The Terrible Two Are MEAN!!

I got up this morning with the intention of going right to work on the Observatory.

I made sure that the rug was going to fit in the area that I had planned it for. 

OK. That worked out nicely.

But then I overheard the Terrible Two discussing what I was going to be doing next...

"We have to get her to give back the sign."

I knew immediately what they were talking about.

I have had the sign that is in the next photo attached to the light next to my bed for about a year.

They seen to think that Daisy is going to want it back.

I like the sign and don't want to give it up. I am going to have to make a couple more copies.

I know that if Daisy has one, Zar is going to want one too when I get to his projects again... So... Either I make a couple of copies or hand letter a couple.  I don't want to give mine up and I don't want to have the two of them to come to blows over the ownership.... With me in the middle! Unfortunately, Tessie will want one too. Just because everyone else has one. Make that three more copies.

I decided to stay away from the observatory and work on the rug for the library.... That would be fine, if I could just find the shade of grayish brown that I was using for the background. 

Unfortunately, there are a LOT of shades of grayish brown on the DMC chart.  I usually write the numbers on the edge of what I am working on. Unfortunately, I forgot to do it.  Now I am VERY sorry that I forgot.  I have been looking at that chart  for at least a half hour.  I am NOT having any luck.  I find a color that I think is the one.  Start using it. Only to find that it is not the right one. 

Back to the chart and searching.  See you tomorrow.  Hopefully with the rug more finished than it is now.



Daisy Eulalia Is Home!!!

"Enough messing around with cleaning and straightening!!!" That was Daisy this afternoon. She arrived with the time machine about four 'o clock,

It seems that Albert is faster than I am. He was at the door of the time machine when I went in to greet her.

I have been cleaning all of the minis and also my workroom. 

Daisy Eulalia found out and she is NOT happy. 

I quit working on her cottage and other buildings a couple of years ago. 

She kept waiting patiently for quite a while.

When Albert informed her of what was going on here, she went berserk.  I got several notes yesterday.  A couple of phone calls this afternoon and a threatening telegram a little later.

As soon as I got the telegram I jumped up and started taking stock of what has to be done on her buildings. I Didn't think that anybody sent telegrams anymore.

The library and observatory doesn't even have a door on the library side and the dust is about three inches thick on the inside of the library. In her scale... Not mine.

If I put my mind to it, I can probably have the whole thing done in about a week. Give or take a few days.

As soon as she stepped out of the time machine, I apologized and told her that I would start working on it bright and early tomorrow morning. Rain or shine! She suggested that I start now and keep going day and night until it is livable... Well we are going to have to compromise on that.  I can only  stay awake so long.  Then I at least have to have a cat nap.    Anyway, expect to see me with tools and brushes tomorrow morning.  Bright and early! See you then!!!

A Little More Like Christmas....

The presents are piling up.  And on Christmas they will about double, because the kids will bring more over to open...

I am looking forward to it.                                                        

Santa is once more getting golf tips from the gopher from Caddy Shack.  I doubt that they will help his game...

The time machine is looking better than it did a few days ago.

And all's right with the world.

Tomorrow, there is one last Wednesday Witches' meeting... Then we wait until after the first of the year.

I am sitting around doing nothing.... Kind of.

Thursday, I start cooking... Fudge, cookies and other goodies still have to be made.

See you tomorrow.

Second Thoughts...

Albert got a look at what he would inherit with taking over Daisy's home, time machine and observatory...

He doesn't seem as enthusiastic as he did in the beginning.

We started at the top and worked our way down, since he was the most interested in the time machine...

On the  second floor, he got a look at the baby elephant that spends most of his time in Daisy's bathtub. 

Not really Albert's cup of tea...

Then, in the bedroom, he got his first look at some of Daisy's dogs.

All together, she has four.

He is not to crazy about inheriting her zoo.

They eat better than she does most of the time.  She orders out for them...

I think that the jaguar that lives downstairs is the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back...

Albert sat down in the basket chair and didn't even get his feet off of the floor before Mick, the jaguar went into attack mode...

He spends most of his time curled up asleep on the couch.  In a flash, he was up and half way across the coffee table before I stopped him...

He's a good guard cat...

Lastly, the kitchen really broke the camel's back...

It has never been finished.  It is in a state of disrepair that will take a while to fix...

