I Love Book Nooks

It's no secret that I love miniatures and miniature houses. I've built several dollhouses and miniatures from scratch. So I just love to put things together. My son bought me a lighted DIY book nook kit for my birthday this summer and it took me all of three days to put it together. I had a few leftover books from it but I used everything else to make it.

It comes with a tube of glue similar to E6000 but I didn't use it for most things. I used a simple white glue that dries clear and spread it with the end of a toothpick for the little tight places.

It's a Beyond Library Book Nook, part Night at the Museum and part Sherlock Holmes but I like it. I don't care how you slice it, it's just cool to look at. It's got a fancy touch light but you can get lights cheaper and easier to place for other projects.

I'm so proud of the way it came together. And I love those dinosaur bones. They were tricky to punch out without breaking but they give you an extra one in the kit just in case you do. I have an extra set of dinosaur bones now.

I really love the wooden laser cut DIY miniature greenhouses and the book nooks but they are a little beyond my budget these days so I wanted to make a book nook from scratch and see how that goes. I figured out the dimensions at about 5-1/2" x 3-1/2" would be a good size to start with and I could make it about 9" tall. So starting with those dimensions, I got busy.

This is my rough sketch. It has to be part book nook, part diorama and part conservatory but I'm going to enclose mine with thin clear acetate sheets to keep the dust out. And I want a little door or pack in the back for holding my light battery pack. I have several ideas with the holidays coming up.

I also want a front that opens in case I want to fix, add or change something inside the box. It can be cut out with poster board or heavy card stock. And you can always double up your paper or add an extra layer to an inside wall to make it more sturdy.

And I want windows in the top but it has to be solid enough to hold lights or a paper or beaded wire chandelier. I may not get all those things incorporated when I'm done but it's a starting plan. If all goes well, I should have a prototype soon and a working model not long after that. And then I'll post a pattern to Thistles and Twiggs so you can download and make one for free. 

Canon's Creative Park as a Graphic Resource

This is a fun little paper extravaganza for you to explore. I will start listing my resources for all things graphics this Fall since I don't have to worry about competitors. I won't be selling anything so I can afford to give them away free if you want to get great graphics at zero cost. It's been a hard year on everyone so get the free stuff anytime you can! 

THIS IS A REVIEW

I discovered Canon Creative Park a few years ago and it's not just for kids. If you have an ink jet printer (or even if you don't) this is a fun way to spend an afternoon making something pretty FOR FREE. Recently I've seen these on some Etsy sites for sale but why buy them when you can get them for free?

Years ago I printed several projects off and put them together. They are all well made and look great. 

They are listed according to difficulty level so you can start with the easy ones and then progress to the really hard ones as you want.

I particularly like the dragons although I haven't made one yet. Look at that rosy-faced lovebird!!!

There are many kits so if you've ever wanted to build a sailing ship or an airplane, you can find it here. There are masks, movable toys, dioramas and puzzles ALL FOR FREE!!!

I was amazed at the number of cute little shop kits you can print. You can put these on heavy card and make them really sturdy. 

I love the folding book houses and little shops. If you've ever done miniatures then you know how fun they can be.

Look at these cute movable toys! 

What Happened with Etsy UPDATE

Not much really. I do not think I want to work my arse off to make money for Etsy any longer. I did enjoy making and working with graphics again. I used to do that for a living but hey, I'm retired. I opened my Etsy shop in late April and it did not make any money for me. The trickle of revenue that came was all eaten up by Etsy fees.

So as it turned out, I made Etsy some money but I decided to let it go after four months of still being in the red. I'm not going to feed it any more so Etsy can reap all the profits in fees. Lesson learned. It was a hobby anyway and I can't afford to give money away to Etsy so I've decided to let the listings expire instead of renewing them, starting August 27th and then over a month or two they will all trickle out.

I will leave the files up for those that did purchase them so they can download them again when needed but NAH! I don't want to work for Etsy for free. I'll probably list some of the graphics for free on Thistles and Twiggs eventually for my friends to enjoy. 

I think at one time Etsy was probably a good venue with low fees and some people probably made a good bit of money with it but I don't think that's the case any more. There are fees for every little thing you put on there and you really have to sell a lot of volume to make any profit at all. Not for me and I won't do that again. Like I said, I didn't make any profit in four months and it actually cost me over all. I still have a negative balance on the balance sheet but I can eat that as a lesson learned.

Now back to doing what I really like and sharing it for free! I will leave Thistles and Twiggs up because I did have a few good tutorials on it that might be useful and who knows, I might want to dabble in the graphic arena again from time to time. 

Files will start to disappear on August 27, 2025 as the listings expire. 

Franken-squirrel & Other Pattern Hacks

I've been pretty obsessed lately with knitting. I know... it's hot. But I have A/C so it's not unbearable sitting at my desk and knitting. I have one of each of the animal patterns that Julie Williams has come out with for knitting these cute little creatures. I usually either buy the boy or the girl but sometimes I get both if I want to make the sweaters and the dresses. This is my third lamb/ram. But right now I'm obsessed with squirrels!

I once knitted and crocheted for two and a half years (in my spare time) without taking a break, one project after another and I was fine with that so I love to knit and crochet. I love to make things and I have to have an outlet from reality. I just can't wait to make the next newest animal pattern and about a week ago I learned there was another new pattern being published by Julie so I got busy making a franken-squirrel since I couldn't get the pattern yet.

The legs, bodies and arms for her boy and girl patterns are all basically the same so I used a leg, arm and body pattern from the boy bear. The body had a white belly, not hard for a seasoned knitter to figure out from the picture by counting stitches but the head was going to be different.

