Morning at the Botanical Garden...

We met April, Amare, Eben(Seth's brother) and Seth's parents at the Tucson Botanical Garden this morning and spent a couple of hours.  Then we went to Outback for lunch.

The botanical garden was beautiful as always.  I had not been there since they opened their hatchery for butterflies.

It is amazing.  You can go inside and walk around and the butterflies are everywhere you look. 

 These were some of the plainer ones.  I didn't catch their names but it is great fun to have them fluttering about.

This was one that I liked best, but I couldn't find one that had his wings open... When they are open, the backs are bright blue!

To be specific, the blue on the butterfly is about the same as the blue frog.  They have several varieties of Poison Dart Frogs in cages in the same area. I want one of these for a pet... I know.  Poison.  Not good for pets.  But it was really pretty!

Anyway, after lunch, we came home and I started re doing Tessie's closet for extra aprons.  I painted it a pewter gray.  Unfortunately, in the photo it doesn't look much different than the colonial blue that I had on it before.

I re installed the bars for hangers.  And Tessie immediately started giving orders to fix all of the messed up aprons that SHE had messed up. 

Anyway.  One closet down and one to go.  Then on to the problem of where she wants the other two skeletons.  I am so glad that I didn't let her keep all eight out for the winter. 

I am going back now and kick her and the four Skellies out.  I am going to finish at least two closets today and maybe two tomorrow.

I need to go on to something else besides fixing her messes.

See you tomorrow.

Closet Cleaning Day...

I found out why Tessie wanted to keep four of the Skeleton Crew out of the box.

Today, she announced that WE would be cleaning all of the closets... Not in my house.  In hers.

Then she proceeded to tell me that at least one skeleton would be assigned to each closet. With the statement, "I always wanted skeletons in my closets.".

I went to get her spare closet and found one of the doors broken, so that had to be fixed before she could put a skeleton in there.  We don't want him getting out and wandering around at night.

I have the door glued and clamped.  Now all I have to do is wait... That's two down and two to go...

I realized that she was running out of closets... She took the third one and led him to her sewing cottage...

She said, over her shoulder as she left, "You can take over where Casey left of at repairing my defective aprons.  Maybe you will do a better job.".

Hey! I'm not complaining about that.  I didn't want to do it anyway.  She has 29 aprons and half of them she has torn asunder...

I am not sure where she is planning on putting the fourth skeleton.  He is still sitting all alone on the ledge by the trailer.  If she doesn't find a place for him, I am going to put him in one of the houses the needs finishing or repairs.  Maybe this will be a solution to all of my problems...Everything will get done, with a Skeleton Crew...

See you tomorrow.

The Day After...

 I am almost finished cleaning up the family room/dining room. I will have to wait until Walter gets home from golf to move a couple of things back.

Of course there is a catch...

Now I have to do the workroom, once again...

Kota is much braver than I am. But then again, he can get in and out of tighter spots than I can.

Look to the left...

Meanwhile, Tessie found a kit for a crown the I received in my treat bag.

It is a gold crown and lots of tiny turquoise jewels to put on it...

She grabbed it and ran.

She also grabbed four of the Skeleton Crew that I had not put away yet. 

She immediately announced, in a very LOUD voice.  "If I am to be queen, I will need minions!".

Here we go again.  She is refusing to let me put away the rest of the Crew and would like to have more of them out. 

I don't think that the four of them are very happy.  The rest of the crew gets to go sleep in a box until next year.  These four do NOT want to be Tessie's servants.

Maybe I can make them disappear, one at a time, over the next few days. 

Then I will just have to keep saying to Tessie's questions..."Gee Tessie, I have no idea where they went.  Maybe they just didn't want to be ruled by a dictator and went home to their box."

Yup.  That's my answer and I'm sticking with it. I have to go now and clean the workroom.

See you tomorrow.

Way Too Much Fun!

Was had by all...  The party started in the Tudor Trailer before I even got out of bed and was still going strong when the Witches' party finished.

