Strange Day....

 I looked out the back door this morning and saw this... I ran for the camera! Not a great photo, but It gives you some idea of the size!

It was a new hawk! Sitting on the back of one of the patio chairs! He was watching the birds by the bird block closely... Picking from the breakfast menu...

I let him look for a few minutes while I got the camera and took photos. Then I told him to go elsewhere for breakfast!

I have gotten as far as cutting a bottom hole for the door in the tower that I am using.  It is going to have stairs going up to the rooftop and a door in the other side to get into it, down at the bottom.  There will be a door above the one that you see for getting to the roof.

The layout of the inside is going to be pretty much like Zar's. 

It will have a lot of different stuff that Zar's doesn't have.

I got this far and then had to leave for witches...    

Letty is making all kinds of lists of things that she wants installed in this one. It may take a while, but I think that she is going to be pleased when it is done... If she can keep it away from Terrible Tessie.

Tessie is breathing over our shoulders.  I think that she is having second thoughts about giving it up.

I am just going to keep plugging along and let the two of them decide on ownership.

Wish me luck.  See you tomorrow.

Drawing Straws...

I spent a lot of the day in the back yard... See the line of little red flowers along the walk? There are eighteen new plants there.  I am hoping that they will grow and make a little hedge of periwinkles...

Wish me luck!

I cleaned the bird feeding area and it is starting to attract all kinds of birds now.  It's fun to just sit at the table on the porch and watch them close up and personal.

Seth is out of town this week. Chile by way of Peru.  So April and Amare are coming over on Saturday.  We will have something to watch!

This is my latest freebee. I have a Palo Verde Tree starting to grow in the corner of the yard.

I am a bit allergic to them, but hey! They grow all over town. It's not like I can get away from them. and this one is going to be a nice one.

As for the Terrific Three.... Yes, I am changing my tune. They decided among themselves to draw straws.  The longest straw gets to go first. Middle sized will be second and the short straw will be last.

I am not going to argue.  They have all decided to help each other finish their respective abodes.

I may have too much help! The drawing is tomorrow morning.

See you then.

Sunset, Kota and a Meeting of the Minds...

Here's another one of our beautiful sunsets... I am late today and this was taken just before I started writing... It is almost like the sky is on fire!

Kota doesn't care.  He has two new boxes to sleep in.  I finally took the sheets out of the bottom of the box yesterday and he has been in the bottom most of the time since I emptied it. 

He does like any new cardboard boxes that come into the house.  Notice that he has several of his favorite toys in there with him.

Now for the important part... Is it possible to work on three buildings at once???

I think that I am in all kinds of trouble. 

These three think that it is a possibility, to work on all three at the same time.... I think NOT!

At the rate we are going, I may go back to square one and start the trailer... and let the best Man or Woman win!

Today was Witch's day, so I didn't get a lot done and all three of these people are mad that I wasn't home working on at least one of their buildings... I think that I would like to be excused now... I am going to bed early and sleep on this mess that I have gotten myself into!!! See you tomorrow. 

The Dressing Table and Babies...

I got all of the curtains and the skirt for the dressing table pleated this morning. 

I think that I am going to pull the  side curtains apart and re do them.  I don't think that the bottoms are close enough together. And I forgot to put a rod in the outside of them.

Tessie is not complaining, but I am.  I really hate the curtains.  They are kind of mushy looking.

It won't take that long to fix them. It's just a nuisance.

Walter was out in the front yard, picking up the mesquite seed pods and he found these.  I now have prickly pear minis! They won't stay that way long, but I will have them for a few months.

I have to go back now and fix the curtains.

See you tomorrow.

Rain and More Rain...

The rainy season is here.  That makes it nice and cool in the morning.  I spent most of the morning on the back porch and in the back yard, planting and repotting things.

The photo to the left is only part of what I did. 

And there is still more to do.

By noon, the sky was looking like this and now the wind has started blowing... It won't be long until it starts raining once again.

So I came in the house and started cleaning once more.

I am determined this time to get everything out of here that doesn't have a purpose or doesn't belong. 

The cat stays. The fabric also stays if I can get it away from Kota. He seems to like it for some reason. In case you can't see, the fabric is a brick pattern.  I have a yard.  I should have bought more.  This is going to be the easiest way to make a brick wall that has ever been done in miniature! Poke the photo and look at it up close! 

