Merry Christmas!!

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!

Intricate Beauty and Where to Find It

Several months ago I had the pleasure of watching an artist stream on Twitch.tv. Her name is Brit and she works in paper. 

Many of her creations are intricate, stacked layers of paper that come together to create pictures using shadows, light, and texture. As you can imagine, those pieces are worth every penny that she charges for them! 

However, during a particular stream over the summer, she made some single layer cuts and placed water colored card behind them. FuzzyHusband remarked on one in particular and it became my mission to purchase it for his birthday.

I was successful, but didn't get to a framer in time to gift it on his actual birthday. But I picked it up this afternoon. And I couldn't be more pleased. FuzzyHusband is smitten with it. 

For anyone who would like to see more of Brit's creations you can find her on Instagram, Facebook, and Etsy. Just poke the names and you'll be transported to the respective pages. You will be so glad you did.

See you next weekend!

FuzzyHusband and I went tree hunting on Saturday. Came home with this lovely one. 

It's snowing currently and we're getting ready to go to a high school choir concert. Hopefully we'll get to decorate later tonight.

I need to go take Mercedes out to play in the snow now. She's giving me the most pathetic looks ever.

See you next weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

See you next weekend!

Festival Dollhouse 2016

Unlike last year, I did not do the majority of the work on the dollhouse. This time it was a group effort with other members of our miniature club. It was also lots more fun getting to play with everyone instead of working on my own.

So without further adieu...

Before:

After:

And closeups of the Christmas decorations:

Not certain there will be a house for next year's auction. It's up to the executive board, but we've already started roughing out plans just in case.

That's all for now. I need to get back to work. We had to have two trees cut down and a friend is coming to pick up wood tomorrow. Lots of sawing and bundling to do. See you after Thanksgiving!

Teaser

I'm up to my elbows in real plumbing for the last few days. There's still some painting to finish on the charity auction dollhouse, which hopefully will be done tonight or tomorrow. Until then, here's the "before" and "after" pictures of the bed that was donated by another member of miniature club.

Before:

After:

I need to get back to work. See you next weekend!

Life Happens

So sometimes being creative get put on the back burner. Last week was one of those weeks. Lots of errands and shopping for home improvement projects.

I did alter a pattern for some new pajama pants, but that's not exceedingly interesting. I'm hoping to sew with said pattern this afternoon, if the real world allows me to.

So until next time, here's a picture of Artie trying to convince me to put down my book and throw his paper ball for him.

Quilted Case

I played with the zipper case pattern again. I used the fabric I'd quilted as practice last week. It was handy; literally a foot away from the sewing machine when I decided to play.

This time I changed a couple of things by completely ignoring the instructions for the fabrics and only used the assembly instructions. The result is a sturdy bag with quilted sides and a "loose" lining. You know, like purses have.

I'm much happier with this version in terms of the visual and textural look and feel. I still love how the case goes together, so I'll be making more of these in the future.

Late But Here!

Fuzzy Husband and I just got home from a quick trip south. We went to St. Louis to meet up with many other Twitch live streamers and community members and had a wonderful time!

So backing up a bit, last Monday I was pondering working on a new dress for myself. However I decided that it was time to finally look into upgrading my sewing machine. I've used the same one for 27 years and quite frankly, it makes sewing more work than play.

I went and looked at some options, got information, and came home to negotiate with Himself. Tuesday I went back and came home with this:

I have to say that I'm in love with this machine. I can do so much more with attention to detail without spending extra time on a project.

It quilts like a dream. I quilted together some random fat quarters to test it out. I can also do free motion quilting, but I need lots of practice!

So I finally started my new dress on Wednesday night. I picked this Burda pattern.

It did need about 4 hours of alteration.

Artie just had to help, of course.

But the final result is perfect! Himself was suggesting I make pouty faces and other foolishness whilst taking photos. Silly man.

I got it finished at 3 am Saturday morning, so I was able to wear it to the Twitch meet up. Good to know I still have the skills, even though I had ignored them for a while!

That's all for this week. I will be doing some heavy cleaning this week. Making up for time lost while I was sick. I'm hoping to play a little bit this week though. See you next Sunday!

Infested

My trip around JoAnn's when I bought the cool Dr. Who fabric resulted in me coming down with some sort of nasty cold or flu virus. I've been fighting it for about nine days now. Low grade fevers that won't bugger off and lots of fatigue.

Mercedes is bored with my level of inactivity and keeps trying to coax me into the yard to romp with her. Poor pup. After all this time, I can't blame her. I want to play too!

Happily I'm only 0.3 degrees above normal now... closer than I've been since two Thursdays ago. Here's hoping I can get back to fun soon!

A friend gave me stacks and stack of old American Miniaturist magazines, so I've passed the awake hours perusing them.

I'm going to get back to the fluids and rest now. See you next week!

Some Little Things

Wandering around JoAnn Fabrics last week resulted in a pattern and fabric catching my eye.

Artie "helped" of course.

I still need to clean up some threads and topstitch around the zipper.

I followed the pattern exactly and didn't like a couple of things. I'm going to make another one with some changes and see how it works out.

Saturday was our mini club's workshop day. Instead of doing the N.A.M.E. project like we usually do, we all worked on things for our hat shop.

The straw hats were actually make by Kat the Hat Lady years ago. I bought a handful of them undecorated. The purple hat is one I started as an example when I taught everyone that style of hat. I spent a good portion of my time teaching everyone (one on one) how to make silk ribbon roses. 

That's all for now. Time to find a bite to eat and ponder what to do for the rest of the day.

Respite for Mourning

A friend of ours unexpectedly passed away last week. FuzzyHusband and I have taken this weekend and gone away for a bit.

See you next week.

The difference a year makes

We've had Mercedes for a year and a day now; I'd say she's come a long way!

FuzzyHusband and I took her out yesterday to celebrate. She got a new collar, new toys, a long walk, and ice cream!

That's all for now. We've got more work that needs doing. Nothing fun.. but necessary things can sometimes be boring. See you next time!

Lazy Sunday

 FH and I went to an orchard today.

We brought a cookie back for Mercedes.

And the wallpaper for the dining room side of the current roombox showed up during the week.

I'm still kind of sick, but slowly getting better. But this is all for this week. Hopefully I'll feel more human in this coming week. See you next time!