Happy Mother's Day!

In my post Changing Gears... Again, I'd shared how I was losing track of time and suddenly realized that it was only a couple weeks until a very important event. Some of you guessed that it was Mother's Day (May 10th here in the U.S.), and you were right! I generally send flowers, candy, gift cards to my mom, but this year, I wanted to give her something to play with! And that is how the southwest/Spanish style patio came about.

It had humble beginnings, being made from foam core and cardstock. But that is why this hobby is so much fun! A little dreaming, determination and some scraps and viola! Something from practically nothing!

After that first post about the project, I added a string of lights and floral vine to the pergola, and added a wooden base and frame filled with mini railroad gravel. I had a palm tree in my stash which had been slated for a different project that I was going to make for my mom a few years ago. I was excited to finally be able to gift it to her in this one!

I made several pots of flowers, a potted cactus, a rocking chair from a kit, a stool and tray table and a bunch of other fun accessories. Mom is not a "mini person" and wonders how I don't get frustrated working with things that are so small. She adores burros and makes pilgrimages whenever possible to find and feed them, so I had to include one of those - a tiny one. See if you can spot him!

She marvels at my patience and dexterity and says she would never have the patience. I think she would have the patience once she experienced the fun and thrill of each little treasure. So, I left most all of the accessories loose and packaged separately. I wanted her to have the joy of unwrapping many small wonders and then getting to arrange them in any way she likes. I included a photo of a suggested layout, some fun tack, tips on placing items and instructions on the lighting and battery box.

Mom got her package yesterday and called me right away. She was THRILLED, and so excited to unwrap all of the accessories! She said I had made her year and that it was like Christmas! My dad was pretty excited about it, too, and told mom he wanted to play with her! I hope she ends up enjoying it so much that she asks for more roomboxes to play with in the future! You know I'll enjoy making her plenty of them!!!

What more can you ask than to give a gift where the recipient loves what you've made for them, especially when it lets them know how special they are to you!!!

To all the moms and everyone else who has loved another human or animal selflessly, Happy Mother's Day to all of you and may that love come back to you sevenfold! I hope you get to celebrate together, whether on a screen or in person!

xo xo,
Jodi

Never Boring At My House!

Here I am with another project that may seem out of the blue, and on top of that, it's one that I can't talk too much about for a few weeks! I know, I know! Then why even tease you?!? Well, because, when I don't post anything I get lonely for you! So indulge me for the next few weeks and then I promise I'll get back to the bakery and back to laying all of my cards on the table...

Without giving much explanation, I can say that I have been changing gears and working on a couple small side projects. Not the southwest/Spanish style patio project - it is finished and I'll have a post about that later this week. This is a whole other commitment I made around the beginning of the year.

For this one, I started off with vintage The Daisy House Hall Table w/Mirror kits, and, making a few minor modifications, turned them into bathroom vanity sink units. I added a full shelf to the bottom and made new deeper stained wooden countertops to accommodate a sink and faucet. Adding the mirrors will be one of the last things I do as it is safer that way!

Each will have a different overall theme, and so accordingly, the accessories will be made up of supporting color schemes. Think eucalyptus and lavender. Below are the candle sets for each, and the candle and pillar tutorial can be found on the tutorials page or in the March/April issue of American Miniaturist.

What am I going to do with them? Well... I can tell you part of the story...

A lot of you know that Russ is a contractor. That means that we experience a lot of Feast or Famine depending on the work situation. Our married life has been sprinkled with a few very scary times, especially in the younger years when we often did not have two dimes to rub together or much food in the cupboard. I remember a time when our kids were really little. Russ had to have surgery and so was out of work for about six weeks. We were struggling to make ends meet and our grocery budget was dismal. In our mail box one day was a grocery store gift certificate for $25 and the name of a local food bank. I did not know our tiny town even had a food bank! The angel who sent us that help touched us in such an amazing way. It was an anonymous gift, but we knew who it was from. They were a young couple, too, and they had three kids! And yet they shared what they could with us. That amazing gesture opened up our minds and hearts to the idea of giving whenever you are able to give. This is why Russ and I support our local food bank and I encourage you, if you are among the lucky in these times, to donate food or money to yours. A little can go a long way!