All I am going to have to do is glue it to a wall, use a stylus on the grout lines and instant brick wall!!!

For the rest of the afternoon, however, I am going to be fixing a hole... Walter's favorite bracelet has an Ouchy. He never takes it off unless I am fixing it.

It happens now and then.  It only takes a little while to fix.  I don't think that he lost any beads this time, so it will be quick. Now where did I put that needle, beeswax and thread?  See you tomorrow!

One Down and Three and a Floor to go!

One wall, that is... I straightened the three main bookcases on this wall... This one didn't take long. I very seldom go back to this one.  Most of the stuff in here is stuff that I seldom use.

I like this one. It stays pretty neat and tidy most days.

 This one is the beads and I have been working on it for about a couple of months. I keep getting it about straight and then trying to make jewelry and clean at the same time...

That doesn't work!!! At all!!!

This one is where I tend to throw everything that I bring into the workroom.  It is right behind the door and it just seems to fill up by itself.  I suspect that Tessie throws things in this one too. That's it.  I am going to blame the mess on Tessie. 

I never make messes. It's all her fault. Honest it is!

I am really neat and tidy.

She is messy.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it. 

I am going back now and try to talk myself into doing some more sorting.

Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow.

A Day in the Garden...

Don't tell Tessie!

I spent the day planting and trimming.  The back yard is looking better and better...

Her hair and clothes, not so much.

I love how the bougainvillea  is coming right along.  The day lilies are planted just to the left of the bougainvillea.

My French Lavender is coming back nicely. I makes the garden smell really good.

Sorry about the hose. It lives just to the right of the lavender.

And Tessie? She is still in a snit because her hair and clothes are still not done. 

The afternoon newscast reported a disaster for us.  Our favorite Mexican restaurant burned pretty badly last night. 

Gayle!  We will have to eat somewhere else when you come out this year...

There are a few others that are ok, but just not the same as Micha's.  I do hope that they can manage to rebuild and get it back to working order soon! We will be waiting!

I am going to work on Tessie tomorrow.  If I don't promise to do it, I might not wake up tomorrow.  She would probably smother me in my sleep! I had better go gather up my tools material and glue now.

See you tomorrow.

All's Right With the World...

They delivered the stove yesterday afternoon.  It was white, so we let them install it.

After they left, we put everything back where it belonged.

Three mini things belong in the front hall. 

The first is the music room with harpsichord. We made sure that everything was back in place and Tessie locked the door. 

Next was the Witches Warehouse on the redwood stump table.  Believe it or not, when we first got the stump, we used it for a coffee table.

Then I got the idea for the Witches Warehouse and we got a new coffee table. I needed the stump for the scene. 

That was a good thing though.  After another couple of tables, Walter got a coffee table that works for him. It pulls up to dining table level. Now he can watch golf, basket ball or football while eating dinner. It is the best coffee table that we have had so far. The redwood table just didn't move and was too low to eat dinner from. Now everybody's happy.

 The last of the three that go in the hall is Zar's den.  On the Sidebar it is listed as Bloomingdales Room box. If you want to see how it was made poke that button. This is one of my all time favorite rooms.  If it were the right size, I would happily move in there and make it a mini workshop.

The only thing that I would add to it would be a TV.  I need noise when I work.

Tessie hid in the bedroom all of the time that the delivery men were here and I let her. 

Delivery men don't usually understand when a tiny witch tries to help move things. 

The only problem with that is she refused to come out and help move things back after they left too. 

I am going back and relax and watch TV now.  I worked all morning in the garden.  Then I came in and made barbecued spareribs in the new oven. It works well!  Yummy spareribs.

As I said... I am taking the rest of the day off.

See you tomorrow.

Fruit! I need More Fruit!

Guess Who said that? Yup.  I haven't even started making plants and Tessie already wants more fruit.

That stuff that she is holding will be made into grapes.  She wants the pergola that surrounds the potting shed covered with grapevines.

I have already started cutting out grape leaves. This could take a while I have a punch that I use for other things, but I do believe that it is going to have to be adapted for grape leaves.  They look more like maple leaves than geraniums.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and they delivered the new stove this afternoon... That cut out a lot of time. The doctor is about a half an hour away from us and the guys with the stove were supposed to deliver a white one last Friday.

