Tag: novels

Tiny Tuesday!

This morning, I was checking to see if I had a couple of miniature charms. As I opened and shut some two dozen plastic containers, I realized craft organization works best when you don’t make a mystery of it. Out came the label maker! (And on the way, I better organized as well as purged a few things that found their way into my supplies and that I’m sure I’ll never use.)

No more wasting time on searches!

And I did find miniature charms that worked for what I wanted.

Love and peace, and if trick or treating is part of your evening, have a fun, safe night!

Photo Friday, No. 881

Current Photo Friday theme: Roof


Back in May 2012, I spotted this Art Car in the wild and captured a photo of it.

In the Neverending Saga, there’s a little boy who likes to tell corny jokes to an audience of adults who think he’s pretty great. In his honor, I found a few zebra jokes, because I’m still looking for reasons to laugh. I share them with you, in case you are, too.

Why do zebras have stripes?
Because they don’t want to be spotted.

What side does a zebra have the most stripes on?
The outside.

What happened when the leopard tried to sneak out of his enclosure by pretending to be a zebra?
He was spotted.

What do a zebra and a panda have in common?
The answer is pretty black and white.

Why is it so difficult to sell a toy zebra?
You can never find the barcode.

What’s black and white and eats like a horse?
A zebra.

Who would win in a fight between a kangaroo and a zebra?
The zebra. Because he has so many black belts.

What do zebras have that no other animal has?
Baby zebras.

What do the penguins get for their lunch at the zoo?
Half an hour, same as the zebras.

Which animal is the oldest?
Zebras, because they are still in black and white.

Why didn’t the donkey cross the road?
Because he saw what happened to the zebra.

Button Sunday


October 22 is National Nut Day, created to encourage healthier snack options.


My favorites are pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios. Other than in peanut butter, I like peanuts best when I can eat them roasted from the shell. My college roommate used to bring back bags of peanuts after a weekend working in her parents’ grocery store and roast them for us as a snack to eat throughout the week. As a kid, I liked boiled peanuts (a snack discovered by a Yankee character traveling through the South in the Neverending Saga). I probably still would like them, but since I no longer drive rural Southern roads, I don’t get opportunities to buy them.

Showing support for the home team in tonight’s game by eating a few of these later.

What are your favorites?

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!

Pick One, No. 10

Question 1258: Violin or harp? (and why…)

I don’t know much about the harp. I’ve known two people in my life who played harp, and both of them were gifted. That being said, I’m picking violin. For one thing, I find its use in Western classical music beautiful, passionate, and haunting. But the violin is also used in country, jazz, blues, folk, Americana, and rock and roll, even if it’s called a “fiddle” in some of those genres. And a player can’t pick up a harp and dance around a stage but definitely can with a violin/fiddle.


Violin at approximately 1:4 scale.

Because of the violin’s versatility, I wrote a classical violinist turned blues fiddle player into the Neverending Saga. =)

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.