Mini Mischief

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T23:30:00.000-08:00

If you've read much of my blog you'll know how much I like to cook and entertain. Here's my last "tablescape" of the year. We had honey glazed ham, Beef Wellington, cranberry dream salad, corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and creme brulee for dessert. Don't forget the Asti Spumanti and Almond Champagne. Yum!

You can see my gingerbread man plate in the very back of the photo if you look closely.

Happy New Year to you! Hopefully I will be a bit better at blogging in 2012. . .

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. One for each of us and each of our beloved pups. . .

Merry Christmas to you!

Christmas Plates

2011-11-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

You can never have enough Christmas plates, you know? I did two more and aren't they pretty?

The first one is a little tree shaped candy plate. I like the peppermints on this one.

The second plate is actually a bowl. I love the ornaments on this one. You can see the pencil lines I drew to cut it into quadrants and make it even. That will burn off when it is fired. I always love how ceramics go from dull and flat colors to bright and shiny when fired.

Now, if I could just find time to finish the many, many, many Christmas pieces I have waiting to be painted. . . .

Thanksgiving Turkey Casserole

2011-11-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Ha, it's not a recipe for turkey casserole. It's my turkey casserole dish I painted.

Look how cute the turkey is! He's made out of veggies. His neck is squash, his tail is lettuce, and so on. I made him by antiquing the entire piece with a dark purple (see the purple lettuce next to the green onions?) and then painting over the rest with color.

He's just so neat I can't wait to use him on my Thanksgiving table!

Halloween Candle Sleeve

2011-10-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Did I mention lately how much I love my embroidery machine? I have the little Brother SE-400 and it does a darn good job for the price, but of course I want the PR-600 six head machine now. So as soon as I win the lotto. . . Then I could be at home all of the time and just be creative and can be! Sounds like a good plan to me!

Anyway, here is a cute little project I did using a great pattern from one of my favorite embroidery pattern sites (http://www.emblibrary.com/). Basically I took a piece of organza and embroidered the pumpkin pattern on it, sewed up the back of the sleeve, and voila! Candle sleeve.

I need to do a couple of these for Christmas. . .

Gingerbread Plate Glazed and Fired

2011-10-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here's my gingerbread plate completed. I don't think the picture really does it justice. Each one of the houses, trees, candy canes, stars, and gingerbread men is raised. The plate is really impressive in person. I'm so happy with it, and I really like that I painted the lyrics to Home for the Holidays on it. I have it on a stand in my dining room. If only this s all I had to do to get ready for Christmas!

Busy Bees!

2011-10-16T01:23:00.000-07:00

My friend Denyse owns a ceramics shop in La Verne and my daughter and I were invited to "Ladies Night" tonight. Apparently this is an adults only event but my daughter is so well behaved and so artistic that she is not only allowed to attend but encouraged to come and share. That makes a mamma proud!

I took on a rather ambitious project tonight. It's a beautiful Christmas platter that I did by antiquing the background, then filling in all of the little details. As the night wore on, there seemed to more and more details! But the details are what make this plate so special.

The sample one had a verse from "The Night Before Christmas" written on it. I decided on "Home for the Holidays" because the plate has so many little houses on it, and because "Home for the Holidays" was one of the first Christmas songs I could play on the piano. My plate reads "Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays. . . for no matter how far away you roam. . .If you long for the sunshine of a friendly face. . . for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home."

I also added a little house in the center of the plate, which was really a birdhouse but I painted to look more Christmasy. Can't wait to see this one glazed and fired!

My daughter was not in such a Christmas mood. I know most people aren't in October but I do love Christmas! She made a whimsical frog, a happy turtle, and a really neat painting palette with a little bee on it. See, we were busy bees!

Another Cute Reading Bag

2011-10-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had several shirts to embroider for a friend. She's a teacher and had me embroider the school's name on them. They turned out really cute. It kind of got me back in the mood to do some more embroidery.

If you recall, a few months ago I embroidered a bag to hold my NookColor (that's my ereader in case you don't know), and a friend at work wanted a bag for hers as well. So I did a little different version of "Once Upon a Time" for her.

I love taking a dollar bag from the Dollar Tree and turning it into a one of a kind piece! :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. . .

2011-10-09T23:53:00.000-07:00

If you've read any of my blog you know how much I love the Fall (and Winter), pretty much from Labor Day until I'm forced to take the Christmas tree down in January. So I am happy that temperatures are starting to drop and I am starting Holiday projects!!!

This month at art class we did a Halloween plate. Here it is before firing. The way we did this was to sketch out the design on a blank plate, and then paint away.

Just as a side note, most of the ceramic paint we used as kids or use in a ceramics studio now are not suitable for this kind of technique. The standard paints cannot be used on top of each other. They are like a liquid glass that will melt together and make a muddy mess. The paints we used on this project are ones specifically made to work more like acrylics. Not perfectly the same, but better than the standard ones.

Here is the plate after the final glazing. The shiny finish kept catching the camera's flash. I keep thinking this plate will look adorable with a plate of Halloween cupcakes on it!

Hibiscus as Summer Winds down

2011-08-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

Ding dong the witch is dead, the wicked witch. . . Yes, you know I see the Summer as the Wicked Witch and it's almost over. Yippee! Can't wait for those cool breezes and sweater weather. And as I say that we are in for 90 degree plus temps next week. At least the nights have been almost chilly for the past week. We are getting glimpses of Fall, and it couldn't make me happier.

So for art class this month we went back to acrylics and I struggled as usual with them, but in the end the painting turned out pretty good.

I really like the lady bugs on the leaves. They add a nice touch. Randi said she put them in there just for my daughter, who absolutely loves lady bugs. The stamens got a little crazy I think. The one on the big flower looks like Aladdin's shoe, lol. But we are so critical of our own work, aren't we?

The colors are nice and I'm enjoying it hanging in my tiny, 6x6 cubicle. Seriously- it's a mouse hole!

Loving Machine Embroidery

2011-08-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

So, what do you get when you buy a $1 nylon bag with a bow on it at the Dollar Tree, and you embroider "Once upon a Time" on it? You get a darling bag that is just perfect to hold your nook color e-reader. Really, I am so pleased with this project. It is just too cute!

Here's a close up of the embroidery. So now I carry this with me everywhere and it lowers the chance of leaving my nook color at Applebees, like I did a couple of weeks ago. That was not a fun experience, and thank heavens it was looked up in the manager's office when I drove back there at 11:45pm. Yes, I would not let my precious e-reader spend the night away from home without me! :) But I don't want to lose the bag either, so I tend to make sure I have it.

It's the perfect size to hold my nook color, my up close reading glasses (don't ask- it's too depressing), a cleaning cloth, and any other trinket I must have with me. I've even been known to throw my wallet in there and carry it as a purse in a pinch.

So, looks like some of my e-reading friends might be getting something similar for Christmas. . .

My Talented Daughter

2011-07-29T23:14:00.000-07:00

I think I finally managed to learn to crochet when I was about 35. At 10 My daughter is already making darling amigurumi animals, and she isn't asking me to explain instructions, other than some odd stitch now and then that I'd have to look up anyway.

She did this little guy while she was on Summer vacation, because just like her mom she gets bored out of her mind when she has nothing creative to do. We have a great pattern for a giraffe (you know how much I love them!) so that's up next. She also made a really cute parrot for my sister in law, who writes these fabulous pirate stories.

I think she is crocheting amazingly well (especially since she is only 10), and the little creatures she is making are really cute.

Tigger Tiger Burning Bright!

2011-07-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

Pardon the blurry picture. My camera must have had some sort of schmutz on the lens or something. That happens a lot with my phone camera It looks like that camera lens they use to blur out a fading actress so you can't see the wrinkles. Hmm. . . what does that say about me?

Anyway, here is my creation from my monthly art class. This one is my favorite medium, watercolor and a bit of colored pencil. The one needs to be framed. I love tigers. It's tough to get those stripes to follow the muscle line of his body. His big yawn makes me sleepy. . .

Summer Morning Glories

2011-06-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Summer, everyone! I cannot believe the Summer Solstice has just passed. Weren't we just wrapping presents and eating beef wellington and waiting for Santa?

I have a little confession to make. I'm one of these unusual people who don't really love Summer the way most people do. There are some who just relish in the heat and love the long, long days. Me? Not so much. I like to put on a sweater and work on crochet without roasting under the weight of the yarn I'm working with. When the wind turns cool and the pumpkins appear I am much happier than when I'm hiding in the air conditioned house - or worse- sweltering at a baseball game.

I'm currently working on a really beautiful shawl that might get done for Christmas, if I'm lucky! It's a more complex pattern that turns into lace if I follow the pattern properly. That's easier said than done. Here's the pattern: Shawl

I took another crack at the crocheted Granny Square Wrap from a couple of years ago. Here's the post where I started it: Granny Square Wrap Oh, what a difference a couple of years of experience make in crochet! A few years ago I tried to make the wrap from Red Heart and I just could not get it to work. This all started because Red Heart posted on Facebook asking about a project you never finished. That darned granny square wrap came to mind, and I decided to give it another try. This time I sat down and just crocheted it, without even thinking about it. But I can't finish anything without starting something else, so it's about 1/3 of the way finished. I have a take along project (the shawl) and a work at home project (the wrap). I am quite sure I am not the only one who works this way! :)

So, on to the morning glories. This is from art class a couple of weeks ago, painted and drawn with my own little hands. I believe this mixed medium technique is one of my all time favorites. The background is painted with watercolors and the details are done in colored pencil. And you know how much I love those two mediums!

I liked this one so much I framed it and hung it in my 6x6 mouse hole, also known as my work cubicle. It brightens up my tiny space. The morning glories are the exact opposite of my personality. They show their lovely faces in the sun and curl up by the afternoon. I start to shine when the sun cools off.

So happy Summer to you!

Watercolor Class

2011-05-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on getting these watercolors posted to my blog, but here they are. This was a class from a couple of Sundays ago where we were to learn to work quickly and evoke different moods and seasons using watercolors.

Randi put us through our paces. I think we prepared at least 10 sheets but in the 5 hours we were there I really only finished these 5. I have lots more started.

These birch trees are one of my favorites. It's kind of an early Autumn feeling with rain in the background. I think birch trees are just so neat to look at anyway.

Next is an ocean scene. I love the colors of the rock on this one. Really pretty. You know how much I love watercolors. The soft, dreamy hues just appeal to me.

This one is kind of a Spring day with the clouds rolling around. Big, fluffy clouds that can't decide if they will bring a Spring shower or not. The poppy fields are nice in the front too.

Here's a gorgeous Summer sky with the more wispy white clouds. Don't you just want to take the dogs for a romp through the flowers?

And finally another ocean scene with the gray skies and some spray. I kept joking about the purple mountain majesty in the background, but no one was overly amused in class. :) I think we were all a bit tired from trying to do so many little scenes at once.

Blankies for Twins

2011-05-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

God bless parents who have twins because as much as I love my kids, bringing two home at once would have been tough! I made these blankets for friends who had twins who arrived last Sunday.

As usual my photography skills aren't the best, but hopefully you can see the edging that I crocheted, and the names done with my amazing embroidery machine.

This was a fairly easy embroidery project because I opted to use variegated thread for the names. Not having to switch thread makes the project go more quickly, plus I didn't do anything fancy like add a saying or a picture or anything. I thought they were sweet with the fabric, the crocheted edges, and the little girls' names on them.

Learning to use my embroidery machine has been an interesting journey. There is so much to know, and when projects turn into a huge mess, it's hard to know what went wrong. Thank goodness for the Internet!

I bought Embird embroidery software which seems to be the one everyone loves to use. It's not super easy, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too hard. Not knowing how to machine embroider was a bigger learning curve. Now that I have a little experience I can start to use more features of the software. I'm able to join designs together and make changes to what I've got, and I bought a CD to show me how to split a large design so that I can embroider things larger than the small hoop would otherwise allow.

I've also learned that there is this whole world of stabilizers that will make or break a project. One of the first things I tried to embroider was a t-shirt. I really should have scoured the Internet because the first shirts I tried to embroidered were. . . well, disasters. I have this darling Baseball Mom pattern that I thought would be cute to wear to baseball games. Four (yes four!!!) broken needles later and a shirt with huge holes in it, I realized I had better find out what was going wrong.

I think that I will do a whole blog entry on embroidering t-shirts because there is so much to talk about. Bottom line is that I have it worked out and now I can embroider t-shirts, but it took some patience. :) More later!

French Flower Market- Work in Progress

2011-05-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

This painting isn't done yet, hence the "work in progress" title. I have some more flowers to finish in the market, and a few other touches, but I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would show you one piece that I am extremely proud of, even though it's not quite done.

This was a study in how the light falls on the cobblestones and plays on the windows of the cafe and the cheese shop. I also learned ow easy it is to make little streaks and lines and swirls of paint look like real flowers. Some times it's all about the illusion, fooling the eye into making the brain think that's what there, even if it isn't what is really there. And that's when it is really fun!

I'll post another picture of it when I get around to finishing it. This one is acrylics on canvas. Next class is watercolors. Woot woot!

Flowers for Teacher

2011-05-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

My daughter is so clever. She used an old technique and took a soda bottle and covered it with flowers, tissue, and glue to make a beautiful vase. You can't see the pretty leaves glued under the tissue, but there are green leaves and flower leaves.

Then she went out in our garden and cut roses. All I did was help her tie the bow. This is Teacher Appreciation Week and she is taking this beautiful gift to her teacher. I love how she added a pencil to make it seem like school. Isn't that sweet? What teacher wouldn't love it?

Sorry for the quality of the photo. I took a quick shot of it with my iTouch and it isn't the greatest shot. It's still pretty, though.

Art Class - Fancy Goldfish

2011-04-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! I so look forward to my art classes, and Sunday was an adventure in acrylics. We painted a fancy goldfish. Here is a shot of me working on the background, well before I got tired and frustrated working on the gossamer like tail. My daughter and I agreed that this was one of the hardest painting classes so far. The fish was pretty easy, but the fins and tail were a whole new concept, which was good to learn, but a difficult technique.

Normally at this part of a blog entry showing you a painting I talk about how I really like the way this one came out and so on.

Between you and me, I hate the mouth on this fish. I did not see the inspiration picture for this particular piece, so perhaps there is a fancy goldfish out there with a mouth like a dolphin's, but in my tank all my fancy goldfish have round mouths. You know, when we imitate goldfish fish how we always puff out our cheeks and make kissing noises? That's how they look. Not this weird, pointy nosed fish.

So I'm thinking when I find a few minutes (I guess that will be about the same time the pigs fly through my living room, right?) that I will repaint the mouth to look more goldfish like. I don't think he's very happy with his nose either. He's a bit grumpy looking. . . . And his crown is too big. Maybe I shopuld just start painting a whole new fish. It might be easier. :)

More Baby Blankets

2011-03-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

Are you bored yet? Sorry. Just have to show you some of the latest. I've got a nice little market going for these blankies. It's Spring and all these baby showers are going on. Who wouldn't love a homemade, gorgeous blanket at their baby shower? I loved the homemade things the best when my babies were born.

This pretty flower blanket is one I did before I got the embroidery machine. I love the happy little flowery fleece. It's got kind of a retro feel, you know? I did a crochet scallop along the edge with variegated yarn. It's really soft and cuddly. The hand embroidery was so-so. I much prefer my machine, as I'm sure you guessed.

