Thought for the day

It says it all, sadly.

It's finished!

Yes, building has come to an end at the doll house. Now I have many months / years to add to it! Yesterday I went to Tom Thumbs and bought the peacock chair and potted fuschia to go on the verandah. 

I've added some of the lights. Ooh, superglue should be sold with solvent! Even with gloves I managed to get glue on my fingers as I attached the magnets that hold the lights. 

This photo shows the correct colour; I did not paint a pink doll house as in the previous pictures!

Today is White Ribbon Day

A reminder to stand against violence towards  women. To never "commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women."

Click on link:

No bystanders where violence is perpetuated.

It's nearly finished!

Last night I glued in the windows and the shutters. It sounds like an easy task. Squeeze on some glue, position the pieces on to the house and tape until the glue is dry.  Hah! Liquid nails is horrible stuff. It doesn't flow easily and it goes stringy. The next problem was that the inside windows don't sit flush with the facade. They have to be fused to the front ones, without glueing the window panes.

Patience, lots of it, was required. Gritted teeth helped too! I had to keep checking the shutters were facing down and that I had the window panes the right way around. The balustrades on the verandah are meant to be screwed on to the base. Why? Neither I nor my friends thought that was necessary so they were glued in place with liquid nails too. The gle dried overnight and this morning everything is secure.

All that needs to be done now are to add the dormer windows to the roof and put in the awnings above the windows. Of course they don't fit so I'll need to sand them carefully until they do.

It's a three dimensional jigsaw!

There are 27 pieces to put together for the verandah. Some of it I did myself but when it came to joining the verandah roof to the floor AND attach it to the house AND keep it straight, additional hands were required.

H and D have been here for the afternoon. Not only was the assembling of the front verandah finished but the front of the house has been attached.  Now the windows, shutters and door need to be added.

Caturday

The perfect place to sleep...

in the middle of where mum is working!

An elegant lady

The postman arrived today with a parcel with some treasures inside:

This lovely lady. She is in the room box at the moment.

And this really cute hutch with rabbits. This is a present for the friends who are helping to build my house. They are also building and furnishing a house for their grand daughter and I thought she would like this addition. 

I have a lovely new frame...

... thanks to B at the Guild who made it for me. My current tapestry fits this frame better... Now I just need to put some more stitches into it!

I took my miniature tapestry rug with me yesterday and thanks to the help of several of the ladies I now know how to do it. I've realised I need to enlarge the pattern; it's a bit miniature too!

The roof is on!

H & D came over and put the roof on the house today. For some  reason the partition didn't quite fit so D has taken it away to cut the corner from it. 

Now I am in the midst of painting all the small pieces for the dormer windows and the front verandah. 

In memory...

 ... of those who paid the price for us to live freely.

Caturday

Gardening is not my greatest skill, so I am glad for this advice from my local vet!

The house has a front door

I've finished painting and gluing all of the front door pieces and from the front it's come up rather well. I've discovered a new use for my kitchen knife that is supposed to cut anything. The perspex window didn't quite fit into the routed back so I cut a slither of it off and, voila, it now fits! 

The door knob and lock came with a key which doesn't  actually fit into the lock and I wasn't sure how to incorporate it. Then there was a lightbulb moment; I've glued it to the underside of the welcome mat I bought a while ago.

Cup Day Fun

What a glorious sunny day For the Melbourne Cup. All those with fancy new hats and fashionable frocks will be delighted that not a rain cloud is to be seen.

Today is also the day my friends came over to add the roof and the attic to the dollhouse. Then we discovered the hinge that was in the kit is the wrong one and is too long. We contented ourselves with preparing the roof and adding the gables. D has taken the roof and hinge away to cut to the correct length.

Of course we stopped for coffee, chose our horses, and watched the Cup run. H would have done nicely, her horse came second. My horse started ahead but like D's ended up in the middle of the pack. 

Miniatures to Stitch

Janet Granger has the most amazing cross stitch and tapestry designs to stitch for doll houses. Friends and I poured over her website a couple of months ago and, of course, we ordered some kits. J was here last night and brought me my 1/12th scale tapestry rug kit. I nearly started it immediately!

Interior Decorating

This weekend I finished putting the carpet into the dollhouse. Blue for the bedroom, mushroom for the lounge and beige for the dining room. I have also finished putting in all the skirting boards. 

The attic pieces are finished and I just need to varnish the roof and we can put the next part of the dollhouse together. 

I couldn't resist putting in the few pieces of furniture I have waiting to be installed when the house is finished. 

One year ago...

...I holidayed with a friend who had started making an afghan rug using the Magic Square Knitting technique. You only knit one square at a time but each square is joined to the previous one so there is no sewing up at the end. I decided that I wanted to try one so we went to Wangaratta Knitting Mills. There was not a lot of choice but I came home with 3 balls of 5 different colours. We both discovered very quickly that our purchases did not go far! When I came home I was able to colour match with another brand and added two more colours. 

The border was a bit uneven when I had finished and I decided to add a crochet border. Thanks to another friend I found that crab stitch makes a lovely edging and it's quick to do. I think I needed to use a smaller crochet hook as the edge has gone a bit wavy but I'm happy with the result nonetheless. This is it folded into 4, it's 10 x 10 squares. I was going to make it longer but by this stage it had become a bit too heavy to hold.