Belated Merry Christmas to All

Hi Everyone,

What is happening to this year? Too late to worry really I suppose but wow!!

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

I thought I would quickly pop on to have a quick catch up on what is going on in blog land and show everyone the new shelving I have for my pet shop.

I will show more photos once I have the shelves in place with some stock on them. 

Of course, the next steps then will be returning to the dolls house shop to pick up more shelving and then start working on straightening the upstairs.  It is a tough job but someone has to do it.

Finally, I apologise for my absence, I have needed to take on a second part time job and I have been struggling to adjust to the new times etc.  Unfortunately, this job was only temporary over Christmas and is shortly coming to an end.  On the plus side, at least this means I will have more time for my minis again.

Next Project

This is a picture of my next project

It is a 24th scale basic bedroom.  It has been on my list to do for quite a while but I keep putting it off.

To be honest, other than dressing the bed, I am not sure what I am going to do with the rest of the furniture.  I know that I am not happy with the colour of the wood but I dont know whether they will look better once they are dressed and in place.  Unfortunately, I think the main problem is that the set seems a little fancy for the room.  After all, the cottage is supposed to be a simple place.

That said, I do already have this exact bedroom in place untouched and undressed, so if any changes dont work, I wont have lost anything.

Ah well, time to stop procrastinating and on to the research I think.

Every girl loves shoes...

I saw some BJD shoes on Amazon for an amazing price and just had to get them.  I have to admit, to being a little concerned about the quality, after all, they were only £4  (approx) for the 1/6 scale pair and £5 (approx) for the 1/4 scale pair.

Well, they arrived today and I am so pleased with them. Unfortunately, there is no label on the packaging that gives the makers name, but the seller on Amazon I bought them from is 'Highly One'.

The first pair is the 1/6th size.  As you will see, they are really cute.

I just couldnt resist.  If there is one draw back it would be that at the moment they look a bit clumpy on my hujoo girl.  

That said, I havent finished her outfit yet so, I am not going to show her wearing them yet.  I think they will look better once she is in her dress and socks as well.  She is definitely going to be a girly girl.

The final pair are more rugged.  They are for my Resin Soul Rong.

The flash doesnt show the colour properly, they are in reality a lot darker but, the detail didnt show very well otherwise,  They are so well made, very strong, and I love the details along the with buckle and strap.

When the boots arrived, the strap was inside the boot and is put on and fastened once it has been put on.

Now I cant wait till I have a little more money so I can order some more shoes... perhaps I may even need to purchase I new doll to go with the new shoes? haha.

Well, I had better go again for now, I am hoping to have a quick read of a few blogs before bedtime, I have a busy work week ahead of me.  

Bitsa This and Bitsa That

I think I have shown the outside of my terrace house before but, I wanted to add a picture to this update.

I bought the nets you can see in this picture at a reduced cost in a charity shop a while back.  I love the effect that having something in the windows gives.  The problem is, I have never sorted anything for my 24th cottage to give that a more 'lived in appearance' 

I have been looking in various places but not seen anything I had thought of as quite suitable.  The main issue with it is that I want the cottage to be a simple place and so I wanted a material that can would reflect a simple, muted, worn effect but still delicate due to the size of the scale.  I think this is what has cause the issue when trying to sort the bedding as well.

I am looking forward to posting some progress with my minis as the week goes on, if I can only drag myself away from reading everyone else's wonderful blogs!!  :)

Wrong time of year but...

Today I made a simple summer dress.

The pattern was really easy.  I have seen similar ones in various books and magazines, with all of them using ribbon or lace to add a bit of interest.


So, first off, the pattern and material.

Even for me, the sewing was really easy and was finished in a really short time.

I kind of cheated because I ended up gluing the ribbon on.  I was also lucky because I found some metal coat hangers that I had made a while ago and used one of those to put with the dress.

This is to be a gift for my mum.  She has a modern haberdashery with living accommodation above.  I am hoping this can be used in either upstairs or downstairs.

I have finally made progress with my minis and boy I feel better for it. 

