New Friends and Acquaintances...

 I peaked into the top of the Rusty Needle this morning.  Tessie is explaining everything to Letty.

She is introducing her to new places and new friends now that she is a modern woman...

I over heard Tessie telling  Letty that she could have the quilt shop. "Since you like to do needlework I will let you have this one. I hate needles and pins, I will let you have it if you make me a new quilt...

Next she introduced Letty to Eskiaga and Cordelia.  She told her that Eskiaga always has a big plate of tacos and other Southwestern food on the table if she gets hungry.

I do believe that is the reason that Cordelia hangs out there a lot. She loves tacos.

Then she got just a little to free with my stuff. She offered Letty the use of MY craft cottage if Letty would paint her a couple of pictures to hang in her next house.

I will let Letty use the cottage, but I may just shrink and use that one myself, once in a while...It's much nicer and well organized than my big one!

The last place that she took her for today was to Albert's house.

Daisy, Albert and the basket maker were enjoying the afternoon...

Tessie barged in on their conversation to introduce Letty to them. 

I think that the two men liked the new addition to the community. Letty was impressed when Tessie told her who Albert was and that he was a great scientist.

About that time I told them that was enough for one day.  Letty can meet more of the people around here tomorrow.  I have a feeling that Tessie is trying to keep her away from Zar. 

I am not going to get in the middle of this.  Usually, if it is a new man, Zar gets introduced first.  Not this time.

I am going to just stand back and watch for a few days to see what happens...

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Still Icky

Today is Walter's birthday.  Let's see... I think that he is 21 this year... Maybe. Happy Birthday Walter!!!

I have decided to hang the new dragon over my desk in the  bedroom.  He will probably hold a towel for me to wipe my hands on.  Toilet paper just doesn't do anything for his image!

I would like to be in here working on something small... but... Nope.

Not today. 

 I don't even feel well enough to go up and play with my snake and frogs... No fun at all.

I started watching Supernatural from the start, a couple of weeks ago.  At least that is keeping me occupied.

I am in over a hundred episodes so far.  One was just on that had Spike (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in it.  I almost didn't recognize him.  He had dark hair and a bit of gray. poor vampire is getting old...

Last but not least.  Every year, April and Seth give us a new calendar with photos of Amare's proceeding year.  This year Amare was a superhero in January!

OK. I did my duty.  I wrote a blog entry.  Now can I go back and lay down some more?

Yes! I can!  See you tomorrow.  Sure do wish this stupid cold would leave!

See you tomorrow.

Moving Again...

Right now Zar's He Shed is sitting on the worktable in the bedroom.  I still have to finish the doors on it. 

I also noticed that there is a crack between the roof and the wall on the right hand side that needs to be fixed.

Other than that, it is pretty much finished...

Tessie's is officially finished.  She will probably talk Zar into trading places.  His sits where he can see the TV.  Hers sits next to it... Can't see a thing.

The only thing that she can watch is Kota, taking a nap on the bed...

Kota is not watching anything.  It's nap time.

He knows where to nap.  That spot is right next to me on the bed when I am working on needlework... Exactly a foot from my left hand. 

That is the hand that he knows will reach out and pet him when he needs it.

I moved the craft cottage into the family room.

That makes a lot less furniture in the bedroom.

Since I moved the conservatory to the back porch, I had a hole under the window. Thus the move.

I have been working on the big Rya that I started as a second try. It is coming out pretty good. I might just talk Tessie into putting it in a new potions room.  She is without a place to mix things at present... It won't be long before she is yelling and complaining about no workspace.

I guess that I should think of something to do with the stuff from her old workroom.  Just as soon as I finish cleaning mine.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Zar is Giving Up... At least for Today...

I went into the bedroom this morning. I found Zar ensconced  in the craft cottage. MY craft cottage.

He has pretty much given into Tessie's claiming of the She Shed. 

Of course I am not happy that he took over my craft cottage. There's not much I can do about it.

He brought his own chair, so who am I to complain?

 Meanwhile, I do wish that Tessie would read her own sign and follow it.  It says, "Go away now.  I am a WITCH with a broom and I know how to use it!"

