Hobby vs Obsession

So I think...I might have a problem.

It's a well known fact, at least by those who know me, that I have an addictive personality.  Examples of this include eating a carton of Oreos (or bag of potato chips, pint of ice cream, whatever) in one sitting, being unable to put a new book down until its done (reading until 2 in the morning when I have to be up at 5:30) or writing all night and into the morning when a new idea seizes me and won't let go.

For those of you who don't know me as well as the folks familiar with the above issues, or at least you haven't seen me in a while, I'm a fairly creative person.  In the house I have supplies for jewelry making, scrapbooking, sewing (by hand and machine) lots of yarn and embroidery silks.  It's rare that I look at something and don't think, 'I wonder what would happen if I did this with it?'  It's why I end up with so many ideas, tangents, daydreams(?) with fanfiction. 

On the dollhouse side of things its seeing something meant for a completely different purpose and thinking 'I bet I could use that in a dollhouse'.  For instance seeing a five gallon bucket on the side of the road makes me think of little people (ie Borrowers style) living inside it and how I could turn the bucket into a dollhouse.  You know, complete with dirt and a mound of leaves for it to be half hidden against/inside.

Living with felines just makes the whole concept more of a challenge.  I took the easy way out with the Gothic Victorian and built the plexiglass case.

Not pretty but functional

Someday I'll build a table or island for the room and get my dining room table back for other things.

The Beachside Bungalow is...more challenging because I don't have a case for it.  I may end up trying to build one, or a large cabinet to keep it in.  Or I'll just keep the back to the wall and hopefully the cats out of it.

You know, once the kitten can't poke her head into the windows.  She's small enough to climb right through.

But its the challenge that excites me.

For instance lately I'd been wondering how hard it would be to build a dollhouse that opened from the side on a hinge like the Fisher Price dollhouse.  Like this one, that I grew up with.


See? Self contained, with a handle to carry it around.

Not that I want to carry a 1:12 scale dollhouse around (though the idea has some appeal).  But the enclosed idea has its merits for someone with a kitten who thinks she's a miniature building inspector.

I got to the point of seriously thinking about it.  If I didn't build the house from scratch it would require some serious kit bashing (as I'm told the process is called).  for instance, the Beachside Bungalow would require two kits, with parts of the side walls cut off and a decision to wrap the porch around. (Which is very appealing.)

I'm also fairly interested (obsessed, addicted) in realism in dollhouses.  I like the idea of the space being used the way an actual family would.  So a lot of the ways dollhouses are set up irritate me.  How many 'real' houses have only one bathroom?  How many of them have only two or three rooms on one level?  Or have the bathroom in an area that isn't over the kitchen or laundry room.

My parents had an addition put on the house and so I got to see in person a lot of the things that go into making a house work from a practical standpoint.

So there's kit bashing and then there's getting blueprints/plans for an actual house and figuring out how to make it work as a dollhouse.  Or getting brave enough to draw out my own plans.

Then I saw these amazing people.  And suddenly I have a whole new idea of how to use the lazy susan I have sitting in a closet.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156607477/revolving-dolls-house?ref=shop_home_feat_3

I mean amazing!

So of course I'm thinking of ways I could do that.  An elven mage tower?  A small keep on the side of a mountain, guarding the pass?  Or a modern house with its own unique design.  Each has its merits.

Either way this hobby isn't dying off the way others have.  I take a rest now and then but I'm finding more and more interesting things to play with and turn into miniatures.  And building my own from scratch is getting more and more appealing.  Especially as I get better at finishing touches.

So my addictive/obsessive personality is... well.  Hopefully I'll figure out some things to make and possibly sell so I'm not buying tons of things with no point but to collect.  I've got some ideas for that too.

But when don't I have ideas...

My brain is dangerous I tell you.  Dangerous.

Tumbling Down

As in the walls came... or the Dollhouse as the case may be. 

Yep.  You heard me right.  The dollhouse ended up on the floor.  Splat.  With a very loud thump/crash.

How did this happen you might ask?  Oh don't worry. I'll tell you. 

In fair Denton where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny... oops. Sorry that's Shakespeare.

Ahem.

So I was working on the front porch again.  Fixing some of the boards and getting the wiring glued into place with more beams/rafters.  In order to do this I need to have the house upside down.  There's no way I could do this work with the house right side up.  I'd end up needing a chiropractor. Again.

So far so good. Right?

I get most of the boards glued down, a few things held with binder clips and the wires glued into place.  And I decide to spackle/wood putty the holes in the wall closed.

See the hole above?  That needed to be closed.  It doesn't show from the inside but it looks awful on the outside.

 So I get everything nice and glued and spackled/wood puttied and I leave it that way to dry into place.

Another shot of the holes. There are three by the way.

In retrospect it might have been a mistake to go into the living room.  The dollhouse isn't meant to be balanced on the dormer and roof peak.  It has a nice solid base and is meant to sit right side up.

About half an hour later there was a very loud crash.  And a small white/calico cat streaking out of the dining room to hide in the guestroom.

