O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

There are miniature trees all over my house. I wanted to share a beaded tree with you along with an update on the bottle brush trees.
Tammy from Dollar Store Dollhouse wrote in a comment about painting the bottle brush trees. My paint selection is rather limited so I stuck to white and green. The color of most of the trees was not to my liking so these were subjected to a bit of dry brushing. Huge improvement. Sorry my photos are not very good but they do look really nice. Take a look at Tammy's tutorial on using easter egg dye to recolor them.

Here is a photo of the beaded tree I picked up by auction last year. Truth be told it is my second. My original is in storage and the goal was to use this one to learn about lighting with fiber optics.

Dyeing bottle brush trees

I'm in a 'use what you have' kind of mood lately and been wanting to dye some of the bottlebrush trees that I have on hand. The directions are to remove the original green color by soaking them in a solution of bleach and water. I used various strengths and as you can imagine came out with different shades of green down to a creamish color. Further directions said to used dye to recolor. With only some food coloring on hand I decided to give that a try. The blues and blue greens did not turn out well at all. The green trees you see below are the result of watching and removing from the bleach solution at different times. A dozen of the pink were sent off a few weeks ago for a swap, they are my favorite. They all look much better in person. One thing I'd like to add is that different results were achieved with the different brands of trees. One batch literally melted. I never did achieve a nice clean white color so if you have, please let me know your secret. You can play with the shape of your trees by fluffing up or squishing down the bristles.

These are going to be fun to fix up and decorate.

It was me that changed my settings to moderated so you would think I would check and do my job.
Thank you all for your patience, encouragement and suggestions to help me with those horrid blue walls. I tried acetone and it still did not budge. After several tens of dollars spent on this problem I am resigned to putting up some false walls and more than ready to move on. So far this rehab is not unlike working on a real house in that you learn to really love it layer by sometimes frustrating layer.

I am considering moving some of the walls around even though they are nailed in quite well. A few of these rooms are large so stock flooring is not an option for them. The room behind the bay window contained a stairway but I can live without the stairs in prefererence of another room. In this photo you can see this room with some of the original 'wood flooring'. Wouldn't you agree that with the stairway removed this is a great space for many types of rooms? Another thing you are able to see in this photo is a sampling of the condition of the siding. I've already started filling in the grooves and have always wanted to own a stone house so this baby will have a stone type finish. Old world of course.

Heavans,  I am so glad to be old enough to laugh at myself.

Studio Redux

To me working smarter starts with organizing and this is especially true when multiple projects will be going on. I did want to spare you the mess that this closet started out as so just imagine a regular ole' closet with a couple of bars and shelf that was also badly in need of a paint job.
Here is the start of my work area redux with the shelving and workspace additions along with a fresh coat of paint. I think the space is 48" wide. I chose a raspberry color as it is a great complement to a bit of color in my chair and also to some paper that I intended to use as my inspiration print.

All creators need storage for their wares and I love collecting little containers and such to store mine. If they are old and worn or lovingly used all the better. Here are some that fit pretty well into this space so far. The little brown boxes on the bottom shelf are cd storage and are perfect on this narrow shelf. They may get a redux too.

The addition of another table creates needed workspace.

The round piece of marble was a tabletop that I had no base for. It now provides a great work surface. I love vintage metal trays and often use these tip trays for my miniatures work.

A favorite vintage chair that was slated for a redux works well for me here. I am happy to have traded a wood table for glass as it makes the space feel larger.

We're not finished yet. I must add some fabric in the form of a curtain to close of the work area when it gets messy guests come to visit. This room may have to provide double duty as a guest room and it has great windows just begging to provide a pretty view. I'll be sure to share the rest of this room as it progresses.

Thanks for visiting!