Life Changes!

 

It’s been a very long time since I posted, but there have been some big life changes in the intervening months.  I’ve retired and relocated!

During a visit to my mother in Arizona last fall, we got the opportunity to move near her, which was something we had wanted to do.  The opportunity came up a little bit sooner than we had originally anticipated, but the timing was so good in so many respects, it felt like kismet, so we went with it.  The house needed renovation, so during the fall and winter we were trying to supervise the work from a distance.  Fortunately, Mom was our eyes on the ground and sent us weekly pictures of the progress.

I retired at the beginning of February.  My company (a large corporation in northern California) had a hiring freeze, and even though I gave two months’ notice, my manager was not allowed to hire a replacement for me.  This meant I had to try to train several people to do parts of my job as a stopgap.  I was also writing up all the various aspects of my job, in case they are able to hire someone down the line.  When I came on board over 20 years ago, my predecessor had been gone for several weeks, which left me trying to figure out everything on my own.  I did not want to put anyone else in that position.  Getting ready to retire was an enormous job and left me pretty exhausted at the end of each day.  (And don’t even get me started on the number of calls I had to make post-retirement to straighten out pension and health insurance!)

Then it was time to get the house ready to sell.  Apparently, things have changed greatly since we bought it over 30 years ago.  Now, houses have to look as though they are showrooms with no occupants—no rugs, no window treatments, no books, no knick-knacks, no TVs, no microwave or kitchen appliances.  We were downsizing as much as possible (we still should have done more) and packing and storing things in the garage, as well as cleaning (scrubbing the grout back to white on the bathroom floors!), doing touch-up painting, and arranging for minor repairs.  Oddly, the only “personal” item our real estate agent allowed (actually, requested) in the house was the Merrimack dollhouse.  We had to move into an Airbnb for a week while the house was being shown.  Fortunately, we got several excellent offers, and the sale closed quickly.  Once we were back in our house, we had to get ready to move.  We had the movers pack most of our things, but I had to pack all my dollhouses and minis.  People keep asking me how I like retirement, and I tell them I have no idea, because I feel like I’ve worked harder in the past few months than I have in years!  😊 

The trip down here included an overnight in a motel with our cat, Penelope.  I was very glad that the beds were set up so that she couldn’t go underneath them.  She traveled in a special tunnel carrier in the back seat of our car; it was large enough to allow a small litter box and food, and she seemed quite comfortable.  In any event, she was incredibly well-behaved and mellow for the whole trip, for which I was truly thankful.

We’ve now been in our new place a little over three weeks and are finally getting settled in.  I absolutely love my new craft room/office.  It’s very similar to the one I had in Berkeley, but without the large closet.  To maximize storage, I got two white bookshelves from Amazon and several decorative storage boxes from Michael’s (and this one) and Joann’s, as well as a storage cabinet from Home Depot, and I am very, very pleased with how it turned out.  I can even display most of my miniature homes and room boxes.

And now, on to miniatures! You may remember from my last post (if you can cast your minds back that far) that I had been challenged to make a hooded sweatshirt for the little marine gift shop.  It took a few tries, but in the end I was pleased with the result. 

I started with a Barbie-sized pattern I found online and scaled down.  I chose to make it a pullover style, so I used the back pattern for both the back and the front.  The first material I tried was from an old T-shirt of mine.  It was an exercise shirt and was made from a relatively thick knit with some Lycra in it.  I used some 1/8" grosgrain ribbon for the "ribbing."  I didn't finish this one, as I was not super happy with the sleeves.  I know that on doll clothing the sleeves often stick out until the clothing is on the doll, but I'm not a fan of that look when clothes will be on display.

For my second try, I used some royal blue t-shirt fabric from a remnant I had purchased.  This closely matched the ribbon I had, but the fabric was lighter and didn't have quite the nice heft of the light blue fabric.  I also adjusted the cap of the sleeve to make it a little higher and tried gluing it to the sweatshirt body the way I normally do when making half-scale clothing.  This caused some difficulty until I inserted one of my dressmaker's forms into the sweatshirt body, thus opening up the armhole and making gluing much easier.  However, by the time I thought to do that, I had made kind of a mess of the sleeves. (I didn't even bother taking a picture.) 

