Future Project

Every third month in the condo, we turn one of the rooms into a "Put and Take". This is a room where you can drop off unused "stuff" that's too good to throw away and you no longer want.

I went down today and someone had dropped off a wall clock so I grabbed it.

 The "room" portion is 18" high by 10 1/2" wide x 3 1/8" deep.

With the clock mechanism removed.

Haven't yet decided what I'll do with it.

Back to the roombox tomorrow.

Something to consider...

What a wonderful magazine...

http://www.artisansinminiature.com/issue10.html

Maybe you can find some new ideas here...

How NOT to do miniatures...

The nail polish remover fiasco was bad enough....then I fouled up the wood flooring...not irreparable, fortunately.

I sanded down the wood floor then discovered a few problems with it so re-heated the iron and moved some pieces closer together and sanded again. When I bought the edge binding on Saturday, there was a can of MinWax wood wax but it was $10+ so decided not to get it. The neutral shoe polish that I used on the floor of the Bombay House had dried out but I found some Turtle Wax and decided to try that. Don't do it! It was a disaster (wouldn't have been if I had wanted a - can't recall the term for it - finish with white notes to it)!

So back with the sandpaper again. Resanded the wood floor again, and again, and again. Not quite back to where I started but I'll live with it.

I used Duck double-sided carpet tape to secure the bathroom flooring and wallpaper.

Sorry I didn't take pictures but will do that when I install the wood floor and the wallpaper in the sitting room.

While I like YES glue for installing wallpaper (and it allows you to move the paper around a bit), I really like double-sided tape. For one thing, if you want to change wallpaper later, it's a lot easier to make the change with the tape.

Saved!!!

Friend and fellow M.E.E. member, Barb R., came to my flooring rescue this morning. She brought down a sheet of white plastic tile and a sheet of pale green marble tile paper. Ended up trading some of the daisy trim for the marble paper. So we're both happy.

So I'll do the flooring and wall covering today.

Edmonton Doll Show

M.E.E. had a very successful information table at the Doll Show today. Think we may have picked up a few new members!

Got Christmas and birthday presents for Jonah and Holly.

Barbara W. dropped by the table and gave me these wonderful little things. The bird is by Janice Crawley, the doilies by our own Rosalle, and a couple nice boxes. Thanks, Barbara.

Haven't seen the daisy trim for a long time so was pleased to find an entire bag of it. It makes a lovely and easy bedspread. The white lace will make a wonderful bed skirt.

Here's the spread made from the daisy trim.

Spotted this little ring holder at one of the tables. (It was only $6.50.) Might use it as a towel rack in the bathroom...

Bought this cute snowwoman for DD Leanne.

Glad I had a good day as last night was several hours I'll never get back again. The nail polish remover worked - but it turned the tiles grey - so it's back to scraping the pink paint off. I'm lucky that I at least have another piece. I emailed all the M.E.E. members in the hope that someone has a piece that is already black or dark green but haven't heard anything back yet.

I have lots of tiles but I bought them with backsplashes, etc., in mind - not doing an entire floor! Have to think on this.

Somehow this last picture didn't show up in the original post.

The other flooring...

While I'm waiting for the bathroom flooring to dry, I worked a bit on the flooring for the other two rooms.

I cut a piece of cardboard the size of the sitting room floor then began ironing on pieces of the wood strips from Rona.  Sometimes the iron shifts the wood a bit but you can move it closer together with a fingernail. If the wood shifts, you may need to run the iron over it again so you can move it.

 All the cardboard is covered:

 Then I flipped it over and trimmed the wood to the size of the cardboard.

 And here it is loosely in place. I'll remove it, sand it and wax it later.

 This is the piece of cardboard that fits the floor of the bedroom. First I put two strips of double-faced carpet tape across the length of the cardboard.

 Then put double-faced carpet tape down both sides and across the middle.

 Ironed the green carpet, then applied it to the cardboard.

 Flipped the cardboard then trimmed the carpet.

 Both the carpet and the wooden floor in place in rooms 2 and 3 of the roombox.

Still need to wallpaper all three rooms then add the flooring to the bathroom.

It's coming together!

Quick repair, bathroom floor, Doll show tomorrow

Went to Rona today and got the iron on wood edge banding that I'm going to use for the sitting room floor, some Polyfilla Big Hole repair spackling that Carol K. suggested, and found an LED strip lighting kit for the music room.  More on those things in upcoming days.

The plastic strip that guides the plexiglass fronts in the three-room roombox had come down so first order of business today was to re-glue it and clamp it in place.

My first idea, as I mentioned before, was to cover the pink with a green marker. That didn't work well. The pink paint isn't exactly on the diamond shape so it was difficult to cover properly.

First I tried nail polish remover on the pink but that didn't work very well. So I decided to take a straight razor blade and scrape off the pink paint. Worked beautifully but was slower than molasses in January...but with 294 pink spots to remove that was going to take hours....

So I tried the nail polish remover again (making sure that I used the one with acetone as the first ingredient). This still takes awhile but is much faster than scraping. I've done about a third of it but I'm going to let it completely dry tonight and see how it looks tomorrow.

Joanne, Lorry and I are working the noon till two shift on the club's table at the Doll Show tomorrow. Found a couple mini things there last year but I'm hoping the guy with the Lego kits will be back again this year so I can get Lego for Jonah and Holly for their birthdays and Christmas.

