Lavender Cottage: Halloween is Coming!

The moving boxes are inside now, being unpacked, and the Lavender Cottage residents are already thinking of Halloween. (Me, too!) (See last post - a peek inside. * Click photos for full size.)

Hard to believe August is already gone and wow, it got cool outside last night. But that means pumpkins and Halloween is coming!

So, getting ready, some pumpkins are slowly appearing outside the dollhouse. Why not? (Yes, I'll have to tape those post wires underneath somehow. Things you don't think of right away!)

But, look! Even the dogs are getting ready! This dog "begged" to have their flower costume  on. haa! (I saw this set at Menard's and couldn't resist. The owner will appear soon in her Halloween costume!)

The cooler weather (yes, even in miniature!) means the flowers will last a bit longer until it gets too cold. The flowers look pretty good still! (Clematis trellis kit from SDK Miniatures.)

Just a few photos. I'll be decorating more soon and showing the full inside, so stay tuned!

*Thanks again for visiting. Come back soon for more projects!*

Cool Miniature Inspiration

I've seen photos of his work before and always thought they were interesting and incredibly detailed.

Apparently, Anthony Schmidt was 10 when he started taking photos of model cars, and his photographic skills have only advanced since then. I had to share this as anything miniatures-related is always fun to see.

It's neat to see a young man, now 17, making money at something he loves, along with elevating model-making to an art form. He's self-published several books and has a new publishing project involving his model cars and Route 66 on Kickstarter, which is going strong, with just days to go. Check it out here. Fun is that he also likes restoring real antique cars.

Miniature Book Project Done!

It's done! Jack's Bookery from CuteBee is ready for miniature book shoppers! (*Click photos for full size.)

I received this kit, Jack's Bookery from Cutebee, (see Jack's Bookery/Amazon and check out the Cutebee store; more projects on the Facebook page)  and 'll say that overall, this is a cute project. This the second book nook project I've made and I can see how people get hooked on these!

The project goes together relatively easy though some of the tabs do need to be sanded slightly as they're too snug and some won't go in. But the main pieces all snap together easily.

There are pros and cons:

Nice detail, interesting subject, good quality. Nice that even the back is decorated.

 It goes together fast if you work on it steadily, but the puzzle-aspect of it can get a bit tedious if you work on it for a long period of time. A tip: younger children may not be able to handle some of the smaller pieces and will get frustrated because of that. Even as an adult with small hands, some of the pieces were quite small to work with. 

One side has a printed window, but I like that the other side has a window you can look through.

Note that while some items are directed to be glued, I glued quite a few more to get them to stay in place. I also colored in a couple spots on the tile floor where items are poked through. After having made dozens of books on other projects, the stickers for book covers is a good solution to all that cutting though I did touch up the tops or sides of books with white colored pencil.

Oh, look! A couple animals showed up!

The final project is appealing, though I'm not in favor of things like flat plants or animals, etc. A nice touch would be adding a real lamp post, but I didn't want to add another light. I might see if I have a fake one to use instead. To add some dimension, I added some punched out leaves and a couple miniature plants on the outside as not having any actual 3D miniature accessories in these kits is a minus to me. And I added a dog. Of course, as a bookstore, it has to have a bookstore cat, too! (Yeah, that empty mailbox will need some letters in the slot!)

The big plus is the touch light on the side - it requires barely any pressure to turn it on. For anyone looking to assemble a relatively quick kit, this is a good choice. It will make a nice addition on a bookshelf. Cute!

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 In the meantime, I'm still decorating the Lavender Cottage and figuring out the lawn and garden areas... and thinking of Halloween for sure! (see last post).

* Thanks again for visiting! Come back soon for more projects. *

* Note: Some links are Amazon affiliates, which may provide some compensation to the blog.

A Peek inside The Lavender Cottage Dollhouse

 

A glimpse of the living room.

While I work on the last of the furnishings and finish decorating the inside, I thought I'd share a couple new pieces I made. Love how this turned out. (*Click photos for full size.)

This is one of those small console tables you get in the MiniBrands Home ball. Was going to put bookcases on the sides, but decided not to. This goes under the window on the living room area of the first floor. I decided to do some large vintage floral print posters again on the walls like I did in my other house. The white chairs and curved tables are from a couple of those Hobby Lobby China-made kits. The white settee is the Gothic chair kit that I decided to paint white for a change of pace, from SDK Miniatures.

I painted the table to match the color scheme and added a piece of doily on top. I also painted a couple of the candles from the same ball. (Yeah, yeah, gotta touch up that one again.) I got the TV in a half-scale swap a while ago and changed the picture. Recognize the show? Shrunk down a remote and glued it to a piece of foam colored black.

I still may repaint the dog, and he may be a bit large, but I like him, so he'll stay there for now.

This other TV on the second floor was an eraser. I got a few of these ages ago from Michael's. Painted it, added a set of bead knobs and added a picture. I have to fill some shelves yet. That purple "thing" is one of those puff chairs from the Home ball that I painted purple. I moved a few more things around, too, and ignore any small mistakes you see that I'll have to fix yet.

The chairs are now set up around the table where someone is having a snack. Loved making these and love the print. (Made from 3/4" blocks of wood, cardboard backs, and some padding. *See last post.)

I'm still adding art and things, so I'll share full room views later.

While I finish this, I'll have to do a few posts showing favorite pieces from my different houses. You always like the finished project, but there are always a few things that you really love.

An inside tour will be coming soon!

