What a great afternoon!

Miniaturist Marijke from New Brunswick, whose blog several of us follow, has been visiting her family over the holidays and came over yesterday afternoon. We were joined by five members of M.E.E..

The afternoon just flew by as we had the greatest visit talking about all aspects of minis: our respective clubs, shows, brick and mortar stores and the lack thereof, Castine, Chicago, Camp Mini HaHa (where Marijke, Tina and I met). Marijke shared flower-making ideas with Teresa.Tina shared her ideas for using her newest piece of equipment.

Marijke gifted each of us with a beautiful poinsettia plant.

And she also gave me this lovely stitched Navajo  rug in a design she found in Arizona. She hoped the neutral colours would help me find a place for it. At this point, though, I think it may end up in one of my art galleries.

Now that Marijke's three children and spouses are living in Alberta, we hope that we'll see her more often.

Merry Christmas to All!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Mine was very quiet but most enjoyable!

I hadn't expected any minis this Christmas but my DS Marie gave me a long box filled with all these wonderful treasures!

More 1:6 than 1:12

The one on the right is 2 3/8" and the rest are 2".

All 1:12. The footed bowl is filled with glass fruit.

One of the fireplace tools is missing but the handle is there so I can fix it. Great little sail boat and two hand towel racks.

Nine mugs - or glasses (if I take the handles off). Also 1:12

1:6 deck of cards' tuba, coffee grinder; ????; tray probably 1:6

I am so thrilled with all these minis! Already thinking what/where I can use them!

Gift and Plan for the New Year!

Thanks to the wonderful contribution from Lorry Saunders' family to M.E.E., Luci Hansen from Oregon will be joining us as an instructor in May of 2018. She'll be teaching her LED light/soldering class AND her 1:48 Brooke Tucker Golden Christmas.

I still have some of my birthday pig money left. With that and Christmas money from Mom and Leanne today, I'm going to take Luci's Brooke Tucker Golden Christmas class.

Leanne was incredibly surprised that I had decided to take a 1:48 class as I have resisted that for some time. She didn't think I'd be able to get the same detail in 1:48 as I do in 1:12 but when I explained that (1) it's a matter of space, (2) even Joanne is doing a lot of 1:48 now, and (3)  I'm working from a kit in a class, I won't end up with a lot of extras as I do when I'm working from scratch in 1:12.

THEN she laughed and laughed! And said, "where did that all come from?" It always blows her mind when she is so knowledgeable about minis.

It's such a shame that she isn't interested in doing miniatures herself. She has a great sense of miniatures and one of the best miniature eyes I have ever seen. But it's not her thing so I have to accept that.

Tea set from Marie

While I've never worked in 1:6 (play/Barbie scale), Marie had told me she was bringing out this incredible tea set made from quail eggs for me. She picked it up at the Peace River Put and Take awhile back. (She even went back and picked up the broken cup in the hope that I would be able to use bits of it.)

Robert, bless his heart, said, "Now you have to make something to put it on and find something to put it in." I already have this lantern so think I'll make a 1:6 table to go in it, wallpaper the back (so the damage to the sugar bowl won't be quite so evident and that will be my vignette. Maybe put a picture on the wall....that's the plan so far at least.

Elizabeth's dollhouse 4

Well, I gave up after my post #3 on Sunday. Then yesterday and today were pretty busy with real life although I picked away at the roof a bit yesterday and some tonight with some progress.

BUT hit a major snag!The very top layer of shingles on both sides were nailed down with 5/8" finishing nails about 1/2" apart. The claw on my regular hammer is to big to fit in there and pull them so I've been using a combination of pliers and a small claw hammer DD Leanne gave me years ago to get them out. As you can imagine, this is slow going! Will just have to keep picking away at it.

I thought about just pounding the nails in but they're already poking through the underside of the plywood so that's not an option.

DS Marie and DBIL Robert (Elizabeth's grandparents) arrived here at 2 this afternoon so we all had a good visit with Mom. They'll come over Friday morning to see if the dollhouse will fit in their vehicle. If I can get it finished and they have room for it, they'll take it up with them. (I hope on both counts.)

A Christmas gift....Yay!

Just to take a break from the ongoing saga of Elizabeth's dollhouse, I have to show you my WONDERFUL Christmas gift from my BFF Joanne.

Looks like a usual tube of lipstick!

But when you open it and twist up the 'lipstick'

 this wonderful fairy appears!

This wonderful lipstick fairy was done by Sue Anne "Ladybug" Thwaite..

Thank you so very much for this Joanne.

Elizabeth's dollhouse 3

Applied a second coat of paint to the two pieces of molding. AND remembered to put on my gloves...and wouldn't you know it, not a speck of paint on the gloves.

Best laid plans and all that....

Well,, the back shingles came off pretty easily awhile back.

But the front ones are stuck! But I'm making progreaa.

My heat gun, chisel and what I've gotten off so far.

Ran into another slight snag in that the shingles across the peak of the roof are also nailed down so that will slow me down a bit more.

One of the reasons I had planned on replacing the shingles with felt was that I had a big piece of felt and had hoped that it would cover the roof without having to be pieced. Until I thought to measure the felt (a bit late in the whole scheme of things, I admit) and it's 36" x 36" and the roof is 38 1/2" wide.

So I guess I'll have to use the 1/8" composite wood product that Leanne and I bought originally for the roof. But I'm going to wait until tomorrow to cut that.

So, my job for tonight is simply  to clear the roof. Won't even hang the curtains until everything else is finished.

Elizabeth's dollhouse 2

Why do I never think to put rubber gloves on until  my hands are covered with paint?!? The idiot in me, I guess.

I got the two corner moldings cut first since I wanted to paint them first. Did not too badly considering it was the first time I've used a Skil saw in ages. Panicked a bit when I couldn't find my white spray paint but it was just tucked away behind some others so all was well.

Hung a plastic sheet in the bathtub so I could paint in there. I hate spray paint! But finally got them painted...but will need another coat. So glad I did that first.

Goo Gone took off most of the paint on my hands and  the remainder is dry enough that I can work.

Glued the upper stairwell in place with wood glue.

Now to go from room to room and fix all the wallpaper!

What a nightmare! Don't know how I would have managed at all without the glue spreader. Some of the loose pieces were by doors or the front edge so I could put in a piece of wood and clamp the wallpaper in place but some were in odd spots that required my fingers to do the clamping.

Not to mention that I have to take my glasses off to see what I'm doing!

Still have to tackle one more place in this corner.

Fortunately, the wallpaper on the first floor is in pretty good shape and the only pieces that need to be glued can be clamped.

All but one spot on the first floor is glued and clamped. Will get the other done when the glue has dried on the first pieces.

All the curtains have been washed and are drying. When that's done, I'll put them back on the rods and hang them.

...And pronounce the inside done.

Then I'll tackle the roof.

That will just leave the outside to wash, repair the front door, add the missing shutter and a few other odds and ends.

After that, I'll go through the furniture I picked up for it and see if there's anything to add from my stash.

Hope to get the roof done today.