Another Reason For Keyhole Saws.....

In the "What was I thinking?" category......Yesterday I blithely glued together the walls and floors of the kitchen wing. Then I found two long narrow pieces of wood, unlabeled. It took me a minute. Ah yes. The dumbwaiter. The witless builder forgot to put in the dumbwaiter.

This is my main reason for owning a keyhole saw. I am famous for changing plans in the middle of the stream. Sorry about the mixed metaphor. I am always wanting an extra window or door after the house is constructed. I also frequently change my mind about where the stairs should be located.

The nice thing about a keyhole saw is it makes all of this possible without a lot of fuss and bother. It's the same with a hole in the floor for a dumbwaiter. I knew the size that the hole had to be. I marked it off and drilled a couple of holes in the corner opposite where the walls meet. Then good old keyhole went to work. In a matter of minutes, all was right with the world.

I fitted the two pieces of wood. They were perfect.....Except for the fact that I changed the roof line a couple of days ago. Now I no longer needed a slant on the front side of the dumbwaiter. It had to be straight like the other side. That was OK though because I decided that the openings on either floor needed to be as wide as I could make them. I cut the board for that side into three pieces and stuck them to the other long piece.

I cut two pieces as stops for the top and bottom of the shaft. I drilled a couple of holes in each piece to provide a place for the ropes or chains that will pull the elevator up and down. I am figuring this out as I go.

My friend Pat Arnell had one antique house that I worked on that had an elevator in it. It worked by turning a handle on the outside of the elevator to make the rope move up and down. Now if I can just remember exactly how that one worked......

Here's a view of the dry fitting of the shaft. It is going to fit OK. Since I changed the roof line, I may have to shave off one corner of the box. That's not a problem. It is at the far top corner and probably won't ever be seen anyway. Or I can always lower the opening by 1/2" too.

You are probably wondering by now where Tessie is. I have been questioning her about Spike. He seems to have disappeared. I suspect a dog napping is in progress. No ransom note. I don't think that she wants money. I think that she wants Spike.

Meanwhile, she is harassing me about the "elevator". She says it is WAY too small. To prove it, she climbed in the top opening. I told her it wasn't for people. She said it certainly wasn't if I didn't enlarge it.

I think that she's stuck. She doesn't want to admit it. She keeps trying to lure Buster(strangely, he's not missing) to come close enough so that she can grab his collar for help getting out.

Oh alright. I will pull her out. It's only because I need her out of there so that I can go back to work. Otherwise I would let her stew in her own juice.

See you tomorrow.

Reality Bites!

I know that the title isn't very original, but I have a lot of "real" stuff to do today. It is going to interfere with the work on the Clockwork cottage.

I did decide to glue the kitchen wing together and do the blog entry before I go back to reality. That way if I do wind up spending the day in the real world I will have something to think about while I am doing laundry, vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms. I could go on with this list, but I don't think it's necessary. You know what I mean......ICKY!

I went to glue the pieces together and discovered that I had glued the floor supports to the wrong side of the piece. I had to rip them off, repair and re glue that piece. GRRRR.

I finally got it all glued together with the help of the mini level that April gifted me with a couple of years ago. It is wonderful. It is only about an inch and a half long and hangs on a key chain. I think that she got them from some hardware store as and ad handout. Anyway, I finally got it together level and I am watching the glue dry as I work on other things now.

Tessie had to stick her nose in to see what was going on. She is a bit leery after the great crashing of the walls the last time she ventured into the area.

Someone suggested a hard hat and steel toed work boots for her. You should know by now that she refuses to wear any kind of shoes and a hard hat is out of the question. It would mess up her hair. I wonder if she has looked in a mirror lately....She came in with a piece of blue tape fastened around her waist. She says if the walls collapse it will save her. More than likely I will fine her hanging helplessly on the side of the building. It better not collapse!

It is time to go back to the real world now. I will leave you with one last photo of Tessie. She has gotten brave. She took off the tape and this is her chosen stance now as she yells "I'm Queen of the World!" at the top of her lungs. Somehow I don't think that a can of crushed pineapple quite equals the prow of the Titanic........

See You tomorrow.

Welcome!

There are two new people peeking in the door. First is Gema from Mini Tienda12. http://mini-tienda12.blogspot.com/ Gema has dolls, clothes and other minis on her blog. There are some very pretty room boxes.

