Can you stand it?!?

Ok guys, so in roughly a little over an hour Autumn officially begins.  That is 11:09 pm EST time.  I am all giddy people!  My FAVORITE season EVER is about to begin.  Oh sure, it’s still warm out, but not hitting the 100 degree weather we had this summer, so that’s good.  I’m so excited.  I have been waiting for it to cool off since Spring started, and now it’s here.  I hope the crisp cold air will put some pep in my step and a smile on my face.  I’ve got so much I want to get done in the next 3 months, fingers crossed it will happen.  May the countdown to Autumn begin!  Woo hoo!!!

But here’s a question, isn’t it weird that daylight savings doesn’t start until November 7th?  You would think it would be in October some time.  November just seems so late in the game.  Aha!  After some research I found out it did use to be in October but just recently a new law made it start in November in 2007.  Several reasons stated for the change are saving on energy, better voter turn out…which the day of DST will be changed during voting years because it’s proven voters will vote if when they come home at night after voting it will still be light out, and it’s safer for trick-or-treaters.  Interesting.  I still feel it’s so late in the game, but it got me to read about it and now I know…hehehe…and knowing is half the battle.  :-D  Bye for now.  Woo hoo for Autumn!!!  *does the Autumn Moonwalk out of here*

Loves ya,
Mouse

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

The most awesome entrance.

Hey all, I’m back, and I want to start off this post with the most awesome wedding entrance ever.  LOL!  Some people know how to have fun.  LOL!

Ok, now on to the rest of the post.  :-)  So I told you a couple of days ago I was working on pattern drafting.  Well one of the things I drafted was a blouse.  I kind of wanted a basic go-to bodice shape so this blouse is it

I wish I didn’t use the fabric I used because it’s hard to see the detail on it, but I wanted to use fabric I wasn’t going to use much for anything.  Here is my Liv doll Carly sitting on my mini water fountain.  Yep, she’s bottomless, and she’s a doll, let’s move on.  :-)

Ok, so this next one is slightly blurry.

You can see the overall shape of the blouse/bodice.  Not liking the sleeves, I plan to cut those off I think.  Still debating.  The neckline turned out nice.  I was going for a square neckline.  Not sure why really?  I just didn’t want to go for the same ol’ round neckline.  Oh, and yes I’m aware that I should not have sewn in white, but I placed the threads in the wrong locations not thinking and well…yeah.  But I figured it’s practice so it didn’t matter.  Ughhh, I hate those sleeves.

Here is the back.  It’s closed with a thin piece of hook and loop tape.  The back doesn’t look THAT bad.  I will admit it still needs some work, but not overly bad.  I had to expand the pattern some because the fabric did end up being a bit short, so I had to pull tight to get it closed, and as you can see it didn’t close completely.

So, overall, not to bad.  I am wondering if I should shorten it for a small bodice?  I think so.  And perhaps I can avoid having to put darts into it.  Well might still need them on the side.  Hummm.  Tomorrow I want to spend a good amount of time sewing up another mock-up.

Here you can see I was using a thimble of green thread for this, but I didn’t think and ended up sewing the colors on the wrong sides.  This thimble is full of sample thread so that is why I didn’t just use a big spool of the stuff, don’t have one.  But now I want to start collecting a ton of pretty colors, but wow thread is expensive.  And it’s so hard to pick the right ones.  Black and white I can do just fine but other colors I’m at a loss.  But I will have to try picking out some.  I wonder if clear thread would work?  Like nylon thread?  Until I figure out a good mix of colors to good.  Any suggestions?

And now, just for fun, here is a picture of something else I sewed.

This is the empire dress I sewed for my Blythe dolls.  Of course it doesn’t close in back, but it’s a close.  I just wanted to get a picture of the one good dress I sewed since the other one is tucked away for a year.  This one was the best out of the two.  I was so happy when I finally got the pattern right, thanks to some helpful tutorials online about the pattern.  I’m going to try to make several of these this weekend.  Hopefully tons of pics to come.

Well I will close for now.  I have another post coming about something else I have been working on that I thought I could post in my shop but I think it would be to time consuming to make.  It takes several hours to several days to make one and while I love it, I don’t think they would sell well due to the price I’d have to put on them.  I was considering taking commissions on them instead if someone wanted one.  I was also considering making a free tutorial on how to make them instead and just offer up on my blog or website.  I’ll tell you more in the next post.  Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Hey you!

