Tax Return Shopping Relief & Emerson Row Kitchen

So, this is the ER kitchen so far (no kitchen furniture, sorry!). I cut this paper wonkier than usual, but had left over ceilings, so I used it with the wall and it looks pretty nice. The floor is made from Greenleaf peel and stick tiles. This picture is without flash.

This picture is with flash so it's a little washed out, but it gives you an idea of how the room is shaped. Don't laugh at my window seat cushion, I can't sew! It's just fabric glued to a shape covered by fun foam.

Also, I did my taxes early. Usually, I save half of it and spend the other half on fun stuff. I bought my boyfriend his birthday present (we are going on a mini vacation to a town close by and staying in a nice hotel and going to do funny, cheesy touristy stuff). Also, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Manor House Miniatures.

I ordered 2 ReacJapan chairs (she has really good prices on these, too, and 2.95 shipping on any size order, so if you find ones you like, it's a lot cheaper than bidding on Ebay and paying like 12.50 shipping per item), 2 unfinished wood pieces for the Emerson Row, and a bunch of fun little things, like milk and juice containers and cakes (I always order a cake, even if I've started making my own) and little vases and all kinds of things for the kitchen.

Here is a closer view of some of the stuff... I love the little teaspoons and bundt pans. The beer tankards are for my dream of having a sweet bar in the Georgetown.

Also, there were grab bags up for offer, at 7.99 a pop. I ordered 3, and though they were kind of hit or miss, there were some fun surprises.

This one came it a bunch of little things. I like the books (who can't use some more mini books?), the brooms, and the little silver angels.

This one came with some nice cut out printie type things, which I've mostly put together and some sponge brushes, which are always useful. I also really like the holiday decorations, the stack of newspapers, and the head statue thing.

This bag had a bunch of curtains and a bedding set in it. I have been trying to get my mom into minis and have been toying with the idea of starting her a house... these things could be saved for that. I like the lamp.

Every one of these came with lady bugs and a bunch of Dollshouse Emporium plates. I'm wondering if I can paint over the designs on the plates somehow... that way I can use them. Also every bag came with a little kitten and Halloween puzzle. Weird. All in all, they were fun.

Emerson Row Progress (kind of) & More Kits

Here is where the Emerson Row is right now: the roof is finally on! My boyfriend said tonight that it is finally starting to look like something resembling a house :( but I think he just gets upset because 1. I'm so messy and 2. I get engrossed when I'm in the dollhouse zone and kind of ignore him. Hey, he gets the same way when his Wii or the Steelers are involved.
The roof will be shingled, sometime hopefully in the next year, and there is trim getting ready for the eaves. There are also bits of stairs somewhere in the lving room.

I love the paperclay foundation, especially now that it is painted. It was easy and cheap to do. All you have to do if you would like something like this is roll out some paperclay, carve it in your shape, beat it up a little bit with bristles or anything to give it some texture, and let it dry. I roll it onto the house directly, but put a thin layer of tacky glue on first.

The painting job was achieved by mixing 50/50 cheap acrylic and water. I used 3 washes, a darker brown, a lighter brown, and a grey.

This will be a bedroom. I know the pattern is big, but it is kind of cool and modern, get girly. There will be trim to cover up my poor cutting skills.

This will be the office/ den sort of area. I think I might carpet it.

Here are some recent kit boxes from Ebay.

The mirror, however, is a lost cause (b/c I broke all of the fancy trim... now it will be just a plain mirror.)

Here are the lyre back chairs, the sideboard, the bedstand, and a footstool (came in a group lot, and it is so easy to build, so I kept it.) The handles are glued on clearance beads.

Sorry for being so long winded tonight!

Coffee Shop Additions

Last time I could drag my boyfriend to take me to the craft store, I found these cute little wooden chalk boards in the wood craft aisle for about $2 for a pack of three. They are perfect for menu chalk boards for the coffee shop! I just wrote really small with a white Prismacolor pencil and voila, menus for the coffee shop. Super cheap, easy, and cute.


Here they are hanging in the coffee shop, along with some cool coffee shop stickers I found when I was buying stuff online. They were on sale! Also, in this picture, I made the apples on the counter.

Just a view of the front currently!

