A bookcase for Peggy Sue

Reuben received a letter from his friend Peggy Sue.

Dear Reuben, Please would you be able to help me build a bookcase?  Or maybe you are cleverer enough to build one yourself.  My biggest book is 8.5 cm tall by 7 cm and my smallest book is 5.5 cm tall by 4.5 cm.  I was thinking about three shelves, perhaps with a smaller shelf for the littler books on top and a larger shelf for the taller ones at the bottom... about 25cm tall and about 20cm wide. Many thanks Peggy Sue

Reuben went out to the workshop to see what timber was available for a bookcase

He started drawing up some plans

He used his steel rule and a pencil to draw the lines straight

He had a spare pencil behind his ear, just in case he lost the big pencil

In the workshop he marked out the timber to get the grooves in the right place for the shelves

Reuben very carefully used the table saw to cut the timber to the right width, he kept his hands away from the spinning saw blade

Soon Reuben had all the pieces cut to size.  He checked that everything fitted by clamping it all together, then stacked the pieces, sandpaper, some glue and the big clamps ready to take to Peggy Sue.

Laura, Timothy, Edmund and Isabel decided to come with Reuben as they wanted to see Peggy Sue too.

"Hello Henry and Peggy Sue, I've brought the bookcase parts" said Reuben

"Wow, such a lot of pieces" said Peggy Sue
"Did you cut these all yourself?" asked Henry?
"Yes, and we need to do a bit more sanding before we glue it all together" said Reuben

Soon they were sanding the pieces with some garnet paper

Isabel insisted on helping with the sanding too, so they could start gluing the pieces as soon as possible

"It fits together like this, we need to make sure it is all securely clamped so the shelves fit into the grooves properly" said Reuben as Edmund, Henry and Peggy Sue helped assemble all the pieces into a bookcase.

"please tighten those clamps gently and firmly so the joins meet up but the wood doesn't get distorted" said Reuben

Later, the boys helped Reuben glue the back panel onto the bookcase when the glue had dried.  They also helped clean off some of the excess glue which had squeezed out of the corners.  Then they put it upright and called Peggy Sue.

"Hi Peggy Sue, here is your bookcase" said Reuben as Timothy, Edmund, Henry and Rory watched Peggy Sue's reaction.

"Oh my word, it just what I hoped it would look like" cried Peggy Sue with a gasp as Everlee, Laura and Isabel looked on.

"It is perfect and my books fit, I can't wait to fill it up with more of my books" exclaimed Peggy Sue in delight.

"Thank you so much Reuben" said Peggy Sue as she hugged him

"Aw, no problem Peggy Sue" said Reuben, feeling a bit embarrassed.

When Peggy Sue was tidying her bedroom before Christmas and wishing for a bookcase for her collection, I knew Reuben the family carpenter would want to help realise her wish.  He is a practical boy and it was fun to take him out to the workshop for bookcase building. It was made from a piece of laminate floorboard, 3mm ply for shelves and 10mm ply for the base.  It could be varnished or painted, though the laminate floorboard top surface may not take paint or vanish unless sanded down a bit to give the surface a 'key'.

My younger daughter and I enjoyed visiting Lorraine and her lovely collection of dolls on a dull Sunday afternoon.

Update: Lorraine has blogged about Peggy Sue admiring her bookcase.

Summer Music Festival

It was weeks in the planning with plenty of rehearsing and at last the big day had arrived.  The Friendly Company of Dolls came from far and wide to converge at the Festival Grounds on a bright, hot sunny day. They brought their picnic baskets, sunglasses, umbrellas for shade rather than rain and plenty of enthusiasm for the music. The stage was set up in a big top (just in case of rain and to provide shade to the instruments), the programme was printed and everyone was ready.

The Summer Music festival programme

Reuben did all the announcements.

"Welcome to the Summer Music Festival" said Reuben

"Are you sure we'll be okay?" asked Molly of the other three Rosehip Chicks as they prepared for their debut performance.  "Yes, I'm sure we'll be fine" said Madison.

Emily was handing out programmes to Henry and Juno.  It was so warm she needed a sun umbrella to protect her from getting sunstroke.

"Please welcome our first performers - Jakob and Henry will play Fur Elise by Beethoven" said Reuben

Jakob nodded at Henry when he gave him his cue to begin.

Soon Jakob was playing his flute with Henry accompanying him on the grand piano.  They had rehearsed separately so were a little nervous about getting it right.

Laura, Anne-Marie and Edith were quietly listening in the shade and thinking anxiously about their own performances.  Poor Edith had been sick before the music festival began.

