Miniature Apothecary Cabinet

 Hi Mini Friends!  Today I am sharing an apothecary cabinet that I made from two pieces of Dollar Tree dollhouse furniture that I've had for a while.  In fact, I'm not even sure if the store sells these items anymore.  I've been told that they don't.  I found these two pieces in my stash and decided to put them together.  

I started by popping the tall dresser into the microwave for a few second to warm the glue.  This allows me to gently take the piece apart.  I also did this to the shorter piece to take the knobs off of the drawers.  I removed the bottom and front pieces from the tall dresser and saved the front part of the bottom for the top.  That sounded confusing :)  Let me just show you...

First, I'm showing the finished product.  Isn't she lovely??!!

Now, here are the two pieces.

I added two shelves to the inside of the cabinet using scrap balsa wood.  Also, here is where I added the bottom front decorative piece to the top to give it a little detail.

Below is the bottom of the cabinet minus the drawer knobs.

I cut pieces of wood to look like little drawer fronts and used my Dremel to give the depth.

This was my first time using this tool with miniatures and I found that it was pretty fun but also really easy.  I normally use a fingernail file for everything.  This tool made it really quick too.

Here are the pieces glued together with the new drawer fronts.

Then I painted it all black.  After this was dry, I gave it a little buffing of the edges with a fingernail file to knock off a little paint and give it a worn, used and aged look.

I found some vintage apothecary drawer labels online.  I shrunk them on my computer and printed them out.  I also used gold beads and glued a black rhinestone on the front of each bead to hide the hole in the bead.

I added a little "moss" in a few areas on the cabinet.  My moss is just sawdust tinted with a little paint.

And waalaa!  She is finished!

I hope you enjoyed this cabinet!  Thanks for stopping by!

XoXo ~Laurie

around here

As I sit here, during naptime at the day care, with paint on tiny aloe vera leaves drying in front of me I felt I needed to check in.  I will admit that this blog of mine is not my priority hobby right now although I am anxious to share what I have been up to and my dollhouse progress.  Actually, the dollhouse itself still sits as it was on my last post.  I dare not bring it to the day care to work on the interior and exterior  because the kids would get away with any and everything and probably wouldn't eat lunch.  So, I am saving it for the weekends at home.  I have however managed to build up furniture and accessories and loads of ideas while here.  I have a bed frame drying as I type... I never really liked the old one... it was too clunky and too big for the bedroom so I hope this one fits.  And that's the other thing.  I am totally winging the little pieces I make and get so giddy to go home at the end of each day to see if what I made will fit.  I have currently made, furniture-wise, a farm kitchen table and one chair, a fireplace and a kitchen hutch.  All of the measuring sure has taught me a lot.  What seemed to be "too much trouble" before has begun to be fun.  Especially since I have been happy with the end results.  I am still getting a lot of the paint job ideas on CinderallaMoments.  Since she has tutorials on how to do things I figure it's ok.  Plus I don't intend to sell the work as my own creation through and through.  I am thankful to this lady because without her inspiration I wouldn't be having all this fun!  Here are pics of my latest things minus the clay items like plates, bowls and picture frames.

The hutch was my first big furniture piece.  I wasn't sure I even wanted a large item in the kitchen.  But as it turns out I do really like it.   I do wish the doors and drawer opened.  I found the tutorial for it HERE.  I finished the bottom half first and took it home.  I was disappointed at how large it was until I added the shelves up top.  Now it seems right for the room.

I admit I wasn't totally happy with my fireplace.  Another creation done without proper measurements. I was impatient with the glue drying too so it is crooked here and there.  Since I felt I might make another one I painted this one whimsy.  I like the addition of the yellow flowers.  I've only used pinks and reds so far.

I am aging most of the furniture in the house.  I like the shabby "used" look.

I found a table on etsy that I liked and winged the measurements from scraps of balsa wood.  I bought a pack of various sizes at Hobby Lobby and have used the fire out of it.  The little chair tutorial I found HERE.  It literally weighs nothing because I used some of my thinnest scraps.

Aloe Vera leaves before baking.  I found the tutorial on MiniEden.



Barbie Affliction

I swear y'all I think I have found my calling with this Barbie stuff.  I promise I do have days when I don't make anything or even have time to think about the Barbie house... maybe just a couple of days.  You would think this Barbie house has been in there forever instead of just a few weeks.  I find myself remodeling all the time.  The contact "wall" paper that I had on the bottom floor I was not happy with so yesterday I redid it in wood grain which I LOVE.  I have moved the kitchen from the top floor to the middle floor.  And now I want to redo the wallpaper on the top floor.  I play in this house more than the kids at the day care do but that's ok right??  I don't really play so much as play "fix up" or "house" which was always mine and my friend Mandy's favorite part. 

 

So one thing that has been bothering me is bedding.  I have one little quilt that doesn't fit the beds (no offense to Mom who I think made it).  It just lays there... doesn't drape down the sides, and even falls off when the Barbie is covered up.  So I have wondered what to do to give my Barbie house bedrooms a more modern feel.  I looked all over etsy yesterday (Wednesday) and found quite a lot.  Some of them were expensive and some looked great but most of them fit the same way I am talking about.  And the crochet ones... YUCK!  Barbie houses were not meant for large loop crochet.  I hate when things look too big for the houses... now that I am grown up that is.  Used to we'd make beds out of wash rags and loved it.  Lo, if I'd have had sewing skills back then... we'd have been dangerous.  I took the two beds home with me Wednesday, went through my stash of fabric and made two comforters and throw pillows in under an hour and a half.  I only quit because I was getting tired after a long day.  But I had so much fun and it was seriously stress-free crafting for me.  So enjoyable.  I have made much more for this Barbie house that I will share soon.  It just keeps getting better and better!