Tessie found the fruit box today while I was digging for grapes... Now there are plans for several fruit trees and some berry plants... Why did I not hide the box when I saw her coming... And I did see her coming. 

Oh well.  I have absolutely nothing to do but make her happy... According to her way of thinking.

I guess I will start over in the morning. So far she has apple tree, fig tree, grape vines(two kinds) Cherry tree, raspberry bush, blackberry bush, blueberry and strawberry plants... I can see it now.I am going to be drowning in fruit juice. Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Still in the Planning Stages

It never rains, but it pours... I found more pieces that were started, but never finished... I need to finish this one.

These were in the box with the mounted stones.

Actually, one of the pieces in the photo above is one that I finished today.  The one on the right.

The one on the left still needs something...

And so do all of these.  I think that I had better stop looking for stuff that needs finishing and get to work.

I spent the morning in the back yard planting things.

Then I came in the house and started gathering things.

Tomorrow morning, I have my yearly check up.  That's on top of about fifty other doctor's appointments for the year.  I am going to be very happy when everyone lets me off the hook and I can go back to living a normal(for me) life.

On top of the doctor's appointment, we are waiting to find out when the new stove will be delivered. It is supposed to be tomorrow, but they won't call us and let us know until tomorrow.  This has not been a good week.  You don't realize how much you depend on a stove until it stops working.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

See you then.

On the Other Side....

We were to have the new stove delivered today... So we had to move all of the furniture in the front hallway.

We moved the Witches' Warehouse off of the redwood table.  As we did, I realized that I have never put any photos of the outside on the blog.

Here it is, in all it's glory!

This was made before we had a computer and printer... So the sign had to be made by hand... My hand.

This is an up close of the sign.  Not to good because my camera put a shadow on part of it.

The peak of the roof has some extra trim that is painted a rusty red and there is a stove pipe sticking out of the upstairs bedroom, where the little wood stove sits.

Not much more to be said about it.  I am going to have to dust and wash all of the cobwebs off and start over from scratch.  Or maybe I will just dust it and leave it like it is.

After all, a store for witch supplies should have some free cobwebs available to all of it's customers.

After we did all of the moving, the truck came.  On it was a black stove.  We ordered a white one.

It would have been great, but Walter wouldn't let me keep it, but it doesn't match all of the other white appliances in our kitchen. We are NOT going to get a new black refrigerator and dishwasher just because they brought the wrong color of stove. 

Therefore, they didn't even unload it from the truck and we are probably going to have to wait until Monday to get the new one.

Darn! I won't  be able to cook anything until then. Poor me!

See you tomorrow.

Running Away From Home!!!!

Need I say More? She was every where I went today. The first thing I saw this morning was Tessie getting out of bed...

I went to Walmart.  When I returned, I did a couple of hours of yard work...

Then I started cleaning out the bead box and she pointed out that that was #89 on the list... Way down in the order of things!

She then pointed out that the potting shed was #8.  Way above the bead box!

She tried to enlist Kota's help. He ignored her completely and just kept eating.

Albert and Daisy couldn't care less. They both have nice homes to live in.  They promptly left in the time machine. They yelled that they were on the way to Tombstone. And then disappeared.

She then tried Eskaiga and his friend.  No help there.  They both have nice places to stay too...

I am sitting here typing and she is reading the list to me.  #one on the list was... Make Tessie happy!!!

Tessie is not happy.  Oh well.  What can I say?

I will read the rest of the list tomorrow. 

See you then!

Snoring Some More.....

I tried the greenery that came with the potting shed kit... I think that it is going to get torn apart and used leaf by leaf. 

It is not terribly realistic in it's present state.

Tessie keeps whining, "But there are no grapes."

I guess if it is a vine in Tessie's world, it should have grapes on it.

Here we go again.  more work for me.

All I have left to do inside is the potting bench and lots of accessories.

All Tessie has to do is stand back and watch.

One of these days, I am going to give her a hammer, saw and a pile of wood and tell her to build it herself!

For now, I am working as fast as I can...

While Tessie and Kota nap all afternoon. I have tried to wake them several times.  They both just groan and go back to sleep. 

At least Tessie doesn't try to bite me when I try to wake her up!

I am going back and start cutting leaves off of the vines.  Then I will have to find something that at least looks like mini grape.  Remind me to tell Tessie that they aren't edible!

Back to the potting shed.

See you tomorrow.