The Skeleton Crew escaped their basket and joined the fun...

They were all over the family room and as I feared, the Skeleton Crew has doubled in size! The girls in the aprons fit right in with the boys. 

I hear talk that they are forming a union and are going out on strike if I don't let them stay out this year... We shall see... I think that I have a butterfly net somewhere around here.  That should do to round them up.

As for the big witches, we made hats and brooms.

I made rose making tools for everyone.  We didn't have time to learn that today.  Next week we will do those. 

Sorry that this is late.  After everybody left, I fell asleep. I'm up now... Maybe I will go make some roses or clean up the family room and kitchen...

No... I think I will watch TV for a while and then go to sleep for the night.... It has been a LONG day!

See you tomorrow.

Never Ask a Witch...

To take care of eight skeletons in a basket... It doesn't work!

I asked Tessie to zap the basket into the workroom with the skeletons inside this morning... She did...

Then she decided to let them out and entertain them.  I did NOT ask her to do that!

It was quiet for about two hours. Then I started hearing suspicious noises...

First I heard guitar playing and rather loud, drunken singing...

I tiptoed to the door...

Then I heard a motorcycle... I knew that I was in trouble...

I opened the door a couple of inches and peeked inside... 

There were three skeletons on the shelf where the Spiritus Frumenti Bar is located.  They and George were having a great time drinking and singing...

On the next shelf over, Tessie was giving free rides on the back of her motor scooter...

That accounted for five of the skellies. 

The next shelf to the left accounted for two more.  They were chatting with Lettice, the Elizabethan lady. 

Those two were actually behaving themselves!

That left one unaccounted for...

It took me a couple of minutes to find that one.  She was on the desk.  Watching TV.  I left HGTV on when I left the room earlier... It seems that she used to be an interior decorator in a former life. 

Remind me to keep her around.  She might be able to help when I get stuck on decorating mini room boxes.

So far, they haven't caused any disasters or catastrophes. I am just going to leave them to their business and go back to work myself...

I know it's foolish, but I am trusting Tessie to take care of them.  So far, so good.

Back to the real world.  See you tomorrow.

Kota's In Charge!

The Skeleton Crew insisted.

They said that he would do a better job of taking care of them than I would.

So.... That's what I did...

They each wanted an apron to protect their bones. 

A basket to sleep in and a piece(each) of candy corn... Oh! And they took over Tessie's manicure table.  There will be a lot of nail painting in the next month. 

They assured me that it would keep them busy for a month...

The head Skelly wanted a photo, as proof, that Kota would in deed protect them from all of the bad elements in the house.

He's not a bad element, according to them.  They trust him... Not so much me. 

I threatened to lock them in a closet.  A basket is better?  And a cat protecting them is better?  OK.  If they say so. 

All I know is, I have until October 30th Skeleton Crew free. 

They all crawled in the basket and started painting each other's nails.

Kota is doing his duty.  He curled up around the basket and won't let anybody near it. 

He will have to let me move it to make the bed, but other than that, I am to keep my hands off of the basket for now.  I am not complaining one bit.  This solves all of my problems for now.

Back to real mini-ing tomorrow.  No Skeleton Crew interference! 

See you then!

Let's NOT Get This Party Started!!!

Tessie invited the Skeleton Crew to stay at her townhouse until Halloween...

It's not going to happen. 

They moved in last night and this morning when I got up, there was a party in full swing!

One of the skellies is passed out in the swing chair.  Another is amusing herself by wearing one of Tessie's aprons and playing with the rubber chicken.

It seems that one and all wanted to meet their late relatives...

I went up to the second floor and Tessie has engaged one of the skeletons to clean her closet... Remember the one that was half in the bedroom and half in the closet? 

She let one of the skeletons wear one of her aprons and a mob cap for cleaning purposes.  It doesn't look to me like there is much cleaning going on... The one in the chair has taken a liking to Tessie's new hat.  Just wait until Tessie turns around and gets a load of that!  There may be a small war soon.

