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  1. Here are the finished Products! The best way to view this blog is to pick a user!

  2. The Arthur Dollhouse Kit remains one of Greenleaf's most popular kits. You will find this blog useful for tips a decorating ideas as build your Arthur Dollhouse.

    The Best way to navigate this blog is to select a members name from the category are to the left. That will sort all the blog entries so that you will be looking at one persons progress as the move through their construction of the Arthur Dollhouse.

    Please Keep in mind that blogs are in reverse chronological order, so you we recommend that you scroll down to see the start of this dollhouse kit, and then scroll up to see the progression through the building progress.

    Thank you for choosing Greenleaf Dollhouse and the Arthur Dollhouse Kit!

  3. The Haunted Dollhouse Kit is a fun way to celebrate to decorate you house for Halloween. You will find this blog useful for tips and decorating ideas as build your Haunted Dollhouse.

    The Best way to navigate this blog is to select a members name from the category are to the left. That will sort all the blog entries so that you will be looking at one persons progress as the move through their construction of the Haunted Dollhouse.

    Please Keep in mind that blogs are in reverse chronological order, so you we recommend that you scroll down to see the start of this dollhouse kit, and then scroll up to see the progression through the building progress.

    Thank you for choosing Greenleaf Dollhouse and the Haunted Dollhouse Kit!

  4. Step 3 calls for the middle sized tower pieces to be added. It is on sheet number 3. I have also glued the tower top on. This is what it should look like.

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    Part F Step 1

    The instructions calls for the front roof part to be added. This is what it will look like. Mine is NOT glued in because I am going to shingle mine 1st because it is hard to shingle around the tower and cut the shingle correctly. I am also thinking about adding a Garden deck by opening up the roof this time. you'll see that soon.

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    Part F Step 2

    This is the other roof side that had to be added now

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  5. The Westville Dollhouse Kit is a country favorite around Greenleaf. You will find this blog useful for tips a decorating ideas as build your Westville Dollhouse.

    The Best way to navigate this blog is to select a members name from the category are to the left. That will sort all the blog entries so that you will be looking at one persons progress as the move through their construction of the Westville Dollhouse.

    Please Keep in mind that blogs are in reverse chronological order, so you we recommend that you scroll down to see the start of this dollhouse kit, and then scroll up to see the progression through the building progress.

    Thank you for choosing Greenleaf Dollhouse and the Westville Dollhouse Kit!

  6. This house is made for a customer of mine and she did not want too many flowers up front but you know me, I gotta have flowers and trees and some form of life to the house. Also, because this house was being shipped very far away, I could not add a huge base to it so, I took some foam core (1/2" thick) and glued it to the bottom of this house. I then covered it with "Sheet Moss". I then added trees, moss and flowers to the the base to give this house the appearance that the yard is kinda unkept and this is what we have now. I will add more pictures shortly!!! I am so pleased because I know for sure now that this house will be featured on the front cover of

    http://www.dollshousemag.co.uk/ It will be featured in the April 2007 Issue :banana:

  7. The final decision about the landscaping was not to change a thing. LOL I mentioned to Bruce that I was thinking about changing it and he said he liked it just the way it is. Since this is primarily his house, I left things as they were and just got a better picture. Close up pictures of the landscaping are in my gallery.

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    Deb

  8. JULY 7, 2007

    Just before Jimmy's death, I was working on the wallpaper in this house, I had done most of the kitchen, all of the livingroom, and was working on the bathroom and the bedroom. Here's where I was at that time.

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    JANUARY 20, 2009

    It took a long time to be able to touch this house again, but I started working on it again in January 2009. I had to finish paperclaying the chimney, and begin the brick around the bottom of the house. For those of you who met "Gigi" (the kitten that was roughly one week old when I got her), she has taken a liking to helping me with dollhouses....

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    JANUARY 22, 2009

    Continuing to work on the color scheme for this house, I chose to go with pinks and greens. Finished painting the bricks the "main" color on the chimney. Boy was that tough! I've also FINALLY finished my wallpapering in the house, and I'm pretty pleased with it. That gap in the upper pink (bed)room was done by Jimmy (he never could build straight), so I left it alone and didn't try to fix it, since it was his "mark". I've also started installing window casings.

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    JANUARY 29, 2009

    I need to go ahead and finish installing the windows--and by the way--I did it wrong the first time. I keep forgetting that when you are working with double hung windows that you MUST put the window pane in BEFORE you attach the window casing to the house. Well, I forgot. Again. Oops. Had to take them back off, LOL! I've also started adding the trim, which is being done in darker shades of pink and green.

