On A Good Day for a One Seater:

So I’m trying to ease back into making stuff for the dolls and doll houses again.

Yes, I should have made copies of all of the stuff in the envelope folder. Hind sight and all that.

I needed to make something that I had no references to in the missing envelope file. So I decided to make an Out House! (Not done, only a primer coat of paint so far.)

But I hope you find this just right considering the day. It is the first day of the last year of the Mayan Calendar. If you believe it, the end of the world is coming in one year from this date.

So we are in the crapper or out house as it may.



















The door is not hinged on yet. So the doll is holding it up.
















The catalog TP I spent the day making from reprint old catalogs; copied, resized, printed front and back, cut, folded, pasted together and hung.

Yes, I know it still needs a seat. But for now we will just make believe it is hanging on the wall behind the wood stove keeping warm for later.

It’s the end of the world as we know it and I’m trying to feel fine! Thanks REM.

On A Poke About a Doll House Kitchen:

(My Camera is back and doing well for the moment. I was told that if it goes bad again to give it up. So here are some more of the doll house pictures I promised you.)

One day I was feeling the need to add an older element to the kitchen and remembered that I still have a an old Pretzel tin. These were from the days when the Pretzel and Chip Man would come around every few weeks and you’d buy a few pounds from his barrels, keeping them fresh in your large company provided tins in the pantry.

And Yes, I do remember the various, regularly scheduled, delivery men coming around and delivering milk, butter, and yogurt, light bulbs, soda, snacks like pretzels, chips, and cookies, meat, and the Diaper service. There were the men that came around calling out that they sharpened knives or fixed vacuums at their truck while you waited. And we can’t forget the Avon Lady and the Fuller Brush Man selling their wares each month.

My ‘Becker’ Pretzel tin is 13 inches high, just for reference.














Anyway, one day I grabbed some pens and started to draw a copy of it for the doll house, just to see if I could. (You can see my version on top of the Icebox in the doll house next to the larger one.)



















A closer picture of my free hand version of the tin.














A look into the kitchen shelves.














And peak into the pantry.

I won’t post doll house pictures every day for those of you who don’t care about such things. But there will be more to come here and there until I’m done cleaning and fixing it all.

On Time for Cleaning Houses:

For those of you who don’t know, I have a couple of doll houses I made to go with the hand made Victorian dolls I made some 15 years or so ago.

It was one of those projects that just kept going and growing. First the Dolls. Then some stuff (Clothing and a few bits and bobs.) and more stuff for the dolls, houses to put the stuff and dolls into, books I've written about them for my nieces, pictures to use as illustrations in the books… a doll house garden… Yes, I know I’m crazy, but I hope it is a good crazy.

The dolls are 15 inches high. The houses are six feet high.
















Mountain Man standing next to one of the houses.

I have two of these large doll houses. A two part, six room, three floored house. Picture above. (7 feet wide and 6 foot high) and a four room, three floored house (4 foot wide and 6 foot high) with a garden.














If you look in the box of matches on the shelf, you will find mini matches. In the jigsaw puzzle boxes are jigsaw puzzles. And there is a block of ice and a drip pan in the icebox. The pantry is full of food stuffs, apples to oranges, crackers in the cracker box, cookies in the cookie jar.

It takes the better part of two weeks to clean it all. I use a paint brush for a broom. And I wash up and down everything I can, bedding to bustles.

All the little fiddly bits, knickknacks, and all. From the tops of their heads and the roof top chimneys, right down to the their high buttons shoes and the foundations of the building all gets a cleaning.

I fix the stuff that got broken, replace the things I can’t fix, and I make a few more things for the houses or dolls each time I give all of it a proper clean out.

I’m a busy doll mommy at this time of year. But I’m having fun doing it. Much more fun than I have cleaning my own house.

On Irene, Unwelcome Guest 2:

I did try to blog yesterday. So busy I didn’t even have the time to whip up something chocolate. (I am soooo jonesing for chocolate!)

We have yet to get off of the property to see the damage elsewhere. But the damage here is enough to be getting on with at the moment.

Today’s pictures - Trees: I’ll post just a few. So many out there these days on the web.















Some just came down taking out others. They left craters as the roots were pulled out of the ground.














