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.

Introductions All Around...

Albert is no shy violet...

When I got up this morning, he was introducing himself to everybody in the neighborhood.

I caught the first photo when he was at Eakaiga's place.

He was getting permission to use the nine dollar dollhouse from the owner.  She seems to always be at Eskaiga's place.  I am not sure what is going on...

He left there and was on his way over to Zar's trailer. I caught him rescuing the cat that was about to pounce on the snake in the Archeologist's Office.

I guess that was his good deed for the day. He carefully tucked the kitty in the carpet bag and took him along on the rest of his visits.

I have the feeling that Albert has chosen his own pet.  I didn't have to encourage him at all.  He knew that the kitty was no match for the snake...

When he got to Zar's trailer, he stopped long enough for a cup of coffee.

The two of them are still negotiating over the clockwork cottage.  I don't think that Albert will have much trouble talking Zar out of it.  Zar has shown very little interest in it in the last couple of years...

Albert stopped at the Witches Warehouse. He seems to be very interested in fortune telling... Or maybe it's just Zofi, the fortune teller that he is interested in...

His last stop was at Daisy's cottage... She showed him the time machine.

For some reason, I have a feeling I should have hidden that, before he got here.

He is now asking how much Daisy would sell the cottage and the time machine for...

He wants to learn how to run the thing. I can see it now.  He is going to try to get more people to come back here and keep him entertained...

I think that the time machine is going to get a glitch in it's works very soon....

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

The Season of the Witch.....

For the Wednesday Witches, this is it...

As far as Tessie is concerned, this is it.  She has been buzzing around my head as I get ready.  She picked up Zar on the last cycle...Now they are doing the "top of the world" scene from Titanic.

I do wish that they would settle down and just party like regular people...I fear that is too much to ask.  They are headed to the Witch's Warehouse.  That party will last for at least three days.  They're taking the long way around...and around.

She, who shall remain nameless, started on the bug beer a bit early and missed the broom landing platform...She has been hanging there for a while now.  Maybe someone should go out and pull her inside.

Since the party hasn't started yet, Tessie's eldest sister, the spinner is still working at straw into gold spinning...

She can't be bothered to clean her room...Bug beer spilled on the floor last week is still there. It doesn't bother her a bit.

Zofi is at her fortunetelling station. No takers so far....Someone left their magic carpet in gear and it floats in place, waiting for it's owner to come and roll it up and put it in the proper basket... It's kind of a waste of magic to keep it running if you're not using it.  Oh well. 

 I think that it's about party time...Esmeralda is shooing out the last customer.  Then the party can start.... This particular customer is not in the in crowd... She just comes in and wanders around to waste time.  Never buys anything...

Anyway, the big witch party starts at noon.  They  pass the warehouse to put them in the mood for the day...

Speaking of starting at noon, I still have to make the bug beer and the swamp slime. 

Sorry about no work on the crooked house, but there are more important things to do.

Eat, Drink and be Merry!  For the Wednesday Witches, tomorrow will just be another day.  Back to work on the crooked house for me.

Happy Halloween! See you tomorrow.

Moving Monday....

OK.  I kicked the last of the party people out of Madam Tessie's this morning...Time to move on to something else.

I perched it atop the tall bookcase in the bedroom, along with a bunch of dragons and gargoyles to keep it safe.

Zofi refuses to leave...She's not paying rent and not getting any customers in this out of the way spot, so I don't know what is going to happen. 

Meanwhile, I moved Spike's Crypt down to the top of the jewelry/tool chest.  I kind of like it at eye level.  Now I can see all of the details that I couldn't when it was up on the bookcase.

Buffy and Spike went back to arguing and trying to kill each other there.  So things are back to normal...

Spike:"Here Buffy, I baked cookies.".  Sure he did.
Buffy: "Just set them on the table.  I wouldn't want to get blood on them when I try to kill you again..."

See?  Normal...

If you enlarge this one, You can see more of the detail. 

