The Bellingham has stairs....

O.K. I finished painting and staining the staircase in the Bellingham Dollhouse. I think it looks pretty good. I set the staircase in for now just to see how it will look. I painted the spindles. I stuck pins in the bottoms for something to hold on to as I painted them. Then stuck them in the foam to dry. You can see the stained newel post and railing on the plate behind the posts. Also a hint of the mess my table has on it.

This is a picture of the master bedroom so far. The carpet is a match of the darker pattern in the wallpaper and also the wallpaper in the hallway. I still have to make the floor for the hallway. But will wait until I have the stairs in. The wall is straight, it is me holding the camera higher with my left hand. LOL. Like I mentioned before I need to make bedding and curtains yet.

It feels so good to get something done on it. It seems like I put so much energy into the last contest that I didn't have any for this house. But I am pleased with the way it is coming along now.

I didn't do too much else today. Baked another loaf of bread for Jeff and looked at some of the other blogs I go to. Just a relaxing kind of day.

Finally! My muse is back!

I actually got some energy and painted the staircase. I still want to do another coat and stain the stair treads. I think I will like the white paint and brown stain together. I already have a stair runner, if I decide that I want it in this house. Otherwise I will keep it and the matching rug for a future project. I also carpeted one more room. I will probably put a rug on top of part of it to lighten the room up. I love the room, but it is a little dark. My favorite color...green. I will decide once I check to see what I have here or once I start putting accessories in. Maybe even lighter colored furniture. I love to play around until I get the look I am going after. Sometimes it goes in a whole new direction though. I just turned the bed and I think that if I make a colorful bedspread or patchwork quilt that might just bring in the extra color that I want. Also window treatments to go with the bedspread/quilt. I think I was just stuck for awhile and finally something clicked and I am back on track now.Now I am anxious to see what I can do with the room. The green matches the pattern in the wallpaper and also the wallpaper in the hallway. It is nice to see it all blend together. YEAH!!!!

I was at Walmart today looking at material as I would like to make some new curtains for my RL kitchen. I made the ones I have in there a few years ago and am getting tired of the whole chicken theme. But as usual I can't decide on what I want to do next. But I know I will see a piece of material that will just jump out at me. That is the way it usually happens. I will check JoAnn's also. I love material. Got that from my mom. She has been sewing since she was small. Her and 2 of my sister's do craft shows. Out of 5 of us girls only 2 haven't followed in mom's footsteps. Not that I am as good at it as they are. I like to sew things, but they LOVE it. It does come in handy though. Now to find that elusive piece of material! I think half the fun is in the looking for it.
Time to get off my butt and get some shut-eye. Mini hugs, Teresa

Welcome

I just want to shout out a big welcome to my followers. Thank you for following my blog..
I welcome:
Dawn at :InMyMiniatureWorld.blogspot.com
Elly at: ellyinamsterdam.blogspot.com
Purvail at AthomewithElaine.blogspot.com
Teresa at minimadwomen.blogspot.com
Julia at Bearcabinminiatures.blogspot.com
miniaturemaid.blogspot.com
Amina Shk at Claypaperwood.blogspot.com
Debbie at Tinytreatures.blogspot.com
Marie Jos'e at marivigano.blogspot.com
Elien Karina
Miniaturefriends at casitamini.blogspot.com
Sonia at minitink.blogspot.com
Also Linda and Barb friends of mine
I love your blogs. I hope you all keep following.
Now to go lay some mini carpet and paint some steps. I wish you all a very wonderful day. Mini hugs, Teresa

Victorian Cottage Jr

O.K. yesterday I showed you the Newburg Dollhouse. Today I will show you the first dollhouse we ever did. This is the Victorian Cottage Jr. This one is before we even knew what we were doing. It turned out better then I ever dreamed it would. Also the first landscaping I did. We bashed all the windows and the door. The rest is history....the Newburg was next and then I started on the contests. Where-ever will it end!! LOL  I have to go through my albums as I don't know where the inside pictures went to. Here is what I have for now. Teresa



http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m302/life2events/miniatures/

Here is a link to the inside pictures. I don't know why they are in there but not in my regular albums. When our computer crashed all sort of things seemed to have disappeared from my pictures albums. Lucky I have alot burned and some in photobucket. Computers can be so confusing sometimes.

