Vegas Wedding Chapel: Here's a link to the Wedding Chapel we used:
http://www.heritagechapel.com/

However, if you type in the keywords "Vegas Wedding Chapels", you'll get TONS!

Dollladie

Vegas Wedding Chapel: I got married in Vegas at the Little White Chapel, which is what your chapel to be sounds like. Michael Jordan got married there and they have a drive-thru wedding window. There is a web cam for the chapel that shows the inside of it.
http://www.alittlewhitechapel.com/html/opening_page.html

When I got married 10 years ago there, there were pews (seen on web cam), the minister did not have a podium, there was a long dresser like thing at the front of the chapel and the music was provided via a boom box. There was a video camera set up on a tripod.

Carolyn in MI

Vegas Wedding Chapel: Start by visiting the chapel in any major hospital. Imagine it redecorated with any and all religious icons removed, lots of white paint, hearts, flowers, lace, and a tired wino in an Elvis suit. Position video cameras around the room and put price tags on everything as "added extras". Appropriate exaggerations in the "reception room" would be a price list which offers Frequent Nuptial discounts, a show case with rings for rent, and a recycling bin for little black books. If you "doll" your settings and include a preacher, hide racing form inside his "Good Book".

Mel K.

Vegas Wedding Chapel in a bag: My husband and I privately renewed our vows in downtown Vegas last Thanksgiving. I can tell you it was a real hoot! We plan to do it again next year for #10! There are millions of chapels; some are extremely elegant and tasteful; some are hilariously gaudy. We were at The Plaza. The chapel was nice; mostly white furnishings w/green carpet and a gazebo/garden-like theme. About 4 chairs on each side - we had no guests; a white baby grand piano (we paid the musician $40.00 to play our chosen songs - from a list of about 1000 tunes.
After he left, the photographer posed us for pictures at the piano, which we discovered was a PLAYER piano .. no pun intended. Lots of silk calla lilies, roses and orange blossoms in huge baskets; mirrors, big stained glass windows, doves, both living and dead, Elvis waiting in the wings for an additional $250 - no, we didn't use him; nosegays in various sizes and prices - they had EVERYTHING!!! Cakes, knives, glasses, tons of photographs we ended up buying in addition to the package we thought we had purchased .. limos, gowns to rent, coordinator. We only wanted a simple, quiet private ceremony, just the two of us. Our $90 special ended up costing us well over $400 w/n 20 minutes. Fortunately, I had "hit" that a.m. (lol). We have pictures, which are even funnier, because I wore jeans and DH wore a camel haired jacket, chewing gum throughout the video.
I think you can have a ball w/this project - because it was so funny it was unreal. For all it's comic relief, we plan to do it again next year - but go all out; maybe with a few Elvis AND Liberace!

Connie Sauve

TV scene: This is in regards to an old posting about gutting out an old TV and putting a scene in it. I was looking through some old mini mags and came across some room boxes of I Love Lucy, All in the Family (by our own Pearl, I believe), Gilligan's Island, The Waltons and MASH. They were featured in Dollhouse Miniatures Oct 98, pg. 46-54. You might get some ideas from them. I thought it would be great to have a four sided roombox that spins (this idea may have been posted) and a different TV show is in each. Maybe a popular show from four different decades, or else four shows from the era of the TV shell itself. A little slit could be made under the glass opening, and the base of the round display could stick out a bit (like those table top displays that you can manually spin) so the scene could be turned to view each room like "changing the channel".
As I was looking at the I Love Lucy roombox, the actual show wasn't in color, ut all the re-creations are. I got to thinking, would it be possible to re-create a B/W TV show, complete with figures, all in black, white and greys? Just as it's seen on TV. The figures might look a little ghoulish with grey skin, but it would be interesting to see the results. Has anyone tried something like this?

Connie Sauve

Wilderness Lodge: I'm thinking log walls, maybe some places where logs cross and jut into the room (for a large "hall"), big stone fireplace with raised hearth (for sitting on to warm snow-frosted buns), benches at a long table, rather than chairs, canoe paddles (for use or for decoration, crossed on the wall like swords), rubber boots, coats, winter woollies hanging on pegs (or swim wear, depending on season), stuffed animals, mounted deer heads (if you're into that), snow shoes (use same as canoe paddles - - use or decor), Navajo/Indian blankets, big baskets for fireplace logs (or a niche in the fireplace wall), native art, hanging "wagon wheel" chandeliers!

