If You Want Me for Anything Today...

 I will be in one of the following places...

First, if I could figure a way out to shrink down to Quarter Inch scale... You will find me in the bed in this room...

If I can figure out how to get to one inch scale, you will find me here... 

So far I am finding those two choices a bit hard to do...

So, just look for me here.  Didn't I just straighten this room???

The last choice is in the bedroom on the bed with several of these darned bead and finding boxes.

This is even worse than I thought it could get!

Maybe the last choice is best.  Kota is curled up on the bed sleeping.  I am about to give up on all of the above choices and go join him. 

I need the day off! I will start all over again tomorrow...

See you then.

Lost and Found

It's fun to clean when you come across things that you haven't seen for a while.

This little cheese dome is one that I did over 20 years ago and it's still going strong.

In answer to the question that is always asked about this one... Yes! The wicker is woven.  It is made from sewing thread and paddle floral wire.  I think it is something like size 28 or smaller.

This one is not too old, but when I finished it, I simply closed the box and put it in a book shelf with some books. I actually didn't know what was in the box until I opened it!  Senility sets in!

It was a Tudor dressing room for a male actor that acted in female roles.

 It was fun to do.  Interesting that they wouldn't allow women to act in the plays at that time.

We won't talk about the top shelf of the bookcase.  NO.  I still haven't finished Zar's house and the weaver's cottage. 

I have to find a table to replace the one that I so foolishly gave away.  That was the one that I worked on in the bedroom.  I don't know what I was thinking when I discarded it.

I do have to show you the bead shelves though.  They are finished!!!!!

Everything is in it's place and all is right with the world... Now... If I could only find the stuff that I put in it's place!

It will probably be back to normal in a few days.  Then I will be able to show you where everything is.

Until then, maybe I should sit down and bead.  That's the way to get to know where everything is again...

Back to work.

See you tomorrow!

One Thing Leads to Another... And Another....

OK... I am finished rearranging things.  At least until I get my workroom cleaned up once again...

I found all of the smaller scale things that I wanted to put in here. Notice I didn't end the sentence with all of the smaller scale things...

There are still two 1/2" houses that aren't finished.  Don't ask...

So soon we forget.  I almost forgot the little wall house that is hanging center bottom.  I just finished that a few months ago and stuck it in a corner, above the wood box.

It's out now and the Terrible Two have taken possession..

When I moved the 1/4" Tudor wall house, that left an empty wall. 

So I filled said wall with a few of my favorite things.

The centerpiece is Italian gold leaf sconce.  I found it in a thrift shop for just a few dollars... The left side tail of the top bow is missing.  I keep meaning to repair it, but somehow it never happens... I kind of like it that way.

I collect antique scissors... Who am I kidding?  I am a scissor addict.  If it cuts with two blades, I collect it.  I represented that with the long bladed library scissors at the left.  It used to be that all of the pages were not necessarily cut when you bought a book.  You needed these scissors handy so that a page could be separated from it's neighbor.

Evidently I am a plate collector and didn't even know it.  These are just three of quite a few that I have around the house.  The two gold ones are antique Japanese and the blue rimmed one is a hand painted lake scene from turn of the last Century England.  It is signed by the painter on the back.

I also collect antique purse frames.  Nope.  Not purses.  Just frames.  A lot of the time, they are much prettier than the purse.  That part wears out.  I like what's left.  Sometimes I will put a new body on a frame.

News Flash!  The Terrible Two just announced that the quarter inch section of the wall is theirs. 

They are calling it their very own "Mini, Mini Museum. 

I can see that this is going to lead to trouble.  They are already rearranging things and are demanding that I refurbish some of the pieces. 

I have to admit that, for one, the Neiman-Marcus Cheese Shop is looking a bit bedraggled.  Maybe I will humor them for a couple of days. 

If "their" museum is in good repair, maybe they will spend some time there and keep out of my hair.

I have to go see about a cheese shop... Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

One Little Table...

My morning was a blur... April and Amare were here and that kid never stops!  He does everything at a mile a minute pace!  I couldn't even get a photo of him standing still... He, Walter and April are now at the park. Maybe that will slow him down a bit!

 The one little table I was referring to in the title is this one.  I am now the proud owner of an Eastlake style plant stand/table.  I found it at Goodwill this morning for a great price and couldn't pass it up.  It is perfect for the music room tower.

When April and Amare arrived, I was rearranging all kinds of furniture.  It was all that little table's fault... It needed a place to live.

It settled into the corner of the front hall and refused to move... Well, in truth, I did try it a couple of other places, but it kept wandering back to the same spot on it's three little legs.

After several other places, it refused to move from this spot.  Here it will stay.

