Basket beginnings

Over the summer I started learning about baskets too, over at Casey’s Minis blog. One day I will have worked my way through her entire amazing blog and will have tried everything in there, but that day is far in the future…

The basket on the left, above, was my very first. I think I'll use it as a bicycle basket - now I just have to add straps. Oh, and get the bike!

These were my next ones. I must have been tired - they look a little blurry...

These are some of my first attempts at faux basketry, and one attempt at a real basket with staves made from index card, then woven with waxed linen. That link is here

 The faux baskets are made very quickly, but the stitching took me a looong time.

Change of Subject...

 I'm all done with mold abatement, and it gave

me a headache too, so that's not something I'll undertake again. I'm just going to replace the interior walls and dry and seal he inside of the shell. Yesterday while I was recovering from the headache I made doll shoes!

I just used craft foam, scissors and glue, and it was a pretty rough first draft, but it was fun, and I'm thinking about the next pair...

 Here they are on Pia's feet. She was a very patient foot model. With not very much forethought, I was fitting them on her while she had stockings on, so now they are a little loose. But they stay on, and she can stand in them alright.

Too bad they don't go with her outfit!

A Little Progress

Got started and found myself in a wonderland of glue - thankfully all water soluble, but lots of scrubbing

 All that wallpaper is gone now. It had printed on the edge "The Peddlar's Shoppe", a long gone hobby shop (at least, the only "Peddlar's Shop"pe I can find online is a bike shop) I suspect from the seventies, helping me to date this house.  Could have been a kit...

 Pulled out both stairwells. This is by far the worst of the mold - I am now thinking about replacing this wall. At this point though, I had just scrubbed it with vinegar -that's what's in the bucket.

 Next I coated it with hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for 20 minutes. The problem of course is the porous surface - nothing safe will penetrate and kill the mold all the way down in the substrate.

                                     This was after the peroxide:

As you can see, not too much difference.

Lots of research about mold today - the next (and last) thing I tried was tea tree oil. The concentration was a little higher than 1 tsp: 8 oz.
This was after the tea tree oil. I actually think it was slightly better, but I'm not too thrilled with the results, so I think I'm just going to replace that side.

Stupid mold.

Guilty guilty guilty!

Where have I been? Well, I have been mired in life I suppose, and not particularly disposed to sharing about it. Sorry about that! Honestly, living is so time consuming! Then taking pictures and writing about it is just one more thing.

But here I am, BACK, for the moment, with tons to share about my mini activities. So, let’s begin with my NEW HOUSE!

This one is a Victorian row house, built in someone’s garage, I know not when. I love the stairs and have visions of my little peeps riding down No, I have not yet restored the old house. My little neighborhood grows of its own volition…the stairs on a mattress, and other delightful activities.

( When we were moving my Mom out of her house, I grabbed a crib mattress and rode it down the indoor stairs – very very fun. I could not talk my sister into doing the same – she was just like that when we were little too. Her loss…) 

The new little house has moldy wallpaper, as you can see, and today my project is to take it outside, remove as much wallpaper as I can, scrub the remaining with vinegar and water, let it dry thoroughly in the sun, then see where I’m at. The sun is up, so I must get started…

A few more things I have accumulated recently...

Concord dresser and mirror and mugs from ebay, model ship from a thrift shop, and lamps from and antique shop. Anyone recognize the lamps?

and here's my making minis library, with a few new additions!

However, the MAIN new thing is still in the trunk of my car. It is a KIT. Yes, it is. It is a Walmer Mulberry kit, my FIRST EVER, so a new house is in the future for this neighborhood!
But...

 the table must be cleared!

I'm including this picture in case you ever need to make a mini VW engine.

Oh dear - I have quite a lot of catching up to do!

But now I have a lovely new computer to do it on! I'll begin with the pillow update. I haven't made a million - it just feels like it!

AND I'm afraid I have been in collecting mode and quite a few items have landed in our humble neighborhood...

a fashionable addition to the other Tomy furniture...

This Tomy kitchen sink, for example, a Valentine's present from the spouse...

inch by inch, room by room!







Didja notice the rugs under the pillows I made? They arrived in the mail from Turkey. Does that make them authentic?

Hey! - where have I been?

Well my computer has officially been retired! Just got a new one yesterday and reconfiguring everything - I hope to get a reasonable post up tomorrow WITH photos. 'K?

Stripping wallpaper - look what's under!

Emptied out Wensleydale cottage in order to start refurbishing and get some better pictures of details. 

 

 

 

 

TA-DA!!!

It has a strip of tape wrapped round to frame it, and some of the green paint came off with the  wallpaper, but pretty and sweet eh? Now I have to figure out a way to restore it!

roof and electrical system:

 

I think you can click and they'll pop-out bigger...

 

On the second floor there's another layer to the wall, between which the wires come down. On the first floor they were just wallpapered over...

I just like this picture, so I threw it in...

No - I haven't been been just lying around...

I have been lying around on PILLOWS!!!

So far I have made 10, and I am just going to keep going for a while. You can never have enough pillows, and I am sure my small dwellers will appreciate them...


I really like the bright yellow cushions in the
blue Ikea chair - as the spouse pointed out,
it's Ikea/Swedish colors too...
I have been hand-stitching them, finishing about 1 a day. I like hand stitching - I can carry it easily and just work on it wherever I happen to be.  At work, for instance...

and the stripey ones are made from my daughter's favorite corduroys when she was 4 years old - now I have a good way to keep those around forever!















 This was my first one: 

Here's another dollhouse...

I picked this one up at a thrift shop about 4 years ago for the kid and right now we have a grouping of TOMY furniture in it.

Some of the furniture is from the '70s Smaller Homes and Gardens set, and I am very fond of it...
the rug in the far room is Ikea, the lamp and tray are Fisher Price, and the flowers stuck in the top of the lamp are from an Angelina Ballerina set.

Today I feel like a story...

This one is kind of beat up and torn, but still beautiful!

You remember Watty Piper do you not? He wrote The Little Engine That Could.

 

THE END

 

More pictures of Wensleydale Cottage...

I put on the panel so you could see what it looks like with both doors on.
The window in the top middle is completely yellowed and warped - you can see how it's sagging down in the middle. most of the windows are cut plastic and are glued over the framework and a strip of white paint around the edge created the illusion of window framing. Some have no plastic/glass at all, as willful Robin is demonstrating as she swings on a string in the second floor window.The caps of the windows have painted metal sheathing - something it took me years to discover - I assumed it was wood until I was scratching at it to see if there was another paint color under the black and saw shiny silver metal peeking through!

Here is the back and other side. Those little knobs on the roof are switches, because this house was electrified at one time (pics of the inside of the roof another time). Inside there were some terminals with old scraps of wires attached - the kind with cloth covering, if you are old enough to remember that. I think my grandmother had a few things like that that she still had in the '60s when I was little. Former and future electrification will be the subject of another post. You can't see it very clearly, but the square to the left of the the doorway is smooth, not stuccoed like the rest. I think maybe there used to be a greenhouse or porch or something there, maybe a garage?

Here's the back of the kitchen with a little closet under the stairs. The spouse gave me that trash can manymany years ago...

ancient tub, firmly glued in place

This is the view down the stairs and out the front door