Billy Joel "The Piano Man"

I'm a big Billy Joel fan and The Piano Man  is one of my favourites so I have been following my favourite miniaturist, Alice Zinn, as she has put this together for display at Chicago International. How I wish I could be there to see it!

She has two videos of it: this one and another viewed through the aquarium. Alice has also posted pictures of the components of the scene on PictureTrail.

There is an MP3 player in the ceiling of the room that actually plays The Piano Man through two speakers. Almost everything is made from scratch or altered by Alice.

Sorry I've not been posting but the mini muse has definitely left so I'm 'amusing' myself by housecleaning. Blah!

My friend, Jo-Ann Shaw listed some new items and relisted some others on eBay today. She has 1:12 scale pottery, snowshoes, mukluks, leather skates and backpacks and even a kit if you want to make your own. Well worth a look. 

Jo-Ann does incredible work. You can see the backpack here and the figure skates here. I have seen her pottery and tables in person and they are wonderful.

The jewellery box

When I earlier wrote about room possibilities, I mentioned this jewellery box:

I knew, of course, from the signature that it had been from a Gathering  but I was pleased to hear from Barb S. who advised me:

2004 was "Suite Dreams", colors cream and blue. J.B. is likely Judy Blondell.

I'm sure she's right and I very much appreciate the information.

What a beautiful piece! I'm so lucky to have it.

A long evening - but still not mini!

My BIG task tonight was to clean up the inbox on my computer! And what a job it was!

Now that I have the tablet, I read everything there but generally leave things to reply to or deal with later on my PC. Somehow I ended up with (I think) well over 400 items to deal with. Most were things that I  wanted to check out as links (somehow things from my Yahoo groups when I get them as digests don't show up as links on my tablet) or things I wanted to save for The Book.

(I did bind the four remaining copies of The Book tonight then finally put the binding machine away!)

Added 23 pages to The Book for 2015...and still have a couple that I didn't quite get around to adding.

Plus moving all the condo-related business to its folder.

Just have to tackle cleaning up the Sent folder on the PC and clean up the tablet and I can relax.

While I'm on a non-mini streak, must mention this. I was watching PBS on, I think, Sunday afternoon and saw this incredible show on the Dave Clark Five. Two solid hours (no pledge breaks LOL): the first hour was on the band itself and the second was more about Dave Clark himself and his business acument, particularly his purchase of the tapes of the British show "Ready, Set, Go" when it went off the air. Lots of wonderful clips from that. Couldn't find it on youtube but keep an eye open on PBS for it.

Non-Mini but great fun!

A friend from upstairs, Barb R. (not the miniaturist), called me up this afternoon to show me the playhouse she just finished for her great-granddaughter. It fits over the family's table.

The front of the playhouse. The windows have plastic in them. The door is held in place with a strip of magnetic tape and the door knob is a large gold button.

Each end of the house has a window with lace curtains.

This is what the curtain looks like from inside.

How I would love to be a fly on the wall when she receives it! Isn't it a wonderful gift?

You can see more examples if you Google playhouse over table.

Crown molding started

I was working on the bathroom and found the towel holders but didn't want to install them until I made sure the wallpaper was firmly in place - it's been giving me problems - and the crown molding was installed.

So I emptied the rooms and turned the box upside down so I could measure the crown molding for installation. And there it sat!

The pieces of molding  for the bathroom and sitting room are 40" long and each room takes about 39" so I cannot make a mistake. (I have a different molding for the bedroom but there's more leeway for mistakes on that one.)

I've been procrastinating but finally made the first cut this morning when the phone rang. Joanne wanted me to join her on a shopping trip. It's an absolutely beautiful 17 degree centigrade day and much too nice to stay indoors so I said yes.

One of our stops was at Indigo Books where the latest J. D. Robb book was on sale 40% off so, of course, I bought it! (Never a doubt about that LOL)

We had a late lunch and Joanne gave me a rough time about reading the book before I got some of the things on my must-do list done. So I came home, cleaned the guest suite, made some phone calls, cut the crown molding (for one room only) and wrote this so now I can read my book.

I put the leftover piece of molding in the middle so you could see how close the measurements are!

Needs to be painted and glued in place but it has given me the confidence to cut the rest tomorrow.

They have arrived!

Had a small  hassle with Canada Post but the books from Barbara Brear have finally arrived. Even waited until Joanne arrived before I took a peak!

They are exquisite!

Some progress

I joined the ladies for craft night downstairs tonight and got the first coat of white paint on the corner cabinet for the bathroom.

The inside of the bottom still has to be painted and a coat of varnish added.

When that is done, I will fill it with toiletries and towels, etc.

Hope this helps me get something done....

Yesterday I bought some audio books in the hope that I would actually work on minis while reading. 

