Tuesday

The trunk was mostly done, I finished it yesterday afternoon - well, I have more ideas for it - after going to what is likely to be the last knitting group for a while. I want to line the inside of the trunk with appropriate paper, with an illustration inside the lid, and give it a removable tray. That way, I can exhibit it open and "full" of stuff in my attic vignette. I also need to add some worn travel stickers to it. Although they are not needed as the straps act as hinges, I'd also like to add brass hinges. The trunk is from a kilnworks.weebly.com kit that was taught at my house when we still had a big mini group.

The plant stand is another kit from CMHH. The construction is all butt-glued joints, so to strengthen the plant holders, I added bits of sewing pins to strengthen the thing. The base is still giving me problems, though, and I may have to add a square base to the centre with appropriate little feet at the ends of the pedestal base.

We are housebound like so many around the world, a good opportunity to finish some stuff. My younger daughter is sort of stuck here for the foreseeable future, and sadly for her, her husband's visit here was cancelled. She is waiting for some commissioned costume work pieces to arrive here so she can work on them. The event for which they were commissioned is end April, so hopefully things will be mostly back to normal, and the event will go on. I have a - hoped-for - miniature show the beginning of May, which started all this finishing up of my mini kits.

My Wall of Shame UFO No. 3

This attic room is another Camp MiniHaHa UFO - the sticking point of this project is the lighting behind the false wall that shows a roof view of  Amsterdam on a sunny day. The lighting is the sticking point here, although it now seems that strip LED lighting may be the way to go.

This project is at least 7 years old; it was taught by Jacqui Marlin from Hawaii, who specializes in worn, damaged settings. This old attic was my answer. The wallpaper is peeling and stained, the floor is worn, the wainscoting has seen better days and the plug cover is hanging off the wall. Once it was a servant's bedroom, but over the decades it has become the repository of anything not wanted in the other rooms of the house. The wonderful hutch was a gift exchange from that same camp, and is the focal point of the room. Lately, the room box has become a junk dump for me too; the violin case, fallen plant, stepladder, sewing machine and some of the china are definitely not meant for this room.

This pile of stuff, however, is intended for this room, although at this point I doubt there will be space for all of it. Some of it, like the trunk, globe and screen, was made by me; much of the rest, however, is tidbits and gift exchange items from various camps. One main item that is lacking, and for which I'm always looking at flea markets, is a piece of antique, yellowed and torn lace that can be used to represent a curtain for the window; Dutch houses used to have their windows decently covered with excluding lace curtains.This is not so much the custom nowadays; I think it grew out of a desire for privacy in a very tiny country with well over twenty million inhabitants!

It's an eclectic mix of periods and items, which I'd love to showcase. Some of the people who contributed to these items are no longer with us, unfortunately, but good memories linger on in things they made and which I treasure.

As I'm fighting a flu or cold or something I've not done anything constructive with minis for the past three days, but I hope to have regained some energy soon, and dress another little character for the Tudor market scene. Opinions as to what would work well for lighting in this UFO would be very welcome....