Welcome New Followers!

I have two new followers in Mini Mischief Land!

Welcome to Dee at De-Lightful minis. Wow- she does some beautiful work! I almost said delightful work. That might have been a bit too mischievous. :-) Do check out her site for some nice eye candy.

Also welcome to Minna from Finland! I seem to have a couple of followers from Finland. Minis must be a big hobby there- maybe it helps keep them warm. Being from Southern California, I wouldn't know how to survive anywhere that stays below 70 for very long! :) I'm only kidding. Minna's blog is Linnanneidon lokikirja, and yes, I copied it since I would never be able to get all of those k's and n's in the proper sequence! She has some really pretty eye candy as well, and a few lines in English too. When I have some time I'll grab Babelfish and see if it can do Finnish.

Welcome, Ladies! I am so happy to have you with me!

Now I'm off to have mischievous dreams. Yes, so mischievous I often dream I'm working on minis. Am I obsessed or just boring? Hmmmm. . . Could creative be it??? I'll let you be the judge.

See you later!

Just Playing Around. . .

After thinking it to death, I decided to hide my power strips behind the stairs going from the second to the third floor. I'll build a little cabinet to hide them. It will provide easy access and still not show behind those stairs.

It seemed the easiest place where all the lights could reach without too many extensions. I had great ambitions to start routing grooves to hide the wires. About 15 minutes ago my "switch" turned off and I can barely keep my eyes open. Hence, all the spaghetti wires you see running everywhere.

I stuck in my furniture just to see how it looks. That's the playing around part. You'll see my sink in the kitchen on the right. That's new, as well as the cute little pot rack on the wall above the oven. This is just a preliminary test. Who knows how it will all look when I'm finally "done" with it.

So much to do still, but it's looking pretty sweet even with all of the spaghetti. Sorry for the super short entry, but I think it's time to call it a night. See you later!

Needlepoint Rug

I mentioned a while back that I started needlepointing a rug for my San Fran. I have to say that needlework is where I feel most comfortable. I can cross stitch, do crewel work, needlepoint, embroider, Brazilian Embroidery. . . give me a needle and some floss and I'm off.

So I'm enjoying starting this rug. It's a Victorian era Savonnerie. I decided to do it on 18 ct cross stitch fabric, mainly because I couldn't find any actual needlepoint canvas readily available. I'm not thrilled with how it looks- it's a little sparse- but it's a work in progress and I've never made a rug like this before, so there is a learning curve. It's starting to come along.

I got the pattern from Anna-Carin Betzen's micromini page here: 1850s Savonnerie. The rug was designed for 1:48 scale. Ouch! I'm feeling pain working at 18 count. I used to work in 32 count linen with no trouble. Oh the joys of growing older!!!

What's cool about needlework done in squares is that it is pretty easy to convert it to another size, so I chose 18 count evenweave to get the size I want. I've been snooping around Janet Granger's site for ideas and I want to buy a couple of kits, but the exchange rate is killing me! She offers free shipping so that helps. She has beautiful designs.

So that's it for now. Short entry, I know, but I'm trying to get some stuff done and also allow myself the rest I tend to skip when I'm working on something. Talk to you later!

Happy Anniversary to me!

My Blog is one year old today! Yippee! I haven't always been so good about keeping it up, but I do my best and it's fun when I do write.

Just thought you'd like to know. . .

Two Steps Forward. . .

Or two staircases, as the case may be. Sorry I've been MIA for a few days. The battery camera died and I could not find the charger thing anywhere. In desperation I ordered a new one from ebay on Friday and it arrived today. Thank heavens for ebay where we can buy cheap electronic goods and get them fast. The Law of something or another will kick in now and I will find the original charger in a matter of hours. C'est la Vie, right?

Anyway, both staircases have been stained and built (in the case of the second one) and are ready for installation. I'm still playing around with the placement of the curved staircase. The color is really glorious on this wood, don't you think?

I've decided the bottom floor will be all wood, which means laying down the sticks and sanding, sanding, sanding. . . But then I can stain it the same color as the stairs and that will be fabulous!

