A Week to Find the Fabric...

I didn't tell you that I have been hunting for the couch fabric for a week.  I need to do the cushions for the back of the sofa. 

I couldn't, for the life of me, find the original fabric....

When I found it, I knew why.  See the lighter colored fabric behind and to the left of Tessie?

That's the back of the fabric on top... It doesn't look anything like the front!

Actually, I didn't find it.  I solved the problem by sending Tessie to look for it, with the admonishment of  "Find it or no sofa!" 

She was back with it in less than five minutes. 

I can't seem to talk her out of using the zebra striped fabric in every room  that she relaxes in.  She insists that it makes her calm and happy.  I have no idea why.

I went to work on the tree bookcase this morning and discovered that a couple of the places where I put the glue didn't hold.  Back to step one.

That was an excuse to clean and start working on the Girl's Bathroom.  Tessie insists on calling it that.  She says that it is only fair that if the boys in the family have one, we should too...

My question is... How long has she been using this bathroom?

I am thinking that the bath is going to be  somewhat Steampunk-ian with a bit of Gothic mixed in...

Tessie insisted on keeping her ride in there. and my soap dish is a dragon also...

I confess, I already had a bit of Steampunk.   I have two of the candlestick that you see in the corner.

I also have had the shells with barnacles on it for many years.  That's where I keep my rusty nails... Yup.  I am probably the only person that collects rust on purpose. 

I have no idea who lost one rusty chain link. The faucet handle beneath it is one of my favorites and I can't even remember where I found it.

I also have an old rusty railroad spike, a few rusty horseshoes and a wreath of rusty barbed wire on the back porch... There is also a wind chime that April made for me years ago.  She found the pieces when she and Seth were hiking. Any of the rusty stuff is fair game if I need it in the bathroom!

Don't ask me to explain.  I just like rusty things.  They were well used and then discarded. They have a great patina and color.  That's all I can say... I know.  I'm a little peculiar...

Tessie just interjected, "A LOT PECULIAR!".  Oh well.  So is she! That's why we work well together.

Back to the Steampunkian bath and the tree house. 

See you tomorrow.

Freak Out and Throw Things!

This weekend, I did some wandering... On the computer.  I wanted things to hang on the wall and books and magazines.

I put Steampunk in the MSN search box and then hit images.  That always brings up all kinds of things to play with.

I found a Sherlock Holmes poster from an early movie.  Now Daisy can either take it off of the wall or take a bath with Mr. Holmes watching over her.  Tessie doesn't seem to mind. 

I found this poster for the "Great Western Air Ship".  Since the walls upstairs are all slanted, I am not going to get fancy framing things.  At least not until everything is in place.

I grabbed several other ones that would work either in Steampunk or in Daisy's place.

I saved them all in a file and then on one piece of card stock, I printed a bunch of stuff. 

I first put them in my Printshop 15 program and re sized them to fit on the page.  You can do this with any greeting card program or whatever program you have that will do the job.

This bunch of Magazines came from one of my favorite sites.  Jennifer's Printables. http://www.jennifersprintables.com/ She has all kinds of magazines, posters, food packages and miniature wallpaper for the taking.  Great stuff.

The clock face, I got somewhere else.

I found the paper Tardis to put together just by doing a search for "Tardis images". It was supposed to be one that fit on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet.  I simply reduced it in all directions. 

Everything that you see here was printed on one piece of cardstock.

My favorite thing is the poster that I hung in the kitchen.  It won't be seen unless you put your head far to the right and peak in at the left wall.

There are so many versions of the WWII poster... "Keep Calm and Carry On"...  I was looking for different versions, again on images.  I liked the one with the reference to "Big Bang Theory".  "Keep calm and Sing Soft Kitty".  But then I saw this one and thought that it made more sense than any of the others.

Hey!  The sign fits.  It looks like someone freaked out and threw things in the kitchen right now.  I have to stop typing and get to work on that kitchen...

See you tomorrow.

One Day of Freedom...

Our printer stopped working right about a week ago. 
Yesterday, Walter went out and bought a new HP.  I mostly print on card stock for minis.  So we had to test it. 

