Embracing The Detour

Hello My Friends! Once again, I didn't intend to stay away from my blog for so long! But all of the things that keep keeping me away have taken so much longer to finish than I thought they would! At least I am back now with some amazing progress to share on my workroom and with news of a long awaited return to a beloved, if too long sidelined, project. Let's catch you up...

Current State - Still a lot left to do. Purple chair will have a teal charcover.
Retreads in front of window seat will eventually go on the staircase, lol!

We got the ceiling and walls painted and boy does it feel fresh in the office half of my work room! Despite its chilly name, the Benjamin Moore Jack Frost paint is such a warm and tranquil shade of light teal and I just love how it feels to be in this room now! That salmon-y pink I had in the former living room was really harshing my vibe. I didn't even realize how much until the last patch was covered by primer!

Photo from September 2015

A few years ago we had cut and painted a piece of plywood to fit inside the recess of the upper arched part of the window. The intent was to block the intense afternoon sun from shining in and blinding me because my desk faced the window. It made a big impact taking that down, too. Now that my back is to the window, it does not seem so bad for very long in the afternoon. I am really loving the light! If it becomes a problem, I will find another solution other than blocking the wonderful light. 

    

I painted the shelf backs a color called Surf City. I love the contrast with the white shelves and the way it plays so nicely with the wall color. I have moved some of my mini projects over to those shelves and it seems like a nicer way to display them. I have many more to move over that are currently residing in grandma's hutch. I also bought special frames to display a couple of the projects that were featured on the covers of American Miniaturist and Dollshouse World. 

Russ put together a rustic sign board for me using three pieces of the tongue and grove boards we have left over. He sanded them and attached them together so that I could whitewash them. I made stencils on the Cricut to paint the My Miniature Madness logo. We'll get it hung this weekend. The whole workroom is starting to feel like a legitimate workshop for me! There are several more details and decorations I want to add as I have time and inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration... When removing all of the things from the shelves in order to paint them, I did a lot of detailing to many past projects. Honestly, it was a task that was long overdue and I was a little surprised at myself for having let it go for so long. Ah well, it does no good to live backwards so I just got on with the cleaning and detailing and actually enjoyed the walk down memory lane.

When I got to the Three Pigs project (it was the 2017 HBS Creatin' Contest entry in which I received Honorable Mention), I was aghast at how much dust had accumulated. It made sense though, as the roof was cut back a ways for ease of reaching in. It made me think that in any future project I do, I want to be sure to make it completely enclosable. And then I thought, why not take The Three Pigs apart, streamline the scene and put it into a new, completely enclosed room box? I love the idea of cutting the items down and giving the scene new life. Big, spacing hogging projects are so much to keep! I set about decommissioning the brick house, saving the contents for future display, and I even gave the structure to a new mini enthusiast! 

And all the reminiscing and dusting had me thinking about The Storybook Cottage. There are some incredible minis that I collected for the project and have yet to display. It is so close to being complete and I love that dollhouse so, so much! What am I waiting for??? There is no time like NOW! So I have determined that that will be the project I bring down to the table to work on as I find any mini time. Finally!!! It is really going to need some TLC. Time has revealed which adhesives fail over time and what dust can do to a garden full of flowers.  This will be quite a journey...

And the final bit of change I have to share is my window seat area. My wonderful and generous 30 something son gifted me with some yards of lovely peacock colored upholstery fabric and several pillow covers in varying shades of teal in order to recover and rejuvenate the best feature of the former living room. It has turned out so lovely, and I am looking forward to testing out it's comfortableness with a nice afternoon nap in the near future.

And that's a lot of what kept me away from minis and blogland, my friends. I am really struggling with the urge to get hip deep in a mini project, and I've almost got enough off my To-Do list to jump in guilt free! I can't wait!

Hope you're hip deep into something joyful now, too!

xo xo,

Jodi