Back online.

I haven't been able to post any of my progress for awhile. Our internet provider has been having some issues and internet access has been a bit hit and miss for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully all is good again now.

I have still been working away and here's a little of what I've been up to.

I managed to get wallpaper up in both rooms. I had a lot of hair pulling moments while doing this. Finding the method that would work for me took hours! Searching online didn't help much because it seems every one has different ideas on the best way to get the job done. I live in Australia and there are exactly zero doll house stores near me. We have a grand total of one craft store and they don't carry doll house supplies (they are a 2 bus journey from my house) so many of the recommended products simply aren't an option for me. After much trial and error (at 3am) I decided to try glue stick. It worked! Of course hanging wall paper while sleep deprived resulted in a less than perfect finish at least it was on the wall! Actually most of it was in the bin but some made it to the wall.

I made some ceramic tiles for downstairs and I'm thrilled with how they turned out.

I took a sheet of cardboard and some acrylic paint mixed with gloss finish. Stippled  it in layers all over with a stiff brush until I was happy with the result. Then cut the whole thing into 2cm squares, glued them into place and gave them 2 coats of matte mod podge.

I painted the floor white before I started gluing in hopes that I wouldn't have to grout. I'm happy with the finish. I guess I got back some of the time I lost on the wallpaper saga.

I made some simple window frames and used some recycled plastic from packaging and now I have windows, yay!

I've started on bits and pieces to go inside but I'll leave that for another post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Getting older

I'm feeling better about the way my house is coming along today. Yesterday I felt a little overwhelmed, There seemed to be so much to do in a short space of time and I really don't have anything planned out. I think entering the undersized urbanite is the best thing I could have done. I would probably still be staring at the white shell wondering where to start if I hadn't.

This is what I woke up to today. Grouting done, looking very bright and shiny. I mixed up a dirty water wash and started ageing the brickwork.

Not quite the look I was after. I worked in small sections but the wash dried so fast! I ended up with brickwork hat looked much older than I was aiming for and frankly a bit grimy.

I should have made test sheets. I told myself that before I started anything but do I listen to me? No, I just wanted to get stuck in. Well this is what you get Annji.

It doesn't show in these photos but the wash spoiled the stones on part of the front step. All the subtle colour variations blended together into a flat grey.

So I finished the bricks and left the stones for later. What if I just paint the mortar with a small brush?

I really should have scored the bricks before folding them around the corners. I did with the stones and they look much nicer.

I need to do something to age the stones a little because foundations shouldn't look younger than the rest of the building but I'm much happier with the result.

Something happened while I was painting those tiny spaces. I zoned out. It was a lovely Summer Saturday afternoon and many of my neighbors were outside enjoying the day. I hadn't heard them. I didn't realize until I had finished that children were playing and people were laughing and I had been transported into my own little world (pardon the pun).

This building was always meant to be the first in a village that will some day have the Beacon Hill as its crowning jewel. While I was "away" I saw that village, the buildings and even the people that live there. I now know what is meant to go into this little house and where it should be. I'm so glad the wash aged things more than I had intended. She was meant to be old, much older than I had thought.

I thought I was addicted before, now I know I am. The feeling of sheer bliss I've experienced today creating my little Sweetie is amazing.

Enough of the warm and fuzzy stuff. Just a few more pictures to bring things up to date.

 The roof went back on quite easily. I had to sand a couple of tabs to get things to fit but not much. Smiles to herself.

While the roof was on I marked the walls with pencil and painted the underside with the dirty water wash. 

                                     

I printed out this wall paper for the upstairs room from Small Stuff's PrintMini and gave them a couple of quick coats of clear spray paint to seal them. Now I'm off to search the interwebs to find out if I should stain the shingle before, after or while I apply them to the roof.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

The end of week one....Feels like only yesterday.

Day 7.

I'm a week in and feel like things are moving slowly. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? The deadline seems closer now than it seemed when I started. Never mind, I'm in now so I'll just get on with it. Ready for more of my fabulous photography?