As a result, I had to find a place for the little round table that used to be there.  It landed in the corner of the family room, next to the Tudor Trailer.

Since I decided to put the three shelf unit on top, I had to find a place for the little white pavilion to be.  It got a half table that I wasn't using.

By this time, I had the two shelves that I keep the 1/4" trunks and other small scale scenes standing out in the middle of the family room... 

They finally ended up on either side of the table in the bedroom.

I have decided to make this a display for all of the smaller scale items that I have made.

I have two more 1/4" scale houses to find.  Then that will be complete...

I will probably move the rum box somewhere else. 

This could get serious!  Every time I think that I am finished moving things, I displace something else.  Then I have to find a home for whatever I just moved out...

Sooner or later I have to run out of places to move things... I hope.

Round and round I go... Somebody stop me!!!

See you tomorrow.

Semi Tiny Tessie...

 These were done about 30 years ago... That was before I figured out how to make moveable figures... They will forever be standing/sitting in the same position...

Unfortunately time has not been kind to the brunette.  She looks like someone punched her in the nose.  I am going to have to do some serious cleaning if she wants to stay around.  Someone hand me the alcohol.

 I have improved, somewhat, in the last 30 years.  I now have a half inch Tessie that moves and poses and stands alone. 

Tessie is not happy  with her though... She took one look at her and announced, "That doesn't look like me!  She has a long face.  Tessie could be right.  She definitely isn't as cute...

I am however, very pleased with Spike Jr.  He needs a little darkening on his brown parts, but other than that, he looks pretty good... 

Now Lucille wants me to make him in quarter inch!?

The way he is standing there, makes him look like Spike's pup. 

I need to shave his front leg some.  It's a bit fat, compared to the rest of him.

I hate to admit it, but Tessie is right.  Her counterpart has a bit of a horse face. I also think that her arms are a bit longer than they need to be.  I may have to have another try at that.  But not right this minute.

I didn't get to the quarter inch ones yet.  Tessie thinks she is getting two of those....Surprise, Tessie!  Zar put in an order for one of his own...

I definitely have my work cut out for me.  I am going in 14 different directions at the moment, so Tessie may just have to wait for a new face.  Maybe, old horse face can be turned into another Zar.  Don't tell Tessie!  Let it come as a big surprise.  I want to live a little longer. She may take a big pointy stick to me if she finds out...

See you tomorrow.

The Smaller, The Better...

Lucille asked, the other day, if I had a tutorial for making the quarter inch Tessie.  I don't.

I do need a new quarter inch Tessie though.  When she shrinks down and uses that body, she forgets that she is much more fragile and she tends to break bodies regularly.

The neck on her last body was cracked when I was taking photos, the other day.

I start with a couple of pieces of the same covered wire that I use for wicker.  The wicker wire is already cut, so I have a lot of pieces that are about 4" long.

I bend one of those in half and lay it along a ruler.  Then I bend where the heels of the feet will be.  In Tessie's case, that is 1 1/4".

I then wrap another piece around where the shoulders will hit.  It's a simple loop that I squeeze together with a pair of needle nose pliers.

The next part, I can't really show you.  I just start using a toothpick and an exacto knife to model a face.

For the hands and feet, I just make a loop at the ends of the wires and paint them skin colored.

Tessie came in and saw what I was doing and said, "You know.... You have never made me a half inch body to use.  I need one if you ever finish the Fairfield...  Get to work on that. Now!

So... I did as I was told.   That one still needs a bit of refining. She says that the arms are too clumsy. 

Hey!  At least it stands up by itself.  For that one, I do the head with a blob, the neck and shoulders are wrapped with a flat piece and refined.  So are the hands and feet. I do put #14 seed beads into the eye sockets on the half inch.  The 1/4" ones just get a dot of black ink for eyes.

I am sorry that I can't be more specific, but it is next to impossible to even get decent photos of the smaller sizes.

When I was taking the photo of Tessie with the  two bodies, Spike wandered in and, through Tessie as interpreter, politely requested a half scale of himself... I need to make his ears stand up more.

 I suppose that Tessie will want a quarter scale one as well...

After they are completely the way that I want them, they will go in the oven for just a few minutes for the smaller ones and about 15 for the larger half inch scale pieces.

Tomorrow, I will show you how to fill out the bodies and dress them.

See you then.

For Rent, Semi Furnished...

Tessie seems to think that she owns this one too.  It's hard enough working with a 5 1/4 version of her following me around and making suggestions... When she gets in the 1/4" mode, she sounds like a bee buzzing around my ears when she talks...

OK.  This is what I got done yesterday.  It is by no means complete, but it is much more fun to look at than it was.

It still needs curtains, accessories and a front porch.  I put the London phone booth in the space, so that it wouldn't be completely bare.

