Seeking Southwest...

My secret mini project is completed and off in the mail, but I'm still not allowed to talk about it yet. So in the meantime, let's dream a little, shall we?

Many of you who have followed my blog for a couple years know that in 2017, my parents, who were both raised in Montana, and then raised their family in the Pacific Northwest, bought a retirement home in Arizona. As a family, we knew nothing of the desert. But through mom and dad's experiences, and on our visits, we've been learning a lot about what seems like another world entirely! Plants, wildlife, climate... It's all so fascinating!

On our Monday and Friday phone calls, mom describes the animals she sees running through the yard as she sits on her covered back patio. She's traded squirrels for bunnies and crows for a family of quail that makes it their home in the spring every year. She loves watching them grow up, and she's also learned to love the many lizards that flee out of holes as she's watering. She doesn't scream at all anymore! The weird flying bugs and the scorpions (rare because the first service she hired was the pest control)? Not so much! She's got a nice collection of potted cactus going, and I get to see when they're flowering via FaceTime. They've got palm trees and date trees and have only killed two orange trees (so far) due to rookie ignorance! Dad got himself a fishing boat and is enjoying his adventures discovering all the honey spots in the rivers that lead into the lake. I just love hearing about it all, and wish I could spend more time there with them. Especially when it's 75 degrees this time of year with sunny skies!

Looking at homes in the southwest, their construction methods and the logic behind them, has really piqued my interest in that style of architecture. I've been craving a mini project where I could incorporate things like stucco, clay floor tile, vigas (wooden beams used in the traditional adobe architecture of the American Southwest), flat roofs, terra cotta "s" roofing tiles, heavy wooden doors with iron hardware, adobe fireplaces - you get the idea! But in researching the styles, I was shocked to learn that there are many! Spanish Mission, Hacienda, Pueblo, Santa Fe, and Territorial just to hit the highlights! Holy buckets what a gold mine! I love elements from all of them, so how to decide upon one? Lucky for me, this is miniatures! I am free to create whatever I can dream! I don't have to pick just one! I can combine all of my favorite elements and build a house which pays homage to them all!

Hacienda style

Spanish Mission

Pueblo Style

Traditional Santa Fe

Territorial

Now you won't be surprised to learn that there just aren't a whole lot of miniature dollhouse kits out there to work from in this genre. There are a few kits on the market, featuring various SW styles, but all of them are over $200.00!

The Adobe Room & Patio Kit by miniatures.com $229.99

The Adobe Dollhouse from Manhatton Dollhouse $499.00

Ellsworth Dollhouse Kit from Earth & Tree $263.00

Can't afford a kit? It's not a problem - it's an opportunity! Because I am on a budget, and because I enjoy the challenge of making something from something else, I took a look at the kits I have on hand. I was pretty surprised when I looked at my Duracraft Linfield and began to see multiple ways I could bash it into the southwest mini home of my dreams!

I know what you're thinking... "How can a frilly, Victorian dollhouse kit even be a contender for a southwest style house?". Well, let me show you a couple things to convince you!

I know it's hard to imagine now, and I may be creating a nightmare for myself, but challenges are often the best fun! Once I crack open the kit I'll have a better idea of the possibilities. Or the impossibilities! But I do have to try, and I'm awfully excited at the prospect! Working in this genre may just help keep the winter blues (and grays!) away, too!

I hope that you'll join me on this exciting exploration, whenever I get to start on it. I am eager to hear your ideas and I hope you'll help fill in the multiple gaps to my desert home knowledge! This is going to be so much fun with your help!

But first... I really need to stop dreaming up new miniature projects and get my real life house in order!

For those of you in the US - I hope your Thanksgiving celebrations are chock full of things to be grateful for! For those of you elsewhere, my wish is the same. :O)

 Back to work! See you soon!

xo xo,
Jodi

Where Has November Gone?!?

If you like lists, here are a few things that are making November fly by for me:

• Family Room/Kitchen refresh/remodel (still not finished!).
• Secret Miniature Project With A Deadline That I'm Not Allowed To Share Just Yet.
• Football (watched more games than I can justify or want to admit).
• Normal work/life obligations.

And yet it feels as if I don't have a lot to show! Let's start with minis...

I can't reveal much about my secret mini project, but I can show a couple partially revealing photos. I promise, soon I can spill the beans!

Oh - And I made a little Snake Plant Tutorial as I made up these plants.

Family Room/Kitchen refresh/remodel (still not finished!). In spite of the kitchen painting being done, it's still chaos in there! You can see though that we did go with the sage paint and it looks nice. Thank You all so much for your help in deciding!