Albert would prefer move in ready.  I have a feeling that, at this rate, the Nine Dollar Dollhouse is beginning to look pretty good to him...

Do you suppose that Daisy had this in mind when I caught her this morning making a bigger mess of the kitchen than it was already?

Again, I am staying out of it.  Sooner or later they will settle things.  Until then, I am just relaxing and enjoying the entertainment.

See you tomorrow.

I Know I Can Do This!!!

Albert is not going to get Daisy's house and machines unless he can prove that he knows how to use them...

He is familiar with telescopes, so that part is not  a problem... 

He proved himself worthy of taking over that part of the cottage...

He seems to  like her choice of telescopes...

He also likes the rest of the front of the cottage. He has not seen the unfinished kitchen or the baby elephant that continuously cleans the bath tub...

That part should be interesting, when he gets upstairs.

Right now, he is mainly interested in the machines...

He is already complaining about having to use a rope ladder to get to the time machine...

Strangely, Daisy always thought of that as a workout before traveling...

Albert doesn't see it that way.  I have a feeling that he is going to want a staircase to the stars...

He wants to go somewhere far away and long ago for his first trip... Daisy is trying to get him to walk before he runs...

Once he got up there, he started complaining about running the time machine with a Ouija Board. 

Daisy explained that it was the easiest way... Just don't lose the planchette....

That's the key to the whole thing.

I have a feeling that there are going to be some arguments before he takes over.  And I am going to be the mediator and fixer of all of the bugs in the system...

Hey! It worked for Daisy.  I don't see why Albert can't adapt.

I am going to go somewhere, that isn't where they are, and watch Korean TV until they settle things...

Back to business. See you tomorrow.

Running Away From Home...

 First I went to Walmart this morning for a  few groceries...

I came home with this strange little pair of scissors.

You simply unlatch the orange part by sliding it forward. Then you press down on the orange part, with your thumb to cut things.


I have never seen anything like these before.

They are advertised as being extremely accurate in their cutting... We shall see.  So far, I like them.  I have only cut a piece of paper to see if they were sharp.  They are.

I still have to do something to see if they are as accurate as the makers claim... We shall see.

The next thing I did was listened to the little voices in my head that told me I should go to the Twenty Second Street Antique Mall...

I think that I am officially going to listen to those little voices more often.

Look what I found!  These are hand carved stone.  About 2 1/2"from top to bottom...

I am going to have to see if I can find out what kind of stone they are. Maybe some kind of jade?

I suspect that they are both the same kind of stone.  The first one is natural. The only thing wrong with it is there is a small piece missing from the tail of the bird on the left side.  I think that it can be covered within the design that I do.

This second one has a stain of some kind in all of the carved parts.

Anyway, I paid $5.00 a piece for them and I think that they will be good candidates for wire wrapping or beading...

Those little voices have been getting me into a lot of trouble lately, but I like what they are saying.

I have to go now and see how Albert is doing with his pitch to get the time machine away from Daisy.  He is trying to tell her that she works too hard and should retire from all of the time travel...

He has generously offered her the Nine Dollar Dollhouse in trade for her cottage and the time machine... Whom do you think will win this round??? I am betting on Albert, so far...

See you tomorrow.

Do Not Disturb!

Kota has made it official.  He now owns our closet.  He found an old cat bed in there, stored with a blanket inside... He has been there for the past two days. That's only when he doesn't want to be disturbed... He comes out when HE wants to. 

Me?  I have the first wall finished... Three to go.  Maybe another one this afternoon.

We also moved Daisy's cottage into the family room.  There is barely room on the table for the observatory, so Daisy opted to leave it in the living room.

Reggie is taking it over.  It doesn't go with the Forest Fantasy Cottage, but he is borrowing it for the time being...

Daisy doesn't care.  She is away, more than she is here.  She drops by for supplies. Right after I took the above photo, she grabbed some cookies from the kitchen and took off.  I have no idea where she was going or when she will be back. 

It will probably be when the cookies run out.

As for Tessie?  She's in the basket maker's cottage pouting.  No crown yet...

I am holding off as long as I can...It is going to be miserable around her when she comes to power...

See you tomorrow.

Word Travels Fast!!!

We Moved Daisy's cottage yesterday.  She was here long enough for photos.  Then she disappeared in the time machine.

Amazingly enough, she was back early this morning.

