Once Upon A Time......

Since I am doing boring stuff on the bookstore I am changing the subject today.

Several people asked me to show and tell about my castle in the past few days, so here goes.

Once Upon A Time.......Isn't that the way that all good fairy tales begin? That's the name on the plaque on the front of the castle. TMS had a show one year that was a fantasy theme. I decided to go all out. Why do one fairy tale when you can do a whole lot of them?

I started sketching ideas and as I sketched I tried to think from a child's point of view. That's not hard for me. The 6 year old was at it again. I thought, when children play at let's pretend, they don't think like adults. There is no particular castle or palace in mind. They just go at it and let their imaginations run wild. Therefore I decided to do 10 scenes. Each one has a different style. I sometimes cheat and say that there are 11. I have trouble counting Rapunzel and the prince as one. The prince is on the ground and Rapunzel is 3 stories up in the tower with a witch behind her holding scissors.

Anyway, back to the story. You will see a scene at the bottom center where the boys are playing at being knights and a little girl reading fairy tales to her baby sister. She is totally unaware that there is a momma dragon peering over her shoulder.

Do you know how to tell that it's a momma dragon? It has very delicate wings made of lace. No groaning please. Everybody knows that! I don't know if you can see it but the baby dragon is between the tail and the body of momma. She is coming out of her shell and holding a rattle. You can tell it is a girl baby because........Are you ready for this? Her shell has a design of pink rosebuds all over it and she has tiny lace wings just like mom. OK you can groan now. There is a portrait of dad on a shelf in the cave. I will have to see if I can bend into the shape of a pretzel and get a picture of that too.

The toy bicycle and the tiny cars are straight from Wal Mart. They are typical kids. There are toys scattered around and a kite stuck in the tree. Never ever ever put anything away before starting something new, not even if it is a sword fight with wooden swords and newspaper hats. Incidentally, the boy on the left has on a Cleveland Browns shirt. My husband is a fan.

To the left of that is Cinderella is leaving the ball. You can see her glass slipper behind her. The mice and the pumpkin have already turned. She messes up every time. You would think as many times as the story has been told, she would learn to leave earlier.

The rocks around the door are painted DAS. The marble floor is hand painted. The doors and the molding around the edge of the floor are pierced molding that you can get by the strip at places like Michael's craft store. I hand carved the console tables where the flower vases sit.

I may as well throw in a few boring facts about the castle and how it was built. I did the structure from the chipped up wood board. I can't remember if they call it chip board or what they do call it. All I know it it was much cheaper than plywood at the time and just as strong. The towers are cut down pieces of tubes that rugs are rolled on. I got them from a dumpster behind what was then "Standard Brands" home improvement store. One of the sales people helped me get them out. I had to cut them with a saw. They are quite thick, but they were free! At the time I was doing the budget thing.I did all of the stucco with Dap Spackle.

I used fancy molding around the edge of the foundation. That gave it a bit more class.

Pretty much everything in the castle is made from scratch. It is also wired for lights. I can't get to the back to light it up where it is now. One of these days I am going to have to take it down for cleaning and touch ups. Then I will get photos with lights. It takes two men to get it up there and back down. Sometimes it sits in the living room. Unfortunately when it does the cats like to climb it and sleep on top. That's why it is where it is right now.

I made all of the people and furniture. I have never counted how many people. I should do that.

Now I am going back to work on the boring bookshop. See you tomorrow for the next installment.