Once again Hello
I've decided to document my step by step with the $20 Arthur dollhouse that I scored from the thrift store. My daughter Sam, my sister Bev and her friend Dave and I decided one day last summer, to do a
Value Village Crawl, by which I mean that in one day we were going to visit every outlet within a certain radius. We managed to hit 3 in good time but the 4th we were racing to get to before it closed. With 10 minutes to spare we walked in and behold... there it was, The Arthur. It was the fastest I've ever shopped! I even found some additional crafting items but the dollhouse was the 'cherry on the top'. I wanted a little house and to be honest I already have a tinnier little house that I keep wanting to complete but INSPIRATION, that greatly important element, is not leaning in that direction yet. Having rediscovered so many country pieces that have been stored away for such a long time in the garage, I have decided that I shall at least have a place to showcase some of them if I can get the Arthur underway. Space planning is perhaps not my strongest talent but it is crucial for maximizing a 3 walled space. With The Arthur, the biggest hurdle is the placement of the staircase. I really dislike the fact that the front door swings right into it and that the open front door entirely blocked the entrance to the kitchen. Where to put the stairs once removed is now the issue and I have to decide fairly early on so that I can cut the openings and then build around it. Last night I decided to begin by gutting the house and removing everything I didn't like. The porch, the door, the windows especially the 2, way too tiny and completely useless little ones in the front above the porch. I have already sealed them off and I am ready to putty over them. Goodbye. I have blocked up the stair opening as well and removed the walls dividing the lower and top floor. I plan to re-install but not just yet. I am going to have a fireplace either on the exterior wall or in the middle of the house and I also plan to have the house electrified. By the way did you know that you can usually get transformers from the thrift store that you can adapt to your dollhouse? They are so cheap there and not so cheap at the miniature store. The voltage is stamped on the back of them and can be anywhere from three to twelve volts here in North America. More about that at a later date. I am looking for a very simple style for the Arthur and will be using a few cliches' in my quest for an American Country atmosphere, BUT I am also making it contemporary. I'm not certain that it will be as I envision and frankly I know from past projects that at some point the house will 'fight me'. There is only so much that it will put up with and then it digs in and says,' NO'.
I have slipped in the proposed new door and windows just to get an idea of how it will look. Not sure yet if I want shutters on the upper level or not but nothing is finalized yet. So now, let me present
the beginning of my mini dollhouse project; life with the Arthur.
Sunday 30 December 2012
Life with Arthur / photo journal
October 2013: F.Y. I.
Updated Arthur renos for this doll's house are entitled " GREEN DOLPHIN STREET" and include some tutorials as well as photos of upgraded rooms :D
*****
Here again is the Arthur "as is" from the thrift store. It's a cute little house but I needed to make some changes. |
pretty beat up |
I blocked up the teeny tiny windows on both sides. They make no sense in practical application |
This is the house stripped down just before I removed the ugly porch and re-cut the door and window openings. |
Look at the size of these giant hinges! They were hot glued to the wall in great blobs and were very difficult to remove. I think that this kit was given to a young child and so it didn't matter what it looked like just so long as it stood up to the rough play. Speaking of rough play, the first christmas that I can recall was where my dad had put together a toy barn and silo that he built for us, his four preschool children. I had watched him busily at work on it for a long time and it was fabulous! He built it out of balsa wood and it was intact for perhaps minutes before we, his children, broke it right before his eyes. All that hard and meticulous work, destroyed. Why did he build it out of Balsa Wood in the first place, I ask? That was the last of
that.
An angled view of the Arthur with the new windows and door |
Still can't decide if I want the upper window to have shutters? Hmmm, let me think ..... to be continued. |
Friday 28 December 2012
'GOTHICA'
'GOTHICA' |
french chest. I hand painted the chair and made or remade nearly all of the items inside. I started this project over 12 yrs ago but put it aside until this past spring. I needed a quick fix. Something I could actually get finished and so I started playing with the story and here is what it turned out to be.
This used to be an abandoned out building on an enormous estate and held weaponry for the huntsmen
and servants of a baron. Over time the shelter was forgotten and a very pernicious vine took over and
obscured the entire structure. New owners surveying the estate happened upon it and chopped back the vine to discover a little sanctuary where all was cool and quiet through the heat of the summer.
There was never a door but one was fashioned and used in the winter but otherwise it is always opened. The vine they had to let stay as it now was a supporting feature of the wall and it is kept tightly in check as it tries to crawl again across the ceiling and the walls. Not wanting to modernize the space, much has been left as it has always been with the exception of electricity but even that is minimal and often the lights of the ancestral candelabra is the only means of illumination. It is beginning to get chilly in the evenings and the wool flannel lap robe is at the ready. The last harvest of the summer garden has been brought in and its distribution has yet to be decided. We will have to wait until the gardener returns....
