Miniature Enchanted Houseboat

    This picture was taken just minutes before I was reduced to a sobbing mess...That's Kari in the background, one of the two Builders of the Boat.  She and Julie are masters of miniatures, creating unbelievable vingnettes so real looking a photo might lead you to believe they are real...just look here:










The adirondack chairs are duplicataes of the chairs Stuart built for our real deck and gardens.  The church birdhouse is also one of his creations.  Impossible to see in my poor photo is the Sandy Bartholomew Zentangle book in Gini's lap, the book we all love and that Gini has done so much beautiful work with.  A bowl of popcorn, a bowl of freshly harvested veggies and a chicken in the other chair!







Bonnie, tending the vegetable stand, just as if the produce came from her real garden...there are pumpkins 'growing' in the housetop garden, too.  So much like a real mercado scene!  Kari made the produce from polymer clay.  Bonnie is also tending the bottle of wine and tortillas, in the background. 

 

Martha, in the kitchen.  The black pottery on the floor is typical of a village in Oaxaca, MX.  Hanging in the window is a stained glass piece Sam C. made for me 20 years ago, right beside the Betsy vase with silk flowers and the small picture/frame Julie made...all identical to the originals.  Behind Martha is my gas cooktop, and a comal, which I use often.  See the lights above the wall cabinets?  Gourds and grapevines, just like the real kitchen.

ohmy, this is the my downstairs powder room...complete with the sink, mirror and cabinet Stuart made.  The tiles around the mirror are exact duplicates of the real mexican tiles. Julie made them from polymer clay. The brightly colored cabinet over the toilet even has the little pictures in the frames we have in the Real bathroom.  The details continue: the blue vase and flower, the faucet, the basket on the floor, even a duplicate of a book we have!   Through the door, the studio is visible....

....complete with the stack of books and papers on the floor in the foreground.  They're duplicates of the stuff I use!  The little jars on the table top, with colored pencils and paintbrushes, the Ott lamp, jars of mediums and paints.  Just in the front corner, a few of the fabric postcards I've received hang on the orange wall.  See the pegboard in the corner?  It's just like the one in my studio, filled with the hoops, scissors and ruler.  Even Betsy's turtle fan is there.  Flat Karen and her wardrobe hand in front of the window.  The white baskets under the table are filled with fabrics and trims.  So many details, so hard to photograph!

Another view of the rooftop garden.  The lights and 'mexican' flags are from my real White Garden.  We hung the white lights for Gypsygirl's Buen Viaje party, and the flags are perennial fixtures in the garden.  Kari built a White Garden:  she made a styrax tree, daffodils and lilies, there is an azalea, some asclepia, some white balloon flowers and some alliums.  Just as in my real garden.  The arbor and gates are identical to the entrance to the veggie garden (out of picture, at the bottom).

The pictures don't come near to telling the story of the Enchanted Houseboat.  The real story is in the details:  all the little things only friends notice and remember as important.   The Bigass Frog, a bowl of popcorn, the loofa in the outside shower, the thermometer on the porch, Zentangled doors, a box with seven PFDs (personal flotation device), one for each of the Six Sistahs and Stuart, lights and gourds above the kitchen cabinets, a map of the world, with pins to stick in it for places we've been, Roy and Lerlene, Julie and the fart machine, Kari's iced tea glass, and so much more.  Julie and Kari put so much love, and labor, in this Enchanted Houseboat.  Thank you, Sistahs.  All of you.

Now, the danged karenfest is reaalllllllly over!