Puzzle ready to go!

The little puzzle from Amatheria is already mounted on its definitive place:

I chose a parchment canvas over a little balsa wood board - I used very little crafting glue, which I applied with a toothpick, to glue each piece onto the canvas. 

The glueing process

I love how it turned out!  I am currently waiting on a little side table to put it in the drawing room, as if my tenant was working on it. 

I left two pieces out, although they are glued as well, so it would show it is a real puzzle, and not just an image with the pieces shapes drawn onto it (my tenant said she did not mind that only two pieces were left out).

I must confess I am very relieved that none of the pieces were lost during the whole process - now they won't!

Miniature puzzles

I am a puzzle fan, and I have posted here some of the puzzles my husband and I did in the past.  You cannot imagine my surprise when I found on Etsy a seller that had miniature puzzles for dollhouses!  

His shop is called Amatheria, Pablo is the owner, and he has some amazing miniatures that I very much regret I cannot put in my own dollhouse.  Take a note of this wonderful Art Nouveau set:

Or these amazing working miniatures. A TV set:

An Arcade machine:

Or a gramophone.  Maybe I can save for one of these:

For now, I purchased a puzzle with a design by Alphone Mucha - "Job":

It was a gift for my vampire tenant.  I must say she did not seem very happy when she saw it, but she took it from my hands and said she was going to do it immediately.  I was baffled, but then I remembered that thing about vampires having to stop what they were doing when someone throws a bag of thorns or seeds in the floor before them and they have to count each and every one of the dropped items.  Maybe puzzles are something like that for them too.  I hope she is not very angry at me...

The new Magictail in the pool, and new job!

Last week I went to my local swimming pool to use the Arielle Magictail for the first time.  I had a wondeful time; Mercedes, a swimming teacher, was there, and she took pictures and videos of me with the tail with her cell phone, and she was nice enough to share them with me:

You can see the seaweed top made by Raven of Merbella Studios

She was delighted when I showed her how to make bubble rings; she said she would like to teach their students how to do them:

I hate that they make swimmers use swim caps; the do not match well with my mermaid persona....  But later Mercedes and I took pictures of us together, and also the life saver, Ricardo, wanted to have one with me.  We have been having great weather these days in Spain, so it is a delight to go swimming.  Now I cannot do it as frequently as I would like, because I HAVE A JOB!!

I am working in the same hospital as hubby, even in the same floor, but with a reumatologist that is researching rheumatoid arthritis.  I started on March, and I am so happy with the job and with my co-workers.  It is wonderful to be back in the working force, although I miss a bit the free time I used to have.  Blog posts will begin to be less frequent, and the shop cannot have as many things as it had before, for the lack of time.  The great thing is the check that I get at the end of the month!

My next post will be a review of the seaweed top, and some notes about the Magictail monofin; also, some advice to take care of your Magictail skins.

See you soon, and happy Easter to all of you that observe the day; to the rest, have a wonderful Sunday!

A day at the pool, and a Summer job

Well, it's been a busy week, but I am happy.

Last Friday I finally was able to go to the pool for a relaxing day with my mom.  I did not take my tail along, mostly because she said she would be embarrassed to be seen with me while wearing it.  

I was concerned I would end up with sunburns because my skin is so white, so I spent the day using a sun protector factor 50 (no kidding!), and a t-shirt while not in the water.  I tried using it in the water as well but the lifeguard told me I had to remove it, because it was against the law to use clothes in the water and the Health Department could close the pool.  I was tempted to ask if I needed to remove the bathing suit as well, since it is cloth too, but I didn't.  Sometimes I do not understand rules.  I do not know if they would let me use the tail after that.  Good thing I am going to the beach in a couple of weeks...

But since now I am a mermaid, I found a treasure in the pool!  A white pearl.  It was a stud earring actually, just one of those plastic beads with a white cover, so I did not bother to take it to management.  Some days before I had been thinking about those wood boxes they sold at Michael's that were like a treasure chest, and found one just like it by chance at a local dollar-tree store:

So now I am keeping all my "mermaid treasures" on it.  I remember Don Mechanic used to have a tutorial to make this box look like an old pirate chest, but I have not been able to found it.  If you can point me in the right direction I would be grateful.

By the way, while perusing the net I found a great website for people interested in mermaids, the MerNetwork.  It looks like a great community, and they have a lot of interesting sections, such as tail making, tutorials, forums and reviews on tails.  I am not yet a member, but I definitely will.

And this Monday I started a Summer job!  I am working in a lab, as a technician, and I am learning lots of stuff.  It's a lot of work, and I do not have one minute of free time (except for lunch), but I am having a blast, and it is very rewarding to know that my work is anwering science questions.

I hope I can go to the pool again tomorrow with hubby, but we have to stop by the lab in the morning, so there are no plans yet.  Maybe next week...

In the meantime, here is a video of a pretty young mermaid in a pool (not me!).  Enjoy!

We have an apartment!

Yay!!

We signed the contract yesterday, and we already have the keys. The owner needs to move out some furniture, but she said that we can move after Saturday if we want. We don't even need to pay for these last days of March :) I am dying to go and begin decorating to make it our own. This weekend we are going to go looking for a comfy mattress. We have a beautiful vintage hand-made wooden carved bed that I am eager to try. I hope I can post some pics of our new place soon.

It has been a difficult month. Both we and hubby have had 2 colds each already - I guess contamination and being in a crowded city it's not being easy on us after having been living in the green Virginia.

But we have most of our legal documentation in order, and I may even have a job in perspective (crossing fingers!). We still have not got our stuff, but the ship it's supposed to arrive in Valencia today, so hopefully we will by the beginning of April.