Blue Paint & Trim & Random Holiday Stuff

So maybe some of you noticed, this was a holiday weekend?  As such, not a lot was accomplished on the dollhouse.  Actually not a lot was accomplished period. 

We did several things, went to the home of friends for Thanksgiving which was awesome cubed (yep, I'm good enough at math to make that reference now.  Tears of pride anyone?)  Seriously they're such good cooks that I liked sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (the homemade kind) and stuffing with sausage in it.  And pork tenderloin with this reallly yummy sauce to go over it.  All of these are things I don't normally eat and yet I ate and ate and ate because it was all sooooo good.  Rachel & Bill you guys are made of cool. 

We won't mention the Cowboy game.  Ever.

On Saturday my phone stopped working.  Apologies to anyone who tried to call me. Not that I get a lot of calls, but still... I go today to get that fixed.  Saturday we also journeyed into Frisco to see Silver Linings Playbook.

This is a great movie.  And if people don't at least get Oscar nods I think my husband might just break something.  I don't want to think about what.  But it was funny and poignant and sweet and you don't have any idea until the end what is going to happen to these loving and damaged people.  It's really good. Go see it if you can find it in a theatre near you. Or like us, even if you can't.

So the Dollhouse.  Before I can put the shingles on, I'm supposed to put on the roof trim.  You may recall that the instructions say to paint everything before putting it on the dollhouse.  And I don't know about you, but when I use wood glue I like it to go in between wood. Not in between wood and paint.  So here are all my pieces of roof trim:

Nice piece of cardboard so I don't get paint everywhere.

And these are not in any particular order.  Order comes later when I've figured out which board goes where.  See, they're angled at the ends and what side I paint will depend on what part of the roof they go on.  See this handy diagram?

Very helpful right? At least labels everything.

So I figured out what side I needed to paint and laid them all out so only the exposed side would get the blue paint.  And here is my can of blue paint which looks very bright but should darken when its dry.  I'm hoping. 

It seems bright to me.  I'm not used to painting with colors.

But with some work and manuevering to make sure nothing got painted and then stuck together, I got all my little trim pieces done.  Voila!

See?

Once I've gotten them on the dollhouse I'll give them another coat of paint to make them a little prettier and also color any exposed edges.  But I'm pretty stoked about this. 

I also worked a little bit on another dollhouse project which I'll try to finish up and show you guys hopefully midway through this week or next weekend.  Ha!  See I'm getting so good at this I'm throwing out teasers for the next post...

Yeah I'd probably sound more professional if I didn't point stuff like that out huh?

Anyway hope your Thanksgivings were great and I'll see you guys next week.

Bits & Pieces

So this week I had a dentist appointment on Friday afternoon and spent the aftermath dealing with half of my face being numb.  I ended up unable to sleep and stayed up until nearly four in the morning.  For those of you who don't work with me, this problem of not being able to sleep tends to happen more often than I like.

Needless to say I didn't really get a whole lot done.  I did stop and get a couple of instruction books on wiring systems for dollhouses which will be helpful in determining what sort of system I'd like, if I want one at all.

My pal Linda from work, you remember Linda the lady of whom I have serious tool knowledge envy, is doing me the huge favor of cutting the rest of the Plexiglas because I'm now terrified to cut it on my own.  If you have questions as to why, see last weeks post. 

The plan to salvage the Plexiglas I cut last week is to get some acrylic glue and build a frame for the glass so I can use it as the lid for the case.  That way I won't have to cut it anymore and it won't matter that the edges are a little (a lot) rough. 

Luckily the wood I want for a frame won't be super expensive and I don't anticipate the glue being much worse.  When Linda gives me back the cut plexi on Monday I can start seriously putting everything together next weekend.

Haven't done much else, went to see Looper today. It was awesome... Joseph Gorden Levitt is amazing... love that man.  Thankful we got the real refs back for football so we can flip out about mistakes made through stupidity rather than incompetence, and I'm still writing fan fiction.

Next week is month end at my workplace so life will be hectic. 

By the way Linda told me not to thank her for her help until she'd actually gotten the Plexiglas cut.  But I don't think there's any harm in thanking her for the intent, even if it doesn't get done this weekend.  She's dieting so I'm not allowed to make her a cake or cookies as a thank you.  Acknowledging her mad skills in public will have to serve as figurative cookies.  Thanks Linda a whole ton for keeping me from ruining a lot of money's worth of Plexiglas.  You're the best!

Dragon Age vs. The Movies

So this weekend the original plan was to go see the new Batman movie.  Yes, original plan, as in, it has since been revised.

Maybe I should explain.  The husband works at a public library which means quite often he has to deal with (you guessed it) the public.  I work in an accounting department where we all take turns on the receptionist desk.  That means this week I got to answer the phone a lot.  It isn't as if substituting at reception is difficult.  But it is annoying.  I'm not what you could call a 'people person'.

And really don't complain to me if we repossessed your vehicle.  We only do that if you don't make payments on your loan.  We'd much rather you pay us.  It's not like we get a lot of joy when we have to hire someone to hunt you down and take away your car.  Nobody forced you to get a loan with us and we really didn't force you to default on your loan.  And we especially didn't force you to not even communicate with us so we could work with you on payments.

Don't get me wrong, if I meet you, chances are I'll like you. You're an individual and you might just be interesting.  People though? To quote a favorite movie, 'people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it'.

The husband likes helping people usually, which is good considering what he does for a living, but we're usually in agreement that people on average are fairly annoying.

So on Friday night when the time came to decide what our plans were for the weekend... we really didn't feel like getting up for a morning show and dealing with a crowd of mouth breathers.  I haven't gotten to write much this week and we're both in mourning so neither of us are feeling very social or friendly.

So we're (read the husband) playing Dragon Age.  Dragon Age, for those of you unfamiliar with video games, is a game where you become a fabled Grey Warden and save the kingdom from a terrible threat, a Blight led by an evil dragon.  The Blight literally destroys the land and is caused by Darkspawn, evil monsters from underground who want only to take over the world so their evil dragon/resurrected god can rule it.

Along the way you can collect companions to help you.  Some of these companions are people you can have a romantic relationship with, all of them have their own troubles and will need your help for little side quests.  And then there's the general populace of the country, some of whom are stupid, some of whom are noble, and others of which are out to get you.

You can have a lot of adventures, and ultimately you end up putting a new king on the throne, defeating the archdemon/dragon and becoming the hero of the land.  You meet elves, dwarves, mages and a lot of other people and its a very layered and interesting game.  Every action has consequences.  If you don't help a barmaid, you might not end up with a tavern named after you.  If you decide to not help the elves...you could end up overrun with werewolves.  Its fun and interesting and has a very good heart.  And in the end, it feels nice to be the hero.

Now if you'll excuse me, we're about to head into the wilds to retrieve some important treaties.  I'm sure the husband will need me to pay close attention so he doesn't miss any treasure along the way.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.