A New Year...A New Look

...at least for the toddler in the French country house. I only spent $1 on her at a miniature shop in Holland. Michigan last summer. I figured I could do something to improve her looks. I dipped her whole head in nail polish remover and started from scratch. It took me forever (and multiple coats of paint) to get her hair to look at least a little like normal hair. :-) I also painted her blanket blue so it could be a towel if she's in the bathroom or her blanket elsewhere.

 I finally found the metal ribbon I bought the first time I shopped at our new Hobby Lobby. I used it to dress up the canopy and I like it much better now. The roll pillow is the one that was on the slipper chair in the living room. I changed the ends from red gingham to blue. It ties the bedroom and bathroom decor a bit more.

 This is another potential living room layout. This way I could add a coffee table and it just seems roomier. The rooster on the console is a prize from my day of antiquing yesterday with hubby and daughter #1. He was $1!

 The kitchen got a few details like the towel on the island and I turned the island around. It makes more sense for the cook to stand on the sink side when chopping the vegetables, I think.

 Yesterday's photo of the window seat upgrade was very poor quality. Here's a better view.

 Speaking of poor shots, this is the upper hall after wallpapering. I used a 1:1 raw silk pattern in soft blue. The blue makes sense between the bedroom and bath and it's simple texture is a much needed visual break between the rooms.

Well, that's all for today. Hubby told me to set up shop on the dining room table. The other side of the table holds a large puzzle in progress. I guess meals will be casual for awhile. :-)

I wish you all a wonderful New Year full of blessings and love!

Meanwhile, back at the French Country house...

I finished the bay window seat cushion and a couple of throw pillows in the kitchen. It's a cozy little nook now.

 I found this purple resin chair at our local Goodwill for $2. With some paint, new piping, and a pillow it's perfect for the living room. Much better than the slipper chair made from a jewelry box.

 The dog got a makeover today, too. Her eyes and mouth are much improved.

I also laid the carpet in the toddler's room. It's very pink in here - I need to break that up a bit somehow. I also need to figure out how to make the toddler less ugly. Her hair is all wrong and she has too many teeth for her age. That will be a project for the next time.

I want to finish this house before starting the new one. I'm still thinking about the exterior but the interior is nearly finished. I haven't done much at all in the upper hall. I'm waiting for inspiration. I've been waiting awhile, lol.

It feels good to be working on a mini project again. Hopefully, I can continue to fit mini time in now that the wedding planning is done. That took most of my creating time but was very worth it.

Have a wonderful week, my friends!

I got a dollhouse for Christmas!

A good friend found this house at a flea market over the summer and gave it to me this week for  Christmas. It obviously belonged to a little girl before me and was well loved. Because of that, the house needs some repair work done. I love the style, though.

 It looks like this room had the same zebra carpet as the room beside it. Um, that is gonna have to go. :-)

 The area under the stairs has been closed in and a door added.

 My friend include a bag of things she's collected that may have mini potential.

The attic room is L shaped.

And what are my plans for this house, you ask? Well, I am leaning towards an elf dormitory/house. The rooms are very large so it would be easy to fit in several beds in the second story rooms and a long table in the dining area. I will let this idea percolate in my brain for awhile so I can finish the French Country house. I will need to find a place to display Santa's house, the workshop, and the elf house all together. I think this will be a fun project!

Christmas greetings!

A Memory in Mini

 It's been so long since I had time to create anything in miniature. But now I'm on Christmas break so I did a few chores then got busy creating. First I had thought I'd make a wedding cake ornament for the newlyweds. While gathering my supplies I found this box my husband gave me. I forget what came inside it, but it made a perfect memory shadowbox.

 I put a wedding invitation on the back wall and made a "table" from cardstock. It's covered in burlap that was used as part of the wedding centerpieces. In addition to the cake, I made a mini version of my daughter's bouquet and the toasting glasses they used. Below is a close up of the mini cake. I made the actual cake topper, too. The mini was made with the tiniest of the pine cones we used for corsages and boutennieres. I made the cowboy hat from a hole punch out and a tiny bit of fun foam.

 Here's the real cake. I'm pleased with how well the mini version turned out.

Here you can see the real toasting glasses and a bit of the pinecone garland at the head table. I hope they like their mini memory. I certainly enjoyed making it. :-)

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

 I made this version of our family Advent banner for my daughter's new family. Their home is small so I made the new one a bit more compact than ours. I think I like the new angels and the fleece sheep better than ours. :-)

 This is the original one made by my mom and me twenty plus years ago. The pattern came from a women's magazine.

Here are the stockings for my son-in-law and new granddaughters. They are very similar to the ones I made for our family, except  that older ones are green.

It feels good to create something, even if it isn't mini. I hope to get back to the French Country house soon. I need some miniature inspiration.

Wishing you a blessing filled day, wherever you are!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am feeling very blessed. We are just now home from a wonderful day with friends and family. I'm missing our newlyweds and granddaughters a bit but they will be here tomorrow. We got to spend time with some nephews that we don't see often. All of the cousins that are "home" have continued the party at one of our niece's home. They don't get much time together now that they are all young adults. It makes my heart smile that they make time for each other now. They're planning to watch a musical and have a boys against girls graham cracker gingerbread house competition. I can't wait to see those pics!

Oh, and speaking of the newlyweds, here are a few photos from the big day:

Not just like the real one...

...but it is made of fabric from my daughter's wedding dress. She's only 5'2" so the seamstress had to cut several inches off the bottom. That left some nice sized scraps for me to work with. Other than being strapless, the bodice of the mini dress is completely different from the real one. (No photos of the real one, though, until after the November 1 wedding.) The real skirt is made of the same fabrics I used - a sheath style underskirt in satin (the real one has two layers) and a layer of plain tulle and a top layer of the dotted tulle. Of course, the dot pattern is more subtle on the real one since I used the same fabric for the mini one. It will be a great way to remember her wedding day each time I look into the mini bridal shop. She is on her way home from her fiance's so I am keeping it out to show her. I will get the shop out and cleaned and then post a photo of the dress in the shop some time this week.

