Casa Loo

A few finishing touches remain to be done in the construction of the Casa's bathroom; like the edge of the tiles by the door and the ceiling light fixture, but it is nearly finished.  
I need to note that the Southwest Bungalow kit had a lovely, spacious bathroom that I decided to turn into a child's bedroom, so my Casa's loo is in the kit's designated hallway!  That is why one of the doors to the bathroom is such a lovely arched doorway.  I may put a bead curtain in there, I may not.  I guess it depends on how modest my dolls are?
I also enjoy the shot of the 'huge' paperclay-encrusted tacky glue bottle seen through the doorway, laying on the master bedroom floor.  A thin smear of glue is wanted before a surface is covered with paperclay, and nearly all of this house is covered with paperclay!  

Beekeeper's Quilt Today

 Two hundred and twenty-seven joined puffs!

Hot Air Balloon Puff

Sheepy Puff

 Pansy Puff

...and a Puffin Puff!

Congratulations Linda!

Thank you to all of you who entered our giveaway for Jean Nisbett's The Secrets of the Dolls' House Makers!
My son drew the winning name out of a bowl this morning and it is Linda!  Congratulations!
Oreo was so flattered by all her compliments that she was happy to pose again with the book and winning slip of paper.  She was also happy to show blogland that she was in her rightful position, in the dog's bed!  :)
Linda, I will be emailing you for your address.
Thanks also to all our new followers!  We're up to 99!  How cool is that!?!

90 followers! Sounds like time for a Giveaway!

Why wait for 100?


I'm thrilled with having 90 folks who at one time or another clicked the 'follow button' when they visited our creative little corner of blogopia.

I asked Gromit if he would mind helping me take photos of The Secrets of the Dolls' House Makers, by Jean Nisbett - and he snored a little.  Oreo on the other hand had her whiskers in one photo and her tail in another!  So here they both are, eagerly and enthusiastically promoting my 90 followers Giveaway!  :)


Please just leave a comment with this post and next Friday, March 16th, I'll draw from the names and contact the winner of the book for their mailing address!


Good luck everyone and thanks for following!  :)

Beekeeper Scrap Scarf

The above scarf is the Mini Mania Scarf   (ravelry link)

I started this project Saturday.  It will use bits of fingering yarn left over from the beekeeper quilt - which while not quite at it's desired slightly larger-than-lap size, it's getting close!

As you can see the scarf is just a wee bit wider than an inch so far - and five and half feet long!

I've made so many mistakes, but I think the pattern is fairly forgiving because it still looks pretty to me!

Robin's Nest Rug

Still waiting eagerly for Spring!  :)

Rug listed on Etsy this morning.

I've another in the hoop...bunnies this time!

My Houses Today

 A few more walls have gone up in the Burrow; including the fascinating roof lines in Ron's room at the top of the house.  I've paperclayed the bathroom floor, more of that soon!

Well my fellow Whovians, look at what has appeared on the Casa's bathroom wall?  And you just know I'm leaving it there!  Hopefully, my dolls don't all disappear and have never in fact existed...

I don't have the colour of the adobe quite right yet...but here is the fountain in the Casa's courtyard.

The Casa's entryway.  I'm pretty happy with the tiles...the stairs are a work in progress.

The fireplace area in the living room.  The tangle of wires and lights are the 'Ultimate Flickering Fireplace' designed not to flicker the whole house while sharing a power supply.  There will be many changes happening here.

And lastly, a view of the kitchen showing the new light fixtures.  They actually light up!  Woot!
I need to find an inexpensive source for small toggle switches...each light is controlled by it's own switch in the Casa and I need to construct as master board of switches.  At five dollars a switch locally, I need to keep looking!  :)

A Change in Plans

Since I've decided to finish my two existing doll house builds - and will enjoy making things to do inside them for the foreseeable future - I've reached the conclusion that I will not be continuing my kit-bashing of a Greenleaf Pierce into a French Chateau.  I was going to make it bee-inspired.  I am relatively content with this decision, especially since I shifted the bee-related theme to my Casa, finally giving it a proper and lasting name, Casa Abeja.  The plaster castings of honeybees and so on will now be used in the Casa and I'm really happy about that.  A 12th scale bee hive in the front courtyard will be tremendous fun to make too.

This does leave me with a VERY bashed Pierce kit leaning against my craftroom wall.  I've cut pieces, broken them, added several inches to others...to transform it into the stone-covered Chateau living in my imagination; complete with towers made of concrete-pouring cardboard tubes (most of which are long ruined and would need to be replaced).  David cut new floors for it - which I never really did figure out how to attach.  We made it a story higher.  But much is left to do to bring it even to that vision of incompleteness.  I have a Rik Pierce-worth castle in mind...but it isn't going to happen.

If anyone who lives nearby would like these pieces of wood...I don't dare call it a kit, because believe me, it no longer is...and would maybe like to pick up the design and head of in the direction of their own imaginations...I'd be happy to give you the pieces, such as they are.