I don't know what I am doing, but I am here.

    Hey there. Long time no see. Well, like the title says, I don't know what I am doing, but I am here. So I've been wanting to come back and blog for literally years now, I've got the drafts to prove it, but for some reason I just could never do it. It seems so many people I used to follow in the blogging world have either moved on from blogging to other social media sites, have changed to Tumblr as their main blog which I am not the biggest fan of reading, or just faded away back into life. There is truly a huge hole in my blog loving heart that misses everyone, but I know times change, people change, interests change, and so goes the world. Even I have changed my focus as well. Usually I would just start a new blog when that happened, but I've decided to dust off this one and invite anyone who is interested to join me on whatever journey I may take here. So it is the first day of my birth month and I am hoping for this month to be one of peace and clarity. So trigger warning, the next part of this paragraph is going to be about the death of a loved one, if you would rather not read that, please skip to the next paragraph. So July was probably one of the hardest months for me. My mom had a stroke, and the doctors felt she wouldn't get better, so they sent her to hospice. In hospice it looked like she was getting better and may graduate from hospice and go to rehab. However that wasn't the case. She was great one day then took a turn the next. We were all still hopeful, but hours after she took a turn she was gone. Such a big presence in my life just gone like the wind. It was and still is something hard for me to come to grips with. We buried her on the 30th of July, then on the 31st I had to go to an appointment that was suppose to be a joint appointment with my mom, and they asked if she was still my emergency contact and I had to tell them she passed and changed my emergency contact to my husband. I know ultimately I should have my husband as my emergency contact, but I felt it would be easier to contact my mom in an emergency and she'd been my contact for decades so I just got lazy and didn't change it. Now over the coming months I will have to slowly change all that. One of the things I've dreaded most in life is the death of my mom, and it has happened and I'm kind of lost right now. I know life has to continue. I know I have to keep moving forward. There were plans that were being put into motion at the exact time she had her stroke. My sister was going to move in with me and my husband. My husband took vacation so we could help her move in. Instead of moving my sis in during his vacation we spent the week seeing my mom and hoping she'd get better to setting up her funeral. Also, now instead of my sis moving in with us, we are moving in with her and my dad. Literally in the blink of an eye my life has changed and for the next couple of months I will be trying to figure out where I go from here. So that was my July. I truly hope all of you reading this had a much better July. I truly mean that from the bottom of my soul. If you didn't, and even worse, if you experienced a similar situation as mine, I am so truly sorry and I encourage you to join me in focusing on making August a refresher and a time of bringing back that special spark into life. We've got this!

  So now we have a fresh new month. I want to look at each month with new eyes. I want to try to see the potential of each month and what awesome things it can bring me. This month will be a mixture of highs and lows, but I want to try to take advantage of every day as best I can. I want to return to hobbies that I have pushed pause on for so long. I want to explore some new hobbies that I tend to learn for the benefit of older hobbies. For example I learned crochet because I wanted to make crochet dolls and toys and be able to crochet clothes for my dolls. I also want to try knitting again. I think I need to refresh myself with crochet first and then attempt knitting.

    I have always loved that with crochet all you ever deal with is one loop. Knitting is a bit overwhelming because of all the loops you have to deal with and they need to be going the right way and etc., but I will attempt it again and soon. So for right now I want to focus on the MANY crochet kits I have bought over the years and create the items from them. I think my first one will be a donut amigurumi kit I bought from Dollar Tree, the little guy you see here. I am going to attempt to use the supplies that come with the kit, though everything seems really flimsy, but I want to know if its possible. Fingers crossed. 

    I'm also attempting to get back into diamond painting. I keep buying diamond paintings that I would love to see all done, but I haven't been actively working on them. I am trying to put a pause on buying, which has been working for the most part but I had a chance to get a deal on some recently so I snagged them, but for the most part I want to work on what I have. I'm ALMOST embarrassed to say I have a plastic tub of diamond paintings I have to do. I say almost because I kind of felt like I wasn't really "in" the hobby because I only owned like three of them at one time. Now that count is probably over 100 and they are all ones I want to do, I just need to sit down and get to work. I was re-inspired to do them back around mother's day to make two for my mom and mom-in-law for Christmas. I thought get them early and work on them for Christmas. I got two of them and needed to finish one more for my mom, and I was like should I give them early. I wish I had now. But because of certain events, it caused me to pause on diamond painting. I still have those and several other that I have to seal and looking at them causes me some guilt. I had no idea what would unfold, so I am trying to push through and past the guilt and try to find a way to enjoy diamond painting again.