Firstly, I managed to stain the metal plates to age them.  The photos are not showing the effect quite as well as I had hoped, however, I am really happy with how they have turned out.  They are a little something for someone who does not use the internet so I am safe posting these on here without them seeing.

  

Moving on, I painted wooden barrels again as a little something for someone.  Sometimes, it is so much cheaper to buy a basic something a alter it slightly.

I also made a bag.  This is my first time making a mini bag without an actual kit (simple though they seem) although I did still rely on a pattern out of an old dolls house magazine.  I wish I knew which one it was but I kept the pattern without keeping a not of where it came from.  My apologies but it was important to say, this is not my pattern.  This is how it turned out.

I loved how simple it was and how fast it was to make up.  I also liked putting in the little detail on the sides to add the straps.

Time for a little effect

It is that time of year again... time for me to start panicking due to lack of time and planning again on the run up to christmas.  I do this every year though.  Deep breath...

The first items I am going to be working on are items for painting.

These plates are a little too shiny and new looking for the tower so they are going to have a dark wash to rust and dirty them up a little.

I also found these mini paper plates out.  I am not sure what I am going to use these for yet but I have a lot of them so lots to use for practice.  

I have lots of paperwork in the folders with lots and lots of mini ideas so I have lots to look through and that is without lots of research on the internet for inspiration.

Kitchen stops play

Hi everyone,

No pictures to post at the moment I am afraid.  We had a slow leak in a pipe that ended up resulting in our kitchen ceiling coming down.  This has led to no minis or crafts for longer than I would like.

The good news is that the workmen have been in this week and things seem to be going quite well.  We have newly plastered walls and ceiling and even some tiles. Yay!! :)

While the work has been ongoing, we have had to have all sorts of kitchen things in the living room, including the fridge and freezer.  We have also been living off takeaways.  As you can imagine, I am really looking forward to getting my kitchen and house back to normal.

I am off now to nose and catch up on everyones blogs for a while before back to the chaos :)

Comfort for the residents

I am continuing with making some of the small items for the terrace.  Although I have a cushion on the seat in the living room, I have never been totally happy with it so I finally decided to do something about it.

The lovely thing about making these cushions as everyone will know is just how simple and effective they are to make.  It doesnt matter how stressful the rest of my day is, as least I can still sew a square and feel like I have done a good job.  I am also making two for my mum for part of her christmas advent that we put together for each other every year.

These two are for my house and there are two more for my mum.  Now on to my next project...  after a little thought and planning that is.  But first, I am going to read and catch up with everyones blogs  :)

Still Here

Hello again,

I have been keeping a quiet watch on peoples blogs but have not been feeling able to find anything to write about.  But I cant believe it has been so long since I last wrote anything... where has the time gone?

This leads me on to my topic for today.  I have gotten into such bad habits of late.  Procrastination being one of the worst.  Nail biting is coming a close second however.  I seem to have done no crafting either of late, be it minis, knitting, patchwork or dolls.

I have however had chance to take stock and start getting a move on with organising.  I have ordered a kindle in the hopes this will stop me from ;

1)  Overspending, and
2)  Cluttering my house.

I have heard many good things about kindle, one of them being the fact they offer free books, so tonight I decided to take a look and see what is out there while I wait for my kindle to arrive.  I have never taken much notice before but, now I have, I am surprised at just how many free and cheap books there are out there.

Being realistic though, whilst I believe owning a kindle will slow my book buying habit, I have a feeling it will not be able to replace the feeling of a real book... time will tell.  I am excited whilst waiting for it to arrive though.

Fabric Stash update

Here is the latest lot of fabric that I bought yesterday when I went to Birmingham Rag Market.

I have so many projects that I want to get on with  including;

• 1/24th scale bedding - this is something that has been in the planning for over a year.
• fill a cupboard/wardrobe - again something originally planned a while ago
• bedding etc for the petshop - cats and dogs do like bedding and owners want something that will look good in their homes (even mini ones).
• real life quilt using the paper piecing method - this is something I remember my nan doing from my childhood and I am going to be making a start myself again once I have the time and opportunity.

