Such a bizarre day yesterday; snow, sleet, rain, more snow, more rain. There’s snow on the ground today – about an inch – but it should melt during the course of the day.

On top of that, we had quite the experience yesterday! I was upstairs working on the dollhouse and I kept hearing sirens off and on. Eventually, I heard an amplified voice in front of our house so I got up to look out the window. There was a car parked in front of the house with about 4 or 5 State Police and County Sheriff’s vehicles behind it. Lights were flashing. Two or three members of the police were out on the road, weapons drawn, asking the occupant of the car to put his hands against the window, then to get out of the car. He took a long time. He was maybe in his twenties or thirties? He had long scraggily hair. As they told him to put his hands up, he was saying – loudly – “F you!” Couldn’t believe it.

They patted him down, took some stuff, more cops arrived, and eventually he was handcuffed and put in one of the vehicles. The vehicles hung around for a long time. Two of the cops knocked on my neighbor’s door to see if they could park this guy’s car in her driveway until someone came for it. Lots of conferring, talking on phones, etc. (Don took this picture from the kitchen.)

I don’t know what he did, but it was sure more than speeding. The sheer amount of police officers, guns, and all of the sirens, which were wailing for quite a while, shows it was something big. I’m going to see if I can see a list of the County arrests that happened yesterday.

Quite the exciting event  and it all took place in front of our house! Afterward, we thought, “What if there had been gunfire?” Yikes.

I worked on the dollhouse like a maniac yesterday afternoon because I was determined to finish the front facade. I did, but I was really tired afterwards. A reminder of what it looked like when I found it at the dump:

One of the things I don’t like about many dollhouse kits is the trim provided, like the stuff on the roof. It’s fine if it’s for a child, but not so fine for an adult. Also, though a bit better, the trim attached to the roofline in the front. I debated on that, and I still might add some modified trim to that part of the house. We’ll see.

Anyway, here it is:

I’m pretty pleased with it. Now, of course, I have to do the two sides of the house. It’s incredibly tedious work. Incredibly. And it’s messy; paint everywhere, glue on fingers, etc. But I am determined to finish the exterior before I start on the interior and this seems the time to do it.

However, I might take today off.

Another view of the Folk Art dollhouse in its new spot in the kitchen.

Hoping that you’re all doing well and that you are self-isolating.

Happy Tuesday.

Hello, all! Before I get into my post I want to say how glad I am that the comments section has become a gathering place for all of us during this surreal time. I read your comments to me and to other commenters and I think how lucky we are that we can do this.

So, thank you.

Yesterday was cold but beautifully sunny all day. Right now? It’s snowing. More of the surreal.

When we were chatting during our second cup of coffee yesterday, Don got an idea about the Folk Art dollhouse. If you remember, we had it on our kitchen table. He wondered if we could find another place for it in the kitchen. The sunlight was hitting it and it looked beautiful and he thought it might be even more so if we could put it closer to the windows. Easier said than done. This house is small and every bit of space is taken up with something or other. But I must admit, I have been missing the available surface of the kitchen table – for eating, for writing, for puzzles – especially during this time. (Don has good ideas, even though I sometimes think they won’t work. They usually do.)

So we did our usual “What about here? No, that won’t work…how about there?” You get the picture. This went on for quite a while. The only available surface that wasn’t already being used was the French Bistro table which was currently propped against a wall in the upstairs hallway. So, Don brought it downstairs. The only place we could think for it to go was to the right of Stella, where the old advertising stand was that held our paper towels. We’ve had that on display since shortly after we moved here, so we decided it might be time to retire it for a while. Long story short: we moved it out of the way, opened up the bistro table, placed it perpendicular to the wall, and here you go:

It looks great there, we get to see the bistro table once more, along with the French words on the side. We have the table back and we promptly ate lunch there. I tried to take other pictures, but the perspective was way off; the house looked smaller than it is. I’ll keep experimenting.

Speaking of dollhouses, I did a lot of ‘stonework’ on the facade yesterday:

I made it all the way up to the peak. I’m really pleased with it. Today, I’ll try to finish the facade. Then I’ll have to do the left and right exterior walls. Eventually, I’ll grout between the stones – something tells me that will be a pain in the tush. This stone work is done using egg cartons and it’s tedious. (Don has been saving egg cartons for me for well over a year.) I have to cut the strips, paint them with two coats of the main color, then another coat of the contrast color, and wait for them to dry. Then I have to take my scissors and cut the stones, gluing them individually. I try to vary the widths. The hardest part is cutting them to fit around the windows and against the sharp angle of the roof.

I might as well have something to show for all this self-isolating, right?

When all of this is done, I’ll start on the inside.

We’re hanging in there. We had a good day yesterday. Our feel-good choice of the evening was episodes of Cheers, starting from the beginning. Heavens, that show was excellent, right from the get-go. The pilot was so well done.

Happy Monday.