Culture Day at Leo Nickerson

This is a huge production! Over 100 people come to the school to share their work/skills with the students. Throughout the day, there are programs in each of the classrooms and tables in the hallways with people sharing their hobbies and skills. Musicians all over the place.

Andrea had already put her art studio mini on our table. It's a popular piece with the students as most of them take art from Andres in that studio.

The Leo Nickerson art studio I made for a silent auction 3 1/2 years ago.

My Christmas shop.

Teddy Bears' Picnic roombox that I made and donated to the school last year. Students were encouraged to enter a draw for it.

Joanne's Bookmobile

Through the clear top

Through the side

Moose in the trees and the rear end of the trailer.

 Joanne did (as always) a wonderful job of interacting with the students and explaining the bookmobile.

Henry won the Teddy Bears' Picnic roombox.

In the past, we've been through by lunch time although we're fed an incredible lunch. This year we were there until 3:30. But it was a wonderful day visiting with students and some parents. May even have found a couple new club members. LOL

Some thoughts on the three room roombox

These are tentative but they're from my stash - and I want to keep it that way...

Bathroom: (white and green)
Floor: white tile - corners re-coloured with green so almost black
Fixtures: White with dark green marble tile accents
Walls: Pearlized White

Bedroom: (white and green)
Floor - green rug
Furniture - white
Drapes - pale green
Walls - striped - not quite right but....

Sitting Room: (light wood and green)
Floor: pale wood - iron-on tape wood, need more, don't have enough in my stash
Furniture: lighter stains upholstered in darker greens
Walls: sponged green

I hope this will come together with the pieces I'm working with...

One step forward, two steps back...

Well, I was going to build the case for the bathtub today....BUT...

Found this piece of marble paper in my stash:

If I use it for the tub enclosure, I want to build the enclosure so the tiles fit perfectly. So I can't build the enclosure until I'm sure that's what I want to do.

The marble is about 1/2" too short to use on the floor but if I put a closet on the left, I can fudge that. But the green won't work too well with the green carpet I have planned for the bedroom (different shades) but if I use it for the tub enclosure, it's far enough away and small enough that I can get away with it.

I have a sheet of white tile I could use for the floor. It has pink accents but that could be changed with a marker.

SO...

Now I'm going to have to pull back and settle on wall and floor coverings for all three rooms, get those done then plan furniture placement, etc.

Sorry, I had hoped to accomplish more today but until those things are settled, I'm sort of stuck. (Which I would have known if I had been thinking?!?)

Think I'll play with it a bit tonight then hopefully have some ideas in place after Joanne and I do our thing at Leo Nickerson School tomorrow.

Bethany and Paityn

The girls' mother, Kim, was kind enough to send me pictures of the girls with the houses that they built with their grandmother:

Paityn with her house at our Show and Sale.

Bethany with her house at the Show and Sale.

Aren't they incredible. I didn't make my first house until I was about 30 and it didn't look as impressive as these two are.

Bathtub

I know I said I would tackle the bed but decided I'd start the bathtub instead.

This was the container that held cupcake papers from Dollarama. First I removed the labels.

Trimmed the edges

Painted it white on the outside. Took two coats.

I put five male halves of sewing snaps into the sides (jets) and the bottom for a drain.

Tomorrow I'll build a wooden frame around the tub and add some taps.

Alberta Culture Days

September 16 - 28 is Alberta Culture Days.  Joanne and I will be at Leo Nickerson Elementary School on Friday morning with her Bookmobile Trailer that she displayed at our Show and Sale and my Christmas Shop and, possibly, the Quilt Shop.

When we were at Leo Nickerson School last year for Alberta Culture Days, we donated a "Teddy Bears' Picnic" to the school. We will be drawing for a winner of that this year. So looking forward to that.

One of my best pieces was the miniature of the art studio at Leo Nickerson that I did 3 1/2 years ago. (Andrea bought it at the silent auction and lent it back to me so I could display it at our Show and Sale that year where it won a first place ribbon!)

New project

Since the pocket watch project was put on hold, I had to get working on something else.

About four years ago, I started collecting for a bedroom roombox done in white and green. It got shoved on a back burner (as so many of my projects do) but occasionally I would add something to the collection.

This spring, I bought some display roomboxes from Jane and Paul's estate. Two are three roomboxes wide and the other is four roomboxes wide. Each one is 4' long. I love them but didn't really have any vision for their use.

Then, I thought it would be interesting to take one of the three room roomboxes and incorporate that original plan into it: a bathroom/dressing room/closet, bedroom and a sitting room.

So that's where I'll be heading with this project.

I dragged out one of the three room roomboxes, all the things from the original box and added some things I thought might work in the additional rooms. Went through some of my fabric and added other things I thought might work.

Far left will be the bathroom. I have two possible home-made bathtubs both of which are really big soakers. One is from a Hormel dinner container that I simply cannot find at the moment ;-( .

Think I'll try to put a walk-in closet at the divider for that room...still thinking that out.

The middle room will be the bedroom itself. So far I have several white pieces of furniture for that room. And I have some kits that I'll do in white.

The sitting room on the right will have stained wooden furniture. I'd like to continue the white theme but some of the furniture is so great that I just don't want to paint it.

So much to do. One of the problems with doing three rooms at once is that you almost have to finish the rooms as far as carpetting, wall coverings, etc. before anything else happens permanently.

My biggest "stall" moment on this project is finishing the bed so I think that that may be the first things that I tackle.

So hopefully I'll do that tomorrow and actually get started.