The other is Inma from Inma Gómez ... OOAK Dollhouse Dolls. http://inmagomezdolls.blogspot.com/ Imma has mostly dolls and clothes as far as I can see. Very nice.

My highschool spanish is a bit rusty, but it is worth the struggle to read about what they have to offer. Please go see them.

Come join the party ladies! I'm happy to see you here.

Winging It

I went and looked at the Orrery this morning and hated it. It's the wooden post in the center and the fact that none of the planets or whatever they are, are orbiting the center orb. I went and did some research and I am starting over.........Tomorrow. I don't feel like making a trip to the hardware store this morning. They open late on Sundays.

Sooooo. What to do? I decided that it was about time that I got the kitchen wing put on the Clockwork Cottage. I need to be able to ascertain what all I can cram into the secret room and the kitchen.

I had the floors and the end wall cut. I needed the front wall and the roof pieces. Forget the roof pieces for now. I won't need them til later and I am going to have to do some weird angles the way that part of the house is going to be shaped.

I got out my trusty keyhole saw and drill for cutting windows. I didn't have those cut in the end piece. Marked, but not cut.

Here you can finally get a good look at what I am talking about when I say "keyhole saw". This one is about 25 years old and still going strong. The newer ones have fancier handles, but work the same.

First I used the drill to cut a few holes in opposite corners of the part that I wanted to cut out. Then I simply started sawing where the holes were towards the corner between the two holes. The keyhole saw will cut a curve if you use the tip. Then when you get to the straight line you can use the length of the saw and let it do the work.

In case you are wondering about the corners where the holes are, you start at the straight line and work back towards the corners there.

The reason I use a keyhole saw instead of either a utility knife or the Dremel jigsaw is, the knife is very hard on the hands and the jigsaw has to have it's blade removed and shoved through that tiny hole and reset. You have to do the resetting of the blade as if you were blindfolded. It's not fun. So, the keyhole is my weapon of choice.

After I finished cutting out the windows in that section I proceeded to draw out the front wall of that section. It is complete with tabs on the side to match the ones on the end piece. I cut the outer lines of that piece with the Dremel. Then I used the keyhole saw for the windows.

I decided on a pitched roof on the front piece so that the secret room would have more head space.

If I did it with the same cut off as the end piece, it would only be 6" under the eaves. Steampunk man is going to be at least that tall. I don't want him bumping his head.

I did a dry fit with very shaky masking tape holding it together. Tessie is in the doorway inspecting the job. She is already complaining that the floor is slanted and the gap in the corner is going to be all drafty. I have the floor sitting on a small thread box and the walls taped. What does she expect?

After I came in here to write, I heard a loud crash. I expect that it was the masking tape letting go. I heard a yelp and a lot of bad witch words coming from the family room. I know Tessie is OK if she is cursing the walls. I will go check on her when I finish here.

One last thing before I go. I found this the other day on U tube. I don't have the room for it or I would want one. Go see. It is amazing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKgwfYiSLWk I put it in the comment page on Cappuccino Express, but I was afraid that someone would miss it. Go look.

See you tomorrow.

New People at the Party!

This morning I got out of bed, stumbled to the kitchen and made coffee. I wandered into the computer room and found 3 new people waiting to have fun.

We have Katerina Ana. She is very mysterious. There is no blog or photo for her.

Then we have Mary of Sunny Sunflower Miniatures. http://sunflowerminis.blogspot.com/ She is new to mini blogging. It looks like she will have something interesting to say.

The third is also fairly new to blogging. It is Sena Mena of SenaMena, a place to express my love for miniatures. http://senamena.blogspot.com/ She is working on a really neat Japanese restaurant.

Welcome to all three of you. It's still only 5:30 AM, but let's party!

Orrery For Me!

Side note: I have since decided to junk this particular piece and start over.

I just finished building my first Orrery. There is no rhyme or reason to it. I figure that wherever Steampunk man is going to live it's a different time and maybe even in an alternate universe, so I can make the planets go around in square orbits if I want to do so.

I started with good old MSN "Images". I love that particular search engine because all of the images come up on the same page and you don't have to keep turning the page, so to speak.