Now having a decent plan for how I would make the sweatshirt, I tried working on the logo.  I have printable transfers for both light and dark fabric.  First I tried the dark fabric transfers on the royal blue fabric.  When I used the Sunken Treasure logo, whether blue on white or white on blue, it became pretty well indecipherable once I ironed it on.  I decided to try the bookstore logo, as I figured that might be easier to see/read.  You can see the dark fabric transfers on the dark blue fabric (one ironed for a shorter period of time) and the light blue fabric.  Finally, I tried the light fabric transfer, with the bookstore logo, on the light blue fabric.  That was my favorite. 

Since the light blue fabric felt more like a sweatshirt anyway, I decided to go with that, even though it meant my grosgrain ribbon didn't match.  The sweatshirt would just have to have contrasting ribbing.  I thought the sweatshirt, with the light blue fabric and the altered sleeve design, was not too bad, so I finished up the bottom ribbing and hood, and put it in the display window.  The hood cord is some dark blue flower thread I had on hand.

It's displayed on a form in the right-hand window.  The beach ball is a painted wooden bead, you've seen the little octopus and fish before, and the pail is just printed paper.  The little shovel, though, is my favorite.  I was trying to think of how to make one when I remembered I'd purchased an HO-scale coal stove set when I was making the Sagamore Hill library.  I needed a tiny coal hod to paint copper and put on the mantel, to represent the miniature copper coal hod Roosevelt received in gratitude for his intervention in the coal miners' strike settlement of 1902.  I put the remaining pieces of the set in my stash, and it turns out the HO scale coal shovel made a perfect half-scale sand shovel.  😊  Some bright yellow paint, and it was added to my window display.

Next it was on to the museum side of Sunken Treasure.  The display counter is made from some cherry wood with a mahogany stain and shellac finish.  The stencil was cut from vinyl with my Cameo Silhouette and was based on a simplified version of the Sunken Treasure logo.  The ships on top are a couple of soft metal ships from the VirtualDollhouse, a couple of charms from a bracelet that used to belong to my mother, and a charm off a very cheap San Francisco charm bracelet I have.  All were primed with white spray paint, then painted.  It's very hard to find model ships in half scale, but I thought these gave me a decent representation of ships/boats from different eras and areas of the world.  Each ship has a small printed description backed with some gold foil.  The foil is supposed to be self-adhesive, but it's not adhering very well.  That will need to be fixed.

For the wall, I had the diving helmet I had already made, an anchor and sextant I purchased from the VirtualDollhouse, as well as a model ship's wheel that is really a charm.  I knew I also wanted a display of nautical knots.  Using my jeweler's draw plate, I pared down a dowel to get pieces of wood small enough to use in the display.  Using a small dowel or even a toothpick would have been the half-scale equivalent of using a chair leg!  Then I experimented with "rope."  Size 10 crochet cotton was a bit too thick.  I liked Coats & Clark's size 20 crochet cotton, but it is only available in white or natural.  Unfortunately, DMC's size 20 crochet cotton was just a bit thinner, and I didn't like it as much.  I tried my white thread with some Coats & Clark light blue that had lost its label; it was likely size 10, because it is too thick for my white.  I then tried some DMC size 8 perle cotton.  It wasn't bad, but the only colors I had on hand were green, black, natural and brown, and they didn't look very nautical to me.  I finally ended up using some India ink markers to "dye" a length of my size 20 cotton a nice royal blue.  Using my Know your Knots book, as well as some rope tying tutorials I found online, I made a variety of knots.  A few of them also required tweezers, a tapestry  needle and some magic words to complete.  I did my best to show the interweaving of the rope, but I realize some are a little difficult to see.  Rest assured, however, that they are properly tied.  I painted some card stock gray for the background and made a frame from some mahogany-stained cherry wood and a bit of gold thread, then added tiny labels.

To round out my wall, I added some maps and a nice cut-away picture of a whaler, as well as making a life preserver from some card stock, red electrical tape and crochet cotton.

On the shop side, I made a “glass” display case from mahogany-stained cherry wood and some clear acrylic.  In it, I have a shell collection that is a painted metal mini, a painted metal mermaid, jewelry made from extra tiny sea glass from Timber Ridge Studios, a model diving helmet (actually the ¼-scale diver’s helmet from Stewart Dollhouse Creations), my seagull and shell display on driftwood, and some mugs (I need more of those!).  The cash register is 3-D printed from Mini Etchers. Unfortunately, I can’t provide a link right now because the store is under new ownership, and she is just starting to relist items.

And, of course, I had to make a souvenir museum guide for $1.00 (with some help from Wikipedia).  (The pages below are out of order, but will be in order once I've double-sided printed, cut and folded them.)

Behind the display counter, I hung my cross-stitched ship and lighthouse, as well as some of the tiny paintings I’ve purchased.

