A Little Gathering Of Joy

While the inside projects patiently await pockets of time for progress, I had to make sure the outside got just a smidge of attention to celebrate:

The front porch springs to life as it should be!

Some of the grandkids flock Grandma
Laura to get the beloved chocolate bunny
-- white and milk chocolate to accommodate
favorites!

That little scene just makes me *happy*.

He is risen! Tell it out with joyful voice ...

The Island

So, I'm pretty proud of myself on this one!

We hop down from the third floor to the first to take care of a little kitchen issue I've been having! The problem? It's the same problem most people have in real life: Not enough counter space!

I really love the kitchen set I have. It, along with almost every other piece of furniture in the house, is a score from an estate sale! It's white just the way I wanted, and it has the right pieces. BUT, I still want more counter space to display things! So, here's what I did ...

You might recall that I have a plethora of sinks with cabinets. One of them came with the bathroom set, but I didn't use it because it's a little wonky and weird. I bought two others that are in use in the bathroom and in the craft room. This kitchen set came with one, but it's not the one in the picture. HOW I ultimately ended up with FIVE sinks is beyond me. But, it got me thinking ...

Here's the wonky-weird one:

I thought if I pop out the sink, perhaps I could sand down the side to make another cabinet piece. More accurately, I wanted to make a kitchen island! I just knew I could even though I really had no idea what I was doing or how it would actually turn out.

So, I went for it! The top came out with absolutely no effort ...

Old glue certainly allows for easy
disassembly!

... but, the back of it was something I didn't want to deal with:

Eww. Besides, the front doors don't open,
so I'm not interested.

I put that aside and fished out of my box the sink that actually came with the set.

It's okay, but I like the one I have in there better. The faucet on this one is loose and just spins around. Plus, one of the doors is missing its hinge pin:

Suddenly, I had the vision to just take the doors off so I could actually see the stuff stored there! That's way more fun than hiding it behind doors!

My first step was to pop the sink off which required more effort than the first one:

Oh, snap! Literally!

Whoops! It didn't quite come off in one piece. So, I went for it again:

And, then I fixed it up in case this sink is ever used elsewhere:

From there, I got out the box-o-balsa and, as luck would have it, the large pieces are the exact width I need!!

That was a little gift because I'm not a huge fan of cutting balsa with the grain. It's flimsy and temperamental. Like I need the inanimate stuff to have a 'tude. But, it does.

Anyway, after a quick marking for size, I cut the width:

I do love being able to just use the scissors!

This balsa is super thin, so I used two pieces for the perfect thickness.

After a good schmear of Tacky Glue coating the entire surface, I put the pieces on top of each other to dry under a piece of hard plastic weighed by a water bottle. This would ensure the pieces dry all the way to the ends.

The next day, I gave it two coats, while drying in between, of semi gloss polyurethane. This not only brought out the color of the wood perfectly, but it also helped give stability to the balsa. All said and done, that piece is plenty hard to put things with a little weight on it. I also sanded the corners:

It's like I'm a professional.

Finally, I yanked the other door off of the cabinet piece, and I glued the top on:

With a piece of wood to cover the surface, a couple of cans of poly serve yet another wonderful purpose weighting it down for a few hours!

As a finishing touch, I dove back into one of my jars of beads and found the "wheels":

I used the Quick Grip here so those little suckers didn't move once in place. One of them bounced off of the cabinet and onto the table and onto the floor. I still can't find it. Anyway ...

The result?!

Yaaaaaaassss!!!

It's PERFECT in there! It gives the narrow kitchen better dimension to me:

I also like that it can be moved around to create the space I want where I want it:

Out of the way against where a wall would be to open the
space in the middle! Oh, and, don't mind the guy in the doorway.
Just ... don't. That's a story for another time 😀

I love, love, LOVE it! It was so simple, yet, I feel amazingly accomplished!

Oh, but that's not all in the kitchen! Stay tuned to see the latest, coolest makeover!

