Happy Halloween!!!

It has been a very nice Halloween. I just returned from trick o' treating with my kids. Elora was dressed as an adorable spider witch and Aidan was Captain America. They had a blast! I have some pictures of both of them I'll be able to get online in a bit. But till then I have a few pictures to share from this weekend. I had a very productive time. For some reason this house is working up so much faster and smoothly then any other house I've attempted. I'm very happy with how it's turning out. Over the weekend I was able to texture and color the exterior walls. I had to mix my own paint color as I had run out of Goose Feather by AppleBarrel but was determined that the walls be that. Sooooo after some random mixing I got the color I wanted, added some fine sand to the paint and began applying it. The whole time the images of gingerbread houses kept going through my mind and helped in the direction I chose for accent colors. The porch floor was painted a dark green, the posts and top railings are now painted Black Cherry and the main pieces of the porch are white. When I told my mom the colors and inspiration she asked "So, do the people paint their house each year just for Christmas?" LOL guess she didn't quite get the consept. It actually does look much more realistic then cookie walls, gumdrop shingles and licorise windows. I haven't decided exactly how I'll do the windows and door but they will have all of those three colors incorporated somehow. All of the porch pieces have been painted are ready for installation. I also attached the porch roof and installed the porch light as well as the kitchen light. The hole for the living room ceiling fan wire is drilled but the fan is not installed. My hand kept hitting the fan and I was afraid of accidentally breaking it. Once I'm completed with the porch I can fill in the holes of the front wall that were there for the porch pieces, fix the feathering of the inside and paint the walls. The first picture you can just see my record player in the top right corner LOL. Was alternating between Doris Day and the Andrew Sisters. At one point I had a Johnny Mathis Christmas album playing to get the mood going for the house, my husband probably thought I had lost it. LOL After these were taken I painted the posts Black Cherry and the railings that will go on top and bottom of the white pieces.

I had these attached to the previous post but for some how I must have erased them. Here is a picutre of the wall treatment as it was drying. The second picture is an overall shot with the kitchen pieces. Last night I started painting the right wall Antique White. I also installed the bottom floor ceiling lights. It was the first time I've used my Dremel Stylus. I LOVE it! Absolutely amazing!!! I just need to see if I can find a cutter bit in case I decide to add a bay window on the left side behind the stairs. My mom has always wanted a bay window. So if I can add it, it would be a touch for her. The bay ledge would also give more space for decorating, maybe even some type of window display? I'll have to think a bit more on that.

Christmas at the Grandparents Part 1

Well the decision to hold off on minis lasted a few weeks....Then I realized that minis are a great stress reliever and if I didn't start up again it was bound to get ugly LOL. After 3 weeks of my kids being sick off and on as well as me and the mounting stress from work I caved. I escaped to my art room a few nights ago and the Arthur kit began it's taunting again. Surprise to me as I hadn't even been thinking about it when I went in there. I was actually debating between the Fairfield and the Mckinnley and had gotten so far as a dry fit with the Fairfield and marking where changes needed to be made. But I realized it wasn't going to happen. So it has once again been dismantled and stored and the Arthur took it's place on my work table. In under a few hours I had the house shell put together, the stairs moved and altered, the bottom floor dividing wall removed and the kitchen set picked out. Only hitch in my plan was that the kitchen set I've been in love with for so long was no longer available. But a wonderful person on the Greenleaf forum came to my rescue and I now am the happy owner of this wonderful kitchen. After I removed the wall I was having a hard time deciding on the wall treatment. Since the walls would now have to be covered all the way the length of the house and I didn't want to try and splice wallpaper I was stumped. Then, as I was staring at the blank walls, I got the idea to do the same technique my dad did to the walls of his house. I feathered them. Now I just need to paint them, but I am much happier then I would have been if I had settled for wallpaper. I've started painting them antique white. I will either stain the trim work like the floors or I will paint it all white I'll have to do some testing first to see which looks better. Here are some pictures of the progress so far.