She hasn't done a lick of work.  In fact the pile of stuff is getting deeper as we speak...

 I managed to unearth another shelf to fill.  I am over to the end of this wall now...

The dreaded closet comes next.  It is the worst...

No.  Wait. I take that back...

The worst is the jewelry shelves. It may take the rest of the year to do. 

I just did it a couple of months ago, but those shelves never stay clean for long.

I have talked Walter into getting on a ladder and handing me things down from the plant shelf above the closet.  It is eight feet up and I am not allowed to climb up there... Walter says that I might fall and break something... Meaning me.

I am not arguing with him.  That's a long way up and even longer if I fall off of a ladder.

Just toss things down and I will catch them. It's safer.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Been Searching....

I ran across this bracelet yesterday, while trying to finish cleaning the workroom... I put a few finishing touches on it... Now it is wearable...

I had a lot of small beads out and decided to try something new.

I have followed a You Tube channel called beadifulnights for quiet a while now... The lady's name is Aleshia.  Just last week, she covered a regular sized bottle with this kind of beading... It was meant to show whatever was inside the bottle in the windows created by the beads. 

I decided to try it in small.  It worked pretty good for a first try. I may have to do it a few times before it looks right. I am going to have to hunt up a few #18 beads that I have lurking somewhere.

Tessie has spent the morning searching...

Strangest thing... Her crown and scepter vanished during the night!

I didn't do it!  Honest!  At least that's what I keep telling her.

Right now she is tearing apart the craft cottage. 

She is going from mini room to mini room searching. As far as she knows, they just vanished in a puff of smoke.

I am not going to tell her any different.  It has been so peaceful all morning... and half the afternoon too.

She still has a LOT of territory to cover.  This could keep her busy for days.... Even weeks... Maybe even months.  I might just have some time to finish a few projects that I have started without her looking over my shoulder and nagging.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Not Fast Enough...

This is what my workroom should look like by now... It doesn't...

Tessie has completely taken this one over and refuses to return it. 

After April and Amare left yesterday, I went back to doing nothing... When I should have been doing more cleaning...

Even the attic in the mini- workroom looks better than my real one...

When I leave the room, someone sneaks in and starts making a mess again...

This is how it looked when I went in yesterday afternoon...Only one little bit of one shelf was empty...

I am about to throw EVERYTHING out and start over.  But that won't work.  I would have to immediately start collecting stuff to fill the shelves again...
I am going around in circles...

I am taking the rest of the day off to contemplate what I am doing wrong. Then tomorrow, I will start once more.  See you then.

While Walter's Away...

Casey will play at cleaning... I started pulling things out of the closet in the computer room this morning... I am just glad that Walter won't be home until Friday... It is going to take me that long to sort through things and stick some of them back in there.  Other things will go to Goodwill.

What a mess!  I used to do a lot of quilting and upholstering finds from the thrift stores... I only have one chair that needs to be redone and the cushions for the porch swing... I do believe that I can part with some of this stuff.

While I am cleaning, Tessie and Zar are refusing to work on the antique store and pretending to clean my craft cottage.  Somehow, that doesn't seem fair.  I should get to do that and they should clean the computer room closet...

They aren't willing to trade locations... They told me that I made the mess in the closet and I should have to clean it up.

Oh well.  I will get even.  As long as it take to clean the closet, I won't be able to work on the antique store.  So there!

 So far, I can't see anything that they have actually cleaned in the cottage... The whole thing looks just like it did the last time I left...

I am going back to work on the closet now. Kota is helping me... Crawling in all of the corners to make sure I get everything out.

Let's see which party gets finished first. At the rate that they are going, it will be the Fourth of July when they finish.

Back to work. 

See you tomorrow.

Finally Finished!

 Since the rug was all that was keeping my craft cottage from being done, I decided to bite the bullet and finish it this morning.

I had most of that yellow swirl to stitch and a couple of other little areas. It took me a few hours.

As I put the glue around the edge and started to cut off the excess... Tessie showed up and announced, "Well!  It's about time that you finished the rug for MY craft cottage!"

I gently reminded her that the cottage was mine, not hers... She had the nerve to snicker at me. 

"Silly you! You can't fit in there!  It's mine!"

