The House of Mouse

Coming back full force in 2012!

2011-12-30T23:51:00.001-05:00

A pre New Year’s Eve blog post, can you handle it? Wow, can you believe by the end of tomorrow we’ve all just gone through another 365 days? Crazy right? Here’s to another 365! Humm, there isn’t a leap year next year is there? Well if there is, add one more day to my cheerful wish.

Surfing around the interwebs today I found a video that is a year old, but new to me and just awesome. The video is an animated version of Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”. The artist did it in an attempt to get the play done in animation instead of live action. Seems it will be live action in the end, but I so wish I could see a full Wicked animation. Oh and in case you were wondering, the artist who did this works for Disney. It’s pretty awesome. Take a look.

I just love the look of storyboards and the concept of them. It kind of makes me think about doll photostories and the preplanning of a scene and how things will go. I don’t do storyboards on paper, but I do do them in my head. I really liked this work and how they did the scene. It just makes me crave more. Who knows, maybe one day. *fingers crossed tight*

And on that note I will wish you all a Happy New Year, and I hope that this year ends on a good note for everyone. Be sure to defy gravity peeps. I know I’m going to try soaring into the air next year. I hope you’ll join me. See you in 2012!!!

Dreaming of soaring through the air, singing songs from famous Broadway plays,
Michelle

Merry Christmas everyone!

2011-12-25T22:41:00.001-05:00

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I hope all of you had an awesome Christmas. Mine was ok. It ended up being mostly just another day for me. I didn’t get my gifts done because I realized late in the game a lot of stuff had to be hand sewn and while I’m getting faster at it, one item can take one or more hours. So while its no sweat to have things be a few days late, I still feel bad about it. But I am coming up with some cute things that I think they will like. This whole process is giving me a lot to think about when it comes to making clothing for dolls. As soon as gifts are done and given out I will be jumping right back in making stuff to sell finally. I think I really needed to get over this fear of creating and making a mistake and wanting it perfect the first time out. I made TONS of mistakes on the clothing I made and I’m learning two things. One, it can usually be undone and redone again. Two, it’s not the end of the world and usually the mistakes are only things I will see and I am being nitpicky about. So yeah, this whole experience is turning out to be good for me.

And I know I owed you something on the 24th, but I was busting ass to try to get those clothes done and yeah that took all day. So umm maybe it will be a New Year’s Eve treat instead. Hey it’s only a couple of more days. Can you believe that? A couple of more days and that’s a wrap on 2011. I don’t even know how to describe this year for me. It’s had ups and downs, thankfully mostly ups. I’m hoping next year will be a better year though. I’m hoping everyone in my life gets into better health and that I can take BIG HUGE LARGE strides towards my future. Fingers crossed tightly.

Silly thing, my mom is kind of sad that today was kind of a bust when it comes to Christmas. She misses how it was and had planned an old fashioned Christmas but things just didn’t turn out that way. So she said she wants a do over and has chosen Valentine’s day to do it. Don’t ask me why Valentine’s day, she just wants it. So I guess I might have two Christmases next year. Who knows. She wants to pull out the top half of the tree and put presents under it and celebrate. LOL! So I guess we will see.

And well that’s all for now guys and dolls. Blog posts will still be sketchy for the next few days as I try to finish gifts, do some Winter Cleaning, and just close out the year on a hopefully good note. So once again I hope you had a very Merry Christmas. I’ll talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Popping another piece of candy into her mouth,
Michelle

One more thing…

2011-12-21T22:44:00.001-05:00

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I know I owe people some emails and responses still, and I will still get to all that. I haven’t forgotten, just haven’t gotten to it yet. The year is still young, , and I will get to it all before that ball drops and 2011 is a wrap. Humm, speaking of which, did you guys know we have a year left to live as of today. Start making the next year count people. Ok, just had to pop back on and let you guys know I still remember you, and I will get back to you. Oh and for those of you lovely peeps who have stuck by me even though I’ve been distant this past year, I have a little thank you planned for early next year. I hope you will continue to stay tuned for that. Ok, I’m off now for real to decided if I shall exercise or sleep. Right now sleep is so winning out. Damn Christmas gift making causing me to put exercise on hold. Excuse? Perhaps, but I shall never admit to it! Be good peeps. Bye for now.

Hearing “Uncle” in my head,
Michelle

Yep, I’m still here.

2011-12-21T22:35:00.001-05:00

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Hey peeps, how have you all been? I hope the holidays are finding you well and if not I hope that you get well soon and I send big hugs out to all of you.

So I know it’s been pretty quiet here in “the house”, but I have truly been busy with working on Christmas presents for my mom and sister, shopping for a desk, and stressing over my mom’s health and my health at the same time. So much is going on with my mom as of late, and each new appointment makes me tense up more and more. I mean it’s good she’s going to try to sort out what’s going on, but really they aren’t any closer to figuring it out. They think it’s related to her diabetes, but not sure on it yet. Surgery keeps getting tossed around and I don’t like that idea. She’s not the healthiest gal out there and I worry I’d lose her if she did have to go under the knife. Also she’s been having other issues that they aren’t sure if she will have to have surgery for that as well. Add on top of that that my dad continues to smoke like a chimney and refuses to stick to some quitting aid, my sister’s health is slowly going bad, and then the stress from worrying about all that causes stomach acid which causes my issues to flare up and it quickly turns into a FML situation.

BUT, in light of all that, I just keep telling myself that in this moment right now I am truly lucky, blessed, what have you to be alive and mostly healthy. I have my sister, mom, and dad still with me. My boyfriend is getting better after finding out he had right lung pneumonia. The pets are doing fairly well, Brody still needs to lose some weight but he’s doing well. And well I’m doing better than a lot of people out there so I am trying to think positive and just focus on the positives I do have in my life. Not trying to get preachy on you guys here, so not that kind of gal, just wanting to say that yeah I’m having some issues in my end of the world, but it could be worse so I am happy that it’s not.

Haven’t done much dollwise besides work on Christmas gifts. A few days to go and I still have a ton to make. I got stuck hand sewing several things because it was made with thick stretchy fabric that my machine promptly told me it wasn’t have any of. Evil witch of a thing. So until I start working with my cotton fabric my machine sits on my old desk mocking me as I suffer through hand sewing clothing that easily takes me a few hours to work on. I have a few more stretchy things that I MAY be able to do on my machine and then I move on to cotton stuff, thank everything. I am still determined to finish everything, but it would go so much faster if I did have a new desk.

On the desk front, I decided against the Walmart one. My sister and I were in Staples the other day looking for a lap desk for her and we were by the full size desks waiting for an associate to look in the back to see if he had any in stock, and I asked her if any of the desks in the area were the size of the one at Walmart. My mom had told me the desk was small. My sister walked around and pointed out some that were about the size of the desk and I decided then and there that the desk was not what I wanted. It’s weird, I keep putting off buying the desks I am interested in only to find out they wouldn’t have worked for me in the end, and I am saved from disappointment. I found a table at Roses that was nice and big but it seemed short. To my peeps who sew out there, you understand my being hesitant in wanting to buy it because it seemed to0 short. I don’t want to hunch over to use it. I want my machine a comfortable height and that table seemed low. It was only 40 bucks though and I still think about it. I figure I’ll check back in after the new year and if I still like it and can maybe get a chair to try out the height I might get it.

Now after Roses we ended up at Big Lots and the funniest thing happened. My mom said I should look at the desks there. I looked at some and didn’t like them or their prices. I walked around to a back wall and found the desk I wanted from Walmart only it was the model from last year. That sucker is small. I was really glad I decided against it. But alas, that leaves me to suffer with my desk now that as you have seen is crowded with stuff I have no place to put right now. I need to go through that stuff and chuck some of it, but for now that is where it stays. I really still want that table from Roses. So much room to play with. I didn’t see any boxes there of the table and the display one has a messed up corner, but maybe they have some in back. I have time to think about it.

But I guess that’s it for now. I wish I had more to share with you. I hope to share my doll clothing with you guys eventually. One thing I learned, if you don’t use it you lose it, so umm yeah, I’m rusty right now with the sewing and I feel that it shows. But the hand sewing is making me stronger in that department, so yayyyy!

Ohhhh, before I go, weird thing happened. (Warning, what I’m about to say is sad so if you aren’t into that please skip to the next paragraph. Thanks.) So while I hand sew I watch tv. One show I am hooked on as of late is The Next Great Baker. On the recent show the baker who got kicked off had an in memorandum at the end of the show. I was shocked to see he had died and like many other people I went searching on the web to see what happened. Get this, his body was found on a street that is literally a 5-10 minute drive from my house that I travel on all the time. Seems he shot himself. He was stationed here in town and was a cook for the Army. People think he was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome and committed suicide. He died on Oct. 24th of this year. It’s just so weird to see someone you were rooting for on a show had died and then to find out he died around the corner from your house at his own hand. I feel so bad for his family. Just another thing that makes me think that while life may be a little hectic for me at the moment it can pale in comparison to others. But yeah, just so weird and sad.

But to try to cheer things up here, I still have a photostory to share with you guys that I took pictures for a longggg time ago. I’ll share it on Christmas Eve. Consider it my silly gift to you.

And on that last note I am off peeps. I am getting tired and need to consider hopping on my exercise bike, that gave me hell yesterday by constantly popping off a pedal, and doing 10 more miles today. Ugh! So close to bedtime too. Hummm, bad choice? Perhaps. But I need to do it. Meh, it’s up for debate since I need to get up early. Wish I would have done it sooner, but I was working on Christmas gifts. Ugh! Kind of can’t wait until I have them all done so I can get back to regular uninterrupted exercise. Ok, enough blabbering, talk to you lovely folks on Saturday. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Sleepy and so ready for bed,
Michelle

Does It Play For You Too?

2011-12-05T16:21:00.001-05:00

Hey guys, quick question, I just updated my cross-blog on Livejournal and it always takes me to the blog so I can make sure it posted right, but I am usually off the blog within 30 seconds. Today I heard something play as I clicked off. When I went back I heard the commercial for the Western Barbie commercial I posted about a while back playing. Does it play for you here on Blogger as well? I assume it does if you come directly to my blog instead of reading the post from your friendslist. I had no idea it played, and if it’s bothersome to some of you I will put videos under a cut from now on. Actually would you prefer I make more under cut posts for you? I do it on Livejournal, but thought Blogger peeps wouldn’t mind. But if you would like more post cuts I’d like to know. Just let me know in the comments section, that I will be getting to this week I promise. I want to make the blog as reader friendly as possible. I am thinking of switching to a plainer layout so it’s easier to read as well. Like I said, I only spend about 30 seconds on it to check the post went up right and then I am gone, at least that is how it is for now. You are the ones that hang out on it, so let me know how I can make it a little friendlier for you. Thanks in advance. Bye for now guys.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

A quick post.

2011-12-05T16:09:00.001-05:00

Hey guys, I just wanted to pop on real quick to share a few things with you I’ve been meaning to talk about.

So last week I was shopping with my mom and we popped into Tuesday morning that was still pretty bare from Black Friday a week before. So while searching through the toy section I didn’t see much of interested in the girl’s side. But when I turned around just to glance at the boy’s side I found something of interest.

Monster High Day At The Maul Draculaura. I debated for a while on getting her. I have wanted DLaura since the dolls debuted. I wanted her before I wanted Frankie, but just never got her. But there she was and at $9.99 she was a steal. The thing that sold me on her was if I didn’t want her I knew I could sell her easily and get my money back. That is until I got home and my sister’s keen eye caught something I hadn’t. I must be slacking after not doll shopping for a while. Poor DLaura has a big scratch in her eye makeup on her left eye (our right). If that didn’t make me sad, what I found later did. My Tuesday Morning is really dark in the toy section and only had bright light by the door. So it wasn’t until I got her in brighter light that I noticed what I thought was off on her really was off. The outline of her facial heart wasn’t finished on one side, and her fangs were painted on crooked.

Oh sure, I know I could still sell her as is, but it just doesn’t seem right. I thought of taking her back, but my sister said I should just customize her. I have been toying with the idea of customizing Frankie, so customizing DLaura wasn’t out of the question. So I have decided to keep her and customize her. I found a cool tutorial where someone died their DLaura with RIT dye. So there are many possibilities of changing my girls into someone new. But now I have an issue. Now that I have two girls, I only have one boy. I feel off centered now. No, I am not going to collect these dolls because they would truly just be a collection for me and not of much use elsewise for me, so I just want to get one more boy to balance things out. I want Holt Hyde since I have Jackson already. I’ve wanted Holt for a while now too, so I will just get him and that will be it for Monster High for me…although…those create a monster sets look pretty cool. *sigh*

After Tuesday Morning my mom and I headed to a local Dollar Tree, also healing from the affects of Black Friday. I went for nail polish, L. A. Colors if anyone is interested, but of course had to stop by the doll section. Found one more set of the dress set that had the dress that would only fit a Monster High doll.

I decided to get one to see if that was a fluke and also so I’d have extra of the strawberry dress because I really feel that stuff is going to unravel like crazy no sooner I pull out the seams. It was the only dress set left so I figured it was meant to be. Oh and yes, that dress was a fluke.

While I was in the toy section I noticed these doll “heads” that I guess are meant to be hair styling doll heads. Wish I would have gotten a picture. When I am there this week I will get one for sure. But these heads looked very much like Barbie heads. I mean literally if you took away where we were, took away the packaging, you’d swear you’d seen those heads before. I’m really surprised Mattel hasn’t gone after these people since they are so trigger happy when it comes to suing people that are trying to get in on their turf. And there was no mistaking where these molds came from. I know a smiling face Barbie when I see one, and these dolls had that nasty face…sorry to those who like that mold.

And last but not least, I owed you all a picture of my sister’s Bei. Here she is in a Liv doll cotton candy wig and a dress that came with the dress set the wig came in. It was sold at Target if you are interested.

She is so super cute and I simply must have one. I’d love to get a tan girl one day soon. Until then I can play with my sister’s Bei that I believe has been renamed Karina. I’ll update you on that later as well. Karina will be one of the dolls receiving a new wardrobe from me. She’s got a super thick body and big hands and feet so she needs things to be altered a bit for her. I already have some great ideas in mind.

She doesn’t really have a story or personality yet, but what I have learned about her is she likes to wear cute items…as long as they aren’t pink. Ughhh! How can you have cute without pink?!? Those of you cute lovers out there who detest pink, do not attack me, I was kiddingggg. Yes, I have my work cut out for me on this. But like I said, I already have some ideas. Some of course had to be killed off because I was thinking of using dark fabrics and then remembered how resin likes to absorb dye much like Blythe dolls. So if it’s not lined it could make for a problem. I am refusing to be the reason my sister’s doll is ruined. If she ever does get ruined I promise it won’t be because of me. So yes, like I said before, I have my work cut out for me.

And that’s about it for this post. Still kind of busy as of now. I am getting things done but I still have a ton more to get done. I hope to be back to blogging more before the end of the month, but don’t any of you dare hold me to that. Just wanted to share my finds and finally show you Bei. Sorry for the lack of good quality pictures. I snapped these on my cell phone real quick in a darkish room at night. LOL! I’ll try to get some better pictures of Bei as my project continues with her. As for DLaura, it’ll take some time before I can get to her, but her and I do have a craft date for sure. And on that note I will talk to you lovelies later. Be good until next we meet. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

The Past Few Days

2011-11-30T23:53:00.001-05:00

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Not that I’m super missed around the blogosphere, nope not a beg for attention there, I still thought I’d pop on real quick and tell you how my November went and how I believe it has changed some things for me.

So this month was Nanowrimo, and I had planned to be a rebel and write out the script for my doll photostories so I could start “filming” them in December and start uploading them in January. Yeah, it didn’t work out that way at all. It’s currently the last day of Nanowrimo with less than two hours to go and I have just under 8000 words typed up. I needed 50000 words to win. Yeah, not winning this year. First time in several years I won’t be winning, and I’m ok with that. Every year I felt I had to do Nanowrimo because I “wasn’t a serious aspiring author” if I didn’t do it. So every year I did it. Well this year I couldn’t think of a story I wanted to rush through for the month. I’ve decided to really take my time and work through a plot before writing because I realized I was wasting my time by churning out crap because I wanted to rush through a story to make my 50k. So I chose my script instead. Well I started work on it on day one, then didn’t touch it until day 18. I still could have won, but me dreading over something coming up at the end of the month kept me from being enthusiastic about it, so time dragged on and no typing was done. Then came the dreaded day.

On the 28th I had jury duty. For those of you who don’t know, jury duty is when the state summons you to court to overhear cases and decide if the person is innocent or guilty. In other words, the person charged needs to be judged by a group of their peers, and those summoned to jury duty are those peers. There were two cases, both pretty awful crimes. Both put stress on me because both kind of brought up bad things in my life. I thankfully got out of both of them, but it was over two days worth of hours sitting at the courthouse, the first day I was there from before 8:30 until after 5 o’clock. The second day I thankfully got out around noonish-1 o’clock. But after all was said and done I honestly came away from the situation a different person. These past two days have literally worn me out and stressed me to the point of illness to hear bits and pieces of what these two individuals did and then to hear the horrific stories of other people defending themselves on why it would be best they didn’t serve on the jury. I don’t believe I have to tell you that I’m so glad the whole thing is over…for two years at least. Come November 30th 2013 I could be back up at the court house, and I’m really hoping it’s a simple robbery case of they broke in, left prints, are guilty as sin. But I won’t worry about that for now. Let’s get past December 21, 2012 first and then we’ll revisit this topic again.

So now that that is all over I feel relaxed again and feel focused. But now my script is unfinished and the whole month is gone. Well I’ve decided I still want to “film” this upcoming month, so I am doing a super Nanowrimo by writing the script up in one to two days starting at midnight. I know it can be done and I know I can do it. I’ve whipped up 8-10 page essays in less time than that. Children out there, do as I say and not as I do…get your essay’s done super early and give yourself plenty of time to work on it and make it your best work. You’ll be so glad you did. Ok, PSA over. But yeah, I really want to focus on this script and get the story done and the pictures done and get it all uploaded so I can move on from this script. It’s been a script in my head for YEARSSSS and well, I’m kind of over it. But I’ve worked so hard on it, and I’ve collected so much stuff for this story alone I just can’t say “oh forget about it” and move on. No, I have to do something with it. So I am. And once I am done with it I can finally move on to the story I really want to do, but refuse to think about too much because of fear I might abandon the one I am working on now. For now I am just collecting props for that story and speaking of which, I got some today.

My most prized purchase of the day was through the Wednesday only sale at Toys R Us. Get this, I learned about it from a TRU sales flier left on a seat at my mom’s heart monitor appointment. What luck was that? Now a newspaper in the place, but I found that ad, and no I wasn’t ashamed to pick up a TRU flier and look through it in a waiting room filled with people older than me looking at me. LOL! So the deal I was interested in was the buy one Liv doll at regular price, get the second one half off, spend 15 dollars in Liv items, get an accessory pack for free. I’ve needed two Jake dolls since they’ve come out, but after missing the awesome half off sale on them through TRU when they came out, I just couldn’t plunk down full price for two of them. I just felt if I waited another deal would come along, and it did. This deal I could “Liv” with. Hahaha, get it, because live and Liv sound the…umm yeah…so moving on. So I got to TRU early and went straight to the doll section to the Liv doll area. I was on a mission, to find two Jake dolls. I knew I had to get there early because Jake’s are like rare gems around here.

