Monday-9:45am

I started in the morning yesterday working on the birthday card cupcakes...while Karma relaxed in the sun.

First I had to apply the white caulk frosting. It dries fairly quickly so I used the little glass beauty shop finger soaking cup (looks like a teeny tiny shot glass) that I often use for ink when I use dip pens. Worked perfectly!

This is the water soluble caulking you can get at the hardware store. Easy clean up!

Was a very slow process...

...of gradually spreading the caulking...

...carefully over the top of the muffin.

I love the 3D effect!

Had to do them in sections with breaks (57 actually) and wash the brush after every 2 or 3 cupcakes. Then I let them dry for a couple hours.

Karma stretching in the sun.

The next step was the colored Stickles.

This was a lot longer part of the project than I expected.

Turned out I'd have to do one color of dots and then let it dry before I did the next color because I discovered they stay wet for quite a while and easily smear...and I had so many laid out that I would accidentally touch my arm on wet ones. So I had to wait 45 minutes or an hour between colors. This was after two colors.

Karma finds my projects a little on the boring side.

May arm was getting very tired squeezing those little bottles. So I did decide to split them up--face about half one way and half the other so I could rotate the entire batch right on the mat. That way I only had to reach up over three rows max instead of five.

When I got done with all the sparkly colored dots then it was time for the yellow Liquid Pearls candle flame.

A lot of puttering, but aren't they cute!

Honestly, my arm was shaky from squeezing out 19 dots and a candle flame on 57 cards. My math is not good, but my arm told me that was a lot--LOL! Left them to dry overnight.

Karma waited patiently all day for me to finish so we can have some serious couch time. ;)

This morning I put the first card together. Used ScorTape to attach these last two layers.

Here's the finished card front...

...and just a short sentiment stamped inside:

"It's your special day."

I needed to get the first February card out in the mail today. Done! Tada! Now I only have 56 left to put together. ;)

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Meanwhile...Karma also happened to nearly destroy her cat grass while she was patiently waiting for some couch time--LOL! She does love her cat grass.

I will definitely be more generous with the seed next time and let them get taller before she can get her teeth on them--hehe! When they are packed more tightly together there must just be more for her to gnaw on because she's never pulled this much out before. But I've never been this stingy with the seed, either--LOL! ;)

Well, today I am washing clothes and plan to maybe putter about a little. The sun is out again and that fog we had for four straight days has no chance to return on this very windy day, either. I can see the clouds scooting across the sky! See--we need our wind up here. ;) It's still only 28 degrees with 93% humidity, but the sunshine has been so nice to see again since yesterday. Supposed to stay cold and sunny for a few days.

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I'll try to maybe catch up online today, too. And with the SOAR journal. She starts the week on Sunday but then she apparently never posts the new week of materials until Monday. So I am always trying to cover two days on Monday. Honestly...that is starting to get old really fast. If I end up quitting you can bet that will be the reason. Really rubs my OCD more than the wrong way. Seriously, if your dated week's materials go from Sunday through Saturday...well, I'd have them posted on Saturdays...not on Mondays. Sure glad it's a free class/group--LOL! ;)

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Well, I hope your week is looking good! I have to go switch clothes in the machines. (What glorious inventions!!) Be safe and happy!!

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"Goodness is the only investment which never fails."

Henry David Thoreau

Sunday-9:15am

Jeannie said it was okay if I bummed this off her blog.

It says:

"When you are going through something hard

and wonder where God is

remember the teacher is always quiet during a test."

I just loved it! :)

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Well, today is Karma's birthday. She's seven years old and been annoying me lately--LOL! Not only does she pull the cat grass up by the roots and out of the planter...

...(notice how difficult to get a closeup of the cat grass without her head in the shot)...

...but she also yanks them up and leaves them to die on top of the ground. So I pushed each of the sprouted seeds back into the soil. And she yanked them up again.

I'm getting tired of replanting them--LOL!

I think I'll leave them and plant the next batch even deeper and keep it away from her longer. I was not generous with the seeds this time, either, so that may be adding to the problem. The grass is not packed together like it usually is. Well, happy birthday, anyways, Karma.

The things I do for you--LOL! ;)

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Still foggy and frosty. I took pictures of the small trees yesterday that are planted along the sidewalk.

They remind me of the white flocked Christmas trees that my mom wanted for several years when we were young. What an ordeal when Dad decided it was cheaper to flock their own!

I remember plastic sheeting all over the walls and floor, the roar of the vacuum cleaner in reverse, and the stink of hot air, plastic foam, and pine. It was worth the extreme effort because Mom's tree always looked department store elegant with it's shiny balls and little red cardinals tucked into the branches. (Us kids insisted on our own green tree in the basement.)

Nature does the job while I am sleeping. ;)

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Well, Karma is crying to go out on the porch. It was 21 degrees and fog again this morning. She won't last two minutes out there. ;) Happy Sunday!!

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"Retire to the center of your being, which is calmness."

Paramahansa Yogananda

Friday-9:30am

Lots of pictures today.

(Karma could care less--LOL!)

