Close But No Cigar...

Hi Everybody! Is anyone else as shocked as me that it is JULY ALREADY??? Time has begun to feel as though it is at warp speed! Anyhoo - let's just talk about things we can control. Kind of...

I didn't meet my goal for the week with the amount of things I got finished on the cottage. I spent a lot of my mini time on décor selection and arrangement, flower making, floral arranging, rug making and creating baskets that, in the end, were too big and I can't use. 🙄 

Ah, well. I enjoyed every mini moment! Though I do want to see this cottage completed very much, when I do finish, I will probably be a little sad. 

Her majesty, Camellia

Luckily, I had flower/plant kits on hand which included roses, tulips, daisies, eucalyptus and ivy. It took me a couple of my days just to make all the stems. Then, I still had to put them into vases/pots. I used paperclay in the glazed pink vase and UV resin in the glass vases to secure the stems.

I placed the pots/vases in various spots in the living and dining rooms. I also placed many minis that I have saved for the cottage for a long time. It is so great to see them finally displayed!

Deciding what would be displayed on the mantle and on the shelves took me a long time and several auditions. I guess having so many amazing minis to choose from is a great problem to have! There are things from Veronique Cornish, Ina Williams, Kay Lewis, Janice Crawley, Valerie Casson, Philip Grenyer, Megan Schetsche, and transferred to me in stewardship from Keli Minnick's Charlene collection. If you are a blogger OG, you may remember Keli's I See Cerulean blog and the story of Charlene. Because the blog has been retired, I can only share the lovely minis that were entrusted to me. It is a good reminder to all of us to think about who we are going to entrust with our treasured and special minis when we pass on.

Some of you may remember Camellia, Rose's gorgeous companion. She was created by Julie Perrott and I have often been asked if photos of her are actually photos of a real cat. She is stunning! It is so wonderful to see her lounging again in her favorite spot on the window seat. From this vantage point, she can nap in sunlight and keep an eye on the front door. Rose's visitors often bring treats to her majesty. 

You might have noticed the empty cubbies in the photo above just under the window seat. I was supposed to make and finish the baskets this week, and I did! I just made them 1/4" too tall!!! 🙄

Just goes to show you... measure three time when Mercury is in retrograde!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I'll be working on attempt #2 once I get dinner in the oven.

Just a wee bit too tall.

The final thing I did manage to accomplish this week were the area rugs. I normally print them on fabric that you can run through your inkjet printer, but my usual brand has become so, so thin over the years and hard to find in stock. There is a thicker one by a different manufacturer, but it is very cost prohibitive. I had some inkjet printable canvas leftover from when I made Lex's roombox so I thought I would give that a try. I LOVE IT! Looks like a rug, looks thicker on the floor, has much more intense color and it stays in place very well with museum wax.

I'd like to experiment printing on the other, more textured side in the future. I imagine you'd want to increase the ink saturation, but it looks like it would be an even more realistic looking end result.

So that is all, my friends! I won't be celebrating with a stogie, but I enjoyed every second that I got to make progress. Maybe the coming week will be more productive!

Happy 4th to my American buddies, and best wishes for finding mini time to the rest of you! Man, it is so great to have a hobby you love!!!

xo xo,

Jodi

Any Creativity Will Do

Hi Guys! I'm back for another post with a little bit of progress on a lot of different creative tasks. We'll start with the Lawbre Potting Shed and Greenhouse kit because this is a miniatures blog, after all, and it is the only miniature project that I've worked on this week. The other creative things I'll share are real life reno updates. They are keeping me from making more progress on the greenhouse, but any kind of creativity seems to keep my happy meter in the good zone. 

You can see from the photo above that the roof part of the greenhouse is just about completed. Getting here has been a challenge and I am disappointed to tell you that I did not get in progress photos. Not to worry!!! I will be building the greenhouse only kit from my stash soon. I'll take progress photos all the way through and will choose a lighter color so that it is easier to see than the black painted version. 

I have yet to add the glass in the gable end because real life progress was higher in the priority queue. More on that later...

You may have noticed that the greenhouse is sitting on it's landscape board. I did manage to get that cut, glued, nailed and painted before my priorities changed. The next chance I get, I plan to create a nice little path and flower beds all the way around.

