We Are Housebound Now

A State of Emergency has been declared in our province, and no planes are flying from April 1 to April 30 - unless things change. Our daughter is preparing for the long haul, staying with Mom and Dad until things settle down. Her husband will celebrate his birthday alone, poor guy!

In the meantime, I am still working on minis; the piece above is a box I put together from mahogany, with a wax finish, and for size comparison I have included a glue cap....Yes, it is tiny, the lid is a friction fit, and I had to sand about 1/8" from the ends of the sides, as they were just a bit too big! It is a lovely little kit, and may end up in the Steam Punk Loft - unfinished as yet, of course. When you remove the lid, it makes a very satisfying little pop sound!

Also on the go are two pieces of "wicker", a miniature doll's bed and a cat bed. The first of these was purchased from an estate sale, and was missing 10 wires and both rockers. I found I had some similar gauge wire in my stash, and painted it white. Then I decided that the cat bed, which had quite heavy gauge wires, would be easier to do - read, less of a problem to drill properly - with smaller wires. So one has been started, and one is waiting. I'll make new rockers to fit the doll's bed, which came with a tiny rubber baby doll in a swaddling blanket. It will go into the toy shop.

While tidying up, I found some more minis, purchases and gifts from CMHH, and some of them are now on display in my wall hanger in the family room, where I can enjoy them daily and borrow from them if the right project comes along:



I picked this up second-hand somewhere, and since the cuckoo clock moved to Alberta, it has hung in its place. It's a great way to showcase some minis that I really love, but that have, as yet, no permanent home. The German saying on it roughly translates as, "Small Things Have Their Purpose Also - Anno 1879". It was probably part of one of those buy a mini a month things that were everywhere several decades ago.

I have begun a new little project, but need a cup of tea first. Stay well, please, everyone.

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.

Today's Finished Objects (Yes!)

A mahogany bench kit, now glued up, and just awaiting its varnish coat, is another CMHH kit, made by Debbie P. from her mahogany kitchen cupboards. When they renovated their very old Nova Scotia house kitchen, she cut the original mahogany cupboards down to miniature lumber. The previously shown laundry tub and other vintage laundry paraphernalia is mahogany from that renovation as well, as is a small bookcase I still have to put together - I remembered overnight that I had a similar book case in one of my vignettes, so I dug that out to try and use it for measurements.

On the bench is a laser-cut cat treat kit, complete with a baggie of cat-shaped snacks (which I have to paint cat-treat brown), also put together. The box I will use a varnish on, as I like the laser work on it. It was made by Grandpa's Dollhouse in Ontario, and was a CMHH gift; I have another one of these to make up too.

The bench, with the addition of a cushion, can work in my Tudor Apothecary shop, a place for the rich, favoured customers to sit while awaiting their medicaments. The cat treat boxes will go into the second steam punk project (another UFO), and my older daughter's dollhouse, which was left, according to her, by an old lady to her cats. That house has been exhibited at children's libraries, with a challenge to count all the cats in it....

I have still, on purpose, not photographed all the embroidery kits I have to finish up. Hope my old eyes hold out for that!

A Surprise and a Book Shelf

The surprise was my younger daughter, who lives on the other side of the continent, suddenly appearing in my front hall! Her husband was supposed to come here for a course having to do with his job, but a few minutes ago, because of Covid virus, the instructor was cancelled, which means he likely won't be able to fly out this weekend as planned. However, she came out early and is planning to be here for 3 weeks; we'll have to see what happens with the flying bans in Canada due to that flu.

I did put the bookshelf together; it just needs the narrow little bars across the back of the shelves that prevent the contents from falling off. Things will be a little slower now that I have my kid here, time to have some fun with her, virus permitting! Another book shelf awaits the instructions being found - I think they are in an old magazine, but I need them as the shelves are slanted.

Finished Some More Stuff

The octagonal table is done, ready to stain and/or paint. The kitchen box (to become a candy shop) is glued back up in box form. The Hallowe'en decoration is done. And a half dozen tiny drinks coasters (click on photo to enlarge!) made from an Art of Minis kit from Europe, is also done.

I am leaving my clamps on the box overnight, to make sure everything sticks. Also, if it doesn't, I don't want to know until tomorrow, as I need a decent night's sleep.

