A Ten Minute Tree!

I found these Halloween trees at Dollar Tree Yesterday.

They are the fastest trees on the block!

I released on from the card and bent it's branches this way and that until I liked the way it looked.

If I were going to use it for a regular tree right now, I would have painted the branches and everything brown, but I need it for the Halloween party, so I left it black.

Then I went to the foliage box and grabbed a sack of Lichen or Reindeer Moss. 

This was just for illustration purposes only.  I could also cut out leaves or use various other materials for the greenery. 

If I had been making the tree for real, the glue would be in use for the next step.

I am purely doing this for those that have a Dollar Tree store nearby.

My greenery is precariously perched on the branches to show you how nice it will look when I do it for real.

I am certainly going back for a couple more of the tree forms.  These are worth the money.  If I made them myself, they would take a while and lots of materials. 

Thank you Dollar Tree for saving me a lot of work and a lot of waiting for the glue to dry.

After Halloween has passed, I will be making a few of these for real. 

Back to work now.  I just finished cleaning my closet and changing it from summer to winter.  I am going back to see if I missed changing anything.

See you tomorrow.

She Came In Through the Bathroom Window...

Even before I started working on the cottage this morning... Tessie was thinking of moving into the HBS Forest Fantasy Cottage...

It doesn't take her long to sniff out new homes and take possession of them...

I started the actual building of the cottage yesterday afternoon.

The upside down door looks like it is going to work just the way I want it to.



As the song says... She came in through the bathroom window... Why???

All she had to do was swing her legs over to the inside, but she insisted that the bathroom window might be a good escape route in an emergency situation... I don't think so.  I had to pull her out.  She got stuck about half way in.

Next she tried to talk me into a couple of skylights.  That may be a possibility.  We shall see...

There are going to be tree branches on the roof if I can make it work...

Dollar Tree is now carrying bags of reindeer moss. Not the greatest quality, but it will be alright for filling in bare spots.  I got some this morning.

I did tell her that, if she helped, she might just get this one.  After all, Zar and Daisy seem to be splitting the observatory/library.  It seems only fair... Unless someone else more suitable come along.

So far Tessie is at the top of the list... Now, lets see if she can manage to stay there...

See you tomorrow.

Jackpot!!!

I went into town this morning.  Regular Walmart run.  Then I decided to stop at the Dollar Tree and a few other places looking for little bottle brush Christmas trees...

Those are getting ridiculously expensive for what they are... I am going to have to look around and see what I have before I spend more money for them...

I stopped at Goodwill, thinking that they might have some... Nope... They did have some great books for little bits of money. Three of them were under a dollar the other two just a bit more.  I see some Navajo mini rugs in my future.  Some mini container gardening and some creative mini accessories...

I tried a few garage sales, hoping for someone getting rid of mini bottle brush trees... No luck there.

When I was driving down our street coming home, the house four doors down had a garage sale going...No bottle brush trees there either... But... They did have beads.  They were all stuffed in a big box and when I asked how much one of the bags was, she told me that she wanted 20.00 for the whole thing... I need more beads like I need another hole in my head, but I can always use more.  They do run out after a while... That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.  There is over a hundred dollars worth of beads there... I didn't even argue with the price.  I will just consider it an early Christmas present. 

Now about the Dollar Tree... For those of you lucky enough to have one near you, the manager told me that they still have enough Christmas stuff in the back room to keep them stocking for the next week or two.  He wasn't even sure what was there.

I did find these crystal Christmas trees by the checkout counter.  For a dollar each. 

They change every color of the rainbow, a little at a time and are just the right size to use with minis. 

I don't think that Gordon Dragon appreciates them though.  They are keeping him awake!

I have to go turn off the Christmas trees, sort beads and read the new books.

See you tomorrow.  Back to minis then.

Plants and Pots....

I went into town this morning, so not much in the way of minis.

I have been waiting for a while for the flowers on this plant to dry out, so that I could try using them as mini flowers.

Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the plant. It looks a bit like a rubber tree plant, but not quite. I bought it at Walmart when I saw that it had a bunch of tiny flower buds.  Then I kept it watered and my fingers crossed. 

It paid off!

