Gets Complicated......
I have to confess, Dear Readers, that I Should know by now that my projects are never simple little projects... even when they start out with that intention! You can see above a picture of the little kit I fell in love with back in the middle of the Winter when I was slaving over lilac blossoms and dreaming of Other Things. It is made by Sandra Morris of Tower House Dolls, a UK Dollmaker whose work I have admired and collected for a while. Sandra has been "downsizing" and threatening to retire and when she posted this kit as a possible final home workshop kit.... I didn't hesitate but hit the "buy" button right away! I was lucky to get one of the ten kits which you can see above. The set-up is so charming and includes the parts for making everything you see in the picture, resulting in a little free-standing vignette of a dollmaker's workspace. I just couldn't Wait to get started.... but alas, I had set myself a Goal of a Spring Lilac Shrub in full bloom.... so the kit was put on stand-by while I finished the lilac blossoms and attached them to the shrub. And while Daydreaming of this kit, I realized that it would be sort of Dangerous to leave it an open vignette in my little house... things would fall off and get lost...( I don't like to glue parts in place....) so I started thinking of incorporating it into a closed "room-box".... which would allow me to expand a little bit and add more to the Dollmaker's Work shop! I could include many of the tiny dolls I have been collecting! So, should I make the project a simple room-box, or a store-front type of place.... or perhaps I could start with a small house kit and incorporate the vignette into the house....?... and you can tell what happened next.... I woke up one morning having Dreamt of the Dollmaker's kit being added to The Sugarplum kit that I already owned... the vignette window would insert right where the Sugarplum kit has a big picture window... and I would add stairs to the attic, climbing up a tower of oatmeal boxes, of course!
Here is the basic Sugarplum kit with the Oatmeal Tower for the stairs......
And starting to put together the pieces for the Dollmaker's Kit....
to see how they would fit together....
I love the shape of this window with the shelf....
Here you can see how the two kits will fit together....
I will need to enlarge the opening in the Sugarplum wall....
It will make a lovely alcove in the room.....
And the front porch will become more enclosed
with the roof extended out over the little porch benches.
As you can see, I think it will work!
But that is not the end of my Great Ideas, Dear Readers,
because if you know anything about these kits,
you will know that the Sugarplum is really quite small.
The main room is 9' x 14".
And there is only the main room and the attic.
And if you know anything about My House,
you will know it is small and already quite filled with Dollhouses....
and if I were to justify adding another House...
it might be best to optimize the floor space
by making it Tall... within a small area!
(This is how I get myself into Trouble!)
So, Of Course, I added a ground floor
to the base of the Sugarplum kit....
(I've got the pieces propped together here...)
And the Base Room would need doors to the tower stairs....
and a bathroom addition off the side next to the Tower...
And a sunny window on the other side....
beneath the side window of the Sugarplum kit
which sticks out from the side in a bay window.
And then I realized that the opening I had cut was just the size
of a unique door I had bought from an artisan
at the Sturbridge Fair a number of years ago....
and maybe this was where I could finally use that door?
Here it is propped against the wall....
only small adjustments are needed for it
to fit the opening I have already cut....
The width is right....
I just need to round the arch at the top
and extend the opening to the floor!
And then I remembered another window I already had in my stash...
and wondered if it would serve to upgrade
the window embrasure on the upper floor.....
Like So....!
So I cut the wider opening for the door....
(I'll take a better picture, I promise!)
And added Hinges to the Tower door and the back door...
(This is easier to do when the walls are still separate!)
And that is as far as I got, Dear Readers,
Chasing my Dreams down the Vacation week...
Ever Deeper into a "Simple Little Project"....
Which somehow got quite Complicated!
