Stonewalling.....

Literally stonewalling...I got out the new air hardening clay this morning.

I took out about a quarter of it out of the package.  I put half of that and the remaining clay back in plastic bags and smooshed all of the air out.

This stuff lasts for years if the air doesn't get to it. 

I have a lot of tools for working with poly clay, but actually, I only used the blade, the rolling pin, a small stiff brush and a manicure cuticle stick.  The kind that is pointy on one end and shaped like a screwdriver on the other.  I really prefer those to the sculpting tools for doing stone work.

Here's the start of the chimney and staircase end wall.

If you try this and have not done it before, I suggest that you go look on the net at stone walls images and try to copy one that you like.

After a while an a lot of stone walls later, you will be able to wing it like I do.

I always work left to right.  Being mostly right handed, if I work in that direction I won't mess up the section that I have already done. 

First I use pencil lines to draw and idea of where the stone is going to go.  Then I roll out the clay to 1/8" or thinner... I stick it to the wall, where I want the stone, with white glue.  I use my fingertips to press it into the glue.  Leaving fingerprints, in this case is not incriminating.  They will be destroyed in a few minutes.  I forgot the next step and had to go back and add it after I had done some of the work.

I take a stiff brush and texture the whole thing.  A stencil brush or a toothbrush will work....Don't plan on either stencilling or brushing teeth afterwords.  They are now for texture only and gritty teeth are very unpleasant...

The next step is drawing in the stones with the flat end of the cuticle stick.  Don't drag it....Simply press it in and move to the next place in the line that you have to do.  Dragging can cause unpleasant ragged edges that you have to go back and do again.

The last step is to go back an knock down some of the edges of the stone so that they don't look "cut".  You want them to have natural edges.  You will also do some denting here and there so that the stone is not a flat surface.  It takes practice to get it to look right. 

As I said before, the photo that you choose to follow will help a lot.  Also, every once in a while, step back and take a look at it from a few feet away.  That is how you will be seeing it most of the time....Does it look real?

If you are doing it for the first time, don't try to do it all at once.  A three or four inch square will be plenty to tackle at a time.  When you want to add the next section, wet the edge and press in the next section of clay. That will bond it some.  Also don't forget to add the white glue before putting on the next section.  Even I forget to do that once in a while....Be warned....It will be easily chipped and fall off if there is no white glue beneath the clay.

From here, I will be going up the right side of the wall.  The clay will be added in at the top right and go up from there.  I will work the seam so that there is no line of demarcation.  Wish me luck.

I have to go back and throw some more rocks at the wall.  Right after I go test the apple pie that I just finished baking.

See you tomorrow.

Its My Birthday and I'll Play If I Want to....

I am still 12...That never changes.  Well, the six year old mentality runs amok once in a while, but I don't intend to get old.

So far, Walter brought home breakfast from Mc Donalds.  I got a card from him with an Amazon gift certificate and the promise to let me pick something out at the gem show.  My favorite kind of gifts.  Books and stones.

The other "so far" is finishing this basket this morning.  I know it's not beautiful, but I like it.  It's my first try at paper basket making. I hope to get better as I make more.

Information on how to do this jumped out at me a couple of days ago on the net.  It was strange.  Once I saw the one video on U Tube, I started looking around and found more info...The first one was a Russian site on how to make the weavers. Then one of the European needlework blogs that I have been following for about a year had an entry about it yesterday.  Strange.

It seems that this is the thing to be doing in the eastern European countries right now.

http://makkirequ.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-21T00:31:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false&m=0

I found this blog.  I can't read it but it translates with Bing.  They are even holding days in the part where people get together to weave these baskets.

On the same blog there is all kinds of jewelry and even furniture made out of this!

The more I looked,the more I wanted to try it.  So....I grabbed the latest issue of "Traditional Homes" magazine and went to work.  Making the reeds from magazine pages is hard at first, but it gets easier as you go. It makes for a very sturdy basket.

The basket that you see is the whole issue.  Each page is cut into 4 lengthwise strips and rolled on a size 1 knitting needle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFpl1Lgh3Rg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This is a Russian site that shows you how to do it. 
On the side bar of this page there are a lot of other videos showing how different people do them. 

