Power is back on

Our power just came back on.  We were without power for about 27 hours.  I can't count how many times I started to turn something on before I remembered.   We were very lucky there was very little damage in our area,  mainly just lots small branches that need to be cleaned up.    Today it is a nice sunny day,  good weather is forecast for the rest of the week.   My heart and thoughts are with all the others that had damage and loss from Irene.

Thank you Drora and Kim for you kind comments.

Now I have to go put away candles and clean up all the mess we made while the lights were out.


Thank you for visiting, Mary

Watching Irene

And starting to feel the winds of hurricane Irene.  We are expected to get hit with the end of the storm, by time it actually hits us it is forecasted to be down graded to a tropical storm.  We are expecting it to be very windy and rainy all today.   The weather reports are saying that the winds are about 30 mph and gusts at around 38 mph right now, they are supposed to get a little stronger over the next 4 - 5 hours and then start slowly dying down after that.   Right now it just feels like a nasty, rainy, very windy day. 

We are following the warnings and staying in today, we have our candles and flashlights ready if the power goes out.  There is not much to do now but to watch the news and wait and see what happens.

I hope you are all staying safe.

Organizing and Plant Making Supplies

I thought that I would show you some of the things that I've bought at the Dollar Tree lately.

A couple of office supplies, these will hold some of my clay tools and texturing sheets.

Some baskets,  I like having a pile of baskets to gather the supplies to use for a project or to sort things that need to be put away.  They are helping alot while I'm trying to get stuff shifted around.

I like these baskets because they fold up or stack together when not being used,  and it's even better when the folded ones fit into the stacked ones.   I think the price was right also, $1 each.

 Then a few things that I think will make good plants.

The bunch has 6 branches  (3 shown) in  3 shades of green.    I think 5 or 6 of these leaves in a pot will make a good plant.

Poke the picture to see the texture of the leaves better.

I'm not sure what kind of plant this will become but looked interesting to me.  I really like the yellow pompom flowers and the spikey leaves.

And a bunch with lots of red, orange and yellow styrofoam balls.   Most of these that I find are usually pink, purple or blue.  This is the first that I've found in the more useful colors.









Now I have to get back to organizing before I can play with the plant making supplies.


Thank you for visiting, Mary

Gifts from Rachel

I received beautiful gifts from dear  Rachel a couple of weeks ago, while I was sitting with my swollen toe up.  These lovely gifts brightened my day.

This beautifully detailed corset,  all the little bits of lace, ribbon and tiny beads, it's just perfect.   I love the tiny flower print fabric.

"Look at the beautiful hat, it's mine"  That's Jaynie, she grabbed it and put it on right away.
This is just so amazing, the tiny flowers, you can't see it from the picture but the green one is sparkly, so very pretty.  I just love love those feathers.

"They have to have another Royal Wedding now that I have the perfect hat." 

I don't think that's going to happen Jaynie, but  I agree it is a great hat.

And a beautifully stitched mat and 2 cakes.
I love the colors and pattern, so nice. 



Rachel got over her fear of Fimo with great success.  Look at the orange and kiwi slices, the whipped cream, yummy!

Thank you so much for these great gifts, Rachel.  I love everything,  now I have to start planning a way to display them, so that I can look at them all the time.

Thank you for visiting, Mary



Welcome New Followers

I sorry that I've been away so long.   I was really thrown off by all the meds I was taking,   I was not sleeping well and was just groggy, slow and cranky.    My foot is feeling much better now, I finished taking all my medicines and I'm starting to feel back to normal.

I want to extend a late but warm welcome to new followers,

Maru   has a lovely blog.   Go visit and see lots of  cute  minis,   kitchen  utensils,   pitchers and pots,  and beautiful felted dogs.   I love the little pitchers, I've tried to make some without much success.

Julie   of  A Little of This and That  posted pictures of her beautiful and well organized work space a while ago.   I love the colors that she used on the walls,  it looks like such a nice, comfortable place to work.    Julie makes lots of beautiful molds  that she sells on Etsy.       Go visit and enter her great give-away.


Last weekend we had a tax free weekend here in Massachusetts,  we went out and bought shelves and things to try to get organized.  So now I'm shifting things around to try to fit thing in, it looks like more of a mess right now but hopefully will be better soon.

Thank you for visiting, Mary

I Hate Bugs

I'm not getting much done.  I've been sitting with my foot up for the last few days and most likely also the next few.  I have a very swollen and very sore toe from an insect bite, probably a spider.  I went to the doctor today (second time in 3 days) because it was still getting worse.   Now I have a lot of medicine to take, hopefully it will help soon.


Rachel,  Thank you very much for the  PIF gifts that you sent.  I love everything, they are all beautiful.  Hopefully I'll be able to take pictures to post in a few days. 

Maria,  Welcome to my PIF Swap, please e-mail me your address.   I'll start planning your gift  now,  I'll start putting it together as soon as I'm able.   I'll try to be quicker than I was with others but please be patient with me.   I'm still not being able to post a comment on your blog, I keep getting disconnected. 


Thank you for visiting, Mary

PIF Swap Gifts

Rachel of miniaturemaid has received the gifts that I sent her for the PIF Swap.  Now I can show you what I sent to her.

I made Rachel a few books and bookends,  but one of the books was not an ordinary book.  It has a secret compartment that can hold a secret treasure, so I made a tiny necklace with a Swarovski crystal pendant.

I read a tutorial on making a hidden compartment book in life size quite a while back.  The idea of cutting up a book makes me a bit queazy but I thought that it might make a good mini project some day.  Then  a few months  ago Casey  posted a tutorial on making one using a post-it-note pad.

I decided that it was time to try it.   I used different materials than Casey.  I used paper and cardboard for the covers, I like the cardboard pieces from a box of Lipton tea bags for books.  I used white craft foam for the pages, it's easy to cut with scissors for regular books and it was fairly easy to cut out the center with a craft knife.   Most of it was just like making a book that doesn't open, just don't glue down the front cover and add the liner page.  Casey's tutorial helped with lining the cut out section.

I made the bookends with polymer clay and I made the necklace with fine wire and very tiny glass seed beads.   I had to twist the necklace up bit to fit it in the book.    I'm thinking now that I  a chocolate bar would also make a good hidden treasure.

Rachel was looking for plain paper doilies so I got out my punch and an assortment of paper.  I tried to include lots of diffrent types of paper.   I like the pink marbled paper, it's the same one that I used for the lining for the book.

Then some of the things were the same as what I sent to Drora.

Green beans,  baked potatoes and pats of butter made with polymer clay.

Some  mini bits and pieces.


I also sent some stickers, some small zip close bags, some tiny elastics and some pieces of white ribbon.



I also sent some beads and some metal findings  different from the ones that I sent Drora but some how I lost my pictures.  Hopefully  Rachel will post pictures of those.

I really enjoyed making special gifts for this swap,  I still have 3 openings if you would like to participate.

Thank you for visiting, Mary