DIY project number 25 has hit an unexpected stumbling block! Call it a jam because it literally is! I have to make 21 jars of jam for the jam shop, and I’m jam-stuck here, pun intended.
The rest of the set is not that hard to put together because this is not a regular-sized kit but a medium-small one. It’s the itty-bitty pieces that are the challenge that I did not foresee.
Oh well, by hook or by crook, I will get this Sweet Jam Shop done!
As the saying goes, time goes by when you’re having fun or being busy. Suddenly we have reached the halfway mark for 2022! Goodness, what happened in the past six months? Was I having so much fun or being so busy – I don’t seem to recall!
The pandemic is still here, and we are so used to it now. After all, it’s two and a half years already since the beginning of the outbreak. And the country has been revising the SOPs constantly to circumnavigate the ever-evolving situation.
Despite the constant rules updates and changes, one thing has remained. People are still masking up whenever being out in public, especially indoors, although it is not a must now for open areas. The public has been ingrained since day one to do this. It’s a good and safe practice to contain the virus spread. Our mask supply is never-ending too!
This year, my crafting of DIY miniatures is taking less of my time because I started wool felting, and also my golf games have picked up. I suppose one can’t have it all. We’ll see how the second half of the year goes for me as far as my miniatures are concerned. There’s still a mountain of supplies waiting for me, and I intend to buy more!
Felting is quite a therapeutic activity whenever I want to do something. This activity takes less time, and the finished piece is just as rewarding and satisfying.
Carving has halted big time because it’s too messy and dusty. However, I still have a three-Gnomes piece to complete before the year ends. With six months left, I should be able to, I think. I need to find the time and focus on the activity.
Let’s hope the second half of the year will be exciting and not just fun and busy so that when we look back at 2022, it will be a year to remember and not be lumped together with the past two forgettable years.
Sometimes we need something different to do to rejuvenate. Instead of wallowing and being out of sorts, I changed my routine to keep busy.
And I find Pinterest is one of the best apps for ideas. The various boards I have to gather visual ideas are very inspiring.
I needle felted something different over the weekend. Staying away from the true and tested Miffy bunny, tortoises, and characters that I am familiar with, I went with felting a new character. And I went the extra mile to add the necessary parts to make practical keychains out of them!
My two Yetis are simply adorable! It’s a gem of a find from Pinterest. I guess I will be felting a few more of this cutie pie character.
I started DIY project number 25 two days ago. Woohoo! I forced myself to stay away from my games on my iPad Mini to work on it. It was a good decision as there was less time on the iPad, and I could focus better on crafting.
DIY project number 25 is another small set. After working on those few minuscule sets, I find them more therapeutic for my mind and patience. And since I recently purchased three new mini kits in the series of six, I decided to work on the Sweet Jam Shop first. And it looks like all the larger sets that I have will have to take a backseat for a while.
DIY project number 24 is a wrap! I’m so proud of myself. Within two weeks, I completed the set because I stayed focused. Every day, I had a mission which was to work on it. So things came together bit by bit daily.
The biggest challenge was the gramophone piece, and I had to improvise to ensure the sound horn could hold its position. I felt the tiny wire, as stated in the instruction booklet, was too weak to withstand the weight of the sound horn. True enough, I improvised by reinforcing with a stronger joint, and it worked out well.
Overall, it’s an easy set to work on and could have taken a shorter time frame to complete. But there were time-consuming steps, which were leaving the pieces to dry after gluing them together. Well, I’m a happy camper, or should I say, crafter with this completion. Onwards with the next set!
Just when I depleted my DIY miniature stash, I increased it again! I have been slow crafting my miniatures this year compared to the last two years under lockdown during the pandemic. My current supply of miniature sets has been collecting dust, and I attribute this slowdown to playing more golf and the new felting hobby.
Despite completing only one set (number 23) recently and in the midst of another now, I felt that I needed to increase my stash of DIY miniatures. There seems to be a sense of insecurity when I take a box from the mountain of miniature sets. Funny.
Three weeks ago, Lady Luck was shining on me as the sets that I had been eyeing were on sale on my favorite online shopping site. The series of six was on offer, and it was tough to decide whether to buy all six or be selective on which ones to get. Decisions, decisions!
In the end, I picked only three sets. Although my mountain of DIY miniatures sets saw a decrease by two, these three latest purchases have reinstated the security level. Yes, I feel a little more secure now, and crafting miniatures have never been more pleasant!
So DIY project number 24 kicked off before the weekend. I thought it would be an easy set to work on, being so minuscule. Boy, was I wrong! The gramophone is so hard to construct, and I have not even looked at the rest of the set.
Thank goodness I had the weekend off from golf, and there was progress. Slowly but surely, I will finish this set to avoid this being a repeat of project number 23, taking forever to complete.
Since I took forever to complete DIY project number 23, I decided to play with it. Being my only classroom setting kit, a little role play for some fun. As I happened to have three felted Miffy bunnies (I gave the others away), they are the perfect size for the classroom!
Add in Hedwig, the learned owl, to teach the classroom – this little fun makes up for the lengthy duration I took to complete the set. If I had more felted characters done up, I would have one busy township bustling with activities. All those DIY sets that I have completed would have a better use than just being in the Ikea display cabinet.
DIY project number 23 has been such a challenge. After five months, I’m glad to say DIY project number 23 is a done deal. Well, almost. Not so much of it is hard to construct, but more because of my commitment to staying focused to get it done. When there are other things to do, crafting miniatures takes a backseat.
The structure and furniture pieces were all completed some time ago. However, I left things unattended, diverting to felting Miffy rabbits and cute tortoises in between playing golf. The finishing details were the schoolbags and ceiling lights which I decided to skip doing for practical reasons, or call it customizing, if you may.
The set will sit in the Ikea display cabinet with the other completed miniature projects. So being in the display cabinet, ceiling lights are pointless because it is too tight a space to touch anything in there. In other words, I have not turned on the lights of any of the sets for some time already. As for the bags, well, I find them too tedious to make, so I’m leaving them out now, but I may change my mind. We shall see.
I have also decided not to take a long break and will jump right into DIY project number 24, which is a much smaller set; hence, the time to complete it will not take so long. I hope I will be more focused on it once I get started.
We love snacking on chips, and now and then, a bag of chips would be out, and we’ll be munching away. It’s not the healthiest snack, but we’ll close one eye on this.
Recently, M1 brought a bag of chips home for us to try. And try we did. When I opened the bag, it was a bag of air more than chips! Eesh, I was irked to encounter this! The audacity of the manufacturers to puff up the bag to make it look plentiful when in reality, two-thirds of the bag contains more air than chips.
But certain brands are a little better, packing less air and more chips. So either we eat and not complain, or not eat at all to avoid being irked.
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