Wallpaper Woes

Before I go too far into fixing the exterior of the Van Buren, I decided that I better get to work on removing all the old interior stuff.

Aside from the double layers of wall paper in a few rooms, this should be quick work, right? Well...

See this bathroom?

See how it looks like it's been painted?
All I need to do here is pry the toilet and towel rack off the wall, sand a little, and then repaint later.

right?
Right?

...Turns out a previous owner originally used wallpaper, and then when someone redecorated, they just painted over the wallpaper. Found that out after the towel rack tore through some of it.

So that's 5  rooms I have to tear paper out of now...cool...

And it looks like I'm dealing with a few different types of glue. One is spray mount, which makes removing the wood floors surprisingly easy. Except for this floor;

Different glue. hmm...

This might take a while.

Done & Done

I'm so happy that I finally have some finished work to show off. It's been a while, I think.

As mentioned, I've been working on a gift for someone. That someone was my adorable baby niece. She's an infant, there's not much I could make that wouldn't be a choking hazard. So I opted to just make something cute and functional.

Originally a beat up stepping stool, I fixed it and then drew/painted my own rendition of the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle", on it.

The rhyme includes a little dog, but they have two little dogs in their home. So I made sure to include both of them. I think it turned out pretty well.

 The photos were taken in two different rooms-I was trying to wrap up my present while photographing it (I don't recommend doing that, btw).



 Next on the list-Billy! The dollhouse is done!

Yes, those are glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.

The hardwood floor is made from Popsicle sticks, several coats of polyurethane, and lots of patient sanding. Just about every person that has seen this floor in real life let me know how impressed they were by the craftsmanship. Dollhouse hardwood floors-apparently my calling in life.

I'm going through the furniture I have and working on decorating the inside now. Last I saw it, the interior was a mess, but it's fun to keep rearranging things. I'll post pics of that once I decide on the layout. Then I get to make more stuff. Yay!

...Oh hey look, I've got followers. Hi everybody! :)

Almost Done & Barely Started

I'm concerned that I go too long between blog posts. Actually I know I do. Mostly I blame time, and my inability to find some so I can finish all of my side projects-and then blog about them.

Soooo, we'll call this a progress report.

1. A month or two ago I decided to make a gift for someone, and that's been eating up most of my spare time lately-it's more involved then I thought it would be. I can't really show or talk about it much as I'm not sure if the recipient(s) read this, but I'm hoping to finish said gift on time and get some decent photos before I give it to them. Kind of stressing at the moment though because I'm still sketching at a time that I should be finishing the final painting. (Ah!)

2. I was hoping to have photos of my finished dollhouse,  but it still needs some touch ups. If I photograph it now I'll end up not bothering to finish it, which I will regret later. So this is my motivation. What I can do is tell you that it's a Snow Country Chalet by Real Good Toys , which I named Billy so that I'd remember to actually build it (sounds stupid, but it worked). So if I'm talking about "Billy" it's the Snow Country Chalet. Ok? Ok, moving on...It's actually more of a summer home than a ski lodge they way I'm using it, but I live a couple of hours north of a ski resort that switches to a golf course in the summer, so I'm thinking that it really isn't all that weird of a thing to do. Anyways I promise that the next post will be photos of the finished house.

I decided to bite the bullet and just tear the shingles off of the Van Buren. Billy's roof took forever, so I didn't want to have to start over on this one.  
Really Did Not want too.

 Before

 After

Lots of shingles were broken, missing, falling off, painted on, or just not right and I felt like this was the best solution. Plus the front of the roof curves, but the shingles didn't, so that was covered up until now. I also noticed that the chimneys needed to be fixed and popped those off too. Glad I did because it turns out that this neat little lamp was trapped inside one of them.

               ~ I kept hearing something rolling around when ever I moved the house-it all makes sense now.


I'm going to have to sand all the glue and stray bits of wood off the roof, and then figure out what to do with it-I don't want to deal with wood shingles again. I want to use egg carton bricks for siding, so Paperclay maybe? That's going to be a lot of Paperclay...

3. I was working on getting into a local community market, so I could spend the summer selling more of my prints and craft work, but that fell through, *sigh*, again. It's ok though, more for the Etsy shop (and fall craft shows). I'm alternating between being away from my computer and out of town for the next few weeks, but after that I plan to post tons of new items, so keep an eye out for them.

Well I think I've been talking enough, and I really do need to finish that gift...So that's it for now.

Next time; A finished dollhouse!