miniatures — Page 23

Day Three Hundred Sixteen

January 23, 2021 at 9:09 am by Claudia

I spent some time yesterday working on the dollhouse. I filled in some gaps in the walls with spackle. Today I’ll sand them and I might even start the wallpapering process. I also played around with the new plates and put them in the hutch. Those white eggcups that I got in Paris are out of scale, so I’m going to remove them. Or I could pretend they’re little desert bowls.

Playing with furniture and accessories is such fun. I consider it my reward for all the time spent renovating the dollhouse. There’s lots to do yet in this house, but once I finish the wallpaper in the bathroom, as well as the flooring and windows, I’ll move this to the desk and start building the Beacon Hill.

Yikes.

I have some new information about the comment we found so objectionable. Two more comments with the same text have appeared, plus one supporting the original comment. I am now convinced they are coming from bots who are commandeering IP addresses. Interestingly, almost all of them are coming from Canadian IP addresses. Anyway. This happened before during the 2016 election. I’ve deleted and blocked them all and will continue to do that, since they are deliberate attempts to spread disinformation. I deleted my original response because I no longer want to give any responses or “air” to this nonsense, because that’s what they want. Do you mind if I delete your responses, as well? If you do mind, let me know and I’ll let them stand, but they won’t make sense now that the original comment has been deleted.

Thanks, everyone.

Very, very cold here today. No snow on the horizon but it’s definitely winter!

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Day Three Hundred Fifteen

January 22, 2021 at 10:38 am by Claudia

Good morning!

It’s currently sunny outside! Huzzah! We’re expecting snow squalls later in the day, so I don’t expect it to last, but I’m grateful that it is sunny now.

Okay. The gorgeous John Derian puzzle is finished:

This was taken late in the day yesterday. It’s my favorite, so far, of all the puzzles I’ve put together.

Enclosed in the box was a small print version of this puzzle. If I frame anything, I’ll frame that. I’ve never framed the puzzles I vowed to frame last year and now, months later, I realize I have no desire to. I now realize that idea is unrealistic – at least, for me. We already have a lot of art on our walls and there’s not room for large framed puzzles. So, it’s about enjoying the process, letting it sit on the kitchen table for a few days in all its glory, and then taking it apart.

On Inauguration day, two packages arrived in the mail. The long-lost package from Spain arrived! In it is the work of Sofia of Twelve Times More Teeny on Etsy.

Aren’t they beautiful? I have some of Sofia’s work in Hummingbird Cottage and I knew I wanted to order from her again. These will go in the hutch in the English Cottage aka Dove Cottage.

And speaking of Hummingbird Cottage, the grand dame of all my dollhouses, Caroline was thrilled to get a new table and chairs for the kitchen. You’ve seen the table, but here are the chairs.

In consultation with Caroline, a decision was made to order chairs with higher backs, a French Country look. I like these much better than the smaller chairs that were here previously. I have yet to style this table but I will. These are from an Etsy shop called Tiny Dwelling. Lovely work – and the owner of the shop has a lot of interesting items in stock.

And yesterday, the dollhouse wallpaper finally arrived! So I will be upstairs in the studio working on the dollhouse this afternoon.

Housekeeping note: I’ll be brief, because I’ve said this many times before. I had a comment from a Trumper yesterday. You can see it on yesterday’s post. Before I saw it (I had been working on the puzzle) other readers saw it and challenged that commenter. And a few of you replied to that comment later in the day. Anyway, I responded. You responded.

You know the rules. Anyone supporting that man and his administration is not welcome here. Period. I would not welcome that person in my home. And MHC is also my home. I’ve left the comment up, but I’ve blocked her. And I’ll continue to do that when necessary. Thankfully, it happens rarely.

I can do that because it’s my blog. A personal blog owned by me.

Also: someone left a comment a couple of weeks ago suggesting what I should and should not write about (this concerned politics.) She mentioned that I might be concerned about ‘offending my readers,’ which, in reality, meant her.

The obvious answer: No, it doesn’t concern me. I am a careful writer and work hard to be articulate and honest. but I’m not in this for numbers or lots of followers. This is my blog. I pay for it. I maintain it. You get to read it for free. I’ve been writing it for almost 13 years. It has always been about my life and that includes my opinions. You can disagree with me, which this person did, and for the most part I will leave the comment up and respond to it, unless the commenter attacks me or says something so offensive that it has to be deleted.

I don’t tell other bloggers what to post. During the course of my many years of blogging, I learned very early on that imposing my opinions on other bloggers about their subject matter was not a good idea. (And I have strong opinions!) If I don’t like someone’s content, I can (and do) move on. But I don’t tell them what they should and shouldn’t post, whether on a blog or on Instagram. Neither should anyone presume to tell me what I should and shouldn’t write about here.

I don’t take kindly to it.

I see that all the time on IG. People peg accounts as purely about decorating or books or whatever and when that the account holder speaks out about an issue, they are offended and say “I don’t come to this account for (fill in the blank).”

Oh, you’re telling that person what they can and can’t post? That they have to be what you want them to be? I think not.

Okay. I have to reiterate these things at times. But I promise not to do it too often. (I’m not sure I succeeded at being brief.)

Moving on.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Day Three Hundred Nine

January 16, 2021 at 10:05 am by Claudia

Feeling rather crappy today and yesterday. It feels like a bad cold, but since I’m never in contact with anyone, it’s sinus masquerading as a cold. Anyway, this too shall pass. But I’m a wee bit whiny and I’m grateful my husband apparently doesn’t mind my whining and comforts me, nonetheless.

Have I told you how much I love him?

Yesterday was sort of a fog, though I did get some things done.

Highly satisfying. Also zen-like, which I really appreciate at this moment in time.

I stained the miniature desk that I made from a kit a while back. I had to bring it downstairs to get a photo. It’s been dark and dreary for days and days and it rained all last night so it’s still dark and dreary. Gray days and a sinus thing = an unhappy Claudia.

It still needs a bit of touch up. For those of you who think I have great light in the studio – I don’t. Only two little windows that get good light at the end of the day, and only if it’s a day with some sun. If I could convert the kitchen into my studio, I’d do it. But I can’t. Anyway, I brought it down here to photograph it this morning and noticed some areas that I’d missed. And I’ve already put a coat of paste wax on it. I’ll figure it out. I don’t mind it looking a bit spotty as it’s supposed to be old.

I also saw a photo of a real-life version of this type of desk in blue this morning and I immediately wondered if I should paint it. But I painted a lot of things blue in Hummingbird Cottage and I’m trying to fight that instinct and add some stained wood pieces in this project. I don’t want every dollhouse to look the same. I see a lot of that out there. On the other hand, I also see a lot of wildly imaginative work going on in the dollhouse world, most often by young people. That is fabulous!

I still have to order hardware for the desk. That will involve some searching on the internet because I don’t like what I see in my catalogue from miniatures (dot) com.

I’m not reading Winter Solstice yet, though that will be next. I’m reading Cruel Acts by Jane Casey, a terrific writer of police thrillers. I realized a week or two ago that I’d completely missed out on her two latest books, so I ordered this one. Casey is Irish by birth but she now lives in London and her stories take place there.

Okay. My energy is flagging.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Day Three Hundred Sixteen

Day Three Hundred Fifteen

Day Three Hundred Nine

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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