The Girl's Room

With the toys and books filling the room, I figured I should focus on "finishing up" the little girl's room on the third floor! (Is it ever really finished? Um, no ... That would take the fun out of it for me!)

One of the last pieces for that room to actually create was to make a wall hanging I envisioned. I found a pineapple pin at Hobby Lobby that I loved, and I assumed I could figure out how to get it on the wall. It was actually way easier than I expected:

I cut the pin mechanism off of the back with some wire cutters, painted a scrap piece of wood the perfect color before giving it a coat of polyurethane, and used ye-ol-Tacky Glue to put it on wood. Let it dry overnight and Ta. Da!

Originally, I intended it to be IN the room. But, that was the vision before I created the beloved half wall. Now, it is seen from the room, and that's enough for me!

It looks cute there. And, it matches the cat bed hanging out at the top of the stairs. It's held on to the wall with the Elmer's awesome putty stuff, too.

So, back in the room itself, my vision came to life this past weekend with the addition of the fairy lights and wall decorations!

The lace flowers and the sparkly butterflies are just little packages of embellishments from craft stores. I absolutely love how this turned out! Again, they are hung with the Elmer's putty stuff. That is a GREAT product! I've had zero issues with things falling or marks left when I move what I've hung.

The dollhouse in the corner came from another antique store. I was SO excited to find it! And, as my friend Cindy pointed out, its walls are warped just like mine! It's like it was meant to be ... The other houses around it are from some mini Christmas decorations with which I grew up. They are actually decorations from when my Dad was a kid!

In the room, we have some other fun things, too!

I love the basket of toys. The basket is the container part of the crocheted top I turned upside down for a cat bed. The Potato Head in there was originally a Christmas ornament. You might have seen Mrs. Potato Head in other pics. I found it at a craft fair for a quarter. The Eiffel Tower on the bedside stool is actually an earring. I found a pair at an antique store for $2. I had to get it. This room reflects my own Girl, who is fascinated by Paris, so it was a must. I particularly love the Teddy Bear and dolls on the bed with a kitty keeping them company!

This particular pair has a lot of sentimental value to me. Meet Sally (left) and Sue (right):

When I was in second grade, Santa brought me an A-Frame playhouse set which included Sue and Sally. I played and played and played with that set and these two. That same year, my aunt and uncle sent me my first dollhouse which happened to be the same scale. So, Sue and Sally had their house as well as their vacation camp site. I absolutely adored these two!

A couple of years later is when I picked out the dollhouse my Dad made for me from a kit. And, as total luck would have it, it was the same scale as what I already had! So, Sue and Sally could move right in and bring all of their stuff with them. I don't know what happened to their A-Frame, but their furniture made the move. It's red and orange and yellow and white and very, very Hello, 1970s! It co-exists with the first dollhouse's pink, blue and brown furniture. So, it's not winning any lifestyles awards, but it is beloved!

I gave the house my Dad built to My Girl when she was about 6. (I'd have to check the archives to be sure.) And, OH, how she LIVED in that house for years and years, and we even still decorate it for Christmas most years! I let her use Sue and Sally, but they got the boot when all of the Fashion Pollys moved in. That was totally okay, but, I never really learned what happened to Sally's hair. She used to have some, Like, when I gave them to My Girl to use in the house. I'm just sayin'.

That's okay. It just adds to the story!

I also love this:

While he looks absolutely nothing like my Dad, he represents him in my little world here. Meet Grandpa Buddy who is happy to be in any room doing anything. He particularly likes hanging out with the grandkids just being happy. Currently, he's taking a break from reading stories and is, instead, napping with the kitty. That his eyes don't shut really isn't his fault. 😁 I found him on Ebay or Etsy. I really can't remember. But, he was a must-have.

So, there's the girl's room! I think it's finished enough to move focus to another. Ha! Did I say FOCUS? Yeah, that's not happening. But, the creations keep coming!! Wait and see what I cooked up recently ...