Anything that you would twine with round reed, you can twine with the magazine pages.  The weight and strength of the finished basket is almost the same as a reed basket, or at least it would be with a lot of experience making them.  I ran onto photos of some that had been dyed and looked just like reed baskets.


The ultimate paper baskets are made by this man in Korea.  He is a third generation basket maker and is fascinating just to watch. If you don't go to any of the other sites, do look at this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRV3v9eAWqs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thank you for all of the kind words about Mookie.  I am sure that he is somewhere grinning ear to ear over the attention.

This is the day of the peyote stitch lesson, so the rest of the afternoon will be devoted to beads.  That's also play for me.

Tomorrow I will go back to serious mini work.

See you then.

Missing Mookie...

Last Thursday was Mookie's last day.  I still don't really want to talk about it, but I think that I have to let everyone know that he won't be around any more.

He had been ill for a couple of years with thyroid problems and was on daily medication.  He was doing great for an 18 year old.

Then recently he started having urinary tract problems...That did him in.

We will all miss him.  Tessie let me think that he was my cat, but he was really hers.

Actually, he started out as April's cat.  She moved to Pennsylvania and went to grad school there.  He became my cat.  We didn't think that he would adapt well to the cold climate back there.

She found another cat while she was back there and brought it back to AZ with her.  That was when Mookie officially became my cat.

He patiently put up with Tessie for the past few years.  I think that he enjoyed being a part of her world and she enjoyed being part of his.

He never ever tried to chew her head off.  Even when she annoyed him greatly....She often did.

This is one of my favorite photos of him.  He loved Christmas and all of the decorations that he could mess with.  We used to find ornaments all over the house from him batting them around.

I am just happy that he made it as long as he did.  He was a good friend and will be missed by the whole family.

Taking the day off.

See you tomorrow.

One of These Wednesdays...

Actually, it's this Wednesday... I promised several of the Witches that I would teach them how to do the Peyote Stitch beading....I have to gather materials, examples and tools to show them.  No time like the present.

This is "how not to treat your beading".  It's really the drawer where I save all of my unfinished pieces and failures.  I don't throw the failures away.  They remind me not to do the same thing twice. 

There are some pieces in the pile that just need to be finished.  I should put them somewhere else, but they are safe here and I know where to find them.

I am taking some finished examples of what you can do with just one stitch.  Peyote is my favorite.  It can be worked flat or in the round.

You can find instructions all over the net, so I don't try to teach it on the blog.  I have shown a few pieces on the blog in mini, but the things that I am going to take along is all big.

Th zigzag bracelet in front of Tessie is the very first think I tried...Long, Long Ago....

You can make just about any kind of jewelry with it.  Tessie's crown(my ring, if I ever get it back) is tubular peyote with loops added to the edge.

The pencil standing to the left of her is what I am going to teach Wednesday.  It looks complicated, but is one of the simplest patterns to do.

Here are a bunch of watches and bracelets....All the same stitch...Just different patterns.

The watches are started around the pins that usually hold the band in place and worked out in both directions from there.

The little blue piece second from the left is a handy dandy measuring stick.  Each of the segments is 1/2"  It can be attached to a key chain or a purse strap with a jump ring.

The five on the right are patterns from North Africa that I found in a rug book.  The graphs for the design were laid out like brick work...That is how the peyote stitch is structured.  One brick at a time.

The white velour blanket that you see behind Tessie is for beading mats.  I bought one years ago, specifically for that purpose.  They were selling beading mats on beading websites that were no more than 12" square for twenty dollars....I got the whole blanket for fifteen...When I teach a class, nobody ever comes with a mat in hand...I have given quite a few away and still have 3/4 of the blanket left.

The purpose is to keep the beads from rolling around while you work...and it does work.

I will get back to the Clockwork cottage later today, but I probably won't feel like blogging later, so I will save the living room patching for tomorrow.

See you then.  Back to the bead work.

The Hole in the Wall Gang....

It is official....There will be no funny looking thingy sticking out of the wall in a weird place!

