To the Wise, from the Un-Wise

It's best not to get your nose too close to your work. Especially when you are working with Instant Krazy Glue.

No, I didn't get my nose stuck, but I DO need some fresh air! LOL

Before I go. Do you think I should add some window boxes? There won't be much landscaping because I'm going to put the house on a coffee table inside the beach house.

I did find some suitable "grass" at Michaels. It is one of their new felt pieces.


The door mat is a tiny piece of cork. I wrote "Welcome" as small as I could.
Really.

I'm going to step outside for a bit before I start howling at the moon or something. Things are already starting to look blurry.

Have a good night! Don't let the goblins bite!

Shelly's Dollhouse

Little Shelly has been watching me build her dollhouse. She can't wait until it's finished and neither can I!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Manatees

Margaret asked me what the animals were that are in my blog header photo. They are manatees. I took the photo at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Florida. Some of the manatees stay there year round. Others come in when the ocean waters get cold. The water in the St.John's River at Blue Springs is 72 degrees year round.

Photo from Wikipedia

These gentle creatures are endangered because of their habitat and the fact that boaters speed through the areas where the manatees live. Many are chopped by boat propellers and some are killed. The manatee areas in Florida have speed restrictions for boaters. If only they would slow down. If you would like more information about saving the manatees, click here.

I loved visiting this park when I lived in Florida. We would take a picnic lunch and sometimes rent a canoe.

Photo from Blue Springs State Park website

I have lots of hilarious memories about canoeing. Like the time where we got our canoe stuck under some brush. It was covered with spider webs AND spiders! Makes me shiver to think about that! Thankfully, the water was shallow enough for me to jump out of the canoe fast!!!

This park shows you a part of Florida that you may not have known about. I get homesick just thinking about it and the beaches, of course.

New Front Door

Casey sent me some flower making supplies a while ago. She included a little bag marked "leftovers."


I used some of the flowers to make a tiny wreath for the new front door of my little house.


I've been handling this house so much that it's starting to fall apart! Nothing a little glue can't fix, I hope.

I can't wait to start doing some landscaping. I'm sure I'll use more of Casey's leftovers there. :D

I took today off since my boss is out of town. Three day weekend! Yea! I'm going to go to Michael's later to get what I need to make my Christmas ornament for Marsha's exchange. I hope I can find some ground foam or something suitable for grass too.

Hope you have a good day!

Here's the Fun Part

I haven't been posting much this week but I have been working on my teeny tiny house. I made everything you see inside. :D

The lights are installed and the furniture is in place. I still need to figure out what to do with those wires? I have some ideas and I hope one of them works.

Here's the downstairs interior wall. I found a photo of a clock online. Then I copied it to my word documents and shrunk it down to 1/2" by 1/4." I was surprised how cute it turned out.

The camera shows me some things I need to fix. Like the miter on the door above. The clock is really too BIG but I think I'll leave well enough alone. When you are working with this tiny scale it's hard to see the details with your eyes alone!

Gift From Sherry and a Busy Day

I joined Marsha's Christmas Ornament Swap and Sherry @ Blessings From Our Nest is my partner. I had not met Sherry before so I stopped by her blog. She was having a give-a-way! Guess who won?!!! ME! :D

Sherry made this beautiful tote bag just for me. I love the fabrics and it is just the right size too. Even the pretty card she sent matches the bag. :D Thank you so much Sherry! I love it!

I'm still planning my Christmas ornament for Marsha's exchange. I'd better hurry. I've only got one week to get it in the mail!

Speaking of hurrying. I was in a big hurry today to start sawing away at my house. I went outside to sweep off the deck so I could set up my sawhorses and get the tools out. Well, one thing led to another. I swept off the deck, then I pulled some weeds, raked some leaves and trimmed the roses. It's so beautiful outside here today! I really didn't want to come back inside. :D

I don't know if I'll get back to work on the house today? I want to watch the Cincinnati Bengals beat Atlanta. Things aren't going well right now! My daughter and son-in-law are at the game. I'm hoping to see them on TV?! Then I need to go over to their house and let their dogs outside for a while...

Plus, I don't want to miss Nikki's sale on Etsy! There is a little pumpkin pot over there that has MY name on it! :D

I did rewire the teeny tiny house this morning. Sherry at Evan's Designs sent me replacements plus extra lights and shrink tubing! No charge! I'm trying to figure out how to hide the wires now. More thinking. No doing.