Did I mention that last evening I sorted some of my findings into a Plano plastic box? It is so nice to see where half are my findings are. The other half still need to be sorted. We aren't going to talk about that part. I am going to try to do that this afternoon.

Anyway, I thought you would like to see what I have done so far on the first Orrery. I messed around with a number of different spindles for the center column. I kept breaking them. I finally decided upon this one. I think it was an old bedpost or something of the sort.

For the base I used one of the thicker watch cog wheels. On top of that I used one of the teak wood beads. Next part of a watch body was glued on. I let those dry.

Then I started building the column. I stained the post. I took antique brass head pins and eye pins and wrapped them around the post at several different sections. This was the hardest part. I wanted the arms to stick out fairly horizontal. After bending them around, I turned up the ends and bent back the eyes of the pins to hold the planets.

I glued various cog wheels and other parts to the base and decided that there should be a vertical pin from the lower wheel to the upper one. After I got all of the parts together and was satisfied with the way that it looked, I glued beads from an old earring on the ends of all of the arms.

After I sat back and looked at it for a few minutes, I felt like there was something wrong. I went back and looked at the photos. It dawned on me that the ones on the net all revolved around a central planet or sun. My brain function is not what it should be today.

I think you can put whatever heavenly object you want at the center of your own universe. I noticed that some of the ones that I was looking at had the earth as the centerpiece. Others had a sun. Still others had unidentifiable globes. I opted for unidentifiable. Mine is an old round earring that is coated on the inside of the glass with what looks like the old fashioned mercury glass....I am not opening it to find out.

I still need to do a bit of tweaking here and there, but for all intents and purposes it is finished. I may try a second one to try to make it better.

Please excuse me now whilst I go tweak.

See you tomorrow.

Thanks Jodi!

I don't check my mail until after I get back from town on the mornings that I go in. I like to get the shopping done early. When I got back about 7:30AM I came straight to the computer.

I found a comment on my blog from Jodi of http://creagerstudios.blogspot.com/ , saying that she had given me a new award. It's one that I haven't seen circulating before.

This is what was said about it.

"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!”

I am to pass it on to eight other bloggers. Here we go. Hang on!

1. Debbie of Tiny Treasures. http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/ I don't often get to give her one. She is usually the one passing on an award to me or she already has the one that I want to give. It feels good to be on the other end for once!

2. Sans of Dollhouse Diaries. http://sansdollhousediaries.blogspot.com/ Her maharajah's palace is wonderful.

3. Katie of Katie's Clay Corner.http://katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com/ She is a most proficient, prolific, pineapple cane maker and she makes me laugh.

4. 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.

5. Rosanna of la stanza di giuggiola. http://lastanzadigiuggiola.blogspot.com/ She does beautiful minis and is my favorite Italian optometrist.

6. Deb of Deb's Minis.http://debsminis.blogspot.com/ She does all kinds of wonderful minis and writes an entertaining blog also.

7. Gina at Moreminis@Blogspot http://moreminis.blogspot.com/ She has all of the tips in the world for putting together dollhouses. Great information.

8. Kat at Little Thoughts From an Average Mind. http://minikatslittlethoughts.blogspot.com/ She does a little bit of everything too. I like the way her little thoughts are put down in the blog.

Do go visit all of these blogs when you have a chance. OK ladies. It's your turn!

A New Follower

Maija has joined the party. She has a blog called IIDASANTTU. http://iidasanttu.vuodatus.net/

She has some really nice minis under the heading nukkis. I wish I could read first hand what she is writing about. I am going to have to go to Babel Fish and see what it is all about.

Welcome Maija! Come on in.

Short and Sweet....

I just got back from the optometrist. There was something wrong. I'm not crazy after all....Well maybe just a little bit crazy, but it was the glasses not me. they are going to make new lenses and hopefully all will be well after that.

I had to make a stop at the 22nd Street Antique Mall on the way home. The last time I went a couple of weeks ago I struck out. This time I did better.

I found a typesetter's drawer and it was only $10.00. The other ones that size that I have were at least twenty. This one is in better shape than the others. All I will have to do is take the handle off and use some Liquid Gold on it.

I am going to hang it on the left wall of the workspace. It will be a good place to store all of the things that I make for the Clockwork Cottage until I am ready to install them. I already have a Steampunk clock and a Steampunk Cappuccino machine to put in there.