1/2" plywood cut to 17" x 22". Trim is Home Depot Rondelet trim. 

Glued and taped

Close up of mitered corners

Nailed and dried

Now for some family room updates... You may remember last summer I shared that I was making a lot of inexpensive art to create a gallery wall in the family room. The theme was nature, and I wanted to experience as many different art forms as I could or thought I could do successfully. That included acrylic pours over hot glue flowers, collage, stencils and texture paste, painting, watercolor pencils, acrylic painting, tissue paper painting, sculpture, textures, folk art, sign making, paper art, paper clay, UV resin and mica power art. I made over 60 pieces and I had a ball! The best part was that with careful budgeting and recycling, I kept the entire project under $400.00! 

As you can imagine, hanging that much art can be challenging. I started cataloging the frame sizes I had on hand even before I began making the art. I made a layout and map so I'd know exactly where each piece would hang. The really neat thing is that I made it to scale, 1" = 1 foot so that as we were hanging I knew exactly how far each piece would hang from the last piece, the ceiling or the floor. It went amazingly and we had it completed in just two afternoons!

We also got the flooring installed and it went lightning fast! The boards were nine inches wide, and three boards fit perfectly across each row so cutting was minimal. Hooray!

Once the flooring was completed we needed to do the baseboards and create the faux beam separating the family room from the entry hall. They needed to be sanded, stained and sealed to make it ready for Russ to install. It is stinky work, but so worth the effort! They should be installed this weekend.

 Just look at those gorgeous tongue and groove ceiling boards! Sanding, whitewashing and sealing ninety of them was a marathon, believe me! But now we get to enjoy them forever!

We should have the room completed in the next couple weekends, including blinds and window coverings. Unfortunately, I have to wait until July to order my new sofa. We can't buy anything new until the new kitchen and laundry room appliances are paid off in June. 

I have some fun things to finish making for the shelves on either side of the fireplace. I have been able to work on those as I have blocks of time. My shelf will be the left one and Russ' the right. He loves Star Wars Legos and has an RC car hobby so that is what he'll display. Mine will be a combination of mini roomboxes, nature items I love and my Nintendo Switch stuff. 

For Russ' shelves, I made him a "Dad" word plaque done in Star Wars style panels using heavy cardstock shapes I created and cut with the Cricut Maker. Sometime soon I'd like to make him a diorama to display all of his droids. Just a simple and quick project, right?

Affixing Star Wars type elements

Painted navy gray

Added various metallic paints to elements

Layers of grungy washes to portray the used and cobbled
 together equipment of the Rebel Alliance

My shelf letters are coming along. They won't be as detailed as Russ', but I am more comfortable blending with the wallpaper. 😊

As you can see, my week wasn't eaten up with minis, but as long as there is creativity of some kind, I am happy! I sure am anxious to plant some mini flowers, though!!!

Have a happy, creative week, my friends!

xo xo,

Jodi

Step Into My Parlor...

Hi Guys! I am so happy to post today and share with you the final room in Roz's trunkhouse... The Parlor! At just 9-1/4" in circumference, it's a bit on the cozy side, but by using almost all the available space, Roz should have all she needs to warm up, relax, read and provide her Wish Granting services to the forest community!

Roz loves books and loves to send her favorites home with clients to read. You see, in addition to offering Wish Granting services, Roz is also a bit of a Life Coach. She wants to educate her clients about how to not only Wish for their Dreams, but to Work toward them, as well! To suit her need for lots of self-help books, I've created two bookshelves and built them to contour the room's curved walls. They are comprised of Sonotube backs, chipboard inner curved shelving, then nice, stainable wood for the top, bottom and shelf front trim. The tops and bottoms were trimmed after assembly so they could be scribed perfectly to the curved walls.

I needed to make lots of books for Roz but only had to provide the covers and wood dummies with gold edging. Her magic will make them real in her world.

I also provided various paper plants to give life to the room. Her magic will take care of the "alive" part, too.

Lucky for me Birgit sent some really neat décor items and parts to make more pieces in her Christmas packages over the years! Including the neat Moonflower Miniatures Palm kit shown above! She included this gift in her package with Roz and Rozario. I just knew it had to go in the parlor. You can see below that I was able to make two palm plants from one kit! They were so much fun to make! Thanks Birgit! Goldie and Alice will get to have one in the treehouse, too!

