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

2016 HBS Creatin' Contest Photos Submitted!

Greetings fellow mini makers!

My contest photos have been taken and submitted! Oh boy! This means that soon those of you who have been building in secret will show us the goods! How exciting! I hope that all of you are feeling good about the deadline and where you're at with your builds!

Now I must finish cleaning and organizing my work room, which is also my dining room, just in time to host 18 for Thanksgiving! I am certain to go through mini withdraw, especially since I have to wait until Saturday to start my Super Secret Mini Miniature Project! Shhh... Don't tell anyone!

I am so grateful, for family, for miniatures, for all of the billions of blessings and good things that make up my life each day, and especially for the friendships with kindred spirits that the blog and social media world have made possible!

I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you are enjoying this special time of year!

Jodi

The End... Oh! And A New Beginning!

First, for the happy ending...

Bob, Joe and Sam are so happy to inhabit their new home!

I promised myself that I was going to GET MY LIST DONE TODAY! Well... You know how that goes. While you have the stuff out to finish up the last details you suddenly realize that a space needs this or you need to rearrange that. Instead of crossing off, you're adding to...

Front edge landscaping is finished!

But the good news is that I am (probably) finished except for final touch ups, adding the felt bottom, and setting up for contest photos! I decided to wait a couple weeks on the photo shoot just in case of any 3:00 AM epiphanies! I am bound to run across something I forgot.

Wolf Stew is just about ready to eat!

I know that all of you are probably tired of seeing any more of this project, so I promise these will be the last photos I share until after the contest deadline. Then I'll share the photo shoot photos and we'll put this one to bed!

Joe loves his well appointed and organized kitchen!

That cookbook sure came in handy!

Sam appreciates the nicely set table!

Bob is laughing at how ironic it is that "Hungry Like The Wolf" is playing on the radio right now!

Sam says come on in and grab a bowl!

But first check out my flowers! It's a cutting garden!

And now our little village saving heroes in their close ups:

Bob the brick house builder extraordinaire!

Then...

Joe - the culinarily creative!

Last but not least...

Sam, our clever cultivator!

Thank you all so much for sharing this incredibly fun process with me, and for all of your encouraging and lovely comments! 

And now for a new (or renewed) beginning...

This darling little gal has been sitting on the shelf behind my worktable, patiently awaiting for it to be her turn again. She was so gracious when I told her that she would be on hold while I participated in this year's Creatin' Contest. But now, she's back on the table!

Just look at her smile!

I had not forgotten her at all! In fact, over the last few weeks I've had my visions renewed of what she is to become and it is lovely! A frilly, girly, smelling fabulous and chic-ly shabby favorite soap shop!

Her bodice and roof are getting a makeover! The garden I am preparing for will be spectacular!

The interior will be a wonder for the eyes and heaven for the nose! Soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, body scrub, drawer sachets, candles, potpourri, and wonderful cards and gifts!

I'll be learning new skills and techniques in mold making & casting, polymer clay, sewing, fabric printing and making plain and shabby items chic!

I hope you'll come along and share the journey! I think it's going to be super fun!

Jodi

I Made Pillows!

Sam loves his new pillow!

Last Saturday I finally unboxed the new sewing machine! One look at the 77 page instruction manual and about a dozen individual loose informational sheets and I knew that this was going to require some real concentration! I haven't really done any sewing on a machine since the early 90's, and even then I was really just a novice. My memory isn't all that great either, so this might as well have been my first time.

There are so many stitches and functions! It even sews letters!

With absolute silence in the room, I opened the manual and began to read it methodically. I did my best to absorb each word and understand the terms and the functions before moving on to the next section. I learned some new words (feed dogs) and had a few "aha" moments. It literally took me two full days  of reading and doing, but by Monday night I had the bobbin threaded, the needle threaded, and began to practice sewing on the pillow material.

I had to draw out a diagram to plan how I would sew the pillows, where they would fold, how much of a seam allowance to plan for, where the hand stitch opening would be, what size would work well for the beds etc... I thought having a real pillow inside of a pillowcase would be great, so I planned for both.

Once I had it on paper and felt comfortable with the plan, I cut the fabric. Before I sewed them, I wanted to incorporate name tags. This was probably the largest mental challenge; I'm sewing the pillows inside out, the tags need to be on the right finished side, and the label needs to face up. I really had to sit there for a long while and ponder all the angles! I kicked myself for not making the tags double sided!!! In the end, I figured it out correctly! My hand sewn ends could use more practice, but since they'll be hidden inside the pillowcase, I think they are great!

I used pink thread so that I could keep a good eye on my machine stitches as I went along.

 

A perfect fit for the bed!

After sewing and stuffing the pillows, I was feeling a little more confident with the pillowcases. Rather than just going by my planned measurements, I cut extra fabric and measured for length and width as I went along. It worked out really well! I love how they turned out!

Look at those stitches! Awesome, right!?!

