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Once again life has a way to getting in the way, so I've not made much more progress on the Manchester kitchen. The countertops are glued into place and I still have to install cabinet door and drawer handles then I have some tedious painting to do. Here are the projects that I'll be working on.

These kitchen and bathroom plumbing items were from Paper Doll Miniatures Shapeways shop. I ended up with two different styles because, um, well, I lost the original one on the right the one with vintage look. I didn't lose it actually. I just couldn't find it, mostly because it is clear. So I ordered a new on, the modern look which is what the kitchen is supposed to be. I think it will be black.

I should have retaken the photo. I love the pot filler with its movable arm. My cooktop is on a center island, so I don't need such a faucet, but I love the idea.

For the Bellingham Texas Farmhouse, I made my own bathroom hardware from paperclips and jewelry findings, but I wanted a more modern look. Gold for these--unless I change my mind.

Back to the kitchen, I've played with ideas for kitchen canisters. Here's how I made canisters for the The Blue Farmhouse Now Pink, using the moisture absorbing fillers in the low dose aspirin containers. While I didn't use the pull tops from OJ containers, with some work, they can be transformed into dinner plates.

My original post "A Good's Night's Sleep" brings back the sweet memories of my early beginnings as I worked on renovating and decorating my first farmhouse. So scroll past the bed to find the tutorial on how to make your own canisters. 

 

https://annsdollhousedreams.blogspot.com/search?q=canister

I still like these little canisters. After layers of acrylic craft paint and sanding to age each layer, I printed and mode-podged the hens in place. A nice way to use odd pieces that we find around the house, but it does take a long time to collect enough of these little gems to make a canister set.

I've played with clear glass canisters, too,  like I have my real kitchen. That plan calls for black labels the I would make from printable waterslide transfer paper. I've been collecting mini glass jars, mostly from the jewelry finding aisles at Hobby Lobby and Michales. Some are found in the Tim Holtz collection and the steampunk wrack. The drawback to these jars is that they seem a little out of scale, a little large for 1:12, and black lettering may not show up well depending on what is in the canister, but I had decided on the clear glass for the modern look. 

These jars come with the cork stopper, but I took these wooden buttons that I bought at HL, sanded them down until they fit. I don't know what they are are called, but this is their function on furniture I think to cover up screws. They work really well on the larger vial, but the bottom has to be sanded until it will fit in the mouth of vial. The above photo show two different jars and lids.

The shorter jars with the flatter wooden lids were ordered on Etsy as 1:12 canisters, so they are more to scale. I'm more inclined to use these rather the jeweler's jars. You can see the shape of the furniture button lid.

More jeweler's jars with homemade polymer clay pasta. I'll probably make better lids than the awkward cork lids.

 

With a test run in on the kitchen counter, I'll use the Etsy jars--or will I? I thought I had my mind pretty well made up for the top of the kitchen counter food storage, but. . .

 

. . . then came a most rare opportunity from a favorite blogger with an irresistible request: She was looking for volunteers to test her 3-d printed items that she was creating for her 1940s kitchen. Visit Jodi at My Miniature Maddness to see what she has planned. At this point, she sent out the call for miniaturists to be willing to take a few of her items to play around with at no charge with only the requirement to fill out and return to her a product review. I'm honored that she thinks that I'm good enough to receive a very generous gift of kitchen accessories. 

A coffee pot, a serving tray, muffin tin, and the most amazing measuring cups.

The 1940s style stand mixer is amazing and the mixer lifts back on the stand. It even comes with an electric cord. Cool.

The toaster most certainly was worth a WOW! with its little lever to lift the toast and an electrical cord to add that touch or realism. The cake plate is awesome. 

My mom always served our birthday cakes on a vintage glass cake plate that eventually disappeared, but to pass on the tradition of a nice cake plate for the birthday, I purchased hobnail milk glass cake plates for my daughters. So I think this one will be milk glass. And of course a tube pan, perfect for angel food cakes. You know that you never grease you angle food cake pan, so you keep a separate tube pan just for the angle food cake. Any oil residue on the beaters, bowl, or bake pan will react with the egg whites and deflate them. So this pan will be dedicated to angle food cakes. 