One of my favorite pieces is the little grim reaper toy on the second shelf.  A friend of mine sent him from England.  When you turn the little yellow handle on the side of the base, he swings the scythe back and forth...

I put one of the portable closet lights in the top to take the photos.  I really prefer it when it is dark and dank.

While I am thinking about it, I should tell you that this is another of the birdcages.

The outside front is all faux marble.  I did the front and sides with illustration board this time, so that I could take the marble all the way to the corners on the top. I won't go into the technique.  I have it in other entries.

I added regular molding on the top edge of the main wall to make it more substantial looking.

The corner posts are the birdcage itself.

The real reason I am showing this view is the roof.  People are always wanting different ways of making roof tile.  These slates are more of the illustration board.  I cut the tiles a bit larger than I wanted them to look so that I could overlap them. Then started at the bottom and worked up, just like regular shingles. After I got them all glued in place, I let the glue dry. Next I primed them with gesso and a stiff stencil brush.  Last, I painted them with charcoal gray Ceramcoat and a bit of shading with a little lighter gray here and there.

It just proves that you can work with whatever is at hand.  The trees on the outside of the building are made from branches of my rosemary bushes in the back yard.  Stripped of leaves(put in soup) and with railroad greenery added.

Anyway, now I can start on something else...Oh yeah....I forgot about the workroom...Workroom?  What workroom? 

See you tomorrow.

"I Just Can't Wait Any Longer...."

That was Tessie about an hour ago... I made a mistake.  I put the signs on the side of the building before I finished the carpet...Bad move.

The sign was done on The Print Shop 15.  I simply did the lettering in a text box and added a frame.  Then I printed it on parchment paper.  After I cut it out, I added all of the gold with the same stuff that i did the front of the booth with earlier.

A party ensued as soon as the signs were in place.

Tessie was wandering around telling everyone that there would be two fortune tellers in residence for one day only....No waiting....Unless the junior fortuneteller disagreed with the head fortuneteller...Then....Well you know what happens when they disagree.  Poor Zofi.

You have to enlarge the first photo to see what the bottom says....It says, "your fortune is in your own hands".  Smart move on Tessie's part.  No guarantee that her predictions will come true if you screw it up yourself...

It only took about 15 minutes to found up everyone.  That included the time it took to get Zofi out of her spell.

I will probably add a few more things to the inside.  That can be done when I run across anything that has been hiding in the workroom.

As usual, it is getting louder as the morning goes on...I don't think it will stop any time before one or two in the morning....

Personally, I am going to close the bedroom door and let them carry on until they run down.

The workroom is on the other side of the house, so let them have their fun.

Who knows?  Maybe I will find a new project whilst rummaging around.

On second thought, I only have an hour or two of stitching left on the Gypsy rug.  Maybe I can find a quiet corner and finish that...

See you tomorrow.

Where's Zofi???

 At least I got an apology from Tessie for "disturbing the pieces".  Note the spelling...  Yes.  She was talking about the ruckus that she caused a couple of days ago, whilst throwing a hissy fit in my work room....

No offer to clean it up or compensate for the damage....Just a simple "Sorry about that."  Then she went on her merry way.  I guess I will be cleaning up after her, once again.

I have other things to put on the wall of the booth, but I needed a Phrenology chart, so I went to my handy dandy Bing images section....I am amazed at the number of different ones there are. There must be a lot of people that like reading bumps on heads.  Also interesting is the variations on what certain areas mean...

I printed one out for Junior  Tessie to use in the booth.  Don't ask....I haven't solved the mystery yet, but last night I looked in to see how it was going and....low and behold, Zofi and her gold table were nowhere to be seen!

Just now, when I typed Junior, Tessie stomped on my fingers and made me cross it out...

She then announced that she had paid a goodly amount and got back what was rightfully hers.

I didn't have the nerve to ask how much...She and Zar have spent the morning searching for ancestors with the Ouija board.  I am not sure what the purpose of that particular exercise is.  Rich relatives that may have left Tessie something to pay off the fortunetelling booth?

