Dear Steven Tyler

… You know I love you & think you are really hot

… You know I love what you wear

… You know I love your hair with its feathers & charms

… You know I love your music

…You know I’ve loved being able to watch you on Idol every week

… You know I’d love to sculpt you ....no that isn’t a euphemism ;-)

But…..sorry…..your book really sucks !

I'm back...kinda

Hi Folks,

I am back and have been so for just over a week. I have just had a lot of personal things to deal with since I got back, hence no time to get on here :-(

And I am off to Vegas this weekend to meet up with one of my English friends who is coming over here. Then we are flying up to Minneapolis for a while to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra again...yes they were that good lol

We had a wonderful time, visited lots of places and met up with some bloggy friends which was perfect.  I have loads of photos to show you all, including some awesome old buildings for all you house builders  :-)  I just haven't had time to sort though my 1000's of photos as yet :-)
 
 I was going to add just a couple of piccies but Blogger wants to lay them all sideways on here, even though they aren't they way to start with ugh. If I rotate them then it changes all the size and aspect ratio. See some things never change and blogger is as temperamental as ever lol

So..I'll just have to leave it as this for now but I'll be back as soon as I can :-)

Toodle Pip xxx

WooooooHoooooo

Hi everyone...remember me :-) 

Although I was planning a short break I have also had awful computer problems of late so had little choice. I am still not fully sorted but better than I was.

Also what is with Blogger lately ? In my dashboard I used to be able to view all the blogs I follow and  could  literally scroll down and go back through weeks worth of posts making it fairly easy to catch up.  For some time now my dashboard has only been showing the last 20 blog updates.....and seeing as how I follow 300 different blogs I miss loads :-(

When my time is limited I don't get chance to manually look for all the blogs I want to read :-(  I guess this is a new thing rather than a glitch and I don't like it.

Anyhoooo, I'll be away from here for a little while longer because....

I am going home. Yup I will be flying back over to England next week for a 3 week vacation.

I've not been home at all since I left 7 years ago and I can't tell you how excited I am.

There are sooo many people and places I want to see that 3 weeks will go past in a whirl I am sure. 

We will be meeting some friends in London to start and then going to see  the Trans Siberian Orchestra again. I was looking forward to this already but now I am even more excited as Wendie will be there and we'll be staying in the same hotel....how much fun will that be :-)

And the food...oh how I've missed the food. I am not a food person at all...I used to eat perhaps once a day and ate because I had to , not because I wanted to. Yet the thought of going back home and getting to eat all the food I missed had me drooling. Walkers crisps, buttered teacakes, scones and clotted cream, real fish and chips, pukka pie, mushy peas, real chocolate..then with these thoughts came the realization that I'd end up putting on 40lbs.

Not good seeing as I have already put on almost 40lbs in the 7 years I've been here.  So I decided to go on a diet.

Yes, yes, I know I should be losing weight for health reasons, to look better etc etc but the motivation just wasn't there...until I wanted to stuff my face with yummy English food while I could.

So I started dieting on January 13th and so far have lost 26lbs...another woooo hooo. I still have 11lbs to get to the weight I was when I moved here but I've gone from a size 12 jeans down to a size 8 which is unbelievable. I am surprised the store staff didn't come into the changing room when I first tried on a size 8 cause I was squealing so much lol. For the Brits, that isn't as impressive as it sounds though...sizes here are different so now I am a UK 10 but still down from a 14 :-)

And it has been the easiest dieting I've ever done. Had to learn to eat more than once a day and eat more than I ever have but I managed.

A huge part of it being easy has been the energy I've gained. I am sure some of that is from not having to lug all that flab about  , and some of it is because I am so excited but I am literally bouncing off the walls with energy and find it hard to sit still. Good thing really with all I have to do :-)

And I couldn't have done it without my friend Patti. We may be on different coasts but doing this diet with her has helped so much. We hold each other accountable and it has proved much better than any dieting group :-)

Meeting some fellow blogger friends is going to be so much fun. I also come from the same area as Debie so will be meeting up with her as well....gosh I so can't wait :-)

And... if this wasn't enough excitement for one person, ,for the first time since he started studying fine art at college I will get to go with my Son Aydn to an art gallery. He is much more knowledgeable about art than I am so this will be a fun learning experience for me . 

He is doing extremely well at college and while I am there he will be having his work assessed by Walsall Art Gallery with a view to exhibiting there which is really exciting. He has exhibited there before when he was working on his homeless project. This was very successful and when the Director of The Big Issue heard abut it he came along to take a look and loved it.

I always expected that he'd become an engineer like every other man in our family so I am very pleased he took after me :-)

Well, a week today I'll be off so I best get cracking. We have a house sitter so I have to clean and get the guest room ready as well as pack.


Toodle Pip...see you soon xxxx







p.s...we'll likely be whizzing all over the country so if anyone else is interested in meeting up just shoot me an email :-)

You may have thought

I'd fallen of the edge of the world. Sorry I've been missing long enough that a few people started emailing me to make sure things were OK.

Everything is fine...just having some 'me' time and sorting out some things.

I am doing some art but at 4 feet tall it is not a miniature and will be going on my wall rather than in someone elses dollhouse :-)

I'll be back when I have something more interesting to say .

It has been a while :-)

I've actually been meaning to post sooner but have been manic sorting out Christmas shopping and the like. I used to love it when I lived back home but here, not only do I have to find the right gifts, I have to make sure they are small enough and light enough so that shipping doesn't cost a fortune. Then the delight of packing them all up and standing in line at the Post office.

