Round and Round We Go!

Since I changed the position of the worktable, Kota has a perfect perch to help me work...  I am not sure if that is good or bad.  He criticizes my work as I go.  Makes me do it right... Frankly, I think that I should change it back to where he didn't have such a front row seat to what I am doing...

I went to Wednesday Witches earlier.  We made purses.

When I got home, I did a bit of rearranging in some of the minis. You have seen the boxes and buildings before...

This one was mainly a matter of straightening things that had fallen over.

Same with the rusty needle.  It is in pretty good shape, so there is not a lot to do but straightening. 

I went to do Tessie's cottage, however... She made a mess of the main floor and then went to bed...

She can straighten this one herself.  It's her house... She is the housekeeper.

I am not straightening up the main floor after she has had a day of making potions... Most of which will probably be used on me, if she can get away with it...

The potion book was opened to the page of ways to get other people to do your housework...

I am NOT going anywhere near her when I know that she has just mixed a potion for that!

I am out of here!  See you tomorrow.

Another Goodwill Find...

I like this one.  I won't have to do a lot to it to get it to work.

I think that it was one of those boxes that people use for weddings.  You know... Put your  money in here?

I am going to glue it together.  Right now it is put together with pegs and screw slots.  The top is not centered.  We can fix that.  I am sure that Tessie will be here "to help" soon!

It has plexi on all four sides and another window on the top.  Skylight?

I will have to fill in the slot with something or maybe even build a roof on top. No skylight in that case...

I also had to get the turntable off of the bottom.  That was a job and a half.  I don't think that it is going back on.

Right now I am thinking another corner box. 

It came with fiber board fillers for behind the plexi.  I might just forget about those and do the insides with foam core to fit two of the sides.

Whatever I do with this, it is MINE!  Tessie or Zar can't have it!...

Maybe I need a new person to inhabit it.

I think that I will definitely paint the outside.  White is not my thing. 

Anyway, here we go again!

See you tomorrow.

Pick a Tile, Any Tile...

Tessie is still dragging the corner box around to keep away from the rest of the tribe. So far she is keeping ahead in the game...

Last seen on the dining room table...

By the time I got back with another box, she had vacated the space... I am not going to keep following her around to keep track of her whereabouts...

I dug around and found this box. It is one of the first ones I made back in the early eighties...

No comments on the purple velvet please...

Hey! Kota likes it...

What I wanted to show you is the floor on this one.

You can make these boxes any size that you want. This one has a floor that is a cut piece of acoustical ceiling tile. 

At the time, we were able to order the bent Plexi glass in whatever size was needed.  I don't know of anybody that does this anymore.

The point is, you can make them any size that you like.

This is one that I just made a couple of years ago. I had the bent Plexi left over from the eighties and didn't know what to do with it. When I saw the tile, I knew.

The floor in this one is a green marble floor tile. It works quite well as an elegant floor and there are many tiles to choose from.

I just thought that you might like a few examples of what you can do with a piece of tile and some foam core board.

It is good to have a heavier bottom piece.  Thus the ceiling tile or floor tile.  That makes it steady and movable...

Back to hunting Tessie.

See you tomorrow.

It's Done!

And as usual, it's Tessie's!

This morning I got up and added some trim to the bookcase.

It's hard to see, but I added some molding around the top and some double bead molding around the front and bottom sides.

The corner needed something semi-tall.  I made a plant stand from a large newel post and a flat round Woodsie. The plant, I already had made and it was sitting in the printer's drawer along with a number of books.

Tessie was in place even before I finished.  Spike and Zar came a few minutes too late...You can tell that Zar had high hopes.  He brought his favorite bottle cap foot stool...

Spike has no hopes other than squeezing in next to Tessie.  She lets him.  Body heat helps. He got on the tile and the whole thing disappeared, leaving Zar sitting on the counter all by himself... Poor Zar.  I may have to make another more manly version that Tessie won't like.

