A small project for the shop...

It all started with a leftover piece of plastic downspout and a whole lot of strip wood. When I moved my shop, all my stripwood and dollhouse trims ended up all mixed together in a small wastebasket along with several long cardboard tubes full of random pieces. It was tippy and made it hard to find what you were looking for. My Dear Hubby cleaned up the downspout piece and built me a box to hold 10" pieces of it. I wouldn't recommend using metal downspout, the edges would be really sharp.

I brought it right into the house and started organizing. Well, I guess I have way more pieces of dollhouse trim than I thought!

I knew he didn't have any more downspout, so I saw the mailing tubes and thought maybe he could build another box that would fit those....

and why not put both boxes on a base....and add some castors....and a handle! He's an incredibly patient man! LOL! I drew a little picture and he found enough scrap plywood in his shop to put it together for me. The mailing tubes were cut into 10 inch lengths also and then he sized and cut a base for both boxes.

He used small casters on the bottom...the back 2 were fixed castors and the front 2 are rotating.

He lined the 2 boxes up, then glued and screwed them in place.

Lots of clamps!

I had saved an old knob from something, so that was added too.

When it was done, I brought it into my shop and had fun organizing my dollhouse trims.

I was concerned that I didn't have enough baseboard to finish up the Steampunk Summerhouse, but I have plenty! Yay! So here it is right next to my bench, neat and accessible.

I'm getting so organized, I just can't stand myself! 😊 Now Bill has less scrap wood kicking around and I have a cool wood storage thingy! Have a great day!

Back from the dead...I think.

Finally on the mend around here! Mr. Skellie and his cat did their best while I was under the weather and they are relieved to be able to go back to what they do best...sit around on their bony butts! LOL! This past weekend, I was feeling much better so Mr. Skellie did come out to Bill's shop to give me a hand with a little project. Bill and I have had a stack of license plates that we've been carrying around with us for quite awhile now. They are from most of the places we've lived during our 42 years of marriage. Bill finally came up with a good idea of how to display them. Since I'm the chief decorator around here, I was glad to join him in the new addition to his shop. He handed me his hammer and fixed up the ladder for me and Mr. Skellie and I went to work.

He handed me the nails and watched from the top of the shop light. Well, every time I missed the nail he would start snickering and there were a few times the nail went right through the air...obviously something was wrong with this hammer. "This must be a trick hammer." I said. Mr. Skellie just laughed and said, "Operator error!" No sympathy around here that's for sure. "I know," I said, "You're handing me rubber nails!" "Wrong again!" he said. I offered to give him a go at it and he said his arm hurt. So between him snickering and the nails flying, I got the giggles and then I couldn't hammer at all! Well, I was trying to nail into OSB...weird stuff. So I soldiered on and got the first row done and started on the second row.

Whew, just a few more to go.

Lot's of fun memories up there for sure.

Here's the finished product!

Even Mr. Skellie had to approve.

I think I'll go take a nap now...It will be back to the fabric shop in a few days. Trying to get back in control of my kitchen and the rest of the house. When everybody's sick, chaos reigns for sure! Have a great day!

All on my own...

Mr. Skellie here! Debra has caught a bad cold and I am on my own around here. My cat and I have been doing the best we can to help out,

a cup of tea, a cold compress, chicken soup....a skellies work is never done! Today I am trying to get through the laundry without falling into the washer and also being company to Debra who is on the sofa moaning. Bill took care of her all weekend, guess it's my turn now! I sure don't need a respiratory problem...oh wait, I don't think I have a respiratory...I even offered to let my cat sit on her lap but she still gets the heebie jeebies when she sees him.

So I will be holding down the fort for a few more days I think. I hope Debra feels better soon, I miss her sense of humor. Now where does she keep the dust rags.....Oh, and sorry for the repeat pictures, she put the camera up high and I can't reach it. And she said if I took her picture while she was sick, she would break my legs....Eeee! If you get bored, stop on over to my Facebook page...https://www.facebook.com/skeletontales/

A new friend and plans!

Mr. Skellie was running all around the shop this morning, arranging this and that and putting away anything that was out of place. "What are you doing?" I asked. He said he was getting ready for company. He also said my hair needed some work..."I always look like this at 7 am..." I said. Mr. Skellie just rolled his eyes and told me to go and fix myself up. Personally, I think he still has a bug leg stuck somewhere, just sayin'. While I was getting ready for this mysterious company, I heard a small tap at the door. "I'll get it!" Mr. Skellie yelled. When I walked into the shop, he introduced me to his cousin, also from China.

"Why is he so much bigger than you?" I asked. Well, it seems his ancestors were part of the Dinka people, and were all very tall. You learn something new every day! He said he traveled here to be with his cousin on his wedding day. I didn't say anything, but asked Mr. Skellie if I could speak with him in private. I asked him who the lucky lady was. He told me he hadn't thought of that yet, but while he was in Mikel's yesterday....you know, that French place; "You mean Michael's?" I asked. "Well, yes, but you're not saying it right, you need to say it with a French accent." he said (with a French accent).  I just let that go. He showed me a great arbor he found for when he says his vows to the as yet mysterious lady

and also picked out flowers for her bouquet and for the bridesmaids.

"How much is this going to cost me?" I asked. "Not much, I had a coupon." he declared. I was surprised to say the least. Looks like I'm going to be busy. He also picked up a yarn cake for it too.