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Boy was I surprised when I got the shelf and found a Jake right up front. Mine! But I wanted one more. So I searched through the various female dolls and didn’t find a Jake. I was feeling bummed and started looking at the girl dolls wondering how I could use them in my future story so I could still at least get the deal. I kept digging and digging to find the right girl for me to take home when in the very back of the shelf I found him, a second Jake doll. I know I don’t have to tell you this but, MINE! So I had my two boys and now I needed an accessory pack. Ladies and gents, do your research online before you head to the store. It will help those of you like me who are indecisive quickly get what you want. I found several packs online and had them polled down to two. I decided I could easily pick between two packs, so I went on the hunt. I only found one of the two, and I saw that it wasn’t what I expected, it was better. I found another set I wasn’t sold on, and almost got it because at first it was the only one I saw, but I walked down further and found the other packs. But the one I had in my hand had slippers, and shoes for these dolls are hard to come by, so I almost was sold on the set I didn’t really want due to slippers, but then I saw the pack I originally chose and saw how perfect it was for one of my main characters in my new story that I had to take it home with me instead.

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It’s so perfect for Lucy, my shy nerdy girl. The phone is similar to mine expect mine is blue, the computer has a cool design on the other side, the bag really opens and you can put the computer in, there’s a mp3 player that they can really wear, and some snackage. What’s not to love? I almost said no on this set because the bag looked so cool but I hate sets with bags that don’t open. When I was a kid I would have taken it without a second thought, but as an adult you can’t do much in a story with a “fake” bag. And I want to move more towards real fabric bags instead of plastic, but this one I took a chance on because it looks so nice and it works. So yeah I was happy with my purchase. There’s nothing I don’t like about it. Well…I don’t like that the strawberries are white on the sundae, but a quick swipe of the paintbrush will fix that. So yeah, can’t wait to start using these in my new photostory after I finish the current one.

The rest of the day was random shopping for things, a lot of nail polish for some reason. But one thing I did get was another one of the strawberry dress sets from the last few posts. Remember the pink dress didn’t fit? Well I got the second set to see if the pink dress in it would fit and decided if it didn’t I’d have more of the strawberry “fabric” to work with. Something tells me it’s going to fray super bad so having a little more to work with will be nice. And well, that’s about it for the past few days. A lot of ups and downs, mostly downs, but I survived, I learned a few things about myself, and I’m ready to finally tackle things now that I realize that I won’t crumble and fall on the spot due to some health issue. That’s the one pro from spending all day at jury duty without eating or drinking anything from stress. I do not advise that people. I almost fainted while descending four flights of stairs. Yeah.

So, what’s next for me? A lot. This December is going to be a busy month, but I love being busy. I love getting up early now and starting the day with a fresh mind and fresh start. Speaking of which, I need to hurry this up and get my butt to bed. Getting up around 5:3-6 so I can head out tomorrow to get some conditioner for my hair in the morning then get back here and get started on Christmas presents. Busy, busy, busy.

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So one of the first things I need to get done is to get my desk finally. I believe I mentioned it here that I have been on the hunt for a second desk ever since I gave up my crafting table. I just wanted a small one for my room so I can craft in my room and on a clean surface. My other desk I do everything on from painting to gluing then I sew on it. So I kind of want a place to do my fabric crafts without having to check like crazy for paint or glue. I had found two IKEA table/desk things I liked the price of, but the shipping went up and I just didn’t feel the same about them any more. Then my mom found this desk on the Walmart website and after seeing that the curvy side is not really on the final product I was sold. But I’ve yet to get my desk. I’m hoping for tomorrow to get it so I can start working on Christmas presents. I have some ideas for them, but nothing can be put down in stone until I get a proper work place. So hopefully I will make this one mine tomorrow. Hopefully.

So desk hunting, present making, catching upping in various things, that leaves me little time to be lazy this upcoming month. Yay for that! So much to do, so little time, and I’m cool with that. I’m seeing now that spending each moment the best you can is what matters most. Yes all of this was learned from the tortures of jury duty. I wish I could get into more about what happened, but then it means revealing things about me that just aren’t on topic of this blog and I promise you, sharing personal stuff with a room full of strangers is embarrassing enough, I don’t think I should force myself through it again with my doll peeps. Just know that I am seeing life through different colored lenses now and those pretty rose colored ones are in the trash forever.

And well, I believe that’s it for this post. I’ll try to pop in sporadically this month, but don’t be surprised if Christmas Eve is the first you hear from me. I’m telling you, busy month ahead, but that’s a good thing. And I hope to be able to come back here with lots to show and tell. Until then my dear lads and lassies, be good and remember your rabbits in the morning. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Look what I got?

2011-11-24T19:16:00.001-05:00

My sister bought me this a while back but I just now got a chance to share it. So, what did she get me? A My Little Pony Friendship is Magic calendar. LOL! Why? She insists on calling me a brony, and yes I know I’m not a brony, it’s her way to tease me. So yeah, she felt I needed a calendar with the ponies. I think it’s super cute and can’t wait to put it up in a month.

Cute, right? And for a dollar you can’t be that. LOL! Yes, I know, I refuse to grow up. LOL! Oh well, I’m happy being me. Ok, returning to real life again. I’ll be back next week. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Doll PSA

2011-11-24T19:06:00.001-05:00

Attention to all whom this may concern, Monster High doll shoes fit Liv doll feet. Just thought you would like to know. That is all. Be good. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Dollar Store Projects and Christmas Presents

2011-11-24T18:58:00.001-05:00

So after Monday, when I may or may not deal with something I am dreading, I’ll be free to focus on the doll world again. So far I’ve got several projects set up for myself already.

The first thing I have on my list is making a few gifts. One I have owed for a while, yep I feel bad not getting to it sooner, and two for my mom and sister. All of these projects are doll clothing that I will sew. Now for my mom and sister I came up with an idea based on a doll my sister recently got.

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Remember Bei? Yeah, so she is just a beautiful doll. She’s a nice small yet big size. She’s small, but not so small you’d lose her. Now one thing about her is she can fit in Barbie clothing, but she has these club hands that won’t fit in certain sleeves. My sister has a few items of clothing she got from a Liv doll wig and clothing pack from Target, but that’s about it. So I came up with the idea that she needs a wardrobe. Now I know I should have started a long time ago on this, but I am thinking if I just stick with some basic separates I can make it happen.

With the separates I am thinking of copying two different plans. My mom loaned me a vintage sewing magazine that tells you what basic things you should have in your wardrobe that will carry you from season to season and can be mixed and matched easily to make a variety of outfits. I also want to follow this image I found online.

Kind of gives you an idea of what things should be in a simple wardrobe that stays fresh from season to season, year to year. Now the gift I am making for my mom runs in the same circle except it will be for a Liv doll. I may have “accidentally” got her hooked on collecting them and she’s always looking for new clothes for them to wear. So I figured I’d make her wardrobe as well. Yep, biting off a lot here. Add on to this I have another gift to make that is wayyy overdo and well…Christmas may drag into January. Hey it works for my mom, her birthday is on January 5th.

But along with these clothes, a couple of weeks ago I tried to figure out how to force myself to sew more so I can practice more on it. I wanted to work on all my crafts more actually. But I wanted to do it on the cheap since I’m not working right now. Then it hit me. I’ve seen people do dollar store crafts with amazing results, and I thought I could do that too. So I went to the Dollar Tree and looked around for doll clothes I could use to work my sewing skills, and just so happens on this day I struck gold. I present to you my lucky find. Warning, image heavy.

I found these packages of clothing. Each package came with two outfits. The next few pictures will be the individual packages with a Liv doll wearing it showing a front and back view of the outfit.

Yes those are stitches going down the center of the front. I’m not sure what I will do about that.

Horrbile snags from the velcro. *sigh* I’ll make it work.

This picture is to show the cute denim detail in the skirt part of the dress.

Legwarmers!!!

This fabric isn’t really fabric at all. It’s that crunchy stiff rayon stuff, which is so super sad because I love the strawberry dress.

The part that goes around the neck obviously couldn’t go on. Not a fan of it anyway.

This dress wouldn't go all the way up.

I wanted to show how this dress looked on a doll so I put it on a Monster High doll. Still a bad fit. I might try it on a Blythe to see it she will be a good fit.

The back is sewn horribly. I’ll work with it.

So as you can see, these are not the best fabrics or the best shape of dress which in turn creates the challenge. I’m eager to see what I can do with these dresses. I think a lot of them will be changed from their original. The one outfit that bothers me the most is the last dress. It doesn’t fit an 11.5 inch doll with Barbie measurements. The fabric is supreme crap. And the sewing is just nasty. I’m excited to see what I can make from these. Stay tuned for updates on this project.

And now I’m off. I hope you are all having a lovely holiday today. I will talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T10:55:00.001-05:00

I hope you and yours are having a happy and safe Thanksgiving. And if you are thinking of going out into that mess tomorrow please be extra careful and safe. And so I don’t come the “table empty handed” I bring you a neat vintage Barbie commercial for your entertainment.

Talk to you all again soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Google Friend Connect Shutting Down

2011-11-23T16:37:00.001-05:00

I know this might not affect many of you, but some of you it will and I wanted to mention it. I was randomly looking at my Mozilla browser and noticed the headlines button. Clicked on it for the first time today and noticed a title mentioning Google was shutting down some things. I usually don’t pay attention to stuff like that, but today I did for some reason.

So from what I’ve read, if you do not have a Blogger account, and you have a Google Friend Connect gadget on your website or blog, come March 1, 2012 you will no longer have your followers gadget on your website. It doesn’t seem to affect Blogger though, just non-Blogger sites. They are encouraging people to instead make a Google+ account and use their gadget on there to drive traffic to your Google+ account. Yeah, don’t see how that works for people to stay connected and follow your blog or website, and I do see this as Google’s way of getting more traffic in an attempt to surpass Facebook, but I see them closing the service as lame. I have seen so many blogs out there using Google Friend Connect, so I call bull poo on this one not being a success. But I thought I’d mention it to those of you in danger of losing your followers gadget. If I’m on your non-Blogger Google Friend Connect, you have no worries of me not continuing to follow, I’ll still be there. But you might want to mention it to your readers who maybe only follow you through the service and might lose your website after it closes down.

And with that I make my return back to real life again. *sad sigh* I’ll be returning guys, I promise. After Monday some time for sure. I have things to share with you still. I might post about some of that tomorrow when I get a free moment. But I shall return soon. Until then, be good, and bye for now.

Sadly returning back to real life,
Michelle

Black Friday Ad Scans

2011-11-12T20:39:00.001-05:00

This post is for my USA readers. But for those of you outside the USA who are curious, the day after Thanksgiving in the USA we have one of the biggest shopping days during the year, Black Friday. If you are hoping to get a good deal Black Friday is the day to attempt to get it. A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving some websites will share scans of Black Friday ads. You can simply just Google Black Friday and find tons of websites dedicated to the day. Granted it does further force the commercialism of the holiday, but hey a deals a deal, and if you are in the market for doll items or craft items you are in luck this year. Tons of sales, some starting on Thanksgiving, are centered around toys and crafts. So be sure to get your newspaper on Thanksgiving morning because some of these good sales need a coupon from the news paper. Humm, I wonder how much the newspaper companies lose out on because you know everyone will have a coupon on Black Friday but not all of them will have paid for the newspaper it came from. Hummm.

For your ads sneak peek click on the picture above to be taken to be taken to the ads scan page and enjoy. I found some doll deals in the Walmart, Target, and Kohl’s paper. AC Moore has a 30 percent off your entire purchase coupon for Thanksgiving between 4 and 10 in the evening, along with some equally good coupons for Black Friday. Let me know if you find any equally good sales, I’m still hunting around. Oh and there are also some awesome sales on other stuff too, so make those lists people. You’re welcome.

And I’m off. Must return the real life again, but had to let you guys in on some of the cool finds I found. Talk to you again soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy Veteran’s Day

2011-11-11T17:57:00.001-05:00

Thank you for your bravery and thank you for my freedom.

Loves ya,
Mouse

This Is The House That You Built

2011-11-11T17:49:00.001-05:00

Hey guys and gals! So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Still busy with various things, but I have been itching to post. I still have a few other posts for you guys but I just haven’t sat down to do them. I promise, come December I will be back on track and back in the hobby. Until then I will try to pop in when I can.

So today’s post came from a weird place. I’ve been searching for a table to put in my room so I can work on things there when I don’t feel like sitting in my crafty area. I had found one but the shipping price went up and it’s more than I was prepared to spend. So I am on the hunt again. An idea that came to mind was one my mom came up with. She said I could buy two bookcases, get a piece of wood, and attach it on top of the bookcases. So I have a big table and some storage. Not a bad idea. But since I wanted to do it on the cheap I went to the Walmart website to see what I could find. I found a nice bookcase for 20 dollars within the first page, but I wanted to see if there were any other options. In this search I found a lot of bookcases that could either be used as a doll house as is or could be used as one with some tweaks. So of course the first thing that came to mind was that I had to share my findings with you. Let me show you what Walmart has to offer.

Ok, so I want to start off with the book shelves that need some tweaks. All of these could either be tweaked for certain size dolls are the concept could be used as a “blueprint” for shelves you’d like to build.

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So this was the first bookcase that caught my eye as a tweaker. Now I’m not sure if 11.5 inch dolls can fit in there, but there are dolls of all sizes. For example Blythe might fit in her because she’s a hair shorter than Barbie. Now this Bookcase would need to be tweaked to be used as a dollhouse because the back is open. You would want to get a piece of wood fitted to the back so you wouldn’t be losing items out of the back side. Also you have the top of this piece that can be used for various things. A full outdoor scene with perhaps the addition of foamcore with a scene on it. This bookcase would be great for someone who doesn’t have a lot of room for dollhouse or wants something simple to display their dolls in. Granted to rooms will be on the small side, but if you are one looking for something that doesn’t take up a lot of room odds are you won’t have a lot of doll stuff so this would work for you.

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This next bookcase is like the first one’s older sibling. You have three more levels to work with. Once again you’d want wood on the back to keep from losing items out of the back. This bookcase gives you more room options. Once again they would be smallish rooms, but with crafty placement you could make some amazing scenes and have them all there on display. Each doll could have their own themed room, leaving plenty of space for other rooms, of course that depends on how many dolls you have. And if you are like me…you’re going to need another one of these bookcases. Maybe two.

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Another tweaker. Now I’m not sure how many people would find this one of interest, but I see it’s potential. Once again you’d want wood on the back to keep things from falling out of the back. But look at how long the shelves are. You could either have “long” scenes on the shelves or you could break them up into your own size rooms with pieces of wood slide in. Once again, tight squeeze on the furniture, but I think that’s about average for bookshelves anyway.

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This next bookcase is something you’d find in a school library. What I love about it is the shelf looks fairly deep and tall. The top one could be tweaked to be another room with the addition of wood or foamcore. It could also be an outside scene as well. One other thing I love about this shelf is it’s portable. You could move it to vacuum under it or if something happens to fall behind it you can move it to retrieve it.

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Now this is the same concept as the one above, but it has an extra shelf. This could be used for smaller dolls, but this one for me would be used more as a blueprint. I like the idea of extra shelves but I’d want them more spaced out for bigger dolls. It seems this shelf has more on the backside which is also an interesting concept. You could place this flat against the all but when you want to use it you could pull it away and use both sides to set up rooms.

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Ok, this one could technically be used as is for a smaller doll, but this is another blueprint for me. What I’m see is a little something different. On the sides where you kind of lean the books, for me, those would be slots to slid wood into. All sides would have slots actually. I’d have four shelves, or maybe five, as long as the whole unit is not taller than I am or causes me to the stand on tiptoe to use it. It would be spaced out enough so Barbie size dolls can be put in it along with furniture for that size. I’d want the bookcase to be able to be open on all sides so I can get pictures from any angle I want. The other sides would be closed in by the wood slid into the slots I mentioned before. The wood would be decorated on one side to reflect a room the doll was currently in. I would love that. And then this too is portable so it can go against the wall to get out of the way but you don’t have to take down your sets, which is always an irritating issue for me.

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Now this one would be a little bit trickier to use, especially at this size and shape, but it still has potential, especially as a blueprint for me. I would want it bigger for Barbie size, and still keep it’s turntable pedestal. I’d want to be able to have several rooms so I can just spin it around and access which room I currently needed. I’d want the shelves to be a little longer, deeper, and bigger so I could fit a doll and scene comfortably. I believe a shelf like the one I am thinking of would take a lot of room though because of how big the shelves would have to be to fit dolls and furniture. But it’s a cool idea nonetheless.

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This next one I like because it’s leaning more towards the house shape. I believe Barbie can fit in those bottom shelves and with some work I’m sure the upper shelves could be used for something as well. The upper shelves would need some wood or foamcore as well, but once in you’d have a nice little house with some small scenes.

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Now this bookcase looks just like a small house to me. It’s not marketed as house mind you, but it easily could be. You could perhaps use it to make an apartment for a photostory. You’d have your bedroom, bathroom, and joint kitchen, dining, and living area. So while it would be a small space or small apartment, it’s got potential. If you make the walls a neutral color then you can stretch the imagination even more. But maybe you are looking for a real house shape. Just helps the mind work better if you actually feel you are building everything in a house, right? Well you are in luck. Walmart had some of those too. Check it out.

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So, am I getting a little warmer for you? Thought so. Now these two bookcases are so confusing to me. They both are divided the same way, they are the same measurements, and they look exactly the same. Only difference is one is $14 dollars cheaper. I don’t know if Walmart just forgot they had the house already and made another sale page for it, or if this house is generic and any company that wants to buy it and slap their name on it can. You know that’s how they do it with peanut butter right? Most peanut butter is the same stuff, it’s just the name and brand that’s different. So I am wonder if these two house are the same concept? Well either way, the shelves are cute and in a house shape. They are marketed as either a bookcase or a playhouse for toys. The shelves are 15 inches tall, so plenty of room for Babs and any tall furniture she may have. Only drawback for me is that those shelves look short and not like they will fit a lot on them. I know most Barbie stuff is smaller than they should be so I guess it could potentially work, but it just looks like you’d have to squeeze your stuff together to make it fit.

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This one is one of my favorites. It caught my eye because it already has a doll in it, so you know they will fit. And it looks like you could fit a good amount of furniture on the shelf with her. Not much mind you, but a good amount. And hey, who doesn’t love a pink roof?

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Here’s another favorite. This bookcase I really think is made for dolls. Look how much room is on the shelves. Look at the window cut outs. And you see the window on the bottom right with the hole next to it? You can open that and it’s a little storage area. This bookcase looks more like a house than any other bookcase I have seen. Look at the top of it, looks just like a roof with shingles detailing. So awesome. Once again I think furniture would be a tight fit, but with the nicely spaced larger areas it could work.

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Now these two are made by the same company as the doll house above. The two are a 10 dollar difference between each other and I wasn’t sure why until I did a little research. One is deeper while the other one is taller. Only by a few inches either way, but I guess it would come down to what you preferred. These also have the storage at the bottom where the garage door is. These are cute also because they have a little fire bell at the top and a black fire pole to slide down. So cute and detailed. I’d have to let my son or daughter play with this as a doll house instead of a bookcase. It’s just too cool not to use it as that. This still seems to have lack of shelf space, but like I said before some areas are stretched where you could space things out some and squeeze things in.

The next few houses are more for dioramas or really small dolls. I suppose they could be used as blueprints, but I really just seem them as perfect for the smaller dolls in our lives.

