A table for the Hogsmeade house kitchen

After all the challenges I faced with the stairs and walls I put them aside. I wanted to make some furniture and decided on the diner table from Julie Warren's book. It will probably end up in the kitchen though xD

Making that table was fun, though the measuring and cutting tends to become to straining if I work longer than ten to fifteen minutes at a time. But I'm not in a hurry :')

I varnished the table top the next morning. I did it only once, with regular indoor and outdoor oak wood-stain, and at first I was not sure if I should add another layer but I decided against it. It's always a possibility for later.
It was the first time I used varnish on Balsa and I loved the structure it gave the table top! The legs and the supporting parts would be painted as soon as I'd choosen the colour :)

That didn't take me very long. Started mixing colours later that day :) I used acrylic white, some blue and sapgreen to get turquoise. And then more white to get a lighter shade. And more white and ... (a)

Still, after two layers, it did look a bit darker and brighter than I intended. So it would need some aging and/or distressing, the part I'm always dreading to do, because it never seem to work for me :')

I've found a dry brush tutorial and tried that. I also did some sanding and used some 'patina' and well, here you go. Not very old looking, but better than before, right? :)

I want all different kinds of chairs with the table, different styles as well as different colours. Very Boho chic. Maybe with pastel colours in the shades I choose for the kitchen. And at least one chair with a woven seat of course!

Struggling with stairs, and walls, and ...

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy with crafting (for) my miniature cottage. So prepare yourself, because I hope to catch up on everything in the next couple of days ;)

First let me give you an update on the building process. After I found (a tutorial on) the kind of windows I want to make, it was time to make the openings.
I didn't want to use the jigsaw for this job, but I discovered that my hobby knife could cut well enough through the 4 mm wood. Wish I'd known that earlier ;)

Before I cut the opening for the stair well, I wanted to check if I had the measurements right , so I taped the walls and floors together.

That was a wise decision because seeing it that way, I discovered there would not be enough room (for a doll to stand straight xD) with the roof right above the stair well. 
So I needed to change the plan, or better yet, the stairs :') But boy, what a challenge! 
I decided to turn the stairs, but I'd still had to make a turn in order  for a 1/12 figure to have the right headroom.

The blue line is the stairs. 1 = original plan, you can see the problem :') 2 = better but still not good, and 3 is with a turn, so the stair well will be more in the middle of the floor.

I wracked my brain with that stairs problem for a couple of days.  Making those turns was a really frustrating thing, but I got there ^^ I figured out what I was going to do and found a plan xD

The stairs were driving me crazy anyway though. Had started over and over because one step wouldn't fit, I broke one or the glue hadn't been dry enough before I continued  :')

By the end of the week I had the feeling I was half way through, and I hoped the last bit would be easier now that I'd figured things out.  
I had to cut the precious stairs in half. It was a though choice; cutting one in half and saving a lot of time, or making a new one and keeping these for 'you never know when you need exactly such stairs'.

I spent almost the whole saturday making the other turn :')

And because I was very satisfied with the second 'turn of the stairs', I wanted to do the first part over (a)

I seemed to have gotten more stairs LOL The middle one is for the cottage in case you got confused.
 
I struggled with the stairs for hours the next morning. Thought I made a mistake with measurement, corrected that, saw another, etc etc untill everything seemed wrong and I wanted to scream (a)
So in the end I decided to continue with the first one (right on the photo above), which now looked a lot better all of a sudden *sighs*

Finally, after a long and enjoyable walk, I managed to put all the pieces of the stairs together.

On monday, while I was feeling good about having made the stairs, I started drawing new plans. And then I discovered a new fault.  If you can't have a stair well near the wall under the roof, then a door won't fit either :') 
So, more adaptions, and when I finally thought I knew how much wood I'd need to buy for the rest of the walls, I went to my dad again, just to be sure. Good thing I did, because we discovered a new problem, which I could solve by cutting/sawing 0,4 cm from the walls I'd already sawed *cried*

It took me untill the next day to feel up do that :') Afterwards I cut the between walls for the ground floor, and took another look at the stairs. 

I was afraid they wouldn't be staight, so I taped temporarily walls to the stairs and they looked straight enough ;)

I'll continue with the stairs when the house is getting to the point that they can be put into place :)

Fancy flowerpots

When you start making a lot of macramé plant hangers, obviously you'll need lots of flower pots too. I had a few, but I wanted different sizes because every plant hanger will need its own shape.
From air drying clay I made six pots and painted them with acrylic paint.

When they were completely dry, I attached little nail stickers on the outside, and varnished them inside and out with clear nailpolish :)

Now I can also show you another cushion I made. This one is made with embroidery threads again, but the same way as I did the blue cushion.

Decisions to make

I probably spent two days researching what kind of windows and doors I want, and especially about the sizes. And I'm trying to get an idea about the furniture for the living room, so I can do some of those in between ;)

Making the house one step at the time isn't the hardest part imo. It's having to make so many choices, again and again. The windows for instance; how large, how far from the floor, what kind of window, open or closed, self made or bought, real glass or plexi, etc etc. And when I've finally decided I have to make all those decicions again about the doors (a)
But for now I just needed to know measurements so I can saw or cut the openings in the walls and start putting the walls together.

