And now, for something completely different...
For over a year now, my little girl has been saving up all her wooden popsicle sticks to build something with; I don't know if she got the idea at the daycare center or by observing her hoarding dad, but there we are. And lately, she's been eying the ever growing crop of sticks, proudly standing in a mug on the kitchen window sill, stating that by now, there should be enough to build a house.
And there was (to the single last stick, it turned out)...
So last weekend, we finally set to it; we were going to build a real house for her Playmobil figures. I covered the kitchen table with newspaper, cut a base from a scrap piece of 5mm MDF, and we set to work. I did some preparational work, like drilling some holes for bamboo skewers to function as a framework and off we went.
I was in charge of overall planning and cutting the sticks, and the little one was in charge of glueing everything together with PVA. Something she took to with a huge amount of enthousiasm and much less control, but we had a lot of fun!
After a couple of hours though, she (understandably) lost her focus, so I finished the last bit of the construction by myself. But most of the work we did together, and she was mightily proud of the end result. And I of her...
I had to really restrain myself from going to town on our little house when she scurried off to fuss with her toys, but I just couldn't help myself and added a working door
She loved it though...
The finished house in its unpainted gloryWhen she was sound asleep, I took the finally dry project down to the garage and sprayed it with a good coat of varnish, because we had agreed that we would be painting the house the next day, and the craft paints we would be using would otherwise just soak right into the wood. And since explaining the virtue of laying on several thin coats of paint would probably be a(nother) lesson in futility when dealing with a 3 year old, I decided to just play it safe.
Yesterday afternoon, we took out the brushes, and on went the colors. I don't think it was a coincidence that the colors she wanted were exactly those of her Hello Kitty not-Duplo set...
So white, a light yellow and of course pink were put on with a largish brush (these were some serious surfaces), and we left it to dry again.
Varnish undercoated and ready for paint. Note the brush already being held at the ready!Paint being laid down. Pink of course; lots of pink...And when she was tucked in for the night, I could not help myself, and painted a small fairy holding a wand and paintbrush on the side of the roof, together with the first letter of her name. With Vallejo paints this time; I may be a perfectionist control freak, but I'm no masochist; those craft paints suck!
Finishing off, the base was painted green, because it had previously been left unpainted.
She spends a remarkable amount of time running around the house sporting a tutu and fairy wings, so this was as appropriate as it gets!I left the rest completely untouched though; this was first and foremost her project, and I wanted her to be able to be proud of her own work. I did apply another coat of varnish to seal everything in. After all; this house is meant to be played with!
I had been planning to set up a nice beauty shot, but it immediately being played with seemed even better...That's one happy little lady playing with her Playmobil in her DIY house (and, for some unfathomable reason, a chapstick?)Anyway; this was something very different to do for us both, but I really loved this project with the little Khaleesi, and it's been all she's been talking about this weekend. In fact, after dinner yesterday, she immediately requested my wife to give her a popsicle instead of her usual cup of yoghurt, because she wants to save up more to make another house. I can't wait...