One light installed

Thought I'd install one light to begin with.

A plate goes on first. Because the rooms have textured ceilings, I used Liquid Nails to attach the plate then used the two short screws supplied to keep it secure. Then the light just slides on to the plate.

Wow! Look how bright the light is.

While the front of the light isn't terribly obvious, I think if I paint it white it will blend into the room more.

Right side

Left side

I like the light bars so think I'll go ahead and install the other two.

Then while the rooms are empty, think I'll add white crown molding to all three rooms. That will be tricky as my two strips  of crown molding are 36" each and the amount I need is as bout 35 1/2" so my cuts will have to be perfect. For the sitting room, I have two 24" of dentil molding so I have a bit more leeway there.

I'll eventually add white baseboards but that can wait until all other decisions have been made.

OH, SH*T! At least I only have one light up....That light is too close to the back of the room to allow for the crown molding. Have to rethink some of this. Hate it when I make a mistake like that! I think, however that the dentil molding will fit in the bedroom so I should be able to do the crown molding in the outer two rooms if I move the lights forward a bit.

Getting ready...

First of all, I had to hang the picture that Jonah and Holly sent me for Christmas!

Adding the wire to hang it....

Putting it on the wall! Aren't they just beautiful?

I hate it when I forget to take the "before" picture. Took this one about half way through clearing the table.

 Then I took the pictures of getting the lights prepared.

All set for tomorrow. Now I just have to figure out how to set these lights in place in the ceilings of the rooms.

Belated Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We certainly did - although it was a bit different this year. My DS Marie and BIL came down from Peace River this year to spend Christmas Day with three of their four children and Leanne's Robert didn't arrive home until Christmas Day night so we all got together at DS Shirley and BIL Grahame's on Boxing Day this year. Leanne brought dinner for all of us. She's an incredible cook so everything was incredibly delicious.

Leanne and Robert picked Mom and me up then we headed over to Shirley and Grahame's. Don't think we could have put one more bag or package in the SUV. Shirley and Grahame's friend, Marilyn, was there when we arrived and Marie and Rob's daughter, Stephanie, joined us later and stayed for dinner.

We had a wonderful time opening gifts and visiting then had a lovely salmon dinner.

I certainly hit the jackpot mini-wise!

One of my gifts from Marie had a bow made from 3 metres of wired ribbon that I can see myself using in a Christmas scene - maybe as drapes or even as upholstery. The four pins were with another gift. Beautifully thin, long pins that I can see myself using.

Mom's gifts had metres of this 1/4" ribbed gold ribbon. I think it could be painted white and used as baseboards or wainscoting. And some cord that will be used for something.

I had forgotten that Shirley had said she would be giving me these lights. They will fit in my roomboxes. Then Mom surprised me with another set!!

Incredibly bright light! 

I had taken David and Laura's nursery over to deliver to Marie and Rob so immediately put the batteries in one of the lights and Rob will install it when they get home.

This was a 'just because' gift from Marie. The box contains 18 different minerals and the paper identifies them. Not too sure what I'll end up doing with them.

From Marie: a box of lights, some porcelain roses, a little bird and five bracelet links.

A larger picture of the bracelet links. They are gorgeous and I think they will be incorporated into a fireplace maybe with the larger piece above the mantle.

Non-mini. Mom gave me this lovely necklace.

Mom also gave me this great apron with four pockets for wearing at workshops.

DS Carol gave us each a Breast Cancer calendar that has some lovely scenes from across Canada. If I get much more art work I'm going to have to build a second art gallery. But mustn't think of that now....

Before Christmas I cleaned the dining room carpet so moved all the big roomboxes into my workroom (which is more of a storage room these days) so I think I'll move everything back into the dining room, sort through things and hopefully get to work on the three room roombox that I started way back.

If I'm going to use the three lights from Shirley and Mom in that roombox (and I think I will), that decision has to be made before I do anything else. Then there will be some other decisions to be made - like door between bedroom and bathroom but no door between bedroom and sitting room; what am I doing about a closet; windows?

What can I do before these decisions are made?

Oh, my, way more questions than answers at this point!

The Nursery is Finished!

Once the outside was done, the inner walls were next. I wanted the window from the original roombox but wasn't going to cut a hole in the wall of the new roombox. I found a picture on the internet of a backyard and sized it to the window. Then Marie send me a picture of Laura and David.

I sized the pictures, framed the picture of Laura and David, and printed each picture twice - once on photo paper and once on card stock.

The frame itself (on cardstock) was cut out and the photo with frame on photo stock was cut out. The inner edge of the frame was coloured with black marker.

Then the frame was glued on the picture and the outer edge of both coloured with black marker.

The window frame, plastic and the picture were all glued together then glued to the wall.

 OOPS!! That valence is WAY crooked! At least I caught that in time to fix it.

Bit of a change. Since I was adding the rocking chair, thought I'd add some shelving for books and the princess ornaments and piggy bank from my stash. Also moved the changing blankets from the crib to the shelving.

left corner

right corner The outfit on the changing table is by Linda Austin of Spruce Grove AB.

Overview. The diaper holder is hung from a sequin pin (drilled a hole then glued it in).

