Just a quick note before I leave for Ontario

On Tuesday night at our MEE meeting, Carol K. gave me this wonderful little handbag for the bedroom:

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous! Thanks, Carol.

Joanne and I went tonight to hear Joseph Boyden, author of The Orenda, at the Arden Theatre. An incredible author!

After I got home, I called my DS, another Carol, to talk to her before both of us leave (me for Ontario and she for Arizona). They had company when I called so she called back after the company left.

The woman had heard about the Quilt Shop so Carol showed it off then something was said that lead to her showing them the Camping Scene that I made for her years ago.

A couple things had broken in the camping scene but Carol had repaired them about a week ago so all was well!

The man had never seen anything done in miniature before and was totally gobsmacked by the work. He was particularly impressed by the fact that the song book had the words to "My Peace River Home" in it.

I wish I had been there to see their reactions....but it was still very nice to hear about them.

Some time off...

I was on such a roll mini-wise but RL has  interrupted big time!

There are a lot of things that I have to deal with as far as the condo is concerned; then things with STARFest; and going to Ontario to enjoy family time.

I'll try to post off and on but  don't expect me back until November 6 on a regular basis. You might want to go to my blog and enter your email in the "Follow Me" section to hear from me next.

Hugs, Maureen

Thanksgiving, possibilities!

Spent yesterday and today with DD Leanne. Absolutely wonderful time! Got some wonderful shopping/looking time in. Had a great chicken dinner at her place and took food over to my Mom's tonight so sort of shared Thanksgiving with her also.

Back to minis:

I have a couple sinks for the bathroom...but I want one with a cupboard below it....so I took this Michael's hutch and separated the top from the bottom with the heat from my hair dryer...

So here is the cabinet...

This is with a half table tennis ball (too big)...

This is with a half golf ball ice cube ball...size is good.

Have to think about this. Like the cabinet because I want space underneath. Curious as to how to put the green marble top on it. Needs to be done in a white enamel.

Here are some of the possibilities for the bathroom:

The tub needs to be set in the green marble. On the right of the room is the original closet that I had planned when I was working with just one roombox...it needs to be shortened.

The bedroom: Already have tons of white furniture to go into it. And not enough room for everything!

The sitting room: Once again, too many possibilities. Do have some wonderful green silk for cushions on the  pieces in the room and possibly on the corner chairs. Think this room can be reached from the hall so don't have to worry about a door. There are the two possible writing desks on the left...love the Davenport desk to the right (a Penny Spence piece - beautiful work). Just discovered another incredibly beautiful desk that would work.

Have to think about it all....

"Bully" by Lee Hirsch

I'll get back to all the usual once I wipe the tears from my eyes from watching "Bully" by Lee Hirsch on PBS. (Leanne says it's available on Netflix.) It broke my heart.

The blaming of the victim is heartbreaking.

Walls and floors are in

Before I get to that, I looked at the bed I had made previously (Real Life kit, I think) and the canopy had slipped in one corner so had to reglue that properly.

Used a binder clip to hold the canopy in place while the glue dried.

Walked over the Quiltessentials Wednesday morning and got a metre of Fusi-Bond: Lite (lightweight iron-on double-sided adhesive) for $3.85.

Wednesday afternoon I had two STARFest meetings at the library. While I was there, I picked up two books by Ian Hamilton who is our first guest author. When I got home I started reading one of them, then had a condo board meeting.

But back to minis...

I cut cardboard the size of the back wall then cut a piece of Fusi-Bond 1/4" wider than the cardboard all the way around.

Then I carefully ironed the Fusi-Bond to the wrong side of the wall fabric and trimmed the fabric to the edge of the Fusi-Bond.

Pulled the backing of the Fusi-Bond  

Ironed the fabric to the cardboard backing, making sure to line up the stripes with the cardboard and leaving 1/4" all the way around.

Very carefully ironed the extra fabric on to the back of the cardboard.

The back wall in place.

Followed the same procedure to prepare the side walls then used double-sided tape to put the wallcovering in place.

Still have to decide if I'm going to put connecting (faux) doors between the rooms.

Leanne is picking me up tomorrow and we're going shopping then to their place for dinner and a sleep-over.

With my next post, I hope to try some furniture placements, etc.

Bits and Pieces...

Finished 15 copies of "The Book"...think it's the best ever, and it's certainly the thickest at roughly 160 pages.

Have cut the cardboard for the back wall of the bedroom. Found some fusible material to attach the fabric but it was stuffed in a bag and can't exactly iron it flat. LOL. I did put in under some heavy books which helped a bit.

Started to iron out the back wall fabric but the iron wasn't hot enough so will have to do again.

Will deal with that tomorrow...

Took a spackle spreader and pried the corner pieces off the clock face.

Got them off. They're wonderful but don't know what I'll end up doing with them.

Hint from Joanne: Keep narrow tools in your toolbox in toothbrush holders from Dollarama. They're shown here with X-Acto knives but you can use them for tweezers, emery boards, just about anything long and thin.

Another Hint From Me: When I'm storing X-Acto knives, I like to reverse the blade and store it point down in the holder. While there is still a portion of the blade showing, the point is at least covered.

