1929 Kitchen

So the Green Springs Garden event is over and all my roomboxes and miniatures are back home now.  As promised, here are the pictures of the 1929 kitchen, along with the history lesson:

The whole room

And the porch

So, this room really could have been 1930 just as well as it could be 1929, but I picked 1929 because of two time period indicators, and just to make it stick out in my kids minds (cuz remember I did this for the kids.  Yeah, right, for the kids!) about what a pivotal time period this was.

The first indicator is ELECTRICITY!  Homes now have it!  See that Monitor Top refrigerator on the porch?  Produced in 1927, these electric refrigerators were nick-named "Monitor Tops" after a Civil War ship named "Monitor" whose gun turret was cylindrical like the compressor on top of the fridge.  Refrigerators were expensive (many costing more than a Ford model-T car) until this GE Monitor top fridge came out.  And GE offered a payment plan so you would just pay an extra $10/month on your electric bill until the fridge was paid off.  Thus they became more common in the average man's household.

However, they were noisy and when/if a refrigerator had a leak (common among the lesser "knock off" brands) it was deadly.  The toxic refrigerants (sulfur dioxide, methylcholoride, ammonia gases) that were used inside refrigerators could kill everyone in the room if there was even a tiny leak. So, when possible, these refrigerators ended up on the back porch!

Washing in the corner

And there is a Maytag 1928 washing machine in the corner of the room! However, in researching I have found that some Maytag washers were electrical and some were gas powered.  I am pretending as though my miniature washer was one of the electrical models. I have also found that this washing machine was produced in 1927 and other websites indicate 1928.

So, the refrigerator and washing machine makes the year after 1928 and....

Can't see the knife in this photo because I accidentally forgot to put it on the table before I took my photo

...(second time period indicator!!!) the loaf and knife on the kitchen table makes it before 1930.  Although, really, the lady of this kitchen could just really like baking and slicing her own bread.  But sliced bread was invented (well, okay, technically the MACHINE for mass producing sliced bread was invented) in mid-1928.  Many bakeries did not trust sliced bread, believing it would get stale faster and because the loaves looked "sloppy" making them harder to sell. These concerns were addressed with packaging changes that included a pin thru the loaf ("just remove the pin to get however many slices you want" -- a selling feature that does not sound very appetizing) and wax paper wrapping (hard to see the loaf you are buying). So the "sliced bread" mania didn't really get rolling until 1930 when Wonder Bread created their own machine and started packaging and selling their sliced bread.

View of the cupboard

Sink still needs some brillo pads or something on that shelf -- I will continue to add to the scene through out the years...

So this kitchen is 1929 because they have the Monitor Top (but they don't trust it as it is relegated to the porch and they still get their milk delivered daily) and washing machine, but they still have to cut their bread as Wonder Bread hasn't convinced them that sliced bread is the best thing since...well, itself.

Home stretch!

This was the final week before I take my miniatures to put on display at the FROGS Holiday Open House party. A lot of roomboxes got tiny details added or had items tweaked this past week:

The Knitty Kitty finally got its shop sign:

Blue bar up on top has no signage

Sign in place!

Thank goodness for scrapbooking stickers! Here are interior pics of the shop for anyone interested:

Looking down into the roombox

My yarn cabinet: I stuffed the space behind the yarn with filler tissue paper so I didn't have to buy as many yarn skeins

Bottom shelf is still empty in case I find a really cute knitting thing I can't live without!

My favorite: a stitched pillow from my friend Beverly and a sleeping kitty on a knitted blanket

Is it bad that I want to shrink myself down and sit in this rocker for hours? LOL

The Gamble (Las Vegas Casino roombox) got a real wooden counter for under the slot machines instead of the Christmas Box I had been using for the last decade or so...

Red gift box I had been using as a cabinet under slot machines

Got a wooden block and painted it black to look more realistic

My Vegas Casino is still missing an Elvis impersonator groom to go with my bride, but it gives me something to continue to shop for in the future...

Whole room before I swapped out the red box. Minsky Burlesque sign lights up but you can't tell that in the photo.

My husband and I have been collecting chips from the various casinos for years - I put them in the top of the roombox and enclosed them in plexiglass.