The table and two chairs in the front middle were a project when I first joined MEE.

right side The dollhouse is a printie. The rocking horse is from one of the first Edmonton Shows I ever attended. My friend, Chryssa Sharp, came up from Calgary and we attended the show together. She insisted on painting the rocking horse for me. Don't recall where I got the telephone pull toy but it's a painted metal mini. The boxed train set is by Penny Spence from Vancouver Island. Don't recall where the duck pull toy came from. Think the Winnie the Pooh was a Christmas ornament.

Another OOPS! I used too much glue when I tucked the fabric into the slot for the plexiglass. I could possibly force the plexi in place but I'd never get it out so I have to solve that little problem.

Usually I glue things in place for transport but don't really want to do that with this so think I'll probably pack things up and give Marie lots of pictures so she can re-construct it when she gets it home.

nursery outside

I found this fabric at Quiltessentials that matches the wall fabric in the room.  I applied it with Fusi-Bond Lite (lightweight iron-on double-sided adhesive.

Top

Back

right side

This is where the plexiglass goes. I put glue along the slot and folded the fabric along it!

I took a popsicle stick and ran it along the line to work it out.

Now I can be all set up to work on the inside of the room!

Now the fun begins!!!!

The Nursery

I started work on the nursery today.

Every nursery should have a rocking chair and I remembered one made by Gladys Schuster that I had bought at Gilbert's Cove Lighthouse in Nova Scotia in 2008.

The bears were just tacked in so I removed them.

I took a cushion from my market stall for the seat.

I didn't have any pink wallpapers in my stash so decided to do the lower walls in fabric. Had two pinks and went with the darker one.

First I cut cardboard templates for the back and sides. (This is the back piece.)

Then I cut a piece of fusible web slightly wider than the template and fused it to my fabric.

 Trimmed off the excess fabric.

 Peeled off the paper backing from the fusible web.

Centered the template on the fabric.

Put that face down on a sheet of parchment paper and iron.

Flip over and fold the excess fabric to the back and iron in place.

Do the same with the side pieces BUT on the side pieces leave about 1/4" extra fabric to wrap around on to the back wall so there is no break where the pieces meet.

Attach to the roombox with two strips of Duck indoor/outdoor carpet tape. (This is great stuff. I get mine at WalMart but most hardware stores carry it. Many, many years ago when I first heard this, all the carpet tape I had seen was quite thick and I could not understand the hint. This (and, I suppose, many others) is paper thin and works beautifully to attach almost anything to anything.)

You could cut off strips of it to secure pieces of furniture to a wall. Not my favourite method. I prefer poster Velcro for that but that is no longer available from Lee Valley (where I have always bought it). It's probably available elsewhere but I haven't checked it out.

 Do both side walls. It's easiest to do this by turning the roombox so the surface you're working on is on the table. (But pay attention! I was watching TV while I did this and originally put the second wall piece against the ceiling instead along the floor. :-(  Fortunately, caught it quickly and it peeled off without damaging the paint.)

Sorry I thought I had taken more pictures to explain the process. If you have any questions, you can email me and I'll try to help.

Then add the back piece.

So far, so good! I'm lovin' it!

Can't do much more until I finish the outside of the box. Think I'll run over to Quiltessentials (the quilt shop down the street) tomorrow and see if I can find a nice piece of fabric to finish the outside. Not too sure what I want (something with the pink from inside) but even though I only buy a foot of fabric they are so helpful there so I know we'll come up with something perfect. Plus I think I'll pick up a couple more metres of the fusible web.

Once that's done, it'll just be a matter of filling the room. Of course, it's a matter of simply cleaning and moving most of the pieces from the original roombox. But as with the rocking chair, some new ideas keep coming up.

We're celebrating Christmas on Boxing Day so we'll all be together except DS Carol and BIL Fred. David's parents will be with us (first time in roughly 35 years) so I'd like to finish it by then so I can have Marie and Rob take it up home for the big day. Marie and Rob live in Peace River and David and Laura live in Grande Prairie.

Joanne and I are going out to dinner then to see Colm Wilkinson at the Winspear tomorrow night. How exciting!

My latest project

I've put the bathroom/bedroom/sitting room on the back burner for awhile.

BECAUSE I am going to be a great-aunt again!

Nephew David and his SO Laura are expecting a daughter!

I'm SO excited but not, of course, as excited as my DS Marie whose first grandchild this will be.

Years ago, I made a nursery with furniture that our niece, Bea, gave me one Christmas. Am so thrilled that our new addition will be a girl so I won't have to change the colours!

I've added a lot to it over the years but the 'room' itself was made from foamcore and needs to be replaced.

Fortunately, I have a spare roombox to transfer most everything into:

I had forgotten that I had already put molding, baseboards and a wood floor in this room. (It was originally going to be the bedroom that I'm now doing in the three room roombox.)

The car (a Hallmark ornament) will go into Vern's attic (long story to be told later) but I think the rest  of the things will stay in the room.

The walls are white but I thought I might want to pick up some of the pink gingham (lower wall) and a white with spots of pink for the upper wall in the original...which is why I wanted to go to Michael's on Friday with Joanne. Would still like to put a rose carpet on the floor but, let's face it, carpet is not really a good choice in a nursery!?! So maybe I need to go with a brighter pink on the walls and leave the floor alone?

Maybe a stronger pink on the lower half of the wall, stick with the wooden floor? That would make the white furniture pop against the wall...maybe a wooden rocking chair with bright pink cushions?

I'm going to enjoy this!