Crocheting a Happy Easter....

Happy Easter from Tessie and the Mad Peruvian Bunny.  Unfortunately, that's the only bunny around here.  We make do with what we can find...

He's not really ideal for cuddling ...Look at those claws!

I decided that the cottage needs an afghan to take naps with....It has been a while since I did any mini crochet.  It is taking a while to get back into the swing of things.

I am using mercerized cotton sewing thread and a #14 hook.

This is an old hook and smaller than some of the new #14s.

I am just doing a granny square and simply not stopping where most people stop when they sew them together. There are millions of patterns for granny squares on the net, so I am not going to repeat it here.

Crochet Pattern Central is a great place to look if you need patterns. http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/

The first photo was taken at about 10:00am.  I had five rows done then. 

At 11:00am I had eight rows finished.  Each row gets bigger as you go and I need to get back into mini crocheting...This could take a while...

Maybe I should say, "See you next Easter!"

Just kidding...See you tomorrow.

To Quote Zar....

"I am tired of waiting.  I am taking matters into my own hands!"  And he did.

When I went to look at the cottage this morning, this is what I saw.

Zar was laying cork tile in the attic.  That was not what I had planned, but when I asked what he was doing...he told me the above and then added, "I didn't like the stuff that you had in mind.  Cork is much more practical for a storage area.  If you drop things, and you often do, they just bounce and don't break in  a million pieces."

He was exaggerating just a bit, but he's right.  It is more practical, in the long run.

After he finished the tile, with a lot of criticism from Tessie, I put in some very plain baseboards.

I was too lazy to go hunt for pins to hold them in place, so I just stuck them in place with a couple of Exacto knives.  The blue clamps are holding the front edge piece in place.

This is what I used for the  tile.  It is shelf liner by Duck.  I got it at Lowe's.  The nice thing about it is, if you want 12" tile(one inch scale) The lines are already on the back at half inch intervals.  All I had to do was follow every other little green line to get them straight.

I couldn't resist filling in the blanks to see how things are coming along.  Nothing is stuck down or even close to finished, but I think that it is coming along nicely.  It won't be long now, if I can get the Terrible Two to stop eating pizza and get out of the way...

I still have a lot of things to build to fill it up and I need to make the base to sit it on.  Then there will be landscaping....As I said....A long way to go...

See you tomorrow.

Lots of Little Things..And Wicker.

I forgot to show you all of the goodies that I got from Sue, Wednesday.  She's the one that I purchased the furniture from about a month ago.

She is the one that is quiting minis...I just can't imagine doing that.

Some of the papers that she had are from England.  She used to live there.  It's just a little bit of all kinds of things, but stuff that I know I will use. I especially like some of the smaller scale wallpaper.

I actually finished all of the wicker on the desk this morning. Now I have a place to do my blog on the laptop.  Maybe a bit of designing ....Tessie had to try it out, even before the seat cushion is on the chair.  Her chin is a little low, but it will be fine if she will let me finish.

I am pretty happy with the size.  I may still do a couple of places in the back to store things.  Right now it's pretty plain.

Here's a close up.  It only took me about ten minutes to cut out the piece of cherry wood for the bottom...It took me a couple of hours to do all of the braiding.  It had to be long enough to go around the bottom shelf, the bottom of the skirt around the sides and back of the top surface and around the very top wavy area.  That's a LOT of braiding. Can you tell that is the part that I don't particularly like to do?  I don't.

Anyway, now I need to do the seat cushion, so that Tessie doesn't bump her chin.  She is about my height in mini, so I can use her as a measure of what has to be done.  Sometimes she comes in handy and doesn't even know that she is helping....Please don't tell her.  She will stop cooperating.

Gotta go stuff cushions.

See you tomorrow.

There's Glass and There Is Glass....

I spent the whole day, up to now, working on leading and glazing the windows.

The leading part is easy, with golfer's lead weight, self stick tape.  It is just very time consuming when you have to cut the narrow strips and then apply each one.

I did find out that all plastic packaging is not created equal. 

