It all started with wanting to move the antique table that is in the living room over to the left, so I could move my monstera plant under the window. It needs more light than it’s been getting. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but I guess I was fixed on centering that table under the window. That lead to me moving it to the corner, Don holding on to the monstera so it didn’t tip over, and lots of wrangling of plants and furniture. (This also led to a clean out the following moring of that corner, which is right next to Don’s chair. The domino effect.) In the course of moving the table, one of the mini Adirondack chairs fell on the floor and broke apart. Adding that little mishap to the fact that I really needed to clean the interior of that dollhouse led to me carrying it over to the kitchen island yesterday, where I worked on it for a few hours.

Moving it to the corner is going to keep it out of direct sunlight, which is a good thing. And it’s now closer to Don, which he likes.

I glued the various parts of the chair back together, dusted, cleaned, re-glued some pieces that I made for the mini studio and gave it some love. As I started in on all of this, Don disappeared upstairs. When he came back down, he handed me a piece of copier paper with a photo of the late, great John Prine and asked if I could hang it on the wall. He managed to reduce it to the right scale, as well. He’s so darned adorable.

So here’s a little tour, since we haven’t done that for a long time.

The exterior of the studio. Sorry it’s on the kitchen island but it was raining yesterday and I couldn’t take it outside. The chair on the right is the one I had to repair. I built this studio from a kit, by the way.

Another view. I made all the board and batten siding.

Inside. I made the fireplace in the corner, truly one of my happiest mini achievements.

I built the kitchenette counter and the desk/tables. I miniaturized Shanna’s sketch of Scout, made a frame, and hung it on the wall. Scout had just passed away, my dad left us a few months before that, and I was so heartbroken that I had a hard time motivating myself to finish this for Don’s June birthday, but I did. I knew Don would love to see Scoutie featured.

I figured mini-Don would need a little area where he could make coffee and have a snack. There is a back story on every one of these items, and you can find that under Dollhouse/Miniatures on the navigation bar.

There’s John, just above the sketch of Scout. I mounted the photo on cardboard. I’m not totally happy with it and was thinking of redoing it, but Don is thrilled with it, and that’s all that matters.

Rest in Peace, Scout and John.

And Rest in Peace to Burt Bacharach. I loved everything he wrote, starting with my first encounter with Walk On By  when I was a kid. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Thus began my love of songs written in a minor key. Haunting, beautiful; it drew me in and I became a fan.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.