I'm toying with putting down paper that looks like wood on the second floor and varnishing it. We'll see how ambitious I'm feeling when I get to that point. In the interest of getting this beauty done, pretend wood doesn't sound so bad in the library. . .

You're probably wondering why I don't have more done in the days I've been not blogging. I admit I decide to just take a break on Sunday (Saturday was swallowed up with baseball as usual.) I'm slightly embarrassed (but not really) that I spent the entire day in sweats reading a silly Mary Higgins Clark book. I needed a break and it felt good to be lazy! :)

I mentioned over the weekend to my husband that I was going to start looking for a thrift store table to display the San Fran on in the living room. Oddly, that didn't go over well. Apparently out living room is slotted for a game room, dominated by a plasma TV and the X-Box. Who knew? He suggested (go ahead and laugh!) that we put it on a shelf on a wall. Are you kidding me? He must have been kidding. It's around 35 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 42 inches tall. One of the reasons I want to find a table for it is because it's now so heavy that I can barely move it by myself. Sure, wall shelf sounds great. Oh boy. I'll do what I always do, which is do whatever I want anyway. :) I'll start the table search this week.

So next up is routing the grooves for the wires and getting the lights permanently in place, flooring, and wallpapering. This is the stuff I'm not crazy about, but I love it when it's done.

My needlepoint rug is coming along too, so at least I've been working on something mini even if my camera didn't cooperate.

Watching Stain Dry. . .

I'm feeling a bit more like myself today, thank heavens! I'm still not 100%, but I was able to keep my eyes open for normal periods of time today and I attended my son's baseball game tonight. He hit two doubles, thank you very much, which prompted me to nickname him Double-Double. In case you've never been there, that's the name of a yummy hamburger at In-N-Out, a famous hamburger chain here in So Cal. He found this to be quite amusing.

So, after work today I had a few minutes to stain a second coat on the curved staircase and stain the pieces of the straight staircase. After my son's game (and when the pieces were dry) I glued the staircase kit together and I must say, it's quite beautiful with the stain on it! Unfortunately, I can't show you because the camera battery died and I can't find the charger. Admittedly, I didn't look for it too hard. I'm tired and I'm heading off to bed, but at least I did accomplish mini stair completion today. I like going to bed with that satisfied feeling of accomplishment!

I also got most of the border on my rug completed. I worked on that at my son's baseball game (much to my husband's annoyance), but again you'll have to imagine it and I will show pictures when I can. I can't imagine where that battery charger is!

I did have a funny moment earlier tonight while I was staining the staircases. I took a cookie sheet and covered it with foil as my staining work area. I wore gloves but I must have torn one or something because I had stain all over my hands, and I dripped it on the cookie sheet a bit. For a second my inner child took over and said, "Boy, Mom is going to be mad when she sees her cookie sheet!" And then I realized, hey I am the mom, it's my cookie sheet, and if I want to ruin the it, I can! It was just a funny moment. I've been an adult for many years and still those little thoughts kick in now and then.

Sorry for such a boring blog tonight (about as exciting as watching stain dry). Hopefully the charger shows up tomorrow and I can show you what I'm talking about. Until then, sleep tight! :)

Retail Therapy. . .

I haven’t been myself the past few days. I’m not sure who I’ve been, but it hasn’t been me! I think I am trying to fight off something because I am so tired I can barely move. I don’t feel “sick” exactly. I just feel listless and drained and worn down.

Yesterday I left work after having been there about 30 minutes. I almost never leave sick and in the last 5 years of work I think I’ve called in sick once because I had strep throat. On the way home I thought, I can work on some mini things later, after a nap. . . Well, that nap lasted all day (off and on) and I just didn’t have the energy to work on any minis. I even slept through 24 and Medium last night! That’s seriously tired for me. I don’t sleep through Kiefer Sutherland being on TV! And I certainly am not too tired to work on minis. It has to be a flu of some sort.

