Taking them for Granite!

 I have decided that this house will be for the transferring couple you met. It is the house with the  Shiny floors. :-)

I recently bought a what I felt were cute kitchen counters. There was something about them that just didn't seem up-to-date. While I was re-arranging my paints and finishes for the upteenth time, I came across something called Granite Stone. I had no idea why I was buying it when I did. But then, do I ever? LOL I also bought two other types of finishes by the same company.

I can't wait to try the others!

 Any hoo, I tried a little on the counters and I like how they turned out. They look a bit rough and most granite counters are somewhat smooth. So, after they dry, I think I will pull out my trusty polyurethane and see how that works. There is also a refrigerator and stove to match. I plan on painting them with the same paint.

The only problem I came across is the paint on the sink. I wanted it to look like stainless steel. Instead it looks gloppy. (thick and sloppy for my friends from outside the US). I used a silver Sharpie and several different paints trying to get the right effect before I ended up with these results.

I plan to put a soap dish or something between the faucets because it looks worse and worse the more
I try to fix it.

Now wouldn't you take them for granite?

Here is what the original finished looked like

I loved the finish before I added the chrome finish on the sink

That white just didn't work with the granite

Yuk! Maybe I will wait till it dries and sand it again then add a better coat

Before and after finish showing the product I used

Another before and after view. The granite color is more accurate in the above photos

This is the final paint I used for the sink. Don't ask. The label is missing lol

Corner section redone

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Hello Africa!

 

GREAT NEWS! 

Mini Jazzi is on her way to Africa!  Please read what Molly wrote: 

Molly writes on 14th June... "I leave for Africa - Safari Serengeti/Tanzania on Thursday, June  20....Wait til MJ meets up with our miniaturist pals in the shadow of Kilimanjaro! (edited)


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A New Beginning

Here is one of the families who will live in town. As yet, their names aren't solid and neither is the name of the town. The woman is a nurse who will be working as a nurse practitioner in a new state of the art hospital   there. The man works for the Army Corp of Engineers. After several years, he finally nabbed a job in the town where her sister lives. It is the town where her family originated. Her mom and dad also will be returning to their home town in a few months. As yet, they have no children.

Her) Ok, so it is really happening! We are making the move! I am excited and nervous at the same time.

Him) Don't worry things will work out fine. What about your new job? I know you have to be looking forward to working at that new state of the art hospital. Not to mention the new position and more money.

Her) Yes, but I am going to miss everyone here, sigh, but then it will be nice to be near my sister and her family.  It has been so long since our family moved away from there. By the time mom and dad move back home, we will be one close family again with all of the cousins and other family already there.

Him) Let's just take it one day at a time.

Her) Relaxing...smiling...ok

Hmmm now what will Gladys Bell Haversham have to do with them? Hmmmmm




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Who's That Lady?

 There she is again! She seemed like a figment of everyone's imagination.. Never in the full line of view. Like a grain of sand in the corner of an eye, a blink would make her disappear.

Her name is Gladys Bell Haversham. It is a composite of three women. Gladys was the nosy neighbor on Bewitched. Bell is the name I once gave an very nosy, trouble making and intrusive neighbor who I nicknamed Nosybell. She actually watched my house to see which bedroom I slept in. She also took packages from my porch. My precious dolly stuff! On another occasion she told me she bought binoculars! On and on... Miss Haversham is from the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  She is a woman who is stuck in time. Hence Gladys Bell's outfit.

Gladys Kravitz

                                                                             

                                                                              I love that character! LOL

 

You may have to play twice for better viewing

My nosy neighbor

                                                                                                   

Miss Haversham

Stay tuned to meet the more cordial residents...

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How It All Started-And Now A New Start

A toast to Gypsy

 If you look at my bio, you will read that I had not been active in doll-housing in many, many years. When I got two little granddaughters within a year, dollhouses came back into my life. It started with one of the regular shoppers in a thrift shop I frequented. All of the regulars got to know one another, which made it really fun shopping there. One day I got a call from one of them to hurry and come to the thrift shop! There was a beautiful Victorian dollhouse that needed a little loving care. That would be perfect for my grands.

