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Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Gifts All Around....

Walter got Birthday and Christmas both.  His birthday was Jan.1.  I got birthday and Christmas gifts too. My Birthday is later this month.

Tessie and Zar just got new Sheds for their Christmas presents.

Walter and I got new cars so we made them our Christmas presents and Birthday gifts. We got matching Mazdas. His is a CX-5 and mine's the little brother. It's a CX-3. Mine's a baby.


 The mini two got a He Shed and a She Shed.  Each of them think that they got the better deal.  Tessie thinks hers is best and Zar thinks his is the greatest.  To use their words!

I am not going to trade mine for either of theirs and I don't think Walter would either.

Besides, they are both too short to reach the peddles!
Walter got me a gift certificate for Joanne's Fabric and Crafts.  I went over there earlier this week and got yarn.  And more yarn... They were having a big sale on all of the yarn that they carry.

I have been doing some knitting and needed a bag to carry the knitting bowl that Seth made me last year for Christmas. 

This is the bag that I made.  The bowl fits in the bottom and there is enough room for a BIG ball of yarn on top.

Anyway, that's about all I have to show you today.  I am going back and work on the Sheds some more now.

See you tomorrow.  With finished sheds!

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

A Good Day For Playing...

I really didn't get a lot of work done... I did cut up some of the trays that I want to use for the She Sheds and the Wall Hanging Boxes.

It's Wednesday and there are so many directions in which to go...
 I had to carry all of the cut up theater trays and a lot of other stuff to the Witches meeting. 

I dug into the closet and found this.  April made it for me several years ago for Christmas.  Her intention was for me to have a bag to carry things in to the Witchy meetings.

It somehow got hung in the back of my closet and I hadn't seen it for a while.  Now that I have found it, it will get carried a lot.

It has a rather sedate looking outside...
Then you open it up to get something out and there is a party going on inside. 

She found this Alice in Wonderland fabric somewhere and though it fitting for Wednesday Witches. It is!

It says "A Mad Tea Party" around the inside and has original illustrations from the book.
Anyway, I got to Witches with everything in the bag and then decided that I didn't want stone work on the inside of this one.

This is the one that Tessie wants for relaxing in... When do I get one to relax in?  As soon as I start building one, she claims it and has a new idea of how SHE can use it. 

She wants tile on the floor and a cozy rug to wiggle her toes in. Here we go again. 

Oh well. I haven't done any tile work for a while.  Good practice.

She says stucco on the outside and in, and rocks around the edge of the foundation.

I just handed her a trowel and a can of spackle.  Then I told her to "Have at it!"  That could have been a mistake... I had better go grab the supplies and lock her in the workroom again.

Back to rounding up Tessie.  See you tomorrow.

Monday, December 28, 2015

The New Calendar Year...

Walter gave me a Calendar for the new year,,,

It consists of  many minis... and our favorite mini...

We have Daisy's Time Machine... The one where she is leaving town in a hurry...
 Then there is the Forest Fantasy Cottage...
 And Zar's Trailer...
Daisy's Time machine again.  This time she just arrived home... In time for the  housewarming...
Then, last but not least, our favorite mini!  Amare!  There were 11 mini photos and Amare.  Guess which one I liked best?

That's all for today.  Thank you, Walter!!!

See you tomorrow.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Placement....

I found a place for the orangutan. He is now one of the line up of weird characters that sit on top of the computer screen and stare at me whilst I write.

I also found a place for Lynette's pot of beautiful iris... Actually, if you want to get technical, Tessie found a place for them in her cottage, by the couch... And she had the nerve to tell me to keep my  hands off of her stuff!

Does that mean I don't have to finish the cottage?

I am not working on it today anyway.  I am being lazy.  I had to go in for the vampires to take blood and get a flu shot besides.  I am doing fine, but it's a good excuse to be lazy and do what I want.
 When we got home, Kota was watching golf on TV.  He wasn't terribly happy when I tried to get him to pose for a photo...
While I was at it, I went looking for Tessie.  Big mistake... I found her in the workroom. 

