'Of Dolls & Murder'

In May of 2009 while searching for videos on YouTube for my other blog, Creating Dollhouse Miniatures, I came across a preview of a documentary film inspired by the Nutshell Studies.  The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death were a series of intricately designed dollhouse-style dioramas created by Frances Glessner Lee. See the preview HERE.  Indie filmmakers Susan Marks and John Kurtis Dehn, just completed making the film, Of Dolls & Murder, an intimate look at dollhouse crime scenes. In September 2010, they released the film's trailer, you can see it HERE. The video below is from PBS, a conversation with director Susan Marks. I have searched and searched but have been unable to find a release date of the film but as soon as I do, I will post it.


For more information visit 'Of Dolls & Murder'.

Update on O'Leary's Pub

I managed to squeeze in a little time over last weekend to work on the pub's kitchen and bath.

The wall paper in the kitchen is from Jennifer's Free Dollhouse Printables. I printed out the wallpaper on cardstock and then ran it back through and printed a distressed layer on top. The pattern and instructions can be found here; Creating the Effect of Age on Paper.  The stairs to the 3rd floor will be behind the wall with the sink. I have to rebuild them, I didn't plan on them being behind a wall originally and they don't sit flush against one wall.

After I finished putting up the wallpaper and trim, I realized I missed a couple of places that need to be trimmed out and the paint I used, I custom mixed. I hope I can match it, or at least fake it well enough that a mismatch won't be noticable. There is going to be a door between the kitchen and bath and I intentionally haven't cut the doorway yet. I trimmed that wall all the way to the edge, unintentionally. Ooops! Hopefully I won't mess up the wall when I fix the trim.

These cabinets will hang in the kitchen, the are the top parts of Michael's hutches. I aged them, made the plate rack and added some trim to the front bottom of the other cabinet. I got the idea for the plate rack from the tutorial, "Let's Make a Dollhouse Plate Shelf".

For the "rust stains" in the tub and sink, I used "Rust Ready-to-Use Wash" by The Detailer, from Hobby Builders Supply.

I made a pot of Irish stew for Séamus. I looked up pictures on the interenet of traditional Irish stews and then I "winged" it with polymer clay. My pot of stew contains, carrots, potatoes, spring onions, lamb and cabbage.

That's all for now, I'm hoping to spend more time on it this weekend.

He won!

These pictures are from the Homecoming Parade, right after the winners were announced. He was grinning from ear to ear the whole time, so was the young lady that won with him. She's a very good friend of my son's so it was especially cool that they both won.


Our football team unfortunately did not fare as well.... we lost 17 to 7. =(

I spent the rest of my weekend at my younger son's football game and working on O'Leary's Pub. I'll have pictures later this week.

Make sure you stop by my other blog, Creating Dollhouse Miniatures, to see the dollhouse's built and finished by Gina from More Minis. Gina was kind enough to allow me to share her dollhouse's throughout October to celebrate National Dollhouse Month.

High School Royalty

Introducing Anderson High School's Freshman Homecoming Lord Nominee....Hayden! This is what has been keeping me from blogging recently......my 14 year old son. He was elected to run for homecoming royalty for his Freshman class. He has had to dress up in a different costume everyday this week and spend his lunch half hour getting votes. Today is the day we find out who won, at a parade this afternoon.

I've got my camera charging and a box of kleenex ready in case he wins, I'm sure I will blubber all over the place if he does. I'll be back later to let you all know!