I'm a Giant . finished for now

The studio apartMac is finally finished! I took some photos before we went out of town last week but I had some technical difficulties and only managed to upload a couple of quick shots to Flickr. I am happy with what's here but I'm going to take advantage of the extension to edit a little bit and refine some pieces.

I stuck closely to my inspiration and I think it all came together. Of course, my favorite bits are the little macbook and iPad from lilushop (thanks to Modern Mini Houses for the tip).

The billy balls that my assistant (3 years old!) and I made are perfect in the eBay vase.

I've seen this wood slice wall art around the internet a good bit so I had Mr. Lemon chop up some sticks and I glued them above the fireplace (another cheap eBay find). The little houses are from a vendor at Handmade Arcade and the birch logs are from Gigi N Studio.

I'm most proud of the wood shelf. It was a scrap leftover from the fireplace slices and it fit perfectly above the sink (that's a chair from the Irwin Interior Decorator set).

These are just a few of my favorite vignettes. With the extension, I'll be able to take better photos in different light and get some good views of the whole thing. The iMac is a beautiful piece of design but it's so hard to shoot the scene!

I'm a Giant . billy balls and beads

My assistant and I went to our local bead shop to pick out some vases for the iMac studio apartment. We found these yellow resin beads to use on the mantle perhaps. The 3-year-old picked out the turkey for her dollhouse and it is having a lovely time, so I hear. The wooden bead has already been painted white and will probably become a shade of grey. We will fill it with the 1:12 scale billy balls we made. The white slate is the flooring I plan to use. It's a bit shiny in a plastic sort of way so I'll fill in the grout more and Frank Lloyd Wright it up after our Fallingwater inspiration.

These are the first run of billy balls. I think they are more 1:6 but they look great in the pink "vase" from the bead store. They now also live in the upstairs dollhouse with the turkey. Her house is play scale (Ryan's Room), so about the size of 1:12 but not actually to scale and very chunky for small hands. I think these look great on this 1:16 Petite Princess chest in this photo but the smaller ones are way more awesome.

Finally, I bought a few sets of the Kaleidoscope furniture for my birthday from Fab.com. This green flocked sofa and fuschia chair are actually quite large. I would say they are more like 1:10 but I'm not good with numbers. I have a Lundby and usually work with 1:16. I really don't care about scale (although you wouldn't know it from this post) but these are just too big for my purposes. I really want to keep the coffee table. But if someone wants to buy this (box, olive rug, and all but the coffee table), please let me know. It's actually quite heavy.

I think if you have a house that has tall ceilings or a more open floor plan, this would be great for you. I'm happy to take it out of the box again and measure it or photograph it next to familiar objects (don't you love all the diet coke cans on eBay?). Email me if you're interested: lemoncadet at gmail dot com.
I paid $29 for it. Make me an offer. If you're nice, I will throw in some handmade billy balls in the scale of your choice (or both).

Giant . space planning

I started putting some furniture in the studio apartMac. I am surprised at how much stuff I can get in there. I'm thinking I'll cut a hole in the back that will be a stairway leading to the lower level where the bathroom and bedroom are -- kinda like in a boat.

That TOMY sofa is killing me. I hate it in there; it's just what my "assistant" (to steal a term from MyRealitty) was playing with in our Lundby. I was too lazy to grab something else.

I will definitely be making some sort of kitchen area from these Irwin (Interior Decorator Set) pieces. My plan is to research Manhattan apartments for their kitchens. There is little I love more than House Hunters when it's set in NYC. I'm like Babe, pig in the city when I go there.

I've been adding lots of inspiration to my Pinterest and working away on the Billy balls.

I'm a Giant . pulling some loot from the permanent collection

When I'm playing with my miniatures sometimes I pretend I work for Rachel Zoe and I "pull" styles from my vault. Yeah, it's like that. I might use this fireplace instead of making a hanging one like planned. The speakers from the iMac are too big. The sofa is vintage Fisher Price; I printed out the bricks and used this as a fireplace in a scene. I'm thinking of painting the trashed Petite Princess chair to mimic grey leather. Oh, the colors in the background are scrapbook paper I'll use for stuff. Maybe I'll use the yellow Lundby chairs or the acrylic chairs but definitely with a different table. Maybe the Eames rocker will live in my studio apartMac and maybe I'll paint the elephant in one of these ochre shades. See my new MacBook and iPad? Awesome. Some drawer pulls and knobs, another stolen idea.