No.  She isn't cleaning.  She was napping in the basket. When I woke her up she started berating me about keeping the room clean...

That wardrobe on the table is not full of MY aprons.  They are all HERS!  She dragged them out when she was getting ready to go to the museum... Now she is trying to blame me, so that I will put her mess away... OK.. Some of it is mine, but not all of it.  Maybe I can talk her into helping???  Not likely, but I am going to try.

See you Tomorrow... Maybe with a clean workroom?  Fingers crossed!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Cheap Thrills!

There's one way to make people forget things that you don't want remembered....Give them a large bottle of dis remembering potion and 98 champagne flutes.This is the first of the cheap thrills....I have been waiting for at least a year and a half for Dollar Tree to get the champagne flutes back in stock. They are wedding favors and they consist of two flutes tied together with ribbon. The package is labeled "24 favors", so you are really getting 48 flutes per package. They come in gold and silver in separate packages. I had to get one of each, so that accounts for the 98 glasses.

Even Rocky Raccoon got one. Frisky has one, but I am not at all sure that is wise. He is a mean alligator when he drinks...The second cheap thrill is the typesetter's drawer that Sue gave me. Thanks Sue! Not cheap exactly. It was just that it was free and I finally got around to hanging it this morning. This one is a bit different from all of the other ones that I have. The cubes are all the same size. Now all I have to do is shoo the forgetful drunks away and start filling it.

Of course they have plans of their own for filling it. I heard Zar say, "Hmmmm...This thing would hold a lot of bug beer..."

Thank goodness, Tessie vetoed that idea. She wants it filled with hats, shoes and purses. Typical witchy woman....

I spent the morning in the workroom, tidying up from the holiday mess. I am so thrilled that I didn't have to spend a couple of weeks doing it this year.

My last cheap thrill for the day is something silly. Strange things entertain me....I bought a package of suction cups with little plastic hooks run through the shank, at the same time as the flutes. I am just getting around to opening both.

I had, from I don't know where, one suction cup hanging on the workroom window. It had lost its hook and I replaced it with a fancy Christmas ornament hook in copper. I kind of liked it. It had a beaded needle case hanging on it for the longest time. It looked lonely.This morning I opened the package of lots of suction cups and started wetting them and pushing them against the window. I didn't like the plastic hooks. They were easily removed. I found more of the ornament hangers and put them on. Then I grabbed a bunch of my scissors and hung a pair from each hook.

It almost looks like bubbles are floating up outside the window. I don't know how long they will stay or if I will replace the scissors with something else, but it's a handy dandy place to keep things beside the desk.

As I have said before....Simple things amuse simple people...Case in point? Tessie is having a ball swinging from the scissors and watching the world go by. Too bad I am not small enough to join her. It looks like fun.

See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Hang On! I'm Here.....Finally!

We had the annual after Christmas, Christmas party for Wednesday Witches today. A great time was had by all. We ate until thoroughly stuffed and then played.

The gift I received in the exchange wasn't a mini, but it has possibilities....It is a potpourri jar with a pewter top, from Williamsburg. It is very pretty and smells good to boot.

I do believe that the top, should I ever desire to do it, could make a very pretty crown for a four poster bed. For now, it is just going to sit, smell good and look pretty.

The other mini that we all got was a choice of paintings printed on fine canvas. I chose "The Hay Wain". It is one of my favorite John Constable paintings. I will have to get to work and put a frame around it soon. I definitely want to hang it somewhere.

While I am showing Christmas gifts, I have to show you the match box that my friend Jo sent me. I couldn't show it earlier because she made several for friends and I didn't want to give it away before they all got theirs.

She made the scene in side from tiny cuts of wood and turned it into a shadow box. Jo said that it was NOT for Tessie....I don't think that she can do anything about keeping it away from her. Tessie is getting quite a collection of minis. All pilfered from me.....

I have been contemplating some furniture moving in our real life bedroom. I mentioned it, in passing, to Walter a couple of days ago.

When I got home from the party, this is what I found. Tessie, Zar and Mookie were rummaging under the bed. As I walked in, all three turned and looked at me accusingly.

