Paint and wallpapers

I have painted and painted.. like a thousand times ;) I hate ground work and wants everything to go quickly, but I painted all the kitchen parts with one white layer, and it looks better and I don't have to paint several layers of the actual colour, grey-green =)

 

I also started painting the bathroom parts. Here is the mirror. Like I said I thought it took to much time to sand off the decor, but I think painting it will do. The mirror looks good anyway, I hope the rest will look as good with paint too =)

And I got a tip that I could use wallpaper glue and paint the walls white and put the napkins right at the wall. Tried to glue it to a paper, but it was too hard, I couldn't get rid of the wrinkles in the middle. I used a regular gluestick, that's what I had at home.. but placing it right on the wall like this turned out quite well.

But when I did the same thing to a thin wallpaper it went all bubbly and ugly! =(

I just gave up yesterday and tried fixing the kitchen floor instead. I thought I choose an easy way, I thought of doing tiles at first, but I did that in my last house (Santa's house) so I wanted to try something else and I got this beautiful floor from Anna. (I think it used to be a table cloth) =) It was a bit short on one side and long at the other, so I had to cut it and I thought it was going to fit even do I turned it 90 degrees, but it didn't =( But I didn't have any more so I glued it on like this, you can see the seam at the right, but since I'm going to place my furniture there I hope it wont show =)

Today I continued to do the wallpapers off the napkins and then I made a new attempt on putting up the wallpaper in the kitchen. I took a new wallpaper, a yellow scrap booking paper and "painted" the glue on to the paper and let it rest a bit and then I put it up to the wall, and it was so much better then yesterday =)

I will cut out the windows when the wallpaper has dried =) And later I will have to make some window frames. 

I forgot to show you my strawberry cane before, so here it is. It's far from perfect, but it's so much better than I've ever done before =)

And I'm still working on my carpet =) But I'm the master of unravelling it seems and had to unravel all my work of today =( I most be more careful how I count, I don't want to unravel any more now!!

Take care!

Hannah

Work from the weekend

Saying I was taking a break with my 1:144 scale house was just the perfect way to get started with it again ;) I painted the roof...

... and made and painted a fence.

No, it's not finished, I need to ad a "top" at the fence too. I might use Darias idea with thread. =) But I was eager to continue the big house, so this will have to wait some more =)

When I just decided something about the 1:12 house, I change my mind, again... I thought I could make a nice parquet floor by the popsicles. Just cut them and place them in squares...
But when I saw the result I was a bit disappointed.. This doesn't look like a beautiful livingroom floor, it looks like a terrace floor.. Not that it's anything wrong with that, but it was not the look I wanted...
Don't know if it would get better with a little paint, or if I should just come up with another idea..

Have to think about that floor a bit more.. So I moved on and when my husband was at home I finally got the courage and opportunity to try my new multi-tool =) (used it on the balcony to avoid lots of cleaning after ;) )
I thought sanding with the tool would spare my hands and go faster then by hand. And faster it is, but afterwards I got spasm in my hand ;) It vibrates a bit and I held it really tight so I wouldn't slip or drop it ;)
But I manage to sand all kitchen parts, I didn't do it perfectly, I just wanted to get rid of that shiny finish so that I can repaint them in a lighter colour.

My poor doll couldn't stand the mess, so she arranged the pieces again, even do everything in here is totally unfinished.. ;)

I'm actually thinking of removing that window.. I like the light, but it feels a bit in the way.. I would like to have top cupboards (is that the right word?) too... and maybe some tiles between them. we will see...

I have this bathroom with decor, I don't like the decor, so I thought I could sand it off with my multi-tool =) This is made in some kind of ceramics?! quite heavy and hard.

After a quite long while I manage to get rid of the most of the decor on the toilet. But it was very time consuming and hard to get it nicely done, so I will just paint the other pieces and hide the decor that way =) maybe it will look nice with the decor in the same colour as the rest (white that will be)

I think some new paint will cover the "scars" =)

But I'm glad I can open the toilet-lid now, that was almost impossible before..