"Phew, I'm glad I went first after all" said Jakob to Hamish, "now I can enjoy listening to everyone else and relax".

"Now we have Peggy Sue playing Serenade by Marie Dare.  She is accompanied by Henry" said Reuben.

Peggy Sue played her cello really well without any mistakes as she had been practicing for weeks.

Henry found it easy to accompany Peggy Sue as she really knew her piece.

Soon Anne-Marie came on stage to join Peggy Sue and Henry.  They played a Trio (by anonymous) with Anne Marie transported to another place by her own violin playing.

Gregor hadn't practiced nearly as much as Peggy Sue and was rather anxious as the standard so far had been very high.  He had picked a hard piece - Mozart Violin Sonata K301.

Henry waited for the cue to start from Gregor.  Fortunately Gregor's performance came together better than he had expected considering how little he had practiced.

Meanwhile Anne Marie was continuing to reassure the anxious Edith.

The audience was very appreciative, even the babies were listening without making too much noise.

Some people in the audience were listening intently to the music as they studied their programmes.

The programme of music

"Welcome to Everlee who is new to our Sasha Scene.  She will play Hey Jude" said Reuben

"Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better" sang Everlee as she played her guitar.

Next up was Laura with her guitar and a summery flowing dress

She was playing Country Dance by G.D. Aguado and added some words of her own to the music.

Laura enjoyed playing her rainbow classical guitar.

Bobby was very laid back as he played Danza Espanola No. 5 by Enrique Granados

The audience was mesmerized by the Spanish guitar music on a hot summer afternoon.

Soon Bobby was joined by Juno on the Recorder.  They hadn't practiced together before but as they had both worked hard individually on the piece they were easily able to bring it together for the festival.

They played Tambourin for Recorder and Guitar by Rameau.  

Trendon Elliott and Melanie had matching outfits for their performance.

The Easy Duet by Mozart which Trendon Elliott and Melanie had rehearsed went very well even though Trendon Elliott wanted to hide behind the music stand.  Melanie was pleased that they managed to play without a hitch.

The audience were very supportive of the Trumpeter and Violinist as they completed their performance.

Poor Edith had to wait a long time before it was her turn and now it had arrived she was even more nervous.  However Peggy Sue gave her confidence as she sat upright at the piano and gave her a nod and smile.

"Bravo!" called tiny Isabel as Edith and Peggy Sue finished playing Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's by Henry Mancini

"Henry returns to the stage to play his clarinet this time.  He is playing Aotearoa by Lorraine Tyler" said Reuben

Henry's clarinet playing was beautiful as he gave a good rendition of his mum's composition.

The multi-talented musician Peggy Sue played "Dancing Sax" by Alan Bullard

She gave a fun performance - and used her sunglasses and hat this time to get into the mood of groovy saxophone playing.

At last the Rosehip Chicks came up on stage having waited for the entire concert for their first performance of "Summer Promise" by themselves.  

Peter the drummer gave them a supportive backing as Maddison sang, Sasha and Stevie shook their maracas while Molly played the hand drum.

The babies had maracas too and rattled them enthusiastically in time to the music.

Baby Daisy showed Peggy Sue her rattle, it was almost as good as a maraca.

For the finale all the musicians and crew took to the stage to sing and play for the audience.  

Florence, the local photographer, took some group photos of the Friendly Company of Dolls. 

 Young Edmund was allowed to join them with his guitar, he wasn't quite at performance level yet, however all the dolls wanted to encourage him.

It had been a wonderful summer music festival with weather which exceeded expectations, lovely company and beautiful music.

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Lorraine, Jocelyn, my younger daughter and I came up with this idea between us some months ago.  Sharlyn only recently bought a Sasha Doll and matching guitar (Everlee) and was pleased to be able to join us.  We got lucky with the weather, in fact the sunshine was almost too bright and we could have done with some cloud as doll photography in strong sunshine and deep shadow is quite tricky.  It was such a relief to not have any rain on the chosen day as it rained the day before and the day after!  Lorraine did a wonderful job of the programmes - she made full sized version for each of us to use and tiny doll sized versions for the dolls to use in the festival.  We all brought along props and accessories to set the scene and my girl put the tent up for the staging.

Lorraine's blog posts of the day are at:
Summer Music Festival - the big day arrives
Summer Music Festival - the Event!

Setting up the dolls was time consuming but fun.  These are a couple of 'back stage' shots to show the progress of the photoshoot.

Scene changing after Henry and Peggy Sue perform and just before Gregor takes the stage

My girl helps Laura steady her nerves