Monday highlights

Mr. Gadget and I did some painting this weekend at our old house.

Notice his paint gear? A hat to protect his head from drips, a rubber glove to keep his painting hand clean, and old clothes--probably from the 70's. I call this sissy painting. No hat for me. No gloves either. And if I get a little paint on my clothes, I just call it a fashion statement. There's an added benefit to my way of painting. I can cancel that expensive hair highlights appointment...

Mr. Gadget is short on patience. He thinks a room can be painted in one day. He doesn't get the painting process. He doesn't realize it's messy, fraught with delays, and makes no allowances for spread sheets. So today I struck out on my own. I spent 4 hours painting at the house by myself. I touched up spots he missed and put more paint on walls Big City Girl didn't quite cover. Around noon I sat on a milk crate and ate my turkey and cheese sandwich. Maybe now that I've joined the labor force, I should get me a lunch pail...

When I got home I told Mr. G that from here on out I will be the painter and everyone else can do the other stuff because painting is not for sissies. Well, I didn't tell him that part...heh..heh...

And in other news, here's my latest witch with an embroidered spider on her hat band.

I have another witch in the works, but I'm starting to get weary of witchiness. Maybe I'll venture into sheepiness. Maybe I'll cut out the fabric for a black sheep tomorrow...when it will be Mr. G's turn to go over to the old house--to greet Mr. Plumber and take delivery of his birthday toilets. I asked him if Mr. P was planning to haul the old ones away, and he said he was pretty sure he was. If not, I may have 3 new petunia planters. I hope Mr. G won't decide to call these birthday planters......

Potty break

We're taking a little vacation today from terminal shubbery issues, walls with bad complexions, and all things porcelain.....to celebrate Mr. Gadget's birthday. He'll spend some time in his basement office and I'll take care of business here in the Lighthouse, and we'll join up later for dinner at a nice restaurant here in the neighborhood for which we received a gift card from the builders of our new condo as a thank you for choosing to live here.

Mr. Gadget has told me on occasion that his family was not big on celebrating birthdays. My family was more inclined to celebrate, but honestly, I only remember one in particular. I think I was about 7 or 8. In those days, your mom made a cake and bought some party hats and a Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey game. Girls wore party dresses and boys wore nice shirts and pants.

At this particular birthday party, after all the gifts were opened, my mom lit the candles on my birthday cake and carried it in to me. My friends began to sing, and apparently someone said something funny and got me to giggling. When it came time to blow out the candles, I ended up spitting on the cake. I was so mortified, I ran crying to my room and wouldn't come out.

On another subject, I'm having second thoughts about renaming the Treehouse the Lighthouse. It just doesn't feel right. Sometimes these things happen, and you just have to admit you made a mistake and acted too hastily. So it's back to the Treehouse. I had a great idea once for a children's book that took place in a treehouse. Maybe I'll revisit it. How neat would it be to write a treehouse story in a treehouse? Then again, maybe it's possible to over-treehouse....

On loan to the Louvre

Big City Girl presented her father and I with one of her paintings on Sunday when we gathered for the family birthday festivities. It's our old house, done in acrylics and collage. Mr. Gadget and I spent most of today at this ol' house. We had planned to paint, but ended up entertaining a couple of plumber guys. And now I don't have to worry about what to get Mr. G for his birthday later this week. He'll be getting 3 new toilets and a new pipe from the house to the septic tank...

So the Sunday birthday celebration was fun.

We gave TG a card with some cash. He's 27 now, and gift ideas are harder to come by. He already has a fine working toilet and sewers in his neighborhood. We gave BCG an easel, which will be put to good use. It has extendable legs, so she can paint in Central Park, or on her bed. I'm guessing her next masterpiece will be either the skyline of Manhattan, or the pigeons on her windowsill.

In my spare time, I've been working on the witch with light green boa. Notice how I'm getting less and less creative with doll names? I think it's the paint fumes.

Did I mention, two lovely shrubs will have to be sacrificed to the septic gods? Septic guy says he will try to replant them, but I'm not feeling confident. Then again, as Erma said, "The grass is always greener over the septic tank," so maybe.....

Witch with light green boa has a spider on her boot, and she'll have one on her hat band too, but I haven't gotten to that one yet. See that expression on her face? It's the same one I had yesterday when I got the plumbing news. By the way, those 3 new toilets will not be comfort toilets. We've opted for standard-issue potties. If there is a bright side to all of this....and I do like to look for a bright side......it's that the toilets will arrive already scrubbed....

