Show Off!

Part 4 of the 5 part box opening story......

Hi there folks! I'm Mr. Magoooooooooo!



Look what I can do!














THAT guy is a show off!



(Ah yes, the wee woman and her little friend are charmed, I'm sure. The bigger girls will be a tougher audience).

--- continued in the NEXT POST ---

Ms. Muffet's Debut

Part 3 of the 5 part box opening story....

Eeek, it has no face!



Um....excuse me......sorry to interrupt......I know I was sent with at least two faceplates. Could someone help me out here please? I seem to be having a little vision trouble.



Oh, my, that's much better! Hi, I'm Ms. Muffet. And you would be.....? Well hello Petunia! Glad to meet you. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have seen some hair around here would you? I seem to be a bit .... bald.



Much better, thanks! And now, could you be a dear and show me to the wardrobe?



Thank you, lovey. It's a darling dress! Now enough time spent fussing over me. Would you be so kind as to help me release my travelling companion?

--- continued in the NEXT POST -----

Opening the Box

Part 2 of the box opening story...

Oooo, this can't be good! It says, "Collect Customs".



Up, up! Somebody help me up. I want to see too.



You're right Pumpkin. But I don't think there's customs on RealPukis entering Canada. Maybe it's just so that the postman remembered to collect all those taxes? Wovenflame said there was lots and lots of taxes.



Ooooo, SHINY! I can see myself.



What's this Peanut? I thought Wovenflame said that both of the Wee Folk were "Sosos"? This one over here is labelled, "Roro".

Oh. Wovenflame mentioned that. The Roro belongs to Ban Sidhe and will be travelling on from here. Just the face though, *giggle*, the body is staying here and belongs to the second Soso. I know! Weird hey?



Look. What's in here?



Oh, it's a bunch of hands! Some big ones. Tthose must be the ones Wovenflame ordered for us. And some really, really small ones. Maybe those ones are for the Wee Folk?

continued in NEXT POST......

They'll Be Here Soon!

Part 1 of the 5 part box opening story....

Zzzzzzz.




Guys, guys, wake up! They're coming, they're coming!!

Huh? Who's coming Petunia?

"The Wee Folk! Wovenflame just got a notice that says they're "out for delivery."



Wha? Huh? What's going on?



Pumpkin, Petunia says that the RealPuki pair are almost here! I'll get her under control if you'll start gathering the welcome home stuff.



Okay, is this everything? Wow, these clothes are really small! Are the RealPukis babies? I mean, this wouldn't even fit Petunia!



No, Wovenflame said that even though they are really tiny, they are adults, hundreds of years old, and we are to treat them with respect. They're some sort of elfish folk....different race than me though.



There's two dresses here. I thought one of the Wee Folk was a boy.......er...man?

I don't think Wovenflame had any patterns to fit a man that small. She said he'd have to wear a dress until she had time to make him something more masculine. I don't think that will go over very well. Maybe I'll get Petunia's jeans and a sweater out, just in case they might fit. It would be better than a dress anyway!

To be continued in the next post.... 

-Opening the Box-
.

On the Loom

Loosely woven scarf, in progress. The warp is a combination of about 40% "Online Linie 106, Flair" (a polyester ladder yarn), and a combination of laceweight yarns including cashmere, hand-dyed tencel, a merino/silk/cashmere blend, and a handspun merino/silk. The weft is black "Silken Kydd" (70% super kid mohair and 30% silk) from Elann.com.



Turns out the 2/28 cashmere wasn't a great choice for a warp yarn. I've had quite a number of threads break on me. I've been getting lots of practice in replacing broken warp threads!

Roll Out Those.......

...lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer....

Filling the House

A few things I ordered for Buttercup Cottage arrived yesterday. The little RealPuki home is starting to have a cozy look. Even though the house isn't anywhere near being finished, I couldn't resist trying out the new stuff.



The little floor rug in the background is a hand crocheted coaster I found at a thrift store. The table and chairs, jars of "dolly treats", and the sewing machine, were ordered through eBay, and the tiny spinning wheel was a gift from a good friend.



Petunia said that she had better eat up the fudge bars and ice-cream cones before they melt. When I complained she slyly pointed out that there was no freezer to put them away in anyway.

A Handful of Eyeballs

My Dreaming Tree Studio order just arrived. Wow, 6mm is surprisingly small! I bought several different colours because I wasn't quite sure what I'd want for the character. It takes months to get an order made and shipped, and they were very reasonably priced so it made sense to just order a bunch all at once.



I'm not too sure about these ones:



I think the orange colour around the irises make them too reptilian for the look I'm after. I think if my Soso "needs" green eyes I'll order again with a few different greens. There are plenty to choose from and they are very inexpensive!