Frugally, so as not to waste paper and ink, I volunteered to put together a page of Steampunk stuff that I knew we could use when we start the emporium.  Walter did research. Some of the newer printers get hung up on card stock.  This one didn't.

We will be keeping the printer.  It does it's work well. 

It is Terrible Two approved... The thing at the bottom of the page that Tessie is pointing at is a Victorian paper model of a hot air balloon.  We may just have to put that together and hang it somewhere.  Pretty cool!

Meanwhile, I am still working on the half inch house.

I solved the problem with the front.  I took the two top pieces off of the front and glued them to the roof out from the walls, by the thickness of the front. Thus, taking care of the front panel being to tall.

I should explain... I don't like front opening walls that are hinged.  It seems like the door is always in the way.

This solved the problem.  The front can be put somewhere that isn't in the way. The front panel will not be attached to the house in any way. 

About the time that I finished the front, Mini Tessie showed up. 

The first thing she said was...."OH!  Is this my Christmas present?  Thanks in advance!"

Then she proceeded to hang around whilst I put all of the shingles on one side of the roof. 

She has been through the pile of half inch furniture and picked out a lot of pieces for refurbishing and cleaning.  Notice.  I didn't say that she was going to get right on that job...

It looks like, once again, I will be employed by the Terrible Two minus One... At this rate, I may never tell Tessie that she should have a 1/2" version of Zar to keep her company. 

That way, I would only have a Terrible One to contend with.

So far, she approves of everything I am doing.  The first time she starts getting picky, I am going to send her back to her normal, one inch body and hide her half inch self somewhere scary.

That threat should keep her in line.  Anyway, I am off to do the other half of the roof now.

See you tomorrow.

Another Steampunk Source...

Last week, I stopped at a garage sale and one of the things in a grab bag that I bought was the workings of a music box... No box.

When I got it home, I went to take it apart and I couldn't find my Phillips screwdriver.  I found it this morning... In Daisy's cottage... I have a feeling that she has been dropping in at night to see how things are coming along... and they are not to her liking...

I couldn't find the chest and shelf from the kitchen.  I went into the workroom to take apart the music box and found the furniture. 

I ignored it and took apart the music box.  Two screws were holding it together.  The rest was held together by riveting the soft metal of the case.  I had to pry it apart.  As you can see, it had a lot of interesting parts.  More Steampunkery stuff!

I am going to have to keep an eye out for music boxes.

As for the chest and shelf...I discovered that the edges of panels and drawers had been painted black. 

It was dry, so Daisy must have worked into the night and then left quietly... I took the hint...

I started fooling around with a gold pen.  This is on the side that faces away from the opening of the kitchen.  I can fool around all I want.  It will never be seen, after I install it.

This is just a start.  It needs more color to look Moroccan, but I think it is going to work.

I did notice that I missed the top edge of the chest.  There should be another line of black on the top under edge.

Anyway Daisy, if you are reading this, I am back to work on the cottage and will keep going as fast as I can... I want to get to the Steampunkery again. 

I might even drag down the Clockwork Cottage and finish it.  Poor Zar has been living in the immobile mobile home for much to long...

See you tomorrow.

Steampunk, We Have a Problem....

I am mostly done with the moving of books... Notice I said mostly.

I have a few strays that I have to find homes for, but I do have spaces in each category, so it won't be long until it is all finished.

 I kept this side pretty much the same, except for moving books in and out.

This side was the one that I changed.  Especially on the right side.

You see, there is a problem with the glass shelves in this bookcase.  They are supported by some little plastic gadgets on each side.  The back of the shelves are supposed to be held up by a wood piece with a groove in it... The trouble is....That is not held up by anything.  I don't know who designed this, but they did a terrible job. 

Those same wood pieces have lights installed behind to light the shelves... Wood piece with lights attached and not supported by anything what so ever... Disaster.  Waiting to  happen.

