Tune In Why Don't You!

I am the firm believer in the power of music to calm, soothe, sometimes stimulate, but always always always bring a certain kind of joy that nothing else can even come close to.

As a small child of 4, all I wanted was a piano.  My parents didn't have a lot of money, so they bought me a cord organ and as the story is often told by my family, I was pretty much permanently attached to the bench day in and day out, playing and singing and swinging my feet.

I did get that piano when I was about 10.  I had been taking piano and voice lessons from the man across the street who was a choir director at a large church in the city.  I practiced on another neighbour's piano every day after school... until I finally got my own piano.

I kept taking my voice training from the man across the street but because I was such an avid student he suggested to my parents that I take my piano lessons from a teacher registered with the Royal Conservatory of Music - and so the following year I began doing that.  I took piano and theory and reached Grade IX in the Royal Conservatory of Music by the time I was a teenager.

Things changed, but not my love of music.  I learned the Cello and played with an orchestra for 6 yrs.  I also learned the guitar, accordion and the organ.  I would have loved to learn the harp - that was to be my next conquest but alas I ran out of years.  By then I was working as a Registered Nurse, then married with a family, and mastering new instruments was forgotten.

Music is still so much a part of my life.  My husband is an organist and plays his pipe organ in the basement every evening after dinner.  I have my old 1929 Irish Piano, that I wouldn't  trade for anything.  I have my Dad's accordion, which I play as well.  I have always wanted a Cello of my own, but I just can't justify the cost of purchasing one at my age.

Every evening I spend one hour before bedtime with the music I love.  Until this spring it was listening to selections of my own CD collections that I would load on my ipod.  My son bought me super expensive headphones, and so for the last hour of every day I zone out in my own enjoyable way.

But then my son introduced me to TUNE IN radio.  If you haven't already discovered this wonderful piece of technology, and you love music - any music - you must pay attention.

If you have a ipod, ipad or iphone you can download the free app to Tunein Radio.  If you want to use your computer you can get it by going to Tunein.com.  You do  need an Internet connection to use this app, however you choose to use it.

I get the station I want to listen to on my ipod and then I doc my ipod on my stereo and so I can listen wherever I am in the house.

When you go in to Tunein, you will be able to search for whatever you want to listen too.  Select "Music" and then have fun searching the stations.   There are thousands of music stations of every genre available for you to listen too.

You can save favourite stations as Favourites and then you don't have to re-search every time.

I have some terrific Christmas stations saved.  Here are a few you might enjoy:

KING FM Classical Christmas - beautiful classical and traditional music of Christmas.  Really good instrumentals and choral pieces.

181. FM Christmas Standards - Christmas music from such performers as Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and all the soft jazz-type performers of that era... really good stuff.

Christmas Carols Radio  - this is my favourite because it is Traditional Carols sung by some of the best Choirs in the UK.... Kings College, lots of John Rutter, John Scott's choir, and arrangements that I have sung in our own choir at St. Luke's Anglican here in Winnipeg.  I find myself singing along with the Contralto line almost every song that is played.

There are stations from every country in the world and for every type of music you want to hear.

So Tunein, and enjoy the music of the season...

Chrismtas Marx Tin Litho tour - the rest!

Are you ready to tour the rest of the Marx house?  Hope you have your coffee and Orange-Cranberry muffin close at hand.

The first room I will show you today is the kitchen.  I actually have done the least here of all the rooms.  I would eventually like to add some accent pieces here like shelves or maybe even cupboards.  A really nice cluttered kitchen is what I aim to do, but for now it is simply a plain little room.  There is a sheet of cookies fresh out of the oven sitting on the top of the stove, but don't think that is visible in this picture.  The light hanging down from the ceiling is actually a LED light that really works... I bought it at Toad Hall( a great independent toy store) here in Winnipeg.  Oh and that's a little kitten lying on the rug...

Next is the master bedroom.  This room was missing a wall like I said in my other post.  I made the bed from cardboard, foam and material.   It actually is much larger than a bed from the era of this home would have been - but I decided that  King sized bed would be in order for this room, mainly because I had very little furniture to fill the room.  The lady of the house is a quilter, so her  machine is ready for use, and she has decorated her mantle with boughs of holly just as you will see in the living room below.
The little red easy chair is actually the only original "Marx Furniture" piece I have.  I bought it for a couple of dollars at the Miniature show and sale here in October.  I find this bedroom, restive, and peaceful... a good place to have a nap!

