Two more little gardens

I'm not sure which part is the most fun - hunting for the cup and saucer sets or making the mini gardens? I'm giving 5 away to my fellow tea drinking friends. I have one more to make and then I'll have to find another set to make myself a little garden. This garden would not cooperate to get clear photos but it may be my favorite. There's a book on the bench, a flower garden complete with a birdhouse on a pole and a bird bath with a tiny little cardinal in the middle of the garden. There are a couple of trees at the back and a hedge on the left. I wasn't sure how to make the bird and then I saw a red tissue paper punched star on my tray. I pinched and folded and added a touch of black and like magic there was a tiny male cardinal. :) The bird bath is a painted plastic push pin with the pin removed.
Some of the greenery is hard to distinguish in the photo but there are hedges on each side, lilac bushes in the back and a tree behind the bench. The arbor has a climbing vine with red flowers and there is a stone path to the arbor. This teacup and saucer have a more unique pattern than some I found. I love the green half circles around the rim of the saucer.

The photo behind the last garden is of my son and my nephews wearing clothes that used to be their grandpa's. They got to keep these things when we cleaned my FIL's closet after he passed away. My son is the one on the left. Doesn't he look great in that hat?

In the midst of crazy weather...

...so the internet has been intermittent. The multitude of tornadoes has been scary - so far just storms here. My heart and prayers go out to all who are dealing with the loss and devastation of a tornado.

There hasn't been a lot of mini-ing here but I did make another little tea cup garden. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. I will have to try again but you get the idea. :)

Garage sale makeovers in mini

I found this cup and saucer while garage sale shopping with my oldest a couple of weeks ago. I turned it into a mini garden. For my attempt I think it turned out well. I already have another cup/saucer set from this round of garage sales. I'm going to make some for gifts.
My middle name is Rose so the flowers on this cup are perfect. :)
I found this doily at my favorite consignment shop last week. I like it much better than the previous one for Harriet's bed in the boarding house. The scale is more appropriate and the blue looks good with her wallpaper.
This is the Avon bath oil bottle wash stand I found over the weekend. I added painted touches to the pitcher and bowl and used a brown glaze (several layers) to give a wood effect to the bottle. I love how it looks in the Victorian Cottage bedroom.
The little angel doll also got a makeover. I used her dress to make a pinafore and dressed her in Victorian style. At the moment she's the daughter of the cook/maid for the Victorian Cottage. I'm not sure if this is her permanent home, yet.

Garage sale finds

I found this Willowcrest dollhouse yesterday for $7. This is before I cleaned the exterior.
This is the interior as it was when I bought it. But I know there's potential.
This is after the first cleaning. I have a lot of scraping to do. And a lot of gluing to do - it was put together with hot glue and there are huge drips and places that are no longer attached. There are also a lot of things missing - 2 pieces of roof, the door. The house is partially sided and shingled. This one is gonna take awhile.
Today I found this little doll and washstand. The washstand is an Avon bottle that held bubble bath. It's perfectly scaled.
On the non-mini front I've been working on this dining set for my daughter. Both girls are moving into unfurnished apartments in the fall. We found the table at a garage sale for $2. I repainted the base and glued some laminate that had come loose. The chairs are vintage ones that were given to us years ago. The one on the floor was my daughter's desk chair. The only thing we had to do was repaint the frame to match the table base. I still had some of the plaid fabric and we took a pillow apart to use the coordinating fabric - volkswagon beetles in the same colors as the smilies on the other chair. It's a fun set and only cost $2 plus two cans of spray paint. :)

Back...sort of

Hi everyone - I miss you! My computer is back and "healthy" and now we're having internet issues again. I'm at the church now, just checking in. I hope to be back for real soon. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's new projects when I'm really back. :)

I'll be back soon!

Well, my computer has picked up a nasty bug of some kind so is heading off to the shop. I'm using a borrowed laptop for now but I don't have all of my photo editing software on it so it will be awhile before I can show new projects. I'm still checking out all of your blogs when I can and will hopefully be back within a week. Bye for now!

Late Mother's Day Gift

My oldest got me a new supply of Michael's hutches yesterday. They only had two styles but all of them are versatile.

I spent time working on a new swap with a pub theme. I'm really happy with my results but I can't share until next month. There will be photos then, I promise!

It's all in the details

One of which involved moving the buttons on Lou's shirt to the correct side. :) I never remember which side is for women and which for men and I never seem to be wearing a shirt with buttons when I need to know, lol. While I was doing that I added a placket to the button hole side. I also pulled threads from the denim to add seaming for the fly, front slash pockets and outside seams.
I added back pockets with a "used" bandana handkerchief hanging out of one of them.
I wanted to make sure he would sit like he was slumped up against a building - gotta have posing options, you know. ;)

Thank you all for your kind words about Lou. It's so exciting for me when I can really see progress in my doll making skills. Lou makes me smile.