I don't know if you can tell, but the glass on the left in the first photo turned matte and somewhat chalky when I applied the nail polish.  I was using the same kind on all of the windows.  Luckily, I had done both side windows for the front of the house with that particular piece of plastic.  Unfortunately, I don't remember what kind of packaging it came from.  I wish I did.

I have decided to leave them like that.  More privacy at the front of the cottage.

My method for installing the windows is somewhat unconventional...Since it is such a small house, it is easily turned on it's side.  Thus, no taping or weighting of the window frames.

Granted, it takes a little longer whilst they are drying, but I can glue one in and work on the windows for the next wall while I wait.

Here you see all of the windows installed.  The ones in the center of the photo are the ones that turned into privacy glass.  You can't really tell the difference at the angle that they are installed.

I also started installing baseboards...Most of them are behind Zar though.

I made them very plain.  Almost all of them will be covered with other things when I am through.

Walter just brought in the mail and I got a Christmas present.  He got me an Etsy Gift Certificate and it took me this long to decide what to buy with it.  I spent it all in one place.

Montage Supply http://www.etsy.com/shop/montagesupply sells all kinds of jewelry findings and I went wild.  Some of it will be used for actual jewelry.  Other pieces will be used for miniatures.  The service is fast, friendly and helpful...Plus, they have all kinds of useful items at reasonable prices.  This is not a paid ad.  I just like them.

I love the copper and aged brass corner pieces on the right side.  I think that they will be useful for fancying up furniture and window frames in miniature. 

Tessie likes it all...And is insisting that, as usual, it is all hers.  She allowed that she might let me have an octopus(center front).  After all, who needs two?

Anyway, I should get back to work.  I seem to be the only one in the mood to do anything to the cottage today. 

See you tomorrow.

Wednesday Witch Day...

Today, you only get one photo...This is proof that I finished the last side of the cottage this morning. 

I also put trim under all of the eaves...

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for a gaggle of witches to come.

The next several hours were spent eating, talking, doing various activities, eating and talking some more...Then eating dessert.

Yes.  We let Tessie out of the workroom.  She spent most of the afternoon trying to get at Spike...

Zar finally resorted to carrying a sharp pointy stick and threatening to use it if she so much as touched a hair on Spikey's sweet little head....And Spike?  He just sat out of reach and grinned at her.

 The rest of the day will be for cleaning up after six regular sized witches. 

I will be back to mini making tomorrow.  See you then.

Second Place Isn't Bad Either...

This morning I awoke to find that Brae had won the About.com Blog of the Year 2013 award.  I was not surprised.  She writes a good blog with a lot of information.

I am happy with second.  After all, as I stated early on about five years ago, I am writing this as a record of my accomplishments in mini with tutorials and a few other things on the side.  If anyone reads what I write, it is an added bonus.  I had first place for two years and it is about time to pass it on.

I want to thank all of the people that have stuck with me all this time and some that have jumped aboard along the way. I will continue to blog daily and I hope that some of you will stick around.  I like the company. So does Tessie!

Brae, Congratulations on your win! It is well deserved.

More Later today.  See you then.

No More Sticky Velcro!!!

Troy made a comment on yesterday's blog, saying that there probably were more uses for sticky Velcro in miniature....He was right...

Before it was done with, we found three more uses just yesterday.

The first was to firmly seat my very first(and last) soft sculpture Tudor doll, so that she will not fall off of the shelf anymore....Right now she is sitting on the TV base, but I can't count the times that she has been found on the floor because she just doesn't stay put. 

Now she will...

The next one was....Tessie caught Spike.  He could sit any place that there was a hooky spot...

That didn't last long however...He wiggled out of it....Promptly chewed the spot off of his tail and went after Tessie with a vengeance...He is a true Pacifist Pit Bull....But Tessie took it a little too far, so he had to do something.  So he thought up a third use.

The third use is, when the spots are still on the plastic tape....You can grab the tape in your mouth and run around someone realllllly fast and tie them up. Thye tend to get stuck between all of the spots.

Then you sit on the end of the tape so that they can't get loose... And chuckle at them.

That application only works as long as you sit on the end of the tape...

After a while you will get bored and move onto something else.

In Spike's case, he let go, ran from the room really fast and I slammed the door.