Of course, Tessie took the lead, "You've been holding out on us! There are houses under the bed!"

In my defence, they all knew that there was a stash in that location....Sometimes their collective memory is short...

In any case, Mookie is losing interest fast. No Kitty Condos under there.

I am not so sure about the Terrible Two though. Zar found the Greenleaf contest kit from last year. Tessie found the Magnolia.

That's the one that she wanted to turn into Spiderwort Manor a couple of years ago....Nope...Still not started.

Zar is off drawing up plans for a Clockwork Laboratory now, with the Greenleaf kit under his arm, so to speak....

I am going to quickly move the bed and shove both kits back under. Then I am going to hope and pray that they don't find the Harrison kit on the other side....Here's hoping that all will be forgotten by morning....

See you tomorrow.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Everyhthing Old is New Again....

I forgot to show you the new apple tree yesterday...So now it's old. Yes, it is unusual to see an apple tree growing in a jug, but in Zar's world anything can happen and usually does. He says that he is feeding it special plant food that keeps the roots small and not too many leaves, but produces an abundance of juicy fruit. Sounds good to me.

April and I met for coffee this morning. After we were finished we headed to Bookman's used book store just a few doors down from Beyond Bread, where we usually meet.

She had credit and I found a couple of books that I couldn't resist. I told her if she let me use her credit, I would supply her with a bunch of books to take back and get more credit.

The first one is one that I drooled over back in the late 60s. At the time it was a very expensive book for the size. It is a book on early textiles and the reason that it was so expensive back then was, it is all color. Not one black and white photo in the whole thing. I am thrilled to find it again. I wore out the Tucson library's copy at the time. I was probably the only person that checked it out for a few years....I loved the photos for ideas for needlepoint designs.
The other book is from 1944 and is called "Square Knot, Tatting, Fringe and Needlework"....They could have saved a lot of printing costs if they would have just called it Mostly Macrame and A Few Pages of Related Work... OK. So they wouldn't have saved any money, but the description fits better.

Tessie and I were rolling on the floor laughing at it before we passed the first few pages and the merriment didn't stop until the last page.

Take a good look at the diagrams on the first page....What's wrong with this diagram? The knots are done right, but....Look again. The tier of knots is a man wearing a dress shirt and suit jacket! I don't think that I have ever seen that before....Who wears a suit to do macrame???

Mind you, in the front of this book there is a book plate and several pages are embossed with "Harvard Library"! Poor Harvard probably discarded it so that they wouldn't be a laughingstock if anyone found it in their stacks! Maybe that's why there is a suit and dress shirt pictured. Could it possibly be that the only person that they could find to pose for the artist was a lawyer? Or maybe this is what they teach lawyers to do in their spare time at Harvard....It's possible!

There are patterns for dog harnesses and leashes, cigarette cases, many belts, lots of purses/bags, and bath slippers. There is even a bathrobe cord, described as a wampum belt....OK. Enough about lawyers doing macrame...

April had a surprise for me. It was a box from Seth's mom. She finds wonderful things in Phoenix thrift shops. She sends boxes of goodies every once in a while....This one has been hiding with Seth's photography equipment for about a year. April just found it yesterday when she was cleaning.

You may have to poke the photo to see everything. She sent Tessie a tiny silver witch on a broomstick and Zar immediately grabbed a square finding and a stud earring and made the flask that is in his lap. He also found a tiny silver frog. It is in his left hand, but very hard to see.

Anyway, thanks Jill for all the goodies! Tessie and Zar loved the selection of beads, chains, shells and other items. They are now divvying them up. No fights so far....

Last but not least, all of those macrame recipes got me in the mood to tie knots....That is, if I can stop reading that thing and laughing. I stopped long enough to string up the beading loom for a door mat for the trailer....Maybe....Or maybe I will just keep reading and giggling a lot.

See you tomorrow.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

A Family Reunion and Other Fun.....

This week, until next Sunday, I will be going over to April's every morning to feed the cat and chickens. She and Seth went to a family reunion....Neither one of their families. They have a close friend that used to rent the apartment in back of their house. She has now moved back home. She adopted them and they her. Thus, they are part of the family. This is the second one that they have attended. Great fun!


