The Doll House Do up # 7 trillion and 13

"It's time to light the lights, it's time to turn the music up, it's time to get things started on the dolly house show tonight"

Except no.

It's not finished and, the I'm a Giant Challenge deadline has been extended (probably to Feb 1st). 

Yes! Phew! etc. 

I bet your all making a collective "on no, more months of tedious updates" groan

YES! and here's the latest.

                     I'm too tired to make much commentry, so I'll just play some muzak in the background.

"Chestnuts roasting by an open fire"

"Jack frost nipping at your nose"

The oven door still needs a bit of work: recess the hinges so it looks less retarded, and paint the door more so it looks less like a dishwasher. Sink prised from a second hand dolly sink I chopped up. This 'little' project was labour intensive to say the least and I'm glad its over and I can just fanny around with little cute stuff now the hard works done!

"I know it's been said"

The bench is a self contained unit so Claud can play house and move it around.

Before

 

"Many times many ways"

Nearly after

"merry chritsmas, to youuuu"

Fridge-from rescued from landfill damaged dolly wardrobe thingy; in need of a door handle, shelves and food

"Jingle bells"

Yes, the bath finally dried. TFFT. Taps are from chopped up kitchen sink toy and a piece of bent wire; towel rack is a piece of wire and two of those screw-in ring thingys with which my nanna used to use to hang her net curtains.

Might paint them all gold, might not.

Toilet artwork to come...

Blind made from a one of those plastic tourist tat fans to come...

Towel curtesy of an op-shopped YSL facecloth.

"Jingle bells"

5 coats of paint and a coat of gloss. Each with a six hour drying period between. Zzzzzzzzzzz.

"Jingle all the way"

"oh what fun it is to ride"

I've decided I'll paint the doll house to match the mini doll house.

"A one horse open sleigh"

Bought some c.u.t.e mini books, but gonna have a go at making my own.

any suggestions for amusing author/titles welcomed

"Hey"

Finally got the lamp sussed. Now need bedside tables to sit it on. Claud's blocks might have to do unless I get some inspiration.

"Jingle Bells"

Mucking round with accessories and arrangements here. Less is defo more where the orange 'bookcase' is concerned. Might make my own now there's more time...

Insert applause and wolf whistles here.

Righto, I'm off on a birthday baking/cooking christmas dinner for a million at our place frenzy now so don't cry, but there won't be another doll house update until the new year.

So merry christmas from Roz, and merry christmas from me x

Op-shop Sunday

Been busy this week so I didn't get chance to go op-shopping. Also, I had no need.

Not no need of stuff. I always need stuff. It's just I have a personal shopper. A personal op-shopper.

(For this week only as he has a sore leg and can't run at lunch time).

Cool Christmas Tins

Cool paper holding desk hardware

Seriously cool 50's style cutlery set (minus one knife)

We really need this, the old one has gone bung in the dishwasher and I'll go bung if I have to hand wash dishes.

Spear & Jackson.

AND

Cool doll house.

I know!

It's like bringing a puppy home on the spur of the moment.

You know you can't keep it, you don't have the room, or the time. But it sits there looking so appealing

(you can see your face in that roof, and the rooms are, well roomy, compared with my current only dollhouse) that you almost give in and let it stay.

But no. I am hard of heart.

Bad hubby.

Anyone want this?

Ok. Wait. Maybe I'll turn it into a bookshelf for Clauds room...

Well done husband!

Sharing at Sophies

Op shop sunday

 

 I know its really spring, and nearly summer when it's French-fest.

Akaroa was where the French landed, just a few short week of the Brits who claimed NZ way back.

Overfamiliarity (we go there all the time) doesn't make it any less lovely in my eyes.

(As are the French sailors, in uniform, who sail over every year from French Polynesia for the celebrations, and drive the local teenage population wild. Mmmmm).

I wore these, one of a HUGE box of gifts I will slowly unveil, from Leonie courtesy of Cat's Tilda Christmas swap THANK YOU LEONIE!

