Who-ville Christmas fun at the office

Each year at the office, we have a cubicle decorating contest as part of our Christmas celebrations.  My cubicle won a prize last year so the pressure was on to come up with something great!  I wanted to utilize some of the decorations from last year and incorporate some new items. Last year I used a bunch of icicle lights on the ceiling and mixed in a bunch of white and silver ornaments.  

I worked with my cubicle mate and decided on a Who-ville / Grinch that stole Christmas theme.

This was our concept sketch

The building facades were sketched on the foam core boards cut out with a sharp knife.

Then painted with spray paint

Doors and windows were added with paint and markers.

I asked a friend to cut out some vinyl letters for us and they turned out great!

Here is a view of my desk, the icicle lights, ceiling ornaments and the Who-ville buildings and a silhouette of the Grinch in the window.

We accented everything with whimsical floral sprigs and giant plants made from foam and tissue paper.

We had several clients and other building tenants come in and judge the cubicals.  For an extra touch, we put Dr. Seuss images on our computer monitors and played music from the Grinch That Stole Christmas.

UPDATE:

WE WON !

Recent Acquisitions

While out doing some shopping I came across a few miniatures.

The Petite Princess Chaise lounges were both in the blue box along with a old slimline telephone.

I picked up the cast iron chair at a local antique mall and I came across these two miniature framed tiles at an estate sale.  I wish they had a country of origin.. maybe Russia?

To see the rest of my Petite Princess collection, click HERE

To see the rest of my antique cast iron pieces click HERE

Recent Acquisitions

I have picked up a few items at estate sales and won the Sonia Messer piano on Ebay.

Estate sale items include, a ceramic duck decoy, a wooden butter churn, a Coca-Cola mirror, a cast metal coffee grinder, a cast metal oil rig, and an antique celluloid tape measure (basket of flowers).  The oil rig appears to be homemade and is probably regional, since Oklahoma is a huge oil and gas producing state.

The grand piano is a Sonia Messer piece.  It has a wind-up music box insert and is marked on the bottom with the "Made In Columbia" stickers.  It has brass hinges and balls on the feet.  The music stand folds down as does the lid.  It is made from mahogany and probably dates from the 1950's.

To see some of my other Sonia Messer Collection and projects click HERE

A Victorian House

I was having a conversation at work about some of my antique miniatures, when another coworker said "I have an old dollhouse that I started when I was kid.  It's yours if you want it - it's at my Nanas in a closet!"

A few days later it was loaded in my car!  She was very meticulous and kept the box, the spare pieces, the instructions, and a box of accessories including lots of lights.

The house is the Crestview by Dura-Craft.  Here is the view of the back.

Here is the view from the front.

Here is the side view and the accessories that she threw in.

I have been collecting Victorian style miniatures for quite a while.  I have even drawn up a few floor plans for a Victorian home to house my collection.  So of course I had to get out a few things and see how they fit!

Before I knew what hit me, I was measuring rooms and making plans for what goes where.

I have had this office furniture for quite a while, maybe it would fit in?  The Sonia Messer chaise looks good in here - maybe he (or she) is a doctor - perhaps a psychiatrist ?

A fireplace for each room!  It looks like I have another project on my hands - stay tuned.

Click Here to see the Living room

Copper Shop Light fixture

Our club project this month was a light fixture for our room boxes.  

This is my first light fixture and I debated on whether or not to electrify it.  

I decided not to. But I did add a second tier and went a little more elaborate than the rest of the group.

 The main structure for the fixture is cloth covered floral wire.  I twisted it together and also used hot glue and some paint.

I found all kinds of jewelry fittings mainly from Hobby Lobby.  The candle stick portion are actually silver colored beads that I painted the same cream color as my ceiling.  The piece on top is a small grommet.

I ended up topping the candle stick with a bronze colored grommet and a small plastic button to help hold the lamp shades up a bit off of the candle portion.

The lamp shades are also copper/bronze colored metal beads from the craft store.

I had extra chain left over from the window shade so a glued some of that on there too!

Recent Acquisitions

I have picked up a few items at local estate sales.  I asked the lady at this particular sale if they had any antique dollhouse furniture or miniatures and she said "no"  

This bed was advertised as a 'stand'

I came across this Chinese canopy bed, an Asian ornament, a couple of small copper boxes and a miniature Websters Dictionary.

The bed may be homemade? - it is made from oak, stained dark and if you look closely, you can see gold accent paint.  It kind of reminds me of the accent paint on TynieToy.  I don't think that it is.

The copper boxes have kind of an alligator type texture.  I think they will end up in my Copper Shop room box ( our club project this year)

This Webster's Dictionary is 800 pages and has 18,000 words (according to the cover)

at another recent sale, I came across this miniature Bible

It is leather bound and came in this wood holder

The inside cover shows it is not that old (1998) and printed in Peru.

I have been collecting Asian items for a few years now and the new canopy bed works nice with the collection. I haven't decided if I want to do a room box, a bedroom, or perhaps an Asian shop? 

Recent Acquisitions

I came across some miniatures at a couple of recent estate sales.

The rocking horse is a "soft-metal" piece.  I'm not sure what it even is (perhaps a Christmas ornament).  At another sale, I came across this collection of pictures and vases- ceramic, glass and pewter.  The two center pieces are hand blown glass and the tiny yellow one is the smallest that I have ever come across.  The yellow glass measures about 1/8" wide X 1/4" tall.

This gives an idea of scale

The tiny yellow glass pitcher might work well with my TootsieToy collection?

The pewter piece might look good with my TynieToy collection ?

Woolarock Museum Display

On a recent road trip to the Woolarock museum, I took some photos of a miniature Navajo adobe house on display there.

They also have on display, a doll collection they acquired back in the 1960's - there is a photo of a newspaper article in the last photo.

Woolarock is the vacation home of oil tycoon Frank Phillips.  

To see a post I wrote about his home, click HERE

To see a post I wrote about his lodge at Woolarock, click HERE