iseecerulean

I had barely a smidgeon of time for the dollhouse this weekend.  I spent most of the day Saturday doing housecleaning, and most of the day Sunday visiting relatives.  I did squeeze in some "me time" Sunday morning to make a dresser for the back corner of the bedroom.

Now that I've got a wooden dresser in the room I hate the metal dresser even more...I'm going to have to strip the paint off, then re-paint it a different color.  Trying to make the metal look like wood didn't work at all...I need to embrace the metal, not fight it.

It's nice to be building again, instead of sewing, I feel back in my comfort zone.  Next on my to-do list is to build something for the back corner of the study...I was thinking of putting in a bookcase, but now I think I'll make a cabinet with doors or drawers on the bottom and shelves on the top.

Happy Wakefield

Happy Keli

Satisfactory compromise

Before and after...

...because I know you think pugs are ugly...but since I don't have anything to show you, because I haven't been doing anything besides working and sleeping, I thought I'd show you what my sister got for Christmas.  Her name is Sadie.

Ever since we were little my sister and I have wanted a pug.  I'm glad her dream fiinally came true.

I looked at my husband longingly when I showed him the picture (not that I'd actually get a dog at this point in my life), and he told me "get a mutt and teach it to run into walls".  What a grouch ;)

After the holidays I'll have to show you what I got her for Christmas...my sister, not the dog, I don't buy Christmas presents for pets....though I admit I did wrap and label a bag of cat treats and put them under the tree for no other reason than to make my husband roll his eyeballs at me.

It's halfway through the 36 hour long storm watch...so far we haven't received anything  even close to the amount of snowfall predicted.  Here's a glimpse out of my living room window...

...or, why I haven't been posting.

This last week has been frustrating but funny...

The hard drive on my PC at work started dying Monday morning, and as I wasn't up and running again with a new hard drive until late Wednesday afternoon my in-box is piled sky high. 

Tuesday morning I went to work with my iPad, thinking that I could at least access my email and get done some things I do online, but the internet connection was down because of the blizzard we had at the beginning of the week.  I went home early Tuesday afternoon, but rather than play in the dollhouse I shoveled the foot of snow that fell that morning so that Matthew didn't have to do it two evenings in a row.

Wednesday I brewed my morning pot of coffee all over the kitchen counter, down the front of the cupboards and onto the floor...which is not a fun mess to clean up while craving my morning dose of caffeine. 

Thursday I decided to treat myself to a croissanwich for breakfast, and broke my car going through the drive through.  A part that holds the window in its track broke, and I had to drive it from Burger King to the office with the window stuck all the way down...it was 20°F that morning, but thankfully it had stopped snowing.  I drove it to the garage when they opened at 8:00...they were kind enough to squeeze me into their schedule and had it fixed and back to me before lunch.   I love the security having an awesome mechanic brings.

Friday wasn't bad, other than I was running around trying to make sure I'd handled everything that came up during my down time at the beginning of the week.  I'm fairly certain everything I left in my in-box at the end of the day wasn't pressing.

Saturday wasn't bad either, I finished my Christmas shopping.  I went out for something for my brother and my sister's boyfriend, but ended up with more for Kate and my nieces and nephew as well.  You would think I'd have learned by now not to walk through Macy's when I've already bought Kate more than she needs.

A severe winter storm started at 7:00 pm last night and isn't supposed to end until 7:00 tomorrow morning, so I'm planning on staying home today.  Hopefully, after I get the presents wrapped, more peanut brittle made, and my housework done, I'll find some time to relax in my studio.

I had a surprise afternoon off yesterday.  The hard drive on my office PC went kaput mid morning...after I got off the phone with Dell's tech support to get a replacement hard drive sent I made sure my assistant had a project to keep her busy for the afternoon, then came home.  There wasn't much point of staying at the office when I couldn't do any work. 

On the drive home I planned to work on the dollhouse all afternoon, but my daughter didn't have her afternoon class and she was in a togetherness kind of mood...I don't pass those up.  I had a very pleasant afternoon with Kate, then took a rare turn at making dinner when she left for her evening class, since I left the foot of snow in the driveway for Matt to clear out when he got home from work...though I did have the sidewalks shoveled for him.

I'm debating how early I'm going to go in to the office this morning...I'll take my iPad with me, so that I can access my work email via the web portal, even though I'm not going to be able to access our accounting system or my files...but I need to be there when my hard drive shows up so that I can make sure it gets installed and the software I need loaded on.

Wakefield spent the day under the Christmas tree yesterday...I was going to take a picture of him lying underneath, gazing up into the tree, but nobody wants to see a bunch of pictures of my cat.  The occasional picture I can get away with, but too many and I'll turn into some weird cat lady who puts plush reindeer antlers on him for Christmas card photos, and calls him a fur-kid.

I took some pictures of a few of my favorite ornaments to share with you instead.

No playing in the dollhouse this weekend, I was playing in the big house.

Kate and I put the Christmas decorations up Saturday morning.  The last piece she was left with was a snowman bowl that I asked her to put on the coffee table...she protested putting it out empty, and asked to make rock candy.  By the time Matt came home from work at 4:00 we had a batch of peanut brittle ready to crack, and were pouring out the fourth batch of rock candy.  We filled the biggest tupperware bowl with rock candy...I'm going to have to give some away, as we've got more than the three of us will eat before next Christmas.  The peanut brittle is going quickly though, I've already had to promise Matt I'll make more.

Sunday I did some more shoppping...as usual I bought Kate way too much, but she's so much fun to shop for that I can't help it.  I've got everyone's gifts figured out now, and almost all of them purchased.

Wakefield is entranced by the Christmas tree.  He sits in the dining room and stares at it for hours on end...it's adorable.  He's abandoned his usual spot in the hallway to sleep on the tree skirt... I'll have to leave a empty spot there for him when I put the presents under the tree.

Greenleaf had a great sale last week...a 10% discount, a free Greenleaf Town, and free shipping on orders over $69.00.   The dollhouse I'm going to build next, that I've had picked out for months, costs $69.95.

My house and village arrived yesterday.

The half scale house is laser cut, which looks like it's going to be a much easier build than the Fairfield was...I don't think the village is though.  Do you suppose they're giving away the villages because everyone is buying laser cut kits now, so they've got a glut of unsellable stock?

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the quarter scale village yet.  I could go the traditional Christmas village route, make a non seasonal village for display on a shelf in my studio, or perhaps I'll make a creepy Halloween town.  I'm not sure if the houses are open on the back, like a dollhouse, or have walls on all four sides...I guess I'll find out.

...as suggested by my assistant when I asked for her opinion...because some days being my assistant involves more than accounting, doing my filing, and complimenting my octopus patterned toe socks.

She liked the bookcase better, but suggested she might like the wall better if I put something on it more in scale with the rooms, instead of a big picture.  I think she's on to something.

Just imagine there are little portraits inside the frames...of Susan, Melinda and myself...and that they're a little lower on the wall, I've got them too high in the mock up.

I wonder if I could fit a narrow semi-circular hall table on that wall...