Confession and the double doors

Hi All,

I hope you are all well; we've had a terrible storm today so the weather was perfect for doing a bit of mini -as long as you're inside the house of course :) -.
I saw on the news the weather in England was awful too, hope you are all well over there, and still have the electricity working.

In the header it says; confession, so here we go: can't remember where, but I know in the past I've made quite a big deal about the look of dollhouses often not being
very accurate, time-wise. Too elaborate, too rich, too expensive, often suitable for kings or queens but not for 'normal' folk.
Not that that really matters, your house is decorated in the style you like.
For me, I always wanted a house that is decorated in the way it really looked like back then.

But.... if I would follow that to the letter, the house would end up pretty empty
and with not much glamour.
And I am beyond fond of glamour and blingbling, darlings, in such a way  that I finally compelled to this heartfelt craving. 

However, to keep the Jekyll & Hyde of my inner self in balance, the rooms used by staff will be very poor.

So, be warned, some kitsch will be coming your way when you continue reading this blog  :D

Today I have done some work on the double doors that will be connecting the bedchamber and the powder room.
At first I wanted a door with glass inserts, but in the end I preferred closed doors,
mainly because there will be double doors with fake glass inserts to the balcony adjoining the powder room.

I used jewelry findings á la Ray*, and this is the result so far:

Don't know yet if I will add extra findings later on, maybe some wood strips here and there, but for now this is it.

I have been working on the walls and ceiling last week but can't show you the progress yet, I am still working on the ornaments. As is it is all not very exciting yet.
But towards revealing the room I will show you more pics.

Take care and keep on mini-ing!
Hugs,
Gee

*courtesy to Ray Whitledge for posting the jewelry finding how-to on his blog

finally finished!

Good evening loyal readers,

The game table, I am glad to say, is finished.

Taking in consideration this, besides the simple bookcases in the library, is
the first piece of furniture I made, without having any instructions or measurements to begin with, in spite of the flaws I am quite satisfied with how it turned out.

Notice the bands of veneer go in opposite directions? that was the most fun to
work on. That and the sliding panels.
I've got a hunch that I will try my hand at more furniture in the future, simply because it is fun to experiment with.
And no matter the end result, you always try new ways and learn from it.

after sanding the (far too) glossy finish off, I gave the table a veneered skirt and put a matt varnish on. imho the skirt brings the table more in proportion.
The matte varnish is a lot better to my liking. It is the same varnish that was used on the bookcases in the library, it has a bit of a yellow-ish shine to it what doesn't make it look so new.

After that the table was smeared with a dark wax and then rubbed with a soft cloth.

So that is the game table.
Now off to new adventures.

By the way, have you all seen John's (Merriman Park) centerfold  pages :p in Miniaturas magazine? super! Again congratulations, John! (if you haven't, make sure you take a look!).

The past year so far has been very chaotic; I tried to work on minis so often, but every time I sat down to get started something more important came up.
That is why I posted so many pics of the gametable, when I show a lot of pics, maybe I can fool some of you in believing I actually worked hard on minis all summer ;) :D
Just kidding, hope I have some new stuff to show you in the next post.

Hope you'll all have a lovely weekend!
hugs,
Gee

Not all paintings visible-an explanation

In recent years I have purchased some real little paintings that will find their place in my house.

But those are not enough to fill the rooms by far.
For decades I have been a great admirer of a painter, in my vast opinion the best painter alive today.
And not just that, the best painter in -literally- ages.
So I had my heart and mind set on the use of these images.

As I don't want to steal someone else's work by bluntly copying from the internet,
I contacted this painter and asked for permission to download some of his work to use in my dollhouse and put it on my blog.
He got back to me in a very friendly e-mail, and told me he is OK with me downloading his work for use in the DH, prohibited I do not show the works on the internet and do not mention this artists name.
I fully understand and respect this.

So I will work the pictures in a way you will only see a white or a dark space in those picture frames.
I am sorry I cannot show you his magnificent work but a deal is a deal.
Thought I'd give you an explanation on what to expect on forehand.

Hugs,
Gee

Game table put together

Hello Sweeties!

Hope you are all doing swell!
I'm up in the middle of the night to show you the game table.
Yesss, I have finally found some time to put it together and of course could not wait a moment longer to show you the result.
After I have been playing with it first, no surprise there.
Well, here it is, hope you'll like it:

As you can see there's a back gammon board under a chess/checkers/draughts board, and nine men's morris at the other end.

