We Are Back!!!

We're Back! I have been doing nothing for the past week. 

I more or less imitated Kota.  Sleeping, eating and doing nothing but watching TV.

I worked in the back yard some, but nothing major.

I absolutely stayed away from minis!  Not even cross stitch rugs! Nothing!

I made it clear to Tessie, Zar and Spike that I was not to be pulled into any kind of minis!!! I more or less ignored them and they did the same to me. 

Zar got the telescope working and Tessie irritated him instead of me.

She kept putting her hand over the end of the telescope or putting her eye in front of the lens.

It is amazing that she is still in one piece. 

I just plugged my ears and let them argue. 

Worked like a charm.  It was a bit loud in here once in a while, but I just went to another room and closed the door when they started.

Spike followed my example.  Ignore the two of them.  Take naps when he had a chance. Don't seek them out.  Run the other way when they approached.

Anyway, I spent this morning in the workroom straightening out the mess that was left in there.

Then I went back to ignoring the two or them.

Spike I can tolerate. It's the other two that are irritating. I am thinking that I am going to ignore them for the rest of the day.  I get the idea that they aren't yet aware that the week is up.  I am wondering how long I can stretch this out.  Maybe I can keep them out of my hair for another week?  We shall see! Hey! I can dream, can't I?

See you tomorrow. 

The Neverending Cleaning Story...

I did more work on the back porch this morning. 

Then I came in and started cleaning the Fortunetelling Emporium.

Tessie was delighted.  She seldom tells fortunes. She has the gypsy from the Witches Warehouse come and do them. 

Actually, I am not sure that she even knows how to work a Ouija Board. 

I think that Spike is more adept at that skill.

She lets him do it and then she pretends to do it herself...

Spike is pretty good at it.  He predicted rain last night and it did rain for about eight minutes at one point.  I counted!

Anyway, Tessie always takes the credit for all of the predictions.

After all, her name is on the sign.  That's what counts. Nowhere does it say Fortune telling by a dog...

This morning I added another feeder to the  bird's spot. I put one of my hand made ceramic bowls on top of the table topped trunk. Then I added three of those little blocks of fruit and nuts that you get in the bird department at Walmart.

I don't think that is going to stay there long.  I looked out and all of the suet has already melted.  I either need a tent to put over it or it is going to have to be moved under the shade of the plants.  I don't think that the birds like runny suet. I haven't had one bird on there all day.

Oh well. It was a good try. Now I will try it elsewhere.

Back to work on Walter's bracelet now.

See you tomorrow.

The Cleaning Never Ends....

I now have a clean hall closet. I took everything out and sorted through it on the bed.  Kota supervised. 

When he doesn't approve of what I am doing, he turns his back.  All I saw was his tail, most of the morning.

Then I went back to sprucing up minis.  Spike's doghouse is pretty much spotless now...

I think that I showed the pit bull property laws once before.

They are posted on the back of Spike's house.  He takes them very seriously. Beware!!! You might have to poke the photo to read them.

Be sure to memorize them all!

I cleaned out the greenhouse... Now all I have to do is make more plants.  This is where the plants all live until I need them in a scene or room box.

Lastly, I spruced up Hubert's Haberdashery. It is another building that is pretty air tight and doesn't collect a lot of dust.  It does need going over and straightening now and then though.

Anyway, that's all of the cleaning I am going to do for today. 

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

This is Getting Ridiculous

I have been through every drawer and cupboard in this room TWICE!

I still haven't found the mirrors that I am looking for.  And I can't finish Tessie's dressing room until I do. 

Yes. Those are my toes at the bottom of the picture.  It looks like I am relaxing and enjoying the ride... I'm NOT!!!

There are a lot of boxes and drawers in this room and I swear that I have been through all of them.

I obviously missed one somewhere.  And it was the one with the mirrors inside!

I tried to get Tessie to help this morning. All she wants to do is play "Where's Tessie?".

She is in the last three photos.  Very easy to spot. She has Spike with her in all of them.

Here's a clue for you. In this one, she is in her latest room box.  Relaxing on the chase lounge.

Not too hard to spot. 

Anyway, I am going to give it one more try and then I am going to give up.  No mirror. No dressing table. That's all there is to it.

Then I have to find another way to go with the box.

She suggested that I take the house that she is hiding in on this wall and make her something completely new.  And different.

That makes me suspect that she knows where the darned mirrors are and is not telling.

They will probably appear, out of nowhere as soon as I am a goodly way into making her something new and different.

I am going back and look a little more. If I don't find them, I am going to make something for Zar or Spike. That will fix her.  I have the feeling that if that happens, she will suddenly come upon the missing mirrors in some out of the way place that I didn't think to look... Oh well. See you tomorrow.

New Stuff From Jeannie! Thank You Jeannie!!!

Jeannie had some more stuff that she didn't really want... I did!

Two Chrysnbon kits. Bathroom and kitchen stove. 

A desk that is beautifully done.  Signature on the bottom.  I am going to have to see if I can tell what it is.

A large block of balsa. I can always use that for overstuffed furniture.