Yesterday and this morning Debbie of Tiny Treasures and I were tossing around ideas for making an Orrery and/or an Armillary Sphere. I found a wonderful site. Debbie had already been there and done that. Since I am going to go mess with the drawer and then try to do a Orrery, I will send you to the site. Be sure to see it all. She has wonderful fantasy items of all kinds. http://erickav.com/orrery.htm This leads to the orrery page. Do take some time to see the other sections.

While you are doing that, I am going to go play with my new toy.

See you tomorrow.

Join the Party!

Today it is Deb of Deb's Minis http://www.debsminis.com/ I will send you to her webpage to look around. She has various places to visit there. I know Deb from the Greenleaf forum. She is very talented and has a lot of good things to see on her pages. Go say "Hi!".

Welcome to the party Deb!

Welcome

I have two new followers. The first one is Adele of Adele's Spooky Art http://adelesspookyart.blogspot.com/ Go say hi if you dare! It is indeed spooky. She has two other blogs besides this one.

The second is Chigirl. There is no info about a blog or other website for her.

Welcome to both of you.

Cappucino Express.....

This morning I arose with the urge for a good cup of coffee. So I built a cappuccino machine! Yup, I got out the welding equipment(E-6000), some copper sheeting, some cogs and wheels(thanks to Grace of TreeFeathers) and some fancy ironwork(jewelry findings).

I ran off a sheet with the cappuccino machines that I liked from the images category on MSN. I had already decided on the size......It is as big as the piece of copper I had left from the water heaters. It turned out to be just about perfect for what I had in mind.

With that and two teak wood cylinder beads that I had in my stash I built the body of the machine.

From there it was a couple of hours of trial and error with watch parts and findings and a lot of watching the glue dry.

I used various pieces to make the thing kind of look like the ones in the pictures, but with a few Steampunk variations. There are a few extra cogs and wheels that the real ones don't have.

First I found three watch parts that would stack up for the base. It happened that the curved piece had an indentation that exactly fit the bottom of the copper cylinder. I glued them together and waited. Then the cylinder went on top of that.

The next part was a top for it. That consists of a flat cog wheel, a half round filigree piece and a watch stem.

Moving down, I put on a various cog wheels, making sure that they meshed together......Hey! It may not make cappuccino, but at least is going to look like it does something.

I noticed that the ones in the photos were made with a place for two cups at the same time. I figured that this pot would hold enough that it demanded two spigots. I found a pair of very old brass screw type earring backs that matched. I cut them apart and re bent them to resemble the ones in the photos. I used the part that the front of the earring would have been glued to for the base where the cups sit. No comments on the size of the cups please. They were the only ones that I had. I put one other watch stem coming out of the opposite side of the cylinder, mostly for balance.

Between each step, I put the cylinder in a horizontal position so that the piece drying would not flop off onto the floor and get lost in the carpet.

Somewhere along the assembly line Tessie wandered in. Of course her first comment was "Oooooh shiny!". Next it was "What does it do?". I answered "It makes cappuccino."

There was slight hesitation and then the usual long questioning period. " What do the wheels do?When will it be done? Can I have some cappuccino? Why NOT?" I couldn't get a word in edgewise!

I finally managed to tell her that the "pretty shiny machine", as she calls it,doesn't work unless the water is hooked up. Her answer to that statement? "Hook It Up Now!!!!!!"

You know how that goes. She is in the kitchen now trying to figure out how to get water without pipes. The last time I looked she was crawling around under the sink. That should keep her busy the rest of the day.

I will have to wait until I install it to put the pipes around for it. Then....She can have her cappuccino. I don't believe that she even knows what cappuccino is. I think she just likes saying the word.

I'm going back to work now, while she is still occupied with the plumbing.

See you tomorrow.

Lost and Found.......

I am still fighting the sore knuckle this morning. No wood carving again today. The cleaning bug is still biting me. I went into the workroom and started picking up one thing at a time and putting it in it's place. It's very slow work.

As I was working I found a couple of things that I have been searching for to use in the Clockwork cottage.

It's been a month or more since I have seen my lead golf tape. I need that for the water heaters and also the cappuccino machine that is going in the kitchen. I went and searched for images on MSN and found some made of copper with all kinds of ornate detailing. I can't wait to start that now that I have the tape.