Then she proceeded to grab the rug and place it on the floor in the cottage. 

I do believe that I know how to get her and her gang to leave...

"Tessie, if it is yours, it needs a good cleaning and straightening.  Now!"

You wouldn't believe how fast the Terrible Two plus one ran out on me! I think that they went next door to her townhouse.  I don't care if she cleans that or not.  Not my job!

Now I am going back and straighten things up in there... I don't think that we ever had an official Housewarming for the cottage.  It wasn't officially done until now...

Come on over!  Tomorrow it will be cleaned up(not by Tessie) and ready to entertain. 

See you then!

A Bad Case of Unfinished-itis....

I have to find a cure!...

I went through the house this morning, looking at all of the things that I have done...And haven't done...

I found that I have a bad case of unfinished-itis. Any of you that follow me regularly, know this. 

Usually, I don't worry about it.  When December hits, I start.

We are in charge of having the family, Christmas day.  And I start wanting everything to look nice.  Especially the things that sit at eye level.

The craft cottage is the easiest of the bunch.  It just needs a bit of straightening and the finishing of the rug... No problem-o.

Then there is Tessie's Townhouse.  It looks like a tornado hit it a while back... That was when I moved it from one side of the room to the other.  I had it facing the wall for a while... Now it is facing out and will be seen by one and all...

Tessie is not happy.  No wonder she is trying to take over Daisy's cottage...

This will take a bit more time.  I have never finished the lighting in this one... Oops!

Problem number three, for those that are keeping track... The half inch Fairfield sits on top of a bookcase, in the workroom.  Not so much of a problem... But... I started it in the 80s and the wallpaper inside is horrible now.

It can slide down the list a ways, because I can always blanket it. 

I had a friend that used to say... People are coming.  Get out the blankets!  Then she would simply cover the unfinished items...

Then there is the Clockwork Cottage.  Also on a top shelf... To blanket or not to blanket... That is the question... It is probably the most unfinished of all of them.

The $9.00 Mystery House is probably in the best shape, but I keep borrowing things from there to put in other rooms...

No wonder the owner never comes home... She has been over at Eskiaga's Southwestern Room for a number of years now...

I think that I am going to have to go around and collect the things that other people borrowed from her house.  Then it will be in pretty good shape.

These two are not last or least, but they do need to be finished.  The one on the left is April's Russian Cottage. 

I am not to worried about that one because April doesn't have any room for it at her house yet...  One of these days...

Again, these two cottages sit on top of bookshelves.  Not at eye level.  The weaver's cottage doesn't need a lot of work.  Inside framing and a few pieces of furniture.  This will probably be the first one of the high houses that gets finished. 

Anyway, I am going to stop working on other things for a while... I will keep working on Daisy's Cottage.  That one is down low. 

I need to get the rest of these to look good for the holidays.  Somebody stand beside me and poke me with a pointy stick when I stop working.  I have a lot to finish this month... Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it.

See you tomorrow.

And Everybody's Happy...

Tessie sat out to prove that the new wicker chair didn't belong in Daisy's cottage... I had already decided, but it was fun to make her squirm a bit...

Forgetting that she could zap, she dragged the skull chair into the living room and plonked it down in the position we had planned.

She then plopped herself into the chair and went to work on convincing me...

"You know that this chair won't fit in here.  I have it propped against the wall.  When we hang it, it will have to be another foot away from the wall."  Yes.  She said foot.  That's how she thinks and besides if she talks in "real" terms, it makes everything sound bigger than it really is.

This time she is right, but I was having fun... I told her, "But Tessie, if we put this in the townhouse, it will take up the same amount of space there."

Rebuttal?  "Yes, but it's a Skull!!!  I want it!!!  I pretended to think about it and then I let her off the hook.  "OK... If you really think it will work... Are you sure?"

She jumped out of the chair and without even a small "Thank you", she was gone.  Chair and all.  I can hear far off hammering coming from the townhouse... I dasn't go see what is happening... Too scary...

I went back to work and finished the last few rows of the center of the H of M rug.  It looks like it is almost finished.  Wrong. That border is nine stitches wide and I still have a lot to go on it.

