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February Reads: Once Upon a Faebruary Challenge

February 28, 2024      Leave a Comment

February is wrapping up and I am looking forward to March. I have seeds started already and I cannot wait to get out in the garden. For now I’ll content myself with all the books I want to read.

If you saw my February TBR video you know that I was super excited to take part in the Faebruary Challenge and it did not disappoint! I just loved the books I chose and only DNF’d one from my list. The best part was finding a new to me genre that I absolutely love.

For the challenge I read:

Scarlett and the Dark Woods by Mary Mecham: Red on the Cover, On a Quest, Girl with Long Hair and Animal Integral to the Plot.

To Defy a Dream by Mary Mecham:  Short Book and A Notorious Villian

To Break a Silence by Lydia Mae: Book Incorporates Music/Singing

Becoming Hook by Mary Mecham:  Last to Read Book, Male Main Character, Magical Creature

Bluebeard and the Outlaw by Tara Grayce:  Lesser Known Retelling.

I didn’t finish “Court of Swans” by Melanie Dickerson. I was listening to it on audiobook and I felt the book was going to be darker than I anticipated so I stopped it. If you have read it and have any information on it I would love to know.

In short-I loved them all! I also found that I enjoy books around 200 pages for everyday reading. There is just something so satisfying to complete a book every other day.

Did you take part in the challenge? I would love to hear what you read.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Junk Journal: Window with a View

February 12, 2024      Leave a Comment

In today’s post I am sharing a window I made in my newest junk journal that is going to house my paper doll. I grabbed some magazine pages and tore them into strips to make what looked like wallpaper. Then I took some corrugated cardboard and cut it into strips to make the window frame. If you are going to do a scene behind it you may want to wait to glue these down until after you create the scene but as I was figuring things out as I went I didn’t do that.

You also would want to paint the cardboard strips first before gluing them down.

I had picked out a fun sketch to use as the view from my window and adhered that with another piece that looked like sky. I used matte Mod Podge to glue and seal everything down. Then you can glue the cardboard frame to make the window. I used Tackly Glue for this and it worked great.

I then cut some pieces for the criss cross of the window and glued them with the tacky glue. I finally added some scrap fabric to make some rustic curtains and there was my junk journal window with a view.

In my next video I am going to make our girl (who needs a name still) some clothes and I am pretty sure she will need a closet to hold them in-what do you think?

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Dollhouse Updates: Painting the Ceiling, Door and More

February 11, 2024      2 Comments

I was able to spend a little time in the dollhouse today.

If you read last week’s post you know that I had a few things I wanted to work on this week and I was able to check them all of my list along with painting the ceiling-a project I have been putting off for some unknown reason.

I was able to paint the exterior window trim trying out the gray color I painted the door and I really like it. I am still deciding if I want to add shutters but with the door fully painted and the exterior colors mostly settled on I was ready to wrap up some things on the first floor.

I spackled the kitchen window and touched up the paint there. I used a fine wood filler and just smeared it into the cracks where I didn’t cut the wood perfectly. I also added some to the scallops on the front of the house to close up some very noticeable gaps I had.

As I mentioned I painted the ceiling and I have decided to move on to the second floor and get the walls prepped and the floor done before going forward with the kitchen. I think it will be nice to see all the walls and floors done ready for “moving in” so to speak so I’m going to see how that goes. I really want to tile the bathroom and make my own tiles so I need to do some research on the best way to do that.

So that is my little update for this week. For next week I am hoping to have a little character ready to introduce to you. More on that to come.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettant

Paper Dolls from Cardboard

February 5, 2024      2 Comments

I am trying out something today. I am playing and having fun making some paper dolls in a cardboard journal.

I was inspired by this video by A Bit of Birdsong where she makes what she calls “trashy dolls” out of cardboard. I love the freedom of making something out of items that are normally tossed in the trash or recycling bin. There is nothing to do but play around and see what you come up with.

I decided to make a small journal to house my doll using cardboard I had here in the studio. I drew a face on the back of some scrap paper for her head and attached arms and legs using brads so they would move a bit.

