King of the Cowboys

I will seriously date myself when I begin reminiscing about the good ole days, the glory days as I grew up in the 1950s. Not only did I grow up in the country, I listened to the radio shows long before they became television favorites. Roy Rogers and his cast of characters were at the top of my favorites list. Let's see: Dale, his wife and her horse Buttermilk, a white buckskin, and Bullet his dog, a beautiful German shepherd. Roy's horse, Trigger was the best, a golden palomino. As I grew older, I came realize that Roy and his wife were devout Christians, adopted a number of children, especially children with special needs, and thus served as really good role models for not only their child audience and fans, but for adults as well.

So as I contemplated what to do with the attic in the Bellingham farmhouse, my plan had been a pink bedroom. As I played around with it, I just couldn't bring it together. I always do pink. Boring. When I looked at the rest of the house, the white furniture, the gray walls, the lack of color, I was reminded of my original idea for the house: a remodeled farmhouse, updated, but with remnants of its past as late 19th century farmhouse still showing, much like the old farmhouse that I grew in up built in 1890.

The idea suddenly came to me: a boy's cowboy bedroom. I always think in girly terms because I raised two daughters and have three granddaughters, but I also have two precious grandsons, a  treasure of a great nephew, and a sweet brother--all great inspiration for a boy's room--a boy's room. The little nephew is a Texas boy and idolizes Roy Rogers, so the room will be a cowboy room. I'm really excited, but the cowboy motif isn't exactly popular these days, so I will have to create most of the items. I've already started the bedside lamp.



I began by searching the web for Roy Roger's pictures to get a poster. He was a popular comic book character, so there a lots of comic book covers to choose from. I've had the cowboy boots in my stuff for a long time--thinking at one time they'd be cute for a Barbie Cowgirl and they are still available in miniature online catalogs. The deer mount and horns on the left came from Hobby Lobby's Christmas miniature offered a few years ago (not the dollhouse wrack), as well as the rusted star. I purchased the deer mount along the way--miniatures.com, perhaps.

I assembled the bed from a House of Miniatures kit, the night stand came from HL, and I will be making the lamp. I am trying to figure out bedding--I hate dressing beds, but this one already has its sheets and pillows. You can see a corner of the plaid fabric that I may use for the bedding or piece of faux suede on the bed--only I can't find the larger piece.

Right now I am working on the lamp.

Probably the only place where you find a lamp such as this might at a mountain lodge or in someone's house sorely trapped in the 1950s--I've got a couple  saved from my mother-in-law's house. The shades are often translucent with images printed on the shade, realistic photographs of interesting scenery with the lamp itself simulated aged cactus or wood. Something like this one. Yep. That was the '50s.

I'll be using a tiny wooden barrel purchased by the pack in HL.

In this prototype, I printed the image on computer paper and pasted it to vellum that I had in my stash, trying to decide on the size of the image. This one is 1 inch.

 So cute.

Some of the lamp shades are stitched together, so I used the tip of a marker to add the stitching. While I didn't make it neat on the prototype, the stitching does add character and makes the shade look finished.

The vellum is just over an inch tall, with each side 1 inch, and the length cut 4 1/4 inches long with the extra 1/8 inch on each end to glue. 

This is the screen shot of how I created the shade with images. First I found the images then copied them into a Word document and sized them to 1 inch. Photos, by the way, are easy to size in Word--see where the pointer is sitting up in the right hand corner of the screen of the photo. Click on the photo to select it then type in the size of the image that you need.  Next I created a table with four columns and one row and inserted the 1 inch images, centering them in each cell.

I am thinking that four images will be too much for the small lamp.

I inserted my computer copy inside the vellum shade to see how the four images will look and added a Sharpie® border.

I am still working on the lamp; I'll share the finished lamp. I also need to figure out wall covering. Cowboy wallpaper is scarce or non existent, so that will be a challenge. Still pondering that dilemma.

Lily's House

I need to do some painting before I assemble the roof and attic of Lily's house, but could not resist gathering up furniture and playing. It is going to be so cute. I am trying very hard to keep the house simple with simple furnishings, decorations, and accessories because she is very hard on her toys, but it is so hard to resist thinking of how cute it can be.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on furniture, so I am going to use pieces from my stash. A couple of years ago I bought six boxes of dollhouse furniture from a junk dealer. I think I paid $175 for a hodge lodge of furniture, some really nice pieces and some pretty junky pieces. The table and chair were still boxed and there three sets. The stove: there were two or three stoves, along with the sink and maybe even the hutch that has a Michale's label on the back.  I made the refrigerator from a HouseWorks kit. 

The living room furniture came from Hobby Lobby to have been used in the downstairs living room, but I decided on the brown leather. The fire place can be purchased from HL, too, but this one came with the San Franciscan. I'll be using a more Victorian style fire place in the San Fran. And maybe I'll let her have my little shelf clock or I'll make her one. 

So that catches you up. Thanks for stopping by. Leave a comment so that I know who comes by. No ads here and I'd don't share emails or information. It's just you and me and other miniature 

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