Aloha Turtle!

Today was my ceramics class, and I painted another platter. This one had all kinds of different veggies painted on it. It's waiting to be fired, and should be ready next weekend. I'll show you when I bring it home. My kids also completed a dragon piggy bank which was dropped off for firing.

And Mr. Hawaii Turtle has come home. He's turned out quite well. Remember that he is a Talavera design? Talavera is a form of Mexican pottery where natural elements, like flowers, animals, and other designs cover the spaces. My turtle turned out a lot more tropical. This is my interpretation of Talavera, since it really doesn't look a whole lot like real Talavera. Either way, I like the way it looks, and that's what is important! Turtle's head, legs, and tail were done in an emerald glaze. I traced and painted all the designs on his shell.

At the class today my daughter painted a mini version of the same turtle, which she named Baby Hawaii Turtle. He will be fired and come home next weekend. According to my daughter, Mr. Hawaii Turtle has had a change in gender and is now Mrs. Hawaii Turtle. Why? Well, she has a baby now of course! It's funny how little girls always attribute the baby with the mom. She wouldn't even hear about Baby Hawaii Turtle being with Daddy Hawaii Turtle. Nope- turtle is now a she.

This picture shows the top of Hawaii Turtles' shell with a beautiful red hibiscus on the top. It's hard to tell from the pictures. but there are quite a few white dots on Turtle's shell made by French Dimensions white. That is kind of like a puffy paint. The base of the shell has a little white dot in the center of each square made by this neat French Dimensions paint.

That's about all for today. I should be bringing home my wonderful craigslist houses tomorrow and I will be sure to share them with you!

In case you are wondering, I did clean up my workspace a bit today, but not as much as I had hoped. So you'll have to wait to see a pictue of it cleaned and organized. Hopefully I will get to it tomorrow. . .

Gettin' Busy

Exciting news! I have found a vintage Victorian Times dollhouse shell and a Real Good Toys 1/2 scale house on craigslist and I have successfully negotiated a wonderful price. I won't give you any more details until these two beautiful houses are actually in my studio. I still have to find a way to get them home. The shell of the Victorian Times is rather large and I will need to borrow an SUV or truck to move them. So I'll give you more details on this new mischief I'm getting myself into as it develops.

In the meantime, my friend Casey keeps reminding me that I have my daughter's Cardinal House to finish before I start another project. In my excitement over the glorious craigslist find, I actually said, "Cardinal House? What Cardinal House?" I'm rather ashamed of myself after all the hard work I've put into her. So, in the spirit of gratitude and joy surrounding a wonderful discovery, I decided I'd better get busy and finish up the lovely Cardinal House.

Tonight I followed Casey's tutorial for taking a round table and covering it with a cloth. In case you'd like to see her tutorial, it's here: Table Tutorial I thought it was a rather ambitious undertaking since I've been up sine 5:30am, but it really didn't take all that much time. This was pretty easy and has nice results. I made my tables from an old mailing tube I had sitting in the garage. I just happened to have the perfect woodsy piece to fit over the top.

This was yet again my first attempt at something new, and I'm pretty happy with the tables, but the pleats could be a little neater. I like the way the trim turned out on the topper. It's just bits of ribbon I found at my local Big Lots. They are still drying, so that's why all of the pins are still there. These tables will hold our two tea sets. I also need a few little chairs to go with the tables. A couple of them came with the Storybook Cottage, so I'll put them together, paint them white and make some cushions for them.

You'll notice also that I painted a little counter white (on the right side of the picture). That's going to be our counter with a cash register on it. It's the bottom half of a Michael's hutch. I'm going to paint little flowers on it similar to what I did on the headboard of the bed that will go upstairs.

I only have a few more things I need to dress this house and most of what's left I think I will purchase. My daughter wants a fridge and a stove/oven in the little kitchen area (that's on the right side with the blue flowered wallpaper). Upstairs we need a little toilet and a sink for the alcove bathroom. If I don't have four chairs I might need to pick up a couple. That's about it, save some tea sandwiches and other goodies. I think I'm almost finished. Whew!

And that leads me on to my next topic, which is getting my work table in order. I'm almost embarrassed to show you this picture, but obviously not that embarrassed or I wouldn't be doing it. Hopefully I can show you another picture tomorrow of how nice and organized it looks. I certainly can't bring the two new houses home in this mess! Is this the sign of a busy artist or just someone who is sloppy? I'm voting for the busy artist choice.

