Umbrella Prints

I must admit to doing absolutely nothing lately that's notable enough for the blog. As the semesters near their end twice a year, I find my house in complete shambles, my daughter wild, and my office a sea of posterboard and white paper. I can see the end of the tunnel but it is still a tiny pinprick of light. In a couple of weeks, I'll be out.

Lately it's all I can do to help get the kid to bed before I climb underneath a blanket on the couch and mimic a root vegetable. Now that it is staying lighter later and there are actual leaves on the trees, I'll be able to get back into it all. But seriously mid-term is the mark where it all begins to go downhill.

The photo above is a Trimmings Pack from Umbrella Prints on Etsy. They are based in Australia and I've been wanting to buy some fabric for a while but haven't had a project in mind. I picked up this back and now I think I must buy some more of the elephants. They are better than I had expected. I plan to make more mini pillows and some rugs for the house I wasn't able to pick up today.

Making some minis

Z and I set to work on another scene this weekend. I bought a bunch of new chairs and wanted to play around with them and so did she. We were having some issues with the layout of everything so I decided to make some pillows to go on the floor. As always, I had some help with accessorizing the space. The more I look at the photos, the more I think there is just too much stuff in there. I kinda have this rule in my head though that I only photograph once and then I dismantle everything. I don't look at the photos until after my design assistant has gone to bed and the light is long gone.

The pillows were so easy to make, I'm ashamed I haven't made more mini stuff for our scenes. I used some muslin I had in a bin and a DJ Lance I had printed onto iron-on paper a few months ago. I finished them while Z was eating lunch and surprised her with them. They add to the 1970s sort of rumpus room vibe of the space -- lots of wood paneling and random furniture, some kids stuff and whatever snacks you have in the fridge.

I like the lighting.  A few more pics and a list of what's possibly what over on flickr.

Minis

After I finished up Play Eats, I had an important far away work meeting to prepare for.  I have been back a few days and I'm still so full of jet lag, I've gotten very little done.  It's hard to believe that it is already April (probably because it was snowing/hailing or something on my way home from work last night.

Z and I have been very busy making scenes lately. I know I have only mentioned this briefly but the world of miniatures has consumed me. Luckily, Z is always up for some decorating and the girl does have a good eye for layout. As you can see in the top photo, she likes to help me out and is actually quite careful with the loot. So far what's broken has been able to be fixed (except, of course, for the chair that I dropped). Above is an ideal scene for her. She basically just shoves as much as possible into the roombox and calls it a day. I like to edit a bit more.

This is the right side of our most recent scene. I asked her before I shot this what was missing and she said, it needs more stuff, mama! I let her add the cheesecake and her silver rock, the thermos, the spoon and a few things out of view. I look back at what I photographed before her accessories and it looks so bare.

We have done lots of scenes. They are all here in this flickr set.  I usually put the origin of all the stuff in the description of one of the photos so if you want to know who has made something, look for the photo of the whole scene or just leave a comment.