Fairy Tree Stump Dollhouse

Well my friends & fellow bloggers, I have taken quite the blogging sabbatical, it is true. Once again, I have done the no-show. You know, it's funny ~ it's one of those blurt-blog things, I think. Yup, it's all becoming quite evident to me now, I am a *Blurt-Blogger*. I blog in blurty spirts. Hmmmm... I could ode that..... :-D (Hmm again, maybe I will change my blog name to that ~ it DOES fit rather aptly!!)

But instead, I will save you all the pain of yet another blurty-spirty blogging ode, & launch into my latest subject-of-interest.

Ahhhh yes, the Fairy Tree Stump Dollhouse!!!!

Here we have the delighted young dollhouse owner, trying on her new dollhouse, before any floors or interior walls were added.

Why, it FITS!!

She's very proud of Wood Genius' (aka Daddy) creation.

Wood Genius is adding some detail, taking off here & there to provvide a realistic ~log stump~ effect.

And now he has the interior fitted, and has begun to add more windows & doors.


Some of the detail on the main floor, tree growth rings & stone steps, all carved to make the piece look as much like a real tree stump as possible.

A few of the side windows & doors. Wood Genius used actual door hinges to hinge this, as it is QUITE heavy.

The main front doors ~ with a carved leaf on the front, and locking bars inside ( to keep out any wandering trolls, GI Joes, and miscellaneous Lego Pirate types..... younger brother does seem to have a rather impressive army of them.)

Here is the view walking into through the front doors. Just outside the window is a swing, hooked onto the large branch stump, of course. ;-D Oh, and it should be noted that that branch stump is actually an opening, for the fairies to take off & return from. They can fly straight out & come back through it.... apparently the front door is just for their little non-flying friends. :-D



This is the view from the side door, with the stump



Here we have another view from one of the windows.


And one more view.


This is the secret lock & key, so that no other humans except the owner can open the stump. Only fairies can have continual access through the fly-in's.



And here is the secret door for the key. (To which Wood Genius later added a carved leaf attached to a leather thong, so that it would be a lot harder to lose. Because even mature little Fairy Stump Owners sometimes have a hard time keeping track of special keys for special doors.)

Ahh, The fairies are especially active at night, & love to light up the stump with parties & fun!

Sometimes they even leave the doors open......I guess these are Idaho Fairies, not New York Fairies. ;-D

And now I have added a little color to the piece. Yes, it is still a little loud, because I haven't brushed it down with a dark wash.... all in time, my little ones, all in time.....




Once I get the wash added, I will accent a few of the rooms, and finish coat everything in a matte top coat, so that the wood doesn't stray from expansion or contraction.

Ahh, here is a better view of that Fly-In branch stump. The fairies really dig that, you know. It makes it so that they can be in (& out of) their abode without human interventions. Quite handy if you are a Little People. Unfortunately, the swing had to be removed because of painting, but the pesky humans will soon be finished with their ministrations, and the fairies can get back to partying like they prefer.

~Red

The Dollhouse Venture Part V

Well, it's been quite a while since I have updated on the Dollhouse Venture. Since we have been doing quite a bit to it in the last little while, I figured there was enough of an improvement to show another installment.

Here is a bed that Wood Genius designed, & I strung together. It's 1:12 scale & would be a queen-sized bed. See the little cedar chest in the background? Yup, he made that too.

And of course you can't have a new bed without some new bedding, sooo... I had to make a mattress & pillow, plus a sheet set to fit.

And then of course, what is a new bed & everything without a quilt & bed pillows? And yes, of course I even hand-tied it ~ ;-D ~ I used quilting thread as the string, and actually, although this may look like bitty pieces of fabrics, heheh... even I am not THAT dedicated ~ that pattern & a few other may be downloaded at Dollhouse Miniature Printables . I just starched a thin piece of muslin, & put it through my printer with a pc of paper, set on high quality print, and VOILA! ~instant dolly quilt. Also, you can play with the sizes, by stretching your printer settings or saving the printie to my docs, then running it through a photo-shop program.