He is now helping Zar and I with the cottage.  We finished putting on the shingles.  Maybe a little more staining and shading to do.  What you see right now is some that I did with artist's chalk.  Then I sprayed it with Patricia Nimock's matte sealer. 

I will do a bit more with my Prismacolor pencils.

I have to go into the workroom to get the pencils...I wonder if it is safe to go in there yet?

Tessie was steaming and not at all happy when we left.

Maybe the pencils should wait until tomorrow....

See you then.

Tessie's Adventures With Velcro Dots...

The first thing this morning, I started a load of wash and then went to clean in the workroom.

Tessie tagged along.  She was whining about being bored.  I put her to work looking for things to go in the craft cottage.

I have to hand it to her.  Being small, she can get into nooks and crannies where I never think of looking.

Look what she found!  I now have two miniature latch hooks for rugs.  Or I will have, as soon as I find a way to chop off the large end of them.

They were tools for fixing snags in your polyester pants suit in the 70s.  Yes.  I have been saving them for just this purpose.  Back then I used to hand paint canvas for rugs, for a couple of shops here in Tucson.  I must have done at least 20 roadrunner rugs in the course of a couple of years.  People were crazy about roadrunners back then. I always thought that it would be neat to do a miniature one.

That held her attention for all of 12.5 minutes.  Then it happened....She found my stash of Velcro dots...

She at least asked first....She turned to me, with a Velcro hook dot stuck in her hair and innocently inquired, "What are you going to do with these?".

I told her that they were for sticking things together.

She asked, "Can I use some?".  Silly me.  I answered, without looking, "Sure.".  She started hook and looping things and sticking them on the corner of the TV.  Anything to keep her busy.

I went about my business of cleaning out drawers.  I was absorbed in what I was doing and really making progress...

I wouldn't normally show you the waste basket, but see the two jars of liquid in there?  I am so proud of myself.  I am actually throwing away some of the leather work supplies...It has been at least ten years, or more, since I did any leather tooling and lacing... Actually, I moved those two jars from our other house.  I have used them only once since we moved here...They are at least 20 years old.  I am not even sure if they would still work or not.  So I am making the sacrifice.

Please note that the waste basket is almost full...That's the third load this week!  I should be seeing holes in the shelves and drawers by now...Somehow they just seem to magically fill as soon as I empty them.  Not a good sign...

Anyway, after a half hour or so, I noticed, that there was no sound in the room, other than the TV and Tessie humming merrily to herself.  That, in itself, made me a bit apprehensive...

When I turned around, I saw a whole new TV.

She was happily slapping the hooky part of the tape to the edge of the TV.  Then as I watched, she rummaged through my button box and my pendant box.  Slapped a fuzzy dot on the back of each item and pressed them in place.

I can't fault her logic...She said, "Now you will have something to look at besides boring black around the picture...After all, sometimes what's going on, on the screen is not all that interesting.".

Maybe she has something there.  And if I get bored with the things that she put on there, I can just slap a fuzzy dot on the back of something and replace what is boring. 

I am going to let her have at it, until she runs out of space to put things and see what happens...

Oops!  I have to go.  She is madly chasing after Spike with a fuzzy dot in each hand.  I don't think that he will be happy if she sticks him to the edge..."Spike, you have my permission to nip at her if she keeps trying!  Get her, Spike!"

See you tomorrow.

Which Would You Rather Do?

A couple of the rock squirrels hit the back yard about the same time every morning.  They expect to have fresh water, unsalted peanuts in the shell, lettuce, apple and once in a while carrots or Chex cereal. There is a whole family, but these two are the early risers of the bunch.

No.  Not spoiled or anything.  I figure that we took their land when the developers built the houses, so they, in return, get fed and watered.

The question at the top is between watching the squirrels chase each other around the yard or doing more straightening and organizing... I did finish cleaning off the work area around the cottage yesterday...I didn't however, manage to hide the dragon statues quick enough.

Tessie announced that she was going to make me a sign that said "Dragon parking only.  All others will be toad..."

I think that she forgot that she sometimes leaves her broom wherever she happens to land...

