The Ceiling Is On!

When I last blogged, I had canceled my order for the trim and cove, and decided to just go a different route.  (The seller did refund my money, with no explanation for the delay.)  No one else sells the trim I wanted, so I decided to make my own.  I glued two strips of railroad lumber together—one 1/8" x 3/64" and one 1/16" x 3/64".  I didn't have to worry about staining first because I knew I was going to be painting them.  I then used a sanding twig along the edges to round them off.  Not sure how clear it is in the picture below:  the piece in front is shown pre-sanding, and the piece in back has been sanded.  This got me some trim fairly close to what I wanted.  Then I painted them and was ready to begin cutting and gluing.

Because the ceiling projects over the bay window, there is a portion of the slide-in section that forms the nearest edge of the ceiling. Therefore, some of the trim pieces went on the ceiling perimeter (the portion that would be glued down), and some went on the slide-in section.

When the slide-in section is in place, the whole ceiling will look like this:

I know the pictures got a bit washed out, so that you can't see the ceiling paper, but it really is there.

Next, I worked on the cove.  I honestly don't think the wood cove I had ordered would have worked.  Maybe it could have if I had made it part of the walls when first building them, but at this point it would have stuck out from the walls and not looked at all right.  Instead, I decided to paint some card stock.  I started with a light green, figuring the green paint might cover it better than white card stock.

Then I cut strips and curved them carefully around a dowel before gluing them to the three sides of the room.  I had to cut a piece of crown molding to use as a template for cutting the side edges of the strips.  I always have difficulty visualizing how I need to cut them so they'll go together correctly.  My card stock cove was just a bit thicker than the paper border, so I simply added a second layer of the border to even things out.

Then it was time to glue the perimeter of the ceiling in place.

The cove butted nicely up against the trim around the ceiling perimeter.

And, finally, I could glue my larger pictures and my animal heads in place.

With the slide-in section in place:

Next up:  the exterior.  I'm not quite sure what to do with it.  My three options so far are:  1) paint it an unobtrusive color, like black or maybe dark brown; 2) paint it to match the exterior of Sagamore Hill—this would be pewter gray with dark green trim; 3) cover it in a stained and varnished wood veneer.  I'm leaning towards 2 or 3.  Thoughts?

Sagamore Hill Exterior Colors

There are obviously still things to do inside:  curtain on the left-hand window, the remaining rugs, books.  The "short break" I took on the books has turned into quite a long hiatus, and I really need to get back to them, but I'm not sure I'm psychologically ready yet.  😊 It was such a pleasure working on other items for a while.  (Carrie has received her package [yay!], but poor Sam is still waiting on hers, due to a surfeit of holidays in Australia and the general [in]efficiencies of postal services in both countries.)

Enjoy the rest of your week, and happy mini-ing!

Another Wonderful Gift!

This will be the last post where I whine about not receiving my trim materials.  I still haven't received them, but I have come up with an alternative plan of action, which I hope to be able to execute this weekend.  I've canceled my order, but, of course, the seller hasn't responded.  I used PayPal to pay, so I will need to look into how to get my money back.  *sigh*

On the good news front, I got another wonderful gift!  Carrie of It's the Little Things in Life had purchased some dress forms that were advertised as 1:12 scale but, when she received them, clearly were not.  (The seller had put them on a tall pole, but that didn't change the dimensions of the forms themselves.)  She offered to send them to me, as she couldn't use them.  But she didn't just send them—she dressed one of them!  She made the most beautiful white silk and lace wedding gown, complete with veil.

Honestly, the pictures don't do it justice.  It is so lovely, and the back is just exquisite!  Carrie knows how much I love a good bustle.  😊  As you can tell, she removed the tall pole, which apparently was an adventure in and of itself.  I haven't yet decided where it will go.  It may end up in my wall display, or it may go into the Fairfield.  I'm afraid on the wall display, no one will see the back.

Even though it was a gift for my one-year anniversary of the T.R. library (and, unbeknownst to her, it also arrived a few days after a decade-changing birthday), I of course wanted to reciprocate.  I'd had an idea for something for her anyway, and this gave me the impetus I needed to complete it.  Her gifts are on their way, but, naturally, they are a surprise, so no information here.  😉

Hope you all have a great mini weekend, and I hope to have a post showing progress on the library next week!

A One-Year Anniversary and Some Slippers for Mr. Roosevelt

It has been one year since I made the first piece of furniture for the Roosevelt library.  As I suspected would be the case, the project has taken a full year, and I'm not quite done yet.  For one thing, I am still waiting for the materials to finish the ceiling.  I am about to cancel the order and go elsewhere.  *sigh*

Fortunately, during this period of downtime and just before last weekend (not this past one), I got an inspiration for a thank you gift for Sam.  Unfortunately, I can't post pictures of what I worked on without ruining the surprise.  I will say that I am very happy with the way things turned out.  The gift is something I've assembled.  Most items I've made, a couple of items I had to purchase (although I then modified them), and I'm even including something from my childhood dollhouse.  And those are all the teasers you're going to get.  😉

Last week was a difficult week at work, and this past weekend was busy with other non-mini events, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.  I did get the paper on the ceiling.  When the ceiling is off, I'm not super happy with the fact that you can see seams where I had to piece.  However, when it's in place, you really don't see them, so I'm good with it.

Also, Sam's gift reminded me that I have put shoes and/or slippers in nearly every build I've done, but I had nothing for this one.  There are no shoes or slippers in any of the pictures I've seen, but I decided to take some of the leftover leather from the brown chair and make a little pair of men's slippers.  I will put them under the desk.  That way, when Mr. Roosevelt is hard at work on government business, he can take off his shoes and slip on more comfortable footwear.  😊

To round things out, I thought I'd post some pictures of Sam's gifts in situ.  The ship is in Jim's study.  I had a ship in there, because I really wanted Jim to have a model ship, but it was a metal mini that I had painted and didn't look nearly as nice as this one does.  The new one looks right at home.

The purse is on the kitchen counter.  I have a feeling that when Margot comes back from shopping, that is exactly where the purse ends up.  

Once I had it in place, it became glaringly obvious that I needed a set of keys next to it.  So I purchased some little 1:24 laser-cut keys off eBay.  The key chain is simply gold thread and yet another bit of fingernail art.

The shoes are in the bedroom, on the bed for now.  That is where my new shoes end up when I first bring them home.  They may move to another location at some future date, but for now I like them in their box.

And that's it.  Hope you all have a great week, and thanks for stopping by!