I finally found this really great window tutorial, so I'm thinking about doing it this way.

 

 Photo's form Jenn's Mini Worlds. Left: inside frame. Right: outside frame

I don't think I'll be making double-hung windows for the cottage, but I think this simple window will match the style of the Scottish cottages. These are the photo's I'm using as a reference;

Since I'm a total failure at painting and aging, I might just stick with staining :')
Also, I think a dark(er) look/wood will probably give a more cosy/witchy/Weasley-ish look. I'm afraid otherwise it'll end up looking too neat and less old.
But those are decisions for another time, first I have to make the openings for the windows. Oh boy ;)

The Hogmeade house - an update

Two weeks ago I shared my plans for a new project with you. Well, I made the stairs and  enthusiastically started making some things to decorate the living room with, and then some :')
And all that time the wood panels were lying there, waiting for me to get over my fear of the jigsaw :')

  

The two large panels had already been sawed the right size in the store.

The other two panels, on top, still had to be sawed according to the red lines.

Last week my sister offered to take a look at that terrifying device together :') I silenced my pride and accepted the offer. Turned out to be rather 'easy' in the end, of course, but that's almost always the case with fears like that, right? ;)
After she left, I practiced by sawing 1 cm strips of leftover wood :)

 

And it wasn't long before I went ahead and continued with the panels. I managed but wasn't very happy with how it turned out; not exactly straight and the edges were slightly splintered. Somehow I forgot to take photo's of it :')

However, I decided not to worry to much because the wood would be entirely covered anyway ^^

After a few days I worked on it some more and managed to improve the edges.

 

I drew where the fire places are supposed to be and had fun with taking some photo's. This isn't the furniture for the house though, just some props for the photo xD

   

The left side will become the front of the house. The room at the wall will be the living room and the room upstairs (at the wall) will be the bedroom xD

 The stairs won't stay there, I was just checking the height:)

Since I had to change some of the measurements due to the bad sawing job (a) I need to make new drawing plans as well. But I like doing that :)
Next step will be sawing door frames and window frames and the stairwell opening. Oh boy, oh boy.

Hedwig, the little macramé owl

Voor een jarige vriendin heb ik vorige week mezelf uitgedaagd en een miniatuur uiltje van macramé gemaakt. Aangezien ze ook een Harry Potter fan is, koos ik met Hedwig in gedachten gebroken witte borduurzijde.

For my friends birthday I challenged myself to make a miniature macramé owl. 
Since she's also a Harry Potter fan I choose light ecru embroidery thread to represent Hedwig :)
 

I used this tutorial:

Maar in plaats van simpele effen kralen, wilde ik wel het effect van ogen, dus heb ik de kralen geverfd.

Instead of the simple plain beads, I intended to get the look of eyes, so I painted the beads.

Not too shabby, I think? ;)

1:12 Macramé cushion DIY

Last friday I promised to show you how I made the miniature macramé cushion I posted. I'd started another one right after that brown one, so I took a few photo's (a)
This time I choose bright colours that will fit nicely into the Hogsmeade cottage. Instead of embroidery threads I used some yarn I had in exactly the right colours. Though the (yarn) cushion feels quite cosy, I'll stick with the embroidery threads in the future because it looks a bit less coarse.

I won't bother you with showing the macramé techniques because there are lots and lots of sites and tutorials that explain every knot and step way better than I could ;)
This is one that uses the same pattern I did. It's only Square Knots and Alternating Square Knots.

 From Macramé School.

Well I'll just show some photo's of my work in progress.

With the first (brown) cushion, I started a little more simple, but for the second one I'd figured out how to work more precisely. I used a square cork coaster I found in my dresser and taped it on a small cutting mat/board. You can also use a paper pricking mat instead of a cork coaster, I discovered later. And the cutting mat can be something different too, as long as it's firm enough.
I taped it together with masking tape and added a piece of squared paper to make it easier to keep a straight line ;)

For the cushions I took 16 cords (8 turquoise, 4 dark blue and 4 yellow), folded them in half and tied them to a thread of the yellow yarn. A thinner thread would be even better though.

I pinned it to my corkboard and used some more pins to be sure I started with a straight line :)

I followed the pattern from the video, but made sure my knots were tied very thightly together.

With this yarn and 32 worksthreads (2 x 16 cords) it became 3,5 cm width. I made it approx. 6 cm long, and then cut most of the remaining yarn. Those leftover pieces I used for making the frings and the padding.

I folded the remaining yarn and used masking tape to keep it there while I applied a bit of Tacky glue.

When the Tacky glue was totally dry, I carefully removed the masking tape, and got everything together to finish to cushion.

First I started by using the remaining yellow threads which I had used to tie the cords to. You can see why a thinner thread (with a more neutral colour) would be better.

 

So, I hide the yellow yarn between the folds and stitched the ends together with a thinner, blue thread.

 

Using a crochet needle I first made fringes to one side.

 

I filled the cushion with some of the remaining yarn I couldn't use anymore untill it was more than full. I imagine I could made schoulder bags this way too ^^ Instead I finished the cushion by adding fringes to the other side as well.