NO More Shawl...

This is the last photo that you will see until Christmas. Not quite finished, but it will be soon.

I started cleaning eye level room boxes today.  I started with the Colonial Kitchen...

It looks much better than it did before I cleaned all of the dust off... Not perfect, but better...

This was the last room that I cleaned today.  As soon as I left the room...Tessie grabbed my afghan and went down for the duration... She will probably nap until morning...

Oh well! At least she is out of my hair until tomorrow. If you wish to see close ups, don't forget to poke the pictures.

Back to dusting. 

See you tomorrow.

Wednesday is for Witches...

Kota looks like I felt after the witches left.  I cleaned up the house and cooked all morning. After they left, I cleaned up some more and all of it was done with a sore knee. 

When I was doing the Christmas tree the other day, I managed to pull something in my right knee. I have been fighting it since then.  Not fun.

Everyone liked what I did with the room box. After they left, I put it back in the bedroom.

Of course, the Terrible Two showed up.  They are still trying to claim it...

Not going to happen!!!!

I didn't do anything to it but straighten it up twice today.  That's not as much fun as working on it.  I will get back at it tomorrow.

I think that, for the rest of the evening, I will crochet.  I don't have to move my knee to do that.

I do believe that the knee is getting better.  At least it feels better than it did a couple of days ago.

I am going to try to do easy things tomorrow.

See you then.

Goodnight!

In Stitches....

I worked on this off and on all day... I am just about finished. 

Nope. You can't see it. It's for Christmas.

I had an early doctor's appointment this morning.  Just the usual. Nothing wrong.

Anyway, I decided that I needed to get the shawl out of the way... I'm almost there.

I did absolutely nothing on the room box today.  I just worked on the shawl.  The room box is coming along nicely.

I have high hopes of having it finished by Christmas.

And yes. I am still trying to vacate the premises. Tessie, Zar, the TV set and the frog... Not a lot of luck so far...

I moved things around for Christmas and now Kota has three places to sleep in the bedroom... That's not counting the bed. 

A cat Bed. A Cat Tree.  A fake fur throw under my work table...

Where does he end up? Usually I have to fight with him for a place to put my feet on the bed... He's hopeless.

I'm giving up for today.  See you tomorrow.

Not Much Mini-ing...

I have several projects going all at once. Not all of them are minis...

I am doing pretty good on the shawl.  I have been working on it a couple of hours every day, while watching the series "Iron Fist" with Walter.

As for the minis, I did none today.  It seems that when I went to check on what was to be done on the roombox, the gang was ganging up on me.

They know that this is not for them.  They were having a meeting behind my back to see how they could persuade me to work on their requests...

If they would just have the meeting somewhere else, I could finish this a lot faster...

Zar actually had the nerve to request a bookcase like the one that I am making for the room box.  He says that he needs it for the living room of the Clockwork cottage.

Again... Go away and let me finish this project. Then I can get to your requests...

I did finish a couple of pendants.  I am not sure whom these are going to quite yet, but at least I have another couple of presents done.

I am working with both hands and sometimes my feet are involved too. I keep having to run back and forth between the workspace in the bedroom and the workroom. 

How many days do I have left now?  Maybe you better not tell me.  I am working as fast as I can.

See you tomorrow.

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Try, Try again...The bench that I made yesterday turned out too tall.  Back to the drawing board...

This time it will at least be the right height.

 I found a bag of dinosaurs at Walmart yesterday.

They will have to be painted, but the smaller ones are about the right size to put on shelves in the room box. 

Another shelf or two filled.

I found this Star Wars Ornament at Walmart also.

I think that it is a little big for 1/12 scale, but I suspect that it will be passable after Christmas.

Amare is probably not going to want to put it away with the other Christmas ornaments.

We shall see.

I am still working on the rainbow shawl.  I think that it will be wearable by Christmas...

That ball of yarn that you see in the photo is going to be how big it's going to be.  When I run out of thread, I am finished.

I am going  back to work now. I have a lot to finish before Christmas.

See you tomorrow.

Mission Accomplished

I Found another ball of the rainbow colored yarn. Now I can finish the shawl.

It seems that Zar is actually working on the rug... I think that he has done about nine stitches in the new row.

It is a bit difficult working upside down...

He has to have something to keep him busy.  Tessie fired him from the Terrible Two team...

She replaced him with Albert... HELP!!! 

One of the rooms that I am working on is for someone that likes Star Wars now...

We won't mention any names...

And the new Terrible Two? The Terrible Two is now Tessie and Albert...

I am not crazy about going up against Einstein and Tessie on the same team... but, I have a secret weapon... Now that Tessie has fired Zar, I am talking him into working with me.

Added bonus? I get Spike's services in the deal...I think that the three of us will be a match for anything that Tessie and Albert can think up.

Spike is a VERY smart dog!!!

See you tomorrow...

Need More Yarn!

I got this far with one ball of thread... I need another ball or two to make this as big as I would like it... Rats!!!

I will go hunting tomorrow. It was from Walmart... I have three on this side of town to see if I can find it.  Wish me luck!