Crown Royale. . .or Molding

After much complaining and whining about how much I hate crown molding, I installed it in the Cardinal House in about an hour. I honestly spent more time complaining and saying how hard this is than actually cutting it an installing it. My friend Casey of Casey's Minis gave me some great advice.

"About the molding.... Just try to remember when you cut your molding that when you are cutting the pieces for an inside corner, the cuts will be in the "front" of the molding and when you cut a pointy outside corner the cuts will be at the back of the molding. " That helped.

I did this a little differently than you normally would. I really like the way the one part looked that had the scalloped side of the ceiling paper, and I didn't want to cover that up. Right below that there is the top of a small wall and I put molding on that. Here is the result.

I still have a little spot in the upper right hand corner that I need to seal down, but otherwise I'm very happy with the result.

You may be wondering why I spend so much time in getting this little house perfect when it's for my 7 year old daughter. There are a couple of reasons. First, it's all practice. Learning how to do something is important on its own. The second reason is that I'd like to think I am building something special that my daughter could give to her daughter or son someday. Finally, there is nothing like looking at your own work and thinking, I did that and it looks good!

I decided to not brick the back of the house. I painted it red like the rest of the house and I put some trim on the edge of the wooden floor. A little stain on that trim and I can truly focus on the fun interior furnishings.

A Needle and Thread and a Few Beads. . .

Guess what? I've been sidetracked yet again. It doesn't take much to get me off on another project, especially when it's cross stitch. Recently I received a package from a very nice needlework store in Oregon called Acorns and Threads. My friend recommended them to me. I called up and asked them to get me all the beads and specialty threads for Firefly Fairies. They made me a custom package and sent it to me, cheaper than I could have driven all over to find the stuff with these gas prices. ($4.55 a gallon today, I noticed)


Well, of course I wanted to use some of this lovely stuff! So the Firefly Fairy material went on the stretcher bars and my lap stand. In case you are wondering about the splotch in the middle of the fabric, it's dyed to look like magic is happening before your very eyes. I had this one dyed for me, after several disastrous attempts with a bleach bottle. That was before I realized I can do anything! If you don't use the exact fabric the pattern calls for (32 count Cobblestone Linen from Zweigart) you will have to experiment with bleaching it to see what color comes up underneath when you add the bleach to get the star burst effect.


I've had this stand for ages and I don't know what I'd do with out it. I can sit at a table and stitch on it, or I can sit on the floor or the couch and stitch on it. It's adjustable and swings over so I can get to the back. The best part is that it keeps the tension right and doesn't leave any nasty hoop marks. Did I mention that I really, really like my stand? It's heavy and oak. I think I spent around $50 years ago for it, but it's been well worth the money for the amount of use I've gotten from it.


Now that I told you how much I like my stand, I want to show you the floor stand I've been coveting for years. Some day, one of these will be mine. Oh yes. . This is handmade by an artist in Alberta, Canada. The company is Hearthside Craftworks (http://www.hearthsidecraftworks.com/). The stands are just beautiful! There is the original one that I fell in love with about 8 years ago. They have another one that has a lot more functionality, but I am really hooked on the way this one looks and functions. It's not cheap, but it is handmade of solid wood and I would have it and use it forever. With two school age kids, a mortgage, and a Southern California price tag on everything, it makes it hard for my DH and I to agree to spend money on something like this beauty. But that is not to say that I can never have it- quite the contrary. It is on "The List."




I just noticed that Hearthside has come out with an oak stitcher's chest that is so beautiful it makes you want to cry. At least it does me! I can see my boxes and baskets of fabric and floss all tucked away in this beautiful chest, right next to my beautiful stand. In reality the puppy would probably chew at it and then I'd cry my eyes out, but he's almost a year old so he has to be out of the chewing stage soon, right???


Anyway, back to Firefly Fairies. I had all the supplies and I was ready to begin adding all the beads. But when I sat down to stitch, I realized that I didn't have needles small enough to fit through 2 mm beads, and I was going to have to organize those beads better. I had to make another trip to the bead store and JoAnn for needles (size 10 and 12) and a bead organizer. I ended up with this. You can click it to get a better look. I took a sticker and wrote the number on the top of each holder. These are mostly just the beads for this project, but I bought a larger holder because I have some grandiose plans that I will try my hand at mini knitting with beads. The best thing about this holder was that I could use my JoAnn 50% off coupon on it!


