What's in Your Stash?

Gosh it's good to be back home. I have been hanging out at Face Book, reading and watching what the dollhouse builders are doing over there, and they are working on some wonderful projects. I posted an abbreviated tutorial there today, summarizing the one I'll share here.

Anyway. We survived the Cyclone Bomb--I did not know that was an authentic weather term. Here we had snow and then wind that blew it all away, but other parts of the state suffered and are probably still digging out. I just stayed inside and worked on my miniatures. Today, still chilly, the birds are noisy, announcing the pending arrival of spring. We are having two big parties here in August, my husband 50th class reunion meet and greet and the next weekend a garden wedding, so we have a lot of work to do to get ready, and I am sure that the workshop downstairs will collect dust.

I am stalled with the toy store right now because I don't know what to put on the loft floor, so I am waiting for some sort of epiphany to hit, but I did wallpaper the loft.

Originally, it was egg yoke yellow--a pale egg yoke, a yoke that lacks nutrition.

The loft is really hard to photograph because of lack of lighting, but I did paint it a luscious chocolate milk brown, you know, Nestles Quick color. I used latex, semigloss left over from painting the real house--it may have been one of the samples, but it looks nice and I wondered if I should just it painted, but nice as as the color was, it was blah.


 I had two sheets of the lacy paper, so I used it up. Installing the first piece with the glue on the back was tricky.

Cutting the triangle for the side walls was really hard. I have not glued them in yet because I may not. 

The front point was difficult, too, and you can see that I didn't quite get the right 

angle covered. I do like the wallpaper. Now for the floor. ????

Every now and then someone mentions going to their stash to look for a window or a door or baby just some lumber, just as I did the other night to look for lumber to recreate the display. I have decided that white would be better, but I don't want to paint this one.

I spent the evening sorting pieces, for the lack of anything better to do. The mess was still on my work table when the 3 granddaughters stormed the craft area, eager to create something. Lily became absorbed with the wood and I finally asked her what she was trying to build and she said, "A bed." The piece that she had picked was the railing for the Bellingham Farmhouse that I had built and decided not to use because I didn't like it, so I set about going through the bits and pieces to help her build a bed.

I am short newel posts. I'll use the unpainted on for the toy store and then upon closer look, I realized that the top of the posts are not all the same, so I returned to the stash to look for alternatives because the project after all is about using up scraps.

The dowel might work and if I look in the garage or the barn I might be able to a longer piece, but the rails don't match up the best. 

I like the post, but this one is reserved for the toy store, too. But wait; this box is only one stash. 

I found a second 1/4 inch post along with a wooden button (not actually what it is called) that came from another type of stash. It adds a finishing touch to the top of the bed post.

The rails are not the same length, so I had to even them up.

And then I had to sand the one side to get it even.

With a little sanding, I slowly whittled away enough to even out the rails. I used the lines on my quilting mat to help me determine when they were even.

Nice.

I glued on the rail to hold the bed slats and then glued the side of the bed on, but here. I finally decided to glue it to the leg to get more surface. 

I like it.

All finished; just need to let glue dry.

I'll make the mattress using foam board. That I do not have in my stash, so I'll have to go buy some when I get to town. My sponge sander gives me an idea of how thick to make the mattress. 

The slats are glued in, stabilizing the frame. Not bad for a bunch of scraps. I am wondering what else I could build.

Now just for fun: one of the Facebook group, wanting to get started on her first house was quite confused about scale and size and wanted to build a house for an 18 inch doll, actually with some clarification she wanted to know what size of a house to build for a 2 inch doll that the 18 inch doll would play with; in other words a dollhouse for a doll. This is what I posted for her:

My Madame Alexander 18 inch doll ( $3.00 rescue from a thrift store) demonstrates how the half scale (1:24)  Fairfield dollhouse might be perfect. Then 4 inch Merida showed up, inappropriately dressed, I might add. I think my post was appreciated it. The young woman thanked me and maybe I got  "A Like"

This week the granddaughters on spring break and the grandsons are on break next week, so I probably won't get much done on the toy store. I need to figure out craft projects for the girls. 

Thanks for visiting. Have a great week.