Don't ask what is in the bottle on top of the bookshelf!  I suspect that it's something vile. She is keeping it out of Spike's reach.  He is prone to knocking bottles over and drinking the contents.

I imagine that I am going to be seeing Tessie in all kinds of strange places today.  She has to keep one step ahead of the rest of the gang.  If she doesn't they will all want a little corner box of their own.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

A Little of This and That...

 I went to Goodwill this morning.  I got what I think is a very good Korean painting.  It is framed in a Picasso frame.  Those cost an arm and a leg.  It was framed in Korea... I am assuming that whoever purchased it, purchased it there and had it framed before bringing it to the US.

The painting itself is a brush painting and is stamped with the artist's seal.

This photo doesn't do it justice.  I was having trouble getting a good photo without a reflection.

Since I wanted that where I could see it, I moved a lot of other art around.

Except for the two largest paintings, the rest is all my work. I need to straighten the one on the left.

The bedroom is beginning to look like an art gallery.. Paintings on every wall...

I have decided to make three boxes for some of my favorite people/pets...

Zar gets the large box.  Tessie gets the medium and Spike gets the small one.

I have the backs cut and am ready to start working on them.  They shouldn't take long.

Between the boxes, the socks and the conservatory, I am going to be busy.  I had better get back at it. See you tomorrow!

Strictly Experimental...

Walter is in the middle of installing the new computer... I am trying to make sense of it. 

I'm doing pretty good so far.

I bought three boxes at Goodwill this morning, at one of their half price sales.  I got all three for two dollars and fifty cents.

The largest one is perfect for 1" scale.  The next one is passable and the third is doggy size.

I am going to have to see what I can do with them.

The largest one is about the same size as these, but deeper.

I don't think that I will have any problem with any of them.

The small one may have to go to half inch, but for $2.50, I am not complaining.

I am going to let Walter have the computer back now.

Maybe  in a couple of days, I will have a little more idea of what to do with it.  Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow

Not a Long One...

This is my total work for the day, in  mini. I did the pieces you see whilst the other witches were busy with my paper punches.

I sculpted a tail and the start of some arms... He also needs ears...

Nope.  No details so far.

I was mostly  cooking and cleaning this morning.

 I like this room.  It's sealed tight.  Never has to be cleaned!  Why can't all minis be like this...???

This one, I have to clean a lot...There has never been glass over it. There's no way to attach it without it looking awkward.

So I clean and clean again... and again...

I am now done for the day.  I am going to go relax for the rest of the day. 

Today was fun, but I'm tired... Need a nap.  Then after that, I may go to bed early.

See you tomorrow.

We Have a New Toy!

Either this will make me work faster or it will make me sit down and relax...

We got a new Ninja Coffee System.  We decided that we were spending way too much at Starbucks. 

We saw a good deal on this little guy and decided that we would take the plunge.

We have only had it going for a day and a half.  So far, it is doing a great job.  And it is a lot of fun.

As for me, I have been starting the cleaning of the minis for Christmas. 

I take everything out and oil the furniture and floors with lemon oil.  Then after cleaning and polishing, everything goes back where it started.

Sometimes I get distracted and animals in a scene unintentionally get together... Hence the Frog and Hedgehog confrontation...

 I just noticed that I didn't do the ceiling in this one.  Do you think that anyone will notice?

Hey!  The rest of it is clean!

I took this piece out to show you what can be done with little cones from Potpourri, a small pot and some paint chips. The little cones got a coat of green paint and then the edges were just dry brushed with light yellow to make them look cactus like.

I collect the little paint swatches from the samples in the stores.  Then I come home and start snipping.  This one never got grouted, but I still like how it looks.

That just goes to show you what you can do for almost free. The dirt came from my backyard.

Anyway, I should go clean a few more rooms before I sit down and drink coffee for the rest of the day.

Back to work

See you tomorrow.