I took a very deep breath and let it out.  And resigned myself to whatever disaster had occurred.  Jess got up with me and took a quick look.  Then he told me to get the camera because otherwise no one would believe what had happened.

I'll just show you.  A picture is worth a thousand words right?

Figure it out?

Here are a few more pictures to give you a better idea of the situation.

Please forgive the mess on the floor.  I'd say it doesn't always look that like but I'd be lying to your face. Computer screens.  Whatever. I'd be telling a blatant falsehood.

Getting a better idea of what happened?

Notice Swoops face down in a box.

You see Swoops had been here...

He was supervising.

I bet you've figured it out by now.

And here is our culprit.

Being held up for her mugshot. Tali Zorah Vas'Normandy

She loves to investigate the dollhouse and probably jumped from a spot on the desk to the top of it.  Which would be the base since it was inverted.  Being non too steady the whole thing overturned and crashed to the floor.

She freaked and ran.  Really who could blame her?  I'd run too.  And we got up to figure out what had happened.  Jess said he wished we had motion capture cameras so we could see the look on her face when it all started to fall over.  Slo mo kitty cat panic face.

But there was only a little part damaged and that's easily fixable.  The rear right corner of the roof got bent but with some glue and another binder clip to hold it in place it'll be fine. 

I was actually pretty impressed that the house held up so well.  It doesn't have nails in the construction, it's all glue.  (And paint.)  But it didn't fall apart upon impact and that's a pretty good endorsement of how well it's made.

So that was our adventure on Saturday morning.

I worked on the dollhouse a bunch the rest of the day and Sunday too and made some real progress to show you in my next post.

By the way, it took Tali until Sunday night to climb back on the desk and inspect the house.  Thankfully it was right side up and she decided to leave it that way.

See you all next time.

Small Accomplishments

No pun intended. 

A lot got done this past weekend.  Three days of sleeping, crafting and screwing around with the dollhouse while watching Wimbledon.  Jess is a huge Wimbledon fan.  None of the people we really like won but the matches were still pretty good.

The first project was the washstand for the bathroom.  I wanted something that looked a little older but like someone had attempted to update it.  So break out the spare balsa wood and newel posts.



Lots of scrap wood went into this.

 And then I didn't like how the legs looked.  So I took them off and turned them upside down.

 I added trim to the back and a lower shelf after I switched the legs and I really liked how it looked.



A little blurry but you get the idea.

More glue though.  This was too small for me to use nails.  and since I'd taken the top knobs off the newel posts it ended up a bit short.  So I glued them back on. 

Then I painted the whole thing.  I started out with white but I didn't care for how it looked.  So I painted it the same blue as the walls.  I don't plan on having the bathroom entirely that color so I think it'll stand out nicely.

I wanted to use a scallop shell for the basin.  It's a fairly modern look that I really like but the trick was finding a shell shallow enough but also decently symmetrical.  I ended up buying some shells at Joann's.  My pal Linda (remember Linda? My home improvement/woodwork expert?) brought me some from her trip but they were all very deep and I wasn't sold on the idea of making a hole in the top of the stand to sink the shell into.

But we did have fun picking out shells from the bags I'd bought.  There are some tiny ones that'll be great to put into a little bowl on the coffee table. 

What I ended up doing was making a little wooden riser out of some scrap wood and the ends of the tongue depressors.  I had several graduated lengths with curves on the ends so it ended up looking pretty good.

The pale blue of the paint was great overall but I really wanted something to look a bit like Formica for the top.  It just seemed like something you'd find in an old semi updated bathroom you know?  So I pulled out some pale blue shimmery nail polish.  And it worked pretty well.  It's darker in some spots and lighter in others with a gleam overall.  And it reminds me of an old sixties bathroom with the weird 'marbled' Formica counter tops.

Took several pictures of the whole thing.  See what all of you think.

See? 

I'll tell you, thank God for Sticky Tacky Glue.  Stuck the shell and faucets on really well.

You can barely see the riser I made for the faucet.

Here's a better view. 

The washstand turned out pretty well but it took a couple weeks with the glue setting and me figuring out how to do it.


So the next project was something for the bedroom.  I'd wanted to do a built in next to the stairs.  And I really wanted to make use of the space that goes under the eaves of the second floor.  I toyed with the idea of a step/stair type of bookcase but in the end I went with something else.

I took some paper and pressed it into the corner to get the angle right. (Well mostly right).  And then used that to draw out the shelves.

Believe it or not this helped.

I used the drawing to keep my boards in the right place.  Well, the drawing and tape.  I used the one inch balsa wood I got from Hobby Lobby so the shelves would be deeper than the built ins down in the living room.

More tape and glue.  This is a glue heavy dollhouse I'm telling you.

Eventually I got the shelves off the paper.  The glue stuck them to it a bit but sooner or later...

Voila!

See?  Shelves. 

I wanted some drawers for the bottom three shelves.  So I got some of my scrap wood and started to measure that out.  More glue.  Yay.  (Sarcasm.  Can you tell? LOL)

The trick was getting everything the right size.

And then do a dry fit.

Here we are with the first two drawers.

And then I got the third working.

So not bad so far right?

And everything seemed to fit in the corner pretty well.

