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Deb's Blog

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About this blog

Mini things

Entries in this blog

Curtains, curtains, and more curtains!

Making mini curtains is such fussy work.  It's time consuming and requires a lot of attention to detail, but in the end the results are SO worth the time and effort.  I've spent a couple weeks working on curtains for the Tennyson and I think I tossed more in the trash than I ended up using, but I'm finally content with these. I'd intended on using some color for the windows but the house had completely different plans and thwarted ever attempt at using colors or prints.  It insisted on white sil

Deb

Deb

Fabric auditions (or "Playing with Textiles"

I've been happily painting interior woodwork for the past few days.  I ended up making some changes to the colors and had to repaint two rooms before I was happy with it but now with five different shades of green (one for each room), it's looking the way I want it to.  So, back into dry fit it went to get a total look of the rooms together and I still like it!  Yippeee!!   This means I'm on to the next step.....window curtains.  It may seem a bit odd to be thinking about window coverings before

Deb

Deb

Pretty colored wood

The past two days have been spent happily turning sheets of wood into pretty colored walls.  I love wallpapering!  The feel of the paper under my fingers.....the whisk, whisk sound of the scissors....the transformation from primed wood into miniature walls with teeny flowers and leaves.....it's a creative process that gives me a great deal of joy.     Since my building style is to decorate before assembling the house it looks rather random at the moment but it's a big step forward to have all th

Deb

Deb

Auditions!

I've been working on priming both the interior and exterior of the Tennyson and putting it into its last dry fit. I think of this phase as "auditions" because it's when I make the final decision about so many things. There are always a few little changes to be made and I'd rather do it now than discover I don't like something later.   I used the exterior paint to prime the outer walls and make sure that the colors are in proportion with the scale once they're on the whole house. Color does

Deb

Deb

Windows and doors

When I look at this pic it doesn't seem like I've done that much, but these are the fussy bits of architecture that take time to paint. Painting over that dark green meant about five coats of ivory over all the porch pieces and of course, my OCD went into overdrive when I painted the green on the porch trim so that took some time to get perfectly straight. But all things considered, I think I'm making good progress.     I'm very twitterpated with this screen door. I've used them on Greenle

Deb

Deb

The Joys of Paint

One of the things I really love to do is paint. It's a Zen thing and always puts me in the Zone. I've been painting porch railings for a few days.....mainly because I had started out with a dark green choice four years ago and it has to be repainted ivory now. It's taking about four coats to cover the dark green, but I love the way it looks. I did some tweaking of the light green paint I bought for the body of the house. It ended up being entirely too minty so I added some grey and brown un

Deb

Deb

The Awakening.....

It's been a long time since I dusted off the blog but as I begin a new journey with a Tennyson, it seemed like a good time to sweep out the cobwebs and record my progress as I go.   The inspiration for this house is the book, "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. There are two houses that are featured in the book: one is a sea side resort set on Grand Isle, Louisiana where the main character spends her summers. The second is a house in New Orleans that Edna rents when she discovers she needs a p

Deb

Deb

Another experimental Primrose theme house

It's been awhile since I've blogged anything but I'd been occupied with other things and hadn't gotten back to my experimental primroses yet. Actually, I think the motivation on this one was because I really wanted to do another thatched roof with fake fur. The half-timbering is done mainly with strips of basswood, altho the smaller decorative pieces at the bottom are chopped up pieces from the flat spindles that come with the Houseworks Simple Staircase railings. With some stucco inside and

Deb

Deb

Other asian minis

I didn't get pictures of the creation process of some items, but a close up picture is enough to see how they were made. The geta (japanese sandals) were made from ovals cut from a shingle. I cut the tips off of toothpicks to make the platforms on the soles and glued red embroidery thread to the top in an inverted V to make the straps. The bamboo door was a lot of fun to make. I cut bamboo skewers to the length to fit th door and then scored horizontal lines across them at intervals t

Deb

Deb

Pillow tutorial

Cut two fabric squares to the size you wish and place them face to face. Sew the edges together (I made these at works so they're hand sewn, but you can machine stitch just as easily) leaving a small opening on one side. Trim the corners so they are curved with the stitching so you get smooth corners on the exterior. Turn the pillow inside out and use a bamboo skewer or pencil to push the corners into shape. Stuff the pillow with cotton balls and use the skewer to push the cotton

Deb

Deb

Kimono chest tutorial

The kimono chest was a piece of furniture designed to be functional as well as an ornament in the home. When not being worn or displayed, the kimono was folded into rice paper and placed in the chest. To make the chests, I used wooden blocks, siding strips for the drawers, beads for the handles and silk embroidery floss for the tassles. The blocks are painted red and the siding strips are cut to size and painted black. I used gold paint to add edging to the blocks and the draw

Deb

Deb

Japanese kimono tutorial

The fabric used for the kimono is a black fairy frost. The pattern is a simple T shape. Cut two from the fabric. Cut a v neck at the top of one and split it down the middle. This will be the front of the kimono. I used tacky glue because it doesn't mark the fabric as much as other glues. With the fabric backs together, use a toothpick to place a thin line of glue around the shoulders, under arm and side and glue each of the fronts to the backs. I used a bright red 4mm silk

Deb

Deb

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