When I got over there yesterday morning, there was a gift awaiting Tessie. She now has a Golden Retriever puppy, thanks to Seth's mom. Thanks Jill!!!

The poor pup had a hole all the way through his middle. He was a zipper pull, with a cord running through the hole.

That was easy to fix. I simply squeezed a bit of silicone sealer into it. When it is dry, I will touch it up with paint. No problem.

Anyway, the point is keep an eye out. Minis are everywhere.

On the way home, I stopped at Dollar Tree and hit the jackpot for the day. They had a box of 1,000 toothpicks(very nicely finished) for a dollar, and bamboo place mats that are also very well sanded and a great size for mini floors. I am going to have to experiment with them a bit. They have a gauze backing on them. I am not sure if it is glued on or just sewn on at the edges. They had three colors of these and some wider slatted ones that were various shades of brown in one mat. I may go back for those later in the week.

I had to laugh. This is Dollar Tree and EVERYTHING in the store is one dollar, right?...Then why do they have a whole new aisle marked Dollar Day Specials...Yes everything there is a dollar too...

I bought a couple of packages of mini plastic containers. I think that they are meant for food, but I do believe that they will come in handy for storing and sending minis. There were a couple of other shapes. As I said, I may just have to go back.

One more thing. On one of the blogs that I follow this site was featured a few days ago. It's called "Japonizer" http://wanokoto.net/japonizes It has a lot of different traditional Japanese paper designs that can be customized with color and size. I think that it could be of use to mini-makers. I fiddled with it a bit and it is just fun to see what you can do with the color and size changes. I didn't try printing any of it yet. I will let you experiment too. Have fun!

Now I guess that I should go fiddle with minis.

See you tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Cone of Silence....and a Gift From Greece!

I started doing the texture on the stone this morning, but not before putting a third layer of egg carton on the top edge row. I may do this to the bottom row also, if I can find more egg cartons. I do believe that I put some in a peculiar place and now I am going to have to straighten my workroom(once again) to find them.


Spike Junior is holding down the fort, so to speak. At least he is good company. Mookie is not happy with me, so not hanging around. We took him to the vet this morning to get a blood test. It is to see how his thyroid medication is working....Now he is not speaking to me....


Anyway, back to the textures. I took a knitting needle to the cracks between the stones to soften the edges.


I have found that, if I run a line of glue along the cracks, it softens the egg carton and when you press down the edges, it holds the area in place. The stones in the top three courses have been done. The ones below haven't. There is a big difference.

I also started working on the glass roof....I am not sure that the silicone that I am trying is going to hold. If it doesn't, I will try E-6000 or jewelery glue....We shall see.


At least it keeps Spike Jr. quiet... It took both Zar and Tessie to keep the thing over him. If this works, I am going to have to cut out the top of the roof. I wish that I had thought of it before I cut the hole for the door. The other end is open. Oh well....Hindsight and all that...


The other thing is, I received a gift in the mail from Jollie in Greece. She has the blog "A Little More Minis http://alittlemoreminis.blogspot.com/ Please go visit and see her work. It is wonderful.


She was inspired by my purse tutorials to start making her own. She sent me one of the first ones that she made....Or I should say she sent it to Tessie! This is her own design and I think that she did a terrific job! Love the pleats!


She also enclosed a blue dolphin, several perfume bottles and a very fancy comb. Tessie grabbed the purse first and goodness knows that she can use the comb! Her hair has been sticking out every which way lately.


Thank you so much Jollie! Both Tessie and I are thrilled!


I need to go see if the cone of silence is going to stick...Maybe.


See you tomorrow.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Gifties and Other Excitement.....

First of all, Tessie and Zar want to say thank you to Kat of "Little Thoughts From an Average Mind" blog. http://minikatslittlethoughts.blogspot.com/ She sent them a Christmas package. I apologise for not saying thank you sooner. It came Friday, but everything has been hectic for the past couple of days.

Kat, Zar loves the bronze medal. He says it is something similar to the Nobel Prize, but for Steampunk inventors.

