Feeling rather crappy today and yesterday. It feels like a bad cold, but since I’m never in contact with anyone, it’s sinus masquerading as a cold. Anyway, this too shall pass. But I’m a wee bit whiny and I’m grateful my husband apparently doesn’t mind my whining and comforts me, nonetheless.
Have I told you how much I love him?
Yesterday was sort of a fog, though I did get some things done.
Highly satisfying. Also zen-like, which I really appreciate at this moment in time.
I stained the miniature desk that I made from a kit a while back. I had to bring it downstairs to get a photo. It’s been dark and dreary for days and days and it rained all last night so it’s still dark and dreary. Gray days and a sinus thing = an unhappy Claudia.
It still needs a bit of touch up. For those of you who think I have great light in the studio – I don’t. Only two little windows that get good light at the end of the day, and only if it’s a day with some sun. If I could convert the kitchen into my studio, I’d do it. But I can’t. Anyway, I brought it down here to photograph it this morning and noticed some areas that I’d missed. And I’ve already put a coat of paste wax on it. I’ll figure it out. I don’t mind it looking a bit spotty as it’s supposed to be old.
I also saw a photo of a real-life version of this type of desk in blue this morning and I immediately wondered if I should paint it. But I painted a lot of things blue in Hummingbird Cottage and I’m trying to fight that instinct and add some stained wood pieces in this project. I don’t want every dollhouse to look the same. I see a lot of that out there. On the other hand, I also see a lot of wildly imaginative work going on in the dollhouse world, most often by young people. That is fabulous!
I still have to order hardware for the desk. That will involve some searching on the internet because I don’t like what I see in my catalogue from miniatures (dot) com.
I’m not reading Winter Solstice yet, though that will be next. I’m reading Cruel Acts by Jane Casey, a terrific writer of police thrillers. I realized a week or two ago that I’d completely missed out on her two latest books, so I ordered this one. Casey is Irish by birth but she now lives in London and her stories take place there.
Okay. My energy is flagging.
Stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
Winter Solstice is one of my two most favourite books. :-) I usually read it every year before Christmas, but not this year. Due to the much snow we have, I may read it for the 20th time. It’s a feel-good book. I just want to be a part of these people and spend Christmas with them.
I’m so looking forward to reading it, Regula.
Stay safe!
Feel better – sounds like you could use some chocolate.
Take care,
Anne
There’s some sugar-free chocolate just waiting for me!
Stay safe, Anne!
hope you get sunny days soon and feel better sooner than that. also hope you can take it easy, spend the day(s) reading and napping and puzzling … whatever you want.
great work on the puzzle and mini desk! does anyone make bills and staplers, etc. tiny enough to put with desks that small? that’s another question you don’t need to answer … just wondering here (it kind of boggles my mind how people can make such tiny things look so realistic).
guess what? for the first time in many, many, many weeks, i did some knitting today! started a hat using circular needles, chunky yarn and a wonderfully-simple pattern my sweet sister found for me. that felt so good! :)
i am soon out the door. it’s our usual grocery shopping day, but i am getting a slow start for not having slept well. plus there’s snow and maybe ice out there. ugh. i know that shopping can wait … will see how the parking lots are … but i want to see my family!
hope you, don and everyone else has an easy, comfy, safe day!
kathy in iowa
Oh yes, they make everything in miniature!
So glad to hear you started knitting. It’s so calming and it will be good for you, Kathy.
Stay safe!
I know I’ve read Winter Solstice but it was so long ago I don’t remember what it was about. I have so many books on my ‘to be read’ list but I might add it. I don’t have a pile of books anymore. I mostly read e-books now unless I can only find it in a real book.
I think it’s highly unlikely that you have covid as careful as you are, but a friend of mind thought she had a sinus infection until her husband got much sicker and they were both tested and positive for covid. If you develop any more symptoms please do go get tested.
We are hearing there is no vaccine to be had in our county but we have our names on the health dept list, a local pharmacy list, and I check our local hospital system every day too. Now we hear that the administration had already released the doses they were supposedly holding back. I have faith that things will improve after Biden takes control but even then it’s a massive undertaking.