Spiders on the keyboard

Lookee here! Little silver spiders. It's amazing what you can find at the bead store. See that one on the right? I didn't actually kill it.....I just convinced him to turn over so you could see the little shaft for inserting a beading needle. I should be able to sew these critters very securely to just about any part of a witch.

So today Mr. Gadget and I will be traveling to Tech Guy's neighborhood for our annual kid birthday lunch. Big City Girl will be coming up on the train from the BC to meet us. Her birthday was Friday, and TG's was in February while Mr. G and I were on the west coast. We have no plans to go inside TG's apartment. He prefers to meet us on the sidewalk. This is fine with us, as TG has a turtle and two snakes. I usually text-message him as we are approaching his neighborhood. I could call, but then I have to listen to the silly message he has on his voice mail: "Please enjoy the music while your party is being reached."

After lunch, BCG will return home with us, and tomorrow she and I will do some mother-daughter painting at the old house. Which reminds me, I'd better hide the spiders. BCG doesn't like spiders. Did I ever mention how fond she used to be of inviting all manner of friends over for a sleep-over in our nice, finished basement? Mr. G and I eventually learned we could easily control the influx of giggling teenage girls by merely mentioning that we'd recently noticed a growing spider population...

A day at the zoo

I finished the clay-faced-green-haired witch doll, and have been trying to think of a name for her.

She has the distinction of being the first doll constructed in the Lighthouse.....well, except for her west coast face. From what I hear, some of the best-looking faces are constructed out there.....

I'm pleased with the spider and will likely be using more spider embellishments. I think they make even a serene-looking witch look frightful.

I've never mentioned this before, but Mr. Gadget and I have an elephant living in the house with us. He's been our companion for most of our marriage. In fact, maybe all of it. He might have been a wedding gift come to think of it.

He's really a cookie jar, but because I have a tendency to fill cookie jars with cookies, I decided to re-purpose him. He's our receipt elephant.

Mr. Gadget is very good about feeding him. In fact, he heads up that department here at the zoo. I feed him sometimes, but usually I just leave food scraps around the house and let him fend for himself.

I think these kinds of traditions....if you can call them that.....are really important in a marriage. I like to think it's some of the glue that holds it together. That's why I'm diligent about my zoo duties......

.....making sure the cat's bath water is well-supplied with Q-tips.....

Silly Milly

She's a work-in-progress. But then, aren't we all? You may remember, she started out life as an enchilada sauce can.

I intend to keep brushes, pencils, pens and maybe even knitting needles in her. Unless I decide to make her a fashionable hat. Then she'll hold my chocolate stash. I think Milly will be the kind of gal who'll keep it safe.

So Mr. Gadget and I have been spending a lot of time over at the old homestead, trying to get it into decent enough shape to list in a less-than-stellar real estate market. The wallpaper steamer worked great, but now we are left to spruce up walls that look similar to what I remember of my teenage complexion. I don't think Cover Girl will do the trick, and I don't think they sell it in gallon sizes anyway.

Boy, do I remember those days. I thought my face would never clear up. But eventually I got older and my face improved--to the point where a hairdresser once told me he couldn't believe I'd ever had a bad complexion. I'm sure he was figuring on a bigger-than-usual tip. It wasn't too many years later that the age spots began to appear.

Maybe I'll put some age spots on Milly. And some gray hair and reading glasses. Then we can sit here together in the Lighthouse and commiserate about our vanishing youths...while we eat chocolate.....

Arachnological dilemma

So I made a collar for the green-haired, clay-faced witch and thought it would be a cool place to put a spider.

But Mr. Gadget told me it looked more like a tick than a spider. I suppose I have to agree. Living in the Northeast as I do, I'm very familiar with ticks, and if I never see another one it will be fine with me. I replaced the button with a smaller one, and added some length to the front legs.

There. That's better.

I haven't felt much like blogging this past week, but I did get involved in a wallpaper-removal project. I felt much more like doing that..heh...heh...My neighbor kindly loaned me her wallpaper-removal steamer, and what a slick little device that is! I closed myself up in our little bathroom, removed all the wallpaper, and cleared out my sinuses all in one fell swoop.

I have made some progress on the acrimonious afghan, but I didn't work on it while Big City Girl was here for a short visit.....lest she recognize the colors of her former love nest. I didn't want to risk opening an old wound that seems to be healing nicely.

On a recent trip to Costco, Mr. Gadget saw some interesting storage thingies and mentioned that they might be useful to me in the Lighthouse. Last night he began the assembly process, and I remarked that he looked like a kid playing with tinker toys.

I'm pretty sure this thing will hold my entire fabric stash. Well, my current fabric stash that is. It's no secret that I brake for fabric stores like some folks brake for Starbucks.

