Kitty News and Mini Work

Apparently our dear Castor, aka "Bubba," is suffering from a case of pancreatitis. That added to the irritable bowel disease has caused the severe weight loss. The happy news is that it's totally treatable and in general does not cost very much.

The irritating news is 2 of the 3 medications he needs can only be given as a pill or a gel that is absorbed through the ears. This cat will not take pills. He will kill himself trying to get away if you even hint at a pill. Yet we can give him injections with no trouble. *sigh*

We are going to try and slip crushed pills into wet cat food and see if he will tuck in happily. Failing that we pay for the pharmacy to compound the medication into the gel and hope we only need one or two rounds of each before he's straightened out.

Either way he should still have between three and five more years, or hopefully longer, with us that are comfortable.

On the miniature front, I fiddled with the Greenleaf's electrical and everything works with the new junction splice. Best yet, I managed to not impale any of my fingers this go 'round. Had to reglue a couple of places on the walls. They worked loose during the man-handling process of electrifying.

Once the glue dries I can coat the interior with gesso and then start waiting for it to dry. I also drew up an annotated skematic of the wire placement. Took pictures as back-up as well.

Last night I kept walking past a plastic bag with random bits thrown into it. Or at least some of them were random. The rest was a kit for a room in a bag that had been given to me by Aunt Pat. She had thrown some other bits of paper and things in there because it all related to Halloween.



I sorted through it and put together the room using the wallpaper and flooring Pat had put in the bag. This style of room bag had a closed top that was decorated with gift tissue.. a look I really don't care for, so I trimmed the top "cover" down to fit into the bag's bottom and covered it with flooring.
Unlike the regular bags I do this one also had a piece to put at the front of the bag on the inside. Not wanting some other strange piece of craft supply cut for a specific project floating around my craft room, I decided to go ahead and use it. At least I would try something new and see if I liked it or not.

The result is: not really. There are small edges that can be seen in the opening of the bag when the piece is in place. and it being there interferes with my regular method of sliding a thin piece of plexi-glass into the front. Did I mention that piece was double-sided sticky? I did have the forethought to not stick it directly to the bag as the directions called for. Instead I stuck it onto a transparency sheet and turned it into a clear cover. Now I just have to cut a piece of plexi for the top.

Not sure what I will put in there. Probably a table with Halloween treats and a chair. Nothing too fancy. In fact unless I put something in there that is priceless (which I don't forsee) I will probably donate it to be raffled off at a miniature show or something.

The chair for the Independence Day vignette is painted. I'm waiting on FH to return from setting support posts to build a handicaped rap at a friend's home. Then we will go to the store for much-needed groceries and a bottle of hairspray. I don't use it on my hair, so I was irritated when I needed something to drape the quilt with.

Before I would take whatever needed draping to Aunt Pat's. She has a stash of the "good" stuff that you can't buy in stores anymore. It can hold pleats and drapes like magic.

For now I will be thumbing through some books to see what I can make for the Greenleaf with what I have on hand.

Ok... Here is the Big Dollhouse

Ok, here are the front and back views of "the Big Dollhouse." As you can see the door, windows, and porch railing have been removed for painting and the shingles are only half done.

Of the three rooms with both floors and wallpaper cut, I'm only happy with the bedroom, which is the one with lilac carpet on the second floor. The living room wallpaper is horribly bubbled. So much so that I think I will have to take it out and do it over. The kitchen wallpaper didn't do well either. I think I want something different in there anyway, so no big loss. None of the floors are glued down and there are no baseboards yet.
The lighting still works on the first two floors. Apparently I need to redo the junction from the second to the third floor. Not bad since it got moved twice.

The ceilings are all bare. I need to do something with them too. I have to replace a post on the bottom porch. The whole thing almost fell the first time I moved and Brad was barely able to catch it. I'm happy to loose one post versus the whole house.

I had planned on putting some of the goodies into their respective rooms and taking some pictures for you but the camera batteries barely let me get these pictures downloaded. So sometime after we get another package of batteries because these were the last two from the package. That's how it always works. [We recycle our batteries in case you wondered.]

