Building Foundations

A couple exciting things to share today. First, I checked craigslist on a whim and found a dollhouse kit that I'd never heard of. I looked it up and found that it went out of production about 20 years ago and sells for around $400 on ebay on average. The person on CL is asking $75 and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow sometime. It's very similar to the first kit I put together when I was a teenager. It may be the same one for all I know. I don't recall what that one was called - it was just a kit that my grandmother had started and never finished. Anyway, if I never get it put together, I can list it on ebay since I'm getting it for a steal. But I'll probably put it together and give it to my daughters.

The Scholastic Book Fair is starting at Son's school on Monday. I have this weekend to make a 10' tall cactus for a prop, and a couple batches of jam so I can donate gift sets to the bake walks, and a book sales meter in the shape of a Chinese dragon. I should have started a few weeks ago but a lack of communication meant I thought my spot was taken and the other mom who helps run the book fair thought I was ignoring the whole thing. So... yeah.

Part of the book fair every year is a big fundraiser where the kids donate their change to buckets to vote on a crazy hair color for the librarian, and all that money gets donated to help libraries in need. Two years ago the funds went to buy new books for a school in Ghana. Last year, hundreds of new books were bought for a school library in Sandy Hook to help with rebuilding efforts. This year we're trying to organize the funds to be sent to the Kenya National Library System to help with their mobile library system. The mobile library system uses camels to travel around and take books to people who wouldn't have access to a library otherwise, and the KNLS has said they'd like to expand their camel .... uh, collection, I guess... to include a female so they can breed new camels and become self-sufficient in their mobile service.

I decided to enter the 2014 Hobby Builder's Supply Annual Creatin' Contest. This year, the project is the Starting Point Garage Kit. You don't HAVE to make a garage, of course. Considering how long I had to stare at the building to see anything other than a garage bay door or a restaurant that opened onto patio seating, part of me wonders if they chose this set this year just because no one buys it and they're trying to either get rid of stock or spawn ideas to draw more sales. Either way, I did finally come up with something and I'm actually excited to get started. I may or may note end up starting a separate blog for dollhouse posts.

That's all I've got for today. I should go get started cleaning the kitchen so I can make some jam and load up the dehydrator. Thanks for stopping by. 

Independent Artist feature

It's not often that I find a jewelry piece that sets my heart all a-flutter, because frankly I'm not a jewelry girl. That said, I have a piece today to share just because looking at it gives me one of those rare "Oh my gosh look at that!" moments.

This ring, called "Calyx", was made by Stephanie Aust. People who know glass artists by artist names know her as "copperrein". It has one of her glass beads as the focal point, accented by glass micro beads and wire wrapping that she did by hand. It's a really impressive piece and a steal at $26. You can buy it here. So shop independent and fuel the creative flame!

Tiny Troubles

Anyone who knows me knows that dollhouses and miniatures are one of my favorite hobbies. This year, I'm thinking about entering the HBS Annual Creatin' Contest. This indecision comes about because of my recent burnout and severe lack of inspiration or motivation. I started looking at small dollhouses on a whim a couple days ago and I've found a few I think may work for my apothecary / potion / witch's shop. I don't recall whether or not I've ever posted about it here but it's been a plan between Husband and myself for a couple of years and it always ends up being moved to the back burner and forgotten about. Anyway, I've gotten it down to the following three choices in my order of preference;

Sugarplum Cottage by Greenleaf

Buttercup Cottage by Corona

Orchid Dollhouse by Corona

It is necessary to note that by the end of the project the shop won't really look anything like the houses shown in the pictures - it will be the shell, but many design and color modifications will take place. In the mean time, I've been sporadically working on pieces to go in the shop, potions and powders and things like that. They're all currently strewn about my desk so I will have to gather some up and take in-progress pictures in the near future. 

"Union" should be pronounced like "onion"

Over the course of the past week or two I've met some of my grandmother's nieces and nephews on facebook. They're in the process of trying to organize a family reunion in Denver, but none of them live in Denver. I have one cousin in Golden who's trying to help, but the rest of them live in Arizona and the far reaches of Wyoming. They're determined that they need to have the reunion in Denver because the aunts (my grandmother and her sisters) are old and rickety and.... Yeah. So they wanted suggestions for places to have the reunion - I gave them suggestions that my grandmother thought would work. They don't like any of those ideas. I suggested a few other places. Again, not acceptable. They want to contact all their long lost cousins. I look up phone numbers, but none of them will make the calls. It would seem that the extent of their internet knowledge is getting on facebook to ask me to do everything for them, then arguing with me whenever I say something. So I've decided I'm done helping and I'm not going to the reunion - I have social anxiety anyway.

I restarted my Assassin's Creed IV game last night to see if I could meet a bunch of objectives I'd missed the first time around - I was only 13% of the way through anyway so it isn't a great loss - but I'm discovering that it didn't give me some of the opportunities it did the first time through. I dunno. Anyway, somehow I've almost caught up to where I was the first time and I'd played for about 18 hours total the first time and six hours this time... So I don't know what I was doing the first time to waste so much time.

We bought a frog terrarium about a year ago and got a couple things for it, then set it aside and ignored it. Over the weekend we went out and got all the rest of the stuff, put it together, and got some frogs. We have three green tree frogs now named Morpheus, Apollo, and Nyx. They spent most of yesterday hiding at the top of the background and not moving. This morning they're lazily crawling about getting ready to go to sleep, and at least one of them ate some crickets last night.

