Scene: Absinthe cellar

I love making scenes!  You can fill up a random room with any idea, and you don't need to spend a lot of time or a lot of money to make it, since scenes are usually much smaller than a room in a dollhouse; you can put them anywhere (book nooks), or you can gift them to people, since sometimes you can house them in a regular decoration object (like a lantern).

I have seen many scenes inside roomboxes, and I always wanted to make my own.  Unfortunately, I cannot find deep roomboxes in my country, so I searched for an alternative.  I found it in the shape of a coin bank, and housed it there (same coin bank as the nursery scene I did for my coworker) - actually, I made this one first, but I just realized I never posted about it.

The idea was to make a cellar (of which I have also seen many), but I wanted to make a cellar dedicated to absinthe, instead of wine.  My coin bank did not have much space, so finally I came up with this:

You can see on the table a lot of things:  the absinthe fountain is the same model I used to sell in my Etsy shop (and my own design!), of which I am very proud of, filled up with water and ice cubes;  the goblet is a little out of scale, but I bought it because it has a reservoir bubble like a Pontarlier glass, to measure the absinthe you serve; the bottle is a Clandestine, a Swiss blanche that I very much enjoy; in front of them, an empty sugar dish, mimicking the old French ones, an absinthe spoon, work of Nalladris, and a regular bottle opener.  Under the table, two books that any absintheur should have: The Absinthe Encyclopedia and the Absinthe Antiques, by Scott MacDonald.

On the floor you can see a collection of absinthe bottles (some I have tried, others I have not); an absinthe crate, with the label from the makers Deniset; over it, a set of antique postcards with absinthe imagery; and finally, a barrel (empty of course, but let's pretend is absinthe in the process of aging) holding a magazine called Imbibe, with the cover dedicated to absinthe.  The little carpet covers the coin slot. 

 

And naturally, a picture of the famous painting made by Pernod Fills as publicity, and that they gifted to cafés so they would advertise their brand:

I currently have this scene hanging in my absinthe corner, underneath a vintage add of Gempp-Pernod:

I am currently working on another scene, that is almost finished - an apothecary!  More info on that coming soon!

The cellar is all done

 Yesterday Kassandra and I spent all day setting up the cellar.  We started by putting the floor, a gorgeous piece from Ana Circea:

Then we started with the walls.  Kassandra wanted to have bricks, because she says they help to keep the wines and the spirits in good condition.  The wallpaper is the lovely design of Veronique, from Pixel Market.  Our first wall was the one with the window.  We joined a couple of sheets together, and then made a template for the window:

Then we cut the the wallpaper to measure and glue it to the wall.  We even got the door off the house to work better

The we added the bamboo blind.  Kassandra was very happy with it!

And then we attached the door to its place again

The bamboo blind is the lovely work of Amanda from Mini Maison Miniatures.  After that, we started with the walls.  We had to attach several pieces together, because it was a long wall:

One down, two to go!

The back wall:

And the left wall.  The door gave us a bit of trouble, but everything got sorted out:

It looks great!

We put all the furniture in place, and Kassandra can start decorating:

What's an skeleton doing there??!!

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The story with the skeleton is the following:  I always said that if I had a cellar, I wanted to have a walled up skeleton, as the one that appears in the story "The cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allan Poe.  So, now that I have a cellar, here we have Mr. Fortunato after the encounter with his destiny.  He is waiting for me to buy some wood to make a false wall to bury him.  For the moment, he is chained up, sitting besides the famous cask of amontillado and accompanied by a rat.  Hopefully I can take care of him soon...

A new acquisition

Today it was Kassandra the one that came looking for me.

"You are going to love this!", she said.

"What is it?"

"I have purchased a new house!  Well, it is not really new, but you'll see..."

And indeed she has.  She was all excited about showing it to me, because...

"After all, you are going to remodel it for me."

"I am very glad to see that you trust my knowledge in these matters".

"Oh, don't worry, I have very clear ideas about what I want for it.  Take a look!"

"Isn't it lovely?  I am thinking about adding an attic.  The ceilings in the first floor are too high.  And I could use some extra rooms..."

"What are you thinking in terms of decoration?"

"In the ground floor, a drawing room and a cellar.  And of course, a library on the first floor.  And I think I need a bedroom too, just in case..."

"So what do you need the attic for?"

"I want a ballet studio.  I need to rehearse.  And did you see it has a conservatory, and a deck?"

"Very nice".

"I cannot wait to start the renovations!"

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Fantasy apart, I came across this house by chance, and I bought it locally.  I used some gift money my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday, and I could not be more happy.  I have so many plans for it!