I slept ALL day yesterday and today is so busy! Maybe soon I'll have something to show you?

Gifts From Casey!

I received not one, but two gift packages from Casey! The first one is a mini traveling kit. It is a little divided box packed with everything I might need to make minis anywhere! :D

There is a pair of scissors, some glue, a ruler, X-ACTO blades, lace, ribbon, a wooden pot with a lid, a little barrel, some pretty fabric and stuffing. Then Casey added some surprises too! A beautiful shopping bag with the prettiest pair of blue sandals and a gorgeous purse in my favorite color!
Casey also sent me one of her little woven baskets! I love Casey's baskets! :D


If all of this wasn't enough, today I received more gifts! Another teeny tiny house! It is only 3 inches tall and 2 1/2 inches wide! Casey included some beautiful wallpaper in 1:144 scale so I can decorate this house myself. There are rugs too. The little plastic bag you see has windows and doors and even a toilet and tub! They are so small I couldn't even get a photo of them. SO cute!

I don't know where Casey found the little lemons and apples and oranges? Do you think she has been crawling around on the floor at WalMart too? LOL There are some little lavender flower stems too. I'm sure I'll use them in my tiny landscaping!

Thank you so much Casey! I really appreciate all of the thought you put into these gifts. You are so kind and so generous! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Treasures

I made this cross stitch for my mother many years ago. All of the shells you see were collected on Sanibel Island Florida. After I had finished the stitching, we worked together to cut the mat, arrange the shells and frame it. As you can see, my mother liked tiny things too. :D

I've had this hanging in my bathroom and it shows signs of moisture damage. I really don't want to take it apart to fix the wrinkles in the fabric so I'll just leave it as it is. Wrinkles are just a part of the aging process, right?

I really miss my mother and every time I look at this I think of her. She would love to see what I've been doing with miniatures. Sometimes I feel her looking over my shoulder and see her smiling.

My mother was so creative! One of these days I'll show you some of the beautiful shell art and paintings that she did. They are real treasures to me.

Do you have someone in your life who inspires you? I'm sure you do.

Found On The Floor

I went to WalMart this weekend to get one of those wooden fans that Casey is using for her Russian Cottage. As I was walking to the register, I looked down on the floor and saw these!


They were clearing out their fall decorations, wreaths and such. These tiny balls must have fallen off some of the wreaths. I thought they looked like little pumpkins so I picked some up.

I don't know if anyone saw me crawling around on the floor and I don't care. Maybe you will see me on the WalMart shoppers website! LOL

You never know where you might find minis!

Do Overs and Leftovers

This is my desktop right now. I made a new roof for my little house because the first one didn't have the same number of rows of shingles on each side. They weren't lined up quite straight either.


I also had to make new flooring for the upstairs bathroom and bedroom. The plan for the middle floor has changed (again). The lampshade I made looked too big, so I'm going to do that over too. The next one will be 1/2" x 1/4" tall. I'll do that when I have more patience!


See that little black tube thingy taped to the paper at the bottom of this photo? That's all I can find of the shrink tubing I got with my light kit. I have no idea where the rest of it is?

Sherry at Evans Designs is going to send me more tubing and also replace the two lights that I broke. Free of charge! She told me that I hadn't needed to buy more lights. They are all 100% guaranteed! Great customer service!

Right now I'm feeling very frustrated with this little house. I'm tired of working on it, tired of thinking about it and just plain tired!

Do you ever get so aggravated with something that you're ready to toss it in the trash?! Don't worry. I won't do that. I've spent a month of Sundays working on this and I'm not about to give up now!

Maybe my leftover Olive Garden dinner will help me feel better? Sometimes I get so engrossed in my mini making that I forget to eat! Looks good, doesn't it? :D


I just noticed that my computer mouse needs a good cleaning again. Even that is starting to bug me! Wonder if there's anything good on TV tonight?

I need a hug,
Kathi

"No Giving Up"

This is what Brae at Otterine said about the lights in my teeny tiny house. "No giving up. It's not allowed!"

I'm not so sure about that after fiddling with this all morning. What a mess!
I did get both lights working again. I just can't seem to get the floor "sandwich" to go together right.

I would like to make a ceiling light for the kitchen (left downstairs) but I need to keep the LED flat so I may just use a medallion there. I hammered a little silver jewelry finding flat and that might work?

The house will sit on a 5 x 6 inch photo frame so I can do some landscaping around it. I may need to do that before I place the house on the board. So many things to think about! I'm getting tired of all of this thinking!!!