Two Firsts...

I am calling them two firsts, because I can't remember which one came first.

My long time friend, Gayle sent me this first photo yesterday.  She had trouble taking the photo because the glass was glued onto the front of the box... It is very hard to get a good photo through glass.

Anyway, I put both of these photos on  because I think that this was my first room box, but I'm not sure.

It may have been the one below.

They were definitely my first two room boxes.  I'm just not sure of the order. 

I gave Gayle the one of the sewing room because I first met her in one of the embroidery classes that I was teaching here in Tucson.  Then a bit later, she moved into a house about five houses down the street from me. 

We got to be good friends and our kids grew up together for a while.  Then she moved back to Maine.

Anyway, The sewing box is still in her real sewing room.  It wasn't too bad for a first or second try at making room boxes.  I built the table... I had a kit for a Chrysenbon sewing machine and chair. The wallpaper was gift wrap.  If you ever want to try that, be sure to spray it with artist's fixative before you do.  That will make it usable.

I was very proud of the dress on the dress form at the time... Then I learned about scale in fabric as well as scale in miniature... Not so proud after that.  It is mad from very thick velvet.

This kitchen was something that I made for my dad.  We were on a farm, where the kitchen looked a lot like this.  Wood stove and pump at the kitchen sink.

The stove in this one is a Chrysenbon.  The rest of the furniture, I built myself. A lot of the accessories(cat, pumpkin, other food and pitcher on the table wer made from Sculpey and painted. Back then there weren't a lot of things to buy.

We came to Phoenix, AZ when I was four and I was a desert rat from that time forward.  I hated going back to Michigan in the summer.  It was sticky and lots of bugs. And in AZ we had running water and coolers in the summertime. And we got to eat store bought bread most of the time...

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing that Gayle still has one of my first room boxes and I have the other one...

I just thought that you might like to see what started it all... The first two.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Out of the Way...

 April came over this morning to help with the installation of the new TV.  I banished myself to the workroom to keep out of the way.

I decided to do some rearranging of the bookcases.  It seems to me that they would look better if the two center shelves in each one were used for display.  That way, they would distract people from looking at the rest of the mess, in times of need...

I found this box closed and without the sofa.  I had the sofa in another box for a while and never put it back where it belonged.

Since this is one of my favorite boxes, I oiled it and put it right.  It now sits on the middle shelf to the right.

It was originally an antique file box.  I turned it on it's side and furnished it with a built in bookcase and left the deep bottom section open to show off furniture.

The shelf side has things that friends have given me over the years and some other things that I have purchased at shows.

The picture in the center is a real etching that was a souvenir from one of the NAME conventions.  It's "Around the World in Eighty Days."

I have to run now.  April is about to leave.

See you tomorrow.

Minis By the Minute!

Well. Maybe not by the minute, but a couple of hours will do it.

I set myself a challenge this morning. I decided to see how fast I could put together a passable mini from the largest one of those boxes and whatever I had on hand...

I always have an excess of wallpaper and sometimes windows.

I found a couple of pieces of finished wicker and I was off and running!

I decided to use a piece of illustration board for the back.  That took up less space than foamcore.

I found some wallpaper that would go with the bassinet and went to work.

I cut the board to the size of the back of the box.  I simply laid the box on the board and traced the opening.  Then I finally found a use for some Wallpaper that I bought from the shop that I was working at in 1982!  I guess you could call that vintage wallpaper.  I don't eve know if the "House that Jack Built" company, that produced it is still in business.  They made their paper in a rather strange shape and it was hard to find a use for it without a lot of seams.  The print wasn't even wide enough to fill the back of the box.  I had to over lap the left side.  I figure that that part wouldn't show too much, behind the bassinet.

 I cut a hole in the back of the box the size of the window.  Then I went and found a background shot for behind it.

After I got everything put together, I went around and gathered some things that would work in the box... I am not sure about the doll, the dog or the pillow, but they were good to fill the photo.