Finally took the time to hang my daughter's pictures on The Modern Museum walls.  My eldest daughter had created a wax creation in preschool 10 years ago -- it was already hung up before.  But my middle daughter created some modern art pieces a year or two ago by accident at a friend's birthday party (Followers of my store Happily Ever After remember that as I posted it at the time on Facebook).  Those pieces needed to be hung up in the museum:

Whole museum: eldest daughter's art in the center of back wall and middle daughter's art on either side of it on back wall

Glass pieces were arranged on floor and I hung my middle daughter's art on back wall

Pottery pieces on ebony block of wood with my eldest daughter's preschool work on the wall and her nail polish art piece on the floor in the center

Wood carvings on shelves and an art work up top by Jeannine Merrill Schrader

The 2010 kitchen got more accessories:

Overall 2010 Kitchen

Love the Twinkies -- remember the "scare" at the end of 2012 when we all thought they were gone for good?

Just got back from grocery store and picking up Starbucks and some McD's for lunch. Wonder what crock  pot meal she's gonna make for dinner!

Dog has nicer eating area than most humans: Cezanne art on the wall and silver dog dish holder!

The tile work backsplash is a sealed paper by World Market - for less than a dollar it was a great addition to my stove!  And it's kept so pretty and clean cuz most of the cooking is done in the microwave on the counter next to the stove.

So it was pointed out to me that I offered extra credit credit for guessing why the 1929 kitchen is 1929 and not a nice round number like 1930 or 1925, but I never post a pic of the kitchen on the blog!  Technically I could have done 1930 -- the detail that makes it 1929 was still around (and more abundant) in 1930.  But 1929 makes this kitchen still in the 20s and the roaring 20s were a great time -- if you ignore all the health issues (Polio, anyone?), segregation/Jim Crow laws, the Great Dust Bowl, Prohibition/rise of organized crime, and the impending economic doom that is heading towards the country.  But let's ignore all that and romanticize the past!  Here's a pic of the 1929 kitchen...the history lesson will be in the next blog post!

1929 Kitchen, blissfully unaware of all that bad 1920s stuff

Groovy kitchen

Still working on my various projects to get them completed (or as close as possible) before the FROGS holiday open house on December 4th.

This blog post is on my "1964 Kitchen". The box and kitchen cabinets were finished years ago. I was lucky enough that my friend Audra assembled and painted the cabinets for me. I was then lucky enough to find some groovy Itsy Bitsy papers for the walls and floor that matched the cabinets!  And my luck was holding strong as a major miniature manufacturer came out with those wonderful Saarinen Tulip chairs that were popular in the late 50s/early 60s.

But then my luck ran out as I could not find a matching table for years. Poor kitchen sat neglected. I wasn't even motivated to put accessories in the room.

Finally, a few months ago, I found the table! And I could finally move forward with accessories. I had to make a draped towel to cover the missing drawer handle (did you notice the missing handle in the picture above?).

Molding my towel

Using a piece of fabric, I dipped it in a water/glue mixture.  Then I pinned it into shape on a plastic-wrapped styrofoam block and let it dry.  Once dry, I plucked it off and put it on the countertop.

I polled my Facebook friends for accessory ideas and someone mentioned the wooden forks and spoons that hung on walls in the 1960s.  I liked that idea and got to work making some:

American Girl doll plastic cutlery

Painted them brown to look wooden

Stuck them on the wall!

A little glossy, but they'll do.

So, why 1964?  This kitchen roombox is part of a series of roomboxes that I was making to teach my daughters about history (yeah, sure, it's a teaching tool, not just another excuse to make and play with miniatures): the roomboxes would portray kitchens from 1790s, 1895, 1929, 1964, and 2010.  Why 1929 and 1964 instead of round even numbers like 1930 and 1965? The answer to that is on the table:

That blue can on the table is 1964

Aluminum soda cans with easy open tab lids were introduced in 1964 by the RC Cola company.  (Coke and Pepsi wouldn't get on the band wagon until 1967.)  Such an iconic part of our world (a soda can) yet in 1964 it was a brand new novelty.  That fact blew my kids minds: aluminum cans haven't been around forever?!?!?!  There's a lot more history in this kitchen than meets the eye, but I won't bore you with the complete history lesson.  (Extra credit points for anyone who can guess the reasoning behind the 1929 year!)

So this kitchen is finished enough for the FROGS holiday open house.  There are some minor changes I will make in 2017 so I am not gluing everything down yet, but it is a complete scene now.

Overall view

Loving my draped towel!

Groovy.