I took a hammer to it and it is gone.

Now.  All I have to do is fill in the cracks and paint.  When I took everything out, it left a hole that is 2" by 1 7/8".

I simply cut a piece of the part that I took out to that size.  No more hole...Just lines to fill in.  The white part is just unpainted wood that was under the structure.  That gives you some idea how big that thing was.  Zar would have run into it with his head when he was standing upright.

From the top side, there was a hole in the floor.  I cut another piece to fit that.  I will sink it in far enough that the wood replacement planks will be even with the present floor.

The area that Zar is standing in, will have two triangular steps to make a turn and get to the top.  They will be a little small, but then the whole staircase is small.  The hallway is only 2" wide!

Remember when Tessie was sliding down it in the bathtub?  That was before the outside wall was added or she would have been stuck in there forever.

I will try to get that done today. 

It seems that the Terrible Two have come to a compromise of sorts.

Tessie bribed Zar with the tufted Chesterfield sofa(if you talk to him, it's a couch) and a box of Cuban cigars that she found someplace.

Mind you, the sofa was NOT hers.  It was in the file box room.  She probably stole the cigars as well, but Zar fell for it.  She now gets to sit in the chair from 10:23AM to 1:23PM whenever she wants.

Zar plans to put a wide screen TV over the fireplace.  That will keep her out of his hair for at least 3 hours every day.  Good plan.  However, I am holding my breath until he actually pries her out of the chair at 1:23 PM this afternoon....If he can manage to do that, the plan might work.  We shall find out.

Zar talked her out of the branch made box and a slab of polished agate for a coffee table, for the time being.  He also stole one of the rugs that I wasn't using...Just trying it out for size. 

He doesn't even have a floor yet, but he has a lot of stuff to go on the floor that he doesn't have...But that's another of many decisions that need to be made.

See you tomorrow.

"I've Had Enough Fun!"

That was Zar at the end of the day....It was followed shortly by, "I quit!"

We put in a full day, between us, on this chair.

I just didn't have enough leather of any color that we liked for the chair, so Zar decided on an 80s tweed.

Here's what we did.  We covered each piece separately with the fabric.  I had Tessie check to see that everything that was going to show was covered completely.  The sides and back of some pieces weren't covered, because they wouldn't show in the finished chair.  It would also make things a little less bulky.

I cut strips to fit the sides of the back and around three sides of the arms.  Then I shaped them to match the places that they would go.

I rounded the top front of the back, so I had to cut a curve on the top of that piece.  I put batting on the front only of the back and batting on the top of the cushion.  All batting was cut to the exact size of the piece it was to go on.

I cut a notch the width of the back piece at the bottom, to make it fit over the seat cushion.  I cut a corner of the card stock to match.

Then I  covered those pieces.  On the arms, I put bating on the top and front sections. 

When you cover anything that is going to be bent like the arm strips, be sure to bend them as you cover them.  They are longer when they are bent, than when they are straight.

Some of you asked if the chair is functional....Of course!

I put strips of fabric for hinges at the bottom of the back and the top of the foot rest and glued those in place, testing them to see that they worked.  Then I glued the cushion over that.

I assembled the pieces, clamping them tightly around the arms to make sure that the thing would hold together.

Test it once in a while to make sure that the hinges still work....It may take a few times to get them just right.  There has to be a bit of play in them..

The bottom back and top front have to be rounded a bit for them to turn right.

The tightness of the fit is what holds them in place when reclined.

When the upholstery was done, I turned it over to Zar for the mechanical part.

From one side it looks pretty much like a normal recliner....

From the other, Zar wanted to have an easy repair job, if need be, so he left the workings out where they could be seen...

He got the foot rest so that, it would adjust at the turn of a button....

He ran into trouble with the back rest.  He finally decided that a cog wheel and a chain would do for that part.

He has it mounted on the right arm rest.  All he has to do is wind it up or wind it down.  Hey!  It works and he's happy. 

Tessie, however, is NOT!  I am not sure if she is reaching for his throat or if she is going to pull all of his hair out by the roots.  He won't let her sit in it.  He grabbed a grapefruit daiquiri and reclined... He has announced that he is staying there until further notice!

