One-word Wednesday

Bars.

A light for Lorraine's

The first thing I bought at last weekend's ACTME show was from Wendy Benson's 'bits and bobs' box. I have no idea what it was originally (possibly some sort of bottle lid?) but it screamed '1970s nightclub chandelier' to me (and started this song playing in my head).

And for 50 cents, I really couldn't go wrong, could I?

After I got home from work tonight I took a deep breath, remembered what Lorraine from Fairy Meadow Miniatures taught me when she visited, and set my drill to work. And ended up with this:

which I built a scene around, deciding to call it 'Lorraine's Night Club' in her honour.

It makes me want to return to my 1980s clubbing days...

Because sometimes procrastination can be a positive thing!

In the time since I've been wrestling with making the changes I want to make to the Smaland dolls' house that Lundby Australia had sent me, the lovely people at Lundby updated the design of the house, making what I wanted to do with it a much easier proposition.

First up is the new remote control, which gives you the ability to have the lights on in one room at a time: perfect for this build, as I can have lights on in the upstairs bar/ music venue but off in the downstairs cafe (which is only open during the day).

Lundby have produced a clever stop-motion animation showing how it works:

The other change that works for my build is their decision to make the kitchen/ dining area open plan, which means I don't have to deal with channels in the floor and wall and can, in fact, use the floor that comes with the house as it is, if I want to...

I decided that all this was a sign to stop procrastinating, and do some work on the hack.

Remember when I mentioned that I tell myself if I mess something up, it'll be a good story for the blog?

After checking the Lundby site for the wallpaper templates and finding them not there any more, I decided it would be a good idea to cut the new wallpaper to size before applying it. Bad, bad idea. Can you see?

Luckily I had enough of the paper to try another approach: applying and then cutting (my big Xyron sticker machine came out for the job).

Perfect!

Next step was the flooring. I had assumed that the bedroom carpet was a single piece of fabric. Silly me. It's lots of fluff, glued on:

(I'll get back to that later, as I'd run out of the time I'd put aside to work on the hack).

So far so good, even if it's all a bit temporary for now.

I was pleased to find that the copper spray paint I bought for the Hideout build, and used to paint one of my stag heads, went well with the paper I'd chosen. I think I'll be using that on a few things before this build is done...

My next issue is dealing with wallpapering the window wall. I'll check the Lundby site again in a day or so to see if the templates have mysteriously returned and if not, I might have a poke around to see how difficult it is to remove the windows from a modern Lundby. *gulp*

I also need to decide on papers and flooring for the music venue entry area and get them installed...

Slowly but surely, I'm making progress!

An evening celebration

Saturday evening. When I believe most normal people are out and about being sociable.

I'm at home, getting excited about the idea of seeing my newly-finished build in the dark.And making up a scene where two friends meet for a drink to celebrate one of their birthdays.

This looks like a nice place to stop for a drink...

(Although a little quiet, but the night is still early.)

 What A FABULOUS gift! You have such good taste and know me so well...

 (A gift from Kikka N last year: I wasn't sure if it was a Shapeways piece, or even 3D printed so didn't include it in my contest entry)

Pinky Promise

Pinky Promise is a pop up 'bar for besties', situated in the same complex as Limited. 

The owner was keen to create a space where females felt welcome and safe, whether they were out for a drink with friend(s) or by themselves.

The background: Yesterday a friend facebooked a photo of Canberra's first laneway cafe while she was there for breakfast. And my lunchtime trip to Typo was with a colleague who has completely different taste to mine: all pink and sparkles and bling. 

The bits:  In last week's Typo hauls, I bagged a couple of pink, heart-shaped alarm clocks to pull the bells off, and some pink striped scrapbooking paper. At first I was just thinking of challenging myself to use a colour I don't much like or use in miniature.

And then I spotted the broken crate I also picked up last week:

The phrase 'pinky promise' popped into my head, and I was off...

 Turning the crate on its side gave me a narrow (18 cm wide) space, with good height for hanging the lights (plus a convenient hole to hang them from) and a complete back wall which I could use as is

I hung the paper on the side walls to hide the fact there was a split in the sides of the crate and used some contact paper I've had forever on the floor to give the space a bit of grunge to match the distressed back wall and ceiling. The bar branding is shamelessly swiped off a Google images search.

The big picture:

Small souvenirs (and sad about scale)

 While in Wellington I picked up these two fridge magnets from a shop in Cuba Street called Abstract Designs (they do lots of interesting laser-cut designs and I always pop in to see what they have that I could use for miniatures.)

I knew they'd go really well with some wrapping paper I bought ages ago from Pepe's Paperie and this afternoon, after clearing a corner of my worktable of stuff dumped there before the ACTME show, I threw up a trial scene:

(The table and pouffes in the foreground are show stock, supposedly hitting etsy sometime in the near future. Which could possibly be defined as 'after the May show')

And the tabletop at the back? From a set of coasters I picked up at an op shop some months back (which I thought would be perfect for a bar scene, if ever I did one), sitting on a free sample from the perspex people.

 And while we're on the subject of Abstract Designs, they had the most amazing modern table and chair set for sale. Alas, at a scale we suspect was plucked out of thin air.

I didn't buy them but begged the woman in the shop to get them scaled down so I could. And here's a photo of a set bought by a mini friend in Wellington with us lamenting (over lunch) at the lack of them in 1/12th scale:

Out of practice

I thought today would be a good day to dip my toe back into the mini water.

Alas I hadn't realised how out of practice I've become. :-(

(The details:
Flooring: back of a vintage scrabble board. Wall: paiinted placemat.
Table: AG Minis sofa on its side. Chairs: from a set of plastic shot glasses I picked up at an op shop for $1. Lamp: AG Minis (upside down). Star garland: made from black cotton and silver stickers. Modern 'Christmas tree': top of a L'eau D'issey perfume bottle. Tray: Rement paint box lid. Jug, glasses and metal bowl: various shows)