Just a little time

I haven't had time to get started on my new big project so I've been satisfying the mini urge with little updates here and there. Today I hung Gaye's dollar store swap chandelier in the Willowcrest dining area. It's similar to what I had in mind for here anyway. When I can afford to start adding the battery powered lights I will replace this...or not. Maybe I will just hang a ceiling fixture in the living room area.
Rose's dress got a bit of a makeover today, too. The overskirt ends in a bustle with a small bow at the back. While I think the clothing from yesteryear is beautiful, I am so glad I can just pull on jeans and a tshirt and be good to go. ;)

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon after a lovely time of worship this morning. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, too!

Just for fun

I'm still gathering ideas for my new project but I had fun rearranging people in the saloon today. Daisy and the sheriff are dancing to Sean's piano music. Looks like they're having fun!

A new article!

The story of Rose and her friends at A Rose Among Thorns saloon was published in the November issue of American Miniaturist. The two page article turned out really well. I wish there'd been room for more photos - there isn't even one showing Pansy - but overall I'm happy with the finished piece.

Big day today. I had to get new tires put on DD#2's car so I drove to her college town (and spent over $400 on tires!). We had lunch together then I stopped on my way home to visit my mom. We had a good visit, too, but it was a very long day. The next few are booked solid. I think I can crash on Tuesday, lol.

Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Halloween!

Saloon video

I've been playing with Windows Movie Maker and put together a movie of the Rose Among Thorns Saloon. You can see it on youtube - here.

See, he really does have pretty eyes

I added a ring of darker blue around the light blue iris so his eyes stand out more. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

New character in the saloon

Meet Matt Larson. His eyes look a bit demonic in the photo, lol. He just has very light blue eyes. He actually has some of the best eyes I've done. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. ;)
Jake finally has someone to play pool with. One more customer and I'll have equal number of staff and customers. A friend is making another cowboy when her life settles a little. I think I could use a fur trader, too. Gotta think about that one for a bit.

A new doll!

Remember those two dark red chairs I made last week? They were my part of a trade I did with my friend, Brenda. This beautiful doll is what she made in return. I named her Pansy and put one in her hair. So we have Rose, Daisy and Pansy. I need to get some more cowboys in the saloon. At this point there's more employees than customers, lol.She's so dainty looking. I have to think of her story and how she came to work at A Rose Among Thorns.
Her long curls are so pretty. I just tucked the pansy next to the feather Brenda had put in her hair.

I'm so excited!

I found one!

I found a dartboard graphic that works and I made some little feathered darts. The board also has holes all over it from previous games. Having the board on the wall gives that area of the room a purpose now.

A place for everything and everything in its place

Rose likes to keep the saloon as tidy as possible with all of those men hanging around. She couldn't have the cue sticks just leaning against the wall when not in use. So I gathered up some of the scraps from the dollhouse kit and some other miscellaneous wood scraps and made a cue stand and several more cue sticks. The billiard room was looking pretty empty and that fills some of the wall space. I'll be hanging some photos in here and I'm looking for a dart board graphic that's not a modern dartboard. Not much luck so far but I'm sure I'll find something appropriate.

Oh my gosh! It's 3 am!

Do you ever get so into a project that time gets away from you? I frequently do. Tonight (this morning?) was one of those times. But I've mostly finished the structure for the saloon. There are some details that need fine tuning. (There's a large clamp on the roof right now trying to fix the roof trim gap issue.) But it looks really good. Although it isn't very realistic to have the whole mansard roof be copper I really liked the porch roof. It looks good, it's easy to do, AND it's cheap. All key for one of my projects, lol. The instructions for assembling the roof leave much to be desired. I'm not completely sure that I did it correctly but I had to add a lot of trim around the dormers on the outside to make it look good and fill in gaps. I like the way the trim looks so it's fine. I'm curious about whether the directions have been improved in the new laser cut version.
Daisy just brought a fresh beer up to Jake. He's practicing so he'll be ready to take on the saloon billiards champ later. The hanging oil lamp has a brass hanging frame. The base of the lamp is a large brass rose - perfect for "A Rose Among Thorns."

