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Tilly's bakery finally has its name! I admit to Google searching for inspiration (since she probably won't be in direct competition with anyone, LOL). "Cake & Crumb" I'm so content with it! Reminds me of the "Fife & Drum" restaurant in a nearby village. So now I'm working on signs for it, haven't quite hit on the perfect graphic to go above the name. This is the fifth draft but I think it may be a bit busy (plus it's not the same kind of stove as is inside).

I'm really surprised at myself! It took me four days to place an order from HBS once my mini buying ban was lifted! I was just worried that I'd forget something important, like I usually do, and was keeping a list. It was only because that 25% coupon expired last night that I finally ordered! The bakery is in a bit of a quagmire. There are little things I can do, but I've slumped into vacation mode so I only seem able to tackle items that fill a day (such as the shingling which I finished Sunday), and the little things (cushion for the window seat and stones for the veranda) are being ignored. I took down Tilly's Christmas decorations and now I'm bummed out. Not because I miss the holiday passed, but because it made her shop so warm and cozy and now it feels empty. At the same time I hesitate to fill it back up because of the little projects that still remain. So here's a list and maybe at the end I'll have decided what I want to do next! Items with an asterisk are waiting on my HBS order. Interior: - make window seat cushion - install knobs on cabinet doors - install outlet and swap plug for bedside lamp - make bed linens - replace chandelier bulb* Exterior: - install trim under roof points - touch up paint - sculpt and paint stone floor on veranda - find tiny eye screws - paint and design shop sign - install sign - make greenery for window box - decorate and install cupola* - install door knobs* - install doors* - install veranda railing* After that im really looking forward to trying my hand at sculpting miniature food. I bought a bunch of fimo half-priced at JoAnn on Saturday, and DH gave me a magnifying glass for Christmas, so I'm ready as soon as I finish the house! I also ordered a mini book off Amazon since I've had trouble finding tutorials online. I also have a new project to tackle for late Spring, parts for which are coming in the Ernie order. ;)

The house isn't done, but I figured if I didn't take these photos now, they'd be late, as usual! This is Nettle, decorating with paper chain. Nettle will get the Glencroft in the new year! As you can see above their heads, the light finally burnt out on me - the night before the Cir-Kut regulator arrived! Bah! In the dark corners are the two counters I built for the register and for the window display. Cakes are ReMent, Glühwein set is Reutter Happy Holidays everyone!

5 days til Christmas eve! This week has evaporated out from under me, but I hope to build another counter and stain the table I bought from DH&M, which came last night, along with the upstairs door frame, which I will also stain and then glue in place. I'll wax in place the side which will cover the hinges so I can get back to that later. That way I can block the draft for Tilly upstairs! I picked up some fabric the other night at JoAnn. I couldn't find any patterns really tiny enough, so I settled on a quilt-like print that I saw last time but hesitated on. I have to go back tonight to pick up a gift card for a friend, but all their holiday stuff has been on the way out in favor of Valentines, so I don't think I'll have any major discoveries tonight. So just a few more touches before it'll be ready for holiday photos. As for actually finishing the house, I still need to paint the exterior, shingle and add the finishing touches such as hardware. My counter dried nice and flat. I did take a couple photos but not in the house and then I didn't get a chance to post them, so I'll post new photos of anything I get done tonight along with that. We have company coming this weekend so I may not update again until I'm posting the actual holiday photos!

