A Rose By Any Other Name...

I have been a little naughty to my loyal readers this month. I have been fighting the good fight and seeing a project at work I have been taking point on get implemented, working out the problems,  soothing frustrations, being a cheerleader, gritting my teeth avoiding defenestrating those who get on that one last nerve I have left (always a good practice regardless of your stress level), and just carrying on as best I can (again, another good practice). Needless to say (yet I am saying it anyway), staring down a computer in my down time has become a little less desirable.   However, guilt weighs heavily, plus I had a chance to play this week, which is a win-win for all, depending on your point of view. 

The journey started when I was looking up putz houses again - yes, something about this time of year makes me want to glitter something (I blame the weather and the sparkly white precipitation we have had a couple of times already this month). I came across an interesting site that had this little beauty on it....

Neat, right? It is a paper recreation of a Christmas Market in Mondorf Germany. I will have to take their word for it, as Google has failed me and I can't for the life of me find an *actual* picture of the town at Christmas time. The actual pattern can be found here . Two things about this project...a) it isn't technically "in scale" or any one scale. It is labelled as "naive" (code word for someone took artistic license and played fast and loose with scale). Secondly, the directions are in German. Not a problem, just learn German ( Or consult a translation service , your choice) and Franz is your onkel. Just be aware, if you do use a translation program, these things don't do well with slang, local idioms, etc., leading to very strange instructions indeed. It reminds me of a joke told once of an English phrase, which was translated to Russian, and back to English. The phrase was "The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh Is Weak". The final translation at the end was "the booze was good, but the meat is rotten". Granted, this was in the early days of translation software, and it has come a long way from those heady days when your modem went 'screeeeee!' to get you on line, but don't write any legal documents based on the translations, no matter how good they seem at the time.

Without any further ramblings, here is my first foray was the little Karussell (I am betting you won't need a translation). 

I love a good Karussell - it was always my favourite ride at the fair, although it was too tame for most of my peers. Honestly, it was a bit slow for all but the tiniest of riders, but these were horses, and I have a weakness when it comes to the ponies.  To print the patterns, I used cardstock, and I used a fixative on the ink before I started mucking about with it. The little pieces are very finicky and intricate, but are worth a careful effort. 

Having finished my Karussell, I went on to the Das Hafenschlossen (or "The Harbour Castle"). It took me quite a while to cut out the carcass...

 Again, the translations made things a bit slow, and this is what one might call a puzzle. Once it goes together, you say "oh, that is brilliant", but it does take some careful thought. 

A tiny outcropping on the left hand side of the building (no, your other left). This is not your typical square saltbox house, so there are all sorts of interesting architectural manipulations. 

The roof piece, cut out and partially glued. 

The first part of the roof, applied to the carcass. 

This part had me stymied, because there really wasn't any obvious place to put the stripe-y bit that I could see. I realized that I had accidentally tucked a roof piece under where it shouldn't have been too, and once I had my roof  fixed and saw the bare underside I realized  - oh yes - back in the Ol' Kimberley Days, where we had our very own Bavarian City, there were timbers used as decoration for the town square buildings, so what else could the stripe-y bit be? 

Building a tower - this side was trickier than the other tower, as it had 4 different cut outs that were stacked and glued together (the other side only had two and the spire was bigger - truly inspiring...see what I did there? No? okay, continuing on...). Again, I marvel at how well designed this project is, as it went together quite beautifully. 

The spire completed for this side of the Harbour Castle. 

 Building a tower piece for the other side of the castle. 

The second turret with spire. 

Add a couple of balconies, and voila, Das Hafenschlosschen! I will start on the church I think next, probably the second most complicated building. When I relax, obviously, I don't play around!


To get you starting to think about Christmas, I have added today a little video on how to make Christmas Sugar Cookies (by Loida Gracia). Enjoy! 

Until we meet again,  my little darlings!

Time Is The Enemy Of Us All

Here we are at another time change. It seems like the last one just a mere eight months ago.  I gained an hour this morning, so I made the most of it by sleeping in. 

