The coneflowers are coming! My favorites will be in full color very shortly.
Beautiful yarrow, which is popping up everywhere.
Well. Yesterday was frustrating. I was filming a video of the Beacon Hill kitchen for my YouTube channel and, in watching it before I was going to to upload, I noticed that there were little stains on the wallpaper right below the center window. I must have checked and rechecked that area twenty times before I could believe it was real. The wallpaper paste had bled through the wallpaper. I’ve used the same wallpaper paste for years and I have never had that happen before. The more I looked at it, the more I realized I would have to remove it and order some more sheets. And I’m going to try another paste that she recommends – guaranteed not to bleed through. I was able to peel it off the center back wall and the long wall where the door is. I ordered the wallpaper and now I wait because this is the woman in Washington DC. Remember? It took two weeks to get the first order.
Now, I’m not sure what to do. I can paint the bare walls in the hallways, I guess.
Today, though, I’m going to mow the front lawn.
And finish The Black Wolf because I just picked up Maggie O’Farrell’s newest from the library – Land.
I really don’t want to lose my momentum on the dollhouse because I worry about losing interest. So I’m going to have to start work on another room. But wallpaper is expensive and I just can’t order things any time I want to.
Good news, though – You’ve heard me talk about Dragonfly Blythe, the customizer who created Nina and Pru.
About three years ago, she stopped customizing and those of us who love her work have been in mourning ever since. My dream has been owning one of her redheads and several times I’ve missed on out one that was being resold. Two owners wouldn’t ship to the USA. One promised me hers but then it fell through. And that’s the only way you could get a Dragonfly because Ola was no longer creating.
Yesterday, I got a message from her. She’s coming back! She has had a tough time of it for 3 years, but she’s doing better and misses her work. I’ve already put in a request for a redhead. But first, she has to get her sea legs back.
Sure enough, two of my friends received the same message and we’re all thrilled.
Okay.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
happy for you to be able to get more of that sweet wallpaper and a different paste that won’t come through it. and a redheaded dragonfly blythe, too. hopefully they will all arrive soon. same with a 3d stove that you get to design! :)
in the meantime, glad you will enjoy mowing the lawn and reading a good book.
my sister and i were walking this morning and about a mile away from home when it started to rain. just pouring! thunder, too (ordinarily love that, but find thunder scary when am outside [not in a car] in it because lightning could be close). a nice neighbor in our group of 33 townhomes kindly pulled over and gave us a ride home. :) hope the rain continues as we’re in our second weeks-long ban of outdoor watering and of limiting indoor water use.
hope you, don and everyone else have a good day. stay safe.
kathy
The dragonbly blythe will be off in the future. She hasn’t customized in 3 years, so she has to get back into the rhythm of it.
Good that your neighbors rescued you!
Stay safe, Kathy.
Probably good she is waiting for her sea legs — it will give you a little time to bank up your new Blythe arrival. That’s frustrating about the wallpaper. In real life, I’d put a piece of furniture on it or a picture over it. But when you are spending so much time to do this right, I can see why you’d want to re-do it.
Exactly. Have to save up for her. I can’t really disguise the stain – you can’t put a piece of furniture in front of it when it’s right next to a cabinet. Plus, it is just appearing now, so haw many more might have cropped up?
Thanks, Jeanie.
I know you love the coneflowers, Claudia!
Bad news about the wallpaper paste bleeding through but good news about red headed Blythe. Your patience will be tested waiting for both the wallpaper and Blythe. I think working on another room will help bide the time and keep you interested.
I was also losing interest in one of my projects: sorting, researching and putting stamps away. The volume of the 2023 Scott Catalog of Stamps that I requested and needed to complete the research was due at the library June 6 and it still isn’t available. I ended up driving to the main branch and took my last few stamps with me. The volume I needed from the 2024 set was in the reference section (the previous year’s set can be checked out but the following year’s set is held at Reference and can only be used at the library) so I spent a little time completing my research. Then I went home, entered the info into my spreadsheet and put the stamps in the proper album. Done and dusted! No more stamp work until my daughter gets another batch, which won’t be for a while.
So I’ve gotten all my photo project boxes out and the breakfast table is my work table for the extensive project of getting photos into albums. I have about ten years of prints, which are pretty well organized, to put into albums. Then it’s sorting digital images and getting some into books. I know my interest will fluctuate but for now, I’m all in, at least for a couple of hours a day…
I don’t think I could handle all the detail with the stamps, Wendy! Good for you. You are an organizing Queen!
Stay safe.
My real human sized old house has a few areas of stained wall paper – guess you aren’t shooting for that level of verisimilitude, huh? Good luck mowing the lawn – we are at the very end of a cooler spell here south of you and I’m trying to get lots of that kind of outdoor chore done too, before the next heat wave.
cheers, Ceci
No. Don suggested that, as well. And what if even more areas like that popped up? Best to do it well.
Thanks so much, Ceci.
Stay safe.
Hi Claudia. How frustrating to have the paste bleed through the paper! All papers are not equal in “fiber content” and maybe she has changed what she is using or can’t get the better paper any more. I do hope the new paste really does not bleed through. Would it be worth trying to spray the back side of the paper with a sealer of some kind? Just wondering. I have no experience of this and nothing to recommend. Maybe you should ask about it on social media? In the past I have used real house wallpaper paste… but not recently. The only papering I have done recently was for smaller scale projects (1/48 and 1/144) and I used regular Aleene’s glue for those. So far it has not bled anywhere. I hope you don’t have to wait too long… but probably tackling one of those hard to accomplish tasks like painting the hallway will give you something to focus on meanwhile. And getting that task done will probably give you more ideas too! I’m rooting for you! :)
I don’t know why it happened but she does recommend Yes! Paste – and I’ve definitely seen the same recommendation from other wallpaper sellers. So, I bought some and it should arrive today.
Thanks, Betsy.
Stay safe.