Snow Day!

Time Out For Play.....

It's been Snowing a Lot in my Neck o' the Woods, Dear Readers, and it doesn't look as though it is going to stop any time soon! In fact, today was Groundhog Day, the Day on which a Groundhog comes out of his burrow and forecasts the remaining length of Winter. "Punxatawney Phil" claims there will be six More weeks of the cold stuff....and Frankly, I believe him! Because it was snowing hard this morning, with enough snow on the roads that I stayed home from work, and it snowed all day. We got about 12 inches of the stuff, on top of the four we got last Thursday, on top of the six we got last Tuesday.... and you get the picture! And it has been so cold that none of it is melting either.

So there was Nothing to do but Play at home today!

All that snow has really been piling up! 

The Conservatory is half buried in the white stuff...

And the Folly too!

Oh look! It seems as though the Groundhogs 

are not the only ones up and about today!

Anna Maria and Samuel Whiskers have come out to see the snow...

Anna Maria thinks it would be fun to build a Snow Rat....

Samuel Whiskers gets started right away!

Anna Maria wishes she had a better bonnet for hers.

It seems as though Samuel Whiskers has finished another one too!

I wonder what he's thinking....?

But it was so cold outside, Dear Readers, that it wasn't long before 

Anna Maria and Samuel Whiskers went back inside 

to the warm kitchen of the Tree house.

And speaking of inside....

Maybe we should have a look inside the Conservatory...

To check on the seeds we planted....

Not so long ago!

It seems nobody has shoveled the path.....

But please do come in!

Oh look! Something has sprouted!

Goodness.... that was fast!

Just look how Vigorous they are!

They will need re-potting in no time!

But for now we will keep their cover on.....

It is a bit chilly in here.....

And it is forecast to get Very cold tonight!

Such a good thing we checked!

Well.... look who is here....?

Where do you think you are going...?

Surely, Not inside! That would be the death of you!

"Did you see where Red went... ?" asks Mistress Blue.

"No idea..." replies Master Green.

Even Will decided to come out to see how much snow had fallen...

He wasn't prepared for quite so much snow!

And he wasn't really looking forward to all that shoveling....

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you have enjoyed 

coming here and playing in the Snow Today!

I was going to show you more, 

but it seems that Blogger is tired...

And it didn't even have to Shovel any Snow!

Planting Seeds....

By The Light of The New Moon.....

I am Starting my Garden at the Very Beginning, Dear Readers, by Planting the seeds! And I could not have been happier than I was to see the recent post by Pepper of MitchyMooMiniatures blog, who not only Created a Beautiful selection of miniature seed packets, but she also Shared the file for others to use! Thank you Pepper! It is Generous Creative bloggers like you who make so many of us less Computer Savvy bloggers very Happy! I had been Longing to make a selection of tiny seed packets.... and so I jumped on her offer to share, and spent Saturday assembling the tiny little gems!

I am still sort of new to printing out files and have no idea how 

to re-size things unless I am following very careful instructions.... 

but I was able to make my printer do a respectable job with these seed packets!

And as you can see if you look closely, 

I wanted my packets to have "seeds" in them!

And what did I use for this, you might ask?

Why "Pepper", of course!!!

I think it gives that extra layer of realism 

to have something inside the tiny packets!

I made them all up... starting with the flowers....

and the tomatoes too, 

because they would be the ones 

that needed to be started indoors....

For which you would need to tear the corners when opening them....

So you could plant them in seed trays......

Indoors in the warmth on a cold Winter's day!

I have not yet made myself a "Vacuum Forming " tool, 

such as the one Pepper showed on an earlier post.... 

where she demonstrates making perfect little seedling "planters".

So I opted instead for the older fashioned single tray model....

made from the plastic packaging that came 

with a recent purchase of miniature doorknobs...

I saw their potential right away, and saved the packaging!

I cut the sections apart, leaving one side 

with a larger lip than the other side....

Then I added a small bead of white craft glue 

around the edge of the one with the larger lip...

Which you can see if you look closely!

And when it dried completely I painted this section black...

It needed several coats, on both sides....

The glue bead made a little edge 

to catch the cover and keep it snug!

Ready to fill with the "dirt" of your choice....

and plant with the tiny seeds.

And what better time for Planting than the New of the Moon....

When the Old Wisdom says the seeds are ready to sprout... 

and the strength of the Growing Moon will aid the new seedlings!

And to that End, I also painted more on the Moon Maidens...

 

The last three Maidens that march up the narrow stairs to the third floor 

were the most difficult of them all!

Above you can see the beginnings of the ones on the stairs.....

but I was not happy with the proportions of the one half way up!

And I realized at this point that I was going to need 

to incorporate the top floor railing into the painted portion of the wall!

I had already stained the other sections of railing, and punched out their "holes"

but now I realized I had overlooked the section on this side of the stairs!

Which was a good thing as I wanted to leave the "gaps" 

filled in order to paint the Maiden at the top!

Once I had located that section of railing 

on the sheets of punch outs for the kit, 

and primed and painted it, 

I could continue with the last two Maidens.

I painted over the middle one in order to fix her proportions 

now that I could see where she would reach onto the railing section.

And started the final Maiden that would represent 

the Dark of the Moon at the top of the stairs.

And before I went too far with the painting, 

I thought to test the fit with the attic floor in place

to see if I had the alignment correct....

And realized it was off by about an eighth of an inch!

(Which you can see if you look closely at the above picture!)

So I painted over the upper sections AGAIN, Dear Readers,

and made sure the alignment was adjusted properly!

And painted the final New Moon Maiden!

Which was just as well, because the latest version is by far the best...

Here she is partly done.....

And here they are completed...

Marching up the attic stairs... 

where they will be almost impossible to see....

Barely glimpsed at the top of the stairs.

But, like the New Moon itself.....

Or the seeds in the packets.....

Or the seeds in the Ground....

We will know they are there!

Isn't it Fitting then, Dear Readers, 

that I am planting the seeds

and Painting the New Moon Maiden....

Right at the Time of the New Moon!