Retirement Home

So, the retirement gift is finished, although I keep thinking of more things I could do to it to make it more detailed, better, more colourful. However, its my first completed mini 'set', so I've learned a huge amount (Note to self: don't paint the inside walls white, unless you improve your photographic skills). As luck would have it the macro button on my newly found camera doesn't seem to work any more, so I'm not sure the photos are very good. This is the best overall view. My friend more or less lives on her verandah and in her garden. The plan originally was to build a mock-up of the actual verandah, but since I last saw it she has replaced much of the furniture. In addition to that ,various tasks, including installing french doors, are beyond me at this point. So this is an approximation.

She is also an avid reader, of poetry, novels, gardening  and home decorating magazines, cereal boxes, etc, so I have made some of her favourite books and magazines. On the table are the Letters of Lord Chesterfield to his son, a couple of detective novels and the Poetry of Phillip Larkin. She has a sweet tooth, thus the chocolate treats, and we play Skywords everyday on our ipads.

The bird on the wall, for those who have never been to New Zealand, is a pukeko. They are classic garden decorations, being very colourful and slightly cartoonish.

I made the potting shed from craft sticks; also made all the little pots, cushions, veg, magazines and books. The furniture was bought from Fairytale Miniatures in Australia, but didn't have any brand labels. The yellow wall art is a paperclip from my accountant. Thanks to Briar for sizing and printing the images for the books and magazines.

Hope you enjoy it.

Pretty pleased to have received my cubebot from Christine for the Cubebot challenge already. I've got lots of ideas; it's going to be difficult settling on one. I like the way Brae drops hints when she's preparing challenges so maybe I'll do that. In the meantime here's the wonderful Mr. (I think) Cubebot, unpacking him?self after a long flight (over 20 hours Princeton NJ to AKLDNZ).

 Stretching: a boy gets cramped during long flights.

Here are a few close-ups of the retirement roombox. Almost finished; just a few details to go; then I'll post some whole scenes.I did  a bit of research after baking the first lot of veggies. Someone said if you boil them they come out very shiny and have less risk of burning. Boiled the second lot; they came out very pale and very dull. A bit of gloss nail varnish fixed that, but boiling definitely doesn't work with my Fimo.

New Mini Blog

I have decided to start a new blog and make a commitment to blogging once a week. It seems like an auspicious week to do this for three reasons: 1) I got a dremel as a (belated) birthday  present; 2) i was one of 10 international people lucky enough to get a free cubebot from CallSmall for her cubebot challenge; and 3) i finished (or pretty close) the roombox I made as a retirement gits for a friend (about which more later). So I have things to blog about, am participating in a challenge and, most importantly, finally found my camera so I can post pictures.

I have also given up on my Gertrude Stein project until we get the rest of our goods out of storage, and that seems to be an ever receding event. finally, after two years of following blogs, I realised that I was worried about Oese who writes Raum fur raum and who hasn't blogged for ages. So I guess I am in this community and better start contributing.

On the other hand I still have a lot to learn about blogging, such as how to put a link to CallSmall's blog. [I think this works now], but I reckon this is a good place to start.

So here are the first pictures of the retirement roombox for my friend who loves gardening, poetry, good writing and crosswords. Its a mockup of her back verandah where she spends most of the time when she's not in the garden. Below is an early photo. At first I thought I would just paint the inside of the box, but it looked too flat.

So I tackled the old craft sticks (Just because these started out as popsicle sticks, do they STILL need to make themwith rounded ends. Who uses the rounded ends? Think of all the trees which could be saved by making them square. On the plus side the sight of me struggling with a craft knife and popsicle sticks inspired my husband to buy me the aforementioned Dremel).

I also went out and bought my first Fimo and discovered the joys and frustrations of making teeny tiny veg: Not patisserie, but quite a lot of fun. And here are a couple of close-ups the almost finished product:

The statue looking through the window was my grandmother's I decided to keep him in. and wasn't planned, but he looked so intersted.

TTFN