Here's the left bedroom and the bath.  I still need a bath mat and something to put on the wall... Window or painting...

This is the living room.  The bookcases at the back are fake.  They were cut out of a magazine and mounted on blocks, so that they would have dimension...Cheating again.

The coffee table is a hand carved antique ivory bead, with a brass disc on top. The back side of the bead is in pretty bad shape, but the front is still good.

The sofa and chair are old ones that I made and they look it.  I just noticed the lumpy front on the couch.  Going to have to fix that or make Tessie sit on the couch, so no one can see.

I need some kind of border at the top of this room.  And curtains... And some pots on the stove.

Tessie does have the table set for one...If I ever give her any food... Don't hold your breath, Tessie. You may have to revert to your usual self to eat...

One of my favorite things is attic scenes.  You can throw anything in there and it looks good.  Or at least it makes sense.  I need to find a few more things to put up here. 

The other half of this floor will be made into some kind of room.  I am just not sure what it will be yet.

That's about all I did yesterday.  I am contemplating going back to the cottage now... Just contemplating... Not actually doing...

See you tomorrow.

"Step Away From the Cottage!!!"

That was Tessie this morning... Holding a large skewer and threatening to poke me with it.

After yesterday's bathroom debacle, she decided that I needed a vacation from it for a day or two...

I didn't argue. 

I went and started looking for my small, scratch built, quarter inch cottage... It was a good idea at the time...

When I cleaned up the workroom, I put it somewhere for safekeeping...  I can't find it!  I told you that cleaning was a bad thing!

I did have this one hanging on the wall, behind the wood.  It's just a shelf unit, but it qualifies as a project that is started, but not finished.

Since it isn't anything special, I am just furnishing it with the furniture that I already have.  I'm not making more just for it.

At least, if I finish it, I won't just have an empty shelf hanging on the wall.

And now for something completely different, as Monte Python would say...

I found this at Walmart this morning.  For those of you that like chalk paint on big furniture, I think this will be of interest.

It is a Plaid product, under the folk art brand.  It is supposed to turn any paint into a chalk finish.  I can't testify to how well it works yet.  I didn't even take it out of the package.  I will let you know how it works in a day or two.

Right now, I need to go finish the wall house.  It should be done tomorrow.

See you then.

Lost and Found...

OK.... I cleaned out this bookcase yesterday afternoon...  Bad Move...

I found the two boxes of quarter inch furniture and architectural elements...

Then I went and found not one, but two notebooks full of 1/4" paper, articles  and sketches... The notebook with the sketches was a surprise.

I hadn't looked at it for a long time. 

I dragged all of it into the bedroom and started adding stuff to the quarter inch Tudor.

To my surprise, I had a lot more items for the Tudor than I remembered.

There was something for nearly every room.

Tessie immediately shrunk down a couple of sizes and started wandering around in there.(See second room on the second floor, green...)

I sat down this morning to look at the notebooks.  One is just filled with all quarter inch wallpaper and flooring... I knew what was in that one.

It was the second one that was a very large surprise. 

The first thing in the book was pages and pages of my sketches for 1/4" mini furniture and accessories.

There was a lot of Brodenax paper and all of Madelyn Cook's articles from Nutshell News, on quarter inch.  The Wednesday Witches mini group went to her house when she still lived here in Tucson.  It was amazing.

The Mini Time Machine just had a show of her work last month.  That was almost as amazing...

OK.  I told you that cleaning could be dangerous...Now I want to work on the Tudor.

I am thinking of making a new rule.  It's my workroom and I can do what I want(says the six year old, with fists on hips and about to start stomping her feet).

The new rule is, I can go back and work on things that aren't finished for a day or two.... Or maybe even three.  No new projects.  Only old ones that haven't been finished. 

But first, I have to go make a new sign for the door... It will say, "My workroom!  My rules!".

See you tomorrow.

A New Toy....

Yesterday morning, I knocked my old camera off of the desk in my workroom.  Oops!  Walter has been trying to talk me into a new one...Now I have one.

I got a Canon ELPH 115 IS.  It shall forever be known as the Elf...Much easier to say.

I had to try it out this morning.  Since I am not crazy about flash photos, I took all of these without.  Not bad.

The first one is the observatory in the 1/4" Tudor wall house.  Just look at all of those stars!

Next I set up a few pieces in the living room of the same house.  Not too shabby.

I caught Mic Jaguar strolling around on the couch of the townhouse.  I think he is trying to make a nest to sleep...There is a pillow missing....Lunch, maybe?

 I forgot to show you the pendant watch that I made the other day....All the better to show you the new camera.  I turned the photo lengthwise, but it flipped back when I put it in picasa for some reason...I am not in the mood to fight the problem.

