Doll House Do-up #5

I've had the line from a song repeating in my head all week. I can't place the song, or the rest of the lyrics for that matter, but that line goes "who lives in a house like thissssss". Were it a real house it'd be a bit weird crafting a home for a person you didn't know or hadn't seen wouldn't it? As none of Claud's current dolls/creatures fit I'm toying (ha!) with the idea of a Blythe doll. I love the manga eyes, but can't get my head past the creepily big head on small body (eating disorder) thing going on there. Any ideas?
Anyway...

Look at my tongue-in-groove!

The colour is right (Resene Moby), but the finish is too shiny for the 'hall in a dark mood' I'm trying to summon up. I'm going to give it a light sand and see if that helps. The white is also too bright. I thought it would darken in such a small box, so now I'll have to mucky what's left of the white test pot with something to make it more mushroom-y and see how that works.

The picture below, which I spent ages putting in an op-shopped mini frame, will also help establish that atmosphere

It's an excerpt from Jingle Jangle Morning by Bill Hammond, NZ greatest painter.

From the Buller series (Buller was the naturalist who first documented NZ's indigenous birds, and extincted some of them with his wild collecting of specimens). That's the spine of the South Island I think, on the left, and one of his haunting birds, precognating man, and Bullers arrival on the right.

These painting make me weak at the knees.

Bill Hammond was a toy maker before he became a painter so I feel sure he wouldn't mind!

While the Hammond is a definate, this enamel brooch is a maybe, for the hall

                                I'm going to afix all the pictures/mirrors with rip-on-rip-off velcro dots
                                              like these so Claud can rearrange them as suits.

Ok. Time for a relaxing cuppa after all the work on the reno's

(kiwi's call morning tea 'play-lunch', how cute is that!)

Speaking of cute things...

D'ja like my granny square teacosy?!!

I know it looks a bit, well, nipple-y, and I wouldn't have picked the colours, but it was quite a hard thing to craft when I can't knit. It didn't seem that sensible to learn to knit for the first time on pins, so I had a couple of attempts at making one from cut up bits of an old acrylic jersey of Clauds, but they kept falling to pieces (yeah, I don't sew that well either *rolls eyes*)

As usual, this craft problem was solved by a trip down the oppy.

Imagine the work that went into this hand knitted racing car. It even has a knitted numberplate on the back!

But, dollhouse driven, I committed knitting sacrilege and snipped of the wheels and sew them together for my tea cosy. Claud quite likes playing with the (washed) knitted-man-driving-knitted-submarine it now resembles, so no real knitting harm done!

I'm so proud of this work in progress

I'm trying to resist the temptation to paint the base white, until I finalise my lounge colour scheme.

Base=Macrame beads stuck to a wooden BBQ skewer, glued to a little block of wood

Shade-made from a sheet of thin flexible plastic (the sheet was an advert for a car inside a magazine) with fabric stuck on with spray adhesive (lots of other glues don't adhere to whatever kind of plastic is, I know, I tried them!).

Currently held in place with craft wire

but it's too bendy to be Claud proof so I'm working on something more durable...

Back to square one with the bathroom, argggh!

I ordered a Fun Ho! (old NZ brand of kids toys) bathroom set last week as the husband had seen them on a boy's toys website. I got really excited when the bloke who runs the place rang and said they only had a mismatched set left, with a  turquoise sink and green toilet, because I am going colour crazy.

Sadly they're way too small.

 They must be 1"/24" not 1"/12". (Do I sound like a dollhouse nut afficianado now?!)

 No harm done there either as husband doesn't want to send them back!

 He confessed he's spent most if his day at work yesterday visualising what sounds excitingly like a Brambly Hedge style mini-mini house for Claud's maileg mice, starting with a skirting board front!

Dollhousing, catch-y like measles!!!

I'll post his progress too, if I let him start it before he finishes other household DIY projects

(ok, just finish filing the sharp bits off the letter rack-turned-Breakfast-at-Tiffany's doll house bedhead then you can go for it Bennett)

In the meantime he found this plastic bath, with a foot missing, of more suitable dimensions,

 and possibly super-natural origin... 

It's a shame it only glows when the sun shines!

Potenital bathroom greenery filtched (but paid for!) from a box of 'American War of Independence' toy soldiers kit down the oppy.

Not much else to report other than that the bed-to be that was once a container for tacky bird themed salt and pepper shakers now has macrame bead feet.

Thats all folks!

ps have abandoned Blogtober (in favour of 'Op-tober' judging by the number of visits to op-shops necessitated by this dollhousing!)