"I hate to break it to you, but that is to crochet with" I said. He stammered that he knew that and why don't I get busy making this shawl for myself so I will look presentable.

I never knew these plastic skeletons would run my life like this! LOL! Oh, and I was also instructed to find him a wife...the search is on! Have a great day!

The Weevil Hunt!

It was cold here last night! So this morning I went out and took a shot of the mountains all frosted.

It doesn't seem possible that November is almost here already. I hesitated to tell you about my recent adventure in the kitchen, it was kinda creepy. But here goes: A few mornings ago, I walked into the kitchen and spotted a tiny black beetle with a long snout. I quickly sent him to tiny bug heaven but then spotted another, and another. Some were swimming in a drop of water in the sink, others were just lounging around with tiny sunglasses on and I swear I saw one on the window sill in a lounge chair.  "What are these things!?" I hollered. Mr. Skellie heard me and came clattering down the hall from the shop. He started stomping them with his feet and then looked around to see if there were any more.

Then he said he couldn't do it any longer because he was getting the heebie jeebies and had a bug leg stuck between his toes. He ran back to the shop shaking his foot and yelling "Ewww! Ewww!" I started searching online for the answer. While I was on here looking, I heard a commotion in the kitchen. The Minions had arrived with their steampunk fart gun and had found one burrowing into my loaf of homemade bread.

They were firing and yelling and then quite a few of these tiny bugs started circling them. I've never seen minions move so fast! With all my brave heroes abandoning ship, I was on my own. I finally found some information and pictures about these little interlopers...weevils!

But where did they come from? There were none in the pantry, none in the flour container on the counter

or in my wheat grinder. I read on. They can be in birdseed! I have a large clear sealed containerful under my counter. Do I dare look? I looked, and there were hundreds of them in there! That container went outside right quick and I started mop up operations immediately. The population quickly decreased over the next couple of days and Mr. Skellie came back, with socks on this time, and continued his weevil stomping dance. I've had birdseed in that container for 5 years now and never had a problem before. But this year, we had kept the seed over the summer and I think that's when the problem started. So the container of seed is now safely ensconced in the shed and we are all breathing a sigh of relief. The counter is cleaner than it has been in it's whole life and I have lived to tell the tale. Have a great day!

What HAVE you been doing Debra?!

No, I've not been resting on my laurels...funny mind picture by the way...just some different life events. First off, I went back to the thrift shop to look for a shirt for my Dear Hubby. He's a tall, and for some reason, those are really hard to find in stores and I didn't have time to shop online. I found a brand new one by American Eagle and decided to poke around in the curtain section again. Guess what I found...another pink gingham valance! I came home hauling my treasures only to find that Bill couldn't button the shirt over his chest. I had a little bit better luck with the valance, after ironing the heck out of it, I transformed this:

into this:

More ruffles! Then I went online and ordered some pink butterflies to scatter across the wall over top.

So we went with Plan B for Bill's shirt and were off to Marlene and Jack's wedding!

Mr. Skellie has been head over heels (skull over heel bones?) in love with Marlene for quite some time so he was sitting in the back crying. Fortunately, I had a tissue in my pocket for him. Good thing there wasn't the part in the ceremony about "anyone here objecting" cause he would have jumped to his feet for sure! So now I think it's time to rustle up a wife for Mr. Skellie. Hey! Then we can have a skellie wedding! Oh fun! Another thing I wanted to get done was some repairs on the minions Outback Steakhouse. The place is so busy that the door is starting to come off the hinges!

One of the minions fell off the ladder near the smoker, so I helped him back up and noticed the power for the restaurant had gone out so have to fix that too.

Maintenance, maintenance. I worked on that yesterday as it was raining like crazy outside!

But this morning the air is clear and cool...45 degrees! I guess it is cool!

Since all the laundry is done, I'm off to the store to pick up a few things so I will see you later! Have a great day!

New curtains and more fabric bolts!

I started out by painting the first coat of white on the new fabric display for the Quilt Shop.

These little Michael's hutches are made out of pine so soak up paint like a sponge. Looks like I'll be needing 1 or maybe even 2 more coats for a nice finish. After that I decided to make more fabric bolts.  You know the drill, First, I cut all the pieces of wood for another batch.

You notice that I stuck a piece of painter's tape to my miter box so I wouldn't have to measure each one. Once I had a pile of those,

I moved on to picking out more fabric and preparing it.

A little paint,

and snap!

 All done!

Just like those recipe videos we all see on Facebook. I now have 50 of these done

and will probably need 50 more...well, maybe a few more than that, but we will see how well-stocked the Quilt Shop looks by then. I've also been thinking about curtains in my shop. The idea of pink gingham sprang to mind so I mulled that over for a few days. I went to the thrift shop to drop some things off and decided to poke around while I was there. You'll never guess what I found...2 pink gingham valances! For only $1.97 each...my kind of price. So I brought them home and washed and dried them. Since they are made of 100% cotton, it took a while to iron them. My heart goes out to my mom for all the time she spent ironing my dad's shirts back in the 50's before permanent press. I remember her using a sprinkling bottle on the shirts first as she didn't have a steam iron either. What a large part of a day went to ironing clothes back then! So after pressing the heck out of them, here is how they look:

I know, it's pink, but I am unashamedly a girl and this is my shop so I will pink it up all I want! LOL! Have a great day! (I think it needs some butterflies...😃 )