Now I am going to sand the pieces of the book-shelf, and hopefully that will come together tomorrow. We woke up to serious ice everywhere this morning, it was so bad that the garbage truck slid down our hill, and they decided to pack it in and wait until the sanding crews had a chance to grit the roads. It was the very loud sound of a garbage truck - you know, the kind that compacts your garbage as it picks it up - sliding down the road that woke me up this morning....

Another Week, Some More Work

While still trying to do catch-up on all my UFO's, Real Life took some time this past week; this means that I don't have a lot finished yet, but I did start finishing things.



This is a very tiny sewing basket from a kit; there are three more rings of wood to go on top of these, then I have to tie on the cover. The kit is lovely, but I can't remember where the heck I got it! There are very basic instructions with it, but no maker. I think perhaps I picked it up in England several years ago.



The table legs are assembled, now I have to place them. I hope to use this piece in the Tudor Apothecary Shop, so I should really make a slatted shelf below this, big enough to put some carboys -
large bottles in straw baskets. They could hold all sorts of mysterious potions....



Done! Another old kit, an antique wash tub with soap shelf, laundry forks, and stocking stretchers. For now, these will go into my scullery/laundry room, if I can find space for them. This kit came from Camp MiniHaHa some years ago. I am still attempting to figure out how to make the washboard without the suggested  window framing; I think a wood sandwich should work. There is also a wash dolly, which requires drilling half a dozen holes at an angle, plus a central hole for the handle, in a very, very tiny wooden disc. I am working up to it. The instructions are in an old Nutshell News magazine.



And finally, the bottom of the wall shelf is ready to go, and the new cupboard unit that replaces the bottle holder and narrower unit is ready for gluing. I hope to have this Camp MiniHaHa project 2019 assembled and partially furnished for the beginning of May, the Moncton Miniature and Doll Show. It doesn't have to be finished, but it should give a good idea of the finished project.

I think the counter top will have to be faux marble; the back will likely get Delft tiles; and the floor should get a strip of encaustic tile. On the gluing jig right now, besides the little sewing basket, is an octagonal side table. I am gluing and then sanding the rim pieces, one at a time. A bookshelf awaits my attention....

I Really Have Been Working

Yes, I am still working away on my self-imposed project of finishing all those unfinished kits, some of which are so old that I can't always find the instructions. And along with finishing things, I am also repairing things that were broken. This takes time - the wonderful table below fell off my desk, with the result that all four legs broke off just below the apron of the table, at heir narrowest point, at least five or six years ago. I was able to glue them back, using the broken shapes to decide where they went, as well as the paintless spots that held the side braces and the shelf. That took from Wednesday to Saturday, one leg at a time, then the side supports, and then the shelf.



I think it was the paint job that I love about this - I am quite sure it was a Camp exchange gift from years ago, that had not yet found a home. It is crying out for a food prep scene.  Before it was repaired, it looked rather like the tea trolley below:



It fell in the same accident; we were moving a desk, and I forgot the hutch on it wasn't fastened down, so of course my favourite pieces fell to pieces. This is the coming week's repair project, which has to be done one leg at a time. There are tiny brass casters on each leg! This was also  Camp exchange gift, loaded with a teapot and some cakes.

Today's rehab project is a Tudor table, a carpenter's "second" I was given; four of the decorative spindles had dowel stubs on them, but two did not. I was too chicken to tackle it until this weekend, but I think I've found the solution; drill holes in the spindles, fill in the holes in the cubes and drill a hole, and use wire or fine dowel to hold the pieces together. The photo insists on coming up sideways, although it was just taken, which means you will have to wait until I sort this out to see a photo. The finished table will go into the Tudor Apothecary project.



This is a very early project! I have glued the legs on, as I now have a really good wood glue. This is a Recamier-type sofa, intended for one of my earliest projects, an artist's studio. His models are intended to pose on this. For the upholstery I need to find an old silk tie with a tiny pattern, that suggest the thing is at least a century old. The back will be glued on once it is upholstered. This photo came up right side up, I can't figure this out! (Oh yeah, the photos that worked were taken a day or two ago, while the two that refuse to come up were taken today; the batteries in my camera  died yesterday, and apparently something has gone awry with the installation of the new battery.)

The photo I just tried to load is of a book-shelf, in a plastic bag; it also comes out the wrong way up so no photo. It has been sanded, and is just waiting for me to slightly sand the rebates for the shelves and the back supports to fit. Tomorrow or Wednesday I hope to get to that. My box of unfinished kits is starting to look somewhat empty....

Yesss!