When the vanity sets are finished, I'll hold a drawing for one of them. All you have to do to enter is to donate to your local food bank. If you are among the folks relying on the food bank to help you through this time, all you have to do is agree to one day, when times are better, pay it forward. More details to follow...

In the meantime, I am going to continue to make accessories for the vanity sets until I run out of materials or ideas. In digging through drawers to come up with ideas, I came across these! Looks like no boredom is in the cards for me!

And just so you know that I am serious about getting back to the bakery, I have ordered three cake kits from Stewart Dollhouse Creations! I imagine the learning curve will be a sharp one, but hopefully, you'll be here to laugh (or cry) with me through the process!

Stay safe and get busy making!

xo xo,
Jodi

Changing Gears... Again

I bet none of you were expecting to stop by and see something like this, this week! Me either! In fact, the idea didn't even hit me until Monday. This whole staying at home thing has a way of making you forget about what day of the week it is. That's why I totally lost track of a very important upcoming event. I can't say much more than that, right now, but I promise you'll know everything in a couple weeks...

Suffice to say that I needed to make a small project - Pronto! And what better than a Spanish influenced private garden oasis? I began by gathering scrap pieces of foam core. I had a piece that was 7-5/8" x 4-11/16 - a good size for the floor.

VERY rough drawing!

And then I had two full pieces which I could use to make a back wall and sides, and two half walls in the front.

I wanted a couple windows with wrought iron inserts, so as usual, I let the Cricut do the cutting.

Here I am using 3 rulers to help me place my frame exactly into position. Then it was easy to trace the opening and cut it out with an Xacto.

To frame out the corner fireplace walls, I made a pattern from scrap cardboard and then used it to cut the shape into my foam core - half on the back wall and half on the left wall. Where you see the "X"'s are the waste part of the wall.

I also cut a front strip that would join the two side walls and provide a structure for the round wooden beams. By Monday night I had a rough structure!
Amazing what you can accomplish with a major fire placed squarely under your buttocks!  :O)

Tuesday morning I was up and painting a piece of Canson Illustration Art Board for the tile floor before breakfast. I picked a few desert type colors and splotched them randomly on the board. Once dry, I cut them into 15/16" squares and began laying tile.

Tuesday evening I had the tiles laid and began to prep an egg carton lid for bricks. For this project, I needed the bricks to be very Rustic! So, I chose some more desert colors, this time darker for contrast, and splotched and pounced until I could not see any gray.

Wednesday began the brick laying. I was determined that I would have it completed by bedtime so that I could get a good, thick coat of varnish applied that would have overnight to dry. I did it! Just barely. And there were additional bricks that had to wait until all of the walls were joined later.

In the background you can see the groutless bricks just waiting to be nestled in some spackle. In the foreground, you see three random objects that probably don't give away what their intended purpose will be. The cardboard piece is a 3/4 section from a masking tape roll. They are perfect for ponds or landscaping - anything than needs a sturdy circular shape. On top of that is a piece of cereal box - Lucky Charms, of course! It has been cut to fit into the corner as the base for the fireplace. The empty gesso bottle just happened to have the perfect shape for the fireplace I envisioned. All I had to do was cut it down, then cut it in half, then cut an opening from it. The stove pipe is the one that I did not end up using for the New Orleans kitchen. It was meant for this stove!

The tape on the gesso bottle helped to guide my cut with the Zona saw.

At this point I cut the back part of the gesso bottle off
and also cut an access hole for the fireplace.

While I contemplated how I was going to attach the fireplace and at what point, I made what I think are called gussets for the pergola top logs. This was to ensure that my spacing and holes would be perfect. Again, the Cricut saves the day!

At this point, I had to start the grout. It was already Thursday and to be honest I was freaking out a little bit. I was wondering why I am always cutting things so close and why in the world did I think I could get this done in time and still remembering all the while that my faith has been rewarded innumerable times in my life and all I had to do was to keep focused and keep moving forward.

Taking in progress photos, however, was not my priority, so the next photo might be shocking...

