Simply Curious

This is my Christmas present to my grandparents. This kitchen island came with the house, and my grandmother's been wanting it tiled ever since she found out it wasn't a true butcher block surface.

With the right tools, tiling is really very easy. The hardest part was figuring out which pieces needed to be cut to make everything fit. Fortunately, my brother-in-law's best friend owns a tile cutter. (how's that for bizarre relations?) I took the tiles up to my sister's house over the weekend and he cut them for me. Everything fits perfectly! I have to wait 24 hours before I can add the grout, and then I'll be done.

She had asked other relatives to do it, and they all hemmed and hawwed and found excuses not to. She finally complained to me, and, well, you see the results above.
Sometimes, the best gift you can give someone is your time. I have plenty of that to give away.

Oh yeah. Happy Halloween. This year's pumpkin is based on the rare "worth 5 million on the Trading Channel" shocked face pumpkin on the Realm. It was a good, easy face to do, and I get to make jokes about it on Channel 1. The realm graphic was blatantly stolen from Bored's web site.

If you're easily grossed out by medical photos, don't look. If you've put up with me and my braces for the past year and are curious to see what changes have occured, well then, by all means, take a look!

The Willowcrest is now back in the basement, where it was born. It was a high school graduation present, and I spent the following summer and part of the fall down there, putting it together and doing my first kit-bash when I enlarged the kitchen and bathroom. I had just joined my first miniature online group - Small Stuff, I think it was, and had been learning a LOT about different techniques for decorating.

I had wanted a house that looked like the beautiful victorians we drove by on our way to Harrisburg, PA, but with decorated in a contemporary style. It was going to be MY house, no dolls in this one, just stuff that I wanted to own life size. Of course, I dressed a modern doll, and then she took over the house, and both wove themselves into one of my stories. I'm not sure if I've forgiven her yet for that.

My favorite part of the house is the brick facade. The siding that came with the house warped horribly when I painted it, so I smeared wood putty all over the side of the house and drew lines in it to resemble bricks. Then I painted it. I was incredibly pleased with the results.

I wanted a big stained glass window over the tub in the bathroom. The first one was ok, but I wanted a bay window, and had to wait a few years before I felt confident enough to try it. It was only recently that I was finished that section of the house.

I had too many ideas, and only one house. The bedroom turned into a Pool room, and then a study. The attic went from an attic to a guest room to an office to a bedroom to a, well, you get the idea. I feel I'll be much better off sticking to room boxes. For now, I will finish the house, empty. Perhaps give it to my cousins, or to some neighbors. Possibly donate it to charity? Who knows. My other dollhouse will not leave my possession - it means too much to me. There's so much work to be done on it! At least this one has a definite theme! I've only one room completely finished in there - the kitchen. And considering I just stole the kitchen table for the shelf and haven't installed the doors on the bottom of the pantry, it isn't finished after all.

My room looks so bare now. I'm painfully aware that the only things hanging on the wall are a mirror and my Middle Earth Tapestry. I was thinking of using floating shelves to display the dolls I've finished. Now to go and find some . . .