 

 

This first picture is "before bedding" but after new wallpaper.  There is a light socket that is covered up in the top right corner, hence the bubble.  Some things you can't help.  Also I made the windows, picture on the left, standing pictures on the dresser, rug and plant.  The plant is the top off of a Downy bottle.  The sea horse is out of that tea I posted about a few weeks ago that has the prizes in it and the bed is just... blah.

And this is "after" with bedding.  I used some outdoor fabric that I made pillow out of for our porch six years ago and drop cloth for the sides.

I fringed the pillows, just by pulling threads of fabric out after it was sewn, which I think gives it a more "size appropriate" look.  Rather than human sized trim or fringe... which a lot of people use.

And this is the other bed.  It is a hard, pink plastic bed with no character really so I decided to cover it totally too.  I used fabric that we cut off the bottom of my craft room curtains when they turned out too long.  It was already stitched on two sides with a backing so I stitched up the other side, put some polyfill in it and sewed over the top to give it some coosh and comfort, like a quilt.  The blue jean pillow, that I added lace to, is my favorite I think.  Maybe because it was cut from my rainy day jeans that I finally let go of and knew I'd wear again with my toosh hanging out if I didn't cut them up.  I love the fringe on it too.  The chicken is a Christmas ornament I found in my sewing stash but it fits perfectly in here!

I do plan to put a small hand stitch in the top corners of the bottom of the bed to make them lay down better.

Too cute huh?!?!

This wardrobe and dressing room is on the bottom floor also.  I made the wardrobe from a youtube tutorial.  It's not my best work and may not last long with four years olds and it wasn't easy to do.  It works though!  I made the coat hangers from large paper clips... also from youtube.

 

I have got to tape those lights up!  I made the peace rug, and the multi colored one from the other picture, out of that plastic cross-stitch stuff that I found in Mrs. Brust's sewing stash that I got.  I cut the pictures from magazines and made the frames from cardstock.  I'm not real happy with the white rug so something else will probably be there soon.  It's just a piece of felt.  Oh I made the jewelry too.  Necklaces and bracelets with beads that I have had forever and tiny elastic string that I bought at Walmart.  There's a bunch of it in the top drawer there.  Too much fun!

 

This is what wallpapering the Barbie house looks like.  And I spilled my water so my jeans were wet from sitting on the floor.

 

 

And this is what I look like in the Barbie house.

I just love the new bedding!



Oh and I LOVE the new wardrobe and jewelry!

 

And this is me in Florida with my family last year.  Not everybody in the family got to go but I sure had a good time!

 

I think the affliction is there regardless of the Barbie house.

 

 

 

Not-So Local Spotlight: Butler's Antiques

My sister Mary Evelyn is a vintage, antique, junk lover such as myself (as  if you didn't know that already!).  She is also a blog frequenter which led her to find out about a certain junk hotspot from a blog called Petticoat Junktion.  The lady who writes this blog raves about her favorite junk store.  It is in Hopkinsville Kentucky which isn't very local for us but still a spotlight and while yard sailing two Fridays ago and having a not so good day of it we gps'd it and decided to make a go. 

 

 It took us a little over an hour to get there and, as we found out, was worth our drive.  When we got there is was obvious we were at the right place.  It took us a bit to even go inside because there was so much furniture outside.  Furniture that needed a new life, and windows, and two trucks that had yet to be unloaded.  We decided to go inside and oh my..... in all my days of junking I have never seen so much stuff crammed packed.  That really isn't a bad thing to say.  You had to be careful touching things because when you did something else would fall over.  It is a true junk store with many, many treasures to be found.  The gentleman who owns it was there along with his sisters and they were all just as pleasant as they could be.  Mr. Butler has been in business there for more than 30 years!

 

We wound up going back outside to find Mr. Butler unloading the trucks and got first dibs on several items including a chair, dressing table with mirror, corner shelf, cabinet and two rusty animal traps.  The pricing is on the very reasonable side too.  Our junky hearts were very satisfied.

 

We had a great time but were on a time limit.  Needless to say.. we will be back!

And since it was a spur of the moment trip I did not have my camera.  Ugh!  I had to take pictures with my flip phone which we know aren't so good. 

 

Butler's Antiques

601 E. 17th St

Hopkinsville, KY 42240

 

 

 

 

I don't think anyone has seen the bottom of this pile of tools since they opened! 

 I was afraid to touch it!

Local Spotlight: Historic Corner House

I have wanted to spotlight the Historic Corner House for a little bit now but haven't gotten up to Crossplains in a while.  I adore the decor.  From antiques to hand made barn wood furniture that the owner's husband makes, to locally made soaps, cards, food and gifts, the Corner House has got it all.  I bought a fantastic bottle of moonshine hot sauce (non-alcoholic... bummer), a bunko gift and some old flash cards with big words on them to sit around.  Their prices are very reasonable and the layout and display of the shop is divine not to mention the super friendly service. 

 

Visit them in person here

 

7810 Highway 25 East

Crossplains, TN

 

and online HERE