Son is rather obsessed with football because all the kids at his school are, so he and Husband watched the Broncos game yesterday and Husband explained the different parts of the game as it went on. Son was mostly fixated on the Broncos getting a trophy, though neither Husband nor I had said anything about a trophy in the first place. Everyone in Denver is determined that there's no way the Broncos will lose the Super Bowl, but their lackluster defense may be a problem against Seattle. *shrug* I won't be watching the game - I will probably use the opportunity to play video games.

I ordered some glass over the weekend. It should be here on Thursday or Friday and hopefully by then I will be halfway motivated to go turn on the torch. I have some ideas for sets of hair falls and tiny hats or fascinators and beads that match. It might be a decent thing come the next Christmas shopping season - I just have to hope that I can get them made and be found by people who have weird friends to shop for.

Speaking of product lines... ComicCon. Yeah. I don't know where that's going or if it's going at all. I have plenty of ideas, but no motivation. None of the ideas feel like "me", if that makes any sense. I have no doubt that they'd be great ideas and would sell well, but the thought of making the stuff and putting my name on it is a serious downer and... I don't know where to go from here. Anywhere would be better than this deadlock I seem to be stuck in.

So that's what I've got. Nothin', basically. Thanks for stopping by and giving me a few minutes of your time.

Flu Threw

Oldest Daughter woke up in the middle of the night to tell me she had a fever. She didn't feel warm, so I sent her back to bed. Every half hour for the rest of the night she came in complaining she had a fever. Then, around 5:45 we heard her feet pad into the room and stop, then a wet splattering noise. She threw up on the carpet. I told her to hurry and go to the toilet while Husband cleaned up the carpet mess. She threw up the whole way through the loft, all over her bathroom floor, and finally into the toilet. Then she went to lay back down. A few minutes later she was back, and I told her to hurry up and go into my bathroom. More vomit all over the floor. It seems to have mostly subsided now (knock on wood), and she's laying on the couch with a blanket. I gave her some flat ginger ale and turned on Sesame Street. Hopefully she'll stay laying down without too much fight.

Not much else to report. I've been kicking around some ideas for mini pirate hats and fascinators, but no time creating anything the last few days. Hopefully that will change soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Update on Hallie

Hallie Marie White was found alive in San Antonio on January 8. She is home in Florida with her mother and now begins the long road to recovery from her ordeal and repair of their relationship. Please keep your thoughts with the family in the coming weeks as they try to get back to a healthy frame of mind.


***

I have't been feeling much creative drive the last few weeks, so I haven't been working. I do have some good news to report though. We have a new niece through my brother-in-law and his wife. Her name is Loretta Melinda and she was born on January 7. Mom and baby are doing great and went home a few days ago.

Son has been home since Thursday with Strep throat. He's been on antibiotics since Thursday night though, so he's past the point of being contagious and he's feeling much better than he had been. 

Youngest daughter decided this morning, two and a half months after the fact, that she's no longer scared of her Cookie Monster costume from Halloween so she's been wearing it all morning.

Oldest Daughter is officially registered for Kindergarten and will be starting in August, hopefully in a full-day class setting. We'll have the final news about that at the end of the month.

Not much else has been happening. Hopefully next time I write something there will be some exciting news. Thanks for stopping by! 

When A Child Disappears

Yesterday my friend's 14 year old daughter took her suitcases and got into a car with an unidentified white male in his mid-20's in Florida. She left her phone at home and no one has seen or heard from her since. She is considered an endangered runaway. So here is her Missing Person's poster. If you're reading this page and you live in or have friends and family in the southern part of the United States, please share it on facebook and instagram and tumblr and anywhere else you think it might get seen. 

Hallie Marie White is 14 years old. She was last seen wearing a black and white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a black headscarf like the one in the right hand picture. She has dark blond / light brown hair, blue eyes, is 5'5'' tall and weighs approximately 160 lbs. She was last seen getting into a white 4-door Hyundai sedan with Texas plate BSF-8801 which is registered to Enterprise Rent-a-car. The police have not yet gotten the record of who rented the car. If you see this girl or that car, PLEASE call the Escambia County Sheriff's office at (850) 436-9630 or Klass Kids at (855) 733-5567 with any information!

First Report

So some rather exciting news to share today :-)

First off, Husband has got a new facebook author page for his book of short stories he'll be releasing later this year. You can follow him here to stay on top of news about release dates and other exciting things that will be happening in the future. Tentative plans for the book are to release it on kindle and nook and smashwords for $1.99 and I'm planning on talking to him about giving away free copies to a people through contests and things on facebook. Right now we're planning out cover art (which I'm in charge of) and waiting on a few things to arrive. I'm doing initial read - throughs and rough editing now and he's been working like mad on getting the last of the stories put together. I'm very excited for him to get his work out for the world to see.

Also, I've been working on a fairly large custom electrical outlet cover order - four zebra print plates and four cheetah print plates. Most of the zebra plates are baked and in the initial stages of coloring. Cheetah plates will be started once the zebra plates are colored, sanded, and sealed.

Yesterday started the Pay It Forward facebook campaign for 2014 and I've got seven people on my list instead of the standard five. I think in the four previous years that I've participated, I've only actually received something once but I keep signing up because I like sending things out to other people.

Today I'm going out to dye someone's hair various shades of blue and purple and tomorrow Husband and I will be going to watch the Avs V Sharks at the Pepsi Center. Hopefully sometime this weekend we'll find a bit of extra time to start taking Christmas decorations down and work on getting the house back in order.

I hope the new year has started out on a good note for you. Thanks for stopping by!