Lights on Nobody Home
MORE AMERICAN COUNTRY
I found some additional country pieces in the box I stored them in. The blanket box 1860 is signed 'S S'96. I placed some more of Pam Grant's cushions within. The braided rug is signed Sadie Ludicke.
The mini "Old Glory' flag, was a label from a piece of clothing. The eagle wall plaque was cut from a magazine and glued to cardstock and aged by me. The tea towel was made to drape by lining it with tin foil. I have used this method several times and it works a treat, as the British say. You don't have to use mountains of glue or hairspray to get the folds to stay put and if you don't like the way it looks you can easily change and redo with a gummy mess. I haven't applied this yet to drapes but I don't see why it couldn't work there too. It would depend on the weight of the fabric of course but the results especially for things like polyesters and other synthetics that fly away and are difficult to use, are tamed,by the foil lining. It works for me and I have told both Janine and Fatima" Fats' to give it a try too.
Silver service by Ken Chellis . It is just sooo elegant, wouldn't you agree?
This chicken started life at the top of a pencil. It reminds me of the Kelloggs' corn flake rooster. It is sitting beside the Barely Big Enough painted table. I love the Grandma Moses style painting on the door front. I find it charming. The other cupboard is signed SS 1996 'and depicts the sun, moon and stars and I had forgotten I even had it so it was like Christmas all over again. The green sideboard that it sits on looks to be Shaker in design and has a 'R B' scratched on the back side. The 2 drawers are very delicate and beautifully crafted.
The photo to the left is composed of what I've already talked about in isolation. The cow picture is also by 'Deb' 1993. The tulips look so cheery to me.
My favorite flowers are roses, pansies and tulips; in that order. I can see that I'm a little out of focus. I need to do better. You know I discovered by accident that I didn't need to have the teeny tiny captions that I started the blogs with? It was frustrating to do all that typing and then squint to try to read it. I wish my daughter had told me that I could make the print bigger. Bless her heart she has helped me so much, but I wish she had told me that! There is just so much hesitation with me. I am fearful of messing up, erasing Boy! that I've done 2 times already. Practice makes perfect. And I'm working at it.
I found this arm chair that you can only see part of, in the box and although it looks worse for wear now, I have plans for its future. I have already started a inspiration board and one of the photos I've settled on has a winged back chair pulled up next to the fireplace. I am going to be really short of space in using the Arthur to showcase this collection. I don't think it will all fit, neither do I want all of it to. It is supposed to be a home and NOT a museum. Anyway, I'll worry about all of that tomorrow at Tara. After all.,tomorrow is another da....oh, sorry....hehehe. The yellow tulips are more painted seed pods and the throw cushions by cushion queen, Pamela Grant. A slice of the chocolate cake I made sits on mini 'Val Dor' china plate.
Well, it seems I have reached the end of the line and I'm almost back where I started from. I have been
trying to load these pictures in order and No Luck. They are all over the place and it is annoying me. Another thing is really bugging me, is the type... All the captions in my earlier posts are soooo tiny!!!
Who can even read them without straining their eyes? I wasted all that time typing for so little reward,
even I can't be bothered reading it. This is NOT how I wanted to begin. Sorry folks! Eyy Yah!! Wait a minute.....There is No folks; there is only Me. Talking and typing to myself and wondering if I will ever be any good at this. No problem, no one is going to look at any of this. I'll just pretend that nothing has happened. Now I feel better. Starting over, as of now.
This chicken started life at the top of a pencil. It reminds me of the Kelloggs' corn flake rooster. It is sitting beside the Barely Big Enough painted table. I love the Grandma Moses style painting on the door front. I find it charming. The other cupboard is signed SS 1996 'and depicts the sun, moon and stars and I had forgotten I even had it so it was like Christmas all over again. The green sideboard that it sits on looks to be Shaker in design and has a 'R B' scratched on the back side. The 2 drawers are very delicate and beautifully crafted.
The photo to the left is composed of what I've already talked about in isolation. The cow picture is also by 'Deb' 1993. The tulips look so cheery to me.
My favorite flowers are roses, pansies and tulips; in that order. I can see that I'm a little out of focus. I need to do better. You know I discovered by accident that I didn't need to have the teeny tiny captions that I started the blogs with? It was frustrating to do all that typing and then squint to try to read it. I wish my daughter had told me that I could make the print bigger. Bless her heart she has helped me so much, but I wish she had told me that! There is just so much hesitation with me. I am fearful of messing up, erasing Boy! that I've done 2 times already. Practice makes perfect. And I'm working at it.