Walter wants one of these now, real life sized.....I don't do big.  He's out of luck.

See you tomorrow.

Get Out of My Chair!!!

OK. Back to the Clockwork Cottage.  I talked Zar into a leather recliner, rather than a couch.

So far, he is pleased with what I came up with...Lots of gears, cogwheels and pulleys.

Now all I have to do is see if I can put it together.

It even has a wind up key in at the rear of the left arm.

It is debatable if he will get to sit in it...Tessie likes all of the gears, cogwheels and pulleys...

I did the basic structure from balsa wood.  Most of it is 1/2" stock.

The cushion and the foot portion are 3/8".

The two base pieces for the seat are 1 3/4 by 2" from 1/2"stock.

The back is 2" by 3" from 1/2" stock.

The sides are 2" by 2" with a wedge taken out of the top back corner. Also 1/2" stock.

The seat cushion and the foot rest are the same size as the base pieces and from 3/8" stock.

My method of madness for something like this is to just play until it is right....You have the measurements. Proceed at your own risk....

After I got the pieces cut, I pinned them together to see how they worked...

Not bad for a start.  Of course, Tessie plopped down into it and refused to move.

To keep Zar from strangling her, I proceeded to pull out the pins, one at a time, until it fell apart and she landed on the floor.

I took the pieces away from her and then sanded them.  Rounding some corners and leaving others straight.

I have a picture in my mind where I want the pieces to fit.

When I was satisfied with the fit, I pinned it back together to see if it was correct. 

Did I mention that I custom made the fit for Zar.  Tessie wouldn't really be comfortable in it for long.  The seat is longer than she is. 

Did I also mention that I started drawing up ideas for a couch at the same time...That is nowhere close to where I want to go with it so far...

I have to get back to work.  All of the time I have been in here, the Terrible Two have been taking turns sitting in the chair...Zar was sitting in it when I left, but there was Tessie frantically pulling out pins... A few minutes later, I peeked around the corner, only to see them putting it together again...

Alternately, every few minutes, one of them yells, "Get out of my chair!".  Then all is quiet until they reassemble it with the pins.

I may have to use a lot of wood putty to fill in the holes, if I don't put a stop to it.

Leaving now.

See you tomorrow.

Giac, Here's Your Answer!

Yesterday, I hinted about what I would be doing this morning. Giac had to ask....

Yes!  This is the same room that you saw yesterday!  I finally cleaned up the after Christmas mess.  The two big laundry baskets are empty and in the garage!  What a difference a day makes.

It is far from perfect, but at least I am back to the "walking around without tripping, to do things", phase of the operation.

Look closely at the left hand side of the photo....On the stool....That's what Zar and Tessie did whilst I cleaned. 

Not a peep out of either of them.  They know better.  Had they said anything, they would have been locked in to finish the job.

No...I didn't move the baskets from one side to the other...Here's the other side.

I still have a lot of refining to do...As usual.

At least I have a floor!

Now that I am that far, this is what I am going to do for the rest of the day.

Zar announced that he really needs a couch....None of these fancy smancy sofas for him.  He said, and I quote,"I need a manly, well worn  couch...Not one of those silly sofas that Tessie likes.  I want well worn leather."

Then the two of them proceeded to tear through the bookcase, looking for couch books, as he called them. 

Unbeknownst to me, they had already raided the leather cupboard and the "manly" fabric drawer.  I am not sure if he found enough well worn leather to make a couch.  He may have to settle for a Steampunk recliner of leather and a couch of the fine corduroy at the far left.

Whatever we do, I had better get started.  Hmmmm....Steampunk recliner...I see lots of gears and and cogwheels involved.  Gotta go get started.

See you tomorrow.

Extra Late....Sorry!

My friend Kris is now starting to sculpt dolls.  I thought this might be of some help to her.  This is the way I started.  I used a silhouette like this to measure the doll by.  It looks funny, but it seems to work.

I sketched the doll out on graph paper to the size that I wanted the doll and then used that to measure the doll as I went along.

