Here Comes The Sun...

 

The Bigger Picture...

Spring is Officially Begun, Dear Readers, and whether or not you get warmth along with it, at least in these latitudes, we are getting three or four minutes more daylight with each passing day! This is a very welcome thing in my world! No, we have not warmed up much... but our days are above freezing regularly now, and we have had some good rainfall and most of the snow has now melted from my yard. The snowdrops and a couple of crocus are blooming in the protected corner by the house foundation and little clumps of bulbs are pushing up their noses around the yard! And the blackbirds and the Robins have returned and are singing their cheerful Spring songs. So, predictably, my thoughts are turning to The Castle! There it stands, magestically dominating my workroom and reminding me there is Work To Be Done every time I pass by! And I know right where I should begin (always with the part that is nagging the loudest!) in this case the trim around the Great Hall Windows.

 

And I will apologize in advance for all the darker than desired photos... 

it is still gloomy here on many days, even those that begin sunny 

cloud over and make it difficult to get good photos in my house.

 This picture is to show close-up that the window frames 

have still not been completed, even though the windows

 were glazed two years ago. (Where does the time go?!) 

The complicating factor for these windows is the 

bi-fold doors for the front of the Great Hall. 

The panels fold back against the next panel, but if you add 

trim around the windows that has too much thickness, 

the doors will no longer fold all the way open against the other panel

 because the window trims bump against each other. 

I am compromising in order to have some thickness on the 

window trims (it would not look right otherwise) but not so much 

thickness that the doors stick out too far when open.

 Because the doors are mostly left closed, 

they need to look their best when closed. 

I also needed to make sure any "irregularities" in the windows were

 smoothed out in the overall result. (Because the window openings 

were all hand cut by me many years ago, they are not

 perfectly cut and perfectly exactly aligned.)

 I started by running a horizontal base line under all 

the clerestory windows, assuring that the base of all the frames 

would be glued in the correct alignment.

 

Here you can see the bases and the side pieces have

 all been attached. (These are the easy pieces.) 

The middle post in each window will be ornate,

 a decorative column dividing the panes. 

In the ancient times, these windows were not always glazed, 

glass being so expensive and hard to come by. 

They had shutters inside to close out the worst of the weather. 

The columns were structural as well as decorative... 

they helped carry the weight of the rocks above the windows.

 

Here you can see I have cut the foot of the columns for each window.

 

And here, if you look carefully, you can see

 they have been glued in place, 

one at the base of each central column. 

This is a slow process, Dear Readers,

 as I try to construct four identical finished window frames. 

There is no kit with pieces all ready to be assembled!

 

But..... oh Look! 

The sun is coming to shine for a moment 

into this dark northern room....!

 

 Just at the Equinoxes, Dear Readers, 

the setting sun can reach this far into the house

 and shine briefly across the Castle Facade,

 shining a beacon of hope on my long labors! 

At last... Here Comes The Sun!

So Little....

 

So Much Fun....!

There was only one little corner of the Cabinet of the Clouds, Dear Readers, that wasn't all filled and glued together. The kit instructions wanted it to hold several more of those little gift boxes all stacked up.... but I thought that was a waste of a very good shelf compartment! And I knew exactly what I wanted to put there instead. One of the little decorative "paper constructs" (made entirely of the lithographed paper folded and glued together) was a "Row of Books" with little doors and windows in their spines! You can see it there on the left of the Candy House... the kit wanted you to tuck it into the lower shelf of the table that sits in front of the Cabinet of Clouds... the "Display Table".... but I thought it was too hidden in that spot. I have always loved the imagery of these "Book Houses" and decided to put it in that last shelf corner. Because it is a little smaller than the shelf opening, and is sort of hidden behind the Candy House... I wanted to elevate it a little bit... maybe it could sit on a box, or another book? None of the books in the kit would work for that so I looked through my stash of mini books for an appropriate "book base" for this Row of Book Houses..... and came up with a Harry Potter volume that was the perfect color and size! It happens to be "The Order of the Phoenix".... ( I have the whole set of mini Harry Potter volumes!) I glued it to the shelf and then glued the Row of Book Houses on top of it. And because it reminded me of Spooky Autumnal themes... I decided to make a bare branched tree to sit beside it....(still not finished or glued in place)... giving the Cabinet of Clouds a little Flavor of Autumn. Then I glued the Cabinet in place against the back wall and tucked the battery pack into the slot! Yay! It fits! It works! 