Next I found my pallet of metallic creams. They are similar to Rub and Buff cream. I found these in the scrapbook department when we still had a Ben Franklin Crafts store here. I don't think that I told you, but I think that the reason that the Reutter sink was marked down about 25% was the legs and the faucet on it didn't match. The faucet was antique bronze. The legs and pipes underneath were shinny black. With the metallic cream I made them match. Everything is now antique bronze. I am not letting that pallet out of my site until the Clockwork Cottage is done. I am going to need that for a lot of different things.

Another found object was some clear stickers with fancy gold designs that Martha Stuart put out a year or so ago......Bless her. Nothing stays in fashion with her for very long. Wal-Mart was getting rid of them for half price as Martha had discontinued them.......As I said, bless her. I wouldn't have bought them at the regular price.

Here's the end of one of the sheets. There are 4 different designs and they are a foot long. That goes a ways in the mini world. I used the design on the left on the risers of the stairs.

I simply cut them to size and stuck them on each one. They seem to be sticking well. I will go back and make sure before I put the back wall on. They are embossed and almost look hand painted.

Tessie really likes them. I am hearing the word "sparkly" a lot, once again. It always puts her in a good mood when I use anything that sparkles. She is kind of like a magpie or crow.

Anyway, she went up and down the new stairs a couple of times on foot to see how they worked. She muttered something about them needing to be wider so that there could be a banister to slide on.......I went away before she could put forth the idea aloud. I am NOT widening the stairs. She can witch herself up and down if she doesn't like the width.

I went back to the workroom. I kept hearing a rapid clunk, clunk, clunk sound. Then I would hear a whoosh! Then the clunk, clunk, clunk again. It was repeated over and over. Once in a while there was what sounded like an excited bark. After a while the sound was getting to me. I went to find out what it was.

It seems that Tessie removed the tub from it's surround and witched it to make it lighter. She was whooshing it to the top of the stairs by witching it and then sliding down the selfsame stairs in it with Spike hanging on for dear life! You should see them go around the two right turns. It's a good thing that there isn't a wall there. They would have been stuck in there the first try. As it is, I will let her do it until she gets bored........I hope she gets bored soon. All of that whooshing and clunking are giving me a headache.

I am going back in the workroom, close the door and work just to have some peace and quiet now.

See you tomorrow.

Join the Party!

I have two new followers and I think that I found one of the people that I didn't welcome before.

The one that I think that I missed is Debby of http://petit.punt.nl/ Go and see the wonderful miniature lace making that she does!

Next is Sans. http://sansdollhousediaries.blogspot.com/ She has 3 blogs. I will send you to the first one and you can go to the others from there. She is working on a magnificent Maharajah's Palace. Go see!

Third is Pearl fo Dollhouse Diva's Miniature World. http://dollhousediva.blogspot.com/ She is brand new to the blog world. Please go welcome her. Her first entry is about some leather briefcases that she has been making.

Welcome to all three of you.

When Life Gives You Lemons....

...Make Lemon Meringue Pie....I woke up this morning with a very sore index finger on my right hand. I deduced that it was from doing all of the carving yesterday. I tend to lean too hard on the Exacto knife with that finger. I decided that I would make Lemon Meringue Pie by re arranging my work area in the family room so that I could work at the smaller table in the corner. It doesn't specifically take the index finger of your right hand to rearrange furniture.

Tessie volunteered to help! Here she is waiting for me to open the sewing cabinet at the left so that she can shot put the spool of lavender thread into it. This is kind of like a "Where's Waldo" thing. You have to find her.

As you can see, I didn't even have enough room on the table for the house. So I played "Free Style" like the show of the same name on HGTV.

On that show they simply rearrange the furniture and bring stuff in from other rooms to make the room in question stylish.....Sometimes I really do think that they buy things specifically for the restyle and squirrel them away in other parts of the house so that the designer can magically find all of the right things for the room. I had it on in the background this morning and they found 4 amazing yellow and green throw pillows in a bedroom that was basically decorated in red and black.......What's wrong with this picture? The room that they were restyling was decorated in, you guessed it, yellow and green!

