filling up a miniature shelf

The past few weeks, I've been making miniature books and boxes with paper specifically to fill up these shelves that came in the Ikea Huset... set. (That sounds awkward, but I'm gonna go with it.)

I've been making all this out of scrapbook paper -- or maybe cardstock? It's a heavier paper that I got from a pad that I bought at Michael's for $5. It was a "hot buy" and super worth it! But certainly heavier than regular scrapbook paper. I got this shabby chic-ish one with a lot of florals in it, and I got one that was all gold foil and white, too.

The pink paper encrusted with sparkles was a separate buy. It looked so pretty and multi-faceted, although its opalescent sheen doesn't truly show up in these pictures.

I made the boxes by expanding on this "inchie box" tutorial. I just embiggened the dimensions to fit the shelves more fully and left off the tops, so it would look like storage cubes. (I guess I should see about adding handles or something!) But the inchie box looks pretty cute, too! I did a 4 1/2" square instead of a 3" square, if you have these shelves and want to do something similar!

Because I guess I like to make everything super tedious, the books are filled with actual notebook paper that I cut up into pages with scissors and just stacked and glued together. See a close-up here on my Instagram! One of them has fabric tape on it to emulate binding. It's not tidy, but that's okay!

Other little things I've currently got populating the shelf include a small pink rabbit figurine I've had for a really long time -- it was a gift from a friend! Also, a toadstool I made years ago. Also, the mini-knitting I made at the beginning of this year, and little yarn balls in tiny baskets I acquired off eBay. The little letter is from a package I also got at the craft store and painted gold with gold glitter. I made it for another project, but its miniature size made me reach for it as a possible decoration.

Making the boxes involved scoring, and I did this with a nail art tool and a ruler. The nail art tool is basically exactly the same as the scoring tools I later saw in the craft store, and I already had it. It works really well. I don't want to junk up my desk, which is already pretty worn, even more by scoring a bunch on it, so I looked for a proper scoring board at the craft store.

This one is from the Martha Stewart craft line, and I think it was $11, but I used a 40% off coupon, so I scored it for like $6.50. Heck yeah! I haven't used it yet because I got really used to scoring with my little nail art tool and, well, I fear change. But I'm still all stoked.

I made the books without scoring anything, since I didn't really think of it, but I think I'll make some more and hopefully their spines will be neater with some scoring!

Honestly, I've been hunting on and off for miniatures all year, and even though I've had luck with scoring wicker furniture off Etsy and at antique stores, I haven't had luck finding 1:6 scale stuff I like.

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Tomorrow, there'll be sun.

It's pretty yucky out today -- rainy. (At least it's not snowy!) But I woke up feeling very motivated, which is quite a change from the last several months!

I don't hide the fact that I have literally disabling anxiety -- I mention it on my "about me" page here -- but I also don't talk about it beyond rare passing mentions. I go to therapy and have friends with whom I can discuss this kind of thing and don't consider anxiety welcome on Cure Touch. But this is just factually what has been going on with me as of late.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been going off of an anti-anxiety medication I'd been trying out for the last six or seven months. I was going through some MAJOR work-related anxiety that I was having trouble coping with. While this new med did help me in some ways, I increasingly felt I was just going through the motions with everything, and my depression, which has been in check for years, returned. I was put on yet another anti-depressant in addition to the one I am already on to help try and counter-balance that.

This anti-anxiety med had sort of switched off my desire to do much of anything, which is really uncharacteristic for me. I was sleeping more than is normal for me, yet always just wanted to sleep more. I was getting no pleasure from anything -- food, TV, crafting. I had stopped writing (even journaling, not just creative writing which is my main hobby) or playing the guitar much. I was procrastinating on everything because I didn't feel like doing anything. I am a person who thrives on creative outlets, on making things, on getting to-do lists done, and I need these things to feed my soul. I am not surprised I got into doing more YouTube videos, since I wasn't able to concentrate on my normal hobbies, but also still very surprised I was able to make any videos at all with the way I was feeling. I am still trying to work up to feeling like doing one of those again.

While it sounds obvious that this med was not working for me, I wanted to give it a very fair chance to settle into my system and see if it could help me. But I finally had to accept that it was harming me more than helping me, and I had to face my fear about going off it and the terrifying possibility of my anxiety getting so bad again. "I can't go back to last summer. I can't do that again," is what I've been saying for months. But I also couldn't continue on without anything in life meaning anything to me. So I've been going off it again.

