Been busy lately...

Completed the roof on my dollhouse, but did not need to buy the copper flashing.  There were only tiny gaps between some of the shingles, and I took care of those with some shingle stain and a tiny paintbrush, voila! invisible....

Now I'm working on finishing some cupboards for the kitchen.  I bought some miniature hutches from Michael's, broke them in half (carefully!) so that the hutch became two separate pieces:  a cupboard and a chest.  I painted two of the cupboards to match my yellow kitchen cabinets, and will either be whitewashing or very lightly staining them.  I am really pleased so far...  The rest of the pieces I will be either staining or painting, depending upon the room.  Soooooo amazed that I can have affordable (cheap, really) furniture for my dollhouse!

Speaking of cheap...  I bought this bathroom set from  Miniatures.com.  I thought it was such a great price, plus all white, which I needed...  Bad idea.  Had the package open 5 minutes when I broke off one of the handles on the bathtub, plus the morror arrived broken.  This item was such a disappointment, but at least it was cheap.  Maybe I'll upgrade later when my dollhouse is more complete...  Oh well, this was the first time I've ever been unhappy with something I've bought from them, so I will definitely remain a repeat customer!!! ;)  One thing is for sure: this hobby can be dangerously expensive!

Took a break from all crafting yesterday and spent the day with family.  We had a spontaneous and fun day of shopping, movie watching and dining!  I love going to the bookstore, and Books a Million is the only place I can find Miniature Collector magazine, so I was all too happy to go there.  I was a bad girl, though.  I also bought two Jane Austens and one fun vampire novel!  Talk about varied taste in reading matereial, lololol!  Anyway, I think Northanger Abbey is calling my name as I type this, so see ya later, chickies!!!

Kiddo had his surgery yesterday and is doing fine!  In fact, he commented that he can now eat and breathe at the same time, woot!!!  He is asleep right now, breathing through his nose.  This is such a dramatic difference, and so soon - he is still swollen.!  Hooray, Kiddo!!!

Shingles going up today, yaaaay!!!  I need to go to my local home store first, though.  I need a weensy bit of copper flashing for the corners where the gable meets the roof...  Well, I don't NEED per se, but it would be a nice touch in case I do a poor job of shingling and have some show through underneath, which will probably happen...  Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, decided I can't keep my hands out of the clay after all.  Thanks to Donna's tutorial challenges, I have been motivated to learn to make some fruit and vegetable canes.  Thanks, Donna!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My 9 year old son is having sinus surgery tomorrow.  I didn't think I was worried, but when I caught myself bouncing from one thing to another, I figured it was stress...  Don't get me wrong, I am so very glad he is having this procedure - the ENT surgeon is confident that this will significantly reduce his chronic sinus infections and ease his breathing difficulties, but I've heard it through the grapevine that this will be very painful.  sigh.....

Update on my dollhouse:  Had a roof raising the other day, and stained shingles tonight.  Kiddo even helped me separate and place each one onto cardboard so that they won't stick together - and hopefully will dry much faster.  Now, I need to find some wallpapering tutorials.  I ordered my electrical kit from Hobby Lobby.  Occaisionally they have 40% off coupons, so I saved $20!  YAAY, can't wait till it comes!  Has onyone else used this kit?  Is there anything else I may need (or want) to get before beginning?  Any sage advice from someone more experienced?

I need to order two interior doors and the moulding kit for my house from Real Good Toys.  That can wait, though, till the papering is done....  I admit, I am really nervous about the interior finishing.  Having never done this in ANY scale, and being the perfectionist that I am, I feel a little stress thinking about all of it.  Oh well, maybe Donna will come up with some fantastic tutorials to help me along!

Two other interesting bits...  From RGT, I ordered this 1989 Simplicity pattern .  Yessss, I know it is somewhat of a collector's item, but I plan on using it!  I want to make my own curtains and comforter, and this pattern should help, if not at least give me a starting point...  The other thing I did was make some groovy, 70ish looking placemats using my Mom's Cricut.  I cut out two different sizes of rounded-corner rectangles in complementary colors, stuck 'em together, then fed them through my laminator - voila!  Plastic place mats!  Easy-peasy, and believe me, I am keeping my eyes open for more miniature ideas using her Cricut!

Ah well, have to get Kiddo into the bath, then bed for us both....  He is going to be one cranky kiddo in the morning when he can have NO food or drink...!

An idea came to me that has probably come to many other dollhouse builders:  save money by using high quality scrapbook paper in place of expensive dollhouse wallpaper.....  Soooo, I went to my local hobby store, the one that DOES NOT carry dollhouse supplies :(, and scoured the scrapbook paper section for some possible contenders for wallpaper.  I scored three prints and one solid!  Then, I added to that idea when I bought a box of photo mounting squares (for non-scrappers, these are double-sided adhesive squares that are really, really sticky).  I started working on the gable, so I traced out a pattern for my solid paper using computer paper, cut out the 'good' paper, and mounted it with the squares.  It looks good!!!  Hooray, no messy glue.  I was also reluctant to use paste because some of the scrapbook paper is a little thinner than wallpaper, so I was worried about bleed-thru, seeing electrical components underneath, plus these seem easier to use.  The inner gable looks nice, but I still have to try this on the rest of the house.  One big thing occurred to me;  I need to be sure to use extra mounting squares underneath places I am likely to hang pictures.  I am sure the adhesive will hold, but not sure that the paper would hold by itself...

Now, having said that, has anyone else tried this?  I need advice!

A quick tip for making vases.  Take the tall, straight plastic tops from nasal spray and fill them with paint. Pour the paint out, back into the bottle. Let dry, then to make the interior of the vase scratch-proof, fill with a strong clear coat, pour it out, let dry again. Voila! A flower vase! Now, to make one look like swirly glass, fill and empty the top with your main paint color. Next, take a small, soft (!) paintbrush and load it up with a contrasting color. Insert and twirl it around, making a pleasing swirly design show from the outside! Let dry, seal with clear coat as above, and fill with flowers. Because these are not transparent, you can fix the arrangement by filling the vase part way with any type of clay, then inserting the stems- they will stay put very nicely!