Trimming The Tree

The Same Old Tree.....

Well, It is a Start, Dear Readers! I have succeeded in dragging the Same Old Christmas Tree out of storage.... with very little loss of ornamentation, and put it up in the Same corner of the Lovely Old Dollhouse Living room! And to my eternal Joy.... the Lights work!!!

I am not the only one who thinks it is a Magical thing of incredible Beauty.... Pollyanna has always had a weakness for Christmas decorations too... and she is only too eager to share the decorated tree with all the Family...

Arthur and Victor agree that it is a particularly Lovely tree....

But they both love Pollyanna Dearly, 

so I am Sure they would agree that whatever tree she put up was Beautiful!

Joanna is more interested in greeting her parents, Helen and Charles...

They have lost track of how many times they have come to admire this tree...

But they are always happy to come join in the Merriment...

And Helen thinks that Every Year the First glimpse is the most Magical...

As they are arriving with the anticipation of Joy to come....!

 

 

Sally May and Annabelle and Chip are the last to arrive....

But that is because Sally May got carried away with her Baking....

She had the whole kitchen of the Shabby Sister House 

filled with baking Gingerbread and sugar cookies....

She suddenly realized what Time it was....

"Annabelle," she said, "We need to hurry and put the cookies away!" 

"It is Time to go see the Christmas Tree...!"

But then Annabelle says "We didn't have our Tea yet..!"

(It is in the teapot under the Tea cozy stitched by Rosanna....!)

"We will have it later..." says Sally May.... 

"it will stay warm under the cozy!"

 

 

And off they went to the Lovely Old Dollhouse....

 

 

And they weren't even late after all....

The evening was just getting started!

Well, I don't know about you, Dear Readers, but every year I Imagine I am going to get ready for Christmas earlier... and make more amazing decorations.... and Finish drawing my Christmas Card early.... but Alas! I don't know where the Time goes! I have spent the weekend trying to put the trees up in my RL house... they are up with the lights on... but not yet decorated! And yes... they go up in the same spot every year... with practically the same decorations.......

Hmmmm...... I wonder... No!... not enough Time to make major changes!!!

And I still have to draw this year's Christmas Card.... so making minis will have to wait...!

But for now Dear Readers,

As we are getting ready for Christmas 

and Trimming the Trees...

I, like Pollyanna, am once again in Love 

with this Same old Christmas Tree!

There!

Oh What a Relief...!

I must Confess, Dear Readers, that this Tree House Bathroom has been very complicated to build... and the farther along it got.... the more challenging the pieces became to assemble! I cannot tell you how many times I have tested the ceiling assembly in place and then pulled it off to make an adjustment! But Finally, I can show you the room with all the pieces Glued in place!!! When I last showed you this room, much of the Domed Ceiling had been completed, but the pearl pillars still needed to be adjusted to fit the height of the room.... and then they needed to be glued to the dome rim.... one pillar at a time! Here you can see them with a make-shift support to keep them upright while the glue dries.

And once they are all glued to the rim, 

I needed to see how well the assembled "pavilion" fit in the bathroom...

I am sure there are some of you who will think I should have stopped right here... 

before I got carried away with the gauzy curtains....

(But I think you would wish there were some sort of curtains 

if you were climbing naked into the bath....;)

So I began to fit the curtains.... 

testing the position of each one before gluing....

The entire ceiling and "Pavilion Dome" are still removable at this point....

allowing me to attach the curtains at the right length....

And each curtain requires testing to see whether it hangs right 

and doesn't obscure too much of the Beautiful Walls.....

And I realized it was also Time 

to glue the beautiful Swan Bath Tub in place....!

And one more curtain.....

Before taking my Courage in my hands and 

Gluing the Ceiling and Dome in place!

Here you can see it before the outer door frame is added....

with the morning sunlight shining brightly....

And while we are speaking of such things as Outer Door Frames....

I also have glued the frames for the Tiny Toilet room and the Dressing Room....

Remember those rooms.....? 

Still only partly finished...

But I did re-attach the toilet paper in the Tiny Toilet Room!

And while we are looking at the outside of the Tree House....

I organized all the wiring for the bedroom and Bathroom and Dressing Room 

into one circuit which runs on one small battery pack 

(they say up to ten LED's per battery pack)

and extended the lead wires so the battery pack no longer dangles from the upper rooms 

but sits securely on the ground!

And I even completed the Spiral Stairs....

Which you can see here with the little door open....

I think I am going to have to add a light into this stairwell...!

And I still need to make the window for the Door....

And when that is all done we can Attach the next level.....!

But for now, Perhaps we can just Bask in the Beautiful Bath Room....

With the outer door frame in place.....

And the Dome Light Lit.....

The LED is covered with another thin shell....

Allowing a gentle light to shine on the Bath....

And aside from a few necessary accessories....

I think I can say the Construction part of this room is Done!!!

It really is such a Relief, Dear Readers, 

to be able to say There! It's Done!

Not Quite There....

Layer Upon Layer......

I am sure Dear Readers, that Some of you have been  wondering if I would Ever get back to working on the Tree House Bath Room! Well, rest assured that I have been slowly working on it.... but mostly I have been wrestling with some complex engineering challenges with the construction of the ceiling! You may remember that I showed a picture of the circular shell Dome I wanted to have for the central portion of the ceiling...

Here, I will show you again..... 

