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Jodi, your organization is awe-inspiring. My workroom is tiny, only about 8x9, and it's unusable because it's so full of piles of materials, supplies, and unfinished projects. I think my next project has to be that room! Thanks for the inspiration! Makes me want to tackle it :)

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I was using a mini vacuuming attachment to clean off the dust from some cottage landscaping, when it sucked up a piece of a foam bush. There was hardly any suction, but it still mamaged to make a hole in the little shrub. I shrugged and moved on along the line, but then it did it again on a long shrub that was under the front window! How annoying. When I was finished dusting I got my paints out to touch up the shrubbery, but everytime I put brush to bush, the paint and brush removed more bush! Upon touching the foam of one of the mauled bushes I discovered that the foam had softened to almost a mousse like consistency. It had become extremely soft inside. Another foam bush made from a different sponge was still nice and firm, though. 

Of course I had to redo some of the landscaping and I like it even better now. I made a new foam bush under the window and added some different greenery. I finished the house at least 16 years ago, maybe longer.

 

IMG_2364.JPG

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10 hours ago, abloom said:

Jodi, your organization is awe-inspiring. My workroom is tiny, only about 8x9, and it's unusable because it's so full of piles of materials, supplies, and unfinished projects. I think my next project has to be that room! Thanks for the inspiration! Makes me want to tackle it :)

Thanks Andrea! I used to be in the same situation - a tiny space to work in. Then I moved into the dining room, but made no changes to it for about three years. Finally, I realized that my home should be where I LIVE, and why reserve a room for use only a couple times each year. So, I moved out the hutch and buffet, and started truly enjoying the room on an almost daily basis. Do we ever miss having a dining room? Not really. On holidays, we gather in the kitchen/family room, use tv trays and the coffee table, and it works out just fine. 

I hope you can find a solution so that you end up with an organized and inviting creative space! It does a body good!

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16 hours ago, KathieB said:

Do you need any more of the blue paper? You may decide to redo the patchy parts. I was going to use it in the master bedroom but found some lovely light green background flower print cotton (quilting) cloth in a nice scale for the walls with a coordinating green/small polka dot bit for bedding and maybe curtains. The blue paper has gone into the stash. I have no immediate plans for it, so if you can use it I'll be happy to send it along.

Hi Kathie! Just saw this - you're too kind. Two sheets would have been perfect but it's done now and doesn't look too bad. what do you stick the cloth on with? doesn't the glue seep through the cotton?

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3 hours ago, WestPaces said:

Hi Kathie! Just saw this - you're too kind. Two sheets would have been perfect but it's done now and doesn't look too bad. what do you stick the cloth on with? doesn't the glue seep through the cotton?

 

3 hours ago, havanaholly said:

I seem to recall Kathie has great success with laundry starch.

Yes, liquid laundry starch. It's great for gluing cloth to a surface. It dries invisibly, holds tight, and is easy to pull off without harming the wall surface when it's time to change it out. I usually paint the wall with a thin layer of starch and then gently press the cloth into place.

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Well, I do have some progress to report. I managed to go through several piles and boxes and get all of that sorted. I have a medium sized pile set aside to sell, and have sorted *most* of the furniture and accessories into categories. It's quite stunning to see it all together....I have a whole shopping bag of Christmas things, so a Christmas house or two is definitely in the future.

I sorted through a huge pile of random stuff set aside for the Yellow house. I have more direction and focus now that it's coming along, and knew there were a lot of things in there that I wasn't going to use. That was also a lot of fun, because I got to revisit the original contents of the house, and got a few new ideas.There is still MORE furniture and accessories set aside in another room. That will have to wait for another day, but the goal is once I have EVERYTHING sorted, then significantly thin it out. I know I have a few duplicates, and some pieces are better examples of the same thing, so once I can see all of it, I'll make some choices.    

Most all of my building and crafting supplies were already organized. I have a dedicated craft room, and have come up with some storage and organization solutions that seem to work for me. One of the things I did was use the plastic storage drawers (labeled) and then built a table to go over them. I have a fabric skirt that's attached with Velcro at the top edge, so it can be removed for washing as needed. The skirt hides the drawers, and the table top gives me a solid work surface. I have a framed peg board, too, but starting to wish I had another one.

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13 hours ago, KathieB said:

 

Yes, liquid laundry starch. It's great for gluing cloth to a surface. It dries invisibly, holds tight, and is easy to pull off without harming the wall surface when it's time to change it out. I usually paint the wall with a thin layer of starch and then gently press the cloth into place.

Hmm, interesting: would this technique work for upholstering furniture? I recently experimented upholstery using tacky glue, did ok overall but seeped through in a few places - too much glue? Pressed too hard?

