The Country Cottage

Wendy at Norm's Dollhouse in Colorado is totally awesome!
I started the construction on this Country Cottage during my

Christmas vacation. I thought I would work on it some more during

Spring Break, but never did.

Now, it is summer, and I need to face where I stopped on this house.

ADAD Inside

I stalled on making the inside frames for the windows and door.

I stopped at having to measure and do a mitered cut on the corners.

The windows and door are not glued in to facilitate 

being able to do those measurements.

Wendy posted to the Norm's Dollhouse Facebook page yesterday.

She was working on a Country Cottage for the store.

https://www.facebook.com/NormsDollhouse

Hey, I have one of those!
So I emailed her, and I can purchase the cut pieces I need to 

get myself moving on this project again.
Okay...I can pay David, who created the kit, to cut the pieces

I have totally freaked out over cutting.

Sometimes, it is so worth it to pay someone to reduce the hurdles

in your life.

So this is where I am at in my dollhouse.

the wallpaper is up.

The bathroom and kitchen have basic pieces.

I found a bed that will work.

And my list of things to do has gotten shorter.

Glue in the windows and door. Paint and add the inside frames.

Finish the baseboards and 

add the decorative trim on the front floors and walls.

Shingle, shingle, shingle.

Paint and glue the shutters.

Although I don't currently have the budget to furnish the whole inside

at once, I believe that finishing the construction will be a great accomplishment,

and a start of a new process; inside decoration and furnishings!

Amaya is happy that she will soon have more of a house to play in

and call her own home.

These are my "before summer vacation" photos.

Alamo Farm Open Space

Alamo Farm is an open space area owned by the city.

There is a parking lot lining the fence near the open farm space.

Beyond the farm land are trees, and an area moving toward the 

bosque. The bosque is the forest along the Rio Grande.

I have found this space to be rather confusing.

There is a parking lot, but signs mention that is closed

to public use from 10 pm to 6 am.

Does that mean that is open from 6 am until 10 pm?

However, there is no trespassing allowed

as it is a wildlife preserve.

So is this open for public use in the daytime?
Where can people go? What can they do?

Oh! I see!

There is a paved trail between the highway 

and the fenced off farm lands.

A few cars of people arrived while I was there.

They took out bicycles and rode off down the paved path.
It looks like people can use the paved trails to access other

public use trails and areas along the Rio Grande.

Don't enter the fenced off areas, which are areas preserved

for wildlife, and you will be in compliance with their intentions for

the public use space. 

So then we come upon the reason for my visit:
today's ADAD theme is "space" and this is an open space area.

ADAD Space

Yesterday was cold and windy.

Posing small dolls in the wind ends up being an exercise

in quickly catching dolls as they fall.

Today was still cool and windy, but not too bad to get out.

Amaya's hair was blowing, and I was glad I brought the cat

to help her stand and sit more easily.

The cat was happy to get out!

The road runner came along, too.

After all, the raven had its turn being photographed here

on January 30, 2014.

I am going to have to come back some time and explore what is down this path

on the other side of the trees.

Tree Root Exploration

I live in an apartment on an older property.

One of the few benefits of living in older apartment

with room for landscaping is that there are mature trees.

Cottonwood
November 10, 2012

Unfortunately, that also means that the mature trees

sometimes become diseased or fail to thrive.

Two years ago, the two cottonwood trees in front of my

apartment were cut down.

http://hittyjubilee.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cottonwood-trees.html

Even though the tree is now gone, the roots are still in the grass,

reminding me of a tiny slide.

It has always been a fun little place for my smaller dolls

to explore.

Now that the grass is green and nearby trees

have leaves for shade, it is feeling perfectly

like early summer vacation!

It is a beautiful Sunday to enjoy some time outside.