Anyway, I did the same thing that they do. I stripped the area bare and started from scratch. The only thing left was the table and the chair. I went out in the garage and hunted up a large artist's drawing board that I don't use a lot. I hangs over the top of the table about 6" on all four sides. Then I went and got a tablecloth that I have used only a couple of times because it is so big and put that over the board. I will put a piece of clear plastic material or a vinyl tablecloth over the top to protect it.

After I finished, I had lots of room for the house(with Tessie hiding inside)and all of the extras that go with it while I am working. I stuck a task light, that I bought for twelve dollars at Wal Mart, in the corner.

I stole a bench from the computer room. It wasn't being used in there anyway. Now I am all set to work there.

The Lemon Meringue Pie was going so well that I didn't want to quit. I decided to re do my mini fabric stash.

Mind you, this is about 25 years of fabric. There are three drawers full and that is not even mentioning my stash of regular fabric for sewing and quilting. That's in part of two closets.

If it's not Tessie getting in my hair it's Mookie. They are a great tag team. As soon as I got the drawers out he got an evil grin on his little innocent kitty face. He jumped in the drawer on the left after I took this photo and tried to go to sleep. He lost all interest in the project as soon as I started stripping the drawers bare. It's no fun if he can't pull things out himself.

I put the ironing board on one side and the baskets from the drawers on the other side. No. I know you can't see the baskets.....That's why I have to sort everything.

Here's what they look like now. I still have another hour's work to finish the pile that is hiding behind the drawers. I love the crop option when playing with photos.....

I have them sorted by color on the left and middle and the drawer on the right has upholstery fabric to use for carpets. I know it doesn't look like much, but each of the drawers is two deep in baskets and each basket has at least 10 different fabrics. Some have as many as 20.

I am so happy with the fact that I will be able to work in the corner of the family room now and that I will be able to find the fabric that I need at a moment's notice. I'm afraid that this entry wasn't very exciting for anyone else, but for me it is very good Lemon Meringue Pie!

See you tomorrow.

A Bit of This and That.....

I am still struggling with my new glasses. I think I said this before. They just aren't right somehow.

I have been working on the living room fireplace this morning. I used the new glasses. I can only see 12" from my face before it starts getting blurry. Maybe my favorite Optometrist can tell me if this is normal. Rosanna, are you out there? It seems like I have to keep refocusing my eyes every few minutes to really see. I definitely can't drive my car with them. I can see the steering wheel but the speedometer and other instruments on the dash are very blurry. Anyway, refocusing again, I am wearing the old glasses now. I have never had any difficulty getting used to new glasses before. I think that is why this is so frustrating.

I got about a third of the second side of the fireplace carved. I finally switched back to my old glasses so that I could see what I was doing. I went back and re did some of the carving that I did while I had the other glasses on.

My husband asks why I keep trying. I want to be able to tell Dr. Amy how these are not working and I can't if I don't try.

I am quiting for the day. On top of everything else, my eyes just feel tired.

Tessie is no help at all. Now she is sitting on the edge of a shelf in the family room. Yes. She still has the two dogs. Hey! At least as long as she has them for company she is staying out of my hair.

I am going now to finish the real world housework. I don't like that even more than I don't like the new glasses.....No. Wait. I like the new glasses. I just don't like the new lenses. Bah Humbug! Grumble, grumble, grumble!

See you tomorrow.

Join the Party!

Hi Dora and Loshcosh!! I just found you both on my followers list. Come on in and join the fun!

Dora has a blog called "miniaturas dora" at http://miniaturasdora.blogspot.com/ and Loshcosh is from "Oh Mini of Mine" at http://ohminiofmine.blogspot.com/ Go have a look at both of their blogs. Lots of wonderful mini things to see.

Welcome ladies!

I Lost It!......

I wasn't going to confess, but now everything is OK so I can. Remember the trip to the mini shop this week? On the way home I was so excited about the Reutter sink that I opened it in the car. It was wrapped tightly in tissue. I pulled it off of the sink and as I did the faucet part went flying! I thought it went under my seat, so I thought"I will just fish for it when I get home". Well, fish I did. I got in positions that I didn't know I could get into trying to find that little 1" piece of metal. Could I find it? Nope. I did find a hole in the bottom of the carpeting that led to who knows where. I went out and searched 3 different times. Nothing. I was not a happy camper.

I came in the house and thought about it for a while. I figured that the chance for replacement faucets were slim to none. Then I had a brain flash. I reasoned that some of the little spindles that I have in my stash, when cut apart and glued back together, would look similar(not as good, but similar).