And of course, Tessie immediately grabbed the puce teddy bear and won't let go of it. She also likes the puce teapot.

Anyway, thank you so much Kat! All of the other pieces will be put to good use too.

Now on to today's excitement. I never go out on the day after Christmas. I hate the traffic and crowds. The day after that is soon enough for what I want.

Every year I hit Walmart for their after Christmas half price sale. I go in and look before, but I never buy until at least the half price sale. If I were more patient, and confident that the pieces that I want wouldn't be gone, I would wait a week more until the prices go down to 75%.

They always have these huge trays of make up. They used to run $10.00. Unfortunately, they have gone up a bit, like everything else. This year the one that I wanted was $15.00.

At $7.50, it's still not a bad price for all of the craft supplies that you get. Poke the photos and you will see what I mean.

The first photo is everything that I got in the box. There are several make up pencils, and a couple of lipsticks that I probably will give to somebody else of just plain throw out.

The nail polish, I will use. Not for minis. I like odd colors.


Now for the loot, left to right....There are two small mirrors that I can pry out of the plastic case and frame. One rectangular and one oval.

In front of those are brushes. There are two long handled flat brushes(Plain old paint brushes), two very short, pointed brushes(good for getting into tight spots and corners), four of the small sponge brushes(good for stains) and two soft bristle, wide brushes (good for sweeping floors in the mini rooms). Are you keeping track? That's 10 brushes!

Next to that it a new pencil sharpener with cup to catch the shavings.

There are four generous tubs of pearlized powder that will work well with poly clay.(Gold, Pearl, Pink and Puce.....) We know who will get the last one.

There is also a full back sheet of silver covered cardboard that can be used for a lot of different things.

Back by Zar, there are 22 plastic disposable paint pots, cut from the tray that this all came in.

Now for the most important part. See the 18 little black and clear boxes by Tessie? Each one of those have several metal pans filled with eye shadow and cake rouge. The boxes themselves are useful for keeping small parts.

There are several different shapes of the tins and in all, there are 68. Depending on shape, these can be used for cookie sheets, pizza pans, cake pans, etc. in miniature.

I also use them for the base of the resin cabochons in beadwork. The piece beside Tessie in this photo is one that I am working on now. The large round center piece is one of the cabochons.

It is simply a piece of a page in a glossy magazine that was lightly glued inside and then covered with two part clear resin.

I now have a lifetime supply of the tin pans. And that's if I live to be 100!

The only part I am not crazy about is digging out the make up.....I am going now to cover my hands in rainbow colors. It's a good thing that the stuff can be washed off!

If you are interested in these, run, don't walk to your nearest Walmart. Ours seem to have a lot left. I may still get one for $3.75. Who knows?

See you tomorrow.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs......

Tessie grabbed these as soon as they came. You know the first word out of her mouth....."Mine!!!"

They came from Katie of Katie's Clay Cornerhttp://katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com/ Yup the very same one that won the drawing. Thank you, Katie!

I have been drooling over these since she started making them. She is selling them in her new etsy shop, in case anybody is interested. They must be seen in person to be appreciated. Beautifully done.

It took me a couple of day to pry them out of Tessie's hot little hands, to even get a look at them....

She started wearing the puce one with "Love" on it as a very large broach.

She did let me have one of them.....The one that said "share". Gee...I wonder why.

She flitted here and there deciding where they should live.

The black cat sign with the orange background went to the Witches Warehouse, as did the Happy Halloween one.


The one that says "Treasure the moment" will go somewhere in the Russian cottage or the Townhouse when they are done....

The last one was tough for her to decide on. She has been flying around the house on her favorite dragon for the past two hours.....I finally asked her. "Why don't you land someplace?"

Her reply? "Can't you read? The sign says Journey....So I am journeying!"

I think I need a stop sign..... I am getting dizzy with her flying around my head every 10 minutes!
We are off to see "Red"(the movie) today, so I probably won't get a lot of mini-ing done.

See you tomorrow.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tessie Says "Thanks!" and Other Stuff....

Shhhh! It's Tessie....Don't tell Casey!