Fingers crossed this week goes as planned so that I can finally start making some progress on something. 

Update

I will apologise now for lack of photographs.  I only just realised how much I had lost track of my projects.  My posts over the next few days will hopefully give a bit of insight of what will be coming over the next few weeks and months.  My work hours have increased and this has led to me needing to learn how to juggle work, family and home in a way that I havent needed to before so as I am sure you can appreciate it is taking an awful lot of getting used to.

One of the major obstacles we have had to overcome over the last week has been a burst pipe that led to my real life kitchen ceiling coming down.  Luckily we are insured and we are hoping all will be sorted soon.  At least the leak has stopped so this in enabling me to get back to my hobbies again finally.

I will try and take some pictures of the latest fabric I have bought and list some of the projects I need to complete.  The fabric is going to extremely useful for a number of different scales and applications.

I have also got to continue making yet more books but mainly for 12th scale for use in the pet shop and terrace house.

Keep tuned over the coming days for further updates on lots of of upcoming projects and progress  :)

Another break in minis for bjd/hujoo updates

Ok, just a few pictures of my ball-jointed dolls and hujoo girls as they are today (less my newest edition who is currently awaiting face-up, eyes, hair etc).

Firstly, Elsa

and now Rong

and finally, my first two hujoo girlies

This weekend I am working on the faceup of hujoo Rose.  Once she is looking more presentable, I will be working on some better clothes for the trio.  A busy few weeks ahead on top of my minis.  Love it.

Books and more Books

Finally, I have finished the three shelves of books.  I am quite pleased although there is plenty of scope for improvement.

It is good to have completed this part of the project and I am happy to say that I have place the bookshelf back in it's proper place.

The remaining space is for other items such as letters etc rather than more books.

And now on to the next project   :)

Back to the books

I had another little dabble at making some mini books for my 24th scale cottage shelf.  I have been feeling guilty because I still haven't finished filling the shelf so it can be put back in place.  The thing is, once this shelf is finished, I have two more to fill up although they are 12th scale instead.

Here are the ones I have made so far

I still have so many more to make haha.  I do not make things easy for myself I know but I will at least be happy with the result.

I just need to be strict with myself and get on with it :)

Does anyone else have an ongoing project that seems to be in for the long haul? and if so, how do you keep motivated to keep going at it?  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Knitting Various Sizes

I recently decided to make further progress with my knitting as I had loads of wool and not much patience continuing to make books for the 24th shelf.

I have completed my first beanie for my hujoo dolls.  To be honest, there is room for improvement but, I am pleased that I have completed something.  I will be experimenting with different types of wool and I think I will use a different stitch on the main part of the hat next time.

Because I am not the quickest knitter, I have started knitting a simple scarf using shaded wool ready for winter.  It is from a free pattern from www.audknits.com called Gentle Stripes Scarf.

It is such a simple pattern to knit whilst I am watching the TV without having to worry.  Here is my progress so far...

So far so good with this one haha.  Hopefully it wont take long for this to be finished now as I have recently bought some crotchet cotton to do a little mini knitting.

Advice Please

For those of you bloggers out there who have several interests, how do you sort your blogs.  Do you prefer to sort by pages or starting new blogs on new topics? 

I ask because I need to consider how to continue? I am keeping this one going but I want to keep it moving forward whilst keeping more in touch with others who have similar interests.

Your feedback would be most welcome.

In other news, I have made a few more books but not as many as I would have liked.  Therefore, I have no photos to show at the moment.  I must admit, I prefer to show photos to make my blog stand out more but, I have nothing currently.

Besides the mini books, I have also been doing a bit of knitting, and have started a scarf.  I am not a fantastic knitter and I started it now in the hopes that it will be ready by winter.  Now this brings me to a bit of a problem.  I started this blog when I only really concentrated on miniatures.  Since then, my hobbies have expanded.  As they have expanded, I seem to have lost touch with commenting on other peoples blogs and have less comments on mine so, my question is this

Slow Down!!...

