the roof first. If it drips down, it won't ruin the new paint job that goes on next.

Teamwork all the way. Zar on the ladder and Tessie on the table, passing the full brush up to him. This is fun to watch. Once in a while, Tessie slaps the side of his head with the brush....Accidentally. Once in a while Zar drips stain down on her head.

Believe it or not, they are getting along quite well.


Somewhere in the process, they decided to cooperate with one another. I am still trying to figure out a way to gently tell them that the corners of the roof need to be capped with something. I guess it doesn't matter if the roof has holes. After all, it seldom rains inside our house.

Next they went after the walls. It was decided that they would be Wedgestone Green Ceramcoat. and the beams that were terribly worn would be covered with Burnt Umber Ceramcoat.

They also did the stone work on the base with charcoal gray, white, a little of the green and brown mixed in to make it coordinate.

Somewhere in the middle of the night they decided that the table needed to be Christmas-ed up. They dug out my red and green plaid tablecloth. I guess that it makes a good drop cloth.....Their logic is, the table won't get dirty...Fuzzy logic....

I have only one problem with these two working on their own. Brushes. See the pile by Tessie's feet in the last photo? That is just from last night. They think that all brushes are disposable. Yes. I own a lot of brushes, but contrary to their belief, I also wash a lot of brushes.

Thank goodness, I know the Alcohol trick. One cap full and the whole mess was conquered.

Compare the pile by her feet in this last photo to the previous photo. Yes they are the same brushes. I simply swirled them in the alcohol. Then I took them to the kitchen sink and used dish washing soap and warm water on them. Almost like new.

I have the feeling that I will be doing this every morning, for the next few days. Hey! A bottle of alcohol is much cheaper than all new brushes.

Notice the stain brush in Tessie's hands. That is the only one that I don't bother doing this way. I use a stiff bristle brush for stain. I don't bother with cleaning it. The Minwax stain is solvent based or some such and as soon as you start using it again, it softens up and works fine. That particular brush is a few years old and has never been cleaned....Still works well.

I am now off to bake more Christmas goodies. Zar and Tessie handed me a list of cookies and fudge that they want for the party. They don't mess with mini stuff. A stack of cookies and several pieces of big people fudge is all they need.

See you tomorrow.