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35 minutes ago, WestPaces said:

Hmm, interesting: would this technique work for upholstering furniture? I recently experimented upholstery using tacky glue, did ok overall but seeped through in a few places - too much glue? Pressed too hard?

I'm not sure the starch would work well on anything but a smooth, flat surface. It doesn't have the tacky quality of glue. Maybe fabric glue would work better than tacky glue? If you leave Aileen's Tacky Glue in an open container it will thicken up. Maybe a thin layer of the thickened glue applied with a toothpick like a spatula would adhere the fabric but not bleed through the cloth. Sounds as if you have some experimenting to do. :D 

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Hi, Kathie—I’m so glad to hear from someone who’s actually used starch for fabric—I’ve been agonizing over “which adhesive?” for fabric wall covering, but now wonder whether the weight of the fabric would matter using starch—Chinese silk brocade (with a very small/dollhouse appropriate size) print. I don’t have a huge piece, so there’s not much room for trial and error—your thoughts?

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8 minutes ago, Tiaannabelle's Mom said:

Hi, Kathie—I’m so glad to hear from someone who’s actually used starch for fabric—I’ve been agonizing over “which adhesive?” for fabric wall covering, but now wonder whether the weight of the fabric would matter using starch—Chinese silk brocade (with a very small/dollhouse appropriate size) print. I don’t have a huge piece, so there’s not much room for trial and error—your thoughts?

:hmm: I've only used it on cotton fabric. No experience with silk. I don't know why it wouldn't work. Can you clip a small bit, maybe a strip an inch long and a half inch wide, and adhere it to a piece of wood. My concern is that the moisture in the starch would seep through the silk, but even if it does, it should pretty much disappear when it is dry. Sorry I can't be more definite. This is another situation where experimentation is in order.

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I was at the Lancaster (PA) mini show & sale yesterday and picked up a couple of things...mostly I needed quarter round for my Federal farmhouse rehab project, but this little display plate caught my eye- reminded me of one that my mother has hanging on her wall, so I thought it would be perfect for my "Grandma's Cottage".  :)  I also happened to find a beautiful rug for Grandma's bedroom and a sweet little geranium planter for her front porch!  OK, so now I need to make some time in my week to work on this project some more!! 

4 2018 mini show finds.jpg

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I was at the Portland mini Flea Market yesterday - got some marvelous 1:48 items (they are in my album), as well as 25 cent quarter scale brown plastic furniture and a $1 tiny print fabrics. Such a great flea market. I attached a photo of the window from a 1:48 house I got - so cute and well done. And so tiny.

 

bavarian3.jpg

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3 hours ago, jbnmini said:

I was at the Lancaster (PA) mini show & sale yesterday and picked up a couple of things...mostly I needed quarter round for my Federal farmhouse rehab project, but this little display plate caught my eye- reminded me of one that my mother has hanging on her wall, so I thought it would be perfect for my "Grandma's Cottage".  :)  I also happened to find a beautiful rug for Grandma's bedroom and a sweet little geranium planter for her front porch!  OK, so now I need to make some time in my week to work on this project some more!! 

4 2018 mini show finds.jpg

I LOVE those frames!

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I have been diligently organizing the craft room and closet. As I empty boxes that were hastily filled for the move, I'm able to consolidate like items together, which helps immensely. I also found the box with the rest of the Beacon Hill components and, more importantly, the instructions and my inspiration pictures! It's great fun opening bags and boxes to discover items I'd totally forgotten. Another day should pretty much see this operation completed. Am finding odds and ends for the yard sale, but so far no minis. It should be picture ready soon.

I even found the materials to make a Peddler Woman, a project from the 2015 NAME conference in Virginia. I found the naked doll first and couldn't figure out where she'd come from until I found the rest of her kit. I'd signed up for the workshop but missed it when life intervened. I offered to gift my paid-for spot to someone else, but they insisted on sending the kit to me, with fairly complete instructions, thank goodness! I think with a little tweaking, she may become the happy homeowner of the English cottage Glencroft. 

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Oh Kathie, I have a "thing" for Peddlar dolls - so naturally I wish you would make up the kit as per all the instructions ... but I also have a "soft-spot" for the Glencroft ... so if you think she'll be happier there, I agree!  (Not that you asked for anyone's opinion.)  

I do love finding hidden minis that I've forgotten about.  Makes me feel the delight of a child coming across secret treasure.

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Working slowly but surely on getting my work spaces cleaned up and organized, and hoping fervently that we have finally seen the last of the snow we're meant to until winter sets in again. Amazing how trying to clean up and organize can somehow make you feel so NOT organized... anyways, back to the grindstone of getting stuff moved and changed about. Thanks to those that have posted their own organization efforts -- you're helping to keep me on track with this.

 

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