Last night it took me forever to cut out the cabinet from the Michael's basswood. Then I only had my 2000 sandpaper to smooth the edges. I know I've got a sheet of 600 somewhere, but it was hiding from me. So I cut the pieces out, dry fit, sanded, dry fit, stained, and then waited impatiently for the stain to dry and gave up waiting for absolute dryness before gluing. Hopefully I won't regret it too much. I do intend to make better ones another day, but I needed a surface for my holiday decorations! I have house guests coming this weekend, so I have to figure out if I have time to build a cash register counter before Christmas. I probably do, but with the tree and the new counter I'm not sure where it would go! Maybe everything's free as a holiday special. ;) I'm afraid to turn the lights on without figuring out my transformer imbalance, and unfortunately I get the impression that Oakridge Hobbies no longer exists - they haven't claimed my paypal payment from last Friday! So I probably need to reorder at least new outlet male converters and maybe buy another lamp or something to even out the power feed. So you're stuck with bad lighting in these photos. ;) (edited to add - Oakridge finally answered the phone! They were sitting on my order because they didn't have everything in stock. Well GOLLY, wouldn't you want to yaknow.. LET ME KNOW? So the order is canceled and I've placed a new order directly from Cir-kit. Sheesh!) So here is the bakery with the Christmas tree that I finished on Saturday, powered off. I still need to make a skirt, and I was going to wrap the battery pack like a gift but it seems to do just as well tucked behind the tree. You can see the door in place. I originally considered this trim as outdoor features, but I think it works better inside. The outside is more plain, so a fully-pink door doesn't look wrong, where it totally would indoors! Anyway, the door is just wedged in place, as I need to order knobs before I bother attaching the hinges to the wall. In that one you can almost see my little counter that I made. For being pretty impromptu I'm very happy with it. If the wood warps (I was too impatient to let the stain dry before gluing), I will make an upgrade one someday, but if not I can see this one just being detailed out to make it the upgrade. I like the size, though I wonder if cakes will actually fit on the lower shelf (or if they'll look totally bizarre and cramped there). I'm going to JoAnn tonight and hope to find quilting fabric for a tree skirt and the windowseat cushion. I didn't find anything in the fat quarters so I may have to browse the bolts. Hopefully it's not as crowded as it has been this season.

Matt gave me a handful of miniatures on Friday which were Christmas themed, which he didn't want me to only be able to display on Christmas day! I got the little green and red paper chain (love!), a set of working candlesticks for the windows, a gingerbread house and the Reutter Gluhwein set! ;) I can't wait to set it all up! I know I worked a bunch on the dollhouse but I don't really feel like it looks that different! I mostly worked on the doors. There were some fitting adjustments needed, so they haven't been installed as yet. I painted the undersides of the eaves with Delta Ceramcoat's Mudstone (I got so confused when I went to put the second coat on - it dries a dark dark green but goes on a light tan. I kept checking the bottle to make sure I was using the right color!). Then I painted the doors, glued on the windows, added hinges to the front door and glued on the trim, which is still taped at the moment to get them to stay flat over the hinge brads. Unfortunately I already glued on the interior door trim and have paperclay on the outside, so I will have to figure out how to get the hinges on the door frame! Whoops! I didn't have enough hinges to put on the upstairs door (mistcalculation on my part with regard to the cabinet doors under the window seat), but since I don't have any lights for the upstairs yet, she needs all the natural light she can get, LOL! I started to work on the custom cabinet to go under the big window. It's all drawn out on the basswood sheet I have, I just need to lube up my knuckles with a lot of drinking water today so I don't get too arthritic when I cut them out tonight! I wanted to figure out a way to include a glass door, but I think I'll just upgrade it someday and do what I can for now. I finished the Christmas tree! I had two sets of ornaments I'd ordered from HBS before my husband-inflicted ban on ordering, so those got glued on after I'd cut down the trunk to fit the 8" ceiling, and after I'd trimmed the tree with lights and garland. Thank goodness for Quick Grip! The tree looks perfect. I need to get some quilting fabric so I can make a tree skirt. If I can't find some in fat quarters tonight I'll get some fabric cut for the window seat cushion as well (which I have measurements for now) - I've already been through the JoAnn fat quarters and they don't have anything that would match. I'm thinking either the dusty pink from the wallpaper or dark brown from the walnut trim. So tonight, as I mentioned, I'll cut the cabinet pieces, stain them and, if dry, assemble! I'm waiting on an order of those tiny sockets so I can convert and plug in the corded lights I have, including the candles. Hopefully those arrive soon. I got them from Oakridge Hobbies, which is my first purchase from them, so I'm a bit nervous about their shipping times (last year I ordered from the Crafts, Etc. website and it took almost two months to ship!). There's a DollhousesAndMore.com order in the mail, which has Tilly's unfinished prep table and the trim for the upstairs door. Wish I'd realized I was low on hinges! I also don't have doorknobs for my doors, so maybe I won't install any and will just wedge them in place for photos until I can get those, too. Casey has been posting little Christmas tutorials that I'd love to try once I get the bakery basically furnished. If I have spare time tonight I will also build a counter for Tilly's cash register. Maybe I'll remember to take photos tonight!

