Cleanest House On The Block

Walter did most of the planting. I just held Oscar upright.  I decided to name the new saguaro Oscar because he is green, prickly and a grouch. 

The photo was taken from our driveway.  He is planted next to the driveway so that we can see him as we go in and out and other people can see him as they go by.

This little guy was trying to grow under the prickly pear.  He was struggling.  I got him out of there and put him in the back yard.

I don't think that he is a saguaro.  Maybe a barrel.  I am just going to have to wait and see how he grows.

Evidently a seed from somewhere in the neighborhood landed under the prickly pear and was caught.  I can't wait to see how he turns out. If he is a saguaro, it will take him about 20 years to get to the size of Oscar!  The saguaros only grow an inch or an inch and a half per year!

I went and inspected Zar's trailer this morning... He is way ahead of Tessie in the cleaning department!  If I go by who is the best cleaner, he beats ALL of the witches! 

He is going to get his He Shed finished before I do Tessie's She Shed.

I am going back to work now.

See you tomorrow.

Gifts All Around....

Walter got Birthday and Christmas both.  His birthday was Jan.1.  I got birthday and Christmas gifts too. My Birthday is later this month.

Tessie and Zar just got new Sheds for their Christmas presents.

Walter and I got new cars so we made them our Christmas presents and Birthday gifts. We got matching Mazdas. His is a CX-5 and mine's the little brother. It's a CX-3. Mine's a baby.

 The mini two got a He Shed and a She Shed.  Each of them think that they got the better deal.  Tessie thinks hers is best and Zar thinks his is the greatest.  To use their words!

I am not going to trade mine for either of theirs and I don't think Walter would either.

Besides, they are both too short to reach the peddles!

Walter got me a gift certificate for Joanne's Fabric and Crafts.  I went over there earlier this week and got yarn.  And more yarn... They were having a big sale on all of the yarn that they carry.

I have been doing some knitting and needed a bag to carry the knitting bowl that Seth made me last year for Christmas. 

This is the bag that I made.  The bowl fits in the bottom and there is enough room for a BIG ball of yarn on top.

Anyway, that's about all I have to show you today.  I am going back and work on the Sheds some more now.

See you tomorrow.  With finished sheds!

I Did Minis This Morning!

I had both Tessie and Zar yelling at me this morning.  They both wanted work done. So....

I decided to work on their He Shed and She Shed at the same time. 

I painted the inside of each of them. No. I didn't have a paintbrush in each fist.  I did Zar's first because he yells the loudest.

Then I did Tessie's.  They both need a second coat.  I will do that as soon as I finish here.

I did have to show you a couple of things for the garden while I am on here. 

This is my adopted baby saguaro.  Yes.  It is legal!  There is a place here in town that digs them up when builders are doing new developments. They then put them out for adoption.  The kids got him for me for Christmas... Unfortunately that's when the cold spell started.  It is now over so I will probably plant it today or tomorrow.


The other garden thing is... My baby kumquat tree made it through that cold spell with a little bit of help from a big box, a table cloth and a big piece of plastic.  I may have kumquats yet!!!
Wish me luck! I am looking forward to that. They are really tasty.

OK.  Now I am going back and see if I can remember how to install curtains in Tessie's She Shed.  She is not happy.  Zar's has lights and hers doesn't.  Oh well.  At least she is getting one. Maybe I will see if I can hunt up a battery operated one for hers.

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Moving Again...

Right now Zar's He Shed is sitting on the worktable in the bedroom.  I still have to finish the doors on it. 

I also noticed that there is a crack between the roof and the wall on the right hand side that needs to be fixed.

Other than that, it is pretty much finished...

Tessie's is officially finished.  She will probably talk Zar into trading places.  His sits where he can see the TV.  Hers sits next to it... Can't see a thing.

The only thing that she can watch is Kota, taking a nap on the bed...

Kota is not watching anything.  It's nap time.

He knows where to nap.  That spot is right next to me on the bed when I am working on needlework... Exactly a foot from my left hand. 