In Tessie's case, she is 5 1/4" tall, so that's how tall she was on graph paper.  It is all a matter of getting the proportions correct.

The head is especially important...This is the first measurements you learn in Life Drawing classes.

The head is about 9" high.  The eyes are half way down on the head.  The end of the nose is half way between the eye line and the tip of the chin....The lips are about 1/3 below the nose, leaving about 2/3 below.

Maybe this will help her and others that are working on dolls.

Since I am so late, I should explain.  I had the Wednesday Witches here today....I had to clean and cook before they came and clean up after.

It's a messy job, but someone has to do it.

I was wandering around the house, looking for something to put on the blog...Slim pickings...

Want to see what I do when I am bored and don't want to do minis?  Most of the light switch plates in the house have had a makeover...Since we were kind of on the subject of eyes....This is the one in the front hall.

I use Mod Podge and magazine ads on boring plastic covers and  This is what happens... Hey!  At least they aren't boring anymore....

Was someone asking what happened to the Terrible Two whilst I was entertaining?

Don't ask!  Instead, ask what I will be doing tomorrow morning, bright and early?

Here's a clue to both questions....

See you tomorrow.

Somebody Help Me!!!!

This morning I finished the other handle of the side cutters. 

Tessie immediately popped in, out of nowhere.  Grabbed them and zapped out.  I have no idea where my new handled side cutters are now...It's a good thing that I have a couple of others...But those were my favorites!

While I was finishing those, Zar painted the walls and the floor of the living room in the cottage.

True to form...I heard him yelling, "Somebody help me!!!! Get me out of here.

All four corners of the room have escape hatches.  Door, window and open back.

So what does he do?  He painted himself into the center of the room.

I see a few places that he missed anyway.  I will do the second coat.  Safer that way.

While I was looking at the living room, I was speculating on how drunk the designer of this particular house was when he did it...

I hate that thing that sticks out in the center of one wall of the living room...It's the staircase to the second floor. 

I am thinking of taking the keyhole saw to it and making a fake stairway at that end.  It's an eye sore as it is.  They couldn't even be bothered to leave the spindle part filled in on the part that goes down to the living room.  It either must be covered or taken out.  I wish I had thought of that before I installed it!

There is a second one of these on the top left corner of the ceiling, where  the roof slants down at the front of the house.  I don't think that I can do anything about that one though.

I am also considering covering the holes where the beams are supposed to be.  I think that some other kind of ceiling is in order.  I will probably have to do something to cover the spots that I fix. 

I am going back to ponder the problems at hand.  There has to be a better way......

See you tomorrow.

I'm a Cowboy Baby!

This is going to be a short one.  This is what kept me from doing things.

Amare is 14 months and already he prefers ropes over dollhouses.  Typical boy.  He does like a couple of minis that are eye level to him, but I didn't get any photos of that.

He is my excuse for not getting anything done today. 

He comes in and I forget about minis.

Luckily, I did get some beading done this morning, before his arrival.

It won't be too long before I finish the second handle.  Then I can get back to mini things.  Promise.

It shouldn't take long to finish this last bit.

Somebody, give me a push.  I need to go back to Clockworking.

See you tomorrow with finished side cutters in hand.

Two and a Half Handles.....

Are better than two....I haven't done any bead work for a while.  I decided that, since I have a new tool carrier, I should finish what I started...

The two pair of pliers that you see with covered handles have been done for years and I use them every day....That tells me that it was worth the trouble.  I like the thickness of the handle better than I did when they were bare.

I covered them with #11 seed beads.  The tweezers are done with #14.  Much smaller.  I have had to replace that one a couple of times.  That size just doesn't hold up to wear and tear like the size 11.

I started the handle on the wire cutters about 8 this morning....It takes a while...Lots of decisions to be made on the first side.  The second side will go more quickly.  I have a pattern to follow now.

I asked Tessie for my beaded pencil....She hid it somewhere.  Looks like I won't see it for a while. 

She went rummaging through my UFO bead work drawer...Yes.  I have one of those too...

She found this mandela that I did several years ago.  She seems to think that it should be made larger to go on the cover of the tool cart.