The glass slips out of the back groove regularly and I have had two of them come crashing down and break.  One in half and the other one in half with a triangular piece out of the front.  I have learned to make sure that there are some tall books under the center of all of the glass shelves.  Or in the case of the one on the bottom right, a large room box with some books on top to equal the height of the shelf.

The unit is quite old, so there is nothing to be done.  I fixed it as best I could and Walter helped me get things back in line yesterday... Thank You Walter!!!

I got all of the stuff in the workroom bookcases where they were to go... Then the Steampunk fairy flitted by and  pushed my elbow into the corner of two of the boxes of Steampunk findings sitting on one of the higher shelves...

I guess the Steampunk fairy didn't like the way I had things nicely sorted in the boxes....

Anybody want to hazard a guess as to what I will be doing the rest of the day?

First I have to get all of the little, tiny pieces out of the rug... Then a sorting I will go...

See you tomorrow.

Oops, I Forgot!

I am sitting here going "Duh!".  I can't use the one piece faucet with this tub.  I didn't think to measure under the window... By the time I get any kind of trim around the window, there won't be any room for a fancy set up like that one. 

So.... I opted for a three piece one that goes directly into the wall and pipes.

Now I still have room for trim.  I will save the other one for the kitchen or another project.

There are signs of life in the workroom.  Now... If I can just remember to water them. 

I  checked.  The tags all said low light plants.  This room gets no sunshine at all.  Only a bit filtered through the Mesquite tree, early in the morning.  Wish me luck on keeping them alive...

I Steampunked the TV yesterday afternoon.  What can I say?  I was bored and it was fun to do.

It's not really Steampunk, but it goes better with the rest of the room than a flat screen monstrosity...

I found a frame that was close to the size.  I sat it on the Direct TV box and then made a strip to go across the bottom of the picture with some scrap booking paper and a few other Steampunk flavored things... Alice in Wonderland just happened to be on... The mad hatter wouldn't hold still long enough to have his photo taken though.

Anyway, every time I start gluing stuff together to make something Steampunk, I think of this You Tube video that I happened upon a couple of weeks ago... The song keeps running through my head and for some unknown reason, it puts me in a good mood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Just watch it a couple of times and it will happen to you too.

I am going back to work now. I still need to paint some drawers and build a sink to go with the tub...

See you tomorrow.

Just Wait Until I Finish...

Then you can laugh if the faucets don't turn out...  I did this once before and nobody knew the difference until I told them. 

The tub is coming along nicely.  After I took the photos, I did see one spot on the top edge of the tub that needs more sanding or more spackle.  Easily fixed. It's not fastened down yet.

 Now about those faucets.  A few years ago, I bought an antique style kitchen sink that was a bargain because it was missing part of the faucet.  I fixed it and nobody was any the wiser...

This is just the first step.  There will be sanding, crack filling, the addition of thread to add detail and then painting.  Hey!  I promise.  They won't look like cut up toothpicks when I finish. Honest!

What can I say?  I don't want to order a new faucet and wait for weeks for it to get here.

This morning I was over at our new Walmart.  I have been looking for something to store larger beads in.  The plastic boxes I use hold a lot, but they aren't very practical for larger beads.  They fill up fast.

I found 12 of these canning jars for 6.97 plus tax... That adds up to about 60 cents a jar.  You can't beat that.  Unless you want to use leftover plastic peanut butter jars. No thanks.  Who ever heard of plastic jars for Steampunk storage?  Besides these were just the right size.

The shelf will probably go on a wall somewhere, but I wanted to see how many of the jars it would hold.  If need be, it would hold eight more.  I am going to stick with the ones I have right now. 

Of course, that leads to the reorganization of the bead shelves...  Somehow I keep making more work for myself, instead of less, lately.  Here we go again!

See you tomorrow.

Rumbling From the Closet....

Early this morning...Right after Walter left to go play golf, I heard strange sounds from our closet... I knew it wasn't him and Widget was in his bed snoring.

Curiosity got the better of me.  I peeked around the corner and this is what I saw...  Have you ever seen a six inch witch trying to move a 40 pound typewriter?