Wood Genius & I have also been hard at work on the exterior of the dollhouse. I added most of the window fittings ( all right, just easy ones, it's true, in fact, if you click on the pick, you can see that I have still left the difficult fitting to him to cut ~ it's just better that way.) ;-D I might draw some attention to the NEW doorway & walnut front entrance door. We are painting the fireplace, entrance pillars & some floor trim as I write this, but the walnut door is getting stained. Plus I still have to add hardware to it ( handle, name-plate, doorbell, etc).

Here you can see that while there have been quite a few improvements, I am still definitely ~in process~. I am in the middle of adding ceiling mouldings, wallpapers, chair-rails, and in some cases, even partitions & closets, & such. While most of the wallpapers came from Jennifer's Free Dollhouse Printables, ( which, by the way, is a MOST FANTASTIC site!!), a few came from those old-fashioned dollhouse papers books, and ~ believe it or not ~ some of those chair rail papers & such came from a Martha Stewart line of scrap-booking stuff. Man, if I had the fundage, I would have used SO MANY of the ADORABLE scrapbooking goodies from Martha Stewart. I don't care if she DID go to jail, that lady is CREATIVE!

Another thing I have been working on is the interior window & door trims. What door trims?, you might ask ~ I don't see any door trims! Well, ok, so that's true, I HAVEN'T done any door trims... hence the "working on it" qualifier. ;-D

At any rate, this little room doesn't NEED any door trims, so HAH! What house can be complete without a sun-shiney sewing room? Now if only MY sewing room were this ...ahem.. ORganized... ;-D

Here you can see the important work getting done ~ the little girl is getting measured for her new dress! And that lovely old doll doing the measuring? She is something I picked up off of eBay, an interesting china head with only her head left as original, everything else seems to be either pasted back together or even whole new parts made ~ entirely out of paste. As a result, once the other dollhouse dolls are done, I'm afraid she is going to be relegated to maid status. tsk tsk tsk... such biases! ;-D

Here we have the little baby girl's nursery room, complete with a pretty china doll that seemed to want to be in the room, & therefore the picture as well. Note the basket of flowers ~ they are real dried Hidcote lavender, from my Mum's garden. Obviously a necessity next to a changing table, as they don't have disposables in this house.

Here is the formal dining room, complete with baby chair. I suppose in all reality, the baby chair should really go in the kitchen, & the table should be larger, however, the kitchen isn't quite done, and neither is the table, so... these old, not-quite-to-scale pieces will simply have to suffice.

I might point out, however, that Wood Genius was genuinely annoyed that I might mix both scale & non-scale pieces... and therefore has been talking about designing some more scale furniture.

hehehehehe

Do you see my clever plan? Naturally, once sufficiently bothered, he will have no choice but to make a few more scale pieces.

heheheheh ~ MWAahahahahahahaaaaaa....

Here is the parent's room, with that bed & cedar chest that Wood Genius made, as well as the dresser from Grandma G, & the bedding & perfume bottles that I made. The pictures are made from scrapbooking plates, and old stamps as the artwork. The yarn balls are from some dollar store decoration.

Here you can see that I did get some of the ceiling moulding in ~ the bathroom & a few other rooms. The moulding is trim picked up from Micheal's, very cheaply, I might add ~ about $1.95 for 3 ft. lengths. Also, if you click on the pic to enlarge it, please o please o please ~ DO notice the little tiny handmade soaps! It can't be a 1900's house without handmade soaps, you know. ;-D And the bathing beauty there in the tub isn't to perfect scale, but who cares, she has a funky blue bathing cap, and that's what matters! ;-D

Now in this pic, we have the largely unfinished playroom. It still needs mouldings & door trims ~ true ~ but more importantly, I still haven't finished a wall in the background ( as represented by the stripey wallpapers) which I will be putting in to add interest & depth to the room.

