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time to put the wheels back on

  • Posted on September 20, 2018 at 7:27 am

putting on the wheels
first i cut 3/4″ dowels just slightly wider than my caravan, so the wheels won’t rub on the sides. my dh drilled holes in each end just long enough to insert the axle pins

putting on the wheels
next they were stained with one of the many stains in my paint box. i liked this rusty brown the best with the rest of my colors.

putting on the wheels
i glued the axle pins into the axles, then glued the axles to the bottom of the caravan using wood glue.

ladder
while my realpukis are very acrobatic, i decided to make it easier for them to climb in and out. i had this little ladder in my box of spare parts. don’t remember what i was planning to do with it, but it worked perfectly here.

for some reason it was longer on one side on the bottom, and the other on the top? so i evened it up before i painted. to make it a bit safer i took a pair of size 2 sewing “hooks”, bent them into a more useful shape and snipped off the ends. then i drilled tiny holes in the top of the ladder and glued the hooks in. i could have just used wire, but i had the hooks left over after i used the “eyes” elsewhere, and they were the right color. my wire was not. 🙂

a quick little project

  • Posted on September 17, 2018 at 7:50 am

i decided to add shelves along the back wall. not terribly practical for a moving vehicle, but i thought they would look cuter than cupboards.

a quick project- shelves
first i cut three shelves from craft sticks, in various/lengths widths. 6 balsa wood rectangles will form the support brackets.

a quick project- shelves
here they are glued together

a quick project- shelves
and painted. i need more yellow in my caravan, so yellow paint it is

a quick project- shelves
once again i over estimated. i had cut the shelves before i put the bed in. once it was in, there was only room for one shelf. i used the middle one.

and the bedding

  • Posted on September 16, 2018 at 12:46 pm

time to get to work on bedding for the bed

first a mattress,
mattress
i wanted it to be fairly thin, so it didn’t take up too much space. i cut out two pieces of warm and natural time to start on bedding
cut two pieces of warm and natural, the exact size of the bed, then used it as a pattern to stitch the mattress

mattress 2
turned, stuffed and stitched closed. the lighting is off, the colors are a bit brighter and it has metallic gold accents. much closer to the picture below

mattress
and in place.

next the bedding
quilt take 1
i had this lovely soft rayon, which i bought just for this project. it had a printed pattern on it that kept changing, and i loved that particular rectangle. it had the right colors, and looked like striped piecework without having to sew seams. the fewer the seams, the better it drapes. to get the little piece i wanted, i had to buy .4m. luckily it was on sale and really cheap.

to keep the quilt/blanket drapey i made an unstuffed quilt. it looked like it would work nicely, but unfortunately once i put it on the bed, it was still too stiff. i still like how it drapes, so am sure i can use it somewhere else.

luckily there were three identical rectangles across, so i could try again.
quilt take 2
the good news was, that i got to try a technique that i’ve been wanting to try for ages. this time i stuffed the quilt with a single layer of warm and natural and one of tinfoil, folded over three times for sturdiness. i used spray adhesive to hold them together on the underside of the quilt, but left the top loose, except for the two rows of quilting. it worked perfectly! i can scrunch and bend the quilt to achieve whatever level of messiness my ‘pukis have left 🙂

lastly pillows!
pillows!
i pulled a bunch of fabics and cut little rectangles for pillows. since they take so little fabric i went a bit crazy….
they are stuffed with tiny glass beads to let them “plop” realistically. it is also possible to poke little “head dents” in them which will stay till i shake them out or move them.

pillows, the chosen ones
of course once i put them on the bed i realized i had way too many! so i selected just five. the rest will go in my box of spare props to be used in another project or sold.

bedding
and all the bedding in place. the purple blanket is a rectangle of silk velvet (much softer and a bit thinner than regular) i left it with unfinished edges and no lining to keep it soft.

another mini project

  • Posted on September 11, 2018 at 10:04 am

so here is the scenario
i am knitting merrily along, when the tiny jump ring i am using as a stitch markers goes flying. it hits the floor and disappears into the netherworld, never to be seen again. growling i declare there has to be a better way….
a week or so later i am happily wandering around michaels trying to remember what i came in for when i spy jump rings on sale. ooh, i need those, i’m always losing mine. then i spy a string of tiny beads already on little loops, no idea what other people would use them for, but i immediately think they could be added to the jump rings to make stitch markers that are easier to find when i drop them, so into my basket both items go. i arrive home and deposit them on my sewing desk to finish…later.
weeks go by, i wander into my craft room, spy these strange beads on my desk, have no clue what they are for and prepare to put them in my give away pile. suddenly i see the jump rings beside them, and say “oh yeah, the are for stitch markers”, put both back on my desk and wander out….
weeks go by, i wander into my craft room, spy these strange beads on my desk, have no clue what they are for and prepare to put them in my give away pile. suddenly i see the jump rings beside them, nd say “oh yeah, the are for stitch markers”, put both back on my desk and wander out….
weeks go by, i wander into my craft room, spy these strange beads on my desk, have no clue what they are for and prepare to put them in my give away pile. suddenly i see the jump rings beside them, nd say “oh yeah, the are for stitch markers”, put both back on my desk and wander out…
weeks go by, i’m cleaning out my craft room for real this time, spy these strange beads on my desk, have no clue what they are for and prepare to put them in my give away pile. suddenly i see the jump rings beside them, and say “oh yeah, the are for stitch markers”, grab my needle-nose pliers, whip up a couple of dozen stitch-markers, but them in a neatly labelled box and stick them with my knitting supplies. (then give the spare beads away 😉 )
stitch markers
case closed 🙂 🙂 🙂

wheels painted

  • Posted on September 10, 2018 at 6:34 am

i’m not a terribly neat painter, so these took a surprisingly long time to paint. i had to do one color at a time, then keep touching up where i over painted. but they are done, and i’m happy. i was originally planning bright red wheels, with yellow centers, but realized they would get lost against the red body of the caravan, so i reversed the colors. it’s hard to tell in the picture, but the very center is lime green. the outer ring is metallic gold, and the outer edge is sponged lightly with brown and antique copper, supposedly to look like they are dirty from driving along dusty roads, but i’m not sure that was quite successful. regardless i think they work.
wheels

i absolutely adore these wheels (photo by francesca sorbello.)
carretto

if i was a better painter i would try adding embellishment, but alas i’m not…

i got wheels!