It's not a pretty site.  I stood there in awe as Tessie ran around to the back of said typewriter and tried to push it forward... Then she went to the front and tried to drag it.

I started laughing and she caught me watching.

"Don't just stand there! Help push!" 

I asked, "Why don't you just "witch it" to where you want it.  And by the way, where are you going with Elliot, anyway?"

Tessie glared at me with her best glare and said, "If I could witch it, I would.  Elliot has been eating a lot since you stuck him in the dark closet.  I think he wants out."

Since I didn't even know that Elliot could communicate without someone typing on his keys, I said, "Yes, go on..."

For those of you that don't know about Elliot, he is my pet typewriter.  I found him in a thrift store about 25 years ago for 8.00. For the first few years he sat in the kitchen and April and I used him as a message center.  He works perfectly.  I just didn't know that he could talk... 

Tessie sat me down and patiently explained to me as she would to a two year old. "He only speaks when spoken to and only when he's in the mood to answer..."

 I suspect that Tessie is putting words in his mouth.  I finally agreed to help her get him where she wanted him to go when she asked me, "What is a Steampunk room without a portable typewriter?"  I question the portable part.

Anyway, I wheeled it into the workroom on one of the rolling chairs that we have.  There was no way I could carry it from one end of the house to the other.  Even if it isn't a very big house.

First we tried it on a small table at the end of the desk.  It was about 35 pounds heavier than the table and very top heavy.

I managed to drag it up to the top of the desk.  By that time, I needed a break.  Elliot was getting heavier by the minute.

First, I tried it on that end of the desk.  It took up too much of the work space. 

By this time, I was beginning to feel like Goldilocks, minus the three bears and plus a very heavy typewriter.... No place was just right.

I finally pushed and shoved it down to the other end of the desk, by the TV...While Tessie sat and filed her fingernails....Complaining all the while that she had chipped her polish...Polish??  I have never seen her wear nail polish!

Anyway, Mr. Elliot Underwood is now happily ensconced in his new home. And NO I am not going to turn him into a keyboard for a computer....That has already been done by lots of people.  I am happy with him, just the way he is.

Meanwhile, I am turning cheap plastic pots into copper verdigris. This is only the first step.

Hey!  They are much lighter and easy to carry than Elliot.  I think that they are going to get more attention than Elliot for the rest of the day.  He can just sit there and look cute and
Steampunky.

See you tomorrow.

Steampunkering...

And the beat goes on...

I have six drawers left to do.  Come to find out, the ones that I left until last were the easiest to do.  Those are the ones on the left.  I have four big ones and two small ones still to glue on.  They are already cut.

Then I will still have to paint the frames.  That shouldn't take long.

I did a little work to the chair yesterday.  The nail heads sure make a difference.  I always liked that chair, but thought it to be too plain.

 This morning, I went to work on my desk top....Not the computer one.  The real one.

Moved off all of the square jars with pens, pencils and tools in them.  Then I moved in some Portuguese, hand painted chocolate cups. I found them in a thrift shop years ago, for cheap.  There was no pitcher with the set.

I also moved in a black vase to hold pens and pencils.  The bottom of a glass soda straw holder for rulers and other tall implements of destruction...

I covered the ugly Direct TV machine, with a linen place mat and some doilies.  The secret to this is to make sure that there is a hole where the little blue light can be used.  Now all I have to do is something for the surround of the TV screen.  Picture frame or maybe molding cut to size...

I fancied up the desktop with some of my antique sewing collection. 

The pincushion at the bottom left is one that I made.  I found the napkin ring in a thrift shop...It has my grandma's maiden name engraved on the side.  I simply filled it with batting and covered that with a small scrap of silk velvet that I had in my stash.  The napkin ring that Tessie is sitting on has an eagle on either side and was one of my great grandmother's.  I collect flower frogs and use them to hold scissors. 

April made the blue vase that holds my paintbrushes.  It is one of my favorite pieces.  I wish that she would get back to that and do more.

The disc with the peacock on it, is the top of a box.  I imagine that at one time it was silver plated.  It only has a little on the bottom now.  Someone thought it would be a grand idea to clean it...No more silver. When I got it, it still had really old pins in it.