It was such a simple project and this is only the first phase. Next I am going to make her some clothes and possibly a friend or two. I had thought of making each page in the book a different room in a house for her so that might be a possibility too.

I will be doing more of these so you can be sure to see how she progresses but for now you can watch a sped up video of me putting all the basics together below.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Dollhouse Update 2024

February 4, 2024      Leave a Comment

I am excited to finally be sharing a dollhouse update with you.

If you remember I shared how I was focusing on my shop and getting things ready for the holiday. My dollhouse had become a storage place for fabric as I made lots of handmade gifts for the kids and friends. January has been filled with colds, a new job and lots of just being.  I had some amazing plans for the new year but things that needed my attention were coming first so my little dollhouse sat patiently waiting.

Then I was able to get some work done and do some filming! Only to lose the footage lol. Ah well, things happen. Still I am excited to share my little update for my fellow miniaturists and let you know that I should be able to plan regular weekly updates going forward. So let’s see what’s new!

I stained the floors on the first level. I am really happy with how it came out. I used Minwax Natural 209 and it really makes them look like hardwood floors-instead of cut up Popsicle sticks!

I finished the kitchen window and painted the door white on one side but have decided instead to make it gray. I was going to have the outside of the door be white which I liked against the pink siding but decided I really like the gray so I am going to have the door gray inside and out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also started cutting out the pieces for my first ever piece of furniture! I am following Julie Warren’s tutorial in her book “Creating Dolls’ House Kitchens in 1/12th Scale” and making the sink unit found on page 120. I want to put the sink under the kitchen window and then want to see how much room I have so I can plan out the way the front door will swing open and also the direction of the stairs.

This week I am hoping to finish painting the door and then decide what color I want to do the window frames on the outside of the house. Do I want shutters? That might be fun! Once I decide I would like to finish the outside frame, spackle the interior of the kitchen window, touch up the paint and then continue on with the sink. I am planning to put all the fixed pieces into the kitchen and then move on to the next floors before I go ahead and decorate etc.

So that’s where I am at. I am really excited to get back into my regular miniature making and sharing the journey with you.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Book Club and the Faebruary Challenge

January 30, 2024      Leave a Comment

I am so excited for this month’s Pile of Possibilities!

I found about this Book Tube Challenge from Chantel Reads and I watched all the host videos and compiled my list accordingly. The challenge is focused on Fairy Tale Re-tellings and after reading Heartless by Marissa Meyer in January I feel like I need more for this genre. I absolutely LOVED “Heartless” which is a story all about the Queen of Hearts before she became the Queen of Hearts. Someone left it in our Little Free Library and I am so happy I picked it up.

For the Faebruary Challenge (and you can get all the details here) I have picked out a few reads that will all check multiple boxes on the challenge. Here is what I have chosen:

 “A pirate, a pixie, and a plot to foil Peter Pan…
James Hook never meant to become a pirate, and never dreamed that he would turn against best friend, Peter Pan. Every adventure and eternal youth awaited them… until a pixie exposes a shocking revelation. Tinkerbell’s information forces James into acknowledging that, far from being the benevolent hero he painted himself to be, Peter Pan was kidnapping innocent children.
After accepting the traumatic loss of his hand and of the family he can barely remember, James deserts Pan. In the fight to rescue the Lost Boys, Hook will risk everything, even if that means becoming the most notorious villain in Neverland… or losing the fiery pixie who is stealing his heart.
Can the original Lost Boy vanquish Neverland’s greatest threat?”

 

 

“A siren’s song holds power over skies and men.

Stella has never seen the sky until the day she speaks her oaths and is brought above the surface. After her first encounter with a land-walker’s ship forces her to sing up a storm that pulls a prince into the water, she chooses to rescue him.
When Stella’s blossoming affection for the prince is threatened by another, she makes a choice to trade her fins for legs. The phantom glass in her throat if she dares to use her voice and in her feet when she walks.
Captain Dillon Carvy is determined to have his revenge after a siren’s song costs him his both his ship and his favored position as the Prince’s captain. While searching for signs of the siren, Dillon discovers a struggling maiden instead. Pulling a silent girl from the sea, he sees the perfect opportunity to gain his position back.
A case of mistaken identity puts Stella right where she wants to be in the Prince’s palace. But unless she breaks her silence, continuing her charade may cost her the happiness she hopes for, and quite possibly her life.