  • Posted on September 7, 2018 at 9:02 am

not a lot happening, since i have had multiple appointments the past couple of days but my wheels arrived 🙂
i got wheels!
they are very nice detailed, and just need painting

i thought you were cleaning?

  • Posted on September 6, 2018 at 7:38 am

the purge is actually going well. i got 4+ large boxes of stuff for the charities. i’m taking a load over tomorrow for the local one and my parents are taking the others to the one out of town. now my only problem is i am running out of boxes!

but in the midst of purging, i found several of projects that i needed to decide if i would finish them or give them away. some of them are fairly involved so they went off into the do later pile, but a couple of them looked like they could be finished up relatively quickly.. or at least a good portion of the project. so i decide to get started and see if my vision was even reasonable.

the first was this birdhouse. i bought it a while back, ’cause it was on end of season clearance, and i thought it had good potential to become a caravan for my realpukis
i thought  you said you were cleaning?
the goal is a gypsy/bohemian look so i went through my file of saved tiles and printed off this one for the floor. i sealed it with a spray coat of clear matte varnish to keep it from running or rubbing off too easily
i thought  you said you were cleaning?
the wheels were the next to go. i thought the original ones were dorky looking and now that i have decided to finish this, i ordered spoked wooden ones instead. they should be here in a couple of weeks. the inside got painted with a coat of bright yellow. once that dried i rethought my plan and printed a yellow and blue tile instead to go between the wood beams, then painted over the yellow with a mix of blue, olive green metallic and teal metallic mixed together loosely. ie, i stirred them till they were partly, but not completely blended, then brushed them on trying not to overbrush so the color was partly streaky. i only did one coat so the yellow shows through in spots as well.
i thought  you said you were cleaning?
here you can see the wall and ceiling beams and tile
i thought  you said you were cleaning?

of course in keeping with my plan, the great craft room cleanup continued between coats of paint 🙂

working on the fire

  • Posted on December 22, 2015 at 4:52 pm

i want i light saber! we just saw star wars last night and they made cutting wood look so easy. this took far too long, i broke my pull saw and froze my fingers cutting these tiny things :(. then of course i forgot to take out a tape measure and had to guess on the size.. i like the look of the bigger logs better, but they ended up being too big. the smaller logs are just perfect. so i’ll be using them. i’ll save the bigger logs for another fireplace that i plan to do later.
Logs for the fireplace
i want my logs to look like they have really burnt so i am charring them in the flame of a candle. notice that i hold them with metal tongs and burn them in my kitchen sink just in case they decide to burn more than i planned! not likely since this wood is green and fairly wet from all the snow, but you never know…
Charing the logs for realism
here’s what one of the logs look like done.
A charred log
and the pile of finished logs. i wet them down thoroughly to make sure there were no sparks since the glue i’m using is flammable. so now i have to wait for them to dry before i can proceed.
Charred logs cooling and drying

my dh is building me a grate for my fireplace out of 2-1/2″ finishing nails. he still has to add the top rack. he designed it and did all the bending and cutting with his much stronger hands :o)
The start of a grate
and with the cross pieces added.
Grate!
just waiting for the glue to harden so i can paint it black

getting closer

  • Posted on December 18, 2015 at 5:19 pm

the front and mantel are now attached. but it is just resting on the hearth until i get the fire installed.
Getting closer
i’m really happy with how it is turning out, though i realized as i looked at it that i ended up making a fireplace that looks more well suited for a beach cottage, than the ancient english style manor that my crew is supposed to inhabit. lol oh well, i guess i’ll just have to make another one later on..

and a better view of the distressed finish of the wood on the mantel and the side. i really like how that turned out, especially considering the side is just the painted cardboard box!
Side view of wood
the mantel is a flat piece of wood with a square dowel glued to the front to form the overhang.

bed for a 15cm princess- pillow

  • Posted on December 16, 2015 at 12:10 pm

now onto the pillow. a necessity for a comfy sleep. cut a rectangle of cotton and one of batting, make sure you add seam allowance on all the sides. fold in half and stitch together leaving a small opening to turn.
Pillow lined with batting
turn right side out and fill with “pellets”. i used glass sand blasting pellets just cause that’s what i have on hand. i bought a huge bag years ago, when i was still making bears and i still have tons left! but you can also use seed beads, play sand (clean please) or some miniature sites also say to use salt but you would have to be sure it would never get wet!
Turn and fill with "pellets"
because my pellets are so fine and i don’t want any leakage at the seam i put a fine line of fabric glue on the inner seam. it is flexible and doesn’t show especially under the batting. after gluing it together i close the seam with a ladder stitch as usual.
Glue inside edge to seal pellets in
now take a nap on your comfy new pillow.
Take a nap
liya approves and demonstrates just how soft and squishy her new pillow is.