Grout - check!
Fireplace installed - check!
Walls attached - check!
Window frames painted and installed - check!
Stucco texture (Mod Podge mixed with paint) applied and walls painted - check!
Gussets added to skinny foam core upper walls - check!
Holes cut out for beams - check!
Fireplace logs and fire light added - check!

And it was only Friday morning! Note to self: Go look at the plaque on your front porch, dummy. The one with Proverbs 3:5-6.

Before

Remember how I said "Rustic" earlier? Here's how you "Rustic" something up...
It's fun to flip to the before and after pics in the slide show - dramatic!

After

And with the roof assembled...

I am amazed at how much I accomplished this week and I have real hope that I will complete this gift in time! Now, I can turn my attention inside where I'll:

Make a chair
Make a table
Add more lighting
Make a multitude of flowers
Add a decorative base with minimal landscaping
Make a holder for the battery box
Pillow?
Rug?
Animals?

Aw darrnit! I better go read that plaque again!

Hope you are all safe and well, and with faith, are meeting all of the new challenges (opportunities) that are suddenly presented to you!

xo xo,
Jodi

Pound Cake Exterior: A Happy Ending...

As this week draws to an end so too does the exterior of Pound Cake! I'll pick up where we left off last week and take you through the process...

You'll remember that my intricate stencil idea didn't work out so well so plan B was to cut various "fondant" shapes with the Cricut. I used Kraft cardstock and then laminated two layers together to increase the thickness. I also made scalloped trim in the same way to add a little extra detail where the black transitioned into the white "cake" layer.

Here is the first side applied in a random pattern. The cardstock is very white and the paint is a warmer white so the detail is easy to pick up. Each section was painted in the warmer white later to leave a raised textured effect like fondant.

Plain white white cardstock.

Painted with warm white.

On the front area I left room so as not to interfere with the porch roof.

Once the "fondant" was done I could get the wiring sorted. I was able to lead all of the wiring for the lights (thus far) to one point of exit, creating a hub for the power strip. Any future additional lights will have to be carefully camouflaged and lead here. Luckily, I still have lots of space and a transformer large enough to handle many more bulbs!

This was an exciting moment! I finally got to see all of the lights lit together on the transformer instead of the 9 volt battery! I am super happy with the amount of light given off by these 16 fixtures and bulbs!

Now it was time to address the roof. Remember how I had modified the fit so that I could add and remove the roof as needed while I installed the second floor walls? Well, that left me with some unsightly gaps that I had to address. It seemed that the easiest and cleanest method was to add more of the scalloped cardstock.

Gap

Scalloped cardstock cut to fit and painted.

Gaps gone and you barely notice the scallop edge.
But if you do, it looks intentional.

Switching to the porch entry floor... I painted coffee stirrer sticks and laid them in alternating black and white to create stripes.

And then I painted the roof's metallic finish on in several coats. It is
Jacquard Lumiere Metallic Acrylic Paint in Pewter. It looks like a lead roof so it's really neat! Also, I left this photo uncropped so that you could get a look at my background hoard. I am embarrassed to say that I have not done a deep reorganization of my bins and shelves since I finished the New Orleans last summer!!! I may take a short break before I start on the interior of the bakery just to hit the reset button.

Next in line was the front porch. I continued with the black storefront theme and added a couple small ceiling lights. The wire will have to be run to the back in some inconspicuous manner.

For the storefront sign I once again harnessed the power of the Cricut. Using the same font as the window vinyl, I cut and laminated three layers of kraft cardstock and installed that onto the kit's sign board.

The dormer gingerbread has been added here, too.

Gratuitous lighted shot...

Opposite angle.

There will be touch ups, and I am leaving space for more inspiration to lead to more detail, but Pound Cake's exterior has indeed reached a happy ending!

And last, I want to take a moment to truly thank each of you for being here. Each of you who come by to share a little of this amazing and heart filling passion. And to those who have uplifting words and leave thoughtful comments that lift my heart and encourage me to reach for new challenges. And for those of you who don't have words or time or even a free hand to type them but send good thoughts instead. Thank You All So Much! For without you, the joy for me in this passion would be hollow. I am so happy and grateful to be part of this special community of fellow mini enthusiasts who inspire and encourage one another! Each of us adds our own unique flavor and we are so blessed to have connected with one another!

xo xo,
Jodi