Today I glued the rest of the stones to the chimney, foundation and the front step.

I didn't feel confident enough to tear the stones into shape so I cut them with scissors.

They, surprisingly enough, looked like I'd cut them out with scissors. So I rubbed around the edges with various sizes of ball tools to give them a more rounded and natural look.

I'm quite happy with the effect so far. The colours didn't change or blend when I added the mod podge (I was a little worried about that). Now I have to wait for the mod podge to dry and then the bit I've been looking forward to.... the grout. 

Thanks for looking in. 

In the beginning...

About 2 years ago my daughter showed me a picture of a kitchen. Yeah, so? The next picture was of the same kitchen with a coin to show scale! I'd never seen anything like it. I had only ever thought of doll houses as a child's toy. I sat in front of the computer screen for ages soaking in all the details of this busy little room totally amazed.  I think I spent the rest of the day googling images muttering "look at that!" to myself. A couple of days later (still in front of the computer) my daughter suggested checking out some blogs. "what's a blog?" No kidding there, I really didn't know.  I've been reading several blogs daily ever since.

I had no idea at the time that I had already become an addict.

Then I saw IT, the Beacon Hill! Wow. That's it, that"s the one I want. It's so beautiful, I have to have That one.  Hmmm.... looks like it might be a bit complicated? Back to Google. I read stories about half finished Beacons littering the streets. I watched a series of you tube videos on building one that ended abruptly on day 4! Maybe I should start with something simpler.

At about this time it seemed as though life was about to change for us, there was the possibility of moving to a different city. No point in starting something that I couldn't finish or in buying things that I would only have to pack. Well I could get that one cute little thing right? I mean how much room will be taken up by one little chair, table, sink, stove oooh and that's cute...

So for the last 2 years I packed, unpacked, repacked and finally unpacked my 1:1 house. It was decided in December that we are staying, I've now finished moving back into the house we've lived in for he last 22 years. All the while I was gathering a stash and reading other peoples blogs, getting to know the lovely people who share so much. Learning from their experience.  I feel like I"ve been I've been peeping into other peoples windows (just the mini ones, promise) for long enough and it's time I got started on some work of my own. Time to say Hi, I'm Annejuli. I have no idea what I can or can't do yet but I would love it if you would join me on my road to Beacon Hill..

Step one - The Sugar Plum Cottage.

This picture is of an empty box. Let me explain...  Before opening the box I went out and bought a camera so that I could chronicle every step of my first build. I took about 50 exciting amateur  photos of kit pieces, the same pieces primed, the dry fit, starting to glue the shell together ( including close-ups of the bay window held together held together with approximately 367 bits of blue painters tape) every little thing I had done in the first 2 days. Then I accidentally made a short video of my knees. I'll just delete that....Oh no. I managed to wipe the sd card completely.

I have to admit that really upset me, walk away, breathe. I did the same thing I always do when I need cheering up, turn to blogger. I was browsing through when I noticed something about the undersized urbanite competition and decided to have a look. My spirits were lifted immediately when I saw that there was a category for newbies! I know it's late but I'm going to throw my hat into the ring. I love a challenge and work well with a deadline in other areas of my life, so here goes!

This is how far I got in the first 2 days. Bet you wish you could see all those lost photos, hey? I then spent the next 2 days cutting up egg cartons in little bricks (as per Brae's tutorial at otterine's miniatures) So the start of day 4 looks exactly like the end of day 2.

  The end of day 4 I started laying the bricks.

And finished on day 5

I also got the first coat of paint on. I glued the chimney in place and tossed and turned worrying that I had glued the whole thing to the table, I forgot to lay wax paper down first. It turned out ok. I also painted more egg cartons for the stones that will cover the chimney, the foundation and the front step.

Today is day 6. I started the stone work. I'll post pics tomorrow. It's too dark to take photos up to my brilliant standards this time of night. Now to see if I can post all of this without wiping it. Fingers crossed.