More Cleaning...

Some of these, I am just cleaning up.  I am not decorating for Christmas.

This quarter scale does not really qualify for Christmas decorations.  After all, it is in the desert and no pine trees around.

 I guess that I could put a Christmas tree in this one, but again, it is not really right for Christmas dressing.

So.  Cleaning is what it gets.

 The houses that I have that are candidates for exterior dressing get some snow and a few pine trees... nothing fancy.

I need to fix the snow on this one... Not very well done yet.

This one always gets snow.  This is the first time I have bothered to put greenery out. I may have to go and find a few of my battery operated Christmas mini lights.

I am going to have to look for those tomorrow.  Wish me luck in finding them... The last time I looked, they were in the electrical drawer... But I may have taken them out to get ready for Christmas... If I did, I have no idea where I put them.

I did finish the shawl today.

I still have a couple of pieces of furniture to make for Amare's room box.  One week and two days until Christmas... Oops. I guess I should get to work!

See you tomorrow.

Ready To Go!

Albert got to go to Wednesday Witches this afternoon...

I took his photo when he started waiting... It was 6:36 AM when I took the photo.  He was there until about 12:15PM, when we left.

As soon as we got back he headed to his favorite spot on the front porch with Tessie.  Tessie is an old hand at Wednesday Witches.  She has gone a number of times.

Her advice? Close your ears and take a nap while the witches chat... It's boring!

When I came in here to write the blog, he followed.  Dragging his chair and capturing one of the animals from the top of the computer screen... It seems that he is a "Peanuts" fan and held the Woodstock bird all of the time I was writing. 

I don't think that he trusts me not to leave him somewhere that he doesn't want to be. 

As soon as I finish this, I will carry him back to his front porch.  Tessie hasn't taught him to zap yet and the time machine doesn't work for inside the house trips...

So, we will now say "Goodnight" and be on our merry way back to the front porch for him, and the bedroom for me.

See you tomorrow.

Second Thoughts...

Albert got a look at what he would inherit with taking over Daisy's home, time machine and observatory...

He doesn't seem as enthusiastic as he did in the beginning.

We started at the top and worked our way down, since he was the most interested in the time machine...

On the  second floor, he got a look at the baby elephant that spends most of his time in Daisy's bathtub. 

Not really Albert's cup of tea...

Then, in the bedroom, he got his first look at some of Daisy's dogs.

All together, she has four.

He is not to crazy about inheriting her zoo.

They eat better than she does most of the time.  She orders out for them...

I think that the jaguar that lives downstairs is the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back...

Albert sat down in the basket chair and didn't even get his feet off of the floor before Mick, the jaguar went into attack mode...

He spends most of his time curled up asleep on the couch.  In a flash, he was up and half way across the coffee table before I stopped him...

He's a good guard cat...

Lastly, the kitchen really broke the camel's back...

It has never been finished.  It is in a state of disrepair that will take a while to fix...

Albert would prefer move in ready.  I have a feeling that, at this rate, the Nine Dollar Dollhouse is beginning to look pretty good to him...

Do you suppose that Daisy had this in mind when I caught her this morning making a bigger mess of the kitchen than it was already?

Again, I am staying out of it.  Sooner or later they will settle things.  Until then, I am just relaxing and enjoying the entertainment.

See you tomorrow.

Running Away From Home...

 First I went to Walmart this morning for a  few groceries...

I came home with this strange little pair of scissors.

You simply unlatch the orange part by sliding it forward. Then you press down on the orange part, with your thumb to cut things.


I have never seen anything like these before.

They are advertised as being extremely accurate in their cutting... We shall see.  So far, I like them.  I have only cut a piece of paper to see if they were sharp.  They are.

I still have to do something to see if they are as accurate as the makers claim... We shall see.

The next thing I did was listened to the little voices in my head that told me I should go to the Twenty Second Street Antique Mall...

I think that I am officially going to listen to those little voices more often.

Look what I found!  These are hand carved stone.  About 2 1/2"from top to bottom...

