Closer Still....

Today was moving day for some of the furniture.  I moved the two half round tables to the bedroom and the little work table to the workroom...There was a bit of a set back. 

I had to put the table with the saw, next to the desk.  It needed a plug and I didn't want to use an extension cord to use it by the closet...The outlet is behind one of the three 7' tall bookcases...I couldn't tell you which one and I was not about to start unloading all three of them to find out the answer...

I think that this arrangement will work out just fine....Please ignore the messy place, down in the left bottom corner of the photo...That's where the pile starts from the move.

I got tired of messing around with furniture....It's heavy.  Even with sliders.

So, I went to work on the foundation for the cottage.  I measured the cottage and added a few inches on all sides.  Then I cut out a piece of luan 1/8" plywood. 

Remember the wood strips that I bought a couple of weeks ago?  I used the half inch square for bracing.  This house is very light and doesn't need a lot.  I mitered the corners and then ran a strip down the center. 

I used white glue and small brads to put it together.

I tried it and it fits.  I am considering putting the cottage at an angle on the foundation. 

That might give it a little more interest than straight on.

After seeing this photo, I think that I need to get out the paints and do some more on the stone work.

The garden bench is just a try out for size. 

It's 9:17 AM and I am tuckered out.  We got up at 4:30 or so.  Walter plays golf early, while it is cool.  His group is usually one of the first to tee off when the sun comes up.

I still have to put the bedroom back together and still more to do in the workroom...

I am washing clothes with one hand and cleaning with the other.  Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.

Almost There...

My closet looks so much roomier without doors!  Walter took them off in a matter of minutes this morning.

Just look at all of the space! 

I plan to move the side facing closet, on the right, back so that it is facing out.

I already did that on the other side....after I took the photo.  

I cleaned out my wood drawer this morning...I threw out almost as much wood  scraps as I saved.  The ones that I threw out were not really usable, except for very small items.

See the two large baskets at the bottom?  The stuff that all fit in the bottom drawer...(I forgot I emptied it about a month ago).

Those two are now freed up, probably for paint.

I know this isn't very good entertainment for you, but I am having too much fun....Fun and cleaning shouldn't be used in the same sentence, but I am doing it anyway.  After this is finished, I will be able to work in this room(when it's not toooo hot).

Tessie and Zar showed up, about the time that I was finishing for the morning...Of course.

They piled into the clean wood drawer and started making suggestions for what I should build next....Zar took one look at all the veneers and shouted, "Parquet Floor!!!"

Tessie is taking a more practical approach...."You have enough walnut for a suite for my bedroom...and for some Louis the 15th, for the drawing room....Maybe some bass wood cabinets for the pantry and kitchen cabinets...That part doesn't need to be quite so fancy.".

I refuse to be baited into asking where she is going to put all of this, but judging from Zar's shout out about parquet floors and her pile of plans, I have a feeling that they have been discussing the Palace of Versailles....

I am going to go hide in a corner now.  Far, far away from the Terrible Two....

See you tomorrow.

Gone, But Not Forgotten....

First of all, please excuse the poor picture quality.  These photos were taken back in the 80s and 90s.  Sorry about that.

I am still cleaning.  I stumbled across this old photo album and realized that there were a lot of minis in it that I have either sold of given away over the years.

I thought that you might like to see some of them.

The first one is two people that I did for Pam Throop of Historic Homes in Miniature. When she passed away, her daughter Eve took over the business.  She is missed.

The two dolls were dressed in English 1840s costumes and the gardener's smock was actually smocked in miniature on fine linen.

This gentleman was done for one of her other houses and I had photos of the man to work with... I liked his trousers with the stirrup straps at the bottom.

This house is a quarter inch mansion...Believe it or not, it was my first quarter inch building.  It took six cigar boxes and a piece of a carpet tube for the tower.

Nobody told me that I couldn't jump right in and build a mansion, so I jumped right in and built a mansion...

Regrettably, when we moved, I traded it away to a friend.

I wish I had kept it.  Look closely.  You will see bent wire "ice cream parlor" chairs in the kitchen.  They were done with hairpins.

The hammock, hanging basket chair and the stair rails were all done with needlepoint canvas.

The hood over the stove is real copper.

This is a carved walnut copy of a Chippendale bed.  The cornice is taken directly from his Directory of Furniture.

Unfortunately, I got banged around and broken...

I didn't have the heart to do it all again.  It was fun while it lasted, but I was so sick of carving walnut when it was finished...And sick of making roses.  There were over a hundred on this bed.

This last one is a room box that I did for one of the mini shows.  I got best of show for it.  If you look closely, you will see that the room boxes in the back are Barbie scale.  I wanted people to be able to see the interiors.