The picture in the middle shows the table when these two games slide away and reveal two backgammon games and in the middle a box closed with a lid that hides the pieces for the chess game.

The upper picture shows the two backgammon playing fields and the opened box
in the middle.

Still have to stain the legs but I decided to first give the table a skirt, so you won't see the box peeking out under the table anymore.
Now it looks just like underwear under a too short dress.

The skeleton of the table is limewood, and the veneers used are ahorn, cherry, limba, walnut root veneer and others.
Around the tableleaf is a small raised edge, so that for example dice do not easily fall off.


I liked working on this very much although I really had almost no time left for mini, so it was a scarce fifteen minutes here and there.
Big bummer was I accidently stained with a glossy stain while I wanted a matte finish.
But I can live with that ( can you really, Gee? can you??)......ermmm...I guess I have to now boohoooo.
I really would like the veneer to have a yellow-ish shine and an old look, so will be experimenting with some wax and chalk on it later this week.
It all has a bit of an unused feel to it so that has to change.

Sorry I have left you waiting for this post for so long but life's hectic, as you probably all can relate to.

Welcome to my new follower, I hope you feel right at home here; please do not hesitate to talk along.

I hope I can find time to do any mini again soon
Until then, take care of yourselves and don't forget to laugh and have fun!

Hugs,
Gee

game table part 2

Hello readers,

Guess it is about time for a small update on the game table.

I know, I know.... I work fast as a snail...
but on my behalf: I have made some parts again...and again....and ag.... you get the picture, and it still has flaws (don't tell anyone).
Besides it has been hot hot hot over here, too hot to get any work done whatsoever and then really the only option left is to relax with a drink :)
I did not even get around to do any of the embroidering I planned to do.

As you can see, a lot of the gluing is done, now all it needs is a bit of sanding, making an opening lid, putting the pieces together, add an edge and varnish it all.
Keeping my fingers crossed it will work as I envisioned it.

Welcome to the new followers and thanks for joining!

Hoping you'll all continue to have a beautiful summer, my dear friends, and
big hugs to all of you,
Gee

game table part1

Hello everyone,
Have been doing some work on the game table lately.

Made some parts, like the checkerboard.

I made the game parts the same way Debora was so kind to show us http://petitpunt.blogspot.nl/2013/05/making-chess-board.html

These parts will later be inserted in the table, I'll  show you that in a later post.
(I see now I forgot to put a coin beside it, I'll do that when I show you the table in a later stadium).
That is, if I ever finish the darn thing.

Talking about furniture: I came across this pic while surfing the internet; isn't it just gorg? Yes it is, me knows :)

How I wish I could make that (working and out of the blue, of course). ;)

Let's see' what else is there to tell you..... Oh, I know.... I  did not show you my workspace yet.
Well, here it is.

Normally the table is packed with mini stuff, so to my standards it is very empty now. Erm... as you can see I did not clean the table before taking the pic, so this really is ''a moment out of the life of'' :))

I am typing  this on  my daughters' tablet; unfortunately my laptop refused to do anything  for me anymore, I am trying to get some sort of life back into  it.
that is, as long as it is not green or phones home.

Welcome to the new followers, I am very pleased to see you here and hope you will enjoy your visits.

I am still waiting for materials to arrive, until then the work on the powder room + bedchamber has come to a complete stand still.
That company is closed for holiday and as much as I support holidays, I do hope they hurry up :))
So far my slightly chaotic post.

Hope you all are enjoying lots of sunshine!

Sending you all a big hug,
Gee

Update: I believe I got my laptop to work again, yeahhh!
But it is so old now and I've fixed so many problems over the last years, it is a matter of time before it will go to PC-heaven.
Well, you will be the first ones to notice :)

What I did and why not

Good to see you again dear readers,

A very warm welcome to the new followers!
I very much appreciate and encourage your input on all levels and am always happy with your comments.
So please don't be a stranger :)

We have had some pretty days over here, temperature-wise, so I have been
tidy-ing up the garden -not finished yet- and did not work on the house much.
However, I did do something:

This is my house as it looked like on delivery, without the backrooms, and in the picture you can see where the bedchamber will be positioned; the powder-room will be located behind the bedchamber, but as said, you can't see that on this picture.

I have made a cherry veneer floor for the bedchamber and the powderroom.
The thresholds will be added when the doors are finished and in place, same thing goes for the plinths.
I gave the floors some wear and tear, I kinda like that.