I neglected to get any photos of the painting done on the paperclay so far, but that's all right. I can cover that in an exterior post. Mostly I just wanted to paint them so I could install the windows. ;) So last night I did! I had spent the previous two evenings mitering the baseboard and crown molding, so last night I laid out some newspaper and stained them all. Two coats. Unfortunately the Balsa wood is not taking on the same color as the basswood, but I don't think the result is awful. ;) While the stain dried (thank goodness the heat is pumped up in the winter!), I glued in the window sheets. I had to cut two of the square bits in half because of the custom window I made. It went smoothly, and the Quick Grab was a big help, even if the tube continues to dispense after I have enough! Once the window sheets were in place I put in the kit trims for the door and windows, nearly forgetting to put my crown molding in first above the door (I had cut a special arch to fit around it). The door I made upstairs to open onto the 'veranda' still needs trim, and the doors themselves will be painted dusty mauve and attached later with hinges. I'm tired of the lights looking weary (I have 6 bulbs on a 12 bulb system), so today I ordered a current regulator, along with a bulb extractor in case the damage was already done, and some of those tiny outlet male pieces, since I have the 'scale' outlets installed but no lamps with the right male piece. I know I'll have at least three lamps to plug into a wall outlet soon and I don't have the regular sized outlets! I kinda caught myself by surprise. The downstairs is nearly complete and I have no furniture at all to put in there! I was planning to make myself some display cabinets so it looks like I'd better get cracking! I ordered a table for the kitchen to be a prep table and hopefully it won't be too large. I do have furniture for the upstairs but it seems gloomy without lights. Before I put the bed against the right side wall I'd better pound in an outlet. I also have a tree that needs some height removed before it'll fit! I ordered ornaments from Ernie's so I can attach those and the other trim and have it ready to go!

I'm sad to say I haven't gotten a chance to take any photos so far! But here's what's been going on: The baseboard and crown molding for the house have been cut! That baseboard sure was tricky upstairs in the gabled alcove! Whew! Now I just need to stain it. Still not sure what I want to do about the baseboard in the entrance-way, since I am using the door frames in the kit and the baseboard is taller. I figure I'll make up my mind in time to trim either the baseboard or the frame before it's installed. ;) I've begun the painting of the paperclay stonework outside. I can't finish the interior without window frames, which means being done with painting around the windows outside. If I have time I'll paint the stucco, too, but it's not as high a priority as the frames. I have done about three wash coats on each rock, and I want to take a look at it under good light tonight to figure out what washes to put on next. I am adding pink and green undertones to the rocks and I can't decide yet how bright I want them to be, or how gray. I also need to pick up some antique white to dry brush over top. I could probably wait til the windows are in for this, though, to avoid the holiday mess at Michael's. I've mentally begun to plan the custom counters for the shop. I want to make a "Sales" version of the store furniture and a "Baking" version. Ideally they could be the same furniture but I'm not sure. I really want a prep table for Tilly to roll out dough on, but I also really want a sales counter with display space. And I want them to be in the exact same footprint. ;) So I will probably have to have at least some of the furniture come out depending on what activity I want to go on at the time. I guess I will have to stop at Michael's if I want to do these in time, unless I feel like sawing through the basswood I have. Probably the smarter idea in the long run, rather than having bumps and bruises in balsa wood. Tonight I hope to lay out the trim and stain it, and maybe complete the wash coats on the paperclay.