Anyway, this is what the area looks like today.  Enjoy it while you can....Tomorrow it will be right back in mess mode.

I moved my Grandma Daisy's stool in to set on while I work.  Somehow it is just enough taller than a regular chair to make it more comfortable. 

She took up housekeeping on the farm in 1903, so I imagine it is from about that time.  One of my favorite things.

I made a copy of this in mini a long time ago.  It is in the country kitchen that I made for my dad.

I have been working on the rug just a little.  I tried to make a copy of the pattern from the old laptop...It cut off part of the bottom.

I guess that I am going to have to put the pattern on one of those little thingamagigs that gets it from one computer to another to get a true copy of it.

It is coming along nicely.  I think that I like the border a little wider.. Now...If it were only finished, I would be all set.  Oh well.  Back to work, or to the squirrels.  I will toss a coin to see which activity wins.

See you tomorrow.

Digging Out...

I am trying, once again, to be an organized person....OK, I know that's not possible, but I am still going to try.

I wanted a smaller holder for just the tools that I use all the time.  So...I grabbed a basket and some Velcro and went to work.

I happened to have lots of both sticky and sew able Velcro in my stash. 

I used the hook part(sticky) in a long strip, on the inside rim of the basket.

Then, one at a time, I added the tools that I use the most, by standing them against the hook part of the tape and adding the loop part around them.  I adjusted it as I went.

The nice part about this is the loop tape can be adjusted to fit any tool at any time.  I think it is one of my better ideas....If the hook tape keeps a good hold.  It seems to be doing that so far.

For weight, so the basket wouldn't tip over, I added a big glue bottle and Tessie.  The glue bottle stayed in place.  Tessie didn't.

I then went back in the workroom and continued my quest for a neat and tidy space....It will be a long time coming.

Tessie helped....She found this pair and is trying to talk me into using them as part of the stone cottage...Her logic?  Cottage, stone.  Weird dragon creatures, also stone...They should go together.  Then she told me, "Just think of it as two more things that you won't have to find a place for in the workroom..."

Maybe I can make them disappear and she will forget about them.

I took everything out of the top drawer of my desk, including the divider trays. 

Look what I found under and behind.

I have been looking for that little L square for a long time. 

The pencil is a deco era mechanical one that someone gave me when I was a teenager...Just one problem.  I have never been able to find lead for it.  It requires SQUARE lead.  I have never even seen square lead.  Evidently it was a 20s or 30s thing. 

The third thing is a Victorian jeweler's glass, that I inherited from my dad.  It has three different lenses. Another mystery piece.  The insignia on it has letters, but they make no sense.

Anyway, on to better things.  I sorted through all of my pens and kept the ones that write.  Sadly, the gel pens die after a while.

They will live on as jars and maybe a few metallic and colored plastic bottles. 

I cut the top ends of the pens off with my micro-mark saw. It was an interesting process.  They cut very straight, but will still have to be sanded.  The plastic melts as you are sawing and you have funny plastic sawdust.

 I will pop out the colored tops and cut them down so that they look more like actual caps.  I can fill them from the bottom and seal with punched out dots of plastic.

All in all I made quite a haul and I have only begun to sort....

See you tomorrow.

Get the Lead Out!

OK....I thought that I would try covering up the white printing on the windows that came with the Storybook kit...Not happening.

Their white lines were about double the thickness that they needed to be.  I did part of one window with the golfer's lead tape and it looked like iron bars. 

I went and got some plain acetate and replicated the first one, size wise. Then I drew a line with an Extra fine Sharpie pen, from corner to corner, diagonally.  After I established the angle, I did lines every half inch going in both directions. Thus the diamond pattern.  I Turned it over, so that I would be working on the non inked side.  It still smears after it drys and I didn't want ink all over the place.

I used the handy dandy lead tape that Walter got me at the golf store.  I simply cut narrow strips the length of the tape, about 1/16" wide, with scissors.  Following the lines is easy with the sticky tape.  I ran it across diagonally and snipped the ends when I got it pressed down.

I put the frame over it, so that you could see how much better this version looks than the white painted original. I plan to add a bit of trim here and there to the frames, so that they will not look like dye cut wood.