Pictures of my Newburg Dollhouse

Just to prove that we do work on dollhouses. LOL These are some pictures of my Newburg. I love landscaping as much or sometimes more then anything else. My husband painted it, put all new windows in the bottom half for me and made the slanted porch roof into a flat balcony, he also shingled the house. I helped with the planning. We changed the porch into an open one. The steps were pulled under by one step and also are open on the sides. They were suppose to have cement sides. The second picture shows the landscaping a little better. I always have fun with that. You should see our RL yard with over a hundred variety of plants! We plan our bashes together. My "job" is the inside. I had him pick the colors for this one as I picked the colors for the first one. It is fun to work on these together, Brainstorm ideas on bashing ect.

This is the livingroom with the statues of corgi puppies. I would live to find a statue of our English Cocker Spanial for the Bellinham. I think that it came out kind of comfortable. At least that was my idea. We also changed out the baywindow that came with it for one that we bought at a liquation sale at a miniature shop we went to in Thiensville Wisconsin. We were very sad to see it close down. It is on the right side of the house, so not too visable in these pictures.

This of couse is the kitchen. I like the nice airy look. Wouldn't you love to sit in the sun filled dining nook for a cup of coffee? The plates are just white plates with flower stickers on them. The rooster tiles over the stove are a printable I found and I printed it onto picture paper. There was a hutch that came with this set, but there wasn't any room for it.

This is the master bedroom. There were some odd angles in the corners nesr the window so we decided to make closets. We used shutters for unusable doors. There was just enough room for a desk for the occupants to make out bills ect between the closets. I have an old oval picture of the girl readin in Real Life. I was thrilled to find this one at Hobby Builder's Supply to match my real one.

This is the ittle girl's room. She really wants to be a ballarina when she grows up. It is haed to see but the wallpaper has a ballarina theme to it.

This is the batroom of course. Not alot of room but who needs a giant bathroom. Hopefully you don't have to go when you are in the lower part of the house as it is on the 3rd floor. lOL

This is mom's place to get away. Where she can read or play her violin. Just a nice restful place for her. I don't play any instuments. But love the miniature ones I have found. Kind of goes with my love of music. A friend of mine stitched the rug.

Here is a whole picture of the back of the house. We have started a street in the basement. 6 foot able covered in green fabric. There is still room for the Bellinham and the Victorias Farmhouse on it yet. All my contest builds are scattered around down there. The contests are my babies. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Life--laugh with life....

Today is your day to dance lightly with life. It really is.


Play with life, laugh with life, dance lightly with life, and smile at the riddles of life, knowing that life’s only true lessons are writ small in the margin.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


I like this thought. I want to make my life like this. Not to take it so seriously.

Rainy days

It is so hard to get the inpsiration to do anything on rainy days. I did try to knit today. I got one row almost finished and then dropped a couple of stitches. I am going to start over and try to get the tention a little bit looser. But it did seem to be coming a little bit easier for me today. More practise needed though. But I really think I am getting closer to being comfortable with the size of the "needles". When I get off the computer I am going to cast on again.
We went to the casino today and did better then usual. Which means that we didn't lose as much. LOL. Actually almost won back our money that we took. For us that is GREAT! We really shouldn't go at all, but sometimes we need to get out amounst people. The band they had there was good. Nice to hear live music.
I picked out the carpet to put in the Bellinham Farmhouse Master bedroom. It is one of the discontinuded sample pieces I got from a furniture store when we bought furniture. It helped to mention dollhouses as the sales lady had some discontinued samples for her niece. She let me go through them. I used one in the livingroom. It is always nice to get free things that you can use in the dollhouses. Free is great! I am still deciding on the flooring for the hallway on the second floor. The room is big enough to put a small bench in. I still would like to do some kind of pattern on the floor. I went through my material and picked out some to make into a patchwork quilt. I have to look in my mini supplies downstairs and see what color bunka I have. I would like to do a chennil (sp?) bedspread. I remember those from my younger days. If I ever get off my butt Gertie will have alot done in her house. Hopefully tomorrow we won't go anywhere and I can get some of these projects done. At least I can dream about them. LOL! I saw some pictures of Shabby Chic that I like. I never thought I would like that style, but it seems to be growing on me. Not in the Bellingham though. Maybe a smaller house. Maybe even a contest piece. I will have to think about it some more and see what I can come up with. The next HBS contest is a small house.
O,K, off my butt now and get a few things together for these projects.

