A Little Bit of This...

 

A Little Bit of That....

I Hope You can imagine, Dear Readers, that after three weeks of running around like a Madwoman, turning my house upside down and inside out with scenes and settings and building "stage sets" in every possible available spot and then trying to put everything that was taken out and used back where it belongs....I sort of lose track of what I was doing before the Madness set in! I rely on my photos to remind me of what I was doing and slowly try to get back on track. And yes, I had been making some good progress on the Tree House Nursery and Nanny's Room. I had been working on the bunkbeds and had decided that the window openings needed to be smaller, with a more enclosing and protective feeling to the spaces, so I added a higher wall on both levels.

 

And this is what it now looks like from the inside... yeah, 

it is dark and hard to see! But trust me, 

the window spaces are smaller!

 And they may get smaller still.... we shall see as things develop.

 

Here is another view of the bunkbeds interior.... 

the upper one is longer and the bottom one is shorter

 due to the curvature of the branch opening

 (these are built into the stub of the cut-off tree limb).

 I was intent on getting the beds "made up" 

with mattresses and bedding

 before finishing the windows on the outside.

 And Some of you might recall that many years ago

 I made a lovely mattress for the bed in the Chinoiserie Bedroom... 

well, I still have a few scraps of that "mattress ticking" cloth!

 

I have always thought this looked like 

the old fashioned "mattress ticking" 

that all mattresses used to be made of, 

and have used it for many of the beds in my mini houses. 

So I set about making the little mattresses for the bunk beds...

 

Here is the first one stitched but not turned or stuffed.....

 And again with the stuffing complete!

 

And testing it for fit in the bunkbed! Looks good so far! 

But, I wanted my mattresses to be "tufted" too.... 

 

Like so!

 I know.... you have to look very closely

 to even see the tufting! But it is there!

 

And here is the second one stitched, stuffed and tufted too! 

Yes, I know it is "too big" for the bunkbed platform.... 

but I think that is part of the charm... 

the little ratlings would have a cozy curvy mattress to roll around on!

 (I think it is probable that the youngest ones were on the bottom bunk

 and didn't need as much room as the older ones!)

 

And while I was working on the beds, 

I thought the Nanny's Bed could use a coat of stain... 

I used one of those "stain pens" I had bought recently

 and it worked wonderfully! No drips, splatters or spills! 

It is the Dark Walnut color that was popular in Victorian times.

 

And I suppose it was inevitable, Dear Readers,

 that while I was moving everything around and turning things upside down, 

I would happen to notice a not-quite completed step

 on one of my many other tiny incomplete projects....

 

Because really, it is the spooky season... 

and I would really have hated losing

 these tiny pieces before I had attached them!!! 

Yes, they are window frames for the interior of the Ravenwood..... 

and you might recall I had added extra windows to the attic rooms... 

so there were no frames for them in the kit...

 I had to improvise my own.... 

 

And you can see they have been painted here...

 

And here they have been installed on the left side wing.... 

(and you can see the still incomplete fireplaces also need to be attached....)

 

Here you can see a close-up of the attic room... 

I also added a knee wall to the room below the window

 to make the furnishings fit better.

 

And the window frames for the right side wing.... 

Yes, I was reminded of how much fun awaits me in this tiny house....... 

and the other day as I was out in my garden

 I was tempted to try out the landscaping ideas....

 

 

It was just too tempting...!

 

I have been having trouble deciding how to make

 a "landscape" for this Property... 

and the real world was throwing me some hints...

 

Lady Theodora is very taken with this Property!

(Lady Virginia is not so sure....) 

 

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you will not mind 

me leaving you here... 

Nothing is finished....  and Not much was Done... 

But I managed to have fun with

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That!

 

Ravenwood Exterior....

 

Windows, Siding, Porches and Shingles....

With the basic Shell of the House completed, Dear Readers, It was time to add some of the Exterior artwork. Above you can see the house with the two pull-out sections showing the interior rooms before any of the exterior trims and artwork were added. The Tower rooms are not showing because it lifts out from the top. This does make it a bit awkward to display... but the Tower interiors have some really wonderful features! But first we must complete the exterior of the building, starting with adding the wonderful printed paper siding...

This step always makes me nervous... 

getting glue on the outside of the paper is not a good idea,

 so you have to be careful when applying it.

The fit of the cut out shapes is excellent

 and requires virtually no trimming.

It looks wonderfully worn... I love the color!

And with the side pull-out wall done too!

Then all the delicate window frames are cut from their "motherboard".

The layers need to be glued together, 

and each painted individually...

a slow and delicate process.

I neglected to take pictures...

Here you can see the front door has been attached!

The frame holds the acrylic window in place in the opening.

I have put reflective glitter paper behind the window frames

 on either side of the door. This is because they are not real windows...

and I wanted them to look more reflective and glittery.

If you look carefully at the earlier pictures,

 you will see that the area behind these frames

 was just a blurry gray tone.

I wanted it to glow... glitter.... shine....!

Especially as it will be tucked under the porch....

when we get to that!

Adding the rest of those lovely windows and frames went pretty quickly... 

at least, I forgot to take any progress pictures!

The side pull-outs are finished too.

Here you can see a great comparison

 of my added attic window with the kit version below...

But really, the house is supposed to be weathered and worn...

 maybe I should have roughed up the window frames a bit...

The next step is adding the porches.... 

as with many of these tiny pieces

 they are made of glued together layers

 to achieve a three dimensional decorative relief.

Of course, I forgot to take any pictures

 of the very tiny finicky pieces!

Here the porch roof railings and trims have been added.

 

 

Oh, what a wonderful spooky porch!

 

 

We are almost finished with the exterior details, Dear Readers,

 but the next steps are complicated!

If you look closely at the edges of the roof in the above picture,

 you will see the edge trim pieces have been added.

These are built of several layers glued together,

 cut to the right length and attached along the outer edges of the roof.

 

It was really difficult to understand the directions

 on how and where to apply the trim

 until more than one piece was added... 

they need to abut the correct way on the opening pull-out roofs.

 

But on the Tower roof they abut slightly differently

 because there is no side pull-out.

 

 Laying the shingles was relatively easy.

The guide templates fit perfectly.

Plenty of shingles are supplied!

The first shingled roof is done... 

and you can see how it fits up against the edge trim pieces.

Here I am adding shingles around the Tower window that I added... 

so I needed to fit the template around the window before I added the shingles.

Once you have glued all the shingles to the template,

 you cut the edges back to the opening.

Like this.

Then it slips neatly into place on the Tower,

 between the edge trim pieces!

Doesn't that look as if it were part of the original design?

I did the Pull-out side roofs last.

They had the trickiest edge pieces....

And the fitting was trickier....

Again, the shingles were glued to the template,

 then the window was cut away....

There is a strip of edge trim on both the

 pull-out side and the front roof edge.

Here you can see how they align when the house is all closed.

I must say, Dear Readers,

 with the windows, siding, porches and shingles,

 all the extra little details on this kit

 do make it look wonderfully realistic!

Just a few more little additions are still needed, 

but the Ravenwood Exterior is nearly complete!