Friday, July 18, 2014

New Sofa design and Ebay Goodies!!

 
Few of the items on my Project to-do list was a Sofa and an armchair.
 
One weekend I finally got srated with the sofa, it took about 4 days.... as with anything in life, you probably never get it right the first time, but if you don't give up, you get better at it!





I thought the dollhouse also needed some soft furnishings, I couldn't make them so I had to buy them! As Miniatures are relatively niche in Malaysia so many collectors are still buying online and having them shipped. I looked around Ebay for many days, bidded on a few things, compared prices and managed to get a good deal from a very good seller!


 
I was soooo Happy when the items arrived! Are they like the most adorable little things or what ?! Hee Hee!

Something doesn't look right........  why of course!


A Home is not complete without a Pet or two! I put the cat on the couch as a joke to a Facebook Friend! :)

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Experimental Cherry Blossoms


I've always loved Cherry Blossoms....


There were some floral elemenent ideas I had wanted to incorporate into my Lampshade designs, so I googled some basic felt flower tutorials. The basics for felt flowers are about the same.
 

Still experimenting on the shapes and looks, i know it doesn't look anything like a Cherry Blossom but the double tipped petal seems to be the iconic shape for Cherry blossoms?...  

 
Over the weekend, we went to the Grand Launch of the first Spotlight outlet in Malaysia. Being well known for Crafts and Home furnishing, we just had to go (of course, all the e-mail and FB reminders played a part!).
 
So me & Ms. T set off to Ampang Point at 11-ish on Sat morning to Ampang Point to find a Full house parking! After mamanging to find a place to park, we thought ok, let's have Brunch first before we go check out Spotlight. To out horror, we came to the 2nd floor escalator to find a huge crowd barred from going up. The patient Nepalese Security Guard explained there is a huge queue on the 3rd floor queue-ing to get into the Store itself, creating a gridlock. Also to avoid chaos, Spotlight staff controlled the Crowd inflow by staggering batches of disgruntled custoers into their Store.

Photo Courtesy of Ms. T ! Mad Queue!


We finally got in after 40mins, and the massive crowds made it very difficult to browse the Store. Nevertheless, I spotted a small corner called 'Fabulous Findings' - everything in the box for RM 2.99! I got a whole stash of metal beads, best part they were further discounted with the VIP card! The felt cloth was also discounted to RM 2.24 per piece. All in all a good day!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

New Lampshade: Meteor Rain


I experimented a new design for the lampshade, it turned out ok and I'm pleased with the results!

The idea I had in mind was streaks of gold or silver streaks on a black fabric or inverse; white fabric with gold or shiny black streaks. So, at first the material I had in mind was thick embroidery threads but it just didn't have the shiny effect I wanted. Good thing I found the packet of shiny long beads I got from Chinatown.







Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Lights and other things


Quick update on the light/Mini Chandelier results....

 




When I heard IKEA had a minature doll house furniture with miniature replicas of their Vago and Klippan sofa, I knew I HAD to get a set. I went once and they were all SOld Out! So on the next available shipment, I rushed to IKEA and bought 2 sets! HA HA!

Here's an example of someone's Blog I found who decorated her dollhouse using the HUSET dollhouse set! Super cuteness my Gawd! :)

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Hanging Lampshade Design...


I've started working on the 2nd Lampshade for the living room and here is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd attempt at bending the wire into a basic round cylinder-ish shape.

The first few 'failed' cylinders... Wobbly and awful looking!

Finally! 'Lightbulb' moment! Figured out how to stabilize the wire without the need to solder!! Yeee-ha!


It still looks kinda empty (top portion) .. Less is More ?
Just the leaves alone looked empty so I sewed on some Berry-beads! Haha!

The issue was as usual to try and get it bended using only 1 single piece of wire without having to join different parts (or the use of soldering! *grunts*).

I had pictured a design with beige linen, something like this;


Then dressing it up with beads and shiny leaf-shaped sequins I had bought at Masjid India. I had the perfect coloured linen, it was an old dress and seeing I could still fit into it, I didn't have the heart to cut into it. It suddenly felt like a sin to cut up a perfectly wearable dress! I must be going slightly mad. So instead I used the shiny Gold tulle I got from Klim's Craft because I thought the transparent fabric would make the light work better with a shiny factor. We'll see...

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Miniature Chandelier: Nearing completion...



There it is... swinging gracefully on the little holder.... It's far from perfect but am just glad it's done. My first Miniature Chandelier Protoype. I was up until 3am last night accompanied by 2 mugs of coffee and 2 cans of Beer, hung the last teardrop dangly Crystal, had a good long look. Okay, I'm happy with it and I can allow myself to go bed!
 
Trying to solder on the curly wurly arms was tears-inducing. It was just not going to work, so back up plans was to do a ring around the arms to stabilized it.


It sure does look prettier in the daylight.....


I popped in Ampang Point yesterday while leaving my Ol' Girl for service, and did some material shopping! There is a Crafts, Ribbons and accessories Shop on the 2nd floor next to Popular called Klim Craft. I found the teardrop-shaped beads that I wanted for the Chandelier, they were a tad bit pricey but I didn't see the point of going all the way down to Masjid India to the wholesale place so I bought 2 different sizes, each were about RM 3.90. I was a bit shocked that they were selling simple beads (the exact ones I got from Jalan Sultan) for RM 4.50 a packet!! I got my stash for RM 1 a packet. They were exactly the same beads!

The shop also had tulle, so I bought half a meter each of the shimmering ones to experiment. The price is ok; RM 4.80 a meter.