The whole house is a mess, I'm glad I haven't installed the stairs so that my doll can go up stairs and see all this mess ;)

And speaking of paint... I wanted to paint this bookshelf in some nice bright colour, but I didn't have that much to choose from, so I got an idea to use nail polish =) I loved to paint my nails when I was younger, so I had lots of different nail polish, but I never use them any more, and they dries up, just like my paint... so I thought this could be a way to use one of them, but it was already a bit dry, and I don't know if I will have enough... =/ I will have to try to paint the rest another day, I let this dry on the balcony, it smells quite a lot...

And finally I found the perfect wallpaper in a drawer. Its a napkin, and it might be really hard  to put it up on a wall, but if I glue it to a regular paper it might be easier?! I will have to try!

 

I would say I got quite a lot done this weekend even do we were off to my mum yesterday to celebrate mothers day =) My second mothers day as a mother to the worlds best child =)

Take care
Hannah

Some setbacks and some progress

First, I've started the new carpet as you could see in my last post. But I realized I missed a row, just like Otterine wrote about. I thought of just keep going and cope without that row, but it annoyed me =) So I unravelled some stitches and started over again. And I wonder how many times I got to unravel even more stitches, I keep miscounting. But I'm on the move now and hopefully it will get easier the more I make. This is how far I've got =) For awhile it felt like I didn't get anywhere, but now when I look at it I see how much I've done, and not how much I have left =)

So far I've used:
Pastella mouline 043 Egeskov (dark red)
DMC mouline 311 (dark blue)
DMC mouline 806 (lighter blue)
On a canvas with 11 threads on 1cm (I can't find any reason why some countries use inches when centimetres are sooo much better, just wanted to say that ;) )

I'm having a little break in my 1:144 scale house and set focus on my 1:12 house. But I'm having a really hard time deciding which room should go where.. I'm almost certain about the nursery, since I've already done the walls there. But I cant decide about the floor.. Should I have popsicles? or thicker sticks?
There is an annoying spline beside the walls at the top flooring. If I choose the thicker floor the spline wont show as much, but it's harder to cut this sticks and I get a "higher" floor than with the popsicles, but, they are low so that I see the spline and it might get harder to furnish the room with that level difference..

Here you can see the spline at the sides.

 

 Popsicles, it's hard to see, but there is a level difference for about 5mm

Thicker and longer sticks, there are a level difference here too, but not that much as the above.

Beside the nursery I thought of having a boy's room (the poor boy fell inside his package while he was inspecting the floors..) But then I wondered if I should make the parents bedroom beside the baby's... Who leaves a baby on another floor? but the great thing about dollhouses is that I can do what ever I want, it doesn't have to be realistic... but I like realistic... =)
The wallpaper suits the boy, and I have a nice tablecloth that would make a cool floor (and I dont have enough cloth to cover the bigger bedroom down stairs) And I like to give the parents a bigger bedroom, but I like to have the nursery next to the parents bedroom... I've been thinking of this for several days but I can't decide... I have to think a bit more...

And like I had nothing better to do I tried furnish my very unfinished kitchen ;) I think I have selected the room for it, but I got a bit uncertain, should I take a bigger room for it, or not. But I think this smaller room will be it! Now I "just" have to choose floors (which will take forever if I know myself right..) and wallpaper and put it all up =)

I have this kitchen-furniture that I actually don't like, but this is what I found and could afford, so I'm thinking of giving them a make over. I will have to sand them to get rid of that shiny wood colour, I want them white or light green/yellow. I'm thinking of using my new tool, but I cant do that while my daughter is asleep because of the sound, but I cant do that when she is with me either because it is to dangerous if she gets in the middle (like she always do, she reaches every thing and she just takes all my stuff ;) ) So I don't know when I'll be able to do that. But I thought I could start painting the inside of this strange stove ;)

I have never seen a real life stove with a drawer like that! and the oven can't be made of wood like that! so I wanted to paint it black inside and white on the outside and remove the knob to the fake drawer. But, like I said, setbacks! My black paint has dried! Paint should not be allowed to dry like that!! So I found another black paint bottle, and guess what, its totally dry too! Before I throw it away I thought I'll give it one last shot, so I pour some nail polish remover into it. And it worked =) It's not like it's new, it's a bit lumpy, but I manage to paint the inside of the oven, but it looks... not so good ;) As always I was a bit eager to take the photo, so the paint hasn't dried yet.