I love my Le Creuset dutch oven. Mine is pink--of course. What color will this dutch oven be? I haven't made homemade bread in ages, but I can envision  lots mini breads coming out of this little loaf pan.

And now you know the answer to which will I use in the Manchester kitchen? The Moisture absorbing canisters or the glass canisters or the unique 3-D printed ones? The Etsy canisters will be used for what I originally ordered them for: Coffee and Tea on the coffee bar and these 3 will be Flour, Sugar, and ?

I have my design pattern picked, the labels made in Design Space and ready to print of waterslide transfer paper. I'm pretty excited. 

I'll begin by painting and applying the transfer to the moisture things as practice. So be patient with me, for this is going to take a while--and real life will get in the way, too.  

As a little gift, Jodi printed and painted these adorable honey pots for each of her test artists. I have just the spot for it in the Manchester kitchen.

My only request--since I couldn't make any decisions--was the flour sifter. This is Jodi's own design. How clever! And cute! And unique!

Just for Fun

Daughter Heather and I met in Denver for the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls, and Toys. The museum hosts the show every year, which offers a wonderful roster of artists and miniaturists. I came home with a few little items, mostly for the toy store. 

 

Donald and Mini for the toy store.

A neat pull toy

The typewriter has a story--a memory. My mom typed on an old Underwood typewriter. I played on it.  I didn't it get rescued for the old home, so this one will do.

He's not quite an elf on the shelf, but I could not resit him!

While we don't use or serve alcohol in our home, the Manchester will have a little bar. The X.O bottle didn't have a label so it was $3 instead of $15. I can make a label. The decanter and glasses came from SMA miniatures on Etsy, and the whisky jars came from the show. And that's about to extent of the bar supplies--so far.

And the hand cultivator. Turns out, it can be purchased on Factory Directly Craft.com for about the same as I paid for it. I avoided shipping.

My husband uses his grandmother's hand cultivator in our own garden, these will go the Bellingham's garden--yet to be built.

Daughter Jennifer made these cute little gnomes. One hangs out with my antique cup collection and the other one hangs with the Barbies, but they have a habit of disappearing--mostly after Jen and the girls have been here-- then the hunt is on.

 

So, who knows where the mistress of the Manchester will find her gnome friend.

Thanks for joining me. I hope you've had a much fun as here as I have had writing this entry.

 

Kitchen Tour

I began the Dura Craft Manchester Country Home January 2021, after assembling two other full sized houses, the Dura Craft Bellingham Farmhouse and the Real Good Toys---that I built for my youngest granddaughter, Lily. I didn't quite stumble on the Manchester by accident--I just got lucky searching CraigsList with a posting in Denver. I couldn't pass up the 1990s vintage kit for $40. Daughter Heather lived close to where the kit was and purchased it for me. 

Similar to Real Good Toys Vermont farmhouse, I decided to add an RGT two room, two story addition to the house, making the project even bigger.

And I decided on 3 rules: Everything had to be hand made or purchased from artists who designed and made miniatures, and I had to use as much product from  stash of minis--be it building supplies or accessories. 

As a result of those three rules, it has taken forever to finish this project, but I am close. So close.

We will begin with the kitchen, to room that took the most work because I built all of the cabinets. This link is a good place to start to see that adventure in building a full set of kitchen cabinets. 2022. I began assembling the house January 20, 2021, so you can begin there if you want to see more specific details and tutorials. https://annsdollhousedreams.blogspot.com/search?q=Manchester+kitchen&max-results=20&by-date=false

Project Manager Pink will give us a tour of the kitchen, the first room I started--the one that took so many months to complete.

From the front porch, we can see the Mistress of the Manor--Abigale--finishing what looks to be a peach pie. I hope she serves us piece after the tour. 

With the front door open, we had a chance to catch a glimpse of the dining room. Looks to be lost somewhere in the '60s by the looks of that retro chair. That should be interesting, but today Pink will give us the grand tour of the kitchen.

Abigail is a very sweet young woman but still in therapy for her horrible experience at the thrift store. She and Pink really bonded after sharing space in the plastic bag with other MacDonald's Happy Meal girls. Today she is living her best life in the Manchester. She loves to bake. But good grief, she needs to do something with that hair before it catches fire from the stove.