Zar immediately grabbed the desk... He may have to fight Spike for ownership. Spike seemed to think that the top part would be a great place for him to sleep...

The last two items were something that I have wanted to make for years.  Now I don't have to.

They are a couple of Scandinavian Stoves. The real originals were ceramic and used to heat houses a couple of hundred years ago. They will have to be worked on, but that is easier than starting from scratch.

I am off now to fight Zar and Spike for possession of the desk.  Most of the other stuff, I can sneak into the workroom, before Tessie sees any of it. 

Back to hiding things from Tessie. See you tomorrow.

Zar's Not Excited....

If it's not Tessie, it's Zar.

He took one look at the size of the little house and did a "Bah Humbug!".

He turned his nose up and declared it not enough room for him and Spike.

Oh well. I didn't want to do it anyway.

There is not even enough room for the pool table that I promised him, years ago.  I did make a carved frame for it, but that's as far as I got.

Maybe I should just finish the pool table and not worry about a place to put it until it is finished. 

That seems like a lot more fun than doing the same cottage that I have done so many times before.

Boring! Boring! Boring!!!

I am just going somewhere and pout for the rest of the day. 

Tomorrow is Wednesday.... For Witches. I probably won't get much done anyway.  I may as well work on the pool table. That should be way more fun than another cottage.

Back to the drawing board.  See you tomorrow.

Dirty-ing It Up....

All I have left to do is dirty the outer walls up a bit.

I have them painted, but they have no shading yet.

Spike is standing watch until I get to that part.  I should just put a paint brush in his mouth and tell him to go at it.  He would probably do a better job than I would.

I finally got Tessie to do some of the hanging up of aprons.  It took long enough to talk her into it.

If truth be told, I did most of it.  She jumped in at the last minute for the photo op.

Zar refused to do any more aft he hung up three or four aprons.  So I was left to do most of it.

I still need to find a mirror to hang on the wall.  I still haven't found the box that I have a LOT of mirrors in.  It is somewhere in the work room.

This morning I had a doctor's appointment and then we went to see "Ocean's Eight".  Pretty good. Fun movie.

Anyway, tomorrow it's back to the workroom. I cheated on Sunday and only worked half a day.  Bad Casey.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.  See you then.

Is Everybody Happy?

I don't know about the rest of the crowd, but I am.  I decided(in the middle of the night) that I am going to devote Saturday and Sunday to doing things in the workroom.

I am going to clean and do projects that I can do in there. That way, maybe I can keep it clean. I started, this morning, with cleaning up a bit and then I started sorting the three drawers that were labeled "Tessie's Town House".

I dragged the little house into the bedroom and the Clockwork Cottage back to the top of the bookshelf.

 Zar immediately informed me that he was taking control of this house. It is a duplicate of Tessie's cottage that sits atop the jewelry chest.

He demanded equal space and time, since I was no longer working on his Clockwork Cottage...

I imagine that this is fair, since Tessie has a lot of real estate already.

The amazing thing is both of them are helping me sort and clean... I should say, the three of them.  Spike found his long lost dog bed from the townhouse and Zar offered him a place to keep it in the new cottage. It's better than the barrel that he has been occupying every night.

That should be an agreeable arrangement. The two of them get along well and are both willing to share...

Tessie? Not so much.  She has forgiven me for getting rid of the town house though. She found her favorite toy at the bottom of the first drawer we cleaned. She thought Super Chicken got sent off with the townhouse to a new owner...

So much for help from Tessie. She has been sitting on a table, crooning lullabies to it for the past hour...

I am about to quit sorting and throw all of them out in the back yard. It is 91 degrees right now.  I imagine it will increase a lot before noon.  That threat alone should shut them up!

I am liking the idea of doing Saturdays and Sundays in the workroom.  Maybe I can keep it straight if I do that. Wish me luck!  See you tomorrow...

The Tiny Tyrant Strikes Again!!!

I had a Doctor's appointment today. Everything is fine! I got a clean bill of health. When we got home, I found Tessie gathering the troops.

First I found her recruiting Spike.  He was resisting with all his might.  He is pretty much on my side, since I am the one that feeds him...

 Then I saw that she had moved on to Zar's trailer. By that time she was handing out wicked looking weapons... That thing has a very  sharp edge and a hook on the end for grabbing things.

I am staying out of her way.

The next one that she approached was Kota.  He came close to biting her head off.  Luckily, she is faster than he is...

For a while, she decided to sit on the back of the chair and tell me where to put things... I came close to biting her head off too.... but again she was too fast.

I gave up and came in here to write the blog.....

She followed me in and started scribbling on a sticky note...

You don't want to see the other side of said note...

In the tiniest print that she is capable of, she has a list of 103 things that she wants done.

It not only has things to be done in the workroom.  She also included cleaning the refrigerator and both of the hall closets.  And then she went on and added the shelves in the garage, the back porch and the unfinished minis that she wants finished...

I do believe that it will take me about five years to get it all done... I guess I had better get started tomorrow.

See you then!!!

Oops!!!

I did it again! I started cleaning out supply boxes... Guess who showed up to help?

She stood there until I put the floral ribbons around the one unfinished hat and then plopped it on her head.