I received some goodies yesterday from my friend Kathi over at Beautiful Mini Blessings http://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/ ! Casey opened the package by mistake, but I rectified that quickly. She no longer remembers a thing about it.

While she was out this morning, I had Zar help me set up the tripod and take a couple of photos so that you could see what I got.

There was a super cool necklace. Kathi thought it was a keyring. Wrong. It is a little heavy but it expresses how I feel, so I will wear it on special occasions(and when Casey gets unruly). There were also some clips with LOL and other initials on them. I am going to have to look those up. I don't speak computer very well. Hey! Give me a break! I am jumping up and down on the keys as fast as I can, as it is! Read the Necklace!

I also got two pair of flip flops. Puce and orange....Unfortunately, they were a few sizes to big for me. I did notice that Zar has his eye on those for when he hits the beach... There was also some very retro material and some puce and pink rubberized fabric, some pink cording and some snow cones....

For those of you with not so good eyesight, here's a close up of the note that Kathi sent with the package. If you still can't read the message, poke the photo! Thank you so much for all of the goodies, Kathi! I will put them to good use!

I hear Casey coming now. I have to invisibl-ize what I just put on the blog and zap myself out of here. Later!

Tessie thinks she got away with that! Don't tell her I watched the whole thing. You should see her jump up and down on the keyboard when she gets going! I had trouble not giving myself away by laughing at her.

I will add my thanks. Kathi, that "necklace" is a hoot! Tessie can barely walk with it around her neck, but she is nothing, if not determined!

I kept myself out of the way by doing some yard work while she was jumping around.

After I came back in, we both settled down with some books and supplies for basketry.

I cleaned out the box of supplies and found several unfinished baskets a rug and ONE finished basket.

The finished one is the rainbow one down by the start of the bargello rug. I am not too far behind. The two baskets sitting on their spools are almost finished. The twined one that Tessie is holding is almost done. There is however, a twined one on the floor that is about 1/3 done and we won't talk about the checkerboard one that I started this morning..... I think that I had better get back to work...

See you tomorrow.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Vacation Time for Walter...And Thank You Kathi

I may not have as much time for minis this week. Walter is taking time off for a stay at home vacation. We plan to do movies and go to the Mini Time Museum this week.

I did manage to finish the zebra rug this morning. The trick to getting it straight is to have a T square or a 90° angle handy. I use my plastic T. Tessie and I pulled and pulled on diagonal corners until it was pretty square to the T.


Then I ironed it, face down on a soft pad. I didn't want to mash the stitches.


After that I smeared Fast Grab on all four edges, making sure that the edge stitches were covered, as well as the bare canvas outside. I let it dry and then cut off the edge right next to the outer row of stitches.....The first time you do this it is terrifying, but after a few times, you are still somewhat terrified, but know that the rug will lay better if you don't have to turn the edges under.
I still need to press it once more and make sure that all of the ends of canvas threads are blackened with a sharpie. I think it is going to work out quite well.....Now I am debating the ribbon chair. Trying to decide if it is too much zebra for one room.....Too matchy-matchy?


Meanwhile, when Walter and I got back from the movie, there was a package waiting. Kathi over at Beautiful Mini Blessings http://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/ sent Tessie and I a care package. Just look at all of the goodies!!!

There is fabric, lace paper, beads and all sorts of goodies. Tessie is particularly thrilled because she now has a baby giraffe for her menagerie. She even got out of the new chair to play with him. She named him Geraldo. She has a thing about alliteration

What Kathi didn't know was....Mookie was the most thrilled of all! His favorite thing is a shipping box, especially one that is filled with plastic packing bubbles. As soon as I got everything out of the box, he spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get his whole body in the box.... He still hasn't succeeded.

I had trouble getting the last photo. He managed to get all of the bubble wrap out of the box. Then he decided that half a hiding place was better than none at all. The box is now under my chair and he is sleeping in it....Or I guess that I should say that half of him is sleeping in it.

After I am finished, I am going to go play with all of the new toys that Kathi sent. Thank you Kathi!!!!!

See you tomorrow.