Wlydhare's Hollow

No Breaks This Week!

The recession has changed the career paths of many people, no news there, and our family has also been touched by the events of the last year.

A few months ago, I made a decision to try to make a living doing custom machine embroidery. I have always loved sewing and hand embroidery of every type, but it is very hard to make any money doing it, since the time and energy to embroider one kitchen towel exceeds any possible profit. My hope is that with machine embroidery I can create some wonderful, one-of-a-kind pieces, with labor and materials costs that will allow me to manage a profit. I also would like to use my creative skills to create my own line of designs, using what is called digitization software. For the geeks out there, that means creating a vector graphic of the design I wish to embroider, then assigning instructions for the machine on how to lay down the colors and what order to do the stitching in to make it look as professional as possible while keeping stretching, puckering and unwanted overlap from occurring.

So last week I spent four days attending a conference for professionals in the "decorative garment industry" learning all I could in classes, seminars and workshops. My poor little head is on the verge of exploding.

Meanwhile, I had to upgrade to a more robust computer to handle the digitizing software and so I have been busy setting that up and installing and learning my new embroidery software. Then last night, the CD/DVD drive just stopped working! Arghh! I had only had the machine 10 days! So I called Toshiba and the only solution is to send the computer back and be replaced. It will take 2-3 days for them to get the computer, then another 8-10 business days to build a new one, before they can send it back. *bummer*

So, to cheer myself up, I decided to work on my doll house, and get the electricity repaired in hopes of making my end-of-month deadline to finish the downstairs.

I carefully stripped all the wallpaper in the kitchen, with a mixture of water and vinegar.

I carefully repaired the wiring in the areas I had identified as having problems. Then, I went to test my work.

No joy. No only did my test light fail to light up, but the fuse immediately blew. *sigh* I replaced the fuse, tried again and that fuse went as well. Four fuses burned, nothing worked. I am so bummed. I will not make my end of month goal and now I have to order new wiring and pull out all the old stuff and start over with new wiring. Something in the old stuff is bad and shorting thing out the system and there is no way to isolate it at this point I am not getting any breaks this week!

I guess being discouraged makes successes all the sweeter! Speaking of success, I have been following Weight Watchers since early November. I have made it through Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, New Years and way too many cravings and I have now lost a total of 18 lbs. Hmm, maybe it isn't all gray clouds and gloom! Find something to smile about! 

P.S. Any and all warm thoughts about my venture into a home business would be appreciated! I am scared to death and am not entirely sure I am sane! LOL!

Dolls and Discoveries

I found another estate sale I just had to go explore. It was a home where the woman had been an avid doll collector and maker. She had a kiln and about a zillion molds and hundreds of dolls I am getting into these estate sales, you never know what you might find.

The coolest thing I found was a copy of a doll I had been given to me at Christmas when I was 10 years old. My mother gave her too me, along with the book Hitty. Actually, I would not even remember the year, but my mother helpfully inscribed it with the date and occasion. I have actually tried to find a copy of the doll for years, with no luck.But there, at this sale, I found her again! Made a few years after mind, with a dress in a different print, but otherwise exactly my long lost doll and she only cost $3! It must have been my day!

In addition to Hitty, I also found several other dolls I couldn't pass by. Does this me one of those nutty ladies that have a house filled with nothing but dolls? I find that creepy, but I do treasure the dolls I own. How does that work out? I do avoid commercial dolls that are sold in pink aisles of Toys R Us. I like traditional and handmade, because there is artistry and love in the making, not just a "Made in China" stamped on a rubber butt.

That said, someone please put me down if I start to collecting crying clown dolls with music boxes, okay?

The little boy on the right is about 3-1/2 inches tall and all three are jointed so they can stand or sit. They were each only $1 - how can you pass up a deal like that?

As to my doll house, I have made progress, but I ran into a snag today. I was trying to test the electrical system and install little outlets and found most of the power did not work. I find "juice" near the the point the cord is plugged in, so that was good.

The light is a test probe. But unfortunately, as you might notice, I had to strip back the wallpaper to confirm I was properly hitting the connections. Now I have to strip the whole wall and re-paper it, which will not be a quick project since the glue is very efficient. After much fussing, I found out why I was no getting power in the rest of the house.

I realized when I had been putting in the wall paper, I had run the x-acto knife down the corner to clean it up. Duh! I cut through the wiring in the process. How brilliant is that?

However, I have installed the floor and the center wall and I am ready to put in baseboard once the electrical issues are resolved. So I have an order in for more electrical tape to "patch" my little boo-boo. I am still hoping to make my goal of finishing the downstairs by the end of the month. I hope this little snafu has not ruined that deadline.

I would love to hear about the projects you are working on! Please share!

Resolutions

In recent years, I had stopped doing any New Year's resolutions. I felt less guilty because I didn't have something to flake and fail over! However, this year I have picked a resolution for 2010 and I intend to see it through.

As some of my readers may know, I love miniatures, dolls and doll houses and have created my own miniatures since I was a child. Unfortunately, the sturdy doll house my father made me as a child, was stolen from my garage when I was in my 20s and I have not had a proper doll house since then. Don't get me wrong, I make minis: furniture, food, needlework, all sorts of goodies to go into a doll house, but all of that has been sitting in boxes, waiting for a home both literally and figuratively!

Way, way, way back in 2000 (ack, was that really 10 years ago??), on eBay I found an old never assembled doll house kit, which I bought with all sorts of visions and expectations.

 Doesn't the photo on the box look wonderful?

Full of enthusiasm, I began to assemble my dream home!

 
Then added layers and layers of primer, the old wood just soaked it up!

Wiring went on the inside so I could have lights, and then house color went on the outside. Even our cat Minux approved!

But then, the poor house sat. And sat. And sat; almost 9 years! It moved around the craft room. Stuff was stored inside the shell. Minux thought it made a grand place to sleep and soon there was cat fur everywhere! *Hangs head in shame*

My resolution is to actually work on it this year and FINISH it, so I have a wonderful house to enjoy and a place to put all my mini treasures.

I have now installed the front door, hung wallpaper downstairs, trimmed the inside doors and windows, built the wall to go between the living room and kitchen and cut some of the flooring to fit!

 Built a wall to go between the living room and kitchen and cut some of the flooring to fit!

My more immediate goal is to finish the downstairs by the end of January. What is your New Year's resolution?