Socks! In outer space!

What I did today will rock your socks off.  Rocket your socksclear  off.  Or at least my socks.  They went to the stratosphere today after I tackled the book stairs.  I have seen this idea a ton around the internet and in design magazines, and I love it.  Paint the stairs, treads and risers, or just the risers, to look like books!  Now, since I don't own a house, this is clearly something that I had to do in mini... although, I had my reservations on how it would actually *look* in mini.  Turns out, it looks pretty darn cool!  But before I show you that slice of awesome pie, let's take a look at what else got accomplished:

Apparently, before the sloppy blue, was some sloppy punch your face yellow. :/

 I bashed.  A lot.  See all the railing and trim?  NO?!  That's because I took all that garbage stuff crud damaged goods off.  I plan on replacing it all with Houseworks stuff.  Originally, I was going to let this house go, but now it is full of things that I love and gifts from people and, well, it'll stay.  :)  Anyway, I also tortured modified it with the Dremel and put in new doors.  The old doors got filled with foam board.  Why foam board, you ask?  Well, because it's $1.  And easy to cut.  And lightweight.  For being so small, dollhouses sure can get heavy.  : /  

Then I cut the papers for the bedroom and slapped everything in there to see how it would look.   ♥
I'm in love.  ♥ ♥ ♥  The room is still small and the murphy bed is too big, really, but I love it anyway.
I already have some really great ideas for what will be in there as far as accessories.  There may be one more side table by the door, but this is pretty much it for furniture. Sitting area on the private balcony will make it seem roomier, I think.

Somebody, PLEASE get me that rug in life size. Stat.

Notice the super fun fabrics!  These are all from April.  Resent to me after my rotten loving husband, got rid of the last batch.  The brown and green will be on the bed, and I have a super fun surprise for the top-a burst of orange.  The blue and brown will be made into curtains.  So fun!

The inhabitant of this house has just started their worldly travels and you will see fun things in this room, as well as throughout the house.  I have gifts from over the pond that will be featured- couch from UK, knick knacks from Italy...  Even Jane's mardi gras masks will find their home here (I know she isn't across the pond, but c'mon, it's MARDI GRAS!)

When all that was over, I took a big gulp of... well, wine, and then took the plunge into making the stairs.  I knew *in theory* what I was supposed to do... and so I sort of just winged it... Brae, I will be able to explain it better when you go to make these. There are no pictures of this part... I don't document my *i-might-totally-screw-up-and-or-chop-my-hand-off* parts of miniatures.  :D  So, I took my little foam board mock up, and used it to measure on the stairs where I should cut.  Checking that the angles were the same, i measured from second floor to landing, and then marked the stairs.  Then I cut them.  I measured out the area that would be the landing, and then cut that out of a spare piece of basswood.  The remaining part of the stairs got the rough edges sanded off and then I used a piece of Greenleaf Outdoor Stair kit to make a new tread.  Then, I made friends with a roll of masking tape and dry fitted the whole thing into the house.

SUCCESS!!!!!

 I threw in some posts, too, to see how they looked... I don't particularly care for these square ones.... I like the ones that are more rounded and classic looking.  Anyone want to trade?!

Then, after I knew it would all fit, it was off to sand and paint and seal.  :)

The treads got their very own special stain mix: Asphaltum by Americana, Lamp Black by Americana and Gel Stain Antiquing Medium. Just mix, apply, wipe off.  ♥  They got a couple coats each and then sanded a bit for wear and then two coats of Triple Thick.

Notice the bandage.  I was cutting the stairs and totally slice and diced myself. Note to self. You are not a tomato.

The stairs were painted and made up as I went, but I did get pictures of this, and then everything went back into the house.  So happy!!!!!

Look how cool!!!

And I even painted the edges to look like books.  Yep.  The stairs are still just in dry fit in the house, but the assembly is solid.

The final thing I have to show you, is not made by my hands, but by my very dear friend, Brae.  A fish tank.  For me.  :D  It was my birthday present.

She swears it is flawed, but I think it is perfect.  I showed it to James when I got it and he was all, "Look!  She even put in the filter tube!  How cool!!!!"  Thanks for a great gift, Pea!  And don't be too hard on yourself.  Flawed (or not) the fish tank is pretty darn cool and it's an added bonus that I can't actually kill the fish.  :D