It is a shell just like the floor, only showing the curved white underside.....

and I attached a rim of the white tiles to the underside.... 

and inserted a small LED light through the hole at one side...

(but we will see more of that later...). 

The challenging part comes in because I wanted to have slender pearl pillars supporting the dome.... or at least Appearing to support it.... which means they have to be exactly the right length to reach between the floor and the ceiling..... Here below you can see the beginnings of the pillars taped in place.... (upside-down)

And then, of course, I have to test them in place to see how they will work......

This is the general idea.... each pillar is a slightly different length... 

because the ceiling is not level and the floor is not level.... 

so I have to keep track of which pillar goes where....

But then I became aware that the dome height was too high for the wooden ceiling above it to attach properly to the side walls... and the ceiling insert was slightly off in it's shape and really needed to be done over.... but I had already securely glued the dome to it..... 

But the biggest question was How to attach the pillars to the floor and the dome....?

I decided the pillars needed better feet with a better gluing surface....

 Here above you can see the new feet added..... 

which only threw off the careful length calculations.....

 Then I decided to glue a "socket" to the rim of the 

dome for the top end of the pillars to plug into....

and added the pearl trim to the dome rim too....

And of course, I have to get a bit carried away with the pearls.....

Here I am just testing the look if I also add swags of pearls between the pillars.....

And then, because we Are getting Carried Away....

I have a Vision .....

And I need to see if it will work.....

I want Gauzy curtains bedecked with pearls to surround the Bath....

And I find a Tiny scrap of netting I have saved since I was nine years old.....

And cut it into tiny curtains and glue tiny iridescent beads to it..... 

one by one...

And then we have to see if it works in place......

And can we see it with the Bath in place....???

Oh, Goodness! 

I guess we will have to wait while Mr. Rat finishes his bath....!

And while he is bathing... 

we will have a look at the rest of the Ceiling problems.....

Because the shape of the ceiling is not right for the room.... 

and there needs to be an "eyebrow" over the moon window.....

So I cut and fitted a new ceiling piece (not yet glued in place...)

And covered it with that iridescent glittery star paper I have....

(Because we Can't have an Ordinary ceiling...!)

And then I removed the Dome from the old ceiling piece 

and attached it to the new one....

And while I was at it I glued all the Pearl Swags in place....

Of course, we have to test it in place from time to time.....

Here it is with the ceiling fit, but no pillars in place.....

I still have to get them re-sized to fit between the Dome and the floor...

And not have too much pressure on them so they remain straight.....

Oh yes, and the Curtains..... and the Tub.....

But where are the pillars...?

Still just Testing.....

The actual gluing things together is going to be.....

Challenging to say the least!

We may Not Quite be ready for that yet.....

But, Layer upon layer the Vision is slowly coming Together!

Shedding A Little Light....

Oh So Little.....

It is that Time of year, Dear Readers, when it is so Dark.... Morning and Night.... that it is so hard to get good pictures of what little work has been accomplished in my Mini Worlds! You may recall that I mentioned I would be making a LOT of bricks for the Conservatory..... well I got started....

This was the total of what I accomplished on Saturday...

And Sunday I just diligently applied myself to Brick making and Gluing.....

It is surprisingly Slow work!

By Sunday night I had nearly completed the two pillars!

And here you can see them in place....

And you can also see the arched upper portion temporarily placed on top....

Still a Long way to go!

I must confess that it felt like I got nothing done!

And because you have been so kind as to nod agreeably as I bore you with pictures of Boring bricks.... 

I will add a few shots I took Early Saturday Morning of Sunlight shining onto the Folly...

The Winter sun slants low in the sky... 

and for a moment it reaches far into the room and touches the Folly....

And from the inside you can see the light shining into the Bednook..... 

which has been dressed with colorful patterned bedlinens and 

layers of wool blankets since you last saw it.....

 

And the booknook is also graced with this brief Morning Light.....

That hushed moment at the start of the day....

And the Kitchen, too, catches the brief Morning Rays.... 

reminding us perhaps how Much there still is to be done....

And even the Livingroom is adorned with this Perfect morning light...

Where Daphne still sits pondering the revelations from All Hallows Eve!

She has sat here so many times before... 

but mostly she has been accompanied by Will....

And she is just beginning to realize that she is enjoying being alone...

Free to think her own thoughts.....

And she has So much she needs to think about and make decisions about......

It has just always been so much easier to let Will lead the way!

She can't begin to understand What happened on Halloween... 

when her Mother spoke to her through a crystal ball.....

Had she Imagined that?

She was going to have to talk to her Mother and try to get some answers....

And meanwhile..... 

Will has been overseas....

On a buying Trip for his Antiques Store and Gallery.....

Roaming through all sorts of ancient Castles and Estates.....

seeking furnishings and Art worthy of his business....

He missed being at the Halloween Costume Ball at the Castle....

so he missed all the Excitement....

And even though he texted Daphne repeatedly...

She had left her phone at home....

And didn't get all his messages until later.

But after the Mysterious Vision of her Mother in the crystal Ball...

Daphne isn't thinking about Will!

Believe it or not, Dear Readers, 

it only took a few moments for the Sun to slip entirely away.....

But for a brief Time it shone fully on the Solitary Sunflower.... 

still blooming beside the porch.....

Reminding me that there is so Little Light at this time of year....

But what there is can be Just Brilliant.....

Shedding just a Little More Light on Everything!