Super sekrit ponee projekt

Over the past few weeks I've been working on a very different project than usual. A little while ago I convinced my husband to watch some of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes with me and since then he's turned into a bigger MLP fan than I am. I'm not a very big fan to tell the truth, I just think the ponies are cute and entertaining if you want something cheerful and simple to watch. My husband watches it for the same reasons, but he seems to like it more. Anyway, we've seen some of the MLP dolls and my husband's been pretty disappointed by the overall look of the Rainbow Dash toy.

This:


Doesn't really look like this:




Hasbro's toy has a milder, sweeter look to it, more suited to a pretty princess and the Rainbow Dash of the series is a rough, high flying tomboy.

I decided that I would create a more accurate looking Rainbow Dash and surprise my husband with it for Valentine's. We don't really celebrate Valentine's, I'm just using it as an excuse to give him a present. :p

I suck at styling doll hair so I decided to yank out all of my Rainbow Dash's hair and give her a molded hair piece instead. I found some awesome molded hair kits from OtakuSquirrel on deviant art and I was tempted to order one. I decided to try my had at making one of my own and I used his WIP pictures a lot for reference. I think that OtakuSquirrel's hair mods are a lot better than mine, but I'm pleased with how the hair turned out in the end.

WIP picture.



I molded the hair out of some beige clay I had lying around (couldn't find my non-Fimo Soft white clay). I didn't want to risk melting the pony in the oven so I boiled the pony's head with the hair on it. I baked the hairpiece in the oven after it had hardened in the  boiling water.

Over the next couple of weeks I sanded and painted the pony while my husband was asleep. He goes to bed earlier than I do because he has to get up for work really early in the morning. I redid the face as well as painted another cutie mark on her left flank (what's up with Hasbro giving ponies a cutie mark only on one side now?). I had a heart attack moment when I was halfway through painting the cutie mark because it was the WRONG WAY AROUND. I then discovered that the mark I had been painting was in fact the right way around according to the show, and that the default mark on the toy was actually the one that was the wrong way around...




I think the grin kinda makes her look evil. Not entirely satisfied, but it'll do.The carved lines are so wonky. That's what I get for using a piece of wire to do the grooves instead of a proper tool. All that's left to do now is to touch up those white spots and glue all the pieces together. I'm uncertain of what to use, super glue? A hot glue gun? And I'll also need to keep my mouth shut till Valentine's. I've been so close to spilling the beans several times now! I'm sure my husband suspects something from all the Rainbow Dash pictures on my computer and all that talk about a secret project that I'm working on but won't show him. He commented last night that he thought I was a bigger pony fan than him because of all the pony stuff I'd been looking at. It's research! But those pony toys are starting to look really cute and ripe for customising...

Completed Sylvanian Post Office (finally!) and other misc stuff

Wow, it's been a really long time since I updated. I've been in a funk lately, I have no motivation to get anything done. Not having regular hours and feeling lonely can get you down. Oh well, we'll see what the new year brings, I've applied to a few places and we'll see if I land anything more permanent. At the moment I'm not starving or unable to pay bills, and can afford luxuries, so I'm really in a much, much better place than a lot of people. I should be grateful.

Anyway, let's get on to the post office update! Yes, after so long, I've finally completed refurbishing the building. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here they are. Apologies for the crappy pics and lighting.




This is the thing that took ages for me to finish.



It suffered from a combination of indecision and procrastination. I couldn't decide what to fill the shelves with or how to arrange things to look nice. I originally envisaged little baskets to hold the postcards, but my miniature basket making was fail. For a long time I just spread out the postcards overlapping each other on the top shelf. This thing from Rainy Blues saved me and helped me make that little tray. I encourage anyone who's interested in making little mini boxes and accessories to visit the site, it's awesome. I've got a few different sets of writing paper there too, but they're all hiding under the top sheet :P


Nearly hidden on the right wall we have a poster. The original post office came with a couple of posters so I figure this one should have at least one too.



I love this poster! It's so cute. It's a printout of a real vintage post office poster. While I'm not sure it really fits the overall decor of the post office, I like it enough I don't care. Broken kitty is here to stay!

Now for the inhabitants of this little post office.