I have saved the last room for the end of the tour, because it is the best.  I wanted a lighted tree for this room - this was always my focus.   Years ago I had decorated a tiny tree with decorations that would have fit perfectly in this room, but when I began searching my inventory for it, all I found were the decorations that at one time were glued on the tree.  So the search for the right tree began.  Every little tree I saw was either too large or not the shape or colour I wanted.  Until one morning a co-worker brought in a dollar store ornament to work.  It was an oval base with three glittery threes attached to it.  On top of each tree was a star.  I knew the moment I saw it that the smallest tree would be perfect for my house, so to the dollar store I went.  In the end I went to many dollar stores and all they had left of this particular ornament were red, silver and gold versions of the green one I really wanted.
In the meantime I had been to Michael's and found the tiniest set of LED tree lights that really worked.  I had the word out to everyone I knew to keep an eye out for the green trees decoration, and just last week it was delivered to my desk by the same co-worker who had pretty much spent her entire weekend hunting down my little green trees.
I was in business!  I decorated the tree and lit it up - and wow - I even managed to impress myself!
I got busy and made the sofa, and afghan, wrapped some presents for under the tree, decorated the mantle and hung the stockings.  I added a little roll-top desk for writing those Christmas Cards and another LED floor lamp that will be much more functional once the tree is no longer in the room.  Next year I think I will decorate the stair case as well!

My future ideas for this room include a coffee table, end tables and perhaps a couple of wing chairs.  Maybe even a shelf of books, or a television... All of which I hope to make myself over the winter months.

The only area left to show you is the roof-top patio.  I imagine this area will look very different in the summer - perhaps a picnic table, an outdoor swing, some loungers, some potted plants a BBQ, but at the moment it is where the children go to have some fun in the snow. The little reindeer I bought at Target, he was in the ornaments just sitting there looking so cute.  I made the snowman from some of the snow that is all over the house... remember this house is in Winnipeg - and at the moment it has more snow than we have on the ground!

Oh - and not to be forgotten.... Santa has just arrived!

You might wonder where the family is?  I wonder that as well - perhaps they went to Aunt Bessie's in Florida for the Christmas Vacation... Yeah, that's it - definitely!

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday!

A Bloggers Perception!

I wish I knew the time of day my readers read my blog.  I often imagine the scenerio.  In my imagination it goes something like this....

You turn your computer or tablet on, then head to the kitchen to start the coffee.  There are some dishes lying around the counter and sink from someone's late night visit to the kitchen so you rinse those and put them in the dishwasher.  You wipe the counter and  - well the coffee is done.

You pour yourself a cup in your favorite mug, grab a freshly made muffin from a plate on the table ( you were up at 4: 30am  baking) and head back to the cozy little nook where your computer is waiting.

It is a beautiful bright morning, the sun is just coming over the trees, there is a cardinal sitting on the fir tree right out your window, and the air is filled with sparkly ice crystals.

But you are warm.  You have your sweats, heavy wool socks, and a blazing fire near-by.

You check your emails first - please always do that.  You never know who might have contacted you... a family member who is hurting - a friend you haven't communicated with in a long time, but really really have been missing in your life... Your Mom, Your Dad - brother or sister - neighbor!

You hit Facebook next - that's okay - I do it too.... and then you come here.

Okay - too romantic... how about this?

You turn your laptop or tablet on, only to realize the battery is dead, so you tear the house upside down for the charging cord.  You finally find it, under the dog's bed in the hallway.  You plug your device in and head for the kitchen.

You really want coffee - but you are out of filters.  Hummm somewhere on the internet you saw some genious make one out of a paper towel... must have been Pinterest or one of those places.  How hard could it be?  You rip off a piece of towel from the roll, cut an almost round circle about the right size and stuff it in the drip cup.

Your favourite cup with the chip on the top is in the dishwasher so you pull the first clean one out of the cupboard that your hand touches.  You smile... it is the cup you had made of your Son's visit with Santa in 1992.  What a sweet child he was - sigh - he looks so cute on this picture - sigh - where has the time gone?

You wipe a tear from your eye as the memories flood your heart.  So much has happened in your life since this cup came to be...
The coffee is ready - the home made filter worked just fine - good to know...  Surely by now there must be enough battery to boot up, so you unplug your laptop and with coffee in one hand and the laptop under your arm you head for your lazyboy rocker-recliner!

You get halfway there and you run into the dog.  She wants out.  You set the laptop on the piano, and the coffee on the pony- wall and head to the back door - dog in tow.

Geeze it's cold out there, you think as you scrape the frost off the window on the outside door.  What is taking her so long out there anyway?  You open the door look down the yard and yes -there she is in position - you close the door so not to let too much cold air in and wrap your arms around your body clad only in your summer pjammas.

That done you walk through the kitchen and think you really should clean up the dishes in the sink first, but the laptop is waiting, the coffee is getting cold, and you really want to see if there has been any response to your FB post the night before.

