0ther People's Houses....

Here's my excuse for being late today. April and Amare came over this morning and we worked on Amare's chair once again....Today we started the fun part.

After much discussion, we decided on black and white as a start and then maybe some color later.

I started on the seat and April worked on the rockers. This was her first time doing tangling....She is very artistic and took to it like a fish to a fish bowl... It is a long way from being finished, but we got a good start.

Before she arrived, I did as much mini work as I could squeeze in.

We now have some of the inside half timbers installed in the inglenook. I still need more towards the ceiling.

Of course, Tessie is not happy. The window is to high for her. she wants it about a quarter of a Spike lower....Not going to happen. She will be standing on a foot stool if she wants to spy on the neighbor....

Speaking of the neighbor. Lettice, is not happy either....What a bunch of grouches! I suggested that she needed a smaller table on the ground floor.

If she wants more than a table in that room, this size is going to have to do.

It is a commercially made table, but with a little help, I think it will suffice.

In this photo, you can see how very shallow the fire box is...

I am joining the grouchy crowd. We shall henceforth be referred to as the first scene of Macbeth...





This is my complaint. If I want to work on or take photos of the crooked house, I have to move the house to a larger table and prop the front of it open. Being crooked, it will not stay. It swings closed as soon as I remove my hand.

I think that I am temporarily going to attach a chain to the back of the house and put some kind of hook and eye on the edge of the front and the chain. That is the only way it is going to stay open for working.

I think that I am also going to add some kind of magnet or hook to the front door itself. It swings inward even when the front of the house is closed. It is next to impossible to keep it closed.

Lettice suggested that whatever is behind the fireplace is causing the trouble.... Maybe....

I am going now to search for a chain and a hook to keep the wall away from the ghostly being from behind the bricks. Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.

Kind of Mini....Sort of.....

We spent the morning on the back patio. It is such a beautiful day that we couldn't stay inside.

It all started yesterday on PBS. There was a gardening show about growing veggies and herbs in pots...OK. So I am a sucker for trying things.

The only problem is, my mind wanders.... While I was searching for veggies, I happened onto this Euphorbia. It's flowers and leaves definitely qualify as minis. Not necessarily the stems. I am a big fan of euphorbias of all kinds. They are very unusual and easy to grow in the desert. They have all of the qualifications of cacti, but a lot of them come without the thorns.

Of course Tessie likes them because she can climb them without getting stuck.

She couldn't wait to show you the blooms and leaves. The blooms are tiny yellow balls with an even more tiny group of petals on top of each one....To me this qualifies as doing miniatures...OK I am stretching it a bit.

I also planted a patio tomato in a pot and some basil. That's the veggies and herb part.

I still have six zucchini plants six green beans and a YELLOW watermelon plant to do....Those will have to wait til tomorrow. I ran out of dirt for the pots and besides, some of them are going right into the garden.

Anyway, after repotting and newly potting 26 plants and doing a bit of garden ground prepping, I am officially off duty for the day.

Incidentally, we did make some progress in the Crooked Cottage... After much grilling, poking and prodding on Tessie's part, we found out our new tenant's name. She is Lettice Knollys.

Tessie immediately changed Lettice to Letty, which to say the least did not please the new tenant. I do believe that the two of them are not going to be best buddies. Tessie may never be invited for tea and crumpets at this rate. We shall see...

There really was a lady in waiting to QE1 by this name. I doubt if they were one in the same. This one didn't marry Robert Dudley. This one got kicked out of court.

By the way, if you want some great names for your people, go here. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/christian/fairnames/ I had a great time wandering around the site. At the bottom of the page are connections to a page of men's names, women's names and sir names from the Elizabethan era. I found out that my mom's maiden name would have fit right in.

I am going now to pretend to do minis....While napping. Great trick if you can do it.

See you tomorrow.

Whinging and Whining....

Well....The Elizabethan lady tried moving in a couple of pieces of furniture this morning. She got as far as the Warren Dick Tudor table and one of the joint stools....I think that she needs to lower her sights. The word she needs to learn is "downsizing". You should have heard the ruckus that she put up when she saw that it would take up half of the downstairs room.

I am thinking of building out the fireplace just a bit and drilling a hole through the back, so that she will at least be able to cook(not that she will want to). That's what she gets for irritating the queen.

