November 9, 2016

Ups and Downs

Picture taken at Yosemite National Park, California

It feels so good to write again! It's been a loooong time since I last posted on this blog. I spent maybe an hour to put together all the things I want to write about - I missed blogging so much!

"Fall down seven times, get up eight" fully describes my past half year. Life had prepared some hills for me to climb, yet I must say that I'm proud of running those hills down today without any big bruises, yay! After 2 medical operations and leaving my new company to join my old one again, I can say that I had my share of stress for the year 2016. Lessons learned:
#1: Take as much advice as you can get, but always trust your gut feelings
#2: No money or status can replace a healthy work environment
#3: Get regular health checks (which in my case saved me a lot of trouble)

After all the stress, me and my husband went to a well deserved holiday and it was such a great metaphorical moment when we hiked up to the Sentinel Dome at the Yosemite National Park. I felt as if all the weight had fallen from my shoulders and it was finally time to "enjoy". When standing at the tip of the dome, I really felt free and happy. We were really lucky with the weather that day.

My favorite picture from our Sentinel Dome hike.

Another picture from the beautiful Yosemite National Park.

Alright, so where is all the miniature in this? Well, you're right, there is none. With all the stress, work, operations, I did not have time at all to work on miniatures lately. The worst part is, I really want (or should I say wanted?) to participate to the HBS Creatin Contest this year, but I'm terribly behind and I am not sure if I can finish the project before the deadline. I keep my hopes up high but I definitely will have to abandon some ideas to be able to make it. For example, I wanted to make a real hand weaved rug for the living room, but it takes so much time to create the rug that this is the first thing I will have to give up. I even made my very own loom out of remainders of wood and some really thin nails. Below you can find some pictures of how I made it and what I did need as material.


 First I added some height to both shorter sides of the loom.

 Then I marked every 2mm on the elevations on both sides to ensure that the nails that will hold the string will have an equal distance on a straight line.

 This is a picture after I nailed all the tiny nails on to the marks I made. Once all nails were ready, I just tied a knot with the string on the first nail and warped it back and forth on the subsequent nails.

Once all was set, I put a stripe of carton on each end of the loom to create an area without knots, which later will end up being the fringes of the rug. Note that I walked the carton over and under the strings 1 string at a time for a better grip. The rest is pretty easy. Just select the color/type of string you want to use for the body of the rug and with the help of a sewing needle run it over and under the base strings row by row. Each new row you will need to inverse the sequence, so that if you had past over a base string in the earlier row, your color string should this time pass under the string. Repeat until rug is finished and tie a knot at the end. Before you taking the rug off the loom, take off 1 nail at a time, cut the freed string in the middle to form two fringes and tie a knot with these two to ensure that your rows stay in place. Voila! I tried to explain as best as I could in English, but if you have any questions please do ask.

For now this is how the interior of the project looks. I have planned something very special for the outside of the house, one of the reasons why part of the roof is hidden!

Another thing that took me quite a time was to make the custom windows. I'm happy that at least these are already done. To create these, I simply glued black colored wooden sticks on a thin transparent PVC sheet to ensure exact measurements. I glued sticks on both sides to create a more realistic look.

First I created the frame.

Then I filled in the remainder.


Ta da!

These are the only updates I can give for now. In the meantime I'm trying to catch up with other blogs as I could not follow any for a couple of months. Below are some really nice ones I already visited. Sorry for not leaving any comments on the posts, there are so many to read...

Keli's amazing Fall Color Pics.
My source of daily motivation @ Mockingbird Hill Cottage.
Brae's stunning model cars in progress.
Useful tips from Nancy on working with wood and her gorgeous plants.
Ilona's fantastic dolls and flowers.
Jodi's breathtaking contest project.
Casey's conservatory.
Evelyne's sweet feves on her Beatrix Potter showcase.

Hugs,
Susi

22 comments:

  1. Hi Susi!

    I love the Japanese saying and I will try to remember it for future application. Glad that you are on the down side of the hill in your life right now and trust that your life changes are making your life better, spiritually,mentally and physically.
    Your roombox project is streamlined and contemporary and I am glad to be able to follow your progress on it! :D

    elizabeth

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    1. Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much, I hope to post updates soon, keep tuned :)

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    2. Come back to blogging! Miss your content!!!

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  2. Susi, your work is incredibly exact, I love that. In the end, this precision is what makes it look real, Well done!

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    1. Hi Marion, this comment coming from you means a lot to me. For me, you're the 1st person I think of, when it comes to precision. Your projects are great and I just recently happen to have bought some of your shapeway creations, which are amazing!

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  3. Me alegra mucho de que hayas superado tu bache y vuelvas a disfrutar con todo. Ojalá termines tu escena a tiempo pero si no pudieras, que eso no te ponga triste, disfrutar haciéndola ya es un magnífico premio! Me encantará seguir viendo tus avances. Un abrazo! :)

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment. Indeed, working on the project is so much fun, that missing the deadline is definitely not going to stop me from finishing it. I hope I can find some time to work on it in the next weeks and give you some more updates in the meantime...

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  4. Hi Susi, welcome back! Yes, I've missed you in the blog world. I also like the Japanese saying, it seems that it was applicable to your situation. Wow, lots has happening to you, but I do hope you're doing better now...?Sometimes life needs serious changes, but thankfully you had a great time on vacation.
    I'm glad that you are back into making miniatures and your roombox already looks wonderful. It is like Marion says: your work is incredibly exact, I want to say the same.
    Thank you for sharing the way of weaving, I'm not familiar with this technique, but I think that you've described it clear, thank you :)!
    Take care. Kind regards, Ilona

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    1. Hi Ilona, it is so nice to hear from you. I'm doing much better now thanks! The holiday did indeed some good. I see the posts of your dolls which are amazing. All the details look so great! I'm sad that I missed the DHN show this year, hopefully I will be able to join next year. I read that you had a great time, your little purchases look fantastic!

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  5. Glad to see an update from you (and thanks for the link back). :D I loved Yosemite when I visited many years ago -- we had several days in the park and saw so many amazing scenes.

    It's a shame you have to abandon the rug for this project, but I do hope you finish it later. :]

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    1. I definitely will work on it after the deadline... until then, I will try to do my best with my never ending to do list!
      And Yosemite - right? It really is something... I just was sorry that we did not have to chance to stay longer, there were so many hikes that we still could have done :)

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  6. Adore where you've got to so far on this build and looking forward to seeing more! :-D

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    1. Hi, thanks for your comment! I'm just catching up with your posts about your trip and there is so much to see... Thank you for the great pictures!

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  7. Welcome back :)

    The window looks fantastic!

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    1. Thank you!
      Now a totally different and serious subject. We - my husband and I - have a confession to make which is long overdue: We love gratuitous Ester!

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  8. Every single person should live by these words 'No money or status can replace a healthy work environment' I'm so happy to hear you are back on top and happy again :0)

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  9. Hi, Do You Have A Youtube ? In Interested In Details On The Room Setting (Sink/Shelves)
    Thanks In Advance

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    1. Hi Mai, not yet, but it's work in progress. Thanks for asking! The reason why I did not consider it until a short time ago was that a Youtube channel needs lots of time and content; content is not an issue but time is another topic!

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  10. Hello my friend, I follow your work from Iran and I am an architect like you and I have to build a building for the latest project. I chose one of your works, but I do not have the plan and size of this model Will you let me make your structure and ask you for the sizes and plan?

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    1. A building that looks like this: ___. _
      |___|

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