I managed to make it in to work and teach my classes today, but I’m afraid I’m not long for the awake world tonight. In fact, I’m wondering if it will be too hot in my room to watch the Angels game tonight from the comfort of my fluffy pillowed bed and soft duvet. The weather has been brutal! Over 100 degrees today and yesterday. August in April. No thanks!

Before you worry that I have forgotten minis entirely (that will be the day!), I thought I’d show you some on my latest purchases for the Lady San Fran. I have to do this a little at a time because if I knew what I was spending all at once I’d probably be shocked. OK, not really. It’s just easier on the wallet to spread it out. Plus, you never know what you will find as you search for mini treasures.

So, the first little thing I bought last week was this leopard chair. I wanted something different for the Gentlemen’s Library and thought this would fit the bill. It’s resin, and I would prefer cloth and wood, but never mind because it’s just so neat looking!
I need another unique piece and a polar bear rug (or something similar) in the middle for the library, where the gentlemen can sit and smoke.

I also ordered a stair kit for the stairs between the second and third floors. I ordered the Houseworks kit, but now that it’s here I wish I had ordered the narrow one. It fits fine, but I’m going to have to widen the hole for the stairs and that’s a bit of a pain in MDF. But it can be done. I think this will look much nicer than the stairs that came with the San Fran.

I then turned my attention to the Ladies’ Parlor and picked up these two little chairs from ebay. Unfortunately I didn’t win the matching pink sofa, but remember I don’t like the matchy matchy thing anyway, so it’s just as well. I’m meant to get a different sofa, right?

I guess I went a little crazy last week, because I also ordered a Reutter’s embroidery set for the Ladies’ Parlor and a rug. I don’t know where I’ll use the rug yet.

And then I decided to start stitching a rug, which is my latest project (that isn’t getting done right now) and I will show you pictures when I have more than one exciting row stitched. I had trouble deciding what size fabric to use and had to start over. I’m doing it in petit point. I feel like I’m cheating because I normally cross stitch and since I don’t have to do the X back over it, it feels weird. I’m also feeling like I want to do more punch needle rugs, so hang on for that. That is, once I get all of my energy back. . . I’ll keep you posted.

Just when you think. . .

Just when you think you have it all figured out, running scared will change your mind. . .

Sorry. I'm a real Journey fan and as I started to type out the title, the line from Escape popped in my head. I think we all love the music that was popular when we were in high school and 80's is it for me!

Errr. . .what was I talking about? Oh yes. Changing the plan yet again. So, last night I stained the fireplace. The stain is really a pretty red color. It's by Varathane and the color is Cabernet. It still needs another coat and a good varnishing. I want it really shiny. It said one coat stain and varnish. Yeah right.

So what was the change of plan? Well, while I was messing around with the stairs I knocked out the wall that separates the kitchen and the foyer by accident. It was kind of a chocolate-in-my-peanut butter moment. And then I turned the staircase around and I think I really like it better.

So, what do you think? Should I keep it like this with a huge great room where I can combine the dining room and the foyer and move the kitchen to the room on the right where the addition is? I'm leaning that way. I may look at it tomorrow night and decide it's a terrible idea. But that's the beauty of a dollhouse. You can do whatever you want!

I think it will depend on putting in the staircase between the second and third floor to make up my mind. If it looks too weird to have the stairs coming up this way then I'll have to change the plan again. And that will surprise no one!

My First Reutter's Piece

I found this Reutter's lamp at my local hobby shop. I did a double take at the price because it was at least $10 less than anywhere I'd seen it on the net, so I snatched it up. Isn't it so pretty? This one will go in the Ladies' Parlor.

The funny thing about Reutter's lamps is that they don't light up. And they aren't cheap either! That won't do. So I ran a grain of rice bulb up the back, and attached it with some museum wax. Voila! Lighted hand painted Reutter's lamp from Germany. I wasn't going to mess with it to make it a permanent light. With my track record lately I was afraid I'd break it. This will work fine for now.

I played around with adding lights to the front and here is a rather artistic shot of how it turned out. I know a lot of people don't add lights at all to a dollhouse, and even after all of my frustration with lights over the past month, I really think it adds a great deal to a house.