Wow, this year is really flying by.  I didnt realise it had been so long since I last posted on here.

Well here is my progress...

I started by measuring the size books I wanted on my 24th scale book shelf and made a table with the size squares I wanted my pages to be.  This covered the whole of an A4 sheet.  Once done, I cut them into rows and chose my fineliner pens and papers I wanted as covers on my books.  I have also used sticky back plastic to make the covers more robust.  The pages were created by folding the squares into concertinas and gluing them to the covers.

And here are the completed books.  I have  used pen to give the books titles.  Some of the books have pages written and/or simple pictures but, I need to improve before I am willing to show those haha.  Lets just say its a work in progress.

Here are some of the books in place.  I have made more than these but, I still have a way to go before the shelves are all full.

Hopefully I will be able to show more progress soon.

Back to my hobbies - mini time

Today has been lovely and sunny.  I finally managed to get some garden time in.

After all my hard work, I have been shattered tonight.  During my time of sitting like a zombie on the sofa, I have decided that it is time to make sure I get moving with my minis and dolls more regularly again.

So, I have measured the shelves on my 24th scale bookshelf and I am going to print out some blank pages (measured blank table squares) and I am going to start making some books.  As I have said before when talking about my 12th scale terrace, I really love the thought of all my books being able to be opened and 'read'.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of my minis to show today.  Hopefully I will have some pics soon. But here is a sweet picture of a different sort of mini :)

The baby giraffe at Dudley Zoo.  Such a cutie   :)

Anyway.  I am off now to start making and crafting before bed.

Hujoo Basic Progress

I have been working on completing the Hujoo basic following on from my first attempts as customising with Hujoo Berry.

This time she came with eyes already in which came as a pleasant surprise.  I had been thinking of changing them but to be honest I thought they suited her so they are staying.   This is here as she looked upon her arrival.

I had to remove her eyes to start the face-up so thought I would show how these particular eyes are held in place.

I have taken pictures throughout the face-up process. This is after completing the lip colour and blush.

Following on from this was starting work on eyeshadow and eyebrows.  I must confess, I am not a fan of trying to sort eyebrows and I am really not very good at them.  But, here is my attempt.

And then another with her eyelashes settled and in place.  I think the eyelashes make all the difference and am really pleased with the effect they give.

And finally with her wig on.

I still have her clothes to sort out.  I am getting there slowly.  I am still plucking up the courage to get sewing but I do have material and items to make jewellery so hopefully I will be able to post progress on these soon.

She's Here !! :)

Yep that is right, Elsa an MSD Dollzone BJD is finally here.

Those of you who have been following my blog may remember that I ordered her back in November last year and as time has gone by, I have become more and more impatient..

I had an email from Angelesque last night and I spent all day worrying at work that I would miss the parcel.  Anyway, when I got home, my neighbour had signed for the package and I had a wonderful moment of photographing and opening her... or rather them, as in a fit of impatience the other day, I placed an order for another Hujoo, this time a basic along with wig and eyelashes.

So, to start it off here is a self explanatory picture of the main box.

Followed by my first image of the inside.

And so on to the little Hujoo girl, card and eyelashes that was tucked inside the box along with Elsa.

And finally, here she is, the main event... Elsa (although her name will probably change)

And here she is dressed.

I will work on getting some decent pictures taken to post on here but, I am mainly hoping to start working on getting both my hujoo dolls sorted as far as I can now.

Hope you are all well x

Isn't it always the way?

Yesterday I had had made the decision that I would need to make some eyes for my Hujoo Berry because the eyes I had ordered were taking too long...

Well guess what? Yep that's right, this morning they arrived.  It is a pack of four pairs of eyes in blue, grey/blue, green and light brown.  Apologies as I forgot to take a picture of them.  They are lovely though.  They have a mould line on them but that cannot be seen when the eyes are in place.  The eyes are more detailed than I thought they would be so I am really pleased.