This blue beauty is a present for my daughter's friend who lives next store. I"m ashamed to say her birthday was the middle of February, and I just finished it last night. Our neighbors are the best and totally understanding. In February I worked crazy hours and just did not have the time, so I know they understand. Plus this one is quite a bit bigger than a baby blanket, so it took quite a bit longer.

On this blanket I used another variegated yard with blues and teals. I love the wintry, elegant feel of this fleece pattern. So gorgeous! Do you see the initials I embroidered? They are a pansy motif and turned out pretty. My daughter's friend seemed to really like it.

I learned a lot this weekend with the embroidery machine, such as the fact that stabilizer on the back of the fleece is a must, otherwise the pattern just sinks away into the nap of the fabric. And that T shirts area a lot harder to embroider than I thought. One ruined T shirt later I am trying different stabilizers to see what works best. I'll keep you posted!

Guess What I Got??

2011-03-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

Someone once told me to combine my talents to make something special. I’m one of these people who can do a lot of different things, but I’m not a rock star at one particular thing. I can do many things quite well, but there is not one thing that I absolutely excel at. So I meander along, learning everything I possibly can about any craft that interests me. And I’m OK with that. It makes me happy.

My latest passion is machine embroidery, because guess who got an embroidery machine for her birthday last month? Yes, yes, it’s me!!!! My hubby got me a Brother SE 400 which is a pretty amazing little machine, let me tell you. Of course, after a few weeks I’m already wishing I had a 5 x 7 hoop (Mine has a 4x4), but as soon as I figure out which embroidery software I want I imagine I’ll be combining designs up a storm. I’m leaning towards Embird software, but if any of you readers have some recommendations, I’m all ears (or eyes as the case may be in blogging)!

So, as for combining my talents, here is a baby blanket I made. I crocheted the edge and then embroidered the sentiment. Isn’t totally cute?? The fairies go every which way, so don’t think I did it all upside down. I mean, I could actually have done that, but not this time, thank you very much!

Here is another one. This was one of my first efforts and I learned pretty quickly that busy fabrics don’t mix well with embroidery. They just kind of get lost. But if you look for it, there is an embroidered chick, a monogram A, and the little girl’s name, Autumn, on the corner. I think next time if I were to use this busy patterned fleece, I would applique a plain piece of fabric and then stitch the fancy stuff. But it was good practice and I’m sure the baby will not mind a bit.

So that’s what I am up to. I have some baseball designs I’m working on for the upcoming season (although in our travel ball house baseball just goes on forever, through all seasons. . .) I am loving this machine so much! Did I tell you it sews too? It’s a great price for the sewing and embroidery and I am one happy girl.

Art Class - Waterfall Painting

2011-02-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was art class (and a week later I'm getting around to blogging. . .)

Anyway, this one is a Fall landscape, acrylic on canvas. Yes, I am a big fan of watercolors and usually prefer to paint with them, but the rest of the class all seem to love acrylics. In fact, most people I talk to who paint prefer acrylics or oils. I think the comment is usually that they like paint to stay where they put it. As usual, I am one who likes something different than everyone else. :) My teacher promises that a watercolor class is coming in the next month or two.

It's not that I don't like acrylics. I love the way they smell and the way they feel when the brush its the canvas, so I it's not like I hate working with them. It's just that when I mix watercolors I envision exactly how the color will work. With acrylics it's a lot more work, but good practice.

In the meantime (as in while I wait for my watercolor class), this one turned out well. Just like everything else, it simply takes practice an an excellent teacher. Some natural talent helps, but isn't absolutely mandatory. I hung this at work and dream of sitting by the waterfall when work gets a bit stressful.

Get the Pitchforks, Light the Torches, and Gather the Angry Mob. . .

2011-02-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Then head to my door. But only if you are someone who is in love with the Joseph Angel House. Why? Well, I sold my Joseph Angel House.

Is it safe to come out? (I'm peeking around the corner making sure it's safe.)

I deliberated this for a long time. As much as I like the JA house, it became very clear to me after a couple of years of staring at the shell that this house wasn't for me. Every doll house I have ever had has told me exactly what it wanted to be. . except this one. Not a word. I just couldn't figure out what to do with it.

So a few weeks ago I was talking to my coworker and saying that maybe it was time to think about selling the JA house, and that afternoon a synchronicity moment happened. I got an email from a lady who had been reading my blog, asking if I knew where she could get a JA house.

I figured that was a sign. So we started emailing back and forth and in the end she sent me a check and I dropped of my JA house at a freight company and waved goodbye to it as it went off to its new home back East.

I thought I would feel bad and would regret letting it go, but you know, I feel kind of liberated. The JA House just wasn't for me, and when I finally decided to let it go it really just felt right. I hope the lady who bought it will cherish it and it will be everything she dreams of it. She told me that dollhouses are like real houses. You can admire one but not want to live it in (or work on it in the case of a dollhouse), which makes perfect sense.

So. . . now I've been dreaming about what house I really want to replace it. My top contenders are the Queen Anne by Real Good Toys and the Glencliff by Earth and Tree Miniatures. I think I'll wait a while and finish up some other things I have going on, but at least I have room for a really big dollhouse now.

There. Now you can send the angry mob home, right? :)

Wordless Wednesday (Or Bored in a Meeting the Day Before. . . )

2011-02-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

Thrift Store Find

2011-02-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

About two years ago I found a real life house size cabinet at at thrift store for about $25. Can't resist telling you about a good bargain! It was scratched up and generally beat up, but it was solid wood and I knew with a little elbow grease it would be fabulous! Of course it sat in my garage for months until I finally got up the energy to start refinishing it.

Last weekend I just had the feeling that I had to get this project done. My nephew had started stripping it a while back (but got bored with it and didn't get very far), and it was on my back patio and I didn't want it to get ruined by the weather. Plus I knew it was going to rain so I figured I had better get it sealed. Yes, friends, it really does rain in Southern California now and then! ;-)

Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures. I really thought I took a picture of it when I brought it home, but I can't find it. It had old fashioned hardware, golden oak stain, and lots of scratches and dings.

Here it is all stripped and ready for stain. I decided on red oak. You know I have a bit of a fancy for things with a red tint to them! The top part has two shelves with cabinet doors and the bottom has three drawers. When I saw it in the thrift store I imagined all my craft books in the top cabinet and my yarn and fabric stash in the drawers.

I finished sealing it wit polycrylic on Sunday and I put it all back together. I think it turned out really pretty! With my love of instant gratification, it's shocking I had the patience to finish this.

The glass had to be replaced because it broke during the refinishing project. It had ugly etching on it anyway, and I am much happier with the clear glass. I replaced all of the old, brass hardware with silver handles and knobs with beaded edges.

Now I just have to enlist the help of my hubby to get it up to my loft so I can use it. This turned out so well that now I'm going to look for a thrift store desk to refinish. You just can't find hardwood pieces at such good prices other than a thrift store. With just a little work and patience you can create something beautiful.

Peace Blanket

2011-01-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

I made this blanket for my daughter's friend for her birthday in the beginning of December. It was a quick project. I started it on Saturday at my son's baseball tournament and finished it Sunday morning. In case you are wondering, we are playing travel ball so many weekends are filled with baseball these days!

The friend loved the blanket. She is a huge fan of peace signs. This whole look would not have been my first choice, but when you are making a present, you have to make something they like, right?

In other news, I have finally started piano lessons. Yes, after all these years of whining about it, my husband found me a teacher and I have taken two lessons and I'm motivated to continue. I'm learning a lot! Cross that off of the "bucket list." :) Now if I could just find a way to pay for culinary school. . . . Oh, and the time to go. That would help.

Christmas Catch Up

2011-01-19T22:49:00.000-08:00

I didn't post a single thing in December. I just was too caught up in running around and getting ready for Christmas this year.

On the plus side, it didn't seem as stressful this year so that's nice. I thought I'd post some pictures of what things looked like after the fact. Christmas in January? Well, why not.

Here all of our stockings (including the doggies' ones) are hung with care. I think Santa has visited in this picture!

Look at my darling daughter's attempt to fix our reindeer in the yard when I couldn't find the real antlers. These "antlers" came off of the Christmas tree. I found the real antlers later that night, but we laughed so hard at the tree antlers that I had to share.

Then we have the actual tree. This is the first year in about 10 years that we did not use an artificial tree. Yes, Virginia, it's a real tree! Part of the reason is that when we moved things around after the flood, the room we normally put the tree in is now the dining room. It has the high ceilings. The game room now (used to be the dining room) has lower ceilings and our artificial tree was too tall for the room.

I must admit it was wonderful to smell the pine. This picture doesn't really do the tree justice. The ribbons were really pretty and the lights were all red. Yes, I realize it's crooked. I think the tree was actually crooked. My husband and I made sure it was absolutely straight in the holder, and it still leaned. We finally gave up and just decided that it added to its charm.

Right before Christmas I got my ceramic hand built soup tureen painted. I built this one about three years ago and Randi got after me to "get it done, already!" I dropped it off on the porch of her shop the week before Christmas on my way to work so she could fire it. I'm glad I did because it turned out really pretty.

It was just the bowl and the lid in green ware when I started on it. Green ware is the soft clay before it is fired the first time and becomes bisque. In class we cut out the poinsettia leaves, rolled holly berries, made holly leaves and bows. Once that was all put on it was fired into bisque. All I had to do for the last three years is paint the darn thing, but at least I did it. Here is a picture of the top so you can see the bow. It looked really pretty in the center of the table.

I made a beef wellington for Christmas Eve and we all agreed it was an amazing meal! I grabbed a quick picture of it as it was resting. Next time I make it I will put in on a rack so the juices won't make the bottom mushy. I used Gordon Ramsay's recipe and it was perfect and actually pretty easy.

And what did I get for Christmas? I got a NookColor. Oh my gosh! This thing is soooooo neat! You know I got the nook classic last year and loved it, but this color one is my favorite new toy ever. It's andriod based, lets me surf the web, watch movies, and play games. Magazines are in full color and look just like paper ones. I could go on and on, but suffice to say I was very happy with what Santa brought me!

I think I am caught up with Christmas. Hope your holidays were merry and bright!

Stay Tuned. . .

2011-01-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

How time flies! I can't believe it's been two months since I last blogged. I have been very busy with so many neat projects and I have so much to show you, but of course I don't have the time right this minute, but I did want to post just to let you know all is well and that I will be back this week with photos and lots of neat things. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, I've been baking and cooking. In the Winter I love to munch on wonderful baked goods (even though it's been 80 degrees this week. Never mind that. I'm baking anyway!). Right before Christmas I took lemon bars and buckeyes (peanut butter and chocolate balls) to work for a treat. So yummy!

And at my local Whole Foods market I discovered real English clotted cream last week. Have you ever had this stuff? It's cream at the stage just before butter, with all of the extra liquid removed. OK, I know there is a whole process involved, but I'm trying to give you an idea of what it is. So imagine something that isn't quite whipped cream and isn't yet butter. It's more like the consistency of thick sour cream, but it doesn't taste like that. I probably haven't done a great job pf explaining, but this stuff is heaven in a jar. I made homemade scones last just to have something to eat clotted cream on. I eat it on fruit, baked goods, and the kids caught me just spooning it out of the jar into my mouth the other day. I'm not ashamed. It's that good!

Speaking of dairy products, my daughter and I did a neat kitchen experiment. We took a pint of organic cream (from Trader Joe's, of course) and ran it through the mixer with the whisk attachment until it turned into butter. Someone asked me, "Why would you do that when you can buy butter?" Well, one thing is that it tastes sooooo good, and the other is it was interesting to watch it go through the stages. It starts as cream, then goes to whipped cream, to stiff whipped cream, to something like clotted cream (but not quite) and then in an instant the butter starts to clump together and the buttermilk separates, and it's an amazing thing. Why, yes, I grew up in the city. How'd you guess?

My daughter was fascinated. We used the buttermilk to make scones. She pronounced the resulting butter as the best butter ever. Just goes to show that when your kids make something, they will eat it and like it.

Just had to share that, because it was quite a teaching moment. I learned that you must cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap because as soon as the butter separates from the buttermilk it will naturally fly all over the kitchen. Hey, look at that. Butter, buttermilk, and butterfly. :) Have you missed me?

Christmas Plates

2010-11-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

Art class today! This time it was ceramic plates and I did one of my family (and dogs) as snow people (or snow dogs) and my daughter did a funny reindeer.

They have to be glazed and fired and the colors will be much brighter. I love the snow dogs. If you look closely the dog on the left has eyelashes. That's Penny. Ninja is the one on the right. The people (from the left) are my son, my husband, me (in my usual sun hat) and my daughter.

Now the little reindeer my daughter painted is so adorable! The pink lines are Sharpie marker that she used to trace the pattern on. We drew the design on tissue and then used Sharpie marker to trace it on. The marker will burn off when it gets fired. I love the face on this little guy. It's so sweet!

I can't believe we're a week and a half away from Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving but how can it be here already? I have so much to do! :)

Baby Blanket Palooza!

2010-11-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

Last year I bought the skip stitch blade and made all kinds of neat blankets. The skip stitch is a blade for your rotary cutter and it cuts holes at various intervals so you can crochet an edge around a piece of fleece.

A couple of weeks ago I got a request for a couple of blankets and the skip stitch blade was nowhere to be found. Who knows where it went after the loft remodel earlier this year!

So I ordered the Edgerydo, which I wanted anyway. The edgerydo is a Plexiglas template with holes in it. You fold the fleece into quarters, then you take the template and use the awl to punch holes around the edge. One shot and you are done. I love it! Here's the website if you want one of your very own:

http://www.edgerydoo.com/edgerydoo.html

I've made three blankets so far and I'm working on one for the family which is baseball themed fleece. The neat thing about this project is that it's quick gratification. The setup for the project is easy and quick. The only thing that takes anytime is the crocheting of the edges. But you can easily create one of these fun little blankets in a weekend.

All Hallows Eve. . .

2010-10-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, everyone!

You know the one house on the block that goes a little crazy every Halloween? The one with the fog, the graveyard in the front yard, the flashing lights, spiderwebs, and the creepy sounds coming from it? Yep, that's our house.

We spent all day getting this together and it turned out really great. I don't think I'd go to this much work all by myself, but my husband just loves Halloween and he gets a kick out of everyone Trick or Treating and taking pictures in our yard.

The poor little ones are convinced that someone will come jumping out to scare them, but we never do that. I hate to be scared! I just like the house to look really cool.

This was also the first year that my kids carved their own pumpkins. My son wants an iTouch, so guess what he carved?

My daughter went traditional on her pumpkin.

Here's to hoping your All Hallows Eve was safe and spooky!

It's Wreath Time!

2010-10-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, as the holidays approach I'm starting on my wreaths. I made two Halloween ones tonight. Really gets the cute but spooky feeling going, doesn't it?

