You May Have Noticed

You may have noticed I changed my background. This is to set the mood for my Victorian Gothic dollhouse build. Stay tuned as the story unfolds . . .

Forget About It

Forget everything I've said about this new dollhouse project up until this point. It seems to have taken on a life of its own. I'm still doing Victorian Gothic Revival, but the character of the house has changed. Instead of doing the candy coated, sugary thing, I'm leaning towards something much darker . . . and stranger. I haven't worked out all the details yet, but the story is practically writing itself, and I'm getting more and more excited about this journey.

I've been watching a lot of videos by Ara of Bentley House Minis and it seems, unbeknownst to me, that I've been heavily inspired by her projects. If you haven't visited Ara, I highly recommend. She's so talented and inspiring! Here's a link to her youtube channel. I find her very engaging.

So the story is "saudade". In Portuguese saudade is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something. It derives from the Latin word for solitude. It is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events, often elusive, that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused. Duarte Nunes Leão defines saudade as, "Memory of something with a desire for it". (Wikipedia)

Here's my inspiration . . .

Brian and I were driving to the garden center in Viseu this past Saturday and came across this gorgeous painting underneath a bridge. Brian had seen the young woman doing the outline on Wednesday morning. What talent!

I think the young artist captured "saudade" beautifully and it has stirred something in my soul providing inspiration for my new project. I can hardly wait to get started!

The story is unfolding . . .

Introducing "Michael"

This morning I opened my email to find a newsletter from Lilli of Lilli's Littles showcasing one of her new dolls that she had created. Of course, I immediately knew he would be an awesome addition to the Pennethorne family with his little brown suit and chubby cheeks.

While we all wait for his arrival, I'll be busy getting his room ready. And Miss Lucy will have to adjust to a new charge. I'm sure she's up for the task.

My New Dollhouse has Arrived!

My new (old) Tennyson dollhouse kit arrived this morning! My plan is to bash it into a Victorian Gothic Revival mansion with a twist. All I know for sure is that the basement will be haunted by the ghost of a young aspiring alchemist . . . and her distant relative (cousin perhaps) will be living in the upper floors of the cottage.

In previous posts I was deciding on what colors to paint and decorate this new dollhouse, but I came across this website and my whole plan went out the window. I feel myself leaning towards my darker, more mysterious side (don't we all have one?), wanting to do something completely different from what I would normally do. I'm not sure yet what this will look like, but I know that I want to do a stone exterior. Like this . . .

The Frederick Sears Cottage in Brookline, Massachusetts

The stones are Roxbury Puddingstone (I just love that!) and Brian has already jumped on board thinking he can create the look on our 3D printer. All I'll have to do is paint the stones in different colors. We'll see how it goes . . . I'm thinking it would probably be easier to cut the stones out of cereal boxes, but I gotta at least give him a chance. LOL!

Roxbury Puddingstone

The kit arrived well packaged and I was extremely relieved to find the instructions inside! Alas, building will have to wait until after my return from our cruise next week . . . I'm extremely motivated to get this build underway!

Landscaping the Manor Grounds

I'm having a jolly good time working on the landscaping for the Manor. I purchased some "stone" pavers from Etsy and laid out a walkway from the front door to the parterre garden and gazebo. Still working on the foliage for this section of the garden. I put together a patio for in front of the conservatory and really like how it turned out. At first I had some "grass" in the little square cut out, but I didn't like it, so I replaced it with gravel and placed my sundial on it. I was going to put gravel in the cut outs in front, but decided to play with little grass mounds and liked it so much I went crazy with it. I also put in a few "thyme" plants to fill in some "cracks".

I still have so much to do, but it will come as I get inspired . . .

. . . and we've been playing quite a bit with our new 3D printer. I have most of the furniture for the new dollhouse printed for the parlor. Just needs some paint!

Miniatures in 3D

Our Bambu Lab 3D printer arrived and it hasn't stopped printing since we got it on Monday. After a few tries, Brian got the sizing right for the fountain going into my parterre garden. He even added a little pigeon on top! I was also able to print another bust for the Statue Room and new posts and rails for the cupola on the manor extension.

All that's need now is some paint (with my new air brush painter) and they're ready for their debut. Oh, and I have to figure out how to add water to the fountain . . . another learning curve, yay!

Playing with ChatGPT

While our friends from the States were visiting, they put me on to ChatGPT. Needless to say, I have become addicted.

I started with the landscaping for the Manor . . .

And then I played around with ideas for my new dollhouse. I'm designing a Victorian Gothic Mansion with a twist . . . it will be in pastel colors. I'm thinking the exterior will be either lavender or blue . . . what do you think?

Brian will also be building a basement which will be a darker part of this creation to suite BellaDonna's apothecary. I'm still trying to figure out who the inhabitant of this pastel perfection will be. I'm leaning towards the 1950s for the interior and will likely commission a 1950s doll . . . you know I need a doll to design for!