Anyway, it has been pretty busy here at chez la vida loca, what with this week being Halloween, and with work being one adventure after another. I have been lax with my blog because quite frankly, my fingers hurt and my eyes are a little strained from learning a new system and saving others from themselves. I thought I had better, however, feed the machine regardless of personal pain and anguish ... <hand goes dramatically to forehead>

Yes, well, that is one person's opinion. 


Anyway, this week I remembered why Britannia rules the waves, in that I received my lovely dolls from Robin Britton  , and in record time too I must say, as it took only 4 short days to arrive all the way from England to Canada. Oh Joy, oh Rapture! I have to wonder if there wasn't a TARDIS assist involved here, because I have had letters take 4 months to arrive IN the country to get where they were going...possibly she used this service? 

Either way, interfering Time Lords or the Royal Mail magicians, I have received these beauties! 

Salty Sam - Love me a sailor!

Angus! Isn't he handsome. I am a sucker for a man in a Kilt.

Florrie (in the blue bathing costume, who I had Robin change a little to make her older)

Aren't they lovely? What a wonderful thing to have on your door step after a long hard week! I will be doing a seaside tableau, and I do have part of my beach hut made. 

It is coming along slowly but surely, but it is off season so no one is too worried it is still under construction.  I put it aside, admittedly, because I had a good inspiration for my Pedlar's cart - a witches' coffee trolley! It was one of those amazing "in the zone" times, and ideas and such sprang unbidden from my hands. I love it when that happens - much better than when everything just crumbles to dust. I really hate that. 

 Once again, the cappuccino machine I made. That is where I left it a couple of weeks ago. I found my machine a little too ungainly for the space, in that the base was a tad too big. I solved that by adding a small raised stand for the machine, and no worries mate from that point on!

I needed a little display stand too, as I wanted to be able to show off some of the fine products that could be purchased at the "Witches Brew" coffee cart. I decided that my dear witch was fairly innocuous, but she is a witch, so it is expected of her to have certain items for sale, although her real passion of course is brewing coffee for unsuspecting individuals looking for that magic cup of ambition, and she has discovered people are far more willing to pay for that kind of magic than anything else.  I made the above display out of 10 lengths of stock wood piled up in a pyramid, with smaller sticks accenting the structure. I wanted a rustic look, but certainly a nicer display could be built in a number of different ways or materials. This was nice because I didn't have to cut too many sides and make sure everything was level because it was already milled - i.e. I was lazy.

I wanted a little pot of coffee beans, so Esme (just calling her by her title was getting a little too formal) could have a stock of beans ready to scoop into the grinder. The pot is a copper pipe fitting, the beans mustard sees that were painted and varnished, and the scoop I carved out of some very accommodating balsa wood. 

 
 I needed some little potion bottles. They are very expensive and very difficult to find at the best of times (especially if you are searching in the jewellery aisle and they happen to be "trendy"), so imagine my great glee when I found some nail art in teeny perfectly sized glass (not plastic, but glass) jars. And they were pre-filled, so I didn't have to do much except label them, and they were dollar store finds, so in-ex-pen-SIVE! I found labels on the interweb, and went from there.

The final result. I could have changed the stoppers, but I kind of like the look this has, it would be more what you would see on a real witches' cart.  Well, maybe not a quote unquote "witches cart", but definitely the stoppers look more realistic in my eye than would a giant piece of cork.

Esme is happy to sell precognition devices, such as these crystal balls.  Our big box craft store had, in the floral aisle, decorative glass marbles. I paired these with some interesting bead spacers and caps, and a crystal ball was born. 

What Witch would be caught dead without little mysterious bottles of elixirs and potions? Not mine, that is for sure. Again, little decorative bead spacers, a variety of beads and findings, and a mustard seed as a bottle stopper (these were painted and varnished, to keep the critters at bay...I hope). Next time I make bottles, though, I will use a pin or a piece of metal to keep them lined up, and avoid gluing my fingers together - again.