Contest results

Well I entered the Hobby Builder's Supply miniature contest. I showed pictures in another post. I didn't win. :( I am waiting to see if I even got honorable mention. But I might not know that for awhile yet. Not that means anything. Just want to see what kinds of entries other people sent in. This was a tough one. I am proud of what I made. I think it was the best one of my entries so far. But I have to say that the more I enter the more I learn. I learn that I can bring my imagination to life. I learn to try different things, to think outside the box. I learn that it is o.k. to stretch my skills and learn new ways of doing things. It would be nice to win....but I just like to compete!
It is cold again. We are suuppose to get snow this weekend. Goodbye January thaw.
I haven't had time to pick up the knitting lately. I promise, when I have something to show you will be the first to see it. But as I said before don't hold your breath as it may be awhile before I have anything to show. But my motto has been...keep learning, you don't know what kind of adventure is awaiting you. Keeps the old brain cells active. LOL. Now to get the brain cells and my hands to cooperate.
Well another ending to a nice day. Hugs, Teresa

Patience

Patience is the companion of wisdom.


Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)

I am practicing my patience. I am trying to knit a miniature afgan. LOL. I'm not using regular needles. I am using turkey lacers. Used to tie shut the hole in the turkey to keep the stuffing in. They are a little smaller then the smallest knitting needles. Patience comes in as in the fact that I have never knitted before. LOL. I did take a couple of lessons years ago but never used this craft. So right now it is knit a couple of rows and tear it apart as I dropped a stitch or two. But I really want to do this so I will try again and again and again. They say practise makes perfect. But they never said how long I will have to practise.  But I do love to learn new things. Life would be boring if there wasn't new things to learn. Either that or I am a glutten for punishment. I did find this pretty yarn that i think will look wonderful in a mini afgan. It is usually used for socks. I will take pictures when ever I have something to show you. But don't hold you breath as it may be awhile yet. :) I may cast on again tonight but probably won't get much farther as I am so tired. One thing I know about myself is that things go easier when I am rested.
I did get two of the pants hemmed today. The 3rd pair didn't need hemming. I don't know why I had to cut 6 inches off 2 pair and the last one was the right length. It must have been petite and just not marked that way. So now they are all done. Yeah!!!
Otherwise nothing else new here. back to work tomorrow. Teresa

Just thinking and typing...decisions, decisions

It was cooler out today, but still above normal.
I bought some more material for bedding for my dollhouse. Walmart sale material. I really like the patterns. Now to get them made. I am so awful lately about getting things done. I did get a couple of Micheal's Craft Store hutches taken apart to make into upper cabnets. At $1.00 a piece I don't worry to much about not being able to save all the wood from them. Usually they do come apart pretty easily. I  usually use the parts I don't use for small projects. I don't need alot of them in this house. This house is set loosely in the 1920's-1930's so there weren't alot of cabnets in most of the houses that I know of. Usually nothing too fancy anyway. I'm not sure if I will have room for lower cabnets though. Unless I decide to take the narrow hutch out. I would like to keep it in there as I like the pattern on the serving pieces that I have displayed on it. Ok. I am just thinking that I could put a plate rail up and then have one or two counters. I am over-thinking this. I don't usually have a problem deciding what I want to do with the houses.
You would think that I have never built a dollhouse before. Calgon! Take me away!
I now have 3 pairs of pants to hem. I picked up 2 more today. I now have enough for a week. I plan on hemming them tomorrow. Still couldn't find them in short length. Of course they went up in price. But with 5 sets they don't seem to wear out so fast. I figure that I save in the cost of having to do laundry less often. O.K. I told you that I have been lazy lately. LOL. I just read this post over. I really am NOT as air headed as I sound.
I am going to sleep...