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    FEBRUARY 22, 2009

    Time to work on getting the staircase installed. I know some people go ahead put that in much earlier than me, but I didn't want it in the way when I was wallpapering, so I've waited until now. I also put the trim around the fireplace and the mantle in.

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    MARCH 06, 2009

    I need to go ahead and get that brickwork on the bottom of the house done. I tried to start it earlier, but discovered I wasn't quite ready to do that yet. Because I need to run the brick up to the bottom trim, I've gone ahead and installed it--with Gigi's help of course! And for those of you who think "oh she's so cute!", lemme tell ya, that lil girl is a monster! She is forever taking off with my brushes, my paperclay tools--whatever she can get her lil paws on. She takes things out of my pocketbook, and she puts things in my pocketbook....

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    MARCH 25, 2009

    I've got my bricks done on the bottom of the house. I've tried to stay with the pattern on the chimney. I'm really thrilled with how well it went together.... Now I've got to paint it all....

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    JULY 09, 2009

    I've got my bricks along the bottom painted, and if you'll look closely, you'll see that, since the house is pink and green, there are also pink and green bricks, LOL! Not many, just a few. I'm also working on installing the porch railing, since I need to have the porch railing on to start the roof. Hey, y'all see my truck on the other side of the street? That's what I had to end up doing to keep the kittens out of it... LOL!

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    JULY 13, 2009

    Time to start paperclaying the roof. Got my lines drawn, and doing the "roofing thing". I want to make this look like a slate roof, and I decided to do a pattern in it. So, I'm doing four straight, and four curved. I just cut the tips off the sides to make it curved.

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    AUGUST 02, 2009

    Still working on the roof, but I've almost got it done.

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    AUGUST 04, 2009

    Yippeeee!!!! DONE paperclaying the roof, including the ridgecap! Now I've got to give it a few days to get good and dry....

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    AUGUST 09, 2009

    Been painting on the roof. It has several different colors. I started with a dirty wash, then did a darker wash of dark burnt umber. Then, using a "criss-cross" or "slashing" motion, I'm adding a dark brown, dark gray, light brown, and light gray into it.

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    AUGUST 11, 2009

    If you will remember, this house already had a recipient, and I've just discovered that her last day is Friday (she's getting married and moving to Maryland), so I MUST have this house completed by then, but I'm almost finished! I've clear-coated the brickwork on the chimney, bottom and roof. I've started doing touchups. I'm not real happy with that trim along the bays, so I'm going to have to change that. Then I can get my balcony railing and the doors in.

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    AUGUST 14, 2009

    Hey everybody! Guess what! I'm finally FINISHED! Except, last night I realized I had started doing the touchups on the white trim in the wrong shade of white so I was up this morn at 4:30a repainting it, LOL! Here's the finished product!

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    Hey, remember I told you this house had a recipient? Well, after having the house on display all day in the office, around 3p I finally handed her the keys and told her it was her house. She looked at the keys...

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    and upon discovering it was hers, immediately wrapped her arms around it, LOL!

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    Then she decided to go and make a sign for it....

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  9. blog-352-1160104488_thumb.jpgblog-352-1160104346_thumb.jpgblog-352-1160104367_thumb.jpgblog-352-1160104382_thumb.jpgblog-352-1160104403_thumb.jpgblog-352-1160104422_thumb.jpgblog-352-1160104440_thumb.jpgRay and I completed the Orchid today.

    We really enjoyed the opportunity to build and blog as a part of the Community Team.

    I counted the days in my blog as I knew Ray and I couldn't build each day due to work and other family obligations (my dad suffered a brain injury a couple of months ago).

    We were very surprised to see that we could build a lovely house in under 2 weeks. Ray and I had never built a house using a kit before this Orchid. What a lovely experience.

    -Susanne

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  10. Mini Man
    Latest Entry

    By Mini Man,

    The Best way to navigate this blog is to select a members name from the tag that is under their post. This will give you a list of only that builders post.  As an example, please see this link:  'Follow Minis On The Edge's Orchid'.  As you can see, only Tracy's entries are visible. Please keep in mind that the order of the blog entries change as people add comments, so we recommend that you look at the dates of the different posts and start with the oldest.  As you move forward in time, you'll see the progression through the building progress.