I had also planned to take up Embroidery soon, I had been looking around for hoops and to think I almost bought an over-priced one from Art Friends, The Curve selling for RM 17.90! Good thing I remembered to pop by Daiso and Hallelujah! they sell Embroidery hoops too! Wahahaha! Don't you just love Daiso!?

 
But I did find these gems from Art Friends and they were cheap! The little dressing table was only for RM 5.50  and the utensils for RM 10.


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Mini-Chandelier Project: Almost there... just a little bit more!



The Creative Deities had been very kind.

After loafing the entire Saturday away, I told myself Switch off the damn TV and get cracking!

I had to make a Shade cover to hide the ugly green bulb holder... Beading these suckers was pretty exhausting and took longer than I expected....

Screwed in the tiny Bulb and hook on a cap ...
 
Probably gonna solder on the curly wurly arms tonight to make the shape more defined and it won't look so sloppy. It'll be a real pain... am gonna need extra hands tonight to hold everything in place!
 

Frankly, it still looks horrendous and unrefined. Still much to work on and may the future ones look waaaay nicer than this first Prototype!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Curly Wurly Chandelier arms....



What do you guys think?

Personally I prefer the curly shape of the blue-curly arms but it's very difficult to bend them without cracking a lot of the beads...


Monday, June 9, 2014

Mini Chandelier Work-in-progress....


So, I finally got round to start the Mini Chandelier project that I had been planning and sketching for some time. As usual, the idea always seems easy in the head but once in the midst of execution, "Damn, this ain't gonna work" is very often exclaimed while yanking hair...

I bought a cheap**s Soldering tool from Mr. DIY sometime back and was a bit intimidated to use it; the last I held one was probably 15 years ago. Then lastnight I decided, okay, I really need to fix some lights in the dollhouse. No more procrastinating! I realized the lights are delaying the dollhouse decoration; if I dont get the lights wired in, I'll never be able to put in all the cute small furniture I made/ bought. So, after almost an hour twisting the lampshade cover into shape, solder mess everywhere and even melted some parts of my extension cord, I called it a night and went to bed in a huff.



It took some time to find all the Right parts in various Hardware stores. I started with the outer lampshade to hide the batten holder. Also managed to find the perfect sized lightbulb! Are they cute or what!!?



I went to a Handmade/Craft Bazaar last weekend and saw some very pretty bronze charms for bracelets but they were selling each tiny piece for RM 2! I went home and couldn't stop thinking about them and how pretty they would look if incorporated into the dangly parts of my Chandelier! So yesterday, I went on a material hunt downtown by myself and walked from Petaling Street to Masjid India in search of the perfect bits.





Then I made the curly-wurly arms... All the painful effort and I thought this was the hardest part....

They looked very simple and I had to dress them up, right? So I decided to match some coloured beads to find a nice combination. Stringing the beads through the thick wire was pure hell. I really thought putting the beads in should've been the easy part. There were a few bead casualty..... Off to the Hardware shop again tomorrow to get a slightly thinner wire *whimper*



Saturday, May 31, 2014

Introducing Le Muse... Yeolume Podo!


I had been eyeing Toymalaysia website for the longest time waiting for the right doll with the right price tag. For Doll collectors, most know Pullip dolls ain't cheap but they are stilll cheaper than BJD dolls like Dolfie, Iple House etc...
 


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Isn't she sooo cuteee?!
 
And then they created Yeolume dolls, the future daughter of Pullip... As fate would have it, one Yeolume Podo was on sale and I didn't think twice! The delivery was super fast as I made the payment on Sunday morning and it was shipped out in the evening, I was pretty impressed! Sadly, I wasn't home on Monday to receive the parcel so by the time I rushed to the Poslaju Branch at 5.30pm I was told I could wait for the postman to come back by 7.30pm. I couldn't get to pick my Yeolume that day and had to wait till Wednesday thanks to the Public holiday. But still, such joy to unbox my first Doll!


 





Modifying my Yeolume to an Obistu body..

 
I didn't quite like the original body as the joints were hard to bend for poses. I had bought an Obitsu 27cm body for some time so I got busy and took apart my Yeolume. Removing her wig was the most difficult part of the process but her neck is still kinda loose. But definately looks better on a 27cm Obitsu body!
 
I got really busy after her arrival! Most of the Projects had been left aside as there was no real motivation without a muse... haha... So I finally got cracking and started putting up the wallpapers to the cheap Tesco shelf I bought few months ago and getting the bed ready! I also finished matching comforters and pink pillows!
 







 











 
 
 


Sunday, May 18, 2014

Trial Sofa...


So I bought some scrap fabric some time back from a nearby Textile shop to do some test runs, knowing I most likely will screw it up the first few tries...

Oddly enough, I kinda enjoy sewing. Hand-sewing. I do find it therapeutic as it reminds me of my late Grandma. She sewed all kinds of things and had a pretty beat-up plastic box where she keeps all her sewing stuff. With her failing eyesight, she always had trouble putting the thread through the needle and that was primarily my job...
 
My friend, Ms. T said anyone can use a Sewing machine, but true skill is in the hand-stitiching kungfu. I had previously put the kimono Project on hold as I cringed at my own hand stitches! It was so untidy! Nevertheless, I had the ideas for a mini armchair and set about sewing the cushions. At first I just couldnt get the seams right.





Recycled an old donated working pants to make the miniature bed! It helps to have a sturdy fabric!

Well, with Youtube & Google being my Teacher, I googled on the few common hand-stitching styles and gave the Blind ladder stitch a go. I couldn't get it at first, but with me, there is no giving up! I tried again on the mini bed and was glad it turned out neat!

I was finally motivated to get cracking as I had ordered my first little Doll, a Yeolume Podo! *Excited* :)  More updates coming!