Bit of a catch-up

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy around here. I had some furniture from Mom, and two lovely pieces of furniture from the Put and Take so I had to get rid of some of the old to make room for the new. I'm also trying to downsize a bit so I cleaned out one of the bookshelves in my bedroom and got rid of some of the books from the living room.

When I got rid of the extra furniture, I had to re-arrange my living room furniture.

This past Monday, a lovely young lady, Amanda, came by to photograph my minis so that meant more cleaning and tidying. Amanda had contacted the club earlier in this year asking for volunteers to have their minis photographed for a school project and I was one who had agreed.

So I'm quite pleased with the changes.

During the estate sale earlier this month, Sunni brought me my gift bag from Driving Miss Dolly in June. It contained a kit for this Alice in Wonderland book. I took it to craft night on Tuesday and put it together.

My DS Marie and DBIL Robert were here on a quick trip. They dropped off several things I had left when we went up to Fairview for Mom's interment.

Additionally, my DS Carol sent me all these wonderful minis!

All these great frames: (Outside measurements) largest 2 9/16" x  3 1/8" and smallest 1 3/16" x 1 1/2"
I see another art gallery in my future!

Each window is 2 1/4" x 3 5/8"
Think they would make lovely church windows - maybe with stained glass panes?

There's a total of 11 of these pots. 1" in diameter and 5/8" high.

 Carol had this picture of Mom and Dad (probably taken sometime in 1940-41 before Dad went overseas. None of us had ever seen it so she was kind enough to have it copied for all of us.

Hope to get back to minis and finish Mirabel's roombox soon.

Made some major changes in my ideas for Mirabel's roombox

I spent a good part of Friday and most of Saturday pondering Mirabel's roombox, checking out my stash and preparing items to go into it.

First of all, I decided that putting a buffet (original idea) or a china cabinet in the dining area would make it too crowded. So nixed those. Then I decided to put a rug under the dining room table. Nothing in my commercial rugs worked so checked my carpet drawer which contains a great stash of large pieces of upholstery samples from a book my DS Marie gave me years ago. Decided on this piece and cut a piece for that side of the room.

The original size was 9" x 6 1/2" but ended up cutting it down to 7 3/4" x 5 1/2".

 I copied the front page of the art work book that I bought at the Estate sale on to cardstock as I wanted the prints to be sturdier.

I cut out two of the floral prints for the dining room then trimmed them in silver using this very fine silver tape that DS Leanne gave me. (It's one of about 20 - 25 different rolls of tape used for fingernail art that she gave me awhile back.)

It's wonderful but it's really difficult to work with and it took me about 45 minutes to trim the two pictures. But worth it in the long run.

The next thing was to frame the picture for above the fireplace. For that I decided to use one 1/4" strip of cherry veneer that I also decided to stain with the dark Dollarama stain pen.

This is a fridge magnet with artwork by Judy Schafers, a local artist. It's on 3/8" foamcore and I want to affix it to the wall with Velcro coins so the difference between the foamcore and the veneer strip will help hide the Velcro.

I first glued the veneer strips to the long sides of the picture, leaving a bit of veneer hanging over each end. When the glue dried, I trimmed the veneer  flush with the picture. Then I added the veneer to the short sides. When that glue dried, I trimmed those pieces also then touched up the raw ends with stain.

Here it is framed.

Here the Velcro has been added to the back. The protective plastic was been left on the second pieces of Velcro until it's ready to be hung.

Next step was to apply movable miniature glue to all the pieces I wanted to glue in place: the corner shelf, its contents, the candlesticks, the flowers, the pictures and the cloisonne floor vase. Here you can see how I used thread spools to keep the candlesticks in place while the glue dried.

This wonderful corner shelf by Judy Mitchell contains (top down): a little angel by Cheryl Hartlen,

a 'Royal Doulton' lady and an orange vase. (It was hard to find something that would fit on that bottom shelf.)

Oh, my, I do have to straighten that picture on the right!

The living room picture in place.

I think it's starting to take shape quite nicely.

Things left to do (that I can think of and plan on at this point):

. have to replace Mirabel's glasses on the coffee table (lost them somehow)

. add some magazines

. wood in the fireplace

. add something to the top of the fireplace

. see if I can find my fireplace tools

Almost ready to fill Mirabel's roombox

I hate getting roomboxes ready to load so I'm thrilled that the end is in sight here.

I gave the outside of the box a second coat of paint.

For the lighting, I am using a Duracell under-cabinet light (one of three my DS Shirley gave me for Christmas a few years ago). I previously used one in Ann's kitchen.

This mounting plate is screwed into the ceiling

Then the light itself just clips in place. (It's easily removable is the batteries need to be replaced.) I think I will paint the front of the light white so it's not so noticeable.

With the light in place, it became evident that the walls needed a second coat of paint so did that.

 Dry-fit the flooring (again). Now I will 'glue' it in place with double-sided carpet tape. It's not evident on the left side but you may just be able to see a tab of tape on the right hand side. I put those in place to make removal of the floor easier. I may hide the left hand tab but will leave the right hand tab in place in case I want to remove the floor at some point. (It will be covered by the fireplace anyway.)

I had just enough paint left to paint the outside back of the roombox.

So affix the floor and paint the front of the light and the fun begins!

Some Tuesday night catch-up

Sheila, I'm glad you liked the coffee table. I love the cuts of agate to make tables. That one is 2 1/2" at its widest. That one, the gold one and another in my stash were given to me by my daughter who picked them up in Jasper, Alberta.