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This one I LOVE. I used to love this cartoon called “The Littles” when I was a kid. I always had a fascination with small beings living in walls or in trees or what have you. I saw this bookcase as a perfect means to bring those thoughts to life. Polly Pocket, Mini Blythe dolls, Mini Littlest Pet Shop Blythe, Mini Dal dolls, Mini Pullip dolls, and little ball joint dolls would fit nicely into this “house”. You could easily find doll house furniture to fit in it or make your own from found things as little beings tend to do that themselves. This house seems like it has three sides so you could really get creative in forming your own small world.

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Now these four are all from the same company. They have 1-2 small shelves you can create on. I love that they are themed and you could easily add to the theme with your own imagination. Once again these are for the little dolls in your life to call home. Two benefits to these shelves is they are small and they rotate so you can work on them from all angles. I think they are super, but I have to admit for my mini tiny army I would so want the tree bookcase. It’s just too cool.

And well that brings this post to an end. I hope I was either able to show you something cool, give you ideas for your own doll homes, or help lead you to a future purchase. Doll people helping doll people, what’s not to love? And now I must drift back into real life for a while…took me several hours to work on this post so I have a lot to do now but it was worth it to get it ready for you guys. More posts coming soon, I promise. Until then I’ll talk to you all later. Try to be good. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T20:54:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween to all of your freaks and ghouls out there! I hope you are all playing it safe and having a fun time tonight. I’m doing my usual Halloween thing of spending the night in. It’s raining something horrible out there so I don’t think there were any trick-or-treaters out tonight. My friend even took her kids to the mall because we got hit with one of the coldest and wettest Halloweens in a long time. I remember Halloweens just a few years back where you had to wear short sleeve shirts because it was hot an muggy. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cold, but the wind and rain make it extra brrrrrrr. So I hope you are staying warm tonight if your neck of the woods is unseasonably cold too tonight.

Right now I am currently counting down the hours to the start of Nanorwrimo. I am being a Nano Rebel this year by not writing a novel. I’m going to be finishing up a script for the photostory I’ve been trying to finish for a long time now. I think my time of Nanowrimo is coming to an end. I don’t know if I’ll be doing it next year. I do cherish the crazed writing during November, I just think I want to start making that an everyday thing than just a one month thing, so I don’t know about future Nanos. But this year is my first as a Rebel and I’m kind of excited about it. I don’t want to write a novel just to write a novel and waste time on something I’ll hate, so I will write the script which will hopefully help me write my story and get it done so I can start taking pictures in December and start putting it up next year. Fingers crossed.

As for other things I am doing right now, I’m focusing on my health right now. There are a lot of things I need to get done by the end of the year. I have something I am dreading coming up in 28 days, and I don’t really want to talk about it right now because I’m that nervous about it. It’s really silly to be nervous about it, but when I explain it…on the 28th or 29th of next month, then I’m sure it will be clearer why I dreaded it. I’m working on inventory for my shop. I finally found a place to put my shop. I think that was another problem for me, where to put my shop, but I found a nice place for it to be that a lot of other doll sellers are on so it works. And well, I guess that’s about it right now. So the goals for the end of the month is to work on the immediate health issues at hand, get through that situation I’m dreading at the end of next month, and get the shop open. I know I won’t make the Christmas rush with my shop, but that’s ok, as long as I get it open. Oh, and yes I am still working on emails, comments, etc., etc. etc., you get the point. I’m working on all that. Now that some stress has been taken off of me with my parents health either doing better or being looked at, my mom still worries me some with her heart issues, I’m getting a little more calmer and I can focus better. I’m hoping this next month will be busy and productive for me. I’m ending this year on a good note, no matter what. And NO Michelle, that isn’t jinxing it for you by saying it aloud.

And on that crazy note, I will bring this post to a close. I will talk to you lovelies soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Something Like Summer

2011-10-29T01:32:00.001-04:00

So while I should have been busy crafting today, I realized a book my sister loaned to me 2 weeks ago on my Nook was about to expire, so I had to finish it tonight. I just finished it and I must say I was impressed. The book is called Something Like Summer, and it was a rather interesting read.

It’s a romance novel about two teenage boys, Ben and Tim, who meet one summer due to Ben’s crush on the mysterious new guy in town Tim. Something happen that lead to Ben and Tim being together. They had a hot and steamy love affair, but some issues caused them to have to split up. What follows is 10 years of life, love, and chance meetings. Some really sad things happen along the way that leads to a bittersweet ending. I wouldn’t say this book was destined to be one of the great classics of our time, but it was a rather good read.

Some parts I felt were rushed in the story, but it flow non-stop so that was good. The author, Jay Bell who is a gay man himself, told the story in such a way that you didn’t view the story as “a love story between two guys” but more as “a love story between two people”. I will warn you now, some of the sex scenes are written in a slightly graphic way, but nothing to raunchy…nothing worse than what you’d find in your male/female romance novels.

But I think anyone could relate to this story. Young love, first love, and even a love triangle, which is what our main characters find themselves in after a while. So if you are into romance novels, pick this story up. I really think you will like it.

Sadly though, in reading the book it has gotten to late to craft, so I guess I will watch some things online and call it a day and make better use of my time tomorrow. Not that today was a total loss. I got to spend time with a friend and finish a good book. Win/win? I’d say so. Talk to you all later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

My Dollie Is A Gumiho!

2011-10-27T02:21:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I wish I could say my dollie is a gumiho, but I don’t actually own the doll in question. So the best I CAN say is, I want a dollie that’s a gumiho. What’s a gumiho you ask? Oh, well, a gumiho is quite frankly a nine tailed fox. No, no, seriously. Have a look at the wiki, excerpt included below.

The gumiho (구미호 / 구 "gu" - nine) (literally "nine tailed fox") is a creature that appears in the oral tales and legends of Korea,^[1], and are akin to European fairies. According to those tales, a fox that lives a thousand years turns into a gumiho, like its Japanese and Chinese counterparts (the kitsune and the huli jing). It can freely transform, among other things, into a beautiful girl often set out to seduce men, and eat their liver. There are numerous tales in which the gumiho appears. Several of those can be found in the encyclopedic Compendium of Korean Oral Literature (한국 구비문학 대계).

See? Ok, so now that you know what a gumiho is, now I’ll tell you why I want one. Ever since my sister got me hooked on and made me watch this cute Korean drama called “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho”, I’ve just fallen in love with the image of a nine tailed fox. Don’t get me wrong, I’d probably freak if I saw one in person, I mean that’d be kind of weird, but the girl in the show who was the gumiho was so cute and I’d love to have a little replica of her. And for 99 dollars I can! Have a look.

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Isn’t it the cutest thing?!? I’m seriously in love with this doll. Created by Camellia Dynasty this gem has a cute face, 9 tales, and is ball jointed, so what’s not to love? Of course there is the bummer that there were only 50 made worldwide so umm yeah, probably won’t be getting my gumiho, but just being able to look at it will have to do. I love how if you look through the website they show the fox with bigger “human” dolls and it’s just so cute. In all honesty I wouldn’t really have a use for an animal doll but I had to share with you guys what I found. I am just so I awe of it.

And that is it for this post. A few more to come, but that will have to wait for now as it’s late and I think I want to go to bed in a bit. So I will talk to you soon with a new post. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Holey doll, Batman!

2011-10-27T01:57:00.001-04:00

Ok, so do you guys remember me making a silly little post about how I have issues with things that shouldn’t go into other things, like embroidered bread? Yeah? Good. Now remember my quick mention about how I don’t like food with holes that shouldn’t be in it, at least in my mind? Yeah, I’m quickly learning that those feelings go for dolls too. But because these dolls are super awesome, I’m prepared to forgive them for being so holey and embrace them for the awesomeness that they are.

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I’m about to have an emo moment in 3…2…1…

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Why can’t I be that cool and artistic?!?!? Like seriously. I love to create, yet I don’t feel any of my stuff is work crap sometimes. Sometimes I look at something I spent hours on and snub my nose at it. Why? And why can’t I have the ability to say “I will create that,” then create something so awesome like those dolls. Ok, I know technically I can and no one is holding me back from doing it but me, but it seems almost impossible when I’m still learning many things and she’s creating masterpieces. Jelly much? Oh totes. And for those who didn’t get that, I’m TOTALLY JEALOUS!!! Wahhhhhhhh!!! Ok, ok, emo moment has passed and is now over. I now return you to the doll blogger who most of the time can keep her composure.

But seriously, seeing this woman’s work just makes me feel more upset at myself for not trying harder with my “craft”. There is so much I can do and want to do but I am holding myself back. I keep having reasons come up for why I can’t do it. It’s not that I don’t want to, I think about it everyday all day, I think it’s just that I feel I put so much work into something and it turns out like crap. I worry no one will “get” my vision and I either won’t get acknowledgement of my work or won’t sell anything in my still yet to be opened shop. I have so many plans in my head. I literally think about them all the time, but I also have so much more going on IRL that just keeps me from it. And I still have the stomach breathing issue that makes it hard to do to much sometimes. Unless I starve for most of the day or eat bland stuff I can’t function because of the discomfort. Right now I am having the issue because of soy sauce I had a while ago. But some things have happened today and seeing this person’s work it just all has empowered me to just try and get an A for effort. So I am getting all my duckies in a row and will be officially starting on November 1st. What I will actually be doing I won’t say just yet, but I will post it on November 1st for sure so you can follow right along with me on my journey. Now back to these awesome dolls.

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Such beautiful dolls. These dolls are handmade, handcrafted, and hand painted porcelain ball joint dolls created by artist Marmite Sue. She’s worked in many different medias; such as fashion, wearable art, and paintings, before finding her way to her true passion, handcrafting her own dolls. Her dolls are all works of delicate art and I can’t imagine how much time and energy she puts into sculpting and creating each one. I would love to create my own doll one day. If I did I would want them to stay around 1/6th because I’m a 1/6th lover at heart. I’d want them to be close to Barbie measurements in the body so they could use some of her clothing while fitting Liv wigs. I kind of like Bobobie and ResinSoul dolls for proportion. I’m not a fan of the huge feet on their 1/6th dolls, but I know they are actually more correct in their measurements than Barbie is, so I would want to try to work with that, but I’d also love to make it where you could easily find shoes for my dolls that were commercial. But if that affects the look of the doll then I guess I’d have to go against that.

I have been thinking about going back to school for English/Literature, and taking a sculpting class or two while there. But I keep thinking that is not safe. In this recession I should be thinking wiser. I should go to school for dental hygienist and get a secure job with hopefully health and dental insurance plans instead of taking a risk on writing and forming a doll company, which has really always been my dream. I’ve had the dolls planned out for years, I’ve had their names picked out, I have the brand name picked out, I just need to get the ball rolling. But with recent events I’m seeing what a risk that is, but should I forgo my dream and take the “safe” route and just tolerate life or should I take the path less followed and take a risk and see where I end up? What do I want to do? Take that path less followed. See where I end up. If I’m careful I can afford a good insurance and not have to settle for a job because of wanting insurance. Yes I would just do dental hygienist for the insurance prospect. I don’t have a passion to become a dentist or anything, it’s just something that interests me and I think I could do. But it isn’t my passion and lately I had been thinking about my doll company and starting it off small and building. But I just feel it’s so risky. I wouldn’t know where to turn to get started, but I know there are tons of wonderful people in the doll community who would be willing to help and share. I seriously have a ton of ideas that I am just dying to make come true. But am I risking a lot doing them? Perhaps not. I just have a lot to do in order to make these things happen and I am looking at the big picture and getting overwhelmed. I guess if I choose the path less travelled I will have to get organized and just take things one step at a time. I have so much more to say on this topic but this post has gotten ridiculously long. I honestly just wanted to show you Marmite Sue and her lovely dolls. Since I have done so I think it’s time to close this post.

So I have several more posts to post before I am caught up and then I will probably take one more break in still trying to catch up on things behind the scenes and then I will be back full force. So I’ll talk to you soon ladies and gents. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

This Is Halloween

2011-10-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

As the creepy and cool holiday of Halloween nears, a lot of people are letting their creepy and cool sides hang out. From cool decorations and costumes to awesome…Halloween lights? Humm, I understand lights for Christmas, but Halloween? I’d never seen a big Halloween light display, until today that is. Seems this family Riverside, CA really likes Halloween. On their Youtube channel they have videos dating back to 2008 of their Halloween extravaganzas. Here’s their light show for this year. It’s pretty awesome.

Pretty cool, right? But if Halloween just isn’t your thing, never fear, they’ve got a little something for you too.

And here I thought nothing could top all those awesome Christmas light displays people go all out for. My favorite part has to be the singing Jack-o-Lantern faces. Love them. And they can carry quite a tune, don’t you think?

So, what are you plans for Halloween? Me? Not much. I will have a friend over on Friday or Saturday and then on actual Halloween just maybe watch a creepy movie with family at home. Not many kids trick-or-treat around here any more, which is sad, the neighborhood is getting old. Oh well, such is life. But we’ll still find a way to have fun. I am planning on making homemade Butterfingers. I have enough to make two batches, one for practice, and one for when my friend comes over. I guess I’d better try to make my practice batch soon, like today. LOL!

Other than that, not much going on really. Stomach is still causing me issues. Had a weird choking episode that woke me from my sleep yesterday and had me swearing I was going to literally die yesterday. Trust me, that wasn’t fun. That must have been my “trick” for Halloween, so now I should only get “treats”…right? Fingers crossed on that. Well I am off. I am super tired, didn’t sleep last night, and I have to get dressed to go out for a bit. My sleep pattern is off again, sucks, and I don’t see myself sleeping anytime before 12 today, which also sucks. Meh, I’ll survive. Talk to you guys soon. Oh, and if I don’t get back here before then, have a happy and safe Halloween. I’ll talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Still here…

2011-10-23T16:25:00.001-04:00

Just haven’t been feeling well. The acid reflux has been bad as of late, and today I finally decided to try to eat a bland diet in hopes it will help heal my stomach. I am trying to avoid the scope down the throat by all means. I know this means strict weight loss to get the fat off my inner organs, but I am finding that hard to do. But I am still working on it, so I am hopeful.

I have some stuff I want to share with you guys and I hope to be able to do that in the next few days. Just haven’t felt like thinking to put out nicely worded posts, but I will get those done in the next week. I still have a lot to do and people to catch up with. If you’ve sent me an email or left me a message of some kind, I’m super sorry I haven’t gotten back to you yet but I will. I promise.

And that’s all for today guys and dolls. I’m going to go back to relaxing, my anxiety is up because the acid is stealing my breath from me today, and just focus on how much better I will feel tomorrow and the day after that. Small steps, taking it day by day. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the end of the weekend. Talk to you again soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

12 Years Ago Today

2011-10-12T20:36:00.001-04:00

January 5, 1997-October 12, 1999

And I still can’t believe you are gone forever. You are always in our hearts and thoughts. We love you.

Love always,
Michelle

Hey guys! Guess what?!

2011-10-04T20:23:00.001-04:00

Halloween Countdowns at WiddlyTinks.com

Halloween will be here soon! Just a little PSA from your friendly mousey gal. Are you excited yet?! I know I am.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Anatomy Of A Toy

2011-10-04T00:08:00.001-04:00

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Every wondered what the inside of your dolls looked like? Well you might be surprised to find out. Check out this cool inside look on some popular toys. I think you will see your dolls and toys in a whole new light afterwards.

And that’s all for today. Just wanted to share that fun find. I will be back again soon with an interesting post. Be good until next time we meet. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Pan the Faun. Oh yeah, and Rabbits, Rabbits, Rabbits. :-)

2011-10-01T18:48:00.001-04:00

So in my attempt to continue to procrastinate instead of finishing this task with my email…yes I am still working on my freaking email people, I found the cutest doll I want to call mine. I never will ,mind you, but a girl can dream. Meet Pan the Faun.

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Only 15 will be made worldwide and there at 12 left. I doubt for long since he’s actually a decent price for a limited edition tiny doll. At 4 inches tall and can fit Kelly and Tommy clothing and accessories this little guy is a complete package. he comes with a free face-up, magnets in his horns, and random 12 mm eyes…he can fit 8mm-12mm eyes. He’s got a special skin tone done just for him as well. And if all that didn’t sell you just look at his sweet face. So cute. Yes, I am currently making grabby hands at the screen. Ok, maybe not really, but I am doing deep dreamy sighs. Oh well, at least I can enjoy him in pictures. Can’t wait to see owner pictures of him one day. I doubt anyone has him yet because he just recently released and it takes 40 days to make him, but heck, no harm in searching Flickr right?

And I still need to take some pictures of my sister’s Bei. Sorry no box opening of her. My sister refused to do one. LOL! She just wanted to tear in and enjoy. And yes I got to tinker so I could change her eyes, fit her wigs on her, and try some clothing on her. I’ve already noticed some issues with her that I have to keep in mind when I start to make clothing for her. She’s a very pretty doll. Oh and to correct myself, she is not a Bobobie. Not sure if anyone made a comment about this, yep still need to catch up on those too. LOL! But she is a ResinSoul doll. Junky Spot just has them all lumped together under Bobobie. She has her maker tag on the back of her head, a kind of rust color rubbery tag with an RS on it. She’s super cute and has big feet compared to other 27cm dolls. I know she’s in more proportion than the dolls we find on the shelves, but wow. BIGGGG FEETTTT. You will either need to buy shoes for her or make shoes for her. I’m all for the making. And since I will be getting a girl of my own some day, hopefully soon, I plan to use my sister’s as a model since she is kind of just laying on a shelf now not getting any attention. I’m just doing her a favor and letting her girl get out some. But I will have pictures of Bei soon. I want to make some clothes for her before I take any. Wait until you see her, she’s a cutie.

And that’s about it for this lovely Oct. 1, 2011 evening. It’s chilly here today and I LOVEEEE it. It’s suppose to get up into the 70s next week but then I think we are cooling off from there. Heck yeahhhh!!! Ok, I’m returning back to my email. I’m almost done and then I can start on my comments for the blog finally. So I’m back in lurk mode. Be back soon.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Bobobie 27 cm Bei

2011-09-26T21:27:00.001-04:00

Hey guys and dolls, I’m back again today to keep my promise. Ok so remember I told you that I helped enable my sister in buying her first ball joint doll? She’s wanted one for years, almost as long as I have wanted one, but she didn’t want a big one. She wanted one that was more like a fashion doll and around 16 inches. We tried finding one but none of them she liked really. Then after I did my Junky Spot order, which I wish I could give feedback for them because I was once again very happy with them, she decided to look at the website and see what they have. She finally settled on Bobobie 27 cm March. I too love March and was tempted to get her once upon a time. That is until my sister introduced me to Bei. I’m not sure if she’s fairly new or what, but when I was looking at the 27 cm girls before she wasn’t there which is why I settled on March because March had what I was looking for in a doll. But then looking at Bei, I can see why my sister fell in love. Bei is so on my list of wants. I’m excited to get to see her soon, I’m thinking she should show up tomorrow and well of course baby sis is going to let older sis have a look and tinker.

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Here’s Bei. Isn’t she just pretty. Love her.

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Ok so this is March, I wanted to show you both of the gals for comparison. I liked March because she had the elf/fairy ears and she was basically flat chested and would fit clothing for 1/6th dolls. She’s still very cute but she doesn’t completely have the look I love but I was willing to settle. But then I saw Bei and saw her soft look and how delicate she is, which is what my character is. March looks a little more immature than I want my character to be. So yes, I see a Bei in my future, and not just my sister’s. LOL! Of course I have threatened to steal Bei when my sister’s not looking. What? Purely for modeling clothing I am already on planning on making her.