I went in the dreaded workroom and it was my good fortune to go straight to the spindle drawer. It was actually where it belonged! I took that as a good sign.

I went back out and started figuring out which pieces would fit where. First I put a couple of tiny bronze grommets in the holes where the pipes were in the back of the sink. After the E-6000 dried I took a couple of pieces and fit them into the holes where the grommets were.

Here you see the pieces drying. I did it one step at a time, letting each glued part dry before assembling the next. It still needed a bit of sanding before I painted it. This part would be glued at either end to the pieces sticking out from the sink.

Yesterday morning Walter took my car to get it washed. Before he did I had one last search. Nope. When he got back, he said that the people at the car wash found something in the car, but they didn't know what it was. Bless the car wash people for not throwing it away! I knew immediately what it was. You guessed it. The original faucet!

I went back in the house and tore out the fake one, very carefully. They aren't exactly alike, but the one I made was passable. I instantly knew what I was going to do with it.

When I got out the old Chrysnbon tub to make the box around it I couldn't find the faucets for it.

Sure enough, the ones that I made will work on the edge of the tub. All I did was detach them from the pipes. With a little paint, some bronzing powder and a bit of wire or finding trim I am going to have a fancy faucet for the tub. Can you say "Happy Ending"?

It's not quite the end though. I may as well show you the start of the water tanks for the kitchen and bath while I'm here.

I took out some copper sheeting that I have had for years and didn't know what to do with it. It is now well on it's way to being the tanks. I have no idea what gage it is, so don't ask.

I simply cut the strips to the size that I wanted the tanks and made a bend in either end. One is under and the other is over. That way they hook together and then can be mashed down(technical term) to lock. Then I will cut the ends to match and go from there.

This is as far as I have progressed so far.

I will probably have to cut wooden shapes to fit in the ends for them to hold their shapes. The one in the bath will be more oval to fit the space at the end of the tub. I am thinking some kind of fancy legs should go under this one.

The one in the kitchen will be round. It will sit somewhere in the vicinity of the sink.

One step at a time. I am just glad that the faucet trauma is finished!

See you tomorrow.

Happy to See You!

I have another new follower. Her name is Tams of Tams Minis. http://tamsminiworld.blogspot.com/ Stop by and say "Hi!" to her.

Welcome Tams!

Getting Ideas.......

Yesterday I ordered a kit from Greenleaf. Their annual "Spring Fling" contest has just started. Everybody is off and running!

The deal is, you buy the discounted kit(14.95) and turn it into something fantastic by May 25th(Memorial Day) 2009. Then you shoot some photos and send the best three to Greenleaf.http://shop.greenleafdollhouses.com/Miniature-Bungalow.html

This year there is more incentive to enter. First prize is a $500.00 gift certificate from Greenleaf for purchasing their products. The second place winner gets a $250.00 gift certificate. Third is one for 125.00.

I probably shouldn't be telling you about this.Everyone is going to want to join in the fun and there will be more entries. How can you lose? Even if you don't win you will have a finished -------(Fill in the blank with a building of your own choosing). The nice thing is there really aren't any rules about what you can do to it. You can bash it. You can put two together. Just use your imagination!

They have a photo section on the site of entries from last year. I didn't enter that one. The building was too small for me. There were some really nice entries. Go look. You might just get a few ideas. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=sc&cat=55

This year the building is 15"w X16"h X8" deep. Not a bad size to play with. The shape is so different that I got suckered into it.

I started making a list of ideas. Then I went on the Greenleaf Spring Fling Chatter page. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20050 I found that every idea on my list was there somewhere as a suggestion for things to make. For that reason I am back to square one.

I have been searching in books and online for more ideas. Thus, no mini work today. Instead, I am hoping to talk you into joining the fun. Everyone is very hush, hush about what they are doing, but more than willing to give others the ideas that they aren't doing.

No, I don't own stock in Greenleaf. I just like their kits. They seem to get my imagination going. Speaking of which, I am now going back to make another list of ideas. I hope that you will join me!


See you tomorrow.

A New Award!

This afternoon Rosanna of "La stanza di giuggiola" http://lastanzadigiuggiola.blogspot.com/ sent me the Kreativ Blogger award. I had to think about it for a while. You have to name 7 things that you love and pass it on the 7 other bloggers.

