One word Wednesday

Thoughts?

I dub today #tryingTuesday...

... not just because I realised I didn't have a clear idea of the room I was building, so spent some time over lunch playing with options and feeling no closer, but also because Instagram refused to post my post documenting the options and is holding the photos hostage until it does, and because while I was retaking the photos of the options to blog them, I knocked the temporary set up and it fell apart 🙄

Now that I have the hero shot for thumbnails, let's have a look at the loose options I came up with so far: your suggestions are most welcome!

Option 1:

Here I was trying to leave the dresser set up how it was in Saturday's photo, against (what will be) a white wood-paneled wall, and was trying to fit the other objects I thought I'd use roughly where they'd go, in a way that made sense, especially as I wanted to include a 'picture wall' above the desk (you'll see this follow the desk around in every option).

I'm using a false window which means it can be easily moved as needed, and suspect I'm pushing things trying to include the round marble tables from Kmart that I blogged about last week, but they're new and I want to play with them.

In this option I feel I'm sailing perilously close to the whole 'chair next to something' approach I was trying to avoid, and feel that the desk is somewhat hemmed in (which would be fine if I decided that who lives here is a young person with little room to spare).

Option 2:

I moved the dresser (because it's my scene and I can. Or can pretend that Saturday's shelfie just missed the fact that the dresser was so close to the wall!), and swung both the bed and desk around. The reading chair and marble tables are obviously somewhere outside of the photograph's reach.

It still fits within the bounds of realism based on Saturday's photo, but does it work?

Option 3:

This feels like it might work, but alas, we've lost the marble-look side tables. I'd love to add another window above the desk but I still have my heart set on that picture wall there.

(It was about now that I realised that I probably should have factored in a bookcase right from the beginning).

Option 4:

I moved the rocking chair to be at the end of the bed, nearer to the desk, meaning that the room is more clearly split into work zone and rest zone.

Option 5:

The final change was swapping out the wicker rocking chair with a sofa that I picked up very cheaply years ago. Then I grabbed some lunch and logged back in to work for the afternoon.

But I spent the afternoon wondering: is this a bedroom at all? Was I mislead by the dresser? Is it, in fact, a lounge, or perhaps even a studio? If it is a bedroom, would the bed be better approached as a day bed?

Perhaps I need to take a step back and contemplate who lives here?

Things didn't quite go according to plan (but that's OK)

The good news is that I went to make the extra vintage books I thought I needed yesterday, and realised I had quite enough to work with already:

This is also good news because my printer has just started telling me that it's hungry for new ink: and when I went to check that it was in stock at my local Officeworks I just about had a heart attack when I saw how much it's gone up since I last bought ink, and it will probably take me several days to catch my breath on that.

The not-so-good news is that when I went to find the fabric that I'd been planning to use for the bedroom in the shabby chic apartment (don't even think of asking how many years ago that Idea started!) thinking that it would be a quick and easy solution here, I realised I had no idea where it had gone to (last spotted back in 2015 when it was still on the test bed I was using for the writers' retreat).

And when I went to the fabric stash to look for it, realised in horror just what a mess that part of the cupboard was in, and backed away slowly (but not before spotting and grabbing some lace pieces, including the originally-planned bedspread).

The good news is that I decided not to submit you to seeing a photo of the stash, and I now know I have to put some time aside to sort through the fabric storage boxes and decide what I'm going to use, and what would be better living elsewhere.

I cut the ferny bits off the fake plant length, which looks like it should work well (but didn't take a photo because I lost the light, and I figured you could just look at the picture of it in yesterday's post and imagine it looking slightly more naked.

 And I had a crack at matching up frames from stash with pictures in stash, which, as you may imagine, didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped, but I've left them out on the worktable to consider over the next day or so.

At which point I decided I was tired and if I kept pushing the issue I might be tempted to just run away, leaving the makings of a scene on my worktable to end up covered with other things and me disinclined to return to the studio anytime soon.

The good news: I've made progress. I've discovered my next big sort-out project. I have a bedspread and a plant about ready to go. And am being sensible and not pushing my limits. Tomorrow is another day.

Sunday fun day: Looks like I need to make some more books day

It's been a very hot, and therefore slow, day today, but I've discovered that sitting next to the open window in the studio does provide a fairly consistent cool breeze to keep me from melting completely.