Meanwhile, I found a bunch of "Skiny Sticks" on sale at Walmart this morning. I have never used them for flooring, but I know people that have. Since this cottage is supposed to be rustic, I think that they will do for the floors.

I proceeded to stain a bunch of them with Minwax Red Mahogany. Then, starting at the front opening, I laid them crosswise.

For those of you that haven't been around to see me lay a floor before, this is my favorite trick. Years ago a friend showed me how to keep them from warping. Instead of putting glue all along each piece, you put dots of white glue about 3/4" to 1" apart. That prevents the whole thing from being moist in one long strip and thus, it doesn't have a chance to warp. It really does work.

Here's the start of the bottom floor. I am staggering all of the pieces, so that the joints won't be in a straight line. I left the longer ones hanging. When I put the annex onto the main building, I will simply put glue on the backs of the loose ends and weight them down. That way there will be no discernible line between the two rooms. And it will make the join stronger.

That's as far as I am going for now. Walter and I are going to see "The Raven" and maybe lunch today. That cuts out a chunk of time for minis. It will probably send me off in a new direction of mini-ing too. The main character in this is Edgar Allan Poe, played by John Cusack. At one time, I toured one of EAP's homes. That was before minis, but I have thought of doing a room box for him....I know....Finish what you start....

See you tomorrow.

Very Little Minis Today....

I don't mean that they are very, very small.  I mean that I probably won't get to do much in the way of minis today.

Yesterday afternoon, I had someone show interest in the Crooked Cottage....It seems that she is out of favour with the Queen and needs a place to live....Cheap....

Unfortunately, as soon as she showed up, so did Tessie and Zar, trying to talk her out of the place.  The told her she had to go beg for Her Majesty's  mercy.

I didn't stick around to see what would happen.  I was busy rearranging furniture and reorganizing the mini corner in the family room.

I am trying the new  blog thingy again and I am starting to get mad.  I can't seem to get the photos where I want them.  Grrrrr.  I keep getting a lot of big gaps.  I drag the photos to where I want them and they just jump to somewhere else.  Sorry.

Anyway, Here is the reorganized corner.  I'm still not satisfied.                                                                              

What with doing this, I had to move furniture out of the workroom, into the family room, and vice versa.  I wound up with a mess.

And more mess...Would you like to hazard a guess as to what I will be doing for the rest of the day???

See you tomorrow, with a cleaner workroom....I hope!

The Wire.......

No. Not the TV series, the electrical wire in the crooked cottage. To say the least, it is very strange.

Sue never did anything to the cottage, so I know it was there before she bought it.

Walter found something on the net last night that said that Graham Wood put his wiring in the beams...OK...Right. One wire.

It runs up into the attic, where there is no way on earth to get to it if something goes wrong. The attic doesn't open. No way. No how.

I unscrewed the chimney to fix it and this is what I found. The other end of said wire....OK... I ascertained that it was definitely the other end by gently tugging at it. Yup. The wire inside moved.

The one inside was a foot or so long. Too much to hang a ceiling fixture. I surmised that it was to be used in conjunction with the outside wire to connect things. It just had not been cut.


As you can see, there is an opening for the second floor fireplace. It can be lit.

After much fussing and messing with bulbs that didn't light, I found a flickering fireplace unit and one bulb that did light, in my stash of electrical...

I had plenty of extra wire, so I was set. At least to test it out. I will have to make or buy some kind of hanging lamp.

I put a new lead on for the fireplace that connected to the main wire and just a light bulb on the end of the original wire. I finally got them to work, so I know it can be done.

Now for the puzzling part. the bottom floor has absolutely no provision for electrical at all! In fact, the fireplace is less than a half inch deep and has no hearth. Very strange.

I heard Tessie and Zar discussing it. Tessie was speculating that it might have either buried treasure or a body bricked in behind it.... Hmmmm.....

I am now trying to decide if it would be OK to cut open the fireplace and make it a working one too. I am not sure that I want to fuss with it, but it just looks really strange to me. Wouldn't the bottom floor have the working fireplace? Heat rises.

I am not going to rush to judgment, but I would just like to have that fireplace work too...Tessie is saying, "Leave well enough alone. Who knows what is behind that wall of brick?"

