Finished Kitchen

I took some photos of the kitchen this morning for Lundy at Villa Lagoon Tile. The flooring I made was from their website, used with permission. I love this tile! It was the inspiration for the entire room. :D

Thanks again Lundy for allowing me to use your beautiful tile in my dollhouse!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

3 O'Clock In The Morning

What do you do when you can't sleep? Do you have a cup of coffee and read the paper? I decided to get up and make flowers.

I'm going to need LOTS of flowers for my next project. I've never made a calla lily before but thought I would give it a try. I used Lesley Shepherd's tutorial and some of my own techniques.


I see room for improvement but it looks cute in the kitchen. :D

I was going to buy a real calla lily plant yesterday. When I got to the checkout the price was $9.99! Two fading flowers and yellowing leaves. No, thank you. I'll make my own! LOL



It's really too early to take good photos. Thanks for following along while I've been working on my kitchen. I still have some books to make and a clock. I'm waiting on a new white microwave and some dishes too.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Decisive Moments

Photo from Trek Earth by Peter Stolonov

I now have three ideas for my Creatin' Contest Kit. One is light. One is dark. The third is a combination of both light and dark.

People I've talked with don't like my "dark" idea. They frown and say things like, "Mom, that's spooky!" "Who would want a house like that?"

When we discuss my "light" idea, comments are more positive. "Oh, that would be pretty!" "Do that!"

The light AND dark plan gets puzzled looks and remarks like, "That's just too weird."

It's decision time. LIGHT it is! This photo from Sunstream.com is a hint of things to come.

Of course this means a whole new set of ideas and things to do. I plan to make a design board to get my thoughts together. More on that later.

The beach house kitchen is finished! I will show you photos after the sun comes up! :D

The Adelaide Beachy

I named my first dollhouse "The Adelaide Beachy." It is a beach house and my dear Aunt Adelaide Beachy was a wonderful part of my life when I was growing up.

I found this site on Ebay that will make any sign you wish for your dollhouse! Here is the one I just received. I love it!


I haven't seen the front of this house for ages. I still have a lot of outside work to do!

I am making some progress in the kitchen. I finished the stove and other furniture. Now I'm adding the accessories. This is the fun, but tedious part. At least there is food in the fridge now!


It looks like I will be climbing over things here for a while. It is going take me more that ONE weekend to finish this kitchen!

Hope you have a nice day!

Weekend Project

It's time to put other ideas aside and finish the kitchen!


What will you be doing this weekend? :D

Architecture

My head is spinning after finding this blog this morning!

Patrick Weber's blog is for first year students at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.

Photo link

This blog is amazing. Full of photos, ideas and designs. I could spend an entire day there!

Patrick also shares many links to other design blogs. I haven't time this morning to visit them but I'm sure I will go back!

I hope you enjoy!

More Shopping...

Look what I found. White wood strip that is 3/8 inch wide and 88.5 feet long. I'm thinking, a floor perhaps?


I also have plans for these pretty little babies...



They were all on sale at SaveOnCrafts. It is a great online store for all kinds of craft supplies. If you go there, I'm sure you will find something unique and possibly useful for minis.

You will just have to stay tuned (probably for a long time) to see what I'm going to do with these things.

For now, I'm back to playing with knives. I AM going to finish the kitchen too! Really!

Playing With Knives and Scissors

I've been playing with my new X-Acto swivel knife. I love it!

Here is what I've done so far. It's kind of like making a paper snowflake, only harder. It took me about two hours to do this much!

I'm not finished yet, but I wanted to see how the design might look with light behind it?


I like it. Now I just need to make another one. . .

This is going to take a while!

New Toys

I went to WalMart yesterday to get cat food and toilet paper. You know, the essentials. Of course I had to walk past the scrapbooking and craft area to get what I needed ...

I found this swivel Exacto knife and a template I thought was interesting. I may use them for my Creatin' Contest kit after I saw this inspiring building.

I got the template below at Office Depot a while ago. I had never seen these before. This one is for home furnishings in 1/4 inch = 1 inch scale. How cool is that!?



These will make it much easier to build furniture for my 1/4 scale Mission house. Another future project.

The kitchen got painted yesterday but that is all I had time to do. I was looking at some purchased furniture I have and noticed that the knobs are very tiny. Now mine look too big. Why didn't someone tell me!? LOL

Anyway, I bought some really little beads that might look better? We'll see...