This first one is on a grapevine wreath. The webs are crocheted and sprayed with fabric stiffener. The spiders are crocheted and I've been told several times they look like an octopus. My answer to that is why would an octopus be in a web? :)

The second one has the same elements but the wreath is different. It's on a thinner, lighter wreath. I kind of like the grapevine wreath better but this one is cute too. I ran out of ribbon or I would have made the bow a bit bigger. In fact, the more I look at this wreath the more I think it needs something. It's a little sparse looking. Maybe I'll add some ribbon around the edges or something. I found the little jack-o-lanterns at Wal-Mart and I thought they were cute.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, what's with jerky people there? I guess you find them anywhere, but tonight I picked up a few things there and I limped out to the car, pushed the basket out of the way but on to the sidewalk, and the guy waiting for my parking spot yelled at me to put the basket away. Umm, whatever, dude. I guess he doesn't know about my injury,but why be a jerk anyway? OK, I feel better now that I got that off my chest.

I can't believe Halloween is this Sunday. Next thing I know it will be Christmas! As much as I love Christmas I'm not quite ready for that yet! :)

My visit to the Dr this morning was good. He said my leg is healing nicely and it should be a lot better in a few weeks. That's excellent news.

Limping Along. . .

2010-10-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

What a crazy week! Last Saturday night I was leaning over the sofa to turn on the lights (the switch is on the wall above the sofa) and my left foot slipped. Something in my calf muscle popped and I went down. A trip to urgent care on Sunday confirmed that I have a torn calf muscle. Is that a freak thing or what? I took Monday off but responsibilities at work had me back on Tuesday. I feel almost totally helpless. You know what an active life I have and being on crutches has slowed me down to the point where I feel like I can't be me!

On the bright side it will heal and thank the Lord it wasn't my Achilles. That would be a really long recovery. Tomorrow I have a follow up appointment so I should know more of what to expect then. But for a girl who never sits still, this is pretty frustrating. Last Sunday was my art class and I missed it because I was so miserable.

I was able to go pick up my Fall ceramic projects yesterday and boy did they turn out cute! Randi carved our family name into this one while it was green ware. I painted it with glaze and almost looks like a carved wooden pumpkin.

I bought a battery operated flickering tea light at Big Lots and it looks perfect inside the pumpkin.

The next pumpkin has "Come in for a Spell" carved on it. My daughter painted it. I love the little froggy on the right side!

I put a flickering tea light in it and it looks ready for Halloween too. My daughter did an excellent job on it!

I also painted a plate stand. This is more for Thanksgiving than Halloween. The base has pumpkins and the sides are sponged yellow over a wheat design. This picture shows the base with the glazed pumpkins and the wheat colored base.

I bought a fall plate and glued it on to the top of the stand. You can see the top in this shot. Why did I buy a plate instead of making one? I just ran out of time and I was afraid I'd never get this one done if I committed to painting the plate.I used one that was more like a bowl. I have plenty of cake stands, but I can see this holding the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, can't you?

Another Curly Scarf

2010-10-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

My friends just can't get enough of this type of scarf, so I feel like I'm making one pretty much all of the time.

This one was for a friend's birthday. It's made from variegated brown and tan boucle. It's really, really soft and almost looks like an animal print.

There's lots and lots of free curly scarf patterns on the web, so if you want to make one, you have a lot to choose from. This pattern is so easy you can make it in one or two nights. I seem to always be frantically crocheting to finish this kind of scarf on Christmas Eve or the night before someone's birthday. What? Poor planning you say? Nah, I'm just an artistic type, that's all. :)

New Address Postcard. . .

2010-10-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

Digital that is. If you look at the address bar of your browser, it should now say http://www.minimischief.com/. I got my very own minimischief domain and I managed to redirect it all by myself. It probably should say "www.blog.minimischief.com," but I can fix that later, probably with my techie hubby's help. But for now, woo hoo look at me! I'm official. :)

I've been really swamped as usual with the new job, but I've managed to crochet a bit at night AND I joined Ann Venture's book of the month club which is pretty neat. I just got my first book this week and I hope to assemble it before the week is up. If you belong to the club for 24 months you get this really neat miniature bookcase at the end of the subscription. I imagine it will take me that long to assemble all these books! If you're not familiar with Paper Minis, check out Ann's site at http://www.paperminis.com/. If you sign up for her newsletter you'll get her free printies every month and they are really something. Take a look. :)

My Favorite Painting Yet. . .

2010-09-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

I've been messing around with my blog design for the last hour and I've decided to give it a break. It's really annoying me, but I guess it's "good enough." I have "perfectionist" issues that sometimes make me crazy, so I'll give up on it and type my entry instead.

Last weekend was art class and we did a river rock scene. The technique we were learning was to make the rocks look round and add shadowing, and make it look as if there was water flowing through the picture.I like the Fall leaf floating merrily along.

It's funny, because Randi said, "Remember when you were learning to draw and you had to do the shading on the sphere?" Well, yes! I do! I just did that fairly recently. A light bulb seemed to go off in my head and this one just came together.

Most of the time I have Randi fix my errors and help me with things I have trouble with. This time it was all me. God Lord, am I actually learning to paint? Could it be true?

This is a small piece, maybe 9 x 12, on canvas and in acrylics. I smile when I look at at. And I said I like watercolors better. Hmmmm. . . I may need to rethink that one. :)

Bear with Me. . .

2010-09-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a little while since I've posted. I started a new job (same company) and it's kept me rocking and rolling.

Tonight I logged on to my blog to find that my background providers had a bandwith issue and my lovely theme was now this nasty little photobucket error message. Argh. So I just spent the last hour putting up a new background and my header is messeed up (missing, really) and I'm totally annoyed.

I don't even feel like showing you the best painting I've done to date. Mainly because I haven't taken a photo of it yet, but it's something I'm REALLY proud of.

So this weekend I'll take a few minutes to fix the mess and do some posting. Sorry for the mess and the long absence. I really love my blog but sometimes life just gets in the way. . .

Art Class: Watercolor Scene

2010-08-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

If I didn't attend art class, I don't think I'd ever find time for anything creative this Summer. Casey of Casey's Minis recognized me with an award in the hopes I'd get back to minis. While I appreciate the award, it's depressing that I need motivation to get back to what I love, you know?

Is anyone else just tired? I'm so busy running around in circles all the time when I finally have a few minutes to do something fun, my "off" switch triggers and I'm done for the night. Some mornings the "on" switch is really slow to trigger too these days.

But anyway, back to class. This week was a watercolor lesson. I find watercolors much easier than acrylics. Other painters I know think I'm crazy when I say that. They paint with oils and acrylics and get just exactly what they want, but me? I struggle with acrylics and get something nice (sometimes), but with watercolors I seem to get what the effect without too much fuss. It's still a struggle every class, but each time it's getting a little bit easier. In another 20 years I might even feel like I'm getting somewhere! :)

This week we painted a Mediterranean scene on paper. I like this one for the plants and the vines, the trees, and the shadowing. I also like the flagstone courtyard. It's been so hot here I'd like to walk right into the painting, across the courtyard, and out into the ocean. Where's Mary Poppins when I need her?

Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer - Not!

2010-08-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of the busiest Summers I can remember. And I'm usually so busy anyway that all this activity isn't helping me get to anything I want to do. I know, I'm sure you, my friends, get very tired of reading how annoyed I am that I don't have time to do anything. That's what my blog should be titled "I need more time for art!" :)

The last weekend in July was my husband's family reunion. I won't write much about it because sometimes his family reads my blog, but let's just say it was luckily just for one afternoon and a couple of rum and cokes got me through. ; ) That same night was my husband's high school reunion, and we enjoyed that, even if one of his friends tried to get me to go home with him. Umm, hello? I suppose it was flattering, but pretty crazy.

The best part about having family here was that my husband's older brother and wife stayed with us, and the wife has written a book and asked me to edit the next one for her. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but it is a dream of mine to become a writer, and this fun lady is actually doing it. I'm not sure if it's a sign telling me it's time to go for it or what. At any rate, I'm ready to start the editing process for her book this week and I'm looking forward to it. Yes, one more thing, I know, but I feel like it will get my creative writing juices going.

My kids actually went back to school this week. That's the real end of Summer, no matter what the temperature outside says. It seems like they hardly has a break. I'm so proud of my son who started middle school and was accepted into the honors program. It will be fun to see him challenged.

And, on top of everything else, I've been promoted and I'm moving into a new position at work. I'm trying to do two jobs as I transition from the old one into the new one. I'm really excited, but the days fly by as I try to keep up with everything.

July and August mean the Orange County Fair and I've been going since I was a little girl. Last weekend we took the kids to see Styx at the Fair for their first concert. They like the music, and I just can't stomach Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, or (shudder) Justin Beiber. Sorry, guys, you can see who I like for now. But we all agreed that Weird All Yankovich would be fun, and we saw him at the Fair last night. What an amazing concert- the man is so talented, and he keeps you laughing the entire time. My kids thought that was much more fun than Styx, but I really enjoyed them both.

So that's what I've been up to the past few weeks. Soon it will turn chilly and I'll be in the house more, but for now I'll keep running my usual 100 miles and hour and catch up when I can. Beep, beep! :)

Monkey Bread!

2010-07-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make my homemade cinnamon rolls tonight, but that's about a three hour project. This works to solve the cinnamon roll craving and is pretty easy, made with refrigerator biscuit dough. Yumm. . . I made this pretty one to take to work for a potluck tomorrow and a smaller one for my family. The cream cheese icing is sooooo good!

Loft Redux

2010-07-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

I love redux. It's a cool word. "Brought back" as in literature, film music, etc. Well, I have once again redone my loft, or Studio as I like to think of it. This is the room where I work on the computer, read, watch TV, work on minis, paint, and so on. It's my special part of the house. Umm, don't mind the dusty plant in the foreground. I"ll get to it. :) Here's what it looks like heading up the stairs to my little world.

After the flood forced us to redo the downstairs, I decided to fix this room up.

I took out my old cutting table and brought in two six foot tables (donated to me by a friend). I mod podged the one, and I'll get to the other soon. The neatest part about this redo was that I took fabric and skirted the edges all around the tables, so my stash is totally hidden and everything looks neat. I also found a smaller futon at a fire sale at a place around the corner and it's perfect for the space!

Here's what it used to look like:

And here is what it looks like now! I know it's a bit busy, and it looks better in person, but it's got all my goodies in it and I totally love this space. You can see my covered toy box in the middle of the room. I have a tray on it so it's hard to see the fabric, but it matches the colors.

Not bad. Now everyone is complaining that I spend all of my time in here. Well, sorry! When you get it just how you want it, what do you expect? :)

Mischief in the "RL" House

2010-07-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Yep, real life gets in the way again! Most of us who work on miniatures love to work in our own houses as well.

I found this Tiffany style light in Lowe's a few weeks ago and fell in love with it. I have several Tiffany style lights in my house. No surprise there, is there? My kitchen has recessed lights, and I thought it should be pretty easy to convert the recessed light to the pendant one I bought. Let's say it began an adventure.

I bought a kit (recommended by the guy at Home Depot) and installed it all myself. I was so proud! It lit up and everything all in under an hour. I figured, Hey, I can do this in miniature, how hard can it be? Well, it was pretty easy, especially with a kit I purchased. The plan was for my husband to come home from playing softball and me to proudly announce, "Look what I did!"

Unfortunately, the kit wasn't quite the right thing for the type of recessed light in my ceiling, and it directed me to screw the hardware into non existant brackets, and basically I was trying to attach it to air.

Days later and several trips to Home Depot and Lowe's, I was told that if I ever started a project like this again, my husband would kill me. Yeah, yeah, famous last words! :) It's up, and it is gorgeous!

Adventures in Gardening

2010-07-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

Note: I posted the same story on my Mini Aussie Blog so no one would miss my misadventures. :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, after art class on Sunday where Paige and I made those really cool garden globes we felt inspired to work in the garden. We stopped at Home Depot and got some plants, and then set about weeding, planting, edging, and so on.

As my daughter was watering the strawberries on the topsy turvey, a big spider suddenly appeared. To say she hates spiders is a huge understatement. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed. I could see the goose bumps on her arms from 100 feet away. I got her in the house and killed the spider. OK, I couldn’t really find the spider, so I told her I killed it so she’d come back out. A little mommy magic goes a long way.

I got to work on the shed. It’s one of those plastic ones that never seems to stay together right. After a few minutes of pushing and prodding, I decided I’d have to take everything out of it and put all the pieces back together. As I pulled a box out from the back, a huge tree rat came bounding out. This may sound familiar, because something similar happened a couple of years ago so you’d think I would be prepared for the wildlife in the yard. But no. I screamed like a cartoon character, loud enough to wake the dead, or at least run off the rat. Or so I hoped.

This set my daughter off who screamed and ran in the house. And my faithful canine companions? They ran and hid under the dining room table. Thanks, guys. (Actually I think they were pretty smart- I wanted to hide under the table too at that point!)

This shed is right up against the fence of my neighbor’s house. About 20 seconds after I screamed, their bedroom window opened and my friend shouted, “Are you OK?” Now I was feeling a bit sheepish. I told her I was fine and a rat had startled me. She told me she was glad I was OK, because she’d just got out of the shower and if I needed help she’d be running down with nothing but a towel on!

She told me later, “The funniest thing about yesterday was that I had just gotten out of the shower and my husband had just jumped in. We heard the screaming over the rat and both just froze and stared at each other for 5 seconds. I was thinking either a rabid coyote had gotten into the yard (Coyotes Gone Wild!) or a mad man had entered your house and trying to kill everyone since your husband wasn’t home. So then I figured I should at least grab a towel if I was going to rescue you guys. My husband was scrambling to get out of the shower while I ran to the window to see if you would answer me. It was like a Bugs Bunny Cartoon in the bedroom! We laughed about that last night because we looked so ridiculous.” Thank God for good neighbors! And mine are awesome.

About the time my adrenaline had calmed down, my husband and son got home. I rushed to tell them the story, but they seemed a little nonplussed about the whole thing. My husband went out and helped me fix the shed, and then sat down on a fake rock we have next to the shed covering our sprinkler valves. That stupid rat must have been hiding behind that rock because the rat shot out from behind the rock, with me jumping up and down and screaming, “There it is! There it is! Get it! Get it!” The rat took off under our fountain rocks and my husband never even saw it. And now he keeps reminding me about an “alleged” rat. Alleged rats do not make me scream. Only real ones.

The neighbors (now dressed) came to look over their fence and the crazy woman being stalked by rats (I guess that’s me). We chatted for a while. . . and then my daughter encountered a worm in the soil where she was planting lantana and went into more screaming.

That was it. Enough screaming, spiders, rats, and worms. It was time to go in, get cleaned up, and have dinner. I am reminded of the scene in the second Indiana Jones movie where Willy screams at every horrible dinner dish she encounters. Who knew gardening was not for the feint of heart?

The dogs came back out after all the commotion. I can only assume the rat was no danger to me or they would have been there to protect me. Right?

Comment Moderation

2010-07-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

I am not happy. See the blue guy? Add steam to his ears and that's me right now. Once again I've had to turn on comment moderation because my earlier post today got slammed with "comments" from a Chinese porn site. And you know what, it makes me really mad! I love your comments! In fact I practically live for comments from those who read my mischief! I pull out my phone on my way to work every day and get all happy to see when you've commented on my writing. So this really annoys me that some scum bag makes me take steps to make it harder for you to talk to me.

Thank you to Trina for the nice comment and great advice in my earlier post. I may play with the image later tonight, but now I have tacos waiting to be put together.