Hi.  :-)  Sorry guys that I was much a loser and didn’t get back to you about the codes, not sure if anyone wanted them or not.  Either way, I never got them because my email for the account was AOL and AOL likes to gobble up your emails and send them to a little place I like to call Email Hell.  Somewhere in a hot nowhere’s land there are two innocent codes screaming for their lives.  *sigh*  Sowwies.  The game sucked anyway.  And the other game I went back to, well it sucks now too because now everyone is a high level and hangs out in the high level cities so you are lucky if you see one person per hour in the lower level cites.  Sucks.  I’ll stick with Perfect World.

But I feel bad coming back empty handed so I have another code opportunity for you guys.  If you are interested and own a PS3, codes are being offered for “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light” beta.  You go to the website, sign up for a GameSpot account and then put in your info and you get a code for the Playstation Store to download the game.  The beta is only good until the game comes out on the 28th, so get it while the getting’s good.  I plan to download tomorrow and check it out.  It looks like it will be interesting, and I’m a Lara Croft fan anyway so of course I love it for that.  Just hate the angle of it, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

In other news, I have been lax in doing anything due to not feeling good.  I really feel I am allergic to something.  Dairy or glutens or something.  I need to figure out a way to check for that, but without a doctor since I don’t have health insurance.  :-(  I guess just cutting back to bland gluten free food and seeing how I feel.  Now, anyone know of a website that tells you what a nice bland gluten free menu consists of?

Also the boyfriend had surgery on Monday and that had me stressed, but he’s doing good and he’s healing up at home.  He’s not a happy camper right now, but he’ll be ok once he heals.

And other than that not much of anything.  Kind of been down some and I don’t know why.  Humm, watched the last episode of As the World Turns on Friday.  Lovely ending to the series, but sad it’s gone.  But hey, gives me more time in my day for other stuff.  Been watching the Korean drama “The First Shop of Coffee Prince”.  LOVE IT!  It’s so funny and veryyyy dramatic.  But most Korean dramas are.  I like them for some reason.  I already have my next one planned to watch when I finish this one which should be this week.

I’ve got a dentist appointment on Friday that I am going to cancel and push back a month.  It’s a cleaning, so it can wait another month.  Just don’t feel like going.  I always stress over these appointments, even though it’s a cleaning and simple, I hate them.  I feel stressed, they take so long to get to me, and I just feel uncomfortable there.  So I will push it back a month.  Maybe I’ll feel better going after the temps drop some.  I mean how can you be in a bad mood with crisp air in your longs, beautiful fall colors around you, and the hint of the holidays in the air?  Can you guys believe the holiday season is about to start.  I say it officially starts on October 1st.  Halloween is part of the holidays to me.  I want to plan something to do this year for Halloween, but I don’t know what.  Still deciding on it.  It’ll be here in no time and then NaNoWriMo!!!  So excited for that this year.  Not sure what novel I will work on, but November is always a relaxing and stressful month for me with Nano, but I love it so much.  Humm, ok this is getting long and going off into another direction.  So I will close now.  Just wanted to let you all in about the LC beta code.  I’ll be back later tonight with a doll post.  Bye until then.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Meh, not so interesting.

Ok so my sister and I tried Vindictus and didn’t like it.  It was mostly go see someone, go onto boat with party, kill in a dungeon, go back to person, go onto boat with party, kill in dungeon, go back to person, etc., etc.  So not all that fun. 

I haven’t received my codes yet.  I’m wondering if I will since it’s emailed to AO-Hell.  If I still get the codes I will just post it here and let the first person who sees it have it.  I still promised one to a friend but if he decides not to play then I will post both codes here.

I really thought the game would be more interesting but it’s not all that.  My sister and I were talking and decided to go back to Mabinogi for a while.  We’ll see how we like it again.  We loved the beta.  I forget why we quit.  I am thinking grinding, but there is so much to do on the game I think I’ll stick with it for a while.  If you are interested in Mabinogi you should check it out.  It has a lot more things to do than Vidictus.  It has changed since my sister and I were there and we are excited to see how it changed.  I am downloading the game now since she downloaded Vindictus.  An hour wait.  Guess I’ll go work on another doll blouse.  Oh I need to show you the picture of my first attempt.  If I am fully honest with myself it doesn’t look THAT bad, but I see the flaws and I want it to look better.  So I guess I will work on that after I post about my work from yesterday.

Ok, I’m off peeps.  I should be making another post soon about the blouse.  Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Does anyone play mmorpgs?