What a week!

With the grand opening at work stress levels have been high. VIP's got to go today, tomorrow is employees and sat is for the public. I will be glad when we go back to "normal". But it is a beautiful building!
I hemmed 2 pair of scrubs for work today. Darn short legs. Usually Walmart has "petite" which is petite in shorter legs for bigger size people. My husband says that that is an oxymoron (sp) as I wear an extra large. But I hate tight clothes anyway as I do a lot of stooping, squating, bending, stretching, etc. in my job. Scrubs don't stretch!
It was so nice out today. It is almost 2AM and it is 27 degrees. There were alot of puddles out there. This is our January thaw. At least we get rid of some of the snow before we hit the storms of Feb and March. Makes room for more snow. LOL.
Jeff was watching a program on the white deer herds of Wisconsin on PBS. They have a website for their program and Jeff showed it to me when I got home from work. They are really beautiful! Even the antler velvet is white. Did you know that not all albinos have pink eyes? like everything else there are variations. They must be a surprise when you aren't expecting to see them!! I thought they were rare, but there are at least 2 large herds in northern Wisconsin. I wonder why that area has so many?
One of the girls at work found a samle book of vinyl tile in the garbage at work.She saved it for me. I think I will be able to use it to make patterned floors in the dollhouse. There are alot of colors, Each one is big enough to use in a small room, but I can stretch them out to do bigger rooms as long as I use a couple of colors to make a pattern or make a border or insert in the design. There are about 15 sheets with a different color on each side, so I have alot to mix and match. I thought they might be a little thick. But when I got them home they are just as thick as the ones I bought from The Greenleaf Dollhouse Store. Which I might add has a fabulous forum. (Greenleaf Dollhouses)
Well, with keeping with my new resolution I will end here and get to bed.

I could take...

I could take this weather for the rest of the winter. I actually feels warm out. My computer says 22 degrees F, but it sure feels warmer. I filled the bird bath (heated) and went to get the mail and it is nice and sunny. I have to work today or I might have spent some time out there. It is suppose to be warmer yet for the next week or two.

Open house for the new area at work this fri and sat. Next week they will see their patients in there. It really looks nice. It really was built for the comfort of the patients with cancer. I can't wait to see the roof next year with the gardens. Living roof. Cool!

This will be a short one as I really don't have alot to say. So I will end with a picture.  This is from the Picture Rock boat trip in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is so beautiful up there. A lot of waterfalls and rock formations. Hugs, Teresa

Darn...

I have to put in another order to HBS. LOL. I still have the 25% off coupon that is good until midnight friday. We need some noch grass for under the Bellingham. Jeff wants to get it before he starts to put the stone on the foundation. I like the floral ginger jar that I received in the mail from the last order so much that I am ordering another one in another color. Only $8.99 and it is so pretty. I am also ordering an old time washbasin. I think it will look good with fresh from the garden veggies in it. Then I had better ease off in case I get a chance to go to the Chicago International Show. I really like to see the items they have there. I can't afford alot of it, but it is fun to look. I can't believe the craftmanship of some of the pieces!! Only about 3 more months to go!! Cross your fingers that I get to go.
Well in keeping of my getting to bed earlier I will end here. Good Night, Good Night my friends until we meet again. O.K. getting slap happy now. Good Night, Teresa

Another restful day.

