Free printable! Ballet calendar for 2021

I have been busy this weekend crafting a calendar for The Island room.  I have a cork board in which I wanted to hang it from.  So I made one for the remaining months of this year.

However, upon finishing it, I thought to myself, "why not make one for the next year, since I am already in the mood?"  Well, said and done.  I made one of those that you can change the page each month, but even though it is fully finished and functional, I am not sure it will hang well, because even though it is 1:12 scale, the paper is still 12 times too thick, and it looks a bit stiff:

Even though I love the design, it does not hang very well...

 

So I changed the style, and made one whose pages you have to tear off each time the month changes.  It is very easy to make, and you can find instructions on how to make it in this post - even though it is a different design, the process is still the same.

Once you have finished glueing the pages together, you only have to glue them onto the base with the picture - you should glue the base onto a strong cardboard so it won't bulge, or you can print the base onto photo paper, which is stiffer.

You can hold it in place with double-sided tape or dollhouse wax.

The theme is ballet, which I think will not look out of place in any dollhouse, but I have included an empty base in case you want to use your own picture.  

Here is the free 2021 calendar.  I used for the design the Print a Calendar site.  You can make several types of life-size calendars for your needs, or you can have fun designing your own in Big Hugh Labs, even making a small calendar for a CD case!  I am warning you, once you have tried their stuff you'll keep coming back for more!

Have fun making your own calendar!  Feel free to share it, give it as a gift and pass the file onto anyone (links back are nice too), but please, do not sell your creations or the file.

Kassandra's big renovation part 1 - Bedroom

Since we have just moved our big house, Kassandra thought it was the perfect moment to have some major renovations in hers.

She asked that I finally put wallpaper in her walls.  I bought the dollhouse already mounted (at the time I did not want to deal with the building up), and it came with a rather dull, standard beige with white flowers wallpaper.  I had been waiting years to find the perfect wallpaper for her, and since she knows I finally found it, she insisted it was time I redecorate the whole building.

To tell the truth, I was very anxious to not make any major mistakes that could ruin the whole appearance, but I found that putting up wallpaper is rather simple and fun, although time consuming.

First of all, I made several visits to Ana to buy different wallpapers sets.  Hers are the best wallpapers I have ever seen.  So different and out of the ordinary.  Really, Halloween papers are fun, but for people with inclinations and tastes like Kassandra's, those simply would not do.  Ana's wallpapers are regal, scrumptious and luscious. 

First, clearing out the space.  With our recent move it was easy, as everything was securely packed.  You can see the awful wallpaper the house had all these years, and the stains caused by the Blue Tack holding the pictures.

For the bedroom, I chose the Red Velvet Panel wallpaper.  It is just perfect.  Fancy that Ana called it the Count Dracula!  First I decided the layout, and modified the images so they would fit my walls height.  Then I took scrap paper and made patterns of the walls.  I printed the images in matte photographic paper and cut them using the patterns as guides.

In this pic, you can see that I made I mistake.  I cut the wallpaper from the top instead of from the bottom, so I lost the pretty golden design.  I had to reprint and cut again.  And then, for the dreaded moment of attaching the paper to the wall.  I knew I had several options, but I finally opted for using double-sided tape.

I was so nervous when glueing it down!  But I think it looks pretty nice.  Then I did the two side walls the same way.

Peeling the double-sided tape before glueing the paper

And the room is completed!  Or so I thought...

I absolutely loved it!  However, upon careful inspection, I noticed that the ceiling had the same terrible beige wallpaper - the rest of the ceilings are just unpainted wood - so I decided that the ceiling had to be wallpapered too.  For that, I wanted to resemble an antique paneled wood, and so I chose this wood panel wallpaper.  As with the other images, I adjusted the design to my measurements, and printed it.  The ceiling now looks imperial!

So gorgeous!

Now, I thought, it is finished!

But then I realized that I had not made the last wall, the one that opens up and closes the room.  Oh, the horror!

No matter, I printed two more sheets of the red panaled wallpaper, and got ready to finished it.  But unluckily for me, the sheets did not cover the whole wall!  They lacked about an inch, so I decided to add a decorative wooden trim at the bottom.  And lo and behold, now it was finished!

Kassandra is delighted with her new bedroom, and I am very happy she likes it!  She says she cannot wait for the rest of the house to be redone.  I understand her eagerness, but I need to buy some more double-sided tape first.  I spent a whole roll (5 meters) to do just the bedroom.

If you want to see all the renovations in the house, just click here.

Solstice decorations

December is here, and the holidays are around the corner!  Surely most of you are already getting your house ready with your preferred decorations.  

Yesterday, I found out that Kassandra also is, which was quite shocking.  I asked her if she would be celebrating Christmas or some other tradition.  She said that it is the use of her family to celebrate the December Solstice.  She specified that the longest night of the year was something worth celebrating for a vampire - unlike the Summer Solstice.

She has set up a lovely and tiny Winter tree in her parlor; but the most intriguing thing for me were the gift packages under it:

I found them very curious-looking, and asked if they also had the tradition, like humans, to exchange gifts.  "Of course!", she responded.  "It is the only moment in the year we get presents.  We do not celebrate human holidays, such as Valentine's Day, or birthdays.  Most vampires tend to forget what day of the year they were born.  I cerntainly do not know what day I was born.  I only know that it was Summer."

And then I asked about the original boxes she had used to wrap her presents.  "Oh, are they not delightful?  A very talented designer made them.  I do not like the overuse of shiny red, green and gold humans tend to use this time of year.  It all looks very fashion and stylish, but people have forgotten about the elegance and good taste we used in past times to wrap presents."

She proceeded to ask me to sit down to enjoy some spirits, and was talking about how difficult it would be for her to keep her daughter Perséfone from munching on the decorations.

Adding some greenies to the dollhouse

I have been wanting to add plants to the dollhouse for a looong time.  My dollhouse came from the shop with some reindeer moss and some artificial flowers already attached to the window sills:

The first pic I took a long time ago; the second is more recent.  But as you can see, the moss had taken a dusty, not good-looking appearance.  So I decided to remove everything from the windows and add some plants.

The moss was attached with something very similar to hot glue, so I just pulled off the moss and scraped the glue rests.  To my dismay, the glue had yellowed and stained the white paint of the window sills.  I decided to buy some glossy white paint and retouch everything.  As per my husband's advice, I bought a glossy white from Vallejo, which turned out it was EXACTLY the same shade of white.  I have spent all morning painting the sills, and now they look like new.  The windows were so awful stained in yellow I didn't even take pictures to show the before and after (sorry!).

It's been months since I have been searching online for just the perfect plants to start the window decorations.  The first additions were purchased 4 days ago, and yesterday they arrived all the way from Barcelona:

They are the best bonsais I have ever seen!  They are the babies of LugArt Petit, and I am so happy how well they look in the drawing room window.  If you are in need of a bonsai, LugArt Petit is the place to go!

My vampire tenant loves them.  She says that she appreciates very much the care and the art involved in producing bonsais.  Here is an interesting website to learn about them.

Naturally, she now demands more plants.  Thankfully, I acquired some time ago an Echeveria kit from The Miniature Garden, and I am in the process of making them.  Let's see how well the garden pot turns out...

Featured!

Fellow Etsian and blogger Hurray Kimmay has been so sweet as to feature one of my minis in her blog, on an entry about Apothecary decor, which I particularly am very fond of.

Thank you so much, Kimmay!