Missing Mookie...

Last Thursday was Mookie's last day.  I still don't really want to talk about it, but I think that I have to let everyone know that he won't be around any more.

He had been ill for a couple of years with thyroid problems and was on daily medication.  He was doing great for an 18 year old.

Then recently he started having urinary tract problems...That did him in.

We will all miss him.  Tessie let me think that he was my cat, but he was really hers.

Actually, he started out as April's cat.  She moved to Pennsylvania and went to grad school there.  He became my cat.  We didn't think that he would adapt well to the cold climate back there.

She found another cat while she was back there and brought it back to AZ with her.  That was when Mookie officially became my cat.

He patiently put up with Tessie for the past few years.  I think that he enjoyed being a part of her world and she enjoyed being part of his.

He never ever tried to chew her head off.  Even when she annoyed him greatly....She often did.

This is one of my favorite photos of him.  He loved Christmas and all of the decorations that he could mess with.  We used to find ornaments all over the house from him batting them around.

I am just happy that he made it as long as he did.  He was a good friend and will be missed by the whole family.

Taking the day off.

See you tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, Once Again....

Today the Wednesday Witches had their annual Christmas Party.  Late, as usual.  We always take our time with it.  That way we are all rested up from the first Christmas and ready for the second one.

We do a gift exchange and potluck.  The food was great and the gifts a lot of fun.

At first I thought I got a box of kitty litter....Nope.  Santa and a dollhouse to decorate.  Just what I need....Another dollhouse to decorate!  It's very cute and will be a welcome addition to my collection. 

 

For those of you waiting for news of Mookie. He is doing OK.

It seems that he has an Occult Urinary Tract Infection.  He got a shot yesterday and is taking pain pills for the next three days....Hopefully this will make it go away....Wish him luck...

He seems to be OK in every other way, so with the luck, he will be back to normal soon.



I am having problems with alignment again.  I hope that this is readable when I am done.  Widget wanted in on the photo session too.  He is the invisible cat.  If you were here, you would never see him....As soon as anyone comes in, that he doesn't know he runs for cover.  I have several friends that have never seen him and think that I am imagining things when I say that there is more than one cat in the house.

As you can probably tell, I am stalling.  No mini making today.  Hopefully, I will be back at it tomorrow.

See you then.

You Try to Work Under These Conditions!

OK....First of all, it's New Year's Eve...No.  We aren't going out to celebrate.

Walter is playing golf today and I am cooking for tomorrow.  Not New Year's Day....Walter's birthday. 

The kids are coming over and I decided to do pulled pork and potato salad today.  That way I won't have to spend the whole day cooking like I did on Christmas.

The rug is coming along nicely considering I haven't had a lot of time to work on it.  I am almost finished with the strap work between the blocks. and finished the blue in the boarder and most of the dark green.

But, I ask you.  How can I be expected to work with an ongoing party in the townhouse?  Tessie, after taking a couple of day off is back in the middle of it.  It has mostly moved to the living room.  The tree is down and the presents disappeared.  I think most of them were zapped somewhere by Tessie.  She is probably hoping that the rest of the gang will go home staggering and not remember any presents after partying for a week....

My other problem was this...While I was trying to take a photo of the rug, I would get the camera in position and as I was about to push the button, this happened.  Mookie kept edging in between  me and the camera and the rug...I actually had to push him away from the camera to take this....All I saw before was one golden eyeball  in the lens.

He did not want me messing around with minis when it was his turn for attention...

Anyway, I am going back to cooking now.  I have an order from the party goers for snacks....Maybe they will be satisfied with a sauce dish full of Chex Party Mix....I hope so.

See you tomorrow.

Sorting Out Sunday....

I am back to sorting the rest of the stuff in the workroom, so no projects today.

Tessie is "helping"....

She found another one of my earlier beds. Now she has it in her head that she needs TWO more houses. Thank goodness, that is the last one...I hope...I don't remember any others that I have stashed.


A couple of weeks ago, when Wednesday Witches met here at my house, we got to talking about doing macrame. I have a few books from the seventies and we were all reminiscing about doing that particular craft.