Now you'll have to excuse me. I have some filing to do.....

Thursday things

Aren't these cute buttons?

I think they look like balls of yarn. I found them at the dollar store.....which is right next door to the grocery store in my new neighborhood. I have no idea what I'll use them for, but that has never stopped me from buying some crafty little trinket....with potential. If I ever make a big sheep doll, maybe I'll dress him in a vest with these buttons. Or maybe I should ask the waiter at the diner....you know, the one with the Elvis vest.....if he might want some. Come to think of it, I've kinda got a hankerin' for a greasy omelette right now...

And what about this? I know it looks like a can of enchilada sauce.

I'm making chicken enchiladas for dinner as a matter of fact. But while I was chopping up onion and celery....and plenty of garlic.....my imagination was working overtime, and I started thinking about the fun I could have with this. Especially if some clay was involved....

And come to find out, I may not need the Remotes for Dummies book afterall. That issue I was having, repeatedly, with my two TV remotes was not entirely my fault. Today the cable guy stopped by and traded my defective cable box for one that works. So I'm out of excuses now.

And because I never have enough crafty things going on, I've started another crocheted ripple afghan. I plan to work on it while watching the University of Connecticut Women's basketball team go all the way to the national championship. Mr. Gadget and I are big fans and, except for just a few measly nationally televised games, we missed a big part of their season while in SoCal. We're counting on them; they owe us.

I've had the yarn on hand for this afghan for quite some time. The colors were chosen to coordinate with Big City Girl's and BCBF's big city apartment....which they no longer live in since their rather unpleasant break-up. So, in keeping with my tendency to name my fibery projects, this one shall be known as the acrimonious afghan...

She could work in the grocery store....

.... you know, that one where they hire clerks with rainbow hair. I think she could give that pink-haired lady a run for her money. She'll have to trade in her cackle for a high-pitched sing-songy voice though. It says so right on the application....

I've been having all sorts of crafty fun here in the Lighthouse today. There's still plenty of snow around, but the sun is out and the wind is no longer howling. Everything that could rattle rattled in the new condo, but it's still standing and that's the important thing.

While we were away, the Mary Kay building was transformed into a lovely shade of green.

It's so much more pleasing, and it no longer clashes with the heavy equipment. Today the big bulldozer shovel thingie moved gobs of snow from the area just to the right of the green building and plopped it down next to our place. Can't complain though. It's better than the job johnny and it should magically disappear in a few weeks.

I've been anxious to get my clay-headed witch underway to see how she'd look in clothes and hair. Not bad, in my humble opinion, and quite different from my usual witches. I'm looking forward to doing a few more clay projects.

Meanwhile, how did this happen?

These are all the remotes that have gravitated to the Lighthouse. The one on the left goes with the computer somehow. I'm clueless. The next two go with the TV. Mr. Gadget reviewed how they work with me last night, and today I could not turn on the TV. The little one is for my CD player. I can play a CD but I can't set the clock. The one on the right turns on my new ceiling fan. I won't be needing that one for a while. And maybe by then I will have figured out the TV. It's not always easy being married to Mr. Gadget.....

What's this white stuff?

Mr. Gadget and I arrived back in Connecticut just in time for a big nor'easter. It's cold and miserable, and we're out of condition! And wouldn't you know, I had two medical appointments scheduled for this morning. I decided to call about the first one--just to be sure they were open. Mr. G had very generously offered to be my chauffeur.

"Oh yes m'am," said the receptionist, with just a hint of you're a moron in her voice. "We never close for snow."

So assuming that our second stop, the doctor's office--where I was going for some blood-letting-- would also never close, we slowly made our way down Main St.....
...only to find the office locked up tight, with just a solitary plow truck clearing the parking lot. Can't say I was too disappointed to skip the blood-letting, what with the jet lag and all. It's never a pleasant experience, even in real time.

As you can see, I've launched my new banner. I pretty much figured it out myself, but Tech Guy stood by and cheered me on. Good thing too because my first try resulted in the dreaded red x. And just so you know, I cheated a little. I didn't do the patchwork; it's printed on the fabric. The embroidery is all mine though, so please don't zoom in...

Here's a photo I took from the airplane. You know how I always like to take pictures up there.

It's Lake Erie from 35,000 ft.--from my usual seat 17-A. I may be in a rut, but it's a great seat for picture-taking. Mr. Gadget was able to slide over to 17-C and we enjoyed a rare treat--an empty 17-B.

So now I'm getting ready to make a few witch dolls and I've been having fun with my colored pencils.

It's a good time to give the new Lighthouse a workout. Gotta love a snow day!