Some snapped. Limbs and whole trees.















Others lost most of the branches on one side. (Picture taken during clean up of yard. A lot of the branches from our Ash trees had already been removed from the ground just to get in and out of the house.)

We are still canning what we could save of the garden. Food will be short here this winter. But we will muddle on as we always do and make the best of things.

I have only seen a group of 7 crows winging their way through to parts unknown and I haven’t heard a bird, but that one time since Irene started to blow. It would seem desolate here if not for the over abundance of bug all of a sudden.

I had wanted to join in with the Boots - Fashion Theme for the first of the month from the Sophistique Noir blog. But I just don’t have to time to play fashion plate right now. And Mountain Man is out with his chain saw turning downed trees into fire wood for the winter not doing the photographer.

Things will get back to normal and I will have time again to do those jigsaw puzzles and that knitting I haven’t touched since Irene came to call.

On Irene, Unwelcome Guest:

The flooding rain wasn’t bad enough. The high winds took an additional toll. The storm damage came further inland than first thought.

First, I am thankful that we are safe and unharmed. (At last count forty dead and countless injured.)

Second, We now have electricity after over a day and a half of none. And the phone is back now too. (Many others will have no electric for days to come. And then there are the ones who lost their homes.)

Third, Not one of all the trees that came down hit our house or car.

Fourth, the large pumpkins themselves are undamaged, but they will not be growing any further as their vines and leaves have been.

As to the over all damage:

We lost most of the garden. The corn is flat, the tomatoes all dropped from the plants. More than half of the apples and pears have dropped from the trees. A lot of the leaves left on the plants still alive, like the lettuce, have been shredded.















One of the two flattened corn crops.















Some of the many tomatoes we picked up off of the ground.

Most of the food that was in the refrigerator needed to be thrown out. In our 20+ cubic foot chest freezer, the top third of all in it started to thaw out. And some of that completely thawed.

It took almost two days for the birds to come back, but the amount of dead ones found after it was all over was a bit unsettling. (Broken necks, wings or both.) There were also an amount of drowned rodents. Pockets of the smell of death hang about in spots in the woods presumably drowned in their dens underground.

The house lost some shingles from the roof. The wind driven rain came in, under and around through the cracks around the windows and doors. The gutters and down spouts will have to be re-hung.

We are spending every moment we can processing and canning as much of the garden goods as possible to recoup what we can.

After that we have a lot of outside clean up to do.

On Pumpkin Head Moments:

Really a Grandma moment, but I digress.

I have here a picture of one of our three large pumpkins. The wall is about hip high on me. So the pumpkin is about knee high.

And the pumpkin has grown since I took this picture a few weeks ago.

It was decided back in the Spring that we would try to grow a pumpkin large enough for the grandkid to fit into by his first birthday.

Now the grandkid will be a year old in October.

The trick will be to keep the pumpkin alive and growing through the expected storm, so that when the grandkid comes to visit around about his birthday, we can carve it out and sit him inside.

I now have the need to knit pumpkin hats for all involved.

Where did I stash my orange yarn?

On Hats:

I missed the ‘Hat’ thing that a lot of you were doing on the first of the month. So here is a belated hat picture of one of mine.

I have more hats, but they will have to wait for another day. My camera is on the fritz and I had to dig through my pictures for this one.

On Front Garden Flowers on May 1:

Happy First of May. The next two thirds of the year have commenced.















The walk with Husta border.















Grape Hyacinths around tree.















Violets. (One of my favorite flowers.)















Myrtle. (Sorry, the color was a bit washed out in the sunshine.)














Daffodils. (Double ruffle and peach colored. Fenced in to keep the puppy out.)

On Ouch! What Was That?:

Well, despite my best efforts I didn’t blog yesterday. It was just such a lovely day for a change that we jumped into spring fixing mode. We even opened the windows wide to let in the warm fresh air. Now where did we put those window screens?










The snow by the garden wall that greeted me yesterday morning had melted all away by noon. And the crocus’s have made a comeback.

Mountain Man took the kitchen screen door apart to replace the broken screening and paint it, he made a ramp for the dog to get up to the window seat and did other ‘make it better’ or ‘fix it’ stuff.



















