I Need A Gazebo and a Potting Shed...

 Since I said that Tessie couldn't cook in the tree tops, she has taken another turn... For the worst.

She now wants a Gazebo and a potting shed in the trees. It is at least a little better idea than a barbeque in the trees...I just happen to have this kit that I bought at Goodwill.

It's a potting shed with all the bells and whistles.

Now all I need is a gazebo.

The bells and whistles have to be put together...

I took all of the bells and whistles out and sorted them when I got the kit.  They were all there.

It should be interesting to see if I can remember where everything fits.

I have the two glass gazebos that are sitting in the second tree frame. Neither one is large enough to fit everything that Tessie wants to put into them.  I may just have to make a gazebo that will stay in the house until she wants to go outside.

Until we quit arguing about what is going in the gazebo, I am not lifting a finger to make it.  She is going to have to make a lot of decisions fast if she wants to play in the garden this summer.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

The Faeries Won!

When I went out to chase Tessie and Spike away from the watering tank this morning, this is what I found instead. 

Tessie messed up.  She went into the house and went to sleep... Not a good idea when you are trying to protect something from faeries....

They took over and on top of that, they took my gazebo. Maybe I should have stayed awake too...

On top of that, they hired Gordon Dragon to keep watch whilst they fetched their belongings.

I think that faeries are a lot like a certain witch I know.  Bribery, with cookies and tea.

It works every time. 

Gordon is a good watch dragon.  He moves around the property and pretends to sleep a lot. 

Just don't get too close... He loves fingers...

Here is a long distance shot... I am not risking any fingers. 

Considering that yesterday at this time, the whole thing was a pile of dirt, I am very pleased with what the faeries finished.

Since they finished that, I had a chance to plant a lot of succulent starts in a birdcage and hang it outside the bedroom window. 

I am going to have to put a sign somewhere to remind me to drag the hose over there and water them until they take hold.

I have a few other ideas up my sleeve to compete with the faeries.  I think that they will approve.  It is all to their benefit. 

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.  If the faeries or Gordon Dragon don't get me!

Could This Be a Subtle Hint?

When I started moving around this morning to start working on the rug for the gazebo, I found that the gazebo was missing! I know I am forgetful sometimes, but I distinctly remember putting the gazebo between the basket maker's cottage and Tessie's place a couple of days ago. It was right after I finished it.It wasn't too hard to locate. I almost tripped over it going into the workroom.

I keep the Magnolia kit behind that door. There was the gazebo, Tessie and Spike right next to it. I started to question Tessie.......She explained. "I just wanted to see what the gazebo would look like next to my new house." I said, as calmly as possible...."It's not your new house!"

She replied "Well, not yet. It still has to be built. Oh! I think it needs a basement. Is that possible?" Then she continued daydreaming aloud. "It could sit on a hill and the basement could be inside the hill and the gazebo could be at the foot of the hill and maybe there could be a lily pond for my frogs, eels and my babel fish. There has to be a Weeping Willow and because of the name of the house, some Spiderwort growing here and there. It's good for spells, you know. I also want a rock garden. I am very good at growing rocks!" On and on she went. I tuned out.

I went back and finished the rug for the gazebo. This is what it looked like when I finished. Not too lumpy or out of square. I steamed it once and this is what it looked like. Much better.


I did just a bit more steaming. Then I did the white glue around the edges and cut the excess canvas off. This is as close as I could get to the true colors.

I started back towards the gazebo to put it in place and call the project done.Then I had a brainstorm. I informed Tessie that if she ever wanted me to get to the Magnolia, she had to zap the gazebo back where it belongs. Notice, I did not say that I was going to make it for her. I am as good at loopholes as she is! Well, sometimes I am.

She immediately zapped it back to the spot where it belongs. I put the rug in place and took some photos.

For the time being I am ahead in the game. It probably won't last for long. Oh well......I can dream, can't I?

See you tomorrow.

Everybody Move Down!

All we need is the Mad Hatter and you. Then the tea party will be complete. Witches don't believe in waiting for daylight to start.

The table was set and the tea was made by 5:ooAM. Esmirelda and Catonia arrived on their brooms shortly thereafter. Zar roared up on the Steamcycle last. He was nice enough not to park on Tessie's new lawn. The witches weren't as nice. They just propped the brooms up on the corner of the gazebo.

