All in a Day's Work...

The days have been absolutely gorgeous here so I have been spending time cleaning up the motorhome and working on my little garden outside. I did buckle down and do some work on our projects so here is what has been happening. The first thing was a second coat on the frame for Mr. Skellie's big screen TV.

This had been going well until Mr. Skellie had another request...now he wants a recliner. So what does any self respecting friend of a miniature skeleton do but get on Ebay and find a recliner! This one is a Fisher-Price and actually reclines.

Unfortunately, it only came in pink, so I did hear about that for awhile until I promised to paint it a more manly color...if you're wondering why he has his arm up, he was asking, "Where is the remote?!" So guess that will be yet another project. After the second coat was dry, I glued in the screen and Mr. Skellie wanted a picture to see how it would look with his new recliner.

I asked if I could work on the summerhouse and he gave me his permission...as long as I start looking around for a house for him soon...my life is being run by a six inch plastic skeleton! I was thinking about how to keep the steampunk furniture stable in the summerhouse while it is going along. Since I belong to a Facebook group about RV's, I heard about a product called Earthquake Putty. Sounded like something I could use, but wondered if it would tear the paper flooring when it was removed. I thought it would be a good idea to put a couple of clear coats on the flooring to prevent that from happening. I have a can of water based finish I found in the garage

so put a first coat on to start with.

Then I had another thought...whew, all these thoughts mean more work! LOL! The brick on the outside of the summerhouse is also paper...what if I put a coat on it too to protect the paper from dirt and wear. I decide to coat one wall and see how it looked. There is a very subtle difference in the color and very little shine so I think I will do the whole thing! Here is a before and after:

Since I have the windows open today, I will finish that up and then start the inside wallpapers. Stay safe out there and pray for each other as we deal with all the craziness 2020 has brought so far...thanks for stopping by.

Chains and Hidden Axles...

Had a couple of surprises yesterday. Remember when my paints arrived quite awhile ago? Well, I ordered some small chain at the same time and forgot all about it; it arrived yesterday.

Exactly what I wanted too! Sometimes it's hard to tell the size of something online. Rose saw the packaging in the trash and had to know what had arrived. "Oooo, now you can make me a chain belt to hold my key!" she exclaimed. She doesn't ask for much, unlike a certain skeleton who will remain nameless, so I set to work. Two pair of needle-nose pliers, flying jump rings, and standing Rose on her head to get this on her and we were done! Mr. Skellie kept sauntering by to see if he could get a peek at her petticoats, so I had to shoo him away. I told him he'd better watch out for the Captain so he went and hid in his drawer. This is what we ended up with and Rose is very happy with it.

This past Wednesday, I actually was able to shop inside Michael's! It was fun to look around at everything and I found some black artist's medium and some cool grassy stuff, 60% off too.

This makes great lawn around the minion houses but it does kind of shed for awhile. Remember that axle we were going to have to remake? Guess what I saw hiding amongst the colored pencils...

It must have fallen off a while back and I had the foresight to set it aside...then promptly forgot where I put it! LOL!

Mr. Skellie held one end and we set in in place

and set a clamp so it couldn't slide down.

I probably should have put a little bit of superglue with the wood glue, I always forget that until after something is already glued. While that was drying, I repainted the wood stove

and put the first coat on the big screen TV frame.

This artist's medium is not the same as my old stuff, it seems way too shiny to me. Someday when I find that box of old paint, I'll see what brand it is and if I can get more. I tried some spray matte finish on the stove this morning, but it's still a little shiny...I'll just have to say that I have a very fastidious cleaning lady and she likes a nice polished cast iron stove. Thanks for stopping by.

Tablet to TV...

Had a project opportunity pop up on Friday that I just couldn't resist. When I walked into my daughter's house to take my shower, I saw my new son-in-law putting something interesting into the trash. I peeked over his shoulder and asked what he was throwing away. The youngest grandchild had broken his tablet and he was getting rid of it. I claimed the parts and now Mr. Skellie can't wait to see a big screen TV for his drawer. Yeah, I said he had one the other day, but he was telling me a story. So this is what I started with.

I went in the garage to hunt up some cardboard and looked through my wood drawer for some strip wood. Mr. Skellie helped me cut the cardboard for the back

and we started the strip wood for the frame.

Once the first strip was clamped, we worked our way around. Those little multicolored clamps are handy but every time I set the piece down, the clamps would shoot off across the bench.

Mr. Skellie would run after them and we were just having a jolly time trying to keep those things on. I used a piece of railing for the bottom, but it just didn't look finished.

After thinking about it for awhile, I built a base for it and called it done.

While the glue was drying, I was thinking that the Summerhouse  might need a source of heat in case there's a cold snap somewhere while they are out traveling. I had a stove Christmas ornament that I ran across in the garage and thought it would look pretty tough with some rivets. I was so excited about how it was looking that I almost forgot to take a picture before I painted it all!

I wasn't really happy with the first coat of black paint but here it is for now.

I had a bottle of artist's medium that I used on the rest of the Summerhouse and it had a nice finish. So I will be looking for more of that to finish up the stove and the frame for the TV. I want to sand the frame to round the edges a bit, then the painting will begin. Thanks for stopping by and remember the fallen this weekend.

Mother's Day, Plants and Painting...

Wanted to show off my Mother's Day cards! My daughter and some of the girls had a whole art project going.

The words were heartfelt and made the day bright. Lots of hugs and well wishes from the boys and my heart was lifted. I am so grateful for these sweet children that I have the privilege to live near in my motorhome. I took the cards down today to set aside with the other things that I save. Didn't get a whole lot done this week, but after painting the walls the other day, I got to thinking that I probably should paint the underside of the roof parts too. So after putting all the pieces in place, I marked the areas with a pencil so I would know where to end the Suede color paint.