I remember discovering macrame when I was in school. I found a turn of the century (19th) needlework book that had a description of doing it. I wasn't even sure how to pronounce it, but I taught myself how to do it by following the instructions in that. I merrily went along doing it for a few years and then suddenly Mc Call's Needlework and Crafts magazine published an article about it. It took a couple more years, but it eventually caught on and everybody wanted to learn. Hence, I started teaching it in craft stores.

When I started doing miniatures, I pretty much quit doing it. Once in a while I would do a pot hanger or wall piece in mini, but other than that, nothing.

Talking about it made me think about how much fun it was to do. It seems that lately a lot of people are doing jewelry with fine cords and calling it micro macrame. I did a lot of that way back when.

I couldn't resist grabbing some thread and tying a bunch of knots. OK....I know. I am supposed to be finishing the townhouse. I am tying knots with one hand and doing the house with the other...Honest....

Then I remembered that I had a bunch of rug yarn in a storage bin in the garage....One thing leads to another.


Now I am working on a bag. This is one side. The other side will be the same. Mookie says "Hi!".

I am not going to quit mini-ing. I just needed something new to do while I watch TV at night. I can't just sit there and watch. I have to keep busy. This too will pass.

I am going back to sorting now. Slowly, but surely, the laundry basket is getting emptied. I will not be happy until it can be used as a laundry basket again....

See you tomorrow, with minis in hand.

Being Watched.....

I decided to clean out all of the quad rule pads on the top shelf this morning...It wasn't as big a job as I thought that it was going to be. I found that some of them were already just clean sheets of paper left. I must have cleaned them out before and set aside the ones with no drawings.

I pulled the whole pile out and started working on them.

Then it got crowded. Mookie took his favorite place on my left shoulder. Then to make matters worse, Tessie piled on top of him.

Did you ever try to work with a cat hanging over your shoulder and a small witch shouting directions to you?

I just did...I took this photo by holding the camera out in front of me and shooting back towards myself. At least the two of them held still and cooperated.

Tessie couldn't see well enough over Mookie's head and ended up smack dab in the middle of the pile.

It's difficult to turn pages and rip them out with her sitting on them. Incidentally, that is two separate stacks that she is sitting on and she's not helping....


At one point I found about 20 pages of thumbnail sketches of purse and bag designs....Tessie put her foot down and refused to move, saying, "I want that one and that one and that one and that one and that one."...I am not sure why she didn't just announce her usual "I want them all!"

I made the mistake of saying aloud that I had found the plans for the Clockwork Cottage. Zar was there in a flash.

Then I made another, larger mistake...I turned the page to the drawings for Zar's original hairstyle and clothes....Oops.

He grabbed a pipe wrench and started shaking it at me... "I told you these clothes make me look fat!" and then, "Why did you never make me those boots and it says here that I am supposed to have a white shirt, black leather vest and gray pants! Where are they?" and then to add insult to injury, he finished with,"I demand satisfaction! Where is my pistol?" And off he went.

Thank goodness, I put the pistol and rifle both carefully away....Where he can't find them. I am still a little worried about the wrench...

I just heard from the other room, "There was a top hat with feathers in that drawing too. Where's my top hat?"

I am either going to have to disappear for the rest of the afternoon or start making clothes....Let's see....Where can I hide that he doesn't know about? I am tiptoeing away now.

At least there were no drawings for cat toys. Mookie still likes me.

See you tomorrow.

Running Away From Home....

The room cleaning is at a stand still. I do have lots of holes, but right in front of the holes is the dreaded laundry basket...To be sorted...

So, April and I decided to go shopping for furniture this morning....It ran into the afternoon....No furniture....

We did hit a great sale at the UNICEF store. It was out front, blocking the sidewalk, so we had to stop and look.

Some of the things on sale were actually from the store. Evidently stuff that hadn't sold for a while.

I bought three pieces.

Of course, when Tessie saw them she grabbed. None were her size.

The Chinese moth pendant is just cast resin, but very pretty. It will work well with a kumihimo braid.

The red bracelet is polished coral. The back side is even more interesting than the front. Lots of black veins running through it.

The last is dZe(yes, that is the correct spelling) beads with Stirling silver caps on the end, from Tibet.... I have been wanting some of these for a while....Usually they are way more expensive.