    I returned to one that was up on "the slab" for a while now. It honestly should have been a quick one to whip up because it has a TON of color blocking, but depression is a bitch and lumped onto everything else, it just sat there. Yesterday I decided to sit down with it again and it took a while for me to get a flow but now I am excited to finish it again. Its a painting I was so excited to buy and couldn't wait to see it all put together. I am still excited for that.

    I also have some coasters I am working on as well. I won't be actually using them as coasters because the sealant I use is water-based and I kind of want to keep all my diamond paintings in one place that I can pull them out and look at from time to time. I have an under the bed storage thingie that I put them in currently. Its made of fabric, I'd like to get a plastic one some day maybe, but I feel the fabric one allows them to breathe and not get sweaty so maybe I will just kept them in that one laying flat. Yeah, I'll probably do that instead honestly. That is my current diamond painting journey right now. I will do a post soon showing off all the ones I have done so far and maybe talk about about my process, explain what "the slab" is, and talk about future diamond painting plans. 

    Now, a lot of you probably came to my blog once upon a time for dolls. Well I'm happy to tell you the dolls are still here. I have continued to follow dolls I love and every now and again I've bought some dolls to tinker with. I am trying to decide where I want to take my doll hobby. I used to be into photostories, but I think that time has passed for me. I'm not 100% sure but I honestly do think it has passed for me. I still have all the props and whatnot and I will probably be putting those up for sale for other doll hobbyist to enjoy. Keep following this space to find out if or when I do it. I know some stuff has to go, and I will just keep what I truly love. I also have a TON of stuff to unbox that I was going to do for a doll and toy unboxing Youtube channel years ago. Life hit me hard and it never really took off because of that. I still have the stuff I wanted to unbox and still want unbox the items. They are older items so people may not be interested in seeing unboxings of these items, but that is ok. I mostly want to do it for my enjoyment, and I welcome anyone who wants to come join the fun with me. I'm also trying to decide what dolls I want to collect. I realize that I would prefer more of a focus on dolls rather than having a wide variety of dolls in my collection. I'm leaning very heavily towards Blythe dolls, Asian bjds, custom made dolls, and even making my own 3d printed dolls. I will still pick up dolls from other lines that speak to me from time to time, but I really want to focus more on who I get. I feel it makes it easier to dress and share items among dolls, and it allows me to get into a community focused on those dolls. Its hard to find communities that cover a variety of dolls nowadays. I could be wrong, and I am going to do some research and start making lists of communities I find. When I get a decent list going I will share it here for you all to enjoy and use. I am really excited to jump back into the doll world. I have truly missed you guys and your dolls so much. 

    So what else do I have planned for this space? I'd like to share more of me in general. Maybe some recipes I've tried or love to cook. Maybe some news I'm excited about. Maybe keep you up to date on my current attempt to 100% Stardew Valley, yes that is currently in the works. My thoughts on books I've read or movies I've seen. Or maybe I simply want to share a sunset with you all to help you end your day on a high note. I've got so many plans, I've got a sticker business I've started with my sister I want to share with you as well as a business I will be starting that will be a sister business to the one I've started with my sister. Just so much I want to do and share and I'm excited for it. I would love to have you all here along the ride with me. Be sure to bookmark the blog and follow along with me and whatever chaos will come. 

    Thank you for reading my return to blogging post. This was literally a long time coming. I still have so much to update you guys on. Like it just hit me, that last time I posted here I was single, and I mentioned my husband earlier in the post. Yeah, I'm a Mrs. now! We got married on Halloween in 2019. We had a church wedding in jail. What?!? I know, that doesn't make sense. Damn, I should have brought this all up in the next post. This one is a long one already. I hate being that person, but yeah, I will update you on that in the next post. Promise! Until the next post, I want to thank you all again for reading. If you are a returning reader, welcome back! If you are a new reader, welcome to my world! It feels good to be back. I leave you all with a beautiful fluffy cloudy sky to calm your day. I will see you all next time. Until then, as always, I hope you all have a magical, wonderful, splendiferous day! Bye guys!!!