My husband just turned on Fringe downstairs. I wonder if he'd mind if I stained the staircase while I watch the show. I'm guessing he'll mind. I'd better take the stinky stuff into the garage for now.

See you later!

Welcome New Follower!

Welcome Minna of Minna's Doll World! Please check out her blog. From what I've seen she likes to work on miniatures and crocheting, so perhaps that's why she decided to follow my mischievous misadventures. : )

I have stain for the staircase so I'm hoping to tackle that tonight. It's taco Tuesday at our local fast food joint, so dinner will be quick and allow me mini time.

I have to start deciding on floor and wallpaper. I'm starting to feel like I'm in the home stretch. It's so exciting!!! I'm starting to dream (literally) about my finished San Fran. That's either a sign of an illness or a true miniaturist!

Up the Down Staircase. . .

This will be a quick entry tonight because I've been running around all day getting ready for Easter. Note to y'all- avoid Walmart at all costs the day before Easter. I just needed a few non Easter related things and it was a madhouse. Plus the Easter bunny needs to get her baskets delivered and then get some rest herself. Hehehe. :)

I did manage to get a few minutes of mini time in while the kids were hurriedly getting ready for bed and going to bed early to make Easter come earlier. I don't go overboard at Easter so I don't know why they are so excited. I guess just because they are kids.

I ordered this fabulous staircase during Ernie's 40% off sale this year. It used to be 50%, but since I had heard rumors that there wasn't going to be a sale at all this year, 40% sounded pretty good.

Unfortunately, spacial relationships are not my thing. That's kind of crummy when you are a miniaturist. At any rate, the staircase seemed enormous when I pulled it out of the box. There was no way to make it work with the end going towards the balcony door, so I changed it to face the wall to the nursery. That meant I had to move the wall to the left and cut the stairs hole bigger in the second floor. Moving the wall makes the library quite a bit bigger. I moved the wall below over to match too.

You can see I still have to cut the hole bigger so the mini people won't hit their heads, but that can be done after the ham and mashed taters are put away tomorrow and the kids are comatose on jelly beans and chocolate bunnies. Cutting MDF is noisy and messy.

I put the big fireplace here instead of the little one. I like it under the stairs like that. It's really pretty. It's such fun to have furniture about to play with. I also like that I made a little seating area under the stairs. I need to do something like that in the library. I think sometimes we try to cram all the furniture against the walls and it ends up looking unnatural.

I think the top of the staircase looks a little weird right now, but when the second staircase (just a straight one) is installed it will look better. Overall, I like the curved staircase in this house!

OK, I'm hopping off to bed. Happy Easter! Hopefully I'll have something to show you tomorrow.

The Changing State of the Miniature Hobby. . .

Miniatures used to be one of the most popular hobbies in the country. I can recall as a child going to any toy store or department store (even the local drug store!) and marveling over beautiful dollhouse kits and furniture. As with much in life, I wish I knew then what I know now! But life isn’t like that.

I’ve been in this hobby (big time) only about three years now. I did build a dollhouse when I was seven with my Dad’s help, so I guess you can say 30+ years, but three years for realistic purposes. I can see a drastic change in the availability of supplies in my local area in that short time.

Two years ago my local craft store, Tall Mouse, had a whole aisle with both sides devoted to miniatures. My husband bought me my San Franciscan kit there for my birthday. Yes, two years ago. Sigh. Poor San Fran. Maybe if I hadn’t bashed her so thoroughly she’d be done by now. But surely she wouldn’t be so special!

At Christmas last year the selection had shrunk down to one aisle. Then last Saturday I went in there and I had to ask where to find the miniatures. A few little lonely bags of miniature knick knacks were stashed on a wall in the very back of the store no bigger than 2 feet by 3 feet. I told the cashier how disappointed I was, but that barely got a grunt in response.

For many years there has been a real dollhouse store near me, Mott’s Miniatures. The original owners had a store and museum at Knott’s Berry Farm and to the child me it was a magical place. I’m sure as an adult I would have found it magical, but it’s been gone for many years.