FH and I determined that the transformer and lead in wire that we purchased for the Greenleaf do work. The junction splice does not. In fact in figuring this out I ended up being stabbed with the splice in my right thumb. Not quite sure how I managed that one. FH came running down the hall upon hearing my cries for help. Isn't he grand?

Now my thumb looks like it's bit snacked upon by a 1:24 scale vampire...

Upon further inspection the two prongs on the splice are bent. So I think we've discovered the problem. We are going to get another splice and try again on the Greenleaf.

Almost like Yule....

I spent the afternoon searching for some of the lights for the "big dollhouse." Three plastic file boxes worth of miniatures have been gone through and photographed so I can have a chance of remembering what is in them.

A few things were pulled out for newer projects, like the Chrysenbon rocking chair I painted black and tried putting the decal onto and the decal came part-way off. It was heart-wrenching at the time as I had never done decals before and couldn't afford a second chair kit. Today I decided it would be perfect for one of the Attic Lamps.

In 2003 my mother purchased every furniture set from the Smithsonian catalog for me. I believe it was my birthday. There's a dining set, with sideboard and silver chest; a bedroom set with dressers, night table, and mirror; and a set of bunk beds with rocking horse. I did remember having them but had no idea where they were.

Furniture that I painted in my miniature club in college was tucked away with painted furniture by a new deceased artisan who I dearly loved.

Needless to say I have much in the way of material for my weekly "stash posts," but here is a preview since there is so much and some of you are probably overly curious by now... I would be if the situation was reversed. ;-)

This is the furniture I have collected so far for the bathroom in the "big dollhouse." The sink and mirror are by Reutter. I don't know who did the shower, but I bought it from the local mini shop back in college. The tub is from a Chrysenbon kit and was left over from me using the sink and stool in another setting.
This is a curio cabinet for the same dollhouse's living room. If I remember correctly it was a gift from my then-boy-friend's mother. This was the guy who let me get away, much to FH's advantage. His parents were lovely people and I miss them more than I miss him.
I found the little bits that I had gathered to decorate it before I took the picture. It looks so much better with the treasures in it.

These are orchids that FH bought me from a miniature show right after we moved out of the college town.
The artist's name is still on the bottom of the display box. I couldn't find them when I put together the Conservatory Bag. It's just as well because they are destined for the library in the "big dollhouse."

I keep mentioning that beast of a house. I really need to take some pictures of it to show you all. You can kind of see it in the middle picture from the craft room cleaning post. Look for the blue house with junk on the porches. It's nowhere near finished... in fact I took apart the porch railings, windows, doors, and stairs to paint them and finals weeks got in the way of getting them finished and put back.

FH is going to help me turn it around so the open half is exposed tonight. I should be able to get some pictures then. I'm going to go clean off the porches so we can turn it.

Snarl and Growl

Well I got the minor walls glued to the Greenleaf. Then I started the electrical. Yeah... about that. grrrrr.....

Either the transformer or the lead in wire is DOA because none of the circuits seem to be functioning. Now in the past I usually end up redoing one junction of tape wire per project... but I've never had none of them work.

And insult to injury some of the glue joints worked loose while connecting the tape wire junctions. No sense in re-gluing them until I get the mess figured out. *dirty words*

Tomorrow FH is going to help me spin the "big dollhouse" around so I can get at the junction splice on it and test the wire and transformer. I know the electric works in the big house.

Of course this means I will have to unpack the lights for that house... which means I have a file tub full of minis to search through in order to find them. And inevitably I may end up distracted further from Poe and the Greenleaf by the presence of those minis. *sigh*

So while FH is working I guess I will be building the next bits of furniture that I've worked up for the Greenleaf and unpacking more minis.

Oh and Tessie, if you read this over Casey's shoulder... if you bring Spike back from where you have hidden him, I would be willing to make you a tough dog of your own. This fella is just a puppy but I'm certain he has a bigger brother or sister waiting to come out of the clay.