Tessie volunteered to try showing it the right way....If I would let her wear it. She is going to have to move Oscar.  He has been riding around on her shoulder since Christmas.  I think that she is feeding him cookies to keep him there....Do frogs like cookies?

So far, I like the camera, but....There seems to be a hairline running through all of the photos in the same spot.  I am wondering if I got one with a cracked lens somewhere inside?  I am going to have to have Walter take a look at it when he gets back from golf.  You can see it running from top to bottom on the photo with Mic.  It is almost even with the far edge of the couch.  I cropped it out of the other ones.

Until he gets home, I am going to play with my new toy some more.

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.

Cleaning and Unexpected Finds!

Good Morning and Happy 4th, to those of you that celebrate it.

I have been up since 4:00AM and it has been a very productive morning.

I went in the workroom and closed the door.  Walter is trying to fix a pulled muscle in his back and was sleeping in....Watching TV...

I finished another bookcase and found something on top that I have been looking for, for over a year...

It is hard to find a section of wall for a 1/4" scale house when it is lying flat and other things are piled on top of it.  I removed everything and there it was.

Now I can finish this little house.  I built it from scratch from a blueprint in the book  that you see behind Zar.  It is a book of plans from 1888 that I found in a used book store. 

The only thing that I changed was the two windows in the top floor to one window.  I made the top floor one big room and decided that I would rather have only one. 

Tessie's "mini me" is over the moon.  she finally has a finished house to live in.  Granted, it needs the front porch, but the inside is complete.

By the way, if you enlarge the second photo, I have proof that Zar will do just about anything for a cookie.

Case in point?  He will wear an over sized button for me.  Walter bought it for me years ago....I have a duplicate somewhere in this mess...I lost one and had to replace it...I know it's still here.  I just can't find it.  It reads, "I'm not messy.  I'm creative."  Any guesses as to where the second one is hiding?

I finished the bead shelves this morning.  They will probably stay this way for a week or at least a couple of days.

As I go, I am making space in one bookcase and filling it from the next.  It seems to be working out quite well....So far.

Yesterday, some people made comments that I had done a good job of cleaning...OK.  Here's where I get brave. Almost two walls are finished.... I have one more shelf unit to finish on this wall.

Then there is the closet wall and the long wall with the three bookcases on it.  I saved the best for last.

This is the part that isn't clean yet....Look at it this way.  I now have a lot of empty spaces from moving things around...

By the time I am done, there will be no piles on the floor and no laundry baskets full of stuff to put away...

The next shelf unit is going to be pretty easy.  It is stuff that I use all of the time and it's all in plano boxes.  Just take them out, wipe down the shelves and put them back...

Then comes the part where Tessie needs a whip and a chair to keep me going and I need the welded chain around my ankle so as not to get lost in the pile....Fingers crossed now.

See you tomorrow.

Second Base....

This morning I spent a couple of hours in the back yard, pruning and raking....Still not finished...I won't be for a while.

I have to do it in the morning when it is cool. It is 96 degrees right now and going up....

When I came back in, I started on a base for the crooked house.

Since I plan to display several of the half timber pieces together, I decided to put the same kind of base under each one.

That way, when I do put them together they will look more uniform.

I measured the crooked house and didn't make allowance on the side for extra.  I will butt the sides of this one up against two others when I put them together.  I did leave enough room in front for  a pathway.  Other than that, it isn't going to have any yard.

I made it 14" square.  I used a piece of 1/8" luan mahogany door skin for the top and some cove molding that I had in the garage for the sides.

I simply cut the cove in 14" lengths, mitered all of the ends of the four pieces.  Then I glued and nailed them to the top with small brads....I wonder whom Brad was and why did they name tiny headless nails after him....Sorry....Just another stray thought.

By the time I finished putting the base together, I decided I had had enough raking, sawing and hammering for the day.

I had to do something sitting down for a while.

I spotted the quarter inch half timber wall house.  Hey! It's half timber, so it counts.

I haven't worked on it for a while The peaked roof is covered with shingles.  I have been putting off the slanted one.  I had a row and a half done on that.

After another hour of work...I have three rows done.  Those teeny tiny shingles are a pain.  I think that is one of the things that I keep shying away from on this house.  If I can get them finished, I think that the rest of it will be a breeze.

In case you are wondering about the giant baby living on the third floor, that's Amare.  I stuck that photo in there right after April gave it to me.  The house hangs on the wall by the bed.  I like being able to look over there and see a smiling face.  I guess he will have to move when I finish the house.  Another good excuse to stop shingling for the day....He is good company whilst I work.

I am off to make banana bread.  That has to be more fun than tiny shingles.

See you tomorrow.