I am very pleased to report that the one thing that Zofi left behind is a success.  The Chinese lantern(metal) stuck to the book light(plastic) Is stuck fast and the light shines nicely through the silk panels.  I haven't installed it permanently yet, but it looks pretty good just as it is now.

Anyway, I don't have time to look for Zofi right now.  The kids are coming over for BBQ in a little while.  I will try finding her later.  I imagine that Tessie zapped her someplace to keep her quiet...Probably somewhere in the no man's land that I call a laughingly call a work room.

See you tomorrow.

Zofi! You Had Better Watch Out!

Not only is Tessie on the warpath....I think that I'm backing her up on this one...

Zofi found the gold leafing pen while I was sleeping...

When I got up, there was a strange purple light coming from my bedside table.....And there was Zofi, weilding the gold leafing pen on the base of the Chinese table...

It doesn't look bad in the photo, but in real life, the coat is uneven and the only thing that she didn't paint was the tabletop.

To add insult to injury, she left the cap off of the pen and now I don't have any gold leafing left that isn't brick hard.

Back to the strange purple light...I left a coffee cup on the table and Zofi put it to good use...Or maybe it was bad use.  I don't know yet.

She is pretty handy with a pair of pliers and Aleene's Jewelry glue.

She found one of my old chinese lanterns and proceeded to try to glue it to the book light.

Mind you, she had to tear it out of the booth, clamp it to my coffee cup and then get the glue on and the light in the right place before it all dried wrong.

I left it there.  I want to see if it works before I banish her back to the Witch's Warehouse.

She is now back inside with Mick, guarding the place.

She put my half finished rug under the newly painted table.  I do hope that the feet were dry.

She also found a copy of a Chinese snuff bottle that she seems to be thinking of using for a stand for one of her crystal balls...

I didn't tell her that she is being closely watched and may be zapped if she isn't careful.

Let her have her fun today....Later she just may pay the price!  The Terrible Two(and a half) are watching from above...

See you tomorrow.

Tessie Meets Her Match?

I permanently installed the front draperies this morning.

This is before all of the fancy work was added.  Awfully sedate.

Just wait....

I added a lot of the rayon ropes that I made and went through my jewelry findings for extras.  I tried beads, but didn't like them. 

This is what I ended up with.  Now for the inside....

That is what caused all of the ruckus this morning.

It seems that Junior thought that Tessie was going to spring for the interior fittings. 

Are you kidding?  The biggest skinflint in Arizona is not going to sell a shop and then come back and decorate for the new owner....We knew that there had to be a catch somewhere, when Tessie agreed to sell so easily.

There was almost a clawing and scratching argument before they were done.

Personally, I think that Junior was just lucky that Tessie didn't tear down the draperies and take them with her when she left.

About an hour later, Tessie reappeared.  Junior was ready for her.

It seems that Junior has been taking care of Mick, the jaguar that Tessie left to fend for himself when he got a bit testy with her one day.

Now he is Junior's guardian....No more Tessie.

I stood back and Zar had a ringside seat on the roof whilst the two went at it, once again.

I won't repeat all of the things that were said.  You don't want to hear that.

I will repeat Junior's final words though. 

It goes as follows...."OK.  I will pay for my own furniture and accessories, but the contract that we signed is null and void.  The establishment will, from this day forward be known as "Three Moons Fortunetelling".  Mick will be guarding the front door at all times....Sometimes he gets pretty hungry. Witches are his favorite food... And one other thing! STOP calling me Junior!  My given name is Zofi!"

I have never seen Tessie without an answer back before....However, she did turn to me and hiss...."Finish this quick!  I need a new project to run.  NOW!"

With that, she zapped away.  Zar and Spike disappeared at the same time.  I don't think that I want to go near my workroom for the rest of the day....I hear things being thrown around and feet being stomped.  I think I will tend to my knitting....

See you tomorrow.