Catherine from Toronto

Pirate's Pub: Aaaarrrgh and ahoy there, me little lovely, Annie W. Now you're talkin' somethin' rather fun there, you are, when you get to talkin' about me fav' rite hang-out. Ooh! I shouldn't use that word "hang-out". Me best friend just got his neck stretched just a couple weeks ago. I guess you could say the pubs HIS favorite HAUNT now, eh? Heh. Heh. Well, now, about that pub. It wouldn't be a true pirate's pub without a beautiful serving wench, now, would it? She's hanging out (if you catch my drift) by the bar. (Sorry, t' offend, you more squeamish folks, but this here's a PIRATE den, y'know!) Also, needs a big stone fireplace with a rip roarin' fire to take the chill out of a seafarer's bones.

T'would be a dimly lit room, methinks - none too many candles burning.  Don't want none of them revenoor types coming in and seein' the clientele too clearly, now, would ya? And if you have the time and patience, having a hidden/secret passageway where the guests could slip out the back way is also good. Now, this here pub is below grade, so to speak, so the lower walls of the room are foundation stones. The floor is dark slate (spilled ale won't hurt a thing on that kind of floor, ya know!)

Above the stone walls are dark wood and timbers. Very dark. Very smokey. Oh. and there's quite a few dark smudges on that stone floor from a few too many chaws bein' spat on it. There's a spittoon over in the corner, but pshaw! That's too far to walk to unload a plug. Just lean over and let 'er drop on the floor beside ya. No body cares at this place.

I see a picture of John Paul Jones (or some other famous admiral) hanging on the wall and not too well beloved by the clientele, neither, nosiree. I see some dried tomatoes that have been flung at it or a hand-drawn moustache that someone has drawn over the painting. Then there's that harpoon on the wall. Some folks claim it was THE harpoon that was used on Moby Dick. He spat it up on the deck of a sailing ship a couple months after Ahab went down in the briney deep with him.

There's that ship's wheel from the ship that went down near Nag's Head. (What a great haul we pirate's made on THAT ship!) Over along the one wall, I see some rope rigging (actually, there's lots of ropes wrapped around things in the room). Behind the bar are some big, wooden casks. One is wine, another is ale. Both have wooden taps in them.

There's a poker table with cards laid out on it. Looks like somebody's been cheatin' 'cause there's two ace of spades showin' on the table. Oh, I think somebody noticed, 'cause there's a knife stuck in the one ace and it's pinned to the table by the knife, and the money's kind of strewn around on the table. Looks like the fight may have gone out into the street. The door's open and daylight is kinda pourin' in through the doorway. By the way. do you want me to tell you about how the scene looked BEFORE or AFTER the brawl? If it was afterward, you could have fun taking out your frustration on them there dinky, little chairs and tables, there'd be a heap of broken glass, broken beer mugs and bottles strewn around the floor, and that picture of "the admiral?" Well, he's tipped all cock-eyed, and about to fall off the wall.

G. Held

Tacky Outside Tourist Junk: How about a full body of a Bull Moose chain-sawed from pine logs? We've got one down on 302 in Bridgeton. Oversized chain-saw carvings of Native American busts. "Twig" lawn furniture. A sign that says "Antiques for Sale", with a fellow inside, making them.

Brian

Tacky Outside Tourist Junk: On the edge of our town is a bar/eatery that has an airplane sticking out of the roof and a row boat sticking out of the side. Really kind of tacky, but what an IDEA for a hobby shop??

Roberta, Wisconsin

Cow Habitat: About 8-10 years ago I bought some cow figurines. They are roughly 1/2 inch (1/24th) scale. There are about 10 of them and they are all dressed in farm attire. I am building a habitat in 3 sections. One will have a barn; I have the old Nutshell News article and some other ideas for it. My problem right now is the countryside.

I have decided that these cows must be English. (What other cows would dress so properly?) I have situated their farm in the Peak District, in a lovely dale. So far they have walls dividing fields, a carrot patch under cultivation, a clothes line being hung, and various rocks and hills. I am uncertain how to best make gorse (a thorny bush with yellow flowers), bracken ( fern), and heather. Also, I'm not certain about the blooming seasons. If I make it early enough in the Spring for bluebells or dandelions, is the gorse blooming and the bracken green? Perhaps I should make it summer, but I do love the bluebells. Also, somehow in the construction, a cave appeared in the hillside and I have left it. Now it demands a creature inside. What would live in a cave in the Peak District? A badger? A hedgehog? A fox?

Tess, in Louisville, KY, USA

Cow habitat: What an evocative description you gave of how your scene is developing. Your questions made me think of Beatrix Potter's books, mostly set in the Lake District rather than the Peak District, but beautifully illustrated with anthropomorphic creatures. Perhaps they could give you some inspiration too.

"The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle" is about a washerwoman hedgehog, whose home is in the hillside (behind a door set into the hill, illustrated twice). Mr Brock the badger is a somewhat unsavoury character, as is Mr Tod the fox (both mostly appear in "The Tale of Mr Tod"). There are no stories directly about cows; the largest creatures featured are the pigs in "The Tale of Pigling Bland" and "The Tale of Little Pig Robinson". There are so many books, with such lovely illustrations, that now I am picturing lots of potential scenes for someone to do.