An interesting day

There I was, happily working away at the saloon (the roof/ceiling is assembled and the interior is finished) when my oldest daughter came home and kidnapped me, lol. She passed several garage sales on the way and wanted to go exploring. Since I still wasn't feeling 100% she drove.

She found a bread machine and a cappuccino maker. We tested the bread machine - yum!

I found these bright orange ceramic toilets that are perfectly scaled for 1:12 dollhouses. The lady gave them to me. I also got a hot pot for those days when the tea kettle takes too long to heat up. :)

Then daughter number 2 calls with a catastrophic computer problem. Hubby's out of town so oldest and I delivered his laptop to daughter 2 and brought hers back so I can have it repaired. We also took her out for a late dinner. That made for a 4 1/2 hour round trip.

I had fun with my girls but this was gonna be the day to finish the saloon. It's only midnight...maybe there's still time. More tomorrow...

The day's progress

By early evening I finally felt up to putting in some more time on the saloon. This virus is not any fun at all. :( I think the only thing left to do structurally is the roof. I am very pleased with how this is turning out. The windows are all finished and the dormers are temporarily tacked into place. The sign has been hung.
Upstairs I used skinny sticks like beams to hide the tabs/slots. The extra wood makes the room more masculine...at least that's what I'm telling myself. I do like the beams, though. Certainly they are better than tabs showing, lol.
I couldn't resist a couple of sepia tinted shots. I might have to frame one or two for the billiard room walls.
Daisy is hanging her purse on the staff coat rack. It's a shelf with hooks below and a mirror above. That spot was crying out for something.

I did it!

It's nearly 2 am so this is just a quick post to show you the swinging saloon doors. They aren't louvered but they do swing slightly and they're just the right shape. I got a bit more done but I'll show you those pictures tomorrow. The Nyquil is beginning to kick in and I'm exhausted.

More saloon pics

I'm really happy with how the porch roof turned out. I gave it a faux aged copper finish.
The front window trim is in place here. The white you see is clear glass paint drying. Glazing the transparency helps the printed design to show up a little better inside. It also seals the ink on the transparency.
The window trim inside - paint still drying. ;)
I couldn't resist setting everything up again. All I really still need to do downstairs is put in the back windows and make and install the doors.
I got the border and baseboard installed upstairs.

I got a lot done today but there is still a lot left to do. Installing the soffits was not too difficult. I had to cut some tabs and shorten one piece and lengthen another to make up for my mistake but it went very well. Now I just have to make sure I put the roof on the right way to match the reversed back wall. Cross your fingers! :)

Fun with wallpaper...and other stuff

This is another variation of the same wallpaper element I used for the other panels. I've just been cutting at different points to vary the borders and make the elements fit in the areas I'm putting them. It's sort of floral-like so it fits Rose's theme. I've used this same bit cut from the scraps of my real kitchen ceiling paper to make tin ceilings in my Victorian dollhouses.

I'm still thinking about the saloon doors. I might be able to cut them from foamcore board or heavy cardboard. I have some bass wood if I can cut the pattern out with a craft knife (without doing any damage to myself, lol.) I really need to get a jeweler's saw for cutting curves.

I got the porch posts sanded, painted and installed. I'm not sure what I'm doing for the roof. I really hate shingling.

Details

I spent hours filling tab slots with spackle, letting dry, sanding, and starting over. There will be a few more to do once the structure is complete but I made major progress. Late last night I put a final coat of paint on the exterior and then dry brushed over it to give a weathered wood effect to the saloon.
I cut sections out of some 1:1 sized embossed wallpaper to make "wood" panels on the upstairs stair rail...
...and the downstairs one as well. This one is accented with a bit of gold to match the slightly more luxe look downstairs.