And at last I want to thank and welcome my new followers:

Ludmila

Lara

Natalia's Fine Needlework

Take care
Hannah

"Paperwork"

Anne is a very kind mini-friend of mine, and she helped me by printing some things for me since my printer gone crazy... Among other things she printed a new carpet-pattern for me, so now I can sew at other places than beside my computer =) 

I can see the missing row Brae talks about now I have the chart in my hand, I don't know if I will fix it or not, if I add the extra rows, I will have to keep it in mind every time I look at the chart in the middle, and if I forget I will get the whole thing wrong.. we will see, I've already started and didn't know where the missing row were, so I'll have to change some things if I add that row...

I also got this cute puzzle (found it on this lovely blog): http://wilminidesign.blogspot.nl/2012/12/blokkenpuzzel.html I had puzzles like that when I was a kid, so I was so glad to get one in miniature! It takes more time than I expected to put this puzzle together, so I only did 3 pieces today when my kid was asleep =) The poor thing is missing out of all the fun while she is sleeping ;) But like I've said before, she is just to young for minis right now. 

I painted a layer of nail polish over the pictures to fixate the ink. I don't have any spray, I guess that would be perfect for this, but the nail polish worked, I didn't smudge the pictures =)

 I never use the tweezers but I tried today, and I think it will be useful to my 1:144 scale work =)

This is how far I got today, I will carry on tomorrow =)

Yesterday at my daughters nap I made a bed for my mini-house. I lost the fun of that project, I got bored like always, but I might get the spirit back in a while or a year or so ;) I liked making the house, not so much the furniture.. and I just realized my wallpaper wont show at lots of places when the furniture is in place, what a waste of time and work... but if I don't glue the furniture to the walls I might shift them around and get a look at all the wallpapers so it wasn't a total waste.. ;)

 I'm thinking of adding some details to the bed, and a quilt of course. =)

Hannah

Finished the carpet

Yes, I'm done! I almost can't believe it myself =) I'm no good at finishing projects, but this time I really wanted to get done, and I forbid myself to start a new carpet before I was done with this one =) (I wanted to start a new one I saw at Otterines blog, but I didn't fell for temptations this time =) )

I was done with the stitching some time ago, and realized I didn't know how to finish, should I fold the ends, or what do one do after the stitching is done?!
I felt a bit stupid but I had one idea how to finish, and it looked like this: http://www.janetgranger.co.uk/tut_hemming.htm So it was nice to see I wasn't totally clueless =) Now I'm completely done, with the hem and all. I most say I'm proud of myself to have had the patient to make this.
It took me 6 month + one week or so. First I spent an hour or two stitching everyday, then I just spent a couple of minutes a day (like 5-15 minutes). But all these months I have made at least a couple stitches a day. This carpet brings me lots of memories, I started after my daughters just turned one year old and when we went to visit my mother-in-law, and then I stitched every day while putting my daughter to sleep at the afternoon. I will always think of my baby-girl when I see this carpet =) She is so big now, but still my little baby ;) Sometimes I sell stuff I've made, but I've worked so hard on this and like I said it's full of memories, so I don't think I will ever sell it, (maybe if I get like one million kronor or so.. ;) ) I hope my daughter wants it after me, and her children and there children.. ;) Well enough with the emotional!
I hope to start the new carpet soon! I just have to figure out how to get it in the right size. This carpet has 83 stitches on the short side, but the new one had like 146 or something.. I don't want the new carpet to be twice as big.. How do I solve this?
Do I have to look for another fabric, is there fabrics that has smaller squares than this?! I just want to get started! And maybe I will have to learn half stitches or something and not do the cross-stitch as in this first carpet, it takes so mush time, but maybe half-stitches or what ever they are called takes as much time?!