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This is the Korean made acrylic 14 mm eye she picked out for her. It’s Light Green Gray (14LH05). She didn’t get a wig because I told her about Liv doll wigs fitting. She has an idea on what wig she wants to get but she has to track down the doll, which may not be easy. But I will be on the hunt to try to help her find it. Clothing and shoes she may have to wait on getting. Clothing may be easier than shoes. I hear those girls have got some big feet. LOL! I’ve been snooping around DOA to find some tutorials to help make some clothing for her doll. I’m really ready to get back to sewing clothes for dolls. I know I never showed the dresses I made last year around this time, because I felt they were crap, but I am going to do a little fashion show in the very near future to finally show you what they look like. I just don’t feel they are selling quality. I have taken some notes since then and I will be trying out some new ways to sew the dresses and see if I like them better, I think I will. But first thing’s first.

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I am taking a little blogging break. I don’t want to disappear without saying something. I am really tired of only being partly in the hobby and community when I want to be fully in it. So I need to take a step back to get organized online, on my computer, and in life in general. I promise to come back in a week, two tops, with some interesting posts and stuff to show. Yay! I might pop back in with a post or two before my “official return” with some doll updates like the box opening of Bei and the update on my Bitty Bitsu customization. So stay tuned! And that’s it for this post. Talk to you lovelies later. Be good until next we meet. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Grady the Giraffe

2011-09-26T02:23:00.001-04:00

So, anybody got $14.98 just sitting around burning a whole in their pocket? Now, those of you who said yes, do any of you want to buy me something cool? Ok, the two of you who said it depends on what it is, would you buy me this awesome giraffe?

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Isn’t Grady awesome?!? Well to be “PC” his full name is Grady the Giraffe, and I love him. I mean honestly what’s not to love about it? I mean first of all, he’s a giraffe. Second of all, look at that retro vintage replica fabric he’s made out of. And third of all, did I mention he’s a freaking giraffe?!? I know right?!? Wait? What? You aren’t that impressed with Grady? Color not jazzing with you? No worries. There’s a Grady for everyone! Observe.

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So is this orange color more “a-peeling” to you? Haha!!! Get it? A-peel…oh you know what, forget it. Geez, tough crowd. Moving on.

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Eeyore to overdone for you, but you still want something to help reflect your sad yet colorful emo-ish mood? Then look no farther than this lovely blue gem right here. Isn’t he awsesome? What? Flowers a bit much for your depressed mood? Fine then. I haven’t given up yet.

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Perhaps something more sunny for those you who are mourning the loss of your beloved Summer. It’s ok guys, only 6 more months and it will warm up again. You can do it. Come on, you’ve got to be looking forward to the bitter cold and blizzards some parts of the world are bound to have this Winter. Humm, no? *rolls eyes* Ok, give me one more try guys. I’ve got one more trick under my sleeve.

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Pink, girlie, cute, and pretty all wrapped into one. What is not to love? I ask you. Honestly? I mean what’s cuter than a guy not afraid to wear pink. He’s awesome, n'est pas? Humm, I’m starting to think that perhaps I’m the only one who loves as Grady as much as I love Grady. I just don’t see why Grady doesn’t have an awesome following. He’s super cute in all the fabric choices, and has a different personality for each one. He’s unique almost like…ummm…hummm….Pokémon! Yeah! And you simply have to collect them all. LOL! Humm, collect them all. Doesn’t sound half bad. Hey the two of you from before who said you’d buy me a Grady for $14.98…could we possible make it all of them for $74.90 plus tax and shipping? Hey, where are you going?!? I still stand behind what I said before, tough crowd.

But seriously guys, I just had to make this post to share the awesomeness of Grady. I think one of the main reasons I like him is because Grady for some reason makes me think of the name Brody, which is one of my dogs’ names. And Grady seems like this silly big loppy animal kind of like our Brody. Brody is big and loveable but also has his kind of silly look and way about him. So I love Grady for that. The vintage looking fabric also helps, I love the look of vintage fabric and vintage replica or vintage themed fabric. So this guy is perfect for me…except for the price. LOL! 15 dollars is a bit to much for me to spend on a stuffed animal, so I will just admire him from afar. Oh and of course add him to my Pinterest for easy viewing of course. LOL.

And now I am off my lovelies. I am going to settle down and watch a movie or two before going to sleep. My sleep pattern is off again sadly, and I need to work on sorting it back out before I am waking up around 5 p.m. again instead of 10 a.m. I’ll worry about it tomorrow night. Tonight it’s movie time. Talk to you later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Hey Guys Guess What?

2011-09-25T23:40:00.001-04:00

No, seriously. I started the day, no the weekend off on a good foot. I have been trying to clear out my email so I will know when I get comments on my blog as well as knowing when people email me. I currently have over 2000 emails lurking in my inbox and delete box that has to be cleared before the space is considered mine again. So I figured a goal for the weekend, besides getting my crafty area clear was to empty the email box. Crafty area got cleaned, yay! Email box, still sadly packed full of so much stuff!!! And there is stuff I want to read and the rest is annoying notices about things I no longer care about or don’t want to know. Ugh! So I am rooting through all that, and I planned to get it done in an hour or two. Umm yeah, about that.

Seriously. On Saturday cleaning took a while, then I started on the email…and then I got bored so I hit some chatrooms that bored me some more so I just read some Tumblr blogs to find out what happened to a beloved blog that was closed down and that lead me to some interesting places. Yeah, that email inbox didn’t have a chance. But I decided to do it tomorrow (today). Yeah that’s until I learned while cleaning and watching tv that QVC was going to have 24 hours of Christmas stuff all day Sunday. What? I LOVE Christmas, and we don’t do a lot of decorating here, and I just love seeing the stuff that’s out there. I so plan to decorate for holidays and seasons when I get my own place. And Christmas I am going all out. LOL! I’m more for the interior decorations than exterior because I’ll see it more than the stuff outside, and yes I am selfish it’s all for me.

But I figured I could listen to QVC while cleaning my email. Worked for a while until I suddenly remembered things I wanted to look up, so of course I did. Then I had to join a new forum dealing around some personal stuff going on in my life to see how other people deal with it, and well of course I had to post, and then I had to read a few posts, and then I hit email for a few more minutes, but then my sister wanted to purchase a doll so of course I had to enable her to do that with a picture search, then the Extreme Home Makeover came on that was based in my city, so I had to watch that, then more QVC, then…well I think you get the idea. So umm, yeah email cleaning was a bust. I have so many emails I need to answer and get to but they are hidden in notices and emails about something on sale I don’t really want or need. LOL! Tomorrow I will do it. I will only have my email open, put on some tunes, and take those emails out one page at a time. By tomorrow night I hope to have all those emails taken care, emails needing responses answered, and a clean email box. Yeahhhh!!! No distractions. I can do it…right? Right! Then I will hit my next to do that I’ve still not gotten to…you guys know what it is. *sigh* I’m such a bad blog owner as of late. Sorry guys. But yeah, tomorrow is another day. I’ll update you tomorrow on my success of owning the email inbox, I’ll update you on my Bitty Bitsu that has finally told me her name, and I’ll let you know what doll my sister is getting. Ok, talk to you lovelies later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Happy Autumnal Equinox!!!

2011-09-23T15:36:00.001-04:00

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So that’s a wrap on summer 2011. And I couldn’t be happier!!! Sure we’ll still have some summer layover weather but other than that it is cool temps for the rest of the year!!! *does the happy dance* So I want to wish you all a Happy Autumnal Equinox and Happy First Day of Autumn! I hope you did something awesome today and managed to stay cool seeing that the date is the only thing that makes me think of Autumn today, well that and the rain.

So what are you all doing today? Me? Well I don’t plan on doing much, but I do plan to finally clean up my craft area and finish work on Estelle/Estella…working name for my Bitty Bitsu. I wanted to give her hair time to set. I think the layers are done. Now it’s time to do her face-up, which I am nervous about. Granted I won’t have to do the dreaded eyes because she has acrylic eyes, but still I want to give her a soft childlike glow and feel so I am worried I will make her to adult looking. Fingers crossed I’ll get it right. Then I am going to work on some outfits for her and my Monster High Frankie Stein, if they work up right I will be reproducing some for sale. So fingers crossed tight for that too.

And that’s about it for this post. I am off to have some crafty fun! Hope your day is awesome times infinity and beyond. Talk to you lovelies next time. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

I’m So Proud Of My Patience. Junky Spot Order!!!

2011-09-21T19:58:00.001-04:00

So the other night, after I’d all but given up on ever owning my coveted pink 10mm Hujoo eyes, my mom instant messaged me and asked me what size of eyes I was looking for on Junky Spot. I told her the 10mm ones in pink. She said she saw some in like 16mm but not in 10mm, she was on the site at the time. I frowned and sighed and went back to the game I was playing when she messaged me back and said “but I did see these cool looking pink ones with black in them”. *insert record scratch here* My mom didn’t know what kind of doll eyes I was looking for exactly and these Hujoo eyes are different from previous ones I had bought, but I knew there was only one pair of pink eyes on the 10mm page…I had to look. I minimized my game and went to Junky Spot, and it was the gasp heard round the world. There before my beady eyes were the most perfect pink Hujoo beady eyes. They were back in stock!!! Ahhhhh!!!! But I was so excited I suddenly couldn’t remember my order that I had all planned out for roughly two months. Taking a deep breath it all came back to me. I got the eyes, my Bitty Bitsu, the head for my Bitty Bitsu, my Hujoo Baby…that was not part of the original order but when do orders ever stay the same with me, and two wigs. Ah, the wigs…one of the ones I wanted was sold out. *whiney cry* So close and yet so far. But was I about to take a chance on waiting for a wig to come in and still get my complete order? Heckkkk noooo!!! I compromised and picked the same color in a different style. I wasn’t sold on it, but hey, it’s a wig and my Hujoo baby wouldn’t go bald. So I ordered it on Saturday or Sunday. I believe it was Saturday. It was mailed off Monday from CA and less than two days later it’s hear with me in NC. Awesome!!! So now, let’s see what I got. Warning, photo dump is to follow.

This first one I had to take because of the paper on the side of the box. It reads: FRAGILE
BREAKABLE RESIN OR VINYL PERSON INSIDE. TRAVELING FROM THE JUNKY SPOT TO THEIR NEW HOME.
Aurora Says “PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE!”, and then it has the Junky Spot website link. I just think it’s too cute while being very informative.

Ooooooh packaging.

Goodies!!!

Here is my purchased laid out. Hujoo Baby Suve in apricot, a Bitty Bitsu, head for the Bitty Bitsu, the coveted and long awaited pink eyes that were so worth the wait and money, and then two wigs.

My purchase with my extra goodies. Yummy and cute.

Higher view of it all.

The two wigs were a mini wave Hujoo wig in red and a mini banged wig in black. I was going to get a mini wave in black but it sold out so I got the banged one. I like the banged one, wish I could have gotten the blond one Suve is pictured with in her promo pictures. The mini wave wig I am still kind of iffy on and that was the one I originally wanted. The hair is so stiff that it just doesn’t sit right, but maybe with a fabric softener dip it might “loosen” up. We’ll see. I want to research first to make sure the dip wont strip the color. Might have to try a hidden strand first and see what happens

The beginnings of my mini army. The one on the left is Christmas Noel that I got I believe almost two years ago now. She needs some TLC for sure. But she finally has a fitting wig, yay!

Now this one is causing me frustration. The wig that was suppose to fit her doesn’t. It’s too big, it was too small for Christmas Noel. That’s damn mohair wig is going to be the cause for me to pick up drinking I swear! But I’ve got plans for it. *insert evil grin and laugh* So basically she has no wig now, but I have come up with another alternative I am working on. So far so good. When it’s completely done I will let you all see. It feels so good to be crafting again.

Now to show off the amazing way these babies can bend. Amazing isn’t it?

Another view more to the side.

And a view from the top. I plan to take more pictures of this one, she’s too fun. I have put a dab of glue on her posts in an attempt to keep them in her body. Not long out of her box she’s popping loose everywhere. And John I see what you mean about the hands. Almost impossible to get out and it wouldn’t have cost them much to just give us a peg. Oh well, I don’t plan on changing them too much. I will do a Hujoo photoshoot soon. Right now I am on the fence about Hujoo. The way their bodies are is kind of funky. At least to me. Personal opinion here. Maybe it was to make them look more like babies, but my little girl sticks her tummy out and it makes her hard to pose. Don’t know if a looser stringing would change that, but right now I will leave her be until I get Christmas restrung.

And just for fun and silly little omake.

I was trying to get a close up of this one’s face and the flash actually decided to work when it hadn’t before due to perfect lighting from the window. And I couldn’t help notice the seemingly laughing one in the background that looks very much like a creeper.

But that’s all for my order, my late birthday present from others and from myself to myself. I’m already planning another order for a weight loss milestone. I want a chocolate Hujoo Baby…I think Ted this time, I want a fleshtone Bitty Bitsu…my current one is in white, and now I’ve got my eye on those blue 10mm Hujoo eyes. Oh and not to mention…it’s totally not me but…I want a Dana doll. I know, right! I’m crazy! But…she’s so pretty and so neat. At first I didn’t want her, but then I saw a review of her and I was in awe. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not leaving 1/6th behind. No way. I’m just also collecting other dolls now that I’m seeing I enjoy them more than I thought I did. So I hope one day to bring Dana home. Fingers crossed.

And that’s all boys and girls. Just wanted to share my little…would you call this a haul? Well I’m calling it a haul, especially with how much I spent for tiny dolls. LOL! Sometimes I feel bad about the money I’ve spent and will spend on dolls. I know it’s better than buying drugs or alcohol, and in my case junk food, but sometimes I do feel bad…then I see how awesome my dolls and their things are and I quickly get over it. LOL! Ok I’m off you all, I will talk to you lovely people again soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…

2011-09-16T12:56:00.001-04:00

Hey all! So remember a while back, over a month ago, I told you about a doll order I was going to get from Junky Spot? Yeah, well, if you’ve noticed I haven’t posted about it yet. Why? Because I haven’t bought it yet. LOL! And why is that? Eyeballs. No, seriously, eyeballs.

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Yep, these right here, I want. Can’t help it, me gusta. And they are the reason I refuse to make my purchase. And eight dollar pair of acrylic eyeballs. Should I feel foolish? Maybe not. I mean if they are the ones you have to have then they are the ones you have to have, but something tells me they are not the ones I am going to get. I emailed over a month ago to see if they would be getting these eyes back in sotck and Emory said yes they would, and I left it at that. But looking at the Hujoo website I saw that they don’t even have the pink eyes on their website, so maybe they won’t be producing them any more? So should I just make a change to the order and get something else? Or should I just change my mind and get something not doll related? At this point a Nintendo 3DS is looking very good instead. LOL! I kid! Kinda.

The thing is, that the longer I wait to make this order the more I just don’t want to make it. I’m talking myself out of it and I don’t want to do that. LOL! Anyone else have this problem? I mean a month ago this all seemed like the birthday gift I wanted. I knew it completely in my heart of hearts I wanted everything I planned to get. Now I’m leaning towards not getting any of it and the order has changed several times and still is. I guess my mind kind of changed when my sister did the seething gasp sucking through the teeth, you know what I’m talking about, when I mentioned the eyes cost $7.99. I didn’t think much about it. I mean I know doll eyes are expensive, even tiny ones that could easily be lost, but I knew if you wanted them you had to pay the price for them. Doll stores want to make a buck too, and Junky Spot doesn’t charge much more than if you bought them from the Hujoo site, so what’s the problem? Now before you start saying she’s the kind that sees the value of a dollar and likes to save money, let me put a stop to that now by saying this girl loves her video games and has a small list of pre-orders for games she may play once and then forget about. 60 dollars for one play through does not seem any crazier than 8 dollars for doll eyes I can use and reuse to my heart’s content. But I don’t say anything to her about that because it’s her hobby. But it still, of course, made me feel a little bad for wanting to spend 8 dollars on a pair of doll eyes.

I’m the kind of person that gets tons of input on something before I buy something, so of course I went to my mom and asked what she thought. LOL! She knows of my doll hobby and said if I had to have them then I had to have them. Of course I didn’t tell her the price because I’m sure I’d get that seething sucking through teeth gasp from her too. I just don’t see the problem with buying the eyes, and yet I still feel bad about even considering them. LOL! Why though? My money, my hobby, my choice. I guess because logically I could better spend 8 dollars. Geez if I wait for Denver Doll Emporium to restock I could get two pairs of eyes I like for the price of these one eyes roughly. Granted I don’t like them as much as the pink, but still, that’s an option. An option I have been searching for just in case the pinks don’t restock. Knowing my luck, both sites will restock at the same time and then I will be stuck with another hard choice. LOL! I guess I should email Emory again to see if they are still coming. I just don’t want to be pain. I know it takes time to ship stuff, but you’d think they’d be in by now right? *sigh* Tell me people, how is possible to have buyers remorse before even buying? LOL! Oh well, I’ll keep you lovelies update on the purchase. I’m thinking of making it this weekend, but I may drop one more quick email just to see if they eyes are still expected. If so then I will wait just a hair longer. Man I hope they are as awesome as they look online. If not, I may just scream and put a pair of less than awesome pink Hujoo eyes up for sale.

Have a great weekend you all. Be good until next we meet. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

A New Easy Bake Oven???

2011-09-16T12:25:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! So while surfing the web today I found a video that talks about the new Easy Bake Oven. Now we all know the Easy Bake Oven has changed it’s look several times over the years, but this change is massive. Why? Watch the video below to find out.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Can you believe it? Ok, quick recap for those who can’t see the video. So the Easy Bake Oven is basically a kid’s toy where a light bulb heats up small batches of dough that children make and place inside the oven. The heat is strong enough to bake the dough and create things like bread, cakes, cookies, and with recent ovens things like nachos. But with the world trying to cut down on resource use, in a few months the bulbs used in the Easy Bake Ovens are being phased out and outlawed due to a law Bush put into action, and so now future Easy Bake Ovens will be bulbless.

This actually makes me so sad. I have and Easy Bake Oven from when I was a little girl. I had planned to get my future kids a current Easy Bake Oven and also let them use mine, but from what I am understanding mine won’t be able to be used. That is so sad, but I understand why it has to be.

So what now for the Easy Bake Oven? Well now there is going to be a heating element put inside of the oven and it will be able to reach a temperature of 375 degrees. So basically it will go from a cute and simple childhood toy to a slightly more dangerous appliance. I still plan on getting my future kids an Easy Bake Oven, but now the innocence of it seems to be gone and it seems parents will have to watch just a little closer to make sure little fingers aren’t burned. However, it seems this toy may be a bigger blast than the originals. Take a look at this video to see what I mean.

New Easy Bake Oven is better than ever: wpri.com

So a quick recp, it seems not all is sad with the new Easy Bake Oven. It seems that with the new heating element bake times will be shorter, baked items will be more evenly baked, there are more items that can be made now like pretzels and pizza, and the items baked are all trans fat free. Now the one downer is that the oven is going to be about 20 dollars more. But who knows, there might be a good deal on the ovens around Black Friday, Black Monday, or around Christmas in general so keep your eyes open if this is something you hope to pop under the tree at Christmas time for the little ones or yourself.

I hope I do get a chance to share this toy one day with a potential daughter or son, yes I am in the same boat with Paula Deen in feeling you can share this toy with your son(s) so get out there and get one for them.