    If you still have questions about the construction of your Orchid Dollhouse, don't be afraid to join our community and ask a few questions.  The Greenleaf Miniature Community has the largest collection of knowledgeable miniaturist on the internet, many who I call friends... its a great place to meet like minded people!

    Thank you for choosing Greenleaf Dollhouses and the Orchid Dollhouse Kit and big thanks to all that made these blogs possible!

    Mini Man

  11. The Little girl inside of me must really want out because this project is actually flowing totally according to my plans. Last night I went to bed very late (or early depending on what you call 1 am). I had my music pumping and I was going with the flow. Sometimes, when I am thinking too hard about other things (real life things), my creative juices goes into overload.

    First, right before I went to bed last night, I started on this bed for the upstairs room. The rooms in this kit are very small so I wanted to utilize the space and give the impression that there is more space in here than it actually is.

    I have always considered my style of artistry to be more on the side of an Impressionist. The definition of Impressionist is * <b>a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.</b> Through my blogging of this cottage, I wish to share with you new inexpensive ways to achieve the look of some expensive things that we buy in miniature. You will be able to do this with card board scrap pieces of wood and dollhouse wallpaper or even scrapbook paper. My goal is to try and help YOU, learn how to achieve the look of realism by applying skills of an Impressionist.

    I already knew that today, I would do a tutorial. After I started making this bed last night, I wish I had been more awake so that I would have thought to take out the camera to take pictures of <b>How<i></i></b> I created it. Here is a shot of the Bed I started on last night and at the end, you'll see what it ended up looking like when I completed it.

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    Today's tutorial will be on how to make a Cornice. You will need:

    cardboard, scissors, tacky glue, wallpaper (or scrapbook paper), balsa wood and lace trim. First, you need to take your cardboard and cut it a little bit wider than the width of your window. I will not use measurements because, every window has different sizes. You can also cut your wallpaper pattern. It should look like this when cut:

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    Next, take your tacky glue and spread glue over the entire piece of cardboard. You can then glue the wallpaper to the cardboard. You can use a credit card to smooth the wallpaper down to be sure there are no bubbles. It should look like this:

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    Next, you will take your lace trim and glue it to the bottom edge of your wallpaper

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    It should look like this when that step is completed

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    Next, you can take your wood and cut it a little bit shorter than your Cornice piece like this:

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    Bend each end of your Cornice and glue the wood block in place to help keep the shape of the Cornice when glued in place. Turn your Cornice over because once the glue is dry, it is ready to be attached. It should look like this when completed:

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    You can even add an extra step by adding some lace curtains. I just used some lace found at Hobby Lobby or Micheal's. You would do this by gluing the lace to the backside of the Cornice before you attach it to the wall.

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    This is what the room looked like at the end of today:

    Upstairs

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    Downstairs

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    I did my workout this morning. I totally believe that having a healthy body & mind helps me be the Best person I can be for myself & my family and I can share my best and most creative work with my clients.

    Today my workout consisted of Shoulders & Arms & Ab RipperX (P90X) . I hurt all over but, it feels great because it's a "good" hurt. Thought Of The Day ~ "Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be" ~ Thomas à Kempis

    Many times, we look at others successes or accomplishments and think we can never reach our individual goals because we view the other person as someone not human. Each of us are just plain human beings. Set you Goals and work towards achieving them! Keep them in front of you! So many of my friends are working out to get healthy this year. It's so fun to share Minis & healthy living with them. Feel free to join us too. You are not alone!

    Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today!

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  12. Nameless1
    Latest Entry

    We returned from Europe with a new vice: vintage modern plastic HO-scale houses. The model railroaders who hang out on the Greenleaf forum will have a good laugh at me this time... although I had trains when I was a mid-sized child, I know nothing about this scale.

    Earlier in the spring, I'd impulsively bought the Plasticville contemporary house and a swimming pool at Bruce's Train Shop so that my plastic wedding party from Half Moon Bay could have somewhere to get married. This was supposed to be my Only HO Building. You can almost hear the ring of "famous last words," can't you?

    Here's what happened at Ingrid's Second Hand in Vienna...

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    and at a second-hand shop on the Via del Ponto Sospeso in Florence.

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    The house in the first two photos and the garden shed are from the German manufacturer Faller, which is probably better known for models of quaint European buildings. The garden shed really belongs in a community garden plot away from the houses. The twin houses are unmarked, though an afternoon's digging suggests Pola as the most likely manufacturer, simply because the company was in business in the 1960s and their products were widely distributed, sometimes boxed for other companies such as Jouef or Playcraft, making it advantageous not to mark the buildings.