Over the holiday weekend I was able to work some more on the Buttercup! My goal was to finish the entire thing before Christmas, but I'm going to focus on the interior just to make sure I can at least take photos of it all decorated for the holidays. I will need to paint the exterior paperclay so I can finish the windows, though. I'm really irritated with Joann.com right now! They have the paint I need in stock but their server can't handle the cybermonday traffic, so it keeps dumping my shopping cart after I spend 15 minutes sluggishly picking out what I need! I'll try again later, or maybe just stop at the brick & mortar one night this week - though they rarely have what I need. What's more, the Michael's across the street is out of Ceramcoat hippo gray (and ONLY hippo gray), so what's to say they aren't, as well? Back to the build, sorry for the rant! I actually finished the last of the paperclay the previous weekend, so I was just adding coats of the stucco on Wednesday night. Then I decided to paper the stove nook and install the light so I could solder the wires all at once (the carriage lights outside were still waiting to be hooked up, though I glued them on over a week ago). I can definitely see why people try to paper before assembly (not that I couldn't see the logic in it before)! The brick paper was also not cut to exact size before I glued the nook on, though I had made a template, thank goodness, way back when. So I cut the paper and glued it in, then cut out a circle from the ceiling surface (thankfully I DID cut this to size before) for the lamp to glue directly to the wood. I'd also already drilled the hole so the wires went through easily and it all rested upside down to dry. Meanwhile I glued the stone sheets for the flooring to the piece of wood for that (which was separate as I'd made the floor too low in the nook). I accidentally dropped that face-down on a glue spot, but thankfully the stove will cover it all the time anyway. I also reset the roof on the alcove because it had dried with a gap and I finally couldnt' take it anymore! After Thanksgiving day I sat for a while, frowning at the house trying to figure out what the next step should be. It was around this time that I decided the interior got priority, not to mention I'd been to Michael's and couldn't find the paint for the stone work. I stripped the casing off the wires and got ready to hook them up to the exposed tapewire I had in the second floor, both on the veranda and in the upstairs alcove above the entrance. But I couldn't find my little brads! I emptied out my box of supplies in the hopes that I'd find them, but no luck. So I decided I could use eyelets instead. Yesterday I drilled holes the size of the eyelets and pounded them in place with the exposed wires around them. I considered testing them before soldering, but something stopped me. What was it? Dumbicity, I tell you! The eyelets were loose in the wiring, plus drilling through the tapewire made ragged edges that didn't connect well unless wiggled, so only two of the three new lights turned on when I plugged the house in. I managed to get the second exterior light on by wiggling the eyelet, but I wasn't about to accept a wiggly eyelet and put flooring over the connection. I double-checked my wiring overall with a test probe and all was fine. A renewed search in my supplies box found a paint tray with exactly six brads stuck to an adhesive label! Jackpot! So I was able to reconnect the lights with the brads, using the soldering gun to melt the solder off the eyelets and trash those. I decided this time to TEST the connections before soldering again. ;) The light in the stove nook still wasn't working! It was a loose bulb. *facepalm* With all the lights now working, I soldered the connections and finished the flooring in the upstairs living area. Note I didn't install the wallpaper yet, but I will have baseboards so that will cover the wallpaper edges above the floor boards. I ordered that miter box set from HBS finally, along with a couple holiday decorations. I'm really dying to put the trim up around the windows, but I suppressed the idiotic urge (the paperclay isn't painted outside, recall), and continued on the upstairs. The two triangular walls on the sides got their wallpaper glued on, with loose tabs awaiting the roof eaves. I put on the front roof first, though life probably would have been easier if I'd done the back roof first. It took some trimming of the paperclay to get the front roof to lay flat, then some 'clamping' with masking tape to hold it so it could dry. I realized that the side pieces were cut so that the border lined up with their tops, even though there was that triangle of space. Since those pieces were glued on and dry, I decided to lower the roof papers and paint a coordinating color above that just in case any photos revealed the difference. So I painted this 3/4" or so while the glue on the roof dried. While this dried, I glued on the gable over the door. I wish I'd thought to wire that front wall there for a little lamp. What a dark corner! I took a break to watch football downstairs, but came back up for the evening game and glued in the papers on the roof pieces and gable walls. So the upstairs just awaits trim! I still had a bit before bedtime, so I attempted to hinge the cabinet under the windowseat. Thank goodness I hadn't glued that piece in yet, or I'd never have gotten those little brads in! As it is, I needed glue to help me hold the hinges in place in the frame. I could not, for the life of me, figure out the drawer pulls I had, and wasn't crazy about them as door pulls, so I left the cabinets hanging open until I could. I'm sure I'll wish I hadn't glued them in yet when it's time to install those. ;) I have another project I have to spend the evenings of this week working on, but hopefully that'll be set by the time I get my paint for the exterior, then I can do that painting and get the windows glued in!

