Pretty ugly

I decided to use up all my bits of heavy duty foam core and I produced this (below) which will eventually be some of my planned shops with perhaps someone living in the upper floors.  But at this stage it is just plain ugly - wow.   Maybe it is just an ugly duckling - just now.

Ceilings

I am not too very proud of these because they are marred by bumps and lumps but they are done and that is still something.

The Empty Bakery

Well, not really but it looks almost spooky in these pictures.  Bakeries should be packed FULL and busy-looking.    Someday I hope it will be.  The blue room will be a tea room over the bakery/confectionary shop.

New follower - Hello!

I see I have a new follower; Irene.  Welcome Irene!
Although I haven' anything more to report than to say I am every so busy lately and just look in on my dear dollhouses as I go in and out of my craft room, and they are looking good and happy to me and just seeing them at times briefly calms me and makes me feel just a bit better. 

I just wish I had more time to work on them - something every miniaturist I have ever read about wishes for.  

At least I can say that I have been reading about the Pre-Raphaelites lately and have read of many, many details that would make for some VERY INTERESTING mini-scenes. 
Here is one by Millais that I think would be good.

Hallways floors are in!

Not just that but baseboarding in the blue hall is in too!    There is a grand picture which will hang just over where it is resting on the floor.   Details are still needed but it is getting there!!!

 

And last though not least, the purple hall.  There will be a flight of steps going up of course and that hall table needs to be replaced with a much finer version.

Market Stall at last!

I found instructions on how to make this market stall online well over a year ago, perhaps even two years ago and finally, at long last I have it made.   I hinged the top for easy loading.   Originally I planned to make 4 but that idea quickly evaporated after I started in, too much work!!

The small sign reads, "Back in the Spring".

Now to make some Spring flowers for the opening!

One-room Schoolhouse

This is my one room schoolhouse.  Not much to it yet but I have plans, of course.  The floor is terribly dusty.   I want it to look like the one in Anne of Green Gables.

Dining room

It is certainly taking a looooonnnnggg time to get the doors ready to glue in.  In the mean time I painted where the baseboarding will be just to get an idea of the effect.  I also straightened up a bit in the dining room again, just to see how it will eventually appear.
For some reason, I find this a cheerful sight.

Progress!

I was working like a mad woman and progress was made....  I got lights in the dining room and morning room.  The dining room is somewhat expanded which is really what I wanted to have to so that what you see here can happen.  The rugs can be rolled up, the tables put to the side under what will eventually be a row of windows and there is room for - DANCING!

The second photo is a mini child's eye-view sort of, kind of.
There is going to be a whole new floor in here.  The doors are not yet glued in, they are just set in place to get the effect.

I just wanted to say hello to my new followers and thank you.  Through you I am seeing even more mini-blogs and thus am learning more and more, which is wonderful.

My only pic today is of a small bedroom next door to the master bedroom in Merebrick.
I have only recently decided who will inhabit this room; it will be an elderly aunt.   But for now this how a corner of it looks.

The walls and such done in this room were done way back in 1997, I might change the paper but probably not soon.  My favorite item in this room is the cameo hanging over the bed.  That is one item that will not change in this room.

Doors!

I am deep in doors.  Last night I watched the episode of Lillie wherein Whistler helps her improve her drawing room and I noticed the door was black.   The other side, facing the hall was not black but it was black with some gold lines.    I suddenly realized that the doors for the morning room had to be - black.   Forthwith, before bed, I began painting them black.   This morning I did a bit more and selected the stained glass bits to go over the single doors. 

The trim for the black doors will be a nice pale but decided grey and the baseboard will be either black or very dark grey.
The doors facing into the dining room are actually in 3 colors but I'm not seeing it come through on camera.
There also may be some white flowers or vines or something painted in the dark areas.

Yes, I am working on the dining table with the cloth and mats on, rather foolishly daring but I am hot on this path.

Those sticks will be a sort of inner casing to hold the stained glass in place.

The red sections are going to be the doors facing into the drawing room and may (but more likely not) have gold on them.

This door will go from the drawing room into the library/
study.

I LOVE the look of this already.  This is the door going from the entrance hall into the morning room.