I do wonder what I should do with mine now though. Keep it for nostalgia? See how long a weaker bulb takes to bake? That’s if they will even fit in the thing. *sigh* Who knows. For now it will stay in the closet waiting for that Christmas day my little one opens their Christmas gift and gasps in excitement over their new Easy Bake Oven and wants to bake with mommy.

And that’s all I wanted to talk about in this post. I hope you all are having a lovely Friday that will lead into an awesome weekend. Wait? What? It’s already the weekend again? Wow. If we blink Christmas will be upon us soon. Crazy how fast time passes. When I was a kid it couldn’t pass quickly enough. LOL! Kind of wish time was that slow again. Oh well, just means I’ll have to make better use of my time and enjoy every second of it. Have a great one my lovelies and I will talk to you all again very soon.

Loves ya,
Mouse

A Lot Can Happen In 10 Years…

2011-09-11T10:04:00.001-04:00

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(Warning, if you do not want to read somber reflections about 9/11 and my thoughts and feelings about it then and now you may want to just skip this post and wait for my next update. Thanks and have a great day.)

Do you remember where you were? I do. I was, surprise surprise, sleeping. My boyfriend called me and told me that America was being attack. I was confused as he told me what had happened. I turned on the tv and watched in shock and horror as smoke billowed out of the Twin Towers. I listened in shock as news came in about the Pentagon and Somerset County, PA. I could only imagine the fear those people went through and were going through. The tears wouldn’t stop flowing even when I wasn’t staring at the tv. I was glued to my tv for days. It got to a point where my boyfriend told me to stop watching because I was depressed and upset all the time. I think this was around the time I really stopped paying attention to the news, period. Nothing good comes from it.

I’m still in shock today how two big beautiful buildings are just gone in a matter of minutes. How so many lives ended in the blink of an eye. How people can hate other people so much that they’d do something so horrible to them. Yes, I’m of the camp that wishes we could all just get along. Yes, I know that will never happen, but I still wish it. Now this next paragraph is in reference to a incidence that happened this morning between me and a foreign acquaintance. You are free to skip it, but I thought it was related to today so I am going to tell you about it.

So it’s kind of funny, sometimes I pop onto Yahoo chat to check out the chatrooms when I am bored, and I’ve made acquaintances with several people over the years. Today one of those acquaintances attacked me out of the blue. I hadn’t talked to him in about 6 months to a year and he left me an offline in Arabic picking on 9/11 and the people who suffered. Well you know I went on the defense and messaged him back some not so nice words. He responded in Arabic again. This is when I knew my words weren’t getting through and he was one of the guys I usually just said hi to when he said hi and made quick small talk with because his English isn’t the best. Usually I would just let this go and move on, but for some reason I couldn’t today. This wasn’t some accidental insult because he didn’t know the language or my culture, this was a direct insult to me because he knew I was American. I couldn’t stop asking myself “why attack me"? I have always been nice to him, even if we couldn’t really carry on an in-depth conversation. Simple fact, he attacked me because I’m American, and I’m sure he attacked me because I’m a female and he didn’t think I’d fight back. Yeah, he doesn’t know me so well when I get bothered. It may not have made sense but I went to Google Translate and I typed my words to him in Arabic and sent it to him. I guess he caught on to what I was doing because he all of a sudden knew good English. And so our conversation went back and forth like that. Me in Arabic, him in English. He apologized for what he had said and for “tenderly” calling me a fat ugly girl. Yeah, when he said that, I couldn’t help thinking back to Elementary school where kids would call each other the obvious when they knew they didn’t have anything else to stand on. *rolls eyes* Yeah I told him I didn’t respect him any more and that I honestly saw him no better than being a terrorist and that I don’t speak to terrorists. This must have struck a nerve in him and made him realize what he had done. He apologized again and promised never to speak to me again. This conversation had me wondering. Were the ones who attacked us always bad? Did they always have hatred in their heart? Or were they like this guy who until today was very nice and then suddenly wasn’t. What did it take for those men to give up their lives to cause such horror to others? What were they promised in the afterlife? If they weren’t promised that would they have done what they did?

So today is just a rather odd day. It’s still clear and sunny as it was 10 years ago. We’ve gone through many things as individuals, as a country, and as a planet as a whole. We’re all 10 years older and 10 years wiser, hopefully. And yet 9/11 still feels like it was just yesterday. It’s something none of us will ever forget. And I don’t care to hear about conspiracy theories that the president knew about it. I have a friend who believes it and got mad at me when I told him I didn’t believe in that. I am not up for debating what did or didn’t happen or who knew and didn’t know about what was happening. Do I think Bush knew “something” was up? Sure. Do I think he knew the full extent of what was going to happen? No, not really. But this post was just to reflect and remember what happened. Something I never though would happen in the US did and it could happen again. It changed all our lives forever in more ways than one, and that just can’t be ignored. And I’d like to also say that we need to remember it wasn’t just the Twin Towers attacked. It took forever to find an image that reflected this. Many lives were taken elsewhere as well. Maybe it wasn’t as many as the towers, but in my eyes, any lives taken is one life to many. So let’s remember them all. Let’s remember the ones in the Pentagon. Let’s remember the brave souls on the plane that saved the day. Let’s remember the firefighters who bravely gave their lives to say others. And of course let’s also remember all the lives lost overseas by the brave men and women who are fighting for us in hopes that we will never have to go through a 9/11 ever again.

I’ll see you in the next post. Take care until then. Bye for now.

Proud American To The Very End,
Michelle

Random Dancing!!!

2011-08-24T04:37:00.001-04:00

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Ok, so yesterday was just a really random day. I mean, what was so special about it that we end up having a very freak and rare, and yes, damaging 5.8 or 5.9 earthquake on the east coast then before the day is out there was a weak 3.6 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area. Two earthquakes on either coast in one day? Just wow. What is up with today? Today will literally go down in the history books. Just such a random day, and why is it when I think of the word random I tend to think of “RANDOM DANCING” from ICarly for some reason? *shrugs* Don’t ask. Speaking of random, how do you like my random picture up there. Cute, huh? Ok, back on topic.

So my friend contacted me and she’s fine. Her sofa moved but that’s about it. Another “sort of” friend posted on FB that the quake scared her. She lives in Richmond I believe and she’s never been in a quake, so I can just imagine how scared she was. One of my friend’s husbands who’s originally from the CA knew it was a earthquake while everyone else was still trying to figure out what was going on, and it seems it made him happy if not homesick. A little bit of CA in NC for him. LOL!

So in looking at the news seems there was some serious damage to buildings in VA and the Pentagon was still taking on water when I last watched the news. Seems no one was hurt, that I know of, but some cars were very badly damaged from falling bricks. Crazy. And I can’t help but wonder if that was it and we won’t have another one for years, decades, or even in my lifetime or will this turn into an east coast “thing”. It’s so funny. The night before yesterday my mom and I were talking about the hurricane and I told her how I hated them. Then we talked about how it was odd you never hear about the west coast getting hurricanes. I was saying that sure they have earthquakes and tsunamis but never hurricanes. And my mom brought up the fact that we have fault line going through NC and that we could have an earthquake here. I told her to change the topic because I didn’t want to image having to go through an earthquake. Several hours later and well what do you know. Odd I tell ya. Just makes me wonder if this is all signs that the end is near. Don’t worry, I won’t go down that road with you, but the thought has crossed my mind. I know, it could all just be random like I said, but then again, what if it’s not. I guess only time will tell.

And well that brings this post to close. I’m having horrible acid issues so I think I will lay down and watch a Japanese movie or a Korean drama. I didn’t take my medicine and now it’s too late because I will be taking my thyroid medicine in less than 4 hours. *sigh* And to think it was from potato salad. Go figure. Alright, talk to you lovelies later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

5.9 Earthquake Hits East Coast

2011-08-23T15:36:00.001-04:00

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So for those of you who don’t know, I live in a military town. And when you live in a military town you get used to certain things. Hearing hours long machine gun practice in the middle of the night. Feeling loud booms that shake and shatter windows. And just a shaking of your house that you are just used to. So when I was woke up by my the glass clinking on my shelf at first I thought it was Fort Bragg. Except one problem. Like lightening is always followed by thunder, a shake is always preceded by a boom of some sort. Yeah, well we had all the shake, but none of the boom. And the shaking kept going. Even when they built the houses across the street the house didn’t shake, so I knew it wasn’t the construction going on over there today. Then it hit me, EARTHQUAKE!!!

Now the little shaking we had didn’t worry me much, it was more annoying than anything, but I didn’t know if it was going to get worse, and our houses out here on the east coast are not built to withstand a big earthquake. So I was glad when it stopped. I texted my sister asking if the earth moved for her, kind of joking, because although I’d ruled out the construction across the street, not knowing what was going on and wanting an explanation for it, I just decided it was. It wasn’t until my mom said she felt the car moving and thought it was her imagination that we realized it was an earthquake. Then come to find out on the news Virginia got hit with a 5.9 one. So I hit Twitter to see others were in shock, woken up by it, and in disbelief we just had an earthquake.

People on the west coast are rolling their eyes and making jokes that they set their phones to vibrate at a 5.9. And while I know they are used to those sort of thing, we poor peeps out here are not. That’s ok west coast, pick on us poor east coast peeps. Bet you couldn’t make it through one of our high category hurricanes. So . LOL!

But on a serious not, a 5.9 is nothing to laugh at really. People have been hurt in past 5.9 earthquakes, so I really hope everyone is ok. I have a friend in Virgina and I hope her and her family are ok. I sent her a message, but don’t know when she will get back to me. So if you were in the middle of the storm with the earthquake I hope all is well and I hope there wasn’t much damage done. Especially not with the hurricane coming this weekend. We have no idea where that puppy is headed and I’d hate to think there would be more damage on top of earthquake damage. So here’s hoping everyone just got a good shake and are now back to their lives, already in progress.

So yeah, just went through my first and hopefully last earthquake. Like I said it was more annoying than anything. And now that I’m awake, only got 4 hours of sleep *sigh*, I’m off to hunt down some food and I guess work on cleaning up my room some more so I can get back to crafting without the stress of a mess around me. So I hope you are all well and I will talk to you again soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

ETA: So it seems the Pentagon has water in it from structural damage, and a power plant close the heart of the earthquake lost power, a safety measure for when the place overheats, so it seems we didn’t get out of it with just a shake. I’m sure we will hear about more damage to come. I’m really worried about the power plant. I’ll keep you updated on anything new I learn.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Edible Art

2011-08-21T22:55:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! A quick, short post today. I just came across something and thought you might be interested in it too. So while surfing around the interwebs today I came across an article about edible art.

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Food artist Meaghan Mountford used edible pens and and writing tools to recreate popular art on, get this, marshmallows. Pretty neat, huh? Meaghan makes an art out of making edible art. On her blog, The Decorate Cookie, she actually has a tutorial on how you can make your own edible art masterpieces, she clears up the confusion people have been having about edible pens, and she showcases more of her work. The rest of her blog showcases other edible art, as well as just artistic ways she creates unique things with sweets. I am currently looking through her site at all her artistic awesomeness and came across one I think may have to be my favorite, although I love all her work. So what was my fave?

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Harry Potter and the Painted Marshmallows of course! LOL! I love how she truly captured the essence of Harry Potter on just 9 marshmallows. Amazing.

I’m a big fan of foodie blogs because I love to see how they are made and the presentation of them. But I am a bigger fan of sweetie blogs and how they are made and their presentation, especially cakes. So I find this, even though it’s a super simple thought, very amazing. I won’t say it’s super simple to do because I sure as heck can’t draw and look how crisp her lines are and she was drawing on a moving soft blobby mess. I have hard enough time drawing on stretchy fabric with a marking pen or chalk, so I can image that drawing on marshmallows isn’t much different. But if you are a fan of foods and food presentation like me you might want to give her blog a looksie,it’s pretty interesting.

And that’s about it for today. I will talk to you lovely people later. I hope you all have an awesome week. Be good until next we meet. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

I’m Getting Old

2011-08-19T04:40:00.001-04:00

I really am. I just don’t understand the youth of today. Ok so backstory, I went searching for crafters in my state on Twitter to see if there was a hashtag for them or even if there were any active people on Twitter. I didn’t find any so I redid my search for people in Fayetteville and my search showed several people. Great, I thought. So I started looking down the list and one of the top posts was from this young man who’s an up and coming rapper/r&B/hip hip singer who said that basically men in town think the women in town are hoes. Then he added on that that thought was mostly true. That made my mouth drop. I don’t know what kind of women he is hanging out with, but I can only assume they are on the same maturity level as him to make such a bold and insulting comment about women like that. And it’s not like he figured no one would see it, he posts his Twitter account everywhere. This just highly insulted me.

I mean he’s saying this on a public forum and in one breath he says he’s a gentleman and loves his hometown then he says the women are all hoes and he needs to get out of this place. I honestly can’t stand people like that. How do you expect to gain and keep an audience if you insult the audience you are targeting? And it doesn’t matter he just insulted Fayetteville women because most women will think twice about supporting a man who refers to a bulk of women as that. And what got me even more was in one of his music videos he has a young lady barely dressed and rubbing her body all over him while he sings…raps…oh whatever he’s doing. I’m talking bra, panties, and straight crotch shots here. She was, from what I could understand, a girl who was a sister of a friend. And I’m guessing she was considered “classy” in his eyes. *shrugs* Sorry, I know I should just let it go, but it just ticked me off. I’m tired of people saying bad things about my city and the people in it. This young man must not have seen the backlash another recent rapper from town got just from showing the town in a bad light. I can imagine what he’d get if more women in town learned he called most of them hoes. But whatever. Youth of today, kind of scares me.

But anyway, what I really wanted to do was hop on here and promote a Facebook fan page me and another crafty friend made together called Cape Fear Creates. If any of my readers are from the Cape Fear River region in NC we really want to encourage you to join us. But the group is open to anyone, crafters, artisans, designers, creators, and those who love to buy handmade. We are trying to form a group of local talent to discuss and form ways to promote our crafts and shops to the local community and other places. You know, the whole strength in numbers deal. We are currently 5 strong, we just started it yesterday, but we are hoping that number will be much larger soon. So if you are interested hope on over and “LIKE” us.

Also, does anyone have a Google+ (Google Plus) account? Not sure if I asked this before. I’m there, but haven’t started using it yet, but thought I might use it moreso than Facebook because it’s a little more like blogging and Twitter where it’s not “exclusive” like Facebook. If you have one I would love for you to drop me a link in the comments what your url is and I’ll be more than happy to add you to my circle.

What else? Oh, layout updating coming, a special promotion post coming as a thank you to some people, and just some more information about me in general. So stay tuned for that. And that’s about it for today. I’m off to go do something constructive until I get sleepy. I will talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Have an awesome weekend. And bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

My Little Pony Cosplay???

2011-08-16T01:49:00.001-04:00

Have you ever heard of My Little Pony Cosplay? Because until a couple of weeks ago I hadn’t. And now I have been informed thanks to Weeaboo Stories. Take a look at these little fillies.

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So if you didn’t notice these are all ponies from the My Little Pony:Friendship Is Magic. My favorite has to be the Pinkie Pie with Gummy on her head and the Fluttershy with her bunny. And well Bronies rock, period. LOL!

So, scared yet? No? Well then how about this gem I found while watching MLP:FIM. You don’t notice it at first but if your eye is quick you will catch this about a minute and 35 seconds into the last episode of the season…speaking of which the new season comes on in Fall, fyi. Now on to the freakiness.

Are you checking out freak boy on the right? This is not photoshopped. This really happens in the cartoon. It’s just for a split second, and then he’s back to normal. But ever since I have seen this I can’t help but see him as the “derp” pony now. Just saying.

So why am I posting about ponies? Well I was thinking about Halloween and how I’d like to try doing something this year. Not sure what since not many kids come around for trick-or-treating, and I am not really into the club scene. I don’t know, maybe have some peeps over and dress up for fun. I was thinking of being some form of super hero and I wanted rainbow hair which in turn made me think of Rainbow Dash and made me think of the cosplay picture I saw, which was the very first one of this post. It got me to thinking if this was a one-off kind of thing or if people actually cosplay as My Little Pony. They do, and they have been for years. Go figure. The things you learn. I wish I was brave enough to try cosplay just once. It looks like fun and I’d love to be someone else for a couple of hours…even a pony.

But I just had to share that fun stuff with you guys. I’m off to bed now. I have to get up early and I might do some shopping tomorrow if my stomach let’s me. Feeling sick after eating some bread today. I have been eating gluten as of late and I just don’t feel good. So I don’t know if the tests are right that I’m not gluten intolerant and I just have a sensitive stomach or that I’m actually making myself sick with the gluten. I don’t know, but I do need to stop with the gluten again at least for a while and see if I can make my stomach feel better. I’m back on track as of right now. Ok, talk to you all later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Clear Nail Polish and Other Bitty Bitsu Tips

2011-08-16T00:45:00.001-04:00

Ok, so this post is mostly for my own reasons. I want a place to collect the tips and tricks I’ve learned about dolls and thought I’d just post them here on my blog. And you may benefit from it also, so it’s win-win.

So the first thing I learned recently is that if your Obitsu doll joints keep coming loose you can try the nail polish trick. I learned this from the Bitty Bitsus Flickr group. So richila9098 posted first about the clear nail polish trick. They said: “Clear nail polish trick-tiny dab of nail polish on post, let dry=tighter fit.” But richila9098 had an issue with their doll’s arm still falling out of the socket even with the nail polish trick. BlizzAz responded with this helpful tip: “If at first the clear polish doesn't work, clean it off, take some very fine sand paper and go over the post VERY lightly to give it a little more tooth. then apply 1 coat of good quality clear fingernail polish and let it dry thoroughly, apply a second and let THAT dry thoroughly as well. It should work better that way.”

Bitty Bitsus can wear some Kelly shoes. You have to get the smooshie Kelly shoes and not the firm ones. I think also Kelly sandals are a fairly good fit. Some older Kelly clothes fit, but some leave a gap in the back of some outfits. The newer Kelly dolls that are taller and I think also the S0S sister and friend dolls clothes fit too. There is a doll called Rainbow Angel that is sold at Dollar General that the clothes and the shoes fit the Bitty Bitsus. So if you have access to them, I believe I read they are a dollar per outfit. Can’t wait to go to a Dollar General now. Now from the outfit I saw it looks like the clothes are kind of “Bratz themed”, meaning mid-drift showing tops and short skirts, but I only saw one outfit and a Google search didn’t turn up much. So I will update on that if I get some sets, which I probably will. I’ll have clothes before I have the dolls. I still haven’t ordered yet, waiting on the eyes still. Hurry up Hujoo!!!

Oh, speaking of Hujoo, just to have this info down, you can safely go a size up or a size down when it comes to eyes. On person tried 6mm eyes and they looked fine with some working. I don’t see myself going lower than 8mm personally. And I want the one 10mm eyes and then I want to purchase a pair of 8mm cat eyes later on from another shop.

And that’s about all the information I have right now for Bitty Bitsus. I have some other stuff, but it’s mostly patterns I want to try and I know where to find those so I don’t need to write it out. And that’s it for this post. Talk to you all soon.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Lego And Sad Face

2011-08-12T23:02:00.001-04:00

So while hunting the web, Tumblr to be exact, I found and interesting couple of pictures of building patched up with none other than Lego. It amused me and freaked me out all at the same time.