A word of advice- when you have something cooking on the stove it is not really the best time pull the stove knobs off and clean them, no matter how much they need them.. I had this moment of, "Oh %@#! I need to turn off the meat and the knob is soaking!" An easy fix, but a duh moment, you know? :)

Blogger Template Frustration

2010-07-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

So. . . I have this notice on my little blog that Cutest Blog on the Block has had to move to a new server and I must download new code. Fine, no problem, except that I cannot get on the server to download the code to update it. Apparently everyone else is doing the same thing. So I figure I'll get a new template for a while from somewhere else and then when "Cutest" is back to normal, then I'll go back. Sounds like a plan to me.

Except that the background from my old template won't go away, and every new template I put on still shows the old background around the edges. . . and I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT!!!! Argh. So my blog is a mess for now until I can get it fixed. I'm usually so good at this! I've spent years working in IT departments and I'm getting a headache over this one. Probably in a few minutes I'll look at it again and go, Oh, duh. But for now please bear with me. I'm going to get a cold drink and let my mind wander over it for a few minutes.

Wish me luck!

Update: As the clocks strikes and as I suspected, it was something simple. An iced tea with a splash of blackberry syrup did me wonders! I think I got it. Now the question is do I really, really like this template? . . . I mean, it's quite cute, but it says "Be Trendy" and I'm about the last person in the world to be trendy. My dream in life is to be Donna Reed, which is maybe a sad dream to some of you, but I never wanted to be a career woman. I wanted to be a stay at home mom and I guess I made the wrong decisions along the way for that. But anyway (shakes her head to snap out of it) at least the template is fixed and I'll give it a few days to see if I learn to love it or not.

I would love to see what you think! :)

Art Class Sunday - Garden Globe Galore!

2010-07-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

The title says it all! Today in art class my daughter and I painted ceramic garden globes. These are simply round balls in various sizes that we painted. When they are glazed and fired they will be waterproof, shiny, and adorable, peaking out of the corners of our garden. It's a perfect project for a hot July day. (And has it ever been hot!!!!)

In fact, my daughter and I were so inspired to fix up our tiny patch of garden that we stopped at a nursery on the way home from class and picked up some plants, then in a burst of insanity we braved the 95+ degree weather in our yard to plant, weed, and generally tidy up. The afternoon had some. . .interesting turns (involving worms, spiders, and a rat!), but that's for another entry.

The pictures aren't the best because I forgot the camera and had to make do with my phone camera, but at least you can see something!

The little globes are the brilliant creation of my daughter- all except the little snail on the right. Our teacher, Randi, was giving us tons of ideas of what to make, and most of them were on different flowers and bugs on the globe. My daughter decided that she would take the globe and make the whole thing into a bug. The first one on the left is her ladybug, the next is a bumblebee, and the next is every one's favorite, a little piggy. This idea was so popular that our teacher even made a few lady bugs of her own.

This project was such fun because it was supposed to be whatever you wanted, a lot "cartoony" looking, and a ton of fun. For my projects I chose a large ball and a dragonfly pattern, the medium ball and a goldfish pattern, and the small one and a goofy looking snail pattern.

I loved this because I just drew out the little "doodles" I've drawn since childhood. The goldfish and plant pattern I've literally drawn for years, so I can truly say that the goldfish globe is absolutely, 100% my own creation.

Watch for another entry in a week or so when I pick up the globes fired and glazed, and placed in my garden!

All Star Adventures

2010-07-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

This week the 81st All Star Game was held at my beloved Angels Stadium and my family and I made the most of it!

Friday we spent the entire day at Fan Fest at the Anaheim Convention Center. It was huge! They had running, hitting, pitching, and base stealing games. There were vendors, food, autographs, celebrities. . . It was really awesome!

Sunday was the minor league all stars game and then the celebrity softball game with Tim Salmon. I think there were some other baseball stars and celebrities there, but I only had eyes for Tim Salmon. We watched him hit 5 home runs after the end of the game just for fun. I guess that makes up for the 299 he hit in his career, not quite making that 300. He's always been my favorite Angel, and I was thrilled to see him. Apparently he was at Fan Fest and walked right behind me while I was in line for face painting. It's just as well- if I'd seen him up close I probably would have frozen! :)

Monday was the Home Run Derby, which was probably my least favorite event, but it was still pretty cool. I think it was probably better on TV, because there was very little announcing. They needed the guys from the show WipeOut back- they did the announcing for the softball game on Sunday and they were funny!

And last night was the actual All Star Game. We got to the stadium at 2pm for the 5pm game and still didn't get into the seats until about 4pm. It was hot-hot-hot! We've suddenly got a heat wave here in Southern California and I was glad to be in the A/C tonight at home.

I have a reason to be tired after all that adventure! But it only comes here every 20 years or so, and I'm glad I can say I went this year. Today was back to work. It's hard to come back to reality after having so much baseball fun!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hope your day is safe and happy!

I made homemade ice cream. Yummmmmm.

Where Does a Silky Take a Nap?

2010-06-30T22:54:00.001-07:00

I've been reading the Outlander series, and since books are where I gain my knowledge, I've learned that a silky is a seal in Scotland. It can be a mythical creature that turns into a human, but it looks like a seal. What better place to learn things than a historical romance about time travel, right?

Anyway, A few weeks ago was art class and we started this seal painting. It was probably the most complicated painting I've done so far, and we all were exhausted and not close to being done by the end. So we went back last Sunday to complete it. And here it is!

The inspiration came from a postcard of Monterey. The silky/seal was apparently tired and hopped into this old row boat for a nap.

This is acrylics on canvas. I've never painted so much water before, with all its ripples and shadows. The wharf was really challenging. Randi had to jump in and help with that because I couldn't get it past a dollhouse on a couple of toothpicks- hey we paint what we know, right? She's so good at reminding me that all painting is just illusion. That's not really a stairway going down to a dock. It's just a bunch of little lines and shadows that give you the illusion of a stairway. But it works.

I'm not sure I've ever be a great artist, because I'm still at the point where I know something is wrong, but I am at a loss to fix it. Randi says that will come with time, but I'm not sure there is enough time in my lifetime to overcome it! But I keep plugging away and each time I get a little better.

I think the seal is cute!

Something Creative with Mod Podge!

2010-06-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

I have been a bad blogger. You know I go through these phases once in a while where I just don't have anything to blog about, don't feel like it, or what have you. So the past month has been busy with house related stuff. It feels like a never ending project (I have a lot of those, don't I?).

You put down new flooring, then realize the walls need painting, so you do that and then see you need art work, or to paint the trim. . . you get the picture. Then when you finish one room the room next to it looks shabby and you start the process all over. It feels like it will never be done!

After getting the downstairs mostly in order, I started looking at my loft (studio- I like to call it) and I realize it's not working for me. I'm starting a project for the work table in there that involves Mod Podge (love that stuff!), but I'll get to that in another entry. This is going to be a BIG project. The studio needs a lot of work and a system for me to store things properly before it works for me.

You have to start somewhere, and I started by fixing up an old toy box that belonged to my son. Here is a picture of it before I started. It's an inexpensive, mass produced toy box I bought about 12 years ago, and it's seen a lot of wear. It's quite good for storing part of my yarn stash.

The new scheme in my loft is going to be blue, teal, and shades of brown, so I thought it would nice to just cover the top of this chest with fabric that matches my room. Red just doesn't go with it! Of course I decided to use Mod Podge for this easy project.

First I simply removed the lid of the toy box by unscrewing a few simple screws. Here you can how I started covering the lid with the fabric. I trimmed it so that it could be wrapped like a package with very little overage. This helps to avoid bulk on the lid and make sure it opens and closes easily.

Once I had it cut evenly, it was time to start painting on the Mod Podge. I painted a section with Mod Podge, then smoothed the fabric down, then did another section. Finally, I folded the fabric over the sides and smoothed it down, gluing the edges down with Mod Podge.

And once that was dry, I painted the whole thing with the matte version of Mod Podge to seal it and let it dry. I let it dry for several hours and the I put it all back together.

And voile! About a yard of fabric, a jar of Mod Podge, and and old toy chest, and a about an hour of work and I have a really pretty storage chest for my loft. Turned out pretty good, don't you think?

Still Here. . .

2010-05-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting since "The Great Flood," mainly because I've just been too busy with trying to get the house back in order and, of course, it's baseball season!!!

The good news is that I have new tile floors in my living room and family room and beautiful paint on my walls. Being an artist, I really hate a white wall. I love color! The little neighbor girl came over last Saturday and said something to the effect of, "I love your house! It's so colorful and homey. Our house is white everywhere. . . and too clean." I had to laugh. It was one of those moments where you cover your mouth so you don't embarrass a child, but it was very cute. My house isn't exactly spotlessly clean right now. With putting in new tile, baseboards, painting and so on, there is a LOT of sawing, hammering, thin set/grout, and clouds of dust.

But we are ALMOST done!!! Yahoo! It's been a long month, but every cloud has its silver lining. I feel like I have a brand new house. I'm very happy with it. I'm hoping to post some pictures this weekend. My husband laughingly said I'm acting like this is a big dollhouse. Well duh, Silly? What did you expect? :)

Of course I am dying of lack of creativity. Painting the wall is not the same as painting an actual painting. Let's see how many times I can get painting into a sentence, shall we? I haven't crocheted, painted, worked on minis, or anything like that since we got flooded. In fact, I think I'm going to finish this post and go draw. See you later!

The Age of Aquarius. . . (Water that is)

2010-05-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

Note: I posted this info on my other blog as well, so if you've read it before. . .

I haven't had a moment to update my blogs lately because our house was flooded a week ago Sunday. A sprinkler pipe blew in a planter just behind our house at about 4am and ran until I came downstairs at about 8:30am, flooding the yard and providing my downstairs with about and inch of water over the entire floor.

It's one of those things you can't quite get your head around. I walked downstairs and the pups were waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, completely bedraggled and muddy. I kept looking at them and thinking, what happened? Why are they so wet and muddy? Why are my floors so shiny?

My pup Penny splashed off and then it hit me, there is water everywhere! I ran out in my pajamas to turn off the sprinkler main valve and ever since then we've been cleaning up the damage. All the carpet had to be ripped up and new flooring installed. Some drywall had to be replaced, walls painted, baseboards replaced. I am thankful that it wasn't worse, but it's been a lot of work.

The good news is that the new flooring we're putting in is beautiful! The dogs weer not harmed in anyway, except that Ninja hates water. Penny seemed to think it was fun to have water everywhere for her to splash in.

I hate having furniture in places it doesn't belong while we finish the floors. The dogs seem a bit frazzled with things out of place too. It's been two weeks and at least I don't have to climb over the couches to get into the kitchen anymore. It's funny how you don't realize how much you miss just coming home to a normal house and resting. It's getting there, but slowly.

So I'm not ignoring my blogger friends. I've just got house stuff going on!

Framed Giraffe Picture

2010-04-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little entry tonight. Guess what? I actually framed a piece of my art. I know, it's shocking, isn't it? Since this piece was fairly small, I thought maybe I could fit it into a standard size frame. Giraffe fit just fine into a 16x20 frame.

I got the frame and the mat at Michael's and put the whole thing together for under $30. For that price, if I decide I want a different color every few months I could and I'd still be ahead of the custom framing price.

This isn't the best picture I've ever taken. It's dark and I had to move to the side a bit to avoid flash glare. I'll try to take a better photo during the day over the weekend.

I tried to pick complimentary colors in the mat and frame. I like the way it turned out I'm feeling inspired to tackle some of the pieces I have stacked under my bed that need framing. But tomorrow is another day, right?

Art Class Today

2010-04-18T22:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, today was art class! Unfortunately I was half dead because yesterday was my husband's birthday and we went out to a late dinner. I am apparently too old to be up until after 3am these days.

Here is the glazed and fired Tuscany plate from my last class. It always takes another class for me to get it because it has to be fired.

I wish I had done some more detail work on the center of the flowers, but ceramics paint is not nearly as easy to get the level of detail as acrylics are.

I do like it and I will definitely use it as a serving platter. The other plates I have made I use quite a bit, and they always make me smile.

Today's class was a mixed media one for sure. We started out with air brushing the background. Honestly, I'm pretty terrible at air brushing. I get too close and coat the paper, or I clog up the brush, or something always goes wrong. But with Randi's help and one false start, I started to get the idea.

Once I air brushed the back ground of my giraffe, I used colored pencil for the details and then tried using pastels for the first time in a long, long time. I'm kind of hooked on the pastels, I have to say. This week I'm going to buy a pack and see what I can do with them.

This one I'm going to frame and hang on the wall. I really like him!

Sock Bunny Project

2010-04-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

My daughter gets Highlights Magazine and this month they had a sock bunny project that she just had to make.

This project was so easy and turned out really cute. You take two white tube socks and stuff the foot part full of fiberfill or (in our case) cotton balls.

Then you take string or thread and tie off a section for the feet, the head, and the ears. The ear part is made when you tie off the end of the tubes and let them hang down as ears.

Tie a ribbon (or rick rack in our case) for a bow around the neck.

Glue on a pom pom for the nose, googly eyes, and a chenille stem for the whiskers, and Voila! A sock bunny in no time. My daughter did this almost completely on her own.

We're only a tiny bit late for Easter. In our house, bunnies are always welcome!

Tied Up in Knots. . .

2010-04-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

That's what happens to me when I crochet with yarn that I haven't wound into a new ball. And I absolutely hate rewinding yarn. I was looking at the yarn winder at JoAnn and it's kinda expensive. I thought maybe I could find one cheaper on eBay, but instead I found something really neat!

It's called a yarn Unwinder, and basically you skewer the ball of yarn and stick it on the holder, and you can crochet away without your yarn getting tied into knots. You even pull the yarn from the outside, rather than the inside. If it stops, just tug a little and the ball of yarn spins and (so wonderful!) it does not get tied in knots!

This picture shows a "one pounder" ball of yarn on the unwinder, so you can see it's a pretty good size. It's made out of PVC and seems very durable. It doesn't tip over or flop around either. I've wasted so much time untangling yarn in the past. I've even tossed out yarn (I know, gasp!) rather than try to untangle the mess. So this unwinder is like heaven!

I am so impressed with it I ordered the double version for those projects where you need two separate yarns, like the bias scarves I've made with ribbon yarn and mohair knitted together. That one looks like this. I don't have any yarn on it yet.

If you want one of these, do a search for "Yarn Unwinder" on ebay. I emailed with Wendy who makes them and she was really great to work with.

Not that I've had a lot of time to crochet or knit lately, but when I do I love these yarn unwinders! I've used the yarn trainers and they work great, but unfortunately it doesn't do a lot of good unless you rewind the ball. This tool keeps me from having to do that. Anything that saves me time is my friend!

Welcome New Followers!

2010-04-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'd like to welcome a couple of new followers today!

First is My Realitty of her blog: http://myrealitty.blogspot.com/ She is a collector and has 20 houses that she showcases on her blog. Good stuff!

And then there is Miniature Maid. I can't seem to see a site for her. Sometimes that happens.

Thanks for following my blog!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T00:06:00.001-07:00

Tuscan Style Plate

2010-04-03T23:47:00.001-07:00

I think I mentioned that last Sunday was my art class and we painted a ceramic plate. I was a bit distracted (to say the least) because Sunday was also the day we went to pick up Penny Lane, our adorable new Aussie. I spent much of the art class thinking about the dog and not really paying attention. I didn't even finish the plate on Sunday because I had to leave at 3 to get to the park by 4. Randi was nice enough to let me come back today to finish up, and a little one one instruction never hurts!