So that's what I've been up to the past couple of days. I'm sure it won't be long before one of my dollhouses calls again and I'll go back to it. But for now I'm stitching and beading.


Variety keeps a crafter's life interesting!

A Few More Pictures. . .

I had a few requests of some closeups, so here is one of the bed. You can see the fabric draped around it, coming from the ceiling. It's just a hint of whimsy and romance, and hides the window over the bed nicely. I liked having the bed tilted a little coming from the corner, but my daughter "hates it that way!!!" It's her house, I keep reminding myself.

By the way, when she saw the house this morning she was thrilled. "Mommy, it's beautiful!" she said. I have a lot of moments of satisfaction with this craft, but when it makes my daughter light up like that- those are the best moments.

I'm working on a knitted throw blanket for the end of the bed. Let's just say my miniature knitting skills are a bit rusty. I did figure out purling, which has been a huge block for knitting anything but a scarf. Go ahead and laugh, it's OK. I can hear you snickering from here (and I don't blame you). I only learned to knit a few years ago so I'm plodding along with it. But I'll leave the mini knitting mischief for another entry. My daughter also mentioned a hope chest would be cute at the end of the bed. I think I already have something that might fit the bill. . .

Here's another picture of the exterior without so much clutter behind it. As usual, I need to clean up my work table, but that will get taken care of eventually. I think the colors came together nicely on the exterior. The golden oak shingles compliment the red of the house. remember how my daughter wanted the shingles to be white? That was a long discussion to finally arrive at this beautiful result.

This picture shows the ceiling. I know it's still a bit rough. I have some cleaning up and trim work to do here. Part of my problem is that I am out of exacto blades and razor blades for my utility knife and I haven't had a chance to go get any. It makes it hard to cut the edges evenly. I'm feeling like crown molding would be a really good choice here to clean up all those edges, but it's hard to get excited about doing it again. I had such a rough time the first time cutting those angles and getting it installed before I ripped it out to lower the second floor. But I think it would really make the room. Can you hear me sighing in resignation? You should be able to hear it wherever you are, or at least feel it coming from your computer!

The ceiling is plastic "fabric" I picked up at JoAnns for almost nothing. Remnants are a miniaturist's best friend! I think it would be used for a tablecloth or place mats, but it looks nice as my ceiling. You can see a hint of white at the bottom of the floor on the back that needs to be finished. My daughter says that would look great as brick.

So just when I think I'm done with construction I may be setting myself up for crown molding and more paperclay bricking. We'll see how I feel about that when I have a few minutes to actually work on it. . .

A Bit More Happily Ever After. . .

This will be a short entry, but I wanted to put my pictures up here of the Storybook Cottage, otherwise known as the Cardinal House. Construction is finished!!! Now all I have to do is decorate, and a little bit of cleanup work here and there.

To the right is the exterior. My daughter and I discussed what should be on the sign on Sunday at the baseball game. We decided that it would say "The Cardinal House 1 Red Bird Lane." So that's what it says. She hasn't seen it since I glued the sign and put the flowers in the flower box. The flowers aren't glued because she has her own mind and I want to make sure she is happy. I did these last few things after she was tucked in for the night.




To the left is a picture of the interior. I followed Casey's directions for curtains and made a curtain for the little powder room that will be in the alcove, and one for the window on the left side, which you can't see in this picture.

My daughter wanted a little fabric canopy over the bed, so I glued gauzy fabric and then pined it how I wanted it to drape, and used my trusty Aqua Net to keep it in place. She did see that just before bed and she really liked it. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

It's hard to see but I added a window seat in the large bay window and made a cushion for it. I have a few things to buy. I need a sink and a toilet for the powder room, and my daughter wants a stove and fridge downstairs. We'll be making round tables with pretty cloths and I have a few chair kits. My daughter also wants an old fashioned cash register. Luckily we have two tea sets. And I have to make a counter with shelves. My daughter wanted that out of brick, but she has since decided that she wants a wood one. We'll see what she wants tomorrow.

I think she'll be happy with the Cardinal House when she sees it in the morning.

When Dollhouses Talk to you. . .

In the Greenleaf Forum we spend a lot of time talking about what a dollhouse is saying to you. If you get into this hobby you really get a sense for what the house wants and it does indeed feel like it's talking to you. Now, don't think I'm crazy and I'm truly hearing words coming from the deep recesses of the wood. It's not like that. It's more a sense of urgency about how you want the house to look that gets stronger and stronger the more you try to ignore it.