And the guy that was sleeping in Zar's bed yesterday is sleeping in Tessie's today...

On the top level, the lady from the shower, yesterday, is taking a bath today... She must have gone without a bath for a long time in her last life. Cordelia is patiently waiting with a towel.  I think that Tessie put her up to it, so that the skeleton wouldn't leave to many rings in the tub.

The ones in the  potions room are the ones that I am most worried about.  Uncle Reggie is keeping an eye on them, but who knows what their occupations were in their former lives...

I am thinking that it might be a good idea to lock them all in a box until the day before Halloween.  Elsewise there might just be a bit of trouble around here.  They all seem a bit suspicious to me.

Now where can I find a box that will lock and keep eight trouble making skeletons out of trouble, until Oct. 30?

I am off to hunt for a nice prison cell.  See you tomorrow.

The Skeleton Crew...

Here they are, in all their glory!  I put Zar and Tessie in charge and left the room... OK.  So I sneaked back and took photos.  Don't tell them. 

They had their hands full.

First, Tessie tried to teach one of the males to cha cha.  It was really rough going.  She had a couple of bandaged toes before it was done.

It didn't help that the rest of the skeletons were snickering and making comments.

Then Zar took over and tried to teach one of the ladies to "dip". 

She kept complaining that her bones hurt. I think that was just because she didn't have anything else left to hurt.

It didn't take long to see that they were not going to co-operate for dancing lessons.

 Zar and Tessie bundled them all up and took them to the Clockwork Trailer. 

That seemed like a safe place to keep them out of the way, until Halloween.

They took to that like ducks to water.

Zar got three of them up on the roof.  It seems that one was a rock star in a former life... He grabbed the chance to play the Steampunk organ.

Another just wanted to sit and chat with Zar about what was happening since he left the world.

The third one just wanted to stop and smell the roses...

Tessie  entertained a couple of them by explaining what had happened in the food world since they left.  No Scooter Pies where they were from.

Another just sat on the couch petting Spike and enjoyed being back in real life, if only for a little while.


We already discussed the guy on the roof.  "Smelling the roses.".

The other two were more original.  One just crawled onto Zar's bed and started snoring to beat the band.

And the last one, swore that he hadn't had a shower or a bath in over a hundred years...

He smelled like it was more than a century, for sure!

By the time he got out, his bones were starting to melt from all of the wet and heat.  We are going to have to get him dried out before Halloween!

Anyway.... I doubt that any of them are going to be doing much dancing. All eight have better things to do now.

See you tomorrow.

Words to Live By...

George Bernard Shaw once said, "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, You'd best take it out and teach it to DANCE!"

That's what we are doing today.  Tessie, Zar and I are re working Dollar Tree skeletons to be poseable.

So far, I only have two knees done, but I thought you might like to know how to do it before Halloween comes along.

I have messed with them before to get them to bend, but was not quite satisfied.

I had one of those hair brained, three o'clock in the morning ideas this morning.  And I am pleased to report that it is working just fine.

So far, I only have two knees done, but the skeletons will be dancing any time now.

It was easy to do .  You could do the drilling with a Dremel, but I don't want to get that close to my fingers when I am holding the pieces to drill...

So I opted for my pin vice.  The bit that I am using is the same on that I use for wicker.  And so is the wire. I am not sure what size that is.  I think that the wire is #28.

It just made sense to use covered white wire.  It will take paint if I have to do any adjustments to the color.

I am still going to have to do the arms if I want them to move about more.

I drilled in about 1/8" on each hole.  Then I glued the end of the wire into the upper leg hole. 

I measured how far I would have to cut the other end off.  I cut it and tried it. I did cut them a little longer than I thought they should be.  I would rather have to trim them, than try to glue a minute piece of wire back on!

I am going back now and fix more joints.

Then, if you need me later, I will be somewhere teaching skeletons to dance!

See you tomorrow.