Christmas Is Coming......

Leftovers......

Believe it or Not, Dear Readers, I have had No time for making minis in Weeks and weeks and weeks, and I am starting to feel a little desperate! There are so many projects partly done and even more waiting "in the wings" and I have Nothing new to show you in my Mini Worlds! Real Life has been a bit demanding of my Time and I feel as though I have accomplished Nothing! And with Christmas only a few weeks away, I am once again, Late to start working on drawing my annual Christmas card.... and it will absorb all of my spare time for the next few weeks. But All is not lost! As I was helping the Little People clean up after Thanksgiving, I noticed that there were more than a few "Leftovers" scattered throughout the various Houses! And I am not referring to the leftover pie that made it safely back to the Lovely Old Dollhouse! I happened to notice several Christmas decorations already in place on the mantle.... still Left Over from last Christmas!

Did you spot them? 

I assure you, this is Not because we are Ahead of the Game!

(Even the clock has stopped and needs a new battery!)

So I decided to see if there were any other "Leftovers" from Last Christmas....

Helen and Pollyanna are discussing plans for some Holiday shopping...

And Arthur and Charles are explaining how they have other plans 

for those exact times and couldn't possibly join them in shopping....

I didn't want to interrupt and was going to tiptoe away

 when I spotted a small Leftover piece of Christmas.....

Did you spot it?

There is a little lace Heart ornament that had fallen off the tree 

and was overlooked when all the ornaments were put away! 

It always seems that there is one Leftover....

And then I thought to look in the other Houses 

to see if there was any Christmas still there.

I glanced in the Castle Great Hall and spotted it at once!

The Wreath over the mantle was the most obvious, 

and had been there until just before the Halloween party...

But there was another little Treasure that had been there all year!

Did you Spot it?

This Beautiful Leaping Reindeer was given to me by Birgit....

Amongst So Many other Treasures.... 

and this fellow somehow eluded the post Christmas clean-up!

I was now eagerly looking into all the Houses to see what I could find!

A quick glance into The Folly kitchen had me thinking there was nothing there.

 But then I looked again.....

Did you spot them?

Two Christmas themed coffee Mugs 

were left hanging over the cupboard!

And upstairs, I glanced into the Book Nook.....

Aha! Christmas books!

Can you see them?

 

 

 'A Christmas Carol' by Dickens is on the top of the shelf

along with a copy of  'The Night Before Christmas' by Clement Moore.

 

Surely this was not all... 

I should check in the Shabby Sister House too! 

A quick glance into the bedroom.....

Is that another copy of 'The Night Before Christmas'?

Has it really been there All year?

And in the kitchen where Sally May and Annabelle 

love to spend time cooking.... 

(Yes, we were here just last week... but did you spot them...?)

 

Those are Christmas cookie cutters that never got put away!

And a pan of gingerbread men cooling on top of the fridge.....

And the Tea Cozy stitched by Rosanna.... 

with the Christmas Elf shoe design!

Surely, that will never get put away!

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you haven't minded 

this dose of Holiday Left-overs!

Christmas is coming, and I just might be so Far Behind....

That I am Already ahead of myself!

 

Tieing Up Loose Ends

Kitchen Lights and Other Little Things....

I can hardly believe it, Dear Readers, but I have Finally completed the Electrical wiring for the Lights in the Folly! The kitchen was the last unlit room, and I had been unable to decide on the lighting that would be needed without a sink in place. But once I had found the right sink, there was no excuse for leaving the lights incomplete! I decided to go with a simple and traditional sconce with a fluted glass, and I attached it with the globe facing downward as it gave much better "task" lighting at the sink.

Here I am testing the new light.....

I was able to mostly hide the wire behind the edge of the "tile" backsplash...

(here I have slid it aside while working on the wiring)

and the part below the chair rail is mostly hidden by the sink....

once I drilled the hole and ran the wire to the underside of the house.

 The other light in the kitchen is the one I acquired over a year ago, 

but did not complete the wiring.... 

It came without a plug... 

and to get the wiring attached properly would mean 

moving The Folly off its foundations.... 

so I could reach the underside to thread wires through the tiny hole.....

and run them up a channel to splice onto the lamp wires.

So I left it undone for over a year!

You can see below the partly moved Folly

and the wires in the "cave" underneath....

And here you can see the kitchen with both the lights on.....

And a view of All the lights on......

And now that the lights are all wired... 

I was able to add the trim to the outer corner on the kitchen side...

which covers the channel where the wires are run from the upstairs...

and that in turn allowed me to Finally glue the chimney in place!

I had finished the bricks Ages ago..... 

but could not attach it until the trim was in place......

which couldn't be attached until the Wiring was done!

Here you can see the whole chimney....

I couldn't attach the upper portion until the lower part was done

so as to be sure they were aligned correctly!