I'm still sick and actually feeling a bit worse this morning. Yuck! I'll probably work on the saloon between naps today. My son is sick, too, and he was already dealing with a flare up of his chronic health problems. I'm glad I have the saloon to work on. That's been my bit of fun in an otherwise not so fun week.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

A day of play leads to much progress

This is the back bar installed and stocked. I added the row of bottles lying on their sides last night. (under the mirror) The photo is finally clear enough for you to see the "stained glass" effect on the mirror.
I'm catching a cold or something and am not feeling very well. So I gave myself permission to work on the saloon all day. I made one major mistake that's going to create some future challenges. The upstairs back wall is flipped. I spent forever piecing the wallpaper together from the leftovers, glued it on and painted the exterior side. Then when I went to put it on I realized it isn't a mirror image and my tabs didn't line up. I sliced off the tabs and glued them into their slots and glued the wall on as it is. The problem will come when it's time to put the soffit on because it isn't going to fit as is. I'll make it work, though. Plus my Brimble will be different from all the others. ;) There is not a single photo straight on into the side of the building so I'm having to guess how some things are supposed to go. The instructions leave a lot to be desired.
Here's the beginning of the entrance. I have paint to touch up. There's no baseboard on this wall because I don't know how the window trim fits yet.
This view is the porch side looking in. I can't wait to see how the porch looks once it's finished. I have to make a decision about the doors at some point. The opening is too large for purchased saloon doors. The kit comes with two full length doors with "glass." I'm not sure if I can alter those doors and I don't know if I have the ability to make saloon doors from scratch. As my hubby says - I'll have to ponder that for awhile.

A bit more progress on the saloon

You're all gonna laugh at me but I'm enjoying taking this project a bit more slowly than I usually work. (See you're all laughing now because you don't think I am working slowly. :) ) Normally by this stage in a project I'd just plow through and finish the construction but I'm just working on a few details at a time. This afternoon I played with the chandeliers I bought earlier and I put up the border and baseboard in the lower level. I don't have any regular dollhouse baseboard right now so I just used skinny sticks so I could even the bottom edges. To be truly accurate I would need much taller base trim but I'm using what I have.
Also, I didn't show you a pic of the ceiling yesterday. Here it is complete with the new lighting. I used embossed scrapbook paper and painted it antique copper and then dry brushed bright bronze over the top. It looks very elegant and just right with the wallpaper.

Each of the chandeliers had some problem. One has been badly repaired and the other was missing the bottom trim. I added some beads to the base of the one missing the trim and then I painted both chandeliers with sterling silver paint. I added bead globes to both and hung them from eye hooks in the ceiling. They aren't an exact match but the paint kind of disguises that.

I also made a coordinating table lamp for the top of the piano. Late last night I added a floral embossed button to the center of the back bar trim. It needed just a little something. It's all really coming together!

A little "me" time

First, I got a haircut - I love my hairdresser and he always makes me feel special and relaxed. Today I got a whole new look. My hair was almost shoulder length with grown out bangs (fringe for the rest of the world) and was dry and shaggy. This is much more fun - although hubby may freak when he sees how short the back is, lol.
Then I visited my favorite antique/resale shop for a little retail therapy. Sometimes I find things for mini projects but today I hit the jackpot and I left a lot for future trips. ;0) I found the two HOM kits for $5 each. I've never built one of them but enough of you have for me to want to try them. The bottom kit is for the dining table. I found the three fat quarters for $1 each. They are perfect mini scale. I think the fruit stripe on the left will be pretty on the HOM sofa.

And, finally, for the saloon I found a clear mug I can use for a large beer stein or a small pitcher and two silver candle chandeliers (both with some damage but nothing too bad) that I'm going to turn into kerosene lights.

I got all of that for $25. A small price to pay for a much needed hour or so of stress reduction.

Hope you all have a lovely day!

We have the beginnings of a building!

The downstairs saloon is really taking shape. I made the back bar tonight from the grocery shelf kit that came with the Brimble. I cut off the side counter and cut out the middle section of shelving so I could put a stained glass effect on the center mirror. The mirror is a large mirror finish poster board from Hobby Lobby. The stained glass was designed by me (the front windows will have the same design) and printed onto a transparency. It's hard to see in the photo but it looks really good. The woodstove is in the front left corner. I didn't get that section in the photo.

I still need to put the border up and add baseboard, besides all of the windows and the doors.
The billiards room is still a little exposed to the elements, lol. Jake doesn't seem to mind. The third table fits very nicely up here.

This kit is a good reminder as to why I prefer mdf kits. ;) For some reason, the tabs never want to go in the slots and the plywood is so much flimsier during the drying time. On the flip side, you get so much more detail with a tab and slot kit. Sometimes the trade off is worth it...and sometimes not. This is one of the "worth it" times.