Grandchildren update

Another hot day.  I have been sewing the special outfit.  Have to finish the crinoline and the hat tomorrow.  Then I begin the Christmas scene.  (No, it's not too early! LOL)

School starts for most kids next week.  Sydney will be going into 6th (where did the time go?) and Kate is going into 4th.  They came over again today and we are continuing to work on their shops.

Kate is working on the second floor of her boutique, the runway.  We saw a possible Barbie layout and she liked it.  The brown is the floor and it's a 59 cent tile from Home Depot.  She covered a spaghetti box for the runway and glued it down.  The black-and-bling little walls are the changing rooms.

 The curtains make it all pretty.  She'll glue them on next time she's here. 

These will be the benches and the little pieces are for the legs.  They look embedded in the tile but they aren't!

 

 



 

Sydney's bakery also has a second floor.  She originally had fancy chairs.  They weren't feasible but I didn't tell her that, just let her try and make them from clay, wire, etc.  She gave up and decided to make regular chairs.  So I let her have the bag of woodies (they are wooden pieces that are relatively thin but strong) and toothpicks for chair rungs.  We used foam board for the seat, cutting out the corners for the chair back and legs.  She finished one chair and part of the second. 

 

See the pieces on the tile?  That was a full afternoon's work.

 

 

Another thing she did was make hanging lights for her 1st and 2nd floors.  We used a large lid from a medicine bottle, hubby drilled a hole in the top and she covered it with scrapbooking paper.  Next time we'll hang them.  I let her do everything herself so the edges are a bit rough.

It was a tiring but very full day. (Especially for grandma!)

Maybe there will be more tomorrow night.

Until then....

Pat

Four silver wands....

Whew!  It is so hot and humid here.  Just last week, we had 3 lovely cool nonhumid days.  Glorious. Then the humidity came back and brought the heat with it.

Can you believe summer is marching so fast?  I find that this summer is the time I've needed to continue getting well.  I can now sit and concentrate for periods of time that are longer than normal.  I am also getting my interest back in my activities and hobbies.  I am still struggling with balance and do balance exercises for that.  So it's coming along.

I started the wands.  I was going to make a wand for one of the quads.  But it was so fast and easy, I went and make 4.  Fast work.  Instant success!

My thought was to put a faceted gem on the end of the wand.  First, I went to find beads.  I saw these beads for $5.  I had a 40% coupon.  You can see all that I got for that price.  There are several different shades, too.  They had another card of these in different colors.  I may have to get them just to have them on hand.  I usually find something wonderful and then, Presto!, no one has them anymore.  Notice they are silver trimmed.

 

You can see the silver trim better here and the facets.

 

 



Then I went to the dowels and tried the gems on for size.  It's funny how you think one dowel is the perfect size and when it's checked, it's too big or too small.  I found the exact size!  How often does that happen?  I bought 4 of them (36" in length) at 59 cents each.

I wanted to paint them silver and found Martha Stewart's Metallic Silver paint.  Wow! It's great. It does cost a bit more but only needs one coat.  And no finishing coat of poly for shine.  Nice.  However, the light doesn't show the shiny silver!  I painted almost the entire length of the dowel.

I then cut the dowels into four pieces at 3.5 inches each.  I dabbed silver paint on the one open end.  And then I used E-6000 glue to affix the gem to the end of the dowel, I mean, wand.

I didn't push the dowel up all the way so I drizzled some silver paint into the hole at the top of the wand.  Nice finish.

And here are the 4 wands.  I think I will embellish the wands further but I am thrilled at the finished product. 

So, it took me no more than 30 minutes for four of them.  This does not include drying time.  I do a step and then walk about doing other things.

Let me know what you think!  Hopefully, tomorrow I'll see you again.

Until then....

Pat

Sewing break

Hi there.  I've been sewing a dress for Barbie because I'm doing another special project.  I know you guys don't want to see sewing things.

However, I did buy dowels and beautiful beads.  I have another project in which I need magic wands. I will be starting those.  I hope to do that this afternoon.

