Baby, It's Cold Outside

The thermometer tells me it's -2F (-18 C) and this does not make me happy. I did managed to get money together to feed the birds this year, unlike last year with lots of doctor appointments and inevitable co-pays.

I took some pictures yesterday because a melanistic squirrel had come to dine. He's on the left and a regular grey squirrel is on the right.

There was also the tiniest goldfinch I'd ever seen on the finch feeder.

Today there's a dusting of snow covering the ice from yesterday afternoon, and steam is rising from my heated birdbath.

These days FuzzyHusband is much less fuzzy, at least when it comes to his head. I happened to pick up a crochet magazine whilst getting supplies before the ice hit on Friday and found a handsome hat pattern that called for a yarn I had stashed. And more luck, I already owned the correct hook size!

So I came home, put all the groceries away, filled bird feeders, and bided my time until I had to pick himself up from work. What I should've done was triple check that the hook was where it belonged. You can see where this is going, can't you?

Himself gets a ride home from a coworker who was coming into town to see a movie. He makes eggnog and I decide a jot of rum in my chai would be nice and warming. THEN I decide to look for my hook. And its missing.

So before he could enjoy his freshly made drink, FH puts shoes back on and drives me to buy a new hook. What we didn't know is the ice storm had started. He almost turned us around. But he's happy that he didn't.

Now I must brave the weather and the streets to go check on a friend's bunny. I'd been watching him all week and couldn't go over yesterday. I did give him lot of extra food on Friday just in case I was trapped yesterday. Happily a neighbor (who is unfamiliar with rabbit car) checked on him yesterday and he was fine. Don't let the cute face fool you. He's gnawing on my boot in this picture!

Once I'm home there is a long list of chores that needs doing. That's what I get for doing nothing yesterday but dishes and crochet. See you next week and stay warm!

Bonus picture of Pixel because she was just too cute not to share!

Wallpaper and Cabinetry

Firstly, I did manage to get the wall straightened. It took the better part of an hour to remove 7 staples and get the orientation fixed. Many words not fit for polite company were said. I'm glad I didn't stream that!

The wallpaper went on pretty easily. It was fiddly getting the border sections to line up, but not heart-wrenchingly so. The left hand corner lined up better than the right hand corner. 

The strategic placement of a hanging plant will help hide the misaligned border in the corner and I will happily move along.

I need to order some 7/16" crown molding to hide the exposed wood around the top. I should have plenty of baseboard, but I need to check my supply.

I did start in on the pile of kits this week. Currently this is as far as I've gotten.

I need to sand everything before I get further along with some of the larger pieces. Also the dishwasher front needs to be painted before it's glued down. I'm kit-bashing one of the 3" base cabinet kits to create a more modern sink. FuzzyHusband has designed a sink in a 3D modeling program that we can print out and it will fit the kit dimensions. The sink will set between the cabinet with 4 drawer and the dishwasher.

To have the layout I want, I need three 2 inch upper cabinets and two 2 inch base cabinets, I'm on the look out for more of these kits, or something like them. 

The dining room side is on hold until the coordinating wallpaper arrives. I do have most of the furniture for the room already: table, four chairs, and a side board. I'm hoping to find a China cabinet that will match the existing furniture's finish.

So that's all for this week. Hopefully I'll find some additional kits and the other wallpaper will get here soon. Otherwise I'll have to get as much done with this project as I can and then switch to a different one for a bit.

I hope everyone has a great week! See you next time!

Inspiration, Crooked Walls, and Kit Chaos

A few weeks ago, I commissioned several tiny copper baking molds from my jeweler friend, Tony. In addition to making awesome stitch markers, he uses a copper-smithing technique called chase and repousse to shape copper sheets into fun designs. I'd watched him make a few things and asked how small he could work. Happily, he'd been quietly interested in miniatures for a while. You can see where this could get both of us into all kinds of fun trouble!

