I finally made something new.

I finally made something new. And took some pictures. I've been feeling very flat and unmotivated for the past few months.

I found a wonderful tutorial by ToniEllison for milk and cereal. It was fun if very time consuming to make. I need to do something about my bowls, they're not very good. And next time I think I'll make a little 'splash' to put at the base of the poured milk.

I think they look funny baking in the oven. I got a new toaster oven from the OP shop, but I didn't notice that it doesn't actually have a temperature control dial. Only options for heating from the top, bottom or both at once. Welp, at least it's smaller than my previous hulking beast at least?



I made three of them, with the red skim milk in the plain bowl being my favourite. It's also the one I made last so it has the least mistakes. I made an extra bowl of cereal with a spoon because I had so many left over cereal flakes.



I made the milk stream too high for Sylvanians. Mama Neptune had to stand on a chair to pour this. The stream works well with 1/6 dolls, though.


Shelly: Mama, where does milk come from?
Narrisa: Ducks, dear. Mr Waddlington delivers the milk.
Shelly: No, I mean WHERE does it come from? The carton has a picture of a cow on it, does this mean that Mrs Buttercup makes it herself--
Narrisa: Never you mind. Eat your cereal.

Yeah, where does Sylvanian milk come from anyway?

The Harvester Restaurant and some trade items

A while back I bought a Harvester Restaurant on Ebay. After much hunting, I found one within the country and surprisingly, it came with most of its accessories. I think the only things that were missing were a few of the clear glasses. It even had little circle cardboard cut outs of food which I didn't know came with the restaurant.

I decided to wallpaper it and use some of my Kabaya SF kitchen miniatures to decorate it. The Kabaya stuff was originally produced for the Kitchen Restaurant building, but it works well here as well. I don't have the Kitchen Restaurant (but badly want one!).

I need to improve my photography skills. I'm quite bad at it. I keep seeing all these gorgeous doll and toy photography on Flickr and get so frustrated by my lack of skill and understanding. The 'sky' shouldn't have tree shadows on it, haha.



Here's an interior shot. The wallpaper I found on a dollhouse site and I adjusted the colours in Photoshop until it was a nice shade of green. It was originally cream. That wallpaper suddenly makes the place look extra classy. (click on the pictures to see a bigger version)



Here's an interior shot with critters. I spent SO much time taking this picture. I've given up trying to make it look awesome. I'm leaving it as it is. I didn't set up the foremost table for two so it looks like Mrs Outback Koala has caught Mr Outback going out for a fancy-pants meal all on his own without inviting the rest of his family.

Carissa Outback: Bruce! So this is where you've been sneaking out to every afternoon! I thought you were having an affair! This also explains all that extra weight you've been putting on lately...



Here's a picture of the kitchen side of things. I love how crowded it looks! I've since rearranged things so stuff fits better. All the cans have been moved to the top shelf; much more space for them there. The cans all have a Cottontail chef on it. I guess he's some locally famous chef with his own brand of food stuff in Sylvania, heh.



I've also got a tin of Cottontail brand olive oil. Might have to go to my Flickr to get a close up. I haven't figured out how to widen the margins on this template to accommodate larger pictures without messing up the rest of the layout.

I was surprised that this set came with all its bottle labels too. Some are wine labels and some are syrup labels. I superglued all the labels back on as they were either falling off or plain loose. Says a lot about the quality of Sylvanian wine that the wine's the same neon red and green as the syrup...



I made two of the cans for the kitchen. The Kabaya sets did not provide enough cans for all the can labels they had--they expected you to choose which labels  you liked best. Imagine that! Of course I can't choose! The only solution was to make a silicone mold of the cans and cast them in resin.



Turned out quite well, I'd say.



Here are some close up interior shots:

Long ago, I bought a little container of glass miniature 'ice' from Etsy. I've used it to fill the bucket. It's a right pain when they spill, I tell you. And of course that red wine has to be kept under ice. Just look at it. Anything that bright red has got to be volatile. I also know I got the knife and fork placement wrong. Just couldn't be arsed retaking the pic.



