Holiday decorations for the wall

 

I have not put up much holiday decorations yet, and I probably won't even put up much. I am getting a Christmas tree but that is about it. I did make a bunting from old holiday cards for the wallpaper covered board we have in the livingroom. The bunting is inspride by Benita. I wish I would have had as nice cards as she did. Oh and I wish we had a fireplace, even a faux one like she has had.

Last year I put ribbon on the board as if it would be wrapped like a Christmas present. (I think I stole that idea also from Benita, but can't find a post about it). That looked beautifull too.

About the I'm a Giant Challenge

This is an extra post about the I'm a Giant Challenge, because I feel that I must write my thoughts out, I felt very annoyed by the fact that the Challenge had been extended. I actually wrote a post that was quite harsh but now I've cooled off a bit and I've revised my text. I'm posting this on sunday, because next week is Christmas week and I plan to consentrate on Christmas only. But here goes.

~ ~ ~

Ummm.... I think I sort of stated that the teahouse is finished. And it is, but the dealine for finishing the I'm a Giant Challenge has been extended and now I feel like I need to do more, eventhough I don't really want to. When I started the teahouse I started a project I knew I could finish in the time frame given. Now that more time is given to finish what has been started puts me in an awkward situation.

I made my "dollhouse" deliberately minimalistic and simple, but I think beautifull, because I felt it would look good in my home and because it would be timely possible. So what I quess I'm trying to say is that now that people are given more time to finish what they've started and are able to make their houses as grand as they had visioned, my allready finished Teahouse is leaving behind. I am aware that if I would have not finished the Teahouse I would just be relieved and I would be only happy that the deadline has been moved forward. 

I loved, loved, LOVED making the Teahouse, making miniatures seems to be a great hobby. I cannot remember any other thing for a long time that I've consentrated for as long periods and which I wouldn't have wanted to stop doing. In my opinion the Teahouse I made is amazing and I would ruin it if I would do more to it. I have an idea of making a dry landscape garden around it, or on the side of it, but I'm not sure. Not that the garden wouldn't look good, but I'm afraid it would make the whole Teahouse and it's surroundings too large. Then I would have the issue of where I'm going to showcase the Teahouse. I'm still thinking of the garden though and I might do a setup that can be taken apart later. I even have sand ready in soda bottles (yes, you read that correctly, I have collected sand) from a beautiful beach in the Finnish archipelago.

What this whole post means is that I have no freaking idea what I'm going to do about this challenge.

~ ~ ~

Update 19th December 2011
After I wrote this post I got a comment that made me realize that it does not matter at all what others do. And now after a good night sleep I'm not annoyed or stressed anymore and I feel that what I wrote there was a bit selfish. But I'm glad I did write that and that I got such a good comments. If I wouldn't have written that it would have taken me a whole lot longer to realize how wrong I was or I might have never realized it. Thank you Emma :) and scb.

Overdue fix ups

Have you had it with the Teahouse posts allready? Getting tired of them? Well I am (untill landscaping starts at the Teahouse :D )

So lets move on... to mending clothes. I had a glove that had a cut and also a jacket which elbow had worn out.

It seems that I had accidentally cut the glove with scissors, but the oddest thing is that because I'm right handed, how could I have cut the right hand's glove. Also I did not notice it at the time it happened, but the next time I put the gloves on noticed the cut. The gloves were still in an excellent shape and I did not want to get new ones, so I fixed this. First I ironed a support fabric on the back, the fabric had glue in itself.

Then I sewed the cut close.

 

It turned out pretty good I think. So that was an easy fix up. Next I made elbow patches for my jacket.

 

I use this jacket a lot at work (well I used to use, since the elbow had been worn out ONE YEAR ago, and I haven't used it since). I actually followed Benita's instructions on how to make the elbow patches. I got that glue that comes with paper and ironed the glue on the patch material. Then I cut out the patch from the fabric and ironed the patches to the sleeves.

I'm not sure how the glue will hold up the patch material so I also sewed the edges, so the patch won't fray and it won't get loose.