Wow! I made a mini and posted twice this weekend. Maybe there's hope for me, lol.

Have a wonderful and blessed week, wherever you are!

I'm still here!

We are now in the wedding homestretch - 2 weeks from today. The garden harvest is just about done. I'm hoping for some mini time after the wedding. One mini thing that may happen sooner is making a miniature wedding gown from the alteration scraps of my daughter's wedding dress. I have a mini gown made from bits of my honeymoon negligee set already in the mini bridal salon. I think I want to put some memento from each of my children's weddings in it, too. I don't think it will be all that long until we are planning daughter #1's wedding. My son isn't dating anyone so we have some time there. ;-)

If you are reading this post, thank you so much for hanging in there. I've kept up with all of your news and can't wait to get back to regular posting again.

See you after the wedding!

Counting down

...the last month and a half until my daughter's wedding. The garden is almost finished, too. Hopefully, before Christmas I can get back to miniatures. My mind is too full of everything else right now to work on the French Country house but once the wedding is over things should calm down here. I will be back! Stay tuned for wedding photos in November, too. :-)

I'm anxious to get back to the French Country house...

...but Life has other plans at the moment.

 I've been finishing up some of the details for my daughter's wedding. These are the dresses the flowergirls are wearing. K's future step daughters are the flower girls.

 We are getting close to the end of the garden for this year. I had a big weekend of processing - five gallons of green beans for the freezer, 18 pints of beets, 3 half pints of pickled beets, and 20 half pints of sauerkraut.

Once K's wedding is over, I hope to have time to finish the French Country house. I had to put it away last week because we had a large group for dinner and we needed the card table and the space. But the house will be coming out again soon. I promise!

Have a lovely week, wherever you are!

I've been busy...and then I got sick

But today, I am feeling much better. I am hoping to be completely back to normal by the weekend but the garden won't wait that long...

Hubby made a quick trip to the garden that didn't turn out to be quite so quick. ;-) Tomorrow after school I will be freezing corn and the next day I will need to can green beans. We are at well over 100 pints now.

I spent some time in the yard while the chickens got some time to roam this evening. The ladies thought I should have come prepared with a treat.

We started getting eggs a couple of weeks ago and we were up to four eggs a day yesterday. Today four more hens joined the Crooked House Layers Club! All three Easter Eggers gifted us with eggs. We now have tan, brown, sky blue, and pale olive eggs. I love the color range. I had no idea how much fun raising chickens could be.

This was part of today's egg collection. We found three more eggs before the day was over. As my daughter says, "it's like Christmas" to check the nesting boxes now. We are very blessed with both garden produce and eggs. :-)

I hope you've had a wonderful day, wherever you are!

Our chickens are earning their keep!

As of today, we have three layers in the Crooked House Layers' Club. Fred, the rooster, is so proud. ;-) One of our Red Stars started laying 5 days ago and two of her sisters joined the club today. Woo hoo! I can't wait until our three Easter Egger pullets start laying. Then we'll have pretty blue and green eggs along with our brown ones. If you've never had any eggs other than store bought ones, I encourage you to find a local farmer with eggs to sell. The difference in taste is incredible.

I'm working extra hours at school this week so I'm not making any progress on the French country house. I'm leaving it in the living room on a card table, though, so any time I have a free period of time I can do something. Updates will be coming!

Have a wonderful day and/or evening, wherever you are!

I like it!

 The nightstand is across the room rather than by the bed but I am happy with the room. I love the beamed ceiling. I decided to stain the floor to match the beams to tie it all together. The bed canopy hides the fact that the headboard doesn't go all the way to the floor. I guess I could have just put legs on the headboard to make it look finished but the canopy suits the rustic meets romance feel of the room.

Update: I adjusted the pleats and gathers and added a piece of paper doily as the centerpiece on the canopy frame. I like the little added touches. The bedroom is beginning to look like I had hoped it would. It needs accessorizing but it already looks cozy and romantic. :-)

I just don't know but let's make it a contest

Usually when I work on a doll house project, by the time I've started I know how I want both the interior and the exterior to look. I had no trouble envisioning a French country look for the interior of this house but I'm just not sure what I want to do with the exterior. The previous owner had purchased a lot of the plastic "wrought iron" railing so I plan to use that on the balconies. But where is this house located? I thought of New Orleans as a possibility but I'm not completely sold on that idea. What do you all think? Here's the box photo so to give you a better idea of the style. All opinions will be considered. Whoever has the idea that speaks to me will get some sort of a prize - yet to be determined. Good luck!

It's a date!

 My wonderful husband and I had a date today. We explored some of our favorite antique/vintage shops and had dinner. One of my finds was this two door console table. I don't know if it will fit under the stairs but that's my hope.

 I also found fabric for the master bedroom. The "sort of toile like" floral fabric and the sheet fabric were purchased today. I made the upholstered headboard from balsa and fun foam and tufted it. The bed itself is two layers of styrofoam. I am a bit disappointed in the layout of the bedroom. There is no good place for a double bed. This is the best option and I have blocked the French doors. I may turn the doors into a large arched window or leave them as doors that open out so they are still usable from the back side of the bed. In either case, I plan to make full length drapes that hang to the sides of the doors.

 Here's a closer view of the tufting and the different fabrics I used.

An overall view - my current plan is to make the ceiling beamed since I have all that upward space. Too bad I can't convert a bit of that to usable wall and floor space. ;-)