If you bought anything from me in 2010 you should by now have received a gift from me. Just a small token of my thanks for your business. Without you I wouldn't be here blogging. If, for any reason, you've not received it please email me.

Being so far from home and my family and friends, Christmas over here is a quiet and often sad affair.

This year I did decide that I was going to do some decorating for Christmas even if it was only a small amount. 

I managed to get a gorgeous wreath and garland on sale....$15 for both instead of about $200...impressive huh.

I also bought some adorable tiny white ceramic birds and decorated the wreath and garland with them.

 

It looks so pretty lit up. I am such a simple person sometimes...a few twinkly white lights and I am happy :-)

In other news here we are having a doozy as a storm. It is called a pineapple express storm but that makes it sound much nicer than it is. It has rained constantly and heavily now for over a week. I've never seen rain like this anywhere I've lived.

We live in the desert yet we are on flood watch and many roads are closed due to flooding. The mountains got over 15 feet of snowfall over the weekend alone. Unfortunately the clouds are so low I've not been able to see any of it. We are in the valley so are just getting the rain.

This is my garden at the minute :-(

 

Even the poor slugs are suffering and are scaling the walls and taking shelter on the windowsills and under the eves.

Other than this there has been nothing fun happening here. A couple of dentist appointments and I am back at the dentist tomorrow ugh.   Oh well, at least I'll get a good nap out of that :-)

Sorry I've not had chance to keep up with every ones blogs. One of my resolutions for next year is to manage my time better ... we'll see how that goes lol

Have a wonderful holiday everyone

xxxx

Tis the season to be....SPOOKY !

Even witches celebrate Christmas...their trees are just a little different

and a lot more spooky :-)

This one is decorated with a multitude of witchy ornaments.

Skulls, toadstools, severed chicken feet, skelly heads, shiny red poison apples, magic spell scrolls, frogs legs, fresh from the field baby pumpkins and even stars...only difference is the stars are made from bones.

All topped off with a large bone star.

Skelly heads and skulls glow in the dark for added effect :-)

Hope you like it !

I've likely left it a tad late to be listing it on etsy but figured I'd give it a try...if not I can enjoy it myself till next Christmas :-)

Good luck

To anyone who is going to attempt to get to KDF tomorrow or over the weekend.

You have some insane weather over there so I am sure it will be a struggle for sellers and buyers alike.

Take care, be warm and stay safe.

xxxx 

Happy Thanksgiving....

To all my American friends....and to the rest of you Happy Thursday :-)

Not being American, Thanksgiving isn't quite the same for us. Not that we don't love a turkey dinner but we are really small eaters and even the smallest turkey breast would feed us for years lol. And neither of us are into American football so that is another tradition we shan't be partaking in.

So, we  made a last minute decision to take a ride out to San Diego for the weekend. Mick has some skydiving friends out there I've never met, and one is a Brit, so that should be fun.

But, the main reason we are going is to see the Tran Siberian Orchestra perform which we are really looking forward to.

They put on such a theatrical show with lots of flames, fireworks, fog and dancing...oh and their music is pretty awesome too ...can't wait.

Here is a short clip for those who may not have heard of them.

Not much going on here at the mo. I've just got through the torture that is known as open enrollment (when we have to decide who to have medical insurance  etc with for the next year ) and have spent my time filing and sorting out masses of papers so no decorating done as yet.

I have a idea for an awesome spooky Christmas tree, in mini of course, but I can't see I'll get that done in time for Christmas now :- (

Anyhow, to all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, have a wonderful time and

don't eat too much pie :-) 

 

First off, thank you to everyone who took the time to visit all of the participants in Kats online Halloween party and for leaving comments on mine.

I am so miffed I wasn't able to play a more active part.  I was having dental treatment so had to schedule the post early to be able to be part of it at all and was left feeling somewhat the worse for wear for a while after the dentist trip.

I still have more work to be done and have a another visit scheduled tomorrow...maybe next time the sedative they give me will actually be the drug they say it is ...i.e the one I've had before and know works rather than some other drug that did nothing grrr.

Anyhow, in between this I managed to take a most wonderful trip up North.

I've been communicating online and on the phone with a lady from the east coast who I met in a miniatures group years ago. Up until last weekend we had never met. But she was in California for a wedding and there was no way I'd let her be in the same state without meeting up. Those of you who have known me as long will know Patti (Sugar Chicky) who I am referring to.

So Mick and I took a ride up to Napa to meet Patti and her hubby. We only had one day together but we took them to visit San Francisco and Berkley and had a great time, even if it was belting it down with rain half of the day :-) They had to fly back the next morning at 4am but we still managed to stay in the bar past midnight and make the most of the too short time we had together.

I didn't take many photos at all because I've been there before and unfortunately, Patti lost her camera on the flight home. Hopefully there'll be an honest person who turns it in as her camera holds the only photos of us together :-(

Now it is back to reality and back to work. 

I have some commissions I need to get on with but aside from these I am planning on taking a bit of a break. We have been in this house a year now and have barely done anything. I have been crazy busy with minis this year I haven't had the time. So I need to spend some time concentrating on getting some house things done. Things like curtains in the bedroom to replace the blankets that are pinned up there would be nice :-)

So I might not have many minis to blog about but perhaps I'll put up some house project piccies as I go along. 

Haunted House Online Party

Thank you Kat for organizing this online party :-) 

This is my first time ever participating in something miniature and Halloween.

This time last year I was only making pretty flowers and had no idea that I'd be taking a walk over to the dark side in 2010.

I hope you all enjoy my contribution, just click on the photos to enlarge.

Happy Halloween !