I thought about it and then came back to the computer. When I did, I discovered that De of "Delightful Minis" http://delightfulminis.blogspot.com/ had sent it too.

Ladies, I am only going to do this one time! Fourteen things and fourteen blogs to list takes too much thinking. I am doing seven of each!

Everybody starts with Family and Friends. That's a given and it includes the friends that I have on the net as well as the people around me. Two down and five to go. #3. All of the arts that keep me entertained. Some that I do myself and some that others have done that are just wonderful to look at and be inspired by. #4 TV and Movies. If we are honest, most of us have favorite TV shows and Movies that we love to watch. I don't know how many times I have watched my DVDs of all of The Gilmore Girls and Buffy the Vampire Slayer......I lost count long ago. #5 Books of just about any persuasion. If they fiction or non fiction and if they look at all interesting I can't pass them up. #6 Writing this blog. Talk about keeping me entertained! I get to play with Tessie just about every day and I have to do minis for it......Torture. I tell you. sheer torture...... #7 Cleaning my workroom, over and over and over.....I lied about #7.

Now for the seven people that I am going to make go through the same thought process that I just did....

1. Gina at More Minis@Blogspot.com http://moreminis.blogspot.com/

2. Tiffany of Mini Mischief http://minimischief.blogspot.com/

3. Katie at Katie's Clay Cornerhttp://katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com/

4. Grace at TreeFeathers http://blog.treefeathers.com/

5. Ana of Tiny Delights http://tinydelights.blogspot.com/

6.Jody of Mini Leaps and Bounds http://minileapsandbounds.blogspot.com/

7.MiniKat of Little Thoughts From an Average Mind http://minikatslittlethoughts.blogspot.com/

Keep it going people! 7x7x7x7x7x7x7=?

Anyway, Thanks ladies!

New Glasses Are For the Birds.....

These are going to take some getting used to. Right now I am having to move my head a lot. I got a different shape and that makes it more difficult. They are more square than the old ones and have more distance viewing on the sides. I feel like I have to move my head and look straight at something up close. For a few days this is going to be the pits!

Anyway, I promised Katie that, if she was a good girl, I would show her how I did the dog collar for Spike. I don't have any way of telling if she was good or bad, but I will do it anyway. Here goes.

The pile of junk that you see here is what you need.

Tools: Needle nosed pliers(two if you have them), Side cutters (they don't necessarialy have to have a half beaded handle), Scissors(sharp).

Supplies: thin leather, 3 links of old chain from jewelry, a finding to make the tag if you want one and some metallic, dimensional fabric paint.

1. Detach 3 lengths of chain from the necklace and close two of them back to round. Leave the third one open to receive the tag.

2. Cut a piece of leather about 1/8 to 1/16" inch wide and about 3" long.

Yes, I know it's more than you need. I do the collar and then trim the excess when the dog is wearing it. It is much easier to handle that way.

3. With the side cutters, snip out the piece of the jewelry finding to make the tag. In the photo you will see the piece that I cut out. It was the top of a "frame" shaped finding. You could possibly get another one from the opposite end if you needed two.

4. Slip the tag on the open chain link and close it.

5. Slip that and the other two chain links onto the strip of leather. It is easier to do this if you cut a diagonal point on one end of the leather strip. You can poke the end through and grab it with the needle nosed pliers or a pair of tweezers to finish the job.

6. Center the end nearest to the end with the tag on the back of the dog's neck and glue it with a small spot of white glue. Then pull the tag down so that it is positioned center front of the neck. Keep going around with the rest of the collar and where it overlaps the other end, position the other two links with the top side outward from each other. That forms the buckle. Put a dot of glue on the underside and put the links directly over the starting point. Let this dry a bit and cut the end to the length that you want. Make a point by cutting both sides towards the center.

7. Use the dimensional fabric paint to put little dots around the collar for spikes. You can do it a number of times to build up the end of the spikes. I usually squeeze the bottle just enough so that I can see a tiny drop of paint coming out. Then I place it against the leather and pull up to get the spike. You might want to practice on a scrap before you do it on the dog.

P.S. I just put on my old glasses. The new ones are making my eyes hurt!

See you tomorrow.

P. P. S......Tessie approves.