You log on - and head to FB first.... not much happening - same posts as last night before you went to bed.  You check Pinterest - not much new there either, although if you took the time to type something in the search box, you know you would be lost for hours.  You check your emails - nothing there either, except a newsletter from Annie's Attic.  You open it, and see a couple of cute projects that perhaps you might be interested in trying.

You head to erndalesnmore to read Dale's blog.... there she goes blabbing on an on about dolls again... Gee I wish she would get some new material...

How is that for accuracy?

However you make your way here, I just want you to know that I am so very thankful you do.  Please stop by whenever you can.  Become a follower of my blog, leave a comment, let me know you are here... I'd really love to hear from you.

Oh and there is a really good Cranberry Orange muffin recipie in my list to the left of this page - Make a batch to go along with tomorrow morning's coffee and blog...  we are going to be going on a tour of the rest of the Christmas Marx tin Litho House...

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Christmas Open House - Marx Tin Litho Tour #1

If you know me at all, you will know that I am very attracted to "Little" things.  Maybe that's why I love dolls so much - to me they are like little people.  I believe they have expressions and personalities of their very own!

Don't send the paddy wagon for me yet - this post isn't about dolls!  But is is about dollhouses... or one particular doll house, to be exact.

Some time ago I purchased a 1950's Marx Tin litho doll house from a Antique store here in town.  I only paid 35.00 for it and I can remember at the time thinking that 35.00 might even be too much for an old piece of tin.  It was, however in really good shape.  No rust anywhere and just just missing a wall between the master bedroom and the bathroom, and an outside dormer... or so I thought.  It is a large colonial home, with a rooftop patio, but I have since discovered that something is missing from the opposite side of the house - perhaps a garage, or maybe even a fall-out shelter - seriously some early models of these large colonials did indeed have fall-out shelters, believe it or not!  I am now pretty sure that my house had awnings over the windows at one time, as well, as there are little holes above the windows as if something used to be attached there.

The house sat in the closet of my craft room for a long time without me even thinking about it, and then one day this past summer I was looking for something else in there and I re-discovered it.

I wasn't in a very stable place health-wise, and maybe even head-wise at the time, but seeing the empty house sparked an interest in something that I had long forgotten I once liked.

I brought it out, set it up in my craft room and decided it might be a nice past-time to work on it once in awhile.

The first thing I did was look for furniture.  The rooms in this old house were bare, and after spending hours online it became pretty clear that acquiring original-type furnishings for this home would be not only expensive, but difficult as well.   My mind started creating ideas, and the next thing I knew I was looking forward to a project again. I wanted to fix, furnish and decorate it in time for Christmas...

The nursery came first.  I had acquired a few pieces of furniture from a doll friend of mine.  One of the pieces was a little child-sized bed.  I started there - crocheted a cover for the bed and a rug for the floor.   I had a stash of miniatures from my egg-making and miniature making days and in that stash I found many things I could use in that room.  I have mixed the scale a bit in this room, but even so, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  See the little holes on top of the window?  On the outside that would be the perfect position for a awning over the window.  I still need to make curtains for this broken window as well.

Next came the bathroom.  There was a wall missing between the master bedroom and the bathroom, so I cut a wall from a piece of tin I found in the basement shoved behind the furnace, and instead of painting it, I covered it with a yellow material on the side of the bathroom, and pink on the side of the bedroom.  The tub and the sink were acquired from my friend, and everything else I made... except the goose sitting on the tub.  The bathroom is minus a potty - this family is going to have to use outdoors accommodations for while, until I can locate a toilet!

This family even has toothbrushes and soap....

Then it was on to the dining room.  My major problem here was that I had absolutely no dining room furniture.  So I decided to turn it into a music room instead.  Who needs a dining room anyway when you have a perfectly good kitchen to share a meal in?

I found a Chrysnbon Kit to make a pump organ on Ebay, and I was so excited because I had had one exactly like it in a house I had made in the 1970's... and so my music room was born.  I will eventually make a spinet or a harpsichord for that room, but in the meantime, I ripped a harp off my own Christmas tree (again not the correct scale) and put a HiFi  in the corner.  A saxophone sits on the bureau.  I made the lamp from some beads, and knit the rug on the floor.  This room is not exactly how I would want to keep it, but for now, it will do.  Did you notice the candles on the organ... made simply from pieces of toothpicks, some artificial flower stamens, and a simple jewelry finding.

The best is yet to come... Master bedroom, kitchen and living room all decorated for Christmas.  Check back tomorrow - you won't be disappointed!

BEE-LIEVE!

The past few summers my gardens have been visited with by a growing number of Bumble Bees.  For such a long time they were pretty much absent, but now it seems they have returned.    This fall as I was cleaning up my flower beds I noticed swarms of them buzzing around a old birdhouse that I have sitting on a post in my garden.

As birdhouses goes, it is not much to look at, but it has some sentimental value to me because it was made by my son when he was about 9 yrs old, and it is made from re-claimed boards taken from my grandparents original homestead house.

