Library stall for the Little Fair on the Prairie

I'm going to Joanne's tomorrow to work on our market stalls. We went out last night (to visit some air conditioned places and get out of the heat) and decided that neither of us were pleased with hers that we worked on last week so we'll revamp that.

I got together everything that I thought I would need to work on the library and ice cream stalls and made the bases for both.

Last night I found two crates in my stash. Stained them and filled them with more books to store under the stall.

By the time everything was printed for the library stall, I decided I may as well finish it tonight. My night shirt got a reprieve as I decided to make a striped paper canopy for the stall. I actually prefer the green and white stripe to the multi-coloured stripes in the night shirt fabric.

Canopy and price sign in place.

Decided to make a sandwich board to announce the library hours. Cut to pieces of matboard about 2" x 3" and a piece of card stock 2" x 1".

Folded the card stock into a tent that I glued to the tops of the pieces of matboard.

Dug out some chain and eye pins to use on the sandwich board. Used a push pin to make pilot holes in the matboard and added a piece of chain to each side.

My original plan was to have a 1:144 model of the dollhouse that MEE donated to the Children's Department of the Library on display but don't know if that will get done. It would be the perfect addition to this but time and energy aren't my friends at this point.

With any luck I'll get the ice cream stall done tomorrow and then I can get working on some of my long-abandoned UFOs.

Spoke too soon re new printer

Remember I had hoped to get the St. Albert Public Library fair stall finished tonight? Other than a couple crates of boxes under the stall - Didn't happen!

And why?

Because my lovely new printer won't print on cardstock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My last two printers have been by Canon and they were great! (I just wore them out!) So my intention was to buy another Canon.

Note: I had well over $150.00 in unused ink cartridges left over from my old Canon but DS Marie has a Canon that will take them so that was a BIG relief.

But because of the volume of printing that I do (because of The Book* that I do for my family and friends each year), the salesman at Staples suggested that I buy the HP Officejet Pro 8600. One thing I really liked about it was that it comes with a choice of ink cartridge size - if you have BIG printing jobs, you can get a large (in terms of printing) ink cartridge. It can also fax, copy and scan. Not important to me, especially since I bought a stand-alone scanner about a month ago. (Another bone of contention in addition to the unused ink cartridges!)

Because I've never had a printer that wouldn't print on card stock, I just assumed that this one would. Let's face it! As a miniaturist, printing on card stock is important to me.

Remember the reason I discovered that my old printer was no longer working was that I couldn't print a page for Pamela? This is the page:

Once I got the new printer hooked up, it took a couple tries but I finally got four copies of that printed on a very light card stock.

Didn't think too much of it at the time.

Then I had some pieces that I wanted to print on 110# card stock for the St. Albert Public Library fair stall.

Well, forget it!

Every time I tried to print anything on card stock, the printer would try, then tell me it was out of paper. (And, yes, I did change the paper properties to card stock.) SO I would keep trying to the point I was worried that I would damage the drive that pulls up the paper.

So I Googled HP Officejet Pro 8600 print on card stock and discovered this is a major problem with this printer! One of the sites that came up was the HP forum so I tried all the solutions that were suggested there. One worked - for printing one copy - but only on 60# card stock - not the 110# I mostly want to use!

In all I spent at least three hours on the computer trying to solve this on my own. Finally found a "Contact Us" selection on HP Canada where I vented my feelings and frustration. I'm anxious to hear what they'll tell me.

Darn! It's a nice printer but I don't think I can manage with one that doesn't print on card stock!

So that's my sad tale for today...............

About the only good thing about today is that the low temperature forecast for tonight is 14C so with all the windows/balcony doors open and the fans on, it should cool off a bit inside here tonight.

* "The Book" is a book I put together each year. It consists of e-mail forwards, jokes, quotations, poems, etc. It all began during my Dad's final battle with cancer. I would print out things I thought he would enjoy and take them to him. At one point, Mom said, "You should put them in a book." So I did! Dad was alive for the first one and I've done one every year since.

"The Book" is my Christmas gift to my Mom and my sisters and it is our custom to sit quietly and read it after Christmas dinner. Over the years, copies of it have been my gift to friends who are going through rough times.

I usually print about 12 copies of it and it runs anywhere from 140 - 225 pages so it really adds to my 'pages printed' total.

The Petal Pusher - Garden Stall

Oh, I love the things I can do with the computer. These name signs would have been a pain in the butt to do without it. And thanks to Tommi L. from Canada Minis for coming up with the name!

 In place:

 Showing the back:

Making the side supports for the shelves:

I 'inherited' these sewing pattern weights from DD Leanne. Had forgotten I had them until  today. They're great for holding things in place.

The side supports glued in place:

Now the shelves are glued in place:

The roof glued in place and the stall glued to the cloth covered base.

 Side view

From the back

All the plants except the one in the tea cup on the top shelf are by Connie Stitt. The bird bath and the two tall bird houses are by Liliana Olson, a member of MEE. The blue bird house on the top shelf, the watering cans, the brass plant stand and the pink flamingo are from my stash.

One down, two to go.........

Catch up

We're about halfway through a 10 day heat wave - and I don't do heat well! The first couple days weren't too bad as it cooled off at night but it's not even doing that now so I'm not getting much done except reading.

Our condo coffee club normally doesn't meet during the summer months but we've decided to meet this summer so that's Wednesday afternoon.

Last Thursday, Joanne brought her fair stall over and we worked on it and I got a couple things done on mine. Barb joined us and came up with some helpful ideas.

Friday night Joanne and I went out for dinner then to the Edmonton Cemetery where the Edmonton storytellers group told five stories. Very interesting evening. After dinner, we made a quick stop at Dollarama where I picked up another of the pet tents I told you about earlier. This one will be a tent for DGD Holly's Barbies. I'll make a couple sleeping bags, etc. for it.