These are the dried flowers next to my fingers, so that you can see the size.

I get the best results with letting the flowers dry on the plant.

Here's a close up. 

I will spray them with Patricia Nimmock's  fixative.  Then they will be ready to paint...

I almost like them the way that they are.  They would be pretty arranged in vases.

We shall see....

Here's another example of a small leafed plant to grow.  This is Stonecrop.   I already had a tricolor plant.  That one is green and white, with tinges of pink here and there on the leaves.

I lucked out on this one.  It has a plain green and also green and white in the same pot.

The leaves never get any bigger than this. You can pinch off a group of leaves from the end of one of the branches and it will root. It's another example of mini real life plants.

I thought that you might like to see a few of the mother of millions in George's desert scene.  They are very happy, living there.  I don't water them as often as the ones in the tub, so they aren't growing quite as fast as the other ones.

The other plants that are in this scene have been in here for over a year.  The one to the left of him is a Rat Tail Cactus.  Again, I took it as a branch from a pot, and in this case, I put some rooting hormone on it before I put it in.  It did just fine.  The one that looks like a big cactus, behind him is really a euphorbia of some kind.  The ones to the far right are just small succulents of some kind.  I have had them so long that I don't remember the name.  They were about that size when I bought them and I have had them longer than the bowl.  They grow, but very, very slowly.

Last, but not least, look at the little pots that I found at Dollar Tree!  They are new to me.  Our store hasn't had them before, as far as I know.

I threw the pencil in the photo, so that you could compare the size. 

They are hard plastic, with a flexible lid.  They will be handy for lots of small parts and beads.  Who doesn't need more small containers?

I am off to see what I can find to put in them now.  I am sure that won't take long.

See you tomorrow.

Various and Sundry...

I finished a basket to store my remotes in last night.  The black one in the back is very long and odd shaped.  It never stays where I put it.  Rolls off of flat surfaces.  I got tired of chasing it down all of the time so this is the solution...

As I said in the title...I am wandering from subject to subject today. 

I was looking for more plastic storage containers this morning....Walmart was completely wiped out in the fishing section, where I usually buy them.

I happened to stop at Dollar Tree on my way home and look what I found!

 There were only three left.  They are from Crafter's Square and just a nice size for a project or two.

The dividers are not movable, but hey, for a dollar a piece, why worry?

I am sure you are asking, where are the minis?  Here you go.

This isn't glued together yet, but the door is coming along nicely.  I do have the wood glued together, but I still have to put a finish on it.  Then I can start working on the hinges and other fixtures.

I still have to turn the piece in the window copper.  I decided I liked the copper with this stain. 

The hinges and the plate behind the handle are from a copper ring like the one at the left.

They are ring blanks that I got from a place on  ETSY.  I think that I paid 3.00 for a five pack of them.  I bought them more for minis than for rings.

They are thin and can be cut with flush cutters.(Jewelry pliers)

I will probably have that done tomorrow.  I didn't get much more of the spackling done yesterday.  Real life got in the way. 

I am going back to work now, right after I clean up the kitchen....Real life once again.

See you tomorrow.

A Bit of This and That...

I decided to change course yesterday afternoon.  I decided that I needed to do the spots between the corners of some of the stones, before I did the actual painting...It was slower to add the charcoal between the stones in the midst of painting them. 

So....The troops volunteered to have a go at it.  Zar loaded his Steampunk rifle with paintballs and Tessie grabbed a large brush.  They had it done, without too much bickering after an hour or so. 

Sometimes it's nice to have them around when they aren't at each other's throats.

I did some more on the rug and a bit more on the desk last night.

This morning, I woke up thinking about supplies that I needed for the cottage.  Poly clay popped into my head.  Making tiny squares of the real thing didn't appeal to me.  They would have to be about 3/16" square and about 3/32" thick.  Not really fun to make.

Sooooo...I stopped at the Dollar Tree on my way home and bought some bright colored erasers and, of all things, colored foam rubber tongue depressors in the craft department....I do believe that they would be difficult to use for depressing tongues.  There's got to be a joke in there somewhere....

Anyway, those quickly became mini squares of Fimo.  The tongue depressors were easy.  They were already the right thickness.  All I had to do was cut the tiny squares.

