Surprises

So I didn't do anything for the potential Etsy shop stock or either of my builds this weekend.

I have a friend whose birthday is coming up.  So this weekend I spent making a gift for her.  I don't think she follows the blog but I don't want to put too much up here just in case.

So here are a couple little hints.

Anything else might make it too obvious.  But I've also got some vines and 'moon lights'.  

And I got a new book on Tuesday and didn't dare start it until I could sleep a bit later the next morning so I did that this weekend too.

Her birthday isn't for a bit so next weekend I should have progress on more lanterns or the Bookshop.

Another Lantern & the Bookshop Living Quarters

It's been a nice week.  The first couple days I was off weren't planned, but I had to deal with a medical thing and they don't let you drive for twenty four hours when you've been under anesthesia.  No biggie really.

But I worked on another lantern.  This time I had to hide the batteries somewhere besides under the lantern.  Raised base lanterns are so much easier to work with.  So this one took me a lot longer.

I made a grandfather clock to hide the battery cases in and it turned out pretty well.

I went with a slightly different type of ornaments for the Christmas tree too.

 

I managed to get the paneling and wallpaper on.

I put a layer of corrugated cardboard under the floor so I'd have a way to cut a channel for the wire of the tree lights.  Then got everything glued in.

For the outside I changed the glass out on the 'door' to pebbled plastic and put in some wood to make it look more like a windowed door.

For the outer windowsill I painted it black and then layered on different colors of grey to give it the look of concrete.

Part of me is tempted to put some black wood around the outside but I'm not sure about that yet.

Once I finished the lantern I got back to working on the bookshop.

I started by gluing the roof pieces to the top of the walls.

While they were drying I put the parlor stove together and wired it with my fire lights.

I might not end up using it but if I do, I'll likely end up putting it here.  Depends on how cluttered it makes the room look.

I added some 'soot' to the stove and made it look a bit less shiny.

It still looks cleaner than the pot-bellied stove, but it's not pristine either.

By the time I got all that done the glue on the roof pieces had dried and I could start with my wallpaper, flooring and wainscoting.

I added wallpaper and flooring to the 'hallway' so if the door opened it wouldn't show the bare wood.

I stained the floor with Minwax Brazillian Rosewood but decided to paint the wainscoting.

The blue comes across very bright in the photos so I aged it a bit with some very watered down black paint.

It's not much but there's a bit of a difference.

I like how it looks with the wallpaper and flooring.

Not sure where I'll put the stove yet.  But I tested it out in the little nook.

It might be a good place for the bed.  Not sure yet.  Need to measure a bit.  And make the bed.  Easy right?

How have the rest of you been doing?

Lazier Weekend

In the interests of not leaving my vacation to the last month of the year and nearly losing my time I'm taking a vacation next week.

So this weekend I felt entirely justified in being a little lazy.  I went through one of my stashes of furniture getting a few ideas for my lanterns.

And I got a rolling cart with three trays attached for some of my tools so I have more space on my table to work.  That's going to come in handy I can already tell.

I'm debating doing a lantern or two for Halloween, if I can get any done in time.  I don't have a lot of Halloween décor though I could make more floating teasets and potion bottles. That could be lots of fun. I had a blast doing cauldrons and potion bottles for the WQRC.

Until I narrow down what I'd like to do I decided to get started on another Christmas lantern.

This one doesn't have a raised base to it, so I needed to come up with another way to hide the batteries for the lights.

I'm planning on making a little cupboard to hide the batteries. To that end I decided to remove a couple of the 'windows'.

I went with a herringbone floor, some of my flooring leftover from NOLA House, and some simple wainscot and blue wallpaper on the 'walls'.

The trick is that the flooring can't sit directly on the metal.  I'd have no where to run the wires.  I'll have to prop it up a bit with either cardboard so I can cut channels or wood lengths in the right width.

I'm going with 1:12 furniture in this lantern so I found a chair I could sand down and paint.

I got started on the tree since I'll need to have it done before I put the floor in.

It needs a star and some ornaments but the lights work.  Yay!

The chandelier is a bit more ornate in this lantern, since there's such a pretty cut out design on top.

Both the chandelier and the Christmas tree lights need a nine volt battery so I really need the little cabinet.

I'll take a look around for some pictures for the walls too. Since I have walls in this one.

My Very First Article!

I'm so excited I can't tell you!

And the coolest part is that Troy over at Tulsa Tiny Stuff is going to be in the same magazine!

Can't show you the whole thing obviously but they said I can post teasers.

They put the WQRC on the Cover!  Seriously, I think Anna on the other side of the world can probably hear me shrieking.  Sorry for waking you up out of a sound sleep Anna!

These poor people had to deal with my crazy brain and awful photography skills (or lack thereof).

Third Lantern...oh, and More Books

So I cheated and ordered some books and made a few more.  I started out here:

And by tonight I had this:

And in between book making I worked on my third lantern.  This one is more 1:12 size rather than 1:24 with the amount of square inches I had so I could put more detail in it.

Deborah sent me a link to a great site for fabrics so I ordered some really pretty plaids and they arrived in a couple days.

Very Christmas appropriate.

I had painted my furniture black so I'd have a dark base to it.  Then I mixed some of my green with black for a really dark green.

Then I started checking how my plaids would look with the chair color.

In the end I went with the last one. I liked the muted colors and how they contrasted with the dark green chair.

I wired up my Christmas lights so they worked and that was a good feeling when they came on.

I was excited to be able to use some of my Christmas cookies on the table.

I'd bought some pillows when Christmas supplies were on sale so I added one to my chair.

I experimented with some of the instant water and tints to make milk to go with my cookies.  And added a pitcher and glasses.

I spent an hour or so sewing curtains while watching RED on TV and added them to the windows.

I think it looks pretty good.  The glue is still drying so I'll have to go over everything and make sure my glue hasn't left spots.

I'm debating added curtains to the front of the lantern on the door.  I'm not sure.

Once everything is dried I'll re-evaluate and see how I like all of it with the lights on.

How are all of you doing?