Here is the battery and switch underneath the house. If I put them here they won't be seen and I can replace the battery and work on the lights later if I need to do that.


I'm NOT going to give up but I AM going to go do something else for a while!

It's a beautiful sunny day here! I may take the "modern house" outside for some TLC and fresh air later? Right now I need a nap! LOL

Hope YOU have a beautiful day!



Thoughts after the nap: I'm going get a 3 x 5 inch frame so I won't need to do so much landscaping. Also, I'm going to try to make the middle floor from wood instead of card stock. I can always add some trim on the edge to hide the wiring.

I Am NOT An Architect

I've been doing some "architectural" drawings this morning. I thought it would be a good idea to do this BEFORE I start sawing away at the house! They are not to scale just yet.


I like the larger windows on the first and second floor. They would go around the sides of the house too. Some square wooden dowels would add some dimension to the exterior. The patio and garden areas would be covered and extend out on the front.

I used my favorite tool, my eraser, and did this second drawing. I may like this one better?


These are some ideas I found while Googling. Too many ideas!


















While I was at Home Depot the other day I found this copper switch plate cover that can be cut to size. I didn't buy one, but I thought it would be nice to use somewhere on the house?
Here I am thinking about finishes and paint. Guess I should settle on the design first!

Nugget woke me up at 3:30 this morning to go outside. I think I'm going to be very very tired by 3 o'clock this afternoon! He will probably sleep the entire day!

Do NOT, I repeat! Do NOT enter Casey's 500+ followers give-a-way! I want to WIN! :D

Hope you have a good day!

A Modern House

Well, would you just look at this!

A Modern House in Montauk: 57 Startop Drive | materialicious

Be sure and click on the slide show. Amazing!

Lunch is over, back to work for me.

New Roof and Trim Ideas

I ripped the roof off the house this morning so I could put the new one on. There was some bloodshed but nothing serious. This house just didn't want to give up!

Home Depot cut a piece of lauan plywood for me for the new roof. I also had them cut a small piece of 3/4" plywood to raise the conservatory a bit. Then I found some clear plexiglass that I'll use for another part of the roof.

I also got some stain and paint sample cards. This weekend I will give the house some love and sand/prime it. Then maybe I'll be able to decide what color it will be?



I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the windows. I'd like them to match the conservatory. Before I go cutting more holes in the house I need to decide how large to make them and how to add some trim. Right now they are one inch taller than the ones in the conservatory.

This is all I had time for right now. Things usually have to get worse before they get better!

I need to go buy some bandaids too! Can you believe a nurse couldn't find ONE bandaid in her house this morning?!

Hope you have a good day!

Lamp Works

I've been working on the wiring for my tiny house. I got the lamp to work in the bedroom but the ceiling light in the kitchen went out.

If I hadn't decided to put lights in this little place I would be finished by now!

Hope you have a lovely day,

Moving To Miami?

I've been looking at my hurricane house all day. It's starting to speak to me again after what I've done to it.

I'm thinking maybe this house wants to move to Miami? Not to the crazy Art Deco District, but in a quieter area, still close to the beach. You know I can't be too far from the beach!

Maybe it is the front door that's doing the talking? If you really stretch your imagination can you see a little art deco there? A little Miami modern?


I think the color may be giving me some hints too. I do like the pink and I have all of these flamingos, you know. They really need somewhere to live!

I'm still planning to use the conservatory on the roof. I think if I raise it on a 3/4" board it will look more in proportion. Then I could even add a swimming pool up there too! An infinity pool would be awesome!



Most dollhouses come with plans and instructions. This one doesn't. I'll just have to keep listening and I'm sure it will tell me what to do. Thanks for listening to me dream. :D

Just Propped Up

What you see here are parts of my conservatory kit propped up on the roof of my bashed house. I never got around to building the conservatory and now I'm glad. It may just make a nice third floor addition to this house?


I was surprised the the dimensions of the conservatory are the same as the house except for the ceiling height. I'll need to do something about that. Some trim should take care of the difference on the exterior.

I'm also thinking that I'd like to expand the windows of the house so that they go around the corners. Like this beautiful house designed by Robin Chell Designs.


It was a bold move for me to tear this house apart. I hope you don't hate me for doing it? If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them! :D

I'll be working on my little cottage again today and let the modern house rest for a while.

What projects are you working on today?