I rushed over there to see then buy the first dollhouse I owned in over ten years. (she actually walked around with it in her cart until I got there (LOL) The last house was one my daughters and I decorated with store bought items. It met its demise when we came home from a day of fun to find the cat had destroyed it. We never got another one.

Now, I was buying one for the future when my grand-girls would be a little older. Eventually, the time approached when I needed to pull out the house and begin the fun with the girls. It was about that time that a friend I never met told me how she was a Barbie fanatic. We met when we frequented the same "old school chat room."  I learned all about scale and other particulars of the mini hobby from her. We became a pair of dolly fanatics. She had insomnia and a few other ailments. I was just bored being newly retired. Some nights we would instant message each other until the wee hours. Websites and pictures of mini items flew from her computer to mine and mine to hers. We laughed, disagreed, swapped ideas, pictures of our goodies and generally had a fun time.

After about a year and a half. I got the news. Someone in the chat-room shared that my friend had died of a heart attack. It explained why she was not responding to my emails. That was March, 2011. Gypsy has left a legacy or should I say a passion of mini play in my heart. I took off about a year before I could really get back into it again without her.

Since then, I have met so many really wonderful miniaturists and fashion doll friends online and off.

The purpose of bigandlittlecreations.blogspot.com was to present a 1:12 version of the really neat 1:6 doll dramas we used to enjoy. We talked about how I wanted my dolls to be glamorous like those diva fashion dolls with lives and humor that we used to giggle about.

Well, here is my attempt at that...

Here's to you Gypsy! Miss you and hope there is an Ebay in heaven! :-D

Who is that peeping out of the window?

More about her in the next post!

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Latest goodies

 When you work with minis it almost seems your eyeballs become smaller. Or maybe it is your brain. At any rate when my eyes saw this my mind said...O-O-O-O look at the bookshelf/wall unit! It is actually a printer's draw. No, not the kind you plug in,but the person who used to print newspapers and things with a machine. One end has an easily removable handle and is just the right size for a mini scene. I put some of my magazines in it to show the scale. It is also compared with a standard commercial dollhouse bookshelf I bought on eBay.

I love the various size shelves

There is one screw on either side of the handle. I am sure I will find a use for that too lol

The smaller one does not cover a whole wall. The larger one can be a whole wall lol

Speaking of magazines...here is another one I made

Interior two pages of same magazine

These folks are just hanging out and deciding on what kind of room this will be.

I thought this would be a cute store front once the back is taken off...and used for something else of course.  This is to show the size compared to the  other box.

As  you can see the racks are the length of the walls in the larger box.  A store maybe? The little red house is somewhere between a large dog house and a child's playhouse. 

 Some of the cashiers at the thrift shop I bought these in just can't figure out what I am doing with all of this stuff. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason for the things I buy. One day I will explain. LOL

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Read All About It!

Hi everyone. Just wanted to let  you know I am thinking of you. My computer has been compromised with a virus and acting really out of whack!

 We are working on getting it cleaned up and getting some treats ready for you in the meantime for when I come back, which will be very soon!

Here is a peek at some of what  I am working on. I thought I would make some books and magazines. The magazines have a cover, back and two inside pages.  They are very time consuming, but I am happy with them. I have made many titles and a large assortment and they will also be available in my Etsy store in 1:6 and 1:12 sizes.

SEE YA SOON!

Here are a few of the covers!

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Floored

Everytime I would pass this particular house I liked looking at the hardwood floors. I would think,"they just need a little luster.  One day out came the polyurethane and brush in hand I painted one room on the first floor.  Most of the time I hear from hobbyists, "sand between several coats!" The first floor was sanded between each of the three layers.
I just used three coats of polyurethane without sanding on the remainder of the house and there is not a visible difference. The window frames and stairs got a few swishes also.
Check out the shine!

I hope you can see the shine

If you look closely you can see how the floor reflects on the ceiling in the attic

Compare the shine to the picture below



Before-Only the floor on the lower left had a coat of polyurethane

                                                                         

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Meats, Eats, and Treats

Some of my fellow bloggers have asked me to show some of the foods I have made in the past. I hesitate because I know I need to practice more using polymerclay.  I put polymer clay food making down for a while. Now, I think I will pick it up again due to the encouragement I have been getting. I still need practice, practice practice!