Maybe she is right. Do we really want to know? I am going now to sit in a corner, work on the Weaver's Workshop and think about the fireplace situation.

See you tomorrow.

There Was a Crooked House....

You may be wondering why I am late today....I have a good excuse. Honest.

I just purchased my very first, after thirty years of doing this, house that somebody else made.

One of the Wednesday Witches was getting rid of it and I jumped on it. Sue has patiently watched me drool over this little house for years... Almost nineteen years, to be exact.

She brought it back from England and the drooling commenced.

It was made by Graham Wood. He makes copies of real houses in England.

Sue told me that this one is a crooked house that is in Windsor, close to the palace. I am going to have to see if I can find any information about it on the net.

Here's the label on the back of the house. It gives information about the business, but unfortunately nothing about the house that it was a copy of.

Please note. Tessie latched onto it as soon as it was in the back door.

She took one look at it and said, under her breath, "Casey must have been drinking when she bought this...It's crooked."

"I heard that! I have not been drinking!" Then I proceeded to try to explain how special a crooked house is in England. She wasn't buying it. Finally I lost patience and told her, "If you don't like it, go live somewhere else."

That did it. She brought out the broom and started cleaning up. As she worked, she kept mumbling to herself...."It's crooked...It's special....It's crooked...It's special???"

To add insult to injury, Zar wandered in carrying an open bottle of something green....Don't ask....

He eyed her, took a swallow of whatever was in the bottle and said..."Huh! It looks straight to me!"

I had to take the broom away. She was about to beat him around the head and shoulders with it.

I got a little closer and heard him say, "I like it. If you don't want it, I'll take it."

Tessie slammed the door in his face.

I guess that was a "NO!".

She did let him in to look around, but on no uncertain terms will he ever get to live there....As far as that goes, I am not sure that Tessie will either. I may just put a "To Let" sign in the window and see who shows interest. There IS a homeless Elizabethan lady that wanders around the bookcase in the family room...

You might know it...the only thing wrong with the whole thing(besides its being crooked) is some of the plastering is coming off of the chimney....More chimneys? I thought that I was going to be finished with that kind of thing when the Weaver's Workshop was done.

Maybe I can get Zar to do it. He seems to be partially plastered already...

Anyway, that's my story so far and I'm sticking to it.

See you tomorrow.

"Now All I Need Is a Mouse..."

OK. Time to add some color. This is the boring basecoat of Trail Tan. It's pretty much the color of sandstone, but if you look closer, you will see that sandstone varies greatly in shades of gray and brown.

I started doing washes and dry brushing with Territorial Beige, Burnt Sienna, Hippo Gray, Sage green, and Antique white. I mix them together as I go. I seldom use only one color straight. Usually at least two and a lot of colors on top of colors.

I go over it again and again at random. A bit here, and then a bit there to balance it.

Sometimes I notice something missing as I go....Hmmmm...What happened to the hearth?

Back to the egg cartons.


I laid the stones for that and started painting those too....Then I decided it was Dr Pepper time. Remember those commercials from way back?

Anyway, Tessie had been poking about while I was painting and when I got back from the break, there she was...


She threw something across the room to keep me from seeing it....Didn't work. I went and found Zar's hammer and chissel in the corner.

It seems that she decided to add a detail of her own...

"Tessie! There's a hole in the fireplace! What are you doing?" That was me.

She stuck her nose in the air and replied, "My mouse needs a warm place to sleep. The hole is just right for him."

Silly me. I asked, "When did you get a pet mouse?".

She always seems so logical when she answers my questions...

She pulled herself to her full 5 1/4 inches and said. "I am on my way to the back yard right now to find one. I will have one by the time that the chimney is finished!"

Oh goodie! Mice. Just what I need. I am now off to build myself a better mousetrap as they say. It will be a no kill one. Little cage that I can carry far, far away to let them out. Thank goodness, she doesn't like badgers!

See you tomorrow.

Undercoating and Priming....

I didn't get a lot of mini-ing done today. The rocker that you see to the left is a mini of sorts. It was April's rocker when she was little. It has been sitting in our garage/April's storage space for a long long long time.

She and Amare came over this morning and we took off LOTS of dust and grime. Then, between the two of us, we got one coat of primer on it. May I say that I hate painting big furniture with lots of spindles...Even kid's furniture with lots of spindles.

