The Miracle....

 

 

 Of Modern Mail....

Some of you Will understand, Dear Readers, the steady dwindling of hope that a certain package sent from over seas a Long Time Ago would ever reach these shores, let alone my personal porch. Yes, I was losing Faith. In fact, I will confess, that on Wednesday the 24th of February at 10:30 AM I looked out on my porch where no package was to be seen and finally admitted that it was getting a little Too late to still be hoping, and maybe the box was really truly lost. (If this is giving up... I gave up...). And so you will understand my Utter Amazement when I looked out at 2PM the same day.... to collect the mail that had been left in my box.... and there was that package leaning up against the wall beside the door....!!! What???? Really??? REALLY???? (Can you tell how amazed I was?) It only took 103 days to cross the ocean and reach my door.... which given the hardships of this past year is probably not remarkable at all. And yet again, I am amazed to think that we take the mail system for granted and think nothing of the Daily Miracle that it is. The very idea that you can put a bunch of carefully wrapped Treasures into a paper box with a few words scribbled (or typed) on it and hand it over to a complete stranger and a few days or weeks later (or months in hard times) it is hand delivered to another very specific door half way around the world... This is truly a miracle of faith and cooperation on a huge scale! Well!... and we take it for granted that it works.... which it usually does!

I was so shocked... it took me a little while before I was ready to open it!

And in case you don't know the sender of these Treasures...

Birgit is the most amazingly creative mini-maker 

and sends awesome Christmas packages!

(Yes, this was intended to be a Christmas Package!)

These little guys are so Wonderful....

But I don't blame them for looking a bit confused...!

It takes a while to open all the little parcels...

There are so many treasures!

Thank you Birgit!!!!!

And in another topic altogether, Dear Readers,

 I spent part of my weekend repairing the doors to the Dollmaker's Studio.

You may or may not have noticed that when I painted the frames,

 I had removed the opening doors. 

The hinges were hand made and quite small

 and a couple of them were not aligned properly in the frame.

When I went to put the doors back in,

 I added some tiny shims to the hinges on the left side.

The notches had been cut a tiny bit too deep

 and it stressed the hinges when they were closed.

Here both doors have been reattached.

They fit perfectly and hinge smoothly.

This is the interior side.... 

you can see the hand-made hardware.

Sorry for the dark picture...

Here I have fitted it back into the opening... 

still not glued in because the outside

 of the structure will need to be painted.

And because I am trying to get to the outside of the structure...

 there are a few details that need to be done on the inside first.

Like adding the curtain rods for the curtains....

Here I am adding lace to the bottom hem.

Testing the fit....

Both of them are done.

And then knowing that these doors will be drafty

They will need "portieres".....

Here I am testing the cloth.... 

still a long way from done...

But I do love velvet curtains!

And I needed to attach the overhead ceiling beams....

You know how it goes, they are never exactly the right length....

(Hand cutting is not reliable...!)

So you get three in place

 and the fourth one is a hair too long

 and causes the rest to fall!

I ended up gluing and shimming one at a time...

and waiting a good while in between each one!

And then I needed to test the ceiling paper I want to use....

It's a sparkly glittery textured scrapbook paper...

I want to pretend it is pressed tin ceiling tiles....

But I do love the shiny look... 

and any reflected light we can get

 in here will be a good thing!

And because I have my lace scraps out

 and am adding window hardware....

I find a scrap of beautiful old lace

 that is crying out to be used in this room...

I added a bottom hem of lace too.

Here it is in place.

I will make matching ones for

 the two little windows on the opening wall doors.

And trying to see how it will work

 with the sconce light I want to put on this wall...

Bit by bit I am starting to see this room come together...

Although it is such a small room... 

I am sure I will not be able to fit everything I want to in.

And that's all I accomplished last weekend, Dear Readers,

But it leaves me feeling optimistic!

With this progress

 and the Delivery of the Mail...

My faith is restored!