One more thing.  The basket that you see in the background is one that has been around since the turn of the last century.  It was my grandmother's egg basket on the farm and it was handed down to her from her mother.

That's where I left my glasses!  Just kidding.  Those were also my great grandmother's.

I tried to cover some of the modern day equipment with older stuff that I had laying around.

I still have a long way to go to make the room look Steampunky, but I am getting there.

There is a pin at the top right, pinned to a pincushion that I made.  It was from Walter.  He knows me.  At one point, I had two of them.  One got lost in the mess, so I went out and bought another one... Of course, a couple of days later I found the first one.

It was from back in the 80s.  It has one of those little 80s cartoon creatures... The sign reads, "I'm not messy.  I'm creative.".  That's going to have to be my motto for a while, until the room gets finished. Thanks Walter!

See you tomorrow.

This, That and the Other Thing...

Last night, I worked on the living room rug for a couple of hours.  It doesn't look much different than when I started.  I finished the inner blue line and a lot of the  outer border.  I still have some beige to go... It's about the color of the canvas.  It doesn't even show!

Meanwhile, we got a shipment from Daisy, yesterday...  Personally, I think that she just wanted someone else to take care of her snippy little dog, whilst she went about packing to move.

It's OK though.  Tessie is enchanted.  Spike, not so much. 

Here are my second three hookah pipes.  I remembered to put the disk under the pipe bowl this time.

These will go into the Steampunk shop.  They are way too much fun to make...

 The last thing on the list of things to show you is the kitchen sink...

Someone showed me this a long time ago.

I decided to make it the same color as the walls.

I went and found a plastic bubble pack in the right size and painted the OUTSIDE with a couple of coats of paint...

I am sure that some of you already know this technique, but this is for the newbies that don't.

You can do it with any sink or if you can find the right size, a tub. 

Instant shiny sink.  I will never have to scrub it...Not ever!

It is actually more like the color in the first photo.  I think that the light got to it in the second one.

Now all I have to do is put an eyelet in for the drain and install it under the counter top...

I am going back now and put discs under the bowls of the three pipes from yesterday.

It's a nice place to add a bit on steampunkian embellishment.

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

A Rough Guesstimation...

 Remember all of the dip and dye I did a few days ago...?

I either got lucky or I am getting better at estimating how much material need for a job!

I finished gluing all of the shingles on this morning...Now the fun part begins...Washes and shading.

Spike is closely guarding the leftovers...Yup.  That's all there were.

He wants them turned into fetching sticks.  I am going to leave that job to Tessie and Zar.  They don't seem to have anything to do this morning...I know that they will avoid putting more color on the roof, for fear of getting dirty.

Meanwhile, on the Steampunk front.... I did a mad scientist experiment last night. 

Maybe fuel additives or stuff to make steamy stuff more powerful?

I saw a photo on a Steampunk Pinterest website of real sized bottles that someone had concocted in layers like this... A challenge...  My solution.  A large supply of nail polish and lots of time to let it dry...

These are the glass bottles from the nail section at Dollar Tree.  I bought quite a few.  The goal was to make layers of color.  I did just that with the first one.  The one with the turquoise paint was a layer of that color that I let dry.  Then I put a layer of matte finish on top of that.  Let it dry.  Finally I topped it off with plain clear. That one worked pretty good.

Then the mad six year old got in the mix.  From left to right....I filled the bottle with clear and then dripped another color into it. The color sunk to the bottom and separated...  I did the same with red and clear in the fourth bottle. 

The third and fifth bottle  I put in one layer and let it dry for a while...Then I put in another color and stuck a toothpick down in and pulled up the bottom color on the side of the bottle.  The third bottle has a distinct marbled effect.  The fifth one just kind of seeped the yellow into the metallic green.

The last bottle is plain old boring weird pink and I tipped it up to coat the inside of the glass on the top part.

I will probably cut off the little hanger thingies on the tops of the bottles and put something else on top.  I am going to let them dry some more first though....

