Cassie's Career Choice

(Forgive the alliteration craziness, but since yesterday's title was Bren's Bakery I figured what the heck! LOL)

Cassie came to me yesterday and wanted to let me know she finally chose a Major...she wants to be an interior designer! Wow talk about an awesome choice. That was something I myself wanted to do for a while as a young woman. So we chatted for a while, while I was altering some dress pants for my sister. Cassie rummaged around in my fabric boxes until she came up with a fabric she liked. Next thing I knew she had grabbed some scraps and a needle and was stitching away beside me.

Her little toss pillow turned out adorable and she loved the fabric soooo much she asked me to sew together a little cube cushion for her. (she said she'd do it herself but she's just not heavy enough to move the foot pedal!) So I whipped up this great little seating cube. Cassie pointed out that within the last week 7 new girls have joined us. (most are here for fashion makeovers and won't be seen for a while) Sooo anyways seating is going to be vital here real soon, and she is very excited to get started on her best friend Bren's bakery too. (hmmm seems like I'm gonna be real busy here soo too!!!)

Bren's Bakery

So Bren has been my work desk companion lately...she's been sitting with her kitten George on my work light. Not sure why other than guilt I think. When my mom was here and helping me clean up, Bren got shoved back in her box. Not sure why mom put her away and not anyone else? (could be that was the only box she could find! LOL BUT anyways, I pulled Bren back out, changed her outfit and she's been enjoying a front row seat to watch my crafting. She wandered off for a while and came back with a cup of coffee and a plate of chocolate chip cookies! (I thought she wandered down the street to Starbucks!) Well turns out she did...sort of, the coffee she bought. But she was in my kitchen baking those cookies.
ME: How come I didn't smell them baking? I LOVE chocolate chip cookies
BREN: Well cause I made a 'small' batch, silly!
ME: oh well...I guess that makes sense.

Turns out a little later she wandered off for a while again, and this time when she came back she brought with her a gorgeous Chocolate Ganache cake!!! (darn her for not letting me take a bite! lol) Come to find out my Bren has always dreamed of owning her own bakery!!! So I set out to surprise her with a cute little apron. Turns out my choice of fabrics was perfect. Her name of choice for her future bakery...Hearts' Desire Isn't that fabulous!

Happy 4th of July!!!

To all my friends who celebrate, have a safe and fun-filled holiday!!!!
(and to my friends who don't...have a wonderful and peaceful Sunday!)
{BTW I am sooooo excited...I took these pictures myself! Turns out my camera has a setting for fireworks!}

1/12th scale Dresses

These 3 pieces are for a 'fashion show' project in an online group I belong to. The Mini Doll List is an awesome site run by amazing people who put out truly fantastic instructions, kits and tutorials for just about anything and everything related to dressing miniature figures. We were challenged to come up with 3 outfits: a wedding gown, a little black dress, and a fantasy outfit.

--For the wedding gown I started out with something completely different in mind. However I am completely thrilled with the direction this dress ended up going. I think it's playfully elegant!

--My LBD is actually a replica of my OWN LBD! I wore this dress when Hubby and I went out to dinner and Casablanca this past Valentine's Day.

--Now with my fantasy gown i have become thoroughly convinced that these tiny 5-6 inch ladies ABSOLUTELY have a mind of their own!!!! Orah, Giselle and now Lola have each given me nothing but trouble dressing them!!!! I had a radicaly different outift planned for Lola, heck she even had a different name...BUT in no uncertain terms she explained to me that her name was LOLA and there was no way in heck she was wearing the outfit I orginially intended for her! Sooo after much fighting and bantering and bartering Lola emerged from her dressing room ready to show off her Can Can skills. (who knew she knew how too????) My favorite part of Lola has got to be her hair. I LOVE how her 'highlight's turned out. They were a bit fiddly to do, but the result was well and truly worth it!

Books, books and um...yeah MORE books!

I just realized that I have not updated my 100 books in 2010 list in almost 3 months!!!! YIPES! Sooo this post is gonna be short and sweet about the 14 books I have read since April.

In no particular order: (mainly cause I can't remember! LOL)

30---Laurel K Hamilton's Harlequin This is the most recent in her Vampire/Shapeshifter series...to be honest I wasn't real impressed with this one, the story seemed rather discombobulated and had waaaay too much going on in it. Not to mention the sex...now don't get me wrong I don't mind it hot and steamy...but I think Ms Hamilton too things a bit too far in this book, and from reading reviews I am not the only one. I think this is a PASS book.

31 & 32--- Gena Showalter's Into the Dark and The Darkest Passion. These are in her Lords of the Underworld (LOTU) series. Long story short this series takes on the Pandora's box myth and gives it a fantastic spin on it's ear.