Samuel Stamp is the postmaster of this little post office. He stays indoors, doing important Postmastery things. It's nice and warm inside, out of all that rain, sleet and snow that Postman Pete has to bike through. On rainy days he likes to sit with a nice cup of hot chocolate and think of all the rain he's not out in.

This is Postman Pete Petite.



He delivers the mail on his trusty bike. Through rain, sleet or snow and braving hordes of angry dogs, he'll make sure that model of a five tentacled squid with hilarious tentacle movement action you bought on ebay gets to you. Or die trying. He's THAT dedicated guys. This postman is actually the JP version which doesn't come with a bike, unlike the UK version, so I repainted a Bobby Roberts bike I got in a lot. The parcel actually fits in the police bike basket, whereas the UK postman bike has a basket that's too small for the parcel the set comes with.

Time to take care of the customers.





Anyway, this ends the post office update. Now I just need to finish all the other buildings I'm currently working on. Eeep.

I've also been working on some Valentine heart cookies. I'm hoping to get these to the dollhouse shop at Strathalbyn in time for them to sell. If I manage to finish on time this will be my first sale. Or trade. Because they have some stuff I'd be willing to trade for...




I love craft sand. It simulates sugar so well, and looks so good on the cookies IMHO. Craft sand proved to be a PIA to find online when I was looking. Everything was either huge bags for wedding decorations or cost more than I wanted to pay. Eventually I found a local seller who was selling sand art kits with included an assortment of tiny little bags of sand. Jackpot! The amounts of sand in those little bags were just the right amount I needed for small projects and will probably last me quite a while. I'm just sad there was no black sand in the set he gave me though.

This cookie project is also the first time I plucked up enough courage (yeah, I'm afraid of everything  so sometimes it takes me ages to try something because I feel so apprehensive of failure) to try using mini piping bags to do the piping work instead of using a pin like I had been doing before. The pin in the photo is just for scale this time! Anyway, I find using the piping bag easier than the pin. My biggest problem is shaky hands that make the piping work look lumpy and uneven. Practice, practice, practice!

Btw, after taking that picture I accidentally put my thumb on that cookie and messed it up.


Horror game stuff ahead:

I've been playing a PSP visual novel type game called Corpse Party. It's a really good and very, very creepy game. Just looking at  it, you wouldn't think that it'd be capable of being creepy. It uses 2D sprites and backgrounds and anime style artwork. The creep factor is really in the great sound work (voice acting, sound effects) and the descriptions of various things a in the room your character is in. You can't really see most of what is described to you, but I think it enhances the horror factor by forcing you to use your imagination.



The general storyline goes like this: A group of students are telling ghost stories after school, and then decide to perform a ritual that will ensure their friendship for years to come. There is a sudden earthquake and they wake up in Heavenly Host Elementary, a school that had been destroyed years ago. Now they have to find a way out, and figure out why they are here.

My description really doesn't do the game justice. All I recommend is picking this up and playing it through if you like horror and are prepared to do a lot of reading. Be warned though, this game is not about usual gameplay, but about atmosphere. Also, if you play this game, you must do so with a good set of headphones to get the full effect. The sound work is really integral to the mood of the game. Voices of the dead will speak to you from nowhere, sounding like they are right there in the same room as you, laughter and cries will flow from one side of your headphones to the other, like something invisible just passed you. Yeah, I'm not really good at this description thing. Anyway, I love this game and I'm about to start the last chapter.*hearts*

Zombie Teddy, RL Woes

I made this for my husband for our anniversary about a month ago. I made him an experimental teddy bear phone charm a while back out of air dry clay and it kind fell apart after one day. He'd been asking me for a replacement ever since. He likes zombies, so Zombie Teddy was born. And I gave up on the air dry clay, this one's made of polymer clay.

Zombie Teddy was a lot easier to make than the miniature food I've been focusing on. I don't have to worry about washing my hands every single time I touch something non-clay just to keep all the little specks of dust out of the clay I'm working on, and I don't have to worry about getting the exact shade of colour either. As it is, this bear came out darker than I expected after baking and darker still after painting.