I cleaned house, tossed broken non repairable things in the recycling bin, added things to the ‘fix it’ pile and repeatedly chased after a puppy running full tilt around and around and around again in the muddy yard. (The kitchen door was open and he took full advantage of that fact.) And did I mention cleaning the kitchen floor and bathing the dog a few times too.















The good news is Sir Handsome now knows that he can do his ‘business’ outside. Not that he doesn’t have accidents, but he wants to go outside if he can get there in time.

By evening we were very tired and just sat in a lump watching TV and catching our breath from a happy day well spent.

That was until the slapping started. No, not each other. The mosquitoes! Yes, the first day it was warmish here and the beasts were out already and apparently congregating in my house. I don’t remember a year that we didn’t get to have the house open for a few days while getting the screens back in place before they showed up in force.

Anyway, we have red, itchy pumps all over us from the flying fiends, but the screen door has a fresh coat of paint as it dries out in the shed. Just in time for another cold spell.

Did the weather forecaster just say S-N-O-W on Wednesday? He did, didn’t he? Oh No, Yes He Did!

I’m going back to bed to hide under the covers until the snow goes away or summer bug season starts, which ever comes first. I just can’t take both at the same time.

Ouch! Another one just got me. Gotta’ Hide!

On Puppy Lovein' Fun:

Most of the pictures of Sir Handsome are nothing but a blur. But I do have these from when he is asleep. He is helping to keep the smile totals up.

On Still Smiling Through the Tears:

I’m not saying that my life is harder than any one else’s, only that this year hasn’t been the best so far. And I know better then most, that my hits have been on the low scale, all things considered. Yet the hits keep coming.

I don’t want, and never have wanted, this blog to be about ‘my tragic life‘. In fact I was going for a place for Gothic enjoyment and over coming the trials that come with being an eccentric elder Goth woman.

Yet looking back at my postings lately I sound like a whiny drama queen more times than not. Or at least it feels that way to me.

I want Spring to come and have a new beginning. A time and place to put what has happened so far this year behind me. Yet life keeps on throwing punches my way, along with this repetitive winter weather.















We had to have Sir Laidback ‘put to sleep‘. His bad knee gave out. He was in pain. And with his other health issues they couldn't operate on him. It has been one bad time on top of another here at our house with small happy breathers scattered through, just enough to keep me hoping.

I have a happy little puppy here on my lap. He still brings many smiles to my face. But those smiles are through my tears today.

I know that life has ups and downs, trials and rewards. I can and will get to the other side of this new setback.

When the winter recedes a new vegetable garden will be planted, grow, bring forth fruit, and die back down into the earth. Circles and cycles of life played out over a year at a time. Taking time and effort, but giving tasty sustenance to my life.

Sir Laidback has had his time here too. He was only with us for a year and a half. He was old, sickly, blind, and mostly deaf. We made his time with us as good and comfortable as we could. We were happy to do it. We loved him for what he was, a laidback pleasant dog who was happy to just sit and worship the woodstove and love us for the opportunity. Good-bye little buddy.

And I’ll keep on trying to smile at how life plays its absurd game on me.

On The Things We Do For Love:

What is it about Puppies, Kittens, and all Babies in general that make us willing to do just about anything for them?

Is it the cuteness thing or the helplessness? Or maybe its both things together?

My back is out, I’m all hunched over when I try to stand. It hurts! But am I staying flat on my back and resting it in bed?

No! I’m cleaning up puddles and poop, stolen then shredded paper towels, spilled water dishes, and toys under foot. And loving every minute of it.

I‘m going out in the rain and snow and cold without a jacket to do an impromptu walking. And bathing him to clean the mud off afterwards.

I’m sleeping on the floor next to his cage with one finger through the bars so he can go back to sleep in the middle of the night after a howling lonely spell.

I’m taking hundreds of pictures, most all of them just a blur of puppiness. Unless of course he is sleeping.















We pulled up the rug and put down throw rugs that he pulls around the room. Mirrors against the walls at floor level so he thinks that are still other dogs around.

You couldn’t pay me to do this stuff and yet here I am besot with puppy love and willing to do almost anything to keep him happy and healthy.