There is still much to do in the dollhouse, but at least it is starting to look inhabitable, if only by dustbunnies & non-eating or nanny-needing dolls. Yup, you guessed it, still have the kitchen & the nanny room to go, plus the parlor, the entrance, both floors of the library, the music room, the schoolroom, & the attic. Oh, and did I mention the hallway? And I thought it would be so COOL to have so many rooms! HAH! A love-hate relationship if there ever was one. Much like our real house, actually. Nice, large, many rooms... but UGGHH> the cleaning that that much space requires. Still, let me dis not my abode, lest I be found ungrateful. ;-D

And what, you may ask, is THIS pic of? Well, it's a start. Because, you see, this little 6" dolly is a FAIRY. That's right, a fairy... I mean, she obviously doesn't have her wings on yet, and she is naked as the day I stitched her together, HOWEVER, she is a START. You see, the next dollhouse update that I do will include pics of her tree-stump fairy house! That is right, Wood Genius is right now, even as I write, shaping the fairy house. It is 4 stories high, with a slide, and a swing, and once the doors & windows get cut out, it will really start to come to life. I will include a few teaser pics at the bottom of the post, just to get the gears turning.

He truly IS a Wood Genius! This is a totally engineered tree stump, carved to look real. And like I said, this isn't the half of it ~ when it's done, it will be a 1:12 scale fairy tree stump dollhouse.

~Red

It's PUMPKIN CARVING time again!

Well, Wood Genius has struck again! This time, he was commissioned to carve a pumpkin in the theme of The Phantom of the Opera.

I have to apologize for the pics, because apparently my camera goes a little fuzzy without proper lighting, but I could'n't get the full effects without turning out the lights... hence.. a slightly fuzzy pic. Hmm... I think that's grounds for a new camera... hehehehe.

Here is what it looks like with the light on:

Here is what it looks like with the lights out:

Left side

Middle

Right Side

Close up of the words

Guess What? Chicken BUTT! Coop is DONE! It's a Chicken Tractor!

UPDATE ~ If you scroll all the way to end, I added the finished product ~ so the tractor is done ~ now for the real coop........... ( better not mention this to Wood Genius just yet... best to let it lie for a day or three..... hehehehe... BWAAAHAHAHAHA... ;-D )

WOO HOO!! SO ~ we got the chicken coop done!! Well, ok, ALLLLLmost done ~ the kids & I still have to paint it. And I am thinking that good ol' Barn Red with white accents is just gonna be IT ~ what do you all think? Afterall, that WOULD tie in with the shed & the treehouse.

So ~ I know what you all are waiting for ~ PICTURES!
And we DO have pictures!

This is meant to be the portable chicken tractor, or also known as the chicken arc. It is based loosely ( ever so loosely) on the boughton forsham models that can be found online. Since we have 16 chickens right now, and will have 10 after the fair, we needed to make our tractor a little larger.

We decided to go with the A-frame style, as it made up for less mass in the long run to transport. And with Wood Genius making it, we knew it could get complicated fast. Here is a pic of the basic frame with supports in the corners, so that nothing wracks when it is being transported.

oops ~ lazy blogging, sorry ~ sideways pic. Just a close-up of the joinery ~ easy sqeazy so far.

Here is a pic of the feeders, on extending drawer guide arms. Wood Genius used a 3/8 drill to drill through 3 times in a line so that the arms could extend out, thus saving your back. That way, the feeder & waterer can just be hooked on and slid back, or slid forward to remove & re-fill.

These are heavy-duty drawer guides, and will easily hold the weight of the galvanized metal 2 gallon double walled waterer & the five gallon feeder.

(Had to move it back into the shop to work on it, as it was getting quite dark out.) Here you can see the flooring going in. It should be mentioned that the wood being used is 2x2's, & I believe 3/8 material.

Here you can see the chicken ramp on hinges, plus the framework for the ramp.