Check out this blog entry which shows the whole guide to the Mott Collection. Mott Guide Pretty neat! Look at how amazing those displays were! They tried to revive the museum in the mid 90’s, but it was apparently not a success and the collection was sold off in pieces. A tragic end, in my opinion.

Mott’s still maintained a store after they left Knott’s, although in the past few years when I visited it showed nothing of its former glory (at least how it looked on their website), and I found the staff to be less than knowledgeable. One Saturday I spent an hour there and ended up answering questions for the customers just because I could. While it wasn’t a great dollhouse store, it still had things I needed and it was nice to have a place to go and look at things before making a decision.

Mott’s closed their store doors on March 31, 2009. There are rumors that the grandson did not want to run the business. The website is still in business and last time I ordered from them they were very good and quick, so I have to give them credit. It’s just sad that there isn’t a store to visit anymore.

I have one last place that carries miniatures in my area and that is my local Hobby Town . They are mostly an R/C shop, but they have an aisle of miniatures which is much more than anywhere else around me these days. It’s a family run business and they are always willing to order anything for me (unless it’s fuses I can buy at Pep Boys. . .). I like to support my local shop.

I just can’t believe that this hobby has gone into such decline! There seem to be so many people interested when you look online at it (look at the number of blogs alone devoted to the subject!) and yet the stores don’t see the value in it. And even the magazines are mostly gone. Remember Nutshell News?

I did visit a Hobby shop in Irvine on Tuesday. This is not your average hobby store. This is Kelly’s, run by Kelly himself. He has a fascinating shop. It’s a mix of antiques, his work, models, and everything else. He walked me around and showed me some of his work, which included a scale model of the Globe Theatre in London , a Western town, a schoolhouse, and the stairway from Titanic, all made by hand and from scratch. It was really amazing work and he is quite an interesting man to chat with. I completely enjoyed my lunch hour and I’ll head back when I can. I picked up a book on Victorian architecture, a Chrynsbon gas lamp, and a couple of other knick knacks. We’re good people, we miniaturists. :)

See you later!

I'm a Convert. . .

OK, round wire is my new best friend. This stuff is so easy- why did I ever mess with tapewire???? I had one little glitch, but it was easily (if slightly embarrassingly) handled.

I stopped on my way home from work Tuesday at the hobby store and picked up a socket strip. I took some of the new lights I had not used yet, plugged them in and Voila! I had light. Very easy, very cool. I had to take the ones I had soldered and attached with eyelets and put plugs on them, and then something went wrong. I plugged in a light and all of the sudden all of the lights went dim. Unplugged everything and one light was fine. Add one more, they dim.

There is this little light on the socket board and it blazed brightly. I couldn't figure this out. The socket board came with no directions. So I started googling. I asked the question on the Greenleaf forum. Through a combination of research and the Greenleaf Forum I learned that the light on the socket board means the fuse was blown. Easily fixed, right?

So off I went to the hobby store on my way home tonight. They didn't have the fuse there, so I just bought another socket strip, figuring I would order some fuses on ebay. I mentioned to the owner of the hobby store that if she would please stock the fuses I would buy them. To give her credit, she tried not to laugh, but she did snicker before she totally got it under control. Apparently these fuses are just regular old plain fuses you can get pretty much anywhere. She sent me off to Pep Boys and $6 later (I bought 10 of them to have on hand) I was back in business.

Is embarrassment a way to learn? How was I to have any idea that a fuse is simply a fuse and nothing special to a miniature light socket? Oh well. Now I know.

Here is my house without tapewire and with the new round wire. This was just a test. The wires are all showing and the socket strip is stuck right in the middle of the house. I've also got my fireplace stuck in the middle of the library, but that's because the wires are short and I wanted to see it lit up. I have to get some baseboards with to channel for wiring in it, and I have some channels to rout out, but over all I am very, very happy!

I have a long way to go and in fact a few of these lights are meant to go on the outside. I stuck them in just to see how it looks lit. I ordered some more lights yesterday. I need to extend many of the lights and that may mean more soldering. Be warned, right? :)

Hallelujah! This is so much easier than tapewire for me I can't even tell you!