Originally I wanted 6 little copper molds in different shapes. If these were life-sized they'd be called mini molds and be the right size for the individual cakes that have become en vogue in the last few years. Small also means i get more variety. We weren't sure what shapes would work and which would fail utterly. So Tony sketched up several. Most of them worked! The apple did become an acorn, but I'm cool with that.

I'm really happy with these pans. They're his first attempts at working so small with that technique. We both figured out changes he can make for more improvement in the future. But I love them! :-)  Oh and check out the copper scimitar that he made too! I may have to create a doll to wield it.

In the original batch of molds, Tony tried out a tiny pan. It's small and would either work in a 1:24 scale scene or be the size of my real-life, smallest skillet scaled down to 1:12. He asked if I wanted him to try larger pans and bowls. Of course I said yes! He even made the absolute best miniature colander I've seen that is affordable by mere mortals such as myself!

All of these kitchen minis reminded me that I had a roombox that I'd planned on dividing into a kitchen and dining room. I'd inherited it from a friend in mini club and it needed some overhauling.

I removed the cat, wallpaper, and trims. There was a debacle with the original wall section I'd cut out. It got lost. I found the leftover wood from cutting the first wall and decided I could use it. Of course I found the original wall section the day I was trimming up the second piece to fit. I decided to keep going with the new section. The old section needed more work done to it.

And then I installed the wall in the middle of the box. That was Tuesday. Today as I was prepping to take pictures and then wallpaper, I discovered the wall was crooked! So when I'm done here, I get to remove staples and make adjustments.

Incidentally, this is the wallpaper for the kitchen. I ordered it a while back for the Big Dollhouse that has once again had it's interior plan altered. I've ordered coordinated paper for the dining room and hopefully it will arrive next week sometime.

And now the the "chaos" I mentioned. This is a pile of kits from Shenandoah Designs. As you can see, some of the kits were already in various states of assembly. Some of them are actually missing parts, which is aggravating. But for a pile of kits that I was gifted, I'm not going to complain too loudly. 

FuuzyHusband has recently taken up 3D modeling objects to either be lasercut or 3D printed. He's designed a modern sink basin that will fit the standard base cabinet kit in this pile so I can kitbash a nice looking sink for my scene. It also fixes the issue of some of the missing parts. Some. Not all. The refrigerator is the other partially assembled unit that is missing pieces. I will have to make a few replacement parts. 

I've already pulled quite a few things from my stash for the dining room. Lots of food items as well. I'll show them off next weekend, if I remember. For now I'm going to go pry out some staples and hopefully get the kitchen wallpapered before it gets too dark.

See you next weekend!

Various bits and assorted baubles

I'm cheating a bit this weekend and posting on a Saturday night. I'm starting to feel sick and have a feeling if I don't post now, I won't until I feel better.

The cleaning, purging, and rearranging continued off and on all week. I'm hoping to bring the new work desk in next weekend. I had to sacrifice one of my old console TV's to have room for the new desk. I figure if I haven't started the scene I was going to put into it by now, I can safety trade it for a new desk.

The paint night at the bar on Tuesday was a lot of fun. FH went along too and all three of us (my best friend/sister of my heart) had a wonderful time. We've starting talking about doing a family paint night here so the happy-goth teen can join in the fun too. She's only 15 and all the paint nights are held in bars... must be 21 to attend.

I've hung my painting in the hallway. It may not stay there permanently, but for now it works.

FH is debating hanging his in his workroom/man cave or taking it to work.

The postman brought me a treasure this morning. The tiny vase I commissioned from one of my favorite glassblowers arrived and I love it! I was able to commission it live, discuss details with him, and then watch him make the piece in real time. It was awesome!

The colored tubing he used is one he made himself earlier in the week. I actually got to watch that too. I love everything about this piece.

I'm putting hydrangeas in the arrangement, but maybe not these exact flowers. Might be making new ones. I will also be making some pussy willow branches and hyacinths. Not sure when I'll get started on those, but it won't be until I get the studio usable.

That's all for now. I'm going to go veg out and rest. Hopefully I won't be sick for too long. See you next week!