The erasers had to be sliced first, but it wasn't hard to do.  I can use what is left of both items.  The tongue depressors will become the insides of books and the erasers will be carved into stamps for printing.  No waste.

Remember the little beads that I bought there a week or two ago?  They are going to make excellent paint jars. 

I used the clear ones and painted them inside.  Not quite to the top.  Let them dry.  then stuck a bead that looked like a jar top in the top.

The ones on the far left are already dry.  The two on the right are still not dry in the glue department.  I just used Tacky, so it will be clear, like the other ones when it drys.

I plan to make a lot of different colors of the bottles.  As many as I have tops for...

In the poly clay photo, look closely.  There is a tiny figure in the tray with the Fimo squares.  Tessie spotted it right away.  She got excited and asked, "Is that a mini me?  It is isn't it?  At last a mini me that is to scale...".  I guess that I will be making a mini mini me.  It will have to be a tiny bit shorter to be to scale...Don't tell her that.  She will start taking measurements to make sure it's right.  That one is 1/2".  More Zar's size...  We won't mention that.  She would really be in a snit if she thought I was making a mini mini Zar. 

I have to go paint the insides of more beads now...If I am not insane already, I will be shortly... I have about 40 different colors of paint.  Here's hoping I run out of beads for caps fast!

See you tomorrow.

Bits and Pieces In Progress...

Today I am playing at being a mad scientest.  It's working pretty good so far....

Meet my assistant Widget.  He has to see if any of it is for eating... Sorry Widge...No bites.

These are the little stamps that I got at Dollar Tree yesterday.

Taking things apart can be fun.  The first was a two ended stamp.  The two pink domes have possibilities as bottles of some kind.  Not necessarily for this project. It also yielded the two frosted pieces next to them...Maybe jars or glasses of some kind. 
'
The middle ones are called paddle stamps.  They were a bit difficult to cut apart.  I finally got out my side cutters for wire.  Those worked to get most of it off.  Then I finished the job with an Exacto knife.The blue, yellow and orange lidded jars were the result.  I also experimented with using a piece of clear plastic,  cut round as a lid.  They would have to be glued shut. These are a bit larger than the next ones.

These were rings.  They were the easiest.  I just cut off the ring part and cut the leftovers off with the Exacto.  All were pretty easy and will make interesting containers in the cottage.

Next, I started playing around with an idea for a corner box.  This one is by no means finished, but I had to see if it would work.

It did.  I used a 1" square Woodsie for the top and bottom base.  Then I used walnut veneer to cover the top and bottom. The walnut veneer also makes up the sides.

The plastic box that you see beside it is what I used for the glass. Easy, no bending.  I just cut out the piece I needed.

When I get it to something I am satisfied with, I will give you directions and measurments.  Meanwhile, be looking for products that come in these boxes.

I finished the large shelf unit.  As you can see, the little boxes will work great in there. 

Zar is with me on using the window unit for another workspace.  It helps when there are two against one in the voting. 

Speaking of voting.  We were ahead for a while yesterday...Then back to a tie.  I just went and looked.  We are ahead by 1%.  Tessie is doing her happy dance! Keep it up!

Night before last, I started designing a rug for the cottage....This is how it looks so far...

I have to finish the design, so that I will have something to work on in the evenings.

I need to get that blue one that I finished last week on here, but I have to go through a few steps to get it from the laptop to this computer before I can do that.

Anyway, don't forget to go up and poke the About.com badge to vote.

See you tomorrow.

"Hold On Tight! Hold on Tighter!!!"

I finished laying the floor shortly after I wrote yesterday.  Then I sanded it.  First with 150 and then with 220.  It will get sanded again, between coats of varnish. The third time with 400.

I made a little shelf unit under the small bay and extended the top for another work space...Tessie wants it to be a window seat, where she can cuddle up and read a good book...Not happening...Remember?  This is my bay window.  Lots of light for working.

This morning I stopped at the Dollar Tree to scrounge around. 

I found all of the beads that you see in front, thumbtacks and the Disney rings that you see on Tessie's wrist...I may have to go back and get another package or two of those.  Big plans for them and the clear beads, both.