Wendy in Clinton, NJ

Toy shop Displays: I have done several different type shops including a toy shop. I used both wood shelves and a glass and wood shelf unit that sits up against a mirrored wall for display. If shop has a bay window try toys displayed in the window.......by adding plexi or glass shelves to the window or just put them on floor of bay. Small tables work fine also. In other words think about going in an exclusive type store such as FAO Schwartz rather than Toys 'R' Us where they use industrial shelving.

Patricia / Redwood City,CA

Toy shop Displays: I've used two found objects for toy shop shelving. In Pam's antique toy shop, I used a wooden thimble hutch found at a flea market, which had a small drawer and counter at the bottom below rows of little cubby holes. May still be available from catalogs like Harriet Carter. In my shop, used a clear plastic bobbin case about 6 x 4 inches from WalMart; pried off the lid, cut off the hinge, and set the hinged side on the floor to hide the cut marks. Again, lots of cubbies, sized just right for repainted, wigged, and dressed plastic favor baby dolls, chunky bead cars, trains, and planes, etc.

Loretta Sniarowski

Toy shop Displays: I found a few old smaller alphabet blocks, and I use those in my toy shop to set bears and dolls on. Also put in a small table for some things. Still use a lot of shelving, but tried to use a variety of shelf styles. The best thing about my shop is that it has an acrylic roof so one can see into the shop all the time. Took the original roof to an acrylic place, and they made it for me. It is just great, and I have had lots of compliments on it. The wood roof closed it up and confined all my work too much.

carol dale dyson

Petitfacades

Avengers: Start with the cable channel Nickelodeon. They run the series. Also try searching for Avengers and 1970-80's TV programs with your favorite search engine. Blockbuster Video should have some of the videos to rent. Must haves Mr. Steele with his Bowler hat and Umbrella in a natty double breasted suit [pin striped if I remember correctly] and Mrs. Peale in her skin tight jumpsuit. The scene would be Very, Very English in style also.

Patricia / Redwood City, CA

Avengers, think 60s Mod, like the Austin Powers movies which were a tribute of sorts. And of course you'll need dolls of Mrs. Peel (young Diana Rigg in a leather jumpsuit, long flipped hair, and discreet black eyeliner) and Mr. Steed debonair in suit (incomplete without bowler hat and rolled umbrella). Should be a lot of fun to do; you could make pedestal chairs from party favor champagne glasses for the base with egg carton or plastic egg seats/backs, use old plastic necklaces for a beaded curtain, etc.

Loretta.Sniarow

Avengers: If I were going to do a set up of this series for someone the first thing I would ask is which of the four series is that person's favorite? Steed originally was the cohort of another man, then he went with a blond (can't remember her name right off hand - was not my favorite but one of the first women libbers on TV), then was Emma Peel and finally Tara something or other (you can tell which was my favorite). Each of the couplings made the series come off very different from each other. They also covered quite a time frame (I would say 1960's through the 70's). One of the cool things I remember and loved were all the different cars and vehicles Steed used from old 1910's to modern speedsters to hay wagons.

Ana

Avengers: Steed and Mrs. Peel!! BTW she got her name from a pun. "Emma Peel" - man appeal!!!!!

Perhaps a couple of champagne glasses from the opening sequence and a red rose. And remember the eye Mrs. Peel had on her front door? How about an old style stereo and some black vinyl LP's? If you look on collectors' sites you should be able to find some covers to miniaturize.

Lots of leather and zips. Diana Rigg is a Dame now, a stalwart of the British theatre, but then she was definitely the 'It' girl of the '60's!

Lynne Connolly

Stable: For your stable you will need water buckets, baled hay and feed sacks, though my neighbor keeps her feed in metal garbage cans to defeat mice. Two types of tack box. A large one that usually looks like a plain wooden trunk with a lid that lifts. These often are parked outside a stall. Some people keep all the tack inside them, but some will hang a saddle on a wooden rack on the wall of a separate room. Bridles will be hung on wall hooks. A saddle blanket lying on the tack box could add some nice color. There is also a small tack box like an open tool box with a handle across the top. This will contain a hoof pick, brushes, liniment, a pulling comb for tails and manes. You might want to set up cross ties, which are simply two lead ropes that attach opposite each other on the walls of the open 'hall' between stalls. This is used to restrain a horse for saddling or a visit from the blacksmith. No stable is complete without a barn cat or two. You could have barn boots, too, but be sure they're NOT clean :). You could include a long whip used for lunging- which is just holding a rope and using the whip to encourage the horse to trot in a circle around you for exercise. Well, hope this helps.

Linda in Leroy, OH