We really didn't do much today. Played some Mahjong and went to the casino for a couple of hours. Then just came home and watched a little tv. Now I am just catching up on my e-mails and sites I go to. It was so good to have a weekend that wasn't busy. Back to work tomorrow. Lucky that I like my job, wouldn't you say?
I have been planning out patterns for the upper hallway floor in the Bellingham dollhouse. I want to get it just right. Not quite there yet, but close. I have been so lazy lately. Gertie is going to kick my butt yet if I don't start working on her house soon. She is leaning on the speaker glaring at me as I type. I still have to do something with her hair. It is pretty wild. Which reminds me that mine is no better. I have been letting it grow out as I just don't know what I want to do with it. Maybe I will just get a perm for now.
 I got my American Miniaturist magazine the other day and picked up the Miniature Collector magazine. Read them both once already. Now to go back and write down any ideas that caught my eye. The magazines and the forums I go on have really taught me alot about miniatures. I know that I have come a long way from the first dollhouse that I worked on. But isn't that the way with everything.... The more you do something the better you get. Well sometimes no matter how many times you try it doesn't get better. lol. But isn't it better to try then not to try and always wonder.
I really have been lost in thoughts lately. This usually happens when winter is here and there isn't as much to do outside.
I will leave here now and leave you this poem that I like.


If ' - by Rudyard Kipling


If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;



If you can dream and not make dreams your master;

If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same:

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools

Mahjongg and miniature order.

How many of you play this on the computer. My DH just picked up a game to upload onto the computer. Now I have some harder ones to do. Called brain games. I think it is relaxing to play this game even the hard ones at least harder then the one that is on our computer. Not saying that I am a whiz at it or anything, but something to stimulate my brain.
I just love this picture. So peaceful and serene. It would be such a nice place to sit and dream.

 My HBS order came today. Now Gertie has her own old fashioned toaster and telephone. Very nice ones. I was pleasantly surprised on how nice they were. Especially since they were so reasonable in  price. She also has her sewing machine on the stand and a pair of boots for gardening. Her house is coming along slowly, but surely. I still want to make a quilting frame with a quilt in progress. I need to find another chair for the livingroom yet. I only have a couch so far. I am leaning towards a rocker but not sure yet. Nothing has really caught my eye. I also have a piano in the room and am thinking about a fireplace. I did get a few other things also. But they are for future projects. Yes, I really am working on it.
We went grocery shopping today and it was a mad house! I don't know if it was because of the football game tomorrow or just a typical saturday but it was nuts. I don't like shopping in that kind of mess. Being short doesn't help. Even the bookstore was busy. You can tell that winter is here. People are finding things to do inside.
It was a good day though. Except for the stores it was a relaxing at home kind of day.
Now that the Christmas tree and everything is put away the livingroom looks big. Funny how much smaller it looked with the tree in there. Not that the room is large but it looks less crowded now. 
Well i guess I had better tottle of to bed as it is 1:30am. Hugs, Teresa

Sunny day

Sunny day after yesterdays snow. We didn't get more then about 4 inches or so but it was so windy. Drifts were pretty high in spots. One thing about high winds is that it makes the snow storm move on a little faster!!
Jeff finished taken down the Christmas tree down yesterday. It looks so different in the livingroom not. So much more open. Not that we have a big livingroom. Nice to be back to "normal" He also went through old ornaments and is taking them to Goodwill today. They really needed to be thinned out. I think he got rid of all the dough ornament ones. Kept what is sentamenal af course. There was alot that we never used. Maybe someone else will be glad to get them. Someday maybe we'll have enough to put up what we collected together. With some sentamental ones.
I worked a little more on the Bellingham. It is really starting to come together now. I am liking how the flooring is coming out. I still want to do something different for the upper hallway. Just haven't decided what it. I will probably stain in two colors and make a pattern. I will do it on card stock in case I don't like it when I am done. Prabably some pattern in the middle beside the staircase. Now just to wrap my mind around it and come up with a pattern. Maybe even a quilt pattern. Jeff is off for 5 days so I don't know how much I will get done on it. Otherwise not a whole lot going on.

Hi everyone.

