I have my very own little work space and I couldn’t be happier about that. There’s tons of storage (I even took over the old film refrigerator) and all my fabric, yarn, buttons, feathers, beads, spangles and whatnot is there and available. Today Rose helped me tweak my sewing machine and it seems to be working just fine, contrary to what I’d thought for a long time.
The small table in the centre has a pile of old purses/bags I’ve made over the years, with the very festive Santa beard purse on top. I was going to take pictures of them but didn’t bother.
The dollhouses. There’s also a small mountain of almost finished acorns. I’m on the lookout for small threaded eye hooks-I think-to screw into the top of the acorn cap and then they can be hung on necklaces.
I really do need to start working on those houses, I know.
If the word on the street is that I am a total pack rat, word has it right. I really am. And the last year and a half I’ve been living without my stuff, my glorious, wonderful, life affirming stuff. Now we have room and I have all my stuff back and the joy I’ve experienced over the last couple days, opening boxes, finding treasures, it’s been tremendous.
Here’s a little something:
Little, eh? They are teeny tiny (see? goes with my love of all things wee) buttons and zippers, destined for hand made Barbie clothes. I don’t know when they were made, but they look old to me, like, real old. The buttons themselves are so small, miniscule, maybe the size of a Barbie’s eyes. A while ago I’d been looking for them for some crafty purpose and now I can’t remember what, but I’m glad I have them. Super glad!
Gillian had posted an Etsy link in a comments thing about dollhouse miniature food and it’s so cute, I love it. Not that I have $35 for a teeny tiny cutting board with sandwich fixings on it-I wish. Anyway, I thought I’d post the miniature things I’ve been working on.
Um. I made warm hats for my 2 babies. It even seems funny to me, but it’s just something to do when I’m relaxing at night, watching tv. I can crochet at the same time!
I also made one a diaper. It was going to be pants, but it’s body is shaped strangely and hard to work around. Below them is the new bathmat. It needs to be blocked so it will lay flat. Those hats look so ridiculously funny to me. Even Shannon agreed that they were cute.
Ok, but in the real world: we went to the new space and put up all those stickers in Ari’s new room. I have to say they look amazing. Again, thank goodness she got these as a gift, otherwise I doubt we’d have done much at all. I still need to hang the paper sun above everything, then the decorating here will be done.
Shannon had other work to do so I stuck around and cleaned up, vaccuuming (my worst chore in the world), organizing, tidying in general. I dragged furniture from point a to point b. I even created a little reading nook for little people to snug up on and read to themselves.
I also moved a counter top to where it belongs (that was easy, it’s on casters) and hung some storage things we brought from here. And I hung some paintings from the upper rail, just to see what it would look like and I think it looks great.
I swept and put the red rug from here under the coffee table. Then I met 2 of our new neighbours who signed me up to be on the tenant’s association. It’s funny that despite the fact we haven’t even moved in yet, it already seems like home to me. I guess I mean it’s a step in the direction that I feel I’ve been steering towards for a long, long time.
Because I don’t really want to start major renovations on my dollhouse before we move to the big space, I’ve been making little things just to feel like I am making progress. I had a few balls of self-striping sock yarn laying around and I’ve started making them into afghans for the dollhouse.
It’s hard to guess the correct size, but with afghans, I think it doesn’t matter too much. I’ve also been considering making tiny sweaters.
I’ve also been occupying my commute time by making more acorns. When I got home last night I figured, oh, there’s probably 6, maybe 8. No. There were19. So, maybe I ought to start thinking about what I am going to do with them.
I made some design decisions last night after perusing one of my favourite blogs*. One of the cheaper listings was so cute and so perfect, I will be decorating my dollhouse in a similar fashion. I like the simplicity of it all-it makes it so tidy and clean looking. I started working it out on paper last night, just to see how it would look:
That’s the second floor. There’s a window there now, but I think I will try to convert it to a door, filling in the old window with masonite and cutting a new door. Because I don’t have a proper Lundby door to replace it with, I have to get creative and I am thinking of doing a sliding ‘glass’ door. You know that corrugated plastic stuff? Use that for the door and make wood sliders to run it across. I think it should work and look cool. I will also be building a wooden ladder (painted black) for people to use to access the rooftop. This door leads to the kitchen. I know, most houses have kitchen and living room on the main floor and bedrooms upstairs, but this is not a traditional house by any means.
All walls will be painted with white primer that has sand in it for texture and the plastic edging will be painted black. Or maybe just covered in electrical tape.
This is the main floor. I think I might do a little trompe l’oeil and paint (or something) a door on the side of the house where the car port is. Car port! Ha, I know. It just seemed to me that if I was going to make the garage into the artist’s studio, and there was the over hang which I may add pillers to, but maybe not.
The whole thing will be put upon a wood canvas (like Shannon paints) with grass and a driveway and so on. I may skip the side door, however, and build a removable front also out of masonite.
I went to Dollarama today to pick up reno supplies. I spent $25 there, which is a LOT of stuff. Other than glue, sand paper, double side tape and that sort of stuff, the best score was 2 bamboo placemats. I removed their edging and trimmed them to fit and now I have a wood deck on the roof (and smaller patio) of my studio house!
As you can see, I also amused myself by crocheting shrubbery. Only about another 70 to go. I was also thinking about embroidering fabric to look like the garden, but I don’t know if I am that talented. Maybe I could just crochet that too. The babies are a little too big for the scale of the house, but the 2 cone trees look kind of cool to me.
I’ve also decorated (temporarily) the living room. I used Christmas wrapping paper on the walls and construction paper on the ceiling. I made a blind by folding paper and using a needle and thread to hold it in place. The paintings might look familiar-photos of the originals trimmed down. The “rug” is more paper. I’ve also been working on a beaded curtain, but I think that might be for the downstairs bathroom (the middle small room).
Again, to be clear, this is temporary. I will be painting the whole thing white, including the floor, and refinishing the whole shebang.
ps. Lots of dollhouse entries, I know. I will go back to thinking about other stuff soon enough.
Close ups
Roof:
Upstairs:
Family room:
Kitchen:
It looks like some helpful child tried to draw a rug upstairs. The good news is that it’s easy to find paper flooring for dollhouses. There’s a dollhouse store near work that I plan on visiting soon. Alternately I can just print out patterns here. Haven’t decided yet!
We went and picked it up this morning and I could not be happier. Well, ok, I could be happier, but I am super happy. I think I paid exactly the right amount for what I got.
Part 1:
As you can see there’s extensive water damage on the lower level. Or is it water? When I was trying to wash it there was a distinct smell of…pee. Hmm. There is also pen scribbling on the floors and roof. I hate that, why do kids want to wreck their toys? While I admit that I wrecked a bunch of my sister’s clothes when I was a teenager, I never, EVER wrote on my toys.
Part 2:
These are the 2 lower levels for the dollhouse I grew up playing with. My plan is to make them into a studio type space, complete with rooftop patio and garden. I originally thought I would just have them side by side, or maybe in an L shape configuration but now I think I like them layered, off set slightly. These are in better condition than the main house but are still quite damaged by water and previous renovations. There was paper on the lower half of the upper walls which I immediately removed. The roof will be covered in astroturf and gritty sand paper.
So, what needs to be done? I really almost don’t even know where to begin. I’m going to stop by the dollar store on my way home for sand paper, glue, low tack painter’s tape, balsa wood… The studio space will be designed for a young couple, maybe planning their first baby. Maybe they have a nice dog and are artists. The main house is for a family. A couple kids, pets. I have to think about their stories.
Good thing I am practically not working anymore. Lots of time to really put some effort into this project.