I have two balls of this colorway. Maybe I can do it with two balls.  I hope! But this one is for me, so I should stop working on it and get to the Christmas gifts!

My luck is running true to form for making Christmas gifts. 

We went to a doctor's appointment this morning and at noon, we went to see "Murder on the Orient Express". Good movie.

However, it was not conducive to finishing Christmas gifts...

I went into the horrendous work room when we got home and I did manage to find the wood for the high up bed that is like Amare's.  Tessie expects it for Christmas...

Now all I have to do is get myself in gear to make it!  I am so behind!

I am afraid that I am going to be working until midnight on Christmas Eve to get everything finished... Yup.  I am right on my regular schedule!  Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Protected By The Cat!

I got home from Wednesday Witches about 4:15.  I put the bead box on the bed and look what happened...

Kota decided that would be a good place to sleep...

I ask you... Would you fight that face to get to your beads?

I walked away. 

I am making progress on the rainbow shall.  I still have a  lot to go though.

I have decided that this box is going to be a fairy cottage for the back yard.  It already has a roof.  Now all I have to do is make it look inviting to the fairy crowd.

Maybe some rock sides and blocking off some of the windows...

I did manage to get a tiny bit of the watch that I finished out of the box.  Then Kota took over guarding the treasures again...

I doubt that I will be doing anymore beading this evening.

Maybe I can talk Kota into finishing what I started.  He definitely is not going to let me get back into the box.

Oh well. I didn't want to do anymore beading tonight anyway. maybe I will put some more rows on the rainbow.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

oving Right Along....

I have the first scarf that I am doing about half done.  I need to work faster...

I doesn't quite look like a rainbow.  The colors are laid out wrong. 

It is turning out to be a kind of mixed up rainbow.  It's still going to be pretty, but not a rainbow...

Tessie and Zar have been making plans for her trailer... She hates when I call it that, but it's fun to hear her complain about it.

She is going to have to think of an official name pretty soon or it is just going to have to be Tessie's trailer...

She has already said that she wants a bigger and better shower than Zar has... That could be difficult.  His is pretty fancy.

She also wants the awning over the roof garden to be the full length of the trailer...

Sorry Tessie.  It's a trailer until you come up with a name for it.

The way she is going so far, she is going to want it on 40 acres of prime land and with all of the amenities. I don't think that is going to happen, but that's what she wants... I repeat..."That's NOT going to happen.". 

I am going back to crocheting now.  With earplugs, so that I can't hear what she is planning.

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Not Socks...

I found this yarn at Walmart yesterday.  It is Lion Brand worsted weight. It is called "Mandala" and it is making me want to do things other than socks for Christmas this year.  I started a shawl with the rainbow colorway.

So far, I like it.  The colors don't show up well in the photo.  Too bright.  It goes from on color to the next.  Just like a rainbow.

I bought two different balls.  The second one is more muted than the first.  There were a lot of other colors in stock. 

I like to do simple granny square shawls in yarn like this.  It shows off the color more than the stitches.

We ordered a new table and chairs for the back porch.  Guess who wants to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner out there now... Yup.  She's sitting in the middle of the table, waiting to be served...

Good luck with that Tessie...

I came back in the house and Tessie zapped herself into the work room. 

She demanded that I give HER boxes back.  Someone told her that I was going to use them for fairy houses...

To put it in her words... "Over my dead body!!!"

It is simple.  I will just call them Tessie's faerie houses and she will be happy. Anything with her name on it makes her a happy camper...

Back to crocheting now.  I want to see how fast I can finish one of those balls.  That's how big the shawl is going to be... No bigger. I think that they are going to be a pretty good size.

Back to the hook.

See you tomorrow.

That Time of Year... Again...

This morning, April came over with some crocheting to work on.

We sat and crocheted for a couple of hours.  Chatting about the coming holidays as we worked.

Amare is back in school, so it was just the two of us.

I worked on the above scarf/shawl.  April was working on an afghan.

After a while we got to talking about my stash.  I took her around the house and showed her some of it. 

There was a method to my madness... I got her to take some of it home.  That way, I don't have so much to finish.  Let her have some of the fun.

As you can see, I have the usual unfinished socks laying about...

She took yarn that had not been worked on. 

Between the two of us, we may be able to use about 1/20th of my stash by Christmas.  That's better than letting it sit here until I get around to doing something with it.

I rather like the yellow socks to the left, in this photo.  Those may just become a gift to myself.  Some of my old ones are wearing out.

If you need me for anything for the rest of the afternoon, yell loud.  I will be on the back porch.  Swinging and crocheting.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Busy Day...

Over the weekend, I got this much of a peyote stitch bracelet done.  It still needs a few more inches.  It's hard to work with Tessie whining about me never making her anything...

No.  I am not shrinking this one.

I had a doctor's follow up for the radiation treatments this morning.  She is very happy with the way everything looks.  While I was waiting, I got three more rows done on this shawl.  Slowly but surely, wins the race.

We went to see the new Tom Hanks movie between appointments.  Then I had my Herceptin treatment.  I only have two more to go and then I will be officially done!  The last one will be June 27th.

