Claudia — Page 1502

Renovating the Dollhouse Kitchen

August 4, 2012 at 8:21 am by Claudia

The other day I treated myself to a little something for the dollhouse. I’d had my eye on it for over a year, checked back in and noticed it was out of stock here and there and figured I’d better get moving. With a little of my ad income, I made the purchase.

What do you think? I’ve always loved the kitchens I see in British design magazines and this so reminded me of a Smallbone kitchen that I couldn’t stop thinking of it. I already have an Aga stove, so this fits perfectly!

I was going to paint it. But then I looked at the tiny little plate rack and wasn’t at all sure I could paint around all those spindles. There’s a lot of painted furniture in this house already, so a dash of warm wood in the heart of the kitchen is a good thing. I used some wallpaper remnants at the back of the shelves to tie in with the rest of the kitchen and brighten things up.

I have to buy a faucet and I may tile the backsplash. What about a little curtain for that area under the sink?

I also played around with a shelf I had on hand, painting and aging it. It’s now over the stove – I’m going to hang some copper pans from the bottom of the middle shelf.

The kitchen table has been aged since I took this picture. So far, the kitchen is the hardest room in which to get any sort of good photo. It’s like a dark tunnel and I can’t get the lighting right. Any tips from you fellow dollhouse lovers?

One more shot of the sink and cupboards. I added some more plates.

This is the only way I’m going to get a farmhouse sink, so I might as well enjoy one in the dollhouse!

How are all of you? It’s so stinking hot and humid here that I barely leave the house. I had to run some errands yesterday, one of which was taking the trash to the town dump, ahem… recycling center. Let me tell you, the scent that was emanating from the piles of trash was especially pungent in this heat.

Happy Saturday.

Don’t forget, the Connecticut Tourism contest is still running until August 8th. Leave a comment on that post if you would like the opportunity to win $1000 toward your very own trip to this beautiful state.

Friday Question: Do You Own a Smartphone?

August 3, 2012 at 7:25 am by Claudia

Ask me what time I got up this morning.

4 am. Yep. 4 am. And I went to bed after midnight.

Riley has had a few accidents during the night lately. I deliberately stayed up late last night in order to give him some extra time to get ‘bathroom ready.’ The problem is that he is so sleepy by that time that nothing works, if you know what I mean. So when I awoke at 4, I thought I should come downstairs to check out the situation. It wasn’t good.

After clean-up, I tried to go back to sleep but it just wasn’t working. At about 5:30 am, I heard a bark. Back downstairs again. No Riley. Where the heck was he? I found him in the bathroom. Hey, at least he was able to get up by himself! At this point, I figured I should just stay up and I made coffee. That little dickens got up twice more – one time to let me know he had to pee. Okay, Riley. You’ve atoned for your mishap in the middle of the night.

So, as one does in the early am, at least, as this one does, I opened the laptop and read my email. I also charged my iPhone. One of the emails concerned an app for iPhones and iPads called Shakespeare Pro. It has everything Shakespeare wrote – including the Sonnets and a Glossary. Cost? $1.99. (It’s currently on sale.) Oh my. How perfect for this Shakespeare Voice and Text Coach.

(Please excuse photo quality. It’s not easy getting a good photo this early in the morning!)

It got me thinking about just how amazing smartphones are. I can grab my phone, open this app and find any piece of text that I need. Wow. I can take pictures. I can check the weather. I can listen to my music library. I can check my email and read your comments. I don’t use it nearly as much as some people do – I rarely text, for example – but it has been invaluable to me.

Don, who said he didn’t want a smartphone, is changing his tune. He mentioned to me that he just might need one. He’s away from home and will be again in autumn and I know first hand how helpful it is to have an iPhone when you’re away from home. I imagine I will do what I did when I purchased my phone; wait for the new iPhone to hit the stores and then buy the older version at a much cheaper price.

So here’s my question this Friday morning. Do you own a smartphone? If you do, what do you use it for? Or have you held off on this kind of purchase? Or do you simply have no desire for one?

Please share. It’s now 7:16 am and I need something to keep me awake for the rest of the day!

Vintage Kitchen Towels

August 2, 2012 at 10:56 am by Claudia

What is it about these vintage kitchen towels that attracts me? One word: cheery. I love everything about these cheery retro prints and have been collecting them for a long time. Whenever I see one that is in good condition, I grab it. Come to think of it, I think I began to collect these when I was living in Boston. In those days, I collected Fiesta pottery. The bright, vivid colors seemed to go perfectly with my Fiesta.