The two large ones in this picture (5 3/8" wide on the right) were from the Bay of Fundy gift shop in Nova Scotia. They will make dining room tables at some point. I remember when Cheryl H. and I spotted them in the shop. We were discussing them (and their size) and saying what wonderful and unique dining room tables they would make.

When we went to pay for them, we explained what we would be using them for and the clerk sort of shook her head and (having overheard our discussion) said she had wondered what the heck we were talking about.

These trees/bushes were from Tina's son's stash. I hope to use them in Mom's garden. They were meant to be 1:48 scale but will certainly work in 1:12.

5 3/4" tall

4 1/2" tall

 Tina gave us some of her pottery discards. (I should do so well!) These are pieces when the glazes didn't work out the way she had hoped/expected. But the shapes are great and the finishes are interesting.

Long story but these are great files that Tina gave us. The top is a regular and the bottom is a diamond file that will work on plastic, etc. (Actually used that one to shape the candles so they would fit in the candleholders for Mirabel.)

So many wonderful things!

A bit more progress

Sanded the floor

Gave the outside of the roombox a second coat of paint

The StarLite vanish I used on the salad bowl did not work properly. It should have dried clear with a bit of irridescence.

I had used the same StarLite varnish on these candlesticks. Decided to make them silver instead.

This bottle of StarLite varnish worked much better. It's more clear although the iridescence still doesn't show up in the photo. Still have to trim the top of the bowl - probably in gold.

Mirabel's roombox

First of all, I hate it that if I don't post by 8:30 p.m. MST, it shows up the next day and the time is all wrong. On the other hand,  that is my fault.

The post about the Sale was posted Sunday morning and I waited until after that appeared in your feeds until I posted this one which is actually from Sunday although most of you won't see it until Monday.

I will try to get them more in sync.

Using some of the new things I bought on Saturday, I rethought Mirabel's roombox:

I finished setting the table with the cutlery and four of the wineglasses from Judy S.

Then I started a salad bowl to add to the table.

This is a water bottle cap that will be painted with a glittery coating that will remind me of the iridescent bowls my my mother (and I) had.

Originally I had made a coffee table from a slice of agate and some pieces from my stash.

But I realized I had a slice of green agate that was much more appropriate so I went with that.

A slice of round wood from my "laser poop" stash, two small spools and a slice of green agate.

Stack two spools on the slice of "laser poop" and glue together.

 Stain them with a stain pan:

 Glue them onto the slice of agate:

And, Voila! A coffee table!

I've changed the entire look of the living room by substituting the striped green living room set for the white leather couch. Kept the cushions for a punch of colour! And added the cloisonne vase.

Put Mirabel's eyeglasses on the table. Need to add some magazines or books...

Will frame this and hang it above the fireplace. It's a fridge magnet by local artist Judy Schafers. 

Major things I have to do on Monday: Sand the floor and give the outside of the roombox a second coat of paint.

It's coming together!

The SALE!!!

As you can see, I finally found my camera battery charger! (It was in the bottom of the suitcase I took to Saskatoon - black charger in a suitcase with a black lining.)

The sale was a great success! We sold probably about 75% - 80% of the items and what is left will be sold at our Show and Sale on September 15. Met some new miniaturists, some of whom have shown an interest in joining the club.

There was a beautiful canopied crib with three other pieces of furniture and hundreds of pieces to complete a nursery but as tempted as I was, managed to resist as I can't foresee needing to make another nursery anytime in the near future. But for about $45 could have had a complete nursery! Those things will be available in September!

So I really tried to stick to buying things that I actually can foresee using in the near future. I did get another roombox of the style I'm using for Mirabel's roombox. It doesn't have the plexiglass but I have some that I can use. Those roomboxes are a really good size and they're shallow enough to fit on a bookshelf.

Anyway, here's what I did buy.

Suddenly I'm just about out of end and coffee tables so picked these up.

Bought the desk for the books then discovered they seem to be molded directly onto the shelves. But that's okay.
The cabinet on the right will go into Mirabel's roombox - it's better than the unit I had thought to put in it.

Can always use side and rocking chairs in my little gift vignettes. and I was out of dining tables and chairs.

Now these I didn't need but they're so nice and were so reasonable that I couldn't resist.

I'm a bit low on smaller fireplaces - and this one is wired! - and comes with logs.

When I started Mirabel's roombox, I realized the white couch was the last in my stash. (Oh, Horror!)

So I bought these pieces. Originally I thought I might make leather couches and chairs out of the two sets but the tiny patterns are growing on me.

This is such a dainty little settee.

Can't remember if I mentioned that I hope to take all the flowers (miniature, of course) that I gave Mom over the years since her stroke and make a garden with them. It's still in  the early planning stages but I got the arbor with bench for $2.50 and the five planters of flowers for 25 cents so I'll see if they will work.

I needed cutlery and wine glasses for Mirabel's table so was glad to find these.

These won't work for the table but they'll work as individual glasses in vignettes.

Two lovely plate stands that will work in a china cabinet.

 Now this I definitely did not need! I have enough art for several more art galleries! But the pictures are lovely and it was only $1.

A bit of extravagance that I probably could have done without BUT...It's a fan with directed air flow which can be used to dust my miniatures!

Judy S. was kind enough to bring me these Chrysnbon wine glasses for Mirabel's table. Thank you, Judy.

Now to put everything away then get to work on Mirabel's roombox.