Hmmmm... Where Was I........ Going....

The Folly Garden.... Just Begun....

I Suppose I should Not be Surprised, Dear Readers, at the depths of my feelings of disorientation now that I don't have my Lilac Shrub Project to guide my every choice. But I am feeling as though I really have not even Looked at my other Dollhouses for Months..... or even years! How could that be when they are right there.... filling every nook and corner of my house? Well, I am sure you can imagine the Temptation I was fighting every week when I needed to just make another blossom first... or the leaves... the endless leaves.... so I refused to even think about all the other projects which were languishing while I focused on the Lilacs. Really, it was necessary.... I do get distracted.... none of my projects are "finished".... not even close! And the Folly Garden itself is really only just begun!

In case you have forgotten, or never heard in the first place, 

the Lilac is just the mainstay of the "Formal" side of the Garden.

To the right of the porch is the "Wild" Garden....

 which is anchored on the far corner by the Tree House... 

and a small stream running past its roots....

and less formal plantings in the "seasonal pod"

 on the right side of the porch. 

Do you even Remember The Tree House?

No, I didn't abandon it.....

It is still waiting... partly done....

I got distracted by things like Gypsy Caravans, Brick paths, 

lilac bushes..... and a Story or Two....

I suppose if you don't remember The Tree House, Dear Readers, 

I will have to do an entire Post to catch you up....

As far as I got..... years ago.... 

it stands six "stories" tall (the rooms are approximately quarter scale)

 tucked very close to The Folly and it is the home to The Rats....

 well.... I will have to do a post..... there is too much to tell for now....

It looks very strange in its unfinished form... 

eventually the outer surface will be tree-like 

and there will even be some branches.... 

with Leaves..... Seasonal leaves......

There is still a Loooong way to go!

The entrance to the Tree House is tucked into the roots of the Tree.....

But there are hinged access doors all up the side of the Tree...

And there will be a gentle stream flowing along the side of the property at its roots.....

Well... we can Dream... Right?

But Meanwhile.... On Sunday I caught the Sun....

Clearly Pointing me to have a Look

 into the windows of The Castle Chapel....

 

Where Father Alban waits Patiently for Inspiration to Strike.....

How Long has he been Waiting....?

Does it even Matter?

He will be ready when Inspiration comes....!

 

And across the room... Hardwick Hall

 stands it all its neglected chaos....

The parts and pieces dropped in mid-project....

Potions left unguarded....

And Dragons nesting in the bed.......

Something will have to be done!

 

But I, Dear Readers, Feel rather like the Little Dreamer.....

Who we last saw looking into the windows

 of the Secret Christmas House.....

And She could Not pull herself away....!

Is she still Lost in those Dreams?

Well, Dear Readers, I will leave you here...

Wondering...

As I am Wondering... Where Was I Going...?

And Which Project will Grab me next...? I cannot say....! 

But Rest assured... The Folly Garden is Barely Begun!

Extending The Framework

The Boring Bits....

It was a Beautiful, sunny, (if Cold!) Saturday morning, Dear Readers, just perfect for photographing the Tree House in its proper position on the base of "The Folly" to give you an idea of the relative scale of this House! And of course, you will want to see it with the doors open and the morning sun shining into the tiny rooms!

 I had Visions of accomplishing great amounts of decorative progress, but Alas, the Fun stuff had to be postponed in order to get the basic Framework of these newest Rooms completed. And here I refer in particular to the Dressing Room! I must confess that this Dressing Room is a complete "After thought" .... After I had decided that the stairs, which on all the other floors of the house were accessed by going Through the room, making it very public, on the Bedroom floor and subsequent floors the stairs would need to be accessed directly from the corridor leaving the Room itself more private. And so where the stairs were in the lower rooms suddenly became an "unused space" on the bedroom floor.... and That was when it occurred to me that I Could make it into a Dressing Room... with it's own little door opening on the other side of the Tree....!!! and so you see what Trouble I have gotten myself into....!

You can see in the above picture, the beginnings of adding the Dressing Room. It was easy enough to extend the floor a little way further than the other floors.... the idea is that there is a "Gnarly bump" on this side of the Tree........ But the difficulty comes in with the necessity of making the Door wall curved! The Hinged side of the door needs to attach to the same structural wooden "post" as all the other doors. But the interior of the room would be too small without the extended "bumped-out" floor... which is curved! So I built a Door with an angled surface.... you can see the beginnings below.....

Of course, I forgot to take a lot of pictures of me cutting and re-cutting and gluing and fitting and swearing when all the pieces fell down for the hundredth time and cutting some more..... 'cause the really hard part was fitting the Framework that the door rests against when closed... the outer edge of the Dressing Room wall....! Which you can sort of see mostly Completed below.... Oh and did I mention that I Found another one of my Marbles!!! It is now the Dressing Room Window!

And here the Dressing Room door is open....

I apologize for the blurry photo... by then it was Quite Late and Dark...!!!

And you must Not look at how rough and uneven my saw cuts are.... !

And another view of the Dressing Room "Bump" from the side.....

And Another view.... see I promised you some Boring Bits!

And since I have Detoured the stairs.... 

I thought I had better show you where they are going up now...