    The orange Italian house was made by Lima, a once-major brand that may (or may not) be revived by Hornby.

    Although the streetcar -- a necessity for a European suburb -- advertises Viennese mega-brand Manner, it is made by German toy company Siku. It's new, thanks to a toy shop in a far suburb of Vienna that plied us with champagne for some reason we lacked the German to grasp. We had less trouble grasping the champagne flutes and the toys.

    One piece I fervently wanted but could not find on this trip was a suburban rail platform (no station, just a platform with a doner kebab stand). So when a vintage Pola kit showed up on eBay, I promptly bought it and will count the days until it arrives. (No Pola link, as its HO and N scale lines are now part of Faller.) And then the husband said it was a good idea to order a set of four Smart Cars... from Germany. Okay. At least it'll be an ecologically sound community.

    Although I never intend to run actual trains, I have to add this link to the site of a man who's building his own realistic fictional Austrian small town. I am hoping that if I stare at it long enough, I will not start buying HO scale OBB engines.

  13. nuttiwebgal
    Latest Entry

    Having had a very full year. I wanted to do something totally for me for total enjoyment.

    so I got my Arthur down from the shelf...gave it a good cleaning. I was going to paperclay the base of the porch but since most of it would be hid I decided to just sponge it. but of course I was glueing down the finishing touches when I realised ''''nope''''

    the picture patrol forgot to take a before photo...but its there!

    what makes this house so special to me is that I didnt want to build it really...but as I worked on it I fell in love with what it could become...not that I had any idea one day I would fill it with wonderful gifts and swaps from my friends all over the world! and that is what I have done.

    I was soooo very low the day I recieved my get well box...those of you who have had major surgery and complications know how emotional you can feel and vunrable. but I was sooooo excited. I cried and my daughter was crying with me...see mom you have lots of people who care. I was so touched and am so blessed. that although the inside still needs a few finishing touches I want to dedicate my Arthur to Greenleaf who gave us this forum so we could grow as miniaturist but to also make friends and to all of those friends who I look forward to hearing from every day.

    I hope you enjoy the photos....also if you dont see something dont worry...some of these items have been boxed up for awhile and Im just finding stuff...more will be added as it is found!

    tytytytytytytytytytytytytytyty

    my house is so wonderful because of all of you!

    nutti :whistle:

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  14. It has been over a year since I have written here. So much has happened. Too much to list.

    Am currently working on cretaing and organizing my laundry room so it can also be a craft room once again. I seem to have misplaced a lot of my minins and supplies in the garage soemwhere. I am sure in time they will turn up, but it is bothering me that I can not find certain things,

  15. Well well well i finally did something on the half scale house ;)

    I stuck the roof on...put on the battons and did the first coat of paint.....yay me :D

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    Linda :blink:

  16. kellee
    Latest Entry

    I have started on the walls, the wallpaper just flakes off,except where the glue is. So I had to sand it off. I spackled the walls, let them sit overnight and gave them a good sanding the next day. I am starting to prime the walls now and they are sucking up the primer. !!! Even after a coat of spackle. I'm still working on the foundation, still have a few pieces to prime. Then to decide how I am finishing that. I am thinking of cement blocks, gotta go measure them on my real house before I start though. The porch will probably be painted gray. That is as far as I have planned so far. I have no ideas for the exterior color or finish.

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    Recent Entries

    Alright, I ordered my kit yesterday, and they shipped it yesterday. I expect it to arrive hopefully Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, I have gathered copious amounts of sandpaper, my paint, wood filler, and glue. I also got some wallpaper. I'm probably jumping the gun on that one, but hey, that's okay! :banana: So, I am all ready to be scared, intimidated, frightened, and ready to pee myself when it gets here. :banana:

    Here is a picture of the actual Victorian home's color scheme that I plan to use on my pint-sized property! :ohyeah:

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  17. LifeUponTheWickedStage
    Latest Entry

    Man have I had a hard time posting this. Computer issues I guess. But I'm back and feeling very guilty for dissapearing for a large chunk of the year. I blame being a first time mom to a one year old who fears NOTHING! Its not a normal day if the kid doesn't get hurt once. I'm considering investing in one of the sumo costumes so he's got some extra padding ;) .