I got a small package in the mail today =) (I just love mail) It was this cute guinea pig from
Anna, I couldn't resist buying it =) It looks a bit like my guinea pig Emelie. I will try to make a friend for her, because I had two of them when I was younger. Emelie a short-haired, and Lina a more long-haired guinea pig. (I didn't unwrap the hay, she will have to wait for a cage until she gets her hay again...)

And by the way I think I finally got the hang of strawberry canes! hurray!! I tried a couple of times before and it looked really bad.. but today I think I got it, I will have to wait to see after I've baked it, but it looks good now =)

Take care
Hannah

Small houses, and a big one

I did made a lot of these small houses back in 2004 and earlier too I think. I sold some, gave away some and kept quite a lot ;)

This is a house that's in the middle of a great renovation ;) I thought of making a little doll that was working on the wallpaper, but I never got started on that..

And another one =) I made some furniture of a clay based on salt and painted them. I'm not that found of them.. tried to make them look like Lundby furniture, but I didn't do so well... (and not that many either)

And a third house =) Don't know how I thought I could do the wallpaper or painting after I assemble the house... Well, we will see if this ever get finished ;)

And, after all these small houses I brought home my "big" house, in 1:12 scale =) I bought this 2004-2005 I think. But I had such a hard time decide what to do with it, so I just stopped and left it undone. But now I felt like trying to make something out of it.

I'm thinking of  giving the façade a makeover, but I don't know how, yet... wood? or bricks? or plastering?

I started renovated the upper floor to be a nursery and a children's room. 

I think I will save the pink wallpaper in the nursery  =) and I might do a children's room at the right. I Don't known if I will save the blue wallpaper or not. I LOVE baby dolls, I might just fill the whole house with babies ;) And I love animals too.. The house most have at least 2 dogs and some cats and maybe the guinea pig I bought from Anna and maybe some birds =) 

 

At the middle floor I'm thinking of a bedroom and a bathroom.

Downstairs I think I will have a living room/ dining room. I started painting the floor, but didn't like it, so I stopped ;) I think I will make a wooden floor from the sticks from popsicles or other wooden sticks I have bought on Biltema (a great swedish store) =) and to the right I want a kitchen, maybe with tiles and a light green wallpaper (I love lime green)

This will be so much fun doing this house, but a lot of work too, and I don't have any deadline, so we never know if I ever get finished ;) It took me 8-9 years to get an idea how I want it, and it might take as many years to complete it, and if it takes too long I might change my mind about things and having to do it all over again... ;)

Hannah

Dalamöbler

I thought I had shown this before, but apparently I forgot...
Sara got some furnitures for the dollhouse and I pointed out that I really like this cabinet, and just because she is so nice, she sent it to me!! And the clock too. I've thought of collecting these furniture with the "Dalahorse" (From Lundby) for several years now, but I never get started, but now I'm on the go ;) I know there are a blue table and some chairs too, and a chest. I will keep my eyes open for them, I think they will fit right in my "Tomtehus" (Santa's house) Since I have family in Dalarna ( a place where they make this red decorated wooden horses) I especially like this =)
In this catalog you can see parts of this serie. http://peppesdollhousepage.com/PDF/lundby%201972.pdf The serie is cold Leksand, a city where I have family =) But that cabinet doesn't have a door, but in 74's catalogue the name is Scandia and this one looks like my cabinet: http://peppesdollhousepage.com/PDF/lundby%201974a.pdf

On the package there were this cute knife on a plate, the fork unfortunately fell of during the trip. Sara bought them at the Swedish store, Gallerix, but I couldn't find any more of them while I visited. Too bad, they are so cute =)

Thank you so much Sara! You are really too kind!

And when I'm talking about my "tomtehus" I found this fireplace I made several years ago. Like everything els I mad at that time, its not finished. I still don't know really what to do with it, but I might decorate it a bit and off course paint the whole thing. I've made it from a plastic kind of styrofoam, used to protect something in a package =) I thought it looked just like a fireplace so I made one, without knowing where to put it =) And I got one more piece so I could make another one if "I have to" ;)