Sticka Till Barbie

If you prefer to make the clothing your dolls wear, and you are handy with two sticks and some yarn, you are going to love the Sticka Till Barbie website. I found this website a good while back and was using it's free patterns to help build my doll wardrobe. You can find knitting patterns for clothing and accessories for Barbie, Ken, Kelly/Shelly, Tommy, Bratz, and 20cm Monchhichi dolls.

The site is in Swedish, but it also has English written after the Swedish all throughout the site. The layout is set up where there is a picture posted of the knitted item made, and then there are links under the picture that when clicked on will allow you to download the pattern. Each pattern is written out in Swedish and English, but the patterns are also being translated into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian and Spanish. It will say under each pattern which language it has been translated into.

The patterns are simple Word documents that come with the pattern and a picture of the finished product, which I love to see with a pattern. If you don't have Word, you can open the document with Open Office or amother free office software. Each pattern is free for use, and the website owner is fine with you knitting up the items and selling them for profit. However, they have been getting emails asking if people can sell her actual patterns. Ok people, let's get serious here. The patterns are generously offered for free and someone seriously wants to take them and sell them as their own? I can't believe people actually were brave enough to even ask about that. Here's how I feel. If you didn't create the pattern yourself, and the pattern isn't public domain, then you can't claim it as your own and sell it. And no, just because it's online does not make it public domain. Publicdomain are items that are a certain amount of years old that have lost their copyright. There is tons of stuff out there that you can legally snatch up as your own and sell. Look into it. So yeah, that's my little PSA for the day.

Now when it comes to knit items I am very particular about items I will accept as clothing. Only items I would actually wear myself are acceptable for my dolls. I love everything on the Sticka Till Barbie website, and I love how much they represent items made from other fabrics, but in the end there are just some things I can't accept in knit form, unless it's a tight machine knit. For example, I am not an overly big fan of knit pants and shorts. It just doesn't look like it would work in the real world to me. I like knit sweaters, and even dresses because it makes me think of sweater dresses. Some accessories aren't acceptable to me in knit either, but I love how the site owner created them with knitting. I am also not a big fan of complete outfits being made out of all knitted items, but I do love the look of the completed outfits on the website. It just wouldn't fit the look I am going for with my dolls. I know of others who feel the same as I do, but let me know how you feel. Do you like anything knit or do you prefer certain pieces? Is an all knit fashion ok to you? Let me know in the comments section.

Be sure to give Sticka Till Barbie a visit and have a look around. Knitting really isn't that hard as long as you take your time, and I find working on these projects is a great way to learn. They are small so you get quicker gratification from whipping them up. If you don't know how to knit, Youtube is your friend and can teach you the basic stitches need to complete these outfits, so give them a try.

Adding to her "to-knit" list,
Michelle

Image From Sticka Till Barbie

Rugs.

So I was trying to think of items to put into my shop, and thought about interior design for dolls.  I may not be able to make furniture like some of our lovely doll community members, but ready made stuff that I can paint and doctor up are possible thoughts, but I wanted to be more hands on with the complete look.  Then I thought, about trying to make some braided rugs and this is the first one that I created.

It’s on the smallish side due to my skein of yarn being at it’s end.  I love the colors in this rug.  I feel this would be considered more of an accent rug than anything.

Now the next rug is a much fuller size one.  Here it is during the creative process in some water.

I like these colors too.  The flash and water make them seem a little brighter than they actually are.  Here’s another picture of it of it slightly closer to the original colors.

I’m super duper sorry I don’t have a better picture of the rug yet.  I need to iron it still and then put it in a picture with props and a doll to show the actual size of it.  This would make a great area rug.

But as I said, this rug takes a good amount of time and so I’d have to price it higher to make up for the time I put into it.  It can take hours to knit up alone.  Then the extra steps to get it round and together.  I mean commissions I could consider, but then maybe I should just make a tutorial for it.  Just don’t know.  I guess I could try making one to sell and see if they would sell.  I know people would pay for more unique items for their dioramas.  I need to work on getting a better picture of both rugs so you can see it better.  I’ll work on that this week for you all.  But yeah, that what I was working on lately.  I have some other ideas bopping around my head as well that I hope to try in the near future.  More to come.  Bye for now, off to bed.  :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

So not fond of the frog.

