Another Quiet Day In Tucson...

Or Maybe that should be another COLD day in Tucson. Right now it is 60 degrees outside.

It is suppose to get down to the 20s tonight.  I am going to be spending the afternoon covering plants. 

I figured that I had better write this now.  Tessie is not happy that I have not started her MANY necklaces yet.  Take note of where all of the smaller beads are being stored.  At Tessie's request... Or should I say demand?

I am thinking that I had better get the plants covered quickly or she is going to be having a hissy fit.

The baby tree is doing nicely so far.  No blooms, but the leaves are still doing nicely.

You may be wondering why I am showing you a hole in the dirt in the next photo...

Walter pulled the fig tree out roots and all this weekend.

He said it came out easy.  For him easy.  For me, difficult.  I went and looked for a new one at Walmart this morning.  They have them, but they are basically a two foot long stick with no leaves.  I am going to wait a few weeks.  I am not buying a stick with no leaves for thirty five Dollars. 

Let them grow the first few leaves so that I will know it is really a fig tree and not just a stick.

I am going back to work now.  Tessie is not getting a necklace right now.  I have other things to do.  Plant covering comes next.

See you tomorrow.

Saturday and Sunday....

I am amazed at people that will throw a watch away because the battery went dead! All eight of these were in a jar that I bought, not to long ago, at Goodwill. All I did was replace the batteries with ones that I bought at Dollar tree.  Four for a dollar! Every one of them works just fine. Now all I have to do is make them some beaded bands.


Saturday, we met April, Seth and Amare for a tour around the tents at the ballpark and then to lunch at Michas. It has reopened and we really enjoyed it.

For those of you that don't know, that's our Mexican restaurant of choice here in Tucson. It has been closed for a while.  They had a fire start in the kitchen.  It wiped out the whole restaurant and they had to rebuild the inside. The food is still as good as ever.

Walter and I went to the ballpark again today.   I grabbed a lot of beads to work with. I got home and sorted the piles out to see what I had...

Then I left the room for a few minutes.  When I got back Tessie was in the middle of the tray. 

As I watched, she kept saying.... "This is mine... and this is mine... This is mine... This is mine.  I think that she said that about 40 times.  Then I stopped her... I grabbed the tray... Put her back on the bed and told her emphatically "This I ALL MINE!"

I will probably have to make her a crystal necklace or two.  But at least I will get most of it.

I am thinking of doing the blog Monday through Friday for a while and see how it works out. Today is Monday... Only four more days to go and then I get two days off.  Maybe.  We shall see. 

See you tomorrow!

Not A Lot Done....

Actually, I did get a lot of the sock done.  I am down to the last half inch before the toe decrease of the first one... Then I have to do it all over again!

The way I am going, I may have to look into the two socks at a time method of doing things! That involves a LONG circular needle... Not sure that I want to do it. I can't quite see how that saves time... You are just doing both socks at the same time and it still takes you the same amount of time, as far as I can see.

I have been moving things around the past couple of days.  Zar's  Den in a box came to rest in the bedroom by the phone.... He is already complaining.  He wants to switch places with the phone.  He can't see the TV unless I switch the positions.

He is worse than Tessie when it come to wanting to watch whatever is on.  If the TV is on, he is in front of it. 

Tessie actually cooked his breakfast this morning... Now he is hounding her for lunch... Dinner or whatever else she is willing to make. 

I do wish that she would cook for me once in a while... No... Wait.... I don't want the whole kitchen in a mess. I will do the cooking.  At least I am only cleaning up after myself if I do it.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

Moving Right Along.....

I spent the morning in the bedroom and cleaned up the mess that you see here....

Then we went to a movie.  Big mistake! "The Favourite".  The costuming was all mixed up, the story was lame, and the background music was annoying... That's all I am going to say.  Some people evidently like it.  It is up for some awards.  I can't think of anything I would nominate it for.  Maybe for most annoying movie I have seen in a long time. 

Anyway, I think that I should have stayed home and cleaned up the rest of this table and more of the workroom...

 As you can see, I should have stayed home!

I could have had some of this cleaned up!

And some of this too!  Tessie didn't help at all whilst I was gone...

She and her pet snake stayed in bed until we got back...

This is the FIRST bed that I ever made in mini.  It is a copy of an early American rope bed.  See the ropes going in and out of the holes in the side? That's what held up the mattress in the old beds. 

Tessie seems to like it.  I am not going to argue with her.  Especially when she sleeps with the snake. My motto is never argue with "Monte Python".

Back to work. See You Tomorrow!

See You Tomorrow!

Just A Little More Time...

I miss you all.

I have decided to (once again) go through every box and drawer in the workroom. 

