In the land of the Lego

This weekend, my living room has been over taken by Legos! Yes, Legos! See the trunk in the back left corner of the picture? It's an old army trunk that my son got from his Grandfather. It's great to hold our Legos! Haha, yeah, I said 'ours'.........1/3 of those Legos were mine when I was younger. Did I ever tell you I was a pack rat?? LOL.....I had a castle and everything!!
But these guys were, and still are, my favorites! They were some of my first Legos......I got them from Hamley's Toy Store in London when I was little. I'd give anything to take my kids......of course that's after I win the lottery....LOL.....7 floors of toys, isn't that crazy!!

So I've just done a little research and these critters came form the Fabuland Lego set, first introduced in 1979. I wish Lego would come back with some sets like these......they were so much fun to have!.............and my next project. Again, these were mine when I had my first doll house. As you can see they have seen a lot of love over the years! Well, I have decided to recover them.....or should I say, I'm going to try and make slip-covers for them. We shall see what comes of it, but for now, I will continue to sit and stare at it..................I guess the rest of the afternoon will be spent trying to find some 'How to make a slip cover' articles.
..well, that's no good.........a missing foot? Whatever will I do about that???

How do YOU hide an ugly mailbox???

Today has been a very long, long, day! And I'll leave it at that! I haven't had time to play, so they'll be no eye-candy tonight. However, I thought I'd share a few pictures of a vine I've been trying to train for years! We have this tree in our yard, not sure what it's called, but I would really not be bothered if someone accidentally cut it down! It produces this sticky stuff that coats everything. It's horrible....not to mention that it leaves this black coat to everything it lands on! Needless to say, I had mailbox issues. The black stuff was very hard to remove, and after buying a couple of new ones...and then losing the mailbox door.....I just finally gave up! Then......one day I noticed this 'magical' vine, trying to grow up and around the mailbox! So I helped it out a little. I think it's a honeysuckle vine, but I'm not positive! I do know, that this time of year it's blooming and it smells spectacular!! So after my long day, I was pleasantly greeted by my 'magical' vine when I came home! I sure hope it doesn't bother the mailman~ one day, I'll have to ask him!

Is anything ever perfect?

I got a little bit of a lot done yesterday! Let's see.......I got the carpet cut out for the daughter's room, still need to glue it down. (And fix the paint job on the stairs!)I got the floor cut out for the parents' room. I used a vinyl sticky tile, well, I used 4, had to have them match up the way I wanted it. The front part of this room is going to be the bathroom, I'd like to 'tile' the walls in there. But first, I gotta find a tiny square hole puncher to cut out those tiles with!
Then, I figured out how I wanted to do the end tables. I decoupaged the shaving cream lids with brown tissue paper and Mod Podge. Then I mixed up some colors for the top, using my polymer clay. I wanted to try a technique that I normally use, but this time I used copper paint. This next picture is after it's been baked, but before I sanded it. Here, they have been sanded, using wet-dry sand paper. I'd still like to see them a little glossier, so I'll have to think on that. I never have much luck with sealers and clay.
Here's a idea of what they will look like when I'm done. I still want to add a second layer of tissue paper and I have to work on the 'glossy' issue. But do you see what I see.......Someones been in here, and knocked down the wall, and if you look a little closer....you will see that both the ladies on the couch have been pushed over, one is even on the floor! Poor girls! Wonder who woulda done such a thing??
oh........And they best part! They both don't fit! LOL.....doesn't it always work this way? So I think she'll have one table here, and I'll find a home for the other. Maybe in the front bay window between 2 chairs?
And not that I'm pointing out my flaws or anything, but I've really got to fill in the line behind the couch! It's needs some putty and some paint! Then I gotta fix that gap in between the 2 floors, you see it? On the left. But, then again, if I keep looking for imperfections, I'm never going to finish this house!

A little at a time

Ok, Ok, I know......I'm slackin on getting this house done. Honestly, I'm still working on it, just a little at a time. I got the baseboards in, in the kitchen. Do you see the 'end tables' in the front of the picture.....I decided that no matter what I did to them, they were going to need a base coat first. Still haven't figured out if I want to cover them in tissue paper or no hole beads? They are mighty shiny, huh!
I also got the floor finished in the living room and dining room. I mounted those vinyl tiles to a peice of foam board that I had already cut to size. It made it alot easier to cut the vinyl after it was attached to the foam board, just flipped it over and cut it out with an excato blade.Of coure Otis is is back......he heard me in there working, and hard to see what I was doing. Floor hog! He doesn't move for nothing, and I'm afraid of pulling him out, because he drags his feet and I don't want him scratching up my beautiful floors. So He wins!!!!