Oh, and I couldn't find the meat I made. When I  find it I promise to share. Hey, whats that smell! (Is that rotting clay meat?)
My dolls better not bite into the cookies.They are about three years old! The two  dishes in the background hold candy. These came out really cute back then. I will definately remake some.
This breakfast food was made and shot last summer.

I really liked the way these looked, but close ups didn't do them justice.
 I will try again soon.



Some of the cookies have gone missing. I will use these for my houses.



Here is a little something I made a few days ago. Ice cream sandwiches!

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Pony Room Update

Just wanted to update you on the kids rooms in the big house. I mixed the paint for the walls in the girls room.  The color is much prettier than you can see here. Lighting can be really tricky inside of these little rooms. I tried several techniques, but still did not get it right.

I got a bit of white paint on the walls then tried to blend it in. YUK! Also, the brush bristles  left things a bit streaky. I had to mix a whole new batch to even things out. Lesson learned: mix much more paint than  you need.

The carpet is installed and the window treatments are on their way.There will also be working lighting in there. The pillows are from my stash which come from a variety of sources.

My friend Bill tried to teach me to cut moulding, but I think I need another lesson. I really want to have nice crown moulding in all of the rooms. Window and door framing will also give it a nice finished look. I am working on those. I want her to have a door to her room. After all little girls need their privacy!

 My stash also has lots of cute knick-knacks and wall accessories to go around and I can't wait to get them in there!


With the exception of the paint faux pas, I am pretty satisfied so far




Wall repainted, but still wet. Touch-ups after door and windows completed.

UP-UPDATE!

I can't help it. When I get a mini idea I have to act on it immediately even if it is out of order. Hence the bed canopies. I think they will look even better once the window treatment gets up. Normally, the curtains would go up first, but I just had to see how this would look. The wall was still  wet. LOL



I think the canopies really add to the room.



Sheets are clearly needed. LOL

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Mini Jazzi takes the US!

Hi all,

Mini Jazzi is still traveling all over the world! She was in the U.S. and visited a few states with Iamazing. Her destination was the Tom Bishop International Doll show in Chicago. However, she enjoyed the journey as well.



Check out MJ on her trip!


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Sweet Dreams...Clowns and Ponies

Here are a couple of rooms from the big house I bought a few months ago. I want the family to appear rather wealthy, because the house is so big. The wallpaper is actually 1:1 trim.

The boys' room belongs to a set of five-year old twin boys. I dug in my stash and came up with the circus theme. I have shelving and other things waiting to be added.

The girl's room belongs to their nine year old sister who loves My Little Pony. The little pony was also already in my stash! The My Little Pony theme seemed just right for the little girl in the family and a sleepover friend. I am still searching in my goodies for just the right carpeting and fabric for pillows. The comforters are a Barbie sized cut in two. As soon as I cut the wallpaper from around the windows and I find the right fabric, I will make the curtains. I am thinking of perhaps the pink I already have. It is cotton and I am not sure it will match up with the "satin" bedding.



Bedding and curtains are on the way!



Just as I was snapping this the picture moved. LOL

I couldn't believe the match to the wallpaper!

On the hunt for other matching mini My Little Pony stuff.

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They Will

In my treasure trove shopping, I often pick up things just because they look cool. Other times I get a whole scene in my head. This was a combination of both. It looked to me to be a reception hall for weddings and such. I thought the couple looked like the father-daughter dance at a reception so I paired them. I believe it is a Bratz house. I was too lazy busy to go out to the duplex studio to double check.

The "chariot" was painted black with intentions of adding gold trim as a gift for a fashion doll's wedding last year. I never finished it and of course never sent it, so I never mentioned it LOL.  It can be used by a fashion or 1:12 doll.

Now, I think I will paint it white with gold trim to match this scene. What do you think about that? Black and gold or white and gold?

I have several ideas to add. This is of course part of the growing neighborhood!

The reception hall and outdoor accents

Please excuse the man at the bar during the father-daughter dance.
He is one of those cousins we all have.

This is the back or front depending on how you look at it. :-)
I would like to paint it, but it has so many details it feels daunting.



The outdoor gazebo for pictures.

Partial view of the chariot.

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