So here it is. It's supposed to look Tuscan style. Now remember that this hasn't had its final glazing and firing, so the colors will melt and even out. I wanted to do a before and after shot, so here's the before. When I get it back I'll post the finished product. I love painting ceramic serving plates and bowls because I find I use them so much, and it is really satisfying to serve from something you made yourself.

This was an exercise in where the light is coming from and how shadows work. I have the hardest time getting my brain around that. That's why the stuff I paint on my own (like my giraffes) take on a cartoon like quality. Getting a good effect like the plate above takes constant nagging and explanation by my teacher. She told me today that soon enough all of the things she's been teaching me will suddenly turn a switch in my head and I'll be able to just do it right all on my own. I hope it happens soon!

Busy with my Mini Aussies

2010-03-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

I've been blogging away on my other blog the past few days. I've been integrating our new lady pup into our household and it's coming along well, but it takes a lot of time! I'll be back to crafting soon but I didn't want anyone to think I've given up on my fabulous arts and crafts.

In case you are wondering, a Mini Aussie is a Miniature Australian Shepherd, and a wonderful breed of dog for a family. You just have to be quite active and willing to keep your dogs well exercised or they will find destructive ways to keep themselves entertained, like chewing, digging, shredding, and so on. It's been 4 wonderful days with two Aussies and I'm wiped out at the end of every day, but in a good way. In the "I've been busy and active today and I'm ready to sleep" way, rather than the "I didn't get enough sleep last night and I'm tired" way.

Speaking of that, I think it's time to call it a night. Yes, well before midnight! What is the world coming to? :)

The Weekend from . . .

2010-03-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

How did my weekend get so overbooked??? It's 11:30 on Sunday night and I am exhausted. Why do so many of my entries say that? Why am I always so exhausted? Here's the weekend in a nutshell:

Saturday:

6:30am Wake up. Get ready for baseball. Yell at kids to get up. Yell at husband to get up.

7:00am Yell at kids and husband some more to get up. Threaten son that if he doesn't get dressed and ready for baseball we can just forget baseball altogether. Remind husband baseball is his thing and I can totally go back to bed and not feel guilty.

7:20am Family leaves for baseball field. It is 47 degrees out.

7:30am Drop kid off at field for warm ups. Game time is 8:30am. Husband drives us to McDonald's for coffee before I kill someone.

7:45am Arrive at field. Hang banner ( I am Team Mom). Discover there is no chalk for the field lines and watch no less than seven grown men freaking out over the lack of chalk for field lines. My husband offers to go get chalk at local Home Depot and heads over there.

7:50am Check phone. Notice there are 6 messages. Mom who has snack has a sick kid. Realize we only have 9 kids for game (we usually have 12). Text mom to not worry about snack. She texts back she is bringing it anyway. It has warmed up to 55 degrees.

8:15am Coach asks me to keep score. Husband shows up with chalk.

8:30am With lined field and me keeping score and a cheery 58 degrees, game begins.

8:31-10:30 I keep score. Our team "doesn't do well." Final score them 9, us 2.

11:00am-12:15pm Pizza party at local pizza place

12:30-1pm Head over to park to meet potential dog adoptee.

1:30pm -2:15pm Meet people. Love dog. Nice people. Want dog. Will meet us again tomorrow.

2:15pm-3:00pm Drive back home in horrible traffic.

3:15pm Gather my daughter and 3 neighborhood girls for my daughter's birthday celebration. Drive to mall.

3:15pm-6:00pm Shop with 4 little girls at the mall.

6:00pm drag myself, half dead, with 4 little girls to meet husband, son, and best friends at Spaghetti Factory for celebration dinner.

6:00pm -8:30pm Have dinner, keep girls under control, beg husband to quit whining about the food.

8:30pm Head home. Take little girls home.

9:00pm - 11:00pm Watch Marley and Me.

11:00pm Cry uncontrollably. Frighten son who doesn't see why his mom should be hysterical over a dead dog in a movie.

11:15pm Apologize to son. Promise I'm not on some weird diet pill. Send son to bed. Go to bed myself.

Sunday

8:30am Wake, wonder why eyes are so puffy. Make coffee. Remember dog movie. Try to avoid being sad over dog movie with excitement of seeing puppy this afternoon.

9:45am Dress, get daughter ready for art class, eat breakfast.

10:30am-3:15pm Art class. Paint ceramic plate like a Tuscany stone archway with sunflowers and a landscape.

3:25pm Arrive home. Can't find husband. Call 15 times with no answer.

3:30pm Leave to meet people about dog. NOT Happy.

3:38pm Receive call from husband. Was practicing baseball with son and left phone in car. Agrees to meet me so we can all go in truck to pick up dog.

3:45pm Leave car at Farmer Boys. Go with husband to get dog.

4:12pm Arrive at park. Meet people. Talk about dog. Head out with dog and dog stuff.

5:00pm Head home with dogs and kids. First dog behaves as if he'd never been trained. Ever. Jumps all over car and kids.

5:15pm Get my car. Remove first dog from daughter's lap. Don't ask.

5:20pm - 6:30pm Arrive home. Play with dogs. Take dogs on walk.

6:35pm -7:30pm Take dogs to PetSmart. (PetSmart and Wal-Mart are the $100 stores. Can't get out of there for less than that.) Get groceries.

7:30pm-8:00pm Make dinner. Feed family. Feed dogs.

8:00pm-8:30pm Get kids ready for bed.

8:30pm-9:00pm Try to get new dog through dog door. Decide getting her to come close to the door is good enough for tonight.

9:00pm-10:00pm Look for camera cable to put pictures on blog. Don't find it.

10:00-11:00pm Work on Mini Aussie Mischief blog.

11:00pm -12:00am Work on Mini Mischief blog.

12:00am Realize I have to get up at 5am and WHAT AM I DOING UP NOW?????

And that's the weekend. Now get why I'm tired? For more info on Penny, read my other blog. There's a link to it on the right side of this blog.

Now I'm going to bed, before I start thinking about Marley and Me and have a repeat crying jag. Good night!

Ah, Philosophy. . .

2010-03-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

Another weekend gone. . .and I got almost nothing done I wanted to do. I'm trying not to complain because being busy means I have a full life. . . but once in a wile I wish I had time to do exactly what I want, you know?

Anyway, Saturday afternoon my daughter and a close friend of mine visited Sephora and Macy's, and I stocked up on my favorite skin care products- Philosophy! Have you tried this stuff? I just love it. Granted, I'm not crazy about the bubble baths that are all like food. I'm not into taking a bath in Creme Brulee or pink birthday cake, or even chocolate cake. Those are for eating, not bathing! But the skin care and the Grace fragrance line is wonderful.

I know that each person has to find what works best for them, but I just love this line. I adore the cleanser, Purity, the new moisturizer, Miracle Worker, and the entire line of "Grace" fragrances. It felt really nice to shop and be all girly for the afternoon, even if I wasn't being creative!

Today we moved "stuff" from a storage unit to another unit closer to the house. Somehow that evolved into cleaning the garage, and the entire day was taken up with the moving around of stuff. How does that happen? At least I got to take a bath in delicious smelling Pure Grace at the end of the day! Now I'm ready to flop down in front of the Celebrity Apprentice and face another week.

I have a couple of projects in the works. I'm crocheting a few things (as always) and I've got a punch needle project started. Pictures to follow when they get interesting!

A Big Kiss. . .

2010-03-18T22:59:00.001-07:00

If you've read much of my blog you'll know that I love, love, love giraffes! I started this acrylic painting last Summer but I never quite finished it. But isn't a mommy giraffe kissing a baby is the cutest thing ever?! I guess only if you love giraffes like I do. This based on a photo I found on the net somewhere.

It's acrylic on canvas. So official sounding! (Use your best imaginary announcer sounding voice) "It's a Tiffany original, acrylic on canvas. A national treasure, worth a fortune. . . " OK, got carried away there. It's a couple of cute giraffes. Better.

It's still not done. I can't seem to get it exactly the way I want it. I don't know what to do to make it just right. I'm afraid it looks kinda flat, like a (gasp!) paint by numbers or something.

I think I'm going to take it to my art teacher, Randi, next time I go and see what she thinks. She'll take a brush and say, "Here, just do this," make about five brush strokes and it will look like just fab. At least I hope she'll wave her magic wand like she usually does!

I'm learning. And that's a good thing, right? I don't expect to be Degas right off the bat, but a girl can dream. The important thing is that I'm painting at home and every time I paint I get a little better. A little. . . (Degas is the impressionist who paints the beautiful ballet dancers, in case you are wondering. One of these days I plan to imitate some of his paintings. Once I get good enough, right?)

I'm feeling like I'm going back into a creative mode. The past couple of months I've felt stifled and frustrated, but tonight I painted with brushes and even played with another new toy, my air brush! That one will take some work to get good at. People that are really good at air brushing are amazing to me.

Oh, gotta go. Hubby is trying to get my attention. He just turned on The Mummy to see if I was too absorbed in my writing to notice. I'd never be too absorbed to notice that the fabulous Brenden Fraser was in eye shot.

Rick Rack Attack!

2010-03-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty bad about blogging lately. Let's just say it's been a rough couple of months and I haven't had the time or the inclination to blog. But I'm trying to get back into my usual blogging habits, because, well, I really love writing my blog!

Tonight I'm just doing a quick entry to show you the completed frog blanket. I just wasn't completely happy with it. Something was just. . .missing. So, when in doubt, I say "Pull out the Rick Rack!"

Here's a close up of the edges. Doesn't the rick rack just make it look professional and finished? It was so easy too. Pin it on and stitch it straight down the center.

And a shot of the completed blanket. Tada! I gave it to my dear friend Aurora this morning for her daughter and she loved it. Heck, who wouldn't love it? It's so soft and snuggly that I want one for myself!

I promise I'll show you something new soon. I just have to get back in the groove, you know? :)

I got this neat unwinder yarn toy last week and I have to share it with you. It basically keeps my yarn from tangling into a hopeless mess. I'll show you very soon how that "neato" toy works!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

I'm more of a Scottish girl myself, but it's all of Celtic origin, so Happy St Patrick's Day to you, wherever your family comes from.

Oh Baby!

2010-03-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Wait, don't get too excited. I'm only referring to baby blankets. I'm more into wanting a puppy than a baby these days. I think my hubby worries now and then because I've been making a lot of baby blankets, but I keep reassuring him that they are all presents.

So here's the latest. This one is for my friend Aurora's daughter, who is due to have a baby girl next week. And my daughter picked out the froggy fabric and the yarn I made the border out of.

The nursery is kind of a Disney's "Small World" theme, so this fabric just had that kind of a feel to me. The fleece is really soft and fluffy.

I was planning on making a matching bib and burp cloth, but, guess what? I haven't gotten to it yet! Does that surprise you? No? Me neither. I figure I'd better get the finished blankie to the mommy-to-be and get the rest when I get it done.

Here's another shot of the blanket folded up with a great shot of the border. The yarn is a really big boucle and kind of a pain to crochet with. I did a simple half double crochet, chain 1 in each chain, and the yarn is so chunky that it naturally created a gentle ruffle.

I'm having a great time with the skip stitch blade and making blankets!

Winter Landscape

2010-02-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

First, sorry for my absence for a few days. I caught the flu about Tuesday afternoon and it knocked me down for the count until yesterday morning. I told my husband I didn't feel like working on minis or crochet, and he wanted to take me to the doctor! I've recovered, thank heavens.

Today was my art class. We haven't had class since September because the teacher was sick and the group of ladies who attends all had one thing or another going on, so we ended up all taking a break. I was very ready to go back to class today.

Here's my painting from today. Sorry it's crooked. My silly photo editor won't let me straighten it. I need to download another one, but I have work tomorrow and don't feel like messing with it. You can live with it a little crooked, can't you? :)

The painting was done in acrylics, and in only two colors. Really! Doesn't it look like a lot more? It's done in dark green and white, and various tones mixed from those two colors. We splattered the snowflakes on it, and that effect makes it something special.

Landscapes aren't as easy as they seem. Clouds take a lot of practice. Mine started out looking like a little old lady's wig, according to my teacher today. It took a lot of work to get them to look halfway decent, and they still could have used some work.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. It's another case of looking at it and thinking, "Wow, did I really paint that?" I like the way the river turned out, and the mountains are pretty cool. This looks kind of like some shots I've seen around the Olympics the past couple of weeks.

Painting landscapes is really fun because you can make your world look like anything you want. This is no place and every place, and it only really exists in my imagination. That's pretty cool, don't you think?

Crochet on the Edge. . .

2010-02-19T23:28:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of late nights surfing the net. Some nights my mind just won't slow down enough to let me rest, and that's when I discover some really neat ideas for new projects. I know, like I need something else to do! My art teacher says I should buckle down and concentrate on painting for a few weeks before the next class. I think that's just a ploy to warm my painting hand up and to help her keep her aggravation factor down! But you know how much I like to jump around in my arts and crafts.

On one such night I was looking at crochet baby blankets. I think there is something in the water at my office because it's like a baby palooza. I think I'll avoid the water if that's the case! My two darlings are about all I can handle.

Jumping from blog to blog, patterns here and there, I discovered this whole art of crocheting the edge of a fleece blanket. I love fleece in the Winter. It's so nice for a baby. With a crocheted edge this kind of blanket can really be a work of art.

In looking at the process it seemed like the only difficulty was making even holes along the edges to start the foundation crochet row. Enter two tools, one called the Edgerydoo and the other called the Skip Stitch. So of course I researched both of them to death.

The Edgerydoo is a template and an awl system that allows you to poke to holes around the edge of the piece. I love the website and all the ideas on there. The Skip Stitch is a blade that fits into your 45mm rotary cutter and cuts holes where you run the blade. I wanted both of them, but after careful consideration, I decided to buy the Skip Stitch. I tested it out last night.

I had a small piece of pink and white fleece I got a JoAnn for about $1, and white yarn from Big Lots for $1.25 a skein. And here is the result.

This was a huge hit at work today- everyone wanted it and everyone wanted me to teach them how to do it. Gotta love that!

If I had known how cute this would turn out, I would have taken photos along the way for a tutorial. I will definitely do another blanket and do a tutorial. But I can tell you what I did for now.

Trim the fabric to size. I used by regular rotary cutter to trim the selvage and cut the piece to size. It was 1/6th of a yard, so I basically cut it in half. This fleece was a 60 inch bolt, rather than 44 like other fabrics, so it made a nice size even with such a little bit of fabric.
Note: Casey commented below that 1/6 of a yard would only be 6 inches. Math isn't my strong point, but I'm assuming she is right and the remnant was mislabeled. I'm thinking this was closer to 1/2 yard. I'm no good at measuring and figuring out how much fabric I need, so you'll have to get help somewhere else on how much fabric you actually need. :)

Use the Skip Stitch blade to cut the holes for the foundation row. Just lay it out on the cutting mat , set your ruler at 3/4 of an inch in, and run the blade up the side. Repeat for all sides. You can fold it and run it over two sides at once, but I wasn't that brave. I tend to get a little wild with the rotary cutter.

