Making the best use of props...

I have been busy and not busy. Hard to explain. My schedule will be gearing up to crazy busy with commitments in October and though I have dolly time now, sometimes I am just plain lazy and do not wish to work on anything for the dolls, other than take photos. 

So with the arrival of Count Dracula and his brides, that pushed me to start on their castle/tomb retreat which cause McDonald's diner to be shut down for a small period of time. Really, I'm running out of room. Correction: I have run out of room. And the W Club doesn't help but twisting my arm to buy these wonderful snobby dolls who simply demand their own residence, shops, well...diorama nuts- you get the picture. 

Making the best of what props you have. I have a prop heaven for some people. One prop I have been wanting to use but never had the space for the dio (who has space for a castle in 1:6 scale??)  is this wonderful curio. I decided that with Halloween coming I wanted to do something spook-tacula and thought, how about a dining room for the Count and his brides with some gorey food...after all, they're always 'hungry'. The four blood chairs are perfect, now I'm trying to figure out a table base. 
Here is the diorama in progress...

Yes that is a jar of eyeballs in the Count's hand. I have been sorting thru my stash of items and accessories and that is a miniature jar of eyeballs I made back in 2005? I think for All Things Miniature forum , now defunct. It was actually an eyeball cane tutorial and the eyeballs were caned to look 'bloodshot'. You would probably have to google it now, as I have long forgotten my own tutorial, which is probably in my files on my mainframe. It makes a cool spooky prop for my Halloween dolls. 
Back to the curio- we had a short supply of these, but I loved them. They were perfect scale even though I have a small design of another curio in stock which measures 16 inches that will work for the fashion royalty dolls since they sometimes measure out to 13 inches, especially the Hommes. I think a china cabinet makes an impressive display. I still have to go thru my miniature china sets and fill it up. The Count has traveled extensively and has loads of knick knacks to fill it up with. 
I found another prop that will be useful for Ken or the Hommes and action figures as well at Hobby Lobby.

It is a set of miniature tools that are actually small tree Christmas ornaments. Take your 40% off coupon as they run 6.99. I haven't took any photos of them in use yet, The Scrap Box studio is still in building stages, so perhaps they will get some stage time there. They are very realistic looking and heavy resin.

This is the other style of curio I have that is the small one 16 inches I mentioned. I have a bunch of these in various stages of flaws on my eBay Auctions with low starting bids of 9.99 . (I have relisted Bewitching Hour Luchia and Lady in Waiting Dania Zarr with reduced prices on auction as well today tool ) I have used these curios before and want very badly if I ever get any time to do a museum scene with these filled with all sorts of antiquities for the  dolls. Here Joyful in Japan (Nellie) is modeling the curio. I think it will work, if the room ceiling is large enough and I balance it out with other displays to give that feeling of space to the room, like a museum room exhibit would have.
Enjoy!