Awards !

Well there appears to be a slew of awards floating around this weekend and so many of them have ended up at my feet.

Thank you, thank you very much (in my best Elvis voice)

Now, I don't believe there are enough people left to pass it on to so ....for all of you who make me laugh with your blogs and comments....here's a little video that cracks me up.

I give you the Penguin Slap.......

Happy St Patricks Day !

I might be a complete hybrid of races but I don't even have a teeny bit of Irish in me. Still any excuse for a Guinness I say, so Happy St Pats everyone:-)

I have to nip out and do some boring chores but I'll be back shortly and promise to catch up on all that's happening later.

Sorry peeps...my internet connection is slower than a moldy sloth on it's way to get a good hiding today.

I've published all the comments but I'll try and respond tomorrow...as it is, I keep getting timed out. :-(

Monday already ?

Well, in keeping with the meaning of my name that Brenda posted here on Friday.... we did what every irresponsible person does when there is lot of work to be done….we bailed.

Saturday morning we got up and decided we needed a mini vacation. We rarely have a plan other than we’ll head North, South, East or West. We just follow our noses and see where we land.

So, we headed over the mountains, through the Los Padres National forest and ended up in Santa Barbara. On Sunday we drove back down the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway through Ventura, Malibu & Santa Monica. It was my first time in Santa Barbara...wow...if ever I become a multi millionaire I shall move there. The Mission was spectacular....unfortunately, being a Sunday, we were unable to go in as there was a mass in progress but I will definately be going back one day.

So, no foxglove update today but I’ll leave you with some photos of our little trip.

I am not gong to be like your crazy old aunt and make you sit through a slide show of holiday photos but, if anyone is interested in seeing more photos of this beautiful state, and the rest of the country, you can see them here.

Now I need to go check all these emails :-)

TGIF

Today I really need to crack on and get some tops of foxgloves made. I don't want to start on the flowers while I am on a roll with the little buds so you'll have to bear with me.

in the meantime, for all you witchy and wizard people, I'll leave you with this photograph of a 12th scale wizard. He was made by Viola Williams and she wanted a staff for him. She was after something that looked like a tree branch that lit up.

Through the wonders of the internet and dollhouse groups, it ended up on our doorstep.

I made the staff and the mad scientist made it light up. It is a shame you can't see it in the photo but if flickers just like a real flame.

It was a different and fun project to do and as it turns out, Viola doesn't live too far from us so we got to meet her and her hubby which was lovely .....as was the lunch she made us :-)

For the nosey amongst us, and because I'll use any excuse not to mop, I thought I'd post some pics of the rest of my workroom.

This is my storage corner...although it is getting rapidly overtaken by computer paraphernalia. The monitor is ancient but Mick wants to set up a pc in the garage as a test machine for something. The black box is a server from Circuit City, they went into liquidation and were selling off everything including their servers...and Mick just had to have one.

These little drawers are perfect for storing minis in. Oh look another computer tucked up a corner.

This is mad scientists HQ. I have no idea what half that equipment is other than, in the case of an earthquake, I need to save that rather than my stuff as it costs $1000's

And here is the work area Mick built me in the garage...pretty cool huh :-) I am supposed to do all my messy work out there and not on the dining room table.

Clean up day

Well today I need to take a break and do some cleaning. My desk is a tip and that really needs sorting out before I move on.

And so is the house, I really must run a mop around to get up the dozens of little leaves that are all over the place....seriously they get everywhere. There is even one in the bathtub. I have no idea how it got there as we have a glass shower enclosure and the doors are shut lol.

Just look at my desk....ugh ! Definitely, time to dig out the reject tub :-)


I also have a bunch of personal emails to answer, I got so focused on these foxgloves I've been neglecting everything else...bad Tallooley.

Wooo $@*$!*&#$%& Hoo

Well folks...I do believe this is it.....I am pretty happy with this one :-)

See I do get there in the end. If anyone has any criticism about these speak up now or forever hold your peace :-)

I think the next lot can wait until tomorrow.

Starting again.

I know I said I'd go with that one till it was completed but it was just too bad and I couldn't....so more for the trash :-)

Now, you'll have to bear with me while I start again.

I've done the very top buds...these won't be poseable but this is the only way to get them so small.

I used exactly the same method of placing the leaves etc. Just be very careful if you give this a go...I cut my finger trimming one of the buds..nothing some zap a gap couldn't cure but be careful.

The leaves...well...they are now 1/32 of an inch.

Nikki...I hope you like the end result...at this point I do believe you'll be the only person ever to own some Tallulah Belle foxgloves. Shame I'll never be famous :-)


You'll have to trust me that they look much better in real life.....getting in so close makes them look awful :-(

Foxgloves continued

Lets try again.

Now I have to say at this point I hate how this plant is looking so far but figured I'd post it so you can all learn from my mistakes as well as learning any useful tips.

* * * * * * * *

Well I kinda jumped ahead of myself yesterday. Yes I do need to make those kind of buds but before those I need to make the ones above it on the plant.

These are easier and yes you can cheat a little.

Wrap floral tape around the end of your wire and shape as shown.

Push the end onto a flat surface then paint with the flower color. Blush the flower with green pastels then dip the flat end into white pastels. Then add the leaves as shown in a previous post but make them smaller so they don’t come all the way to the bottom of the bud. Cut of the wire.

I don't have a photo of a finished one, sorry, but that should be pretty self explanatory.

Now glue them to the main stem under the top buds.

For these I found the best way to attach them was :

Paint a thin line of sobo glue on the stem of the main plant. Then using a toothpick, paint the wire with super glue. Now very carefully, push this onto the thin line of sobo. Be warned …this is not easy….everything is so tiny and you will likely glue them to your finger many times. It will come off easily as it is such a tiny smidgen of glue. However, be sure to clear up any glue. Sobo and zap a gap gets really, really tacky and messy.

* * * * * * * *

Now to those other buds :-)

As is often the case, the best way to make parts of a flower look realistic is to put them together exactly how they are in real life.

As I mentioned above, sometimes there are shortcuts, but in this instance I wasn’t able to find one that looked real enough.

So here is how I did it:


As you did before, wrap some floral tape around the end of the wire. Shape it so it is bell shaped yet has a flat front end as shown. Dip in your flower color paint and set to dry.

Take a strip of the flower paper that is the same width as the diameter of the bud you just made and cut into this shape. Not even sure what shape to call it. I used a white water color pencil to draw around the top curve.

I tried paint but it wasn’t subtle enough, chalk was too subtle so a white pencil it was. An ordinary white pencil should do the trick as well….I just often use watercolor pencils so have those on hand.

Now you need to glue this round your bud. Do not glue the curved ends down yet. Once the main part is dry, take your tweezers and fold and glue the ends in. Glue the top and bottom down first then the sides and set aside to dry.

You will end up with something like this.

When it is finished, if the white looks too harsh then lightly dust it with some chalk in the same or similar color to your flower. Go slowly though….you don’t want to hide the white completely.

Then, as previously shown add some leaves around the base.

Now I have to say that, even for me, this step is really fiddly and a total pain in the bum. Maybe I'll come up with a different method at some point.

* * * * * * * *

Now, don't all fall about laughing but here is the plant with these new buds attached.

As I mentioned earlier I am not entirely sure what is wrong with it but it doesn't look right. I think perhaps I need to start from the bottom up.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what it is wrong I would welcome them. But, I’ll continue with this one for the time being…it is only a practice one after all :-)

Here is how it should look.

Here is how it actually looks.