The display tables are made from left-over half-scale board and batten.  I have my various “soft toy” amigurumis, some “Sea Life” coloring books, and some Know your Knots kits on the table for children.

On the other table, I have the folded t-shirts and an extra “Under the Sea” purse. 

At this point, I don’t think there’s much more I can shoehorn into this place, so it’s on to the lighthouse!  Lucky I have a wonderful new craft room and (finally!) the time to work on it.  😊

One Project Ends, Another Begins

Once again, time got away from me.  Only this time, instead of being in a stagnant state, where I could not seem to work on my miniatures, I have been making minis like crazy!  There is so much to report on, I hardly know where to begin.

First, the deco house is finished.  It's not much different than when you last saw it, except that I have added a little landscaping and some plants to the deck. 

The house has now moved off my craft table and onto a bookshelf, making way for a new project, which is—the lighthouse and keeper's cottage!  Here they are in dry fit.

Dry fit is so helpful for planning.  Right away I noticed several things.  1)  The windows of the keeper's cottage are too narrow.  Since the cottage will become a museum and gift shop, it will need wider display windows.  2)  There is a lot of nice room in the first-floor tearoom.  I had originally planned on two tables.  Maybe I will be able to fit three.  3) There is not a lot of wall space for bookshelves for the second-floor bookstore.  Originally, I was going to have an office on the third floor, but the bookstore may need to take up two floors.

I got started on the keeper's cottage and immediately widened the holes for the windows by about ¼ inch on either side.  This helps with the display space but doesn't interfere with the structural integrity of the front wall.  You can see the original window opening on the right and the widened window opening on the left.  

That did mean I also had to make my own windows to replace the ones provided by Real Good Toys, but I was OK with that.  I got used to making windows for both Sagamore Hill and the deco house.  😊  And then, before I knew it, the house was built!  That has to be some kind of record for me.  With the siding milled in and the floors already finished, it really only took a weekend to put the structure together—a nice change from the builds I've been doing.  I will be using a battery-operated light in the house, as it is so small and not really worth the effort of plug-in lighting.  The sign over the door was made from one of the original shutters, which can no longer be used now that the windows have been widened.

I've made display stands for in back of both windows.  They are removable so that I can pull the

 in and out to change the displays.  I'm also working on a glass display case and a counter for displaying my ships.

And now for the real fun—all the little items I have purchased or made for the new project.  More paintings have arrived, and I really love them.  However, I really wanted a traditional sailing ship, and wasn't able to find anything in the size I wanted.  I am not a painter, but I can cross-stitch and was lucky enough to find a pattern that, when stitched on 36-count fabric, is a workable size.  While hunting for the ship pattern, I also found a tiny lighthouse pattern, so I made that up, too.

All the goodies for the tearoom arrived.  Don't they look yummy?

The tearoom table kits come with kits for little tiered stands.  I made them up and added my own scones, finger sandwiches and dishes of jam and clotted cream.

I also made up a test table.  Things are a bit tight on the tabletop, but I think I can make it work.  Also, with that extra space, I may be able to enlarge the tabletops.

The tables and chairs are designed to be painted silver with lavender backs and seats.  I'm not sure that will work for a nautical tearoom, but I can't decide whether to keep them that way or change them.  And if I change them, what colors I would use instead.  The tables and chairs are made of card, so staining is out.  White with blue?  Would that be too expected and too boring?  I do have some nautical scrapbook paper that incorporates a lot of purple, and the sign as I've currently designed it is purple.  

Maybe I should keep the lavender, but go with black or white paint?  What to do, what to do?

For the bookstore—I've been making lots and lots of little books, mostly children's books or cozy seaside mysteries.  To get in the mood, I have been borrowing many of these mysteries from my local library via Libby to read on my Kindle.  Borrowing is a great way to try them, because, well, some of them written are better than others.  In the picture, you can also see one of the bags I made for the bookstore, which is called "Whale Tales."

I do have plans for a lot more books (which is why I think I'll need two floors).  Of course, I'll have to have classics like Moby Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.  Then there will be books on history and geography, cookbooks, books for older children, magazines. . . .  You get the idea.

For the museum, more ships have been painted for the display.  I still haven't had any success building a ship in a bottle.  My first effort, which involved making a mold of a bottle, placing a teeny-tiny little ship inside, and filling it with resin, was a resounding failure.  The bubbles never dissipated, and part of the ship's mast ended up sticking out through one side of the bottle.  *sigh*  Still thinking about it, though.