I could have also just sewn it on, but it's a whole lot easier to sew something that does not move than something that moves about all the time.

Now finally after having the jacket in the crafts cabinet for one year I can start using it again.

Teahouse warming party

Welcome! Let me introduce you to the resident of the Teahouse, he's name is Totoro and he comes from Japan. Also one other guest has arrived too, Moomintroll from Finland came to a visit.

Totoro is a very famous actor, he has stared in the movie My Neigbor Totoro, named after him (that's how famous he is). Totoro had this Teahouse built where he could retreat from all the city fuss. So are you interested in a grand tour?

Here is the deck, I know you've seen it before. Totoro has planned to start a zen garden around the decking, but it's still in planning stage.

From three sides of the house the shoji screens open and on summer days those can be left open. Let's move inside then. We'll start the tour from the altar, it's a very sacred place, take note that it is not a table, nothing that does not belong there should be placed there. The image above is a painting of Daruma, the father of Zen.

Then on the left there is the built-in storage space, that has sliding doors. It has three shelves where for example the bedding can be stored.

Then we can move to the center of the house. The floor is covered by tatami mats in a very traditional Japanise style. There in the center is a small table and seat cushions.

As we are now in a teahouse, we also have some green tea and if you are hungry some sushi. The teapot and the cups were made from the same polymer clay as the roof, using instructions from MiniMaker. The sushi set is the only bought item in the Teahouse and it's from Etsy, but I can't find the seller anymore, it's name was 2plus1 MiniWorld. At the time I bought the sushi there was no actual mini sushi sold in Etsy, or then I was really blind, so the thing I bought is actually dim sum, but to me it looks like sushi and it's good enough.

Please enjoy your stay and feel right at home. You can even stay for the night. Moomintroll atleast is staying, he's had bit too much of sake allready.

~ ~ ~

This post is the final post for the I'm a Giant challenge by Emily Henderson. All my posts about the challenge can be found behing this link.

Invitation to the house warming party

~ ~ ~

This post belongs to the series of posts for the I'm a Giant challenge by Emily Henderson. All my posts about the challenge can be found behing this link.

Crux blanket in mini

I know all of you have probably seen the Crux blanket by Pia Wallén on every other interior design magazine. I love the blanket, but the price of it is ridiculous so I would never ever buy it for myself (especially when one could easily make one themselves on a weaving station in the worker's academy, *hint hint*).

Okey so I'm not going to make one in full size, at leats for now, but since it's such a lovely blanket I made two in miniature size for the teahouse. I had grey felt at home and used that as a base. Then I used some white paint to make the crosses.

I cut out a stencil from a plastic document pocket. And then painted.

After the paint dryed I had myself two mini Crux blankets. Those came out so cute!

Now that I got the blankets ready, the bedding that I started to make some time ago are now fully done and just waiting for the first night guests for the teahouse.

~ ~ ~

This post belongs to the series of posts for the I'm a Giant challenge by Emily Henderson. All my posts about the challenge can be found behing this link.

Topping-out party

The building of the roof of the tearoom was getting very wearing, but then I got sudden help from Bob the Builder!

It was very nice of him to come to help me. Just think how many times I would have needed to climb those ladders with a pile of roof tiles if I would have been alone.

The tiles were waiting on the deck. First the straight tiles were laid on the laths using hot glue.

Then was the turn of the arched tiles, those were glued with super glue.

The last arched tiles needed to be formed a bit before baking so they would lay more flat and the arched tiles that came to the top egdes would sit nicer. Also it was possible to see inside to the arched tiles from the lower egde and I wanted to cover them up, so I made cones that I then pushed inside the first arhed tile.

Then suddenly the roof was all done.

Then we had a topping-out party with Bob, we had worked so hard. Bob brought some flowers and we had some wine on the deck to celebrate the finished roof.

~ ~ ~

This post belongs to the series of posts for the I'm a Giant challenge by Emily Henderson. All my posts about the challenge can be found behing this link.