Back Home and Back At It!

The past several weeks have been full of activity and life has been in full swing! The crazy period of my job won't start again until the fall. The Graduation for my nephew, the memorial for my husband's beloved uncle, and wonderful reconnecting with family time was just what my soul needed! After 3 states and 10 days of travel, it's good to be home and to be starting to enjoy the Lazy Days of Summer!

Before taking the hiatus from my mini world, I'd been thinking I'd like to learn to solder. I have some little rooster plates for the barn kitchen, and I thought it would be great to make a plate rack to display them on. I ordered the supplies from Amazon and there they sat on my work table just waiting to be utilized.

I have a couple real life plate racks in my dining room, so I took measurements from them and attempted to recreate them in miniature.

I have some 1" and 3/4" plates to practice with. For the 1" plates I'll attempt a 2 plate rack, and for the 3/4" plates I'll attempt one with 3.

I've watched plenty of YouTube videos and read a bunch of articles so I think I understand the science of soldering. Now, I just have to come up with my own technique. The copper wire I'm using is soft and pliable, so I am able to twist and bend it. Once I get the soldering technique figured out, I'll be able to get really creative!

You really need 3 or 4 hands: one to hold the soldering iron, one to feed the rosin flux into the metal seams, 1 to hold piece A, and 1 to hold piece B. I have a handy "third hand" sort of thing, but I needed something to hold piece B while I soldered them together. My wonderful husband came up with another alligator clip and that's where I am now.

I'll update the post if/when I get somewhere with it. Wish me luck!

***UPDATE***

Got the copper racks all soldered. Went pretty easy except for holding the pieces in place while soldering. The alligator clip was a little rough on the copper due to it's teeth, and because of the length it was hard to clip the pieces together and still have room to work. I've found some solutions on Amazon, such as cross locking tweezers and locking forceps. They were only around $4.00 with prime shipping, so I'll probably get them.

I sprayed the racks in flat black and they came out pretty good. Definitely not perfect, but I'll just call them "whimsical". I fell asleep last night redesigning them in my head. They say dreaming is the best way to come up with solutions to your problems, so we'll see how the next batch turns out.

I had some miniature laser cut paper doilies so I decided to add a little texture to the plates rather than just painting them. I painted the doilies a shade or two lighter so the detail would show better. I coated them afterwords with Mod Podge spray gloss.















The finished racks are pretty cute, and I think I'll make several more until I feel confident in making the special one for the barn kitchen's rooster plates. Maybe I can sell the practice ones on eBay. I can always use more "mini money"!

Fairewell for a while...

Well, it's that time again where my job will be going full tilt mode for several weeks. Then, right after that, we'll be taking the family down to California and Nevada  for a memorial service and a graduation. Great times to come, but no time for minis!

I'm about 3/4 pregnant on a lot of little projects, and there's a long list of other things I have to do before I can complete any of them. Most importantly, doing a dry fit of the RGT Barn kit before I go any further. That will have to wait until after June 21st at least.

For now, here's what I have finished or nearly finished:

I have the open kitchen cabinets filled up, and am almost happy with the layout and accessories on the top. Some flowers, and maybe some finished canning jars with fruit in them will most likely do.

The spice rack is nearly complete. I need to make an apron for the bottom hook on the side, and then attach the pot rack to the bottom skirt. The pot rack needs me to affix the measuring spoons and utensil.

There is a lot to do to this cabinet. I am going to make use of it as a baking station in the kitchen. I have a lot of items still to make for it, but the ideas in my head for it should turn out really cute!

In the meantime, I've been thinking about making the living room furniture. I found a treasure web site for making tons of things using mostly foam and mat board. I spent Sunday making the little chair. It still needs some boxing around the back cushion, some piping, and an adorable throw pillow to be complete. Not bad for a first try, tho! Thank you so much Kris from One Inch Minis for posting all the instructions! They are excellent!

I might post a thing or two if I have a spare minute, otherwise - I'll be back at the end of June!

Motherhood - The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

I've always said that babies are a gift. Very special gifts that are entrusted to you for a short time. The hope is that you will teach them all of the things they need to know, most importantly how to love. And then, once they are all grown up, and if you've done a good job, they become gifts to the entire world.

I've had the privilege to fall head over heels in love three times in my life. First, with the amazing person that I am still married to for 28 years. Then, with each of my babies, Natasha and Ande. I literally fell madly in love with each of them. I treasure the memories we share, and they will always be the best parts of my life. The great thing is that your babies fall in love with you, too. Every mom is the hero to every child, for a little while.

Then nature makes sure your little birds want to leave the nest - somewhere around 12 years of age. Then, you spend the next few years wondering why your kids are falling out of love with you. They don't want to spend all their time with you. They are embarrassed by you. They argue with you to get their way when you still know what's best. Suddenly, the little person that you couldn't get enough of, makes you want to help them pack their bags! That's the hard part of parenting.

Then, one beautiful day, you are the mother of grown up children. People that you are so proud of. People you'd choose as friends, even if they weren't your children. That is a gift that you get to enjoy, and get to see others enjoy, and that is all the Mother's Day gift I'll even need.

But these are my awesome kids after all, so in addition to being the best people I know, my talented son Ande makes me steak and kabobs for dinner. My amazing daughter Natasha gives me a very generous gift certificate for miniatures. And then comes over with Starbucks and an adorable purse on a day she has to work!

My kids are amazing, and when they tell me that I'm amazing, well, that's all I ever need to know!

I love you both so much! Thanks for being the little gifts that keep on giving!