Cobblestone Creations Blogspot

Monday, January 9

Holy Moses! Wholly Moses!

Thought I'd share some pics of a mouse I made for one of my favorite collectors.

It's a Moses mouse to go with her

Egyptian mice Mousiris and his Queen.

Complete with leather sandals.

Even Chuck would like this one, I bet.

Saturday, January 7

I've got to change my evil ways . . .

Ok, I'll admit it. I was a bad girl in 2011. Instead of entering my business data into my financial software package, I just threw every receipt, sales record, bank statement, etc into a pile. This is very unlike me ~ or unlike the old me, I should say. Let's chalk it up to a mellowing on my part. Yeah, that sounds good.

But the day of reckoning came this week. Mr. Cobblestone had a business dinner one evening, so it seemed a good time to occupy our very large dining table with my very large mess. Never mind that the mess was there for 3 days ~ he's a very accommodating fellow, my Mr. Cobblestone.

As I stared at the stacks, I knew I'd have to employ a bit of motivation ~ something to get that energy flowing. I turned to the Music Choice 70's channel through our cable provider and pumped it through all the speakers.

You must agree that there is simply no music like the music you first discovered in your teen and preteen years (go ahead, I'll wait while you do the math.) Soon I was dancing around the table sorting all those receipts, bills of sale, etc and had a few flashes of a young girl doing The Hustle in front her of mirror in that tiny bedroom in Mon City all those years ago.

But the really frightening thing was how many of those lyrics came pouring out of my mouth like it was only yesterday that they populated the top 10 charts. We're talking pretty obscure tunes here: "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton, "I'd Love You to Want Me" by Lobo, "My Best Friend's Girlfriend" by The Cars, "In the Rain" by The Dramatics, "Low Rider" by War, "Falling" by Leblanc and Carr, "Evil Ways" by Santana (duh) and *gasp* "Ariel" by Dean Friedman!

You'll be relieved to know the table has been returned to its usual state now and the books have been put away, all tax forms filed and paid.

Whew!

Now it is time to SEW!!!

Thank-you all for your patience with me throughout the holidays and tax time. More than once I needed to walk away from all the paperwork and found myself puttering in my studio ~ resulting in many little piles
of half finished mice and bears.

I promise there will be new little friends available soon!

Tuesday, January 3

Just a few loose ends to tie up for 2011

So, how was everyone's holiday?

It was busy, busy, busy for me so I'd like to take a moment now to wish each and every one of you a most joyous New Year full of happiness, good health and prosperity!

During the past few weeks I had wanted to share a few things with you, but well, somehow never found the time.

First, let me thank all of you who took the time to send holiday greetings ~ they were indeed appreciated. I had to laugh that more than one of you found this gem of a card from JacquieLawson e-cards featuring a particularly fitting storefront near the end.

Some of you have very sharp eyes indeed to spot the little Cafe Cobblestone.

I loved it!

I also wanted to let you know that Mr. Cobblestone and I once again found a few days for an overnight getaway to Chicago for some Christmas shopping. We took the train down and had such a lovely time discovering Chicago's Old Town district, lunching at O'Brien's which was decked out in the most charming Christmas decor I've seen in quite a long time. A chilly (ok, downright cold) walk down Lake Shore Drive through the Gold Coast region brought us to Michigan Ave. We dined at Frontera that evening and were lucky enough to see Rick Bayless himself. It is an exceptional meal any time and I strongly urge everyone to get there at least once.

Our hotel was one of the Kimpton properties, specifically The Monaco Hotel. Now, this was way more fun that it should have been ~ they have large window seats in some of the rooms, with memory foam cushions, where you can snuggle up with the wool blanket and pillows watching the Chicago River.

Someone in our room even managed to fall asleep there.

I was also extremely thrilled to have been published in the UK

Teddy Bear Times Magazine!

Yep ~ there are my mice and bears on page 36 of the Dec/Jan issue.

Thank for including my work, Faye!!

The decorations have all been packed away over the past few days and now I am ready to start on some new bears and mice. Two bears have been cut out today, and 3 new mice have been started as well. Hard to say what exactly they will end up being ~ you know they have a curious way of exerting their own personalities. I can tell you that Hansel and Gretel are in the planning stages ~ I've found the perfect house to cover in faux candy! What fun!!!

Wednesday, December 14

It's beginning to look a lot like . . . Hogwarts?

As you can imagine, all the mice in Cobblestone Circle are busy with their Christmas preparations. As am I.

Every year seems to bring a combination of tradition and newness to my decorating. Some of the newness is by choice, or I simply don't remember where I placed certain items in previous years ~ but some is forced. Although the concept empty-nest is firmly rooted in my and Mr. Cobblestone's brains, downsizing has not yet hit our psyche. Due to some rather large new furniture purchases, I find that some of my Christmas collection has had to find new locations. This takes me waaaaaaaaay longer than you'd think it should.

Aside: It was Mr. Cobblestone who pointed out years ago that it is indeed Christmas 'Collection' that I possess ~ much like a museum in that you don't showcase it all at once, but rather choose which items to display in any given year. Yes, I'm a Christmas junkie on some level. *gasp*

Anyway, the first change this year was in our dining room. We used to have two light fixtures above the table, but changed to one large one this year ~ and added the architectural detailing on the ceiling. I had only just begun to create my Hogwarts effect (for lack of a better term) last year and here already I had to come up with a new plan. But fear not ~ armed with my invisible sewing thread, and a few well placed pins, I managed to hang all my crystal snowflakes and golden ornaments from the ceiling once again. The effect is really stunning when we dine in the evenings with the candles lit. I'm toying with the idea of getting some of those battery operated votives and hanging them as well ~ you know, kinda like the floating candles in Hogwarts dining hall. The falling snow is definitley out of the question. Hmmm . . . .

Today I will decorate the large tree in the living room, which once again will be a change for me. We no longer have room for the largest tree from the Christmas Tree Farm (I told ya ~ junkie) so I will definitely have to do some editing of what actually makes it onto the tree this year.

I hope each of you are enjoying your holiday preparations ~ and that you and yours have a peaceful and joyous season!