Because the eyes were here, this means Berry will no longer be kept covered, so I was able to put her eyelashes in place. Hmmmm, I did manage it but I would say it is a little trickier than you would first think or perhaps I should say trickier than I first thought.   Here she is with that stage completed though :)

Eyelashes make a lot of difference don't they?

Anyway, with that part done, I moved on to choosing the eyes I wanted for her.  I ended up using the grey/blue eyes as they will suit no matter if I decide to change her wig at a later date.

They look more blue in the pictures than they do in 'person'.

The final part for today was putting her wig on.  I have bought her this white wig to start with.  To be honest, I bought it thinking that it was cheap and I would buy her a new one once she had her face-up completed so I could see what personality I thought she may have.

I actually think it does suit her though.  Anyway, this now leaves me with only her clothes left to sort out.  The items currently on are all a little too big and came off a male doll about the size of a 'Ken' doll so I am currently looking around for simple patterns.  I have a feeling that clothing is going to be an ongoing project as I haven't made any before and they would need to be hand sown.

This is Berry so far and I am really happy with her so far.  By the end of this year, she should have new clothes and some shoes.

I am going to go now and am going to chill and watch a couple of episodes of Doctor Who before I go to bed.

Further progress on my Hujoo Berry customisation

First off, my apologies as I have no photos to show you today.  I did pop to a local haberdashery yesterday and bought some lovely material for a good price.

This was followed by a trip to HobbyCraft, where I purchased a couple of little  bits that I can use to make a small necklace for Berry (I still need to find her a name).

Unfortunately, getting items delivered appears to be a huge let down lately.  I ordered some different eyes from the internet and they still have not arrived yet.  So, as I do not want to wait for much longer as I want to see her progressing, I have decided to make the eyes for myself.

Soooo, I have been researching on the internet.  At the moment, I am quite low on choices of colour in Fimo so I am going to try the simpler method.  If I do not like the results, I can try making some using the eye can method.  Luckily I do have a decent range of paints.  Fingers crossed it will work out but, either way, I will post pictures of the results along with the items I bought yesterday.

Feeling excited and nervous.  They made it look easy on the internet (isn't that normally the way?) so I hope it is just that.

I will post again soon    :)

Confession

My last post was about my second doll arriving.  I was sooooo happy and rightfully so, she is very pretty.  Unfortunately, the itch to do something set in.  I contacted the dealer I ordered Elsa through and it looks like it could be another 6 weeks after they return from Chinese new year break!!!  To say I am disappointed is an understatement, I had been hoping as I had ordered it in November, it would at least be in the process of being produced meaning less waiting time... Anyway, that is kind of off track.

All this waiting and wanting to work on a project led to me making an impulse order.

She was cheap and in stock.  How could I resist?  And here she is.

I covered her for modesty sake as you can see.

Of course, as I had ordered Hujoo Berry, I needed to get her a wig, eyes, putty (just in case) and eye lashes.

Unfortunately, the eyes are oval and I would need to file the eye sockets etc for them to fit so I am not using them and will use some round eyes.  I want to work on her but want things to be relatively simple for a first face up and customisation.

Tonight I started the customisation.  I have used mainly pastels on her face for blush and lip colour.  I also used pastels on her eyelids.

For some reason the colours on her face look a lot more orange and yellow in this picture but, it does give an impression of the look at this point.

I used water colour pencils at this point as I had heard it made detailing the hairs on the eyebrows easier.  I used Tamaiya matt sealer to seal the face-up at various points.

The final part for today was painting a fine line of eye liner and lower lashes.  I must admit, I am very very happy with the result for a first face-up.

From my experience so far, I would highly recommend a hujoo doll if you are wanting to experiment with customising and are worried about the cost.  Obviously as she is ABS, there is a big difference between her and a resin doll but there is also a big difference in the cost.  I have found her very easy to work with so far and would say to look into them more and not write them off just because they are not resin..

I am definitely going to invest in another and next time be a little more adventurous with the face up, possibly going for a gothic look.
I am gluing in the upper eye lashes in another day, when I have the eye balls that I am going to use as until she is complete, I am keeping her safe in a bag to protect her.