I hope you feel better quickly.
We’re fine. I have sinus problems all of the time. I’m used to it.
We have our names on the County list, but they have very little vaccine.
Stay safe!
Feel better soon, Claudia. xo
Thank you, April!
Stay safe!
I hope you feel better soon. Its been a rough week for me. Feeling a bit better today but ready to just climb into another book. So I just checked out Winter Solstice from the library online. It sounds like the book I need to read now. Take care!
Glad to hear you’re feeling better, Linda. Take care of yourself, my friend.
Stay safe!
I usually read Winter Solstice every December, also, but didn’t this time. Now I so wish I had. I love spending Christmas with those wonderful people in that lovely village. Have fun reading!!
The desk is so pretty. I think that flaws are necessary to show proof of life. Surely hope you feel better soon. We have had way too many dreary days here, also. The weather guy said we have had 2 sunny days in Jan. so far, and a few days with a few minutes of sun. ugh. At least we didn’t get the snow that they predicted. I hope you find some peaceful pockets today. Take care.
The sun is peeking out today. There were actually some moments of sunny skies this morning!
Stay safe, Chris.
I’ll have to look into Jane Casey. Love the sweet desk and hope you can find just the right hardware.
Meanwhile, as a long time sinus sufferer, I feel your pain. Lay low!
Thanks, Jeanie. They seem to get worse as I get older!
Stay safe.
Just got “Winter Solstice”, not my usual genre, but need something different to read. Will wait to read your opinion, please do give your opinion!
Don’t wait for me. I’m in the middle of another book right now, which I’m going to finish first.
Stay safe, Nancy.
Claudia I started that very same puzzle this morning! That’s such a coincidence! Hope you feel better.
Isn’t it a beautiful puzzle?
Stay safe, Connie.
Sorry you’re under the weather, Claudia. No fun. Wish I could give you some of MY ‘weather’ as I sit here trying to keep cool with raging Santa Ana wind outside, drying us up (shriveling us), hot and unpleasant; 92 degrees as we get to 2pm PST, and it’s supposed to get even windier in a couple of days (I’m so over it).
This John Derian puzzle you’re doing looks to be really lovely; look at those butterflies!
The desk: I do, in fact, have the real-life version of it. I almost lost it once. Was given to me in childhood from an auntie and I have no idea how old it was when she had it. But, yes, mine-all-mine from about 1962 to 1975 when, why I have no idea, my parents (and I? [really?]) gave it (as a loan) to another aunt who took it out of state. Fast forward to 1991 and my husband went back there to retrieve it for me when she died. He refinished it carefully and beautifully (it was so dinged up by then and not attractive, so he just restored it to how it looked from when I was a kid, like the condition it was in when it was given to me), so I’ve had it ever since, and I love it; love the cubbies. In my human life, I have a mix of painted furniture and not-painted; it’s all good. I’m glad you didn’t paint your miniature; it looks perfect now with your stain. My desk has the original hardware and they’re brass ‘ring-pulls’ on the heavy drawers.
I only briefly turned on the TV news today so far. (Only to turn it right off … unfortunately, there’ll be more bad to come I’m sure, if not with unrest in the capitols and DC but surely with Covid numbers, so I think I’ll focus on my gloriously-busting-out amaryllis which had been a holiday gift in a good-sized ceramic pot; it’s such a shot of brilliant red on the dining table. All of my outdoor roses have been pruned, yet there was one small tender bud on one so, rather than it getting seared by heat and blown by severe wind, I brought it in, put it in a clear glass jar-vase; it’s a Tequila Sunrise rose, so should be a bright spot in the gray mood/gray-winter-dead landscape out the window. [Although we did pick three-dozen {delicious, organic!} mandarin oranges off our hillside tree, so the big bowl of orange is also very pretty for the kitchen.] And the Christmas Cactus is abundant with its glossy reddish-pink blooms. Color of natural things makes me happier. The small things of life which cheer us.)
My grandmother had one as well. I always loved it. I think my estranged sister has it now.
I was fascinated by the cubbies as a kid. Some things never change!
Stay safe, Vicki.