I'm not at all sure about the "larger" part.  It is big enough now that it takes a lot of time to go around the whole thing.  Those are #14s.  I might just sew it on as is.

Here's some other #14 beaded pieces.  the one in the center sits on the bathroom counter and holds alcohol.  Much prettier than the plastic bottle that the alcohol comes in.

The other two are plain old bead containers that were empty.  I covered those with #14s too.  See how much more intricate the patterns are with that size of bead?

Both of them are still empty.  I am thinking that the one on the left would make a good holder for Exacto blades.  It is hard plastic and would stand up to the wear and tear.

I used to carry the other one in my purse with a pen inside.  I decided that wasn't such a good idea with all of the other things banging around in there.  I have to think of something to put inside.

It just stands there looking pretty.  I want it to be useful too.

I am going back to start the second handle now.  I can't stand the poor naked handle that is left.  It needs covering.

See you tomorrow.

Phyllisa's Fault!

Phyllisa commented on the wall shelf in the kitchen...I went back to look for the post when I did it.  I couldn't find any directions.  Soooo....You are stuck with directions today.

First of all, I didn't draw up plans for this in the first place.  I have done lots of shelves with this method, so I just cut and go.

You can do this with any kind of fancy molding, preferably at least a half inch in width.   Just be sure to make the pieces match.  The widest part of the molding will be at the top and the bottom.  The shelves will be at the widest parts, so plan accordingly.  You may have more or less shelves, depending on the molding that you use.

I used one similar to the one on the right side of the photo with Zar for the kitchen shelf. It is a bit smaller though.

The one on the bottom left is a bit small.  I would use that for maybe a spice rack or something of the sort.

Now...About the plans.  I drew these up last night, using the measurements of the finished shelf.  Yours doesn't necessarily need to have the same measurements.  It all depends on your molding.

Mine is two inches wide and two and a half inches tall.  That is the back plate.  The other pieces are cut to fit that.

The side pieces sit outside of the back, so they are the same length.

The five shelves are set inside so they are also two inches.  Pay no attention to the drawing on that piece...I was thinking that the side pieces sat on top of the back....Not so.  They sit outside, so that the sides will be seamless.

They are however a bit slimmer than the piece shown....You will have to measure.

Anyway, cut five of those. Cut five pieces of 1/16" double bead molding for the front edge of all five shelves.

There is a piece of 1/8" by 1/16" stock the same length, cut for the top and bottom.  That makes the top and bottom edges stick out just a bit more and makes it look more finished.

If you plan on staining it, do so while it is still in pieces and then glue.  If you want to paint it, just glue it together first.

Tessie volunteered to model...I am not sure why we need a model to show off the shelf...

She had to move the chair out of the way to do it.  I will be glad when there is a table in the dining room.  Then we won't have to move furniture to get around the kitchen.

I think that Spike was in there during the night.  The Terrible Two just left everything on the table when they were done...Now there are a couple of cookies on the floor with bites taken from one...They look suspiciously like doggy bite marks.

I do wish that they would clean up after themselves.  I have other work to do.

See you tomorrow.

Let the Good Times Roll!!!

And let me tell you, they are rolling!!!

I found this rolling sewing machine case at Walmart this morning.  I needed a new tool bag.  My old one was shot and it didn't roll either. This one was half price.  Christmas promotional item.  A friend that works in the craft/fabric department found these in the warehouse and decided that they should be brought to the store and sold.  She sold me one and then I sold her one...  We are a menace to each other when it comes to supplies and tools.

This is a perfect solution. Zar and Tessie agree...They get to ride instead of walking from the workroom to the bedroom, where I am working on the Clockwork Cottage...And Tessie doesn't have to wear out her zapper either.

The handle locks in the up or down position. The thing has three big zipper compartments on the outside. 

Inside, there are four zipper compartments in the body.  Each one is takes up the whole side. No measly little half pockets.  I can get my 12" rulers and T squares in the side pockets.

As you can see, it also has three see through zipper pockets in the lid.

I have a thing about lots of compartments...Therefore, I needed to divide the inside for my purposes also.