Ok first off, for those who don’t know, mmorpgs are massively multiplayer online role-playing games.  This is your World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Perfect World, Ragnarok, etc.  My sister first introduced me to these games years ago with Ragnarok.  I like playing these games but after a couple of days of non-stop play for HOURS I start to feel and realize I could put these hours of gaming to better use and so I quit playing as much and then quit all together.  But I still always like to try new ones that come into beta to see if this one will keep my attention longer.

The problem I find with mmorpgs is that after a while all you are doing is grinding to get your level up if the game is not quest based.  I currently like playing perfect world but as my rank gets higher I get closer to the level where I will just grind and have to help lower levels with their quests in order to up my level.  I hate that.  If you are going to have a game with high levels at least have quests to do to up those levels.  But oh well, it is what it is.  I haven’t played Perfect World in a while and I think I am ready to abandon it again.  I just might if this game my sister told me about seems better.  It’s the prequel to a game we already played and liked.

The game is called Vindictus Online, it’s based on the Mabinogi mmorpg, which I really liked playing.  Mabinogi is kind of like the cuter version of Vindictus, so I’ve heard.  Vindictus happens before the “time” of Mabinogi.  I’m interested in seeing how it is.  I’ve heard it’s a lot different from Mabinogi.  I’d like to see what they kept and what they got rid of.  My sister and I had a lot of fun on Mabinogi so I’m sure we will have fun with Vindictus.  I’ve heard Vindictus is the American name of the game and that Mabinogi Heros is what it is called elsewhere.

Well, now to the point of my post, when a person with a beta code uses their code they get two additional codes.  I could easily put them up on a gaming board or on YouTube or heck even Facebook, but I wanted to give my blog readers the first option to have them.  I haven’t gotten them yet, but my sister has a code, I believe because of where she works, and she’s giving me one of her additional codes.  I, in turn, will end up with two codes, only one code now since I have given one to a gaming friend.  So, if you are interested in playing Vindictus and want to get into the beta leave me a comment on this post.  I WILL check them.  I know I have been a major slacker and I’m going to catch up on all comments today, but this post in general I will make sure to check.  If no one has posted they want the codes code in 24 hours, meaning 4 pm eastern time on Sunday, then I will just post them it on a related Youtube video for the game and let someone there have them it.  So act quickly if you want them it.

If you are curious about game play, here is a video for you to check out.

Check out the Vindictus website to sign up or learn more about the game.  I just had to reactivate my game login from YEARS ago.  But I am all ready to game!!!  Well, as soon as my sister gives me the download and code.  LOL!  Well just got the code, now waiting to see if the game plays.  Just saw, it plays well after she brought down the graphics some.  I have to go get the download from her now.  And one cool thing, usually in betas that once beta is over the system is wiped, but this time if you get in you get to keep everything once beta is over.  Very cool.  So yeah, like I said, leave me a comment with a way I can contact you and I will give you the code.  First come first serve.  See you all in game.  :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

A tip on a perfect way to get your camera back!

So, since a lot of us use our cameras for a variety of things in our hobbies, I found this tip that Andrew McDonald suggests quite interesting and heck, it may even get your camera back for you.  Tell me what you think and would you do it?  :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

Hey! Hey guys!

Guess what I want.

Hehe. Yes I’m serious, and yes I’m getting one. I’ve never had any before but I think they look so awesome. I want to see if I can get them to live and stay living for the two years they can live up to. Looking for a kit now to get. I’m glad the kits don’t have that many in them, I think it would overwhelm me, but the start kits have only a fraction of those, so that’s good.

Oh, you don’t know what they are? :-D They’re brine shrimp. :-D Think I’ll either hit the toy shelves of Target or Walmart to see if they have any. If not, I found some cool kits on Amazon. I’ll let you know when I get them. Yep, I’m a big dork/kid at heart and I plan to stay that way. :-D

Loves ya,
Mouse

What am I up to?

Thought I’d pop on to let you all know what I’ve been up to.  Here’s a hint.

Humm, doesn’t look like much really, does it?  Humm…another hint?

Humm, hearts, dots, and stars…getting warmer perhaps?  Ok, one more hint.

Wait, ok a doll, some No-Sew, and that fabric looks to be cut into a shape of some sort.   Hummm.

Ok, so yesterday was one of my “bad” days and I was on “alert” all day for the big bad “P.A.” to show it’s ugly self.  Well last night I decided to get my mind off of things by trying my hand at drafting a pattern with fabric.  I cut the fabric out today and so far so good.  I want to make some front darts for the shirt I am making and wanted to look at Corset Kitten’s dart tutorial before I drew my dart placement.  I think I am going to do to front darts that end right under the breasts.  Not sure if I will want more or not.  Will have to look at some shirts first before I make up my mind.  But the picture above is basically where I left things.  I plan to work more on it tomorrow.  I think tonight I will make my dart marks, pick out the thread I plan to use and put my machine on the desk so I am ready to go in the morning.