Even more amazing, she remembered to land in the right room.  On her own time travel platform!

I got there just in time to photograph her set down.

 I stood back and took a second photo of the landing.  Perfect.

It's just a good thing that she got in touch with Tessie before coming... I have a feeling that Tessie got in touch with her... 

I am not sure how they communicate, but sometimes I wish they wouldn't.

I haven't done much on the kitchen yet.

I know that Tessie told her about moving into the cottage when she was here for the housewarming.  Maybe that was when she got the idea that moving in would make me work faster.

At any rate, she came in.  Plonked the suitcases in the bedroom just like Tessie and announced that she is here to stay until I finish up!

She then pulled food out of a take out bag and settled in with every dog she could find. 

Yes.  The elephant is still in the bathtub.  He seldom gets out unless someone else wants to take a bath.

After inspecting the premises, Daisy grabbed Tessie's yo yo and tried to entice Mic, the Jaguar, off of the couch.  He keeps watch out the window and is doing a fine job of keeping intruders out. Let's see. The dog count is up to five now.  She seems to be collecting... None of them are watch dogs.  They are all intimidated by Mic.

As for me, I am rounding up tools, supplies and paint as fast as I can.  I really don't want to get on her bad side.  I might end up in prehistoric times with the dinosaurs.  She has been known to make people disappear...

I have to run now and get started on the kitchen.

See you tomorrow.

Here's Your Backpack... Now Go!

This was the scene just a little while ago...

Things, with Daisy working on the house just weren't working out...

She just doesn't understand building... She is great when you want to go someplace in a different time, but no concept of hammer and nails...

Finally, I asked her to leave.  I told her that I would finish her house...

I thought that would be an out for both of us...

There was a string attached to her departure...

She explained to me that her last trip back was a hurried one and she lost all of her luggage in the rush to stay alive and in one piece... Something about Morlocks?

She allowed that, if I would lend her some luggage and a back pack, she could go...

Luggage?  Sure.  Coming right up.  I have several sets all ready to go.

Backpack.  Not one in site.

She said that was OK.  She could co some more house building whilst I made her a new one.

OK.  Backpack?  From scratch?

Toilet paper roll.  Of course.

It is the same idea as the tampon purses... Just larger.

I went and grabbed a toilet paper core and some scissors.  Started chopping and in no time I had a backpack started.

You could make it any size that you want.  Daisy's was about 1 1/2" tall and an inch wide. The pleat in the bottom took up about a quarter inch fold.

 I took a tan glove that was fine suede on the inside and used that for the outside.  I glued a piece to the outside of the main piece.  Then I trimmed it flush with the edge of the form.

I cut two pieces to fit in the sides and glued them suede side out to the sides.  It is easiest if you do the bottom first and then one side of each and the other side of each last.

Then I cut 1/8" strips of a darker suede for the straps and the fastener. 

I fit them on starting with gluing the upper part of the strap under the flap for the bag.

Then I made the loops the right size by fitting them to Daisy.  That was the difficult part.  She is ticklish!

As you can see from the above photo, I glued those to the back of the bag and then glued a diamond shaped piece over the strap ends and the end of another piece that becomes the closing.

While I was doing that, Daisy and Tessie got things together and got the time machine ready to take off.

I went in to take a photo of the send off.  In the one at the top of the blog, you can see the backpack better...

Soon after this photo, Daisy was on her way...

Without her around, hitting her thumb with the hammer and saying bad words, I think that the work will go a bit faster... I will miss the flashing lights of the time machine in the living room. 

I think that the work will go faster with only one tiny witch supervising.  We shall see...

Back to work.

 See you tomorrow.

Just Around the Corner...

I am all strung out this morning... Pardon the awful pun.

I have been building trees.

The window side is finished.

When I get the building mounted to the board, I will add more tree trunk parts.  As they are now, they don't look like they are growing out of the ground.

The back is finished.  I keep thinking of the window side as the front of the building, but it's not. 

I am saving that until last.

The back got a smaller tree to cover the wall of the bathroom. 

I will still have to add string here and there, but this is a good start.

I continued on to the third side and then decided that I needed a break.  Of course Tessie disagrees.  She wants it finished NOW.

I guess that Daisy got tired of her nagging and kicked her out of the time machine after one trip. They got as far as Phoenix and not even in a different time period. I totally understand.  Remember?  We have taken her along on several short vacations. She tends to take over all travel plans. It's most irritating.