General reception of Zombie Teddy has been really positive. My hubby loves it and surprisingly, the old ladies at the local church craft center thought it was cute too. I've received a couple of requests from friends to make them some zombie animals and I'll post them up here when I'm done. I also need to get started on the second round of bread and foodstuffs for Pinky, the amount of stuff I sent is no where near enough to fully kit out a bakery. Some ideas are more cookies--decorated ones this time, darker breads to contrast the light coloured ones I sent, and maybe a couple of cakes for the cake window. A few tarts would be good too. Cupcakes would be great, but I'm afraid to attempt them, haha. Those dents down the sides are daunting :p. If only I could cheat by finding something small enough to make cupcake molds out off. Nothing's satisfied me so far!


I'm currently feeling quite down about my job. This relief teacher thing is not going well. I chose it because after volunteering in a few Australian high school classes, I realised how different they were from Bruneian classes and I kinda freaked a bit. I thought that by being a relief teacher I would gain some experience and more confidence in working with these kids. The problem with being a relief teacher is that I don't get enough work. Currently, most of the relief work is being given to the permanent relief teachers who are attached to schools. I've had a teacher try to request me for his Indonesian class, but had to come back and tell me that that position had been given to a permanent relief teacher (they get first dibs). Another job I had lined up for next Wednesday has been cancelled because the meeting the class teacher was supposed to go to had been postponed. It's really quite depressing having two of your jobs cancelled in a row. I doubt I'll get anymore this term, but I'm still hoping. I've applied to the only permanent relief teacher job opening available locally and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I'm not feeling very optimistic about my chances, being a new, inexperienced teacher and all. Blah. 

Birthday stuff and melon pan turtles

My right hand hurts so I'm not going to type much. I had my birthday at the end of September and it was a wonderful day. I went out for lunch with the knitting group, got a few unexpected gifts and had pasta with my husband at home later that night. My husband had asked me what I wanted for my birthday so I picked out a few Sylvanian items. We ordered late so they actually arrived exactly a week after my birthday. He went and surprised me with the Watermill Bakery on the day itself, because he's sweet like that. I had been staring at the bakery at the local toyshop for months, but never got it because I already had another bakery.  A couple of my closest friends from Brunei sent me the Toymaker set because they thought it was just right for someone who made toys. And my brother-in-law unexpectedly gave me a couple of the baby carry cases. <3




Another two friends pooled together and got me a Lalaloopsy doll. How awesome is that? It's something that I think is cute but would never have gotten  on my own. They're expensive here and I'm already spending all my spare money on other things :P



I got my first teaching paycheck today too :D. Yay!

I've also been working on some sample packets of mini food for the Sylvanian Families forums. I thought that would be a good way to get over feeling iffy about the quality of my product. I've been working on Turtle melon bread, you'd think something that looks so simple would take a lot less than 10 hours to make... I'm sure it took at least that long because I went through a few Midsomer Murders eps and a good chunk of the American version of Life on Mars while working on those turtles. Speaking of Life on Mars, I love that show. It's a pity it never got renewed for a second season. I'll have to pick up the British version at some point because it looks like they actually finished the series and had a sequel besides. I just hope the characters are as fun as the ones in the American version. I love Lt Gene Hunt!

Anyway back to the turtles; I decided to brush some green pastel over the 'shells' because I saw some very cute green melon bread turtles on the net. The colour ended up too bright so I brushed some yellow ochre over the green, which made it look less radioactive.

Some WIP pics:









Tailless, unbaked turtles. They all have tails now, but they're still unbaked. I like to make a whole heap of things before putting them in the oven. Unfortunately that opens up unbaked items to risk of damage. One of my turtles ended up with an unexpected gouge on the top of its head.




I'm also working on decorating that gingerbread house. Not entirely sure how to proceed from here, but I'll figure something out.

I also spend most of my hobby time last night trying to make a kiwi cane. This was my second attempt. The last time I tried I ended up with something that had some very big seeds among all the small ones. I ended up having some parts with no seeds this time. I squashed the cane and tried again, and this was the result:



GAH. The wonky lines! The wonky seeds! Ultra Fail. Squish and retry tomorrow.

Finished bread, Sylvanian babies

I've finished the first round of bread for Okasaneko and myself.



We'll each get half of these.



These loaves would also look rather familiar to some. That's because I made similar ones a while back while I was experimenting. I really need to expand my range of bread, I don't want to be making the same ones over and over again.