What is so special about these pieces? I paid three dollars and seventy five cents for all! It was an amazing sale! I could have gotten more bargains, but we had other places to go and other things to see.

After Tessie relinquished the jewelry, because it didn't fit, Mookie agreed to model the dZe necklace. I can't say that he was terribly excited about doing it either....It was more like,"Well, if I have to......"

Soooo....Anyway, I didn't get even a toothpick put away today. Now it looks like it is going to storm. I just heard thunder. Isn't it against some principle to clean when there is lightening going off overhead? I think so. I promise to go back to work tomorrow. Minis, here I come.

See you tomorrow.

Chaise Lounge....The Final Chapter...

Yesterday, after establishing the look that I wanted on the chaise, I started fiddling with a pattern. Here it is.

If you attempt one of these, you will want to check the pieces at every stage, and I do mean every stage. Yours won't necessarily turn out exactly like mine. It is almost impossible to make two the same with this method. I did a lot of trimming between fittings. Just a tad at a time.



You have to make allowances for different weights of fabric and batting. Also your cardboard or poster board won't be the same as mine.

For the petals, I used the plain cardboard that comes between layers in my Fancy Feast cat food. For the filler of the sandwich, I used two layers of fun foam. I wanted something that would curve nicely.

While I am on that subject, I curled the tops of the petals to the back slightly. That gave the whole back a nice arch.

Unfortunately, this photo was before the curve. I did the curves by cutting the cardboard against the grain so that it would curve more easily. All cardboard has a grain, just like wood.

I wanted the grain to go crosswise of the petals so that they could curve back....If I had wanted them to curve in the center in the other direction I would have cut them lengthwise of the grain.

I did the same thing when I cut the veneer for the kitchen cabinets in the Clockwork Caravan. I cut them with the grain running up and down the face of the cabinet, making it much easier for the wood to bend around the cabinets.

Tessie is holding one of the petals to show you what the "sandwich" looks like from the side. Bottom to top, cardboard, two layers of fun foam, another layer of cardboard and two layers of bonded batting....Notice that it doesn't go all the way to the bottom. That is to allow for the seat cushion to fit closely to the arm of the chaise.

The petals are glued into place and the sides of the petals are glued to one another.

In the next photo, Tessie has already taken over to see if it works. It does.

In front of her is the outer back that will cover the messy back of the petals. It also had to be custom cut. the width on that piece is about 1/2" wider than the inner pieces. You have to allow for the outward curve.

As you can see, I have clipped the fabric all around. That is so that some of the bulk will be eliminated when I fit it to the back.

The last chapter is gluing the outer back on and then decorating. I ran a fancy ribbon around the seams and Tessie condecended to my putting on a couple of bows and roses to go with the bed....Nice of her.

Sorry, but Mookie came in and decided to perch on the slide out. He sleeps there all of the time when either Walter or I are working....If he had his way, he would sleep on the four inch area in front of the keyboard....Thank goodness, he didn't try to fight for it while I was writing this.

He got bored and fell asleep shortly after I took the photo. He should be tired. He woke me up at 3:00AM this morning, wanting someone to play with. I am going away now and take a well deserved nap.

See you tomorrow.

Can I Borrow a Scarf, a Sock and a Cat?...

One quilt was not enough this morning....First Tessie tried wrapping herself up like a burrito(no salsa). Her toes kept getting a breeze.

Next she found the brass bed and tried that with Spike as a bed warmer.....

Still not enough...

I was bundled up in bed trying to crochet tiny things with stiff fingers. I was working on a piece of clothing for Tessie. Since I am winging it, I can't really tell what it is until I finish. So far it is orange, raglan sleeved yoke, with a yellow ruffle around the shoulders. It can be a jacket or a cape or even a fancy Snuggie....I wonder why Snuggies don't usually have ruffles? They should have ruffles.

Tessie, sitting up in bed, yelled across the room, "Forget about crocheting. I need to borrow a sock, a scarf and a cat...."

I just shook my head, laughed and kept crocheting, whilst whispering bad words under my breath. There were puffs of white vapor coming out of my mouth as I spoke.

Then I heard her rummaging around in my closet....I watched this scene unfold. She sidled up to Mookie, pulled on one of my "sleeping bag" socks, wrapped a scarf around herself and snuggled down beside him.

