dollhouse — Page 117

Mini Presents in the Mail

April 4, 2011 at 2:15 pm by Claudia

I drove home in my rental car yesterday. It was a Nissan Cube – funny looking, but a great little car. It really has a lot of power and my problematic lower back loved, loved the design of the driver’s seat. There’s quite a bit of storage space and lots of head room.

I liked it so much, I took a picture of it. The light was strange but sort of otherworldly and cool.

Sitting on the kitchen table were 2 packages that arrived while I was away. Today, I’ll share the contents of the 1st package to arrive at MHC. Casey of Casey’s Minis had a giveaway and I was one of 3 winners. Casey let us choose what miniature we wanted and then proceeded to make them for us. She is amazingly talented. I continually gasp at her creations. I mean, let’s face it, I am in the midst of the slowest dollhouse renovation in history! I have no idea what I’m doing. Casey, on the other hand, is constantly making miniatures and most definitely knows what she’s doing.

But I digress. Here is my present:

Gasp! (See, I told you I am continually gasping.) Casey made this wicker chair. Isn’t it beautiful? Look at the detail. Unbelievable. I had my choice of fabrics and I chose this sweet design.

She added a slot for reading material.

And she sent along some extras:

The sweetest, most whimsical ottoman – or ‘pouf’ as I like to call it.

And this basket:

I’m in love.

A side view of the chair:

Such incredible detail.

Thank you, Casey! These are priceless additions to my dollhouse. Don absconded with the cigar box in which the chair was snugly packed. So I guess he won something in the giveaway, too.

If you haven’t visited Casey, please do. The ‘tenants’ of her dollhouses, Tessie and Zar, make frequent appearances in Casey’s posts. In fact, Tessie had a hand in the making of this chair.

As you can see, I took lots of photos in different lighting conditions in order to find just the right shots of this miniature furniture. It was a little frustrating. My new mantra? “A new camera with some spiffy lenses is coming my way. A new camera with some spiffy lenses is coming my way. A new camera…”

You get the idea. Maybe one will magically appear on my doorstep?

Shutters

February 3, 2011 at 8:38 am by Claudia

When I’m not in the city, this is my schedule: get up, drink coffee in flannel pjs, put on old clothes and don’t take a shower yet because I will be shoveling, shovel, come back in the house, go back out and shovel some more, work on dollhouse, shovel some more, come in and take a shower. By this time it’s 4:00, so I put my pajamas back on and drink hot chocolate.

And there you have it.

I have to post this quickly as I am going back to Manhattan today. I painted shutters yesterday and glued them on in the evening.

What do you think? I’m really happy with the result. Now I am thinking about the new door and what color it should be….decisions, decisions.

Hope everyone has recovered from the ‘snow event.’

I’m Over it

February 1, 2011 at 11:25 am by Claudia

Looks like the birdbath will soon be totally covered in snow. I have had it. I woke up to at least 5 inches already on the ground with many more to come. We will have well over a foot more of snow by the end of the day tomorrow. I just started rehearsals yesterday and now I can’t get in again until Thursday or Friday. It’s too dangerous. Fortunately, my work doesn’t require me to be there every day. But I constantly have to think ahead and create a schedule that accomodates this endless, endless snow.

Look, I know I’m not the only one who is sick to death of this stuff. But let me whine a little. It has really impacted our lives. We’ve had to cancel or rearrange so many things since this all started on December 26th. I’ve really never seen anything like it. It’s depressing. I try to stay positive, but let me tell you, today is a day I just can’t get there. We’re struggling with a lot of worries right now, but somehow I think they might seem a bit less daunting if we could just catch a break with this weather.

That being said, those of you in the Midwest are really getting walloped. Please stay safe, stay off the roads, and be careful. My thoughts are with you.

And, I can’t seem to get a good photo of the dollhouse. I’m not sure why – whether it is a combination of the white color or the lighting in the den or something else. I’ve played and played with my settings this morning. I am frustrated! If any of you photographers have a suggestion or two, would you be so kind as to leave a comment? I’d so appreciate it. I’ve shut the blinds, opened the blinds, turned off the lamps, turned on the lamps, played with white balance, aperture, ISO – this was the best of the lot.

My order arrived yesterday from an online miniatures site. Can you see that the dollhouse is sitting on my new turntable? I love it. It will make working on it so much easier! My new shutters arrived as well. The shutters that I had on hand weren’t tall enough, so I’ve been using them to test some paint colors.

I started out with the turquoise on the right, but I think it is too bright. I added some gray to it and came up with the color on the left. I could just go with gray shutters, but I think that would be too matchy-matchy with the roof. What do you think?

I suppose I can paint some shutters today, when I’m not shoveling. And I will be shoveling most of the day. These are the times that I need to be reminded why we moved here from San Diego. At the moment, I have no idea why we made that decision. But yes, I know that come Springtime, I’ll remember exactly why we moved here.

Mini Presents in the Mail

Shutters

I’m Over it

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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