Distractions, Distractions

At least they were fun distractions this weekend. FH and I spent the day watching football yesterday after fighting with more furniture kits for the charity dollhouse. I completely lost track of the time until it was past time for us to go to bed. Rather than stay up late to type up a blog, I figured I'd get to it this morning. Of course other things, like doing dishes, got in the way for a bit.

But we now have living room, dining, room, bathroom, and bed room furniture assembled. My friend is done with the kitchen pieces, but I don't have them here yet. She's also donating a child's bedroom set from her stash to the project.

Two more appliqued rows have stitching around the edges!

My sewing machine is giving me fits when I try to work on the edge stitching on the remaining appliqued quilt rows. I had to walk away from it the other night and start quilting finished rows instead. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the quilting on this row.

The center panel has some more details glue-basted in place too. I'll be working on this as much as possible.

I really don't think I'll be able to get my quilt done in time to win a prize for Row by Row and this makes me sad. Too much has either come up or stood in the way. Getting sick didn't help matters and neither did loosing Gus. Other personal issues have cropped up too and have made life difficult in general, not just difficult to play with my quilt.

The charity dollhouse is one of the issues as it has the same deadline. I wish I wasn't obligated to work on it, but I am so there's no getting around that. I did tell them that if they want another dollhouse furnished/redecorated next year than I'd better get possession of it in April or May. Not only will there be more time and fewer conflicts, but I'll have the time to organize the miniature group here and we can all work on it.

But I'm determined to finish my quilt this year, even if I miss the Halloween deadline. Maybe the Row by Row people will see it even if it's not a winning quilt.

Anyways, it's time to get back to work.

Belt for My Dad

FH and I made this belt for my dad.  We used a pre-embosed belt blank to start off.  He did the color work, finishing, and added the conchos.  I picked the colors, did the sizing, and shaping. 

The conchos are riveted on and the buckle is removable/changeable.  He used a yellow leather dye with a brown hi-lite to get the warm brown tones.

Puzzling Presents

Not really, but the alliteration was fun. ;-)

This Yule my stocking was stuffed with these fun little puzzles.  FH had some help from my mother in this, for which he is grateful.

I put the puzzle ball together after we got home from our 1000 mile journey.

It came with a little loop of cord so it can hang as an ornament.  So much fun with this!

A Blue Streak...Or Flame Perhaps

Our little brother (little is an operative word, he's 27 and bigger than FH) has an old beat up wallet with blue flames stitches on it.  It's horrible looking but well loved.  When they were here for New Years last year I traced the flames and took pictures for color reference.  FH was supposed to make him a new one, but got distracted by another thought.  Instead he made a more grown-up gift.

 

 

 Here's a picture of the flames in better light, before the black hi-lite was applied.

This is another project that we both worked on.  In this case I painted the flames whilst FH was at work.  He did the remainder.

A Prancing Pony

One of our best friends has an affinity (possibly bordering on an obsession) with a particular car maker.  To that end, FH and I came up with an interesting Yule gift for him.

One prancing pony, carved in leather.

I'm not sure which he liked better.  The finished result or watching FH do the carving whilst seated in his kitchen.  In the time it took me to fry chicken and make mashed potatoes, FH had this marked, cut, and tooled. 

He will be making a frame for this piece himself as he's our favorite woodworker.  I'd link to the posts featuring the pieces of his that we're proud to own but they're lost in the blog, tag-less.  Maybe I'll have time to dig them out of the darkness but not today.  I have a ton of projects in the queue that need finishing and a few that need to be started with definite deadlines.  The next several blog posts were written all at once and scheduled to post.  I'll be officially back sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Happy Anniversary

Four years ago I married my best friend.  I still love you, Dearest Heart.

Leather In Progress

In addition to me working on stockings, FH and I are working on some leather ornaments together.  He doesn't like working with some of the coloring products, so generally that's where I step in.  However I've help with some of the carving on these pieces.

The candy canes are done except for signing the backs and sealing them.