At first he looked a bit disgruntled. I could see the wheels turning in his brain. Hmmmm. Warm scarf....

Kind cat that he is, he snuggled up next to her and started to purr.

I thought that it was only fair that Mookie got to share the scarf. I looped it around his neck....He woke up just long enough to approve.

Then he put his head back down and both of them dozed off.

The gas is supposed to be back on within the next 48 hours.....Until then, you will find all of us in the bedroom, under the covers. It is warming up slowly.....

See you tomorrow.

There Are Cats....And There Are Cats.....

This is Mookie, demanding his share of what's under the tree. Why? Because Widget took both his own and Mookie's present.

I bought them a new cat tent this morning at Walmart. It is built on a sturdy frame and the inside is big enough for two cats. The top is a cat hammock. Widget immediately decided that this is where he is going to live from now on. Mookie can't get in. He tried the top hammock part, but is unsure. The stability is to be questioned when it is sitting on the bed.

Anyway, that brings us to other cats. Tessie saw what was going on and said, "Well! If they were miniature cats, you wouldn't be having problems. Everybody knows that miniature cats are more well behaved than the big ones."

I am not sure how she comes up with these theories. Personally, I think that it was just a ploy to get me to make her a cat. I fell for it.

Follow along and you can have a mini cat of your very own....I made one that is asleep, so of course he will be more well behaved than Mookie and Widget! This is the easiest way that I know to make a cat. We cheat and make him sleeping so that you don't even have to do eyes.

All you need is some poly clay in the color that you want the cat, a knife, a toothpick and a little patience.

First you knead the clay for softening. Then you pinch off a piece about the size of a small peanut shell, a ball about 1/4 to 3/8", a ball that you flatten and cut in half about the same size for the hips, a tiny ball to smash and cut in half for the ears, and a long rope for the legs and tail.

Here you can see where the pieces go.

Make the body a little smaller at the front end by rolling.

Make the head kind of teardrop shaped and then moosh the pointy end a bit for the nose.

Cut two 1/4" pieces of the rope for the back paws. Then two 1/2" pieces for the front legs and feet. Cut the ball that you made for the hips in half and push them against either side of the back. Flatten one end of the 1/4" pieces and place them under the hip piece, extending forward.

Make a bend in the front leg pieces about half way up and put them against either side of the front end to make shoulders, legs and paws. Lay one paw over the other.

Place the head on the front end of the body. For the ears, flatten the tiny ball and cut it in half.

Pinch the curved edge to a point. put the opposite side from the point against the top of the cat's head, leaving about an ear's width between them.

You can do the face any time, but If you do it while still handling the cat, you may have to do it more than once. I just poke two slits in for the closed eyes. Then a triangle for the nose and a curve going out from the bottom of that on either side of the face for the mouth.

The tail is simply a piece of the rope flattened at one end and stuck to the back of the cat between the hips.

With this cat, I turned his head towards the side and rested his chin on his paws. Then I coiled his tail around the side of his body.

You will want to go over all of the seams with a toothpick to smooth them out. Then bake him following manufacturer's directions. You can texture his fur with an Exacto. It isn't necessary though.

Good Luck!

See you tomorrow.

Working On Christmas....

Claudia, over at Mockingbird Hill Cottage http://mockingbirdhillcottage.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-addiction.html has been crocheting what she calls Obsession Scarves...Now I am off on another tangent. I had to try one. She is right. They are addictive and create obsessive behaviour. I crocheted one and now want to do more.... Go look at hers. They are much prettier than my first try. Very colorful!

Of course Tessie is complaining that it is too big...Does this mean it is going to turn into a small obsession? I hope not.

When I was about half way through Mookie left his favorite place, perched over my left shoulder watching me. I paid no attention for a while. He had moved to his pink flannel blanket beside me...

I finally looked down and this is what I saw.

He had the band from the yarn around his face. I did NOT put it there. He did it himself and seemed to be very happy with his new muzzle. He patiently waited for me to go get the camera from the computer room and posed nicely when I returned.

Sometimes I think that he is a bigger ham than Tessie is, when it comes to cameras.

