Day 38: Not a dang MINI thing has happened

Well if you read my post on "day 37" you may be wondering 'what the heck happened and where did she go'?  Well I've been over the top busy, and nothing I've been busy with could possibly be considered 'mini'.  Infact rereading my day 37 reminded me of how crazy the past 4 1/2 weeks have been.  So last time I updated, Casey (my husband) had his 2nd interview, well he got the job!  And long story short, he left for Malaysia on Nov 11!  His new job is in Malaysia!  So every waking moment since Nov 1 I've been crazy with selling (all our furniture, a motorcycle, our Jeep, etc), packing everything (including my studio), and in the midst I entertained my 4 kids coming to visit for 5 days and a few friends that came into town for my 40th birthday, and traveled for work for 11 days.  I'll be honest, I'm not sure how everything got done...probably cause I didn't sleep for 2 weeks..but it all got done!  Needless to say, my mini hobby is temporarily on hold (except for reading and researching, which kinda makes things worse) while it's all being shipped to Malaysia, which is expected to take 6-8 weeks.  So while I have no real 'mini' updates, now ya know what I've been up to :)

Day 37: I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I get a Woo Hoo?  Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it!  I set out on a goal to update my blog everyday for the month of October, National Miniature Month, and I did it!  You have no idea how crazy excited I am to have accomplished this goal.  Your probably bored silly with some of what I've written this month, but I have to tell you, this little blog has become extremely therapeutic for me.

 

Referencing back to yesterday, I'm sure your curious what the wood is turning into, unfortunately, you'll have to wait to find out, because although today was a semi-productive day in the studio, it was also an emotional day due to a 2nd interview my husband had....so I guess you'll have to wait to find out more on both topics :)

Day 36: I'm back in the mini saddle again

Do I really need to go further in depth on this one? Fine...it's wood!  Wanna guess what it's gonna become?

Day 35: Inspiration strikes...another conundrum created

So we're sitting on a plane, on the runway, in Ottawa, Canada, when inspiration strikes.  I always find it crazy how inspiration strikes at the strangest and craziest of times.  Luckily this time my husband is sitting next to me, as we are just deadheading this flight, due to all of our flight cancellations today.  On the "lucky for us side" we are getting done with work about 4 hours early today, which is usually the opposite....now hopefully we can find a flight to commute home on...O the trials of a traveling life :)

Back to my inspiration....sorta....so when I work flights I'm always scouting for magazines people leave behind, A) because I'm too cheap to pay what they charge for magazines (that aren't miniature/craft/art in genre) because most of the time I'm disappointed by the number of advertisements and the lack of content I take away from it...2) I usually end up reading things I would not have set out to read, thus learning something entirely new or outside my frame and 3)....wow, I rarely have a 3, but 3) I admit, I love the gossip mags...but...well....see A.   :)

SO, I ended up with a few magazines this trip, one being some fashion magazine that would never even factor into my life, in fact usually I will just leave these behind for someone else to have and hopefully enjoy (which BTW after I read them, I leave them on the next plane for another to enjoy for free also...although sometimes there is a page or 2 missing, if I need to have something....although what I normally do now is photograph the info (recipes for example) that way I have a digital copy of it which I can slide to my iPad and just pull up as reference when I get home).  Where was I, O the fashion mag, so as we're sitting here this morning I pull the fashion mag out, and about 3/4 of the way through it hits me...

I N S P I R A T I O N!   My husband and I have been daydreaming about this miniature brew pub with brewery for maybe 12-18 months, and all of a sudden it just clicks in to place as to how I want to build it.  Your probably wondering what in a fashion magazine could inspire a brewery?  Well an article was about some modular buildings or something, I didn't read that article, I just looked at the pictures,  and then on the following page was a picture showing a bunch of pallets...and from those pictures (none of which are anything like what we are thinking) BOOM, inspiration!  C R A Z Y !   I bet there's a shrink out there that would love to examine my brain and be fascinated with how crazy it works...I'm not always soo sure it's properly hooked up, but I thank God all the time it works the way it does, cause it sure works for me :)

So now I have yet another conundrum....sit on this inspiration till I finish one of my other 4 projects I have started, or barrel into project #5?  How many projects do most miniaturist/artist have going at anytime?  Is there a normal? I'd like to think its completely normal and further more I'd prefer to believe that it's actually best to have multiple projects going for 2 reasons A) I'm usually most productive when I have to much going on and 2) it seems that I go through inspiration points with projects and so I can just flow from project to project FOR different projects, which always gives me something to work on....and the more I seem to do, the more inspiration seems to be created.  Besides, now that I think about it, I haven't worked on my trunk project for probably close to a year, and honestly, there's very little left on it I want to do, but the few things that are left...I just haven't had a desire to do.  Wierd. 

So as I'm writing this, I'm looking up and spouting random thoughts to my husband, and then he just looks at me and saids "Your really excited about this aren't you?"  I respond "ya...but why do you say that" and he saids "cause it's just funny how all of a sudden you just get in this great mood and you get soo excited".  That about sums up miniatures for me.....they put me in a great mood and they make me excited!

Day 34: Hurricane blows books back into action

Before I left on this trip I was printing books for my shop, as I knew I had this 18 hour layover in Ottawa....and with the hurricane about to hit the East coast (we were suppose to work flights in and out of New York and Philadelphia tomorrow, which as expected have been cancelled) so I figured I would have some down time to maybe get the books cut.  So here I am, sitting in a hotel room, and about to start cutting and making books again :). I really need to get my book cases built so I can get an estimate of how many books I will need to fill the shop :). My husband thinks its funny that I pack projects....I can't imagine not packing projects.  As long as I can remember I've been packing more things to do than I'd ever have time to do, no matter where I'm going....when I was young and we'd go to the cabin for the weekend, I'd pack 2 weeks worth the projects and supplies.  I imagine I'm not the only one in this hobby that's like this :)

Day 33: The lazy part of me wants to come out

Ya ever have those moments where ya just wanna skip the whole 'pride of making it yourself ' part of a project and purchase something you know you can make and be proud of? I'm having one of those, and strangely I've already purchased the copper coupler reducer thingy for the base of my cappuccino maker.  Here are my inspiration pieces....I don't know who they belong to, as I found them in a google search, so if you have any info on any of them, or another you would wanna share with me, please please please share 

I did find a video online, which when I have some time at home next week I'm hoping to get to...cause really, I just want it done...cause I'm excited to get going on the coffee bar part of my project.

Day 32: On the road again

Well again here I sit on an airplane...wishing I was walking into my studio to install the flooring in Sophie's books, Crannies & Coffee...or working on making the coffee espresso machine...or using the grey clay I picked up the other day to make hose connections, a gas meter and electic box for the exterior of George and Annabelle's house....but I'm not, I'm sitting here daydreaming. 

Thanks to the amazing digital times we are in, thankfully I have roughly 80-85 miniature magazines on my iPad, which is awesome...but kinda a tease also, because I can get great ideas and learn lots, but I'm a hands on person, and knowing I'm on the road for the next 4 days and won't be able to actually work on anything is horrible.  Does anyone suffer from hobby cravings that can't be satisfied?  How do you cope?  What do you do to get through?  This must be how addicts feel