Tag Archives: Gigglesville

A New Hobby

29 Nov

M1 recently gifted me a new hobby kit – a complete felting kit. I talked about wanting to try felting but never followed through because I was obsessed with crafting DIY miniatures. She must have remembered and bought the kit for me to try. Of course, I was thrilled when I received it.

The latest activity to try

But I was also afraid to even start on it. What if I don’t like this new hobby? What if I do like it? Then, how do I plan my schedule? As it is, I have so many things to do to keep me busy.

There’s the crafting of DIY miniatures. Currently, I am at the tail-end of DIY project number 22. And there’s carving on balsa and meranti wood to make my Citizens of Gigglesville and gnomes of all shapes and sizes.

Let’s not even delve into painting, which I have my easel and several canvases sitting there collecting dust. Throw in the cooking, cleaning, golf, and occasionally, some design work – there’s hardly any time left. And now, with a new hobby venture, how do I divide my time? Tough.

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DIY Project #14 or 12B, Part 3

11 Jun

I breezed through DIY project number 14 or 12B effortlessly. I guess when I put all my energy and focus into it, the job gets done faster. Despite it being a complicated set, it was challenging yet enjoyable, and I finished it in 13 days. Quite a feat, I’d say.

Welcome to my Bookstore!
Lovely angles of the Bookstore

But soon after the completion, I decided to take a break from building miniatures. And instead, I channeled my creativity back to carving! It felt good.

Not whales because I ran out of the specific wood size, nor Citizens of Gigglesville but Gnomes, albeit a different approach. I found a forgotten piece of wood and decided to carve three Gnomes in one go.

A trio of Gnomes!

It has been very exhilarating to carve again. My progress so far is pretty good, and as I anticipate the MCO will extend for another 14 days until the end of the month, I can get this display piece completed in no time. Awesome.

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The Perfect Cuppa

12 Apr

Two years ago, after months of serious searching, I finally found the perfect teacup to use with my Nessie and the Deep Tea Diver tea gadgets. And coincidentally, the glass cup is a whale-themed one, perfect for me who, once upon a time, carved Whales (besides my Gnomes and Citizens of Gigglesville). These days, there is hardly any carving done because I ran out of wood.

Anyway, the teacup comes with a ceramic lid and spoon and just nice to keep my tea hot. However, these days I hardly go into the office because of the pandemic and MCO restrictions. The glass cup and the two tea gadgets are left unused. Pity.

Nessie and the whale glass cup

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Excuses! Excuses!

18 Dec

I find myself admiring and playing with project number eight instead of finishing it up. Every evening, I would place a Citizen of Gigglesville on the sofa chair and giggle at the scene before me. It’s very entertaining!

Citizens visiting the Study
Looking very contented!
Citizen #118 doing a balancing act

I am finding excuses to procrastinate and not to start on the lights. There’s the fact that I have work to do in the office this whole week, and I don’t have the time because I’m also playing golf and cooking. It’s becoming a mental block.

Honestly, I find reading instructions is not something I enjoy. But doing up the lights requires focus, and I need to be more disciplined about this if I intend to wrap up project number eight before Christmas. So, no more excuses!

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DIY Project #8, Part 3

14 Dec

The tail-end of project number eight is just so hard! I find that I do not quite enjoy making chandeliers or hanging lights for all my sets. The last complicated one during project number five was a let-down. After painstakingly working on them and putting them up, the middle light did not work. I was disappointed.

Gotta push myself to do the lights

So here I am, procrastinating on this lighting challenge. I thought I would take some time to finish this project, but I’m much faster than anticipated. All the shelves, books, and accessories are done and placed accordingly to the plan as outlined. Even the sofa chair, which initially, I thought would be a challenge, was completed without issues. I even took the initiative to change the color of the main wall.

The making of a sofa chair
The completed sofa chair

Well, I’m pushing myself to wrap this up soon because I’m keen to get started on project number nine, a fruit shop similar to project number seven, the tea parlor. In other words, it is an easy set, and it would be nice to end the tumultuous year working on something easy without any added stress.

Making my Citizens try the sofa chair. Some are happy, some are not!

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Endings and Beginnings

4 Sep
So detailed when lighted up!

I have finally completed the DIY project #3. It now sits proudly with the other two completed projects at the dining table. Even my Gnomes are enjoying the fruits of my labor, chilling in all the rooms! Heheh…

Four Gnomes are just chillin’

And so, with an end, another begins – the fourth DIY project which is another cafe. And it’s about the same size as the earlier cafe but minimal plants.

