Catching Up

I haven't done much miniature work for the past few days, so when I took a look at my dollhouse - it was a mess!

George's room was especially messy - I hadn't done much work there for a few weeks, so I figured, there's no better time then the present!

So I emptied it, and decided to get right down to business. The first step, of course, was to fix the stained glass in the window.

Here it is from quite a few posts ago. As you can see, I left the stained glass messy and unfinished - an error I needed to fix right away! The first thing I did were quite a few experiments - I wanted to make a window valance. My only problem was that I didn't know how, so it became a little bit messy.

I picked a pretty fabric that I assumed would match with the blue-green color scheme of the room.

All of those images you see are a quick succession of making the window valence (or, what was supposed to be the window valance.

When I was about halfway done, I taped it up to the window to get the general effect, and I didn't like it at all. Back to the square one!

I decided to go back to my original idea - bamboo window blinds. Above where the two choices I had: plain blinds, and a sort of green-distressed blind. I chose the plain blinds, and we were off again!

I held it up and liked it, but you didn't get the effect I wanted - that is, it was a bit unhospitable, and it covered up to much of the window to see out of, and after all, I just needed enough for it to cover up the stained glass window. I thought that it was a bit unnecessarily long.

So I cut it in half. It looked swell, but I disliked the long white string that was danling from it - it was needed to pull the blinds up (if they worked), but I thought it needed to be attached to something, so I made a tiny piece of fake tape.

You can see the fake tape in the photo above - I made it stick using my sticker machine from Paper Source.

With that sorted, I took that oppurtunity to photograph the little outlet I had promised to show a photo of. There are actually two in the room.

And with a penny for scale.

Then I positioned two rugs on the floor and liked the effect. I especially like the green colors - they are both fabric samples.

There is also a little hole in the wall to thread any wires through when I add the electric lights.

Luckily, even with the blinds up, you can still see light shining through the stained glass windows.

I added a bit of knick-knacks on the shelves. I still need some toys for the top shelf.

The entire room - you can see that on the middle shelf I added some kind of horn - apparently George plays an instrument!

I made some little pencils and stuck them in a little jar with a label - there is an eraser next to them.

With sun streaming through the windows, it makes George's room look very cosy! All I need to do now are fill up the top shelf and reattach the airplane that felt down! See you next week! Signing off with a old fashioned-looking photo of George's fireplace - I think it looks very 1930s!

Bits of This and That

I haven't much to show in the way of progress, but I do have some things to show you, such as George's Bathroom. I don't recall if I mentioned it before, but I figured if George's room will be on the third or second floor, whereas his siblings will inhabit the fourth floor, he might need his own bathroom.

Yes, above is George's bathroom. . . hopefully I will be able to show some progress in it soon! I find it difficult to locate good bathroom sets for dollhouses, they're either too expensive or not the style I would prefer. And they're also never custom fit - very difficult to find ones that will fit your specific dollhouse bathroom! So, against my better judgement, I decided to make my own. If I had a 3d printer, I'd print them, and if I had a Cricut Maker, I'd find a way to make them using that. Having neither, I decided it was a hit-and-miss situation, so what can go wrong? A lot will, probably, so bear with me. So far I just have a placeholder in place for the bathtub - it's a little short, I think, and not long enough, but what's your opinion?

I decided to have an orange theme, to go with the green bedroom. . . but I might change my mind, I'll have to see.

And here are three adorable turtles that are making their way across George's room. I'm trying to get some ideas to fill up the shelves in his room, and I do have some very nice 1930s magazines that I got for my birthday, but a ten year old having 'Vogue' or 'Good Housekeeping' in his bedroom seems a bit odd. But I'm sure their some other (older) inhabitant in my dollhouse will be thrilled to have them! :-) Maybe a few strewn around the reception room, so guests can pick them up while waiting for the Lockwoods to make their way to them!

And here is where I decided to pull the wall forward a bit, to create a space for more windows. The room with white walls is the scullery, and above it is the Billiard's room. The two rooms that were pulled forward are the Butler's Pantry and George's bathroom, which are not where they will end up. (Now that I write that, I think George's bathroom might possibly.)