Here's what the other table has. Some spaghetti and mushroom soup, with a nice glass of red. The spagehetti is from the Kabaya sets, just re-plated as the Kabaya plates are huge. They're very pretty plates, just really big for the little SF tables. The mushroom soup and Christmas tree is from Re-Ment, and the nice red wine glass is from Orcara's fantastic red wine set.






That's it for the Harvester restaurant pics.

I've also finally finished my end of the trade for a very nice lady on the SF forums. She's waited very patiently over a year for this. I've made a ton of extras to make up for my lateness, which made me even later, so that wasn't the best way to go about things...

Grand Mansion and zombie animals progress update

I've given my little zombies limbs and attached their accessories to them.



All except the green bear have accessories. The blue bunny is actually hiding a knife behind his back. All they need now is a coat of paint--except for the pink cat, he needs a tail and some bandages. I broke one of the petals off the yellow bear when I was putting her limbs on, but the good thing about zombies is that it doesn't matter. :p

The stone effect paint has finally dried and here's how the mansion looks like mostly put together:


I haven't reattached some of the doors yet.

I still need to correct all these mistakes I made while painting the building. *sigh* Carelessness makes more work! Here are just some of the things I need to fix, and there are two or three spots like this on every floor of the building.

Some grey smears:



Spots where I've removed the grey smears, but unfortunately had to take the nicely painted white with it.




That's all the updates I have for now. I hope to post about another project I've been doing, hopefully by tomorrow; but more realistically, it'll probably happen the day after.

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:

Bread and Badgers

 
Hugh: Daddy, I'm bored. Are we there yet? Where are we going anyway?  
 
Benjamin: There's no earthly way of knowing 
Which direction we are going. 
There's no knowing where we're rowing 
Or which way the river's flowing. 
Is it raining? 
Is it snowing? 
Is a hurricane a blowing? 
 
Hugh: Dad...  
 
Benjamin: Not a speck of light is showing 
so the danger must be growing. 
Are the fires of hell a glowing? 
Is the grisly reaper mowing? 
Yes! The danger must be growing-- 
 
Hugh: DADDY! Stop being scary! We're not even near the river!  
 
 
Bramble: Pfft, crazy badgers.  
---  
 
I've been working on some bread, both for my bakery and for Okasaneko. It's giving me a good practice so far. I'm also hoping that this project will start to give me enough incentive to get off my ass and start making things more often. I've wanted to make things for friends for a while now, but I've always procrastinated too much. Bad, bad, bad Pei. Bad. Here are the loaves that I've made; they're really basic items from Betsy's tutorial that I've made before, with a few modifications to the way the cuts on the short loaves look.  
 
 
 
Since I've made these before and know the colour mixes you'd think it would taken less time than almost three hours to just make the basic shape and texture the bread! I think sometimes that I'm too picky and I keep redoing the bread if the cuts don't look right. They still don't look 100% right, but I think I should leave it as it is lest I knead more dust into them... Ugh dust! The bane of any clay miniaturist!  
 
My previous project has not gone so well. I lack piping skills and these are the result.  
 
 
 
Look at all those horrible smears! I kept wiping the icing off the cupcakes because they were the wrong size, off center or the swirl I was trying to do didn't work out. Modelling paste is so messy to wipe off. I think I only got one good one out of all of these. On the bright side, I like my new modelling paste a lot more than my old paste. It's not translucent for one and definitely more icing-like. I'll try to do a comparison tomorrow.  
 
I haven't done anything to the orange slices and I've only given the cake a few coats of varnish. I've been trying to figure out the best way to decorate it--the way I had meant to do it looks kinda strange. As for the biscuits...  
 
 
 
The cats didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but with a little more practice and a few more experiments I hope to have some really cute critters soon. I went with brown acrylic paint for the biscuits, but paint is so thin that you can still see all the texturing. The biscuits look more like they are really half chocolate biscuits than cream-coloured biscuits dipped in chocolate.