    Anyways back to Sirius's house!

    I started playing around with FIMO clay. I've made some fruits and veggies, and continued into the HP world.

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    The next photo is a Troll foot umbrella stand :D I'm thinking of going over it with some stain, and ploy and stipple it to make it look like skin. In the background you can see the floors, which I stained a darker color, and the wallpaper that I'm still working on.

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    Next was probably my favorite thing I've done with clay. I made some shrunken elf heads. Its just scrap wood from a laser cut set, stained, and once I made the heads and baked them I glued them to the wood. I'm going to also eventually make little copper plaques with names of them.

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    My next clay project was a totally improv. The roof of the tower had a giant hole in it so I made a fun little steeple thingy. I just added clay to a broken paintbrush handle and set it in there with a bunch of woodglue. I'm thinking of making it look like metal. Not sure which one, cooper ( greening or not) , shiny black, or silvery.

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    I'm going to try to make snakes a very pronounced but understated theme of the house ( Slytherin it up ). So my first snake it wrapping around the weird middle window that I hated. I'm going to do the same metal treatment as the turret. I also made some stainglass with a coloring book from Michaels. In greens of course.

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    Next, I took a cheap Hobby Lobby pie cabinet, took of the metal fronts and added some of the HL little bottles full of various spices and colored waters. I also attempted some clay books. Its hard to see how they turned out but I'll definatly make some more. They turned out super darling.

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    You can also see it that pic that I stained the floor in two different colors. Unfortunatley there was some bleeding but nothing intense.

    Finally is the outside's color. It seems a little blue in the pic put its grey. Whereever its still yellow is going to be paperclay brick. I'm still unsure of how I want the outside to look. I'm just playing it by ear. I'm thinking I was to distress the grey, but since I just did my base coat I have some time to think about it!

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    Let me know what you think. I'm really curious to see if anyone reads this haha. Have an amazing day!

  18. I saw this idea in an old Nutshell news magazine. There were no instructions, so I just figured out my own way to do it. Sorry my pics are a little blurry, it's very hard to get clear pics of small items.

    Materials:

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    Two small buttons, different sizes (canopy)

    small piece chain

    wire ( to make rings to connect chain)

    3 beads

    3 jewelry spacers

    a triple fish hook ( be very careful with the hook, you can cut the tips off, please wear safety glasses. I didn't cut mine off)

    gold paint

    E6000 glue

    jewelry pliers

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    Glue the beads to the bead spacers. make a ring of wire to connect the fish hook to the chain and then use a small piece of wire to connect the chain to the buttons (Stack the buttons and use the holes for the wire to go thru). Make sure to get the wire as flat as possible on the top of the buttons so that it will lay flat against ceiling.

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    I used gold paint to paint the buttons, chain and fish hook, since they were all different colors.

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    Now glue a bead assembly to each hook prong ( I didn't cut the points off since they were going to be covered anyway)

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    Here is my finished light fixture glued to the ceiling with E-6000 glue.

    I would love to learn how to make these electric, but that is for another time!

    Some more ideas:

    All of these are in my Michael's puzzle house, which is my current project.

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  19. I'm baaaack!

    Shame on me for not pursuing this blog. But as it so happens, GL revamped their site, and I had trouble settling in, so I got frustrated and gave up. Now I'm back, and determined to learn our new format.

    I've gotten a lot done since I last posted here. Most of the rooms in Moggie Manor (RGT's EastSide Townhouse ) are wallpapered, and I've managed to come up with some very nice furnishings, although many of them are not permanent. Still it does my heart good to see the rooms with furniture in them.

    My latest furniture purchase is a Bespaq Chambre de la Luna vanity. I love Bespaq, and although I can't afford to buy many pieces, I'm going to try to eventually have one piece in each room.

    I've also gotten ahead of myself in another way..I've made a Christmas tree! Yup, I bought one of the simple, 'bottlebrush' trees, and using Lycopodium, fleshed the skeleton form out with lovely green branches. It now sits, waiting for ornamentation.

    Getting the tree actually made was an obsession of mine. I had great fears that I'd leave it to the last minute, be unhappy with the results, and give up on decorating Moggie Manor for this Christmas.

    Yep, in J.K.Rowling's world, Harry and his friends do celebrate Christmas. Those who love HP know that the witches and wizards in this world, aren't in league with the devil. Rather, they have been given extra gifts by the Divine..in the same manner that many other natural talents are given. And of course, it's how those talents are used, that makes them good or evil traits.