The Proximity Award

OK, I must admit......I'm horrible with chain letters! When they come via email, I normally just skip over them. But this time I got one via my Blog! And Ana was so sweet and sincere with it, how could I not?? It's called the Proximity award, and when I asked what that is she explained that it's about people connecting people through their blog, all over the world. Wow! Neat, I got an award all the way from Portugal!! Pretty cool, huh! So, the deal is this......You have to forward it on to 8 wonderful people! Well...if I try to do all that there's no telling how far I'll get....so let me try to do it this way.

First let me say THANK-YOU to Ana! She has 2 sites, http://www.miniaturesforall.blogspot.com/

and
http://www.miniaturesforever.blogspot.com/

The first one is written in English, the second one is translatable. She has been the kindest person to chat with. And even shared an enormous amount of paper dolls with me. Thanks for sharing your talents with all of us! I look forward to seeing what's next!

And now for the 8 people I choose to pass this award on to......

Chris from http://www.candidcanine.blogspot.com/!!

Thanks for giving me more ideas than my little head can handle!! You're such a great influence, my online muse! I love chatting about all the different projects we want to do......one day! LOL!!

Casey from http://www.caseymini.blogspot.com/!!

Thank-you for being like an online encyclopedia to the dollhouse world. You really amaze me with all of your knowledge. I will continue to read your blog everyday!! Thanks for taking the time to write as many tutorials as you do! They really do help!

Sophia from http://o-mundo-de-zaphia.blogs.sapo.pt/!!

You have the most beautiful ideas! Every blog has pictures to drool over. I just love it! And thank-you for taking the time to take on so many kitties! It's amazing what you've done for them!

Jodi from http://www.minileapsandbounds.blogspot.com/!!

I have been patiently awaiting your return to see how far you've come on the garden shed. And now that I've actually looked at your page, it seems I have missed a bunch of blogs! I'm SO glad to see you back! And I love the little mouse!!

omg...do I really got to find 8?

Let's see.......I scan through http://www.minimodern.blogspot.com/ often. I love to look at all the modern houses she posts on her blog.

I also read http://polymerclaydaily.com/ on a regular bases. It has the best eye-candy for us polymer clay artists!!

Oh.....Check out my friend Dana's Etsy shop: http://www.dcrocks.etsy.com/ She wraps rocks with sterling silver, and makes some of the prettiest jewelry! She also has a blog, but needs lots of encouragement to keep it going! Don't have the link to that right at the moment, but I will get it.

oh my....just one more...

And my last award is going to go to Otis. Thanks for being my Mascot, my muse and my teddy bear, all wrapped up into one. You bring laughter to everyone that meets you. I love you Ne-Ne!!

OK, so I cheated a little, but I hope that everyone gets the point! I really think it is just a good reminder that we need to thank people sometimes for the effort they put out there! I have meet the kindest people, and everyone is so willing to share their knowledge! That's Great!! :)Thank-you my online buddies, thank-you for taking the time to write, and thank-you for taking the time to read!!!

My Favorite Critters

When I was little, my Maple Town 'people' lived in my dollhouse. I had lots of families all living under one roof....Kinda like an apartment. I still have these families, and plan on using some of them in my room boxes. I drug them all out the other night, was going to set them up for you....but then I had remembered I had bagged up the families and labeled each of them. I really didn't want to take them all out....Although I'm sure they would all appreciate some fresh air. Some of them are Maple Town, some are called Sylvaninan Families, and I think there is also Calico Critters and Forest Families. Just different companies that pretty much made the same thing. Either way, they're one of my most prized possessions! I added another figure to the couch, that way the one that was already there doesn't get lonely. . Do you see the 2 shaving cream tops on the sides of the couch. This is where I'm stuck~ I can't figure out what I want to do with them. I know I want to use them as side tables, I'm just not sure what finish I want. I thought about covering them with Mod Podge and tissue paper....or I could paint them....or I could roll them in glue~ and then roll them in those little tiny beads............OK, do you see my dilemma......ugggg! Decisions, decisions!! LOL~ the floor is not really white, that's my 'drop cloth' (a piece of poster board cut to size) for the living room. It keeps Otis from chewing and scratching at the new floors that I put in there.
Speaking of Otis, he's taking a break from the dollhouse. Daddy bought some new shoes, so Otis has a new box. He likes it with the lid down.....at least I think he does, he curls right up in there and goes to sleep.
Unless there's something fun to play with....and trying to steal the camera cord is Always fun!!