Pretty cool huh? Now the reason it freaked me out is because I have a weird issue with things that are put in other things that it doesn’t belong in. What? It’s freaky. Especially the ones that look like little homes. Ughhh. It’s just freaky to me. I’m weird. Ok let me give you another example.

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Embroidered bread!!! Don’t you dare say this is cool. Click on the source link to see more like it. This was the first thing that really gave me the chills on things that don’t belong together. It’s just ugh, and I can’t explain it. Weird, I know. But then again I’m weird, and proud of it.

And now to the . So I went looking through tweets from one of my favorite authors to see if she posted anything from when she went to see Harry Potter, she didn’t, and I saw a few posts above the date I was looking for she talked about how her legs looked like they had pins in them like a doll and she considered herself a human doll. Then in the post directly after she posted how she thought doll people were creepy. Sad face. Jackson Pearce, how can I ever look at you and your work the same way ever again?!? I know, I know, she just hasn’t caught on to the awesomeness of dolls yet, but it still makes me sad face and sigh. *sigh* LOL! Ok, not really, but when I saw that tweet I was taken back for a second. What’s with the doll people hate Jackson? Seriously. Oh well, I guess we can’t all be rocking. I’m still a fan Jackson!

Ok, so this post was basically to show you about the Lego houses. I thought they were cool. There was no source for the pictures but I’m sure I could find them. Oh let me try real quick. Ok couldn’t find the direct source because, get this, fixing buildings with Legos is a big thing. Check out my search page. It reminds me of yarn bombing. That’s pretty cool. Creativity all around. Ok so I need to take off now people. My laptop is about to die and my plug is no where near me. Talk to you lovelies later. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Goodbye Harry, Ron, And Hermione :-(

2011-08-12T20:05:00.001-04:00

Warning, possible spoilers if you haven’t read the book, seen the movie, or just read up on how it ended. You have been warned.

So today my sister and I finally got to see the final Harry Potter movie. If you are like me and chose to wait for a while on seeing it all I can say to you is do it. Do it now before you have to wait for it to come out at the dollar theater or on DVD and Blu-ray. It was epic. Everyone involved did J. K. Rowling’s novel of the boy who lived justice. Throughout the whole movie I was in a state of awe. Then at the end as the screen faded to black for the last time I found myself overcome with happiness and sadness at the same time and yes, a few tears were shed. 10+ years is a long time to devote to one thing. I’m a lover of magic and loved having the chance every year to walk through Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s world though either the novels or the movies. Sure I could always go back and reread them and rewatch them, but it’s not the same thing. We won’t know what happens to them now. I’m sure with the world being safe from Voldermort that they will live boringly plain lives, but still, I’d love just one more book to let us know.

And now with Harry being done I can’t help but feel sad for J. K. Rowling. Most authors can only wish their work would get turned into a movie. Her work got turned into a complete enterprise. Harry was everywhere! And I’m sure he will continue to be everywhere for years to come…Pottermore anyone? So where does that leave Rowling? Sure she’s so rich she really never has to write another book in her life. But she’s an author. Writing is in an author’s blood. She won’t be able to give it up so easily. So I wonder what she will do? I’m sure she will continue to write, and maybe under a different name. I would if I were her. I mean I really don’t see her writing anything to top Harry. I mean how can you top Harry? I honestly think it will be a long time before we see anything as epic as Harry Potter again. So if she wrote under a different name she gives herself a chance to write again and not be under the constant pressure of having to churn out Harry level novels. She can just write for the simple pleasure of writing. I hope she gets that chance. It’d be shame to lose her talent.

I hope one day I get the chance to read Harry Potter to my potential future children and watch the movies with them. I wouldn’t say Harry Potter is a classic really, but he’s sure to go down in history as one. I so want to go to the amusement park even more now. LOL! Hopefully one day.

And well I guess that’s about it. I’m still just kind of sad it’s all over and I guess mourning the loss of the story and the characters I’ve come to love. I know I’ll move on and something new will come along to fill that void. But nothing will be quite like like Harry Potter. Nothing.

Talk to you all later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Mischief managed…

I’ve Just Completed My 33rd Trip Around The Sun

2011-08-09T16:25:00.001-04:00

Hey all, long time no post. I have been around, just been busy with life. So if you can’t tell today is my birthday. The big and yet odd 33. If you know me well, I have a thing with 33 after the hour. It seems it’s always 33 after the hour when I look at the clock now, thanks to my friend Sarah, who is having a jewelry sale in her shop Eleven33 Designs that you should defiantly check out. But yeah, 33 has been my number for a couple of years and then I noticed whenever I looked up it was 3:33 either a.m. or p.m., very weird. So I kind of feel positive about this year being a good one for me. I feel my plans will start coming to. So excited. And it all starts today.

So just some quick things about my plans. Of course I want to lose weight, which I am restarting my lifestyle change tomorrow thanks to a friend’s suggestions on what I should do. He’s going to hold me accountable for my diet and exercise. So that will hopefully help. Other things are my writing and *sigh* yes my shop. I haven’t been able to get into my craft room to sort it all out, but I am feeling positive that I will be getting things sorted out this week and weekend so I can start putting stuff in it no later than Monday. I plan to put one item in the shop today if I can find pictures for some of my items. But I won’t be promoting much until next week. As for writing, working on the second month of Camp Nanowrimo so I can finish my novel. I want to try to finish it by the 15th because Write On Con starts on the 15th and it’s a full couple of days of chats and workshops. If you are interested in the writing convention, it’s completely online and free to attend. You just have to sign up. So those are my plans so far. Getting my writing done, getting my shop up, and getting in better health. Oh speaking of my health…

I got a letter in the mail today. I didn’t mention this before, but I had to get a CT scan and I got it last Thursday. My results came in today. Besides a slightly deviated septum (towards the left if anyone is interested) my brain and sinuses are perfectly fine. It' was so cute, on my results there was a smiley face with the word “normal” written next to it. I was so happy to know my brain was ok. With some really bad headaches due to wisdom teeth, some weird illness I got a couple of years back that made me feel like my brain was bursting out of my skull, and then the headaches now I just felt so worried something was wrong. But I’m fine!!! *does a happy dance* Thank everything I am fine!

So that leaves me happy today. I was going to have a friend come over, but he just texted me and told me worked called him in. No worries, I kind of wanted to hunker down and play video games tonight. I barely do and I figured I’d “treat” myself today. I was going to finally see the last Harry Potter with my sister today but only the evening shows are left now so we will try for tomorrow afternoon. So I guess I’ll go blow out the candles on my gluten-free cupcakes, that are so super yummy might I add, and then have my steak dinner later on tonight. I’m not one for steak but I asked for it about a month ago for today and so I am getting it, yum.

Oh also, I still have my “time capsule” I reclosed last year, thanks again to John’s awesome idea of making one. I will be opening mine later on tonight and seeing what the me of last year had to say. I’ll update it and reclose it until next year, I’m already excited for the me of next year to open it.

Speaking of opening, I have to wait a while to open my birthday presents because Junky Spot doesn’t have the eyes I want any more and I emailed about them and was told more have been ordered but they don’t think they have shipped yet. I can wait. I mean I think one’s birthday should be celebrated all month long, so what’s a couple of weeks. Heck even if I don’t get it until the last day of the month I’ll still be happy.

And well, that’s about it ladies and gents. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling happy. And I’m looking forward to the next 365 days. Happy Birthday and Happy New Year to me!

And I’m off to start my next trip around the sun folks. I will post again soon. I have to introduce you guys and gals to Eli. Who’s Eli? Oh you’ll find out soon enough. Until then be good kids and I will talk to you all soon. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Really Bolivia? Get Your Own Account!

2011-07-30T01:32:00.001-04:00

Ok so in trying to post my last email warning I have found out what happened. My email was hacked!!! By someone in Bolivia of all things. And no I don’t know anyone there. Password has been changed so it should hopefully not happened again. But now I see the importance of changing passwords. I will be creating some new passwords for all my online places and changing them in the next month. Google wouldn’t let me log in because they deactivated my account for suspicious activity. Kudos Google. I’d close the account but it’s attached to a lot of things I do online (i.e. this blog), so I can’t. A simple firm strong password change should fix that. Here’s hoping. Ok, just wanted to update you guys on that. Please still don’t click on any links from any emails from me from a gmail account. Alright, talk to you lovelies later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

I Will NEVER Email You From Gmail

2011-07-30T01:16:00.001-04:00

Hey guys and dolls, it has been brought to my attention that emails with my name have been being sent out with a link to I don't know where. If you get an email from mouse1996@gmail.com with a link in it, DO NOT click it. If I email you it will only be from my mouse1996@nc.rr.com email account or my shop email accounts if I am doing business with you. Sorry for anyone who got the email. Going to be running a virus check and hopefully that will sort it out. Have a great weekend everyone. :-) Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Magic Beyond Words: The J. K. Rowling Story

2011-07-27T23:38:00.001-04:00

So while in Jackson Pearce’s live chat tonight, one of the chatters mentioned the Lifetime movie “Magic Beyond Words: The J. K. Rowling Story”. Bet you can’t guess what it was about. Here’s a hint, it had something to do with Harry Potter. Anyway, this person said it was amazing and posted a link to Lifetime’s website to watch it. I headed on over there, because I’m so interested in Rowling and how she went from hard times to successful living. I’ve just finished the movie and while it was a wee bit corny with a bit of “Hollywood” magic thrown in there to make the story “pop” more, it was pretty good. I saw I didn’t have all my facts straight on her previous life before Harry fandom and was in more awe to see what she went through and how everything just came to be.

Watching this movie made me see that I should keep going with my writing. I’m rusty with it, at best, but I’m doing it. One word at a time. So I’ve decided to finish the novel I am working on now, work on a second novel for Camp Nanowrimo for August, and then I am returning to my original novel “Jumper”. It’s kind of weird, but from watching the movie I think I see why it didn’t flow so well. My characters aren’t right. Their ages are off, and there story is off a bit too. But now thier story is coming to me. While I never got “Jumper” out of my mind, I hadn’t been actively writing it in my head like I used to. Now I’m back to mentally making notes and I take this as a sign as I am finally ready to write Andrea’s and Max’s story. So come September I will start fully outlining it for two months and then hopefully write it all for Nanowrimo in November. Here’s hoping.

And that’s about it. I’m going to go work on my novel for this month, I slacked off the last two days so I only roughly have 2 days to finish it. Talk about pressure, but I tend to write better under pressure. Go figure. LOL! And hey, are you interested in watching that J. K. Rowling movie? Check it out here. Not sure if you can watch it outside of the States, so sorry if you can’t. Enjoy it and I will talk to you guys real soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Damn LiveJournal!

2011-07-25T19:08:00.000-04:00

So as some of you know, I cross-post this blog to LiveJournal. The post I recently put up for you guys I just now got to post on LiveJournal, 12 hours later practically. But I found a cool website through it being down, and since I could finally upload my post, I’d consider the whole situation a win/win. Here’s my post to LiveJournal talking about what happened and talking about the site.

Way to stress a girl out! I have been trying to post a blog post since early this morning. I thought my desktop publishing program was acting up on me again, but then I tried to load some LiveJournal blogs and for a while none came up, but then one came up for me later. It was just wonky all day. But it did lead me to find a cool website I never knew of.
I thought maybe someone hand mentioned LiveJournal downtime so I googled it and found a website that tells you if a website is down. Down Right Now, shows you through graphs and written details if a website is down. Right now it’s saying LiveJournal is still having some trouble and that Blogger is having some iffy problems too. Great, I wanted to post this on Blogger to share the website link. I guess we’ll see if it is having trouble. But I thought this site was pretty cool. And you can leave reports too on if a website is working for you or not to help them collect information about website statuses.
But I’m glad I finally got to post my post, practically 12 hours later. Am I bitter? Maybe a bit. But hey, technology, what are you gonna do? Oh did you know LiveJournal also has a Twitter account? I assumed it did, but never hunted it down. It does and they seem to keep it up to date. I decided to follow it, you know, just in case I need it.

Well I am off now. I need to wash some clothes and then wash my hair, which can take forever. Ugh! Talk to you lovelies later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Epic Picture Of Epic Epicness Proportions

2011-07-25T07:04:00.001-04:00

So you know how you start on one “end of the internet” and while playing your own version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon you end up on something totally off the topic of the item you originally went after, but it ended up being epic so you were copasetic with it? Yeah, that just happened to me tonight.

So I was watching one of the “popular” YouTubers and their little show and I found my way through their show to another video that lead me to a website blog that I had been to before months ago. I decided to see what craziness it had on it today and I found myself looking at the most epic picture.

Now let me just say, I am not a fan of anime drawing. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me correct myself. I’m not a big fan of “Pokémon” style of anime drawing. The pointy nose with just a triangle of shadow for definition. All the characters looking the same and only being able to be told the difference between them by their hair and sometimes their voices. And just the whole flat look of the style. I am just not a fan and try to avoid it when I can. Now, that’s not to say some pictures in that style can’t be done well, and I found one today ladies and gentlemen. Take a looksie.

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Now you cannot tell me that is not awesome! I wonder how long it took to make? It’s just so awesome. Now this isn’t full size of course, very sadly I needed to edit it for the blog, so click on the “source” link to go to the blog entry and see the full size of it. I mean I literally worked on this picture for over an hour to try to get it to a size any of my image hosts would take. Denied everywhere. So I had to do the chop in half, and it still got distorted. Sorry about that. But you get the idea. It’s so epic.

I want to make a print of this to frame so badly. See I am dragging my Potter fandom out. I have not seen the movie yet, and NO don’t tell me about it! Sure, I read the book, went to the midnight release and read it in less than 12 hours. So I know who wins in the end. But I kept hearing they wouldn’t tell if they were going to do the epilogue in the movie and I’m so excited about seeing if they did. And of course I want to see how epicly this movie series ends. So don’t say anything please!!! I plan to see it on my birthday with my sister and anyone else who plans to come. So excited, and of course that picture makes it moreso.

Oh, and let me just say thank you to those of you out there who are not ruining it for other who have not seen the movie yet. I thought for sure I’d come across some Potter leaks due to a lot of people online I talk to or read their stuff they tend to be Potter fans. But they have all been nice and not said how it ends for those who haven’t read the book and they aren’t telling how the movie is. Kudos guys.

And well I guess that’s all I wanted to share with you guys today. I am still working on my novel, and dreading a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I’ll say it here, my doctor intimidates me. She’s a cool doctor, has a lot of good advice, she just seems to lack the people skills. I mean I do too, but when I am stressed out about being at the doctor the last thing I need is to wonder if she is like this with everyone or just me. So I am worried she will “slap me on the hand” for not having lost weight in the month since I saw her last. Technically I did lose weight…and then I put it back on through stress. Easy go easy come. I’m not giving up on it, just worried about what she will say. I mean she didn’t say anything about my weight the past two times we met until I brought it up. I know my weight is affecting my health so I am ok with talking about it to try to get it off of me. But in the same breath I don’t want to be reprimanded about it. You know what I mean? So yeah, kind of nervous about that. Oh well, nothing I can do now except be honest with her tomorrow and tell her I will give it the old college try again.

*sigh* Ok, seriously going now. Talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Having Fun On Zibbet.com

2011-07-23T22:37:00.001-04:00

So I am still searching around Zibbet and finding so much interesting stuff. I could truly go broke looking at some of this stuff. LOL! Ok so for those who don’t know, Zibbet is a handmade marketplace out of Australia that is a lot like Etsy and Artfire, only better. LOL! It kind of combines the sleekness of Etsy with the cool seller features of Artfire. It’s slowly rising in fame, and some people hope it will take over the handmade marketplace. I kind of hope it doesn’t get too big so it won’t have to turn to shifty procedures like Etsy and Artfire have.

But one of the things on the site I love is the vintage section. I love snooping through and seeing what treasures people have found, especially the toys they have found. My friend came across one such toy item ,in Modred Vintage on Zibbet, that I wish I could buy. But at the price it is I wouldn’t want to open it, and truly, what’s the fun in that. LOL! Have a look.

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A Barbie pack from the late 70s to early 80s. My friend said she had that pack and still has the wicker-like bag. I used to love these packs when I was a kid. I mean sure dolls were cool, but it was the clothing and accessories that made them.

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Back of the pack.

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Closer detail of the front of the pack and what’s in it.

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And one more for the road.

As a kid I would have loved this pack. The possibilities would have been endless with it. All the fashion combinations I could have made. Nowadays packs like this don’t interest me much unless they have awesome shoes in it or cute and usable accessories. *sigh* Oh to be young again where the imagination could take you anywhere and a scrap of fabric was either a beautiful evening gown or a kick ass toga. *shrugs* Oh well. But I just had to share this item with you. If you are interested in it, it’s currently for sale for $16.20 at Modred Vintage. I’d love it myself, but I’d want to take it out, not sure if it’s for nostalgia or because I’d really want to use the stuff…that wicker-like bag seems really cool.

And I am off again. I need to work on my Nano. I think if I really give it a couple of hours of hard work I could knock it out in a day or two, or at least get the needed 50k to win. Wish me luck. Talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

When You’re Sad…Smile

2011-07-23T19:02:00.001-04:00

So, unless you have cut yourself off from the world today, you no doubt have heard that Amy Winehouse passed away. Now I wasn’t a big fan of Amy’s, but I liked her music and felt for her and her battles with drug and alcohol abuse. When my sister told me she had died I felt so sad for her. Not because we lost a celebrity, but because she has lost the war she was fighting. Now we don’t know completely why she died yet, but even if it was due to sickness there is no doubt in my mind she could have fought it off if her body wasn’t ravaged by drug and alcohol abuse. It’s just so sad that someone so young and talented and who seemed to have it all was in so much pain that she turned to such evils. I truly feel she could have gone far in life and in her career. I hope wherever she is that she is finally at peace and can finally rest.

Every since hearing the news I’ve been in a very “thoughtful” mood. There’s of course the whole “we’re all going to die some day and some of us go sooner than others” kind of thoughts. But it also makes me really see that I truly need to seize the day more often because I don’t know if this is my last chance to do so. So I am going to stop being scared and chicken to do stuff and just jump in, feet first of course, and just see what happens. There’s nothing that could happen that doesn’t have a solution so I just need to do it. I encourage you to seize the day as well, and do whatever your heart has been aching to do. There’s never been a more right or perfect time than today, so go out there and do it! You have my permission.

And to bring this post back to a cheerier note, my sister found this video from America’s Got Talent and I just had to share it with you. It almost made me get weepy seeing how happy these kids were to have reached a big goal in their lives. Watch and enjoy.

And that’s about it for today. I’ve got to get back to my Camp Nanowrimo novel that I need to finish and soon, and then I am working on inventory stuff and I have some other business news I will share with you guys a little later. I will just say my sister and I are teaming up to create a line of something or another. I’ll update you more on it later after we’ve sorted out some things. Stay tuned for that. And I will talk to you all later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

I Wanna See Your Peacock

2011-07-20T17:57:00.001-04:00

Hey all! I’m back and in way better spirits than yesterday. My thumb feels tons better, I am able to text, type, and crochet, if just a little bit slower. And the pain has been gone since yesterday. I haven’t taken the bandage off yet to look at it, but I will in a bit to clean it, then I will be getting back to the list of things I set for myself to do this week, that being emails, comments, sort bookmarks, make shop inventory, etc. And hey, the week is only half over so I still have tons of time, right?