It may take me a week, but I am going to do it.  every time I decide to so something mini, I can't find anything!!!!

Tessie is no help at all!  She retreated to her cottage as soon as I started making lists of where things should go this time...

I may have to bake cookies to get her out of there.

This is the contents of one drawer!!!

The gem show starts Thursday... And I don't have room for more stones and beads.

 Some of it will go quickly.  George doesn't need anything but dusting.  The books just need rearranging by category. The room boxes just need a bit of sweeping up.

Once I get all of this cleaned out, I am ready to start on working every day.. Be it minis, beading, or knitting.  I just need ORDER in my world.

See you tomorrow.

Have a great day!!!

Normal Blogging Can Be Fun!

Tessie here!!! Casey is refusing to blog again!

There is no excuse.  She just didn't want to do it today. I don't know what I am going to do with her!!!

She told me that she is now going to blog when she wants to.  Don't ask me when that is going to be!

OK! Casey here now!  I kicked Tessie off of the keyboard and took over.  I forgot to write today. I am thinking now that I am going to do this the way that everyone else does it.

I am going to do it when I feel like blogging and if I don't get around to it, I will do it a day or two later.  Sorry that this is so late in the day, but I really did forget. 

I am not sure when the next blog will be, but I will try to get back soon. See you then!

Good Night! Sleep tight!

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.

I'm Back!!!

Good Morning!!!

I"M back and ready to start mining again... As soon as it stops snowing!!!

For the past two days, we have had snow on the ground when we woke up in the morning!!!

Walter and I both went out and took photos!

Now my nose is running and I can't seem to get warm! Now the only one to have any brains is Kota.

He is staying inside and warm. While Walter and I ran around like maniacs taking photos.

Sorry that I am not getting back to minis yet.  I have to go spend a gift certificate at Joanne's and then go to meet with the witches.  We have not met for a couple of weeks. 

I will be back at it tomorrow and I am sure that Tessie will have a few unkind words to say about me not doing it today.

 I missed you all and Tessie is following me around begging me to go back to mini-ing!!!

Hey! At least she got her name in print!

See you tomorrow!!!

I Need A Long Vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Morning!

I have been waking up at three in the morning for the last year or two.  I start thinking at that time about what the blog is going to be about that day.

It doesn't make me happy or put me in a good mood for writing.

I have decided to take a LONG vacation!!!

The photos for today are just to give you something to look at.

I may do a bit of mini-ing here and there while I am vacating.  Probably not a lot.

I just need to relax and clean my real house for a change.

Tessie is not happy about it, but she is just going to have to live with it.

I am thinking that I will be back about the second of January 2019.

As you can see from the last photo, Tessie is not going to get her trailer anytime soon.  After the row yesterday about extra towers and birdcages, I threw in the towel!

She is off somewhere in a snit. Only Tessie can throw a snit like she can. Anybody else would look silly.

I for one am going to relax and enjoy cleaning my real house and my workroom in my time off.

I will check for comments or questions. I will try to answer anything that is there.

Back to work! See you January 2, 2019!!!!!

Either Tessie or I Are Not Living Through This!!!!!!!!

This morning, when I got out of bed, this is what I saw...

There was a piece of rug material in the living room of the trailer...

I turned around and looked at the foot of the bed... There were piles of fabric there.  Tessie in the middle saying.... These are the fabrics for the Trailer/Castle!

I took one look and made the mistake of turning around to look at said trailer ...castle...once more.

Tessie was very busy while I slept...Not only did she find a lot of fabric to finish the inside of the trailer... As I turned around, she added more rooms to the top.

I told her a few days ago that the trailer/castle couldn't sit on a larger base.

She immediately thought of going up with it.

Now all I have to do is talk her out of going that way!

I am not going to tell her that I like the leopard cage/birdcage that she put on the right end, over the bathroom.

If I say a word about it, she will immediately think that I approve and it is a done deal...

She not only added that one, but she added another layer to the stair tower.  And another room on either side of that. 

She keeps saying, "Casey! You know I need more room!!! And yes she says it in such a way that the three exclamation marks at the end are implied!

I don't know whom is going to win this one, but I have a terrible feeling that I am not coming out on top!

I am going back in and trying to make sense of the whole thing now.  Wish me luck. 

See you tomorrow. If I live that long....

The Loco Weed Is In Bloom!

Jimson Weed, around here is known as Loco Weed.  The stuff is only around for a few weeks during the rainy season here...

It supposedly makes cows crazy when they snack on it.  Since I have no cows in my yard, I let them grow. The flowers only last a day and the plants only last a few weeks.  If you have cows, you don't want the weed. 

I let these grow every year. I don't have cows and I think that the plants are beautiful.