Attach your yarn to your hook with the usual slip knot, then pull it through the first hole of the fleece blanket. Don't start at a corner- it's too hard to get it all even. Start about an inch or two from the corner on any side.

Single crochet all around the blanket, through the holes. You can do whatever stitch you want, but I did a row of singles.

Then do another row of singles (or whatever stitch you want).

Once this is done, you can create whatever decorative edge you want. I did a scallop edge, which was this in a nutshell: SC in second chain, *5 DC in next chain, skip one st, SC in next. Repeat from * all around.

You can see the blankie opened up in the picture to the right. Yes, it needs ironing. Yes, I should have washed it first. I was eager to get started, you know???

I have all kinds of ideas for this technique, including decorative edges for T-shirts, baby bibs, fleece scarves , etc, etc, etc. :) I can't wait to see what I come up with!

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T01:42:00.000-08:00

I hope you are enjoying your day with your sweetheart!

Welcome New Followers!

2010-02-13T22:53:00.000-08:00

I have three new followers to welcome!

First is Pilar of http://lasminisdepilar.blogspot.com/. She has some really great pictures of minis on her blog. It's in Spanish so I can't read a word of it, but it looks really cool! :) Yeah, I know, babelfish. When I get a minute, OK?

Alrighty then, next up is Kim of http://kimsminiatures.blogspot.com/. She makes some amazing miniature food items. Lately all her entries have been about miniature pastry items and every one makes me soooooo hungry! Even fake cakes have that drool factor for me. Sad, isn't it? :)

Finally we have Cate and David at http://soletluna.blogspot.com/. It looks like they have a Hobbit house going on. Very cool!

Thank you for joining me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-02-12T23:49:00.000-08:00

Today I moved out of the 30 somethings into the 40 somethings. I don't really mind. I mean, I don't feel any different today than I did yesterday. In some ways I'm not sure that's a good thing. I wish I would wake up one morning and all my dreams would have magically come true. I suppose I read too much. :)

My biggest thing is that I want to be a stay at home mom. I guess I'll wait until retirement for that. It's not quite the same thing, but it looks like that's when I'll get to stay home at this rate. Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes, because I suppose I could get fired and then I'd be home. That's not quite what I'm looking for. Being a Stay at Home Mom when you have no home doesn't quite cut it, you know? :)

My family got me a cake. I'm the cake queen, as most of you know. I can skip almost anything sweet, but put cake in front of me and pretty much it's all over. I think I told the story at one point where I found a cake while we were at a funeral, and came back to my group of people munching away, only to discover the cake had nothing to do with our event. I mean, I walked into the church hall and two nice ladies asked if I'd like a piece of cake. Wouldn't it have been rude to say no?

Anyway, my family thought it would be amusing to buy me a clown cake. To me this is a strange way to say happy birthday. I hate clowns with a passion. OK, honestly, I'm afraid of them. It's a weird fear that I can't explain. Maybe I read Stephen King's "It" at too early an age or something, but when a clown comes near me, it's like a cartoon character taking off. I leave a Tiffany shaped hole in the wall as I'm escaping.

I don't even like those mascot kind of costumes. My husband is annoyed that I won't go near Mickey Mouse or Captain Hook at Disneyland. Last year at a minor league baseball game I nearly burst into tears when Thunder the mascot came to play with the crowd and apparently thought I looked like a good victim- I mean participant. I kept whining to my husband, "Make it go away!!"

So why would a clown cake be funny? I mean, it's a cute clown. . . But it's a clown. Which I hate. I really don't get it. My husband is honestly shocked at my level of dismay. I guess one person's joke is another person's annoyance. I suppose it could have been worse. They could have sent me a clown singing telegram an then I would have died before making 41. So there is a bright side.

I went and had a facial yesterday morning. Wow- that's a way to make yourself feel like jello. I wish I could afford one every week. The girl told me I don't look a day over 30. God bless you, honey! So what if it's just a way to get me to come back. Whatever works!

Taffy Pull Scarf

2010-02-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

I must be the one they target when JoAnn and Michael's send out their promotional emails and flyers. "Why?"you ask. Well, because I have spent more money on project materials for something I just had to make after seeing it in an ad.

Case in point 1: I had to make something from Red Heart in the Fall called The Granny Square Wrap. I have all the yarn but I never quite finished it. . .mainly because I'm convinced the directions were written by monkeys who have never touched a crochet hook. (And monkeys with crochet hooks is kind of a funny image anyway. . .) The flyer was all over Michael's, in the crochet magazines, and on Red Heart's website. Here it is in case you are wondering what all the fuss was about: Granny Motif Wrap The directions to crochet the motifs together make my head spin.

Case in point 2: About a week ago I got an email from JoAnn announcing their new line of yarn from Debbie Stoller, who wrote Stitch n Bitch. I drooled and ooohhed and ahhhed over the scarf. 10 minutes later my MIL forwarded it to me with the comment, "Look at the pretty scarf!" At that point I decided I may as well just give in (it doesn't take much, does it?) and off I went with my friend Aurora at lunch to JoAnn to get the supplies.

Luckily I finished this one this morning. This is a really easy pattern, only using single crochets and triple crochets. And it's quick. I'd say this is around a 5 hour project, and would be faster if you crochet faster. I just did a normal pace and it went quickly.

The colors are really pretty together. DH said it looked like an Indian sari. Umm. . . actually I don't think DH knows the term sari anymore than he knows how to crochet, but he did say the colors are Indian looking. A friend at work said it looked Jamaican. Either way, they go nicely, and I would never have picked them on my own. It's fun to have someone expand your horizons for you.

The pattern is here, in case you are interested in making one for yourself: Taffy Pull Scarf

This scarf is long, and I mean really long! Granted I'm barely 5 feet tall, but I will definitely have to wrap it around my neck at least once to keep from tripping on it. I think they have it wrapped twice around the model's neck. There's a joke there, but I'll leave it alone. I followed directions and even checked my gauge, so it's right. Just loooooooong. :)

The bamboo yarn is really soft. I like what she named it: "Bamboo Ewe." The colors all have fun names, like lipstick and geranium.

It's raining here again so it's a good afternoon for working on crafts. I'm toying with working on San Fran once I'm done with this entry. She has been so patient and she is just so beautiful.

Enjoy Superbowl Sunday tomorrow, ya'll! We're rooting here for the Saints- have been behind them all season. Everyone says it's long shot, but you know how I love the underdog. :)

Update: If you read the comments on this post, Casey and I were discussing this really odd Granny Square dress thing that Cate Blanchett wore to some awards show that was featured on the What Not to Crochet Blog here: Granny Square Mess It would appear that Miss Blanchett's left hand is missing. The best part is looking at the faces of the people in the crowd on our left side. The one guy is like, What the . .????

To Keep You Entertained. . .

2010-02-05T23:25:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy. I feel like I got more creative work done around Christmas than I have lately! I am working on a yummy scarf from Debbie Stoller (of Stitch 'n Bitch fame) from her new line of bamboo yarn and it is gorgeous! I've started fringing it tonight so you should be able to see it this weekend. The pattern is easy but gives you a great look.

OK, so if you like my off beat, kooky sense humor you'll love this crochet site: WhatNotToCrochet The author of this blog finds crochet patterns that are just horrible, and them comments on them. There is something about the way she writes that puts me into hysterics. I start to snort, then chortle, then laugh out loud, and eventually I get to that point where I'm laughing so hard that no sound comes out and tears start to flow. It's a good thing. Lord knows there are enough things in this world that are not a laughing matter, so a little cheer and laughter goes a long way!

Enjoy, and let me know if you think the What not to Crochet blog is as funny as I do! Make sure to check out the photo of the Christmas tree and her comments about raspberries.

When All Else Fails, Make a Pie. . .

2010-01-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a moment to do anything artistic in over a week. Last weekend we had a birthday party at my house for my MIL with about 40 people, so I was busy preparing for that and then recovering! These things are always a lot of work no matter what anyone says.

This week has been a busy one at work and it feels like I get up, go to work, come home, make dinner, clean up, and go to sleep. I'm dying for something to feed my creative side!

Last night I decided to make an apple pie, or to make it even easier, a Tarte Tatin. For those of you not into French pastry, Tarte Tatin is like an apple tart, with only one crust. You cook it in a skillet, then flip it over on the plate when done. It filled a creative void and was delicious to boot!

Here's my recipe, in case you want to try it:

Tarte Tatin

1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of white sugar
4 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunky slices
1 sheet of prepared pie crust (make your own if you like, but I was in a hurry)

Heat the oven to 425. Take a skillet and melt the butter on medium low heat. Add the sugar and mix well. Cook the butter and sugar on medium low until it starts to caramelize and turn a light caramel color. Watch it constantly and stir because it will go from caramel to burned in a heartbeat. Don't ask how I know this to be true, but trust me. If you cook it to the hard ball stage you will have hard candy (like glass) and no pie.

Once the butter and sugar are caramelized, turn the heat to low and layer the apples on the bottom of the skillet, over the caramel. Watch your fingers! Then lay the pie crust over the apples. I folded the excess crust and fluted the edges a bit. Watch your fingers because everything is hot!

Turn off the stove and put the skillet in the oven and bake the tarte for about 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Place a plate over the skillet and flip the tarte onto it. Serve with ice cream. Yum!!!

It's a Love Hate Kind of Thing. . .

2010-01-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

I love the sewing machine humming along when all is going well. I hate it the next second when the bobbin catches, or I've sewed two pieces together backwards, or some other huge mistake only a beginner who is self taught can make. I was reading some sewing blogs this week and I noticed a lot of people were talking about how many tears they shed over their sewing projects. Wow, really? I'm not the only one crying over shredded fabric in the middle of the night?

My sewing skills are marginal at best. I can make things with straight lines, like valance curtains and half aprons. I mentioned in another post that I was dying to make the Susan Branch scalloped apron. And I did it! Hooray! It's the first thing I actually sewed where I cut out the pattern, put the pieces together and sewed it- and finished it. Normally I get to the sewing part and give up halfway through. And this one has curvy lines! Thank you, Susan Branch, for your beautiful pattern! I love what it says on the pattern: "Scallops are always appreciated." Amen, Sista!

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses. It took a couple of days,which is a good thing because trying to do too much in one day results in disaster. I learned a lot, but you have to admire this one from a few feet away because I made a few (read- a lot!) of mistakes. I made a change to the straps because it called for a rolled hem.

I pulled out my rolled hem foot and after a few hours of struggling with the darned thing, I emailed Casey for advice. Her advice was to toss the foot and just press and sew the rolled hem. Good advice! I took it a step further and sewed two strap pieces together and turned them. Much nicer. I read blogs and watched You Tube video of how great this rolled hem foot was, but in reality, it was a pain in the you-know-what!

I accidentally sewed two pieces together backwards and shredded them with the seam ripper trying to get them apart. Ever done that? It's not fun! This resulted in a trip to Walmart at 10pm for more bias tape. At 11:30 I thought I had it all done and was ready to put on the straps, when I realized I hadn't put bias tape on the top of two pieces. At that point I folded the apron nicely and went to bed. It was much easier to fix tonight when I wasn't frustrated to death over the thing. It was also much better to set it aside because I was ready to shred it with the seam ripper for good! It's a good lesson in sewing for me- table things until you aren't exhausted and sick of the project.

I have a question for you seamstresses out there. Does this get any easier? Does practice help or is sewing always just an exercise in frustration? I'm curious, because if it doesn't get better I might quit while I'm ahead. ;-)

Tonight I fixed all the little boo boos and clipped all the threads, and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the result. It's not perfect, but it was a good learning experience and a cute project.

Nook gets a New Jacket

2010-01-20T23:21:00.000-08:00

I love, love, love my nook! Did I mention that before? I think I might have said it once or twice. . .

Anyway, I investigated a number of covers for my darling nook, but when I came across Oberon Designs (http://www.oberondesign.com/) I knew I had to have one of them or die. OK, maybe not die, but I really wanted one! I ordered mine on December 30th and it arrived last Friday. Why so long? Well, it seems this company takes a holiday from December 21st through January 11th. I want to work for a company like that!

I'm happy they get that time off, and my cover was well worth the wait. This cover is so beautiful and well made! I have never been so pleased with a leather good before. And it smells fantastic! Why can't my car smell like that forever?

Here's a shot of it with the nook inside. It's perfect! My son observed that I am trying to make my high tech nook look like a hand bound leather book. Hmmmm. . . kid's got a point. It's kind of the best of both worlds. I get all the features of the electronic gadget and the look and feel of an old book. Works for me!

Another Pretty Apron

2010-01-16T22:42:00.001-08:00

Amazing how easy this was the second time around! I used the second little cafe curtain I had from the package and the really pretty floral fabric I bought the other night.

This time I made the ties really long so they can wrap around and tie in the front. I love this apron! I also discovered I love the sound of cotton sliding against itself as I tie it in a bow.

It's funny, the things I like the sound of. Cotton being tied into a bow, a china cup being set into a saucer, metal knitting needles clicking together, rain. . . Those things make me smile when I hear them.

So this is a present for a friend at work and I hope she will love it. She's a baker like me, and our aprons are always covered with flour. This one should wash well.

Next up is the scalloped apron pattern from Susan Branch. I just love her stuff! Here's the pattern in case you are interested: pattern It's so adorable! Let's hope I can manage it. :)

We're expecting a big rain storm tomorrow so I'm hoping we'll all want to stay house bound. I'll bake something yummy and sew and enjoy the sounds of rain and time with my family. And hopefully I can manage to make that beautiful apron with not too much frustration.

It Wouldn't Let Me Sleep. . .

2010-01-14T22:41:00.001-08:00

I wrote my blog entry last night and when I looked at the pictures, something just didn't sit right with me about the apron. It was a little long and the line at the top where the curtain rod would go through the piece (had it been left a curtain) just annoyed me.

I tried to ignore that little nagging voice in my head and just go to sleep. You can guess what happened. I tossed. I turned. And then I got up because I figured out how to fix it. I simply turned down the waistband and topped stitched it down with a zig zag stitch, and now I am much happier with it. I tied it on a chair so you don't have to see my teddy bear jammies. :)

Casey was right, if this was a true Donna Reed apron it would have to be voluminous and gathered. But we can pretend, right?

Something I'm learning about myself is that I love fabric. It's no surprise because I love yarn, so fabric naturally follows right along. Does that count as fiber art?

They have so many pretty fabrics for Valentines Day out right now. Here are some goodies I picked up at Jo Ann last night. My daughter picked out the Hello Kitty. I'm going to make a long apron out of the hearts.

I read other blogs with people talking about fabric brands and lines. I just know what I think is pretty, and that's good enough.

My little apron was quite the hit at work today, and I promised one for a friend who just had a birthday. I found this absolutely beautiful fabric for her waist band. I wish I'd bought more because this really makes me smile! I may have to go back for more if it sews up the way I think it will.

That's it for now. I'm distracted with the sewing machine. Are you surprised??

Taking Lessons from Scarlett O'Hara

2010-01-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

No, not the attitude, or stealing her sister's beau, or even realizing too late the man you love is the one you have and are about to lose. Nope. I made clothing from curtains! I guess I could be Maria von Trapp too, but Scarlett came to mind first.

