Fashion statement

Who knew my witches would be making such a righteous fashion statement with their spider embellishments? Seems they're all the rage now.

I haven't been here for several days. I'm sure the assumption was that I was on another cruise. I'm not, darn it anyway. I'm here on dry land, doing the finishing touches on my dolls before their big send-off next weekend. I do have a friend who's cruising this week though, so I've been able to cruise vicariously. Let me tell you, it can't hold a candle to the real thing....

Mr. Gadget and I have been re-arranging furniture here in the new place. Mostly we've been juggling end tables. We've also made some progress on decorating the entry way.

The mirror was a Pier One find. The table was purchased at an unfinished furniture store and Mr. G stained it. It's a great spot to display Charlie the scarecrow.....who will be joining his friends at the craft fair this weekend.....unless I decide he should stay put. Once he's out of the house, he may never come back, unless, of course, he needs his laundry done.

In other news, Big City Girl will be coming this weekend for a visit. She will accompany me on Saturday afternoon to the town hall lawn for a scarecrow-making festival. We'll be making one of those big boys with straw filling, and I plan to put him on the front porch. We'll just see what the neighbors say....those neighbors with the puny little store-bought ones sitting on their wrought iron benches. Maybe I'll give him a sling shot and see if he can nab the wicked mum-maiming monster.

The other day I had to make a stop at my doctor's office, and while I was sitting in the waiting room I got to wondering. If they make you sign those privacy statements before they'll even so much as let you get on their scale, then why do they think nothing of letting people spout off, at full volume, about their ailments right there at the reception desk without so much as a glass partition to stick their heads through? I think all doctors' offices should be outfitted with one of those confessionals they have in Catholic churches. I must admit though, I found some of it entertaining. In fact, I even started keeping score. Wow! She's got it much worse than me. Oh, lucky him. If he only knew what I was here for.

Then there was the guy who came in the front door carrying what turned out to be his aunt's specimen jar in a clear plastic bag. My goodness sakes. Doesn't he know that's what they make brown paper lunch bags for?

If I were in charge of making the rules, there a few changes I would make. The first thing I'd do is make it a felony to put those pesky stickers on fruit...

The maimed-mum mystery

The condo grounds are ablaze in yellow mums. I'm assuming there was a sale on yellow.

Here's a perky pair, one of which is obviously a rebel.

There are even more lovely yellow mums down the street.

I wonder who this one belongs to? Yep. It's mine. It looks like someone sat on it. Someone seeking revenge perhaps?

I hope it wasn't Jimmy....taking offense at Mr. Gadget's comment about his fast-food-in-an-old-bus restaurant serving up road kill....

Treehouse time-out

I've been very busy in the treehouse the last few days getting ready for my big craft show and avoiding housework. I politely asked Mr. Gadget if he wouldn't mind delivering my lunch and a late-afternoon snack, but he politely declined. He thinks I'm just having fun up here....

I finished the clay-faced witch and just need to add her shiny black boa. I had fully intended to toss her in the recycle bin, but she cleaned up nicely.It's amazing what a difference the right accessories make when putting together an outfit. Not to mention, the right shade of lipstick and a good eyebrow-shaping session.Here's her friend. She's strictly cloth. So far she has no name. I've taken to calling her the one with the orange spider webs on her hat.Her stockings match her hat decoration. The spider has apparently migrated down from her hat. I think she's downright frightful.

I finally got around to making the Halloween cat out of the cloth napkin fabric I mentioned earlier. I had promised myself I'd finish the red hat lady (check) and a snowman (check) before starting on the cat. I probably fibbed a little.

I may put him to work out in the front garden. He might be sufficiently scary-looking to deter whoever, or whatever, has been meddling in my shrubbery. More on that next time.

So what exactly is street food?

The weather was gorgeous here today so Mr. Gadget and I decided to take a little road trip. The colors are just starting to change, so we knew we'd be well ahead of the poking-along-at-25-mph leaf-peeping lolligaggers.

We hadn't gone far before we noticed, off to the side of the road, an old bus that had morphed into a fast-food restaurant. The sign on top said "Jimmy's Street Food."

"Do you suppose street food is road kill?" asked Mr. G.

"I don't know," I said, "but there sure is a long line of people waiting, so probably not." But it does kinda make ya wonder....

We headed north to Kent, a very pleasant little Connecticut town and a reasonable distance away for a Saturday drive. When we arrived we found hooligans a-plenty on the downtown sidewalks. Kent is the site of several private schools. But once we muscled our way through their masses, we enjoyed the sights.

Flowers to go.

Interesting statues.

Quaint shops.

Lovely old homes.

