Some important info...

The I'm a Giant dollhouse challenge referred to in my last post is from Emily Henderson...her blog address is http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/im-a-giant-update.html. I just poked around to see what others are doing and realized some people have some really cool houses...if you want to see some really nice mini stuff go to some of the links at the bottom of her blog and see what fellow creators are doing!

Rabbit Trails to Mini Land

So a couple of weeks ago I was poking around on Etsy and saw this blog about a dollhouse decorating contest of sorts. It was just the bump I needed to pull the dollhouse kit I bought at the thrift store back out and give it another look. I love doll houses and miniatures, and always have. I have always wanted to build my own, though lacked confidence that I could. Well, here I had a good reason for devoting time and energy to what would other wise be a frivolous activity. So I did...a good two weeks worth of time just to put the thing together. It is the simplest of kits, but do not be fooled! Even in the simplest house there is a ton of molding, and each piece has to be hand cut (my bandsaw, by far my favorite power tool, died)  I started on the 3rd of Oct. I only remember that date cause it was our 24th wedding anniversary and I conned my husband into helping me, for a little while that is...He did cut and fit the triangle window moldings on the outside for me and then said I was on my own. If you look closely you will see those are the only dang moldings in the whole house that actually match up at the seams! I am not one for perfection...I go for the effect!

My visions of instant house were dashed early on. This was an excellent patience builder for me. I had to clamp and walk away. Wait for the glue to set, glue more and wait more...sigh. 

All those moldings had to be prepainted and cut to size. I am pretty proud that I saw this through and had it turn out pretty okay. I can't cut a straight line with a paper cutter much less a hand saw, but paint and lots of accessories will hide the worst of my finish carpentry! 

I lined the floors with a black pen to look like hard wood flooring. This picture is before I stained them golden oak. They came out pretty nice. The kit had a spiral staircase that was really cheesy looking. I am going with a ladder which I have yet to make...

This kit was for a gingerbread house. The model was painted pink with white trim, all the windows had the same white decorations on them as the the front door still does, and the roof was scalloped and oh so cutsey. This was definitely not my dream studio doll house. So I did some modification. First I left off all the fancy trim on the outside. I painted the whole exterior with glue and 'glittered' it with fine sand. (I wanted a stucco look and this was my husbands idea...a brilliant one I think, but do not tell him I said so!) It worked out real slick. I painted over that with white and grey and a few dabs of green for the moss that grows on everything here in the redwood forest. I replaced the cutsey windows with sheets of shrinky dink plastic. I like it. It looks like the windows are steamed up, or old, or both. I covered the cutesy scalloped shingles with eucalyptis and redwood bark. I admit if I were a more patient person I would have cut nice uniform shingles, but by the time I got to the roof I was really ready to get to the fun part...the inside, so I made my shingles a bit bigger than standard, going for the whimsical look. (or the 'okay, I have had about enough of this' look!)

So, below is the finished shell... I am going to mount it on a board and landscape a bit around it. I found a great branch that will make a cool tree and have a whole bag of tiny autumn leaves that I knew would come in handy some day. The inside is going to be my 'dream' workshop. Truthfully, I am pretty much working in my dream workshop, but a second level for rest and refreshing would be even better, and this little place has just that. I have a lot of miniatures to pick from. The last picture shows some things in place, but I have not even begun the layout and decorating part. I had to take a break and get some Christmas product made for an upcoming fair (PS I think my Etsy store address link in the last blog was wrong. It is 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/oblations... and business is better than I anticipated!) 

I will post more as I go. I have to make some product before playing again, but I have no shortage of ideas for decorating mini land...till next time....annie

Dreams do come true sometimes!

Much has changed for me since I last wrote. It is amazing such big things can happen in such little time. In the wake of two funerals and much sadness and greiving much good has come. I did not do the show at the end of August. My daughter was full term pregnant and I had an aching heart. First good news: I witnessed her give birth to our fourth granddaughter, and both are well and beautiful! Thank God.  I did go ahead and list my sewing show items in the Etsy Shop I finally got up and runner on Sept. 2. (www.etsy/shop/oblations). I have sold two handmade items and today added some vintage treasure items for sale.

The biggest news is this though...I have a studio! Not only a studio, but in a space I have dreamed about spending my time since we moved back here. On the property we park our bus on, towards the back, is a large pond and next to it is a little cabin, about ten by twelve. The picture below is one I took of it three years ago when I first arrived. It was titled 'dreams'.

