Honorable Mentions!

 Hello all!

I've been taking a little time off minis apart from plotting and planning out how I'll do things for the Container House.

But I wanted to say congratulations to Brae and Keli for their Honorable Mentions in the 2020 Creatin' Contest!

Brae's Whinnie's Terrace: 

And Keli's Burke Boatworks:

Congratulations to you both!

On a different note, Texas has been hit with record low temperatures and in order to conserve electricity we're having rolling blackouts.  We've been getting a half an hour of power and then forty minutes to an hour of no power.  It makes life interesting.  

I hope you are all staying safe and warm and healthy.

Seriously, it's like 2021 is telling 2020, 'Hold my beer'.

Quoth the Raven, Nevermore - Submitted!

 So I got my entry to the Creatin' Contest submitted.  I'm excited. I almost forgot you know?

But here is my entry and the pictures.

Quoth the raven, nevermore… The windows lent themselves perfectly to a book roombox.  My husband loves Edgar Allen Poe and the idea of the unreliable narrator which Poe pretty much perfected.  So I decided to create the ‘Chamber’ of the fellow in ‘The Raven’.  Reading a tome of forgotten lore and seeing a raven on the bust of Pallas.  The desk of course has a tome, papers, and lamp, along with some photographs.  The drapes match the poem, purple silk, a bit tattered, along with the dying embers of the fire. The plaster ceiling and dark wainscoting give the room (along with the fireplace and dark shelves) a gothic Victorian feel.

The floor is a herringbone of popsicle sticks cut and stained, while the fireplace is made of some corbels, wood, foam core board and matboard painted to look like stone.  The built-in shelves began as simple purchased bookshelves, embellished and stained to fill the fireplace wall.  And then I filled them with books, some purchased and some handmade.  On the shelves, desk, fireplace and filling the rest of the room are pieces inspired by Poe’s stories.  A gold bug, a message in a bottle, a box of teeth, a hot air balloon, a cask of amontillado, a tell tale heart, a black cat, the purloined letter and a magnifying glass.  And of course, the bust of Pallas Athena with a raven on top of her.

And because Poe was known to be something of a drinker (and broke a lot of the time) there are bottles of various alcoholic libations.  A couple of books replace the chaise’s broken leg with a bottle and glass of absinthe handily close.  Over the fireplace there are portraits of Poe and his beloved Lenore.

I feel good that I didn't forget to enter.  

Hope your Saturdays are going well.  I'm going to get back to the booknook!  I've got an idea for the candles that I think might work.  Paper inside the straws did not block the red glow sadly.

 

 

Finished the Roombox! And Started a New Project

First things first.  I added wood 'paneling' to the top and sides of the box.  And some purple patterned scrapbook paper to the back.  I stained the wood Dark Walnut.

I used corner molding to give it a finished look and then added a poly semi-gloss so dusting would be easier.

The wiring is hidden in the off-white book on the very end.

I added some magnets to hold it shut.

I also cat-knapped Boadicea (kinda punny) from the WQRC to be the Black Cat.  And took some pictures of how everything looks.

 

This is where it will live.  I'm excited to be done because I've got a new project.  I don't think it'll take me a huge long time, but I'm still very excited about it.

A few years back Keli sent me a gorgeous harpsichord.  And I knew I wanted to do a room box that was a music room.

Luckily I have plenty of kits that I can adapt.  So I grabbed the Serendipity Shed pieces I had.  I wanted to do a room with double French doors on the front.  Something that is easy to see inside.

Way back when Brae was working on her windmill she made a pair of beautiful embroidered stools.  I fell in love with them and snatched them up when she decided she wanted to use different colors and put them on Ebay.

This year my husband and I were both stricken by allergies during the month of May for most of the month.  In retrospect I can't really blame him. (He was lucky to remember the month.) But he forgot my birthday.

To make it up to me he encouraged me to bid until I won a gorgeous miniature grand piano on Ebay.

I found some pretty wallpaper that looks very nice with the cushion colors.

My plan is to have a false wall with shelves inset.  I'll do wainscoting with raised panels around the room.  I can put sheet music on them, possibly a violin or other small instruments or a metronome.

The plan is to have the wainscoting, doors and most of the wood trim painted white.  If I can manage it I'll do a 'plaster' ceiling again.  I'll look through my electrical stash for lights that would be appropriate for the formal look of the room.  I have a spinet coming and some rugs as well.

I'll need to turn the French doors around, so they open to the outside instead of inward, but that's not a big deal. I don't think?  We'll see.

I'm pretty excited, mostly because it's so simple but it's going to be fun and something just because.

How are all you doing?

Gluing the Last Bookshelf and Lights!

I decided to bite the bullet and wire the lights in.  Since I only had three lights I used a small outlet strip that has a USB connection for power.  I can use one of the many charger plugs leftover from broken cell phones. 