 

With a can of Pringles in hand, she'll head upstairs to the craft room while Pink takes us through the kitchen. 

The window shade and the wallpaper are printed on computer paper. I found the plaid print on a random Pinterest search; downloaded, and printed. I found a YouTube tutorial on how to make widow treatments and to make a pleated window covering. Mine didn't quite fit right, so I turned the vertical shade horizontal and trimmed it down to fit inside the window frame. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqYQtry-HvU&t=5s)

I printed all the wallpaper for this house, locating the blue tile from Hot Pink Lime Shop on Etsy. I printed this tile on glossy ink jet photo paper for very nice results. 

To fill my cabinets, I purchased dishes and mixing bowls from various online shops, where you can find an amazing selection of dishes, but the stacking mixing bowls are especially special.

In 2022 our favorite miniaturist Jodi Hippler at My Miniature Madness invited followers to participate in her first marketing adventure to test her line of 3-D printed kitchen accessories. Luckily she chose me to test her product line. Once she had the results, she opened her Etsy shop where you can purchase her STL files to make the cutest kitchen baking necessities. 

I also used the toaster and the dutch oven in this kitchen.

One of my favorite items in this kitchen is the pot filler. I once considered remodeling my real kitchen that would require relocating the cooktop so that I could have pot filler. I purchased this 3-D printed item and the sink faucet from Paper Doll Miniatures on Shapeways MarketPlace . She may have her items now listed on an Etsy site. 

I made the hall tree out of a door that was removed from my  first BIG dollhouse project, a renovation of the Blue Farmhouse Now Pink. I also made the plant and the basket. The little gift basket on the bottom shelf has thank-you gift items that Jodi Hippler included in one of her orders. The oven and dishwasher are kits ordered from the UK: Elf Miniatures. Easy to assemble, but non opening. I made all of the cabinetry using my Cricut Maker. 

I ordered the 3-D printed cooktop from Jodi, as well. 

The blender on the bottom of the bake center needs to be painted. I order it and a miniature Cricut machine from an Esty shop in Nevada, Shop MiniDecoreandMore. Love both of those 3-D printed items. You'll see the Cricut later. 

The hanging pendants are handmade, using clear Christmas decorations. The tutorial is someplace in the blog. 

Items on the bake center came from various sources: flour sifter from Jodi's collection--love it. Do women even use one today? I do. Mixer and bowl from online shops, peaches in the bowl by me, the pie a random find along with the bowls on the bottom shelf.

I don't even remember where I found the refrigerator--an online store. Filled with all kinds of goodies for the Memorial Day picnic. The items came from various Etsy and other online shops. So much fun filling the fridge. I made the baked chicken, all the fruits, and most of the vegetables from Fimo bake polymer clay. Lots of great tutorials are on YouTube.

Here's Jodi's toaster. Love it. I don't know why I added the breakfast. Maybe just to show off my feeble attempt to make bacon and eggs. Actually quite easy with a Youtube tutorial. 

The little ducky may end up in the bathroom. It's a gift from daughter Jennifer. The hen I found at the Denver Miniature Show or was it Good Sam in San Jose? Guess it really doesn't matter for it is one of a kind. 

Jodi included the blue pump bottle as a gift in her test kit, too. I made the rhubarb and other fruits in the pan.

The crock pot on the bottom shelf I found at Good Sam Show in San Jose, CA when Heather and I went nearly two years ago. Pot and bowls random Etsy buys. 

Find the missing K-cup and you have better eye sight than I do. I dropped the tiny cup and could not find it, so I use my phone's flashlight and there it was.

Genies Mini House Shop on Etsy located in Florida has the coolest miniature where I ordered this mini coffee maker and with coffee pods and stand. Love it.

So this the kitchen in the Manchester Country Home. It took so long to build. 

In your comments, please don't mention that I included an out-take photo. Pink would quit and frankly despite her personal problems, I couldn't do this with her. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week.

God Bless our Veterans and their families who made such great sacrifices for Americans' Freedom. Happy Memorial Day.