I do think the cuts on the short loaves are too deep, but nothing I can do about it now. At least this time I got the baguette scaled properly.



:P Still need to cover it with some matte varnish though. Next I'll make some melon pan turtles and look up some other types of bread to make, I don't think what I've done so far is nearly enough to fill the shelves. Plus the more variety the better!

I've also included some pics of a Sylvanian figurine next to the bread, and some in a bakery window.



The windows still look rather bare, so I need to make more goodies to fill it up!




Speaking of Sylvanians, I got this set a few weeks back, and it's one of the most adorable things ever!



It was also an excuse to get that three tier bunk bed, which has darker coloured bedding in this release (it has pastel tones in the regular release). I'm still not really sure where to put this set though. Maybe I should make a very simple little room out of styrofoam and wood for this? :P
 
I used my accumulated points on BeHappy's site to buy this, which meant that I ended up not having to pay for shipping. I probably would not have gotten it otherwise. I think at AUD36.49, BeHappy offers the best price for this set online. I've not seen cheaper anywhere else. On ebay it's available from various sellers from around AUD51 - 61, not including shipping (ouch).

Anyway, here's a pic of some adorable baby critters:

Phone covers and misc updates

So much for updating twice a week... :p
Anyway I want to blog about these lovely phone covers from Okasaneko.



She sent them as a gift and I have to say I absolutely love them. I had thought I would like the black one better from her pictures, but I've ended up falling hard for the pink one.



Look at it! It's so cute and pink! I've loved pink as a young girl (what young girl doesn't like pink? All the 3-4 year old girls at the kindergarten I volunteer at seem obsessed with the colour) and tried to switch to liking the 'cooler' black as a teen--to the point where I got some rather ill advised thick black framed glasses that I thought would make me look cool but ended up making me look like a grandmother instead... Now I'm back to admitting that I really do love pink, especially pastel pink.


That's not to say I don't like the black cover, I think it's pretty awesome as well. It's great having two phone covers I can switch back and forth with. Thanks very much again Pinky!

I've also picked up something very useful last week:



It's that green grass-like matting that you find on produce shelves in the supermarket. I was able to pick up several rolls that were being thrown away. They're a little dirty, and in one of the mats the dirt is so fine that I haven't been able to remove it completely. These are really great for my display shelves. Since I don't like just displaying items by themselves, I'm working on a number of dioramas on my bookshelves to display my stuff.

The green makes excellent grass, a lot better than the green felt I've been using. You can see a bit of it at the top of the pic.



I don't have very good pictures of my shelves, I need to set up a better light source. The grass is only the beginning, I'm planning to add flowers, a blue 'sky' backdrop, fences and maybe a couple of bushes or trees. I took some other pictures for this post but they didn't come out very well, so I'm going to redo them over the weekend. I will probably not have time till then.



I'm currently playing Fallout 3, and it's really fun. I actually started playing last year and never really went past Megaton, which is like, one of the first areas you get to. I restarted again recently with a brand new character and I've been hooked. The world in all its ruin is an awesome place to explore, it's full of fifties inspired surroundings and the old fashioned music somehow really suits the post-apocalyptic feel of the game. Love it. Too much, because my right hand hurts now. The picture is a Rad-Away ad because I can't find my screenshots. :/

I also want to say that I just got a call from the local primary school for a relief teaching job on Thursday. YAY! Finally! I've been volunteering in schools for quite a long time, hoping to get noticed and get a call to come in. I'm a bit nervous about this assignment, and the nervousness will continue to grow as it gets nearer to the day. I got an assignment to do four hours in a kindergarten last week and I couldn't sleep the night before. :/ And I've been volunteering at that kindy every week for the last 1.5 years! I know all the kids and the routines! I don't know anything about the primary school's routines because I've never volunteered there. >_< I hope I do well. Can I have some prayers and good wishes? :D I hope that once I start really working for the schools I'll get more calls, especially next term (there's only two weeks left into this term). I'm going to go bother the other schools sometime this week to see if they have anything lined up for next term which I can hopefully do.

The Shoe Bunny Giveaway

The Shoe Bunny is having an awesome giveaway over at her blog. I found out about it quite late, that's why I'm only posting about it now. There's still a day left and details are here: http://theshoebunny.blogspot.com/2011/08/100-followers-giveaway.html