The natural wood looks nice too doesn't it?

Then I painted it.  I wanted these to be white like the ones down stairs.  But I needed something for handles.  So I dug out some of my wooden beads.  And once I got everything painted and the shelves glued into place I sanded the sides of the drawers so everything slid in and out nicely.

So there was some touch up painting to do but that wasn't hard.  Glued on my beads for handles and suddenly the bedroom has some extra storage.

I didn't put dividers in the shelves because I wanted to slide the top two drawers over.

It doesn't look too bad does it?  Just enough room next to the stairs opening for a newel post and railing.  Definitely need that.

Next project was something else I've had in mind.  Never did it before so I had to work out the kinks of my process.  But some seventy nine cent buckets from Hobby Lobby, flowers and florist foam from Joann's and mulch from Miniatures.com and I was set. 

Oh and glue.  Let's not forget the glue.  Good old Elmers.

But the end result is pretty good.  Something for the front porch when I've got the house a little more completed.

Two lilac(?)/purple pink and one blue. 

See?

Cheerful right?

Swoops seems to approve.  He's very intent upon investigating them.

They look pretty nice.

I figure one on either side of the steps and one on the open porch post.

I might make a few more when I get more buckets or flower pots.  We'll see.

One last big project... This took me pretty much all day Saturday.  Good thing we had movies to watch. 

I won't bore you with the details except to say it involved a lot of the fabric I bought.

So here we are.  A bed.  Nice, normal.  A little plain though, wouldn't you say?

Nice bed. But kinda boring.

Let's add a fitted sheet and a dust ruffle.  See if that jazzes it up some.

Needs a little adjusting but not bad.

Now for a top sheet. 

Nice rich brown for contrast.

And a comforter.  No fireplace on this floor so it could get cold.

Don't forget to fold everything over so the lace shows.

Add the big pillows.

Something to support your back while reading.

And another pillow.  Not quite the right size so this needs to be adjusted.  We've got two but we need to downsize.  These are Barbie size right now.  Need to scale back.

Still like the look of the whole thing.

Let's try another look.



See? Pretty.

Comforter seems a little oversized but it'll be nice when it's cold.

Here's a little something.  Put everything in downstairs just to see how it works with the stairs in?  Yeah the kitchen island is wayyyyyy too big for the space.  It does not work.

But I have a drop leaf table that only needs a little paint to fit in with the rest of the room.  And it fits much better.

See?  Better for the space but a little dark.

But the living room portion looks great with the new chair and coffee table.  Just need to get sewing on the day bed and make the trundle. 

See?  Look how cute the chairs are together.

And the coffee table will be perfect with a little bowl of shells.

See how pretty?

I got the bowl from a seller on Ebay.  http://stores.ebay.com/Dollhouse-Miniatures-Wood-Turnings?_trksid=p2047675.l2563  The work is gorgeous and unique.  I confess, I think I spent a little too much since I got the bowl and a couple of vases as well.

The shells came in the bag I bought from Joann's.  They had a ton of different sizes and a bunch (like a handful at least) of teeny weeny shells.  Perfect for the dollhouse.

Here are a few more pictures.

And that will be all for the day folks.  Lots of little things but nothing huge. 

Stairway To... Okay Not Heaven.

Just to the second floor.  But it's still a pretty cool staircase.

This is just a little post but I figured I thought so much about the stairs and where to put then and what to use that I ought to give them their own post.

I ended up going with the kit pieces except for the metal rod that goes inside the spacers.  Honestly I had no idea how to cut it and a wooden dowel worked just as well.

This was a lot harder than it looked.

Slide the spacers on and glue.  Slide the step on and glue.  Slide the spindle through the holes to the niche in the step.  And glue.  Lots of glue.

In between these steps make sure to keep the cats from pawing at the staircase.  This will be detrimental to the stability of said staircase and may prove counterproductive to the reason for the stairs in the first place.

Not so strangely keeping the cats away was the hardest part.

But we have a couple of in progress shots here.

And make sure you keep the center dowel straight.

I think after building this one mostly from the kit I'd be able to build one on my own.  But I'm glad I started with the kit. 

Not so strangely keeping it straight is the hardest part.

 Because I used the dowel instead of the brass center support the spacers wanted to shift.  So once I got the whole thing assembled I wedged it into place and made sure everything was straight.

Needless to say that took a little time but eventually it worked out.

Here we are after a layer of stain.

I thought about doing everything but the steps in white but ultimately I liked the look of the allover oak stain better.

I almost glued the whole darn thing in place without adding my railing.  Yes I know.  Impatience gets me no where.  But I remembered. Barely.

Can you see my railing?

The kit came with some white cord.  Which was okay.

But I picked up some ball chain at Joann's really cheap.  They were getting rid of a ton of paper crafting stuff and that's where I got a bunch of things I can use for the dollhouse. 


So I decided to use some dark brass chain.  It's a little darker than the brass on the ceiling fans, like people's hands have tarnished it walking up and down the stairs.

Here's a better picture.

I like how this looks.

One more shot. 

I'm getting a little better at picture taking.

Almost like we can walk up the stairs right?