And we have a shell!

Well it's been long enough since I've posted last. Real life has definitly gotten in the way of dollhouse building, in the greastest way possible that is. I am now 18 weeks pregnant with my second child. I am so excited, but with the nesting already taking control I haven't spent much time on the Gloucester . . . until recently that is. I now have a rough shell put together. This was extremely hard as I have added legs to the bottom of the house. I stained them to match the furniture in my RL living room. Because of the legs I used about half a roll of masking tape to hold it together while the glue dried. The proudest moment was when the tape was removed and it didn't collapse! I have a nice celtic knot wood trim that will go around the base of the house to give the appearance of it resting on a real table. Unfortunatley that won't be added untill later as I am restricted from using stain till after the baby is born. I abandoned the skinny stick flooring and splurgered on wood veneer flooring. I am so much happier with it now. Just wish I had done it sooner as I think that would have made me work on the house earlier than I have.

The bottom right room's floor, soon to be the kitchen, still shows the skinny sticks that I laid. I want to add either slate tiles, marble tiles or linoleum to that room but just haven't found the right one. Electrification is already in progress, I've found it soooo much easier to do this as I go. And guess what?! It actually works! This takes some of the monoteny out of the shell building. Wallpaper is still eluding me. I have so many choices put aside just waiting till after the Christmas bustle to order it.

The stair case is not installed yet, just wanted to see how it's going to look. Out of all the house this is the only thing that dissapoints me. The stair case when put together like the instructions show is very ugly to me. i like a nice dainty banister and spindles so have taken off the left side of the stairs to incorporate this and make it seem more traditional. Also the treads do not overlap the risers which gives a very boxy look and the steps are very steep to fit in the area designated. I am trying ways to make this less apparant with the white risers and stained treads. It seems to help, plus I plan to add staircase runners. As the staircases face front this should make it easy to accomplish after I've wallpapered and chosen the color schemes for each room.

Painting all of the little spindles, banisters, and need to construct the second floor staircase still. Then I will finish working on the roof and the front trim that will hold the door.

Originally this house was supposed to reflect a very authentic mid-victorian interior but as I started building and choosing furniture it has morphed into my dream home, with pieces from early to late victorian taking hold. I figured this way I get to have all the pieces that I have been drooling over and if I accidentally put something in that wouldn't have been available in 1845 my excuse is the lady of the house is from later in the century with a love of the old. We'll see how well this slides. : ) Hopefully I will have more to report soon. . . .

WELCOME!

I wanted to give a warm welcome to all of my new followers! I haven't had a chance to check out everyone elses blogs but I am slowly working my way through them and wow are you guys talented. See you soon!

A mini update. . .

Wow! It's been awhile since I've gotten a chance to post anything. Progress is slow on the Gloucester. I am happy to say that the front door is almost flat again. It's still a little warped but I am hoping the moisture that the brick compound I bought will straighten it the rest of the way.

Most of my time has been spent waiting for my supplies to arrive so that I can continue. I re-ordered another pack of wallpaper and I was so happy to see that the patterns were the same. But now I am looking at some of those patterns and I am still not completely happy with them. So back to the drawing board LOL. However, I did get some Bromely Craft Brick Compound and am very excited to see how it works. I want the whole exterior bricked with beige looking quions on the sides. I still have one more floor to lay which is another reason I've been taking a break, I'm tired of looking at skinny sticks. I think next time I will splurge and order wood veneer strips to do a floor. It seems expensive but much easier.

I haven't completely neglected minis. I bought a book on miniature wicker making and had to try it out. I am very pleased with the results. I decided to try a plant holder first as that seemed the easiest. Here is a picture of the finished plant. I had it sitting on a notepad holder at work and took the picture with my phone so it isn't the best but I will get a better one posted later. For a first attempt I don't think it came out too bad. I'm not sure it will fit in the decor of the Gloucester as I want it a more middle class Victorian style home but who knows. Well, that's all for now. Not much but hopefully I will have more soon. See you soon. . . .