I just ignored him and he decided, after a bit that if he wanted to walk anywhere and see where he was going, he was going to have to loose the nose guard.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...house...Mid-century modern, that is, Tessie and Zar put up the Christmas tree that I found at Lowe's this morning. It is much more sparkly than the old aluminum trees, but exactly what the room needed....Added advantage? No decorating needed.

Since the perpetual party is still going on from Halloween, nobody even noticed when they slipped in and put it in the corner....

Now that's what I call a special event! Party on, Dudes!!

See you tomorrow.

Averting Disaster!!!

A warning to all that believed me when I told them that hanging sweater shelves were great for storing fabric.....

I went to the computer room closet yesterday and found that not to be true....

See that little gadget that holds the closet pole in place? It is about to give way and if that happens, all of the fabric is going down!

To keep this from happening, this morning I went to Walmart and bought a Plano shelf unit. It says right on the wrapper, "holds up to 300 lbs..

It snapped together with a rubber mallet in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, it took a lot more time to reorganize the fabric and get it in place.

As I took the canvas shelves out of the closet, everything inside fell out. What fun!!!

This is what the room looked like when I was about half done. It took me an hour or so just to get this far. Everything had to be refolded and sorted. GRRRRRR....

After three hours+, I had it back together. It now has everything by color and hopefully I will be able to put my hands on the fabric that I need in a matter of minutes.....If it is in this closet....Did I mention that there is more fabric in the hall closet and in a chest in the living room? Something has to give!

I am taking a day from minis just to clean out all of it. One down. Two to go.

Mookie, the Inspector General, approves of the first one.

Onwards and upwards. The hall closet is next.

You may be asking yourself, "Where is Tessie?"....Would you believe that she and the mad pig are still sleeping in the new trundle bed. No. I am not going to wake her up! It is soooooo nice and quiet in here this morning. I am going to enjoy it while I can. It won't last.....

See you tomorrow.

Multi-tasking Can Be Fun.....

.....Especially if you have lots of help.....

My first task of the day was tackling the job of reshaping one of the Dollar Tree shadow box/book case thingies. I cut one section off to form a six shelf book case instead of the nine shelf that it was to begin with. I have plans for the part that I eliminated too. The cutting was easy enough with my keyhole saw and Exacto razor saw.

Then onto the next task. I wanted to make a different kind of chair for the living room. It is getting far too many abstract shapes. I decided to see if I could do some of the wire mesh chairs that were popular in the 60s.

I am also looking for a shape to form a hanging basket chair, but so far, no luck on that one. Nothing egg shaped or large enough.

I spotted an unused small dome. That was for experiment #1. As soon as I got the canvas wet and stretched it over the form, I smoothed out all of the wrinkles and hairsprayed it. So far, so good....Then Tessie popped in. She put the sock monkey under the dome and then zapped it.....Poor Zar. I don't think he will ever be the same. He is huddled under there and afraid to try getting out.

Not being satisfied with messing up one piece of canvas, I tried for another one. This time I stretched it over the end of a big Listerine bottle. I have no idea if this will work or not.

Just ignore me. It's mad scientist time. If this one works, I will have two chairs. We shall see.

Too bad I am a patient person when it comes to letting things dry....You won't get to see the results until tomorrow.

Sooooo.....While I watch the hairspray dry, I am cleaning out the closet in the computer room. It needed it.

Every once in a while April comes over and digs through it. Some of her things are still in there. She puts everything back, but not the way I had it and I have no idea where everything is located after she is done. If April comments on this, please ignore her....

The only way that I can get it the way that I want it is to pull everything out and start over. If I do that, I will be able to catalog everything in my head. Then when I need something, I will, theoretically, know where said item is located.(It's not nice to laugh at the cleaning lady. Stop that!)

It's always much faster if Mookie helps. He's very good at emptying baskets and making nests in the boxes of yarn.

Widget, on the other hand Is perched on the desk while I am writing this, waiting patiently to see if I will give him another bowl of food. Breakfast #2 for the day.

I am having difficulty typing around a 14 pound cat, so I guess that I should quit stalling and get back to work on the closet.

Maybe I had better feed Widget first....He is starting to look very disgruntled.

See you tomorrow.

Vacation Time for Walter...And Thank You Kathi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you tomorrow.