I probably will try to finish the string part of the trees today.  It is really messy and I want to get it done while I am in the mood.  Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

In Trouble Now...

I couldn't catch Daisy in time... She is off to collect the rest of her belongings. 

She left me a note saying..."The cottage had better be finished when I get back.  I have a couple more loads of personal belongings to bring back.  I am leaving my suitcases here, so that you will know that I mean business!  Get to work!  Love Daisy.

Well.  I know what I am going to be doing at Wednesday Witches today...

More books.  There are 101 finished since yesterday.  I still have 134 blanks that need covers.

I don't want to talk about the kitchen that still needs finishing in the cottage.  I am not too worried.  Daisy doesn't like to cook.  She can eat out for a while.

I am figuring that the 101 books that I have finished may just about fill this bookcase.

That leaves the fireplace surround to fill...

As I said, I will be making more books today.

If all else fails, there is always the typesetter's tray.  It is full of various and sundry things that can be pulled out and put in to fill up empty spaces.

Not to mention the boxes of stuff in the workroom that are eligible for thievery... 

I don't think that there will be any problem with filling the bookcases. 

Now to do the window, door and window seat... Then the kitchen...

Back to the drawing board for those now.

See you tomorrow.

I Need Faster Drying Glue...

Actually, slow isn't so bad.  I started the stand for the telescope this morning.  Yup... Waiting for glue to dry now. 
I thought about using part on one of the chess pieces, but I decided that the telescope, being as heavy as it is, needed a bigger base.

I went and got some of the Woodsies that I have in stock and started playing with them... Then I proceeded to build my own plywood.  I used three of the largest circles for the bottom and worked up.  I only had one medium circle left, so... I layered the four of them together.  I made sure that the grain in the wood was running cross wise on the one below it.  That will keep it from warping.  I glued three sections together separately.  Then clamped them with clothespins.

Meanwhile I took a look at Daisy's cottage.  I am closer to finishing than I thought.  The only thing left is the kitchen. I forgot that I had the counter tops marbled.  I put a gloss finish on those... Another thing to watch dry...

I am going to have to get the Terrible Two plus One out of the kitchen.

They just came down from the landing platform on the roof.  Still no sign of Daisy.  I assume she is still in Tombstone... On the other hand, she has the time machine.  She could be anywhere, any time by now.

Oh well... That gives me more time to do the kitchen. 

I have to go check on the glue drying and the gloss finish on the counter tops.

Then I have to chase the threesome out of the kitchen. 

Wish me luck.  I'm going to need it.

See you tomorrow.

And Away She Goes!!!

 I went to Walmart this morning.  I found some E-6000 Jeweler's Glue.  I will let you know if it works.  It has a couple of extra twist on points that are finer than the usual tips.

After Walmart, I hit Goodwill... I realized something.  I was looking at the book section.  I picked out these three country decorating books and paid less for them than I would for one magazine from the rack at any store in town.

These are nice books and I paid 1.99 each for.  They totaled around 60.00 new!  Don't tell Goodwill.  They will up the price and I will stop buying.

There was a Better Homes and Gardens, cutesy country one that they wanted 4.99 for.  I passed that one up.  No frills and ruffles for me.  I like the real country. Plain and simple.

Anyway, I got back just in time to grab the camera and take these photos. Daisy left for Tombstone just as I started snapping!

Sorry Phyllisa, the formal introduction will have to wait. 

She shouted through the door, "I had to leave the motorcycle behind.  I couldn't cram it in here.  Tell Zar that I am borrowing his Steam powered pogo stick!"

With that, and flashing lights and clouds of smoke, she was gone.

I am not sure when she will get back.  Wyatt and Bat are waiting...

A little while later, I went back to see if she had changed her mind...

Zar was not happy.  His favorite pogo stick is missing...

I quickly suggested that he should stand elsewhere when on the landing platform.  If Daisy does decide to return, it might get messy if he is standing in the middle like that!

Daisy did express an interest in having a summer home on Martha's Vineyard. 

I don't think that is an option.  I still have to finish this house for her and she hasn't even moved in yet. 

She was staying with Tessie in the townhouse.  That leads to staying up all night and having pajama parties.  It gets a bit noisy. 
I must finish Daisy's cottage!  Soon!

Back to work. 

See you tomorrow.