Thanksgiving....

 

Giving Thanks..... 

It Is that Time of year, Dear Readers, when Americans gather with Loved Ones to celebrate the Holiday of "Thanksgiving". It is a Feast whose menu has only small variations across the entire continent, for the most part centered around a Roast Turkey, many varieties of vegetable dishes and Pies for dessert. Of course, there are variations, but the History of the Holiday is rooted in a celebration held by the earliest European Colonists (also called settlers) who were mostly here because of religious persecution in their home lands in Europe. This feast supposedly took place in Massachusetts Colony in the early 1620's after they had survived a year in the New Land. The local Indigenous People ("Native Americans") as opposed to the immigrant Europeans, had come to help these new people and had been instrumental in their survival. The settlers were Thankful. And the local large bird, the Wild Turkey figured big in the feasting, along with corn (maize), beans, squash, potatoes and cranberries, all of these being native to the Americas and plentiful in the area. It was a Time when the support of the community and the assistance of neighbors made a real difference to survival. And meanwhile, in the current times, in The Lovely Old Dollhouse Victor and Joanna have been baking the pies ahead of time to make room for the rest of the baking on Thanksgiving Day. Victor is playing "Chef" this year and is heading to the Farmers market for fresh vegetables.

 

 Meanwhile over at Sally May and Chip's house, The "Shabby Sister House" 

Sally May is baking cookies to bring to the celebration.

 

"Daddy is cooking this year" she tells Chip as he comes 

to see if there are any cookies to snack on yet.

 "And he says there's no need to bring anything

 but ourselves and an appetite!"

 "So, I guess there will be plenty of cookies for later..." says Chip... 

sort of hoping for one now.

"Yes", agrees Sally May, "but we are not going to ruin our appetites!" 

she said sternly, knowing Annabelle was listening to every word!

 

And Victor has returned from the Farmer's Market

 with a basket full of squash and onions and potatoes. 

 

"I'll help you peel those potatoes" says Joanna cheerfully.

 "I was hoping you would" replied Victor with a wink. 

"Oh, and I ran into Old Eddie", he added 

"and we got to chatting. You remember him, don't you?"

 "Of course I do!"declared Joanna. "How is he?"

 "Well," said Victor. "he's been having a hard time lately...

 he has no family around here... so I told him to join us for dinner.

 We have plenty to go around, after all!"

 

And in the Living Room, Charles is warning Helen 

that it will be a bigger group than usual celebrating the meal.

 "It seems that Victor has invited an old acquaintance 

to join us for dinner he says" cheerfully.

 "Do you remember Old Eddie, my Dear?" he asks.

 "We haven't seen him in a long time..." said Helen. 

"I do hope he is alright!"

 "Well, Victor thinks he is a bit lonely without family," said Charles,

 carefully not mentioning the real issues. 

"And don't forget we have Cousin Kitty 

staying with us too," added Helen anxiously.

 

It seems Cousin Kitty had recently lost her 

housing subsidy benefits and was camping on 

the nearest couch she could find in the crisis.

 At the moment that was the bench in the upstairs hallway 

with her seven cats! 

 

Pollyanna and Arthur were in their favorite hiding spot...

 the attic "studio" where Pollyanna sometimes worked on

 the Miniature projects she had started so enthusiastically a while ago, 

but mostly spent time Daydreaming. 

Arthur could easily keep her company while

 accomplishing much on his laptop computer. 

"It's starting to smell divine..." said Arthur of the

 cooking aromas that wafted up to them eventually.

 "Yes, Daddy's cooking and he knows 

what he is doing!" agreed Pollyanna. 

"But I think I just heard someone arriving already.." she added, 

"but it sounds too quiet to be Sally May's folks!" 

"We can go down and find out..." said Arthur restlessly. 

 

Old Eddie had arrived and stepped inside quietly, 

not quite sure what to do next.

 

But Charles had heard his arrival and went 

to greet him and help him feel welcome.

 

Charles brought Eddie into the Living Room

 and introduced him to Helen.

 And Pollyanna and Arthur joined them moments later. 

The topic of conversation was mostly the weather conditions

 and the hopes that it would not snow too soon!