Some days it feels as if a particular house is screaming at you- and it's usually the one under the bed still in kit format. It's always the one you have so many dreams, hopes, and plans for, but you still have one, or more than one, half finished that you really want to get done before you start another house. And yet the new one is calling, calling, calling.

And yes, most of us started this hobby with the idea of building "just one" house. I fell in love with Greenleaf's Garfield and that was going to be my "one" house. I thought I would build it, decorate it, adore and admire it and be done with it. I love the hunter green one on the Greenleaf site. See the picture to the left. I wanted mine to look just like that. I spent hours on the Internet admiring it, waiting for my birthday in February to roll around so I could get my house.

But the December before my birthday I excitedly told my my parents all about my dollhouse plans, and they presented me with my childhood house that they had saved all these years (over 30 to be more than exact!). Well then, what good practice before I start on the huge Garfield. I jumped in.

That house didn't look like the yellow beauty when I got her. Nope. She looked like this instead with glue drips, missing porch and all. As I went in search of how to put on siding and bricks and a new porch, I came across the Greenleaf Forum and found some seriously nice and helpful people. I'm not sure how I would ever have gone from my poor little beat up wood house to the yellow farmhouse look with the stained glass she is today without the members' help.

But something else happened along the way. I discovered that lots of these people had many (and by many I mean some have more than 20!) houses and this is what they did for fun. I spent hours in the galleries of beautiful pictures that real live people made. People just like me. I began to have as sense that I could do this, and I realized that I didn't want just one house.

I learned that there are many houses that are discontinued but you could still get them on eBay and other places. I learned that the members love Greenleaf but they don't have any issue with any other maker of dollhouses and will help with advice if they can. We love these houses so much we just don't put any of them down, ever. I say we because I am one of them now. I try to help the people starting out as much as I was helped because it meant so much to me.

But getting back to how dollhouses talk to you. I fell in love with the DuraCraft San Fransciscan 557. DuraCraft is out of business, but my local Tall Mouse craft store still had one. I went to the store 10 times to look at it. This was before gas was over $4.50 a gallon, of course. Then I saw Rebecca Brandewyne's dollhouse on her blog. A picture of it is to the right. It is a bit loud color wise for my taste, but it really caught my attention. And it started to talk to me. And the Garfield stopped talking.

I got the San Fran for my birthday and it hasn't stopped talking to me since. If you've read my other entries you'll know that I am bashing the San Fran pretty seriously. Once my daughter's Cardinal House is totally done I will devote my full attention to my San Franciscan. She's been pretty quiet since I bought her greenhouse and her addition kits. Let's hope another of my kits, the Alexandria, stays quiet while I finish these other two. Sooner or later she'll start talking to me.

Did I ever get a Garfield? Not yet. But I'm sure I will eventually. One day I'll wake up and she'll be calling and I'll have to answer.

Not so Happily Ever After

My Storybook Cottage is not such a happy fairy tale. A lot has gone wrong with this house from the beginning. Most of it has been my mistakes, but it's been a bit of a frustrating build. I always refer to this house as the Cardinal House because of the cardinals my daughter and I painted into the stained glass windows. Those look really nice. So some good things have come along with this house. But also some challenges. Santa delivered the house for my daughter last Christmas and she was totally thrilled with it. We started construction right after Christmas. And that's when the fun started.

First off, I decided to try wall papering this house before I built it. I was very careful to measure each wall and paper it precisely. I was so proud of it when it was fitted and glued. I had a little issue with the corners, though. When you paper before it is fitted, you run into raw edges and corners that you don't have when you paper after the build. But I figured I could add a strip of wallpaper in the corner to solve that. Thanks to my friends at the Greenleaf forum for that idea!

And then I remembered I was going to electrify this house. I always run tape wire- it's what I know how to do. So. . .how was I going to run tape when it was already papered? The easiest answer was not just not electrify it. But my daughter really wanted lights, and this is her house. I decided to run the tape across the upper floor and hide the resulting wires as best I could. That worked well enough.

I've always thought that the attic floor is much too high in this house and the top floor is pretty useless. See the dresser in the picture to the left? It almost hits the ceiling. I thought I could make it work. You saw my bed from my last entry. My daughter and I really love the way it turned out. But it didn't fit in the attic.