...can I go back to bed now??

You ever have one of those days where you just don't want to get out of bed? And when you do finally get up, nothing amuses you. Yes, I'm so bored I can't find anything to do. Mind you I have a long list of to-dos, I just don't want to...lol! So I thought I'd take you on a picture journey.......

These are 'rocks' I made out of polymer clay. I just can't tell you how much I love my rocks! ~and They're sooooo pretty! And such a pain in the butt to make~ maybe that's why I love them so....because I knew how much sweat went into them. Fix you gotta mix up a lot of different colors of clay, then you have to chop them down into small chunks, then paint the chunks with acrylic paint. Once the paint drys, you have to form the chunks into small rocks. Then, you bake them~ don't be scared, they're suppose to look like a black blob of mess! And here's where the pain in the butt part comes. You have to sand it (with wet/dry sandpaper) starting at the lowest number and working your way up to the highest number. It takes a lot of sanding for one rock! You can find the sandpaper at the auto parts store. I'd like to make some beads this way, but I'm so overwhelmed with all that sanding that I haven't done it. maybe one day! The beads on the bracelet are pretty much made the same way. But no chunks! This time I painted slabs of polymer clay, and after they dried, I stacked the slabs on top of each other, and used my small circle cutter to cut out a cylinder.
These next 2 pictures are from reading Donna Kato's website. There was a tutorial on there on how to make the canes for these, and this is what I made. Once you end up with a neat cane, the possibilities are endless! See what I made using the same cane. (A cane is a block of uncooked clay that has a design in it) Those S things have a hole in the middle so you can use it as a bead.
Here's another cane I made, and what I did with it. These are the S shapes again, but this time you can see where the hole is. I love the colors I used~ so bright!
I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend; I'm going to go curl up with Otis and take a nap!

hahaha...I was trying to find a picture of Otis sleeping, and instead came across this.....He was so bad when he was little! I can not remember a day where we didn't find toilet paper some where...he just couldn't help himself. We finally had a buy a plastic container to store it in, cause he'd climb right into the cabinets and take out what he wanted. Here, he's a couple of months old, and has come across a roll sitting on top of the dresser. He was taking bites out of it, and spitting the tp on to the floor......he's lucky he's cute!!!

With a little help from my friends...

Do you remember the TP roll challenge I gave you? Well, Chris from http://www.candidcanine.blogspot.com/

put up this picture on Myspace of some lamps she found, and we've been chatting about how to make one for the doll house.

I choose to make the one in the back, to the right. I used one tp roll to make all three discs. Also, you will need to cut some of the sides to get smaller circles....and glue them back together before you begin. You can see in the picture below what I mean.....see there are 3 different sizes. I've also cut some scrap book paper up to cover them with.Once covered, I went around the edges with a gold marker Now, it's time to attach them to each other. It took me all day staring at it to figure it out, and then the idea came to me. I could glue beads in between the 2 rolls to make them look suspended.

...and.......Ta-da!

I added some gold trim around the top and bottom. Then I added some around the middle. You see how it is hanging from what looks like a straw? That's another piece of paper, rolled up and glued. Eventually, it will get attached to a medallion, and hung above the dining room table.

And thanks to Casey from http://www.caseymini.blogspot.com/ this chandelier now has a tassel! She put up a tutorial on her page yesterday on how to make them! Thanks Casey!!!!

OK, I'm off to think about how to make a medallion! Maybe I'll drag the clay back out?

I'm so exicited...I just couldn't wait

~Yeppers! It is so much easier to blog when you can see your pictures as you type!~


I just couldn't wait till tomorrow to show you this...........are you ready?! I went to the fabric store today and got some gold trim, brown suede like fabric (to be used for curtains), and some fabric with gold paisley print. I'll save what I did with the trim for later....lets discuss the gold paisley material! Oh, and BTW ...I only spent $4, on everything!! Remember that couch I showed you? The pink one that had been painted black? Well, today I went ahead and ripped off all the pillows, and started to attach the gold paisley material. I'm not writing a tutorial for this~ I'll be honest~ It was a pain in the butt! I'll just say I folded, glued and tucked as I went.
Pretty impressive, huh! Haha, well, I'm impressed.
One of my bears came out to give it a try. This is what lived in my dollhouse as a kid~ Maple Town Families! I still have them....all one hundred and something.....Don't believe me? I'll have to drag the rest of them out and take a group picture. Oh, I sure hope they all cooperate! I also printed out the rug under the couch. I think it ties in the wall color pretty well. Wait till I have throw pillows, and some side tables....this is going to look great!