That is the hand that he knows will reach out and pet him when he needs it.

I moved the craft cottage into the family room.

That makes a lot less furniture in the bedroom.

Since I moved the conservatory to the back porch, I had a hole under the window. Thus the move.

I have been working on the big Rya that I started as a second try. It is coming out pretty good. I might just talk Tessie into putting it in a new potions room.  She is without a place to mix things at present... It won't be long before she is yelling and complaining about no workspace.

I guess that I should think of something to do with the stuff from her old workroom.  Just as soon as I finish cleaning mine.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Going in Circles...

I decided to make a small throw rug out of the red rya.  I got almost half of it done yesterday. 

It will not go with what I am doing to Tessie's She Shed, but she is claiming it anyway and on top of that, she is claiming that she did the work on it!

I quit.  If she wants the rest done, let her do it!

I went next door to see what was happening at Zar's He Shed... Tessie dumped the leftover material in his shed.  She still has not collected her paraphernalia for potion mixing.  or the rest of her furnishings.  The pile just keeps getting higher...

I have been out all morning.  I stopped at one of the Dollar Tree stores.  See the bottle of Aliene's glue to the left of Zar's shed?  They have that size bottle for a dollar. It is a nice size to carry along if you are going somewhere that you need glue.  I bought two bottles.  I figure that I can buy one of the big bottles that I usually buy and refill them when they run out.

Back to Tessie. When I returned home, I went to put the glue bottles in the workroom...

Tessie had been there before me!  The room did NOT look like this when I left the house.  She has been at it again. 

Between putting things back where they don't belong and dragging things out to look for other things, she has gotten it right back where it was when I started cleaning...

I am going to spend the day fixing what she messed up.  I am going to have to forbid her from trespassing in that room when I am not here!  That's all there is to it.  I leave for a couple of hours and she spends the time looking for things in the Mom Store. I give up. 

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Make Curtains NOW!

When I got home from the Wednesday Witches meeting today, Tessie was waiting for me...

She was sitting in her She Shed with a vanity tray, doing her hair and nails. 

It was a hint to do her hair like I promised...

I looked closer and she had the fabric that was left over from her one woman chair and footstool propped up behind her against the window...

I suppose that she was hinting LOUDLY!

she wants the She Shed done as a place to do absolutely nothing.  She just wants it to be a place to watch TV and do her nails.

I have a feeling that she is going to win...

I looked next door and Zar had most of her potion making paraphernalia  scattered on his front deck.

Maybe I can talk him into learning to make potions.  It seems that Tessie is not at all interested in it being in her She Shed.

I doubt that he will want them there either.

Very large dilemma..

I am not making another She or He Shed at this time!

I am working on Tessie's rug... Which no longer goes with what she has in her She Shed. 

I wonder if Zar would like to trade.  His rug would go better with hers.

How do I get into these messes... I think it might be there are too many mini people with a lot of time on their hands... And me with not enough time on my hands. 

As soon as I finish this rug, I am going to try to do instructions on the blog.  Hang in there.  They are coming soon.

See you tomorrow.

He Shed, She Shed...Nobody Wins

This morning Tessie showed up with her arms full of aprons. Seventeen to be exact.  Counting the one that she was wearing, I thought my count was 19... However, upon counting, there were
eighteen. 

One was missing.

While I was in the kitchen getting a coffee refill, she dragged all of the potion making paraphernalia out and tossed it on the bedroom floor in a pile.

As I entered, she announced that "we" were going to make the She Shed into an apron closet.

That is NOT what I did all of that work for.                         

I put a stop to that immediately.  I found the missing apron and I grabbed all of the aprons and replaced  them with the potion making paraphernalia in the She Shed.

She is not a happy camper.  I am holding fast to the potions room.

She can yell and scream all she wants.  For the time being, I am going on to other things.

Today, I am going to finish the She Shed and the He Shed. 

Then I am going on to other stuff that will be a lot more fun for ME!

I have very little left to do to either of them. It shouldn't take long.

Then I get to go back to playing with stuff that I want to do. 