 

The next spot that needed to be completed was the back corner of the "Shop"... to the right of the Cabinet of the Clouds. There is a small supplies cabinet and a little dollhouse called "The Story House" sits on top of it beside the side window of the Shop. I located and assembled all the pieces for this little dollhouse. The walls are papered with printed details to match the nature of each room. You can see above I have already glued the papers to the wooden walls and have glued the three layers of the kitchen "range" together. 

 

I Love this little kitchen range!

 It has depth, it has a fire in the grate.... 

it has a tiled backsplash and the range is clearly

 one of those antique cast iron behemoths

 that kept a place well heated too! 

Here it is glued to the back wall of the dollhouse.

 

Here we have glued the back wall to the base 

and the left wall is also in place.

 (I had added the tiny lace curtain before gluing the wall... 

this is part of the kit included decorations!)

 

There is a tiny kitchen table that needs to be assembled ... 

and a bit of that checkered cloth for a table cloth....

 

And some dishes of food to assemble and place on the table. 

I think the item on the right is a slice of cake... 

and the other I am calling a large wedge of fancy cheese....!

(You can let me know if you have a better idea!) 

 

Then the table is glued to the kitchen floor

 (it is essential to glue pieces in.... 

they are so so small... they would get lost in a flash!)

 You can also see the little bed has been "made up"... 

there in the left foreground... 

and I have added another lace curtain 

to the other bedroom window.

 

Here you can see the second floor has been glued in place

 and the bed added to the back corner of the upstairs room.

 

Here I have used the flash so you can see 

I have added a couple of tiny tiny beads from my stash

 to serve as pots on the kitchen range! 

A big old copper pot and a smaller silver one.

 

There is also a tiny dresser to assemble for the bedroom. 

The kit has you add a "bouquet of flowers 

made from some of the tiny foam balls. 

I changed the "vase" to a gold bead and added

 the other beads to be a bottle of lotion or perfume.

 The top bead is a beautifully faceted antique bead

 given to me by a friend long long ago!

 

Here I have added the interior dividing wall. 

It was a bit tricky... 

the wooden wall did not quite

 align neatly with the floor section...

 I had to do a bit of sanding

 so they would slot together. 

I have also added the stairs... !

 (I just adore that this tiny house has a staircase!!!) 

and that also required some adjusting. 

I had glued the base a tiny bit too far to the left... 

so I added a strip of cardboard along the side of the base

 so the outer wall would glue in properly vertical, not slanted!

 

Here you can see it from the other side... 

with flash so you can see the bedroom dresser in place.

 

Here it is with the flash and the right side wall in place. 

I had added the lace curtains to the bathroom window

and the little window on the stairs! 

The bathtub is positively regal in its proportions!

 

And then the roof gable needed to be added. 

It was a bit tricky as the places where

 it touched the walls were so tiny... 

I decided to extend the dividing wall

 right up to the roof level so there was

 more surface for the glue to attach to.

 

And then the roof is glued in place... 

it is a corrugated cardboard with skylight windows cut in it.

 

And because I noticed the back wall 

had all those lovely windows cut in it... 

but no printed frames and no Door where the door should be... 

I decided to remedy the oversight.

 

I took my micron pen and drew some 

frames around the windows... 

and the door too!

 

And then painted them green!

 (Sorry the pictures are so dark... it was a very gloomy day!)

 

 This Story House, Dear Readers, 

is So SO small.... each room is about 1/2 inch square, 

the entire house is one inch wide by 1 and 1/2 inch tall... 

I am so enchanted with this little world! 

A Wonderful kitchen... a fantastic bathroom

 a lovely bedroom and Stairs!!! 

Making this Little Story House 

has been a Huge amount of fun!

Little Details....

 

Small Matters....

As I might have mentioned, Dear Readers, I am trying to get the Tall "Cabinet of the Clouds" in the Fairy-tale Wonderhouse Kit all completed and glued in place. This is because it forms the battery box for the light system and until it is glued firmly to the back wall, the entire wiring system is a bit dangly and loose and the Shop is hard to move around. Once I get all the little creations for this cabinet finished and glued in place, then I can glue the cabinet to the wall and then the remaining creations can be finished in whatever order I feel like! (And I will be able to move it to a different location for working on which will allow me more freedom with my workspace options.) Sound familiar? Too many things in progress at once...??? Well, we know how that goes in my house! So for now I am concentrating on the Cabinet of the Clouds.... and in this case I wanted to complete the Top shelf area... that hard to see, hard to reach spot that collects.... what??? (What do you find lurking on your top shelves...?) The kit places several landscape features on that shelf... so I started there... and as you know, I had added that "rim" to the shelf... the "cloud-like" lacy edging...  which makes the space feel to me like an Alpine Meadow in the summer..... way high up above the clouds.....