This shows the nest boxes & the flooring installed. There are 3 nest boxes, and we made them a little larger inside, but still a nice snug hole to crawl through & feel safe with.

Now you can see the roosts installed, as well as the back and top of the tractor. You can also see the vents at the apex. We used a very strong wire for this. Also visible is the 1 1/2" gap between the inner melamine wall and the outer 3/8" sheeting wall. This, & the back side, is where Wood Genius installed 1 1/2" styrofoam core insulation. The door is also insulated.

Vents are a bit more visible here. Also visible is the pulley system to raise & lower the chicken ramp. There is the rope & the nail to hold it when the ramp is closed.

Follow the rope over, and down it goes through a hole drilled in the flooring.

This is the pulley in the roof. These pulleys make sure that the rope doesn't get run ragged by snagging on the wood. The pulley is just hanging by a screw screwed through.

oops, another sideways pic. The rope is shown here heading through the vent above the nest boxes, to another pulley.

Voila! A close-up of the outside pulley above the nest boxes.

Ok, this is just showing the foamcore.

And what have we here? A BUTT shot! Can't say "Guess what? Chicken BUTT!" without a butt shot at least SOMEwhere. heheheh. Wouldn't he be so annoyed if he saw this? :-D

However, I actually have a better reason for the pic. It is showing the door fitting on.

I forgot to add that this is actually one of those ~green~ coops, because almost every single bit of wood on here was harvested from left-overs, the dump ( see that pile of 2x4's?), old fence parts, and various other places.


And here is the door on. The handles are close enough together for one person to lift if they are bigger, & far enough apart for two smaller kids to lift off together. (It's good for them, makes them work as a team.....) :-D

Hmmmmm... trying to remember why I uploaded this pic... Maybe just to show the ramp in closed position. Also, see the rungs are spaced so that even with a fair amount of snow or chicken goo, the ramp can still be closed completely. Also showing the roosts, which are positioned higher than the nest boxes to discourage pooey eggs. ( The chickens will choose to roost in the nest boxes if they are higher... I don't know why, it's a chicken thing..)

Here's the whole contraption, alMOST all the way finished. From the side/back.

From the side/front. Note the wooden latches to make sure the nest boxes are all the way shut. The little doors will make egg gathering easy.

Latches secure the door as well, just for predators' sake. (Little kids in the neighborhood can't reach that high... that's pretty much the main concern.) Also, the vents open and latch shut... We get winters down to -20F, so the chickens will need to be warm. While not shown, the heat lamp will be able to be dropped down through a hole drilled in the roof, and we will just use an extension cord ( heavy duty, shop type) to either light the heat lamp or, when they are older, to extend their perception of daylight so that egg-laying continues through the winter.

Last night & today, Wood Genius installed the hardware fabric around the base. ( which, by the way, isn't really fabric at all ~ what a cruel joke to play on a fabriholic...it's really just metal wire with a whole bunch of little bitty square holes in it. ) And now he is off buying the wheel set-up, which will consist of large lawn mower wheels, connected & used in the same manner as the boughton forsham chicken arc/tractor. These will be installed on the nest box side, as it is the heaviest. He will also install a large bar on the end opposite the nest boxes, so that we can reposition the tractor once a week. (During the winter, this will obviously not be easily moved, so we will add additional run space, connected to the bottom of the tractor, via the removable screen end.)

And the last thing to do will be to paint it up, and add chickens! {:>)=

Well, I am going to keep adding pics here as he finishes it up ~ I keep running out there to take pics for each phase.

Ok, so here you can kind of see the removable screen door there on the end, with a latch to close it up tightly. You might also notice the dolly and the suspiciously wet ground.

Yup, it's true! Here in Idaho, it could be shining one minute and literally SNOWING the next!! Where is the justice in that?!? See that? Green grass with a snowy blanket ~ AAARRGGHHHHH !!!!

UPDATE!!! ~ YEAH! It stopped snowing and actually got sunny enough that Bek painted the tractor ~ Next post ~ the Garden project!!