The pillows are not filled...I didn't try them out against the daybed before starting to cut and sew...Silly me.

They make the daybed look dirty.  I forgot that the white in that is really more beige.

Oh well.  I will just save them and use them for something else. 

The search continues.  Maybe I will just use the fabric that I am going to use for the wicker.

Another oops!  While working on the rug, I happened to look at the edges...I made the interior section one stitch too wide and long.  I am used to working on odd numbers with most of the rugs that I do...So...I added one stitch to each side when I was doing the boarder...Oops! 

I didn't want to tear out two rows on each side of the boarder to make it right.  Luckily, It was an easy fix.  All I have to do is add another row on the outside of two sides and another row to the inside of the boarder on the other two sides.  That makes the interior the right size. 

All it does is make the rug one stitch wider and longer and I don't have to do any tedious ripping out of stitches.  Right now, it looks a bit more faded than I wanted.  I think it will be ok when I get all of the other colors in it though.  I hope.

I am going now to take the pillow covers away from the Terrible Two and hide them.  They were looking forward to playing in the sand today.  They will just have to wait until I make different covers.

I'm off to do more leaded windows and to search for material, now.

See you tomorrow.

Potting and Pillow Making...

I am in the midst of re potting a lot of the plants on the patio right now. 

I have a lot of Euphorbia of different types.  Most look like some form of cacti, but they aren't.  I like them better than the native cacti for the porch.  They don't have mean prickly needles sticking out all over.

A lot of them, I have had so long that I don't even remember the name....

This is one such plant.
I bought the main stem that you see behind Tessie years ago.  It has to be re potted every year or two.  It throws out babies all around it's bottom and they can be separated from the main plant and simply put in dirt to grow.  For about 6 months, they are minis.

There are a lot more where these came from...It's a very prolific plant. A lot of my Euphorbias are like that.  Very easy to start new plants.

I am, by no means the best gardener around.  I have killed off a lot of plants in my time.  But the Euphorbia seems to be a variety that I get along with.

So, Tessie will have some cacti  in her house for a while.

The brown crockery bucket, with the two plants is one that my dad had when he was little.  I think that his dad passed it to him.  I don't know how old it is, but I imagine it is 19th century or early 20th. See.  Love of miniatures is inherited...

When we got tired of potting, I came back in and got out the sewing machine....Yes.  I do actually sew.  I used to make most of my own clothes...I don't have time, what with minis and other projects. 

It mainly gets used for making regular sized pillow covers, once in a while a bit of patchwork or other crafty project.  I really should leave it out where it will make me want to sew.  Nope.  Strike that.  I know what closet it is in if I really need it.

Anyway, I wanted to do some black and white pillows for the cottage.  I thought you might like to see the assembly line method, if you don't already do it this way.  I learned the technique from Judee Williamson many years ago when I took one of her bed classes. 

Rather than cutting out individual pillows and doing little fiddly sewing, we learned to do them in strips.

If you are using a single piece of fabric, with a fold at one edge, you need to stitch a narrow seam along the fold.  Otherwise your pillow will look like a bag.  You want a nice knife edge on all four sides.

If you want all of your pillows the same size, you do it like the front row here. I folded the fabric strip wrong side out.  Stitched along the fold.  Then I turned under the top edge of the fabric on either side.  If need be, you can pin it. in place.  Mark where you want the seams, leaving a half inch between one pillow and the next....In other words, two pillow seams, half inch space that will be cut through, another two pillow seams, half inch space....You can keep going like that for as many pillows as you need to make.  This is especially good for doing a set of bed pillows...Two or four at a time. They will all turn out the same size.  The ones in the back row will vary in size.

Then you cut them apart. Clip the corners and turn them right side outand stuff them.

A lot of times I use salt, but I found this bag of coarse sand in the floral department at Walmart yesterday. 

As soon as Zar finishes pushing into place on the work board, I will start filling pillows.

She's not a lot of help when I comes to moving things....The zapping is totally forgotten...

Anyway, I will have lots of pillows to show you tomorrow.  It takes a while to turn and stuff them.  I am not going to make you wait whilst I do that part.

