Last night Walter finished with the rough edges of Windows 7. After he re-installed the printer, I snared a couple of photos of Tessie's Townhouse from the RGT site. I cut them out and glued them onto the dividers of the notebook.

Last night Tessie kept hassling me until I gave in and started filling the notebook with the usual lists.

She was generous enough to lend me a set of colored pencils that a friend sent to her. That was with the condition that she got to add notes to the book with them whenever she had a whim to do so....I have a feeling that this is going to be the fattest notebook in the history of notebooks when she finishes....She is already looking for more paper.

I didn't tell her that I had to cut it myself since this is a weird shaped notebook. I would be cutting for the next ten hours if I did.

Anyway, as you can see, I improvised and made some dividers from scrap booking card stock. I simply cut them a little larger than the paper and added tabs. If you do this, don't forget to stagger the tags so that they can be seen. I did four to start.

I have the first one labeled Interiors. The second is Exterior.

As soon as the printer gets set up again, I will scan some photos from the RGT website and put a photo of the interior of the shell on the "Interiors" divider and an exterior Photo on the "Exterior" divider....Logic rules.
Now for the actual pages. This is just how I prefer to do it. Everybody will have different ideas about what to add. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

Under interiors, I have a page for each room with the following listings.

I will just show you the first page to give you an idea.

Ground floor: Simply a guide to where the room is located in the house.

Entryway/stairs:Type of room.

Furniture:Ideas of what kind of furniture is needed.

Floor: Just that. Type of floor that I want to use.

Wall color and trim:Same as above.
All of the things in these categories may change a few times before they actually get done. That's the reason that it is all done with pencil and a great big eraser.

The last title is Supplies: That is simply a shopping list.

I leave a few lines blank between each one so that I can make lots of notes. And there is an area at the bottom that is pretty big, also for miscellaneous notes.

The second section is for Exterior plans such as paint color, finishes, plants, and the like. It's not very thick.

The other two aren't titled yet. Sometimes I use one for info about the people that inhabit the house. Tessie will probably fill that section with a long, drawn out, autobiography if I let her.....Hey! Something else to keep her occupied.

I will keep you posted as the notebook changes.

Just so you know, the paper that I am using is quad rule on the back side so that I can draw a 1/4" scale floor plan of each of the rooms when the house arrives. That way I will know exactly what will fit in without guessing. I sometimes stick swatches and paint colors to the pages also. That way, if I go shopping, I have a handy dandy reference.

As for Tessie, she is not being a great deal of help.

She is spending a lot of time sitting on the handle of the front door. She doesn't want to miss the delivery person.....

When she isn't there, she has her nose pressed against the window next to the door. She can't really see anything but shapes there. The glass is rippled. She claims that she will be able to make out the shape of the truck, if nothing else.

At least when she is there, I don't have to worry about her making long "I want!" lists in the notebook.

I am going to go make a few lists myself now.

See you tomorrow.

Not too long ago, someone made a comment that I didn't seem to plan anything when I started a new project. Boy! Were they ever wrong!

I spend more time planning than working. Most of the time, over half of the plans go out the window, but at least I have them down on paper and sometimes they work out for some other project later.

I have decided to take you along for the ride, so to speak.

This morning, I got up and started looking for a notebook to put the plans and ideas for Tessie's Townhouse in. I found the perfect one.

It wasn't always perfect, but I covered this one with the idea of using it for this exact purpose. It was a small, plain, three ring binder that I think that I found at a garage sale for 50 cents.

I found the fabric at my favorite, out in the middle of nowhere, quilt shop. Combining the two was a natural for a dollhouse notebook. And look! It even has a townhouse on the front. Unplanned.....

When I dragged it out this morning Tessie was delighted and excited. She is anxious to get going on this project. I haven't seen her bounce up and down so much since the time that she thought that a pogo stick would help her navigate the keyboard of the computer.


She suggested that I show you how I did it so that you can do one for your next project. Soooo....
I will start with the notebook itself.

Here you see the inside. Tessie tucked her toes into one of the pockets that I made. I did that both in the front and the back. That way I can carry a ruler, fabric samples and other things when I take it with me to shop or plan.

There is also a loop to keep a pencil handy.

Mookie had to get into the act. He held down the page with the diagram on it whilst I took the photos.

The whole thing didn't really take very long.

I am not going to give you exact measurements, because your notebook will probably be a different size than mine. I will just tell you the details.

I laid the fabric out flat, wrong side up and then the open notebook on top of that. I cut the fabric about an inch larger all around and snipped the corners and the spine area so that the fabric would fit around.

I covered the outside of the notebook with white glue and smoothed the fabric on it. I made sure that the fabric was glued into the fold lines beside the spine. Then I flipped it over and glued the edges inside. If there were any overlaps, I cut them away, making sure that the area was covered.

I let the fabric dry. Then I started on the inside.

If you want a fabric or ribbon loop for the pencil you have to glue that to the side edge about half way up. I prefer the right side. That's just a personal quirk.

For the actual liner you need to cut two pieces about 1/4" smaller on all sides than the cover. The liner is poster board. It is treated the same way as the cover. Fabric is glued to one side and wrapped around to the back.

If you want pockets, measure and cut card stock to the size you want. I wanted them as wide as the liner so I simply cut it the same width as the liner. I turned the top edge to the inside and glued. I laid the pocket on top of the liner and then wrapped the sides and bottom fabric to the back. Not too tight.

The last step was to glue the liner to the inside of each cover. As you can see, I used two contrasting fabrics. You can get as fancy or stay as simple as you choose.

Now I have to go get ready to go to the Wednesday Witches mini meeting. Hopefully, Tessie will be so engrossed in the notebook that she won't notice when I leave. Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.