But I did want to come back and show you guys the cute elephant I’ve been working on, but I only just finished it’s head this morning. So I will do something else for you. I will leave you with a funny video. I won’t explain it since it wasn’t explained to me when I got the link, but the video is funny once you catch on to what is going on. Now I’d say this is safe for work, but Katie Perry’s song “Peacock” is in the video, and I know she can be on the “risqué” side, so you may want to listen to this on low or mute if you know the song and think it’s to dirty for those around you. I was more interested in the video and I can only recall the chorus being “I wanna see your peacock cock cock, your peacock cock cock.” And well, I’m just thinking those words weren’t meant to be just “catchy”, if you get my drift. I’m taking them as meaning animals or maybe a dance, and being catchy, and that’s that. So enjoy the video, and I will talk to you all later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

Preheat To 375 Degrees

2011-07-19T21:55:00.001-04:00

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I was going to have something awesome to show you today. A cute crochet elephant for dolls to hold. It was coming along and I was going to spend the whole afternoon finishing it. But before I was going to do that, I wanted to try another recipe from my gluten free cookbook. I made bread yesterday, and it turned out good, if just a little dense. So today I wanted to make the Coffee Cake Muffins. Mixed them. Put them in the oven. Sat talking for a while to my sister. Timer goes off. Grab oven mitts. Reach into oven. Grabbed hot pan that has been in a 375 degree oven for almost half an hour. Suddenly feel pain. Really hot searing pain that almost feels cold. Realize something’s wrong and toss pan back into oven. Take mitt off and realize skin on thumb has puckered and turned white and gotten hard. Chaos ensues.

Yes ladies and gents, I have been inducted into the burn club. Sure I’ve burned my hand before on something hot but those were surface burns. This burn is like none I’ve ever felt before. It went straight through all skin to the very core of my thumb. What happened? The oven mitt stitching had come loose. And I was SO lucky it was just my thumb that got the pain. The stitching came loose from the thumb to the palm. So it could have been oh so worse. I’m glad the bulk of the pan went into my left hand that had the good mitt on. We had no idea the other one had come unraveled like that. So I spent the afternoon in pain and freaking out. Note to others who go through this, if the pain is bad, take a nap. When I woke up the pain was all but gone. I can actually type fairly well, but I don’t know about doing crochet. I’ll try it out, but I am not holding my breath. I taught myself how to do it right handed even though I’m a lefty. I just felt it would be easier learning the craft in a “righties world”. Hehe, jokes on me then.

So yeah, I did have something great in the works to show you. But things got changed. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. Until then I guess I will work on my novel. I’m off for now guys. Talk to you all soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Oh yeah, the muffins turned out good…if just a little dense. *sigh*

Loves ya,
Mouse

I Knew I’d Eat Those Words

2011-07-18T02:07:00.001-04:00

So it seems I DO do FaceBook. *sigh* Let me explain.

Ok, so yes, I made a BIG deal about leaving FaceBook behind. And YES, I was glad to have left it behind. But then I signed up to Zibbet, and a lot of their background talk happens on, you guessed it, FaceBook. I want to start my business there and I am finding that the best way to get great advice from the community was to be an active member of it. So I joined the clubs, friended the friends, and pop into the chat. I don’t even have a shop open yet and it’s like we are all old friends. LOL! So yeah, I feel defeated, but it’s for a good cause.

They have a locked in price for year long shop payment at 69 dollars. I want to have two shops though. So I need to really work hard on this since they only have 432 of those accounts left. It will be so worth it to get in on that deal. But I need to make money towards it first. So I will be working on that some this week. I wanted to have my shop open by my birthday, but I am hoping sooner than that. Fingers crossed that I can do it.

Well I am off. Just wanted to pop on and let you know what utter fail I am made of. I just wanted to mention it because I didn’t want to seem like a liar later when I mention something I did on FB. So yeah. Talk to you all later, be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Wow…Just…Wow

2011-07-16T23:26:00.001-04:00

So in surfing around the net I came across a video ad for something new called “Smile Tagging”. Well of course I had to check it out. After watching the video I was just in disbelieving awe. Have we really gotten to the point where Kraft Macaroni and Cheese want to get into the social networking field? Have I completely lost you? Check out the video below to understand what I mean.

No words can explain the smh derpdom that this just causes. Seriously? That’s why most websites, pictures, or links have tiny FB and Twitter buttons underneath them and you simply type “This made me smile guys.”. But hey, I guess you have to give it to them for trying. Right? Yeah I think that’s my cue to get off the internet and go do something worthwhile like read a book. See you all tomorrow. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya ,
Mouse

ArtFire Retires Basic Accounts

2011-07-16T23:16:00.001-04:00

If you go over to the ArtFire forums expect to hear a lot of this.
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Warning, I’m about to rant, rave, and vent my feelings about the recent knowledge about the Artfire basic accounts being closed. I don’t care about my account being closed really, but I do care about the horribly snarky people over there who talk like their poo doesn’t smell. You have been warned.

Ok, so many of you who sell items tend to sell on Etsy. I was planning to open a shop on Etsy, but I also had a shop on Artfire that I planned to try again and see if it worked and got the traffic I was hoping for. Only I got an email the other day letting me know that my shop will be turned into a buyer account after August 15th because it’s a basic account. Well poo.

Now I’m not really upset about this because I had planned to open shop on Etsy and market the hell out of my shop. But I hopped on over to the Artfire forums to just voice my thoughts and read the extremely long thread about it. First of all, if you are not a Pro member of Artfire be prepared to be attacked for being “cheap” basically. Basic accounts in their eyes are what brought the site down and those of us with a basic account need to stop being cheap and riding on their coattails and wanting a free ride. A lot of sellers didn’t see it as a free ride. They wanted to make money to put towards their membership, but they just weren’t making the sales and couldn’t afford membership. I totally get that, I couldn’t understand why the pro account people couldn’t. They say whatever they want in that forum and a lot of it gets downright rude. I feel as adults we can get our point across without the holier than thou attitude, but you will get that in gobs over there. But I read the post and they made some good points about why getting rid of the basic accounts were good.

Now if you’ve read posts by me before you will know that I felt Etsy was like FaceBook and Artfire was like MySpace. Everyone uses Etsy and a few people still use Artfire. I still feel that way. I like things to be uniform and some of those Artfire shops are just tacky looking with pictures of people’s dogs in their bios and whatnot. That’s what a blog is for if you really must share 20 pictures of Fluffy from different angles. And this was a lot like MySpace in my eyes with the tacky glaring layouts. But I digress. Back on topic, so yes I felt the place kind of looked like a Flea Market with empty shops and shops that didn’t look like they’d been tended to in months or longer. But from what I’ve learned the shop owners were still there, they just didn’t check in much because they weren’t making sales. But of course if you say that you got punished with the slash of the tongue there. Why do people feel they need to be so rude to be heard?

Now I made a comment when I had finished all the posts, by that time I felt I had earned it. But I don’t feel like going back to check on the thread. I learned all I needed to learn about the retiring of the accounts, even though Artfire said the basics were there to stay, but whatever. The company is taking a risk they need to take to further themselves and I wish them luck. Who knows, maybe this will bring the traffic it needs and I might be tempted to go back and try it out. Until then I think I will look elsewhere. I still have my Etsy shop ready to go and I also signed up for a free account on Zibbet to see how things work out there. Yes it has less traffic than Artfire, should I call Zibbet the Friendster of the handmade world, but I feel no matter where you are you have to promote your ass off to get seen in this big world of selling. Many people are trying to do the same thing you are and you just have to compete and learn how to get your customers to your shop. So a site with less traffic doesn’t worry me right now.

But what really gets me is Artfire’s Tony and his claims on how Artfire is doing better than Etsy did when it was at the same age Artfire was starting out. He said:

If comparing apples to apples ( Year 1 and Year 2 Etsy to Year 1 and Year 2 ArtFire) our sellers made more sales. That is to say comparing the two and ignoring the fact that Etsy launched in a boom and we launched in a recession, ArtFire sales were higher for the same point in development.

Umm, he seems to forget that when Etsy started there was nothing like it out there, and so of course it was going to be slow going because they were a new concept. Sure we had Ebay, but this was a venue just for handmade and it was going to take a while to catch on. Once Artfire had come along there had already been some Etsy-like sites out there and so it wasn’t such a weird thing to buy from sites like this so naturally people bought from the site a lot quicker. Also he’s trying to say that Etsy should have done better because it launched during an economical boom where Artfire launched during a recession. Ummm, most of the people who went to Artfire were from Etsy and they were either people who didn’t do well on Etsy or who were shunned from Etsy for one reason or another so Artfire said “Come and join us, we’ll never censor you and you can say what you like whenever you like.” And that’s how it’s been going there ever since. So yes, you get some big Etsy sellers there to bring their following and naturally you will get more sales. This puffery bull crap is what annoys me about Artfire and their little minions who dutifully follow with glass doe eyes. Promote your business, but don’t get confused on the facts people.

And well, I guess I just needed a rant. I don’t like the way people act over there, which is why I don’t go there to shop really. Window shopping is ok, but giving my money over to someone there is another thing. I just feel if these people could so easily not care about the feelings of their fellow artisans then why would they care about their customers. Customers can see these boards and seeing the way they talk sometimes puts me off of there work. I wonder how someone with such a venomous bite can create something so beautiful. Then I choose not to care anymore and return to Etsy. And it’s so funny, these people are saying the Artfire system works for them but then you look at their shops and from 2008 until now some of them have maybe 100 sales and that’s it. I’ve seen shops that opened on Etsy this year or last who have several hundred to several thousand sales. So where do they really have room to talk and boast? But that’s just my thoughts.

Of course my response over there was as sugary sweet so as to keep the peace, but I know they found fault in what I said and ranked what I said low because I had not used my new account on the forums yet and well like I said if you don’t have a pro account you don’t matter. Oh and yeah they have a ranking system on their forum so you can rank a person low and a lot of people in this post who were just visiting the forum and expressing there upset over their shop being closed got ranked low because it went against the majority. Meh, whatever. You know, 10 dollars is not a bad investment to make in your business and I totally get that and started thinking maybe I should just pay it and try it out, but I could only stand so much of “If you aren’t making sales it’s not Artfire’s fault it’s yours! Use the tools given to you and make it work!”, before I would want to jump ship anyway. So I’ll leave that to the snarky people for now and just stick to Etsy where the snark is still there but so is the traffic. That’s all for now guys. Talk to you later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Disney Princesses

2011-07-14T06:17:00.001-04:00

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Cinderella:

        [ ] One of your parents is dead
        [ ] You are expected to do a lot of chores
        [x] You love to dress up
        [x] You love animals
        [ ] You are waiting patiently for your Prince Charming
        [ ] Your mom is really strict
        [ ] You have sisters who seem kind of jealous of you
        [x] You’re afraid to speak your mind sometimes
        [ ] You have left your shoes at a friend’s house before
        [ ] You have blonde hair
        TOTAL: 3

        Belle:
        [x] You’ve kissed someone your friends didn’t like
        [ ] You’ve been lost in the forest
        [x] You love to read
        [ ] You are not shy at all, and not afraid to speak your mind
        [x] One of your family members is a bit weird
        [x] You have done volunteer work
        [x] You have a wild imagination
        [x] You love to take care of people in need
        [ ] You’ve had guys like you only because they think you’re pretty
        [x] You’ve rejected at least one person when they’ve asked you out
        TOTAL: 7

        Jasmine:
        [ ] Your dad is very rich/important
        [ ] You are very clever
        [x] You’ve been with someone way different from you
        [x] You’re unique and different from everyone else
        [x] You’d never marry someone just because they were rich
        [ ] You have set a lot of goals for yourself
        [x] You don’t have a lot of friends
        [ ] You’re independent
        [ ] You are wealthy
        [ ] Your parents try to control your life
        TOTAL: 4

        Ariel:
        [x] Your parents expect a lot from you
        [x] You really try to follow the rules, but it’s hard for you
        [x] You’re a bit of a trouble maker
        [x] You’re the youngest in your family or in the last 2
        [ ] You have a lot of sisters (3 or more)
        [x] You collect something
        [ ] You have/had long, hair
        [x] You have/had a pet fish
        [x] You’re extremely curious
        [ ] You believe everything people tell you/you’re a bit gullible
        TOTAL: 7

        Snow White:
        [ ] You know that you’re beautiful
        [ ] Sometimes it seems like your mom is jealous of you
        [x] You’ve almost been killed
        [ ] You have at least seven good friends
        [x] You’ve had food poisoning
        [x] You have/had short hair
        [ ] You get along with almost everyone
        [x] All of your friends are different
        [x] You love to have a good time
        [x] You’re happier when you’re out of the house than in
        TOTAL: 6

        Mulan:
        [x] You can be a tomboy sometimes.
        [x] People wish you could be a bit more girly
        [x] You’ve pretended to be someone you’re not
        [x] You’ve had a physical fight with someone
        [x] You have/had considered running away from home
        [ ] Your parents try to plan your life out
        [x] A lot of your friends are boys
        [ ] You often find yourself in bad situations
        [x] You feel like the world’s against you.
        [x] Your principles are more important to you than anything else.
        TOTAL: 8

        Aurora:
        [ ] You live/have lived with someone other than your parents
        [x] You almost died at a very young age
        [x] You are gentle, loving, and/or thoughtful
        [x] You have a decent singing voice
        [x] You like to sleep in late on the weekends
        [ ] You spend most of your time outside
        [ ] You’re adopted
        [x] You’re very romantic
        [x] Pink is one of your favorite colors
        [x] You constantly sleep in.
        TOTAL: 7

        Pocahontas:
        [x] You love to walk around and explore big cities
        [x] You are more spiritual than religious
        [x] You’ve been in an interracial relationship
        [x] One of your family members is dead
        [x] Your parents are/were very protective of you
        [x] Someone you know has been in war
        [x] You love nature
        [x] You have/had black hair
        [x] You would love to move somewhere exotic and beautiful
        [x] You’re very adventurous
        TOTAL: 10

        Rapunzel:
        [ ] You’re an orphaned child or have an evil step-mother
        [x] You have many different hobbies to keep you busy
        [x] You can get really bored
        [ ] You have very long hair
        [ ] Your hair is bright Blonde
        [x] You’re an artsy person
        [x] You’re childish
        [x] You can’t wait to stop the same routine each day and start living. Yet the thought of leaving is scary.
        [x] You care about others and their feelings
        [x] You like to follow the rules. Sometimes you cannot for your own good and then you feel conflicted and worry about how your mother will react.
        Total: 7

Mulan, Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Rapunzel, Snow White, Jasmine, Cinderella

Just did this out of boredom. Not having a good couple of days and couldn’t sleep any more so been reading Tumblr blogs and saw this meme and decided to post my results. Which princess are you?

Loves ya,
Mouse

Ever Have That Moment Where You Realize…

2011-07-13T02:14:00.001-04:00

that you seriously messed up? Well, it finally hit me today that I royally messed up. So I have once again basically been stuck in bed again feeling sick like crazy and not understanding why. But then I finally stopped to think about it and realized how I reacted when I did certain things and well…I really need to leave gluten alone. I know! I know! I know I said I was going back on a strict gluten-free diet. And I meant every word of it. But after going almost a week on gluten-filled food I guess my body began to crave it again. And so almost every day since I said I was going back on gluten-free I’ve been having a taste of gluten here and there. And today it just all hit me to the point where a couple of times I wanted to just go down to my knees and give into the discomfort. So yeah…

But I don’t know why I did it? Why didn’t my health mean more to me than having a cracker or a piece of bread? Especially knowing that if I am truly gluten-intolerant that I have further messed up my intestines from my gluten adventure. It’s been messing with my weight loss. It’s been messing with my life, moreso than usual. So why would I give in. They say if you have gluten-intolerance that you crave it more. So maybe that’s it. I don’t know. All I do know is I am going to try something new to get back on on track with a strict gluten-free diet. Although its very hard to be on one in my current living situation, I’ll do my best to make it happen.

I just see all these ailments I had before slowly coming back and I don’t understand how this isn’t screaming at me to get a grip. Like I now have tonsil stones again. I haven’t had them since going gluten-free, or at least not that I know of. For those of you who don’t know what they are, tonsil stones are when mucus collects in these pockets in your tonsil and food and debris that get caught in it start to solidify and form into a stone. They say most adults get it and that even if you have your tonsils removed you can still get them, so there’s not point in doing so. Well I guess with the gluten causing my body to react to it I guess it’s made for the ripe situation to get them again. And they are bad this time. I’m hoping they will dislodge soon and my throat will start to feel better. Ughhh!

On a brighter note, my mom got her heart monitor today and will have it until Thursday. On another good note, she didn’t have an episode yesterday, which is even better. But on a down note, she was fine today until she had some meat that was FULL of sodium and she ended up having an episode. Something makes me think she needs to go on a strict low sodium diet, which she is suppose to already be on, and maybe stop a medicine she is taking that might be the issue. I don’t know. We’ll see I guess. All our diets need to improve here, but there are so many excuses it drives me batty. But I won’t give up. I shall continue to fight the good fight! Fighting! Hehehe, one to many Korean dramas, don’t mind me.

Well, that’s about it for now. Mostly I’ve just been spending my time surfing doll forums to pass the time and keep my mind off the intense sickness I feel. I finally made my mind up on what I want for my birthday and will be purchasing that at the end of the month or first day of August. I have decided against a hamster right now since my room would be too hot or too cold for it, and one innocent hamster turned into 3 all living in the same cage…my mom and sister both want one, and so I just said forget it for now. I might get one around Halloween or Christmas if I can find a good space for him in my room and so I will only have one to deal with and not three. So no ham-ham, just dolls. But in the end, am I really losing on the deal? Talk to you guys later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

I Don’t Do Facebook

2011-07-07T23:58:00.001-04:00

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Not anymore, at least. Ah, Facebook, my mortal enemy. Sucking up way to much of my time over things I usually ended up hating. I first went over to Facebook when everyone else was still all crazy over MySpace. I’m so not a follower when it comes to my friends, so I wanted to try something new. Then everyone started going over there and got a point where people didn’t ask you “Do you have a Facebook?” but asked “What’s your Facebook?”, and I hated it. It has gotten to a point where my friends have all but stopped calling me and messaging me and now if it isn’t done through Facebook then I am just SOL.

My friend once arranged a movie date on Facebook when she knew I didn’t go on Facebook. I found her message weeks later and I asked her why she didn’t let me know she was free to see the movie. She said she’d messaged me on Facebook about it. I’m thinking, well if you saw I hadn’t responded why didn’t you just CALL ME? Now this same friend will let months to half a year or more go by without saying anything to me unless I walk by her at her job and she only lives about 25 minutes away on the other side of town. This just doesn’t make sense to me. And my other friends don’t contact me unless they need something. So it hit me, why am I on Facebook? It’s not to “keep in touch”, because honestly I was wasting my time reading about how other people were living and enjoying their lives. This time I could have spent on enjoying mine. I mean, what is so hard about calling? Why do I have to wish you a Happy Birthday on your Wall instead of calling you, knowing you won’t pick up anyway? Is everyone really so detached??? I’d had my fill.

I’ve deactivated my account several times before, but always went back after a month or so. This time I had to do something drastic to keep me off the damned site. So I went in with bombs blazing and took out everything. First I deleted all my “friends”. Then I deleted all my “likes” and Fan Pages I followed. Then I deleted my Wall. Everything is completely gone. I’m still a member of one club on there that is private, but everything else is gone. I’m thinking of having them delete my account, but it seems like more work than it’s worth. In order to delete it, you can’t touch your account for at least 2 weeks, but every site out there practically has it where you can log in with Facebook, and some sites I go to you can only log in with Facebook. So I’d hate to accidentally log in and mess up the whole process. So I will just live it sitting there, a reminder that I was once there, and move on with my life. Now if my “friends” want to contact me, they will have to actually make some effort and call me. I’m not expecting any calls. That is of course, unless they need something.