Busy morning. I thought I had better vacumn as with a corgi there is always an abundance of hair. Plus being an active herding dog he makes vacuming very interesting. You have to put him ouside or put up with you vacumn going in every direction, except the one you want it to go. He can find the smallest part and grab on and then it is a free for all as he tries to drag it around the room. Luckily it doesn't last very long. He is very strong and can really move it around!! With him life is a big adventure. I feel sorry for a cow if he ever came upon one. The poor thing would probably be pulled around by one leg! I know that he can really try the patience of the English Cocker. It like having two kids sometimes. "Mom Tanner won't leave me alone" But when Murphy is in a playful mood look out. He can give as well as he gets. It sounds like a herd of buffaloe if your in the basement. But at the end of the day they are snuggled up together. But what would we do without them. LOL.
I am so glad that my rbs are feeling so much better. Not 100%. but better.
It is nice out today. Cloudy and it looks like it could snow, but the winds have died down and it actually feels "warmer". Hey 30's in january are better then the minus zero's we can have.
I did manage to take down some of the ornaments yesterday before work. I had some small boxes up here so I could pack a few ornaments into each one. You can diffently see that I made a dent in the numbers of ornaments left. I'll have to have Jeff bring the box up so that I can do more. Well, I guess I had better think about getting ready for work. Have a great day everyone.

I have to stop

going on the computer at night that is.. I am not getting up until late morning and not getting anything doen. I work until 11:30pm and am usually on the computer until 2:00-2:30 or so. But it is so nice and quiet then. LOL We still have to take the tree down, that will happen friday when Jeff has off. He can carry the boxes better then I can. I am not to good on the stairs when I am carrying things. I know excuses, excuses. I want to make sure that we put all the ornaments that Jeff and I collected togeather in one box. Hopefully weed out alot of the old stuff. Surprising how much we collected in the 7+ years we have been married. We went bird crazy this year and collected Old World birds this year. You have to have birds on your tree for luck. We had some already, but we wanted more.  He would not agree to get the rubber chicken one though. I thought it was funny. Maybe I will sneak it in it in if I find another one. He really isn't that bad, and I could have gotten it if I really wanted it. That was just his opion on it. I'll be glad when the tree is down though. Pretty as it is I would like to get the room back in order.
 Off to work I go in another hour or so. I will be so glad when this inflamation is out of my ribs. Makes work hard, but of course things could be alot worse.
I was in the new part at work last night and they put some of the fish in the new aquarium. This thing is as big as my round kitchen table! It is so pretty. This area is for cancer patients coming in for treatment. The aquarium will be calming for them. They are also bringing down the other salt water tank for the lower level. This one is from the old cancer unit. We know already that people like that one. The new one will blow peoples socks off. PLus there is a prayer garden with a heated walkway so the snow just melts away. Plus the roof is a living one. Mostly sedums right now. People will be able to walk up there and sit and relax. I can't wait to see it when it is done. It, of course, is huge. All the plantings for all areas will be watered with run off from all the roofs and stored in a basin underground. This will be first roof top garden this far north. There are some in the lower part of the state. We have gone green long ago and this will even make us more green. The hospital has gotten awards for how green we are. Except for the new part the hospital is over 50 years old so this is saying something. This process has been so cool to watch unfold. Even the constuction company for the new part and any remodling had to agree to recycling everything possible. I forget how much they figured was kept out of the landfill. Plus all the recycling we do on a dailey basis. I just love the idea that a big company can do this.
Well, have a few thigs to get done before work. Have a Great Day.

Answered prayers

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.


Saint Theresa of Jesus

Doesn't that sound about right. Usually we forget about about prayers that go unanswered. They seemed so important at the time, but after a while you forget about them. Usually it is because of something better happening. It seems like down the road you might remember but wonder why you prayed for it in the first place. Answered prayers most of the time are things that we REALLY needed. Even when we don't remember asking for them. They may be prayers that someone else prayed for us.
My "resolution" for this year is to be more patient and pray more. Asking God to give me what I need and not just what I want. Need meaning what would make me be a better person. That's it, just help me to be the person I was meant to be.

Finally

I actually worked on my Bellingham dollhouse. I cleaned it out. I had stored stuff in it as I worked on the last contest. I put carpeting in the livingroom and Greenleaf vinyl tiles in the hallway. I really like the tiles. They were so easy to use. I am going to look at the local home do-it stores and see if I can get vinyl in different colors and just score it to make tiles. This will depend on if the real life tiles are too thick or not. The Greenleaf Dollhouse Store (I love their forum) only has so many different colors. The carpet that I put in the livingroom is a sample that I got when we bought new furniture. I mentioned my dollhouses and the sales lady let me look through discontinued samples. I now have alot of different pieces of "carpet". The piece I used today was enough for one good sized room and some rugs or runners.