--Into the Dark is an anthology containing the prequel short story The Darkest Fire, which explains how Pandora's box was created. The second short story is The Darkest Prison is more along the lines of a side story that goes along with the LOTU series. This is the Story of the Titan Atlas (yep THE Atlas who carries the weight of the world literally on his shoulders) and Nike the Greek godess of Victory. (BTW if your not up on your mythology the greeks and the titans were enemies!!! Makes for a wonderfully tragic love story! ;-D ) The 3rd short story is The Amazon's Curse. This is a follow-up short to The Vampire's Bride which interestingly enough was the first book I read and reviewed this year! LOL It follows the trials and tribulations of another star-crossed couple forced to play the gods Survivor-esque game.

--The Darkest Passion is book 5 in the LOTU series...this is Aeron's story. Cursed for his part in opening the box Pandora guarded, Aeron houses the demon of Wrath. Now free from the Titam King Cronus' demand that he kill a specific woman, Aeron is trying to settle back into his life with his demonling 'daughter' Legion as his calmer. (hard to explain without giving too much away sorry!) However often he can sense something...no someone...watching him. This entities presence upsets Legion and she often retreats back to Hell. Finally his 'stalker' is revealed to be an honest-to-gods ANGEL. "Fallen" she is quick to remind him. This is a whirlwind story and a fantastic nail-biter continuation to what is one of my Favorite Series!!!

33 through 40-- Jean Johnson's Sons of Destiny series. Think 7 brides for 7 brothers, throw in an extra brother, a HUGE dose of magic, a couple of Prophesies and you've got The Sons of Destiny. The 8 brothers start fulfilling the 1st Prophesy simply by being 4 sets of twins each born on the same day 2 years apart! Then as they grow into their own magical set of skills the government of their home country decides 'for the good of the nation...' to exile the brothers to an uninhabited isle that was once a Duchy of the nation. Each book follows each brother as he meets and falls in love with his destined bride. An 8 book series bound to keep you intrigued and entertained! Book titles: The Sword, The Wolf, The Master, The Song, The Cat, The Storm, The Flame and The Mage.

And lastly but certainly not least book 41-43-- Cornelia Funke's Inkworld Trilogy These are: Inkheart, Inkspell and Inkdeath
Inkheart is the original book that the Brendan Frasier film of the same name was based off of. It follows Mo, a father with the amazing ability to bring stories literally to life, with simply the sound of his voice. Unfortunately that gift comes at a price, for everything that comes OUT of the story something ELSE must go in to take it's place. Sadly the first 'thing' to go is Mo's belvoed wife Resa. The night Resa disappears Mo realizes what happened and vowed never to read another word outloud. Fast forward 12 years alter and the past catches up to Mo. Now he must protect his and Resa's daughter from the villians he himself accidentally read out of the book.

Inkspell and Inkdeath continue the story...will Resa be found, does Maggie carry her fathers gift or curse depending on who you ask, will all EVER be right with the worlds again.

If you enjoyed the movie I HIGHLY recommend the books!!!

1/6th scale ottoman

Ok these posts about what I've been doing over the last month are honestly in no particular order. (and tonights is gonna be brief as I am exhausted from spending several hours at my sister's with my boys in her complex's pool!!! We had a blast, but I am noticing that every other word is misspelled....sooo brief and simple tonight! lol)

This is an ottoman I built for my 1/6th scale dolls. To me it really seems like an armless and backless sofa, but the website for the FULLsized one call it an ottoman. lol It is made from 1/2inch thick foam core, some foam packing material and a red faux suede. While it isn't perfect, the concept and design are sound. I need to remember to iron or steam the fabric first to remove wrinkles and I need a better, smoother way to cut foam core. I used an Exacto knife, but it really seemed to tear the foam inside. (could it be that my blade was dull? Is there are better tool for cutting foam core? I don't mind buying something, as long as it's not outrageously priced, since I think I'll be using foam core as a base alot.)

geez o pete

Almost another month has gone by, between postings, and I am sooooo very sorry about that. I have lots to tell and share with y'all so I will try to post several posts over the next few days...to TRY and catch up.

First off, my surgery went very very well and I healed wonderfully. Then next step is to wait until the tubal heals completely (another month) so I can stop taking the birth control pills. THEN we will see if the ablation actually worked or if it's been the hormones controling the issue. I truly hope the procedure worked as i really have no desire to take bc pills the rest of my life. *sigh*

It was wonderful having my mom here with us for 5 weeks. It was sad to see her head home, but at the same time it was kind of nice to get back to my routine. I did some massive house cleaning the couple days after she left for a party I had on the 19th and I am proud to say that for the most part my house is STILL clean! =D

It's been ridiculously hot down here, but the weather has been very screwy. Downpours of rain not 10 miles up the road, but nothing more than a sprinkle here. Thunder and lighting and high winds but still little rain. Oh well, although we could sure USE the rain right now.

Both sides of my front garden got planted and look really good, still haven't gotten around to the sides yet, but hopefully soon.

Oh yeah I turned 33 on the 21st. My sister took the boys over night the following weekend so that was real nice, got a good bit of crafting done (which I'll share in upcoming posts) and I've read a TON of books over the last month of so. (yes yet another post.)

Well I need to go take my son to pickup his new glasses in a bit, so I won't bore you with any more babble for now...BUT there will be more updates coming soon!!!