I like the blue dress with crinoline underneath and maybe a collar and a corsage on her bodice?

Donella in Lavender

Donella in Blue

I'm really looking forward to this new project!

The Finished Parterre . . .

Almost . . . I'm waiting on the arrival of our 3D printer in order to print the fountain. For the most part, the Parterre Garden is finished. At least I thought it was. I just remembered I want to add some topiaries. I just haven't decided where to put them yet. So I guess there will be more to come!

Here's the Parterre Garden as it is today . . .

Lucy's Room

I can't believe I just spent about three hours re-wallpapering the study in anticipation of Lucy's arrival. This involved creating templates, which was a real nightmare because I had to go around those arched windows . . . two of them and the fireplace! Eeegads! Anyway, I got it done and then I had to wrestle with peel-and-stick wallpaper. This created it's own challenges. Let me just say I won't be ordering peel-and-stick dollhouse wallpaper any time soon!

At any rate, the room is done except for making the bed and adding accessories. For now, I need to rest my back, legs and feet. Being up on a ladder for the better part of three hours has taken its toll . . .

The study before . . .

The study during . . .

The former study . . . now Lucy's bedroom.

Next on the list:

• Accessorizing the kitchen and Lucy's room.
• Trimming out the back of the manor.
• Grouting the bricks I just installed.
• More landscaping.

I'm hoping to get all this done before my new dollhouse arrives in two to three weeks . . . maybe, hopefully!

The Parterre Garden ~ Part 3

This project is really coming together. I had fun putting the hedges together after I got my brain wrapped around the inside and outside curves. Then it was a matter of hot gluing the pieces together and letting it set overnight. I had a few adjustments to make and I was ready for the stones.

Just to back up a bit, I used wet and dry foam for the base of the hedges. It was easy to cut and sculpt into shape. They measure 1" wide by 1" high. I think they could have been a little narrower, but there's nothing like a healthy, robust hedge!

Then using tacky glue, I spread a good amount in an area and then showered it with the sand and gravel mix I bought to mimic the little boxwood leaves. I think it worked out pretty well although they did look like bird suet cakes. LOL! After I let it dry for several hours, I dabbed on acrylic deep green paint mixed with just a little bit of water so that it was easier to dab on. I'll be going over it all with some lighter green and yellow to give it some highlights once everything dries really well.

After all that was taken care of, I spread glue on the paths in between the hedges and sprinkled on the sand and gravel mix. I purchased the mix in brown just for this purpose.

The last step will be to set everything in place with some Mod Podge so that the little stones don't end up all over the place.

Once our 3D printer arrives, I'll be printing a fountain I found on the Bamboo maker site. This will be the pièce de résistance!

I'm looking forward to wrapping up this little project so that I can move on to creating Lucy's bedroom. In a previous post I mentioned I was going to create a Tea Room, and then I found Lucy (who is going to be Rosemary's governess) and she'll need a bedroom. So first up will be to add new wallpaper . . . of course (sigh) . . .

Welcome to a Tour of Pennethorne Manor

Welcome to Pennethorne Manor . . . please follow me as I take you through the manor while the family is away . . .

Enjoy the tour!

Please sign our Guest Book and let us know what your favorite was . . .

This and That and a Parterre Garden

I've been spending time working on finishing the exterior of Pennethorne Manor. I've bricked up most of the foundation, but still have a bit more to do. I ran out of bricks (sigh) but I'm hoping to be able to 3D print the rest of what I need. I'm also hoping to print a cover for the electrical connections at the back of the house. It will likely be a custom piece so fingers crossed it works out. Printing it with bricks on it would be a bonus!

I'm also in the stages of figuring out how to attach trim pieces to the back of the house to cover edges and wires. This was hurting my brain, so I stepped away to work on the parterre garden.

The supplies I needed arrived today. Well, most of them. At least the foam arrived so I could prepare the hedges for the finishes. This too required brain power, but I think I got it in the end. A few of the inner part of the hedges look wonky, but hopefully when the stones and paint are on, you won't notice.

I also have a fountain picked out to print once our 3D printer arrives. I have so many projects lined up it's going to be a printing frenzy!

Here's the messy process of creating hedges for the parterre garden . . .

Cutting edges to fit around the foam board. I plan to glue the hedges 
to the foam board.

This was a messy process!

I have a plan . . .

The hedges edges are glued together. I haven't attached
them permanently to the foam board yet because I want to apply
 the stones and paint them before attaching them.

After sculpting. They'll look much better when completed.
I might also thin them out a bit . . .

The Parterre Garden

In preparation for my supplies coming on Monday, I planned out the parterre garden that will sit in front of the bay window of the parlor. This was a brain twister, but I finally got it to what I think will look symmetrical and fitting here.

 . . . and as I was taking photos of the garden plan, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye . . . BellaDonna was haunting the balcony of the manor! I think it's her subtle way of telling me to get on with her cottage. Patience my dear girl . . . you have all of eternity! LOL!