Step Into My Parlor...

Hi Guys! I am so happy to post today and share with you the final room in Roz's trunkhouse... The Parlor! At just 9-1/4" in circumference, it's a bit on the cozy side, but by using almost all the available space, Roz should have all she needs to warm up, relax, read and provide her Wish Granting services to the forest community!

Roz loves books and loves to send her favorites home with clients to read. You see, in addition to offering Wish Granting services, Roz is also a bit of a Life Coach. She wants to educate her clients about how to not only Wish for their Dreams, but to Work toward them, as well! To suit her need for lots of self-help books, I've created two bookshelves and built them to contour the room's curved walls. They are comprised of Sonotube backs, chipboard inner curved shelving, then nice, stainable wood for the top, bottom and shelf front trim. The tops and bottoms were trimmed after assembly so they could be scribed perfectly to the curved walls.

I needed to make lots of books for Roz but only had to provide the covers and wood dummies with gold edging. Her magic will make them real in her world.

I also provided various paper plants to give life to the room. Her magic will take care of the "alive" part, too.

Lucky for me Birgit sent some really neat décor items and parts to make more pieces in her Christmas packages over the years! Including the neat Moonflower Miniatures Palm kit shown above! She included this gift in her package with Roz and Rozario. I just knew it had to go in the parlor. You can see below that I was able to make two palm plants from one kit! They were so much fun to make! Thanks Birgit! Goldie and Alice will get to have one in the treehouse, too!

Here's the first shelf loaded up. Birgit sent the adorable froggy, the wooden heart (I painted it purple then applied a coat of UV resin to make it shiny), the wooden bead and metal bead cap, acorn cap bowl painted gold inside, the succulent (which I removed from a coffee cup and put into a clay pot)  and the adorable glass bead made into a jar. The rest of the stuff came from my rapidly dwindling supply of mini accessories. I was happy that Birgit's wonderful gifts finally had a proper home!

The second shelf looks similar with just a few different décor pieces. Some things, like the turned vase and geode, were survivors of the old dismantled Bigfoot gift shop.

The philodendron plant is made from leaf sheets sold by Mary Kinloch. I used varying shades of alcohol ink to color the leaves. I had a great time making it because it brought back nostalgic memories from when I was a kid in the 70's. They were a really popular plant to grow back then and every home seemed to have one. Kind of like pet rocks. They are a vining plant so you'll often see them with moss covered poles in their pots to climb on. Mary's instructions give great detail!

Funny story abut the "R's"... You may see a few visible dents in them, even after I sanded them, a lot. The dents are from puppy teeth and serve as a good reminder to myself that when I am puppy-sitting my son's dog Rosie, I need to make sure to close my craft drawers, lol! She likes to "help" by bringing me things from my drawers. She doesn't have opposable thumbs to grasp things, so her teeth have to do the carrying job! Unfortunately, they leave marks! She's a good girl... with sharp teeth!😊

I altered a House Of Miniatures Queen Anne Tilt Top Table kit by removing the tilting piece from the assembly. I also shortened the center leg. It is now the perfect coffee table height and makes it easy for Roz to access her Crystal Ball during Wish Granting services. Don't tell anyone, but it doesn't really show Roz a client's future. It's important to Roz to put on a good show, and because the clients believe it's predestined, it actually does help them to leave the session feeling much more confident in their own ability to Reach Their Dreams.

The crystal ball was made from a clear glass globe with a single hole. I squirted alcohol ink inside and rolled it around periodically as it dried. It is adhered with Gem Tack on top of a metal "crown" finding and then adhered on top of two spacer beads that Birgit gave me. I just had to repaint them in purple.

I also made a HOM candle stand kit to use as a side table for an extra lamp. 

With most of the accessories made I could begin to load Roz's parlor. I added 1/2" legs to the fronts of the shelves before gluing them into the trunkhouse. This allowed me to rest the back of the shelves on the 1/2" baseboards. They tuck right under the window sills so my measurements were perfect!. I like the way they flank the parlor stove but don't dominate the room.

And for a homey, warm feeling, and area rug. I am so happy that I did the annoying research and bought a new printer! Seems like I picked a good one, finally! It prints the color I see on my PC screen and I look forward to no more rug printing trouble! Though I still have yet to test it on my velvet paper. I'll let you know how that goes and then share the printer I purchased.

There is even a doormat for Roz in her favorite color!

Before I loaded in the rest of the room's furnishings, I needed to get the lights hooked up. Between the parlor stove, sconces and table lamp, there were six lights for this room. I consolidated the wires for this floor and got them ready for the much bigger job of consolidating the rest of the trunkhouse's wiring. I performed this final wiring test with the actual Evan Designs transformer and am super happy with the amount of light these 12 volt bulbs give off. I can't wait to see the rest of the trunkhouse all lit up!

At long last, I invited Roz in for a look at her parlor. She was so delighted with everything, and that makes it all worthwhile! I have a few more things to load in, like art for the walls, some baskets and a vase of fresh flowers, but I'll let Roz live in the space a few days so she can tell me how things are functioning first.

Roz invited Goldie over right away so that she could help Goldie map out the steps to making her Cookbook Dream Come True. Goldie loved Roz's parlor and asked me. very politely, when I thought maybe her treehouse would be finished. Oh sweet girl, I promise to get moving on the treehouse again just as soon as possible. Gulp!

I Wish there were more hours in every day and that they passed by more slowly! Got any Magic for that, Roz???

xo xo,

Jodi