Crows eating apples. Which reminds me....it's time to start dinner. Or maybe I'll just call and see if Jimmy's delivers....

Porch pumpkin poppycock

This morning, as I braved the rush hour traffic on the way to the doctor's office for my annual physical, I wondered why those darned early-bird road construction guys can't wait an hour to set up their orange cones and smush everyone into one lane--all while sipping coffee and gobbling donuts. As it happened, it didn't really matter that my blood pressure was sky high because my appointment isn't until tomorrow. How did that happen? It says Tuesday right here on my calendar. Well, no matter. Tomorrow I'll leave earlier and take an alternate route to avoid what is sure to be another day of cones with coffee and donuts.

Yesterday I finished the red hat doll and made a new version of the snowman hat.The hat is just plain cotton fabric that's been painted and sealed. It has nice stand-upness. The only problem is it's almost impossible to sew through, so I'm going to have to glue it onto his head. No big deal. Gluing is much less time-consuming than all that stitchin', not to mention....so much less painful for the snowman.

Fall is on the way here in Connecticut and I've decided to do my own version of a foliage color tracker--just like those big-time TV weathermen.

Here's today's view from my back deck. See that one tree with just a hint of orange? Soon this hillside will be awash in festive fall colors, so stay tuned.

Something you non-eastcoasters might not know is that folks in New England are really big porch-pumpkin people. We just can't let a Fall go by without putting a big ol' pumpkin on our front porches. I'm not sure how this all got started. It may well have originated with the pilgrims...

Here at the condos the Porch Pumpkin Olympics are well underway. Medals will be awarded in several categories: 1) first-on-a-porch pumpkin, 2) biggest pumpkin, 3) best-carved pumpkin, 4) most real-looking artificial pumpkin, 5) pumpkin with the most endurance (last one to rot), and (6) first pumpkin to be stolen and smashed in the street.

I was sure I had won first-on-the-porch with my cute little artificial pumpkin, cleverly color-coordinated and arranged next to my real mums, when I noticed my next-door neighbor had eeked me out.

It must have taken some real muscle to get this big boy up on the porch.

Meanwhile, I noticed that porch poker lady is sadly lagging behind.She's got some nice mums in that pedestal planter, but no porch pumpkin. Obviously I have the upper hand. I wonder is she's still got game?

A six %$@*#! job

For the entire span of our marriage, Mr. Gadget has always bumbled through, I mean taken on, projects around the house. This goes a long ways to explaining why he has so many gadgets. Each project, apparently, calls for different gadgets and often requires a trip to that big home store down the road.

At some point I stopped measuring his projects by the length of time to completion, and began keeping track of the number of times he yells %$@*#! I remember years ago when he hung a new light over our kitchen table. That was a two %$@*#! job. Then there was the five-er when he installed a closet organizer in my Treehouse. I'll never forget the time he put a new sidewalk along the front of our house. I lost count.

Recently we decided to sign up for one of those movies-by-mail services. Yeah, that's the one. Very soon afterward, Mr. G mentioned that he'd had a brain f@&! "What do you think of getting a flat screen TV for the loft?" he asked, with one of his done-deal expressions I've come to recognize so well.

Today the work began. "Would you mind getting just a few things out of your craft closet so I can run a cable?" he politely asked.

He assembled his gadgets on the floor where he could get to them easily.

Except his wrench was in the basement....two floors down. After returning with the wrench, he was ready to measure. Yep, his tape measure was in the basement too. Several %$@*#!

The dolls, usually bored silly sitting on the bed in the guest room, were having a wonderful time watching his antics.

He carefully measured and then slowly drilled the holes, avoiding studs and whatever else the construction guys put inside our walls. "I can see light through the hole!" he exclaimed. "So, why won't the cable go through!?" %$@*#!

I counted six. There may have been more. I probably should have gotten out of the house. Maybe I should have just gone to the movies.

Spotted cat in bow tie

For the last few days I've been finishing dolls that have been sitting around half-naked, I mean half-dressed, on my craft table. Only after they're all complete will I start new ones, although my brain is really a-buzzin' with new ideas. I did cut out some Fall cloth napkins today, to hem and then include in the package with the next installment of my niece's story, since her family is the one that prefers cloth over paper and I try to keep them well-supplied. They are the green ones in our clan. While I was cutting it occurred to me that the napkin fabric would make a cute Fall cat. But I will hold myself back, at least until the red hat lady is finished. And the snowman. Maybe.

I'm very happy with my newly-discovered whisker material. Sisal twine. It really makes for springy whiskers. I found a large ball at the dollar store that will outfit at least several dozen flocks of cats, so I've offered to share it with Mr. Gadget in case there are ever any twine needs in his world of gadgets.