My daughter originally said that I could just built her another house for the bed. Ahhhh- a girl after my own heart! But then it became evident as the evening wore on that she was sorely disappointed, and didn't want me to know. I asked if we could change our tea house plans and put the bed downstairs. Nope.

So after she went to bed last night I sat and stared at the Cardinal House. . . and then took the utility knife to that darned second floor and ripped it out. One thing to keep in mind is that you can't just lowered the existing loor. Because of the pointy little nook in the front, the floor is too small when lowered. I opted to make a whole new one rather than just patch the one I had. This afternoon I measured 10 times (twice is never enough to get it right for me), made a template, and cut a new floor for the Storybook, which sits about 3 inches lower than the original attic. I had to make some adjustments and make up a system to glue it in which involves popsicle sticks for shims and supports, but it's in and drying now. I admit I had to use some hot glue as a sort of "basting stitch" to hold it in, but I made sure to use carpenters glue for the majority of it so it will hold long term.

Home Depot didn't have any 1/8th inch plywood. All they had was this fiber board in 1/8". It's good enough, and cheap. It was about $3.00 for a big piece of it, and I cut it out with my utility knife. You can see I need to fix the wallpaper to match the new rooms on the second floor, and run new electrical tape. I checked last night and I have working electric all the way to the second floor, so it should be just fine when I run another piece of tape and hook in the lights.

Bottom line is that I will be (and my daughter will be) much happier with this lowered roof. I should have done this in December during the original build. Note to self: when something keeps nagging you about a design, fix it early! Lowering this floor means re wallpapering, pulling out all my crown molding, rewiring, and installing new flooring. It's worth it, but I was almost done. Well, that's how we learn, right?

One more interesting thing happened. Last night before I ripped the floor out, I stained the shingles. And I dripped some on the paperclay bricks. When I wiped it off, I noticed the stain gave a really nice reddish color to the bricks, and darkened the motor lines. So I stained the paperclay bricks. It turned out well. This was Min Wax golden oak, in case you are interested. Can you see the difference between the picture in the left and the one on the right? I can- and I have to live with it. And you know I have a hard time with that if I don't like it. This one I like. Sometimes good things come from mistakes.

Until next time. . .I'll be wallpapering and rewiring.

Dream a Little Dream. . .

My bed is finished! I have to say I'm quite please with it. I followed the tutorial from Casey's Minis (see the link to the left). She put a picture my finished bed on her blog. I am so thrilled! She is such an inspiration to me. I actually started my blog because I enjoy hers so much. I've learned so many things by reading her blog. I don't think I would have even thought about trying this without her excellent instructions. If nothing else, she gave me the idea to try it.


And here are the results! I found the trim for the pillows and spread at Big Lots. I think it adds a lot to the overall look of the bed.

I made the headboard from scratch. I took two spindles and glued some square balsa wood on the bottom, then I glued a piece of balsa wood between them. I topped it with a piece of small molding. The mini jig was such a help in getting it all lined up and glued square.

I then primed the whole thing with gesso, and when that dried I painted it white. I hand painted the flowers on the headboard and added the pink and green accents on the spindles. I sprayed the whole piece with acyclic sealer, then glued the headboard to the bed. Most of this was accomplished while my kids were engrossed in "The Waterhorse." I had also made them chocolate fondue so they were happy. And that was that.

Now for the bad news. It doesn't fit in the attic of the Storybook Cottage, which is where it was built for. So. . .it could go in one of my other houses or maybe my daughter and I could change our tea house plans and put it downstairs. We'll have to talk about it.

Going back to my ceramics, I went to a class today and made ceramic food from clay. This wasn't in mini, but it gives me good practice and it will be easy enough to just make these things smaller. I made a ladies' tea plate with canapes and a tea sandwich, and a breakfast plate with french toast, bacon and eggs. I always really enjoy these classes. The ladies are such fun and I always learn a lot.


The best news is that my grape platter is completely finished. I picked it up today at my class. I am very pleased with how it came out. Paige's seal was also very cute. Mr. Hawaii Turtle had his first firing and he is ready for glazing. He's looking very sharp!

And that's all for now. More later. I'm on a roll right now! But that mini bed has made me sleepy. It's so cozy looking. . .