These are the accessories I'm starting with. Why yes, that is a Princess Diana commemorative plate. That's how we roll. That's a wheel of brie and a Rilakkuma flan. Indeed.

Fab challenge with Call of the Small

Before my little blog break, I saw some cool earrings on Fab.com and thought they would make the perfect accessory in a scene. Being too cheap to buy a whole pair just for myself, I asked the amazing mini designer behind Call of the Small if she would go halvsies with me and do a challenge. I don't think we set any rules: just use the earring in a scene. Here's my result.

I assumed she would do something much cooler with the earring than hang it on the wall as art so I took the safe route by doing just that. I made the frame myself (a first!) with dollhouse moulding. I used seed beads to shadow it away from the backing paper. The fireplace is actually a vintage Fisher Price couch that I turned upside-down and sideways. I printed out the brick paper and stuck it in.

The rug was actually my first idea. I don't know if it's cheating but it came to me shortly after I bought the earrings. I had the pattern printed from one of the artist's other designs before the package even arrived.

I used the roombox I designed (have I talked about that yet?) to stage the scene. My favorite part is the coral. I found the orange faux coral at Michaels and hot glued it into a bottle lid.

I bought the abstract expressionist stamps at the Post Office months ago specifically to use in scenes and finally Rothko made it.

Time: I must confess that I have been working on this scene all week! I've been playing with it bit by bit when I could get in a minute.

The goods: sparkly chairs are Petite Princess; coffee table is a glass tealight holder with a piece of paper glued on; dishes are re-ment, Ocara, Playmobil, and random eBay finds; orange chair is Reac; side table is a vintage Fisher Price chair, possibly a booster seat (?); the credenza is a dollar store table that I chopped the legs off, sanded, and washed with orange paint to be the right color and size; record player and other stuff is Tomy. I totally forget who made the earrings but hopefully Call of the Small will post a credit.

This was really fun for me. Thanks so much to Christine of Call of the Small for taking me up on this challenge. I can't wait to go see what she's done!

Bicentennial decor

I was only a toddler in 1976 but for some reason the design of that year really fascinates me. When we were house hunting a few years ago we looked at this place with an entire bathroom wallpapered in liberty eagles. So when a living room set popped up on eBay, I watched it with great interest. I didn't bid and it was relisted. I felt it was my duty to buy it at the lower price and a couple of weeks later, it arrived from the original owner. I think it's cool that dollhouse furniture follows the trends in the 1:1 world; read this interesting post by diepuppenstubensammlerin.

I have people in mind when I work out my inspiration for a scene. This place is rented by some hipsters who think that bicentennial decor is hilarious (like myself). I played around with some doily action but ended up taking the space in a more modern direction. They like contemporary art and nice glassware but also throw in stuff they've picked up at yard sales and the Salvation Army downtown.

I do realize how crazy this all sounds but my job can be super high stress and staging these little scenarios relaxes me in a way that sewing never will.

I'll put more details in the flickr captions as I feel I've gone on long enough.

A mini challenge

Just before we left for Berlin, Call of the Small posted about what, for her, was involved in making a scene.  This was one of my favorite posts and I was inspired to tackle the challenge. I do my scenes in much the same way and I'll stick with her post format for this one.

Unfortunately, I don't have a dollhouse. I designed and created a roombox but there are a couple of flaws in the construction so I can't use it yet. So I'm still left with only this Petite Princess roombox. Usually I'll wallpaper it with scrapbook paper and do something with the floor. But when I started placing the red and orange in the space, the turquoise blue seemed just right so I didn't change my background.

Motivation: I picked up a few really cool pieces in Berlin and I have been dying to use them (but crazy busy!). I started with the orange and white chair and was planning on doing something totally different but after I put the credenza in there and then the red lounge chair, it all started to work.

