Humming a New Tune (since I can't carry one)

I made great progress last week. Most of the wallpaper has been cut and is laying out in the garage so that I can seal it with Kryon sealer--stuff stinks so badly that I have to mask up and open the garage door when I use it, but it will protect the paper from fading and yellowing. 

The rest of the wood floors are stained, waiting to be glued in place. I used a light pine finish, wanting to use a bit darker stain that had more character, but I grabbed the wrong can and before I realized that I had used the wrong color it was too late. Oh well. The flooring turned out nicely and once glued in place will look beautiful.

 

I spent another morning trying to figure out how to make some dresses for the closet that I've spent so much time trying to build and now maybe won't use in this house, but I did manage to create a facsimile of a dress by finding an image on Design Space. I use fabric glue. Just an easy way to make such a cute little dresses.

  

Through trial and error I finally had a close facsimile of a dress that fit Miss McDonald Happy Meal Prize at least in length.

Because one dress will be the back, it has to be flipped horizontally so that one will be the wrong side and the other dress will be the right side. You can see the two different sides in this photo.

This little dress was easy to design and easy to make. I'll be making more and dressing them up some lace and ribbon.

Now for the real conundrum.

The original floor plan calls for the bedroom to be the room on the left second floor with an entry into the addition which will be some sort of studio with the bathroom in the second room on the opposite side of the house. I like that; however, the stairwell in the center of the house ruins that space if you don't use the original kit half wall aligned on the left of the stairwell I could still do that because I haven't glued the walls in place yet, but then my flooring would have to adjusted and I'd have a very large bathroom.

A new plan is complicated by this very large 4 poster canopy bed.

I played around with putting that bedroom on the 3rd floor, but it just didn't feel right and then Jodi suggested making that 3rd floor the bedroom. So I took a second look at that possibility. With the tall bed, there will be a lot of wasted space with the slanted roof and the tall canopy; still, a 3rd floor master suite is gaining appeal.

Some time ago Jennifer scored a a box of vintage dollhouse furniture on a garage sale that had been exposed to some water damage. The are some lovely and unique vintage pieces, but I flipped-out over the bathroom fixtures, especially one piece, the bidet. Not many homes at least here in the USA have such a fixture unless it is a custom home. Our last house, a custom house, had a urinal in the half bathroom by   the garage. It was quite a conversation piece. The house has sold a couple of times since we moved and the new listing photos so that the piece had been removed, so some are not into those customized bathroom fixtures. 

    

But. Here is the dilemma: would it be out of character to use the vintage bathroom fixtures in the second bathroom? Are two bathrooms too much? I tend to think literally, that is to say that even a dollhouse bedroom needs the ensuite bathroom. 

Who would buy a house with an attic bedroom and no bathroom and worse, no stairs! I can suspend the reality just so far and not insist on stairs.

I rather like the idea a vintage bathroom on the 3rd floor to retain the original character of an old farmhouse that has been modernized. I justify the new modern bathroom for guests and so the homeowners don't have run all the way to the third floor when they need to use the bathroom.

I know. I'm thinking too literally. Or am I?

So I am open to your suggestions.

Now, a trip down Memory Lane. Heather sent me this photo a while back as she must have been traveling around memory lane herself. Back in 1979, Mom was still with us--she would have loved all this dollhouse stuff and Heather would have been 4 years old. I didn't get the house finished in time for Christmas and tried to do some more work it afterwards, but she never really took to it. You can read the story of this house which began my miniature obsession. It was the story that launched this blog. 

While Heather doesn't have time to curate her little house, but she does love her house and loves to go to the miniature shows with me, so we are humming a new tune these day: "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" The plane tickets are purchased and the hotel room booked for the Good Sam Show in October. I can't believe it! 

Visit my very first blog post: Hello

RE the title: My mother had an amazing voice. Some family lore has it that she trained as opera singer. I had trouble singing. She once told me that I couldn't carry a tune in bushel basket. As little kid, I never understood what she was talking about, only that I couldn't sing--so I hum--probably still off tune. Only as and adult could I understand her metaphor. 

 

Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful week.

 Happy Easter, dear Friends.

He has risen!

 I missed the last 2 weeks posting simply because there was too much going on.  Last week Nathan spent most of his Spring Break with us, so I set aside the mini projects. I did learn how to use iron-on vinyl to make Nathan a t-shirt. 

Wanting to do a project together, I asked him if  he'd like a to make a t-shirt. He came up with the design and we shopped Hobby Lobby for supplies, did  Jennifer Maker and Mr.Crafty Pants Youtube videos  to learn how to use iron-vinyl, and got to work.

I used Design Space on the Maker to find the image of the mountains and to create the meme. It was a relatively simple process and I ruined only one cut. I had to figure out the blade setting on the Cricut for the vinyl because it cut clear through the backing. I used Hobby Lobby's Paper Studio vinyl because it was a better price, but then had to second guess the settings. 

Adhering the vinyl was a simple process. Both videos gave instructions for ordinary irons, but I borrowed my daughter's Cricut heat press, placed the vinyl in the correct spot, covered it with kitchen parchment paper, and applied the heat. It's hard to believe that my little dude turned 13 last week. He's a teenager now and will have a Saturday job working at the roller skating rink where his parents had his birthday party Saturday. No. He didn't wear his shirt. 

But now I know how to customize t-shirts.

It has been unseasonably cold--too cold to work outside in the yard and tomorrow we are supposed to get some snow. For the last week, we've have wind, so yesterday I did play a little on the Manchester's second floor.

The kit comes with half walls for the first and second floors, so I had my husband cut a full length wall with a doorway for the second floor. The stairs and the railing were built months ago, so I can't--or won't--change my mind now on how to handle that opening. I switched the location of the walls from the left side of the stair opening to the right side to accommodate the floor plan for where I wanted the kitchen and upstairs bedroom; however, on the second floor it makes for an awkward stairway. I still have the option of installing the half wall instead of the railing, making a narrow hall. 

I am now fully committed to using the second of 3 entertainment centers that I built. Using card stock and porch railing, I have fashioned doors to convert the cabinet to a closet. Once I get them measured correctly, I'll make the doors using 1/16 inch basswood. I've been bothered because the bedroom is so small that there is not enough room for even an end table, let alone closet. I like the openness of the room without the second wall. While the cabinet was designed for glass shelves, I'll build storage boxes and replace the "glass" with wood shelves. 

On a side note, I have problems with my ability to reply to the comments that you kindly leave, and sometimes I have problems leaving comments on your Blogger posts. I think I have narrowed the glitch down to an Apple OS problem since I did an update on my newer MacBook Pro. I can leave comments on my old MacBook because it doesn't have enough space to update to Monterey, which I think has a bug in the system that won't allow for comment replies, so I will either email you my comments or if you are on Instagram I comment there. I don't seem to have a problem with other platforms, such as Word Press, just Blogger on this computer. 

I was trying to free up room on the old laptop (a 2015 model) thinking that it was my Photos app with 31,000 photos in it that was taking up all the space, but once I really studied the memory use, it's the operating system that takes up so much room, leaving no working space left on the hard drive. I can still access Safari, but that's about all, so when I remember to, I'll comment from that the old computer.

And that is about all I have to say for this week. 

Thanks for visiting. Have a great week.