So remember a couple of days ago when I said I was working on finger knitting?  Well I finished the scarf I was working on, took a picture, and then never posted it because I wanted to fill the card first.  I have a small card that gets about 20 full size pictures and my camera runs off of batteries so I like to be frugal and transfer the pictures when the card is full.  Next camera I get is having a rechargeable battery with charging dock for sure.  Ok, on to how the scarf turned out.

Really not that bad for a first successful attempt.  Now there are some things I learned about finger knitting.  First, be sure to keep the tension throughout the work.  Second, have a general idea of how long you want the work to get and keep checking.  This knitting goes quickly and gets long on you fast.  And lastly, realize that when you start it’s hard to stop in the middle.  Meaning, if you have to hit the little girl’s or little boy’s room you either have to hold it or do what I do, make it work!  It was so not easy, and I do suggest that you go before you start and maybe not drink a lot before starting.  But this turned out ok.  I think I would like to use much thicker yarn next time or double up on yarn.  Fabric in background is my bed sheet.  I was lounging in bed doing this.  LOL!

So yeah, that is all I’ve been up to dollwise.  No, I tell a lie.  I am working on some of Figurvore’s challenges.  Actually I want to attempt them all.  One of the things I am working on is a doll story for one of my main characters.  Most of it’s done but I have a few things to work on and then upload it to my website where I will be working on some other stuff on my site like finally fixing some of the links that refuse to work.  I’m also working on a pattern for pants for the Harley Davidson Ken.  Did you know he’s got a slightly bigger caboose compared to the Fashionista Ken body?  It’s just a hair bigger, but you can see it when you try F Ken’s clothing on HD Ken’s body.  Very interesting.  I’m not sure if these pants will be skinny or loose.  I have the pattern ready to go just deciding on fabric right now.  I might use stretch denim or this fabric that is cotton I believe but looks just like denim with a slight wash.  We’ll see.

So that’s about it.  I know, I still have to catch up on comments and emails, such a freaking slacker!!!  My email is at 96% capacity last time I checked, so it’s honestly not you, it’s me!!!  Ahhh!!!  I’m trying here people!  I swear!  LOL!  Well I’m off.  I’ve been really sleepy as of late, I think the change in seasons, and it makes me just want to lay down most of the time, which sucks when all I want to be doing is crafting.  Well that’s my plan for tomorrow.  It’s going to be a slightly sad day tomorrow and I want to have something fun to work on.  Ok, I know it’s silly, but the soap opera I watched with my mom as a kid and have been watching everyday since I was a teen is ending tomorrow and it makes me sad.  I know I’ll move on, but it’s sad to think that my “friends” won’t be there for me at 2pm Mon-Fri.  I barely watch tv but this show I loved.  I am trying to get into The Young and the Restless since one of my fave actresses is going to that show from As the World Turns, but I just can’t get into it.  It’s an hour long and she won’t be the same character so I am thinking I need to just let it go.  It just means I have another hour to myself for crafting.  I still like The Bold and the Beautiful, but I think because it’s so over the top and it’s only 30 minutes long.  Just long enough to be entertained but not so long that you get bored.  ;-)  Ok, I’m off now.  Need to go set up my stuff for tomorrow and then lay down some.  Bye for now.  :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

*Dances*

Morning peeps!  Ok, so granted I have not been to sleep yet, but if I was just waking up, I’d want to start the day with this song.  Feel free to dance along to the beat.

So I have not been very productive as of late.  Just feeling a general icky, but I have been catching up on some other stuff so it balances out I guess.  Just wanted to pop on and say I am still here, just been busy with other stuff and have not had much to post.  But I hope you enjoyed the fun video and I will post again real soon.  :-)

Loves ya,
Mouse

He’s gonna shock us!!!

So I had to post this video for you all to see the silly things that make me and my sister giggle.  From 5:00-5:15 this scene makes us laugh our butts off.  When we first saw it years ago when my sister was a kid it made us laugh and it still does now.  Silly?  Yes?  Funny?  Heck yes.  LOL!  Enjoy.

Vezi mai multe din Desene animate pe 220.ro

Ok, I’m off to try some sewing.  Hoping your day is going well.  Keep those who lost their lives in your heart today and a quick Happy Birthday to my friend Kenny today.  He’s not having the best day so I’m sending some healing vibes his way.

Loves ya,
Mouse