 

Not long after Sally May and Chip and Annabelle

 and Chip's parents Ernie and Blanche

 all arrived with cheerful greetings. 

"Here we are at last..." called Sally May 

as she headed to the kitchen.

 

"And you know I can never come empty handed...!" she declared.

 "I have brought a fruit basket to add to the pies!"

 

Victor and Joanna were just deciding that everything was ready

 and they should call everybody in.

 "I hope there's enough..." said Joanna.... 

"Of course there's enough!" declared Victor. 

"That's a 23 lb. Turkey!"

 

 

"You are so thoughtful, darling..." said Joanna 

as Sally May put the basket in the middle of the table. 

"That is just exactly what this meal was missing!" 

declared Victor giving his daughter a big smile.

 

Within minutes, the room was filling with the rest of the family,

 lured by the delicious aromas and the commotion of the latest arrivals.

 

"But where is Cousin Kitty....?" asked Helen, looking around

 and not seeing her in the crowd.

 "She is feeling shy, Grandma..." said Pollyanna. 

"We passed her on the way down... 

she said she will eat 'when the dust settles'" she added.

 "I think she is afraid the cats will climb on the table,"

 said Pollyanna smiling. 

"I'll take a plate up to her," she added quietly. 

 

 

Charles cleared his throat to get the attention of everyone.

 "I always feel so Blessed to have my Family all so near to me,

 and so I can only imagine the situation being the reverse.

 But for many, what family they have are far away or no longer with us,

 and at times of celebration that can only deepen their feelings of loss and loneliness.

 But truly, we are all Humans together in this World,

 and if we look back far enough we all descend from the same Family Tree.

 My hope and prayer is that we all learn to share and give love

 to all the people of our "Family Tree"

 no matter how far or near they are to this branch of the tree.

 I humbly give thanks that you are all here

 to share this Feast.

Let us eat!"

"Hear Hear!" called Victor as he cut the first slices of Turkey.

 "Pass the plates..." said Ernie....

"Let me ladle that gravy" said Sally May...

 

Well, Dear Readers, I hope, wherever you are

 and however far or near to Family you are, 

that you can take a few minutes to Give Thanks 

for the Greater Human Family to which we all belong. 

And perhaps pass along some cheer or assistance

 to those nearest whether you know them or not!

 We are all part of the same family in the end.

 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Tree House Electrical...

 

Just A Tiny Light In The Darkness.... 

I Hope You will be patient, Dear Readers, as there is really not much to show, and nothing at all about those new branches so recently lauded in this blog. But these things take time and the leaves for the Willow branches are still a distant hope on the horizon. More immediately needed are some lights for the Nanny's Room and the Nursery, because until they are addressed, no walls can be attached and no real structural security achieved. I have always assumed the Nanny's Room was the "ultimate cozy security" spot for the little Ratlings... nightmares and boo-boos all disappeared once the baby was ensconced in Nanny's Room! The huge bed frequently held many little ones and there is a small window seat too for sitting and having a quiet moment of "emotional repair" before rejoining the wild siblings in the other room. There needed to be a spot of light but there is hardly any wall space to affix a lantern or sconce because the bed and all those doors take up all the space. The one spot available seems to be the post beside the tiny window across from the bed... could I put a sconce on a bracket there? Above you can see the initial test of the spot with an LED taped to the post. But the biggest concern was going to be how to bury the wires as they traveled to the back of the Tree House structure?

 

There was really only one option... 

to run them through a crack in the floor at the base of the post

 and along the underside of the floor above the

 Little Toilet Cubby and the Dressing Room... 

and through another small crack on the other side at the back....

 could the wires be made to do that? 

Whew!

 Yes they could! 

 

 

Anna Maria came by to help me test the

 exact positioning for the sconce....

 clearly the initial spot is much to high!

 (The ceilings in the Tree House are all rather tall!)

 

So I set about making the sconce and the bracket.

 The sconce needed to be mirrored to reflect extra light... 

above you can see the frame for the mirror being painted with gold paint.

 

I found a scrap of the mirror paper often used in dollhouse kits,

 (this is left over from the Secret Christmas House project...)

 I cut the "outside" of the scrap into four

 (I didn't take a before picture) 

and glued them together in reverse

 so they make a solid shape in the middle.