Just playin' around

On one of my mini forums, someone said something about needing a drunk doll to complete a scene. She wasn't completely serious but she started my creative juices, lol. Lou is the result. He could just be out on a bender for the night but his red nose makes me think that this is a very common event. I've been experimenting with different techniques for the doll skeletal system with my last couple of dolls. I think I've figured out what works best for a plump doll.

A Productive Day

...yesterday. Today I just enjoyed being a mom and visiting our moms. Happy Mother's Day to all of you Moms!

I added several new pairs of earrings to my zibbet shop tonight - www.zibbet.com/DesignsbyDe.
I'm sharing just a few of my favorites.

Have a wonderful week!

New and Improved

I changed the flowers for my African violets and now they look much better. I colored a coffee filter with a dark purple permanent marker. The thinner paper and the richer color look so much more realistic. The violets in the black and red pots will be showing up soon in my zibbet shop. I changed the flowers on the plants I made for me to keep, too. These are really fun to make!

Now this is cool

I figured out how to make realistic looking African violets tonight. The boarding house really needed a few - this is my favorite on the kitchen table.
My MIL has had African violets for as long as I've known her so I'm excited to put one in the dining room.

I used a small heart punch for the leaves. I lightly coated the tops with glue and patted on a miniscule amount of beige flocking. The blossoms are punched with my new punch out of purple paper. I added a dot of yellow paint in the center of each blossom. The blossoms are each on a tiny little stem. It was surprisingly easy to get a beautiful African violet. The only thing I would change is to use a thinner paper for the flowers in the future but I am very pleased with my results. Go ahead, give it a try! :)

A little more work in the boarding house

Harriet has chores to do in the kitchen so I gave her a bucket of soapy water. This is a really easy project. I painted a wood bucket and then filled it with clear dimensional liquid. I added some iridescent beads in several sizes, stirred them up a little and added a cloth hanging over the edge of the bucket. I first moistened the cloth with the dimensional stuff and I used a toothpick to tuck the edge under the "bubbles" to make it look as though the cloth is wet and partially immersed in the water.
I also made a single shelf to fill in the gap between the hanging cabinet and the base. It looks much better now. You can just see the bucket on the floor next to the sink.

This type of little project is the proof that a dollhouse is never really finished. :)

A touch of Spring to make you smile

My gifts have found a home

Kate is quite happy with her new chair and side table. She says the chair is very comfortable. ;) The candle stands and little deer statue on the mantle are new, too. The coffee table got a new paint job to coordinate better with the new items. It was antique gold - now it's an aged cream finish with some of the gold showing through.
The bird cage fits beautifully on the table I won in Ingrid's blog give-away last summer. And aren't those hydrangeas amazing?
Here's a better view of the side table. The clock was made by my friend, Brenda.

I love the way everything fits into this house. Magnolia Way is one of my favorite dollhouses partly because it holds so many of my favorite gifts from miniaturists around the world. Thanks again, Peggy!

Thank you, Peggy!

My blog giveaway gifts arrived from Peggy today but first I'll show you some of today's projects. I've never been happy with my fabric choice for the skirt in Harriet's boarding house kitchen and the cabinet to the left of the sink had large bead feet that looked very out of scale. I took care of both issues today. I added the pipes under the sink and stained the wood frame and decided to leave the skirt completely off. I like the streamlined look very much. I also ripped off the beads and added a simple black frame under the cabinet instead of feet. The height is elevated but nothing looks bulky or over scaled.
I added a cream print wing chair, an end table and a tray of candles to the living room set. I think I will also include the "rug" which I think is a wallpaper sample. It looks like a braid rug. I've fallen in love with this set but I do hope it sells. BTW, the end table base was made from a champagne cage. I colored it black with a permanent marker, leaving some of the base metal color showing, then I added a top made from a square woodsie that I stained a dark, rich brown. The candle tray used to be an earring and the candles are made from pencil erasers.
And the best part of the whole day was opening this wonderful package of goodies from Peggy. Each little item was wrapped in the floral wrapping paper and carefully packed in the beautiful box. Even the card is pretty. Thank you so much, Peggy. You made my day! I think most items will end up in Magnolia Way as it's my "elegant" dollhouse and your gifts will be absolutely perfect inside. I didn't get to open the package until late this evening but it was a wonderful way to end a not so wonderful day. Thanks again! :)

A Comfy Spot to Watch the Show

I'm working on a complete room setting. So far we have a couch and a leather ottoman/coffee table. I want to add an overstuffed chair and maybe an end table and then I will list the whole set in my zibbet shop.

I have a few household chores and then I think I can "play" for the afternoon. Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

At last! Mini inspiration strikes again.

I've been struggling for mini inspiration this past week. Finally, I decided to go through the supply drawer and see what "struck" me. I found a Michael's hutch and a TV magnet. Ah ha! Entertainment center. So this is my shabby version. The dvd player and the remote were made from scratch. I also made a new base for the cabinet as the original was broken. I want to add some dvds on the top shelf - just a few, though, as most are probably stored in the drawer below. (Although it is really a non functional drawer.)

I'm off to take my MIL to her eye appointment. Back later!