Well my DH told me the house looks fine with the two different sizes of stone, so I finished the frame on the upstairs door and added two more corner stacks. I have one more corner and then the back 'corners' of the house and the paperclay will be done! I should be able to finish it tonight. I need to pick up some Hippo Gray so I can start painting this weekend. ;) I figure I'll stucco after I paint the rocks. Though I may do a test wall to see if I can tint the stucco or if I'll have to paint over it.

This was my first experience with Paperclay, and of course I love it as much as everyone seems to! It's pretty forgiving, and working with an old credit card and some dental probes, it was happy to oblige me. I'm not sure I like the scale of the window blocks to the edging blocks. I was trying to simulate a little cottage I saw once, but those window and door frames were rough hewn wood, while I wanted it to be more stone to go with the gingerbread arches of the kit. So my framing stones are small and remind me of castle construction, while the edge I did first feels of a different type. I don't entirely know what to do to fix this. If the edging stones were smaller to match the frames, the whole house could begin to look like brick. I should mention the walls between the stones will be stuccoed. I'm also toying with the idea of making any protruding constructions (the doorway, alcove, and kitchen extension) built entirely of stone, but I haven't sold myself on that idea yet.

So I thought maybe I could shave a couple dollars off the cost of this $60 Pink Christmas tree by making it myself. Dollhouse tree kits start at about $36 for a decent one, lights with enough bulbs and a battery pack seem to be about $20, ornaments aren't too bad, but by then you've already spent $56 so it's hard to imagine saving any money in the long run. So someone on the forums here said that the Michael's Lemax village bulbs are pretty inexpensive. They also have some trees (pre-decorated with indoor ornaments or outdoor snow). Then Matt's mom sent me a 50% off coupon via email yesterday. So why not? I got a Blue Spruce exterior tree. It's about 10" tall, which is about 2.5" too tall, but I can remove the base, trim off from the bottom, and reattach the base or make another for the right height. It's got a bit of not-quite powdered snow on it (seems to have been mixed with an adhesive liquid and sprayed on, but it just kinda makes it look sparkly, not snow-frosted like some other ones I've seen). The top branches need some help separating from each other, but overall it's got a great shape and it was only $6.99. The Lemax lights were multi-colored, ran on a battery, and came in a pack of 50 bulbs, WAY more than you get with dollhouse rice grain bulbs! It was only $8.99! I also got some 1/8" Christmas colored cord for garland at about $4 for the roll. Matt was with me, and he veto'd the pink tree. ;) Maybe this will be Nettle's tree next year and Tilly can have a pink one then. So my total was what? $20? Thinking I'd save $4.49 with the coupon, I went to the register. The total rang up as $10.49 after Matt threw in a Twix bar cause we were late for dinner. When she used the coupon, it said -$.50. Um... well, the total was lower than I expected so I wasn't going to argue. In the car I checked my receipt. The trim ribbon was marked down to $1.49. The Spruce was marked down to $3.49. The Lights were marked down to $4.49. So the Twix was the only regularly-priced item eligible for the 50% off coupon. So there. Let that be a lesson to me never to assume I can't make something cheaper. I still have to order ornaments. I'll get a set of multi-colored balls and silver ornaments and star for the top. That'll cost me about $10 plus shipping. Not bad! Sure, I have to make it, but now I'm saving over $40, and it's worth it! I dropped my camera on Saturday when I was straightening up the work room, and discovered this morning I needed to open it because the casing had popped open slightly. Not having time for that, you get an iPhone photo of the tree thrown together. ;) With a big doll head in the background, why not? I am now SUPER excited to work on Tilly's bakery this weekend. I still have doll heads to photograph, which I hope to get to tonight, and other commission stuff that will be worked on during the evenings for the rest of the week. Eeee, miniatures!