This is the first time that Balthazar has encountered the three sisters.........I think that he is having visions of the first scene of Macbeth. He is being very careful to say the right thing.

The dogs have been relegated to the front path. There's not enough room for them and you too. You get priority!

I am afraid that we are all going to have to take turns getting to the cookies and tea. That is if we can get past the witches. By the way, Zar is not feeding Tessie his cookie. I am just a lousy photographer. The picture is kind of crowded and it was hard to get a shot of all of them at once.

As you can see, I didn't finish the rug. I will in the next couple of days. It's probably best that I didn't. Spilled tea and cookie crumbs on a new rug, not a good thing. I am going to go work on it right now.

See you tomorrow! Until then, PARTY ON!!!!!

Step Right Up!!!

The gazebo now has steps. The gazebo now has grass all around. The gazebo now has a pebbly path.

After you left yesterday I put in the steps. Tessie immediately started testing them. They work. Spike watched her running up and down like a crazy woman. Zar thought that "discretion was the better part of valor" and left after the third run. I think that she scared him. I haven't seen him since.

I got her calmed down I added sides to the steps and then started in on the ground around the gazebo. I marked off the part where the gazebo would sit and smeared white glue where I wanted the grass. I used green foam core. That way if I missed any spots with the glue and ground cover it wouldn't show through. I used Woodland Scenics dark green ground cover. After I had that covered, I marked where the path would go and repeated the process with the white glue and this time, Railroad ballast from Woodland Scenics. The bushes are lichen and the ferns and purple flowers are taken from artificial flowers. The little yellow ones are quilled.

When I finished that, Tessie got on her hands and knees and painted roses on the fronts of the steps. The gazebo itself is basically finished. Now all I have to do it decorate the interior. I think that I will save that part for later. Tessie has made me tired just watching her run up and down the stairs. I am going to go sit down and work on the rug that will go in the center of the floor now.

See you for the tea party tomorrow. You're invited!

A Co-operative Day

Today we got a lot accomplished. I got the frame around the base painted and the foam core glued into it. I was planning to work on some of the landscaping, but Tessie told me to go away and do something about the steps. I didn't really want to. I hate making stairs almost as much as I dislike shingling.

She kept insisting and what's more Zar was backing her up! That is strange in itself. They agree about something? I knew something was up. They were obviously trying to get rid of me. I went away, but I sneaked back when I thought that they weren't looking. I am so glad that I don't have to use the flash with this camera. Here's the first thing that I saw.

Tessie was standing on one of the canvas chairs that I made for her. The biggest problem that I could see was that the chair was half on and half off of the counter. She was wielding her favorite paintbrush and had lots of colors on a paper plate in front of her.....I could see disaster rearing it's ugly head. She couldn't quite reach the spot that she wanted to paint.

I bit my tongue to keep from scolding and went away to work on the steps. You know I couldn't leave well enough alone. I went back and thank goodness Zar had interfered in her antics and fetched a large paint bottle for her to perch upon.

This arrangement didn't look a whole lot better than the first one. She was perched on a large bottle of black paint. At least this time she could reach her objective and Balthazar was standing by, holding the paint plate.

I discovered that she is a pretty good decorative painter when she wants to be. She was painting roses in various places on the roof. Of course they were puce(the color of fleas). This time her version of puce looks more purple. Perhaps that is a fortunate mistake on her part.

Anyway, she has the first side done. Only three to go.

I am going back to finish the steps now. I only hope that she doesn't lose interest in the painting before all four sides are finished. That would mean that I would have to try to do what's left by copying her work. I am not sure that I could duplicate that particular shade of puce.

See you tomorrow.

Celebrating the Roof!

We are finished. I use the term "we" loosely. Mostly Tessie showed up to put in the last shingle and raise a glass to the end.

Nikki asked about roofing techniques. I am afraid that this one isn't the one to follow if you want pretty shingles, Nikki. There is more information on shingling back a ways. I think that it was on the basket shop or the book shop. I am going to have to sit down and organize the labels on here one of these days. I will look it up later.