I might do some more to it later.  The window is a bit bare and it needs a different rug.

I finished off the edges of the box with braid and called it finished for the moment. 

Now I can go back to the bag that I was working on without a guilty conscience. Back to the needle and thread.

See you tomorrow.

Need I Say More???

April and Amare came over this morning. We had a good time playing.  Now I should get back to work.... However, I made the mistake of looking at unfinished projects and unstarted ones also...I started in the workroom on the right side as you walk in the door...

From the right and continuing around the room.

Weaver's Cottage(Tessie's)
Russian Cottage(April's)

Fairfield, 1/2" scale.... For Half inch Tessie.  Beside that, five boxes...

Below that, an empty terrarium.

Zar's Clockwork Cottage... An empty room box, like the one that the Elizabethan lady lives in, in the bedroom...

On the plant shelf. Two antique food boxes... A kitchen shelf...An empty box lamp... We won't talk about what's behind those...

A castle corner box.  Another terrarium and another corner box.

Below, and empty glass jar, a display case and at the other end a room box shelf...

Then we adjourn to the bedroom and peek under the bed...

Brimble's Mercantile(future home of Zar's Bizarre Bazaar).

The Vineyard Cottage(Just for me).

 Under the other side, The Magnolia.

And at the foot of the bed, the two wood eating gremlins that guard the Harrison... It's the largest and has the most scraps.  They are getting anxious.  The scraps are running out...

I hope that they haven't started eating houses!

I'm working as fast as I can! Evidently, not fast enough for these two!

See you tomorrow.

Clean Up Time...

The only trouble with working in the workroom is it starts looking like one... Very messy...

I need to get in there and clean things up again.  It doesn't take long to make a mess.  I have only been working in here for a couple of days...Icky...

 When I started straightening things up, I found this corner box.  It needs to be refurbished, badly.  I am thinking that it would make a nice home for the carved bed that has never had a room of it's own... The floor is a green marble floor tile and the box was built around it.  It could be nice. If only I would get my body in gear and finish it.  Somebody, give me a shove!

Someone on the Greenleaf forum asked about real plants in mini houses.

I can highly recommend the Mother of Millions that I showed you earlier in the year now.

These little guys have been in this scene since May.  I have watered them about once a month to keep them the size that I want them. If they were in mini pots I would water them a bit more.

The ones that you see in the top photo are actually two baby plants that are growing from a baby that I planted. You can see tiny hair like roots between the two of them.

I guess that when they need water they produce babies, whatever size the main plant is, to survive.

The rest of the plants in here are naturally slow growing, so aren't bothered by the small amounts of water provided. They have been in the dish garden a lot longer and haven't changed much at all.

I am going back to housekeeping mode now.  I refuse to let the workroom get out of hand again.  At least not today!

See you tomorrow.

At Sixes and Sevens....

Well, the box is nothing fancy, but it is better than a raw box sitting on the shelf.  I put a sixties poster on the back wall and called it finished.

Tessie, of course, lost interest immediately.

I took bead work to the Wednesday Witches mini meeting yesterday and this morning, Tessie confiscated my work...

It doesn't fit her, so I am not worried about losing it.

More of the super duo beads that I am having fun with right now.

This is what I took with me, and for all of that, I didn't even get the bracelet finished.  Too much talking and eating.  That's more fun.

OK.  Now for the sixes and sevens...  My car is sitting in the garage with these numbers on the dash panel...

77 degrees for the temperature and 66666 for the mileage... How often does that happen... OK... I confess, I had to go around the block a couple of times to get the last six... Hey!  You do what you have to, to get a photo like this...

I don't have the heart to tell Tessie that the devil's sign is only three sixes... If I did, she would probably announce that this was the sign of  Super Devil...  Maybe I had better drive around the block a few more times and make another seven,  just in case...

See you tomorrow...