The good news is I have found a solution for the wallpaper I designed, I managed to get it on the walls using transfer paper.
In hindsight that is so simple, don't know why that did not come to mind earlier.

The bad news is seeing the wallpaper in place I don't like it AT all!
The pattern is too busy or too plain or too bleak, anyways, it is not what I would want in my own bedroom , and that is more or less the criterion.
So without hesitation, out of the window it goes!

At first I wanted to panel all walls of this room in cherry wood, but although I just luvvv cherry (it can look  ever so sophisticated) I thought it might make the room too dark to my liking.
So then I came up with this wallpaper idea.
Well, now I have come up with another idea.
But I keep the cherry on the backhand in case I am horrified by the next attempt.
So, although this looks like an update, there is not really much change :(
Ah, but it's a good blog filler grinnnnn :D

In my last post I mentioned the beds I have got in my stash, I have the choice between these three fourposters -'cos I am just a sucker for fourposters-:

very plain... but, using bed hangings and all, you won't actually see the bed anyway

And there's these two beds I once bought at a fair:

last but not least:

I have known which bed I am going to use since the moment I bought it, but I am keeping it a secret for now; all three of them have potential.

When at first thinking about a bedchamber it was kind of a given that the bed would be placed in an alcove; I let that plan go as well; why doing all the work of decorating a bed when it is in an alcove and can hardly be seen?

And yes, it IS going to be a lot of work to dress whatever bed will be the chosen one; with the little time I have to spend on the house, it will take me months.
On the other hand: that is a nice teaser to leave you with :)

As soon as I have anything finished, the game tables, the powder room or the bedchamber, I will see you again on this blog.
'Till then, and in the meantime: take care of yourself and enjoy the spring/summer.

Hugs,
Gee

Ivory and inconveniences

Hello dear readers,

this will be a short post without capitals.

first to my new followers: welcome aboard!
i hope you will like reading my blog and also hope you'll freely share your opinions and ideas here.

i have not been very active lately as i discovered pinterest and that took far more time than i had planned.

however, i found some ivory i bought years back and decided to play a bit with that.
just to get the feel of it and see if it is hard to handle.
i made a face shield to be held in front of the face when the wig was being powdered.

more on that procedure in another post.

i am typing this post using just the index finger of my left hand -while i am right handed- because i had a little accident while cooking meat.
to make a long dull story short: i burnt my hand and won't be able to use it for a while.

nothing serious but thought i'd let you know why i am not posting for the next weeks.
it takes forever to type this way lol.

take care and don't do as i do, dear readers, hope to talk to you again soon.

hugs,
Gee

Herbs!

Hello dear readers and a warm welcome to new followers!

Being  real fond of using herbs and spices while cooking and using essential oils for minor discomforts, of course I had to have some fresh herbs in the storage room as well.

After looking for a tutorial on making herbs for years, I never succeeded in finding one.
It just did not seem to exist.
That is, until two weeks ago when I bought the latest edition of a Dutch dollhouse
magazine, Dolls House Nederland, and there it was: a tutorial on how to make herbs.

I did not make all the herbs in the tutorial, but I managed to make enough herbs to also hang some to dry; did not show those in the picture, still have to figure out how and where to hang a thread in the storage room for the herbs to hang on.

I made a crate out of some left over scraps of wood, dropped it on my work
table from about a meter high, did that several times and glued the parts that
let loose back in a very sloppy way.
Then watered down some acrylic brown and black and painted the whole using that solution.

Next step was to fill the crate with paperclay (as my real clay turned out
to be hard as a brick), put holes in the paperclay where I wanted to place the herbs, paint it with black acrylic paint, and let that dry.
After it was dry, I smeared wood glue on the top side and covered the glue in coffee to imitate soil.
Then the herbs, roots dipped in wood glue, were planted and voila!

I think it turned out to be a nice little addition.

Next things I will be working on are a little powder room (think wigs!) and altering some tables into gaming tables using veneer.

It may take some time before I post again, 'cos when I first thought of these little projects the execution of it was very simple.
But the more I think about it, the more ideas pop up in my head and it gets more
labor-intensive by the day (and that's just the plans!).
Bet you all know what I am talking about.
Ah well, we'll see how it turns out.
Don't forget to have fun every single day, see you!

Hugs,
Gee

By the way: does any of you know how Ray is doing?




Next: the Powder Room

Storage room finished-or is it?

Warning: This is going to be a long post, so poor yourself a drink or a coffee before you continue.


