Stayin'-in-town weather

It's just another boring forecast for SoCal from the Weather Channel. Things are never quite this boring in Connecticut, which is where Mr. Gadget and I will be headed on Sunday. At least there should be no delays gettin' outta town.

This morning, as I approached my computer table, I noticed a congregation of ants milling around and intruding upon that particular pile of interest. I don't know where they came from. There was no visible trail of ants. But I'm pretty sure I know why they were there. I'd very recklessly forgotten to discard an empty granola bar wrapper. I must be more careful.

So, for a long time I've been threatening to design a new doll and now I'm finally getting around to it.

For those of you who are interested in the sewing particulars, I drew a pattern on newspaper, then traced around it on a double thickness of muslin. I stitched around the whole thing, leaving an opening for turning. But before I turned it right side out, I stitched across the bottom corners to make a "paper bag" bottom. Then I filled the bottom with enough rice to give it a nice weighted base, and stuffed the rest of the piece with fiberfill.

I painted the front of the head with gesso in preparation for applying clay. This will be a clay-faced doll.

This afternoon I had some time (while the ants were on a coffee break) to apply some clay. If you're thinking witch, you are correct. Witching season is fast approaching. I like making witch faces because witches are not beautiful people. I can pretty much apply the facial features any old place and it's OK. I still have more clay work to do, but for now I'll let her dry so she can ride in my suitcase.

I heard a cute story yesterday. Last winter while I was in town I met one of my high school friends at a coffee shop. As I waited on the sidewalk for her to park, I noticed some commotion and realized that, sadly, she'd had a small fender bender with another woman who was also trying to park.

They did what most women do--they wrote down the pertinent information so that later their husbands could deal with the insurance companies. Oh please. Of course I'm just joking....

But here is the cute part of the story. The ladies began to email each other and soon they became friends. Earlier this week, one drove to pick up the other--so as to make sure there would be no further fender benders--and they went out to lunch.

I love happy endings. So sad about the ants.