I pulled the duct tape off my Daiso Eames chair, and gave it a blast of (pink!) spray paint, thinking that the Modern dresser from The Tiny Timber Co. that I'd used for yesterday's shelfie would work well with it.

Then an email from Pinterest suggested I might be interested in some free vintage book spines and book covers, and suddenly I was thinking of a modern twist on the cottagecore trend, and pulling out my stash of scrapbooking paper to see what would work.

(And also hunting through my newly-sorted picture stash for more pictures to frame and add to the scene).

At first I was thinking this could be a hallway (and easy scene to make) but I know I feel like my fallback option when I'm not sure, or feeling lazy is a dresser or sideboard or something with a chair next to it, so decided to challenge myself a bit more (while keeping the fallback option up my sleeve just in case).

I stole the bed and table from the writers' retreat furniture stash, (for those of you who remember it, the build is still sitting down in the workshop in the same state it was when I moved it here, and which at some stage I'll need to decide if I'll ever finish it or if it's one of those things that I'll need to decide I have no room for if I do, and pass along to someone else to finish or repurpose), and am contemplating if the Kmart marble-look tables would work here.

I'm leaning towards a ditsy pink wallpaper for the wall that's not paneled (although think the giant gingham would be fun), and using a page I cut out of a magazine years ago as a quick and easy inspiration wall above the desk.

I'm very tempted to see if I have the patience to try and make that wall seem like the room is tucked into an attic of a house, but suspect it'll be a bit much at the moment (and it reminds me that, when I have the capacity and finances, I had a plan to look into talking to someone about designing and laser cutting a set of modular wall pieces that I can slot together depending on the scene I'm wanting to build ).

Hopefully I get to use the wool that came in the 2016 NZAME convention goodie bag, and I'm thinking that the vine I tucked away last month from the kitchen kit might, with a trim, work as a trailing plant.

Which means I already have a list for tomorrow's Make, do and mend Monday:

1. Make vintage book/s.

2.Sort through the pictures I think might work and find frames to fit them, and vice versa.

3. Trim trailing plant and see if it works as intended.

4. Find or make bedding.

5. (Stretch goal) Since today is my 18th blogiversary: see if I can find anything from the first few blog posts that I could use as easter eggs in the scene.

For the love of minis

After a January cleaning up and clearing the studio I'm thinking a different approach is in order for February, because if I keep going with this approach it'll just seem like another task that I need to get done.

Perhaps #fortheloveofminis (unless anyone knows of a February mini challenge that I've overlooked)? 

Today's shelfie had that in mind, and started with a wooden Typo heart and a Playmobil oil can that I'd spraypainted pink ages ago.

Not my usual style, but, oddly,  I'm feeling the need to expand the scene to show some of the rest of the room (whatever that is...)

The same thought means that I'm planning to give miniature club another crack: after a further 4.5 years' absence. I'm feeling quite nervous: wish me luck!

Finish it off Friday framing (with a side of frustration)

Next off the pile of half-finished projects awaiting my attention are a couple of pictures I started putting together back in December 2021 from a piece of scrapbooking paper, with the intent of making a(nother) holiday house scene.

I got as far as whitewashing them and then they got tucked away.

As I laid them out today I was puzzled by 2 things: why were there extra pieces, and where on earth were the 2 side pieces that were missing?

Both puzzles were solved when I went in search of the post where I started working on them: the reason for the extra framing was because I originally planned to also frame a second set of the prints:

And I think I cannibalised the missing bits of whitewashed frame to make the mounts for the heart pieces here:

I guess I need to head back down to the workshop and do another round of whitewashing because I doubt very much that I can manage to match the new whitewash colour with the existing pieces.

(Sort of) Throwback Thursday: I'll try to include a miniature

 I think I'm about to buy a new (to me) scooter.

It's Nico's fault.

He does that, and I'd forgotten in the 14 years I was without a scooter that he does.

You see, his customers are like Hermit crabs (well, apart from the fragile exoskeletons. The pincers. The shells. And lack of scooters. OK: perhaps this analogy isn't standing up as well as I first thought!)

Let me explain.

You may remember back after The Storm That Killed Miss Daisy, that I bought a scooter to replace her.

It was odd being back on 2 wheels after 14 years in a car, and I've always felt embarrassed as I never considered new-to-me-scooter Jasper a 'real' scooter, but rather a plastic toy that sounded like a sewing machine.