I managed to shove a splinter from the chair under the pinkie fingernail on my right hand. I managed to find my curved nose tweezers, while yelling a lot. I pulled it out, and I am not exaggerating, the part that was under the nail was as thin as a needle and 1/2" long. April will vouch for this! When I laid it next to the nail in question, it was longer than the nail itself!

Now I know what they mean by torturing someone with bamboo splinters under the nails. OUCH!!!! It still hurts.

After they left, I started the texture on the chimney. I sprayed it with water and used a knitting needle, my ball stylus and Exacto knife to manipulate the stones. It still needs more. I will do that as I go along.

Next I used Trail Tan Ceramcoat to undercoat the whole thing, with Tessie's help. She comes in handy when I have to get the bottom back side of the chimney. She may need new clothes before we finish. It's a tight squeeze, even for her.

It doesn't look like much yet, but it's coming right along.

I also put a coat of paint over the window patches.

There will be half timbers covering the seams.

For some reason, the right side looks finished. The left side, because of shadows I guess, looks like it wasn't painted. Weird.

Anyway, if I want to get anything at all done today, I had better get back at it now.

See you tomorrow.

The Chimney Rocks!

Every stone is in place! On to the other steps now. The next one is to do the sculpture work with the stylus and Exacto. We won't mention the water and Emery boards. Those are extras.

Tessie is again checking on things. She reckons that the chimney is tall enough....However, "It would look nice with a pot coming out of the top."

She has stopped measuring with Spike now. She announced, this morning, "Forget the Spike thing. Let's just say it should be "Head and Shoulders" above the roof peak." She means her head and shoulders, naturally. I didn't tell her that her head and shoulders measured exactly one "Spike" high!

Here's, more or less what it is going to look like. At least now you can see what I am going for.

Sorry that the photos aren't great. For some reason, that corner is a bit dark this morning. I can't figure out why. The sun is shining and it is 91 degrees outside right now...It may hit 100 today.

As you can see, I still haven't cut the side out of the main building yet. I am trying to decide if I want the hole to go all the way to the top or leave the top closed and put a false door in on the second floor. I imagine that open will win. Easier to see that way...Although I do like the idea of a fat little Hobbit like door to the storage room.

This last photo is just to prove that I did cover the whole thing with stones and to show that the serpentine stones continue all around the stack.

Tessie is trying to get Zar to build her a periscope to wrap around the chimney so that she can sit back there and spy on people....I don't think he is convinced.

By now, he knows that as soon as he does the work, she will look through it a couple of times and start complaining that she can't see everything at once. She is just going to have to peek around the corner instead.

Meanwhile, I am off to get lunch ready and then back to the stones.

See you tomorrow.

Somewhat Sidetracked....

I did it again. If you are tuning in while I am writing this, all you will see is photos. I hit the mystery button again. And that is with the old system. I went back a step and now I can do the blog a lot faster, but the mystery button for publishing is still here.

This morning my fingers refused to cut and paste stones. They went on strike and insisted on a break.

So I started back to working on this rug that I was doing a few months ago. I figured it might look OK in the weaver's cottage.

The center medallion is a bit complicated and is going to take some time to finish. So....While I fool around with the rug, I will give you the pattern, so that you can work along...I thought that I put it on here at one time, but I can't find it now, so I will do it again or for the first time....Whichever.

You will have to poke it and enlarge it before you print and remember that it is an original design and not for resale. Personal use only please.

If you want some antique rug patterns to play with, don't forget this site. http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/MH.htm This URL will send you to a few that can be printed off as is and used. If you look around the whole site, you will find others. There are some nice ones in the alphabetical list, in the "K" section.

The last couple of nights I have been working on some more tangles while watching TV. These are 4" by6".

I bought a tablet that has 150 sheets. That's so I will have extras if I mess up...

I just wanted to show you that I do not have idle hands.

Tessie and Spike still insist that I put chimney pots on the chimney. I don't think that there is any danger of a fire, but they do. I will make it one "Spike" higher. That's 1 3/4". I kind of like having a new unit of measurement. From now on, I just may have to start measuring in Spikes and Half Spikes... Half a Spike is 7/8". I wonder if it will catch on? Probably not. Oh well.