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Progress on the Gloucester

Real life has been getting in the way recently so I am making slow progress on my Gloucester. The second floor is laid, stained and varnished, ready for installation. Only one more floor to go, ugh, more skinny sticks. I started to prime some of the walls and I got the two pieces for the door glued together. There has been a slight problem with the door. When I got the pieces they were perfectly flat and I was so happy that I didn't think they would warp much as they were in such good condition to begin with. WRONG! I glued the two together and I thought I had weighted it down correctly but apparently I did it wrong and now my front door is warped. Last night I sprayed the door down with plain old water and re-weighted even more and left it overnight. I really hope that this works. I plain to prime it white before adding wallpaper so if the water doesn't work maybe the paint will. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to flatten it again I would really appreciate any comments.

That leads me to the next problem I made a calculation error when I ordered my wallpaper. I was so happy to see the selection from miniatures.com for 3 sheets of 6 different patterns for 9.99, they choose the patterns, that I grabbed up the peach/coral set. Can anyone guess the problem? It took me a day or two after I got my order to realize that I have a front opening dollhouse, thus I need 4 sheets of every pattern. Oooopps! Back to the drawing board. My husband suggested ordering another set like before and hope that some of them will match and if not I will have some for my next project. I jumped for joy at his accidentally suggesting I should buy some more for my stock. At least that is what I heard : ) Anyhoo. . . I will post more later when I have more done.

Irish Cottage

Here is my Irish one room cottage. The house is from a kit from Greenleaf but I bashed it to make it mine. The fireplace is my precious treasure from Braxton Payne, it makes the room. The floor was made from skinny sticks, and the cupboard is a bashed Michael's hutch. This house has special meaning for me. For my honeymoon my husband and I went to Ireland. I loved the scenery (it was soooo green!) and the cottages were perfect. When we came home I decided to make a one room cottage in memory of our honeymoon.
I used scrapbook paper to make the wallpaper and joint compound as stucco. That was a fun process, very messy, it was like playing with mud. The roof was made from coconut fibers, a much easier process than I was expecting. I am especially proud of that roof. It was my first try and I love how the roof ridge came out.

I'm making curtains for the windows, my door needs handles and an outside step, and I need to trim the base. I plan to make window boxes with flowers but that will be sometime later. Oh and if no one noticed my house would be very smokey I forgot about the chimney when I thatched the roof. I'll have to think on that for awhile to find a solution. That's it for now. See you all later. . .

FINALLY PICTURES!

Well as promised here are a few photos to get started. These ones are 1/144th scale. The first are a few plants that I made the two green ones were from kits from SDK miniatures and were a lot of fun to put together, much easier than I had thought with how tiny they are.

Now here is an English front opening house in 1/144th scale. It was a blast to make and made me want a front opening dollhouse in 1/12th scale which is how I got started on the Gloucester. This was also from a kit and for the life of me I can't remember who made it. I even have another kit from the same place at home waiting to be built, oooohhh, frustrating. Anyhoo. . .

Here is a shot of the inside. It's kind of hard to see but all of the doors have tiny door knobs made from no-hole beads and the staircase is very detailed. This kit was also extra easy to put together. I still need to frame the doors and windows but until then these pics. will have to do. All of the wallpaper came from web printies.

Welcome!

Yeah! My first followerer! How exciting. I still haven't gotten a chance to add my photos but I wanted to give a nice welcome to Susan. She has beautiful things on her blog, I especially like her Mindolton Manor, so go take a look http://susanshouses.blogspot.com/ . I promise to get some pictures up tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Hello!

Well, I've gone ahead and done it. I've created my own blog. I am hoping that this blog will keep me going on my miniatures so I will actually complete some. I am creating this as a record of my mini making, as a place that I can look back on my work and see how far I've come.

I am currently working on a Greenleaf front opening kit called the Gloucester. I consider this my second attempt at miniatures. My very first was a Beacon Hill and I was so inexperienced I gave the house away to someone who I hope will be able to fix/salvage it. I am told it wasn't that bad but the more experience I got the more glaring my mistakes became.

I had inspiration from moreminis.blogspot.com for adding legs to the bottom of the Gloucester to make it seem more like a piece of furniture. Now I won't have to hunt for a table to put it on. I am working on the floors. Haven't found a way to make the floor boards besides skinny sticks, I really like the effect it just takes forever. Where I live access to supplies are very limited so I use what I can come by. The legs are attached to the baseboard and first floor. The first floor is floored , stained and just waiting for some varnish to be finished. Pictures will be coming soon.

See you all later. . .I'm off to take pictures to share.