I love this spot on earth. I still get a shiver evertime I think about it, and a big grin everytime I walk down there. After three years of collecting bits and pieces and odds and ends at the thrift store I was blessed to work at I now have a place to put it all, and O what a place it is! My rent for this dream studio is maintaining the land around it which is a pleasure for me. I spent this morning wading in the pond cutting back the cattails that are threatening it. I spent several days last week pulling the blackberry vines, some forty feet up in trees, and uncovering a lovely rock wall that no one has seen in a long time. Unforturnately I also found some poison oak, but it is a small price to pay.

On the mornings I don't have domestic duties at the bus I put on my hat and walk across the field and down the hill to my STUDIO!  I try to spend some time working the land and some time creating everyday and I can't think of any life that would closer to heaven for me than this!

Check out my space...

I will update this pic soon. There is now alot more decoration to the outside too.

Can you believe this? I moved all this stuff down here with a wagon...it took four days and 26 loads but there is a place for everything and I have a work table, a work bench and a desk. And when I get tired of those (if ever) I can curl up in my armchair and gaze at the pond.

It is just a great place to be. A real giant step up from the tent I have been using for a shop, and it doesn't leak! I don't have running water now, but the potential for it is close by, and I have a nice outhouse across the path for my other needs.

The pond is full of frogs and mesquito fish. Three ducks have summered here. I am waiting to see if they stay for the winter. There is also what I think I have identified correctly as a green heron, which the guide book says "appears to be blue". Go figure!

Here's something you don't see everyday! Heron tongue. This is one of those shots I didn't know I was getting until I went to edit it.

Well, I suppose that's enough news for this edition. I will add more pictures of the pond and my little piece of the world as I go. I should end with my first creation in the new studio. I love this little lady and secretly hopes she doesn't sell...atleast not too soon! I call her "Bondage" and tell her story at my Etsy shop:

etsy/shop/oblations.  Stop by and visit some time!

There is a music box mounted on the back that plays "Born Free" and the little propellor on top turns!

Life happens...plans or no plans

Funny how so much can change in so little time. When I last wrote I optimistically stated my goal to have my Etsy site up and running by almost two weeks ago. I had gone away for a few days in the beginning of July and gave notice at the thrift store the day I returned. I decided to take the leap of creation on a full time basis. I had one full week of 'retirement' and spent long hours getting ready for a show I am doing the end of August. (More on that below...) Then ten days ago my dear friend, mentor, landlord and priest died suddenly of a heart attack. Today my good friend and neighbor was taken away in an ambulance in the final stages of liver cancer. He only found out he had it two weeks ago. It is hard to create with a heavy heart! I have found having a deadline helps me though. I am not functioning with peak enthusiasm, but am getting the job done bit by bit while I wait for the sadness to subside.

As promised I have included pictures of some of my work. My landlady, a lovely woman, (and now a grieving widow, sigh) had invited me to do a show with her. She works mostly in fabric and makes, among other things, wonderful rugs. See some of her work at ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/NeedlesInTheNest ). She had signed up for a show at Harts Fabrics and had planned to demonstrate her rug making. My daughter is making fabric purses to sell at the same show, and I am to have sewing related items. As it turns out, I will be setting up and running the booth while my friend takes advantage of a little traveling with her son and his family...a much needed diversion for her right now...my daughter will help, but by then she will be eight and a half months pregnant. We will do fine and it all will turn out as it should. You just never know how plans will change.

For the show I made some Altoid Box sewing kits, some project journals, two boxes and a mobile. I use mostly vintage items to embellish. Here are the sewing kits...they turned out pretty fun. I may just make some more for Etsy...

I have always been a saver of things, so working at the thrift store was like a dream come true when it came to access to cool things. Alot of what I acquired would have been tossed. Old magazines and papers of all types...buttons, beads and baubles. I will probably spend the next couple of years (Lord willing!) using the supplies I was able to stockpile. My banner picture on this site is taken of just a few of the bits and pieces I have accumulated to glue on things.

My friend will have a book for sale at this show detailing how to make her wonderful rugs. She told me that in it she encourages her 'students' to keep a project journal- a place where they note what they are working on and any ideas for future creations. So I collected some of the many journals donated (boy I am going to miss that place!) and covered them to theme them. They turned out kind of cute...

I have made some really cool mobiles. I have a couple ready to list on Etsy also, but am finding out they are really hard to photograph. It is a shame they don't translate well on line. I have great fun making them and want to make more...maybe I will figure it out...here is the sewing related one I just finished for the show.

 

 My background doesn't help in these pictures either, but you get the idea. We had received a donation of a bag of homemade pincushions at the thrift store, and I already had bottles of buttons, etc. My daughter was playing with the old folding rule the day I brought it home from work and shaped it into a star and the idea for this mobile was born! It really turned out cuter than I anticipated. There are six pincushions and a variety of other cool stuff.