Back to work. Have fun rug making.

See you tomorrow.

One Happy Camper Here....Maybe Two....

Last night, I got half way up the chimney with egg cartons. It is looking pretty good, except where the join is. I noticed that I need to break up the line around at the front more. I only did one stone that bridges the gap. Needs more.

I left the house at 4:30AM this morning. This is not unusual for me. I have gotten into the habit of doing this so that I beat the crowds and traffic.

As usual, I stopped for breakfast on the way and then went to Walmart. For the past week they have been doing re sets on their shelves. Thus the happy camper title.

I have been watching carefully to see what they are subtracting and adding to the crafts/yarn/fabric department. I put it that way because all of those used to be in one corner of the store a few years ago. Then the powers that be decided it would be a good idea to scatter the three departments to different sections of the store. It is a bit inconvenient for customers because they put them as far apart as they could get them....It is even worse for the people that work in that department. They have to run all over the store to stock and to wait on customers.

Unfortunately, they didn't move them any closer together, but evidently they are listening to customers a little more. It's like they tossed everything in a big pile and then redistributed everything to a different place.

The good part is, I walked in this morning and discovered that they have reinstated DMC floss. The full line. Also most of the things that go with it...up to #18 hardanger cloth. One thing that puzzled me was, they also put in # 28 tapestry needles....Usually used for very, very fine canvas work....But no fabric to use them on. Evidently, whomever made the list doesn't do needlework.

I bought the #28 needles. I have material that I can use them on.

When I moved on, I found that they are stocking some of the unfinished wood products that they used to have. I found this revolving photo cube that will make a perfect 1/2" room box.

Tessie is irritated that it's not her size.

In the same department, they are bringing back bottled acrylic paints. They aren't on the shelves yet and nobody seems to know what brand it is....I am hoping for Ceramcoat...Fingers crossed.

Last but not least, they have added a section of fat quarters and bundles of quilt fabrics....Always a good place to look for mini fabric. The five pieces on the right of the above photo came in one of the bundles. I know that I can use at least two of them in mini.

Pay no attention to the robot material. That's for Amare....(His dad likes robots.)



After going there and to Target, I ended up at my favorite thrift shop.

I found three books. I was thrilled with the one on Hopi Kachina Dolls. I have several mini ones that I want to look up. Now I don't have to go to the library or buy an expensive book.

The second one "Design in Embroidery" is one that I used to check out of the library a long time ago. Published in 1969, it has lots of "modern" embroidery in it.

The last one, I bought for April. It's not necessarily for the Kitchy Crafts. The illustrations are all backed with mid century and earlier advertising. Really neat photos.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not getting more chimney done. I got home about 10:00AM. Needless to say, there was a lot more traffic by that time.

Now I am going to go sit down and look at the new books for a bit. Then I am going to go back to being a stone mason for the chimney.

See you tomorrow.

New Blogger Set Up....

If you can't understand anything that I am writing today, it's because I don't understand it myself.  Blogger has messed around with the way we do new blog entries again.  I am muddling my way through.  Sorry...

This is not at all normal.....I can't seem to get paragraphs and spacing right  and the photos just land wherever they want to.  They could at least give ups a clue as to how to use this new way of doing things.

I started the upper chimney this morning.  I am building the inner core from a combination of scraps of foam core and gator board scraps.  As you can see, I started out small and then built up the outer layers. 

It doesn't look too good so far, but nobody is going to see the inside anyway,  I am adding extra layers on the outside so that it will match the bottom.....Sort of....Kind of....Well maybe....

I am really fighting with this stupid layout thing. It is soooooo annoying. I can't figure out how to get the photos where I want them and spacing is impossible!!!!

Anyway, When I pinned the chimney to the roof to see how it looked, I decided that it is going to need a lot of work. 

Tessie popped in and then zapped Spike to the top of the chimney...Poor Spike was petrified. 

I asked her what she thought she was doing and she replied, "I am measuring.  The chimney has to be higher than the roof so that the sparks won't set the cottage on fire.  It needs to be about as high as Spike's left ear.  Make a note of that!"

To make a long story short, I made a note and Spike's left ear is an inch and three quarters above the chimney, should you ever have a need to use that measurement. 