Wallpaper Is Up

I worked on the Buttercup Cottage quite a bit today. The wallpaper downstairs is now hung, and the window trim is installed. Ahem.....I forgot to put the acetate windows in, but I think I can install them as I do the exterior window trim.



Petunia swears that she wasn't the one who broke the spinning wheel.


.

Summer Nap

On a long, summer afternoon, the Fee girls, Peanut and Pumpkin succumb to an unplanned nap.



Not everyone is feeling drowsy though!

Happy Canada Day!

Peanut Picked Pretty Posies

"I picked some pretty flowers for you".

Petunia's Haircut

Okay, so the poof of the mohair wig was just not working for Petunia. She's not the wild and poofy, "big hair" type I guess. The overnight "sock set" did nothing to tame the unruly tresses so this morning, in the grips of a flu medicine induced devil-may-care attitude, I sat her down and started in with the scissors.



Now no one has ever accused me of being a great hairdresser, but I did my best to cut away all the excess that did not seem to be the Petunia I've come to know and love.



In the end, I was able to come up with a new look that Petunia is not only satisfied with, but seems to delight in.



But then again, there is not much that doesn't delight Petunia, now is there?

Sock Set

Petunia's new wig arrived today. She's a little shocked at how poofy it is.



It's an especially big "do" when viewed from the side.



So we're attempting an overnight "sock set" to see if we can tame it a little.

Another Cashmere Puki Dress

Here's another little cashmere/silk/merino dress I've knit and embellished for Petunia, my Pukipuki from Fairyland.





These little dresses are addictive. Like peanuts you can't stop at just one. Kind of like the dolls themselves!

Dry Fit

[whine]This is HARD![/whine]



Thank goodness I found, and joined, an online dollhouse building community! The members there recommend doing a "dry fit" of all the parts in each stage of the building process before you do any gluing. Good thing I listened. These houses don't exactly snap together. Tabs have to be whittled down and lined up perfectly for everything to fit.



There were several times during the dry fit that I was very, very, glad that I was only using tape to hold things together. Some of the pieces had to be reversed, and others arranged differently than I had expected.



Everything is quite square right now, but that's because all the pieces are fitted together. When I'm doing the actual gluing I'll have to do it one piece at a time and if I don't get each join perfectly square it could mean the pieces that come later won't fit together.

This is a LOT harder than I thought it would be!




Oh.....and in case you haven't noticed? Petunia is trying to get your attention. . . . . . .



She's modelling her brand new, hand knit, cashmere dress.

Experimenting Coming Up

I explored Home Depot today furthering my research on all the possible ways to simulate stucco for the little doll house. Right now it looks like I'll be using Spackle, as Trisha suggested. It was the cheapest alternative. Some of the other ideas would have been just as effective, but involved expensive purchases, or came in containers that were far too large for my purpose. I really loved Paula's idea of the stone effect paint, but it only came in gallon containers.

Before I go spackling the whole house I'll do some testing seeing if I like the results.

Petunia's New Shoes

Petunia's pretty excited. I was out this afternoon looking in thrift stores for textured wallpaper (to mimic stucco on the outside of the dollhouse I'm making) and on a whim I rummaged through the bin of toys. I'm always keeping an eye out for inexpensive, secondhand Kelly dolls as their outfits and shoes fit the Pukipuki dolls. The outfits, if they are in good shape, are just a bonus, it's actually the tiny little shoes I'm after. They aren't all that easy to find. I think doll shoes are the first thing lost by children (or sucked up with the vacuum by Moms tired of finding them laying all over!).



Instead of vacuuming them up, Petunia begs you overworked Mommies to send them to her. She'll take very good care of them.

New House Construction

As if all the fibre related hobbies were not enough, now I've taken up house construction and interior decorating as well ~~~~~~~~~ but on a miniature scale!



When my daughter asked, I gladly accepted a doll house kit she decided she didn't have time for. Now that I've opened the kit up and seen what is involved, I don't blame her! Scarey! This is definitely not a hobby for a busy mom with little recreational time.



I've been working on it for several evenings now and I've only cut out, sanded, and given a base coat to the pieces involved in the first step. There are many other steps to go as it is quite a detailed little house when it is done.

Hopefully it will look at least as good as this when I am done, though my paint, and wallpaper choices will be different, as will the set up.



It will be for a RealPuki Soso that I'm waiting for. The little cottage will be her home and fibre arts workshop.

I'll keep updating the blog as the project progresses. Right now I'm in the process of trying to decide how I could add some stucco like texture to the outside of the home. My hunt through every thrift store in town did not come up with any textured wallpaper.