Today, I woke up really wanting to take Blythe pictures. It was pouring rain out, though, so I just nipped off to the sunroom with Bonnet and gave it a go with my 50mm lens. (Which I am still not used to using!)

I'm just so happy that I felt the urge to do anything, even just take some pictures. I've been literally forcing myself to do even just that for months. It's been a while.

Bonnet's pearly Mary Janes from JemgirlCreations are so awesome. I just recently got a couple of Neo Blythe-size Mary Janes from Jemgirl too and I can't wait to dress up a couple of Blythes with these new shoes! It feels so nice to want to do something!

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New family portrait!

(click here to embiggen!)

From left to right: Gavin, Lamb, Aury, Klara, Mallow, Bonnet (the Middie), Clarke, Plummery, Petaline, Beatrix, Fey, and Drew!

It was about darn time for new family portrait, seeing as how it's been a little over a year since the last! Oh my gosh. Toting eleven Neos (and a Middie) out into June heat, trying to find shade, is quite an undertaking. And now that I have so many girls, they're kind of hard to fit into a line up-style picture! There I was, taking picture after picture where Aury looked like she was about to fall over, and I didn't even see it in real life.

It is definitely amazing to see how my gaggle of girls has grown over the past four years. They each have special memories attached. Some were gifts (Plummery, Petaline and Lamb were given to me by friends!); some have traveled with me; some have been my muses; some had technical difficulties; some have been deboxed on YouTube; some have been called particularly creepy; almost all have worked as models for Etsy.

And it all started with my Ice Rune, Aury. I love her so much. My favoritism is absolutely blatant. If my house was on fire, she is the one thing I'd grab to rescue.

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conquest of cute, part 4

Cute Storage: Ceramics Edition!  Here are a couple of Christmas gifts, plus a couple of cheap scores!

Maybe you've been a long-time reader and you know I have a thing for teeth! If not, well. I like cute teeth. I don't want real teeth; it's more of an artistic representation of teeth that I like. Maybe I'll post more about that sometime. I have some collections that are nearly too small to be considered collections, so it feels silly to post about them, but this is a real thing I like, haha.

But for now, I got these two little ceramic teeth planters from my mom for Christmas!! (They're the only thing I asked for.) Right now one's holding nail tools, and the other is acting as a pencil cup. I love these so much. They're just so "me" and make my space feel good.

Here's a little candy dish I got in 2011 at Target when it was Easter. For a long time it was where I would put skeins of embroidery floss and my pincushion and he'd get shuffled around with my craft stuff, but now he's a little station on my desk where I can put my necklaces.

(The glittery fox necklace was another Christmas gift! My mom is awesome.)

This little dish is an "appetizer plate" from Target. It was from a clearance shelf and was $2. I am just really attracted to mustard, so I snagged just one to use as a catch-all for smaller items on my desk. Sometimes it's a coaster... right now it has a thumb drive, a spare button, lip balms, barettes, and bobby pins.

Two other jewelry/hair stuff catch-alls I use are these little pink ramekins from the dollar section at Michael's. Yes! Dollar storage? I am there! I need to see if I can get a few more of these.

One holds barettes of various types and Goody spin pins; the other holds earrings. I'd like to get another just for bobby pins. I have so many, but I go through them so fast!

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I'm a fool for April

Dressed up all my Blythes for a family portrait! Lamb (second to right) fits right in. Alas for Bonnet, I am not too great at taking pictures of Middies.

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poor deer

Oh my gosh! The listing for this Middie deer hat is about to expire! I knocked the price down a few bucks! Buy it, buy it! I'm also open to a trade!

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I'll consider this my spring cleaning!

It had not been April first for an hour yet when my computer died! I spent many days cut off from "civilization," or at least, my typical habits: working, writing, stalking Rachel's Ribbon on eBay... you know, daily activities. I watched three seasons of Gilmore Girls and crocheted a lot on my ripple. I also made three Middie hats just because I had some spare yarn and Bonnet was chilling with me. I played on my guitar. I pondered doing things by candlelight just to further the blackout feeling. It's scary to realize how dependent on technology we truly are these days!