I am trying to decide whom I am going to work on next.  There is a choice of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Albert Einstein or Pablo Picasso... There are a few others, but these four are at the top of my list of people to annoy right now.

Back to the He/She  Sheds for the rest of the day.

See you tomorrow.

Now Comes the Fun Part!

 It's time for the decorating. 

I finished the daybed this morning, after they took the port out. 

That was amazing.  They gave me some kind of light sedative and by the time that they got me back to recovery, I was pretty much ready to go home!

And since arriving home, I have been working on minis and trying to make up for the breakfast that I missed.

I started the daybed yesterday and by noon or so, I had it finished! The first photo shows how to do the tufting.  Always start in the center and work out. It makes the puffs more even than if you try to do it in rows.

I put some of those gold beads, that I bought on sale, on the bottom for feet. 

They worked nicely and they gave just enough height so that the rya rug fits under it nicely.

Zar has been digging around and found some Steampunk art to put inside.

He wants the one that warns against Airship Pirates to go on the roof, so that fellow Steampunkers will be warned. 

I found this fabric to make couch and floor pillows.  It kind of goes with his interest in archeology. I may add a bit of gold highlights here and there to make them stand out a bit more than they do.  We shall see.

Right now I am going to go raid the refrigerator.  I missed breakfast and am trying to make up for it.

See you tomorrow.

Success!

Well, they worked!  I am very happy with the Spanish Tile.

After the glue dried, I painted the whole thing with a coat of terra cotta. 

I still don't have the rest of the rocks on the corners and the edges of the foundation painted yet... One thing at a time.

I cut a piece of the theater tray the length of the roof and bent it in an L shape.  Then I painted it metallic copper.

I went back with a tiny bit of territorial beige for accent.

I still can see some spots that I missed.

I took it to Wednesday Witches.  When I got it out of the car in the sunlight, I could see some spots that I missed between the tile.

I am going to take it out on the back porch tomorrow and repaint it again...

That is, if I feel like it.

Tomorrow, bright and early, I have to go in and have the port that was used for taking the medicine every day when I was doing chemo, taken out.

They make you keep it in for a year, "Just in case".  That is just in case the cancer comes back and you need to go through the treatments again.

It has not returned, so essentially, when this thing is gone, I am back to normal... Whatever that is in my case...

Anyway, I am off to the hospital at 5:00AM. I have to be there at 5:30 and the surgery, which only takes about 15 minutes, can be performed at 7:30.  Here we go again. 

See you tomorrow.

Waiting for the Glue to Dry...

OK. I have the second side of the roof tiles glued on.  Now I have to wait for the glue to dry. 

I will probably just wait until tomorrow to make sure it is completely dry.  There is a LOT of glue under those tiles.

I brought the shed out to the table to get better photos. 

Of course, the Inspector General had to come too.

The ridge of the roof is not glued on yet... It will be much easier to paint if that isn't in the way.

I stopped taking photos and of course Tessie and Balthazar showed up...

Once in a while, I call him that just to get him going... He really doesn't like the name.  That's why everyone knows him by Zar.

Tessie approves of the rug... Toe wiggling ensued.

Then she turned to me and said, "OK. Now its my turn for a while.  Go work on my rug!".

I guess I will have to.  If I am letting the glue dry, I have to do something to keep busy.

I think that Kota is looking for a He Shed of his very own.  I don't think that it's in the cards.

He has custody of the bed in the daytime.  He has four spots in and around the bed that are his. 

I don't think that he need a He Shed.  He rules the house as it is.  I am not going to spend time making him a house that he won't occupy.

Anyway, I guess that I should go work on Tessie's rug for a while.  It is almost half done now.

Back to the needle.

See you tomorrow.

About Half Way There...

The  first half of the roof is tiled.  The second half is started...

What you see in my hand is what I have left of the edges... Those aren't going very far. They will probably do about two or three rows...

It's just a good thing that "The Dark Tower" is on tomorrow.  More TRAYS!!!

I got a few more rows done on Tessie's rug.  If I keep this up, I might have it finished before Christmas.