But he (Jasper) was an excellent financial choice at a time when I wasn't sure that Miss Daisy had been written off, and he was a Vespa: just not what I considered a 'real' Vespa.

Don't get me wrong: Jasper has served his purpose. It's only me, as a hardened PX owner that is feeling the difference between my ET4 twist and go and what I consider a 'real' (metal, geared) Vespa.

(Still looking for a picture!)

Jasper was booked in for a service today, and while I was there, Nico asked why I wasn't going to the scoot meet ups now I had a scoot, and I explained my whole 'real'/not 'real' dilemma.

And it would seem that he has a solution. Which would mean me buying a PX from another customer of his and letting Jasper go to live with someone else.

(And now, finally, there's a picture of a miniature scooter: except it's a Lambretta, and reminds me that I really should return to working on the Two-tone dance party scene.)

With knobs on

 While scuttling through Kmart the other day in search of something else I spotted what looked like the perfect 1/12-scale marble side tables in the DIY section.

Alas it would seem that my brain was either one step ahead of me or one step behind me because I didn't think to stop and consider how they might attach to the wall (or why the base of the packaging was so deep) until after I'd bought them and arrived home. Opened the box. And found this:

After a bit of wiggling and jiggling with some pliers (and then some wiggling and jiggling with them to try and remove the screw! 😜) I gave up and decided to contact a friendly neighbour who sells lovely expensive power tools for a living and is happy to show them off (and his skills with them) if I ask nicely and he has the time, figuring that my worst-case scenario was that I'd need to scoot back to Kmart to return them as a bad idea.

Last night lovely friendly neighbour came over, did some wiggling and jiggling with (bigger) pliers to try and remove the screw, snorted (kindly) at the size and power of the tools in my tool trolley, then wandered off and returned with his angle grinder.

And so it was that I finished the evening with 4 new marble side tables for a whopping $3.50 each, and a renewed appreciation of good neighbours.

(Because I'm still waiting for other neighbour, or the police, to turn up and sort out her accusation of me stealing her delivery).

Make, do and mend Monday: Big C, little c, what begins with C?

 As I pulled out contenders (geddit?) for today's Make, do and mend Monday I realised that there was an unexpected theme.

Because first out of the pile (mainly because they were taking up a bit of room and I knew they should be an easy fix) were a set of chairs that I picked up at a Canberra mini show: one of 2 sets (the others I shortened and used back in 2017 in the Bluebird cafe).

I've been planning to shorten their legs and spray paint them black (surprise surprise) for a bit of a Charles Rennie MacIntosh look, and it will be nice to have them done.

Next was a Dolls House Emporium black ghost chair with arms and one leg broken off

(and last seen on the blog late 2016).

In a container next to that was my coffee machine, with one missing knob: another easy fix that's taken far too long to get my attention, and may well have been broken while the Kaleidoscope House was being exhibited, either in 2008/9, or in 2021/22.

And it was about now that I realised the theme that had developed, so threw in some cans waiting for labels

(although I wondered if this was a good idea because what happens if I need a can and I've put labels on all the ones I have already haven? (Answer? I'll rip a label off, or order some new blanks!)), and a cheeseboard kit given to me at the 2015 AMEA convention:

Alas, plans to get stuck into them came to a screaming halt when a situation arose with a neighbour and their missing package, so I'm hoping to get back on track with plans for these tomorrow lunchtime as I have no concentration for anything more to do than blog while I wait for the police to arrive.

So that rounds things off nicely: C for cops.

Sunday fun day: playing swapsies

Remember last weekend when I bought my first 2 Miniverse Lifestyle balls, and was disappointed that they contained a candle and a fishbowl?

During the week I did some research on the secondary market, joined a Facebook buy, sell and swap group (and learnt the names of the items I had, and, more importantly, the items I wanted) and this afternoon my work bore fruit, as someone the next suburb over from me listed the Blue Tan fish and bowl as something they were after, and the barrel cactus as something they had spare.

Now I need to do some more research to discover if that sort of cactus grown to that size proportionally in real life: if not I think I'll be able to use the stand and basket and 'potting mix' to 'plant' something else.

And based on this experience, I'm more likely to buy a couple more balls when Kmart gets them back in stock because the chances of being able to swap them if they're not what I want seems to be quite high.

