A Blog with No Pictures...

...is like a pub with no beer. :-(

I ordered a new cable for the camera. It will be in here in "7-10 working days."

Of course that doesn't help the fact that I have great pictures from the weekend and pictures of the sewing projects sitting on the memory card.

I altered two shirts from the guys on Friday and finished the details by hand on Saturday. FH now has two nice bags to keep all his leather tools in.

FH has been working on a leather bottle cover for Baby Anna's bottles. It's so pretty. By the time the camera cable is here, he should be finished with it. He's also working on a couple of belt pouches.

I have some material for a new petticoat and apron for myself, covers for cushions that I already have but don't look period appropriate, and for long sleeved waistcoats for FH and another friend. Sometime next week I will go to my friend Donna's house and cut out the pieces for my stuff. I'm not sure if she has a long sleeved waistcoat pattern or not.

I need to do some actual shirts for FH and a couple of the other guys. FH and I are using our skills to make things in trade with some of the other people in the group. We're all poor, but many of the younger people in the group have skills to trade upon.

One couple makes soap. Really nice soap. I'm going to do some sewing for them and they're going to keep us in soap for a long time. :-)

Another guy carves spoons and spatulas. He needs some leather stuff and some shirts.

All in all we're going to be busily making things for a while. I'm hoping to have some things done for trade by the 3rd weekend in August. That's the next Rendezvous we're going to. But this means I can get back to the mini-ing again and not be rushed with the sewing. :-)

Back

We're back and dead tired. I have piccies I can't upload thanks to the cats. Hopefully soon.

Going to wash off the grit and sleep for hours.

I will try and catch up with blogs more tomorrow. Having trouble keeping my legs under me.

Ta.

Et al...

So the camera's cable was chewed through by a cat. We have to buy a new one and that may not happen until after next weekend. Ugh.

I'm doing some sewing this afternoon because we're headed to Rendezvous tonight. Not sure if Little D gets to come with us or not. Wish I knew so I could do just stuff for us today.

The garden is coming along nicely. We've been getting lettuces and even a bean so far.

I'm going back to the sewing machine now. I only have a bit of time left.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Welcome Susan!

Hello and welcome to Susan of Susan's Mini Talk! Susan makes all kinds of wonderful minis and is relatively new to blogging. Please go over and say hello if you can. :-)

From My Stash 6-10-09

Well this stash post is a bit on the late side, but it's still Wednesday here, so I think it counts. ;-) I was playing with Baby Anna and helping her grandma with a large quilt backing all day today.

Today's stash pieces are all turned by the same craftsman, Ernest Guhl, from St. Louis, Missouri. To my knowledge, he only sells at the St. Louis shows. I love his work and try to get a piece whenever I'm at the show.
These first two pieces are turned from some type of tree nut. I cannot recall which one though. The next time I see him I will ask.
I just love the look of these too. So exotic. :-)

This next piece is turned from acrylic.
I'm going to fill it with fruit and put it in the BD's kitchen.

This last piece you might recall seeing on a shelf in the trading post.
If I am remembering correctly, the wood is cherry. I could be quite wrong there. I do know that the decorative rim is filled with crushed turquoise. I fell in love with this one the moment I saw it.

There is one more thing...

A package arrived from Jayne at Tallulah~Belle yesterday containing the gorgeous daffodils I was lucky enough to win! I was still feeling unwell and didn't know they were here until FH brought the mail in after he got home. I credit the happy surprise as help in feeling better! Thank you, Jayne! :-)

However, the USB cord for the camera doesn't want to work anymore, so I can't upload the pictures I took to share. The stupid thing worked on Sunday! grrr... :-(

I'm hoping FH can figure out the problem.

That's all for this week. I need to get more pictures taken of my treasures! Of course I need the stupid camera cable to work too.... ;-)

Welcome Maia!

Hello and welcome to Maia of Maia's Twinkle Miniatures! Maia makes and sells a variety of wonderful minis. In fact she just got done at a show. Please stop by and say hello. :-)

Baby Shower Fun

No, really. This one was fun. A couples' baby shower at a Chinese buffet that has some of the freshest food in town. No silly games. No streamers and frills. No horrid baby stories about the mother-to-be. No terrifying, and usually uncomfortable, labor pain stories. Just a bunch of friends sitting around, eating good food, and laughing. There was even cake!

As far as her presents went, I took pictures of ours before we left. I figured some of you would like to see. ;-)

I didn't have a lot of time to make things when I wasn't feeling terrible. So I bought some clothes. This one is my absolute favorite dress. I bought it to be worn next summer. I knew so many people would buy dresses for this summer.