That will have to wait until tomorrow.  Wednesday is for Witches, you know.

I did get a coat of satin, water based varnish on the bay unit and the floor...I didn't do the tall shelf unit yet.  It isn't glued together yet.  I need to make some decisions on how high the shelves will be.

It was a bit difficult working around Tessie.  She hung there with Zar holding her feet the whole time I was working and she kept yelling, "Hold on tight!  Hold on tighter!!!". 

As usual, Spike was the only one with common sense...He sat in the doorway and watched the Terrible Two and snickered a lot.

I have to go get ready for the meeting now.

Don't forget to go back up to the top and poke the About. com badge.  Then vote.The place to vote is about half way down the page.  It is a tie right now.  Another 20 days to go.  Vote for Tessie!  She is hanging on by her toes!

See you tomorrow.

Potion and Powder Bottles-101

Remember all of those tiny glass bottles that I found at Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago?

Tessie found them....I saw her rummaging through the scattered mass that is my workroom right now, this morning. 

When I asked what she was looking for, she answered, "I forgot where I put the bottle of forgetfulness powder."

There has to be some kind of logic in that statement...

I suggested that she not search any longer. Just make more.

I found some of the bottles and set her to work.

She made so many different kinds of powders and potions.  Typical Tessie....She didn't label any of them.  She explained that was her system....

It seems that she doesn't want anyone fiddling with her brews.  She puts each kind in a differently decorated bottle, for which she is the only one that knows the code...Hopefully she will remember.

The bottle making was more complicated than the mixing.  She enlisted my help.  She made 16 and we finished decorating 15 of them.  Each one different.

The first two, she wanted to hang from a chain for some reason.  So we did a wire wrap around the necks.  I started with a couple of pieces of wire.  In this case, they were about 6" long. 

I simply twisted one end into a rope.  Then I pulled both ends around the neck of the bottle, overlapped them on the other side and did it again until there was wire sticking out on both sides.  I then twisted the remaining wire into a rope and did one ending by wrapping the two ends around each other.  The other one, I made two loops at the end like wrapping an I pin.  That one, I will gather together with a jump ring.

Here you see all 16 bottles.  The one with the tree stump is the forgetfulness powder...

Tessie told me this out of desperation...In case she forgets when messing with it.  Dangerous stuff....I'm sure you have already guessed why she needed it......

Here's a close up of some of the finished bottles. 

They were simple to make. 

All I needed was a branch from the rosemary bush in the back yard, 26 gage wire, assorted beads, the bottles some adhesive sticker stuff from the mini show and jewelry glue( Aleene's).

The details are a bit hard to see unless you enlarge the photos.  I just used what I had scattered around.  I can't get to anything much in the workroom, since Tessie's tantrum.

OK.  You already guessed why Tessie needed the forgetfulness powder...Right?

Yup.  Zofi is back in her rightful place and doesn't remember even one second of the past week... I am not even sure that she remembers her name!

You yell "Zofi!" and she just keeps gazing into her crystal ball and nodding her head in rhythm to some far off music in her brain...

Oh well.  She does seem happy to be back where she belongs. 

And Tessie?  She is gearing up for a grand opening soon!  Remind me not to have her read my fortune.  She has a stack of books on the subject about two feet tall and is studying like mad.  Did I mention that she has no idea how to go about reading palms or bumps on heads or tarot cards or....anything else....I think that she just likes grand openings.

I hear the laundry buzzer.. Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Dollar Tree Delight!

When I finished grocery shopping this morning, the Dollar Tree store was just opening.  Let the groceries melt...

A couple of weeks ago, somebody on one of the forums mentioned that the Dollar Tree in their area had some tiny glass bottles full of sparkles and glitter for nail polish.  Eight for a dollar!

I went over there the day after I heard it and nothing.  Not all Dollar Trees get the same merchandise, as I understand it.

Anyway, I decided to take another look.  Jackpot!!! 

See the eight tiny bottles that Tessie is holding?  One Dollar!!!

They are real glass.  The stoppers leave something to be desired, but those can easily be replaced. 

An extra added bonus?  A lot of the contents are usable for minis!  How cool is that?