Hey guys, I hope all of you had a nice Labor Day.  I didn’t do much, just hung around the house mostly.  But on to today’s topic.  So about a month ago while reading a “mommy blog” where the mom who writes the blog is teaching herself how to knit.  From here I learned a few things about knitting.  I learned a knitting term called “frogging”.  What does it mean?  It means to rip part of your work out or to completely rip it apart if you slip a stitch or some other reason.  It gets that name because when you frog a piece of work it kind of sounds like a frog going “ribbit” like a frog makes…or so I’ve heard.

So why am I telling you about frogging?  Well, as you know I like to knit doll clothing.  Well let me be more clear about that, I like to knit doll accessories.  I don’t see the point of knit shorts or knit pants.  I prefer to knit items that humans would wear like sweaters, shirts, jackets, bags, etc.  And today I decided to hit a pattern I’d never done before.  At first is seemed so large but in the last two rows I saw why and it made sense.  I started on the last row, so excited to finish and see how it fit my model when the unthinkable happens…my finger slips and half my stitches fly off both my needles.  And to make things worse, my hand movement made a lot of those stitches drop further.  I went and got a crochet hook but all the tinkering in the world just couldn’t catch the stitches before the dropped another level and trying to get them back on the needle was becoming hard and the stitches were either stretching out or getting to tight.  A few more desperate attempts and I finally gave in and frogged the work.

You have no idea how sad I was.  It’d taken me about two hours to knit the thing with my very sore arm that is the active arm for me.  I was on the last row about halfway through it.  I was thisclose to finishing, binding off, and calling it a day.  It’s not the first time this has happened to me and won’t be the last, but when you have a bum arm and you are so excited to see the final project it just kills you to go back to square one.  Oh well, I pulled it apart and then cast on the asked for 49 stitches and I will be starting over again after some sleep.  I think this sweater will be a nice looking one once done.  Oh well, hopefully I’ll have it to show you later. I have my finger knitted scarf to show you.  It’s rather long, but I kind of like it.  It’s more for fashion that for warmth.  You’ll get to see that later on today too.  As for now, I’m off to bed.

Oh wait, before I go, as I said in my last post, I was catching up on Big Brother 12.  I’d missed about a month’s worth of episodes because I don’t like being stuck to the tv.  Well I only need to watch four more and I will be done.  But I kept asking myself why I didn’t watch it.  Usually I would be glued to the tv for BB, but usually when I’m not I find the season sucked.  Case in point, when they did the couples one in the Winter time during the writer’s strike I just watched the first episode and gave up.  It just seemed stupid and I heard it was one of their worst seasons.  Well this season is turning out to be so lame.  So many cry babies on this show and so much drama coming from everyone, I must have rolled my eyes a million times.  The team I was rooting for, Rachel and Brendon, I am now ever so glad they are split up.  Rachel is such a spoiled brat and Brendon is dumb as a box of nails…humm I take that back that’s insulting to nails.  All he talks about is how much he loves Rachel and how he’s getting revenge on the house for taking out “the love of his life”…that he’d met a month before in the house.  Then you have Rachel who is constantly talking in the Diary Room how Brendon disappointed her and her down because he couldn’t hold on longer to a pole on a spinning paint can’t while standing on half a foot of space with gigantic feet and having to put all his weight on his arms.  Umm…spoiled little brat!!!  I’m so glad she’s out, and I really liked her.  Now I want Ragan to win.  Fingers crossed.  He’s the only true person in the house now that Kathy’s gone.  Ok, sorry just had to vent about that.  I know a lot of you have NO idea what I am talking about.  But I just couldn’t believe the stupidity on this show.  Usually it’s not so bad.  Oh well.  Ok, seriously off to bed now since my stomach seems to have settled.  More later guys.  Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Finger knitting.

So I am laying here trying to catch up on missed episodes of Big Brother, don’t judge me, and well after two hour long eps. I just can’t deal with just laying here. I never watch tv unless I am crafting while doing it. So I was trying to think of what I could do while laying down. Knitting with needles stresses out the arms, but I thought about finger knitting. I’d tried it before but it didn’t work for some reason. But I saw I had some delicate yarn that like to snap on my needles and I decided to try it again while watching Big Brother.

So this is what I am doing right now. It's relaxing and I hope to have a scarf done in about an hour. I'll keep you updated. Ok, back to BB. Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

*Taps* Is thing on???