Here is my fireplace with the lighted flame piece I just got. I have a flickering light but my daughter and I weren't really impressed with it. It didn't really flicker but flashed. My daughter says that fires don't flash off and on! I might light the flicker light again and see if I leave it on for a while it might actually flicker.

So now I wait for the rest of the lights to arrive but at least there is hope that I will get the lighting finished in the near future.

See you later!

Adenhart a True Angel

If you've followed my blog for any time you'll know how much of an Angels Baseball fan I am. So tonight it is with true sorrow that I recognize the tragic death of one of our Angel family, Nick Adenhart. He and his friends were hit by a drunk driver last night on their way home from a club after the game.

He pitched a beautiful 6 innings last night and God must have given him the night of his life, living his dream, before HE called him home.

I know this isn't my usual entry, but I am so upset by this truly talented young man's death that I just had to mention it. He was 22. I've spent a lot of tears thinking about it today. It's really like losing a family member.

All Angels fans have joined together in sorrow today and we know that while we lost an Angel in Anaheim today, heaven gained one.

Welcome!

Welcome to my latest follower, Brenda, who writes one of my favorite blogs, Loom Lore. She shares a love of things miniature, although her blog is about loom knitting and the cutest projects you've ever seen. I wanted to make her leprechaun hat in the worst way for St Patrick's Day, but I ran out of time. There is always next year!

Do check out her blog and see some of her adorable projects.

Welcome, Brenda!

A Plan is Formed. . . .

After weeks of struggling with the tape wire and MDF, I have come to a decision. As much as it pains me to do it, I feel compelled to rip out the tape wire lighting system in my San Fran and replace it with round (or hard wire).

After all the lights shorted out over the weekend, I played around with it and got it all working again. Then I left the room for a moment and when I came back, the lights were all out and the junction splice was hot, and I smelled that ozone burn kind of smell that never bodes well in these situations.

I love this house and I’ve poured hours into it and I do not want to spend the next 10 plus years fighting with a lighting system that works only intermittently, or not at all! So as painful as it is right now, I think it’s for the best. I’m going to zip over to my local hobby store as soon as I can and see if they have the round wire and the circuit board thingey you use to plug the lights into. I think I saw it in there last week. I’m feeling a bit down over this whole fiasco, but I think once I’ve rewired the house and all is well I will be much happier in the long run.

So, while I wait to get new lights and all the supplies I need to start over, I started playing with the floor plan of the San Fran. I went round and round in my mind (because the husband is not interested in my dollhouses in the least!) trying to decide if the house should be accurate. Should the floor plan be the way a Victorian house really was. . .should the furniture be period correct in all cases. . . and so on. And finally I decided that it just doesn’t matter. This is a house out of my own little brain and hands, so it can be any way I want it. And I like something very eclectic.

Here is the how she looks with the furniture I have just set in there so far.

You may notice some additions! The bedroom on the left has a really cute set from Town Square with two little white beds, a dresser, a night stand, and a dressing table.

The center room on the second floor has my new library set I won on ebay last week. And the main room on the first floor has a couple of sofa pieces also picked up from ebay. The fainting couch was a lot smaller than I had anticipated. It might end up on the third floor.

So all the fiasco with lighting has made me sit down and plan the floor plan. Plus getting new furniture has helped the plan come together as well. So here is what I am thinking:

First Floor:
Left side: Kitchen
Center: Curving staircase, Entry Way and Main Parlor
Right: Dining room

Now, I know that there is an issue with this plan. I realize that the kitchen and the dining room should be next to one another, but I can’t have the kitchen or the dining room in the entry way. That just doesn’t work for me. After careful consideration, I have decided that the owners of this house don’t care if the staff is traipsing through the parlor to bring food to the diners, or we shall have to pretend there is some special passage on the other side of the parlor that leads to the dining room. I like the second option. Special passageway from kitchen to dining room. Good. I feel better now.

