Enjoying some spring weather and the Shapeways Contest entries

Enjoying the spring weather on the balcony of Waterside Way and viewing all the Shapeways Contest entries at Modern Mini Houses - all so inspiring!

Happy Easter!

I started putting up some Easter decorations on 1,2, & 3 Waterside Way.  Here is a beautiful Easter wreath created by Small Comforts.  I bought it at the Shelly Norris show a few weekends ago, and luckily it arrived in time.   And then I drilled a hole next to the door and added a little post to hang the wreath. 

The little girl is sitting waiting (with her Easter bonnet on) while her parents are preparing for an Easter picnic outside on the roof terrace.  (My daughter put this scene on the couch together.)  I made the little wooden basket last year with coffee stirrers, and the handle is from those paper paint color samples.   I made the little purple bowl with the white bunny attached this year from FIMO clay.

Here is an Easter picnic on the roof of Waterside Way.  The occupants are still waiting for a landscape architect to show up to design the rooftop garden - as am I :).

And here is a closeup of my Easter egg bunny bowl.  The idea for it was inspired by Hannah Roet's post on making little bunnies for an Easter tree: http://hannahroet.blogspot.com/

(not that they look anything like her Easter bunnies).

Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

Malibu House - Progress on the Bathroom - Making the Shower Stall

I am making progress on the Malibu dollhouse bathroom.  I painted the one wall and cut the tile floor and shower wall tile.  Not that the white tile floor is actually lying down completely flat on the floor.  It keeps popping up, and of course, I am scared to cut too much off and have gaps.  I might have to start measuring it and stop my "eyeballing" approach.  

And I made the shower stall!  That was a bit easier than expected.

I bought 2 sheets of plexiglass, the plasticutter, and recommended Omnisticks glue from HBS/Miniatures.com. And with my safety glasses on, I scored the plastic with the plasticutter, then snapped it, and I was happily surprised when that worked.  Then I glued it together with the Omnistick glue, using a magnetic gluing jig to hold it in place.

Now I have to paint the window frames and glue those in place and actually fix and glue down the "tile."  (I still kind of prefer the wood floor in the bathroom, so that may be my last step.)  I also need to fashion some shelf to hold toiletries in the shower.  I looked at various blogs for how to make toiletries, but it looked very complicated, so then I bought some on Etsy.

The Goods: washing machine is Miele and the shower base/tray, towel rack, toilet and rug is from Dolls House Emporium.   The little bath mat is from HBS/Miniatures.com and the chair is Reac.

Shopping at the Shelly Norris Online Miniature Show

I have spent the weekend checking out at the Shelly Norris Online Miniature Show - in my pajamas.

Here is the link: aminiminiatureshow.weebly.com

And you can sign up for a door prize, so that alone is worth the visit.  It ends today, though.  

There are 75 dealers from 11 countries.  It's fun to see all the creativity displayed at the various tables.

Last year I bought the red haired doll in my St. Patrick's Day Post from Paola y Sara.  If you like dolls or fashion, I recommend checking out her "table."  She has costumed dolls starting from ancient times to modern day. I find it so interesting to see all the changes in fashion.   I also bought this doll, but she is from the Tudor time period, so I haven't used her in the scene, although she 's helping out reception at the hotel right now.  Clearly I will have to have a costume party soon.

And then last year, I also bought these items from Maru Coll:

Happy Sunday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And my green sock sweater comes in handy again!

Cooking dinner back at the cabin after skiing (with all new sweaters)

We have been spending weekends skiing and staying in very small cabins upstate, so here is a dollhouse version.

They are making a spaghetti dinner (after a fun day of skiing) and one has just come back from shopping for more food.

The red and black pillow is made from a sock and the coffee table is Minimodernista.   The picture in the back was from the Bellabox gift from The Shopping Sherpa.   The red haired doll is from Paola of  Paola and Sara's dolls (bought at the Shelly Norris online show this past summer).

I made a Marimekko food container inspired by Kikka's blog and her new dollhouse. I have to make some smaller versions.

 And then because my children want a dollhouse pet store, I also made a dog bed - based on an how-to article on Dollhouse Miniatures magazine (July/August 2013 - Issue 34).  The frame is made out of cardboard and the soft grey part is the bottom of an athletic sock.

Everyone is wearing their new sweaters - which I made based on an how-to article in the American Miniaturist magazine - January 2015 issue.  The sweaters are made from socks.  Luckily, my kids had some bright color socks they had outgrown.

Here's to late nights of good conversations (and maybe next year my dollhouse people will get their own socks)!  

Malibu House Third Floor - Bathroom in Progress

So I have started to work on the third floor of the Malibu dollhouse by thinking about how to set up the bathroom.  When I bought this dollhouse (about 4 years ago), I planned to copy what Dolls House Emporium had done for its bathroom.   But now I have changed my mind.  I started looking at Elf Miniatures to be inspired by their bathrooms and I got very excited about creating a walk-in shower.  Then I put all the bathroom furniture that I have into the bathroom space, and it seems like there isn't enough room!  Which boggles my mind, given that this dollhouse bathroom is probably the size of my real bedroom and much bigger than our real bathroom.  I am thinking about painting turquoise the sliding wall with windows - because turquoise seems kind of appropriate for a Malibu dollhouse ( which is why there is a washcloth draped over that wall).

And potentially greenish tiles for the shower:

I also can't decide if I should tile the floor.

I took the rug and the washcloth to my local paint shop for color samples.  And the very kind lady helping me match color samples did not question why I was trying to match colors on a dollhouse rug :)