I am loving the colors...

And Tessie? I think that she gave up on potions to get me working on her box. 

She went and got the Endless Chocolate Cake...
At least it keeps replenishing itself, so I don't have to go make dessert in the middle of what I am working on.

I am going back to work and finish using the edges that I have.  That may give me some idea of how many trays I have to bring home to finish the roof.

See you tomorrow... Hopefully with MORE trays.

Movers and Shakers...

The moving part is the conservatory. I have decided to make it an outdoor mini.  It will be under the back porch roof and treated kindly, so I imagine that it will be fine there.  It needs repainting since I took off the dragon... He was not going to survive either inside or out. 

Now I need to repaint it and start putting mini plants inside. 

Surprisingly, Tessie is not upset about the move.  She  says that she will get to spend more time in the backyard that way.

I have spent the past two hours putting tile on the roof of Zar's He Cave.

I am going kind of slow because each tile has to be trimmed and glued separately. 

Bah Humbug!

Zar is not much help. He can't manage people sized scissors. So he mostly watches and makes weird suggestions...

His last comment was... "Is there any of the Truffle left?" Then he wandered off towards the refrigerator...

Tessie was close behind...

Later, I looked in on her.  She has her chair from the potions room in her old house.  Her back is turned to the bedroom and she is mixing furiously... I don't want to know what she is stirring up this time...

It's probably some potion to make me work faster, or maybe something to get me back to working on her stuff. I don't want to know... It can't be anything good.

I should go back and do some more roof until I run out of edges.  I do wish that I hadn't thrown those out.  I know I am going to need more than what I have.

I wonder if there are any new movies out that we will want to see this week? I wonder if the movie people will look at me funny if I carry out a stack of 20 or so food trays? I guess I will have to stick to my usual two. Darn!

Back to the roof.

See you tomorrow.

She Shed.He Shed. Dog Shed!

I had the witches here today...

This was dessert.  My first Trifle!

It looks good, but the brownies that I did it with were a little well done and crunchy.  Everybody liked it anyway... I will get better next time... If there is a next time.

Tessie and Zar volunteered to help clean up... The bowl...

I took Tessie's She Shed back to the bedroom after everyone went home.

I was standing there looking at it and then looked to the left.

It dawned on me that I have been making sheds longer than I thought...

Spike has had a Dog Shed longer than anybody has had a He or She Shed!

I did this one quite a while ago and Spike has lived there for a year or two now.

It qualifies in all the right ways.  It is small.  It has a purpose.  He sleeps and eats there.  He stores all of his collars and toys there.

If you want to see more about how it was built, just go to "dog house" in the side bar. There are a couple of entries.

He has been known to have a few friends over to party... Thus the bowls, balls and other toys. 

Yup.  Spike is the original He Shed owner! 

The other two just have copies.

I am glad that I made his first.  He uses it.  He keeps it clean and he enjoys it.  That's what the sheds are for. 

Now if I could only get Tessie and Zar to keep theirs clean... That would be one step in the right direction.

Thanks for doing things right Spike!  Good dogie!

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

I Want It Back!!!

Here We go Again... No Tessie! You can't have it back.

As soon as Tessie saw the addition of the stone corners. she wanted this to be her She Shed.  She says that Zar doesn't need anything this fancy to sit around and write his memoires.

I doubt that he will be doing that.  Not a sign of the desk... So far...

I am thinking that he is going to put his feet up and relax... Sans Tessie.

 I think that the real reason that she wants it is the light inside.

Her shed doesn't have electricity... I imagine that I could add some.  But it's more fun to hear her yell at Zar and watch him ignore her.

Incidentally, the rug will be partially under the couch when everything is finished. It won't hang out the door.

I got some more of the new rug finished, but I won't show it to you until tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Tessie sits in her She Shed with her back to me.  She is not talking to me right now.

She even put her "Danger" sign against her chair.

I was thinking of running some electricity into her shed... Too bad. I am not allowed in...

I guess I will go work on her rug some more and then into the workroom I go, again.

See you tomorrow.