Last night I started a new pencil collar.  I got three rows done.  It will probably be about the size of this old one when I finish it...

I carefully put it and the beads away before we left for the first appointment this morning.

When we returned, it was missing...

Yup! Three rows make a perfect bracelet for "you know who".

She is now wanting a bracelet to match each of her 20 plus aprons...

I am not giving in.  We are going to do some bargaining if she wants any at all!

That one is not legally hers either!  I may have to wrestle her to get it back, but I don't think that it will be much of a fight.  I am bigger than she is!

She had the nerve to ask if I could use the other pencil collar as a sleeve and add the rest of a dress to it... No!  I am not going into the beaded dress business!!! No way.  No how.

TESSIE!!! I want my pencil back!  Where did you go?

I have to go look for my beading now.

See you tomorrow.

One Simple Rule...

Just keep plugging along until the item is finished...

Granted, I don't do it in one fell swoop... I jump about, but it all gets done eventually.

Yesterday, I worked on the second of this pair of socks for a while.  I am down to the toe on the second one... Not far to go.

 OK... So I started something new... That was a couple of weeks ago. This will be a scarf/shawl when I am finished... I have a LONG ways to go...

I am using a F hook and sock yarn.  It could take a while to use up the whole ball... It will be do-able if I just keep the hook, thread and the pattern in my head together... I did a couple of rows yesterday. Each row gets bigger... and longer...

I am working on the border of the Russian rug almost every day, for at least a little while... It will be done soon enough if I keep at it...

What is the point?  We all have our own way of doing things.  Not everybody likes to jump around on different projects. I do. 

That is to keep from getting bored...

I am still doing the sorting and cleaning of the workroom too...

While I was doing that, I got an idea and I talked the Wednesday Witches into going along with it.

Since I am doing a DEEP cleaning this time, there is a lot of stuff that is too good to throw out without seeing if any of my friends want any of it.

The boxes and the jar of stuff on the table is to go with me on Wednesday.  Up for grabs. I am updating my plastic fishing tackle boxes.  These are over 20 years old and missing some dividers.  I imagine that someone will be able to use them though.

I put it before the Witches last Wednesday.  They all liked the idea...Now all we have to do is keep it going.  I thought that I would mention it here.  Maybe some of you belong to groups that could use this same method of passing things on.

From here on I will refer to witches by name.  It won't mean anything to you, but it will make it easier for me to explain. 

Two weeks ago, Barb brought a small box with a lot of metal statues and other goodies.  She wanted to pass it around so that others could take what they wanted.  We did, but she still had quite a bit of stuff.  I asked her to leave it here and I would see that it got to the next meeting.  I took one tiny moon out of it...

Meanwhile, I started sorting all of the boxes that I have in my workroom.  I had a couple of the plastic fishing tackle boxes that I use to store stuff.  I took one of those and started putting usable stuff in as I went.  Stuff that was still good, but I was not likely to use.  I took the two boxes to the next meeting. 

I proposed that the person that was hosting the meeting was responsible for getting the box of stuff to the following meeting... That way, they would have a chance to look through it.  They could take out or add as they liked and bring it to the next house. 

I doubt that this will last for a long time, but for right now, everyone wants to play the game.  We will all have a chance to look through the box every week.  We can take out or add at the meeting.  Then the hostess of the meeting will bring it the following week... 

I think that it is recycling in a good way.  After a few times, we will be able to determine what is to be thrown away because nobody wants it. And hopefully, some of the stuff in the box will be of use to some of the others.

I could keep this going, all by myself for months and months. But I won't unless everyone wants to keep playing the game.

I am off now to do more sorting. 

See you tomorrow.

The Things That They Don't Tell You...

 I am back to working on the Russian rug today.

Slowly, but surely it is happening.  I am pretty pleased with it so far.

Now. About the things that they don't necessarily bother to mention when you are having Chemotherapy... I knew that I would lose my hair and have to wear a wig to look remotely human... The hair is coming back nicely, now that I have finished.

The thing that they didn't mention is that my nails kind of shed off in layers as they grew and by the time it was done, they were really in bad shape. 

That is NOT good for someone that does minis every day. 


I was to the point that I couldn't even pick up a pin from the table.

This morning, I polished my nails!  For the first time in months.  Granted, they aren't long and well done as they used to be, but I can see that slowly, but surely they are recovering. 

I do wish that they would hurry up and grow out.  I miss being able to use them as tools like I used to.

I did a little more on the bag.  I don't need fingernails to do that. 

I am stalling.  I decided to do the TV remote with new plastic canvas.  I found that I could get a better deal on it on Amazon that I could from the local craft stores, so I have to wait until tomorrow to start.  The 12 sheet pack of #10 count will arrive tomorrow.  Then I can start that project and a few others that I have in mind. 

If you need to find me, I will be the person behind the post out front, waiting to tackle the mailman tomorrow morning.  It's getting pretty bad when the most exciting thing happening around here is a guy delivering a package of plastic canvas. 

Maybe I will just send Tessie out there to tackle him instead.  She is good at that.  She will simply trip him.  Grab the package and run! He won't know what hit him...

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.