Using the new version of Blogger and getting more and more annoyed with it.  Can't seem to make pictures larger.  Or insert more than one at a time.

The lights don't seem too bright which is good.  Keeps the moody atmosphere which I like.

I also tried to make a different type of coal scuttle but I'm not convinced it's better.  

I'm not convinced it's better but it was worth a try.

I received my heart in a bell jar in the mail.  Originally it was supposed to be a pendant but I took the chain and extra jump rings off and it looks good.

I switched bottles for the message in a bottle, I wanted something brighter and figured I'd put it on a shelf instead of by the box of teeth.  Then I made a lowball glass to go with the whiskey.  And I glued everything onto the shelves.

I like how it looks.  I have some extra books so I'm piling them up to sit on the floor and adding a spider to go on top of them.  I doubt it'll be noticeable but I'll know he's there.

And I put some roses, two white, one red, in a bell jar as well.  Something to sit on the floor.

The rugs aren't lying perfectly smooth but I added the furniture and the cask of Amontillado to the back corner behind the statue.

So far I think it looks pretty good.

I'm debating another small table behind the chaise to go next to the door.  Not sure though.  I'm waiting for the glue to dry on the bookshelf and then I'll add the back wall.

So far my list is coming along though...

A gold bug

A black cat
A purloined letter
A magnifying glass
Cask of Amontillado
Message in a bottle
A box with teeth
A model of an air balloon?
A heart (under glass?)
A jar of eyes (or one eye?)

Previewed the post and I really don't like how small the pictures are.  I suppose I'll have to get used to it.   I've got to go and dye my hair again.  My salon has reopened but for limited hours (which are during my workday) and they want me to sit in my car while my color sets.  Uhmm... no, thank you. I'll do it myself.  

I'm pretty pleased though, I think I'm almost done with the roombox if I don't decide to add a little table.  I have some more doors (1:1 size) to put together before I put another project on the table. Hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend!

Surfaces and Miscellaneous Pieces

Well the saying is 'a day late and a dollar short'...so I guess I owe everyone a dollar.  I'm good for it, I promise.

I spent part of the weekend assembling furniture.  Unfortunately 1:1 size, not 1:12.  But we needed the shelves and the extra drawers so it had to be done.  But the rest of the weekend I worked on the chamber.

I started by adding the crown molding to the end walls.

Then I began to add the little pieces I've collected to the mantle and the desk.

Then I added some of the books to the end shelf.

I had a few other little pieces that I added when things looked a little bare.

You know that I debated removing a leg from the chaise and propping it up with books.  I decided it was too much fun to not do.  So I broke one off partway and added the books.  Then because it looked good I added the glass and decanter of absinthe.

You'll recall my list from last week and I have managed to cross several things off it.

I found a gold bug and it's on a little stand to go on one of the shelves.  The model air balloon you can see on the desk.  The Purloined letter is on the mantle with the magnifying glass and skull.  I had a little green bottle and rolled up some paper to make the message in a bottle.

The box of teeth... well I made a box.  And a little cushion to go inside.  Then painted it black.  But I wanted something to jazz it up a bit so I used one of my paper punches on some thin cardstock and painted the little pieces gold.

When they were dry I glued them to the box and added a handle.

I found a chunk of plastic that looks white and cut it into little pieces and then glued them to the inside.

So now I have my box of teeth.

I judged it an appropriate time to add my raven to the statue of Pallas.

Then I had to get a piece of cardboard so you could actually see the statue and raven.

A gold bug

A black cat
A purloined letter
A magnifying glass
Cask of Amontillado
Message in a bottle
A box with teeth
A model of an air balloon?
A heart (under glass?)
A jar of eyes (or one eye?)

I have a cask and I'm adding Amontillado to it.  I'll be borrowing Cleopatra from the WQRC so she can sit and be the Black Cat.  I have a jar with an eye coming. It's supposed to glow in the dark which will be cool.  And I have a heart under glass coming as well.

I added my message in a bottle and box of teeth to the hearth since that seemed to be a good place visually.

I might add something to hold the box open a bit.

But once I got most of my stuff added to the fireplace and bookshelf I decided I'd glue them in.

I don't have the back wall added so you can see light where the shelf and fireplace don't quite line up.

But I threaded the wire for the desk lamp through the hole I drilled and put everything in place.  It's not glued in but I got a few pictures to get an idea of how it will look.

I like how it looks so far. The lighting isn't great but once I get all the walls in that will be alleviated quite a bit.

I took Betsy's advice and added a bit of color to the exposed stuffing on the desk chair.  I hope it looks a bit better.  I'm still working out the exact positioning of the desk, statue and chaise, mostly simply by degrees of angle and how to use the floor space well.

I'm excited to have gotten this far!  And hopefully the post office will stop sending stuff from Colorado to Seattle before it comes to Texas.  And I'll get the things I order in a timely fashion.  That's part of why I'm hesitant to order anything from overseas anymore.

What do all of you think?