See you tomorrow, with finished pillows.

Time To Relax...

 I am taking the day off to just sit, relax and work on the rug for the cottage.   No more worrying about the contest.  It is now up to the powers that be to sort it all out.

I went to town this morning and stopped at Lowe's.  I needed wood to do a base for the cottage.  I got a 3/4" square 6 foot stake in the garden center.  That was cheaper than the by regular lumber that comes in 8 feet/

I got 1/2" square stock....Then I found something new, for me anyway.

See the piece that Tessie is holding?  It is glass beading...The stuff that they put around windows.  It was about four dollars for eight feet.  Repeat after me...Cheap crown molding for dollhouses.

She shoved Zar aside about the time that I snapped the photo.  No more Miss Nice Person.  The voting is over. 

I also found a candidate for flooring in the attic.  97 cents in the quilting fat quarters.

It looks like circular pattern tile and I like it.  Spike approves too.

Last but not least, I got this catalog in the mail a couple of days ago.  I wish that I had received it before I started the stone on the cottage. 

I left the info at the bottom of the page so that you can track it down if you so choose.

I have been on their mailing list for a long time.  They have all kinds of interesting outdoor furniture and even a couple of potting sheds and play houses  in it.  They would make great minis.

Here's another view of the same house.  I love the structure over the window and the lattices running up either side.  Some of the stuff in this catalog may just show up on the base of my cottage...I feel a larger base coming on.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

The Last Day....

No....Not of the 2011/2012 winning blog.  Just of the voting for this year's winner of the About.com Best Miniature Blog of the year.

It has been a close race all the way through and I would love to win again, but if I don't, I will be happy to see Brae win.  She does lovely work.

Now, with that said, go poke the green badge at the right and vote for Tessie.  She is going to be in a snit for weeks if we don't win.

I haven't gotten a lot done today....I have, but it doesn't look like it.

I did two more sides of the house almost to the finishing point...

After taking photos I can see a few places that need touching up.  But for all intents and purposes, I have three sides done now....Please don't look at the roof.

I didn't say anything about shingles.  That spot that you see is all that is left of that job...OK...So I got bored.  Shingles are like that.

I am sure that you noticed by now that the Terrible Two are out of the dungeon.

Spike couldn't stand the wailing and moaning.  He took them the key last night, about midnight.  It was building as the night went on...

At least they settled their differences.  They decided that it was only fair to let me have MY daybed, since I built it.

One more wall to finish...They are using that one as a base for their planning.

Now they are making plans for a new project when I finish this one....No rest for the wicked. Weary or otherwise.

I asked what it was going to be, but they wouldn't show me the plans and went so far as to Swear Spike to secrecy too.

I had better get back to work.  I want to finish the last wall today and maybe, just maybe, the shingles too.  No promises.

It will be about a week until we know the outcome of the Best Mini Blog voting.  However it comes out...You will still have to put up with me and the gang every day of the year....Sorry about that.  It's an addiction.  I am on a 5 year roll...Can't quit now!

See you tomorrow.

Revising, Weaving and Stitching...

Yesterday, after I left you, I decided that the trim on the daybed was fading into the woodwork, so to speak.

I got out a card of black bunka and unraveled it.  Much better.  Now I can see it.

I also wanted to show it to you again, because I realized that you couldn't see the roll underneath the foot in the other photo.

Today, between vacuuming and other housework, I did some more on the desk.  Tessie is still calling it a dressing table and I am still telling her to wait until it's finished.

I finally managed to get a photo of the fabric that I intend to use on the wicker that is green, instead of icky brown.

I think that it is going to go well with the rug.  Speaking of which, I am slowly but surely adding to it. I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can....It may be a couple of weeks until I get to the downhill side of the mountain and start with the "I though I could" part. It will get done....

You may be asking if I really locked the Terrible Two in a closet somewhere.  The answer is no.  I put them in the dark and dank dungeon that I did a few years back....Never did get it furnished.  They will just have to live with it until I decide to let them out. 

As it is, they are bickering and probably would be doing hand to hand combat if there were enough room in there....That's where they are going to stay until they decide to behave....It could be a long wait...

See you tomorrow.