First a word to my dear readers: sorry to have stalled this post for so long.
I've been living in a kind of  brain fog for the last 2 months, almost all this time the storage room has been as it is today, I just could not bring myself to making any pictures of it.
Tonight I decided it was about time I'd kick myself in the butt and finally make those pics, so here they are.
I did not keep up with all of your posts but promise I will try to read them all in the upcoming week.
Again: sorry!

I am very glad and relieved that our friend John returned to blog-land and is on the mend, welcome back John, you have been missed!

To my new followers: glad you have decided to join! I hope you will feel right at home here and that you will enlighten me with your ideas and opinions. Please don't be a stranger and let me know what is on your mind :).

OK, on to the storage room...

The ceiling and walls are from acid free cardboard, primed and painted.
The shelf supports are made out of molding and stained.
I believe I showed the terracotta tile floor before, I've smudged the floor and walls using chalks, then I made the scaffolding (don't know another word for it) for the wine barrels to lay upon.
The signs on the barrels (the swan, the crown etc.) are that of 18th century breweries.
When I laid my eyes on the little silver taps I was so enthusiastic about them I just had to have them; aren't they just adorable?

On fairs years ago I obtained the jugs on the top shelf, the little barrels in a lighter colored wood, the stone pots at the opposite side which ''contain'' oil, butter and brine fish, the little stone barrel at the left on the bottom shelf and the pottery wine bottle in the basket on the floor.
I've made a little wooden floor to put against the wall to keep the flour, potatoes and nuts dry from a dampened floor.

Glass work upside down on the bottom shelf above the wine barrels is from Gerd Felka, at least I am sure the carafes are. I bought them about 15 years ago so I'm not sure about the outer ones.
The domes in front of the carafes are so tiny and so beautifully made, it is a pity that does not show in the pictures.

                                                               

There are all kinds of vegetables on the floor, the shelves and hanging from the walls: red cabbage, celery, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, leeks, onions, peas, beets, beans, asparagus, onions and others.
There are several kind of sausages, sliced and as a whole, a just skinned rabbit, a duck, roast of beef and bacon, several fishes, dried fishes as well, and scampi.
There also is a cold dish, deviled eggs, cheese, pickles, and bread hanging in a reed basket from the wall.
Further there are pies, pastries and pudding and of course there are fruit like grapes, oranges, plums, pears etc. and jams also. Most food has been made somewhat dirty using chalks to imitate them just being gathered.

I had to take out a lot of vegetables because there just was not enough room for it all.
Never mind, there still will be a dining room table and a kitchen to fill.
And it was a nice way of wasting time and still doing something useful; when you start at making food from polymer clay, you just can't stop the ideas popping into your head so in fact one could see it as a curse too.
The red cabbage and onions were made by Annette, who is a Dutch Fimo artist, the scampi was made by Angie Scarr and the pudding was a gift.

On the top shelf left to the (outside)door are glass jars containing all kinds of herbs and spices, there are miniature cinnamon rolls, real vanilla beans, and mini whole nutmeg. The jars are closed with a little leather patch.



I could not imagine that there would not have been mice in such a place, so I've made a mousetrap on the floor in front of the wine barrels from scrap wood and another mouse is stabbed to death with a knife.

repositioned the stabbed mouse:

In this era there would be a fence around the wine barrels and the meat to prevent the staff from stealing food, but to favor the visibility I left them out.
As you can see in the next pic I did make them so I'm not just saying this to weasel out, lol. Maybe I will still put them in at a later time.

On the far right there is a place for household and cleaning utensils.
Baskets are hanging from the ceiling as they would get in the way otherwise when not in use.
the brooms are from a McQueenie kit,  the giant glass thing on the right on the bottom shelf against the back wall is a wine bottling bottle with pressure overflow made by Dieter Dorsch.
A butter churn on the floor and on the shelf is a wooden crate that contains real pieces of soap.

To make a long story even longer:
The fun in decorating a room like this is that it is never finished.
Just an hour ago I found a workshop for making herbs, so naturally I will have a go at that, herbs hanging to dry: I could just picture that.
Maybe a cat hunting the mice or a mouse hole in the wall with a mouse trying to get out.
Probably more brooms and brushes will be added, as well as tools to clean the windows, clumps or whatever else comes to mind.
I still have to finish the left door and make the right door, but I'll do that once I'm starting work on the hall.

I hope you all liked the peek in the storage room!
Take care all,

Hugs,
Gee






I have put in a (not so good) picture of the stabbed mouse so John can stop his search ;)