 These snowmen need another coat of white, their details painted, and signed/sealed.

 The trees need their garlands painted and signed/sealed.

Here are the carved sections for two new stockings in progress.  I should add that FH isn't helping with these.  He just doesn't have time.

The letters on this one got a little wonky, but overall I'm pleased with it.

 Still need to finish the carving on this one.  There will probably be another small motif at the bottom, with the name in the middle.

Hopefully next time I'll have some more finished things to show off.

An Experiment In Irritation

So FH and I were at Tandy Leather a couple weekends ago and I saw they were having a class on a leather stocking.  The sample was trimmed in rabbit fur and had a cute little buckled belt across it.  I thought it was really cute and the class was only two hours long, so I signed up.

When I got there on class day it was another story.  Suddenly the cute belt with buckle were nixed (by the instructor/manger) and instead we were to personalize our stockings with a piece of veg-tan leather.  You know... the kind that FH carves on.  Ok..... I went along with it thinking "why not?"

I'm really happy with how my carving and dye work went. 

However, that's where I cease being happy.

The only thing resembling a pattern that we worked with was a tracing of the original class sample...you know, the one we didn't work with.  I should also note that we didn't get to keep the pattern for whatever reason.  Let me state again that the design concept was changed that very morning... minutes before we walked through the door with no prior testing.

The class turned into an all day affair, six and a half hours, with the extra time it took to work on the carving.  No one left with finished pieces.  I had purchase supplies that FH didn't already have in order to finish it at home.  It took me the rest of the evening to sew the seam closed by hand since I couldn't use my machine thanks to the carved section.  But that's isn't the worst part.

The carved section was to be attached with decorative buckstitching before the stocking was sewn shut.  The piece was so large that I had to trim it down to make turning the stocking right side out after sewing even possible.  This meant I would loose width on the rabbit fur trim, a point the whole thing still had in it's favor.

This is what it looks like.  I refuse to finish sewing the fur together at the top because I'm debating tearing the whole thing apart for parts.  I'd turn the carved section into an ornament somehow and use the suede for minis if I take it apart.

I've already figured out how to fix every issue I have with this project and am working on two new ones at the moment.  I'm just disgusted that the whole thing cost a bunch of money and I hate the result.  I'll be posting pictures of the new ones sometime soon.

Our Steampunk Accessories

This will be the last Steampunk post until we start working on clothes and jewelry again.  In fact there should only be a few more sewing/stitching projects and posts until I can start back to some minis again.  I'm going through withdrawal. ;-)

FH was in charge of the accessories, for the most part.  He did have time to get a few things put together in between work and sleep.  Here's what he wore.  Spartan, I know but he's not one for a lot of ornamentation.  The flower was a gift from the bridal couple.  The watch we found at Hobby Lobby, near the checkout lanes. His lapel pin was made from some jewelry findings.

Here's his workspace with things in progress.

Some of what he made for me is in the background of the workstation picture.  Here's the clip on brooch that used to be a ring with a beaded (elastic) band.

Next up is the macrame bracelet with brass hex nuts.

We found this watch (without chain) in the jewelry aisle at Hobby Lobby.  He added the chain and a clip on the end.  I love the owl on the lid.

Lastly FH made me a chatelaine.  He started with some modern pieces and added the same bronzer used for the goggles.  (Note the tape measure was abandoned for this part of the project.  He will revisit it when he has some time.)

With a more chain, some gears, a bit of leather, and a gorgeous clasp:

Sadly the knit picker tool fell out of it's case during pictures after the ceremony.  Happily I can replace it for less than $2.00 and some more bronze-effect paint.  FH added my trusty loop from my days in the world of geology and my thread cutter pendent to the chains.  Also pictured are the needle case I whipped up to tuck in my bustier and the thimble I had on my hat.  Everything a Steampunk seamstress would need!  Some of it was needed during pictures too.  This was the nicest way to carry my sewing kit to a wedding.  Next time I'll be working crochet hooks into the hat somehow.