I am going to have to see if I can find out what kind of stone they are. Maybe some kind of jade?

I suspect that they are both the same kind of stone.  The first one is natural. The only thing wrong with it is there is a small piece missing from the tail of the bird on the left side.  I think that it can be covered within the design that I do.

This second one has a stain of some kind in all of the carved parts.

Anyway, I paid $5.00 a piece for them and I think that they will be good candidates for wire wrapping or beading...

Those little voices have been getting me into a lot of trouble lately, but I like what they are saying.

I have to go now and see how Albert is doing with his pitch to get the time machine away from Daisy.  He is trying to tell her that she works too hard and should retire from all of the time travel...

He has generously offered her the Nine Dollar Dollhouse in trade for her cottage and the time machine... Whom do you think will win this round??? I am betting on Albert, so far...

See you tomorrow.

Not Large Enough...

I have offered Albert the use of the Nine Dollar Dollhouse... He is not really sure about it...

He saw Zar's house that is unoccupied right now and I think that he would like to take that over "Lock, Stock and Barrel".

He already talked Zar out of a bunch of furniture.  None of it is being used.  Zar seems to like his Half Timber Trailer. 

I am thinking that Zar doesn't want the responsibility of the gigantic Clockwork Cottage.

Albert seems to be cramped in the Nine Dollar Dollhouse.

I have the feeling that, once in his new place, he is going to do some more discovering of the universe... and the small house will never do...

He is really trying to settle in, but it is really cramped.  I have to admit that I probably wouldn't be happy living there either.

Albert talked Zar out of a LOT of his furniture for the Clockwork Cottage. He got it on the condition that, if Zar ever got the cottage up and running, Albert would turn the furniture over to him again.

They have had their heads together quite a lot today and I have the feeling that Albert is winning the battle.  He may just become the owner of the Clockwork Cottage, at the rate that their talks are going... I am just going to stand back and let it all happen.

I have other things to work on right now, so I am going to let the two of them settle whom gets what...

It seems to me that Tessie is awfully quiet about the whole thing... I think that she is going to stand back and let them settle it.  Then she will move in at the right time and take what she wants out of the mess that they make. 

Whatever they wind up doing, I am just going to stand back and not get in the middle of the squabble.

I am going back to work on other things.  See you tomorrow.

Good Housekeeping....

When company is expected, it's always a good idea to clean up the house(s).

Tomorrow, I am having the Wednesday Witches + one....Joan is bringing her sister. She wants to see the minis....Oops! I had better get out the paintbrush, lemon oil and other paraphernalia.

I did. Thus, you get a look at the housecleaning, instead of more curtains or other mini instructions.

First comes the $9.00 dollhouse. This is the one that I was working on when I started this blog. It is now finished, but sometimes gets messy. I had to go through and sweep the floors, shake the rugs, dust and put things in their place.

Cordelia is a nice lady, but a lousy housekeeper. Her things looked as messy as my real house does most of the time. It's just about as much work to straighten too.

After doing that, I cleaned up the Southwestern room box. It was just dusty.....It seems that Eskiaga spends a lot of his time at Cordelia's place....No comment.

Mostly they sit on the front porch and talk. Personally, I think that he likes it there because it sits about 6 feet from the big screen TV. His abode doesn't share a room with talking pictures, as he calls them. There are photos of his room box all over the blog, so I won't bother to show it to you with the dust removed, once again.

The one that I just now finished was the wooden file box....This one caused a bit of a fuss. I finished cleaning and sorting the inside of the lid.

I always have to make certain that my piece of the Berlin Wall is in there. Yup. Right beside the Rhino's nose.

The Maltese Falcon and it's book. Check.

Two rocks that Seth brought back from one of their trips. Check.

And the program from the original showing of "Gone With the Wind". All there.

It didn't have any seating arrangement inside. About the time I went to look for something, I heard a thump, rattle and bang. It's a familiar sound around here when Tessie gets in "zapping mode".

I came back out to the family room, where I had been working on the box, to see that something new had been added....