The center bottom one is the exact same room.  And that room has the six room boxes built into its wall... Yes.  There is an indication that that room box has the same interior....NO!  I didn't go further with it.  I don't build room boxes for fleas and gnats to inhabit!

Anyway, I sold that one to a friend that fell in love with it.  She moved away and I often wonder where it is now.

Enough strolling down memory lane.  Back to work in the real world.

See you tomorrow.

Going Sideways....

First of all, for Lynn... The pocket hose is great, as long as you want to use it with a pistol grip, hand held nozzle.  It just doesn't work for a ground sprayer.  It won't stay expanded to it's full length, without being filled wither water, and the turn off valve is at the nozzle end...Wetness ensues when you try to turn it on and run very, very, extremely fast... If you want to know more, contact me by e mail.

Now for the sideways stuff...  I went out and got another hose(non kinking supposedly) this morning.

When I went out to set it up, I found that Mr. Burbank was blooming.  This is a Burbank Prickly Pear.  The fence is six feet tall...Mr. Burbank was about seven foot until he got his top frosted off.  We were worried that he was not going to be happy about losing some of his limbs.

Evidently he is back to being a happy cactus.

The cactus is covered with buds and will keep blooming for a couple of weeks.

Who said that the desert was gray and brown?  We have lots of color.

Here they are up close and personal.

My other sideways step was to do a trial run of where I want the new cottage to live.

It moved pretty good, without losing a lot of parts and as soon as it stopped moving, the Terrible Two moved back in....Still no potion for me....

The table that it is going to sit upon is actually two half round tables.

They just happen to be the same height.  Non matching.

You caught me.  This is one of the corners in the workroom that I haven't finished yet, but I had to try it out.

I will probably move the tables and house to somewhere else in the house.  I am thinking that, after I get Walter to take the doors off of the closet in the workroom, I will have room to put the table that I work on back in there.

 Maybe this one will go in the bedroom so that it's not hidden when the workroom is messy.

Come on....You didn't think that it was going to be pristine forever, did you???

Anyway, today is all about moving sideways....Tomorrow I will go back to linear thinking...Maybe...

See you then.

Making Headway....

Another shelf bites the dust!  And in answer to your next question...No...I am still not done.

I did, however accomplish a lot.  I wanted to go outside and do some yard work.  It is such a nice morning...I got stopped in my tracks.

I bought one of those new pocket hoses that shrinks up to nothing.  Loved it the first day....Light weight and easy to carry around.  Second day, not so much.  I had to have Walter tighten the sprayer on the plastic fittings with a pair of pliers...That was OK.  But today I decided that Walter can have that one for the front yard.

I had to have Walter put the ground sprinkler on it to cover a third of the back yard at a time...It worked OK.  It was close to the spigot.  The trouble started when I tried to move it to the other side of the yard.  I turned off the water and moved it....It snapped back like a rubber band!

I tried holding it on that side of the yard with a big rock....Turned on the water and it threw the rock several feet and snaked itself back to the porch...

Next I tried poking a stick in a hole in the sprayer, through the ground, to hold it in place....Nope.  It didn't like being held down.  Jumped back to 25 foot length, once again...

By this time, I was soaking wet and not too happy...I just hope that there were no neighbors around to hear the argument I was having with a hose.

I called Walter.  He was out doing errands...It isn't nice to laugh at your wife when she is standing there soaking wet, demanding that you buy her an old fashioned hose that does what she wants it to.  One that I can manage to unscrew the nozzle on.  One that doesn't jump back and squirt you every time that you try to move it to a new location...

He is now out looking for one that I don't have to argue with.  Granted, the new one was fun as long as I only used it for spot watering... So much for those new fangled inventions....So much for a morning of yard work!

 I came in and went back to work in my room...After I got dry.

Look!  The mid century mod is back. If you need tutorials for any of the furniture, it is listed in the side bar labels under...Furniture!

 The Terrible Two are happy....They weren't around until after the hose incident...Please don't tell them.  They would be wanting me to demonstrate...I would be tempted to use it on them!

This is the best area I have done so far.  All of my 1/4" scale stuff is in one place.  Yup.  That's all it takes to decorate in quarter scale.

You need foam core, wood and mat board if you want to do a structure, but these few boxes are all you need to finish.

The 1/4" house on top is from a Victorian Cottage book on real houses. The roof and the two sides fit into grooves and it is a whole, closed house.

I am going back to work on the room now and I will be pouting as I work, about getting wet. I will be waiting for Walter to bring me one of the old fashioned hoses that doesn't argue.