I spent Saturday sorting out the stash

 Continuing on from yesterday's effort with the paper stash, today I got stuck into the rest of the contents of the drawers on my work desk: all paper stash, sorted into various sub categories including books, magazines, movie posters, plate designs, tiles and pictures in various sizes from super big to teeny tiny.

I finished the day with one fewer set of drawers up there (down from 3 to 2), a lot of recycling, a studio floor that looks like this:

and a rather large feeling of accomplishment, not just because of the culling of the stash but because I have now touched, assessed and dealt with every bit of paper that was in there (plus several art auction catalogues that I'd been given ages ago, and a folder full of more pictures, now integrated into the drawers as well).

One of the treasures I fold was a bright blue envelope marked 'books':

And when I opened it, it brought back memories of how we used to create miniature books in the days before we had the internet, scanners or printers at home.

We'd pin book jackets from our collection to a notice board (or sometimes just blu tack them to a wall) then work out how far from the notice board we needed to stand to get a photo that contained the size book covers we needed, taking a couple of extra photos a step or 2 back and forward from the original spot just to be safe.

Then once the film was complete, we'd take it in for processing, and once we picked up the prints we'd check the measurements, chose the best option and cut the cover out to make the books.

Based on the flat this is, I guess these were taken in the very late 80s or early 90s. How much easier is it these days to create miniature books? A quick google search (or scan), some resizing in Word and bang you're done!

Which meant that once I documented the contents, the whole lot went in the bin.

Finish it off Friday: freestyle

 It's a long weekend here: and today's Australia Day/Invasion Day.

So I decided this morning to dub today's Finish it off Friday 'freestyle', meaning I could do whatever I want as long as something got finished. 

By the time I hit my studio (I needed to have a slow start to the day and a nice brunch before I considered work: toasted bagel with scrambled eggs loaded with cheese, spinach, mushroom and red capsicum, if you're interested) that idea had morphed again into 'as long as it was Australian themed'.

Because the first container I opened from my Finish it off Friday shelf (yes, I now have a whole section in the cubby above my work table for projects needing to be finished) included some stitching that's been languishing since... hmm... just after I arrived in Australia back in 1996.

(There would be a lovely photo of it here, but I've spent the last day fighting to convince Instagram to post, and it would seem that in the process I've lost some pictures I took :-/)

Instead, here's the finished result: 

One Sydney Opera House cushion based on a pattern in Jenny Kee's book Jenny Kee needlepoint: stitched circa 1997-98 (I know this as I pulled the book off my book shelf and it's labeled as hitting the collection in November 1997.)

From there I dived into both my paper and electronic stash, and ended the day with this:

On the left, a stash of Australian magazines, made quickly and easily from paper stash of magazine covers glued to cardboard.

On the right, a collection of 'Sydney Deco Moderne' magazines created from screenshots I shamelessly stole from Barocky Chocky's Instagram feed back in 2021 and finally unearthed from electronic stash:

(Sadly, there appears to be no such magazine in real life...)

And at the bottom, a work in progress (that I suspect is doomed to fail): creating a miniature version of Trevor Dickinson's Greetings from Canberra book with readable pages:

What you're not seeing is the heap of paper hitting the recycling bin: particularly magazine and book covers that I've kept for years that aren't in scale.

I call that a successful day's work.

Stupidly quick for something that was stalled for so long

Four quick bits of gluing and a few folds, and my miniature concertina book kit was completed in record time.

Leaving me wondering: why did past me abandon this kit when so close to finished, and end up making a handful of different books instead?

One word Wednesday

Finally.

Feline hopeful

Over the summer break I started wondering if it was time to consider bringing a cat back into my life.

Not a full-time feline flatmate (I still can't justify the potential expense, or forcing it to spend the rest of its life as an indoor cat sharing my small space), but on a temporary basis.

So I applied to be a foster carer for the local RSPCA. I'm not sure if they'd consider me because, although their information pack says I have to have my own transport 'to get to them in case of an emergency', I rather suspect their intent is that it's a car, so I can take the cat or kitten with me.

This scene is of an imagined version of my bathroom, with more room and no window, and was inspired by a recent trip to Kmart where I spotted their Pet care mini doll playsets (one for dogs and one for cats) marked down to $5 each.

The dog set had the perfect cat carrier as it came, but the cat set had way too much pink for my liking, so after a lunchtime visit to the garage for a spot of spray painting and some other gussying up after the paint had dried (enough!) after work, I had this:

Which I'm rather pleased with. You could say it's the cat's whiskers!