Popsicle Stick Floors

There are lots of ways to lay wooden floors in a dollhouse. An inexpensive way is to use Popsicle sticks, skinny sticks, or any other wooden strips you can find. The process of laying a wooden floor isn't hard, but it can be tedious and time consuming. The results are well worth it though.

This picture shows the floor of the Cardinal House. I did a little work on it today. I finished shingling the back of it and I cleaned up so of the exterior slots by filling them with wood fill.

My daughter and I made this floor out of Popsicle sticks. You can buy a huge bag of them from the dollar store or 99 cents store, or the big craft stores. I wanted this floor to look a bit rustic.

I started by cutting the round ends off of each stick. I started using my EZ Cutter for this, but it was a bit bigger job than I wanted to do with that tool. It hurts my hand after a while to use it, so I pulled out my mini cut off saw from Harbor Freight and cut all the ends from the sticks I needed in about 5 minutes. For this floor I made a template out of card stock and glued the wood to the template. When done I simply glued the template to the floor of the house.

Getting back to laying the floor, you need to start out by cutting your sticks in various lengths. I kept mine pretty short for this floor. You want to vary each row so that the end seams of the planks don't line up. You should make sure that the end seam of one row hits the middle (or at least not the end) of another piece in the next row. Real life houses vary these joining points as well.

You can dot each board with glue or lay glue "stripes" on the card stock and lay the pieces down over them. I like to use quick grab glue for this, so dotting each piece is easier for me. The glue dries too quickly to lay it down in stripes. If you use carpenters or tacky glue, the stripes would probably be faster. Make sure to only get glue on the back side you are laying down. If you get glue on the top the stain won't go in and you'll have a bad patch in your floor. White it is drying, you'll need to weigh it down with something heavy. I tend to use books or cans of veggies.

Once it is laid, you sand, and sand, and sand. You want it to feel level and smooth when you run your hand over it. Don't blow away the sanding dust either. This fills in the cracks nicely and helps it look tightly laid. I've been known to keep sawdust from other wood projects to use to fill in the cracks. Rub your sawdust into the cracks.

Then you can stain. Use as many coats of stain you need to get the color you want. I tend to sand in between coats of stain with a paper bag. This sands just enough to get it nice and smooth without tearing up the wood.

Once it is dry I wait at least 24 hours and then seal it with a wood stain sealer. I like a glossy floor so I use several coats, letting each coat dry thoroughly in between. If you've done this on a template, once you've let the sealer dry you can install it in your house.


You can see it's a long process but gives very nice results. This picture on the right is the attic of my childhood Skillcraft house. I used skinny sticks I picked up at Wal-Mart. They go faster because they don't have rounded ends that have to be cut off. They aren't as wide as Popsicle sticks, though. It all depends on the look you want. You can click on it to get a better look.

This house still isn't finished inside. I love the outside, but haven't been motivated to finish the inside. Do you see a pattern? One of these days I'll decide to finish the inside and that will be that.

This picture is the front porch of my childhood Skillcraft house. I used pieces of Greenleaf siding on the porch, and followed the same process as I described above. I think it turned out really nice.

So you see that you can use a variety of wood strips to make a wooden floor. You can also take the wood and add a pattern or a mosaic in your floor. I'll save that for another day.

Sidetracked with a Needle and Thread

I've been stitching since I was 6 years old. In Kindergarten I took a piece of cloth (I think it was burlap), some yarn, and a blunt needle and made a little embroidered whale. I did mostly embroidery until I got into college where I discovered cross stitch. I can't tell you how much I love to cross stitch! It makes a relaxing switch in my brain when I work on a piece. I adore dollhouses but it's very easy for me to get sidetracked on cross stitch and other forms of needlework.

Yesterday I got a package full of all my specialty threads and beads for Firefly Fairies, a beautiful cross stitch pattern I am working on designed by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum. The picture to the left is her sample one from her website, http://www.tiag.com/. It's a great piece because every one is different. You actually bleach the fabric to get the magical effect. I've only got part way on the green fairy and it's not an easy piece to stitch, but I adore the way it looks. The designer is a thread magician. Her designs continue to blow me away every time I look. There are so many of her designs I want to complete that I could seriously stitch them and nothing else for the rest of my life. But remember I am easily sidetracked!

I'm also working on Emma's Garden by the same designer. It's been almost done for a long time. The design is supposed to have lace stitched all across the bottom, but it's really difficult. I've never come across anything quite so hard to work out properly. So I took a break. A looooong break. Eventually I will finish it and put my daughter's date of birth and her vital stats. I really love this pattern but I'm just not motivated to dig in and finish it. One day I'll wake up and decide I want to finish it. That's just how I am.

