NEW BIKE

I'm getting an early birthday present (hopefully Monday)! I ordered this bike last week and I can't wait for it! I found it online for more than half off the original price and I'm excited to get a child seat and go for some rides around the trails here. There's a trail that goes from our house, right downtown that we walked the other day. It will be MUCH quicker on a bike!

I have a couple friends who have bikes as well, so it will be fun to join them on some adventures, as well as being able to bike with Jared, which I'm sure he's pretty thrilled with!

I've been pretty spoiled this birthday as my mom just sent me a birthday present (waiting to open it on Wednesday) even though she already bought me art supplies for my birthday, and I went shopping today and bought some clothes (even got a babysitter)!

MAKING MORE FOOD

Tonight Jared was working, so I thought I'd make a few more miniature food items while I watched TV.

 salmon steaks + lemons

 cinnamon roll

 fish, lemons, herbs + the cutting board

turkey - it looks lonely though

BEFORE + AFTERS

I forgot to put in the before photos. I'll stop posting photos before I'm actually done the room so I don't keep posting a million photos!

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

Bathroom Before:

Today's additions to the bathroom: towels and decor to shelf, robe and bath tub caddy with book.

One section finished. Next section is the dining room and above it, the library/art studio.

BATHROOM PROGRESS (that sounds weird)

Today I worked on the bathroom and got it mostly completed. I just need to add a few decorating things. Sorry for the grainy photos, sometimes I just don't feel like lugging out my big camera which doesn't fit in small spaces like these rooms. The iphone was just so much easier!

 This room is so huge, I'm not sure how to fill it. I added the shelf for towels etc. and hopefully I'll add a towel rack, a bath mat and some artwork.

 I made the toilet paper holder and the thing in the corner will be to store toilet paper rolls on.

 I made it gluing together 2 buttons, a tooth pick and a bead.

 Then I spray painted it.

 Here's a couple of photos of the food actually in the kitchen.

Here's the plate cupboard I made from mat board and hung above the sink.

MINI FOOD

Tonight while Aubrey painted and colored at the table with me, I made some polymer clay food to finish off the dollhouse kitchen. I have watched a few youtube videos on how to make a few things so I gave it a try. I don't have extra money to put into this project so I've been trying to search for any and all online tutorials on how to make anything I possibly can. Surprisingly, there are quite a few!

The next room I will work on is the bathroom. It's a huge room and I don't know how I'm going to fill it, so I'll be doing some more online searching for ideas!

 

 The potatoes were fun and easy. I made the shapes then poked a pin in them and used a utility knife to peel a few scraps of skin off.  You can use chalk to color them but rubbing some chalk on a piece of paper then use a dry paint brush to pick up the chalk dust and brush it on, but the chalk I used was regular chalkboard chalk and once baked was not dark enough so I took some acrylic paint and added more color after they baked.

 Breads: I had a piece of shiny silver scrapbook paper that I made a bread tin out of. I used a pin and sandpaper to create a textured edge on the cut open sides of the baguette.

 I didn't have different color polymer clay, so I just painted it after. I also made the cake stand.

The dough was obviously easy to make. I made the cookie cutter out of the same silver/metallic paper as the bread tin.  I also made a few eggs to add to the baking scene. I'd like to make a flour sack to put under the island, on the shelf and I'll attempt to print a graphic on fabric using freezer paper - we will see how that turns out!

THE LIGHTS ARE IN

I figured out how to wire the dollhouse for lights all by myself. I had some help from online tutorials and the local dollhouse shop was very helpful with any questions I had. It was easier than I had originally thought, I almost scrapped the idea. I'm glad I did it as the little lights are an added help while working on the inside!

Today I finished the kitchen. I just have to put up a shelf molding on the walls where the wall paper meets the paint and then some crown molding.

 I added a tin ceiling, but I'm thinking about painting it gold or copper as there's nothing silver in the kitchen - any suggestions?

It's really hard to get a clear photo of something so small without a shallow depth of field!

The two white pieces of furniture were previous unfinished pieces I had, so I painted them and added the curtains to one as well as under the sink and the windows. The island was an unfinished table I had, I just added a shelf underneath and painted it. The plate shelf above the sink I made out of mat board.

FIREPLACE MANTLE + GREATEST LABELS

I've finally decorated my fireplace mantle after trying out lots of different things and looking at lots of photos. I've always known what I wanted and had seen photos of beautiful ideas, but I didn't want to have to buy anything. I just wanted to use stuff I already had around the house and I just couldn't make it quite work. This weekend I did some garage sale shopping - I went to one street that was full of garage sales (maybe 15-20) complete with lemonade stands, cookie tables and even corn on the cob! Aubrey and I spent a good chunk of the day walking the whole street (which wasn't short!) and playing and eating. I found some old hardcover books, some fabric and a frame. I wish I had have found it earlier in the morning to make some great finds. I saw two people walking down the street with 2 great metal industrial stools and I got the garage sale shopper envy!

 I'll have to change out the photo in the frame sometime though - as it's not even Aubrey! It was in my old studio and is one of my favorite newborn photos. The color just suites it so well, I just can't decide what to replace it with!

I bought the faux succulent from Ross for $5 and the top 2 books are my garage sale finds - note: The Fondue Party Cookbook - how could I pass up that vintage find?

 Another area I finally (well, almost) finished was the last section of our entry way's gallery wall.

I have 3 things to finish: 1. replace the photo, 2. embroider something for this hoop and 3. paint this frame maybe?

 I printed off a bunch of my favorite Instagram photos in a grid at Staples along with the maps and keep calm poster for super cheap. I used photoshop's contact sheet batch to quickly align all the Instagram photos in a grid.

 I found this idea on Pinterest and made my own. I printed the Trip Fund heading onto a transperency and then cut out a slit (can't see it in this photo) to drop the money in. It was easier to cut it out here then cut it out of the top of the frame, and I can reuse the frame when I'm done. I just set the map closer to the back of the frame and taped it into place to create a shadow box.

 I bought some adhesive cork at Hobby Lobby and doubled it up so the pins had more thickness to go into. I bought the shortest pins for Joann's I could find and glued the little city flags on them.

If the whole thing was a lot larger it probably would be better and less concentrated in spots!

This is a great use of a frame that might have broken glass (which is my case).

 I've been looking for a frame to put this owl watercolor+ink painting my mom did and gave me, in but I couldn't find a square frame with matting for cheap anywhere. So I took this existing frame I had and used some poster board to make my own custom size mat. The mat could have been a slight color to create a contrast, but for now it's fine.

 This is the frame I bought at a garage sale, I was looking for a basic cheap frame without glass that I could spray paint (white gloss) to hang around this photo canvas.

I have to go off on a small rant at how great the Martha Stewart for Avery labels are!

I have used these 3 kinds so far and the templates available for download online make it super easy to use and they look soooo much better then regular labels.

I was printing out labels on cardstock, then rounding out the corners and gluing them on to my photo tins, so this is way better and looks better too. The little kraft flourish squares simply dress up this little baby shower gift box.

And what's in the box? This is what I made today for a shower tomorrow:

A little set of crocheted hat, shoes and tie. The tie was an experiment, but I think it's a cute novelty.

Sometimes baby boy clothes and accessories aren't so cute, so I thought I'd spend the extra time to make something special.