Dagan and Leah came over Wednesday night. After we ate, I had Dagan move the boom box for me from behind the loveseat on the cabinet (found an old picture of where everything used to be)...

...onto my headboard in the bedroom. I know. I know. Quit laughing! It's a humongous old boom box, but it still works. Used to be in here till my other old boom box I had in the living room died a few years back. You can see why people prefer iPods--LOL!

Leah switched the plants for me so the big philodendron has a permanent home and can claim the entire top of that cabinet. The fern will go back outside in the spring, anyways. Of course, that's if it survives me this winter--LOL!

Leah was still working and on call until 8pm.

She set herself up by the craft table with her laptop.

Dagan settled into the loveseat to watch a defunct TV series about Robin Hood.

We have a pasta machine dedicated to polymer clay. Easier way to soften the clay and get an nice even sheet to work from.

We decided to use terra cotta clay.

Leah insisted we write "HEAVY" on the two polymer clay supply boxes so that I wouldn't try to get them down by myself--LOL!

We decided on the smallest oval cutter and Leah cut me out a whole tray.

Okay. Now maybe some of you have figured out what we were making for Tori? Many of you know that Tori has lost both eyes from glaucoma. Well, she won a set of runes, noticed that I used my set of rune stones on New Year's Eve, and wondered if Leah and I could figure out a way to make some kind of a chart she could use to identify the symbols by touch.

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We thought of raised symbols first. Tori has a braille typewriter and a kind of braille labelmaker. Raised symbols wouldn't go through the typewriter well...so then we were wondering how to space them for the labelmaker. Suddenly occurred to us--polymer clay!! We could carve the symbols (the clay is very lightweight) and she could glue them on to whatever type of chart she wanted to make. Tori liked that idea--so that's how we got to making little rune stones out of polymer clay. ;)

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I planned to use a stylus to carve the symbols.

It got late, though, because of Leah working. I decided to wait and carve on Thursday.

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Since we needed the craft table, the cat grass planter went down on the floor earlier than I would have liked...

...and Karma grazed away. Trouble is, she yanks on them and pulls them out of the ground! I guess I need them to be even taller.

Anyways, Wednesday it was so warm! Got up to 40 degrees! So Thursday morning everything was icy and covered with frost. I went to take a picture and saw...

...this lady was walking around her van spraying the windows...

...with a spray bottle? Now have I missed something? Is there some new product designed to clear ice off windows? Or is she just trying to use windshield wiper fluid or something? I've never seen anybody do anything like that. Does anybody know? Well, I take that back. I did see a dumb guy at this factory I worked at take hot water in a small bucket to pour into his locks because they had frozen up when it was 20 below. Of course then they REALLY froze solid--ROFL! If anybody has an idea what this woman is spraying on her windows, let me know. ;)

So--Wednesday night after Dagan and Leah left for home we all apparently realized that Dagan had forgotten to bring in the things for me that were in his car (like toilet paper and I was on my last roll--lol!). Dagan called when they got home and said he'd stop by after work on Thursday.

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Thursday--I set myself up to carve. :)

I know there are different variations of rune symbols.

I used the ones that are on my two sets of rune stones.

Was a little trickier than I expected, so I was glad Leah had made me all the extra blanks. A few of them are oddly shaped and I'd get the symbol so off center...well, you know how anal I am. But I finished them.

Then I thought I'd add one tiny hole at the top so that Tori would be able to tell right side up from upside down. When they are read traditionally I believe there's a difference in the reading. My Healing Runes don't differentiate and always read positive. (Another reason I like their interpretations.)

Then I baked them. I used the oven thermometer and waited patiently (those toaster ovens really run hot!) for it to settle at 275 (150 on the dial!). Did the 15 minutes for 1/4 inch thick. Maybe they were a little less than 1/4 inch thick? I watched with a flashlight through the glass and they looked perfect--but I guess it is harder to tell with terra cotta clay. Some of them got a little dark, but they didn't burn. I think they turned out okay. Dagan and Leah did, too. :)

Dagan stopped after work. I had him put our dedicated to polymer clay toaster oven...

...and the two heavy boxes back up in the hall closet for me. (See, I'm being good!)

An exciting thing Dagan forgot...a box that Leah picked up from freecycle!! She had noticed somebody offering a box of lace and ribbons, emailed me to see if I wanted them--yup! And she was lucky enough to answer first and picked them up.

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My goodness!!

I haven't even pulled everything out yet.

Just pushed things aside to see what you see here.

Wow! I'm going to need to separate my lace and ribbons--and find some larger containers! ;) Whoohoo!

I sent the package for Tori with Dagan. One of them will make a trip to the post office as soon as they can. I sure hope you like them, Tori! You can glue them down in any chart form you decide on. I hope they work okay for you!! We had fun playing with clay again! :):)

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This morning--Friday--it looked like it was snowing again...

...but the white out is basically just fog again. Frost and fog.

I guess this is what you get when it's 23 degrees and 100% humidity. That almost furry, crystalline frost is actually quite delicately pretty, though. :) Well, that's enough for catching up today. Have a good one!!! :):)

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"There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful."

Howard Thurman