The accessories: My favorite part of making a scene is adding all the stuff. The TV was first, of course. It is a fairy tale viewfinder of Hansel and Gretel from Berlin. There is a crazy image of the kids shoving the witch's fat ass into the oven. It's hilarious. I didn't think the aqua would work but I think it really does. Of course I had to use the "ball tower" (the fernsehturm) souvenir and that thermos (a recent eBay find). My mom bought me a box of mostly trashed dollhouse furniture at a flea market and that bird cage was right on top. I didn't think it would work either but it did. (I think it must be a Christmas ornament). Next I went with a vintage Sylvanian families cabinet and the TOMY planter. The pillows I made came next and then the mostly Playmobil dishes (check out that sausage! I am not into fake food much but that is too funny). Oh, the red shoes are from my childhood Skipper doll. Ah, the teeth marks...

The dinosaur was a last-minute find (I share a space with the toddler and husband so their toys often come in handy).

I definitely like to play around with color and I care little for realism. I like to have fun with spaces that appear realistic on first glance and then smack you with something ridiculous (like the bright green sword from some appetizer or mixed drink).

Time: It took 15 minutes to set everything up.  Everything was out and on hand so I didn't have to dig through any bins. I usually spend much longer because I often have a toddler around. I took 22 photos for 5 minutes. I spent 10 minutes with them in Photoshop (basically resizing a cropping a bit). Then it too me about 3 days to actually have a few minutes to write this post.

Finally, I would LOVE to know more about the new pieces I acquired, especially the lounge chair. It has real upholstery, it's not molded plastic. I have an identical one with brown "leather." I don't know anything about the orange and cream chair or the credenza (the only piece with a marking -- W Germany). They are all flea market or secondhand finds. Anyone?

Thanks so much to Call of the Small for such an inspiring and informative post. 

Making some minis

Z and I set to work on another scene this weekend. I bought a bunch of new chairs and wanted to play around with them and so did she. We were having some issues with the layout of everything so I decided to make some pillows to go on the floor. As always, I had some help with accessorizing the space. The more I look at the photos, the more I think there is just too much stuff in there. I kinda have this rule in my head though that I only photograph once and then I dismantle everything. I don't look at the photos until after my design assistant has gone to bed and the light is long gone.

The pillows were so easy to make, I'm ashamed I haven't made more mini stuff for our scenes. I used some muslin I had in a bin and a DJ Lance I had printed onto iron-on paper a few months ago. I finished them while Z was eating lunch and surprised her with them. They add to the 1970s sort of rumpus room vibe of the space -- lots of wood paneling and random furniture, some kids stuff and whatever snacks you have in the fridge.

I like the lighting.  A few more pics and a list of what's possibly what over on flickr.

Dollhouse furniture review: Educo Hape

I have to say that I was most excited about this bedroom set and also the most disappointed. A bedroom wasn't needed because we already had a couple of beds. But I thought it would be nice for Mama and Papa Panda to have a room of their own. This is from the regular Educo Hape dollhouse line. There is also a very contemporary bamboo line that I love the looks of but it's more expensive. This bedroom is going for about $14.00 on Amazon. Not bad. Like with the Le Toy Van set, I used my Swagbucks to buy Amazon giftcards.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Le Toy Van and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a little big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: This is where the disappointment comes in. The construction is just shoddy. The plexiglass on the doors of the wardrobe and shelves of the bed is scuffed and the pieces are not square. The dresser is okay but the bed is very crooked. The paint is fine but where glue seeped from the seams, it was not cleaned up very well. There is one cut of the wood that is very rough. So basically, these items just lack the attention to detail in craftsmanship that all of the other companies have.

Overall: I bought this set because of the beanbag. I liked the colors and I liked the modern styling -- especially the striped comforter. All of the fabric on the other sets was yucky and floral. So I have no complaints there. I love the little lamps and those will work well in other parts of the house. And the beanbag is fabulous. While this set doesn't have details in the paint like the Le Toy Van, there are cool details elsewhere -- the drawers pull out and there are tiny hangers in the wardrobe. Cute.

So I do recommend these. The lower price point and modern styling make up for the lack of quality on some of the pieces.

If you would like to read the rest of my dollhouse reviews, click here.