 

The first thing I did was find a few little "bottlebrush" trees... 

the kind they sell for Christmas decor... 

but I wanted summertime so I painted over the

 white fake snow with a fresh emerald green.

 Perhaps it is just a suggestion of the Enchanted Forest

 up there in the corner of the top shelf? 

The kit also has the Store signage glued in place up there... 

hard to see but suggestive of the great outdoors...

 so I left it alone. 

I completed the tiny Mouse-house Tree-house....

(there on the far right at the edge of the meadow....)

 

Along with the kit wooden tree shape cut-outs..... 

Can you see the little mouse in his hammock

 inside the Tree Trunk...? 

The printed details on all the pieces

 of this kit are so amazingly detailed!!!

 

And since I was trying to finish

 all the tiny vignettes for this Cabinet, 

I started on the little lavender cabinet...

 

It is very tiny! But it needed the paper backing glued on....

 

Which you can only see if I use the flash...! 

And then the shelves needed all the little bits added.... 

ribbons and beads and tiny foam balls....

 

Like so! 

So So Tiny...!

 

 

And there is a Teensy Tiny wooden chair 

that needs to be glued together... 

and left unfinished....(I was tempted to paint it...)

 but it needs to be a for sale to finish yourself piece of furniture... 

sitting on a box...

 

 

Which I forgot to take a picture of... 

but you can spot it back there in the cabinet

 next to the lavender cabinet....

 there beside the Fairy Market....!

And speaking of the Fairy Market... 

I knew it needed just a couple more tiny details...

 

 Specifically... 

some Wishing Stars needed to be scattered around... 

because you never know when you might need one....!

And lastly but not least... 

 

it needed some blades of grass...

because whoever heard of a meadow with no grass....????

Yes, I know it is rather sparse.....

 

 

But the Fairies chose their spot in an area 

where the grass was not growing too thickly.... 

and the moss and dandelions had plenty of room too! 

So I will leave it there...

because now we are gluing all this magical beauty into the shelf....

And moving on to the next Tiny Wonder....

 

Another piece of decorated furniture... 

a tiny green console cabinet....With a brass lamp... 

(made from a brass nail glued to a stud earring back-piece)

 

With a picture frame with a teensy tiny picture

 you have to glue in place... 

(it is a teddy bear portrait... in case you can't tell!)

 

Here it is glued to the top of the cabinet!

 

And here it is glued to the top of it's own box for display. 

And this is how the kit leaves it Dear Readers, 

but as often happens, I thought it could use

 just a couple more details...!

 

For starters, I thought a colorful little cloth 

would provide a nice accent.... 

(In case you hadn't noticed, the box reads

 "Keep Calm and Make Miniatures" on it...!)

 

And then maybe... a colorful Christmas themed plate...?

 And a colorful green striped pine scented candle...?

 

And a bit of newspaper or magazine 

folded into one of the cubbies below....

 

And then, maybe somebody left their cell phone

 there on the end, by the picture.... 

can you see it...???

 

How about now.... can you see it now...?

 (this is so difficult to photograph...!!!)

 

And meanwhile, those with Eagle eyes, 

will have noted that I have been working on

 more than one thing as I go.... 

and you can see that the "Cookie House" 

(we call them Gingerbread Houses in my family)

 has been expanded way past the

 original flat surface lithographed image!

 

I made it into a three dimensional "cottage"...

 with a chimney and a base for landscaping. 

(The kit wanted me to set it in a grassy lawn... 

I just didn't think that was right.... we make these at Christmas!)

 And I wanted to have "cookie cutter"

 trees (or tree) for the landscape.... 

so I made one from cardboard 

painted to look like a frosted cookie tree. 

 

The kit has small "cupcakes" that you cut from a polymer cone

 (used for several little kit items)

 and set in front of the house. 

I am testing the positions above.... 

before adding the "icing snow"....

 

Here I am testing the tree position... 

(more trees have no room...!)

 

And finally the icing... first on the roof....

 

Then the landscape.....

 

 With the cupcake "shrubs" and the tree.... 

now adorned with some snow..... 

and I decided that more details were pointless

 given that the space on the shelf was not terribly visible

 once all the rest of the kits are completed 

and positioned on the table in front of it.....!

 

Here it is tucked into it's position,

 on a soft white "blanket" of snow... 

with several "bottle-brush" trees next to it... 

also for sale!

 

And somewhere along the way when I wasn't looking...

 

Pegasus flew down for a romp in the Alpine Meadow....!

 

Well, Dear Readers, I don't know about you, 

but I just can't resist those Little Details... 

because especially in this scale, Small Matters!