I have coffee club and a condo board meeting tomorrow so don't know how much mini-ing I will get done. Just realized tonight that Quiltessentials (the quilt shop just down the street) should carry the fusible material I need so may get a chance to run over there and get enough to finish the bedroom.

The Book 2 - very non-mini - skip if you like

This year's book is probably the largest I've ever done - about 160 pages. I've learned in the past that I can only collate maybe 2" at a time then my back starts to hurt so I collate for awhile then rest for awhile. (Because I save all the files as .pdf I can't print the entire book by printing the folder and asking for collated.)

About 2/3 of the way through...

Six books ready to bind...

I love my binding machine (I've used it enough that it doesn't owe me anything) BUT it only punches about 20 - 25 pages at a time AND the handle that controls it broke some time ago so I have to use pliers to work the binding portion - not great fun. (GBC is a great company but I've never been able to get a response from them in this regard.)

So it's a very slow process to get all 15 books done. I only have to finish and gift-wrap two by tomorrow afternoon so I'll try to get them all done but will depend on the two that have to go home with Marie. (And, of course, wrapping them which means I have to go into my storage cage downstairs to get my Christmas wrapping paper.)

An interesting note: A neighbour who receives my blog phoned me tonight and said, "I got your blog so I knew you were home." As it turned out, I was. But I had to tell her that I have no control over when my blog is sent out to followers. That particular blog had, in fact, been posted about 20 hours before it appeared in her inbox. Just thought I'd mention it.

The Book

Since my youngest sister, Marie, is coming out for an appointment next week, I want to have her and Carol's Christmas presents ready to send back with her.

Each year I collect e-mail forwards, cartoons, jokes, and sayings and compile them into a book that I give my sisters and mother for Christmas. (Actually I do a total of 15 copies with the others going to friends and neighbours.)

So last night and this morning were spent printing them.

Joanne and I met today to tie up some loose ends from the Show and Sale. And tomorrow we're going shopping for STARFest. Then I'll start collating and binding the books.

Think I've decided what to do with the bedroom walls so should be back at that on Saturday.

The bedroom walls

This was the original scrapbooking paper I chose for the bedroom wall:

I love it and still would like to use it but it's more turquoise than green. So I'm afraid it's out.

The fabric on the left below has great possibilities - the colour is right. The wallpaper on the right 'could' work but I only have one sheet that won't fit across the back wall.

Fabric below is really a pale green that goes with the striped fabric above.

Now that I've decided not to use the first scrapbook paper, don't know what the heck I'm going to do.

Just took another look through my stash and found a wallpaper that 'might' work.

Have to think about all this again...

Between that and some things that I'm working on right now, may be a day or two before I get back to this. 

Please bear with me.

Flooring and Wallpapering the sitting room

For installing flooring and wallpaper, I generally use Duck indoor/outdoor carpet tape. It's very thin and sticky as all get out. I put a strip on the floor or wall then remove the protective covering and apply the covering. The protective cover is not always easy to remove so I sometimes use a straight pin to help separate it from the tape itself.

TIP:  If you need to measure inside something (such as this back wall of the room), use two rulers the same size. In this case, I had two six inch rulers: the first, of course, was 6", the second was 3 1/4" so the total room height is 9 1/4".

Here I'm laying the floor in the sitting room. This is simple because this floor is wood and it's on cardboard. Put the tape along the sides and remove the protective backing:

Place another row of tape along the front and remove that backing. (You can also place a row across the back but since this floor is so solid, three strips work fine.

Align the flooring piece at the back of the room then drop it in place and rub down against the tape. Voila! Your floor is in place.

Same thing here with the bedroom floor.

Walls are a 'bit' more complicated but not too much. Cut your back piece of wallpaper to size PLUS 1/2" on either end. Fold a 1/2" piece forward on either end. Do the left hand side first then check for size and make sure the right hand fold is a good fit.

Put three pieces of carpet tape in place as shown. Remove the protective covering from the vertical piece and begin to remove the covering from the horizontal pieces.

Place the left hand side of the wallpaper in the corner making sure that it's even. Once that's in place, you can carefully remove the tape covering and smooth the wallpaper in place. When you get near the end of the wall, you add the final right hand vertical, remove that protective covering and smooth your paper in place.

Here I'm confirming that the left hand wallpaper fits.

There is a strip across the back at the corner...

 Then strips of tape are put up the sides (actually top and bottom as I now have the room on its end) and the paper put in place

Another strip of tape across the end of the wall

And that piece of wallpaper is in place.

Do the right hand wall and the room is finished! (Well, still needs baseboards but it's beginning to come together.)

Back to the music room

The music room was just about finished for the Show and Sale but it was so dark that none of the lights I had were bright enough so decided to wait until I could fix that before I showed it.

I had two LED lights above the side panel and they just weren't bright enough. I bought two hanging battery lights from Alex from Victoria Miniland for the room itself but they weren't bright enough either.

When I was at Rona on  Saturday, I picked up a JIB strip LED light kit for $30.00. (It comes with four light strips but I only needed two for this project.

Put one strip along the back

 and one out of sight along the side.

Really pleased with the results.