kathi17

You are so lucky, I love the OBX. We went twice, in 2011 and 2012, and were thinking of moving to NC, but when we decided that, my mother decided to move permanently to Maine. Things are so remote here, that we had to stay to care for her. I remember how sad it was to come back to all the snow and cold after being down there in the spring time. I love what you are doing with the Putz, it's so unique!

So far, I haven't had any problems with either the larger wire on the regular LEDS, or the wires on the nano chip lights, which are about the diameter of a human hair!

The place I send to for my lights says to melt them off with a soldering iron. Some of mine have that same type of thin coating, and the soldering iron works for stripping mine.

Those of you who have seen it are so lucky! I'm glad the Smithsonian put so much information on their site so those of us who can't go can read about it and see each room.

I have had a busy few weeks, and haven't been able to visit the forums as much as I would like, but I came across this house at the Smithsonian http://americanhistory.si.edu/dollhouse/introduction Some of you have probably seen it before, but I never had. It sure would be fun to furnish all those rooms!

Sorry, I've had a busy week and didn't see this until just now. I actually put my gussets in after the roof was assembled. I did the same with my gables.

Hi Luanne, I think the liquid pearls are only in pearlescent colors. They are really made so you can have any size or color of pearls on greeting cards. I found them to be much less apt to flatten out than the puff paint. They seem to be firmer when dry, but if you are looking for flat or matte colors, they may not be what you want. (Of course if they become popular for other crafts besides paper crafts, (such as using for fake frosting), maybe the company would listen to our requests!

I need to look back at the low doors in the tea houses I didn't like as well, They might have been shoji doors as well, but they are so low and dark, and the tea houses look so closed in that I don't really like them. I'm thinking about the kind that slide open in both directions and open up the whole wall, and let more air and light in. The low doors are really low, and raised off the ground so you have to bend down and step up into them. They are supposed to make you feel humble, but I think they would make me feel claustrophobic!

Something I like much better than puff paint is Liquid Pearls. I use them a lot on my greeting cards, and they are much nicer than the puff paint I've tried. They come in a lot of colors, but to get the colors you want, you might have to order them on line, The big box stores only sell them in sets of three, and they only carry a few colors.

That's so funny!

I think the gussets just help to strengthen the peaks of the roof and gables. There isn't a lot of surface area there, so they help to support them.

I'm doing a craft fair next weekend, so I've been making a lot of Christmas cards to sell. That really cut into my mini time! I've also been trying to figure out plans for a little Japanese tea house to go with the ryokan, and making lots and lots more flowers and things for the landscaping. For the tea house to be authentic, it really should just have a very low door for guests to enter, and a larger separate door for the host. That means I would have to hinge a wall. I'm thinking that I would really rather have shoji doors that can slide open wide so you can see the interior through them. I'm one of those people who loves big windows and light, and feeling like the outside is an extension of the inside. I've pinned a ton of pictures, and there are some beautiful, but non-authentic tea houses with shoji doors. Anyway, it's been a dilemma for me, because I want it to be authentic, but I think I will go with the shoji because I like them better.

Yeah, that sanding drum is good for some things, but it's not good for flat surfaces! I struggled with one speed forever. My husband bought me another Dremel a number of years ago, but unfortunately, he never paid attention to the fact that I needed variable speed and didn't want a battery operated one. It was one of the first battery powered Dremels. That one would run for about five or ten minutes, then I'd have to charge it for a few hours. It was useless. Next, I bought an inexpensive off brand one that was variable speed and plugged in, and I liked it better, but most attachments wouldn't fit in it, only the ones that came with it. A while back, I bought the 4000, and I absolutely love it! It's the first Dremel I've had that I really liked!

It's too bad they used a gloss paint, that will make it more difficult to cover, but the flatter paint will hide a lot of defects compared to the gloss. It's looking so much better already!

I agree with Sable and Holly. Flour is a feast for bugs, but wallpaper paste is perfect. Hopefully you can find some in your area, all the stores in this area stopped carrying that and wallpaper a few years ago. It's sad for me, because it's so difficult to get, and I also love wallpaper in my house. Painted walls in every room look cold and impersonal to me. I really miss looking at the wallpaper books and trying to decide what I like the best. It's not at all the same online, because you can't really tell the colors, or hold it up to your walls.

I'm so glad you got it Carmen! Yes, let us know when you start an album!

Thank you Sable. I was that way all of my life. I just never liked all the garbage you had to put up with with the kids who had everything. We were very comfortable when I was growing up, but I never felt the need to hang out with the popular kids. It was always nicer helping out the kids who really appreciated my friendship, or needed my help. I still prefer making a difference rather than being a social butterfly, and hanging out with superficial people. My daughter-in-law is now a soccer mom, and I just roll my eyes whenever I listen to the other soccer moms and her when we are out there visiting. I get along very well with her and her friends, but I can't imagine living my life like that!

I think that is a wise choice Amy. Miniatures aren't the easiest thing for a class with limited time and young children. Besides miniatures, I do a lot of other crafts. One of those is greeting cards. There was an 8 year old girl who visited her grandmother down the road from our shop a lot during the summer. She came from a broken home, and didn't have much of anything. Emotional support, or anything else. She became fascinated with my cards, so I got out some inexpensive Walmart card stock, paper punches and a few other things, and we played with them. She came and did crafts with me when she visited her grandmother during the summer for a few years, until there was another crisis and she didn't get back to the island for a year. All the time we did the crafts, she kept asking me why I was so good to her. She wasn't at all used to having any kind of attention paid to her at all. I let her know it was because she was kind and good, so it was really easy for me to like her and enjoy spending time with her. Now she is 13, and this summer she came back to her grandmother's a few times again. She stopped quite a few times, and just talked. She told me what a difference I had made in her life. I've done crafts with other kids like that over the years, and some of them are in their 40's now, and still remember the time I spent with them. One on one is easy, and really makes a difference!