Ok, good night! I'll be back tomorrow with an explanation as to what that tube thing is with the gold trim on it, in the top picture. Can you guess???

I fixed the problem!!!

~Wish you could see me 'dancing' over here! I knew I must of hit something to get my page to switch like it did....and I finally figured it out. When you write a post, you can either do it on the edit html page or the compose page. Mine was stuck on the edit html page.....it's so much nicer to see my pictures as I write about them!

What to do with the scraps?

I just don't understand what I did to this computer to make it change like it did. I want to be able to upload pictures and look at them as I type this blog. Instead, I get the html code for it. I don't think I'm going to like blogging like this!!
Any ideas as to what I did, or how I can get it back, I'd be very grateful!

Ok, so I drug out the clay yesterday, and played.
Nothing serious....just wanted to see what I had. I did use some scrap clay to make some bowls, vases, and planters. Not very pretty, I know I can do better than this, but like I said I wasn't making anything serious. I more or less just wanted to 'play', and I also got some of those scrap piles I had taken care of.
Here's how I did one of the vases..to make the scrap ball more interesting, I put a bunch of scraps together, then sliced through the middle of it to get this:..Now that you have a neat piece of clay to work with, roll a small ball of it out.Then form it around the end of a pencil.Next, roll the pencil on a flat surface until all the sides are about even.Then you can use a blade to cut the top off so that it is even all the way around. This is just a basic idea of how to make 'vessels' with polymer clay.

Another of my favorite things to do is to put my scraps in my mini food processor. Now, these scraps must be dried and old for this to work. If you need to use fresh clay, lay it out on some paper the night before, and the paper will help suck some of that moisture out. I do believe this may be called leaching...? Ok, so cut it up into smaller pieces and throw it into the food processor. It should look like this after a minute or so.... I love this stuff.....wouldn't a 'cork' floor be neat using this stuff? Or a table top...oh my, there's lots to do with it.....I made a mini bowl with it. Just wrapped up a big marble with Saran wrap, and molded some of the clay around it. I was a little more happy with this one! Here's another bowl I made using some scraps and the pencil trick.
There's a lot you can do with scrap clay. I save all of it, and evenually it all gets used!

**Warning: You can NOT use the mini food processor for food once you've used it for clay. Polymer clay and food DO NOT mix!!!

A little clay to soothe my soul

&*(@$*&#@$&@(.....can you hear me yelling over here! I don't understand why the computer is eating my pictures when I try to upload...This is my 3rd day of this, It's really getting annoying!

I pulled out one of my boxes of 1/2 half finished polymer clay 'junk'. Man, oh man, do I have a lot of crap. You see, there are days when I'm grounded to the couch, and I need something to keep my hands busy. Well, me being a crafter, I craft! I have a lot of hobbies, I just have doll house fever right now. But, my clay has been calling my name for Days now, so don't be surprised if I switch gears......

OK, while digging through all the stuff I did run across these tiles I made out of Sculpy clay. It was all scrap clay, slightly mixed up, that I rolled out flat and cut tiles out of. I think it would be a great floor/fireplace for some kind of Moroccan theme.

I even came across these pink ones. Looks like I used some left over Mokume Gane slices....oh goodness, It's been so long since I played with my clay that I've forgotten how to spell the techniques, LOL! Don't you think the pink ones would make a great back-splash in a bathroom?

Just some ideas on how to combine several hobbies into one. Sometimes I just like playing with the clay, these turn out to be some pretty productive days. When you let yourself go, you can come up with some pretty neat combinations!

I'm as slow as a snail!

Well, gees....I totally missed my 100 blog anniversary! I wanted to do a give away and everything. Oops! Maybe I'll just do a random one here in a few weeks! You'll have to wait and see! So, I haven't got much of anything done, instead I've been blog hopping. OMG, there are so GREAT Blogs out there! And so much eye-candy, I may have to go on a diet here soon! LOL!!

I have worked a little in Cora's House. I finally got the floor done in the kitchen! Her couch is sitting in the middle of it, so you could see what it looks like. Did I mention that it was once pink? I painted it black with acrylic paint a few years ago. Now, I'm going to redo it with some kind of fabric....maybe some leather? (Casey made a tiny couch recently that I'd like to blow-up to my size! You can check it out on her blog) Oh, and before I forget: I used Modpodge to seal the floor in the kitchen, but I can't get rid of the tackiness....any ideas as to what I can put on top of that to seal it???