We beachcombed and picnic-ed

And I saw somemore cool letter boxes whilst we were out there

Dolly house!

Tea and taps at The Giants House, a big mosaic garden thing, like a tacky Gaudi take-off. 

                                            This, I believe is where the Akaroa plumber resides!

                           And there was the lure of the annual bowling club fundraising book sale

This kids book is so beautiful, every page made me sigh and think it was written about Claudine.

Umm and the dirt wiped off ;)

There is both a play and a book about what might have happened to New Zealand had the French arrived first.

Nuclear power aside (and don't mention the Rainbow Warrior) it's quite an alluring what-if...

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!)

Dolls House do-up #4

Lollysticks, lollysticks, lollysticks. If I never see a lollystick again in my life it will be too frikken soon.

Or a hacksaw for that matter.

Argghhhh *screamed in manner of Tarzan*

 Suffice to say, I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere fast this week. 

I decided to focus on starting and finishing the hallway first since I have such a fixed idea of what I wanted, and I want to feel like something was 'done'. As all my previous, and preferred craft endeavours have been one minute wonders, I'm seriously hanging out for some 'ta-da it's done' endorphins!

It's all my own perfectionistic doing though. I've abandoned the short plastic wall panels to the bathroom in favour of my original idea of tall, blue-grey tongue-in-groove panels in the 'shaker-or-quaker?' hall. And like pretty much everything dolls house so far, this is in the process of being achieved via the still quite full ginormous bag of lolly sticks!

The floor staining looks rough as I rushed in and forgot to sand it first, hence the stain hasn't sunk in where the glue has left marks we had problems with bratz doll squatters who's high heels scuffed up the beautiful 'see your face in it' job I did. I won't rectify it as it actually makes it looked nicely 'lived-in' and it may improve on sealing. Ever the thrifter I was chuffed to find a tester sachet for only $2.95, as a wood stain 'test-pot' is $30!!!! Apparently boot polish works just as well though.

  

Wooden B-B-Q skewers for tongue-in-groove capping are my bright idea of the week, although I did find a bag of craft matchsticks for 20c down the oppy too, but I'm considering using them to build a bookcase (!)

I've just about assembled the pew and shaker-style peg coat rack kits I got from Jane Harrop.They were dead easy despite the 4 pages of instructions, but but my lack of patience was tested by it needing an overnight dry between each bit being added on, which meant it took a week! As if I needed more 'come on already' aggravation!!!

Having a go at a kit has been good though as it's given me an idea of how to construct doll house furniture, though I want mine to be hardier than these 'collectors items not for children' numbers (one clumsily misplaced foot and this pews matchsticks) so instead of balsa and a hacksaw, I plan to make them out of hard woods, with power tools *grins from ear-to-ear* 

                     Of course I'm procrastinating over the big, 'how the frick am I gonna make that' jobs,

                                        and am instead just fiddling with little oppy finds which include...

a random bit of treen into mid century lamp and Dansk style bowl transformation

Egg cups to industrial-chic lampshades

The small macrame beads will be a lamp base when glued atop each other; the larger wood bead is a vase of course: the wooden chopstick rests may become table legs; another egg-cup-potential light shade, and

a miniature wedding cake!!!!!

(It contained bubble blowing mix and was another landfill rescue case!)

More fab-fabrico's too. The retro-blue is for D.I.Y lampshades, the leather for a mini animal hide rug, and the mustard napkin, I dunno, just pillows or something.

Delighted to hear that Ms Make Mine Mid Century is joining in the challenge-any other takers? 

Go on, it's way more fun than I'm making it look this week!

If you fancy seeing what some of the other people involved in the 'I'm a Giant' challenge are getting on,

look down here

http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/dollhousing-in-round-top.html

http://makingitlovely.com/2011/10/04/teeny-tiny-staircase-inspiration/

http://www.the-brick-house.com/2011/10/dollhouse/

http://www.girl-domestic.com/2011/10/and-girl-domestic-said-let-there-be.html

http://www.call-small.blogspot.com/

                                                                    Until next week...