Pickett Hill Furniture

I am loving working on these little kits. I'm planning on saving most of these for if I need surgery on my foot, which is most likely going to happen. There is quite a stash collecting for that time, of little projects I'll be able to do while recovering, things that won't require me to stand. I've got 3 Betterly Secret Book kits, a Christmas tree kit, and a whole lot more furniture for the Lydia Pickett, as well as 3 plastic Star Trek models I'll be making up for my brother. As of right now I only need Emma's Bedroom, Robbie's Bedroom, Artist Wall cupboard and the kitchen for this tiny house and it will be complete. I still want to get the landscaping kit that goes to this but that will be sometime in the future as it's quite expensive and I'll need to save up for it.

As a present for next Christmas my mom has gotten me the 1/12th scale Holly Ann by The House that Jack Built. I'm super excited about this house. It was on sale through Tuesday Morning at an amazing price. It will be my "heirloom" dollhouse. I will be taking my time and doing it up properly. The design is so much like the Fairfield which is the main reason I fell in love with it but being so large it will definitly take some planning on where it will be displayed. I'll also be measuring my doorways to make sure once built I'll be able to move it if I had to. LOL I'd love to fit it up with as many Ray Storey lights as possible. His work is absolutely amazing.

At this same sale, before my mom surprised me with the purchase of the Holly Ann, I had bought myself an early birthday present of the Kotton Kandy also by The House That Jack Built. I'm planning on making it a small shop. I've been reading some books by Gil McNeil where the main character owns and runs a knit shop and has a knitting group that meet once a week to knit and gossip. She's titled the group the Stitch and Bitch. Which is the main inspiration for this little shop. The novels are very nice and I have devoured the first two and just started the third. I'm not too sure why I like them so much as there doesn't seem to be much action/excitment going on, but more of a chronicle of a single mother trying to move on with her 2 boys after her husband gets a promotion, tells her he wants a divorce because he's been having an affair for the past year, and then is killed in a car accident right after disclosing all of this to her. I read the first one free through Amazon's Kindle Lender's Library program. After all that rambling here are some photos of the progress I've made on the furniture kits.

Onward march!

Well today has been super productive! I got the posts cut for the "support" kitchen counter posts, painted and shellaced. The kitchen flooring installed and I used siding strips cut down, installed on a cardstock, stained and varnished all ready to glue in place. I also cut the buffet counter and have it ready to stain, ran out of my golden oak stain though. I think that would be the closest match to original counter tops but we'll see. The seam of old and new counter will be concealed with a short tile back splash once I figure out how to do it. Also, the risers for the stairs have been corrected, glued in and are currently drying before I give a final coat of white paint to them. Because of the color of the floor I restained the treads in Early American stain to match better. Originally I wanted all the wood work to match the kitchen counters but I didn't have enough stain for that and was too impatient to wait till I could go pick some up. Soooo new plan. I think it's better this way now. Not so matchy-matchy and gives more seperation between living room and kitchen. The holes that were in the front wall from the porch installation have been filled and textured. Hopefully, I'll be able to paint all of the downstairs walls. That'll leave the interior window trim, baseboards and crown moulding left to do. For a few hours of work not too bad.

Bringing in the New Year....

With a nice clean artroom. Here is couple views of that room. This took all day yesterday to get to this point. Trust me this is much better now, for one thing you can see the floor! I almost forgot there was one in this room. The first picture is my little helper sorting pieces to the low table I got for Christmas I need to put together. I think it will fit where the folding table is and it matches the bookshelves. The Arthur will get finished and then moved to a different table in the other corner of the room and then the Harrison will sit on this table. It's almost a perfect fit in that place, just have to move the white drawers and the desk over about an inch. I know having a dollhouse directly in front of a window is a no-no but it's not forever so I can live with it for awhile.

This picture (don't know why it's sideways) shows the bookshelf with all my mini books on the second and third bottom shelves. The room on the top is the first of a Plastic Canvas Barbie dollhouse I've been working on.

Overall shot, notice the floor? That's a relief.

And here are two shots of Christmas morning. Here's Elora with a chocolate-y face. We gave her one piece of Chocolate from her stocking. Turned our backs for a second to get more presents from under the tree and the little buggar had five empty wrappers on the floor and was shoving the fith piece into her already packed mouth LOL. Talk about a sugar high!

This is one of my favorites. Aidan emptying his stocking while his sister cheered him on. I love Christmas!