Second Floor:
Left side: Nursery
There are two little girls that live in this room, hence the white furniture and the adorable dressing table. I’m thinking of adding a window seat to this room because the little girls like to read on rainy days curled up in the window of their room.
Center: The Gentlemen’s Library and a straight staircase to the third floor
I love the library set in this room. I need a globe for it, one of those big ones. This room will be done in hunter green and wood paneling with pictures of dogs and horses on the walls. I’m thinking I need to add a wall to set the stairs off, mainly because I need more wall space for the book shelf, but also because it lends privacy to the room.
Right: The Master Bedroom
I’m not sure the Gentlemen’s Library would be on the second floor in between two bedrooms, but I defer to my earlier comments. It works with the furniture and will be pretty, so there you are.

Third Floor
Left side: Bathroom
This room has been made much nicer with the addition of the bay window. I want a chandelier in here and lots of plants in the bay window so it feels tropical.
Middle: Ladies’ Parlor
This room will either have ruby red walls or it might be done in toile and florals. I haven’t decided quite yet.
Right Side: Terrace
The ladies like to go out on the terrace for tea and this way they can come and go from the Ladies’ Parlor without bothering the gentlemen in the library.

I don’t know if the Victorians would ever put a parlor practically in the attic (let alone a bathroom on the third floor only), but it works in my San Fran. Again, we can pretend there is powder room on the first floor that is out of our line of sight.

So that’s the game plan, or the floor plan as it may be. I now need kitchen and bathroom furniture, something eclectic and fancy for the Main Parlor, and something feminine and pretty for the Ladies’ Parlor. It’s getting there. Once I finish the lighting I can start on flooring and wallpapering and then the fun part begins. That’s where you get to do all the little touches that bring the home to life. I can’t wait to get to that part!

Synchronicity

I meant to write an entry last night, but I was so wiped out from my Saturday of fun that I couldn't get up the energy to write. I really admire people who can blog every day. I just can't do it. Too much of my life gets in the way!

Saturday morning started out with my son's early morning baseball game. I can't sit still for almost anything, so I crocheted a mini blanket for my daughter's tiny bunny friends. It was nothing too terribly special. I did a row of single crochets and then a row of doubles and then I did six doubles in every other chain around the edge to make the ruffle.

It's not a small enough scale to actually go in one of my dollhouses, but it was a fun experiment and kept me busy for two hours while the baseball game was going on. It would be easy to recreate with a smaller hook.

And in case you are wondering, yes, I do know exactly what is going on during the game while crocheting, despite shouting "Let's get some hits!" while our side was heading out to the field. I would have done that anyway. :)

Here are the lucky recipients of the mini blanket, just in time for Easter.

As soon as the game was over, we headed to Sam's Club for groceries, and then my daughter and I went to see a musical play for charity that a friend from work starred in. That was good mommy daughter bonding time.

As if we hadn't had a full enough day already, we had Angels baseball tickets for the evening. It was a preseason game, but the first one back at the stadium. We met my husband and son at the game. Here's where the synchronicity comes in.

As we were watching the game, I thought I heard two gentlemen talking behind me about dollhouses. Sometimes I hear dollhouse talk, and it turns out they are talking about something else and it's only wishful thinking that I hear "dollhouse." But after a few minutes of eavesdropping (I couldn't help it- these are dollhouses we are talking about!) I was sure I had heard the gentleman say he had boxes of handmade furniture sitting around. What self respecting miniaturist could avoid asking?!

So I turned around and chatted and I was correct. He says he has literally boxes of handmade furniture sitting around after completing a dollhouse for his grandchildren. While my husband rolled his eyes I whipped out a piece of paper and handed over my email address. Let's hope he contacts me!

But what are the odds that in a stadium that holds 45,000 people I was seated in front of a man who has dollhouse furniture for sale? That's synchronicity.

Talk to you later!

Another Award!

My dear friend Casey has sent me another award. Thanks so much!

This is what was said about it this award:
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!”
Casey said this about my blog:

Tiffany of Mini Mischief. http://minimischief.blogspot.com/ She does lots of different things at a time, just like me. And she owns a Joseph Angel house that I am going to nag her about until she starts working on it.