More successful was my attempt at a lightship basket, which you may remember that my mother had suggested.  I made up the basket itself with instructions from One-Inch Minis; I made my own form from polymer clay.  The "scrimshaw" on the top is made from an oval of wood painted ivory and sanded as smooth as possible.  I then drew on the whale with an ultra-fine point permanent marking pen and finished with a bit of satin varnish.  The "frame" for the scrimshaw was made by wrapping some of my painted crochet cotton around a piece of florist's wire.  I like that it made a rounded edge for the top of the basket.  The "hinge" is a snippet of 1/8" inch ribbon, and the closure is a loop of the crochet cotton and a bit of florist's wire painted ivory.  Effie was very happy to get to model it, but sorry she couldn't keep it.

I also wanted a diving helmet.  I bought a quarter-scale 3-D printed one from Stewart Dollhouse Creations thinking it might work as a scale model, but I felt it was too small for the museum.  It is now a model sold that will be sold in the gift shop.  For the museum display, I made a half-scale version with a wooden bead, some jump rings, tin foil, a microbead and a crimp bead.  With a little bronze paint and verdigris, it's a pretty good facsimile.   

 Other items for the gift shop include a little seashell arrangement with a tiny seagull made from polymer clay (I also made a "full-size" seagull for the lighthouse), a mermaid statue and a fishing plaque (both painted metal minis), another amigurumi whale (this time I was actually able to make the two colors work!), a beach ball, some sea glass jewelry, and some t-shirts. 

The printing on the t-shirts isn't all that great, and up close they look more like sweaters than t-shirts, but with a bit of distance, I think they work fine. (The spousal unit has now said I need to make a hooded sweatshirt. 😮)  I borrowed one of the tables from the tearoom to display them, but they'll have a table of their own at some point.  Most recently, I made up one of my garden hats with an extra row around the edge to give it a nice, floppy brim, and it is now a sun hat.

Does the window display tempt you to enter my shop? 😉  I am thinking the other window may have toys in it.

I've actually made more since I started writing this, but I think that's enough for now.  Until next time (which will, I hope, be sooner rather than later)!

Almost Done

 

Well, I've been back mini-ing with a vengeance.  Once I got the bathroom done, things happened very quickly.  I got the roof/ceiling cut out, LightingBug lights installed and roof on.  I added the chimney and stacked circle detail that was already ready to go.  

Next it was time for the railing.  Posts cut – check.  Holes drilled – check.  Washers spaced and glued down with JB Quick Weld – check.  The railing itself was a bit of a problem.  Wire generally comes coiled, and despite my best efforts, I can never straighten it out properly.  It always looks a little drunk.  So I bought some silver metallic elastic cord to use instead.  I think it works OK.  Right now, the ends are just taped to the back of the house, in case I decide to change it, but railing – check.  Then came the post caps, and everything came to a screeching halt.  My prototype used some Reflections brads from Michaels.  I removed the legs, and the tops formed the exact caps I wanted for the posts.  They came as part of a mixed set—silver, copper, black and pewter.  Naturally, there weren’t enough of the silver ones to complete the job.  No problem, I thought; I’ll just buy more.  It’s a lesson I should have learned long ago—if you like something and know you’ll want to keep using it/use it in future, buy more now.  Which, of course, I hadn’t done, and now I can’t find them anywhere.  I tried other brads, but none worked—too big, too small, too flat; none matched.  

GRRRR.  I finally took the legs off the pewter ones (of course, I had plenty of those) and used Rust-Oleum Bright Coat Metallic Finish in chrome on them.  That was pretty amazing stuff, and I’m quite happy with the result.  They’re not an exact match to the silver ones, but they actually work better with the washers, so caps – check!

For the deck, I made up some furniture from kits I had purchased at one of those estate sale tables at the Stockton Miniature Show.  They are Cane Creations from Twin Palms Miniatures, which does not appear to be in business anymore.  I have no idea when the kits were made.  There is one black-and-white photo of the finished piece (from only one, not-very-helpful angle), a lot of very dense instructions, and some hand drawings, so I’m guessing they’re not of recent vintage.  The instructions were a bit hard to follow, and, for the chair at least, following the instructions would not have yielded something that looked anything like the cover photo.  I found the rattan somewhat difficult to work with, and the confusing instructions didn’t help, so the pieces look a bit . . . rustic.  But they’re patio furniture, so they don’t need to be super elegant, and I’m glad to have used my kits.  I also found the foam for the cushions was cut very oddly, so I ended up cutting my own.  The fabric was printed with my ink-jet printer.  