You may be asking, why the photo of four watches at the top?

I also found a hanging rack of Sunbeam brand batteries.  The watch batteries that I usually pay about $5.00 for three on a card at Walmart/Kmart are the same thing....I got 4 for a dollar!.  I am not sure how long they will last, but I will let you know.  At least all of them are running right now.

OK.  I know you want a report on the booth.  I spent yesterday afternoon making fancy ropes and tassels to match...I think that I may have nearly enough now. 

For some reason the watermelon red rayon photographs as pink.  It's not.  Maybe it's just because I photographed it against the black surface, in the sun.

I think that I am rayon-ed out now. 

You can do the same rope trim with embroidery floss.  All you have to do is tie two colors together at one end.  Then, with the knot in the middle just keep twisting the thread in one direction until it wants to fold back on itself and twist. If you grasp the knot in one hand and the two twisted ends in the other, it will automatically form the ropes that you see in the photo.

If you are going for speed, you can tie one end to one beater of your electric mixer.  Don't put two beaters in.  Hold one end or tie it to a door knob.  With the other end tied to the beater, turn the mixer on LOW!  Almost instant gratification that way. 

I did it by hand yesterday.  I was in the mood.

The piece that Tessie is tangling with is just plain old crochet chain, done with a #0 metal crochet hook.

I am now going to join Tessie in gloating over my find of bottles.  You wouldn't believe the array of things inside.  Some are tiny flat sequins of various shapes.  Others are fine glitter.  Some are itsy bitsy hole less beads.  I have a feeling that some are going to find their way into the fortune telling booth...

See you tomorrow.

Cheap Thrills!

There's one way to make people forget things that you don't want remembered....Give them a large bottle of dis remembering potion and 98 champagne flutes.This is the first of the cheap thrills....I have been waiting for at least a year and a half for Dollar Tree to get the champagne flutes back in stock. They are wedding favors and they consist of two flutes tied together with ribbon. The package is labeled "24 favors", so you are really getting 48 flutes per package. They come in gold and silver in separate packages. I had to get one of each, so that accounts for the 98 glasses.

Even Rocky Raccoon got one. Frisky has one, but I am not at all sure that is wise. He is a mean alligator when he drinks...The second cheap thrill is the typesetter's drawer that Sue gave me. Thanks Sue! Not cheap exactly. It was just that it was free and I finally got around to hanging it this morning. This one is a bit different from all of the other ones that I have. The cubes are all the same size. Now all I have to do is shoo the forgetful drunks away and start filling it.

Of course they have plans of their own for filling it. I heard Zar say, "Hmmmm...This thing would hold a lot of bug beer..."

Thank goodness, Tessie vetoed that idea. She wants it filled with hats, shoes and purses. Typical witchy woman....

I spent the morning in the workroom, tidying up from the holiday mess. I am so thrilled that I didn't have to spend a couple of weeks doing it this year.

My last cheap thrill for the day is something silly. Strange things entertain me....I bought a package of suction cups with little plastic hooks run through the shank, at the same time as the flutes. I am just getting around to opening both.

I had, from I don't know where, one suction cup hanging on the workroom window. It had lost its hook and I replaced it with a fancy Christmas ornament hook in copper. I kind of liked it. It had a beaded needle case hanging on it for the longest time. It looked lonely.This morning I opened the package of lots of suction cups and started wetting them and pushing them against the window. I didn't like the plastic hooks. They were easily removed. I found more of the ornament hangers and put them on. Then I grabbed a bunch of my scissors and hung a pair from each hook.

It almost looks like bubbles are floating up outside the window. I don't know how long they will stay or if I will replace the scissors with something else, but it's a handy dandy place to keep things beside the desk.

As I have said before....Simple things amuse simple people...Case in point? Tessie is having a ball swinging from the scissors and watching the world go by. Too bad I am not small enough to join her. It looks like fun.

See you tomorrow.

Up! Up! And Away!!!

On the way back from feeding cat and chickens this morning I went back to Dollar Tree. I found something just for Zar. I thought that he would enjoy a skate board of his very own....

