Jump to content

vbharrington

Gold Member
  • Posts

    136
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

62 Excellent

About vbharrington

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Upstate, South Carolina

Previous Fields

  • Dollhouse Building Experience
    One
  • Real Name
    Vickie
  • Country
    United States

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Today was not a good day - my oldest son, who is 20, is struggling to find his path in life. Almost 3 months ago he moved to AL to live with his father and stepmother, got a job and started working. He's decided to move back here to SC, but his father is making it very hard on him. The drama there has worried and upset me, plus unresolved issues from before he moved has caused a major fight between my husband and I. I need all the prayers, good thoughts, etc. I can get. I did manage to get the lace off of the windows of the SF 550 yesterday. I tried using a hair dryer but even on low it seemed like it was too hot for the plastic windows. I also scrubbed the house on the outside with a magic eraser and hot water, and removed as much of the inside wall papers as I could. I did manage to get the 1st floor staircase out - it was nailed into place. One thing I can say about this house, so far it seems like it is pretty sturdy. I've also pretty much decided to cut away the interior "tower" wall from the third floor, to make the "tower room" and the adjoining room one large room.
  2. Yay! Thanks Selkie for the arrow! I have a tentative idea as to what I'm going to do with this house - it came to me as I was waiting to see my doctor this afternoon (horrible sinus infection, so the idea could have been a Benadryl hallucination) I know I'm going to have to cover the cut mark with something, but I haven't decided exactly how to do this. Thanks
  3. We are out of school Monday for the holiday, then two more half days until I'm done for the summer! On the agenda this weekend is to wash/scrub the San Fran 550 I got from Craig's List. I still don't know what theme, era, etc this house is going to be, but the least I can do is get it scrubbed so I can begin repainting the exterior (I did finally decide on a color scheme) At this point I am having the paralyzing indecisiveness that comes every single time I think about actually decorating a house. In fact, one reason I have so many houses "in progress" is that it is so difficult for me to decide on decorating/era/theme, etc.
  4. I have a San Franciscan 550 that I picked up for a steal on Craig's List. I've spent the last few weeks deciding what to do with it - and I really think I want to remove part of the upper tower (interior) wall. The wall I'd like to remove is the the one that separates the upper tower room from the larger room (I can't figure out how to add an arrow to the picture to point it out) This would make it much easier for me to get in to decorate it. Any suggestions on whether this would work or not would be appreciated.
  5. Thanks everyone! I can't wait for school to be out next week so that I can have time to work on some of these ideas and others.
  6. I envy those who find awesome minis in thrift stores, but I'm never that lucky - however, I ran into Goodwill yesterday and came across two boxes of poker chips for .50. Has anyone made any minis using poker chips? I'd love some ideas.
  7. I go through spurts of buying mini books, and re-checking others out of the library to read. This is what I've been reading most recently: I've ordered all three Dollhouses to Dreamhouses, and have received books 2 and 3 so far, which have been interesting, but I'm not sure when/if I'll be able to try the modifications they demonstrate. I also ordered The Secrets of the Dolls' House Makers by Jean Nisbett. I ordered a copy from my phone, and I wish I had taken the time to read ALL of the reviews of this book. I thought it was going to have methods and techniques, but it didn't. Oh well, it is still an interesting book, it just isn't what I thought it would be. Our county library system has a pitiful selection of miniature books, but I have all three of them checked out now - The Big Book of the Dolls' House and A Beginners Guide to the Doll's House Hobby, both by Jean Nisbett, and Making Miniatures: Projects for the 1:12 scale Dolls' House by Christiane Berridge. I enjoy reading these books, but I won't buy them for myself, I hope that by continuing to check them out, the acquisition librarian will decide to purchase some more titles.
  8. Awesome Mike! Thanks for those links as well - That will save me a few steps when I need to work on my Buttercup scheme!
  9. I've got several houses I'm rehabbing, as well as a couple new builds. I have a hard time visualizing what color schemes would look like on the houses (especially ones with a lot of trim, like my San Franciscan 550) I've struggled for a couple of years with this, but I have finally hit upon a solution that works great for me. I have an app on my phone (I have "Color My World" but I'm sure there are others) that will take a picture and turn it into a line drawing to color. I then email it to myself, and print copies - I then use colored pencils to try out different color schemes and I can see how the house will look with the trim and other details painted. This has saved me a lot of trouble, as I thought I knew what color scheme I was going to use for my 550 (It was based on a 555 I had seen) but once I colored my house picture with those colors, I saw that it really wouldn't work with the 550. On the other hand, I love the Robin Carey pastel color scheme of yellow, green, pink, and purple. I was able to take my coloring pages of my 550 and experiment until I found a way to incorporate those colors in my 550. This is an example of the line drawing this app made of my 550.
  10. I bought a San Franciscan 550 this past weekend from Craig's List. The house is fairly sound, and is only missing interior stair railings (as far missing/broken components) The tower roof is not original (or so I've been told) but the low roof doesn't bother me. Here's my question. Someone, at some point in the past, glued lace to the windows of the house (as you can see from the picture, the person took care to use the same pattern in each window) While I don't hate the look, I'd rather have something else. Whoever glued this lace in must have used some spectacular glue, because this lace is all stuck tight. Any suggestions to remove the lace (without having to take apart the house) would be greatly appreciated. PS If anyone has any ideas for the roof (aside from building a "witch hat" tower roof) I'd like to hear those too!
  11. I'm slowly working on a Steampunk cosplay to wear to Dragoncon in Atlanta - I've always loved costumes, but being a plus sized woman, I have trouble finding nice and/or affordable costumes, so I've been making my own - however with 5 kids, teaching full time, minis, and life in general, it is slow going, but it is going.
  12. Well, the Newport now in the "She Shed" with my other dollhouses. It turns out the lady had bought it already assembled about 15 years ago from AC Moore. She bought (literally) a whole house full of furniture at the same time. At some point over the years the railings broke off the top of the tower, but that is the only thing that is structurally wrong with this house. It's also plywood instead of MDF, so that is a huge plus for me since I move my houses myself. She also included the hardwood flooring and wallpaper she had bought to use in the house but never got around to. I'm really only unsure of a few things, first is that she decided to paint one of the 3rd floor rooms bright red - not really my thing, but wallpaper will handle it. That was the only room that was painted instead of wallpapered. Secondly, I am not sure how I'm going to get into the "front" room to decorate it - in my Harborside, the front opens to allow access to the front rooms, but this house does not. However, that is a small issue considering I got this house at such a great deal. I hope to post some new pictures as soon as I get a chance.
  13. I'm so sorry for you loss, my thoughts and prayers are with you.
  14. This was my first "collectible" dollhouse too! My mom had it built for me when I was 12.
  15. I just got a SF 550 this weekend that I am going to have to rehab. Thanks for sharing your pictures.
×
×
  • Create New...