Shower Progress

This weekend, Gerry put the shower back together. He's been working slowly and steadily on the tiles, including sealing, highlighting, and taking great care with grout and caulk. Today he was finally able to put the shower doors back on, put the shower head, faucet and handle in place, and took a few pix. Bear in mind that this is just the shower area. We still have to paint the walls and ceiling, put the tiles on the floor, and put wainscot on the walls. It's hard to photograph with the glass doors on, but it still looks terrific.

Ahh...blessed Spring!

I've waited so long for spring. When Sunday dawned, clear and bright and warm, I just couldn't resist spending some time on the deck, feeling the sunshine on my face. A couple members of my peaceable kingdom appreciated the beautiful day, too.

Of course, one can't rest forever, and I decided that as much dog hair as possible ought to be left OUTSIDE. Maybe some of the birds will appreciate some soft nesting material. Murphy certainly seems to have plenty to spare. I'm not sure why Cosmo thought he should be in the midst of all those clumps. Believe it or not, that was just the beginning of culling Murphy's undercoat.


The ducks enjoyed the beautiful day, too. Aren't they pretty? I love when they get into the pond and tip their little bottoms up in the air, looking for goodies in the bottom of the pond.



This is the vision that first lured me outdoors. This little cluster of miniature crocus blooms right below the gas meter (an odd contrast -- the ugly and bulky gas meter and the beautiful little cluster of flowers). They looked so cheerful outside the kitchen door, I just had to grab a shot...and one thing led to another, and now I have about 40 shots of the yard and pond, and nothing has been planted yet! The iris and the daylilies have poked their hopeful first leaves through the surface, and there are actually buds visible on the hyacinth.Spring, my favorite season. To me, Spring is the epitomy of hope. That's probably the reason I'm a morning person -- all that possibility in front of you, all those new beginnings.

ATD (Artist Trading Dolls)

Sherry Goshon has started a new group called Artist Trading Dolls. It's a great idea...similar to paper dolls, but mixed media. Anything goes. We're starting out with a swap a month or so, and this month we had the option of two different templates. I chose a one-on-one swap, using the unusually shaped template that Sherry provided.

I already have a wonderful doll from my swap partner, Debb, but I'm not sure which of these will go to her.

Here's the first one. I've titled her: "Surgeon General's Warning: Excessive Self-Reinvention May Cause Enlarged Belly Button."



And this next one is called: "Jewels Fell From Her Lips, But She Had Chocolate in Her Heart."

Aren't these fun?

At least it's not a stork...

What's out on the chimney?

Did you put that up there?



Look, it moved! It's alive!


Yes, you are seeing what I saw around dinner time this evening. Gerry glanced out the deck door and thought the chimney didn't look right. As you can see through the blinds, there was something unusual going on atop the chimney.

We opened the blinds...and that's not a statue, it is live and real.

About a week ago, this pair of Canada geese showed up on the new pond. Gerry has named them Abigail & Rufus (Rufus built our house, which is a Century home), and they have made themselves quite at home! Here they are in a more "natural" setting:

Small Fun Figures

These three ladies are the small fun figures I'm submitting for the swap on the CPS list. I happen to be hosting this swap, so the ones made by the other 5 or 6 people will also come to me, and then I get to swap them out, and keep that post office busy once again.

The fun figures had to be no more that 5" long, and could be made of anything. I did mine with modeling compound on cardboard, painted with Lumiere, and embellished with beads, charms, and some molded faces. They were a lot of fun to do, but right now that new Viking sewing machine is calling my name, and I'm going back to sewing a jacket just for me!

Herbal Soap Swap

I am hosting an Herbal Soap Swap on the Soapnuts list. I've been a member there for nearly nine years, and am honored to be among some of the finest soapers in the country. For this swap, participants sent in increments of 6, up to 24 bars of soap. I ended up with 29 participants, plus myself. It is time to redistribute the soaps and ship them out to the participants, along with a booklet with information on the creators and the recipe for the soap they contributed.

My intention was to post a photo of all the soaps that came in to me, but it was just too overwhelming a task, and I was afraid I would disrupt my distribution shuffle, so....for the curious, here's a picture of all the boxes of soap, instead.

I will post later a photo of the soaps I kept myself, but it will only be 23 soaps, so it won't represent everyone in the swap, unfortunately. This was an absolutely amazing array of soaps, and my house smells heavenly!

Blog not Forgotten!

I'm here, I swear it. I've been feeling extra busy, extra pressured at work, so that doesn't help the creative time, plus I've had a flurry of special orders for soaps, gift baskets, custom labeled lotions, and so on. It's nice to be busy, but it does cut into the creative time.

A few days ago, Gerry began the upgrade of my computer to Windows Vista, which hasn't helped a thing. I'm hosting a soap swap, and while I've been trying to edit the booklet that gets sent to the participants, we've also been upgrading my video card, and trying to get all kinds of settings right to make our home network operate the way it used to. I was so frustrated Friday night, I went to bed with my computer discombobulated. Considering it has become my right arm AND my left, that's saying a lot about my frustration level.

Swap soaps have been coming in at a lively clip. What in the world did we do in the bad old days, before priority flat rate boxes? Do you know what a box of 24 soaps can weigh? Oh, how I wish we had scratch and sniff computer monitors...you should see and SMELL the glorious array of soaps passing through my hands.

We spent yesterday morning doing grout on the shower walls. We had lunch about 1:30, took Murphy for a medicated bath around 4:00, and never quite made it back to the bathroom. Gerry is out now, buying a new float for the grout. We more or less exhausted ourselves, and never quite made it back to finish OR clean up. Anyone who knows Gerry knows how out of character this is for him. True to form, doing a project in one small room has the ENTIRE house upset, and any housework appears to be for naught.

I like to post pix every time I post, but I don't have anything to share right now. That's a good indication of the distraction level around here, when I don't have any recent pix. Well, I do, but they are of snow, and I don't know about you, but I am SICK of snow and winter. I think the sun shines about every 17 days or so around here.

OK, enough whining! I am off to the soaproom, inspired by my glorious swappers!