(P.S. I think that I left out a very important piece of the hose connector.  It is a shut off valve that holds water in the hose whilst you move it.  We will try that as soon as Walter gets home...I hate hoses that are smarter than I am!  Stay tuned!)

See you tomorrow.

Squirrels Are Much More Fun....

I locked myself in the workroom this morning.  I  have to keep going.  I am on a roll!

I got the bead stash cleaned out this morning.  At least I know where everything is now....That's not saying that it doesn't need more sorting, but the top half of the dresser, where the beads are is straightened and labeled.

I don't know what I did before I bought a DYMO letratag.  It's one of my favorite things for organizing. 

I have been using them so long that I am on my second one.  The first one was just a plain label maker.  It finally gave up the ghost a few years ago.

This one is even better than the first.  It has all kinds of bells and whistles. I can even put all kinds of symbols on the labels if I want them.


Anyway, I also finished one of the shelf units on the other side of the room. It wasn't too hard.  Mostly books.  Again, they need to be sorted some, but at least they are all together.  No more needlework books all over the room.

I left some pretties at eye level. 

This is the one that is sitting on the third shelf from the bottom.  It's one of my favorites.  I am not much of a "girly girl" when it comes to decorating, but it's fun in mini.

I made pretty much everything in here but the bashed wardrobe and the Chrysnbon chair.  Oh!  And the orchid on the pink shelf.  One of my friends did that.

The green purse on the floor, by the chair is one of my bead knitting purses.  It was a pattern that I found on the net.

The only problem is....If you move one shelf to the right, you encounter this....

I never did fasten down the furniture in the mid century modern living room....Yes.  Don't nag.  I will do it when I get to that shelf.

This time I will glue things down.  I want to keep the stuff that is in there, in there.

The little men in the cactus is one of my soft sculpture pincushions that I used to sell at craft markets, back in the early 80s. The wood part is the skeleton of a choilla cactus.

I used to make them look like caricatures of real people and someone would come along and say, "That looks like my wife,brother or girlfriend, etc..  I often wondered how many people got them thrown at their heads for saying that to the person receiving it.  They were pretty weird looking.

Anyway,  I made the mistake of coming into the computer area to get the camera... I should never look out the window in there...

This little guy is one of the newer ones.  He was just starting to stuff his cheeks when I caught him. How cute is that little pink tongue?

I think that I should take the rest of the day off to do some squirrel watching....Much more fun that room cleaning!

See you tomorrow.

The Bald and the Beautiful....

Sorry about the fuzzy photo.  I didn't check to see if it turned out before I took others.

Tessie wouldn't let me use the photo of the back of her bald head, like Zar did.  She insisted on at least the first step before clicking.

Here you see the first step.  I took the braid of mohair and spread it out, like the one that she has in her hand.  Then I cut it at the inside of the curve and stuck that to the front and sides of her head in one piece. (The back is still bald in the photo.)

Then I did the same thing again at the back of her head.

I took three thin pieces of the mohair and braided them into a longish braid. Then I wound it around itself in a flat spiral, being careful to keep the braid showing on the outside of the bun shape.

I was going to do lots of curls, but Tessie threw them across the room and stomped on them.  They were not in great shape when she finished.

She did let me take a photo of her attempt at braiding and the crushed curls, whilst standing on top of a sewing box that I made years ago.  It has part of my collection of antique sewing items on top.

I'll bet you were waiting to see Zar. Here he is. 

I put a longer, more fashionable vest on him this time.  I may go back and change it.  It kind of overpowers him and makes him look short.

Here you can see the rest of Tessie's new hairdo.  She did let me put a curl behind each ear and a bow at each side of the bun.  Knowing Tessie, both the ringlets and the bows will be wilted in a week...Oh well...

She wouldn't let me change her dress.  She just opted for a new apron.  

She claimed that she was too busy getting the cottage ready to move into...She didn't say who it was that would be moving in...Any guesses?

See you tomorrow. 

Complete Makeover....Zar Style....

Zar went to pieces this morning....Literally!  Actually I tore him apart, limb from limb...

Luckily, he has potions for the procedure from Tessie's collection.  It doesn't bother him a bit.

In fact, I can't shut him up.  He is worse than Tessie, when it comes to making suggestions about his appearance.

His one condition was that I didn't tell anyone that he was the one getting the makeover.....As if you couldn't tell it was him.

So...This is NOT Zar, hiding behind an old shirt sleeve, showing off his new body.

I do it in six parts.  I use thin polyester batting.  He gets a wrap around each upper arm.  Then a wrap around his chest area.  Next comes the hip area.  I start by folding the batting a few times(for his butt).  Then I wrap the hip portion all around, with the extra folds in the back.