 Then I cut out the frame to fit it and glued it on top...

 

And there you have the framed mirror for the candle sconce!

 

 And here it is all assembled on the wall 

with the bracket below it which really

 is more like wainscoting than just a ledge. 

Of course, I don't have any photos of it working yet... 

the wires are too short to reach the battery pack

 which dangles six floors off the ground

 and is difficult to safely use...

 I really don't want to create any failed circuits

 by crossing the wires!

 

And while I was wrestling with the electrical parts, Dear Readers,

 I decided to test the little "Ceramic Stove" I had made all those years ago

 with its little door open so you could see the glowing fire within. 

I had not attached the LED, but the opening was there in the back of the stove. 

Just how would those wires exit through the wall when the stove was in place...

 and how much light would "bleed out" in disastrous ways if I did not test first?

 

 The answer to that last question was "lots"

 if I did not encase it completely

  and so I added a cardboard layer

 to the back of the stove with the

 wires protruding through two tiny holes at the back.

 

And here you can see the stove being tested

 with the wires going through the walls at the back... 

yes it gives off a lovely warm glow!

 

And while I have not decided on the location 

or types of lights for the Nursery itself, Dear Readers,

 I hope you are as happy as I am

 to see even a tiny bit of Light in the Darkness! 

 

 

Branching Out....

 

The Bare Bones... 

It is that time of year, Dear Readers, when the Skeletal shapes of Trees reveal themselves once more as the clothing of summer drifts and falls away leaving the stark and lonely branches to sweep the wintry sky. And I must admit that The Tree House project has always required a great deal of imagination from the viewers to even recognize the "someday" tree shape as it has slowly, slowly... yes very slowly grown beside The Folly Dollhouse. After all, it has stood as an incomplete but tall ungainly "stump" at the back corner of The Folly Dollhouse property for so many years that you could be forgiven for assuming it was never going to acquire any branches at all! And even then... the scale of the project asks for such a volume of "Tree Top" if ever it were to grow so tall... how could this possibly be realistic? Well, I have known some grand trees in my life and can imagine a variety of possible tree-tops if there were "world enough and time" (to miss-quote an ancient poet) to achieve such feats of valor... but I have a little better understanding of my own abilities and the limitations of the World of my Tiny house, so I have always intended that the Tree House would be a "truncated" tree in the end. Being a Willow tree, it has been "pruned into submission" time and time again, but never quits and always sends out more new branches whenever a grand limb has been severed. And so I hope you can imagine that it has grown into a rather ugly shape, covered in scars and bumps and knotted burls.... but that is for another day... for now we are simply finally beginning to see the emergence of branches from the main Trunk of the Tree! Did you spot it there in the first picture... the first branch to the left on the back corner of the Tree?

 

Here you can see it from a better angle... up close and personal!

 

And here it is again with the bunk-beds wall in place.

 

And once again from the front. 

The idea is that when the big branch was removed, 

the new branch emerged from the cut off spot

 and just started over from the same place. 

 

And then another branch.... 

the first branch to the right, by the Nanny's Room...

 

Here you can see it better from the front view.

 Because these branches stick off from the trunk 

in awkward angles from vulnerable corners, 

I felt they needed to be securely attached with screws, not just glue.

 

And since the attachment methods seemed to be working

 I added a few more branches... 

here you can see there are now four stubs 

sticking out awkwardly in very carefully calculated directions.

 

I needed to be careful in the placement of the branches

 so they would not interfere with the eventual functioning

 of the doors when the branches have their leaves, 

and yet they must supply adequate leafy coverage in the end.

 

And yes, now there are five incipient branches.... 

and it becomes difficult to see them all at once 

and they begin to need identifying names...

 we have a long way to go.

And just in case you are having a hard time 

imagining these little stubs as "branches", Dear Readers,

 I will enlighten you because I do have a plan!

 

This is just the testing of the beginning of

 the construction of the eventual branches... 

so you really have to use your imaginations 

to envision the possibilities... 

and I hope you are not disappointed at the 

stunted nature of the upper portions of The Tree House!

 

 Here you can see it from a little farther back,

 more in relation to The Folly and its roof....

 because you must remember that those branches

 have been "pruned" again and again.... 

and the branches will have their own branches and twigs...

 looong graceful branches because it is a Willow tree after all.