I guess I need someone to nag me about the Joseph Angel House. Since I keep burning out the lights (and burning my fingers!) of the San Fran I may never get to it!

So here are a few blogs I really like:

1. Kat at Little Thoughts From an Average Mind. http://minikatslittlethoughts.blogspot.com/ I know she's already got this award, but she has such an interesting blog and I really enjoy it.
   
2. Robin at Rockin' the Loom http://rockintheloom.wordpress.com/ She has all kinds of great info on looming and she's a nice person to email with. She teaches classes on loom knitting and makes everything seem so easy!
   
3. I have to send this back to Casey at Casey's Minis. http://caseymini.blogspot.com/ Her blog is the inspiration for mine, the reason I even have a blog, and the one person who convinces me I can make whatever I'm struggling with after all. :)
   
4. Cathy of California is one of my favorites for vintage crafts

And that's good for now! Thanks to everyone who reads my blog. :)

I didn't check to see how many I'm supposed to send it to, and I never really listen anyway, so I'll forward it to a few people's blogs I really like.

Heart of Darkness

So. . .I managed to short out all the lights in my San Franciscan dollhouse last night. With my luck with the lighting on this house, are you surprised? The lighting in the house is going to be the death of me. I ordered some lights on sale from a well known dollhouse site. I don't want to say the name because I don't think it's their fault and I've always been very happy with them before. But these lights? Horrible.

When I say these are a no name brand, I mean it. They are really generic. No kidding, all they say is "Dollhouse Light. Made in China" on the package and 5 out of 6 lights did not work at at all. Well, two were kind of loose and they would light if you took pliers and pushed the light slightly. That worked great until I broke one (light that is, not the pliers).

They were really cheap. I guess if you just plugged them in to the socket board (if you hardwired them) they might be OK, but since I use tape wire and had to go through the whole ordeal of cutting the ends off and using eyelets (or solder- shudder!) the lights weren't happy. One actually smoked last night! That was just before I put in another eyelet, turned on the power, and saw blue sparks, and then darkness. Sigh.

And all this while my kids (10 and 8) devised every way possible to harm each other and drive me crazy in the process. They are on break and going stir crazy. If I get committed can I take my miniatures with me?

I'm debating whether to ask the dollhouse site if they've had any problems with them before. I'm also debating ripping out the tapewire and trying hardwire. I guess I'll sleep on it.

On a side note, I have to say here how much I truly despised the real book "Heart of Darkness." Now before you say I must not be a reader, I will endeavor to change your mind! I love books with a passion! I read about a book a week, sometimes more. I just happen to think that Heart of Darkness is boring. There are many books much more deserving of high school literature class in my mind. And did you know Apocalypse Now is loosely based on Heart of Darkness? I hated that too. Rant over, at least for now. No wait! Oooooh, I'm watching Ghost Hunters right now and they are showing the Edith Wharton House. It's beautiful! Check out the site. Since I'm speaking of books, Edith Wharton wrote House of Mirth and it was anything but a barrel of laughs.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you a fun thing I've been doing at work with some great friends. We meet in the break room for an afternoon "crocheting bee" kind of a thing. We only have a couple of minutes for break, but we sit together and crochet for a few minutes, ask each other advice on our projects, encourage each other, and just chit chat. Most days, it's the best part of my day! Now if I could just find some friends to have a miniature bee with, now that would be something. But I do enjoy a few minutes with my new friends every day!

I'm Published!

Remember my pinwheel baby blanket? Well, I sent it to the author of the pattern, Denise Layman, and she put a picture of it on her website. So I am published, sort of. :) Check it out:
Knit Chat

So I'll tell you a little secret. . . Ready? I have a dream of becoming a published author someday. I just finished reading Inkheart and I'm reading Inkspell (the sequel). The author has such a great idea about how some people have a talent for reading characters out of a book and actually making them real. Imagine if you wrote something and you could meet your own creation! So all the stories are swirling around in my head and one of these days I'll get them down and you all can say you knew me when. . . :)

At any rate, it's exciting for someone to publish my work other than in my own little corner of the world.

See you later!