Anyway, I've been apron obsessed lately. I think I saw a pattern somewhere and decided I had to make one. The only real problem is that I can't sew very well. Almost not at all. The sum of my sewing projects so far in life has been making curtains (the valance kind) or maybe a pillow here and there. I've done some extremely basic quilting too. But it has to involve sewing straight lines and not a lot of measuring.

As I investigated apron patterns this week I saw some to make aprons from pillow cases, and tea towels, and fat quarters. I even saw a cute pattern using an old table cloth. When I was in Anna's Linens yesterday I saw this cafe curtain, and I thought, why not? Scarlett did it, right? I'm surprised I haven't seen it anywhere else- it is rather a clever idea!

This is just a very basic apron- not even a pocket. I simply sewed the waistband on to the top of the curtain piece and I was done. Isn't the embroidery and crochet across the bottom so cute? I think next time I might cut off the part where the curtain rod would go through, but it looks OK.

I made the ties a bit long in back to make a pretty bow. Here it is on a chair because no one wants to look at my behind these days, least of all me. That's another topic for later- let's say I am on a fitness kick these days because all my clothes have shrunk. Don't you hate that? Suddenly nothing fits. All my darn clothes have shrunk!

Anyway, when I lose some inches around my hips and my clothes go back to fitting normally, this apron will be really cute on. I like a long apron, not the kind you see waitresses wear that are just long enough to hold a pen and an order book. Nope, I like to pretend I'm Donna Reed and this will fit over my flowy skirt while I'm vacuuming. Yep, Donna is my idol. Aprons, pearls, and being home. That's for me! :)

I hope you like my little quicky apron. I won't point out all the mistakes I made. It's cute, I like it, and that's good enough for me. :)

Pictures of the Bobbi by Artply

2010-01-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

I found the camera cable! It's really not fun to be so disorganized. Someday I have to do something about that. . . But in the meantime there are too many fun things to do and organizing just isn't one of them. :)

In my last post I mentioned I put together a Bobbi for my niece when we visited over New Year's weekend. So here it is. This is such a cute cottage type house. My sister in law said she got this at a Thrift store and most of it was there.

It looks like someone started it, but only got as far as gluing the windows in. They managed to get glue on the windows, and lose the window that goes on the front door. A bit of trim was missing, as well, but the majority of what I needed was there.

Normally I am meticulous, and I paint each piece and let it dry before I glue it together. But I had just a couple of hours to do this and no paint, so I figured if nothing else I could get it together and maybe paint it next time I'm up there.

Here is the interior. I thought about taking it home and painting it and wallpaper it, but then my niece couldn't play with it at all. At least this way she can put furniture in it and play if she wants.
After all, my childhood dollhouse never had a lick of paint on it until I was in my late 30s (when I got back into dollhouses) and I never thought anything about it. So I'll take supplies up next time and see what magic I can work.

But if nothing else I had something really fun to do for a few hours while my hubby played golf with his brother. Give a girl a dollhouse (like Give a Mouse a Cookie). . .

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

OK, OK, so I'm a few days late with my New Year's wishes. Even after the madness of the Holidays is over I find myself (as usual) with too many things I want to do (or have to do) and not nearly enough time. I'm tired of that same old whine, and I'm sure you are as well.

We visited family in Bakersfield for New Year's Eve. It was freezing! Where I live it's cold at night but usually comfortable during the day. I'm not used to being cold all the time. I'd never make it in, say, Minnesota, would I, Kim? :) Obviously there's a reason I live in Southern California, although many days I question even that.

I had a surprise when I went up there- my niece had a dollhouse kit she wanted me to help her build. It turned out to be a Bobbi by Artply, which is a little cottage type house, but very cute. Umm, the camera cable is still missing so I can't post pictures yet. I put it together in a couple of hours, no paint and no decorating (no time!), but it was fun.

I have made a few resolutions, and those I will post another day. Instead I thought I'd write more about my nook and books that I've read and loved in the past year.

The more I use it, the more I love the nook. I feel like I actually read faster on it than I do with a printed book. I think it has something to do with the formatting and how easy the screen is on the eyes. I've talked with other people and they say the same thing about their ereaders, whether it's a Kindle, Sony, or nook, or whatever!

I really have no complaints whatsoever about nook. I've read others have had problems with battery life, but mine lasts just fine. When we went up north over last weekend over four days it had only dropped to 60 something percent. That was with all the wi-fi and wireless turned off, but with pretty heavy reading time. I hope they come out with a car charger for it soon, because I'd hate to be going somewhere and not be able to read because I used nook too much!

So what are some books I loved this year?

Water for Elephants- I resisted this for a long time because it's about the circus, but when a friend convinced me to read it I just absolutely loved it. It's a coming of age story with a unique perspective.
The Thirteenth Tale- This is one of the most unusual books I've ever read. It's a British mystery, so if you don't like Jane Austen or the like, you won't enjoy it. I, however, dream about Pemberly so it was wonderful to me. If you liked Jane Eyre or Rebecca, you'll love this one. Even when you think you have it all figured out, guess again.
The Help - I love historical fiction and this one weaves actual civil rights movement events with the lives of fictional character. It's mainly about black maids (the help) and their white employers in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60's. It's sad and horrible and touching and wonderful all at the same time. This may be one of my all time favorite books ever.
The Time Traveler's Wife- Really, really unique book about a man who can time travel but has absolutely no control over it. It is a funny, interesting tale about love, relationships, and how two people are never really in the same place at the same time even in the best of circumstances.

And here are a few I wish I had skipped:

Wicked- I know there are quite a few fans out there, but I really hated this thing. I am certainly no prude, but I found this book to be unnecessarily crude and just disturbing. Granted, I am not a Wizard of Oz fan to begin with, but I disliked this book so much that you could not pay me to read McGuire's sequel. I don't really know why I finished it, except that I was hoping it would be redeemed. It wasn't.
The Lost Symbol- Loved Angels and Demons, liked The DaVinci Code, but I really did not enjoy this book. I feel like Brown had to get something out after a few years of no book and rushed through it. Very disappointing story.
Peony in Love- This is a Lisa See book and I loved Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls, but this was about a Chinese girl's journey in the afterlife and I couldn't get into it. Just a little too weird for me.

Those are just the main ones that come to mind from the past year. I'm always interested in your opinion and will always be interested if you have a recommendation for a good book. Life is too short to read lousy books!

Finally. . .Something to Read!

2009-12-30T20:57:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was a small child I have read for at least a few moments before going to sleep. It's such a routine with me that when I can't find a book, I get antsy and have trouble sleeping. So I'm so excited that my nook solves that problem. With so many free books plus the ones I have purchased, I always have something to read.

The more I use this little gadget, the more I love it. Tonight I "sideloaded" music and free ebooks from other sources than Barnes and Noble. Sideloading means you downloaded it to your PC and then transfer it to your nook. I guess it's not downloading so it's sideloading. Weird, huh?

My hubby got me the Bose ear buds for Christmas and with those the mp3s sound fabulous! I guess they should for how much those things cost. I would have said don't spend the money but since I have them, I think they are wonderful. And they are very comfortable. I found the ear buds that came with my ipod to be miserable on my poor ears. Not the sound, but the way they fit in my ears.

I also sideloaded some pictures. I created my own wallpaper and screen saver from pictures on my PC. They are in black and white, but they look very good! Sorry I can't show you my cool nook tonight but I seem to have misplaced the camera cable. That's better than losing the camera, which I thought I had done on Monday, and after a small tantrum I discovered it in a previously unused pocket on the backpack I carried on our hike. More about the hike in a later entry.

So what am I reading? Well, I finished An Inconvenient Wife which turned out to be a very good book after all. It seemed like it veered off into a trashy romance novel in the middle, but there was a point to it in the end and it was quite good.

I have decided to take on the Outlander series, but unfortunately book 1 is not in digital format yet, so I ended up getting it from audible.com and I'll listen to it. It's 34 hours long!!!! That will take a while, and I hope it's good.

I downloaded some classics like Sense and Sensibility, Middlemarch, and The Woman in White, which are all public domain and free ebooks. Little Women came with the nook, and that's always a favorite of mine. And it goes without saying that I have Pride and Prejudice.

I finally gave in and purchased Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. I say I gave in because I have been looking at it for months but something else always gets my attention first, but not this time. So that's what I will be reading in the new year. I'm toying with getting Monuments Men about a group of people who went into Europe during WWII to save the great art treasures of the world stolen by the Nazis. I have a fascination with the real human stories of WWII. My husband loves the battles and the heroes. I like to hear the experiences of the everyday people. Band of Brothers (the book) is on my e-wish list too, even though I've seen the mini series a million times. I believe the book is almost always better, but there are rare exceptions.

Happy reading to you!

Happy Boxing Day and the Day After. . .

2009-12-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

I'm exhausted from the Christmas season. How about you? I figured out I've made 16 wreaths since Halloween (not to mention countless ornaments, five scarves and a everything else I squeezed in this season.) Yes, that's 16. I'm glad I did it because it pretty much paid for Christmas this year, including my wonderful nook (ereader) that arrived on Christmas Eve. Love, love, love it!!!

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas in England and many other countries, in case you were wondering. From Wikipedia:

Boxing Day was traditionally a day on which the servants had a day off from their duties. Because of this the gentry would eat cold cuts and have a buffet-style feast prepared by the servants in advance. In modern times many families will still follow this tradition by eating a family-style buffet lunch, with cold cuts rather than a full cooked meal. It is a time for family, parlour games and sports in the UK.

In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.

I know, I always have to throw in a bit of history now and then. I'm a trainer, remember? I can't help it!

Anyway, we spent most of our Boxing Day in our Pajamas, going out late in the afternoon for sandwiches and then some shopping. The kids had gift cards burning holes in their pockets!

Today we lazed around again in the morning and then went to see Avatar, which both my kids claimed was the best movie they have ever seen. It was a really good movie. My husband and I enjoyed it as well.

So what did you get for Christmas? I know, Christmas is not about the presents but the birth of the Lord, but it's still fun to see what everyone got. My nook was my present this year, but my hubby surprised me with Bose ear bud headphones and, of all things, a Snuggie! Have you seen the commercial for this thing? It is so hilarious. The Snuggie is nothing more than a blanket with sleeves sewn in, but the commercial makes it look like taking your arm out from under a normal blanket to get the remote is the most complicated thing in the world. We laugh every time the commercial is on. Then there is a group watching a sporting event all wearing Snuggies and looking like deranged monks as they hop about and cheer. It's really, really amusing.

I know my hubby got me the Snuggie as a joke, but I have to admit I kinda like the dumb looking thing. It's very warm, made out of a jersey like material. I do wish it snapped closed in back though because I like to get up and get something from the kitchen from time to time and the Snuggie leaves your backside open, much like a hospital gown. Then again, I suppose it would be a robe if it closed in back, and not a Snuggie. :)

I am taking tomorrow off of work to relax some more and spend time with my family. I'm even feeling too drained to do any miniature work! But I am very relaxed and that is a good thing.

I am going to now go and read some more on my nook. It's just too cool!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, I do love vintage images, in case you were wondering. :)

I have been playing with nook and love it to pieces. Looks like lots of people have been trying to download books because there have been some server issues, but B&N has posted info on their website and promise a fix by tomorrow.

I know lots of people seem to be unhappy with them, but I am pleased that they sent out word on their website on Christmas to let us know what was going on. I appreciate that. I remember my days of working in Info Tech. 24/7 is the rule. But I still appreciate that they got it fixed. All my ebooks floated into my nook late this evening.

I hope you had a wonderful, blessed day with those you treasure in the world.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Santa's Sleigh is on the Way!

2009-12-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

The Stockings are hung by the chimney with care, the cookies are set out with milk, and the children have gone to bed. I prepared the Christmas Eve dinner for our dearest friends and everything is cleaned up and ready for tomorrow. I think I can even go to bed now!

I made another curly ruffled scarf for my dear friend and I barely made it in time. They were due at 5pm and I was still madly crocheting at 4:45! Luckily they were delayed slightly and I ended up having plenty of time. I've never yet handed someone a present with the crochet hook still attached and an IOU, but it's been close!

And the best news is that Barnes and Noble pulled it out and my nook arrived at 12:45 this afternoon. Ninja dared to bark at the poor UPS driver and was promptly scolded by me. Today the UPS man is adored by me! The bad news is that I have been informed that I am not allowed to open the nook until tomorrow. It's just as well. I probably would have stayed up all night playing with it.

So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ding Dong Merrily on High. . .

2009-12-20T22:59:00.000-08:00

The Christmas bells are ringing!! I made these ornaments as place cards for our departmental lunch tomorrow. There are two different types: ones with paint drizzled on the inside and others with a stained glass effect. I took puffy paint and wrote each person's name and the date on them. I'm glad these are done and they turned out pretty.

I can't believe Christmas is Friday. This has been a stressful and busy holiday season and I'm looking forward to next weekend when I can wind down a little bit. Don't tell, but I'm actually a little tired of making Christmas things and I'm looking forward to some projects I've put on the back burner during the season.

In nook news, I've been delayed to a Dec 24th delivery. I'm not sure if Barnes and Noble will make that. I'm not thrilled with how they've has handled production problems, mainly because they have waited until late in the evening on the day nook is supposed to ship to let customers know that it will be delayed. On the other hand, the word is out that they will be providing a nice gift card for those of us who don't get it on Christmas. That sounds pretty good. I understand that when you choose the first version of the product you may have to deal with some issues as they work out the bugs. I still can't wait to get it.

I think I'm almost ready for Santa. We're hosting Christmas Eve so that's the last thing I have to prepare for, except for the actual day, but we are going to my Dad's for that so I won't need to cook. I always make our traditional Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls, orange juice, and bacon. I have no idea how or why we started that, but I think it's easy to munch while we play with our new toys.

Christmas Flurry

2009-12-16T22:50:00.000-08:00

Why oh why oh why do I take on so much right before Christmas? I think many of you know what that feels like. You know, a couple of weeks ago it seemed like a grand idea to make ornaments as place cards for my department luncheon on the 21st. Tonight I'm thinking I'm certifiable! I have to say that the ornaments are coming along beautifully. The artist? Not so much! I'll show you them soon because they are really pretty. I'll give you a little teaser. They are clear glass ones that I have either created stained glass on or have drizzled paint inside for a beautiful, marbled effect.

So, surprise surprise, I have two wreaths to show, but these are not intended for sale, although if someone begged and pleaded I probably would let them go. I love cardinals and have them all over the place in my house. They remind me of my mother.

This wreath has a more natural look, with pine branches and two big bows with cardinals on the ribbon. I found the cardinals at Dollar Tree and my daughter and I pretty well cleaned them out. Aren't they so sweet?

This other one is a departure from the grapevine wreaths I've been using lately. This was a wreath I made years ago and it was in dire need of updating.

I pretty much used up everything I had for my earlier wreaths project. The ribbon has pretty ornaments on it and there are birds and poinsettias all over this one. I think it could be my favorite so far!

As if I'm not busy enough, tomorrow is our Secret Santa gift exchange and potluck. I've spent the evening making my famous Cranberry Dream Salad, which is a holiday tradition at my house. I made my Secret Santa a stained glass ornament last week, and tomorrow I have a Willow Tree Angel and a crochet book for her (she crochets with me at break in the afternoon). But of course I had to have a tiny handmade thing to give, so I made another of these little angels. They are so adorable! I glued a pin on the back of this one so she can wear it.