To my surprise, he immediately took out a screwdriver and unscrewed the wheel sections. Then he fiddled with the underside for a few minutes....Who knew that he was adept at adapting a plain old skate board into a "Back to the Future II" hoverboard in a flash?

He took off and started circling the shower tower. How's this for talent?

Tessie watched for a while and was obviously not impressed by his performance.

She disappeared in the direction of the Witches' Warehouse.

When she came back, she was not walking or running....She was flying! I forgot that she has her very own flying carpet that is parked in the broom parking area of the store. Being part owner has its privileges. It's the deluxe model. Power steering and everything.

Anyway, while they amuse themselves, I will tell you about a couple of things that I put on my list last night. Zar insists that towels are wasteful. He now wants a Steampunk dryer in the shower....Air drying is much more sanitary than old towels. I started working on the pipes for that just now.

He also insists that, since he lives in a climate that is good year round(it's called heating and Air conditioning by the rest of us)he doesn't want a stuffy old door on the shower. A curtain over the door will be more practical. Personally, I think that he is asking for trouble. A little thing called invasion of privacy comes to mind.

I found more walnut and cherry veneer in my stash, so he wants that on the kitchen cabinets....And he wants curves???

Last night, they discovered that something or someone has moved into the hole in the foundation....We can't really see much. It is very shy, but it has glowing golden eyes....

I have decided that, if Zar and Tessie aren't troubled by the glow in the dark thing living under Zar's abode, I am not going to worry about it either.

I do wish that it would come out and show itself though....How am I supposed to know what kind of pet food to buy?

I am going back and work on the auto dryer for the shower tower now...

Maybe by tomorrow the "whatever" will stick it's head out so we can find out what it is.

See you then.

A Family Reunion and Other Fun.....

This week, until next Sunday, I will be going over to April's every morning to feed the cat and chickens. She and Seth went to a family reunion....Neither one of their families. They have a close friend that used to rent the apartment in back of their house. She has now moved back home. She adopted them and they her. Thus, they are part of the family. This is the second one that they have attended. Great fun!

When I got over there yesterday morning, there was a gift awaiting Tessie. She now has a Golden Retriever puppy, thanks to Seth's mom. Thanks Jill!!!

The poor pup had a hole all the way through his middle. He was a zipper pull, with a cord running through the hole.

That was easy to fix. I simply squeezed a bit of silicone sealer into it. When it is dry, I will touch it up with paint. No problem.

Anyway, the point is keep an eye out. Minis are everywhere.

On the way home, I stopped at Dollar Tree and hit the jackpot for the day. They had a box of 1,000 toothpicks(very nicely finished) for a dollar, and bamboo place mats that are also very well sanded and a great size for mini floors. I am going to have to experiment with them a bit. They have a gauze backing on them. I am not sure if it is glued on or just sewn on at the edges. They had three colors of these and some wider slatted ones that were various shades of brown in one mat. I may go back for those later in the week.

I had to laugh. This is Dollar Tree and EVERYTHING in the store is one dollar, right?...Then why do they have a whole new aisle marked Dollar Day Specials...Yes everything there is a dollar too...

I bought a couple of packages of mini plastic containers. I think that they are meant for food, but I do believe that they will come in handy for storing and sending minis. There were a couple of other shapes. As I said, I may just have to go back.

One more thing. On one of the blogs that I follow this site was featured a few days ago. It's called "Japonizer" http://wanokoto.net/japonizes It has a lot of different traditional Japanese paper designs that can be customized with color and size. I think that it could be of use to mini-makers. I fiddled with it a bit and it is just fun to see what you can do with the color and size changes. I didn't try printing any of it yet. I will let you experiment too. Have fun!

Now I guess that I should go fiddle with minis.

See you tomorrow.

"The Quarter Inch Stuff Is MINE!!!"

That was Tessie this morning. She was under the assumption that I was going to do stuff for her today....

It started out bad. I grabbed these little wall hung boxes that I bought at the Dollar Tree last week. I thought that they would make handy little trays for mini carrying if I fixed them up a bit. The one that is behind Tessie is the first type I bought. It has a silly black line drawing in the bottom. I guess that kids were supposed to color them and hang them on the wall.