On Handsome Is as Handsome Is:

So, I was still feeling sorry for myself and feeling sorry for Mountain Man. Because although men are not suppose to cry, there has been crying on both our parts on and off.

And finally I had to say, ‘Get thee gone and mope somewhere else for a time. I just can’t take your crying feeding mine.’

Now the house was feeling quite large and lonely without Lady Long. No longer were we greeted when we came in the room. Sir Laidback does not do this and never has.

With Mountain Man gone the house is even more large and lonely for me. I’m wishing that he would come back soon, wet eyes and all.

The day marched on. And on. And on. I waited for his return.

The day was getting older and he was still gone.

Finally the car came up the drive and Mountain Man had returned. But he didn’t come into the house. What was he doing out there for so long, you ask?

He was walking the new puppy. Sir Handsome. He is 4 months old and cute as a button. A Chiweenie. Mom a long haired Dachshund and Dad a long haired Chihuahua.

Loving, happy and inquisitive. Mountain Man gave me him and his little bed, a crate for night time, toys, food, harness and leash.

Sir Handsome gave me so much loving he wore himself out. Couldn’t you just eat him up he is so cute and sweet?














Mountain Man gets some handsome prince points too.

On Long Sad Days:

Lady Long is no more.

It was hard these last few days as she got sicker and sicker with nothing we could do but try to keep her comfortable. She was 13 and a half years old.

Lady Long had been such a good little princess. No more then a little handful in size when she got here. She was also my willing worker, as she single handedly eliminated all snakes, small or large, that came anywhere near the house.

Her real name was Nelly Long-belly, a fitting name for a dachshund. And she was a dear friend of a dog. She had a good attitude, no matter what happened, all of her days.

But her time came to an end. She breathed her last and we laid her to rest close to her long time friend, our past dog Lady Short or Abby as she was known to us.

Sir Laidback keeps looking for his nighttime companion. And although they were never what you would say friends, as he is a blind loner and doesn’t do much of anything but sleep, they cohabited together nicely.

She loved our walks in the woods and going to the mailbox and back each day until she could no longer walk.

She liked to help out in the garden, although she was allergic to the pumpkin patch. She killed the garden varmints with abandon each year, proud of her accomplishments. And I never had to worry about any rodents that got into the house. She would have them taken care of in short order, usually before I was even aware that they had gotten in.

Lady Long was my evening cuddle buddy as I watched TV or read in bed. She loved our special time in the big bed each evening. I will miss that most of all.

Goodbye my dear little friend. You are missed.

On A Picture Talking:

A picture is said to say a thousand words. How about two?

Well this is what we woke to. Eight inches and it is snowing once again.

On Annual Internet Thankfulness Tea Party 2011:

Welcome to the Annual Internet Thankfulness Tea Party.

(Sorry I was missing in action yesterday. The wind took my electricity away via a downed tree.)

I hope that all of you who had your tea parties already had a good time. And those that are having your party today are having as much fun as we are.

We are having cucumber sandwiches, fancy cookies and carrot cake with our tea.

I am thankful for many things. And I won’t bore you with all of them so I will just name a few.

Grand babies
Massages from a loved ones
Chocolate
The play of sunshine and shadow
Raisins, natures candy

Interesting gray winter skies
Headache free days
Crayons
Stories that seem to write themselves
Video games that work properly

Smiles
Friends, near and far
People who really listen
Autumn leaves
Picnics in the cemetery

Mountain Man added a few of his:

Good health
Opportunity to be creative
Healthy pets
Warm weather
Ability to sleep soundly

I must add that Miss Mousie over at Knotty Mouse is my co-host for this year.

On I Remember My Grandmas:

I have been thinking about my own grandmothers lately.

They are both long gone, more than 30++ years ago.

Of the two, I remember my mothers mom more. It was location more then anything. She lived around the corner and the other was over an hours drive away. And back in those days that was a day trip.

The first house I lived in was my Grandma’s. My parents were saving to buy a house.














This is the house from the back. With my mom in the side yard, before World War II, if you want a time reference.

Because of my grandma that house was a haven from the rest of the world. We were eight of us in a four room apartment. My parents rented out the upper floor apartment to help pay for the clothing and feeding of the six kids.