On a sad note, a beloved elderly aunt of my husband passed away yesterday and we will miss her tremendously. Such a loss is doubly hard during this season of family, but we can be comforted that she is out of pain and in the care of real angels.

Choosing the "Right" Stairs

2009-12-12T23:39:00.000-08:00

During HBS' 40% off sale earlier in the year I ordered the curved staircase that I've been planning on installing in my San Fran. But to be honest, I wasn't really thrilled with it. Somehow I made a mistake and ordered a left curving staircase and all this time I was sure it would be just fine, but the more I looked at it the more it annoyed me and just didn't feel right.

Here is the San Fran with the left curving staircase. It has always kind of bothered me that the back of the stairs faces the back where I like to admire the furnishings. And it doesn't help matters that the back wasn't stained quite right. The stairs almost come right in front of the front door as well, which is a really annoying trait as well.

After careful consideration, I decided that there was no need to "live with" a staircase that annoyed me. February will mark three years I've been working on this house and that is just too much of a commitment to dislike the focal point of the first floor. So I ordered a right curving staircase.

I have no less than six other houses (seven if you count the rescued Tennyson) in various stages of completion, so I'm sure the old staircase will find a home with one of them. My daughter said the other day that there is a dollhouse kit under every bed around here, and some beds have two! Shhhhhhhhhh. . . . Nobody needs to be reminded of that fact!

So here is the San Fran with the right facing staircase, and I just think it works so much better! Yes, it needs to be stained, but it just opens up the first floor and shows off the lovely curve of the stairs. I'm so glad I made the decision to do this- I'm so much happier with it!

Also, notice the grand piano in the left corner of the first floor. I found it on eBay for a very good price, and it plays music too. The house announced she wanted a piano so a piano she got. Some of these houses can be very demanding you know?

She also got a white birdcage and a cockatiel for the ladies parlour. I'll show that off later.

So somehow I am making progress on the San Fran even with all the Christmas craziness going on. I don't know about you, but it seems the busier I am the more I get done. Strange but true!

It won't be long before this lovely house will need to be moved to the garage to get her floors and shingles stained. I'm hoping to have her completed before my birthday rolls around in February.

Welcome New Followers!

2009-12-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

Good heavens, I have five new followers! That's very exciting! Welcome to you all.

First is marivigano of http://marivigano.blogspot.com/ Her blog is in Spanish and so I am totally clueless unless I get out my friend bablefish, but she has a really cute site and some great pictures of minis.

Next is Marsha of http://sassyminidolls.blogspot.com/. I love the look of her blog. It's kind of retro and shabby chic at the same time and I love to read what she writes.

Then we have Deborah of http://dlsarmywife.blogspot.com/. She's an awesome polymer clay artist! She has a really cute blog and I know exactly how she feels when she says, wow, someone actually reads this stuff I write?!

Next up is Amana of http://anamavesi-minis.blogspot.com/ Amana is from Buenas Aires. Do any of you know that a somewhat guilty pleasure of mine is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita? So when I saw that Amana was from Buenos Aires I immediately started humming "What's New Bueunos Aires?" which is one of my favorite songs from the play. :)

Finally is Lúcia Soares. I didn't see a link for her blog but that's OK. You are welcome here!

So thank you so much for joining the mischief here. I never thought anyone would even care what I wrote when I began blogging and now I have 60 followers. I'm grateful and happy to have you all here. :)

Angel Snowflake Wreath

2009-12-10T22:42:00.001-08:00

This wreath is kind of special to me. My friend at work has been a great salesperson for my wreath making adventure. She asked me to make a wreath for her that had her "angels" or grand kids on it.

She said her decorations were all silver and white with lots of snowflakes this year, so this is what I came up with. I used some of the left over ribbon from the Hanukkah wreath. It's just such a gorgeous ribbon!

The little angels are crocheted with little buttons for faces. They are so easy and so adorable! Here's a closeup of the little angels.

My daughter suggested the white poinsettias and I think they finish this one off nicely. My friend loved it and I'm so glad she's happy with it!

Eagerly Awaiting Nook. . .

2009-12-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

I think I have mentioned (several times I'm sure) that I am an avid reader. I love, love, love books! But they sure take up a lot of room. That got me to thinking about an ereader. Store your books in one place. Sounds good. Download them wirelessly. Sounds great. Store 1,500 books on it, and more with an SD card. Keep talking!

I've been eyeing the Kindle from Amazon for a while, but my favorite bookstore, Barnes and Noble, announced their ereader in October and I couldn't resist. Luckily my wreath making allowed me to treat myself to this semi-expensive electronic gadget.

I had trouble actually clicking the button to order. I mean, how can I justify spending the money on something for only me, and just before Christmas no less? But then I convinced myself I worked hard making wreaths and I deserve this little gadget that I've been wanting for ages.

So I ordered on November 14th, thinking I'd be in the November 30th ship group. What was I thinking???? I got a ship date of December 18th. Noooo! I want it now!

I've been waiting over three weeks for my little Nook. I feel like a kid waiting for Santa to come. Now it appears they are running a bit behind in shipping. I have my fingers crossed they are getting production up to speed and I'll see my nook before Christmas. Please, Santa, I've been a good girl this year. At least, for the most part. . .

I hope my nook gets here soon! I'll keep you updated. . .

Jingle Bells. . . Yes, It's Another Wreath

2009-12-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

I guess practice make perfect because each new wreath I make I am happier with than the last.

One thing that helps is that I learned to make bows really well. I made two bows to decorate a basket for my company's holiday party on the way to the party Saturday night (yes, in the car). They really are that easy. So perhaps I'll do a tutorial for you just so you can see how easy they are and you can then make beautiful bows for your packages this Christmas. Anyone interested?

I really like this wreath. It has a crocheted poinsettia on the left, two gold poinsettia's above it, two very nice bows with gold and red poinsettia ribbon, and bells.

I love bells on a wreath, because when you open the door with the wreath, you hear it jingle. It's so festive!

Next up is another white, silver and blue wreath with angels and snowflakes for the theme. I think it will be very pretty. More soon!

Lampshade. . .

2009-12-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

And it wasn't on my head! My company's Holiday Party was this weekend and I am co-chair of the committee that plans the 500+ guest extravaganza and we work on it all year long. It went pretty well but I am still exhausted! But luckily I only had a glass or two of champagne so no lampshades on my head!

I broke the shade for this little table lamp a few months ago so earlier in the week I decided to make a replacement. I followed this excellent tutorial for making a lampshade: Tutorial She makes beautiful, complete lamps, but I only used the shade template. Also, instead of using the paper harp I used a bead cap glued into the inside top of the shade and made a harp out of wire and threaded it through the hole in the bead cap.

I also printed out parchment looking paper and glued it to the shade template, and glued on embroidery floss for trim.

Another "not bad for a first try" effort, and it only took about an hour. That's the kind of project I like!

I have many new followers in the past couple of days and I am so glad you are all here! I will welcome you all properly very soon.

Little Stained Glass Cabinet

2009-12-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

Aren't Michael's mini cabinets great? They are only $1 and they have such possibilities! Tonight I decided to make one into two little pieces. I decided to make the top part into a cabinet for the kitchen and the bottom part will be a little console that sits at the top of the stairs on the third floor.

The cabinet is pretty easy to split apart. I took a small screw driver between the top and bottom parts and it pretty much popped apart. They are only glued together so it doesn't take much.

Then you have to sand it. A lot. I'll admit I'm not so good at that part. I get bored easily. I took the doors off, which was easy, and then I cut a new bottom piece out of balsa wood and glued the back on. You don't want to glue it all around or it will be tough to get the doors back on.

And after I painted the cabinet I decided it would look really nice with a little bit of stained glass. So here is what it looked like after painting the cabinet white.

Next I had to decide what to use for the "glass." Plastic works best here. In the past I've used heavy overhead projector pages, but those aren't as easy to find these days. What I used for this project is the plastic top of a tray of cake slices I bought for Thanksgiving. Great way to recycle! I cut the pieces big enough to fit the back of the cabinet doors. There is no point in cutting small pieces for each panel for this project. Just cut it to fit the whole door.

Then I stuck the plastic on the back side of the cabinet door. I used Museum Wax for this. I love that stuff! It holds so great, and if you want to take the "glass" off at some other point, it is really easy.

Then I was ready to paint. In case you are wondering, I painted it after sticking it on the door so I could see where the squares are. I decided to just paint different colored squares. If I had decided to do a fancy pattern, I would have painted it first and then stuck it to the door. I just painted on the back of the door, using the cabinet panes as guides for my squares.

I used glass stain for this. If you want to be fancy you can buy Gallery Glass, but you need so little why spend the money? You can buy a pack of glass stain with 8 colors for under $3.

When you paint with glass stain it's like using nail polish. Just paint it on and don't go back over the same spot or you'll pull off the stain. I used blue and yellow in different squares. Then let it dry.

Once it was dry, I put the doors back on and voila! Here is my finished cabinet. I don't worry about the stain being totally smooth. Any ripples or air bubbles make it look like really old glass and give it character. This piece will hang in my kitchen and hold little plates. I think it needs a little more embellishment on the top, but for a quick project it turned out pretty cute.

Christmas Tree is Up and Decorated

2009-11-30T00:03:00.000-08:00

This must be a record in my house for having the tree up before December has started, but up and decorated it is! The angel for the top is missing because the light onit was burned out and the darn thing had to be ordered on ebay. Apparently it's a "specialty" item. Make sit hard to finish the tree, but it's good enough for now.

I want to say Merry Christmas to you all! The season is so quick I wanted to start wishing you Merry Christmas right now before it's over.

I don't understand why no one says Merry Christmas anymore. Who is going to be offended? And if someone is, perhaps they need to relax a little. Maybe take up miniatures!

It almost seems like we aren't allowed to be Christians anymore. It's OK to wish anyone else a joyous holiday for whatever they celebrate, just not Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I support people in whatever holiday the choose to celebrate. And if you want to wish me a happy whatever you celebrate, I surely will not be offended. Just let me enjoy Christmas, OK? :)

So Merry Christmas in this joyous season to you all! :)

Five Golden Rings. . . or Wreaths

2009-11-29T23:39:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's Sunday night and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Booo! How can four days go so fast?

As I said late last night, I finished four wreaths yesterday and I did one tonight. Then I redid a bit of the other four. I think miniatures is a good hobby for me because I can fiddle with things and never really get done. I tend to do that with a lot of things. Good things these wreaths are going to work with me tomorrow or I'd be fiddling with them even more.

So here the are!

Wreath one. This one has a big red and gold bow, hanging bells, lots of poinsettias, and a couple of really pretty gold poinsettias.

Here is wreath two. This one is for the "purist." It has a plaid bow on top and a red and gold one on the bottom of the wreath. It has some golden pine cones and a huge red poinsettia.

Now for wreath three. This is the candy cane wreath. I was playing with bow making today and I got a little carried away. But people who like lots of ribbon will love this wreath.

I saw on Friday that Michael's had handmade ribbon bows for $12 and $15 a piece! Goodness - I can make a bow in under 5 minutes. Anyone want to buy a hand made bow from Mini Mischief? :)

And here is wreath four. Another one with a more country look, this wreath has plaid ribbon bows, poinsettias, and red birds. This would be so pretty in a cabin in the woods.

And finally, here is wreath five. Two bows of red and gold, lots of little red birds and poinsettias, and bells in the center.

So, which is your favorite?

Christmas Saturday

2009-11-29T01:10:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning and early afternoon making wreaths and I got four done. Not bad! I'll show you pictures tomorrow. It's now 1:12am and I should be asleep, but I had a fun evening and I felt like writing about it.

Our best friends live in the mountains about 45 minutes away, and there was a slight rain storm last night that left about an inch of snow on the ground up there. They invited us to dinner at their house and then we headed over to the tiny mountain "downtown" to watch the parade. It was so sweet! Yes, it was a little hokey, but old fashioned and sweet for sure.

There were a lot of people walking in the parade with dogs dressed up for Christmas, and a lot of cars fixed up with lights, and Santa and Mrs Claus arrived on a lighted fire truck. And it came around three times to make it seem a little longer than it really was. Remember the scene from A Christmas Story where they go downtown and watch the parade? That's the idea. I like things like this that are more like times gone by. I even left my phone in the car during our Christmas fun. And of course it's always good to be with friends.

On the miniature front I am the featured blogger on Gaye's blog My Small Obsession. That's pretty neat. Thanks Gaye! Please check out her site. She has some neat things there.

An Evening with The San Fran

2009-11-27T23:53:00.000-08:00

Are you sitting down? I actually made time to work on my San Fran tonight. I planned to go up to work on her about 10am, but with kids and everything else it was closer to 5pm before I got near her. But I can honestly say I made some real progress on the house this evening!

I realized I was obsessing over hiding every cord of the lighting. Once I decided it wasn't important to have it totally perfect, I was able to move forward. Letting go of perfectionism is very freeing!

I have most of the wallpapering and flooring done. I have two rooms to add ceiling papers to. I really hate doing ceilings. Just when you think you've got thing settled, the ceiling paper likes to fall off. Very annoying.

I resisted the urge to put all the furniture in and admire it, only because I'm hoping to jump back in tomorrow, although it's almost time for baseboards and crown molding and that's a project I really, really hate. But it looks so good once you get it right.

At any rate, I feel good about my progress today. I have six wreaths to deliver next week so I'll have to get back to it soon. But it was a lot of fun to be back working on the Lady this evening.

Pay It Forward - I'm a Little Behind!

2009-11-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

In October I received the most adorable gift from my friend Kathy of The Garfield Manor as part of her Pay It Forward game. I was so excited I was all ready to get my game going. And then I got all into my wreath making. I realized this morning that the end of November is Monday and that is when I promised my gifts to arrive. And I'm not ready!

I hope my players will understand that I'm going to have to put this little game on hold until after Christmas, but for that my gifts will be a little more special then if I had to get them out in two days. If anyone wants to play I have room for a couple more.

Here are the rules:

If you want to play, comment on this post. I will make a small gift and send it to you. This will be a 1/12 scale miniature item.

There are a few limitations:

Until it arrives at your doorstep you will not know what it is.
It will arrive by the end of January.
I will make something lightweight and not bulky to facilitate packaging and mailing.

What's the catch? You must make the same offer on your blog. You do this after you receive my gift and in whatever time frame you want.

I'm really sorry for this delay but I don't think any of you want me to be a crazy woman staying up all night to get gifts out that I'm not proud of. This way I can get something really nice in miniature for you. Sound good? Thanks for understanding!

Welcome New Follower!

2009-11-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

I have been lax in welcoming my new follower, Kat of Cardinal House Studio. Welcome, welcome! I'm so glad you are here! Of course I have a soft spot for her site because I love cardinals and my daughter's dollhouse is The Cardinal House.

Speaking of which, I have a funny story. We watched Angels and Demons last night and my daughter asked a question about what was going on. I said that the Cardinals were selecting a new Pope, and she asked me, "The baseball team???" Oh we are much too much a baseball family! But it was very funny.

If you have a moment please check out Kat's blog. She makes beautiful jewelry and has nice Etsy store here : http://www.etsy.com/shop/cardinalhouse And there is a sale going on until Monday! So you'll really be missing something without checking it out. Thanks again for joining us here, Kat. :)