Now comes the fun part.  Putting stones on the chimney and pressing the button to publish this and see what happens....I suspect that my computer will explode when I press the button. 

Let's hope it doesn't happen so that I can come back tomorrow and play with it again.  The learning curve is going to be interesting.  I have to go look at the blogger website to see what I can find out about this new puzzle.

See you tomorrow if no explosions occur.

Brick By Brick and Stone By Stone....

This is more of that "ten times longer than I thought" kind of work. After I left you yesterday, I went back and painted the interior and the exterior of the fireplace with Hippo Gray Ceramcoat. Then I started rounding the edges with my Exacto. I wanted to be able to curve the egg cartons around the bends.

Here's the inside with the carving all finished and some of the egg carton stones in place. When I do the egg carton stones, I prefer to work with them dry at this point. The strips bend easily and if I bend them in the right place before I start cutting the individual stones, it is much easier to fit them in place after cutting. One stone at a time....It takes a while to make the pieces fit.

I did the inside of the firebox in a herringbone pattern of bricks. The outside is random placement. I just do what looks right to me.

I will continue with the stones on the floor to make a hearth also.

Here is the outside. Giac made a comment yesterday that the stone work reminds him of some of the architecture in Barcelona. I wasn't thinking of it at the time, but it was a nice compliment. After he said it I realized he was right. Maybe I was channeling Gaudi at the time?

Anyway, I worked until nine last night to get all of the stone work done on the chimney. I did continue the inside through the second floor. I forgot the hearth....I will have to finish that part today.

Spike is back in Tessie's good graces. It seems that Rufus was annoying her by chewing on her favorite shoes...I know. She doesn't wear shoes, but she does collect them.

Rufus ate three(one from each pair) and mauled at least seven other ones before she caught up with him.

He is now residing in the Green house on top of the computer desk. Nothing but plants to eat in there and he is not fond of roses and violets. That will teach him!

I still have to put a second layer on some of the stones, both inside and out and I need to use the ball stylus on them...More texture and a few cracks here and there.

I probably won't get to it today. Wednesday Witches Mini Meeting.

So......after that, I will have to work twice as hard, according to Tessie's calculations. It would be more easily done if I could get Tessie to stop meandering up and down the chimney. She thinks that I put the decoration on it for her entertainment.

I have to go now and see if I can get a couple of stones put in place before I have to leave.

See you tomorrow.

I Sawed It In My Head First....

Yes, in this case, that is correct English.... I had to think about how to go about doing the sawing before I actually did it....It worked!!!

Sawing the house(annex) in half makes one feel very strong. Even when it is a mini house. It's a case of "I can do it if I want to and nobody is around to tell me not to! Ha!"

Tessie wasn't about, so I didn't have to ask permission. I just grabbed the keyhole saw and did it. I did do some measuring first to make sure that it would work.

I now have an inglenook for the bottom floor and a small storage cupboard for the weaving room.

Here's the outside. It fits perfectly under the eaves and measures five inches deep, from the outside wall where the windows were to the wall of the main house. The width is about eight inches. Just right for an inglenook. I do still have to cut a hole in the main building.

After making sure that it would work, I cut a hole for the fireplace opening in the wall, to match a fireplace surround that I cut from a layer of quarter inch thick foam core.

Did I mention that I filled in the holes where the windows were? I used 1/8" gator board for that.

Then I built out the bottom of the fireplace with another layer of foam core.

I curved the top of that piece and cut the opening to match the other one. The first layer reaches all the way to the ceiling and will continue up the inside of the storage space.

I will be doing some carving on the foam core to make it more smooth than it is now. Then I will cover it with egg carton brick or stone...No decisions yet.

I am being pressured to work faster....Tessie and friend are overseeing the job.

The space at the bottom will be filled in for stability.

I am continuing the diagonal design of the firebox on the outside of the house as well. I have not cut the curves in it yet, but I have given it more depth and all but the last layer that goes up to the roof have the firebox carved into them.

Now I need to cut the pieces to continue the chimney upwards, making it taller than the roof...Tall order.

If I can keep Tessie from climbing on it until I get it all glued together and Rufus from nipping at my fingers, I will start the stonework.

I feel like "The Little Engine That Could" right now...I thought I could saw a house in half and I DID! How about that?

See you tomorrow.