The family room is getting used regularly, even though it still isn't quite finished, either. I need to paint and recover that chair and it's twin. I bought them in an auction in 2004. They've seen three homes and a lot of butts!

Eating At the the counter while watching football has been great!

I started refinishing the hutch that my grandma left me when she passed. By refinishing I mean spraying with chalk paint. I have 1-1/2 cans left to go, then the aging and finish. I can't decide on decoupaging the sides or not, so I am allowing myself time to ponder while we work on higher priorities. It's hard to see the true color in our Northwest gloom, but it's Rustoleum Serenity Blue. Can photo below. I hope to eventually fill the upper glass portion with mini scenes or an apartment like layout inside.

Russ started on the wood floor installation over the weekend. Unfortunately, the air nailer freaked the dogs out so badly we had to stop. Georgia has a seizure disorder already and startling noises are a trigger. Woodson is a rescue from a pretty terrible puppy mill and still has PTSD. Rusty is just the sweetest and most timid soul on the planet. Ande, our grown up son (bless his heart), is going to come take them all to the dog park this weekend so we can finish without traumatizing them! But the good news is that the new super discounted floors are a pretty close match to the original floors!

My sweet little boy, Woodson. Petting him is like feeling crushed velvet! 💗

So, still lots to do as November ticks by! Luckily, my amazing daughter Natasha, who is a fantastic cook, is hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her place this year! There will be 16 of us, but she has that kind of excitement about hosting the holidays that we all did when we were young! Bless her heart, too!

Back soon,
xo xo,
Jodi

Now, Where Was I?

I'm still not sure where I was, but I can tell you where I'm at now... In total chaos! Nothing is finished, my house is a wreck and I have no business sitting down to write a post (or to even have worked on mini projects a little today). But honestly, I really needed a break from real life renos! Let me catch you up...


My last progress post I told you that Russ was in the mood to make a few improvements to our family room. This is what it has looked like for the most part over the last nearly 12 years:

Emptied and ready to change the paint color.

Russ gets to roll the ceilings because he's taller than me. I get to do the cutting in.
Notice how there is a new pony wall separating the family room from the kitchen. Now we'll have room at the new counter for four more to eat when family gathers here. There is also a gate to keep the puppies out unless we want them in.

Ceiling painted and walls primed. Part of the flooring had to be removed and then reinstalled.

The builders used a paint color on all of the walls and ceilings that I like to call Dead Skin. This ceiling was the last of that color in the house. Notice how much lighter real ceiling paint makes the room. And the soft sage-y green helps a lot, too!

What a mess! And the puppy you see is our son Ande's. Her name is Thug Rose, after the MMA fighter. Despite her name, she is a sweetheart and likes to come hang out at grandma's house with the other puppies - even in chaos!

We never liked the recess above the fireplace, and it was too high for the TV anyway. Russ closed it up and it looks much nicer. The new countertop on the pony wall will come in handy. The new wood flooring is supposed to arrive tomorrow, then needs to acclimate for a week before we can install it. So our chaos will go on for a while...

And of course, since the kitchen is technically connected to the family room, it was time for it to be painted, too. Here is what the kitchen has looked like since our first year here:

The problem is, I can't pick the color!!! No matter what, I have to make a decision by Friday, and have the rest of the room emptied out. I am leaning toward the peachy one on the left. It's called Chai Latte, which I love to drink!

Meanwhile, I just really needed a mini session. So in the midst of all the chaos and endless To-Do's, I played for a while today. I printed some fabric for the chairs in each of the roomboxes...

I used some strange looking plastic foliage from my drawer to make a couple planters for the atrium windows. They look a little like a Joshua Tree, and with a little paint and texture on the trunk, then some chalk on the leaves, they look pretty good.

I used some grapevine and some twigs from a huckleberry bush as the branches for cloud bonsai.

Secured in the pot with hot glue...

Then Tacky glue and a layer of Paperclay...

Then another layer of Tacky Glue...

Then a topping of railroad gravel...

Let set, and then the pots are ready for some clump foliage...

xxx

Apply a generous amount of Quick Grab Tacky Glue to the end of the branch, then form the clump foliage around it and hold until set.

They will look like the gardener has been slacking, but once they are fully dry and set to the branch...

You can trim and shape with small scissors. To set them, Scenic Cement works, but is kind of messy to apply. I prefer cheap super hold hairspray. A few light coats works well.

Now, I am afraid my play time is over for a bit. :O(
I must go back to work on the real life demands. I hope to be back before too long with more mini progress, and to let you know if Chai Latte made the final cut.

xo xo,
Jodi


xxx