“She is one of the protected elect. He is a shunned shapeshifter. Can Scarlett rescue her grandmother before her heart is stolen?
When her grandmother is cast out as unworthy after facing Hamelin’s annual Shunning, Scarlett knows she must brave the dangers of Darkwood Forest if she will have any chance of saving her grandmother. Her perilous adventure becomes a race against time. She needs to find Gran before the previously shunned get to her first.
Scarlett’s efforts came too late. As her magic dwindles the farther into the forest she ventures, she becomes hopelessly lost, and is forced to accept help from Greyson, the shapeshifting wolf who is stalking her every footstep—and who Scarlett suspects of knowing Gran’s location.
If she manages to save her grandmother, Scarlett is faced with another impossible join Gran and live her life as an outcast or return to the rest of the elect, safe but alone. As she struggles to find the right path forward, Scarlett realizes that more than her grandmother’s future is at stake. Her heart is too.
Can Scarlett resist her inexplicable, rising attraction to the shunned wolf she despises long enough to protect the woman who raised her?”

“What if Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on purpose?

Princess Aurelia’s kingdom is plagued by the Eternal Slumber, a disease progressively ensnaring the minds of her subjects. After Aurelia wishes for the means to revive her brother, her sinister fairy godmother presents an ominous Aurelia must stab herself with a poisoned spindle.
Accepting this fate plunges Aurelia into a nightmare where victims of the Eternal Slumber are being held hostage by a dark djinni. However, Aurelia’s brother isn’t the only familiar face she finds herself reunited with; Everett, the love of her life who mysteriously disappeared years ago, is there as well. As the djinni’s power grows, Aurelia must decide who to save before the djinni escapes and enters the waking world.
Failing on her quest could trap her in the dream world forever. Will she forgo her chance at a happily ever after and protect her brother, or will she choose to rescue herself and the man she loves?
No matter who she chooses, someone will be doomed to remain in the nightmare that never ends.
To Defy a Dream is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It is one of twelve novellas in The Shattered Tales, a collection of twelve fractured retellings of your favorite fairy tales. They can be enjoyed in any order, so fall in love with the swoony sweet romance, magical adventures, and tale-shattering twists one happily-ever-after at a time!”

“Robin of the Wood spends her days robbing from the rich to feed the poor. But she and her merry band of brothers never seem to get anywhere. The more she steals, the more the evil Lord Guy “Bluebeard” taxes the villagers.
When Robin discovers that Lord Guy plans to marry yet again, she conceives a plan for a final, big score. As Guy’s wife, she will have access to his wealth. The lord is notorious for killing his wives shortly after he marries them, but Robin has no plans to be dead wife number four.
The only problem is that Lord Guy is devastatingly handsome, brooding, and nothing at all what she expected. If she isn’t careful, she might just find that he steals her heart before she can rob his riches.”

 

 

 

“England, 1381: Delia’s idyllic life as daughter of an earl is shattered when her father dies and his wife accuses Delia’s seven brothers of treason and murder. The youngest is only ten years old, but this doesn’t stop the guards from hauling them off to the Tower of London. There they await a grim fate, as child-king Richard II is executing anyone who poses a threat to his throne. Delia is their only hope for pardon and freedom.
Sir Geoffrey did not expect his first assignment as captain of the guard to be the arrest of boys so young. He dutifully imprisons the brothers, but he can’t ignore the sense, rooted in personal experience, that injustice and treachery are at work.
Determined to rescue her brothers, Delia secures a position as a seamstress for the queen. Her quest is all but impossible as the executions continue. Sir Geoffrey offers to be her ally, but should she trust him in a court where everyone has an agenda?”

 

So that is my list of potential reads for February. If you end up taking part in this challenge please let me know I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

 

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