Taking a Break.

I decided to take the day off from the Mystery House so you all have to just look at pretty pictures again.

I took some new photos of "The Burglar's Break". I tried like mad to get some good photos of the tiny working TV but that is really hard to do. People keep moving and the scene keeps changing. This is the best one I got of the actual TV.

Yes, I was watching a soap. Unfortunately I don't get cable or satellite on that particular set or I would be watching something educational....Honest.

My husband got me the tiny set for Christmas one year and I have put it to good use. I have it installed in the room box in a trap door that opens from the back. That way I can use it in real life too.

The curtains that you see were made with the same method as the bed skirt that I did in the bed dressing tutorial. I made the fabric two and 1/2 times the width of the window so that they would be nice and full. You can't see it but the bottom hangs straight down. No fan because I used the tape trick.

The chairs are both made from men's neckties.

I made the frame for the painting and then put fancy squiggles of glue in the corners with a glue syringe and gold leafed them. That's one way to make a frame look more custom.

Moving to the center of the room, you see the safe set in a brick wall. The wall is really mat board that I painted brick color, carved the mortar lines in for the brick and then washed the whole thing with gray paint and wiped it off. I added a bit of other color here and there to finish the look.

Below the burglar has carelessly left his bag of tools open and stuffed it with money from the safe. There is jewelry lying on the floor. One of the necklaces is a piece of real gold chain that I found in a bag of broken jewelry from a thrift shop.

He had to take the Van Gogh off of the wall to get to the safe. That is going with him too. He will probably get more from that than all of the jewelry and money combined.

Here's the burglar himself. He is taking a TV and vodka break. He also raided the fridge for cheese and crackers. Cats are very helpful to burglars. Noiseless as long as they are fed. Just "Gimme some cheese, Mister!"

The coffee table is made from a slab of a geode and a cut of a piece of ironwood. It took forever to saw the ironwood. It is native to Arizona and one of the hardest woods around.

When I first made this scene people kept asking if the burglar was my husband. He had a mustache back then and did resemble the guy. I finally gave up and told everyone that this was his night job!

When you put it all together this is what you get. This is one of the mini rooms that I could move right into. Food, drink, books and TV, what more could you ask for.

I never did get a very good photo of the TV. Oh well.

The burglar is taking a break and so am I. Back to the grindstone tomorrow. See you then.