I will try to give you all a few pointers, even though this is not meant to be a pretty roof. I used part of a bag of old cedar shingles that were stuffed in a drawer with the good ones. I never throw anything out. I am not even sure where they came from. They are ugly, warped and you can't help but lose a few in the cutting. They split easily.

Here's a couple of good tips for cutting them. I use a pair of regular shears that I reserve for woodcutting. I sharpen them regularly. They are good for when guess-timating weird angles.

This is a piece that I stained so that you could see the portion that I don't wish to save. This is the way to do it for the least splitting. Hold the scissors in your cutting hand and grasp the part of the shingle that you wish to keep in the other. I laid this against the roof to find the angle that I wanted to cut. Hold the shingle firmly and cut WITH the grain. In other words, start at the side of the shingle that runs parallel with the grain. Do not cut from the end of the shingle. That will split it every time. This holds true for all wooden shingles.

I cut them one at a time at the beginning and end of each row. That way each one is a custom fit.

Here is the first course(row) of shingles. If I were doing a regular house, there would be a thin piece of wood at the edge of the white posterboard, under the bottom edge, to make all of the courses lay at the same slant. In this case I wanted the bottom edge to lay flat since I wasn't at the edge of the roof.

If you were being serious.....You would draw parallel lines across the roof. I didn't want it to be perfectly serious, so I just went at it willy nilly. I did keep the same number of rows on all sides and tried to begin and end semi-evenly. None of the holes that I had to fill with shingles were the same. I had to trim a little here and there.It worked out in the end.

I think that I am going to leave them raw. Normally I would do a bit of staining to even them out. I kind of like the "patchwork" effect that they have the way they are.



As I said at the beginning, Tessie showed up for the ceremony of laying the last shingle. She then announced that she was going to stay up there and enjoy the view. She zapped herself a glass of Fruit Bat Punch and settled in.

I don't think that Zar was very happy about that. He wasn't worried about Tessie. He was just mad that she had stolen his drink and was calling it that ridiculous name. "Threatening her with your monkey wrench and throwing shingles at her is not helping, Zar!!! Cut that OUT!!!"

I am going somewhere that is not here for the rest of the morning. I will let them sort it out.

See you tomorrow!

Shout It From the Rooftop!

Tessie really wants the gazebo finished! I mean really. She volunteered to help measure the templates for the shingles this morning. I thought maybe if I didn't give her a hand getting up there she would leave.

Nope...The first thing I knew, she dragged a tub of Mini-hold over to where the steps will be when I am finished. You may be asking why she didn't just witch herself up to the roof. I did ask her that very question. She said"I don't want to waste the power!" She is probably afraid that she won't have any left for later in the day when she wants to use it to harass Zar.

BTW, while I am thinking about it, last night I was tagged. I let Tessie answer the questions and pick the six to send it on to. (See previous entry.) I was having a great deal of trouble with the computer at the time so I am not sure if all of the comments on the blogs were saved. I hope that Tessie's message got through. I am not going to do her typing again today! She's on her own.

Back to the subject. Tessie had a bit more trouble at the next stage of the game. She perched on the front railing of the gazebo and did a gigantic jump up to the edge of the roof. As she did it, I slipped in the piece of paper that I had just cut to size to see if it fit. It did.

I was nice enough to give her a boost up because I wanted to measure the top and get it cut too.

When I get them to fit, I will cut pieces of poster board to fit and then apply the shingles to that.

There is not a cloud in the Tucson sky at present and it's 94°. She is up there muttering about getting the shingles on before the storm comes......Storm?

Do you think maybe she is making up stories to get it finished? She wouldn't do that would she? No....Not Tessie......

Anyway, I had better get back to it before she starts trying to shingle it herself. Remember the last time she tried to help with that particular task? Yup.....She nailed her skirt to the roof! I gotta go.

See you tomorrow!

We Have a Floor.

I am still working on the real house today, so I am not getting a lot finished on the gazebo. I did the floor. I started with some wallpaper that looked like river rock. I didn't like it. Even more important, Tessie didn't like it. I tore it off of the mat board floor shape and started again. This time I have a diagonal lattice pattern with white squares surrounded by beige. We both like it better.