The wedding was four weeks ago (it was wonderful!), and I'm just about done clearing my doll-painting commissions list so I can get back to Tilly's bakery! Let's pay no mind to the little voice that says 30% off the Sugarplum sure would be nice... I wanted the Glencroft or the Aster for Tilly's friend Nettle but I have no idea where I'd put it (and it looks like the Aster is discontinued?)... DH says I need to work on the bakery this weekend. Gosh, really? Sigh. Well, if you say so, dear! ;) (I know, I picked a good one!)

I removed, labeled and sanded all the pieces to the Buttercup and the Winner's Workshop this past weekend. I didn't think I'd get to do more than that for a while, but I found myself with a spare hour last night, so I decided to do a dry run so I could see the construction and let it speak to me! No glue, just lots of blue tape. ;) I'm planning out the best way to modify the house (I want to move the door to one side of the front for better flow inside, a la Storybook Cottage), so no glue was used yet. Once I figure out how I want to chop up the house I'll do that, then seal the wood and prime it for the actual build. In that first photo you can see the workshop to the right. It's a bigger footprint than I expected, but as you can see from this photo, doesn't look very big inside: So I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it at all. I'll wait to see how big the stove is when that arrives (Bless Ernie and his 50% off coupon!). What I'm sorta thinking of is building my own box extension, attaching it to the side of the house so that the roof of the extension matches up with the second floor, and letting her have a little roof top garden over the stove alcove. So, yeah, we'll see how that goes. If the above ends up happening, I won't be using this workshop. More Pictures: It should look a bit roomier when she has an outfit without wings! Tilly is joined by PaperJack, a Min Del Re by Elfdoll. I'm pleased that putting two dolls in the house doesn't make it feel crowded. That's a good sign for what will become a shop full of counters and cushy chairs for enjoying one's purchases!

Three and a half weeks to go until my wedding. The dress isn't done yet! Is it bad that all I can think of is the dollhouse I get to work on when it's over? Of course that's not entirely ALL I'm thinking about, but I do tend to daydream!

Well I was a good girl and put away my mini tools and bits to work on my wedding dress. Before I did, I painted in between the floor boards to turn those white vinyl stripes a nice calm brown. I also received my HBS items, but completely miscalculated the brick, somehow, and it won't work for the stove alcove, so I'll order sheets of brick texture instead of using actual ceramic brick. My fiancée gave me the shop door bell and weathervane I wanted for my birthday, too. How cruel! I'm supposed to be working on my dress! If you want to see me work on my dress, the blog for that is http://www.eggplantbride.com

I haven't had time to post about my progress! I've: - wired the house - put up the wallpaper on the first floor - painted the bay pink and glued it in place - glued down the flooring - traced a hole in the ceiling paper for the lighting and glued the ceiling treatment in place - wired the lamp through to the second floor and soldered it to brads set in the tapewire - put flooring on most of the second floor (except where I need to get to the tapewire for the outdoor lighting I've also stained the trim for the insides of windows and doors. I'm using the outdoor trim for the main entrance and will use paperclay 'stone' to frame the outsides of windows. I did sketch up my plan for that but haven't digitalized it yet. I got my order of bricks for the stove alcove, BUT I somehow completely misread the depth on the bricks (thinking somehow 3/32 was closer to 1/16th than 1/8th), so it won't fit with the stove in. I'm going to order the rubber brick sheet instead. I can put the flooring paper down in there, though. I also received the trim strips, so I'll cut that before I stain it, then install that next. The interior window trim will wait for the outside stone sculpting to be in place so I don't mess up the acetate windows with clay. So I'm not sure what steps to take next. I'm kinda thinking the paperclay, but I dunno. Anyway, I have to put the house aside for a bit to work on my wedding dress. October will be here before I know it!

