Second Floor Walls Are Up

Happy autumn, everyone!  Another season changes without much change, but we carry on.  The good news for us is that the fires are largely under control, and the outside air is once again breathable.

I have put up the walls on the second floor of the art deco house.  The process for the curved wall was identical to the one I used on the first floor, so I won’t bore you with the details.  The only difference was that, on the first floor, both ends of the curved wall butted up against a perpendicular wall.  On the second floor, the back wall flows into the curved wall, and there is nothing on the front end of the wall.  It simply ends where the removable panel will be.  To make it more stable, I drilled a hole in my roof and sank a 1/8” x 1/8” post to give the mat board something to attach to.  Here you can see things being glued into place.  Not everything is being glued down in this photo (obviously), but all the pieces are there to make sure everything lines up correctly.  I used some foam core half circles glued to a paper cup to help shape the top of the curved wall as things dried.  

The interior of what will be the bedroom and hall has been papered.  I discovered a very odd thing when printing the wallpaper this time.  Generally, I use high-quality matte presentation paper when printing my wallpaper, because it usually gives a sharper and richer print quality.  To my surprise this time, the print-out was decidedly grayer and more muted than the test piece I had printed on plain paper.  No matter how I fiddled with the settings, the only way to get the color I wanted was to print on plain paper.  Odd, but a good reminder to test things and remember that the paper you use, as well as your print settings, can affect the outcome of home printing.

Before adding the left wall, I made another door, very similar to and using the same process I used for the front door.  For this door, I put in only one diamond pane.  Since it looks into the bedroom/bathroom area, I thought the door should provide a bit more privacy.  😊 

You probably noticed that the desk is still there.  In accordance with many of your recommendations, I have been letting it sit to decide if I can live with it.  I think I can, actually.  The only thing is, I will have to make the chair for it myself.  Standard 1:24 chairs will make the extra height a little too obvious.

I have been making some accessories for it.  

The non-working lamp is made from wire, a bit of wood dowel, and a couple of beads.  The larger bead is metal, and I was unable to cut it down, so I filed it (and filed it and filed it) to get a less rounded shape.  

The cover of the journal is made from mulberry paper with a coat of Mod Podge.  I really do like the leather-like look that it gives; I used it years ago on the steam punk books I made for the tower room of the Fairfield.  The small Ephraim-Faience-style vase is a squat bead painted and decorated with some paper flowers, all given a coat of satin varnish.  The little leather books were a gift in a swap a few years ago, and are small enough to fit the shelf.  (Yay!)

Speaking of swaps, I blogged about the swap items I sent back in August.  A couple of weeks ago, I received my own swap gifts.  They are from the very talented Melissa of My Dollhouse Passion.  She is a polymer clay artist (and has a store on Etsy), and you can imagine how excited I was to be her recipient, since my own skills with polymer clay are sadly lacking.  She sent a turkey, a gourd, an incredible little salad, and a yummy traditional fry-up.  

The gourd and fry-up are already in the Fairfield, and the salad is making that mac-and-cheese lunch in the Merrimack a bit healthier.  😊 

She also sent a goblet (which will get painted), a canning jar (which will get filled before going into the pantry of the Fairfield), and a lovely picture frame.  I love how delicate it is; many frames are so thick they don’t look quite right in half scale.  A week or so ago, my better half returned from a trip to the local Daiso with several packets of nail art stickers, one set of which reminded me instantly of pressed flowers.  

I had to make them into a little bit of art work for that frame, and it’s now hanging happily in the bedroom of the bungalow.  

Last but not least, Melissa sent me a plant stand and a vintage chair.  

The chair is absolutely perfect in the living room of the Fairfield.  

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but the trim of the chair exactly matches the burgundy thread used in the rug.  All together, a wonderful swap gift. 

On the non-miniature but still crafting front, we realized that October 31 falls on a Saturday this year, so decided to turn our regular game day into a Halloween party.  Back at the start of shelter-in-place, my company was still using WebEx, which has no virtual background feature.  Since my office and craft room share space, I bought a room divider very similar to this to hide the messy craft desk.  I loved it because it was easy to set up, and I got to dress it up a bit with books and fake plants.  I don’t really need to use it for work anymore (we’ve switched to Teams, which does have virtual backgrounds), but it can still come in handy on occasion.  Our meetings with friends and family are on Zoom, and Zoom doesn’t do well with virtual backgrounds when there are two people in frame.  (One or the other of us has a tendency to disappear.)  My plan is to decorate it like crazy for the party, but my challenge is to make all the decorations myself, using only things from my stash and free patterns and directions I can find online.  I’ve been crocheting, knitting and crafting for, well, decades now, so I have a pretty substantial stash, and the beauty of this project is that it also reduces that stash some.  Since friends read this blog, I’ll have to wait until after Halloween to show you how I did.  🎃  Stay tuned.  

Take care and stay safe!