The last is the legs.  I use strips that are the width of the area that I want to cover.  You will notice, I don't do any gluing or sewing on the pieces.  If you stretch it as you wrap, and simply pull off what you don't need at the end, the batting will stick to itself.

Zar insisted upon having a hair makeover.  Actually, I was going to do it anyway.  He was getting a few bald spots.

I used some very rustic, yak hair yarn that I have had for years.  If I untwist it, it looks just like hair....I guess it should....It is, after all, yak hair!

I do the back of the head first.  I run glue from the top of the crown to the bottom of the neck area.  Then I spread out the hair on that area and cut it off at the neckline.

The front is done in two sections.  I decide where I want the part.  Then, from there, I run the glue down the side of the head and with a piece of the hair that has been cut straight across on the end,  lay it carefully onto the head and roughly trim it.

I put the piece on the other side as close as I can to the first one and trim that one too.

I roughly shape the hair the way that I want it, using a toothpick to make it go where it should.

I will do the final trimming after Zar has put his clothes back on.  Shameless! 

Here you can see what the back looks like...He refused to turn around.  His front isn't done yet.

As you can see, I am gluing the clothing right to his form.

I do this because the clothes aren't meant for posterity.  They get replaced often.  Both Zar and Tessie are very active. 

This way, they can do all sorts of things that they couldn't do otherwise.

I will show you the rest of the process tomorrow...Tessie is waiting in line.

She just got hers done a month or so ago, but whatever Zar gets, Tessie wants the same...Well not quite.  She still wants a dress.  No pants.  She tried that once and didn't like it at all.

Anyway, the line may get longer if I don't get back and finish...Gotta run.

See you tomorrow.

Art and Real Life......

Last night I worked more on Widget's new basket.  It is about two inches larger across than this photo....

Can you tell that he thinks that all magazine based baskets are for his use?  He was using this one as a scratching post just before the photo was taken.

 The disgruntled look on his face is because I made him quit.  He wasn't doing any damage, but I don't want him to think that I am making scratching posts for his use either.

As I said.  Art imitates real life...I took a look at the cottage to see if there was any small project that I could do before we went to see Tom Cruse's new movie "Oblivion"...It is going to take longer that the time I was allowed...

First I would have to clean up.

So much for that idea.

I did go in and do some more in the workroom.  I got rid of the stuff on these two shelves(again).  I had piled things to be sorted on the top one.

One step forward.  Two steps back.

I did finish sticking things around the TV with the Velcro dots.

Tessie and Zar are amused...Or maybe they just wanted to watch the new series "Defiance" on Sci-Fy
Channel.

This part was after we returned from the movie.

What I am trying to tell you is...I didn't really do much of anything mini today.

The movie was pretty good.

See you tomorrow.

A Little of This and That....

Yesterday afternoon, I worked on the rug some more...It always takes a lot longer than I think that it is going to take.  I want it to be done, but I don't want to sit there more than a few hours at a time. Bah Humbug!

I went back to work on the floor situation in the workroom a couple of days ago...

I found a bunch of the cut up magazine pages for basket making.  I confess.  The six year old took over and I got this much done before I kicked her out.

Somehow, Zar got the idea that it was for his dog...

Not so much anymore. It outgrew him.  I am thinking of trying to make a beehive type basket for Widget.  His canvas one is wearing out....We shall see.  I may have to let the six year old back in.  That is the part of me that wants to try it.  You know....It's the "I can if I want to!" attitude.

While cleaning, I found these two turn of the century whatnot shelves.  It was a shame to hide them again.  Someone put a lot of work into them....

Plywood has been found as far back as aneicnt Egypt, but they have to have been made after 1905 or so.   That's when plywood first became a mass produced product and popular to work with.  These are oak veneered and nicely finished.

I think that I may put an easy chair on each one.  The Terrible Two can use them for home base.  That way, I won't be running all over to find them when I want to take photos.

Now.  About that pile on the floor the other day...Does this look familiar? 

Yup, I am back to a laundry basket full to put away.

Hey!  Don't nag.  I'm getting there...If I can only keep the six year old mind set at bay, I will soon be finished....Once again.

See you tomorrow.

Icky Old Trim....

One of the things that Sue saved was old fringe trim...why?

It's Bunka!  And sometimes even cording.

I thought that, if some of you don't want to look for bunka on line, you might want to search in your fabric stores and thrift shops.

I have been known to try to unravel a tiny tip of the fringe if I am not sure if it will work.  That was in the early days.  When I didn't know what to look for.  Don't get caught!  The stores don't like unraveled trims. 