I watched them circle the house for hours, and then I noticed that they were actually going in and out of the bird house as well.

Just last week I was finally reading my 2014 edition of The Prairie Gardener, and low and behold there was a lengthy article about bees.  How to attract them to your garden, good bees vs bad bees - where they come from, where they live…

I was fascinated.  As I read the article my mind kept returning to my Bumble Bees.  What really made me sit up straight was the information about Bumble Bees nesting habits.  The Queen overwinters and nests in the ground, or in mice nests, and even sometimes, but rarely, in abandoned bird houses!

Imagine my excitement!  A couple of years ago there were a pair of finches making a nest in my birdhouse, but a neighbourhood cat became rather interested, so they moved on.  I did not clean out the house, I just left the nest inside.

How brilliant!  My laziness might just have created the perfect spot for a Queen to overwinter and restart her colony in the spring.

You wanna bet, I am going to be watching my birdhouse very carefully come spring.

In the meantime, I decided to dress up the house for her for Christmas.  A little green garland, a little stocking and some pretty coloured lights at night… all fit for a Queen.

Rest well my little Bumble - if indeed you are in there….

Today and Beyond

It has been such a long time since I have been here, that I even forgot my login and password to this site.  Lucky for me, I keep a little black book in my purse with all my logins and passwords... frustrating as it is to have to carry such book around - this time, I was glad of it.

It has been an interesting ten months, since last I was here.  In February I lost my job of 17 yrs due to outsourcing.  The first four months of my forced "Retirement" were spent quite pleasantly at home.  I got to experience a bit of what retirement might feel like, when it finally becomes a reality for me. 

It was nice to spend a lot of quality time with my husband.  We found ourselves acting like we were retired - going to McDonalds for coffee and a muffin every morning; Mingling with the seniors who gather there early every morning.  I even let the color grow out if my hair, so I felt like I fit in perfectly in that crowd.

The winter continued to be brutal, so I kept myself busy making and selling sweater sets for my doll groups.  My doll friends were a blessing - they kept me so busy creating that I didn't have time to dwell on the fact that I had been ousted from my job of 17 yrs.

Before we knew it, spring was upon us, and I was making plans to spend a lot of quality time in my gardens.  I had great plans to re-do a lot of my plants which have become less-productive over the years.  I was going to try new varieties and it was in my mind to really get a proper herb garden to make teas  - maybe even a sustainable, profitable retirement venture for the future?

By the end of May, I was beginning to feel the pressure.  We still have a mortgage, loans, car payments... retirement really had not been considered an option for us - so I started job hunting, and I did find a job in my field, and was working again by June.

The job is a blessing in that it is a paycheck, but I find I cannot put my heart and soul in it like I had my previous one.  Resentment, sadness, fear, all seem to have a play in my attitude when it comes to my new job.  But like I always do - I will persevere.

The new plan has become to do all we can to make retirement a reality in less than 5 years.  I hope we are successful, because I keep thinking about that 4 months spent at home, and I realize that after a lifetime of working full time - I am pretty much done with the idea of working at a job.  I have a lot of ideas I would like to try, avenues I would like to persue, and skills I would like to utilize. 

In the meantime, I want to blog.  I missed writing and sharing with my readers.  I have some new things to show you, new stories to tell, new recipies for you to make, and some new fun for us all to have together, so please, come and visit me often... bring your friends along with you (suggest my blog to them).  As usual my topics will be life lived (everyday stuff); creativity (crafting, writing); collections (dolls and now dollhouses as well); beauty(gardening, music, nature, photography); and everything in between...

See you next week!

Crazy for Quilting!

Yesterday I was talking about projects and I thought I would share another very special project I am soon starting.

I have always loved the look of Crazy Quilting, so when my cousin called one day last summer and asked if I would like a quilt that my Aunt's mother had started years ago, I said yes.

What I received was several pieces of Crazy Quilting, none large enough for an actual quilt, but perfect for smaller projects, such as a wall hanging, pillow, table topper etc.

The largest is made up of 4 Quilt squares done in velvets... and the original quilter has done quite a bit of the embroidery on it that makes Crazy Quilting so special.

I would like to further embellish this one with beads and lace and such and turn it into a wall hanging for our bedroom.

The second piece is smaller, and it looks like it is made from men's ties.  This one has a bit of embroidery done, but not much.  I love the fan in the corner.  This one I think I would complete as a table topper (not to be eaten on, of course)

The third piece is a small scrap of a piece that I think I could perhaps add to with more fancy fabric and turn into a doll quit, or a pillow..

And the fourth piece is pretty much a blank canvas...

I consider myself so blessed to have received these old patches from years gone by - I plan to treasure them for years to come...