My photos have all been taken with my iPhone, and so I have to email the photos to myself to get them. Earlier this week my email wasn't working! So I couldn't report on my progress from the weekend, and now it's Wednesday and all week I was eager to work on it, but behaved and took both Monday and Tuesday night to finish up our wedding invitations. I almost had time to work on it last night but ended up working on my brother's website instead (it has a real deadline, after all). So back to the progress timeline. I spent most of last week priming: These were the last pieces to prime! Friday night I was able to start the build! I have photos from during that .. .somewhere! I don't know what happened to them, but I was pretty proud of my method for keeping everything square. I'll have to find them and edit this post later. Here we go! I didn't realize the first paragraph wasn't all I could do under step one, so I was worried the build may not dry square. I taped triangles to the bottom floor corners to get the angles right. Here is the build as it waits for me: (That piece on the floor will be the floor of the alcove, to bring it level with the flooring that will go down in the main area, since the alcove will have paper flooring). The veranda over the alcove will have just enough space for a little piggy and her flowers! So at this point I stopped to measure the tiles needed for that stove alcove. Almost 800! Well, I'd always been concerned that tiling might make it look like a shower stall, and the idea of that many plain tiles cinched it. Instead, I ordered a sheet of brick, and paper flagstone flooring. It'll look a bit cozier, too, I think! I placed an order based loosely on my list from the last post, sprayed fixative on my wall treatments, and just need to run the wiring and then I can start decorating! Exciting!

HBS has that 20% coupon right now, so I'm assembling a list of the things I think I want, while I get started assembling and figuring out what else or how much I need. I'm not allowed to buy the things I'd already circled in my catalog, since my birthday is two weeks from today. For the Stove Alcove: Victorian Ceramic Floral Tiles Solid White Ceramic Tiles Single Tulip Ceiling light For the Main Construction: 6pc Walnut Twin Bedroom set (If anyone wants any single parts of this set, let me know. It's just the only bed I can find that I like for the space) Small Crown Moulding Victorian Base boards Some Kind of Roof ridge Cupola Porch Railing

Not particularly exciting as photos, but I just wanted to note that Sunday night I sealed all the pieces of the build, and last night began priming the pieces. I'll probably finish tonight or tomorrow night. Then, trim the wallpaper, then, the BUILD!

Last night I finished cutting out the pieces for the alcove! Here it is, standing on its own with no tape, showing the fit for the stove. I just need to cut roof pieces, and cut the opening in the Buttercup wall! Almost ready for dry fit #3!

Last night I started cutting out the custom pieces I designed for the stove alcove. The birch ply from Michael's is tough to cut through with a utility knife, but with some patience I made it through. My knuckles were a bit stiff afterwards, but it's totally worth it to have nice rigid walls. I used a combination of the utility knife (for most cuts), a small saw (for cutting down the sides of tabs), and a hand drill (for the corners of the bottom holes which are back from the edge). I'll finish cutting these out tonight I think.