The Star Line deck chair is a kit from Michelle’s Miniatures, and, fortunately, it made up beautifully.  It will likely also get a cushion, but I haven’t decided to print more of the chair fabric or try to find something complementary.  I have a few more plant kits coming from SDK Miniatures, but then it’s just landscaping, and I’ll be done with the Art Deco house.  *sigh*  It’s always a little sad to finish a project.

Luckily, I have a new project to plan for—the Real Good Toys lighthouse and cottage!  Here is my idea:  Lighthouse first floor—tearoom.  I have two absolutely lovely Charles Rennie Mackintosh tea table sets from Jane Harrop that I have been wanting to put together and use for a long time.  For my birthday, I got a nice little slanted display case from Bauder Pine to display little goodies.  Lighthouse second floor—book store.  I know I can make bookshelves and books, and another birthday gift was a little center display table from Mini Etchers.  The third floor may just be a stock room.  If I can fit a desk in there, I will.  The cottage will be a nautical museum and gift shop. 

I had a lot of fun “shopping” my stash to find items I could use.  These included a metal “shell collection display” that I bought at the very start of my mini-making.  I just wasn’t as comfortable painting small things back then, so I got as far as the blue background and stopped.  That has now been finished and will go in the museum/store.  As part of the “fill the shelves” swap from the online Half Scale group, I had received a lovely shell décor piece that will also work nicely in the gift shop. One of my little purses, the one I call “Under the Sea,” could work, too.  

Oh, and I still have some left-over marbles that I got to make the Japanese fishing floats for the Merrimack’s rec room, so I’ll have to add a couple of those. 

Of course, we’ll need some boat models for the museum.  My mother gave me her old charm bracelet, in the hope that I could use some of its charms, and it had a Viking long boat and a sampan.  With some paint, they will do just fine.  

I also have a sailboat charm and a ship’s wheel charm, as well as some shells I bought at the annual sale/swap meet at Peg’s Dollhouse in Santa Rosa.  And I have some seashell nail art stickers to decorate mugs.

Then I went the tiniest bit crazy and starting ordering some things from Life of Riley (her baked goods are so exquisite!), Timber Ridge Studios, True-2-Scale, the Virtual Dollhouse (if you’re willing to do some painting, she has so many inexpensive metal minis in half scale), and various artists on Etsy.  I know I can print out and frame art, but real miniature art just seems so much nicer to me.  Two have already arrived—the acrylic painting on the left is by Lucia Crippa of LuArting; the water color on the right is by Paula of Pbjewelryandgifts, both on Etsy.

Ooh, toys! I’ll need toys.  I ordered an itty, bitty amigurumi whale with spout from SuAmi (who made the badger in the Sagamore Hill library), and then I decided to try to make some of my own toys.  I started with a little braided octopus—the kind I once made at summer camp.  I used a round metal bead for the head, and even though it had a fairly large hole, I could only stuff enough embroidery floss through it to make a hexapus.  😊 Still, I think she’s cute, and I’ll keep her.  While hunting around for a good example of the braided octopus, I discovered a tiny octopus crochet pattern and decided to be brave and tackle mini amigurumi again.  The original pattern calls for embroidery floss (the full six strands) and a 1.5 mm (US size 7) crochet hook.  I used one strand of embroidery floss and a .7 mm (US size 14) crochet hook.  For my first amigurumi, I think he turned out alright.  He’s sitting on a penny for scale.  Then I tried a little whale.  He’s supposed to be two colors, but there was something funky with my color changes (I have to experiment with worsted yarn so that I can see what I was doing wrong), so I ended up making him a solid color.  Inserting stuffing through a hole the size of a toothpick was the hardest part!  I had to put a little thread around the microbeads I used for his eyes, because the black was disappearing against the blue I used, so he looks less like a whale and more like, well, a fish, but that’s OK.  Once I sort out my color changes, I may try the two-color version again. 

Then the spousal unit asked if I was going to include a ship in a bottle (oh, sure, I can’t even find bottles I like in half scale, let alone one with a ship inside) and some scrimshaw.  Scrimshaw—in half scale?!?  You’d need a microscope to make it/see it!  (But I'm still thinking about how I could do it.) Then Mom suggested a Nantucket lightship basket, and that got me doing more planning.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to have more ideas than room!

In other news, I received my second COVID shot today.  Woo hoo!  Dose two!  I am looking forward to two weeks from now and being able to get together with vaccinated friends in person.  Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.  Thank you for stopping by!