But brace yourself... they are Really rough and un-finished...!

The Plan is that they will twist in a Spiral Staircase up the back corner of the Tree House..... 

Starting off the corridor at the back of the Bedroom.... 

where the stairs come up from the floor below.....

and using the wire at that corner for the anchoring post.....

Of course, it will create a bit of a "bump out" on this corner of the Tree... 

but I will not have to build a Door to access them... 

they will be essentially hidden from sight... 

but I will know they are there!!

As for Progress on the Rest of the Bed Room..... 

I added the window in the wall beside the Fireplace...

And started the Framework for the Bed.... 

Really just so I could figure out the space it needs in this little room...

But Anna Maria had to come along and have a look.....

I think she was imagining something a little more Ornate.....

Perhaps it just needs some Decoration..... Like This!

But meanwhile.... while we are making up our minds....

 

It is good enough to give an idea of how it fits in the Room. 

 And even if we didn't get to any of the Fun Decorative Projects... 

I made good progress on the Boring but necessary 

Extending of the Framework!

New Door, New Floor And More

I LOVE Tiny Hinges!

I Wanted a New Door, Dear Readers, that would be the more Formal Front Door and open into the Main floor of the Tree House, rather than into the below ground Kitchen level. I don't know how it is in your neighborhoods, but around here in New England, people almost Never use their Formal Front Doors! Sometimes they are even nailed shut against the cold Winter Winds and are never opened again! But nevertheless... there IS a Front Door.... and so I wanted one for the Tree House! Figuring out Where it would fit in was a bit tricky and required quite a bit of odd angles and tiny spaces... but I have managed it! It opens at the top of the kitchen stairs into a tiny vestibule off the "Salon" (which is what I am calling the Formal Living Room!) Here below you can see the door and the tiny bit of vestibule flooring....

And here you can see the door from the other side.....

I have made the door handle out of a bit of root.. 

and the end sticks out to act as a lever so I can operate the door from the outside of the house.... !

The tiny vestibule wall is "hung" with a piece of the Unicorn Tapestry.... 

which is Just visible through the door into the Salon....

And the floor of the Salon is made of a marquetry patterned paper.......

Here below you can see the outside of the vestibule wall with the door on the left..... 

and you can see I have started to add the paper mache to the lower level for the roots of the tree...

(I have put a layer of plastic wrap between the damp mache and the wooden floor while I am working...)

More of the paper mache being added to the Kitchen level........

This is not the final shaping of the mache but more of a strengthening base layer.....

And more of the mache layer.... 

this will form a level base for the next floor to attach....

And here you can see the rough framework of the Salon loosely set in place for fitting purposes.... 

nothing is attached yet! You can see the front (opening) wall has a window cut in it....

And I just HAD to add Shutters!!!

These are interior shutters as were common in the eighteenth century around here....

Please forgive my crooked hinges and the ratty edges to the wood... 

But can you Believe there are Hinges that small?!!

See, they open and close!!!!

And here you can see I have added more of the interior wall layers, creating a deep window embrasure.... 

It will eventually be painted, hiding some of the flaws in the wood.... 

and there will be more paneling at the bottom of the wall for wainscoting....

And here you can see the window "glass" panes have been added! 

I used the same technique as before with the painted gold mesh, only this time I used a lighter gray paint and lined the panes up vertically so they would look more like the "sixteen over sixteen" type of colonial window frame which is typical of the elegant older houses in this area.

Here is a view from the outside with the interior shutters partly open....

Meanwhile, for the interior of the Salon I have built a fireplace and mantelpiece in a style I think is sort of "Georgian" what we call "Colonial" over here! It sits on a diagonal wall between the door to the vestibule and an alcove on the left hand wall which is not yet built...... and on the opposite corner there will be an ornamental "Niche" for some statue or elegant china.... whatever I can come up with in such tiny scale!!

Here below you can see the mantelpiece in slightly better detail...

 made of tiny bits of wood and tinier bits of thin cardboard....

And here below you can see the Mirror I will be using.... 

I know it is a bit much... but I will probably tone the gold down a tiny bit.... 

and I think it will do well enough...! 

I also added a "marble" hearth... painted cardboard of course.....

And would you just look at those Tiny Hinges on the door!!!!

Here you can see I have added the painted brickwork to the fireplace...... 

yes, there will be a fire!!!

Here is a slightly closer view of all those painted bricks....!

And here is a view of the "Front" Door from the outside....... 

it will eventually be much more closed in with tree roots....

And an overhead view looking down at the opening wall with the window.... 

this will not be viewable from this angle once the ceiling is in place....! 

But I love how it makes me able to imagine standing at that window looking out at the little brook down below.....

And a view from the "front" where the walls open... two floors tall...

Eventually these opening doors will be covered in paper mache "tree bark" to match the rest...

Oh, and I almost forgot to show you the last Tiny pieces I made for the Kitchen......

I had to make a copper Tea Kettle.... (for how else can one boil water for tea?)

I also made a tiny trivet for it to sit on in the fireplace.....

And here you can see them by the fire......

And there HAD to be A Robins Egg Blue Teapot on the kitchen table.....!

So there you have it...

A New Door, a New Floor and a Whole lot More!