Then I bought some plastic mesh.  Brae from otterine.com.blog made heat registers for her old house.  She got the idea for them from 1 inch minis by Kris.  I am going to make some.  If you haven't seen her finished old farmhouse, take a look.  It's magnificent.  But you have to scroll through a few days' posts to see the pix showing how it emerged.

So if I do something great, I'll be back tonight.  Stay tuned.

Until then,

Pat

Furniture showing pieces

Hi.  I want to thank Jazzi for pointing me to a site for some of the furniture I have.  I think I am going to use her ideas.  I'll show the finished pieces here.

However, this is the furniture kit I was talking about.  Much more rougher than others.  Recognize this box?  I got this for free so decided to bash it.  But I don't want to  reinvent the wheel. 

And this "wood" is not easy to paint so I will definitely need some type of primer. 

So here's the front of the box.  There's lots of pieces and a lot of furniture.

 

It doesn't come with anything but the furniture.  I notice some of the things are painted white. 

 



Here's an actual panel of pieces that need to be pushed out for finishing.

I know I read that someone did this.  I could bop myself on the head for not saving such an article and tut.  So put your thinking caps on! 

Thanks.

Pat

Question to everyone

Hi.  I haven't worked on any minis this week because life got in the way.  LOL

Anyhow, I am beginning to collect things for the beach house I am going to build. 

My sister sent me a Greenleaf Dollhouse Furniture Kit.  It has laser-cut furniture in a really terrible style.  Of course, I plan to bash it.  But I have a question.  If you don't know, perhaps you can check around and find an answer.

Several whatevers ago (years? months? centuries?), when I didn't pay much attention to it, someone wrote about redoing this type of furniture to make it more modern.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?  It will be painted, of course, not stained.

I remember the article talking about reshaping some of the furniture pieces and it gave other hints, too.

If you know of this source, would you let me know?  Otherwise, it will be a bashing frenzy. 

Maybe I'll finish something mini today.

Pat

Finished things and new things

Hi.  Sorry for the delay in getting things in this blog.  I've been under the weather and my medicine doesn't allow me to focus for long periods of time.  However, over the last few weeks, I finished the Halloween swap items.  They turned out cute.  Each hat bow matches the bow on the broom.  The color of the bows is on the wands.  The wands have "golden" swirls.  I made the brooms larger because here's the original broom.

 

 

 

Here's the sign on a post.  It says ONE HOUR BROOM PARKING.  All Others Will Be Toad.



I made one of these because a friend getting one of the packages doesn't like scary.

 

However, others are getting her.  She has lipstick on, painted toes and fingers, a gold necklace, gold ring and even a bow.  She is put together with brads so her arms move.

 

Went to a doll show today.  I found this darling chair, perfect for my Amelia doll.  It was only $5.  The cushion is removable in case I want to make another one.  She likes it and seems perfectly comfortable in it.  It will be easier to put her in the doll case.



 

 



 

 

 

The above birthday cake was only $3.  Good bargain for a cake.  

 

Here are two "crystal" doorknobs.  I don't know if I will put them in Rowena's house or the new beach house.  

Found this cutting board.  I will varnish it one coat to look real and may put a decal on it.

Found this tea cart.  Hubby has to straighten the handle.  It's heavy metal.  Going to get some Tester's paint and redo it.  Don't know what color yet.

I need two rolling pins -- one for each house.  I'll paint the handles.

Seagrams bottle, 4 metal gold tone glasses and tray.  Heavy!

This will be a seed holder.  It's a laser-cut kit and comes with "seed packets."

I have two these -- 2 houses, you know!

One spatula turner. 

These are metal.  The adjustable wrench and the pliers and the large scissors work!  The other scissors don't but they don't appear to belong to this group, which was in one bag.  The hammer is cute, too.  I may use Tester's and paint the tools.  Maybe.

I found these two cute kitchen racks.  $9 for both. 

So that was my day.  It was a good trip.  There are no more shows for awhile.  I am beginning to look for things for the coastal beach house.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot.  Last week, we went to a professional dollhouse show (artisans) and I found two great things.  I'll show you tomorrow.

Until then...

Pat