Giving a second life to old plates

My mom bought for me a long time ago some plates from one of those dollhouse collections that were made week by week.  Well, those plates never had a place of their own.  Some made it to Mrs. Lovett's kitchen, but they were not there for long.  They had been in storage most of the time.

But now, with Kassandra wanting a place to hang out with friends, she said she needed some crookery, because some of those friends are human and as such, like human food.

"Nothing much", she said.  "Just some big and small plates, and maybe some serving trays?  I am sure you have around something I can use".

And she was not wrong.  I immediately thought of those old plates.  But my goodness, I could not for the life of me give those to her, in the condition they were:

They look very cheap, and not fit to my friend's taste...

So I took it upon myself to give them a second life so they could finally be used.  First off, I went and bought a lovely printie from Little Maggie Shop.  It was great that she offered some advice on how to do these plates.  Good thing I did not need to start from scratch!  I chose the first model, as it is very similar to my full-size plates, and adjusted it to the size of my plates.  The tray design came in handy as well.  Then, printing and cutting off the plates one by one:

I glued the printies to the plates with white glue, and let them dry thoroughly.

Then, I used my new Mod Podge to give them a shiny glaze.

And the final result is fantastic!

Kassandra was very happy when I gave them to her.  She said she does not have yet a nice place to store them, but she most certainly will buy something nice and suitable for them.  As of now, they are in the cellar, on top of the fridge.

So happy to have learned a new technique, and specially to have been able to use some plates that were going to the trash for sure!

Door inserts - finishing the conservatory

Today Kassandra was all excited when I went to her place to retake the work.

"Look what we got!", she said, showing me some merchandise.  "We can finish all the doors today!"

"What are these?", I asked.

"Why, they are the glass inserts for the doors!  I was so looking forward to having them.  I was so upset when we could not use for the doors the same glass we used for the windows.  It took me a while to find the precise thing we needed, but I think they are gorgeous, don't you?"

"Yes, they are very pretty indeed! Let's get started, then".

We cut every piece up to measure, and we attached the "glass" panels to the inside of the door of the conservatory.

And then we finished off by attaching the door knob to the inside as well

And as easy as that, the conservatory is finished!

"Oh, it looks beautiful!  How pretty is the light when it hits the design!"

"I am very happy you like the results.  Let's do the rest of them".

And then, we repeted the process with the door that leads to the terrace from the library:

 "It's starting to look like a home, don't you think?"

"Indeed.  And to celebrate that we are finished with the conservatory wing, I have brought you some gifts, because I know you enjoy having plants around".

"Oh, my dear, you are so lovely!  You shouldn't have!"

"It is my pleasure".  

You can make a topiary with this easy tutorial.

A topiary and a tray with saplings.  They need Sun to grow!

"How wonderful"  I will keep the topiary here, but I will put the tray in the conservatory, as soon as I get some furniture for it".

Then it only was only left the front door:

We omitted the knob until the wallpapering is finished in the living room

"I love it!  I am so happy the house is finally completely closed!  Now I can pursue anyone that tries to enter without permission..."

"Don't you mean "prosecute"?  Like, taking them to court for breaking and entering?"

She looked at me quizzically.

"No.  I meant pursue.  As in, chasing after them for their shamelesness.  And making them pay..."

I stopped asking questions.

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Fantasy apart, I made the inserts with transparency paper, using some printables from Small Stuff's PrintMini, and attached them with double-sided tape.  Super easy to make, and I am so happy how well they turned out!

Working in the conservatory

Remember that Kassandra's new place has a conservatory?  We have been working on it for some days, and today we almost finished, except for a couple of details.

Remember that the conservatory already had a floor?  Well, Kassandra was not entirely sure of it, and so we stripped it off again.  And we started the work.

First off, we proceed to paint a beam of the ceiling in white, as well as the post that holds the door shut - Kassandra said of course a conservatory had to be designed in white:

After several coats of paint, we proceed to wallpaper the end wall.  Kassandra wanted to try out the chosen wallpaper to see if she liked it:

Once again, this is the design of Jessica Cloe.  Kassandra says she is a very talented designer. Then we took care of the ceiling, which we just decorate it in white:

Once decided that the chosen wallpaper would be used, we proceeded to work on the front wall - it has a door and a window, so the first step was to make a pattern to accomodate the wallpaper:

It took a lot of measuring, but we ensured that the fit would be perfect.  So we cut the wallpaper and applied it to the wall:

See the windowsill and borders, and the door frame?  We had the same problem as in the library, so we decided to cover them as well, so the wood color would not be visible:

Then, we put back the magnet so the door would stay closed:

And off we went to the inside again.  We did another two patterns for the remaining windows:

Then we attached them to each other, and tried them out on the wall:

There were a couple of coreections needed, but nothing too dificult.  So, we proceed very carefully and very slowly to cut up the wallpaper:

Having the Sun behind helps!

And upon a careful dry fit, we finally glued it to the wall, and then started covering again the windowsills and sides:

Looks phenomenal!

Then, the floor again.  Kassandra saw somewhere a conservatory with a pattern of black and white tiles with a decorative border, and she wanted something similar. So we purchased a beautiful floor from Pixel Market.  It was a joy installing the definitive floor on the conservatory:

Kassandra loves the black and white style!

 And lo and behold, the conservatory is finished!

We are only lacking a glass insert for the door and a knob for the inside.  But that, hopefully, will be installed tomorrow!

Installing some floors

It has taken Kassandra some time to finally decide which floors she wanted in the first floor of the house.  It even tooks us some trial and error, and to uninstall the floor on the bedroom.  We opted for wood at first, but she did not like it.  And she finally chose this lovely golden tone floor:

It is the same style as the one in the cellar, but in another color.  She was quick in placing the bedroom furniture in their place:

She is still not convinced about the bed.  She says maybe it just needs some dressing up to be comfortable for her.  

And then, the library floor.  She was very sure she wanted a dark wood panel floor, and so I got it for her:

Do you remember the table with the snuff boxes collection? She decided to bring it to this house because she felt the other one lacked the proper space to display it properly.  I agree that this is a better idea than her old parlor.  She even ordered some furniture to start displaying her book collection:

She has already starting to bring some books over.  Hopefully we will start working on the cellar next...