Tag: Houndstooth

Threads and notions

Friday night, Tom and I ran out to do some errands, including a trip to Jo-Ann’s so I could pick up a few things. I’d been creating a doll kilt pattern, and I realized if I planned to do many kilts, I’d need more snaps. I’m also using hooks, eyes, and loops, but I had plenty of those.

Later, as I sewed, I needed black thread and couldn’t find any. I couldn’t understand this; I have a lot of thread, and it should have included black. Today, I started a list of other stuff I might need from the craft store, but I again questioned how I couldn’t have black thread. I decided to check Lindsey’s Aunt Gwen’s sewing case, because I knew it had some thread–but no black. Then I decided to reorganize all my thread so I could add other missing colors to my shopping list. That’s when I realized that looking at my thread in the sewing/craft room illuminated by sunlight rather than ceiling fan lights changed everything. I ended up having six spools of black thread that I’d seen as dark green, navy blues, and dark grays last night. It still gave me the incentive to better organize my thread cases, this time, red to purple in the order of the rainbow, then the other colors like whites, tans and browns, pinks, grays, and BLACKS.

I moved the spools that have almost no thread on them to Aunt Gwen’s case so I can use them first when I need those colors.

I never get rid of wooden spools, and I took the one that had been gnawed on forty years ago by my dog Hamlet, wrote his name on it, and put it in the curio cabinet where mementos (and ashes) of our dogs are.

I’m glad I explored Aunt Gwen’s sewing supplies again. Remember how we went to Jo-Ann’s for snaps? These are the snaps I got there.

The card of nickel snaps was $6.99 and the card of black snaps was $3.99.

Then today, I found all these snaps from Aunt Gwen in her case. D’oh!

I don’t know what decade Aunt Gwen bought her snaps, but it must have been the years when people sewed because they had to and not because it’s a hobby. The nickel snaps were still more expensive–they were twenty cents a card!–but the black snaps were only ten cents a card. I guess I’ll be set for a while. From now on, when I go thrifting or antiquing, I’m looking for old snaps.

Aunt Gwen also had cards with hooks, eyes, and loops, so I’m definitely good on those.

And now: Ta da! Below is my first attempt at a kilt, with new fabric I got when Lynne was here; from today’s shopping, some new black suede strapping I wove into a belt, and I added a kilt accessory I found amid my jewelry making supplies, a crafting charm flower petal pendant, along with Mattel’s shirt, socks, and shoes.

If you’re curious, nope! He’s wearing nothing under that kilt. =) I don’t plan to make underwear for my kilt-wearing dolls, but I am going to use Mattel’s socks as a pattern to make more of those in different colors.

Fun times at Houndstooth Hall!

Button Sunday

Lynne arrived for a visit last Tuesday and stayed until today. I will miss her SO much. We had a lot of fun running errands and cooking and eating. One of our outings was to Jo-Ann’s for fabrics and things. While she did some hand sewing on a couple of quilts she’d brought with her, we talked and talked about the Neverending Saga, what’s left to tell of the stories, and whether I could get it all done in only two more novels, bringing the total number to eight. It remains to be seen, but we sure did laugh a lot–and maybe also teared up a time or two, because we do love these characters so much, and they go through some stuff before the series closes.

I’d mentioned a while back that I wanted to use a Vogue pattern to create about twenty shirts for my male Mattel dolls. (I shared a photo of the first one I sewed on September 23; the doll on the right in the photo below is wearing it.) I did another shirt while Lynne was here, and then between us, we cut out the patterns for eighteen more. She also gave me a ton of pointers and suggested some sewing products I could pick up to make my sewing a little easier.


I didn’t like the collar on that first shirt at all–too large. I tried making it smaller on the shirt on the left and thought it was much better. Lynne modified the pattern piece to make it easier for when we cut the fabric for the rest of the shirts. (I’m betting that first shirt will bother me so much that I’ll tear out the collar and replace it.) If you look closely, you may also see on the newer shirt the tiny blue buttons from the supply I ordered from an Etsy seller because I thought they’d be much better for doll clothes. They’re perfect!

Lynne also helped me go through all the Christmas bins that have been sitting in the office since May, when Lindsey and Tom purged and reorganized the Lean To (the storage space on our property). Since we don’t have a garage, in addition to storing stuff, it’s where all the yard equipment and supplies are, along with other random items helpful to homeowners. It also provides Tom workspace for fix-it projects. I’d wanted to reorganize and purge our Christmas decorations before we put the bins back in the Lean To.


As seen from outside, the Lean To is through those double doors and is about seven feet wide. I think I talked about the space but never showed the photo of it after they finished. Everything is so tidy and easy to find and manage, because Lindsey is an organizing wizard.


Looking in from the outside.


Some of the Christmas bins.


Writers’ stock of Timothy James Beck, Cochrane & Lambert, and Cochrane novels. Anyone need something to read?

Now all the Christmas stuff is back out there; Lynne took a few things she liked to add to her own holiday collection; I set aside some ornaments to donate to Goodwill; and my office space is back to normal.

Thank you Lynne and Minute for sharing a great mini-staycation with us! The Hall dogs have looked around for you both a few times today.

And now I sew. And write. A LOT of writing.

Spooky Eclipse

As I have since 2020, every day in October, I turn my Instagram over to Lord Cuttlebone, the skeleton who resides at Houndstooth Hall (beginning last year, he’s frequently joined by his nephew, Ambrose).

Today, I photographed them enjoying the solar eclipse. We didn’t get a lot of sky change; it was mostly just overcast, but we saw a lot of the wonderful trembling shadows created by leaves as the eclipse took place. It was also a lovely, cool day to be outdoors.