In my old, smaller bag, I utilized a number of plastic water bottles with the tops cut off. 
With those and a compartmentalized silverware basket(sans handle) from the workroom, I now have lots of compartments to stand things up inside.


I know that this is not something that everybody will get excited about, but a few of you will be beating a hasty retreat to Walmart to look for these.  I doubt if all of the Walmarts have them.  It was  sheer luck that they were still in the warehouse here.

There was an added bonus.  The Terrible Two and Spike helped me sort things that had fallen into the old tool bag...

Tessie found my favorite beaded pencil.  She says that I don't deserve it.  I treated it badly....She is keeping it.

Spike found a few pieces of leftover food.

And best of all, Zar found his black leather motorcycle jacket...He refuses to let it go...He keeps hugging it and talking to it.  Talk about embarrassing!

Oh!  And I found the new fancy blades for my Exacto knife that are supposed to stay sharp longer and be stronger....We shall see...At least I am not hugging them or talking to them!

I am going now to see what else needs to be stashed in there...There is still a lot of space left!

See you tomorrow.

It's Warming Up....

It's about the temperature, or a little below that it is in the middle of the night in July...63 degrees right now....I actually went out and put plants back on the porch and uncovered some that I had covered before the big freeze of 2013. 

I did lose some of the plants that I had covered.  The worst was my lavender...All gone.

I came back in and started looking for the yellow and blue rug that I want to use in the kitchen of the Clockwork Cottage...Never found it.

In the process, I started moving real furniture.  the Mystery house is now in the living room.  Why?  Short story made long...

I knocked this off of the wall whilst moving the house to see if I put the rug in there.  I didn't.  Everything went every which way and landed all over the family room rug.  Some of the pieces were put in with mini hold, but not all....

The problem was a faulty hanger on one side of the tray.  It came loose and I was just lucky that I didn't lose the big blue and white plate.

After putting that back together and refilling it, I was  happy to see that the cat tree would fit under those...Now if I can just keep widget from stealing things from the trays and carrying them away, we will be all set.

At least the corner got cleaned up and I found a lot of missing pieces from the typesetter's trays behind the table when I moved it....So what could have been a disaster turned out pretty good.

Yes.  I did get to the miniatures after all of that.  I went through my stash and found enough to furnish the kitchen and feed the Terrible Two a nice lunch.  They had a tureen of Japanese soup with all kinds of exotic looking stuff in it....They ate it with plain white bread though.  I didn't find any egg rolls in the stash....I think that they ate those earlier. 

I am not too sure about the drinks...I don't think that I would be drinking them.  I found them in one of the old boxes...They used to be pink strawberry daiquiris.  They now look more like grapefruit margaritas...If there is such a thing.

I think that the two of them are planning ahead for a disaster....Among other things, there are at seven cans of beans on the shelf above Tessie's head.  Maybe they know something that we don't.

We also found Spikes favorite food bowl so we are all set in the kitchen for now.  Other stuff will be added, but at least it's a start.

See you tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, Once Again....

Today the Wednesday Witches had their annual Christmas Party.  Late, as usual.  We always take our time with it.  That way we are all rested up from the first Christmas and ready for the second one.

We do a gift exchange and potluck.  The food was great and the gifts a lot of fun.

At first I thought I got a box of kitty litter....Nope.  Santa and a dollhouse to decorate.  Just what I need....Another dollhouse to decorate!  It's very cute and will be a welcome addition to my collection. 

 

For those of you waiting for news of Mookie. He is doing OK.

It seems that he has an Occult Urinary Tract Infection.  He got a shot yesterday and is taking pain pills for the next three days....Hopefully this will make it go away....Wish him luck...

He seems to be OK in every other way, so with the luck, he will be back to normal soon.



I am having problems with alignment again.  I hope that this is readable when I am done.  Widget wanted in on the photo session too.  He is the invisible cat.  If you were here, you would never see him....As soon as anyone comes in, that he doesn't know he runs for cover.  I have several friends that have never seen him and think that I am imagining things when I say that there is more than one cat in the house.

As you can probably tell, I am stalling.  No mini making today.  Hopefully, I will be back at it tomorrow.

See you then.