As you can see, there is halloween carnage everywhere.  On the top shelf of the cart, you see a black widow spider plant, a lovely cake, some cookies (most likely gingerbread), tea and coffee for sale, and hanging on the sides there is a little garlic (for that vampire pest you have been meaning to get rid of) and an unnamed  and mysterious herb on the other side, but is always present on these types of carts for some reason - possibly for the look of the thing. On the side,  there are apples - poisoned upon request. The coffee grinder was a metal mini I found at some show or other, and I added some bling to it to dress it up. A bit of sugar to sweeten our coffee, the beans, the coffee pot, a cup hanger, and a lovely little spoon holder (bead spacer and bead caps - and for a change I actually had something as mundane as spoons...) The bottom I am not totally sure about yet. I like these apothecary jars, but feel they should be in a scene where they can be more prominent to show them off, especially the interesting tarantula in a jar (perhaps a wizard is in my future, I will check my crystal ball). I made some little bushel baskets for produce, although perhaps there will be something else, we will see.  There is a little black cat hidden at the base, which was a cheap resin mini which I repainted. 

 A little better picture, with Esme ready for business! 

Closer in for a little more detail. 

My little coffee mug holder, which is made like the fairy trees I have done in the past,  bits of wire with beads wound around, and wound around again to make a trunk, but I have added little bats for accents. The base is a bead on a bead spacer. Hmm, I could have sworn there were 3 spoons on my spoon holder, hopefully one didn't escape. 

For the hubcaps I used teeny little crow stickers. In real life I hate crows with a passion, because of their hateful call, and the fact that when they have a nest nearby they insist on strafing me - every blasted freakin' day that nest is occupied - and they will cut you, oh yes they will. You would think they would, as they do see you every day, realize that you are not about to scramble up a dumb tree to steal an egg, but they are not as smart as they would like you to believe, sadly. However, as long as they are cute and sparkly and not dive bombing me, they make a cute accent for my cart. 

Close up of my pre-poisoned apples, and one of the cute signs I resized and printed.

The handle side, and another pithy sign. 

So my dear, what can I get you today? 

There are a few other things I would like to do with the cart, but with all Zone Euphorias, this one petered out and I am done for awhile. Still, I think I carpe'd the diem right out of this quite nicely. 

To finish off, perhaps we would like to make a charming (see what I did there?) little apple pie ... happy 3rd day of November everyone, and may your witches brew never be bitter! 

N.A.M.E. of the Game

October, of course, is Miniatures Month, and to celebrate, our group recently participated in the N.A.M.E. project day.  We built as a group a pedlar's cart - we had a choice of 1/4 scale, 1/2 scale, or 12th scale - or we could do a combination of all three. I ended up doing a 12th scale, but have the 1/4 scale in my stocks at the moment. I did some last minute shopping, assuming there is one left, of 1/2 scale, because one can never have too many pedlar's carts, amirite? 

We started the day off early - too early, some would say, but they soon left  and we were left to get off to a roaring start (after some initial misfires, but that often happens I suppose). 

As always, we start by opening the lovely packages and staring excitedly at the plans, then start looking furtively left and right to see how everyone else is starting. This kit was complete, including wheels an' an' EVERYTHING. The only things we really needed to bring was our tools and glue, but we never go anywhere without those, right? 

  Figuring out which part goes where. Would have been nice to have had diagrams or the pieces labelled, but since the large cart was all of $7, one mustn't grumble. The big trick was to keep your pieces organized, however.

 Getting everything square was crucial, so great care was taken.

 The cart box, taking a little more shape. I, of course, managed to put the small drawer on the wrong end again, but I have decided that is how I roll (get it, roll? cart? yeah? Nothing? hoookay then.)

 Time to start adding the bottom structure, with cart struts, etc. 

Flipping 'er over, and adding wheels and top supports. 

 Little elves, working hard - oh yes PRODUCT PLACEMENT. International Delights, I hope you are paying attention and are willing to award us with swag? 

 No time for pie! Must build....
 

