Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I have not done any posts for such a very long time! Lots of things have been going on in my life. I resigned from my teaching job at the end of last year. I was finding it much too stressful as it is a job that really takes over your whole life. Plus I was having some health issues from a hypoactive thyroid which was not fun. I had no time or energy to put into my creations.
Then my boyfriend Steve got a job working in Fiji, so he went up to Fiji while I finished the last few months of the school year. After our New Years holiday (camping in Northland) we packed up our house and flew to Fiji. So I have been living up in Fiji for most of the year! And that is also why I have not done any more work on my doll house. :( Because it is in storage again! Our cat Bethell has gone to live with her cat-cousin Sirius and my lovely sister Sophie and her boyfriend Chris. I am excited that we are going home for a visit in a few weeks and we will get to see her.
Fiji is lovely. It's such a pleasure to be warm all the time! I have been doing lots of things that I love since I have been up here. As well as creating art and craft and writing, I have been doing lots of research into holistic health and nutrition and cooking lots of healthy food.
But don't worry, I have been making some minis too.
As you can imagine, I do not have too many supplies up here with me in Fiji. I would have brought more things with me but we originally thought we would only be here for a short while.
So the main things I have been making are miniature paintings. I have been putting them for sale in my etsy store.
I ordered some miniature flower kits from Georgie from TheMiniatureGarden on etsy. I have made one kit so far (poppies) and am very happy with the result. I wish my doll house was here so I could find a place to put them. :) One of the kits I bought is to make a wisteria.
This is what it will hopefully look like when complete.
I haven't started it yet. But it will eventually climb the outside of my doll house.
The inspiration for this project is the wisteria on our last house which I really loved.
Plus I adored seeing them all over houses everywhere in the French countryside!
I think my dollhouse is such a huge house, I feel like I will be adding things to it forever! But that is okay! I will be so pleased when I have finished all the construction. Now there is mostly just the shingles for the roof to go (all 4000 of them...) and the other finishing touches like some painting, door knobs, hinges, trim. Okay, that sounds like quite a lot really haha.
But when I am done I can really get stuck into the decoration.
If you are wondering where I got up to with building my Garfield Dollhouse, the photos below show pretty much where I am up to with the construction. All the weatherboards are complete and painted. The french doors are in. I also painted the roof after I took these photos as a test for what colour to have the shingles. I was thinking I would like them a terracotta colour. But I painted the roof that colour and it looked strange. But maybe it was because I used paint, maybe it won't look bad if the shingles are stained? I think when I eventually get my dollhouse back out of storage I will paint the roof a dark grey (so it is blackish between any cracks in the shingles) and then shingle it. If anyone has any tips on staining shingles. I'd be most appreciative. I am thinking terracotta or if not that, then a light grey. But I think the grey may make the blue of the house paint look too cool, whereas the terracotta makes it look warmer. Anyway, if you have an opinion or suggestion on the shingles, do let me know in the comments. :) I love hearing from you all!
In Fiji I have also been doing some designs for some metal doll house furniture. I have been learning to solder and plan to make some metal beds and outdoor furniture soon - some for my doll house and some for my etsy store. I'll post more about that when I get some things finished.
I have been doing life sized paintings too and will post them for sale in my etsy store too at some point.
I have tonnes of paintings to go on there back home, but they are all in storage at the moment as well!
The other creative thing I have been doing - and which has distracted me from blogging - is I am writing my novel (which I started a few years ago but kept getting stalled). It's a time travel romance novel. I have really been enjoying doing that is well. I love creating things!
Well, that is all for this catch up. But I will make an effort to blog more regularly again!
xoxox Amy
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