I think that I will go watch nail polish dry for the rest of the day.  And twiddle my thumbs and whistle a happy tune, whilst I am doing it.  The alternative is yard work... Which would you rather be doing?

See you tomorrow.

Very Little Work...

I left the Terrible Two to work on the roof, whilst I went to town.

When I got back, this was what I found.  Not a lot done.

So much for trust.  Next time I won't go all out, buying supplies for the next project while they are NOT doing any work to advance the one that we are working on...

Unfortunately they found all of the supplies that I bought and that was the end of help for the day.  After I get off of here, I am going to finish that roof!!!

I bought a basket at a garage sale yesterday and Zar immediately grabbed it and said, "Next time you're out, get me a ball that I can use as a model for a hot air balloon..." I did....

He and Tessie, climbed into the basket and lifted the balloon above their heads.  Zar grinned and said, "Now all we need is  a lot of hot air.".  Then  he continued in a low voice..."Maybe we could just get Casey to start talking into the balloon..."

I am about to lock both of them in the closet for the rest of the day.  Tessie just laughed and agreed with everything that he said.

He quickly apologised when he turned around and realized I had heard every word.  Nice save Zar.

I think that the reason for the apology was the stuff in the bag from the Dollar Tree.  I hit the aisle where all of the kids party favors are...

I got various and sundry items that will go towards great Steampunk machines.

The pipe that Zar is holding is one of six little flutes.  They com apart and the body of each one looks like a length of banded pipe.

There were yoyos shaped like tires with really cool hubcaps that look like cogs.  They are on both sides, so twelve of those.

The thing that he is wearing on his head is the basket off of the little blow pipes for keeping a ball in the air... And the weird cog wheels in front are from an Etch a Sketch kind of toy.

I did buy some pens that had neat parts to tear apart too.  I will show you what happens to them all later.

Right now, I have to finish the shingling that the Terrible Two failed to do.

See you tomorrow.

Still With the Shingles...

OK...But I have a couple of good excuses...I ran out...And Walter has a cold and the smell was really not good for him.

I did dye more this morning.  There is a plate full that Tessie is sitting on. 

She tosses one up to Zar.  He catches it and hands it to me to put on the roof.  Yes.  It slows me down a bit, but it keeps them entertained and out of trouble...For the time being.

 I started cleaning my workroom yesterday afternoon...

I kept finding all kinds of interesting Steampunky things...I estimate that three of the small Plano boxes and one of the Rubbermaid larger ones will be almost enough to fill the store.

I labeled them and I have two of the three almost filled. 

Only a couple of things in the larger one, so far.

Here's the second Plano box...Various and sundry things, as they say.  Who is "they"?  And why do they get blamed for saying random things, out of the blue.  There's another one.  "Out of the blue"....This could go on all day. 

Back to the box.  I have been using these Plano boxes for years.  I love them for storage of minis....However.  I went to Walmart the other day and found that they have changed the boxes. They now have dark blue dividers and lock type closures... I sure am glad that I have an ample supply of the old ones.  So much nicer.

Can anybody tell me what the small gold thingies in the middle bottom of the photo are?  They look like tiny gold bottles with a ball lid on them... And I my world, that's what they are going to be.

The bronze potbelly stove is a pencil sharpener.  I have had it since before I started doing minis in 1979.  Pretty soon it will be an antique...

The two world globes are....Believe it or not...Earrings! 

The pink plastic things are roman soldiers.  When bronzed or gilded, they make great mini statues.

These are for the "If all else fails" department of the store.  If it can't be fixed with a screwdriver or a hammer....There's always safety pins and hairpins.  If those fail, there is a button hook and a nail file...

I also found Tessie's glasses.  She needs them, but seldom wears them, if she can help it.  She hides them with other small items that will disguise them.  I find them and get her to put them on....In a day or two, I ask where they are and the answer is always the same...."I lost them again.  It's OK though.  I don't really need them."  Then she turns to walk away and either falls off a table or runs into a door.

I really am going to finish the shingles today!!! Seriously!

See you tomorrow.