Here we go with Project #4!

I find this latest set is even more challenging because the instructions are rather small in font size, and all in Chinese unlike the previous sets. And I for one, cannot read Chinese!

So I had to download the Google Translate app and use if the pictorial steps with tiny Chinese characters are not clear. Thank goodness for technology that is put to good use here.

Well, I’m in no hurry to finish this set and will work on it at a comfortable pace. The best part, no fabrics to deal with! Yay.

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Another Proud Moment

14 Aug
My beautiful home

The two-story bungalow is finally complete! Yay. Towards the end of the project, I was sidetracked with my busy golf schedule, cooking, and my unfortunate mishap. But all’s good now.

The set has been very challenging from the start. From wiring, wall alignments to dealing with fabrics, it was a test of patience and skills. But I suppose I can be forgiven if the set has not been perfect because after all, this was my first DIY project.

Gaps in the wall and windows but not obvious at a glance
Messy wiring & difficult sofas

The wiring was stressful compared to the cafe because firstly, it’s a much bigger set, and secondly, there are more light points. The biggest challenge, however, was dealing with fabrics. The pillows! Ugh. The last few pillows delayed the completion of the set. I sat myself down and got this over and done with when I couldn’t do other things much because of my recent fall.

Citizens of Gigglesville testing the sofas before the pillows were added

It was another proud and exciting moment when I switched on the lights. I could feel a sense of accomplishment. So now, this piece is being displayed on the dining table, together with the cafe.

Looks gorgeous when lighted up!

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It’s Rather Monumental, Part 2

19 Jun

In between working on the DIY homes, I decided to complete the Monument piece. I knew what I had to do if it was to be converted to become a door stopper. I couldn’t just glue the carving to the wedge as is because it won’t be strong enough to hold together.

So I carved an interlocking section in the joining area of both pieces for better support. The snug fit then had Elmer’s glue added for additional strength.

Thankfully, the whole process didn’t take long and all it needed after that was time for the glue to dry and a coat of varnish. A pat on the shoulder for me for the well-done effort!

 

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A New Activity, Part 2

16 Jun

M2 and I were aghast at the challenge ahead with my DIY home that arrived first. All the furniture pieces are so tiny!!! What have I gotten ourselves into?

Checklist of all items to construct my mini 3-story bungalow!

The mess working on the kitchen chairs

I had to put aside finishing up the Monument piece to focus on this. So the two of us worked on my house at every opportunity available. But it has been slow because cooking and cleaning the real house takes priority over fixing up the toy house. Don’t forget, there’s all that golf to play too during the weekends. The DIY home was merely to fill up any free time available.

Props are tiny beyond tiny!

However, there were days we didn’t look forward to the daunting task because the pieces were so minuscule to handle especially the props and materials. Half the time at such close proximity, I had to remove my glasses to see better. But I felt we couldn’t abandon the three projects just like that simply because things were tiny.

Everything here was so hard to glue! See the size in comparison to my glasses

Clips to hold and to hold down the fabric after applying glue

At times, I had to use a clothes peg when working with fabric to hold the pieces when applying glue. And the clothes peg also doubled up to hold the material down to bind with the glue. If I didn’t do this, I’d end up with all the glue on my fingers instead! And it’s rather time-consuming because the glue needed to dry before we could progress further.

When the second shipment arrived, M2 moved on to fix her house, whilst I concentrated on mine. And both of us agreed that hubby will not fix his house up because the parts are way too tiny for him to handle.

The incomplete first floor of M2’s DIY 2-story home. Check out the books on the bookshelf!

Once the two of us have completed our homes, we’d work on his together.

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It’s Rather Monumental

8 Jun
My eight inch Monument of Gigglesville

As expected, I didn’t take long to complete carving my latest Monument. I am proud to say it’s rather monumental. At a towering height of eight inches, this piece is by far my biggest monument.

I’ve also decided to put it to good use rather than displaying it on the shelf like the rest of the other Monuments.

The wedge

Supporting it will be a wedge that I had painstakingly used the wood planer to shave off to get the correct angle as a door stopper! Clever, ain’t I? It should look good and certainly very practical.

Stay tuned for the final piece!

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