This is the first coat and I thought I might as well put a second coat on all the trim pieces too.

Also as proof that I am my own worst enemy sometimes, I was trying to shut the window shade and the Summerhouse lurched and I snapped loose some of the front bumper...sigh. Looks like I will need to fix that too.

And on a different note, I have been working on putting tomato plants in pots and putting up a new hummingbird feeder. I found a cute little hanging pot of petunias at Walmart (only 5 bucks) and now I have a whole little garden going on the side of the motorhome.

We still need more dirt there and have to have it smoothed and seeded, but for now I am enjoying my little plants. The weather was glorious here today...I hope that you were able to spend some time in the fresh air and dig in the dirt. Oh, I bought a big bag of organic potting soil and was diving in with both hands to fill the pots for the tomatoes. I was pretty dirty and while I rested after, I read the back of the empty bag....would you believe there was bat guano in it?! I'm sure it was sterilized, but I washed my hands REAL good after! LOL! Thanks for stopping by!

Bits and Pieces...

Woke up this morning with the urge to work on the Summerhouse. Breakfast can wait! I found some shutter holdbacks or shutter dogs. They were going to be used on another build that got left behind in one of our last moves so they were just floating around in a drawer in the garage. I was thinking that the Summerhouse should have a couple of these so that the shutters wouldn't clatter in the wind as the Captain and Rose are driving down the road. I dug out my small hammer and made short work of mounting them to the house.

Then I realized that the front door didn't have an interior knob...so I searched my bench drawer and found one that Rose approved of. A little glue, a couple of clamps

and that was done too. The stained glass was from a Christmas card.

I had chosen a very pretty blue for the upstairs walls but when I pulled out a piece of the verdigris roof pieces, it clashed pretty bad. I tried a few possibilities and settled on a color called Suede. It's the same color as all the trim will be on the first floor and I think it will work for what I have in mind. I used a piece of brown paper bag to sand the blue paint

and then painted a section to see if I liked it.

This will lighten up as it dries so I continued around the room with it.

While I had the paint out, I searched through my drawer of wood pieces and pulled out all the trim I thought I might need for the downstairs after the wallpaper goes up. Put the first coat on

and washed out my brush. It's evening now and it's quiet here in Motorhome Central as Mr. Skellie calls it. The Big Guy is snoring softly and I think I will go join him. Thanks for stopping by!

Success and Failure

It's a rainy day here in Tennessee so started to play around with some replacement window trim for the Summerhouse. The original pieces are all nice and painted and somewhere in a box in my daughter's garage so I thought it would be easy peasy to just make a couple of new ones out of cardboard. Well, I don't know if it was the full moon, my fingers, or my scissors but after several tries

I gave it up and went and played a computer game for awhile. It doesn't show in the picture, but they were pretty rough. So after thinking about it for awhile, decided to come at it from a different direction. So these are the first steps...

Set that aside to dry and want to tell you about a cool thing I saw online.

In fact, there were quite a few pictures of an octopus on a ship's wheel so I thought that might be cool to add to the Summerhouse.. After a delicious lunch INSIDE Chili's, went shopping IN Hobby Lobby! Wow did I miss that place! I found an octopus that I thought would work and brought him home with us. (He was also 50% off)

I used a small pair of nippers to cut the ring off the back. A few smears of 527 glue and a few clamps and we wait for the glue to dry!

Oooo! I am really liking this!

But Mr. Skellie has a few misgivings about having an octopus on board.

So as I was finishing up, he was having a long discussion with it about who the boss is around here...I have a feeling it's not me...next he'll want to drive the motorhome. So you know those cabinets up above the workbench? One of them is now craft storage! Woo! Hoo! So I found a place for all these things

and started getting the loose stuff off the bench to diminish what I need to put away when we want to go someplace.

So I will see you next time and I will sit here and watch paint dry! LOL!

Flooring and Just a Few Gears...

I wanted to get the floor painted so the plywood would be sealed in preparation for the flooring paper.  I was busy helping my mom that day so when I came home I found Mr. Skellie had painted himself into a corner!

He wanted to surprise me and have it all done by the time I got back. He was complaining that his feet were sore from standing in the corner since noon. "Noon?!" I said. So I told him to go soak his weary bones and I would finish the job.

Once it was finished, I dragged myself off to bed where I slept like a dead person. The next morning, I cracked open the new tub of border paste and spread it on the floor. I read that suggestion somewhere a while back and now I prefer doing that to trying to put paste on the paper itself. The border paste looks like thick Elmer's glue and I use a full size paintbrush to apply it. Positioned the paper and it was done!

It had a few little ripples show up, but as the paper dried, they settled down. Can't really do anything else until it dries all the way so I thought I would show you some keys I found online.

Not sure what I'm going to make with them yet, but some of the small ones in the upper left of the picture look like they would make great door keys for the Summerhouse. Rose was hinting around that she would like one on a chain to wear around her waist so I will be hunting for chain in the garage tomorrow. When I was done poking around with those, I decided to cover the pencil sharpener hole in the helm with some of the gears and tiny watch parts that have arrived. It had been awhile since I steampunked anything so had to play around with some different ideas until I got my groove back. I was pretty happy with the finished product

and when I unpack all the other pieces, I think I will be adding a little more detail to them also. Next up will be wallpaper! Then trim and lights! I'm getting excited to see this coming together at last. Oh, and the workshop will be getting a surprise tomorrow! I'll put up pictures so you can see too. Thanks for stopping by!