I used the bear head pattern and modified it for the last five rows making the muzzle white and then I just embroidered over the nose part. But I've since discovered that the dog pattern would have given me the exact muzzle I needed from the Doberman instructions and making the last five rows white on the muzzle. The nose and muzzle would have been perfect for the squirrel. Then the pattern became available so I got it.

I used the ears from the fox pattern for my frankensquirrel but I could have made them a little smaller. Then I just added little tufts of yarn to the ends which I will separate and comb out with a wire brush. Positioning them and sewing them on in the right spot makes them look more squirrely. For the eyes, I didn't knit in the white patches, instead I used white felt on my plastic eyes and cut out the circles around them.

I used a capped sleeve pattern from the seasonal dresses instructions and just roughly drew out the acorn and oak leaf pattern to do my color work.

I also wanted my squirrels to wear some Ugg type boots. I got the pattern from Crafty Braam and modified it for making the boy boots a little taller. My yarn for those was a little thicker so the boots turned out perfectly big for his big feet.

I bought the boy pattern because I wanted to make those gorgeous sweaters! I also decided to give my girl squirrel some boots too. I wanted to make her some pink ones but my first try looked like house slippers so I started over. Maybe a different shade of pink would work better. 

I also found a backpack pattern from Mary Jane's Tearoom that I really like and I wanted to fill it with acorns so I found a bunch of free patterns for acorns too. I also found some free knitted oak leaves. I really had fun with these.

New Site for Graphics

So my personal hobby blog was starting to grow into a graphic arts site and I was running out of space here for everything and it was getting hard to keep organized. Graphics were just starting to take over. I have too many hobbies. So I split my site into two (it's happened before) where all my graphic stuff is now on a new blog called Thistles & Twiggs. I moved a lot of free stuff over there including some Cricut cut files. But I turned a lot of it into an ETSY Shop too so I would have some inventory without giving away the farm. So if you got all the free stuff that was here before I converted it, consider yourself lucky! I will still be adding more free stuff too when I get time.

So I've been pretty quiet most of the last few weeks because I've been also working on the new blog live but nobody knew it was there kind of thing. So now it's linked to several places. If you're looking for some free graphics they are over there now. And while you're there, you are welcomed to look around but my ETSY shop probably won't be live for several more days. I'm still checking, double checking and tweaking files learning as I go. Let me know what you think.

I've also spent the last few weeks polishing up and packaging my graphics, designing file templates and building an ETSY shop. I was being urged to do it and honestly I have been really, really hesitant. I consider myself retired and don't want the hassle of handling all these details... BUT I decided to give it a try and see what happens. Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was 80 so hopefully I still have plenty of time to try something new so Twiggs made me do it.

First time I saw him I thought, "Why is he dumping out good booze?" And then I noticed the bottle was cologne and he was making the flowers smell better. OK so I started to like him and so I named him Twiggs! 

It might look like all this was instant but I've been amassing an archive of graphics for a couple of decades and recoloring them in my spare time. And I used to do graphics design and web programming for a living. But I did have to learn a few new programs on the fly to pull it all together this quick... plus put in a few 14 hour days to boot. What else have I got to do besides chase dust bunnies...  (now you know how I came up with the name for this site)... Thank God I still have some skills that I can use at my age.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Check back in a few days and my ETSY shop might be hooked up by then. 

Valentine Love Soldiers

I was pretty busy with the nutcrackers I made for Christmas and I liked them so much that I carried them over to Valentine's Day.

They have such funny faces that I just wanted to keep making them.

I made four for Christmas and I could have made more but I wouldn't have known what to do with them if I did.

Now that Christmas is over I have Valentine's day on the brain. I've been making little decorations and just thought they would look darling as soldiers for love.

I've never seen nutcrackers done up for valentines' day that I can remember. I got to drag out my heart bling and my red and pink sparkles for these.

I've been working on a few other little projects but not too much to brag about so far. I've also been doing a lot of reorganizing and cleaning out my stash of die cuts. I've had a lot of creative blocks so far so maybe it's time to just rest or do some old fashioned house cleaning.

But I'm still looking forward to Valentine's Day!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...December thank God. We had the first new snow last week already. #TGID is all I have to say. We had a rough November here. People in my family were between jobs, the car broke down and needed a new alternator and battery and Jerry woke up last Sunday and couldn't walk. So... more vet bills on top of that.

Jerry

I can handle it all except the thought of losing Jerry is unbearable. Luckily the vet put him on steroids and he will get a little better in the short term. His spinal cord is being pinched because of a bad disc. He was not in a lot of pain except when he twisted the wrong way once or twice. He could not walk or move his hind quarters and his left front leg at all for about 5 days then on Thursday I put a towel under him and used it as a sling to try to help him get up and try to walk because he was scooting and dragging himself with one leg to get to the door. He wanted to go outside. He's such a good boy. I also got him up during the day and he could stand in one spot with support for a few minutes at a time. 

baby Jerry

Thursday evening he stood up on his own and started taking wobbly steps. He's getting his balance back gradually now. Good news but bad news comes with it. The long term prognosis is not good as his back and discs will get worse with time even with surgery. CT scan or MRI is just too expensive and the cost of this type of surgery is out of the question. Besides the expense, pain and recovery time, it will not solve his problem in the long term since he already has back problems and is 9 years old.

So, to prolong his life and give him a good quality of life, he has to lose weight, take supplements with chondroitin, glucosamine and fish oil. He might have to take meds also and it will get worse over time. But he's doing alright today. He doesn't like having to eat less because he's a foodie but he's gained so much weight from eating the dry cat food that he can no longer get to. I give him three little dog food meals a day now with low fat treats. 

I'm certain that whatever time we have left will be good times and we will enjoy them one day at a time and try not to worry too much about the future. One day at a time will be enough. Jerry is thoroughly loved and he knows it.