Hedwig's House

Since my in progress shots don't show much progress I'm waiting to show you what I've been doing on the contest house.

But what I did do was take pictures of a project that's been on my desk for a while and I just got around to telling you about it.

I have a fascination with taking things that aren't supposed to be a dollhouse and turning them into one.  Like...glass fronted cabinets, birdhouses...that sort of thing.

I also love owls.  I can draw a pretty decent cartoony owl but I'm always on the lookout for something cute and little for my dollhouses. 

So when I saw this lantern I had to grab it.

I mean look at that? Is it not adorable?

And since the theme of my desk at work is owls...It's perfect there.  The color even matches the turquoise I've got going.

Well...sorta.  But that's okay because Owls!

My first step was putting in a floor.  And that was pretty simple.  Some paper towels and glue to build up the floor around the votive holder in the bottom and then some pretty textured paper on the top of it.



Ignore the furniture, look at the floor!

Can you tell I didn't take a lot of in progress shots?

To me the cool thing about birds/owls/winged creatures, is that they don't need to bother with stairs so you can have two or three stories without pesky things like...floors or ladders.

And since this lovely creature was making her home in this little lantern she'd need a place to sleep right?

Isn't she adorable?

I'm calling her Hedwig (of course) and I got her from Handmade By November along with another owl for a different project. 

This Hedwig is a bit younger than canon Hedwig from Harry Potter and she's just learning the craft of being a Post Owl.  So she has to study her textbooks.

I made this myself, can you tell?

And she needs light to study by and a place to sleep.  So I added a chandelier and a hammock to the dome of the lantern.

This took a while to make...I relearned macramé for this.

Worth it though because it looks pretty underneath.

You can't see the chandelier very well so here's another peek and a look at Hedwig's little statue of a distinguished post owl in History.

He was originally a charm.

The chair and table I found at Hobby Lobby but I made the corner shelf out of some woodsies.  I painted them all the same chocolate brown and varnished them with clear nail polish.  I actually bought some clear polish cheap at CVS just for my miniatures.

They match nicely I think.

The Harry Potter statue was a Christmas ornament but since he's Hedwig's Wizard she needed to study who he is and how he looks so she could bring him his mail without fail.  I mean how did you think owls knew who their wizard or witch was? Magic?  Get serious.

The cake was another charm and so was the candelabra, I just cut off the loops.  The owl pellet container is wooden miniature canister painted with different shades of green nail polish.

I added the upholstery to the chair using my tried and true method of glue and binder lips to hold things in place until the glue dried.

Hedwig fits on her little chair perfectly.

I cheat and use a little piece of masking tape to hold her in place.

She's not sure if she should study more or have some cake.

It is a dilemma... Go for the cake Hedwig! The cake!

Or get back to studying...up to you.

Bye bye!

And there you have it folks.  Hedwig's House lives on my desk at work where she can keep me company.