Here is another nice view of the coffee shop. Next time I'm working on it, I'll take some better pictures of the pastries in the counters. Now, I'm just trying some small cafe style tables. And a fridge that fits in.

More Kit Goodness!

Oh, Ebay...

Oh, well... at least these kits were bargains, and for the most part super fun. I think they turned out to be pretty unique. It would have been pretty cool if they continued to make these in all sorts of styles (modern kits would be pretty sweet). I have 6 more kits on the way.

Below is a line up of: the Houseworks kitchen cabinet (from the HBS catalog, it is the sink/stove unit with a different sink in it and a counterop made of natural stone looking scrapbook paper), the tilt-top table kit, the something cabinet or cupboard kit, and the half circle table kit from before. This room will one day be the kitchen by the way, I love this wallpaper so much (40% off a whole book of paper from Michaels with coupon!)

This is the triple tiered server thing and the wing chair. The chair was a pain, but it looks ok. I think the server will be cool in the office, with all sorts of supplies on it.

Close up of bathroom cabinet.

Close up of wallpaper/ half moon table.

These kits were some sort of side chairs and some sort of tea table (maybe?) kit.

I love the couch! Cheap fabric, cheap couch, and I didn't F it up really! The footstool is another kit.

This is a shop sign kit from HBS for the coffee shop. It is decorated with some cool coffee neon stickers I found.
Lastly, not a kit, but here are some pillows I attempted to make from scraps and ribbon, and some curtains and the window seat I made. All in all I think most of these came out pretty girly and fun!

House of Miniatures Kit attempt #1

So, last weekend it snowed alot... so I shopped on Ebay.

I won this kit for like $3. It's kind of traditional for my liking, but for a bohemian chic house, it could work.

It was super easy to build and only needed sandpaper, glue, and paint.


I painted the first coat cream, then added crackle medium, and then a light coat of aqua paint. After the crackle finsihed, I sanded to make it look more aged and went over the whole thing with a thin wash of brown paint to dirty it up a bit. After that all dried, I applied some matte Modge Podge and Voila! Once again, due to my sucktastic picture taking, you don't really get the details, but it looks great and I'd recommend these kits to anyone (you can always find some on Ebay).

Polymer Clay Miniatures

So, after a really long time, I decided to try polymer clay again... I've been reading a bunch of tutorials and stuff, and here is what I came up with.

Not perfect (and my picutre taking sucks) but everythng is pretty identifiable. There's donuts, croissants, cookies, eclairs, bread, cinnamon rolls, some fruit pastries, and some candles. The candles are really cute and were super easy to make. I just rolled some yellow and translucent Premo clay together, formed into a log, cut to about 1/2 inch, squashed a little, and made some thinner rolls for the waxy melty bits. The wick is just black clay rolled really tiny and inserted into a hole in the top. After I baked, I coated in matte sealer. I'm going to make a bunch because I decided that the Emerson Row is going to be bohemian chic.

D.I.Y. ?

January in Pittsburgh has been pretty much full of two things: freezing cold weather and Steeler-mania. For me, of course, this means my boyfriend spends Sundays on the couch drinking beer, and even if he didn't, it's so F'ing cold outside that I just want to stay in here making a mess, gluing tiny little things together while watching the latest and greatest VH1 reality dating show.

Anyway, I've been trying to make the Emerson Row a little more funky, bohemian, and kind of more personal than my Georgetown. I'm trying to make some more stuff or modify stuff that I buy.

So far, this is the living room. The wallpaper is scrapbook paper I bought when I was visiting my parents and the ceiling is one of those common white ones painted with metallic copper paint. I love it so far! I also made the window seat cushion with some fabric I found randomly while looking for ribbon, and some thin batting and cardboard.


This just shows more of the ceilings. I ran out of decent glue so the ceiling lamps are kind of just floating. These ceilings are metallic silver and blackened bronze metallic paint.

I painted this Chrysnbon chair kit cream, then pink with copper accents for the coffee shop. It came out really cute.

I've also been experimenting with printies. The sketch book and the watercolor books have pages with little tiny sketches and paintings on them.

Here are some floors I've been working on for the Emerson, using Greenleaf peel and stick tiles and wood:

And the finsihed wood floor (it looks really cool and old in person, I'd highly recommend these wood strips, they are cheaper than the normal wood flooring sheets and seem more sturdy and versatile)