Saturday, I went to the St. Albert Farmers' Market with DS Marie and DBIL Robert. Looked and tasted mostly but did find a great geode that's the smallest one in my collection so far.

While we were there I stopped at the St. Albert Public Library and picked up the most recent J.D. Robb book "Celebrity in Death". After a late lunch at the market, we stopped at SHAVA (the hospital auxiliary used book store) and I found a book from the Brian Jacques "Redwall" series that I hadn't yet read.

My original intent was to walk home from the market but it was too darn hot so we took a side trip to Dollarama and Dollar Tree then they dropped me off at home.

Yesterday, my friend and neighbour Pam called and asked me to print out something we had found on the internet as part of her daughter's 40th birthday present. Went to do that and discovered that my printer had died on me. (And of course this is just after I bought $60 worth of ink cartridges for it in the US and can't return them!)

Pam had to go to Staples anyway so we headed over there and I bought a new printer. Got it all hooked up and so far I'm pleased with it.

Pam's coming up with 40 gifts for her daughter so we did some brainstorming and came up with some good ideas.

Today I've promised myself that, heat or not, I must get the garden stall done. (My time line for all three stalls has a deadline of next Monday so I have my work cut out for me - and the heat wave isn't due to break until early next week.

Finally getting around to blogging...

Last Tuesday, Mom asked me to stay with her for about five hours so I packed up my supplies and got four full hours in on my garden stall!

It was quite an experience for me to work over there as it meant cleaning up after each step. I know that's how I SHOULD work but can't seem to accomplish it at home.

OUCH! Had no idea that it had been so long since I made the base for the garden stall (March 25). The tool is a sprue cutter from Hobby Wholesale in Edmonton. This tool makes a wonderfully flush cut. While it's intended use is to cut sprue (the plastic piece that holds model pieces together), it actually works well to trim bits of wood that are just a fraction longer than they should be.

You'd think by now I would have the good sense to stain before construction; but in my defense, I had really thought I might paint this but changed my mind.

Some club members found some great fabric to cover the tables on which the fair stalls will sit. Those of us who didn't have freestanding stalls (such as Carol's hot dog stand and Laurie's washroom trailer) were given pieces of the fabric to cover the bases of our stalls so they would blend in with the overall look of the fairgrounds.

So I cut a piece of matboard to use as my base:

and glued the fabric to it.

I cut three pieces of matboard to make an alcove at the back of the stall base where the shelves for the potted plants will go.

 Like this...

I printed out this picture of a field of flowers and glued it to the back of the stall.

I had cut a bunch of strip wood to make the shelves. This time I got smart and stained them before construction. I even remembered to wear my rubber gloves to keep the stain off my hands.

Here I've cut the strips to length for the shelves, connectors and side supports.

Using my wonderful plexiglass gluing jig (made by Samm and Gerry Brockhurst), I began construction of the shelves. (You can see where I used coffee stirrers to line up the shelve pieces.) I glued on the first connector piece, then moved the stirrers over, glued on the middle piece, then removed them and glued on the final piece.

I made four shelves.

New acquisitions

My 'intention' VBG was to photograph my new stuff last night and get everything put away. HA! I have never had so much trouble taking pictures - had to try as many as 8 times to get a half decent picture of some of these things....

This wonderful little angel is only an inch tall! The 'gold' bracelet will go in the jewellery box kit I got from Dragonfly International at the Phoenix Show and Sale (3rd one down).

Unfortunately the chair in the Millie August Classique kit had already been made BUT all the wood pieces had been traced on a piece of paper so I can still make the chair at some point. Not too sure just where the HOM kits will end up.

 Two lovely pieces of silk...might be nice as upholstery maybe.

These pieces will probably end up in my oriental project when I get around to it. Although I'm getting so many pieces for it that my original setting is quickly proving too small. But what else is new?!?

Love this plate of devilled eggs. They're popular at our RL family dinners so pleased to have them.

Little baby afghan.

Nice little pot of flowers.

Along with the other oriental items were two of these black bases. One of my upstairs neighbours does the most incredible pysanky and gifted me with this beautiful one last week. The minute I saw the base I thought it would be perfect for displaying the pysanka and, sure enough, it is.

Leanne picked these up for me at Michael's in Las Vegas. (I couldn't bring them back as I was flying with only carry-on luggage.)  Michael's here doesn't carry any of these although Yes glue is available locally. BUT, with a 40% off coupon on one item, the bill for all four was under $20!

The grandchildren gave me a Michael's gift card for Christmas so Leanne and I went there locally weekend before last. Got 6 three foot strips of the cove moulding and 2 strips of the other. REALLY hard to shop at Michael's here after having been to the American stores so recently. Pretty much everything is 50% to 100% more here! ARRRGHH

Have wanted some of this adhesive for quite some time so was very glad to see it at Michael's here.

Well, I'm off to my Mom's for the rest of the day. Hopefully, I've packed up everything I need to complete my plant pot stand for the Little Fair on the Prairie while I'm there. And I have my camera so I can document the construction and should have a report for you tomorrow.

What a find!

Joanne and I went to Michael's, HomeSense and Dollarama today. Found a great Christmas present for DD Leanne at HomeSense. Had hoped to find label printer sheets at Dollarama but no luck today. BUT Joanne spotted this great nylon pet tent for $2.00.

It's 15" x 15" x 15" so it's more 1:6 scale but at some point I'm going to bash it to about 10" tall. I can see this as an adjunct to my travel trailer (when it gets done).

While I'm very excited about this, it has to be put away for now. I've promised myself that I will get working and finish my three stalls for The Little Fair on the Prairie before July 16 when the bids close on Joyce's roomboxes.

Then I will be able to work on projects that I really want to do.