Another nice piece I am working on is a cherub from Mirabilia designs (http://www.mirabilia.com/). No big surprise here is that the designer is Nora Corbett, and she is Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum's daughter. Both designers put out free angels of cherub patterns for Christmas every year for a long time. They don't always do that now, but the patterns are still on their websites. This one is one of the free cherubs and I think she is really beautiful.

This last one is called "Catch the Wind." It's in the Butternut Road line from Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum. I finished this in college. I went to school in Washington State, a long way from where I grew up in California and stitching helped me get by when I was homesick. It didn't last long (being homesick) as I made friends quickly, but I remember working on this a lot in the beginning. It's one of the first complicated pieces I ever finished.

There are a lot more pieces I could show you, but I'll save them for another day.

That's all for now. I know it's not mini stuff, but it's nice eye candy anyway. Enjoy! I'm going to go stitch.

Nighty night. . .Almost

More progress on the bed. Tonight I glued the ruffle to the foundation. Then I glued a "fitted" sheet to the top of the mattress. You only need to cover the top 1/3 because the rest won't show. Then I glued the fabric for the top of the bedspread to a thin batting. I lined the top third of the bedspread with a complimenting color and turned it down.

Here are the results:
I still have pillows to make and a headboard to make and attach. I also want to knit a little afghan for the end of the bed.

I made some mistakes and it's not perfect, but all and all I'm pretty happy for my first attempt.

This is a pretty short entry, but I have pillows to start and looking at my bed is making me feel sleepy. Until next time!

A little bit here and there. . .

I really need to concentrate on one house and just get it done. But it is my nature to get bored easily and I tend to jump around and work on something for this house, and then that house and so on. And that's what I did today.

Saturday was our final party for our baseball team, so I was busy this week making collages, certificates for the players, and team photos and plaques for the coaches. It really cut into my mini time! But I didn't mind. I really loved working with this team. They were all so appreciative of everything I did.

Today I went to a party at my neighbor's home where I got to look at beautiful linens and spa goodies. That kind of stuff is dangerous for me. I absolutely love nice sheets, beautiful beds, quilts, and so on. The funniest part is that every bed in the catalog made me think about how I could recreate it in miniature.

So, this afternoon I started working on a bed for DD's Cardinal house. I used the directions from Casey's Minis blog (see the link under More Mischievous Mini Friends) for dressing a bed. I didn't have a bed, so I made one from pieces of my ceiling tile (the same one I used below to pin the dust ruffle) and covered it with muslin. The Storybook Cottage is so small upstairs I had to go with a twin bed, and even then I had to make it a little smaller than real scale. I measured DD's real bed and then cut my ceiling tile to match (I used 2 pieces on the foundation). Then I trimmed it down a bit more to make it fit. I'm not worried that the corners aren't perfect. All of that will be covered when I'm done dressing it with a dust ruffle, sheets, a bedspread, and pillows. The little "feet" are beads.

Then I got started on the dust ruffle. This is a looooooong process. At least I have good directions! The picture to the left shows it all pinned on the ceiling tile sprayed and drying. I started out by spraying it with hairspray, but added some mod podge thinned out with a little water. I don't think my hair spray was going to hold it all that well. The little strip is a ribbon and that is where it will glue to the bottom foundation of the bed (where the box spring would be in "real life.") I'll cut off the excess later. It has to dry overnight. And that's as far as I got on the bed.

Then I worked a little on the addition for the San Fran. I painted and added the trim. It's in pretty good shape- just needs the windows and to be attached to the San Fran, which means I have to cut a door and trim the eave of the roof. Of course that excludes the wiring and decorating! The mini gluing jig arrived on Friday so I can use it to make the windows square and straight.

And finally I put the bay window back together that got knocked on the floor a few weeks ago and knocked into a million pieces. This will go in the right side of the San Fran's 3rd floor tiny room, making it much bigger. I still have some work to do to get it fit in the opening just right, but I think I have the idea to make it work. I want to make it a large window seat, so I will need a piece of wood large enough to fit the window opening and allows the bay to sit on it. I'm waiting to install it until I have run the electrical.

I think that's about it for my mini work for today. Tomorrow I have to go back to "real" work and you know how I hate it cutting into my mini time!