Summertime.....

 

Reruns.....

You Might recall, Dear Readers, that the Lilac beside the Folly door only blooms briefly in the Springtime. The rest of the Summer it is clad all in green and goes largely unremarked as it stands in quiet leafy abundance beside the tiny patio. The morning sunshine fills this corner early on sunny days and often Will and Gabrielle sit outside for a few minutes at the start of their days. 

Their lives are often too busy to linger, 

so they try to grab the minutes they can.

They are often in too much of a hurry

 to stop and notice the little worlds they rush past...

The dew spangled summer spider webs in the bush....

Or to glance down as they step from the porch....

is that a fairy mushroom circle..... 

hiding under the lilac?

 

 Can you see them tucked in under the lilac stems...?

And is that a tiny fairy chair left under the cobwebs....?

Or has the sunlight dazzled our eyes and played tricks....?

But, lo! When a cloud momentarily blocks the sun,

 we can still see the tiny mushroom circle and the abandoned chair...!

But Will and Gabrielle have not noticed at all!

And as for the question, Dear Readers, 

of where the little TV will find a home,

 the answer to me was obvious!

You have not visited Sally May and Chip's house,

 The "Shabby Sister House" for quite some time,

 but I assure you Time has not stood still.

Sally May did a little shopping a while ago.

 She found this charming shelf with storage baskets

 which fit perfectly in her still unfinished living room.

And you can see my first "large" stitched 

petit-point carpet has found its home here.

Chip's folks, Ernie and Blanche, have been

 hanging out here since early in the pandemic... 

they are quite at home by now!

 

 

And if you look in the back corner of the room,

 you will see an old TV set.... 

well, it is supposed to be a TV set!

(This is the only one of my dollhouses to have a TV set!)

 

They only needed to rearrange things

 a little bit for better viewing!

 

Ernie doesn't like to admit how much he likes the old summer reruns!

(Do you even remember Summer Reruns?)

 

Well, Dear Readers, ready or not,

 it is Summertime....

The season of dew spangled spiderwebs,

Fungus fairy circles....

and Re-runs!

 

The Mini TV....

 

And Rhododendron Details....

I Hope you will forgive me, Dear Readers, for not hurrying back with more details about the fascinating Mini TV set. I really have no excuses except that Time Flies! I had to learn how to charge the little beast, and then I had to learn how to scroll through the menu.... but I am gaining in confidence! The cabinet, as near as I can tell, was a ready made item that was modified by the miniaturist (I have no idea who but the lady who was selling had several models to choose from) to hold the magical inner device which is simply a small MP3 player. They provided an uploaded menu of shows and movies.... all old TV standards... Bugs Bunny in "Rabbit Hood" is the one you see here...

 

Well, first, here is a view of the cabinet with the player inside.

And here you can see the player has been turned on...

but it is easier to scroll the menu with the player pulled out...

 

 Here you can see the cartoon has started... 

I can't take photos fast enough....

I know... it is too dark for you to see the inner shelf

 and foam padding that hold the MP3 player in place...

Yeah... it's that Pesky Rabbit up to his tricks!

(I Love Bugs Bunny!)

So that's the secret of the mini TV, Dear Readers,

 I wish I could tell you more about the maker,

 but the Lady (I didn't even take her name!) I got it from had bought "several"

 at one of the larger shows and was retailing at Sturbridge Fair.

And as for Progress on the Rhododendron blossoms... 

it's a slow process!

I am trying to work out an "assembly line" approach.... 

how many to make in a batch, 

how long does it take for each step and so on.

The really time consuming part is the stamen clusters! 

There needs to be five stamens and one pistil for each cluster

The thread needs to be cut and the tip dipped

 in the right color paint and allowed to dry.

Above you can see the start of ten blossoms.... 

the trimmed petals have been glued

 to a stem and the stamens painted.

Once the glue and paint have dried...

 the stamens are glued into bunches

 and the petals are wrapped around the stem

making a blossom shape and glued again.

Then the blossoms have to be painted on the inside and allowed to dry.