And to think that All this progress 

hinged on getting the right sink!

And speaking of "hinges", Dear Readers......

I have been having more fun with Tiny hinges for the Tree House!

To begin with I cut the doors in the walls 

for the Nursery and the Nanny's Room...

And added the hinges......

(I LOVE hinges!)

And here you can see the doors in place in the Tree House....

This is the Nanny's Room.....

with a door to the Nursery on the left 

and the door to the Hallway on the right.

And here you can see where the hallway runs along the back to the stairs...

(which will be inside the cardboard tube...)

And here you can see the Nursery.

The door on the back wall leads to the hallway and the stairs....

and the door on the right to the Nanny's room.

But the best part is the Bed Alcove that is built onto the "door " to this level....

This is just the rough framework viewed from the outside.....

And the inside.......

Visible when the main door is opened!

And I had to add the window frames.....

For the Bed Alcove.....

And I wanted the windows to be able to open.....

so I added Hinges.....

Teeny Tiny Hinges!

They went on a little bit crooked.....

But this is just a Tree House after all....

So it can be a bit rustic and worn!

I will need to fill the chipped spots.....

And I need to make the "window glass"....

This is really just the beginning!

So while it seemed as though 

Very little got done this week, Dear Readers,

Between the Tiny Hinges, The Lights and the Chimneys...

At least I managed to tie up a bunch of loose ends!

Walls

Big and Small.....

I Truly cannot say how long it has been, Dear Readers, since I did any Serious work on the Folly! It figures so often in my pictures of sunlight playing in my Doll Worlds, and I have come to accept it's incompleteness while I work on my other more Exciting projects. But I have for a long time been aware that the Kitchen needed attention! The only furnishing in there have been the almost finished stove and the not at all finished, but cute, hutch! It is such a small space that I have never been sure I would be able to fit in a refrigerator.... but I have always known it would need a sink! And not just any sink! It would need to be small and old fashioned... (this house was built in the Nineteenth Century after all), with a slightly elegant feel to it, not really rustic at all. I have watched others make their own sinks with great success... and was beginning to think I needed to make this myself. Then I came across the perfect little sink at the Sturbridge Fair! 

(Yes, I did not show you ALL the Treasures I bought at the Fair!) 

When I got it home, It Fit Perfectly! 

And then I began to think of the Tile backsplash it would require.... 

as it had no backsplash attached..... 

And that was when I noticed the Coaster under my Tea.... 

one given to me Ages ago by my Dear Friend Ewa.... 

of The Sunny Hours blog.....

She sent me a gift package with these coasters and many other little things... 

and I have always thought these coasters should 

find their way into one of my projects...!

So I propped it in place behind the sink......

and it Fit Perfectly!

(Thank you, Ewa!!!)

Then I thought there should be wainscoting 

below the tile backsplash.....

Beadboard wainscoting...

Because All the old Victorian houses I ever saw 

had beadboard wainscoting in the kitchen!

I would need to start with the mopboard at the bottom....

Then I found a piece of trim in my piles of stuff 

that was already painted the right color....

 

And was the right length for both the mopboard and the chair rail at the top...!

Once they were glued in place 

I began to cut woodsies to the right length......

And glued them in place between the rails!

The woodsies have enough of a bevel on their edges 

that they mimic the beadboard paneling, 

but they don't actually have a "bead" along the edge. 

These will be barely visible in the end, 

so I am not bothered by that small imperfection.

As for the "Tile" backsplash.....

I took the coaster and trimmed the sides back 

to eliminate the curve at the corners,

And marked the grid of the tiles with a pen.

I then used a ball stylus to press an indentation along the lines....

this is to mimic the grout lines.

Because the coaster is just varnished paper 

I did not want to cut into its surface.

Here you can see the grout lines painted white....

I did spray the surface with varnish between the black marking and the white....

And then again to seal the white too....

I think it looks like perfectly dirty old grout!

Of course, by now it is so late at night 

and the picture is too dark to see well.

But in the morning.....

With the Sun shining in....

I think it looks Perfectly Lovely...

And almost as if it has always been there!

You can even see the "texture" of the individual tiles!

 I am sometimes amazed at how things will 

suddenly come together to make the perfect result...

when I had no idea how it was going to work when I started!

But that was not the only wall I was working on, Dear Readers!

I also decided to wallpaper the inside of the Stairwell 

on the spiral stairs in the Tree House....

And it is a good thing I did! 

Because in the process of making the pattern for the wallpaper....

I discovered I had not yet glued the cardboard wall in place!

It is now glued....

I used the same glittery paper that I used in the Library and the lower stairwell.

I still need to make the window for this door... 

and add the latch and magnet.....

But I think it is just about time to attach the next floor above! 

So I can get going on Those Next Walls, Dear Readers!

Big And Small!