Tessie is in heaven.  A whole box full of hats and hat stands.

Unfortunately, that reminded her of the hat shop that she demolished to get her cottage back.  Now... Guess who wants a new hat shop?

I am thinking that it would be easier to talk her into an addition on her cottage.  A new hat storage room?

I do have that one room box like Amare's that I got before Christmas. It is all put together and ready to go.

Maybe it would just be easier to make that one into a hat shop.

That way I wouldn't have to attach it to her cottage.  If she had it as a business, she probably wouldn't wear all of the hats.  She would just try to sell them and add to her fortune.

 Spike did abscond with one of the hats.  I think that I made it for Zar a while ago.  Sorry Zar.

He also found a couple of friends in one of the boxes. 

He is pretty good about keeping them separated. After all, Rattlers and bunny rabbits don't usually like each other much. 

Anyway, I am not going to Witches today. Kota woke me up at 2:08 AM to tell me that it was raining outside.  Every time I would just about get back to sleep, he would announce it again. I woke up for the last time about six.  With a runny nose and a little bit of a sore throat.  I don't want to give it to the other witches, so I think that I am going to opt out for today.  I might even get a few more spaces cleaned out in the workroom.

Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow.

I will Not Bead a Saw Handle!!!

First of all. This is why we live in Arizona! The sky was even more red than the photo.  Beautiful Sunset!

 Now about the Terrible Two... They have spent most of the day finding mini tools for me to bead new handles for... So far, I am vetoing every one that they have suggested.  I will NOT bead saw handles and screwdriver handles.  No way. No how!!!

They are still trying to find things.  I thought that it would finally dawn on them that this would take away time for minis.  Oh well. It gave me a lot of free time away from the tools.

They wouldn't let me use any of the ones that they were sorting.

That was bad enough, but Spike got involved and started his own pile.  At least his were half way sensible.

I only have half of a rosemary bush to trim.

I had an idea while trimming.  It would be much easier than making Walter saw them to the ground.

I am thinking that I might try growing some vines around the bottoms and train them to go up the trunks to the branches. 

We shall see what we can do... Maybe a morning glory tree or a sweet pea tree?

I am going to have to go look at seeds on Tuesday... Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow.

I Must Foil Their Plans....

This morning when I got up, Tessie, Zar and Spike Jr. were huddled in Tessie's cottage.  I was curious, so I stepped back where they couldn't see me and listened...

They were chatting amicably about what my next project was going to be... Wait a minute.  Aren't I supposed to decide what I am going to do next?

Before I could interrupt, they disappeared.  Dog and all!

When I tracked them down, they were on the roof of the castle bedroom, this time with Spike Sr..  They are trying to fancy it up.  I will let them.  I am not happy with a plain flat roof. If they can make it better, more power to them!

Not long after that, I looked in on them.  They were no longer on the roof...

I gave up and went to fix food for the Wednesday Witches.  They came here today.

After the witches left, I found them again. They were looking at the new beads.

I took a second look.  They have taken the handle covers off of two pair of my pliars.  The side cutters and the needle nose pliers. 

I asked what they thought they were doing...

Their reply? Between the two of them they explained that, if I had better looking tools, maybe I would get back to work.

They are demanding that I bead the handles of both tools.  Then, they tell me, that I will be able to get back to work... Interesting theory.  I don't think that it's valid. But interesting... I really don't think that is going to make me work better.  I still think that cleaning is going to do the trick.  Maybe I will do some of each tomorrow and see which seems to work the best.

See you then. Goodnight!

Just Needs Shading Now.

OK. I got sidetracked by a couple of toilet paper cores for a little while.  I now have frames for a couple of carpet bags and eleven purses.

Then I went back to work on the stones.

I went over all of the lines with my crochet hook.

Then I painted a base coat of Antique White all over the stones and the bare walls on the outside.

I still need to take it in and while sitting next to the music tower, I need to do some antiquing and shading on the stonework.

All I have to do is get Tessie and Spike to move.  They both seem to think that they are going to own this one.

Anyway, that's all I am going to do today.  I have to go out in the back yard and recover some of the plants.  The wind is blowing things all over the place.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Big Red Machine!

The Big Red Machine in question is the one in the poster on the right hand wall.  That is the first thing that you see when you walk in the room.

It wouldn't be Amare's room without it.

He loves machines that dig and carry things. 

Under it is the unit with the bins.  I still have to do some filling in those. I need two more bins to fill it. More jewelry findings  for me!

I am starting to get the shelves filled .  I need some children's books to scatter around.

Tessie is making a list of titles that I should include... I don't think that "Frankenstein" will be one of them...

She is trying really hard to get me into trouble.  She thinks that he should have a TV set and a poisonous frog... Look down in the left hand corner... I keep taking them out and she keeps putting them back in.

I will wait until we start opening presents and grab them really quick.  She will never know.

Here's a little closer look at the bench and curtains they came out ok after all.

It is starting to look lived in... It's not messy enough yet.

I'm getting there.  A little bit at a time.

Now all I have to do is devise a plan to get the Terrible Two plus One out of there before Christmas.

Any suggestions?

Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow.