And this isn't all of it!

Sorry for the dark photo. Too much natural light. All of these are cleaned and ready to go. The beach house and back porch are also ready. I have 4 room boxes I can't reach and the saloon to go.

I'm getting nervous about moving everything. I am going to take an emergency repair kit - glue, tacky wax. Can you all think of anything else I should have with me?

Getting ready

This evening I wrote short little descriptions to go with the various dollhouses and rooms that I'm taking to the library. I also got about half of them cleaned and ready to go. Since I'm taking smaller projects I think I can just tape newspaper over the open side of most of them and they will be ready to haul. Moving day is Thursday. My house is going to look so empty with so many items away for a month. :)

It's amazing what a little paint can do

I found a "honey brown" paint today and my deer is much improved. I really like the way he turned out.

I visited the library today to confirm that I will be doing a large display of dollhouses and room boxes for October - National Dollhouse and Miniatures Month in the US. It's going to be a lot of work to get everything moved but I'm very excited. There will even be a write up in our local newspaper. I'm mostly taking room boxes but I am going to take the castle and the pioneer log cabin. Later in October I will take Santa's house, Wanda the witch's kitchen and the Thanksgiving cornucopia to set up in the children's wing of the library. Santa will probably stay through December.

Minor changes at the castle

The deer head was sculpted from polymer clay and I'm mostly happy with it. I need to make the fur color a bit more golden and then he'll look pretty good, I think. Not bad for a first attempt anyway. ;-)
I also decided the armory walls would look better with a plaster finish. The weapons show up better and the lighter color brightens the room a bit. I also put beams on the ceiling in Ariana's bed chamber and added a large bowl of grapes to the feast on the banquet table. I am just fine tuning things at this point but that's generally my favorite part other than the original decorating. I usually leave a "finished" project sitting out where I see it often and add and subtract from it until it really is finished. We (hubby and I) do still need to do the lighting but I'm waiting for him to have some time...could be a long wait but there's no real hurry.

Well, I'm off to run errands. Have a great day!

"Carved" Panels

One of my miniature books suggested using corrugated cardboard to simulate the ornate carved panels found in Tudor manors. I used skinny sticks to frame the panels and it looks really nice. Poke the picture to see the details. Someday I'm going to get inspired before rather than after getting a room almost finished. It was a bit more challenging to add the skinny sticks and stain everything. ;-)

Meet Prince Randolph

Prince Randolph has come to ask the king's permission to court Ariana. They've known each other since they were children and Ariana really wants the king to say yes. She's been banished to the chapel while the men talk. Randolph looks a bit nervous, don't you think?

Too much hair!

That's what Ariana told me first thing this morning. And she was right. Her hair was too thick and overpowered her face. So I removed about half of it and added waves to the new thinner hair. We also decided to change her headpiece into a small crown. Here she is playing her mandolin in the chapel. The chapel is the place she feels closest to her mother so she spends a lot of time there.

Poke the picture to make it bigger.