I did put a few more stitches in each of these rugs.  I finished the checker board in the bottom of one and did some more background on the rug for the craft cottage.

I am in the mood for stitching right now.  Maybe I will at least get Daisy's bedroom rug finished.

I might even get a little more done on the other two.  I want to get the one for the craft cottage done.  Them I will be able to pronounce that project finished. 

I am not even sure why I started the middle one.

I think that it was just an experiment with using stitches, other than cross stitch on a rug.  Therefore, it doesn't have to be done in this century... Maybe the next one?  We shall see...

See you tomorrow.

I am in Time Out... Bad Casey!

I am not going to show you another coat of spackle or gesso this morning...

I am in sooo much trouble with Tessie and Zar that it isn't funny.

They are both on my case.

This is what the workroom looks like at the present time...And yes.  That is the top of the infamous laundry basket at the bottom of the photo.  And no.  The drawers aren't done.   I have a good excuse for not getting anything done yesterday... A clean bathroom and my half of the closet is clean.  OK those are big people things.  They don't count, as far as Tessie and Zar... and Spike are concerned...

The reason that they are ticked off, is not Daisy's Cottage.  It's the stuff that I moved around last week.

Tessie swears that none of her domiciles are livable... She never uses any of them.  She mostly lives in my house.  But that doesn't matter.  She wants her homes set right.

Zar added his two cents, saying, "My Tudor Trailer is covered with dust everywhere.  I have been sneezing terribly!"

I went and looked at all of the stuff that I moved around... They were right. 

I picked up a rug that was in front of the stove in Cordelia's house...Remember, Tessie traded with her at one point.  Thus, she still thinks of it as hers.

That spot in front of the stove is where there was a throw rug... I think it needs dusting...And the table is missing.  I think that we tried it out in Daisy's place....Then it ran away... And hid somewhere..

I wasn't smart enough to stop looking.  It looks like a hurricane hit the Embroiderer's cottage. 

That's two....

Spike's crypt is in it's usual state.  But he had to get his two cents in....Now he wants the dust dusted... I think that he means that he would like to have just one layer of dust, instead of two or three.

Tessie's townhouse and the craft cottage both need straightening. 

Not too much dusting.  I did that when I moved them.

We won't talk about all of the other buildings that haven't been dusted for a while... At least they haven't been moved and shaken.

Before I get back to work, I just wanted to show you the babies.  If you look closely at the bottoms for the rosettes, you will see tiny roots starting to find their way to the soil. 

I have never counted to see how long they actually last, before they need to be transplanted.  I am going to keep track this time. 

The dust awaits...

See you tomorrow.

The Last Day.....

First of all, I forgot to show you what I did with Tessie's Townhouse and the craft Cottage. We did that last week...

What was all the fuss about moving the townhouse 10 feet?  Well it took both of us to do it!  I can maneuver it around, once it is in place.  It's just getting it there that is the problem.  I much prefer the little craft cottage that I can move all by myself.

Next a report on the new chair.  Tessie approves so far...The biggest difference is yet to come.  Then we will see how she feels...

Now.  About the workroom... Oh! Look!  A floor!  I still have some of the drawers to do, but the first two on the left are all done.

I didn't take a full on photo of the area across from the desk.  I put the hanging racks are back.  I didn't like the shelf there.  It was boring. And it wouldn't store much.

I also moved the saw back to that location.  There just wasn't enough room back in the corner and I couldn't get to half of the book shelves.  Now I have room to move on that side of the room... And room to saw.

Look what I found this morning.  Half a chair, with book pocket.  This is #30 thread and takes a bit longer to do than the 20...I have a feeling that my inner six year old was involved in the half that isn't done.  Distracted...

Confession time... I am back to the Laundry basket method of cleaning.... If what's left fits in the laundry basket, I can go through it at my leisure.  I know.... I have said that many times before.

But today is the last day of Walter's golf trip.  He will be home tonight. So my goal is to finish all the way this time!  I am determined... 

I have to go  back to the workroom and lock myself inside now.

That basket on top has all of the stuff for my woven baskets inside... For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to dump everything in there to sort it out... Oh well.  At least that part won't take long to do...


See you tomorrow, hopefully with an empty laundry basket.