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

The Freedom To Choose!

It’s been two weeks since my last post and you’d think I’d have made a ton of progress on the bakery to share with you. Especially,  since time has practically stopped! But alas, there is little here to show on the bakery for my time...

I did manage to get the ceiling papered, stucco'd and painted, the ceiling decorations attached and the lights installed. And I did attach the roof, fill gaps, install trim and touch up paint. Hey - I guess when I type it all out, it sounds like a lot, huh?

With what I'm about to share now, I know I might risk losing your confidence that I’ll ever finish a project. In my defense, I’ll remind you that after abandoning the New Orleans for a year and a half, only the landscaping remains to be finished. It took a while for inspiration to take hold again, but eventually, thankfully, it did.

I must also confess that it has been a little over a year since I ceased progress on the Storybook Cottage. It really is a shame that I can’t muster the inspiration to finish it, because I love it so much and it is ever so close! Only the bedroom and living room furniture and decor to go!

But working in the monochromatic bakery was beginning to become mundane. And there was nothing to keep me occupied while glue and paint were drying! There is still so much to do before I get to the fun parts - all of it more black and white and gray. It is fun to think of what I might do on the exterior, but...

With all of the worries in and for the world lately, I needed something more colorful to lift my spirits. I looked at my stash and thought "If the world might really end soon, I just have to see one more mini project come alive!" ;O)

And I know that there is not one miniaturist who is willing to die until every one of our mini dreams is realized. And God forbid we go with any unassembled kits remaining in our stash!

So I pulled down the Street Of Shops Two Window Shop kit.

I bought the whole SOS set back in 2013, and some of you may remember that I used the Bay Window Shop to house  Starbucks. You won't be surprised to know that it's not finished. I had plans to brick the exterior of all of the SOS shops and was waiting until they were all finished to do so. It's funny how my plans have changed over the years, and what used to be exciting plans for a wine shop has totally lost my interest. Here's how the poor Starbucks sits now, forever waiting to be completed. Look at all that dust!

And while I had no clear idea what I wanted the two window shop to be now, I  went through the wallpaper drawer, selected a piece of flooring and began to take measurements and sketch ideas on the instructions.

I found some lights and power in the stash...

And began to make some built in shelving with the Cricut...

And found a direction to go in...

Drawer Fronts with Dresden Embellishments and
Sparkly Drawer Pulls

 

Cut, installed and waxed the wood flooring...

Mirrored these cabinets and installed some lights...

And now, with no clearer idea what this shop will become, I'll start on trims. While glue and paint are drying, I'll switch back to the bakery. Or the New Orleans landscaping. Or the Storybook Cottage's furniture. Or start another new project... It's so nice to have choices, and the freedom to choose between them!

I pray that all of you are well, have all that you need, and that you have things to keep you happy, dreaming, and looking forward in spite of all that is out of control around us. God Bless, and keep on keepin' on!

xo xo,
Jodi