They are really well built. Mitered corners and brass hangers on the back. I saved those for something else....Maybe hanging a quarter scale cigar box house or something similar.

Anyway, I put a coat of stain on the one that Tessie is standing in. I lined the bottom with a piece of scrapbook paper and put some brass corners on it. They were left over from an old Chinese box that I had....It fell apart, but the fittings didn't.

The two that you see behind her, I bought a few days later. They are just plain boxes and will be easier to convert to another use.


After I finished that project, I sanded and stained the edge of the Victorian table that I am fixing in real life size. I a very pleased with it. I mixed stain that exactly matches the original wood on the table and color wise, you can't tell the difference. I will let it dry another 24 hours and then sand more and put the final finish on it.

Back to minis. I had an idea for a Tudor table for the quarter scale wall house. Four fancy toothpicks, a piece of 1/32"double bead molding, some 1/16 by 1/32" strip wood and a small piece of 1/32" thick bass wood and I had a table.

This is when the trouble started. I put together the base of the table. I set it down to dry and Tessie plopped down on the edge of the box. She took one look at the table base and announced, "Ha! I knew that the Quarter Inch Collection was mine!. You promised to work on my stuff today. Thus, this is MINE!".

I measured the legs(toothpicks) to 5/8" and cut them. The end pieces were 1/2" and the side pieces were 1 1/4". I glued them together and let them dry. Meanwhile I cut a piece of 1/32" stock to 3/4" by 1 1/2". Three by six feet seems like a good size for this kind of table.

I glued the top to the base, let it dry and stained it with Minwax Early American stain.

After it is thoroughly dry, I will spray it with Deft Satin spray.

Tessie is delighted with her new acquisitions. She keeps gushing about how little and cute the table is. I am not going to tell her that it is just on loan until she loses interest...Which she will, shortly.

If my attention span is that of a six year old, hers is approximately that of a two year old.

Back to furniture making. See you tomorrow.

From a Sow's Ear....

OK so it's not exactly a silk purse. Maybe closer to a polyester purse...

This morning I was wandering around town and stopped into our Dollar Tree store. I happened on six pieces of dollhouse furniture on cards. I only bought two and a package of 36 emery boards of various sizes at $1.00.

This is the usual made in China furniture, but it was actually straight for a change. I thought that these two pieces had possibilities. The rest were all different, but nothing that I had any use for.

They don't open, but for my purpose, it doesn't matter. I am planning on using the little table in the front hall of Tessie's townhouse. It really won't be seen except from the side.

The chest is just for speculation. I don't know where I will use it. I figure, if nothing else, I can use it somewhere as a filler piece.

I feel free to use these pieces as fillers in nice rooms when they won't be the focal point. After all, if Eugene Kupjack can do it, so can I. He was the man that built the Thorne rooms for Narcissa Thorne.

When I was working for Pat Arnell, restoring miniature antique houses and rooms, I had the honor of working on one of his rooms. It was a dining room and at one end there were two doors. You could see into them, just barely. They were meant to represent. a hallway. The furniture was something like this....Almost just blocks of wood, representing furniture. The furniture in the dining room itself was incredible.

As I said, if he can do it, so can I!
I thought at first that I might do some carving on the pieces. I sanded down the glossy finish. Then I decided to see how they looked with a coat of charcoal gray paint on them.....Not too shabby.

The shapes are almost classical Shaker.

I went and got my pallet of rub on metallics and used antique gold on the knobs.

I am going to live with them for a few days and see if I still like them....And more importantly, if Tessie likes them.

Meanwhile, I am off to do some planting. I don't think that I told you. I lost most of my succulents and cacti on the back patio when the great winter storm of 2011 came through.

This morning I went out and started replacing some of the ones that I lost. I couldn't replace some of the larger ones that were upwards of 20 years old without spending big bucks, so here we go again.

I had one like the tall euphorbia on the left that was almost as tall as I am....OK so that's not saying much, but I raised him from a little guy like this. I also lost a jade plant that was about 2 cubic feet square.

It may take a while for these to reach the size of the originals. I can wait. It's fun watching them grow.

I am going to go pot them now, with Tessie's help.....?

See you tomorrow.