    I like to believe that wizarding skills and talent are just one more example of a Divine Plan concerning human evolution..an adaptation to the world at large, due to mutations within our DNA. Wouldn't it be fun if such mutations really came to pass, and magic was really real?

    OH well, I can dream, can't I? In any event, HP's Wizarding world is fun to play in.

    More later. Have a great day!

  20. pdlnpeabody
    Latest Entry

    Well, I guess it isn't actually "new", but It hasn't been posted here yet- I'm working on a 2D art piece, currently.  

    About 18 months ago, I started to plan a new pen and ink/stipple piece.  My little ones do so much damage to my minis, thanks to the lack of a separate workroom, that I have had to leave it dormant for at least another year or so.  A drawing, on the other hand, I can lock in a closet or someplace else that the kids shouldn't get into.  So, I started planning on the new piece.  During the first week of April, 2017, I spent the week in the hospital for a scan to detect seizures (I don't have them, it turns out), and I knew I would have endless hours of nothing to do and not many distractions, so I started plotting and inking in a massive 30 inch by 40 inch drawing of a Union Pacific Railroad Big Boy.  At 120 ft long, over 1.2 million pounds and with sixteen drive wheels and a firebox bigger than my first two apartments combined, they were the largest steam locomotives ever built.  I worked on the picture the entire week I was there, but did little after I returned home.  After my motorcycle accident this past February, I had time again to work on it in the rehab hospital, so I did.  I have been working on it at least a few hours a week since then.  If I can get some free time, I hope to have it done by early 2019.  

    I'm also posting a few more photos of the accident.  After a couple of near-death experiences from it, I'm finally riding again, but not as much.  While I was still on a lot of pain meds, I was able to borrow a sharpie marker from one of the nurses and marked up my cast.  I was really out of it, but I think it turned out well.

     

     
    IMG_1241 | by precisionreplicas  
    29292354698_a591fff52a_c.jpg IMG_1070 | by precisionreplicas
     
     
     

     

     

     
     

     

     

  21. Gazette Gallery
    Latest Entry

    The tips this month were submitted by Margaret.

    Tips for applying paint: Use dollar store eyeshadow applicators-they come in a pack of 25 sometimes. Instead of having to wash your paintbrush-just toss the applicator.

    Free mini item: Look in the section where the bottled water is sold in your grocery store. The little inserts in the caps look like mixing bowls or with a cardboard lid they can become mini canisters.

  22. August 12, 2013

    I’ve been trying to get my hands to cooperate with me so I can cut the hay bales on the mini saw and finish off the coop. Unfortunately carpel tunnel is relentless and my hands are just too weak and shaky to confidently power up that saw. The CP is bad enough, cutting off a finger – not in the game plan, so I’ve set that aside for now and moved on to something more manageable – building a needlepoint stand and creating a mini needlepoint piece for the Bronte House. I was so excited when I got the little kit in the mail that I couldn’t wait to put it together and in my haste I forgot to take pictures of the unassembled kit. So, Yankee ingenuity in tow I scanned photos from the instruction sheet to give you an idea of what it looked like before. So here are pictures of the notched bottom, the decorative stand, and the frame. Simple pieces that were quickly done.

    blogentry-4992-0-03686700-1376368311_thublogentry-4992-0-51371600-1376368329_thublogentry-4992-0-24440400-1376368342_thu

    And here are the pictures of the completed assembly.

    blogentry-4992-0-04613900-1376368404_thublogentry-4992-0-03510500-1376368424_thu

    This is the pattern for the needlepoint piece.

    blogentry-4992-0-74021900-1376368384_thu

  23. I had just about given up hope that I would be able to stain the doors, windows, beams, and timber framing today, as I didn't think I would have enough time to finish all of the fussy sanding needed in preparation for the staining. As it turned out, I was able to finish the sanding yesterday so it was staining day! For the exterior timber framing, I mixed an earthy green, brown, and sienna oil paints and thinned them down with turpentine to make a mossy green. For the beams and mantle I made up a batch of walnut colored stain using my oils and turp. I wanted something that looked like stain but moving toward a purply mahogany for the interior window framing and was very pleased with the color I mixed using brown, red, blue, yellow, and white with the turp. I plan to make curtains using medical gauze that I dye with mulberries which should look good with the framing color.

    Now I just have to wait for the stain to dry and I can put the windows together. I can't wait!

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