Door preview & Doors in progress

Here is a preview of how the grand double doors will look.  There is no varnish on yet, no door nobs and no baseboarding, picture rail or cornice either but it gives a sort of preview and I am feeling better about these doors.  I found a paper for the ceiling too.  I am going for the cloud/sky look in imitation of what Whistler was doing for Lillie Langtry's (in the BBC series Lillie - which I HIGHLY recommend) drawing room ceiling.
Actually, this side is the hallway side, the doors that will face into the room here will have red where the dark centers are and dark surrounds.   There is a ton of touch up work to do and just tons of work yet to do on the doors period.   The "stained glass" is sandwiched between glass with 1/8" spacer between.

Here is just a photo of the other 3 doors in progress.   Yesterday afternoon hubby and I were working together at the dining table, him on miniatures for a game, I on my doors.

Servant Hall Rules

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  
I am imitating Eliza (Wasting Gold Paper) who posted a photo of her Rules for the Servants Hall.   I thought it a tremendous idea and at least I found a different set (online) of rules so as not to be too imitative.   Here is my production:

Newspaper cut-outs

or What I Did Last Night.   I printed off some newspaper on thin grey paper and here is the result, just one of about 6 I made up most of them folded up.   For size I went by what I remembered of newspapers when I was young and they were about the size that this fellow is holding.

He REALLY needs a pair of shoes....sheeesh!

Books & cut-outs

The big work going on is so big that I needed a break, had to work on something small and simple.    So I have been cutting out sheets of things some of which you can see in & on a lap desk in these pictures.

I also made some mini books just last night and am very pleased with how they turned out.  I used my cut-outs and a narrow piece of illustration board.
My favorite is the "double-decker" novel (two together) which were popular in the 1800's.  There were even triple-decker novels and I will be making a few of those...later.

Working on doors

It feels like I spent the whole weekend working on doors and not one it is in yet.  But to show what I've been doing.    There will be stained glass in the space open over the doors.

I am going back and forth ad nauseum about whether or not it will be a single door from the hall to the morning room (seen here) or a pair of double doors.
Also, whether or not there will be double doors from the morning room to the dining room or a single door.
ARRGGGHHH!

Little bits

The picture frame was of that very cheap almost pot metal, you can see it in the picture of Ariel's parlor under the title "Clearing Up in Ariel"
That metal has a tendency (in the last 15 years I've had these small frames)
to get a little frost, I don't know what else to call it.
This one had a little and I also wanted a different look for it.
Out comes the ever handy brown acrylic gloss paint and voila!
The plinth got it's coat of varnish.  This might look obnoxious to some but I am keeping in mind that Ariel is being shown as recently built and furnished with new Victorian furniture as of 1880's -1900 and thus everything will look ... new.   I am pleased that the wine glass looks okay next to the bottle of wine.

This picture is just to show the two plinths with flowers that I completed.  Now that I look at it this way the one on the right seems to need more bulk on top.

First Lights in Ariel!

And they are in the kitchen and servant's hall.   The Victorians would be scandalized to have electric lighting in lower regions FIRST.   It is nice and bright as the dowager countess (Maggie Smith - I love her) says in Downton Abbey, "it's like opening night at the Gaiety."    This is an "overall" light which is what I wanted since I really can't afford the specialty lighting and don't want to mess with it even if I could.  I like the romance of this, I can turn on or off each room as I wish.
These are C-4 single lights and I have figured out a way to even leave room to easily change the bulbs.   The cords which for these two rooms are hanging out the side to the left, will be hidden in a downspout eventually or something similar.   I also got the flooring in the kitchen extension put in and in this lit photo, it was varnished.  The match is close enough for me although you can see the front bit is a wee bit darker than the back.

  You can see it in the raw state here and also you can see the ceiling doodad that houses the light.    I also cut the pass-through a bit wider by an inch (or one foot in mini-folks measurement).    There will possibly be a door or window on the left wall, I am pondering just how and what form it will take.



















In the servant's hall, since I cannot find more of that fine tile floor (it was a cut-out from a DHW magazine) I have put down, for now, this reddish bit of mat board and we will see what happens.  There is another door to come in this room on the right hand side somewhere, I haven't determined it's site yet.
So many delicious bits yet to finish and furnish...the copper boiler to the left of the stove being one of them.
I'm also thinking of have the coal furnace in the process of being installed in the basement.