And then painted on the outside and allowed to dry.

The best timing, it turns out, is to get this far

 and let the stamen clusters dry overnight!

If you try to assemble them in the blossoms too soon,

 they are vulnerable and don't hold their shape,

 become mushy and fall apart.

 (This is very frustrating, having already 

put so much into each cluster!)

So the next morning....

All that remains to do is add the dark details inside each blossom...

Add glue to the blossom center and fit the stamen clusters in....

carefully shaping the petals around the stamens....

and let them dry.

And then start the next batch for tomorrow....

And then there is the process of assembling the blossoms into the cluster.....

And making and adding the leaves......

All of which is way behind the blossom assembly line.

I have not figured out a method of gluing

 the blossoms together that I like.

But I am working on it!

And building the bushes themselves.

I have a long way to go, Dear Readers...

But that's what makes it interesting!

Figuring out the Details... 

whether of blossoms or bushes or tiny TV's!

 

 

The Sturbridge Fair....

 

Times They Are A Changing....

For a number of Years now, Dear Readers, I have gone to the Sturbridge Miniatures Fair at the beginning of June and come home with an amazing pile of miniature Treasures. There was a brief hiatus due to Covid in 2020, but I have gone almost every year for a decade now. So I set off on Sunday last with high expectations of finding mini marvels to tempt my budget. But it turned out that the Miniatures Fair was no longer being run by the group who used to run it (they retired last year!), and had been sort of absorbed into the concurrent Antique Dolls and Bears Show instead. Well, they said there were some miniatures to be found in there, so having come all that way I went in to see what I could find. I was a bit disappointed to see almost entirely antique bears and dolls.... some remarkably like the ones I had as a child! (Antique!) So I prowled carefully and did find a few spots that had old estate sale caches of minis. Some furniture and lots of bric-a-brac. The pieces of antique furniture were about the only thing worth the trouble; they were relatively cheap, and I bought some nice pieces. The secretary above has no maker markings on it, and is slightly damaged, but I liked the shape and the doors have a fascinating  faux "glass" that is held together with scotch tape on the back! (Probably just brittle decaying plastic. As you can see it came home with me.

At another spot I found a bunch of pieces made by Shackman 

with the tags and boxes still together!

The woman said they had been in her childhood dollhouse,

 which she no longer had room to keep.

The table and chairs were mine!

As was this dresser, also by Shackman.

And this desk.

Just look at that "piano hinge"!

And here it is open.

The tiny drawers inside are just blanks, 

but the lower ones all open.

(I confess, I remember wanting this furniture when I was young!)

At yet another site I found a mix of old stuff and newer pieces.

An elaborately painted "Venetian" Chair by Bespak.

A lone ceramic pedestal sink....

A lovely elegant antique washstand

 with the marking JPM painted on the underside.

I am not familiar with this and will need to do some research.

It is delicate, well made and in good condition.

A "Petite Princess" grandfather clock!

These were available in my childhood, 

but the scale is not true mini scale.

We were given a few pieces of Petite Princess,

 and I was always put off by the smaller than true scale.

But this clock might find a home somewhere in one of my unfinished projects!

A beautiful cranberry glass teapot....!

Well, there will have to be a home somewhere!

At yet another spot I found a few more current "antique" pieces.

This Art Deco style settee just called to me....

 something about the purple velvet and the bentwood arms....!

And a matching side table too.

And then I spotted this....

A Vintage style TV Cabinet?

(Sorry about the gloomy pictures... 

the weather has been dismal and dark with smoke for days)

And then the lady whose booth it was

 showed me how the TV works...!

Vintage Frank Sinatra anyone???

Or old movies......

This is the movie "It's A Wonderful Life"

Full length....... really mini perfection!

I couldn't believe it!

I still haven't explored the entire menu...

"Lucille Ball", "Sherlock Holmes" ....

"What's my Line".....

As you can see,

 it too, came home with me!

So I went to the Sturbridge Fair, Dear Readers,

And even though I found a few Miniature treasures...

Clearly, the times they are a changing.