I used watercolor pencils for the cat stripes. This is so much easier and faster than painting them on and I like the look. Not too bold. Cats have always been one of my best sellers. I'm sure it's because there are lots of cat people who can't resist a cute kitty! Especially one that doesn't need to eat or use a litter box.

Now I'm considering what kind of seats my dolls should have at the upcoming fair. I don't want to schlep all of my doll chairs along and risk having them lost or broken, or, even worse, sold. I'm thinking of using those construction sono tube thingies. They can be cut to a suitable height, then painted or covered with fabric. Of course, Mr. Gadget will have to help me with this part, since he's the keeper of the gadgets. But I'm getting more and more knowledgeable about the gadget realm all the time. I'm pretty sure this job calls for a saw...

No crow zone

I finished a scarecrow doll today, except for a few final touches. I gave him some big hands to resemble gardening gloves and I think they need a little dirt on them.
I usually use instant coffee for that, but I guess I could just drag him around the construction site next door....

I like the way his hat came out. I made it out of osnaburg fabric and painted it brown. I'm thinking I might try the same technique for my next snowman. The paint made the fabric very stiff. I don't know about you, but I love a snowman in a hat with plenty of stand-upness.


So Mr. Gadget and I have been getting a few chores done around the new house. I thought with a new house there would be no chores, but I was wrong. I finally cleaned out my car--a car that served us well as a mini-moving van. Then we both scrubbed the front porch area. Seems those nice white vinyl stair rails collect dirt. We continued with the scrubbing and cleaned up our old deck furniture....and concluded that it might be worthwhile to do that more than once a decade.

Next up on my dollmaking agenda is a red hat lady and a cat. They are already underway. There's never much debate about how to dress the lady. It's always something purple with a red boa. It's not as easy with the others. At the moment the cat is all dressed and sitting patiently on my table while I decide on just the right fabric for his tie.

I've also been writing a story with my niece in Wichita who is 8. I came up with the idea as a way to help her with her writing skills, and so that we could develop a closer relationship. This has been difficult when we only see her family every few years. I thought of a story idea and wrote the beginning, then mailed it to her so she could continue it. Now it's back in my court. She's really enjoying the project and I am too, but after all these years I'd forgotten about homework.

Man avoids fatal encounter with compost heap

A Connecticut man has received a last-minute reprieve from what looked like a certain trip to death row--better known as the compost heap--thanks in large part to the efforts of a local crafter with a big heart.

A few months ago his fate was all but sealed when he showed signs of rebelling against the creative process. He refused to cooperate with various sculpting tools and was determined to maintain a permanent frown.

Then something truly miraculous happened. He made a decision to turn his life around. A caring crafter stepped in to offer guidance and support. His demeanor seemed to change overnight. He bought some new clothes and some fine green shoes. He began to sit up straighter.

Even his color changed and he suddenly had a smile that could light up a room. He became more social and invited friends over for beer.
When asked what he planned to do with his new-found freedom, Mr. Pumpkin Man said, "I'd love to travel and see the world. But first I think I'll hole myself up on a deserted island somewhere. At least till pie season is over."

The secrets to a happy marriage

When Mr. Gadget and I first came to look at this condo development we were told there was a river and a nature trail behind the property, as well as a launching area for canoes. Since we don't own a canoe, this particular feature wasn't appealing to us, and if we were ever tempted to purchase one we would only have to remember the Great Truckee River Rafting Disaster of '91. I'd relate the details here if it hadn't been one of those especially painful life events that is really best not revisited.

We are, however, fans of nature trails, and today we finally got around to visiting that.

The path started out nice and wide. "We coulda driven," I remarked to Mr. G.
"This is pretty boring so far," I said. " I'll bet there are lots of ticks out here. I hope we don't get lost. Maybe we should have dropped a few bread crumbs along the way."

"I guess there could be snakes," said Mr. G. He's always thinking of me.

Things soon took a turn for the better however. "Wow!" I exclaimed. "Can you believe this is our backyard? It's so much more beautiful than the one at our old house, even without the gazebo."

Mr. Gadget walked out on the rocks and proclaimed himself king of the river. It's called the Still River. I'm not sure how the name came about. Maybe it's mostly still, or maybe it's still here after all these years.

It certainly looks like an ideal spot to paddle a canoe on a nice sunny day, doesn't it? One could sit out there in a canoe and ponder the meaning of life....kinda like Thoreau at Walden Pond. But Mr. G and I are not even tempted. That's because we know that in order for our marriage to remain healthy and strong for years to come, we should: 1) never again do any wallpapering, and 2) stay out of small floaty things.