Here is an image of the Grand Staircase. The "carpet" on it is just paper, I'm waiting until I find a more suitable fabric. I will need to have some paintings around it, I'm thinking on basing it off of the Entrance of Hillwood Estate. (For those who don't know, Hillwood is a beautiful house in Washington D.C.).

I also made a couple more trunks for the Trunk room. I'm going to have to make quite a few more before it starts to fill up!

And here is the beginning of the Music Room in Lockwood Manor. It's located next to the Reception room. I made the pianos myself, which was quite a fun job. I made the light colored one first, so there are a few defects in it, but I had so much fun making it I decided to make the second.

And there is the north end of Lockwood Manor, with the Servant's Entrance at the very bottom, George's Room on top, an unidentified room on top of that, and then the Nursery. Have a good day! Signing off with an interesting sepia photo of my dollhouse that I took a while ago. . .

High Flyin'

High Flyin' - like the Jeaneatte MacDonald song from Broadway Serenade. Which is what George is doing - or imaging doing - as I continue to work on his airplane themed room. Or, using the definition Merriam-Webster dictionary gives: marked by excessive ambition. Yes, it was very ambitious of me to try to finish George's Room today. . .

I am still working on George's room - and trying to make it messy. It's easy with real life, but seemingly harder with miniature life. . . And hurray - I have finished the parquet! I actually manged to enjoy gluing in the last pieces quite a bit, mainly because I was watching Lucille Ball's The Lucy Show while doing it.

What an image - I really need to work on my photography skills. The airplane hanging from the ceiling isn't at a particuarly good angle - it looks much better in real life. (I hope!) I have tacked up quite a few paintings and posters - all airplane themed, of course!

And here's the picture of the fireplace - with the grate-y thing I keep referncing. (In case you can't see it, it's inside the fireplace.) I made the little clock - I think it's a cute addition. And there's also a much better picture of the art deco (ish) fender I was trying to show you before!

I love the painting above the fireplace - I love views of fields - and that airplane is gorgeous! Those little shelves were an addition I added to give George more room for books and games. I need to print out and assemble some 1930s board games - hopefully very soon!

This is the ceiling photo I have been promising you for so long! The little hole in the ceiling is where the electric light will go. I added the crown moldings - I've been too lazy to add them to the rest of my dollhouse but I really need to - the rooms look so much more complete with them.

And here's a terrible photo of a little outlet I made for the room - a dollhouse never can be too complete, I think! Also, I should probably add some to the rest of the dollhouse - they are such a cute detail, I think. I tried to copy outlets from the 30s, but there weren't many photos of them.

Here is a little crossword game I made - not scrabble but definitely close. It's very small - about the size of a penny. It took me a very long time to cut up the tiny little pieces of wood and write letters on them!

A little paint set and paintbrush in water for George to paint with - I think he needs some newspaper and a little airplane to paint, too!

Here is a little print out of a 1930s airplane kit that George is cutting up with scissors (which are a charm). Do you think he needs a little desk? It'd have to be very little to fit in the tiny space between the fireplace and the wall.

And here is a not very good, out of focus image of the window and the bedside table with a little lamp (non working, although I did attempt to electrify it, it failed).

Here's a much better photo of the airplane that George has strung from the ceiling, and his bed! The airplane was made from a miniature print out of a 1940s airplane, I believe.

You can see the window much better in this photo, and the fact that I still haven't managed to cover up the stained glass on the interior side - I'm waiting for inspiration to strike!

I cut up a coffee stirrer into a very thin piece to make matchsticks, and then dotted red paint on the tips - for one I colored black on the tip to make it look used.

Here are the shelves on the wall - do you have any ideas on how to fill them? I can't think of a thing! Well, that's it for George's room - sorry for such a long post! I still have a few things I want to show you, however, such as a tiny rotary phone I got for my birthday!

I made the table using a piece of wood and Houseworks spindles.

Here are some vines that magically made their way to the side of the nursery overnight :-)

A little gate I'm working on for the servant's entrance - I added hinges! And, last but not least, a beautiful rug I got for my dollhouse - right now it's in the Grand Entrance Hall. (Sorry that the photo is on it's side!)

Thank you so much for visiting - signing off with a photo of the Master Bathroom in the dollhouse!