Love the effects on the fence and on Lord Cuttlebone’s jeans.

Were you able to see/experience any of the eclipse where you were?

Wednesday’s tree was full of woe


I took this photo in July of 2022 to show the state of our grass after a summer drought. I’ve put a dotted line around the large tree that was about mid-point against the back fence so you can see how green and leafy it was last summer.


A second winter freeze and a second summer of drought left it looking like this.

And this, with a palm, also dead, in front of it.

Then the tree guys came, and the photos tell the story.

It always hurts to lose a tree (the dead palm is gone, too, but I’m not a big fan of palm trees as part of the Hall’s landscaping. We’ve actually had four removed, and another one died after one of our big freezes over the past few years). Several years ago, we let our next-door neighbor take down one of our trees because its roots were invading her water/sewage system. I remember that we did a major pruning of a tree at The Compound, and lost a tree there during a hurricane. But this Hall tree had been so healthy and weathered many storms, until two winter freezes and two summer droughts were more than it could take.

Losing it was sad. And it took so many tree guys and chain saws to cut it all up so it could be moved to the street and hauled away.

I’ll miss having it as part of the view. The birds will miss it, including the crows who I regularly try to engage in conversation. The dogs will miss the camouflage it provided when they explored the back fence area on the hunt for possums, squirrels, maybe a raccoon, and even the occasional cat.

More to come on the state of Houndstooth Hall’s grounds.

Trees at the Hall

I was worried about a tree at the Hall because it looked like this post-drought.

We constantly get business cards and flyers stuck through our front security fence. I save them for “in case of” times, and this seemed like one of those times. We picked the business that seemed to offer most of what we wanted now or might want in the future for the trees on our property.

Now I have dozens of pictures to show some of what was done, but I’m too tired to compare all the photos I’ve uploaded from my phone and camera. Maybe sometime next week, I can do a few posts that show why several men (and one woman) were here on Thursday and Friday to help us with our trees.

The dogs were not amused by any of these shenanigans.

More to come, but in the meantime, today I did some front porch cleaning that includes Aaron’s Garden. We lost only two small succulents that need to be replaced. In this case, at least, we triumphed over the drought.

Framed!

Frames were what I forgot to get on my shopping excursion the other day. Fortunately on another errand with Tom and Debby, I was able to pick up a couple. I needed them for prints I received from Laurel Storey. Longtime readers might remember Laurel from LiveJournal, which is where I likely became acquainted with her through ‘Nathan and Dan (all in Canada, and I suspect their original connection might have been BookCrossing). Later, I followed Laurel on her blog Alphabet Salad, where I think she stopped writing around 2017, but by then, we’d connected via her Instagram, where we still interact. I like keeping up with all the adventures she and her husband enjoy (trips, music, art, restaurants, Lego® kits, photography, desserts, cats!).

I’m not sure when Laurel began pursuing her interest in Zentangle (quick explanation: the Zentangle Method allows an artist to create images using structured patterns, called tangles, by combining dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves, and orbs). Laurel is now a certified Zentangle teacher, who teaches and exhibits her art at the Walkerville Artists Collective Gallery in Windsor, Ontario.

This work is in the public domain.

No surprise that Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings, including this one from 1888, are among my favorites of his work, since I not only appreciate his art, I’m also a fan of sunflowers. I was delighted to see a Zentangle piece created by Laurel that was inspired by the Van Gogh painting, and I ordered a print.

 


(Sorry for the reflections you can see in the glass.)

When I received my order, she’d generously included another print that I also framed.

Here’s a bonus photo from Laurel’s Instagram of the crosswalk outside the gallery this past August to celebrate Pride. Pride Month comes again in June, but another significant date coming up on October 11 is National Coming Out Day, so it’s a good time to share this. I’m always happy to join other allies like Laurel in support of LGBTQ+ equality.

©Laurel Storey, 2023

Here are the two prints hanging over one of the windows in the office at Houndstooth Hall.

Thank you, Laurel!

Thursday thoughts


A little errand running today, which earned me this self-indulgence. Decadent, maybe, but at least that’s a reusable straw and the cup is recyclable.

I was thinking about my Wednesday post and remembered I’d saved this on my phone. Still makes me laugh every time.

I’m writing again. Makes me feel like SUPERMAN!

(Except not in a display box. Though Rhonda has said, when she’s in the hallway and passing the sanctuary with its gate to keep out dogs, how she feels like she’s at one of those historical landmarks where stanchions block visitors from some rooms. 🤣)

Back home

Life’s been a little nutty since the first week of the month. Tom traveled (so he could be with his family for special events!) and then upon his return, he worked from home and quarantined (for caution’s sake, as we know several people who tested positive for Covid, some after travel, some not), and I mattress surfed thanks to friends and family. Then Tuesday, after he got his second negative test, he got to go in to work, and I got to come home.


I may be a bit of an overpacker. That’s like a bin of groceries, a bin of cold foods, five or six bags, my purse, my pillows, and my laptop table, and it doesn’t show the oversized fan I took along for the night noise that helps me sleep.

It’s good to be home with husband and dogs again, and back in the sanctuary to work. Meanwhile, I’m feeling grateful the new Covid vaccinations are available. Half of the people at the Hall are vaccinated, and the other half have appointments to be. Flu shots, too. =) I don’t believe in the integrity of some state politics, but I still believe in science and medicine. And art of all kinds. And that there are vastly more good people than bad people. And good dogs. I definitely believe in good dogs.

A little mellow country for your Wednesday.