On the other hand, if it doesn't unravel, it's not bunka....If it does, you are in business. It's OK to buy.

All of this stuff you see is useable.  In the case of the stuff that Tessie draped herself in, it has many yards of bunka and the added attraction of matching silk like cording.  That's the stuff on the card to the left.

It is really a matter of knowing that you can tear it apart and finding the right thread to pull.

Most of the time, it is put together with a chain stitch machine and you can find one end or the other to pull to unleash it.

The bunka itself is sort of chain stitch braiding.

See the stuff that Tessie is holding?  That's the unraveled bunka.  It is the same as the beige on the card in front of her...That is still braided...

Again, it is a matter of finding the right end and thread to pull.  Sometimes tweezers help.

This could take hours to get apart, so I am just going to shove it in a box for now...It will be there when needed.

For those of you that are not familiar with bunka....The trim on the green chair is unraveled bunka.

The rug in front of the chair is also bunka.  It is unraveled and glued to medium weight pellon.

There are instructions under the "bunka" label on the sidebar.  I use the technique on punch needle rug patterns.

A couple of years ago, Walmart had these wind sock like things to hang on your porch  that were nothing more than long strands of bunka looped around a ring and suspended from three pieces of....bunka. For a few dollars, I bought them at the end of the season...LOTS of bunka there.  If you keep your eyes open, there are a lot of places the stuff is used.  And it is much cheaper that way than by the card, if you can find the colors that you want. 

Now go forth and search!

I am going back to the cottage to work.

See you tomorrow.

Let Me Out of Here!!!

I went and got the things from Sue, that I left behind yesterday.

Of course the Terrible Two were waiting at the door to see what else I purchased. 

Tessie immediately grabbed a pair of glasses....It didn't matter that she couldn't see through them. 

She squinted at me and asked, "Now do I look intelligent?"

I refused to answer the question for fear that she would retaliate if I told her what I really thought.

She and Zar proceeded to inspect the tall, six sided, case that used to be a pipe display case. 

She stepped inside and Zar slammed the door.  He turned to me and grinned....An evil grin....

"Can we lock her in for the rest of the day?  There's a hole in the top.  She will get plenty of air."

I didn't answer for a while...Sure was quiet.

The four plastic boxes that Zar is standing on, to keep the door closed are full of Chrysnbon silverware.  I got five of those in all.  There is also a shaker shelf with drawer, by Gary Larson.  I like his work.

The glasses that Tessie grabbed were from this sack.

It is all kinds of glasses, safety pins hair pins, combs, scissors, belt buckles and a nail file.

I thought  sure that she would choose the round "Harry Potter"styled glasses.  Nope.  Very conservative.  Run of the mill. 

I imagine that, since there are new combs and hairpins at her disposal, she will want a new hairstyle.

That can wait.

I tried cleaning the tower.  It came out pretty good.  At least good enough to see a cat through it.  I was tempted to cram him in to take a photo, but  I am not quite that crazy...Yet.

Anyway.  That's the day so far. I have to get back to working on the cottage.  If I get it finished, I can play with something else....Like a six sided tower?  Maybe.

See you tomorrow.

More Goodies From Sue...

This morning I went over to my friend Sue's house again.  She is still trying to get rid of mini stuff and asked me to come and pick out some supplies that I would like.  They were free for the taking. 

At the same time, I bought a few other things from her.

The first photo, with the exception of the black tray is all of the stuff that I brought home that was free...Problem? 

I forgot the stuff that I bought.  I have to go back tomorrow and get that stuff.

This whole sorting process is very confusing...I pulled out the black tray to put things in as I sort through...Second photo is that tray chock full of things and a refrigerator bin with the cigar boxes, some fabric and some plastic window sheets.

There were also a lot of lamps and electrical things, like battery packs and a whole roll of copper tape.  I don't like it for wiring, but I use it for a lot of other things.

That pile looks at least as big as the original pile...Not so.

Here's the rest!  This part was a book, some jewelry findings, fiber optic bundles bunka and
plastic pick up sticks that look like tools.

OK.  That is about twice the size of the pile I brought into the house....It's multiplying...Help!

I can see why Sue wanted it out of her house.  It has a life of it's own!

Of course, Tessie and Zar, loved it all.  They were especially taken with the tools and other things in the pick up stick box. 

Zar is already planning another Steampunk rifle and Tessie is planning her spring planting....

Me?  I am going to try to find places for all of the new stuff. 

Wasn't I trying to get rid of stuff and organize what I had? 

Now I have to go get the rest of the things that I bought and find places for three times as much as I threw in the trash last week....

The best made plans of mice and men...Also women.  You know what I am talking about.

See you tomorrow.