There was Tessie, making herself comfortable on Zar's new Chesterfield Sofa.

She had a plate of cookies on a table beside her and a box of Cuban cigars on her lap.

I don't think that she actually smokes....They were a bargaining chip.

Zar showed up shortly after and asked, "Who said you could sit on my sofa?"

Some of the words that passed between them were not too nice, or fit for refined company, but the meaning was clear.

Tessie answered his question with, "You have a whole new gentleman's den. I haven't had anything new for ages. I am taking the sofa. You don't need it. I am also going to eat cookies and smoke cigars. Just try to stop me!"

Zar grabbed a book that he knows Tessie loves. It is a book called "Many Mini Tips", a miniature, readable volume by Gail Dillard. She wrote the book years ago and printed it for a group of online mini friends. She passed away shortly after writing it. We all miss her and are happy to have the tiny tips to remind us of her. Tessie especially likes it because it is readable for someone her size and she doesn't have to get someone bigger than her to turn the pages.

So, the dickering began. It went on for exactly 13 minutes...See, the counting random things does come in handy sometimes.

When the dust cleared, Tessie had the book and the cookies. plus the use of his sofa until such time as I build her a new one. Never mind that I made her a new wicker one a couple of weeks ago. Zar got his Cuban cigars back....

By the way, the box of cigars was one that I built years ago....I don't know if they still make the product that I made the cigars from. I will have to investigate. I don't even remember what they were called. they were "break apart" flavored toothpicks that you could find with the teeth cleaning products. All I had to do was cut off the length that I wanted with an Exacto knife and paint them brown. Instant cigars, all in a neat row.

Anyway, now Zar is back in his man cave, puffing away. The family room smells awful and I think that the cigars are going to disappear soon....At least Tessie's cookies don't smell bad!

See you tomorrow.

Feeling Very Guilty.....

When I opened the e mail this morning, there was a letter from Catherine in Australia. She was making a plea for Zar. She says that she doesn't have a crush on him, but I suspect that she has a soft spot for him. She was asking that I help poor Zar out with his cottage. He needs a place to live. A place to call his own....

That got me thinking. When I was working on a backup of the blog entries yesterday, I went back to the very first entry and worked my way forward. Remember the Nine Dollar Dollhouse that I started the blog with? It has been almost finished for three and a half years....And a couple of years before that. Poor Cordelia! She is worse off that Zar.

Well....As of this morning, she no longer has to spend all of her time over at Eskiaga's place. It's time for a housewarming party. No sooner said than done.

The house is officially finished, all but a couple of little things that I will finish today.

I wondered why I was doing all of those Chrysnbon kits. This was why. I used the cabinet and the dry sink in the kitchen area. I already had the rest of the bottom floor finished.

I glued in the spiral staircase and hung a couple of pictures and I was done. Let's get this party started!

By the way....See Zar standing by the staircase? He has been carrying around his "Clockwork Cottage Journal" and being very obvious about showing the title. I think that he was looking over my shoulder when I was reading the mail this morning....Oops!

When I glued the staircase in place, I realized that I had lost some of the railing posts from the upstairs. I never was really satisfied with the landing.

This morning I dug out some Penelope canvas and came up with a different solution. I used the edge of the canvas as a channel for some wire that would hold the shape that I wanted. Then I cut off another piece and did a free form curved upper edge. I haven't decided if I want to paint it white to match the woodwork or leave it natural to match the other canvas in the room. Thus, I still haven't glued it in place permanently. Now, at least nobody will fall through the staircase to the living room. That's one unfinished item.

The only other thing that I still have to fix is the upper right corner in the bedroom wall. Whoever put the house together in the first place left a hole and glued the roof on a bit askew. It needs to be sanded and the molding re glued.

You have already seen the sewing loft several times, so I won't bother with a close up of that.

Anyway, I can now check the Nine Dollar Dollhouse off of the list of things to do.

Come on over! The party is in full swing! Thanks for the push Catherine.

See you tomorrow.