But I can’t even begin to explain what a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders by finally saying good-bye to the place. I plan to start using Twitter more, which I am ok with because you can actually have a conversation with people there. I’ve got to stay in some form of social networking because of future plans for my future, but Twitter is a lot like blogging and commenting, so I can handle that.

And well, that’s what I have been up to lately. Oh that and working on my novel. Still working on outline, and yes it’s day seven. I’m not sweating it yet. I’ve still got 3 weeks to bust it out. Plenty of time. Well, I just wanted to update you guys on what I’ve been up to. I still have so much to do and so little time to do it in. Ugh! I need a longer day I tell you! Oh before I forget, seems the insurance came through and my mom will be getting her heart monitor on the 12th. I still want her to go to the doctor, but I guess I have to be patient. Keep your fingers crossed that things will work out for her, will you? Thanks in advance. Talk to you lovelies soon. Oh, and yes, I still have yet to catch up on comments, but thank you all for them and I will catch up and respond to them all very soon. I promise. Talk to you later. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Don’t you just kind of wish…

2011-07-05T17:58:00.001-04:00

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we could know the truth? I won’t go into detail what I believe is the truth, but I will say in some form or way this little girl was robbed of justice. I have been ignoring the case around her for years, but today paid attention because I had this gut feeling Casey would be found innocent of killing her. And she was. And my mom got really upset. And I needed to be there for her to try to help her calm down. My mom had sort of adopted Caylee because she was a young innocent baby and because her and I both have the same birthday, and we both have the middle name Marie. So it just kind of made me my love her even more. I couldn’t really pay attention to this case because I’m at the point in my life where I want children and couldn’t imagine mom killing her child when so many women and men out there want a child and can’t have one. So I really hope the jury did not let a guilty woman go free and not give a little girl justice. But…it is what it is. Life is life. And sometimes it sucks. And what really sucks is we will never really know who killed Caylee.

And that’s all that I wanted to talk about today guys. Just feeling kind of blah. I’m going to go back to working on my novel. Still working on the outline some. I should be in full force writing within a day two. Here’s hoping.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Bringing A Little Happiness To Your Life

2011-07-04T02:17:00.001-04:00

So I was surfing the web the other day, listening to music from a Korean drama I just finished watching, and came across this song. It’s kind of peppy and I love peppy music. The song is called “Kiss Me” and it’s by a group called Happiness. So I bring you Happiness.

Been thinking lately of music to add to a playlist for when I am crafting, doing photorstories, or writing. I think this song would make it onto my lists for crafting and doll stuff for sure. It’s a little too peppy for when I am trying to concentrate on writing. What do you think? Oh and if you were curious about the Korean drama I watched, it’s called “Boys Over Flowers” and it’s a tear-jerker if you are sentimental over love and relationships. I feel it went a few episodes too long, but it was a decent ending. I’ve seen better stuff, but it wasn’t bad. If you watch it, I found there are also 4 extra episodes that happen 5 years later that you can find on YouTube. The episodes are about 5 minutes each for the 5 years after, so it won’t take much to go through those. The full episodes are an hour and some change, and there are 24 of them, so it could take a while to watch. But like I said, if you are into romance and a good sniffle you will like it.

And that’s all for this post. Just wanted to share some music with you all today. I’m off to go work on my Camp Nanowrimo story now, but I will be back soon with a doll post for you, so stay tuned for that. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy Fourth of July My Lovelies

2011-07-04T01:36:00.001-04:00

You and yours be sure to be safe and have an awesome 4th!

Loves ya,
Mouse

Yo no hablo español.

2011-07-03T00:55:00.001-04:00

So today I was talking to my boyfriend “A”, still need to see if he’s ok with me saying his name online, anywho, I was talking to him about dinner he had tonight. He had Ropa Vieja. My first response was “Uh, what?”. Then after a good giggle he spelled it out for me. The picture on Wikipedia is not what he had, so I went in search of other pictures. This is what I found.

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Ok, so it seems the 5th picture (one above) is closer to what he had. He said everything was together, so I am assuming it was layered. I don’t like all the pepper and it seems onions as well on it. Nor do I like steak much, but I am willing to try it for my guy. I kind of prefer the Wikipedia picture ( 2nd one up) to the others for some reason. It looks more like “comfort food” to me.

Well I asked my boyfriend to honestly tell me if I should look into getting a Cuban cookbook. He has told me before in the past that he didn’t expect me to cook Cuban food for him because, well, I’m not Cuban. But he’s lived in a Cuban household all his life and has ate I’d say 85-90% of his meals being Cuban meals. So I told him to be honest and tell me if he’d like me to cook Cuban meals from him. He got quiet for a moment and then said yes. LOL! So after a laugh between us both I asked him where I could find a good Cuban cookbook. He told me about this cookbook that I am guessing his mom has or he’s seen it in another household, I’ll have to ask him to clarify that. The cookbook is called “Cocina al Minuto”, and from what I’ve read it is the Betty Crocker of Cuban cookbooks.

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No, really, I’m serious, the Betty Crocker of Cuban cookbooks. I’ve read several reviews where women who were at a loss on how to cook for their families bought this cookbook and were able to make good meals for their families. Other people bought it because their mothers used it and they wanted to have the meals they remember their mothers making. And others got it to replace old and falling apart copies for mothers and aunts who have original copies of the cookbook. This is the real deal ladies and gentlemen. So of course I want this book since my boyfriend is slowly letting me know that our household will have Cuban influences. Which is alright with me, just find it interesting how he wants to do that where before he said he didn’t care. I’m happy he wants to do that. I mean he wants any of our daughters that we potentially may have to have a Quinceañera. Do I look like I’m joking here people? No, I’m not. Of course we are going to have spoiled daughters because I still want them to have a Sweet Sixteen as well. I asked my mom how I could do that since both say the girl has grown into a young woman. My mom said we could say at 15 she’s a young lady and at 16 she’s a young woman. Works for me. LOL! But I got off topic, back to the cookbook.

So yeah, this book is everything I could ask for in a Cuban cookbook. Great tasting Cuban recipes made from what I’ve gathered to be easy to find ingredients. There is only one problem. Remember the title of this post? Yeah…the book is in Spanish and I currently lack the Spanish speaking skill. *deep sobbing cry* What’s a girl to do?!? Well, finally get off my duff and learn some Spanish I suppose. I need to learn so I can finally meet my potential mother-in-law as well as teach potential future kids Spanish. So no better time than the present to do it. And another bonus to the cookbook is that it seems a lot of items in it will be gluten free. A lot of rice, a lot of beans, a lot of meat…I can deal.

So from further research it seems this cookbook is based off of a show by the same name. The theme music is so relaxing to listen to for some reason. And the host of the show and author of the cookbook is a sweet motherly looking woman by the name of Nitza Villapol, the Cuban Julia Child. And if you guys know me I’m a fan of Julia Child, Betty Crocker, and I am thinking I will be a fan of Nitza Villapol. Ok, so Betty doesn’t really exist, but you know what I mean.

I found two clips of Nitza’s cooking show. Have a look.

Cocina al Minuto Nitza Villapol Boniatillo By... by burronazul

This seems to be a plantain dessert she is making. I’ll admit, it does not look too tastey with the coloring of the video, but I won’t judge it by the color. I’m sure it tasted…delicious???

This one looked like a dinner dish. Ok, I admit, it doesn’t look to good in black in white either, but I have hope. LOL! These meals were made to help Cuban families during hard times during wartime and when rations where implemented. So to help them make do with what they had she made easy recipes. Upon research there are some good looking recipes I may have to tweak for gluten free. I tried gluten again today to see how I react. Nothing so far, but I am going to still stick to gluten free as much as possible.

Nitza also wrote another book in her day called Cocina Criolla.

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It seems this was another great cookbook for those entering into Cuban cooking for the first time. They say it’s a great gift to Cuban American newlywed wives and people just going out on their own for the first time. So I may try to get this book as well. The things I won’t do for my guy. I just need to quiz him on this cookbook a little more before I make the investment and search out some free recipes online first. I don’t want a cookbook filled with recipes I will never use, so best to ask to make sure. But just looking at the cover above and watching the clips has already made me crave tying on an apron and creating a Cuban culinary delight.

And that’s all that was really on my mind today. Still stressing over other things in life, but throwing myself into silly research helps me forget for a while. I’m also doing Camp Nanowrimo this month and next, so it will keep my busy as well. And well, that’s about it. Just wanted to post my findings about Cuban cooking and share my excitement and fear in trying it out. I think I really may try to find a free recipe and try it out. I’ll let you know what I find and try.

If' you’ve read this far, first of all, thank you, and second of all…I think you deserve a prize. A doll. I think we need a doll in this post.

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I got a Punky Brewster doll for Christmas one year as a child. I still have her, but she’s a little rough for wear. She needs a good cleaning and will be as good as new. Her hair is that awful stuff that would bend and snap with one brushing, so I will have to see what I can do about it. If you click this link you will be taken to a YouTube video for the Punky Brewster doll staring Soleil Moon Frye and Andrea Barber (Full House’s Kimmy Gibbler).

And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, a full post full of random info and a doll. I hope you have enjoyed this epic post of epicness and I will post again soon. Be good until then and bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

The Brutal Truth

2011-06-26T03:40:00.001-04:00

I. Am. Old. Don’t believe me? Behold…

I take these things every day. The medications I have been taking since February have changed a bit over the months. For example I did take prescription iron and vitamin D pills, but now I take over the counter ones. The gummies in back are Disney Princess vitamins, yes kid vitamins. I happily just got back on them today and I’m so so so so happy. I was taking some of my mom’s women’s vitamins and they made me feel like crap and I had to cut them into 4 sections to swallow them. They had iron in them, but since my iron is still piss poor I got back on supplements, which I hated before but I’m so happy to be back on them now so I can just take the gummie vitamins with my vitamin D and iron. I take the children’s vitamins because one they are gluten free, two they are chewable, and three there is no iron in them. The white bottle on the back left is my fiber supplement because I don’t get enough in my diet. The bottle on front left I believe is my thyroid medicine and the one on the right is my Prilosec. People! Do you know how much prescription Prilosec costs someone who has no insurance? 56 dollars!!! For 30 days!!! I was in so much shock when I heard that. When I found that out I made it my mission to lose weight and get the acid reflux under control so I can get off of the stuff because one, it’s expensive, and two, it’s been known to cause stomach cancer over time. So yeah, while it helps me live a little better, I will be glad to see it go honestly. But yeah, proof that I’m an old 32 year old. *sigh* *sniffle*

And I am so behind on reading blogs, commenting on blogs, and commenting on my own blog, it’s crazy. Just been busy with cleaning, trying to sort out my life, watching over my mom, and just being tired all the time. Today I did some cleaning, and I’m glad with the progress I made. My mom had one of her spells again today, but she also had a bit to much coffee and took her medicine very late, so it might be that. I hope so. Tomorrow she is going to try no coffee, no acid reflux triggers, no sage, and no vitamin water as these things are the only new or potential triggers we can think of for right now. If things don’t get better she’s going to the doctor. I hope things get better. It’s weird, you guys and my boyfriend are the only ones I have told about this. Not even my close friends I have told and I can’t figure out why. Part of me thinks they don’t care since they can’t be half-assed to call me and basically only talk to me through Facebook if they can catch me on it or only contact me because they need something. It’s one of the many reasons I hate FB. I’d close it again, but it keeps me up to date on some Youtubers I watch, some doll sites, some craft sites, and some people in the doll and craft communities. So I guess it’s good for something…I guess. Well, I’m off to watch some Netflix. They’ve been adding some new shows on there…one of them being a childhood love.

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“Go, go Gadget Arm!” Inspector Gadget was a cartoon from the 80s that just rocked my socks as a kid. My brother and I both loved it.

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So basically, Inspector Gadget is about this inspector named Gadget who is kind of like a bionic man in a way, who has all these gadgets that are installed in his body that he uses to help him fight crime and bring down his arch nemesis Dr. Claw. Only problem is this guy is rather dumb and clumsy. The ones who really save the day are his niece Penny and their faithful, trusty, and very helpful dog Brain. Together these three solve crimes and keep the world safe another day from the evil Dr. Claw.

So, out of the three, who is my favorite?

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Penny of course. I loved her computer book and wanted one so badly as a kid. I used to take one of my regular thick books and pretend it was a computer book. Tapping away into fake keys and seeing the solution to my problems right before my eyes. I was very inventive back then. Brain comes in a close second, Gadget next, and then poor Chief Quimby who always suffers at Gadget’s expense. You’d think after so many times he’d stop using self-destruct paper. And one thing that always got me about the show, Penny got kidnapped in most of them. LOL! In the end you kind of waited for it, and she’d have to figure out how to get out of her jam once again. It was interesting. I was so shocked to learn that Penny was voiced by Cree Summer. I love Cree Summer. I love her acting and the characters she does voiceover for. Now I’m not a big fan of Dr. Claw. He’s just your generic faceless evil-doer, but his cat M.A.D. Cat was awesome. One of the best evil sidekicks ever. LOL!

So yeah, that’s my stroll down Memory Lane for the day. I was so excited when my sister told me it was on Netflix. It’s just nice to have a little part of childhood to reflect back on. So I’m off to watch another episode or two of it while I wait for Ariel to go home and call me. He’s on call tonight at the hospital and I like to stay up and wait for him. Poor guy is on call for another 2 and half hours and he’s been up since early Saturday morning and on the go the whole day. I so hope he can take the vacation in November that we are planning. Fingers crossed. Ok, talk to you guys and dolls later. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Guess Hujoo?

2011-06-25T05:02:00.001-04:00

Ok, even I will admit that was a lame title, but I couldn’t resist. So guys, I want to tell you what a complete airhead I am. Why do I say that? Well remember how I said a couple of days back how I wanted an 11cm Obitsu doll to help continue me on my path of creating a mini minion army? Well do you remember the eyes and wigs that I showed you guys that I wanted to buy? You know, it never dawned on me that they were Hujoo brand items even though I knew they were. So I never put two and two together to figure out they must have tiny Hujoos even though I have seen them all over The Junky Spot Facebook page. *facepalm* I don’t know why I didn’t hop on over to that page before and take a look at them. But today I did, and can I just say, grabby hands!!!

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I want!!! I’d love one of each, but right now I can only afford one. The one I finally settled on? *dreamy sigh* Cute little Suve.

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Look, she’s wearing the eyes I want. I like the blonde wig, but I think I’d still go for black even if the blonde one was for sale at TJS. I was trying to decide if I wanted the one with bangs up front instead of side swept. I don’t think the wig for sale has bangs this thick so I think I will stick with the side swept. What do you think?

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Side swept or…

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front bangs? Ugh! Choices. I like them both. I still need a wig for Christmas Noel, so maybe side swept for her and front bangs for this new girl? I still plan to have her for my birthday so I have time to think about it. Ughhhh! Still think I prefer side swept. LOL!

I watched a review video on these dolls, and it seems they will pose pretty good. Have a look.

Such choices. I have decided to go ahead and splurge on myself and get my Obitsu now since I have finally settled on a head I want and what color body I want. I will be getting…

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This head with…

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the white tone body. Yes, I know I said I was going for fleshtone because I seldom do go for it, but I thought long and hard about it and decided that the pale skin tone would go better with the pure white mohair wig I have. I originally bought it for Christmas Noel, but the size was not written on it right and it’s just smidge to small for her head. This new head calls for a size four wig, so it works out for me…hopefully. It’d be nice not to have to give up my wig or swallow it as money lost. So fingers crossed. So yeah, I may buy it now or just wait and do a big bulk purchase instead.

But yeah, that’s what’s on my mind as of late. Trying to keep my mind busy daydreaming rather than focusing on real life right now. I guess I will do a quick vent to you guys. My mom’s heart has been acting funny as of late, and she went to the doctor for a routine appointment and told them about her heart. They want her to get a heart monitor to watch her heart rhythm for I believe she said two months. But the thing is is that they have to talk to her insurance to see if they will pay for it. I hope so and I hope they do it soon. If she keeps having the issue, which she had today again for like one of several days in a row, I am forcing her to go back to the doctor. I’m just so worried about her. She has high blood pressure and diabetes that neither are controlled. I just don’t want to lose my mom, even though I know one day I will. But not now. She’s still at a “young” age and she can’t go without seeing her grandchildren. Need to start hinting to the boyfriend we need to move a little faster on that. Why do I feel like I can hear some of you saying in a sing-song voice “To much fyi”? LOL! Sorry about that, but it is what it is. And well top on to that that I am still not well and well, girlfriend here is NOT a happy camper. So yeah, daydreaming over a silly doll and her character puts me in a better mood. Watch me not get either of them in the end. But some how I think I will get one if not both of them. We’ll see. So yeah, those are my potential dolls, and that is the up-to-date news on moi. I will talk to you lovely guys and dolls later. I’m working on a new craft project that is doll related, did I mention this already? Humm. Well either way, I hope to have something to share with you lovely peeps soon. Until then, be good. Bye for now. Smooches.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Realistic Miniatures

2011-06-25T04:19:00.001-04:00

So recently I was reading a newsletter from a mini printables site I like to go to, and I in that newsletter it talked about these cool miniatures that really “work”. What kind of miniatures am I talking about? Mini aquariums! LOL!

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This first one comes from what I gather is a tropical fish aquarium website. The website is full of just about anything you could wonder about starting a tropical fish aquarium. On one page of the website the site owner talks about several friends from Brazil who created some miniature tanks out of unique items. The one above was made from a bird feeder insert. It you go to the article page you can see a few more detailed photos of the aquarium. If they had proper fish they could put them inside of it. Every detail inside of the aquarium is from actual nature. For example the plants are small plants and moss the creator found outside. So cool.

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The next aquarium is from a luxury life blog, which I’m am figuring out is a blog that tells you about the finer things in life and where to find them. The blog on talks about a range of items from current events to odds and ends, and this aquarium was one of the items blogged about. Created by a miniature specialist, don’t you just love that title, the aquarium is called the smallest in the world. It’s 30mm wide, 24mm high, 14 mm deep, and holds 10ml of water. It even has a water purification filter to keep the water healthy for fish. And she even made a tiny little net to take fish in and out of the water. And before you begin to wonder, yes those are real fish. They are baby Danios. So cute. You have to go to the blog and check out the other pictures there and read the blog post. It’s just amazing how realistic it looks and even more amazing that real fish can live in it.

But I just had to share that with you guys. With a little imagination you can really create anything in miniature, and sometimes they can be fully functional. Could you imagine having real fish in photostories and dioramas? Can you just picture the first response from the ever watchful eye fan who was wondering how you made the fish look like they were actually moving? LOL! And of course the shocked response to “oh, they’re real”. LOL! Too cool, funny, and cute. Ok, I’m off everyone. I have a few more posts I want to write up and then I am heading to bed. Talk to you all tomorrow. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

I Don’t Need It…

2011-06-23T23:13:00.001-04:00

But it’s so awesome!

Just had to share this. Having an “up” moment right now so I took the chance to blog real quick. Now thinking it’s time for bed. I’m becoming a master of sleep lately. Here’s hoping it’s not forever. Bye for now guys and dolls. I’m off to count.

Loves ya,
Mouse