I did remember to get the things I went to the store to get. Sometimes I get distracted and walk out without them!

Hope you have a nice day!

Will It Ever Be Finished?

I took everything out of the kitchen yesterday. There is still a lot of work to do!

I finished the floor, filled in some gaps around the moldings and washed the window. I was going to just touch up the paint on the walls...


Then I realized that the paint color I had mixed a long time ago was all dried up. That's what happens when you start a project and don't finish it for a year or so! LOL

Now I have to repaint the entire room. I'm going to add some "wallpaper" to the ceiling too.

I'm making progress, but am wondering if my little kitchen will ever be finished?!

Gifts from Jennifer and Troy!

I received some wonderful gifts in the mail yesterday! Jennifer sent me all of these pretty things in my favorite color. She included a bag of homegrown lavender too! It smells so nice! Thank you so much Jennifer!



Troy sent me some nice surprises too! I love the "reversible" magazines. What a great idea!



The card Troy sent is a photo of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural drawings. It is so inspiring that I spent several hours yesterday reading about architecture and learning how these drawings are made. Fascinating!



Sadly, the elephant who delivered Troy's gifts stomped on the magazine rack. All of the pieces are here. I just need to try to glue them back together...

I love presents and I love sweet surprises like these!

Thank you SO much Troy and Jennifer! I love my gifts. They made me smile on an otherwise gloomy, rainy day!

Etsy!

Look what I just found at WoodCellar on Etsy! The perfect rubber stamp for my project! :D


It is just the right size too. I love it!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Playing With Pen and Pastels

This is my first attempt at drawing a weeping willow tree. I shaded in the background with pastels. I know I need art classes! LOL

This took me about 25 minutes to do. Perhaps if I keep trying, I'll get something that actually LOOKS like a willow tree?

I know I said I wasn't going to shop anymore... but then I saw the beautiful fabrics that Casey got today!

I went to EQuilter.com and picked out some possible fabrics. Hope this link works so you can see them? I didn't buy anything. Just looking. Really!

Ebay Finds

Here are four items I "won" on Ebay this week.
Love the powder room set. :D
All four for $29.

I'm going to stop shopping now.

Hope you have a nice evening. Sweet dreams!

Playing With Plastic

Chinet Cup

It cracked when baked. I used permanent markers to doodle a quick, and sloppy (!) design. I'm really not good at doodling!

Later I will be visiting the Dollar Store or grocery store to find plastic that might work better.

If I didn't have to go back to work right now I could continue to play! I want to try using a rubber stamp for the design too. I like the ones where they use embossing powder.

Have a great day! See you soon!

Hmmmm.... I wonder if I could do this?




Guess it wouldn't hurt to try?

Deborah just commented on my last post with another great idea. She suggested using a rubber stamp and shrink plastic. Like this -



Another new thing to try! Thanks Deborah!

I love learning new things. :D

Glass Staircase

Now THIS is gorgeous!


Photo found at www.bodew.com/. If you like modern design go visit this site!

I'm just wishing, and hoping and planning and dreaming...

Hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day!

Buried Treasures?

I've been looking around for things to use in my next project.










These are two little boxes I saw on Ebay. I bid on both of them. Not sure if I'll win or what I will do with them if I do? I just think they are unique and pretty in their own way...

They are antique jewelry boxes that were made to place inside a casket to hold jewelry or other sentimental valuables. These boxes must be collectables. There is a book about them called The Jewel Box Book. I may check it out at the library to learn more?

These little boxes can be quite expensive! My budget is very limited. I saw hundreds of them for sale. I never knew that people used boxes like these to put inside the casket of their loved ones. The box below is for sale on Etsy.


I don't know about you, but I love little trinket boxes. I have a couple of them on my dresser but none like these. I have a wooden one, one made of porcelain and one made of crystal. I keep pennies, saftey pins and marbles in them. Mine probably came from a Dollar Store!

Have you seen anything like these antique casket jewelry boxes before? I didn't even know they exsisted. Not sure why someone would want to bury their treasures? I like to find them!

Sunday Picnic Anyone?

It's 33 degrees here in Birmingham today. "Feels like 27" according to the weatherman. Brrrrr...



The sun is always shining at the beach and I'm sure it's a LOT warmer there! Let's have a picnic!



Hope you have beautiful day!