Here's the first shelf loaded up. Birgit sent the adorable froggy, the wooden heart (I painted it purple then applied a coat of UV resin to make it shiny), the wooden bead and metal bead cap, acorn cap bowl painted gold inside, the succulent (which I removed from a coffee cup and put into a clay pot)  and the adorable glass bead made into a jar. The rest of the stuff came from my rapidly dwindling supply of mini accessories. I was happy that Birgit's wonderful gifts finally had a proper home!

The second shelf looks similar with just a few different décor pieces. Some things, like the turned vase and geode, were survivors of the old dismantled Bigfoot gift shop.

The philodendron plant is made from leaf sheets sold by Mary Kinloch. I used varying shades of alcohol ink to color the leaves. I had a great time making it because it brought back nostalgic memories from when I was a kid in the 70's. They were a really popular plant to grow back then and every home seemed to have one. Kind of like pet rocks. They are a vining plant so you'll often see them with moss covered poles in their pots to climb on. Mary's instructions give great detail!

Funny story abut the "R's"... You may see a few visible dents in them, even after I sanded them, a lot. The dents are from puppy teeth and serve as a good reminder to myself that when I am puppy-sitting my son's dog Rosie, I need to make sure to close my craft drawers, lol! She likes to "help" by bringing me things from my drawers. She doesn't have opposable thumbs to grasp things, so her teeth have to do the carrying job! Unfortunately, they leave marks! She's a good girl... with sharp teeth!😊

I altered a House Of Miniatures Queen Anne Tilt Top Table kit by removing the tilting piece from the assembly. I also shortened the center leg. It is now the perfect coffee table height and makes it easy for Roz to access her Crystal Ball during Wish Granting services. Don't tell anyone, but it doesn't really show Roz a client's future. It's important to Roz to put on a good show, and because the clients believe it's predestined, it actually does help them to leave the session feeling much more confident in their own ability to Reach Their Dreams.

The crystal ball was made from a clear glass globe with a single hole. I squirted alcohol ink inside and rolled it around periodically as it dried. It is adhered with Gem Tack on top of a metal "crown" finding and then adhered on top of two spacer beads that Birgit gave me. I just had to repaint them in purple.

I also made a HOM candle stand kit to use as a side table for an extra lamp. 

With most of the accessories made I could begin to load Roz's parlor. I added 1/2" legs to the fronts of the shelves before gluing them into the trunkhouse. This allowed me to rest the back of the shelves on the 1/2" baseboards. They tuck right under the window sills so my measurements were perfect!. I like the way they flank the parlor stove but don't dominate the room.

And for a homey, warm feeling, and area rug. I am so happy that I did the annoying research and bought a new printer! Seems like I picked a good one, finally! It prints the color I see on my PC screen and I look forward to no more rug printing trouble! Though I still have yet to test it on my velvet paper. I'll let you know how that goes and then share the printer I purchased.

There is even a doormat for Roz in her favorite color!

Before I loaded in the rest of the room's furnishings, I needed to get the lights hooked up. Between the parlor stove, sconces and table lamp, there were six lights for this room. I consolidated the wires for this floor and got them ready for the much bigger job of consolidating the rest of the trunkhouse's wiring. I performed this final wiring test with the actual Evan Designs transformer and am super happy with the amount of light these 12 volt bulbs give off. I can't wait to see the rest of the trunkhouse all lit up!

At long last, I invited Roz in for a look at her parlor. She was so delighted with everything, and that makes it all worthwhile! I have a few more things to load in, like art for the walls, some baskets and a vase of fresh flowers, but I'll let Roz live in the space a few days so she can tell me how things are functioning first.

Roz invited Goldie over right away so that she could help Goldie map out the steps to making her Cookbook Dream Come True. Goldie loved Roz's parlor and asked me. very politely, when I thought maybe her treehouse would be finished. Oh sweet girl, I promise to get moving on the treehouse again just as soon as possible. Gulp!

I Wish there were more hours in every day and that they passed by more slowly! Got any Magic for that, Roz???

xo xo,

Jodi