Playing with Paperclay

My first experience with paperclay was about 1-1/2 years ago and, in my opinion, it was a success.  Took me forever to complete the small project but it looked gorgeous!  I made the small "bricked" piece for a friend as a Christmas gift.  Took me 3 nights to paint it.  Found out after the fact (from another friend who

My first attempt at Paperclay.

has actually taken a class and been instructed on how to use paperclay as opposed to me who was just winging it) that I had done it the difficult way: I painted each brick one at a time, including the edges of each brick, then did a dark wash (wiping it away from the tops of the bricks so it would not alter my brick color) to get into the crevices between each brick.  Apparently I was supposed to do the dark wash first to get it into the grout and then the bricks just needed to be touched up with paint to give them some color.  A much faster approach than painting each brick and edges as I did.


But, having had success with paperclay on the smaller project, I used the left-over chunk of it that I had to make the 1795 kitchen floor!  I rolled it out and then stuck it in.  Then realized that it only filled about 1/2 of the room.  I did not know how much time I had before it started to dry out so I quickly rolled out another section and blended it into the first piece.  And still was about 3" x 5" too small.  So another handful of paperclay was plopped into the roombox!  Figured I could roll it out once it was in the room.  Which would have been a great idea if the rolling pin fit in the roombox.  So I used my hand to flatten it as best I could.  It is not as even as I'd have liked, but given it is a 1795 kitchen, they probably had some uneven floors (although not as uneven as mine, I'm sure! LOL).  Then I started creating my bricks . . . .

Drawing in my bricks . . . .

Seeing it like this (with only a few bricks drawn in) makes me think I could use this to make snow banks on another project of mine!  You can see my bumpy uneven parts on the right from the door way to the open end of the room and on the far left as I had to do a touch up spot in that corner where the paperclay was too thin.  The empty space on the floor is where my fireplace goes.  It's so odd seeing the bricks drawn in but all white . . .

Bricks all drawn in and left to dry for a few days.

Next I did the paint wash to fill in my grout lines . . .

Paperclay bricks with just a brown paint wash on them.

Then I painted quickly over the bricks with a burnt sienna color paint, slightly watered down in some spots because I wanted the bricks to look faded/old and very worn.

1795 kitchen floor.

Now I have to tackle some electrical decisions (wire it or use battery operated lights like I did in the other 3 kitchen roomboxes?), decide whether or not to add a window on the left, and then am ready to move on to the walls (stucco white)!

Snow Day in the Kitchen

Thanks to the snow I had some time to work on my 1795 kitchen roombox. I have a series of kitchens (decorated to be 1795, 1895, 1929, 1963, and 2009). But the 1795 and 1895 kitchens were not yet built or decorated. So I used my snow day to work on the 1795 cellar (instead of laundry or cleaning as I should have spent my time).  I had to start in the cellar because I figured it would be the most difficult thing to do as it is in a 3" wide space and once the outer walls are glued in place the lower "underground" section of the cellar would be near-to-impossible to reach to finish.

 

First I used magic-bric on the walls.  Then I created the floor:

Using wall spackle I drew in the field stone flooring in the cellar.

After spackle was dry I painted it with a brown paint wash.
Once that was dry I mixed coffee grinds with a glue/water mixture
and grouted between my stones with "dirt".

Once "dirt" dried, I vacuumed out the loose grains, installed the steps
and landing, and finally glued on the side walls.

 

The most entertaining part of it all was trying to reach my hand in to glue in the steps as I stupidly glued the side wall in BEFORE remembering to glue in the steps down there!  But, with a cup of coffee and a few choice words, I did it.

 

Next came the ceiling: almost didn't happen as I realized first thing in the morning that I did not have the white paint at home with me (I had left it at work). But I discovered some left over ceiling paper strips from another project I had worked on and decided that would work just as well!  The strips were practically the right width needed to fit between my ceiling beams so it all worked out like it was meant to be!

 

Photo of ceiling (photo is upside down - I can't figure out how to flip it right side up).

 

 The walls will be spackled stucco.  But before I do that, I want to do the floor.  Yes, this is completely backwards order of what you should do and I am running the risk of getting the white stucco material on the floor, thus ruining the floor, but if there is a more difficult way of doing something, I will find it and do it that way! LOL

 

Speaking of making something more difficult: I have never found the right brick flooring that I want for this kitchen (one of the reasons it did not get built and decorated yet).  So I am going to make one out of paperclay.  Because I love frustrating and punishing myself . . . . but I will pretend like it will be worth it once I finish!