Thursday,
April 8, 2004
Aaaaaaand it's the weekend!
For me, anyway -- the company has Good Friday as a holiday, so I have a three-day weekend coming up. Whee!
Mainly
because tonight, I start the dollhouse. The house is a Duracraft Brookfield,
as shown at left, and, quite frankly, it's a piece of poo as is -- lots and
lots of clunky gingerbread, ugly door and window trim, the usual with these
1/8 plywood houses. So I've decided to trash all of that nasty trim and substitute
my own.
Since it's going to be a quilt shop, I'm replacing the double window on the lower right side with a large picture window suitable for displaying finished quilts and other goods -- I might extend it as a box window, I don't know. The other windows will be replaced with two-pane working windows, and I'm adding some Victorian framing and decoration to them. I've already bought all the new gingerbread trim I need (the scrapbooking craze has produced some marvelous stuff that's perfect for miniatures). The exterior walls will be finished with clapboard, and I'm painting it in shades of green with ice blue accents, since it's going to be a Painted Lady Victorian cottage.
The interior downstairs will be painted in country shades of cream and teal, with wainscotting and a subdued paint job so that the quilts on the walls stand out. The upstairs will be done in light neutrals, the better to see (and sew) by. I already have an old-fashioned sewing machine, dressmaker's dummy and other sewing accoutrements, so those can be installed upstairs, and for downstairs I'll need to make display cases, stands for fabric and perhaps a demonstration area. Windows will be framed with white lace curtains, and I'll see about making some miniature quilts in the next few months.
I'll have to see if I can hunt down some nice sewing-related pictures for the decorations, then I'll build a hanging sign for the front door. I was thinking of calling the shop "Sew Lovely" -- too twee or what? Oh, and I'm also going to wire the inside for electricity, the first time I've done this for a house. This should be interesting.
Anyway, I have the box open on the kitchen table and the cats are starting to investigate, so I think I'll get started. Night, all!