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Well there for a bit I thought I might just get the country house finished to send for Christmas, but a combination of time getting away from me, and not good timing to send it, got the better of me so no mad furious mini-ing this holiday! Got the porch handrails installed (door wreath from Ernie's), and a chimney topper made of basswood, square wooden rod, matboard, and screen (inspired by Brae's (otterine): Got all the windows dressed. Some views of the kitchen so far: And of the powder room, with the blinds based on Monique's tutorial (though mine are glued into place and hence now no longer working ): The upstairs bedroom so far (that bed is just a stand-in; still thinking about what type of bed to make): And some views of the parlor so far: Lit fireplace! Fireplace hardware set from Michael's (holiday minis section); vase from Ernie's. Made some kitchen chairs and a table from Kris' tutorials (I had made some for the Laurel); I wasn't brave enough to try to put the black edging on the table though! I bought at the hardware store some 18 gage wire which fit in the 3/32 tubing nicely, and was able to salvage all four chairs that I bent (the first time I tried this, my first Al tube was a sacrificial goner). Kris used painted matboard on her chairs, but I covered mine with cloth so I installed cardstock (gessoed and painted) to cover the backs and underneath. I was going to use the same checked fabric that is on the chairs, on the table-top, with a fringe, but the checks are not printed square to the fabric weave, so I have to find something else. I have a plaid printie from Jennifer's modeled here (not installed yet). Well I have finished most of the to-do items on my last list; outstanding are the landscaping and all the paint touchups. I will get to it, and back to the San Fran, after the holidays.

I am rounding the bend with the country house (bash of a Laurel kit); now I am approaching the finishing-up stages. (So yes, there is a fair ways to go. ) Finishing install of the kitchen cabinetry: Do you like my little potholders? They're bits of cardstock covered with fabric and bordered with cord. One can barely make out in these pics that the "tile" floor was pieced together from two very slightly different plastic tile sheets; I will put a coat of paint over the whole floor to remedy that. My mini stock is running low! Finally got around to gluing the house onto its base (1/4" plywood sheet) and gluing on the border (1/4" square dowel); coat of green paint, and finally gluing on the dormer roof: Had to get to that roof! For a while I was convinced that the original country house had a standing seam metal roof, but the more I looked at it, the more it didn't look like the seams were vertical (or if they were then they were very short). So I went with strips of cardstock encased in aluminum foil and cut to fit. This actually took quite a bit of time. You can see some loose roofing strips lying on the porch to the left. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, but thought that (even though I had the "wrong side" of the foil facing out) it still looked a bit shiny, so I painted on a mixture of acrylic staining gel and acrylic silver paint, which toned the metal down a bit. I also installed the porch railing, cut down from original kit pieces. I have been making progress on the inside, as well; plank flooring installed in 2nd floor bedroom, beadboard installed in kitchen, battery holder secured in place beneath the floor, coat of gesso on kitchen tiles in prep for paint coat: Need to prioritize what's left to do, if I'm to have any chance of getting it in the mail in the next week or so! Not in order of importance: Finish out trimming inside house, particularly 2nd floor bedroom. Install staircase railing on 2nd floor. Finish trimming on back side edges. Curtains. Install handrail on porch railing. Landscaping. Finish chimney top trim. Finish concrete painting (I am not quite happy with the color). Paint touchups inside and out. Seal the roofing. There are a few more pieces of furniture that I want to make, but I can make them after I've mailed the house.

It has been a busy month; I have made progress with the San Fran, getting up to the attic pieces and doing some wallpapering: Installed the front doors, which is a pin-hinge system using brads: Dry-fitting attic pieces: Meanwhile, the country house got its porch roof installed, finally! Making a porch swing from a dollar-store patio furniture kit that my mother found for me years ago (I have gotten alot of porch swings out of it!): And making progress with a fireplace surround, a bit inspired by the one in this blog: Needed some kitchen cabinetry, a la Kris' matboard tutorial, but with my own spin on it by adding soffits. Actually this made the install alot easier as I could handle the cabinetry as a whole unit. Dry-fitting the pieces (I modified the dimensions from Kris' tut to fit the space): A coat of gesso helps even out the finish: At first I tried to mix up something in dusty rose, but it kept turning more and more of a ghastly pink, so I gave everything a couple coats in barn red and I am alot happier with that. It compliments the (faded) barn-red in the wallpaper, I think. I will glue in place the sink unit when I'm done with it (needs faucet, and maybe some counter-top stove burners) but first I have to figure out my kitchen flooring.

Well it has been about a month since I posted last, because of the upgrade; I think I have figu(red out how to post photos (had to put them in an album first), so here goes: Some exterior paint, finally: Looking more and more house-y! Screen door and staircase railing: Meanwhile, assembling the walls of the San Fran; each wall piece has a little groove that the piece below it slides into. The whole wall assembly turns out to be a bit bendy and flimsy; hopefully it will end up being supported by something. I coated all the glued pieces with sanding sealer per the directions. Here I am gluing on the 1/4" square rod that will support the floors from the sides: Here is the foundation: And here I am splicing the 2nd and 3rd floors together (each floor, like the 1st floor above, consists of two pieces that get butt-spliced together with a thin backer at the seam) and gluing angle-rod to the 3rd floor to support the roof: Back to the country house: here I am trying to figure out what chair to make for the parlor. Kris' chair at 1inchminisbykris has a footprint that is too big for the parlor, so I went back to my old wing chair design (how I made the wing chair) and fiddled with the design a bit. I found this pic of an old armchair online and I liked the skirt on it (besides I am not good at making furniture legs) so I changed the design to have a solid base so that it could be skirted. I also raised the arms and seat, and changed the back profile a bit. I used matboard for this prototype, and quickly decided that it wasn't thick enough, so I used a 3/16" foamboard for the pair that I made next: Then I agonized over the print-- too busy? Too much? Did it go with the wallpaper and flooring? Auuugh! Thinking about other fabrics; at least half of these are too light to work with the carpet however! So I emailed Mom and asked her what she thought; she said she loved it and it wasn't too much, so I decided to finish them out! As you can see, I also made another piano from Dada's dollhouse tutorial.

I've been working on a few different things lately; the folks got an old family piano restored, so I used dadas dollhouse piano tutorial as a base to make my version of it. Here is the original: My version, staged in the parlor of the country house (Laurel bash): A comparison of the one built straight from the tutorial, and the bashed model. I used dowel and foamboard, with cardstock overlay, to make the inset end-pieces. It took me a couple weekends to make, all told. I didn't quite get the color right, but close. The country house finally got its porch planks installed: To make a quilt for the country house, I spent a weekend trying something I've been meaning to try for years now-- English Paper Piecing (EPP), with 1/2"-sided hexagons. I mean to try smaller hexies next time; this one was just practice! Here's what the back-side looks like, with all the papers still in. Here I have removed all the papers. I backed it with some very thin muslin that my mother had sent me. I didn't quilt it; I'll quilt the tinier one when I make it. It is very time-consuming, not to say back-breaking, eye-twisting, and finger-stiffening! The San Fran is coming along; I primed the inside: The pieced-together walls are not flat and smooth on the inside, and so wallpaper won't lie nicely on them (instead you'll see every line). So I need to make cardboard templates to glue the wallpaper onto. Clamping the third floor on (somehow something always get out of square!): Here I am separating out the trims that will go over and under the exterior windows; must cut 30 of em!