 

And here you can see it from even further back

 so you can see all the way down to the roots in the rocks.

 And look! I am even testing the top floor 

attic structure in the upper branches...! 

Yes there will actually be another whole level to explore

 once the Nursery and Nanny's Room are done.

 

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you are not disappointed

 by these meager bare bones, 

but that you are as Excited as I am that

 The Tree House is finally Branching Out! 

 

A Little Bit of This...

 

A Little Bit of That....

I Hope You can imagine, Dear Readers, that after three weeks of running around like a Madwoman, turning my house upside down and inside out with scenes and settings and building "stage sets" in every possible available spot and then trying to put everything that was taken out and used back where it belongs....I sort of lose track of what I was doing before the Madness set in! I rely on my photos to remind me of what I was doing and slowly try to get back on track. And yes, I had been making some good progress on the Tree House Nursery and Nanny's Room. I had been working on the bunkbeds and had decided that the window openings needed to be smaller, with a more enclosing and protective feeling to the spaces, so I added a higher wall on both levels.

 

And this is what it now looks like from the inside... yeah, 

it is dark and hard to see! But trust me, 

the window spaces are smaller!

 And they may get smaller still.... we shall see as things develop.

 

Here is another view of the bunkbeds interior.... 

the upper one is longer and the bottom one is shorter

 due to the curvature of the branch opening

 (these are built into the stub of the cut-off tree limb).

 I was intent on getting the beds "made up" 

with mattresses and bedding

 before finishing the windows on the outside.

 And Some of you might recall that many years ago

 I made a lovely mattress for the bed in the Chinoiserie Bedroom... 

well, I still have a few scraps of that "mattress ticking" cloth!

 

I have always thought this looked like 

the old fashioned "mattress ticking" 

that all mattresses used to be made of, 

and have used it for many of the beds in my mini houses. 

So I set about making the little mattresses for the bunk beds...

 

Here is the first one stitched but not turned or stuffed.....

 And again with the stuffing complete!

 

And testing it for fit in the bunkbed! Looks good so far! 

But, I wanted my mattresses to be "tufted" too.... 

 

Like so!

 I know.... you have to look very closely

 to even see the tufting! But it is there!

 

And here is the second one stitched, stuffed and tufted too! 

Yes, I know it is "too big" for the bunkbed platform.... 

but I think that is part of the charm... 

the little ratlings would have a cozy curvy mattress to roll around on!

 (I think it is probable that the youngest ones were on the bottom bunk

 and didn't need as much room as the older ones!)

 

And while I was working on the beds, 

I thought the Nanny's Bed could use a coat of stain... 

I used one of those "stain pens" I had bought recently

 and it worked wonderfully! No drips, splatters or spills! 

It is the Dark Walnut color that was popular in Victorian times.

 

And I suppose it was inevitable, Dear Readers,

 that while I was moving everything around and turning things upside down, 

I would happen to notice a not-quite completed step

 on one of my many other tiny incomplete projects....

 

Because really, it is the spooky season... 

and I would really have hated losing

 these tiny pieces before I had attached them!!! 

Yes, they are window frames for the interior of the Ravenwood..... 

and you might recall I had added extra windows to the attic rooms... 

so there were no frames for them in the kit...

 I had to improvise my own.... 

 

And you can see they have been painted here...

 

And here they have been installed on the left side wing.... 

(and you can see the still incomplete fireplaces also need to be attached....)

 

Here you can see a close-up of the attic room... 

I also added a knee wall to the room below the window

 to make the furnishings fit better.

 

And the window frames for the right side wing.... 

Yes, I was reminded of how much fun awaits me in this tiny house....... 

and the other day as I was out in my garden

 I was tempted to try out the landscaping ideas....

 

 

It was just too tempting...!

 

I have been having trouble deciding how to make

 a "landscape" for this Property... 

and the real world was throwing me some hints...

 

Lady Theodora is very taken with this Property!

(Lady Virginia is not so sure....) 

 

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you will not mind 

me leaving you here... 

Nothing is finished....  and Not much was Done... 

But I managed to have fun with

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That!