Not the Easter chicken..

"Listen Missus ..... this is all well and good...but, where's me legs"? ... "Where, eh"?

.... Poor little goosie....

She's been checking out the shiny shell buttons I've added to my embroidery piece... and the thread wrapping for a button loop ...

That is not an elastic piece even though it may look like one.... not.... ...instead, it is many wrappings of embroidery thread around two other strands of thread.  French knots at the base.... there will be more in the vicinity...eventually...and... I have a further idea for those buttons... and now...a second loop is also on the fabric... for the other button... what fun!

Wheeeeeee !!

Yesterday I put on surgical scrubs, got out my various haemostats and surgical threads... laid out the patient's arms and ... er ...wings..... and got bloody...... on the first stitch actually.  Then, had to stop, lick the wool  (to get the blood off ) ..your own spit is the best way ...and almost the only thing that works really well.... but, your tongue gets kinda fuzzy.... plah... pluh.....

No wonder I hold my embroidery threads in a vice like death grip .... that's how I have to hold down a patient every time I attempt to stitch on arms, legs, heads, wings.. you name it.  I have to totally change tactics for embroidery stitches... learned that already.  Gentle pressure is all that is needed to make the various stitches look so much better.

With mohair and animals (and goosies) .... almost every stitch in tight or hard to get to areas takes pulling through with a needle grabbing hemostat.... oh, and a bit of cursing and occasional finger stabbing.

Finally... just as I was about to tie things off .... there was a flurry of wings and somehow she got airborne...

Wooohoooooooo ...........

Look at me! ................ I'm flying ..... and I can even see myself in that spoon.....

Watchout.!!!

Luckily she landed safely.... I tidied up my mess and she went over to talk to the DTBs  (dining table birds) ... they were still at it over an hour later.... I'm not even going to tell her when I paint her feet.  i'll just do it and then poke them in where they belong...I hope...

Housebound birds.....  they get a little stir crazy......

Yo- yo season..

..and I don't mean playing with them because it is spring.  I mean it is the season when the weather yo-yos....  long before it is time to be out there playing at all.

This is actually a time when we can get a lot of snow...

Two days ago it soared up to +15C; snow melting like crazy and little rivers running down the alleyways as thick ice was melting there too... sunny and warm and easily warm enough for a great golf day if the ground wasn't frozen and covered with snow and ice....

Yesterday?     it plummeted once again and today it is -12C and snowing ....  it's a winter wonderland once again outside .......  sigh......and, so......we wait.... for real yo-yo weather.

Meantime.... seeing as I am out of flour....I know... "GASP" !!  how can that be?  My second hobby is baking and I ran out of THE staple....flour.   Sigh....I am so fired.

Okay then.... I'll play with my feet instead.   My goose feet that is.  They have been sitting around ...getting moved from hobby room to coffee table..to kitchen table over the past few weeks.  Once I actually worked on them.
Yesterday I added some Apoxy Sculpt and got them about the right size and shape that I was trying for.
And, may I just remind everybody that Apoxy Sculpt can adhere to just about anything, so don't forget to put it back onto the tin foil while letting it dry.  Here I moved the feet to a place mat for a photo and forgot them for quite a while ... later I picked one up and the placement lifted off the table attached to it.  Luckily it had not finished setting or Ms Goosie might be permanently attached to a placemat.
If ever you try glue on something and it does't work?.... buy a couple little pots of Apoxy Sculpt.

The next thing I knew, little Ms Goosie was examining things herself and wondering if they would eventually be the right size and shape for her body type.

Soon, I will have to poke some holes in her undercarriage and decide exactly where to position them so she will be balanced enough to stand on her own.

Maybe later today ....seeing as no baking will be happening... actually it could happen right after breakfast... my neighbour is out there snow blowing our sidewalk for some unknown reason...so I got lucky and don't have to shovel...wheeee....... thanks TOM! you crazy old guy......

bending wire..

Usually a bit more tricky than it looks ... for me anyway....

...maybe just one size smaller would work better.  I seem to be awkward at it and it is a struggle to get it how I want it.

Bent into a shape for Ms Goosie's feet ... I was then hesitating as to whether to just put on some felt as called for in the pattern...or go for the gusto and form some Apoxy Sculpt into great feet... as Maggi and I decided, and she has already done. ...(she's a lot quicker than me at doing any of it...and carries on between visits... I seem to be lazy or something..) ...  somehow I just never find much time to work on anything crafty these days.

Organizing, still trying to choose kitchen tiles...which by the way...I HAVE now!  woohoooo ..... must tell the contractor because it takes 5 weeks to get them!  acckkk!

And, then...I had to fix  my mixer.  Can you believe all this time I was dissing my Cuisinart mixer.. because it didn't pick up whatever was on the bottom of the bowl?  Some of you are probably already saying....she should have read the instruction manual.  No??  Well, I should have.

There it was.  In black and white. The solution to the problem.  Which by the way.... I found out from somebody's blog while reading and surfing ...   and it wasn't even to do with that.  But, on a bread baking forum ...somebody mentioned how to fix a Kitchen Aid mixer having the same problem.   I had always been whining about not having my little Kitchen Aid still...as it was perfect for that very thing.  Couldn't believe it when somebody complained about hers..and I had to read on.

To discover this:::::

There is a nut to loosen......

If you have this problem  ... get out your trusty crescent wrench ..... and....one thin dime....















After loosening the nut... give the top post of the blade a turn ... tighten the nut again, insert the blade, and put the dime in the bottom of the bowl. Turn the mixer on at 2 ... if it doesn't even touch the dime yet...which mine still didn't..... take it out, loosen the nut again and try another quarter turn or so.... reinsert and try again..... until it moves the dime a bit on every swipe past it.

I actually had to turn that post so that several threads became visible.... as you can see in the photo ...in order for it to even touch the dime....so it was short of the bottom of the bowl...allllllll thissssss tiiimmmmmme!  mutter...mutter........ *&^%....
No wonder it didn't mix as well as it should.  It couldn't even touch the ingredients.

Several years now since I gave away my trusty KitchenAid mixer and bought this new one.  All the time I have been wishing it would give up the ghost so I can treat myself to a new yellow mixer.
NOw what? ....it may go on forever ...grinding and clunking and being downright noisy...but, working perfectly.   I want a new pretty, yellow, quiet KitchenAid mixer.

Maybe when the tiles are done....I'm gonna treat myself.