Luckily, I'm back in business on a new machine now! I was fortunate enough to have a backup of all the things I consider important to me and was able to save some frivolous things, too, but otherwise, I'm starting fresh. Is it just me, or is it fun to download fonts? You know what, I'm going to clean my desk so it will go with my clean hard drive!

I've been listening to Sucré non-stop as I install programs! So dreamy. Listen, listen!

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ripplin' the night away

Ripple Throw Progress Report: Chugging along! I've managed to twice have to rip out entire rows both ways across (so, two and a half hours of work or so) because I've dropped a stitch and literally can't find where, so I have to go back to the last row I know I did right. I kept getting Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul in my head: I take two steps forward, I take two steps back... but it's made me more vigilant, and I've done four rows with no mistakes today!

Bonnet's pearly Mary Janes from Jemgirl Creations arrived today. Perfection!!

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double Blythe mail day

Ooh, double Blythe mail all the way 'cross the skyyy! My trade package from Care of StitchWhipped got here today! Now Bonnet has her very own teensy-weensy little dresses (seriously, they're so tiny). So happy!!

Care's amazing. These dresses are so well-made and they are so small that the construction of them blows my mind! I really have to learn to photograph Middies... they seem to have their own unique thing going on that I haven't really learned how to capture yet.

My two little cannonbelle cardigans got here today too -- gorgeousness! Can't wait to start layering with these babies. I can't believe they arrived already! I only blogged about these things a couple of days ago!

Just because, a little bit of listery:

• listening to this cover of "Somebody That I Used To Know" a lot the past couple of days!
• this song by Sucré is my jammmmm!
• still making my way through Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
• cleaned my room like a crazy person yesterday... it just made me realize how cluttery it is in here and how I'd like to get rid of a bunch of junk! Matt Paxton, Extreme Cleaning Specialist of Hoarders fame, would be so proud... wait, what's that, he has a podcast? Must listen.

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tackling 2012

Oh, January, already you have brought me changes. Who can tell what kind of year this will be? It's both daunting and interesting.  Last year, I didn't have a ton of personal time. During 2011 I often found myself too anxious and energy-depleted to enjoy my usual hobbies. If it wasn't for taking up the guitar... which required so much of my attention and dedication to slowly learn that it was the only thing that distracted me from my anxiety completely... I might have gone insane!! I am so thankful for my guitar and I love spending time playing on it every day, and so I cannot regret 2011 even if it was so busy that it soaked up my life forces. Because I wasn't crafting with the same vim and vigor, I also began to write a little more. Writing is a treasured pastime of mine, so I am happy to be writing again too.

Happily, this year, I have immediately found myself freed up again a bit. I have been practicing knitting again, inspired by a friend, I, who asked if she could knit me a pair of socks!! I was like, "Man, I want to knit, I don't know if I remember how!" But I magically remembered not only how to cast on and knit, but to purl. I couldn't believe it. I'm still so poor at it that I am just making practice squares with spare yarn... but I'm really enjoying it a lot. With a Christmas gift card, I got some extra knitting needles to add to the small, varied collection I have acquired in various ways throughout the years in my journey to Try And Knit.

In further yarny news... It has been on my mind for the past couple of months: I am also going to attempt to crochet a throw. I've crocheted one before -- for my grandma. It was back when I had very first learned to crochet and it was simple, thick stripes of burgundy-red, cream, and navy blue, to match colors in her living room. It took months! But it was worth it. To this day she snuggles up under it. I think it sounds very pleasant to have a long-running project that I can pull out anytime, even if it takes a long time. I am a short project type of person usually. That's why I like to make things for Blythes.

Through the years my skills have expanded very slightly, so I am going to attempt a ripple blanket. Can I do the ripple? NO! But I'm going to learn! I usually have to look stuff up on YouTube because I'm so terrible at understanding patterns and written instructions (a big problem I have with expanding my knit/crocheting skills and why I really can't sew either). So I excitedly picked out a bunch of yarn that is already cheapy but which was on sale!

It's going to be mostly white, cream, and more muted pinks, but with zings of golden and rusty tones, and if I can find any, some sherbet orange or peach. I'm super-excited. If I get this puppy going I'll be sure to post in-progress pictures.

By the way, my sweet Middie finally got named...

Her name is Bonnet! Look forward to seeing Middie hats in my shop fairly soon.

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