 People happily working, and just getting the job done. 

Just before the wheels went on. The wheels were clever, although one had to be very careful not to force the axle too hard - there were a few sad little snaps happening. I found my axle too thick so I did a little judicious sanding just at the end.

 The trellis, or just starting of same. This was perhaps the most complicated portion of the cart, with the least directions. Again, though, if everything is handed to you, what fun is it?

 The finished cart! I stained mine raspberry, and then went over it again with mountain green. I roughed it up as well. I am quite pleased with it. At this point, a picture formed in my mind of what I wanted to do - a coffee cart (this may have had something to do with an early threat in the day of there being no coffee forthcoming. They don't know how close I came to leaving right there and then. No coffee is grounds for dismissal, after all. Happily coffee did appear and no one got beaned). My coffee cart will have a twist, however. I have a lovely doll I bought from dear Cate many years ago...my lovely Esme. Esme strikes me as a lady who likes to socialize, and coffee is a social drink.

Esme of course is pictured with a mandrake root, which is around here somewhere, I just can't find it. If you look closely in the cart, I do have a spider plant in there, but I have to find my mandrake too. I have a great many ideas, and not enough hours in the day, but it will all come together (this is why we need more than one cart, I suppose). Anyway, Esme specializes in Witches Brew coffee. There will be a few references as well - she will sell some apples (its a family thing), along with coffee, treats, potions and spells. I have to dig out all my Halloween ephemera that I have floating about, and I have been taking advantage of Halloween sales as well this past week to get supplies for her cart. 

Also, I wanted potion jars, as Esme is going to be asked for spells and what self-respecting witch goes out without her magic? Now, these right scale jars can be expensive and hard to find. However, I went into a dollar store and scored - very inexpensively - nail art kits. They were $2 a piece. I got 18 jars in total, and I don't even really have to fill them either. Granted, I got a lot of nails and glue, but I am sure we can find a use for those as well. If you know someone fashion-forward tween, you might be able to beg jars off them as well.

I also made Esme a rather wild little Cappuccino machine - this is what happens when you listen to vintage Dr. Who while you design, it is a very fun Cap machine indeed! I have posted the instructions for this before, and I will again (with the suggestion, don't have the sound on  - just trust me on this, okay?). This is basically a copper pipe fitting (any hardware store, and they are inexpensive - some of the fittings look a lot like other things, it is worthwhile to dig!)  and an assortment of different jewellery findings etc. Mine came out a little more steam punk,  but that is okay, Esme is not your average vendor.

 
 What, you say? What did everyone else do with their carts? Well, I haven't gotten any pictures in yet, although one talented  and well organized lady (Sherrill) did finish a wonderful 1/4 scale flower cart. She made every single flower herself as well (premade, I should say, and I have said this other times, the success is ALWAYS in the pre-planning). She had a whole tray of OMG SQUEEEE flowers, and darn it if she didn't use each and every last one. 

Her flower pots were quite interesting - these are beads glued together, or interesting beads, etc. She used a superglue gel to build bead vases. Apparently it is a unicorn substance, because it appears rarely and to only to certain people. I did find a superglue with a brush included, which actually was close and a lot more useful than the tubes. The flowers above were made from pre-cut petals that Sherrill found at one of the shows, but she took the bits of paper and made magic.
 

Examples of her metal vases from jewellery findings....

These little vases below are actually pieces from turned newell posts etc. 
Really, anything that looks right is good in 1/4 scale - much of it is sleight of hand. 
 

 This is Sherrill, diligently putting together the teensy 1/4 scale cart. This gives you a good idea just how small they were. Sherrill also built a stand in her cart to display her flowers, which I will do as well - it just gives you a bit of height and extra space. 

 Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it was difficult to keep still, if only because of the tiny size. 

A slightly clearer picture, which does not even come close to what this looked like in real life. The finished article, however! Well Done, that girl!

Hope you enjoyed the glimpse into the N.A.M.E. day event, as done by MECO! Until next time, my sweet petunias!