I adore the smocking on this one! One of these days I will learn how to do that.
Then here's one for late summer, or mid spring new year.
A 3-pack of onesies. Can't ever have too many of those!
Now for the really good part! I did have some booties in my "stash" of baby girl gifts, so they got wrapped up too!

Slipper-style booties: pastel green polar fleece, trimmed in pink.
Crocheted booties: "Roman sandal"-style, pink bedspread weight cotton, trimmed in white.
Ta da! You knew I wouldn't give just bought gifts, didn't you? :-)

Welcome to My 80th Follower!

Hello and welcome to my 80th follower, Casitamini of Casita Mini! Her blog is an on-line gallery of miniatures from all over the world. The original blog Casita Mini (escenas encontradas en internet) is still running and both blogs have wonderful pictures to browse. Please have a look through the pictures when you have time. :-)

Bits and Pieces

So many things are happening this week.

First I would like to thanks both Jayne at Tallulah~Belle Originals and Betty at Live Mini! Somehow I managed to win both of their wonderful contests. I'm so happy right now. The Cheerful Fairy has nothing on me. ;-) Thank you again, ladies!

Last night was the June meeting for the local miniature group. Our group has gotten so small we met at one member's home. Our hostess had prepared some kits for jewelry boards out of card and the "velvet" off of the little boards that real earrings are attached to in the store.My "chains" are a little lopsided, but I think they're cute for first tries. No clue where they will go yet. The jewelry bits are made from micro holeless beads and those shiny iron-on transfers for clothes.

The new wallpaper I ordered arrived.

This is what I'm going to use in the Big Dollhouse's kitchen.
This is for the girl's nursery.
Love the baby bunnies! :-)

The next bits of news is I was chatting with The Mini Maker the other night and we were both wondering how many of our fellow bloggers would be interested in starting a swap circle of some sort? Please let one or both of us know what you think.

That's all for now. I'm going to go enjoy the day. I hop you all do the same. :-)

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my newest follower, Sinem Yildirim. I haven't found a blog for you, but I do hope you enjoy the miniatures, fiber art, and other musing here. :-)

From My Stash 6-3-09

I realized that I neglected to do a stash post last week, with the sewing and other prep work for the weekend. So I'll be putting some extra pictures in this week's post.

First is what I've managed to collect (so far) of Cranberry glass. I just love the way the glass looks and I still don't know how I will display these pieces. I might just do a glass shop or fill a gorgeous China cabinet with them and install it in a beautiful dining room.



Here are a couple more paintings that were stashed in a different place from the ones I showed before. Both pieces were gifts from my Aunt Pat.


This gorgeous card was a gift from my dear friend, Marolyn. I believe it was for a birthday, but it could have been for Christmas. Marolyn is the same friend who gave me the rose bush in the Conservatory Bag... the plant that caused the room to come into being. ;-)I hope you've enjoyed the pictures. :-)

Welcome Jessie!

Hello and welcome to Jessie of ~beyondbaffled~! Jessie's working a saloon right now that will be fantastically awesome when it's done. She also has a great collection of minis for the saloon.

Hop over and pay her a visit when you can. It's a lot of fun.

Even More Lovelies From Kat the Hat!

In addition to happy news yesterday, my latest treasure trove arrived from Kat the Hat Lady! Everything is so lovely!
I'm especially in love with the special red heart witch's hat and brooms set that Kat made just for me. Thank you so much, Kat! It really made me smile yesterday when I needed it the most. :-)

Here's the "non-witchy" hats. I just love the white one with black and red roses!
The two plain straw hats on the right are destined to be in the Rendezvous miniatures when I get going with that project. The rest are going into my "regular" hat shop.

Kat, you're the greatest! Thank you for everything! :-)

Update

The official word is Dad let himself get dehydrated. He has now been told but someone in a white coat, with clipboard, that 28 ounces of water a day is not enough. [Note that my mother has been saying that for quite some time. She just "isn't a doctor." My father can be a elitist prig from time to time.]

They are keeping him for another night to pump him up with IV fluids. He's flirting with the nurses and whatnot, so he should be alright.

We did manage to find all of my siblings yesterday, finally. It's like herding cats to reach them all.

Thank you to everyone who sent kind thoughts and prayers our way. I appreciate it more than you know.

The regularly scheduled minis, sewing, and musings will return sometime tomorrow.

News

My dad's in the hospital. Lots of test being run. Will know more eventually. Going to be waiting near the phone for a while. Will catch up on comments soon.