Here is a picture of the dollhouse as you can see I have a lot to do yet. I have flooring in 4 rooms now. I have 4 more to go. I would like to do one floor kind of fancy, but stay in the farmhouse theme. I also still have to put wainscot in the kitchen. The stairs are only taped in right now as I have to paint or stain them.
 I baked one loaf of gluten free bread in the bread machine and have another loaf rising by the stove. I want to see what works better with this mix. I don't have a big mixer but it isn't as stiff as regular bread so was able to mix it by hand. The first one I made a few weeks ago I had to knead, but I think the bread came out better. Of course that one wasn't a mix and seemed to work nicer. We'll see after this one is done. I made pumpkin bread with this mix yesterday and that was very good.

Winter just started

Winter just started and I already found some plants I want to look for this summer. But it is so nice at this time of year to sit back and dream of flowers. We have huge beds ( a few hundred perennials) here and it is always nice to find something different to grow. We travel all over the state each summer to find new plants. This is a picture of part of our yard. I took it from our house roof. I wish I could get all the beds in one shot.. or even all of one bed in one shot. I love taking pictures of the new plants that bloom each year. We started flowerbed in 2005 at least that is when I started photographing them. It is so cool to see how things have grown. We don't have alot of lawn left. But enough for the dogs to play on. They have been pretty good about not mowing the plants down even when they go in the beds. We have 2 huge beds in the backyard, 3 smaller beds and a veggie garden. In the front we have another newer huge bed and then some shrubs along the driveway. What can I say we love our flowers.
 Plans for Auntie Gertie are coming along. I think she is going to be single (but that might change). She is going to have a sewing room with a quilt rack where she is working on a quilt. I found one at HBS but I think I can make it. An old fashioned sewing machine and other sewing things to put in there. I put in an order at HBS Hobby Builders Supply and found some things for her. The sewing machine, antique toaster, doilies, 1920's telephone, and a few things for future projects. I got the new catalog in the mail the other day. Between the catalog and internet store I could have gone broke. Coupons are great!! I love the bicycle on the front cover, but it is not one of the items for sale. Just a prop. I e-mailed them to see if they have any to sell. Not counting on it but you never know.
 I finally cleaned off my work table so there is no reason not to work on this house. I want to do flooring next. I have to make some templates and then I can start. I would like to do one fancier floor in this house. But still keep to the old farmhouse look.  So many ideas floating through this brain of mine!
 I made pumpkin bread today and was able to stay with-in Jeff's diet and mine. Gluten free for him and sugar free for me and it actually tastes great!! Next weekend I will probably have to make some more loaves of bread. He will have gone through most of what I have made so far. Maybe I will make one tomorrow just to be on the safe side.
 3 day weekend and only 1 more day to go. Weekends go way too fast.

Helen Keller

I love Helen Keller and the way she spoke her mind. She could have lived in self-pity but she lived to show us that even with disablities (and we all have at least one) you can be strong and productive. But sometimes it does take a special "teacher" to bring out our best. Being blind and deaf never stopped Helen Keller. Once the knowledge came she never stopped learning. I think that if we stop being open to learning new things we can't grow. Life is like that. Everyday there are new oppertunities to keep learning. We try something new and either we like it or not but in a way it adds to our character. It becomes part of who we are. Here is a quote of Helen Keller's that i really like:


The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.

Helen Keller

This week is the one year anniversary of the death of one of my friends. I can't believe that it is a year already. Cancer is such an ugly disease. So today I will leave here with a saying that I really like. To me it is comforting. Please pray for the cure for cancer. I don't know if I even know of one person who hasn't been affected by it in one way or another. Miss you Kit.

Perhaps they are not the stars,



but rather openings in Heaven



where the love of our lost ones



pours through and



shines down upon us



to let us know



they are happy.