I found this arm chair that you can only see part of, in the box and although it looks worse for wear now, I have plans for its future. I have already started a inspiration board and one of the photos I've settled on has a winged back chair pulled up next to the fireplace. I am going to be really short of space in using the Arthur to showcase this collection. I don't think it will all fit, neither do I want all of it to. It is supposed to be a home and NOT a museum. Anyway, I'll worry about all of that tomorrow at Tara. After all.,tomorrow is another da....oh, sorry....hehehe. The yellow tulips are more painted seed pods and the throw cushions by cushion queen, Pamela Grant. A slice of the chocolate cake I made sits on mini 'Val Dor' china plate.
, |
Oh, wow! I chopped the chicken's head off. Nothing to Crow about. Forgive me for I have punned. |
Some how I have attracted another font and the pictures have moved out of order! What is going on here? This is soo not funny, Mr. Apple! |
trying to load these pictures in order and No Luck. They are all over the place and it is annoying me. Another thing is really bugging me, is the type... All the captions in my earlier posts are soooo tiny!!!
Who can even read them without straining their eyes? I wasted all that time typing for so little reward,
even I can't be bothered reading it. This is NOT how I wanted to begin. Sorry folks! Eyy Yah!! Wait a minute.....There is No folks; there is only Me. Talking and typing to myself and wondering if I will ever be any good at this. No problem, no one is going to look at any of this. I'll just pretend that nothing has happened. Now I feel better. Starting over, as of now.
American Country Retrospective
the Arthur 'as is' from the thrift store for $19.99 and close to $200 dollars for all the new doors and windows. Am I crazy???
the folk art table top ..., LOVIN IT!!! |
Fast forward to my early 20's, when my husband said he did NOT want a whole lot of wonky, sagging cardboard boxes that I was using as a dollhouse (stacked one on top of another), to join us in our tiny apartment after we were married. He asked me to scale them down and maybe keep them in a bookcase to help keep them contained. Boy, was my nose out of joint. I did as he requested and stumbled into 1 inch to the foot, by accident and became seriously addicted to doll house miniatures and have been ever since. Improvise, was the name of the game then and although crude and not worth anything to me now, gave me my first taste of a'MAKE OVER'. Nobody thought like that at the time. Reduce, reuse and recycle was only if you were poor and we were. Now only the well-off can afford the 'vintage junk' and the cast-offs that everybody desires. I used to see 'beaters' in the parking lots of Value Villages now there are BMW's and Mercs. My how times have changed! I have made 3 doll's houses in my past life and 2 have won Best of Show awards both here in Vancouver, Canada and at the Seattle, Washington show. I have made numerous room boxes with various themes and have done a bit of commission work which took me longer than I anticipated.(it always does, doesn't it?) Now, I'm determined to start in again but space is at a premium. I'm going to smaller houses now and try to get more into them. Here is the initial offering.
'The Arhtur" by Greenleaf. Found at the thrift store for $19.99. Lucky me! I have plans for a Americana 'Country House' I have some very nice pieces for it as you can see above.....
Thursday 27 December 2012
The Nights Before Christmas
MORE BREAD! |
MORE TULIPS! |
My sister Bev, who is my 'on site' and 'gentle' critic says I have too much in one shot and she is correct. I shall have to break it down on the next blog that I post, but for now, it is what it is. So on with the show!
Tuesday 25 December 2012
I'm Back!
After a 12 year absence and with the repeated urging and encouragement from two of my mini friends, Janine (Minworks blog) and Fatima 'Fats' of Beauxminis, I am Finally, entering the world wide web of show and tell. I have only just learned to e mail and only just learned to use a digital camera. I have always used technology under duress and my first response is that I can't do it! That is why I always balked at the idea of getting involved on-line. This past year I have been the recipient of my son and daughters 'old' electronics which prompted me to give it a try and having tried it, to my surprise and delight, I REALLY LIKE IT!!! Janine will be pleased to read this as will Fats as they both have been singing the praises of various artisans and creative sites for years and I had turned a deaf ear to it all. Although, I had been inactive in the world of miniatures, I had continued to collect bits and pieces over the years and for the most part, I had all the supplies and purchases I had from' back in the day', stored in the garage just waiting. My collection stood still but the world did not and by the time I decided to start playing again with my toys the level of what others were doing in miniature was astonishing! I'm an interpretive miniaturist rather than a purist and my favorite blogs are the 'something form nothing' ones that teach you how to see things as what they could be, rather than for what they are, so that is what much of my blog will be geared towards.... the Possibilities, praise God, that are endless ....ENJOY!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
DO OVERS! a Glencroft Living room redecoration
Back in April of 2022, I made up a storyline for my Glencroft renovations, which went something like this... "After due considera...
-
I've always admired people who REALLY enjoy cooking. I love to watch cooking shows and I think my current favorite is "CHOPPED...
-
Often I have been asked, "Elizabeth, how do you make those really amazing jelly jars"?!! I'm making that up; nobody asks m...