At grandma’s it was loving care, order and discipline. The food was good, hot and plain. Things were done on a schedule. They didn’t put up with roughhousing or poking about. But underneath it all was a sense of humor. Jokes flew, mostly over our heads. Giggles and laughter lived at both of my grandma’s houses.

And a sense of peacefulness. The quite comfort of an afternoon nap on the rug in a sun puddle. While grandma snoozed in her armchair rocker. The quite warmth of the hiss of the radiators in the winter. A place to go when things weren’t ‘as one would like’ with too many people living at home.

My father’s mother died when I was 14 and my mother’s mom when I was 23. But never a week passes by that I don’t think about them in one way or another. For the things that they taught me or the experiences I had at their knee.

I want to be a grandma worth remembering.

On Summer Pinwheel Fun:

Summer made its new start this week and I have for your pleasure ‘Pinwheels.’















Directions here will make pinwheels about a foot across. Smaller paper squares will make smaller pinwheels.

I used card stock paper, but you don’t have to. Color of your choice. (My black one doesn’t show for pictures well, so I used pink here.)

A straight pin.

A bead or two for washers, it helps to spin faster.(optional)

Pencil with good eraser, (not too hard for sticking the pin into)

Scissors and something to mark cutting lines.

To make a Pinwheel.
1 Fold one corner up using the other corner as fold line point. (Do Not cut into a triangle shape.)















2 Mark a line to cut off extra paper and you should have the needed square when opened.
3 Cut off extra paper.
4 Fold the other direction so there are fold lines from each corner and through the center.















5 Mark center with a dot and two thirds of each fold line leaving the center portion unmarked except center point, mark tip ends only.
6 Cut on fold lines.
7 Decide on clockwise or counter clockwise spin.
With the top of square facing you the left point is counter clockwise and the right point is clockwise. (Only one direction can be used at a time. I used right side in the pictures.)















8 Mark points to be folded in, turning paper and mark each side on the same point.















9 Taking the pin (with one bead on it if you are using them) bend marked points in toward the center and poke the pin through each of the four point layers, (You will be poking through the back of the marked point) then through the center point mark.
10 Place second bead, if you are using them, onto the pin.
11 Stick Pin into the pencil eraser.















12 Face pinwheel into the wind and watch it whorl around.

Extra: To make the two colored kind, place two different sheets of paper of different colors together. Glue at center point and make the same way as before. You can even get the kids to color the paper first for one of a kind pinwheels.

On Saturdays Lost:

Apparently I’ve lost the ability to do Saturdays and blog. It has been some time since I’ve been able to do both.

Yesterday was beautiful, and I enjoyed it despite all the sunshine. I also got a lot done.

Recycling. I made cloths hangers, cut from cottage cheese container lids, for my dolls clothing. they were spilling forth from the doll closet box for the lack of hangers.















It was World Wide Knit in Public Day yesterday. Thou I was outside the house while knitting, my home is in an out of the way place with no traffic or public to see. The local news did tell of group that knitting outside the town library. I knitted a baby sweater. I just have to tuck the tails and string through the ribbon.

I read the hot afternoon away. Short stories mostly. It was a short story kind of day.

Today is Fathers Day. Happy Day to all you Dads and Dads to be. Mountain Man is getting a nice meal from me and grateful doggy attention from the pets.

Tomorrow starts the first of Summer. Long hot days of growing things and bugs. A friend gave me a hand held bug zapper. I’m hoping it will make feeding the carnivorous plants easier.

On If Its Thursday This Must Be Vet Day:

We are off to visit the Vet again with Sir Laidback, the Puggle. It seems like every week any more.















Lady Long is in the front of this picture as they enjoy the wood stove that is not going at the moment, but they still lay by it anyway.

Last week it was an ear infection. This week a recheck. The week before it was a recheck for the skin condition he was seen for the week before that.

The poor blind dog leaks, bleeds and itches more then not. Allergies are the cause, mostly.

He is such a good, placid fellow. I do hope he can be fixed up before he breaks the bank. We would hate to have to give him up because we can’t afford his care. Mountain Man wouldn’t know what to do without his buddy.

So we are off to the Vets again this week. His ear is doing a lot better. I hope they don’t find anything else wrong with him. I just couldn’t take it if they do.