* Thanks again for visiting! Come back soon for more projects! * 

Lavender Cottage: Moving Day!

 

Moving day is finally here!

While the residents are moving in and getting things set up - you know how long that takes and how messy that can be! - thought I'd share what's going on outside. You can see the florals and outside of the house here. (*Click photos for full size.)

Just a few boxes have arrived so far, and of course, the dog is checking things out. They did get some furniture on the lawn and the gardens are growing nicely.

I bought a "grass" sheet on ebay, well it's more "velvet" than grass, but it looks okay. I glued it on a plywood board and edged it with painted trim.

I was happy with how the walkway turned out. I cut stone shapes from egg carton, colored them with pastel chalks (rubbed my finger on chalk and rubbed it on the pieces) and glued to a piece of painted cardboard, then sprayed with matte acrylic sealer. I topped that with gloss Mod Podge, then glued on pale yellow railroad ballast/stones and dotted it with bits of green material. The whole thing was sprayed again with sealer. 

I should've attached an outside light to the electric, but, well, I'll have to make do with battery lights for now.

Oh! A few more boxes have arrived. They better get going!

Last minute, I decided I still wanted some wisteria on the front, so added two types of vines and some cloth-covered wire coated with mixed purple flocking. I might add more as I like how it came out.

Something special for the inside: (Not the room, just a prop background.)

Made some chairs for the table in the second floor bedroom. The chairs are made from 3/4" square wood blocks and cardboard with a bit of cotton padding on the back front and seat. I'm using one of the round tables from those MiniBrands Home balls, which fits perfect  under the light on the right side. Just love the colors! Thought it would work great to accent the purple colors and bring out more of the purple in the room, so I also painted the wood chair purple.

I just love how these turned out! Love this fabric, which was a garden print, so I used most of the hydrangea sections. I'll have to make more furniture with the other colors. Here are the chair backs:

And for Halloween: So cute! Found some tiny cauldrons, perfect for a planter or a pot of candy bars at Michael's. (Recollections, 6 in a pack for $5, near the front of the store.)

And lots of books! About 50 more for bookcases and inside. What's a house without books? I liked the greenery/garden books from Artsy Miniatures on Etsy and a set of farmhouse books (I'll have to share the link later once I find it again. Got those awhile ago.)

I'll show the inside of the house soon and some progress next on the Jack's Bookery kit pieces! Got a lot of the inside done, so working on the outside next.

* Thanks again for visiting! Come back soon for more projects! * 

A Surprise! New Lizzie Borden Anthology & Story!

 

NEWS!! A new anthology is coming out featuring Lizzie Borden!

The anthology, edited by author and editor Sèphera Girón is being launched on Kickstarter. (Love that cover!)

* Hurry! Get in on the Kickstarter now for all kinds of goodies! A party at the Lizzie Borden House, seance, books, and more. It includes more than 20 stories by authors including NYT Bestselling Author Heather Graham, Stoker-award winning author Linda D. Addison, and others. 

NEWS! I have a new Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter story in it: "You Can Go Home Again."  Another Lizzie and Pierre adventure with zombies, thrills, chills, and some surprises, taking the Lizzie story in a new direction!

     Edited by Sèphera Girón, multi-published author and former head for nearly 30 years of the Ontario/Canadian Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. She's worked in the film industry, recently delivering a low-budget slasher screenplay to a local film company in Toronto. She's had roles in films including Slime City Massacre, Killer Rack, Pandora, and Pandora’s Return, and has done background work appearing in episodes of What We Do in the Shadows, Schitt’s Creek, The Boys, Interview with a Vampire, and dozens of other shows and movies. 

Bunches of Miniature Jars

What are these????

 Did you guess? This was a fun idea my friend Gigi was working on and that we then worked on together during a recent weekly mini meeting. (*Click photos for full size, better view.)

Jars, lots of jars! I had saved a bunch of those tiny glass jars from the dollar store with nail decorations in them. I'll have to see if they have more now as I filled just over 30 jars! (* I looked and only saw larger jars. Figures! I'd used these small ones before to make a bunch of candles. I'll keep looking in case I spot more.) The two colored jars in the top photo were painted inside with glass stain to look like spaghetti sauce and some kind of odd green sauce for the witch's bakery!

I'm still finishing them, but here's a close-up and one of the jar tops finished, with the cloth top and "string" (thread) wound around it. Just needs a label.

The jars are filled with all kinds of those clay veggie and fruit slices. They're then filled with melted Deluxe Materials brand Scenic Water. Never tried that, but it's pretty cool stuff and easy to use. It's a kind of gel, and the bonus is you can re-use it and save what's left. Just reheat by putting a blob in a dish in a small bowl of hot water, like from a coffeemaker. Better than the usual resin, too. as it doesn't stink! But it's a UK product, and haven't found a US link yet...  Have to ask my friend as she found it online. 

Yes, that one in the back is those mini jiggly eyeballs. ha! Also made pickles (third from right) from Model Magic air-dry clay and painted them. The two smaller jars in front will be for the Lavender Cottage kitchen. Purple - of course!

Printed off some labels I found online and did a few. Hey, even found an eggplant, which was unexpected! Have to find a carrot label yet. But here's a few I finished. Darn cute.

*Lavender Cottage update: Got the "grass" sheet on the board (well more velvet than grass but it works). Tried a new idea for the walk which came out pretty good! Have to glue it in place. Then making some side garden beds and planning Halloween garden beds I can switch out. Of course! Progress pix soon!

*So, more next time! Thanks again for visiting! *