Below are a couple of boxes I had actually made before I found out about the show. Boxes are my thing. I have been decorating boxes for as long as I can remember. I had intended on listing these on Etsy (and still will if they don't sell at the show)

This one has some great war time advertising. I love the Greyhound ad on the front...This can happen to You!  A greyhound vacation. What more could a person want? On the inside I sacrificed a wonderfully intact Happy Home needle package. It is attached to the bottom, but open and functional. The bottons and other embellishments are fixed under many layers of glue and going no where...

The buttons and bone crochet hook, pins and thread are all a part of the bottom of the box now. These boxes can be used to keep things in, or displayed as conversation pieces. I am hoping to get one more done before the show, but time will tell. Me thinks this is enough for tonight! I want to get this loaded before I have a computer glitch and lose it...(thats the kind of day its been...) So long for now...an happy crafting!

Life in the bus and other stories...

Today is June 24. A few days ago my only daughter turned 35. The years are melting away. Things that I used to think were so important hold little significance any more. It is time to seize what is left of my days here, before they run out. In the end I will have no one to blame but myself if I don't. And that is partly why I live in a bus. Because when I owned a nice home I had to work way too much to keep it. When I wasn't working to pay for it I was working to maintain it. There was very little time for me to create the art that is in me. It owned me.

The building in the background is part of our daugher's house

Three years ago my husband and I sold our home and bought a 1975 International School bus that had been converted into a home on wheels. We thought we would travel around, see these United States. Our first trip was from South Dakota, where we had been living for nine years, to California to see our daughter and meet our three granddaughters. We parked and haven't moved since! And that's ok with us. Our daughter and her family live about 50 feet away and our wonderful granddaughters are a daily part of our lives.

Our overhead is very low allowing us to work minimal hours for pay. After twenty plus years of employment I took home with me nights and weekends I opted for a regular job I could leave behind at the end of the day. I found the perfect employment for me, an avid thrifter, collector and creator. I work three days a week in a local thrift store, sorting other peoples cast offs. I have amassed large quantities of art supplies, and bits and pieces for gluing and hanging and creating not to mention for cluttering our bus and garden and my tree house workspace! Since the body of our house is steel, inside and out, what better place to start a magnet collection? My granddaughters have a great time playing "I Spy" finding new magnets all the time. I love small spaces and lots of stuff!

Now I have the supplies I need and some time to use them. I could do with a bit more space to work in but one can't have everything...at least not all at once. A studio is an on going dream. For now though I have built a 4x8 tented platform in the trees. I call it my sanity room, a space of my own. I love our bus home but it is lacking in any sort of privacy. I don't need much. Just a place to be that is mine. It is truly amazing how much you can cram onto a 4x8 piece of plywood. Of course there is not much room to work, but it is a lovely place to be, to gather inspiration, and a bit of peace. (I generally end up working at the kitchen table anyway.)  I literally built my sanity room out of duct tape and baling wire, redwood limbs wired together for structure and bubble wrap for windows! It has gone through several rain storms and I am happy to say so far does not leak.My supplies are stored in shelves right outside, except for those tucked into every nook and cranny of the bus. I have everything I need. I just can't always find what I am looking for! Someday I will have order too.

The wifi signal is pretty good in my sanity room, in spite of the redwoods that surround me. I can sit in my cozy arm chair blogging away while a fountain gurgles just outside the door and the birds (and squirrels, grrr)  happily visit the feeders hanging all about the yard.

I don't mind feeding the squirrels. I have always put out seed for them as well. They started the battle we are waged in by getting greedy and finding ways to empty the bird feeders. I have strung about 30 plastic bottles on wire. When they try to walk across them they spin and the squirrels fly. Once I foiled them that way they started jumping from surrounding trees, so I hung chimes and bells and what-nots in all directions around the feeders. I am constantly adjusting this as they figure out new ways of attack. They are wily little creatures. I have purchased three squirrel proof feeders from the thrift store, which helps tremendously. Today I am winning the battle, who knows what tomorrow will bring!

 For decades I have crafted for gift giving, and for my own pleasure. Now I am hoping to also sell some of my work and have begun amassing an inventory to open a site on etsy.com. This blog is to help support that endeavor, and to chronicle the process of my dream chasing. I would love to create full time but for now am content with my thrift job and part time art. Besides, working there has allowed me to find nice presents I can afford for family and friends, so I am not having to spend all my creative juices keeping up with the various birthdays and Christmas.

In my next post I will show you some of my work. My goal is to 'open shop' by the third week in July. I am going away the first week with my daughter and granddaughters, a girlie vacation! When I get back, its no more fooling around...till next time...annie

Today I create this blog space...more to come soon.