I found the price of the "river rock" paper on the back. Years ago I bought it at a miniature show.I am still kicking myself for it. I paid $2.25 a sheet for it. I knew that it was vinyl with a paper backing. It had raised stones and was interesting.....About 2 months later I went to a paint store, looking for free discontinued wallpaper sample books. We used to be able to get them by the dozens back in the 80s for free. I got them home and lo and behold I found the same paper in one of the books. It was about $8.00 a roll. That dealer was making money hand over fist by cutting up regular wallpaper and selling it by the sheet! It was a lesson well learned. I now check the bin with the rolls of discontinued wallpaper at all of the stores. A lot of times they sell the rolls for 2.00! Sometimes I get lucky and have enough paper for a hundred mini houses. You can see a scrap of the stone stuff at the right.

I used the neutral floor because I am going to put a rug in the center.(whether Tessie likes it or not!)

I need to put some more trim here and there and Tessie is being unreasonable.....She wants steps so that she won't have to climb up the front.

I am trying it out on a frame as a surround. This one won't do because the stairs won't fit. Maybe I can turn it the other way, but that won't leave much room for flowers. Maybe that's a good thing. Hmmmmmm..... I have to think on this for a while.

See you tomorrow with decisions made.

Happy Mother's Day!

For those of you that celebrate Mother's Day today, I wish you a good one.

We celebrated it last night at April and Seth's house. Today is very quiet. I have spent the past two hours painting that ******Birdcage/Gazebo. I am letting it dry now. Then I will go back over the spots that I missed. Tessie had better appreciate it!

Surprisingly enough, Tessie didn't want black or puce. She says that she wants something more traditional. OK. I have the feeling that she has some plans for decorative touches later.

For now I am going back an paint some more. Sorry that this is short, but I am taking the rest of the day off.

See you tomorrow.

When Is a Birdcage Not a Birdcage?

Look what I found this morning! I stopped at a garage sale on my way home from the grocery store. I saw this decorative birdcage sitting in a corner. I bought it, dust and all, for three dollars. When I spotted it, I immediately thought of Tessie. First I thought it would be a great place to stash her to keep her out of trouble.......Just kidding.......Maybe........

Then I thought that it looked like a lovely structure for a witchy gazebo. I have used birdcages for this purpose before, but I don't think that I have ever seen one that was more suited for a witch.

I carted it home and was so excited that I didn't even dust it before I took the first photo. Tessie popped in and appropriated it for her very own right away. She and Spike climbed through the door on the side. Spike could get back out easily. He kept nosing the door up and going in and out just for fun. Tessie wasn't so lucky. She managed to squeeze under it going in, but when she tried to get back out, she couldn't manage. There is no floor in the bottom, just bars and she kept slipping.

"OK Casey! This isn't funny! Stop laughing and get me out of here!!! NOW!!!"

I was tempted to leave her in there for a while just to irritate, but I went and got the keyhole saw instead. She was wailing at the top of her lungs and in too much of a panic to do a spell. I didn't have the heart to do it.

I took the saw to the bars on the sides and the top cross bar. When I got one section out she was gone in a flash. After she was sure that she wasn't going to be trapped again she calmed down and watched.

I could see it coming...... Her:"Is that for me?" Me:"Yes, Tessie." Her:"What is it going to be?"Me:"A gazebo." Her: "What's that?" Me: "A garden house." Her: "Where is it going to go? Me:"Beside your house." Then I realized that I hadn't specified the name of the house.....ie...Tessie's Cottage.....OOPS.... Her:"OH! Spiderwort Manor is going to have a garden!" Trapped again! How does she do it?

I got all of the unnecessary bars out of it and she slid in. I heard her say, as I went into the kitchen to do other things, "Spike, the petunias will go right down there and the roses will go at each corner. We will have vines climbing up to the roof." Then she yelled so that I would be sure to hear...."Casey!!! There has to be a roof! I don't want to be rained on while I am drinking my tea."

Just one little miss-phrasing is all it takes....I guess I am going to have to take a break from the Clockwork Cottage for a day or two and work on the gazebo or I will never hear the end of it. She will probably be placated if I make her a place(with a roof) to drink her tea in comfort.

See you tomorrow.