Doing the do*

 For today's Monday make, do and mend I chose do: because yesterday I found myself going through some drawers full of paper which lead to a quiet yet productive afternoon and evening assessing what I had, sorting it by type and spending the time to cut out the bits I want to keep, and creating piles of bits heading to the recycling and other bits (mainly out-of scale scrapbooking pieces picked up as part of a discounted pad), that will be heading to the op shop.

I'd like to keep working on this task this evening while I'm in the mood.

Which, alas, doesn't lead to a very exciting blog post (or picture) for you, but it's giving me a great sense of satisfaction, and another level of studio clearing.

(I fear I've been rather influenced by my recent watching of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning on SBS on Demand, so am taking advantage of this flurry of activity. Long may it last!)

* ...and there's nothing you can do.

Balls!

 While I was in New Zealand last month a friend mentioned the Miniverse balls as something I might be interested in: adding that they were generally more 1/6 scale but many of the items some in a variety of sizes in real life so would work in 1/12.

As I'd already spent my budget for the trip and was running out of time, I decided to look into it further when I returned home.

Except everywhere I tried in Canberra had no stock, and my local Kmart, even though they showed online as having stock, came up with bare shelves when I visited ("Oh, they've probably all been stolen" shrugged the sales associate when I asked after them).

So yesterday when I was doing my occasional trawl through internet to search for them (while contemplating if I could justify a 50km round trip to the next closest Kmart that was showing as having stock, with the very real possibility of getting there and finding that their stock levels were lying too), I was intrigued to find another shop that was showing stock: an easy 12km scoot down the hill into town, with motorcycle parking just across the road.

So I went on a wee quest after work, and found a fresh new box waiting for me:

I'd read somewhere that the front of the ball showed what was in it, so was disappointed to find this not to be the case, and so chose 2 at random, hoping that I'd get a cactus or another of the plant options as I had hatched plans to use my colourful Eames chair in a bright dining room setting and thought one of the cacti would look rather good on the sideboard at the back of the scene.

Back home, I cracked the first one open, which was quite fun with its 3 layers of packaging.

only to find it contained a fishbowl.

Which I'm sure I'll use at some stage, but it was disappointing to spend that amount of money on something I didn't really want (and here's the rub with blind boxes, isn't it? You're almost paying for the joy of anticipation rather than the end result. Like lotto tickets).

But onwards, with fingers crossed!

It was a candle set. Which was slightly better as it had more pieces I could use more readily (possibly because it had more pieces to start with!), and I rather liked the gold daisy-shaped tray and the candle holders. But it was no cactus.

So I decided to consol myself by 'potting' one of the Daiso cactuses I bought in New Zealand (which, yes, I could have done in the first place but I'd rather felt like a Friday-evening adventure and treat).

While I waited for the clay to dry overnight my idea for a scene changed directions slightly as I found more and more cactuses in stash.

(Rats, when I chose the books for their colours, I didn't think of how the title might show in a close up! Also I'm a bit pleased with myself because those white 'rocks' around my cactus (which I'd so liked in the Miniverse versions) are actually course sea salt filched from my salt grinder, and today is Saturday so I accidentally just created this week's Saturday shelfie).

So here's the scene, with our cactus collector getting ready to pot up some succulent leaves to add to her plant collection:

Yep, I think she has everything she needs there:

I'm still yearning for some of the Miniverse Lifestyle designs, especially the cute cat planters and the larger cacti. Am I in a rush to buy some more? Tempting as it is, no, as the money I spent on them (and a few other mini treats I picked up this week) was earmarked as the 10% of the extra I earned while acting in my boss's role for several weeks that I'm allowed to blow on fun treats.

Which means that choosing to buy more will mean that my grocery budget would need to be lower that fortnight (which is doable and has been done previously when I had accidental book orders from The Book Grocer's clearance sales!).

Having said that, I might decide to buy a couple more when Kmart's stock is back on the shelves (or online), as their price is a cup-of-coffee cheaper that the ones I bought yesterday. And I get free delivery.

In the meantime I think I'll do a little research on the secondary market. Perhaps I need to plan an op-shop hop and see if they're showing up there yet, or check out the trash 'n' treasure markets again?

(Oh, and if you're wondering. Version 2.0 of the Tiny Timber Co's dresser build worked just fine, and hopefully will be part of a scene very soon).