Vintage Cardboard Christmas Music Box Fix Up

I picked up this cute vintage music box made in Japan the other day.  It needed a little TLC.  Looked like the cat chewed on the chimney, the roof had some paint loss, the mica was faint and the felt base dirty.  Something is missing from the chimney base.  I found one on Etsy--I wanted to find out what the missing object was, but there was no embellishment on it at all.  Here's the before picture.

Here is the music box as I found it.  Poor chimney--I had to remove the chenille trim, it was mangled.

 

A little paint brightened up the roof and an application of fresh mica created greater color contrast.  I removed the chenille trim on the chimney, painted the exposed brown cardboard, added pipe cleaner and applied mica.  I used a piece of the mangled chenille to prop up the awning and added mica.  The felt base is very dirty around the outer edge, so I applied mica over the top to freshen it up.

I don't know what is missing from the chimney base.  I decided to mica the top of an old vintage mercury ball and place it where the missing object was.

This little gem cost more than I thought it should for the condition it was in--but then again, we know, I like a deal!  But I'm glad I didn't pass this up, it's just darling!

(Hubby is also glad I bought it though initially he had his doubts.)