Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween !  This is a halloween post from a while back.  It's made from a foam pumpkin, some Paperclay, paint, and a few other odds.  The pumpkin and lights were purchased at 50% off after Halloween.

Do you dare trick or treat at this scary house ?

Lots of jack-o'-lanterns line the yard and the porch is decorated for Halloween.  I made the stone porch out of paper clay and painted it to look old.

I painted the windows and shutters with crackle finish to add to the effect.  Still contemplating what kind of plants to put in the window boxes.  Maybe some sort of man eating plant or something from Harry Potter?

The jack-o'-lanterns are from Lemax.  I hid the transformer under the floor. The table inside is just an upside down plastic cup that I covered with some Halloween fabric.  The candy corn floor lamp is also from Lemax.  The parlor stove is a plastic kit by Chrysnbon that I put together back in the 1980s.  I am still contemplating how to make a cool chimney for it on the outside of the pumpkin.

The scary skeleton is sitting lounging on a Victorian chaise lounge, waiting to hand out goodies to anyone who dares come trick or treating.  I used a piece of scrap book paper to cover the floor.  The floor is a piece of foam core that I cut to fit.

I created a niche under the stairs for the display.  Did you notice the Halloween candy decorations hanging from the lights?

Miniatures at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum

Not too far up the road from my home is the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore Oklahoma.  Will Rogers was a stage and motion picture actor,vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, world traveler and social commentator.  He was born in 1879 and died in a plane crash in 1935.
I had the opportunity to visit the memorial and was surprised to find quite a few miniatures!  There was an entire room of miniature dioramas depicting the life of Will Rogers and also a display of miniature saddles the Will collected during his world travels.
The Dioramas are mostly made from wood and plaster by artist Jo Mora and were created in the 1940's.

The first scene depicts the birthplace of Will Rogers, in Oologah Oklahoma.  The house was affectionately called the white house of the Verdigris River

Here is a photo of the house today.

 

Here is a photo of the actual broadcast depicted above

Here is a photo of the great room in the families California home circa1935

The museum also has a life size recreation of Will's study from his California Ranch

The last scene depicts the wrecked plane were Will and his pilot Wiley Post lost thier lives off the coast of Alaska.

 Apologies in advance for the glare

Sonia Messer Repairs

I had a little time this evening to jump back on some Sonia Messer furniture repairs that I had started a while back.  I have acquired a few more Sonia Messer items and wanted to put them all together.  

Here is the step by step - I had to get the scroll saw out.

I had purchased a piece of mahogany a while back.  Luckily I did it then, because the only place in town that had pieces of mahogany was recently destroyed by a tornado - the hazards of living in Oklahoma!

I carefully removed one of the good feet from the table base to use as a template and traced it onto the large piece.  At first I used a regular black pencil, but once I started cutting and got some saw dust on there, I couldn't see the lines, so I switched to white.

 The book case needed some straight pieces to repair the doors.

I used my Dremel tool to smooth out the edges along the curves.

Once all of the pieces were sanded, I stained them using a combination of a wood stain pen and some Prismacolor markers to match the color of the furniture.

 Waiting for the glue to dry!

 I painted some gold onto the feet of the new pieces to match the existing ones.

click the Sonia Messer label below to see some of my other pieces.

If you liked the project, you might enjoy this Sonia Messer repair I did a while back.  ClickHERE

Recent Acquistions

I found a few 1:12" items in a local antique mall.  I will find a place for the tete-a-tete bench and sun dial in a garden.  I liked bouncy horse because I had one just like it when I was little.  I figured I can display it in my 1970's house.

To see my 1970's Walmar house click HERE

It houses my 1970's Halls Lifetime Furniture which you can see by clicking HERE