Hey peeps and peepettes. I know it seems like forever since I posted here. My only excuse is I have been dealing with a nasty batch of the blues that I have not been able to pull out of. So I just sit on the computer collecting links to blogs and sites I want to revisit instead of organizing the ones I have and just overall becoming more evolved in online communities and in things I want to be doing right now. But I am slowly pulling my rear out of the hole I dug for myself and have called home for the past month or so. If I owe you a response to a comment, it's coming I promise. Sorry to the suckage at responding. The blues were strong with me this time.

Here lately I've been focusing on organization to make everything I want to do easier to do and easier to post about. I tried making several blogs but it just doesn't work for me. I like to have it all central on this blog, so I will be closing those other blogs and posting everything here again. I will be posting a bit of everything here, but I am sure it will all entertained. I was trying to keep this blog doll related, but it honestly does not work for me. I like to promote just one blog and when I finally get my shop open I just want one blog to link back to. So I will be closing my crafting and writing blog and bringing both on over here. I will be keeping writing posts to Wednesday and crafts will be worked in when I feel like it along with other random stuff, or I may make random stuff for weekends. Not sure, but in order for me not to get flustered it will be here somewhere. Humm, what else?

Been working on writing and crafting in my absence. Writing was going ok. I was working on revising my novel from 2008 and then it hit me that since it has been so long the story has changed for me and it's not Andrea's story. I've been reading my guilty pleasure lately...the Twilight series, don't judge me, and well it has me made me see the appeal of first person novels. I have also started reading "Along For The Ride" and it's also written in first person and it also backs up the first person appeal. Seems teens like to read in first person because it makes them relate to the character better or puts them in their place. So I will be trying it out and let you know how it goes. I might post excerpts of both versions here and ask you all to vote on it for me.

Along with writing I've also been reading a lot more. I try to squeeze in reading every day. I was reading a bike while I did 15-20 miles on my exercise bike...but I have not done that in a few days. Gotta get back to that. I need to find out who done it. I'm currently reading a Hannah Swensen Mystery. I was collecting these books and not reading them. I just thought the concept of a bakery and recipes mixed in was interesting. Then I cracked one open the other day and I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it. In all honesty there are some parts of it made me roll my eyes. Just a little overly dramatic but still pretty good. As for how I feel about Twilight, I will leave my final say to when I finish all 4 novels which should be in the next month or so since I just read a little a night before bed.

As for crafting, I have been working on some cross stitching again as well as trying to work on a gnome hat for Blythe dolls. So far I have three prototypes that have been worked out and I am not 100% happy with either of them so I am working on a 4th one. Once I get one the way I like it they will be for sale in my shop just in time for...summer. Humm, well I'm sure someone will want knitted gnome hats in the summer. Not all places are humid like NC. :-) I will be making a post about the hats and the cross stitching I've been doing as well. I still need to make a pdf file for the cross stitch pattern for my website. Oh speaking of my website I had a squee and happy moment a few minutes ago. :-)

Ok, so years...and I literally mean YEARS ago, I held a small summer camp for dolls and then posted about it on my website at the time. Well my site has changed a lot since then and so I have a new one but I had since lost my old site. I thought I had seen it somewhere so I went looking for it on old computer and floppy disks...yep floppies. Well I didn't find them there and I was just so sad about that and that did not help the blues. I wanted to put up my old stuff so readers of my stories can see where it all started from and hopefully to eventually see how my picture skills have improved. Well today while looking for my computer glasses, tinted glasses that help soothe the eye strain, I found my old cd roms that I put files on. I check one that said Michelle's Files and omg!!! My complete old website was there!!! I was freaking out. LOL! I felt all sentimental and happy at the same time. So I will be posting my old stories on my new website. I am wondering if I should post the old website as it is just for giggles. But it is pretty ancient. It also was one of my first image doctoring experiences with that sight. The Hollywood sign on it was doctored to say Dollywood. Very proud of it if I do say so myself. *polishes nails shirt* So expect to see my first meager toe-dipping into the world of photostories. Finding this persuades me to finally get off my ass and work on my next round of photostories. So yeah I have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks and I hope you will join me on hopefully an very interesting journey. :-) Ok, now that I've written a novel, getting good at that thankfully, I will close for now and update you more later on. Right now I'm off to write, work on website, and then return to Forks for 30 minutes or so. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse