Evidently I am obsessed. Or possessed. One of those.

I have made more plants.

A really bad picture of a quite nice in reality philodendron, made with masking tape and florists wire. Potted in a teacup from a dollar store tea set, which was too big to be used as a teacup in my dollhouse.

A fairly good picture of a rather nice-looking corn plant. Made of florists wire and tape, with a yellow stripe painted down each leaf.

The beauty of making plants is that:
1. the materials are inexpensive enough to almost be free.
2. You get a lot of bang for your buck with a plant. Almost as good  as a pillow.
3. Very easy project with room to be creative.
4. Can be picked up and put down easily - not something you've gotta work on til it's finished before taking a break.

I managed to find my paper cutter tonight, and I'm going to start the siding. Or perhaps I'll do the door frames first. That might be best. Maybe I'll do both. I'm kind of excited about this - it's a big step closer to finishing this build.

Though, an unfortunate thought - I still have to fix the stairs and install them, plus I need to make the railing. The one that came with the kit - the railing, that is - doesn't fit the stairs. Unless I can make it fit...

More plants, and a couple of peculiar photos.

I made another plant.

This one is meant to be sort of a palm. It's planted in a copper plumbing doodad - I have no idea what it's called, but I believe it's a piece meant to cap a copper pipe. Or something like that.

In any case, the plant is made from masking tape and florists wire, with florists foam glued into the "pot," which I spread glue on and dipped into my stolen coffee grounds for the dirt effect.

The next plant is in the works - floral tape this time. I'm flirting with the idea of doing a smaller plant, but time will tell.

Tomorrow these leaves will become a plant. Which, I think, makes me very much like God, since that is usually his job.

Besides making leaves this morning, I framed two photos.

I could not get a clearer photo of this. Although it's hard to see, the photo is of my father a very dashing young US soldier in Austria in 1946.

This one is a bit clearer. It's children waving to the train carrying the US soldiers through Austria, in 1946.

I picked up the oval frame at one of the craft stores in the scrapbooking section. Makes a lovely dollhouse frame, and I have not been able to figure out how to make an oval frame. I'm all over the square and rectangular frames, but oval is far beyond my skills.

The back of the Whitney/Primrose house. The dining room has an odd glare in the picture. I have not yet put the roof on. I did paint the foundation gray/dark gray, and my next project is to make paperclay stones for that foundation.

Plants, plants, plants

I've noticed that dollhouses look far more finished with things like pillows, wall art, and plants. There's especially a lot of bang for your buck with plants. While in real life, I am the Ted Bundy of plants, in my dollhouse world I am a world-class gardener. Sort of.

This past week I've been making plants. I bought kits from SDK Miniatures - two spider plants, an African violet, and some daffodils. So far I've made a spider plant and an African violet.

These are photographed in the unfinished attic of the unfinished Whitney/Primrose, with a Bespaq gorgeously decorated end table. I still cannot believe I managed to score that on Ebay for $8 - it has a price sticker on it of $40. It really is lovely, and just goes to show that sometimes you really luck out on Ebay.

The SDK kits make beautiful plants, in spite of my questionable plant-making skills.

Yesterday I smuggled home a ziplock bag of coffee grounds from work (a bizarre version of embezzling?), so I'd have dirt for my plant pots. (Here, the coffee drinkers pretty much stick to instant, which is really not helpful for plant design.)

I got a book/pamphlet on Ebay about making dollhouse plants out of florists' tape and wire. Easy instructions, and materials that are cheap and easy to find. The books shows about 20 plants, giving directions on assembly, and giving leaf patterns.

I found some utterly adorable tiny terra cotta clay pots at Michael's. They are a tad bigger than the wooden ones I've painted. Of course, next to the SDK African violet pot, they seem gigantic. But that's OK - I've killed plants in all sizes of pots.

This plant is made with masking tape leaves. The tape is folded in half, with the wire running up the center. I painted the leaves a darker green, then added swipes of paler green and flecks of yellow. I cut the leaves, and inserted them into a pot I'd prepared by gluing florists foam topped with glued embezzled coffee grounds. I will need to reshape/bend the leaves better, but this is not bad for a first attempt, I thought.

This one was done with florist tape leaves - the tape is folded in half, and glued toether with a wire running up the leaf. This one also needs the leaves reshaped.
You can see the evidence of the embezzled coffee grounds better in this photo. Perhaps I should remove this picture, to protect the guilty innocent.

I have masking tape leaves drying now for another plant, which I'll make later today. I'll also set up some floral tape leaves as well.