The machine was a dream to use, and I will no longer be intimidated to make my own pillows! Hopefully, I'll be making lots of other great mini items myself, too! Making is the part I really love!

My to-do list is getting shorter and I expect to be finished up with this project by the end of next week. Then I can set up for the photos! In-between now and then, I am doing more on the organizational plan to my work space. More storage and a display shelf are happening this weekend! I'll post some photos when I get it all completed!

Have a great first week of November (OMG!, NOV?)! Anyone else in the mood for meatloaf!

Jodi

I Confess...

My last actual full working day was Monday. I should have more to show for the week, but honestly, I was pretty lazy...

Tuesday was a blur, and aside from emptying and refilling the dishwasher and feeding the puppies, I did nothing productive (except catch up on Game of Thrones, which I enjoyed very much).

When it came to the Creatin' Contest, I crossed old items off the list and created a new list. I farted around with it for a while yesterday, then on and off between loads of laundry and housekeeping today (I had groceries delivered - my life is so hard! :O>). When I looked at the list again, I was surprised that I got so little done. I enjoyed myself, so that's something...

The next bit is going to be a bit less organized than I usually try to be. I think all those long hours took a toll, and I'll need a couple weeks to restart the old brain again. Enough whining... Here I go...

I had to change the sandpaper on my sanding stick, so I thought for the sake of any newbies who happen by, I'd risk the redundancy of a little "how to" because learning about the sanding stick really helped me to become a much better sander.

Very briefly... You'll need:

1. 2 different grits of sandpaper (I use 220 and 400)
2. Double sided tape
3. A stick, of course
4. Scissors and/or Xacto knife

Cut the double sided tape to the length of your stick, peel the backing (only the stick side) and adhere.

Cut the sandpaper to cover the stick. Each piece should cover half of the stick. Cut the width so that it wraps to meet itself at the center of the back sides.

Peel off the top backing and carefully adhere the sandpapers.

Viola! Now you have a sturdy and flat surface to sand on that lasts a long time. No more rounded edges or uneven surfaces! So simple, but so handy. To the forgotten person who suggested this to me so long ago - a giant cosmic Thank You! I hope you just received good shivers!

Next up, I needed some throw rugs. I have some wonderful velour paper that has an adhesive backing. I bought mine on Amazon about a year ago and have not seen it in all white packs since. They do have multi-colored packs, but there are only 2 white sheets included. S.E.I does sell velvet non adhesive backed paper by the sheet in Coconut. Order at least a dozen to make it worth the $7.50 shipping. The service is excellent.

I found some rugs in colors I liked on www.rugs-direct.com. I made a kitchen runner, a round rug for under the table, an oval rug for the hearth (I think I need to print it a bit larger) and an inside and outside doormat.

 I let them dry overnight, cut them out, then colored the raw edges in coordinating Sharpie. 

Once I've done a "final" cleaning, I'll peel the backing off and adhere them down. Since this build will be displayed in a library, I am going to "nail" everything down.

This next section we'll call "How to make a NON GOOD LOOKING cherry pie because you have not done it in 14 years".

I started off with some light beige and translucent Sculpey, some Translucent Liquid Sculpey, some artists chalk and the leftover choke cherries from the previous canning. Oh! And a pie tin - duh!

To make the pie filling I added some Translucent Liquid Sculpey and chalk scrapings into a cup, then added in the cherries. Don't panic - the Translucent Liquid Sculpey does not actually become translucent until it is baked. Right at this stage it looks like Pepto Bismol. Not exactly a good association when expecting a cherry pie!

I mixed a tiny bit of the light beige into a large amount of translucent to make the pie crust. I flattened it out then set the pie tin up-side-down on top of it and cut around it with the Xacto.

You'll have to forgive me here, as I was more worried about messing up the pie than I was about showing you how (not) to do it. The photos are sparse.

I poured the filling into the tin and covered over it with the "crust". A little peek...

I rolled out a snake of pie crust and placed it along the edge of the tin, then made little pinch marks with a toothpick. What I failed to show here were the little "vent holes". I cut six of them, then used the remaining Translucent Liquid Sculpey to indicate oozed out filling.

Then I baked it, brushed the edges with brown chalk to give it a fresh baked crust, scraped some more cherry colored chalk into a bit of varnish and coated the top. Not beautiful, but passable in this setting. I obviously need some practice!!!

There are still several things "to do", and the one I hope to tackle this weekend are the bed pillows. I've had this new machine since July and have not even opened it yet! There it sits as if it's purpose was to be a pile holder! The nerve of me! 

Send good thoughts my way for the reawakened adventure into sewing. I'll make sure to practice on some scraps before I get out the good fabric!

And I'll leave you tonight with a beautiful fall shot of Mt. Rainier from the back yard. If October is any indication, I think the snow pack is going to be good this year!

Have a happy weekend, and don't forget to buy candy!

Jodi