This morning I moved the project back out to the living room and worked on a few things.

While I was working I set up the computer to print out five more copies of The Book as I have only my personal copy left.

I started working on a sink cabinet for the bathroom. I started with the bottom portion of a Michaels hutch. (A bit of heat from the hair dryer and a bit of brute strength and the top just popped off.) 

Popped off the wooden handles and sanded the entire piece, especially the top.

Cut a strip of the marble tile paper for the top of the vanity.

Painted the vanity white with a top coat of matte varnish, added the marble top and clamped it in place using a piece of wood to keep it in place.

Still needs new handles on the doors, a sink and taps. 

This will become the sink. 

It is starting to come together. Vanity needs to be finished with sink and taps, have handles to match the corner cabinet; the corner cabinet (which will hold towels and toiletries) needs to be painted white and I want a medicine cabinet (maybe) and a mirror above the vanity....and lights!....and towel racks....and....

Have pulled out a few things to go on the vanity in the bedroom:

Got this lovely piece from a mother and son team at Chicago International.

I got this delightful little jewellery box from Amber when she sold off the contents of a storage unit she had bought at auction. It is signed Gathering 2004 J. (?) B.

Equally nice inside.

The Chrysnbon Victorian Dresser set and my silver Pilot pens.

Did up the picture frame, comb, mirror and brush with a silver pen. No decision  yet on how to finish the small case.

I was a bit disappointed with the mirror and brush backs so I added some rhinestones from this:

These are meant for decorating cell phones, etc..

Finished printing The Book so also have to get it collated and bound tomorrow and get at least one copy in the mail to a friend who is going through a rough patch.

Shoot! This took way longer than I expected so it probably will not arrive until Monday night instead of tonight. Hard to tell but 7:30 - 8:00 p.m. seems to be the deadline for same day notification.

Updating and fun....

This is one of the possibles for the sitting room. All of this will face a fireplace with bookshelves built into each side....maybe....

Took these chairs out of the dining room in the Bombay House...

and replaced them with the Bespaq chairs

 Another view:

 The fact that they are arm chairs makes the room a bit crowded but I still like them.

Because Joanne and I are working the library book sale tomorrow (Saturday), I think I am going to take along this library book sale vignette that I made for our Little Fair on the Prairie. Great fun!

The Unveiling!!

Although not expected until Wednesday, our orders from Liz at Grandpa's Dollhouse arrived on Monday. Fortunately, the 'unveiling' was not scheduled until today (Friday) as I went to get up from the couch on Sunday and was in such pain in my back that I could hardly move. Almost back to normal now but the first few days were really bad!

Here are all our orders set out on the table with Gwen's in the big box below the table.

Here the table is set for lunch.

Joanne was the first to arrive and brought along this backpack that had just arrived in  the mail. As was the pair of skates I showed you a couple weeks ago, this was made by JoAnn Shaw of Nova Scotia. I am just gobsmacked by JoAnn's work in all media I have seen so far (pottery, leather and wood). 

 Barb R. and Maureen M. showing off their goodies.

June  K. joined us also. Carol K.'s plane from Arizona didn't arrive until the early hours this morning so June also picked up her order.

Gwen  R. joined us also. She's not a member of MEE (yet) but we see her at unveilings and at our Show and Sale. 

Gwen brought along some of her work to show us (sorry, didn't get pictures) and gave me this lovely window box.

My order: 

Two wing back chairs which may go in the sitting room!

Two Bespaq footstools that will also probably end up in the sitting room.

But I may end up using them in next year's club project - will have to see.

Love this little corner cabinet....sitting room!

Love this vintage kitchen table. My original thought was to paint it red but the green is growing on me. Have a kitchen in mind for this.

Don't know why the heck I ordered the air conditioner! The TV is beautifully detailed...might go in the sitting room.

I expect that these Bespaq balloon back chairs will go in the dining room of the Bombay House to replace the old chairs there.

A couple water bottles, two small crowns, a box of fig newtons and some great avocadoes.

Liz, bless her heart, also sent along a 'grab bag' of neat things for us to share. And, wow, this one had some great things in it, including three wonderful laser-cut signs and a Quin birdhouse. 

I took this gift and two jewelled crowns from the grab bag.

The only leftovers from the 'grab bag'! 

After opening and sharing, we had lunch. Gwen had to leave for her quilting club at 1:00 but the rest of us visited until two.

It's always such a joy to have a visit like this. We always say we'll do it more often but never seem to get around to it.

Joanne and I spent some time this week playing with possibilities in my current project so hope to get working on it soon....at least, something small....anything....just to get going on it!

But it won't be tomorrow as Joanne and I will be working the St. Albert Public Library book sale. Just hope I don't come home with a pile of books!