...all the way from the door to the work area. This is how I've spent most of my day but the room is actually usable again. I'm able to have my laptop on the side desk and work at the main one. I have my jewelry making supplies set up now. More earrings coming soon.
I got a large 5 drawer, 2 bin rolling tool box today for an early Mother's Day gift - it is so cool! For the first time ever, I know where all of my tools are - and they're organized. There's an open bin/shelf in the middle. Glues, pens and markers, magnifiers and paper towels are there.
One drawer is just for punches, scissors, tweezers and the other tools I use most for minis.
There's a drawer full of clamps and Dremel accessories.
A drawer for clay tools. There's a drawer for basic household tools, one just for saws and knives. Miscellaneous stuff is in the area under the lid and the large bin at the bottom holds power tools.
And the result of the tool box is a large clear area on the work table. I have more work to do but you have no idea how bad it had gotten in this room!
I just had to show you my favorite earrings from todays jewelry making session. I also designed square business cards to use to hold the earrings. I promise I will be back to minis soon. I'm just waiting for some new inspiration. Tomorrow will be a better day and I will figure out the next project. At least that's my goal. ;)
I used a different technique on these. I used a smaller bead for the base of the flowers - I used glass beads in baby blue or white.
The blossoms are punched out of coffee filters that I first colored with chalk pastels in blue with a bit of pink. I left a bit of the white exposed.
I got a much more realistic color this way. I punched some hearts to make the leaves. Each flower has 1 or 2 leaves attached just under the blossoms and I made a few stems of just leaves to fill out the arrangement. It's all planted in a mini bean pot.
DD #2 and I were shopping in the big city today and stopped in at JoAnn Fabrics. It's about 3 times the size of our local JoAnn's and is great fun to explore. Anyway, punches were 40% off. I found this border punch with tiny 5 petal flowers that I think will be very versatile. And there's the added bonus of a cute border when I'm scrapbooking or making cards. :)
This is the girls' room in the 70s house. It's a mini version of the room my sister and I shared. The wallpaper was always just "good enough." It wasn't a very good match to the real wallpaper.
At JoAnn Fabrics a week or so ago I found this scrapbook paper. It's very much like the real wallpaper. Woohoo! I repapered the room today and then added some pop star posters of singers my sister and I "loved." ;) There's even a Tiger Beat magazine on the bed.
Then I started thinking about books. I had made a few of our favorites previously but there wasn't a good place to put them. I built the bookcase today and filled it with some of the books we collected - mostly preteen books but they were our favorites. I had the whole Donna Parker series, the Kim Aldrich series and most of the Nancy Drew books. My sister had the Trixie Beldon series and the Bobbsey Twins books. There's also a copy of Little Women which flips over to Little Men and a copy of The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.
And here's the completed room. I really need to figure out how to put a full wall with a door between the rooms. The sloped roof makes that more challenging. :)
After multiple attempts I finally got a clear photo of the first carnations I made. The arrangement is currently on the side porch of Johnson's Boarding House.
Making mini carnation arrangements is fun. :) This time I used 2 pink and 3 white flowers with 3 stems of leaves. I used an Asian inspired bead as a vase.
They look pretty sitting in the living room of Johnson's Boarding House.
Here's a closer pic -the tacky wax is making the vase sit a bit crooked. I've got to remember to adjust that. ;)
It's spring but we've been short on the sunshine this month. But April showers bring May flowers, right? In the meantime I made some little flowers of my own following Kris's tutorial for carnations. I made a few changes (because I can't seem to help myself, lol) but it's basically her technique. I'm sorry for the awful photo but don't the flowers look real? The next attempt will be better but I am very happy with these. The flowers were made with coffee filter paper and I edged each paper circle with red Sharpie marker. The leaves were punched from the lining paper from a box of grapefruit. Everything is planted in a wooden finial.
I am so excited! I was just looking over everyone's blogs and look what I found - I won Peggy's giveaway at Another Cosy Cottage! Everything is so beautiful - I'm doing the happy dance today. :)
Good morning! Just a quick update to show you all how the sewing table looks in its new home in the Petite Dreams parlor. The table in my book, Decorative Dollhouses by Caroline Hamilton, has a lot of painted gold accents but I think I like mine plain black. What do you all think?
Today's project was a quick one - easy but detailed, too. I made a Victorian sewing table from part of a thread spool. The idea is not mine - I got it from a dollhouse book by Caroline Hamilton. The spool had 4 sections plus the center. I sawed off about a half inch piece from the end. I used my Dremel to even the edges and then sanded it smooth. The base is a wooden wheel and the post is a wood turning. I glued a paper circle to the bottom of the spool section then glued all the pieces together. I added some lace at the base of the spool to resemble carving then painted the whole thing gloss black.
I cut some small pieces of black foam to take up space in the bottom of each section.
Then I made all the bits to fill it. The center holds a tomato pin cushion. One section holds spools of thread in various colors. Another has two pairs of scissors (straightened dressmaker hooks)and a card of buttons. The third section holds reels of ribbon and the fourth holds embroidery floss. I made some needles from thin wire and glued them into the pin cushion. This will go in one of my Victorian houses.
I am very far behind in my welcomes. Seventeen of you have joined us since my last giveaway was announced. Thank you all so much for stopping by. Your comments and encouragement mean so much to me!
I had several items from a recent birthday swap that didn't fit into one of my other projects so I made a small birthday party in a cardboard cigar box.
Several of these items were made by my friends in the Small World forum. Sandy made the pinata; Brenda made the cake, pin the tail on the donkey, the pinata stick in the corner, and the gift on the floor; Sharon made the panda mask and the teddy bear paper doll book in front of the gift on the floor; Gaye made the bags of chips - these are from a previous swap-and the heart peg rack on the wall. I need to figure out what to hang on the pegs still.
First, I'd like to thank you all for your "get well soon" messages to my husband. He's improving each day but he's a bit like my college aged daughters when they are home for the summer - he's bored out of his mind. :) When he's working he's on the go all day and is pretty tired by the time he gets home so he doesn't mind quiet activities. But now he keeps thinking of all that needs to be done outside and he's getting stir crazy - but he's not driving me crazy yet so it's all good, lol.
The furniture and bedding is all my design and was very fun to make. I've been making a lot of girly, pastel things recently so this has been a nice change of pace.
It looks like the girls have finished their Easter egg hunt and now are just enjoying the beautiful spring weather in the garden. I hope spring has sprung wherever you are, too. :)
My cat got into the window box on the bridal shop so the box needed some "gardening" work done. I added new flowers and plants to fill the box in a cottage garden style. Hubby said it needed a cat in it since ours trashed the first one, lol. I humored him by adding one on the sidewalk. It looks as though it's ready to jump into the box. It better not mess up those flowers! ;)
That bit of glue has been removed from Santa's hat since I took the photo - before I added hair, beard, hat, etc. he looked just like the actor Ed Asner, lol.
This is one roly poly Santa. He does stand well all on his own, though.
Yesterday I made the rounds of the big city fabric stores (big city for Indiana anyway, lol). I found this beautiful gray fabric in the clearance bin and knew it was going to be a Victorian lady's walking suit.
I sculpted and dressed Emily (and a Santa) this afternoon.
Back details.
I love her auburn hair and the way the hat turned out. I'm going to list her in my zibbet shop but I'm really tempted to keep her for one of my Victorian houses or the general store. Maybe she'll visit while she's waiting for a buyer. ;)
This is how Brittani used to look. The proportions of the outfit just weren't right.
