Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Lucky Winner!




Legos and Other Little Things....

A Few weeks ago, Dear Readers, I was lucky enough to be the Winner of Noelle's giveaway on her blog Nono mini Nostalgie! I could not believe my good fortune to win her teeny tiny mini Lego set! My sons' favorite toys were Legos (and we still have a big box of them!) so I was enchanted to see them in mini on Noelle's blog. But for some reason our emails would not connect to each other... so after a couple of tries both ways I put my mailing address on her comments so she could send me the prize. It worked and the little package arrived last week in my mailbox. I tell you, I am always amazed that a little parcel can cross the Ocean and reach its destination without mishap!
But here it is!!! 

The little box itself is a tiny wonder...!

But the contents are beyond amazing!

Can you believe how perfect these tiny Legos are?
I feel so Lucky to have them!
Thank you, Noelle, for sharing your treasures!
They are Awesome!

And in another way I also feel very lucky, Dear Readers,
 because I have had a few alarming set-backs
 with my stone floor for The Dollmaker's Studio....
which might have turned out alright after all!

You might recall that I had showed the floor
 with the newly applied grout all dry and ready for "dirtying up"....

The pale color of the dry grout was too new and
 clean looking for such an "old" stone floor!
So I mixed up a watered down acrylic mix of brown and black
 and began to brush it onto the floor, 
planning to wipe most of it off the stones 
but leave the grout a darker shade.

I started in the back corner where it would naturally be very dirty...
and quickly realized I had not swept off the dry grout residue
 from the original application.
 It would be too gritty if I didn't clean it first.
So I did a little careful sweeping... 
only to realize that the grout was lifting out of the cracks...!!

Yikes! That was not supposed to happen!
Since most of the grout was still in the cracks,
 I decided to go ahead with the "dirtying" process... 
and fill in gaps later if necessary.

You will understand if there are no pictures of this part of the process...!

As I brushed on the dirty water.... 
the grout just melted... 
apparently it had dried to dust!!
 It was really very alarming....! 
So I just "dabbed on" the color... 
and wiped it off with a paper towel... 
and where the grout "lifted" I smeared it back into the cracks 
with the wet paint mixture...
And then I let it dry.... again....!
I could not get the paint tones to mix carefully.... 
it was scrub and dash and smoosh and dab....
Yikes!!!

Here it is part way dried....  
At this point I couldn't be sure
 if I was going to have to scrub it ALL off and start over.

So the next morning I had a closer look
 once the "grout" was dry again.
I was planning all along to add a sealer coat of matte varnish, 
and decided to give it a try
 in spite of the gaps and the uneven colors..... 
it is supposed to be an Old floor after all.

Of course, the newly applied varnish 
just adds a milky looking glossy sheen.... 
so it is really hard to tell how it will look when dry....
But at this point I was telling myself 
that I could just  cover the whole floor with a carpet....
(possibly part of the plan anyway...!) 
so who cares how it looks?
(Yes, I Know.... I would know anyway....)
So I let it dry and refused to look at it for a couple of days!

And when I did look at it again,
 I scuffed the tiles a bit with a scrubbing sponge.....
 and decided that they might not look so bad after all!

There are a couple of spots where I will 
"repair" the missing grout with a paintbrush....

 
Somehow, Dear Readers,
 the floor seems to have turned out alright....
and I guess I am starting to feel like 
I'm a Lucky Winner after all!

12 comments:

  1. oh my that LEGO....!
    The finished floor looks wonderful and suitably worn. I can only imagine the slight panic and more than a few deep breaths when it all started to lift. The solution of 'soldiering on' and using the paint to bind the grout, worked out just fine. I do think that grout in most old houses would be partially worn away in places, so this is probably meant to be.
    Anna X

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  2. Having had my own moments of grout panic, I Feel Your Fright and am so happy for the way it has ended! What a great relief you must be feeling after not even being able to bear to look for a couple days! I've been there too! The tiles Do look just as old tiles should in a Very Good way! And the room with the doors on and fireplace in between is absolutely charming!
    Congratulations on winning the tiny Legos - they are just so cute and fun to play with!

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  3. It's about time you were a lucky winner!
    The floor looks lovely. Whether or not you cover it with a carpet, you can rest easy about it's appearance.
    Much love, Mom

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  4. Felicidades por el juego Lego, es monísimo..
    El trabajo del suelo esta fantástico.
    Un saludo

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  5. Wow, Betsy, that Lego is amazing and sooo tiny! Congrats on winning the giveaway of Noëlle, enjoy!!!
    Your finished floor looks wonderful, you did an excellent job!!
    Hugs, Ilona

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  6. Congratulations Betsy on winning Nono's mini box of Lego blocks AND on their safe arrival too!
    I think that your particular grouting woes, are eerily familiar to any of us who've tackled grouting mini "stonework" however, yours has turned out to have a Very Happy Ending and your persistence has paid off!

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  7. Congrats on winning this beautiful prize.
    Your floor look perfect.

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  8. Dear betsy, It sure must have been very frustrating to work on the floor with all the grout coming back out. But seeing the end result it seems it just had to be part of the process. The stone floor really has a good granite feel! Great results.

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    Replies
    1. And the Lego... so sweet! it brings back memories. I have built a few years of my life away with lego. :-)

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  9. Congrats on winning such an awesome price, these tiny Lego bricks are terrific, wonderful miniature pieces. And I must admit they made me grin… they seem to be German patriots (which is funny because patriotism in Germany only works well during big soccer events). But even more I had to laugh about your package supervisor showing up at picture 2 - it's easy to see what he/she is thinking: "Humans… they never send something useful in packages like catnip or cat cookies… instead of this they're just sending this miniature stuff I'm not allowed to play with" ;O)

    I'm sorry to hear that your floor caused you so much trouble - but this proves once more the concept of leave it as it is and sleep one, two nights over it. So nice that there's a happy ending and according to me it looks great - I wish I could send my floor over to you. ;O) I suppose the tiny inspector found no flaws… and I think the kitty liked the doors as much as I do.

    Hugs
    Birgit

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  10. Congratulations on winning the Lego. It's a lovely piece and I do like your final photo of the flooring and doorways. Well worth the angst!

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