My kumquat tree is coming along nicely. After the set back, I was not sure that I was going to get any fruit. It seems now that I am going to have some after all. The little white blossoms are the start of new fruit.  Wish me luck!

OK. Now for what you really came to see.  I have the tower covered with rocks!!!

I still need to cover the top and put some fancy stuff around the edge of the top, but essentially the tower is covered. 

No. The Terrible Two didn't help.  They just sat there and watched K-Dramas and heckled me while I worked.

Anyway, I am almost finished with the tower as of this afternoon. Back to finishing it. See you tomorrow.

Missing the Terrible Two...

NO. I don't miss them... They are missing.  As soon as I start doing stone work... They disappear...

So. I didn't expect their company today... Yesterday afternoon, I made the mistake of telling them that I was going to finish the stone work today if I could.

I am doing pretty good, but I don't think that I will get much more than the tower finished.

 The two of them didn't even come in and say "Good morning" today.  I haven't seen hide nor hair of either of them.

Anyway, it was to be expected.  They do NOT like stone work.

Anyway, I have never gone through all of the steps for good stonework.  So I will just go through it photo by photo.

The first photo shows me measuring to cut another strip to finish a row.

The second photo shows the curve that I make in the pieces if they are going on something circular as in a tower. I simply bend the piece to a bit steeper curve than the wall. Then I lay it against the wall to see if it is going to lay right on the wall.

The third step is to start cutting the pieces and put them on, one at a time.

I do NOT spare on the glue.  I put on a good coat. It is going to have to hold for years!

Then I fit it into the next piece that I just laid.

The row with the blue tape is one that I just finished.  The one above it is just getting started.

That one will now have a piece of tape started to hold the stones in that row.

Usually one strip of masking tape will hold the tiles in place until they are dry.

I let them dry at least 24 hours before I start painting and shading the stones. 

I will continue with that part when I finish getting all of the stones glued and dry.

It may be a few days until we get to the next step.  Without the help of the Terrible Two, I may be able to finish a little faster.

I do think that it will take a few more days.  If they were coming along for the ride, it would be more like a week... or two.

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Rock'in It!

It helps to hire a supervisor before starting any project.

Kota volunteered, so he was hired on the spot!

Of course it didn't help that the other one that likes to boss me around  didn't show until much later.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I got a late start on the rock work. Nothing to worry about, simply checking to see that everything is OK.

 Here is the method to my madness. I start at one of the doors and work around to the other side.

In this case I was starting at the side of the front door and working around to the side of the other door that goes into the living room. I have already done the space between the doors.

See all of that blue tape? That is what holds everything together until the glue dries.

I just keep putting new pieces of stone on and then running the tape over it.

When I get to the side of the second door, I simply wrap the tape to the inside and tear it off.

Tessie finally showed up after I had finished four rows.  I had already taken the bottom three rows of tape off.

I am not sure that she approves, but since she is not in charge of supervision, I don't think that it is going to make a whole lot of difference.

Kota approves. I gave him a handful of Kitty treats and he thinks everything is just dandy!

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Out to the Garden...

This morning, I spent time out in the yard...

What did the Terrible Two do?

They stayed inside and made more cracker crumbs for me to clean up...

I did a bit of planting and a lot of watering.

When I came back inside, I started rocking again... I may never get all of the rocks on this thing at this rate...


I thought you would rather see what the squirrels are up to, rather than more photographs of rocks.

This is one of the first batch of babies for this year.  He is almost as big as his parents. 

As you can see, he has his cheek pouches filled and is ready to go back to the tunnels and relax. He is going to be a big, big squirrel if he keeps it up!

Same squirrel... Different cheek to fill... He or she is going to be one BIG squirrel if he(or she) keeps filling those pouches and running back to the nest and to eat it all.

I had the tail end of a bag or ice and I put it in the water bowls this morning. They seem to like a little cool water whenever I do that. 

Anyway, I just looked out the window and there are still a bunch of squirrels running around the yard and laying in the shade relaxing. 

I do love looking out and seeing them.  They are very relaxing and entertaining when I get tired of typing. Back to work... More stoning to do.
See you tomorrow.

Wednesday and Witches...

I took the witches on a guided tour of Tessie's new Trailer.

They seemed to like it.

After they left, Kota tried to do some work on the bedroom... He was not successful. All he did was get his nose dirty.

The Terrible Two seem to be having a good time.  I am not.

Now I have to straighten up the mess that Tessie and Zar left on the roof....

Kota seems to have made a new friend.  He likes the dragon that keeps the tape.

I think that I have done everything that I am going to do today.

Tomorrow I will start over.  I am a tired witch!

See you tomorrow.