Thursday a box arrived, full to bursting with furniture and accessories kits. She's had them in her garage since the 90s, and most haven't even been started! I was gritting my teeth after Christmas, trying to resist the urge to buy furniture for the unbuilt Buttercup, and was proud that I managed. Here is my reward for such strength of character! So back to the build... Saturday was spent re-gluing and puttying the boards I'd cut to make the modifications to the front wall. When I ran out of clamps to hold the pieces down with, I fixed them in place with thumbtacks (I was working against scrap plywood). Items were glued over wax paper to avoid gluing my sheets to my work surfaces. I had spent Saturday evening puzzling over what to do about that custom window I'd created. The casings and sashes didn't fit in any easily-trimmable way. I even measured out and considered cutting more standardized window openings to use pre-made windows from HBS, but the Buttercup has such a low ceiling height that I really didn't have many options, and I wasn't happy with the idea of mixing the fanciful gingerbread shapes of the house with more austere Victorian doors - and the pre-cut doorway was such that I couldn't buy a matching door for the house. In the end I decided to proceed as planned, and I'll be searching for basswood or plywood veneer for making new window trim for the outside from a solid piece of wood (basing the design on the window frames that came with the house). Sunday found my glued/puttied pieces nice and dry, so I rebuilt the house in Dry Fit #2: Everything went back together surprisingly well. The only part to give me difficulty was the roof. Odd, since all my measurements were based on moving the roof perfectly to avoid cutting shingles in half. Alas, the roof line now has a partial shingle on the front and back, as the opening for the front entrance ended up about 1/8th of an inch too far to the right. I also had to move the slot holes for the front the same distance (as seen in photo above). Other than that, everything went very well. You can see my (upside-down) sketching on the front window to decide on the frame I wanted. The bigger, lighter shaded area is the next-size up in standard window openings. BIG! The darker, smaller shading shows the window frame I intend to create. The white shape inside is a paper mock-up of the counter I plan to get for the bakery. In the prime example of good timing, the Bodo Hennig stove I ordered from the HBS sale arrived Saturday. I was able to put it in the dry build to see how it fit. As expected, it fits nicely but leaves little room for other furniture outside of the counter area. Tilly, what do you think? Tilly: "Hmmm....." Tilly: "Make the house bigger!" I had a backup plan to build an alcove on this side of the house (mirroring the Bay window and using the same frame shape detail). The alcove would be the height of the first floor so that Tilly could also have a little deck above, leading off the living area. I began sketching the cut for the wall, allowing just a bit more than a quarter inch for the ceramic tiles I'd like to use on the walls around the stove. And that was it for the weekend! I left the house standing in case I wanted to take any additional measurements, etc. I'll stop by Michael's crafts tonight for basswood, but I think I'll end up at Lowe's looking for plywood veneer for the alcove. I don't want to trust balsa wood for walls. That's it so far! I don't know when I'm going to get back to it.. I have a lot of wedding-related tasks I need to move ahead on, and I really want to plug away at those this week.

Well imagine my surprise! Michael's had sheets of 1/8th inch birch plywood (very similar to the workshop kit quality). I picked up two pieces just to be sure I wouldn't run short, along with a balsa wood square dowel for reinforcing the untabbed front walls beneath the first floor. I started making marks to cut, but put it away and will probably only work on it again this week if I get tired of tripping over the ever-growing box of dollhouse supplies.

With my confidence up, I decided to measure for the cuts on the Buttercup build last night. Then I grabbed my utility knife and just kept going! Unfortunately the camera batteries gave up on me and I don't have photos of the measurements. ;) The photos below are from my trusty iPhone. It looks quite a mess but I promise there is a method! The roof was the base measurement, as I wanted to be sure that the 'shingle' line along the bottom was not chopped so that a half shingle ended up on each side of the house. Taking the measurement from the roof, I began measuring the cut along the right-side front wall. I didn't want to cut the window in half (as I would have if I just measured from the right extreme edge of the piece), so I split my needed width in half and took it from either side of the window. Then I cut the left-side front wall directly in half (based on the window, since it was not completely centered in the wall). Why would I cut that window in half if I didn't want to cut the right-side window? To create a fancy window when all is reglued! I'm quite proud of this decision. Next, I took a long hard look at the floors compared to the new front walls. Did I want to cut the floor from front to back in the same place I cut the side wall and roof? Or do I want to cut OFF the front entry and slide it to the right? I opted to cut the entryway floors off (and the tabs, too, since they'd be in the wrong spots) and slide it to the right. This way the cut is perpendicular to all the other cuts I made. Hopefully that will allow the solid floor pieces (of the main portion) to lend strength to the reglued seams made in the wall. I may be proud, but Tilly thinks I've ruined her bakery!! Tonight I'll see if I can glue the pieces back together. Some spots will need filling with putty, but I think I'll glue first then smooth later.