Dollhouse Miniature Naked Cake With Peonies

With the peonies theme in mind, I made this dollhouse miniature naked cake. In fact, I've completed 3 so far. I'm definitely making a fourth one.

Really liking the fresh green bulbs here :)

The mixer has also been sent to its new home, and I'll have the chance to make a new one. 

I've recently been playing with darker shades of pink, which you will see in the next few posts.

The heat has been quite unbearable here, and I ended up with having a headache for the past 3 days. So I was not feeling my usual self. Hopefully the headache left me for good today. 

I've been trying something new this week too, when it comes to fitness. I decided to change up my routine a bit by adding 2-3 days of strength training per week. I think that's important now that I'm in my fourties and I want to make sure I don't further lose muscles or end up with weak bones. The first day after I purely did strength training, I ended up with really sore muscles. Places that I never felt existed hurt. lol I guess it is good right? I can only do 2 reps right now. But I'll slowly work towards 3 reps. Today happens to be strength training day. Let's see if I still hurt after that!

I hope everyone is having a good week! 

Dollhouse Miniature Macaron Tower with Peony

Sometime last week, I completed a custom request for a dollhouse miniature macaron tower. I was really honoured to work on the macaron tower for her. And I've mentioned many times here, when it comes to macaron towers, no two are ever the same. As such, I'm extremely grateful that she gave me the creative freedom to use colors and flowers to give life to each unique piece. My mind was filled with gratefulness as I worked on this piece. The best kind of work is when I can play with colors and flowers. What more can one ask for?

It certainly doesn't come to a surprise that I came up with this. The good thing was, my customer just gave me a broad direction - Laduree themed colors. As I've still been bitten by the peony flower fever, it found its way into this piece as well. Again, I am grateful that my custom liked it when I showed her.

"Do more of what makes you happy."

This sentence has been appearing in my mind many times this week. I probably have a new sentence each week. The sentence, or quote reflects my state of mind, or a lesson for that particular week. During this week, this particular sentence just appeared numerous times. 

When you are happy, you tap into your gifts and you share that happiness with those around you. 

Absolutely true. 

In my case, when I'm really happy, hopefully that happiness seeps into my work. And hopefully my work reflects that. 

I'm pretty sure this isn't going to be the last macaron tower I make. It's fun to see the pretty colors piling up. It makes me happy, and because it makes me happy, I need to do more of it. 

One at a time....

(Looking at my to do list).

Happy mid week everyone!

Dollhouse Miniature Vintage Pink Kitchen Scale

Last week, I completed making this dollhouse miniature vintage pink kitchen scale.
I pop it right on top of my shabby shelf and it fitted well with the rest of the accessories. Hence I had to take a picture.

Also made some potatoes as props for it. 

The pink color one was sold quite a while ago, but it took me a while to remake another one. Pink is still a popular color for these vintage scales.

Wishing you all a great week ahead! 

How my jogging routine has changed over the years

I've been trying something new lately with my jogging routine. I still remembered when I started jogging, I basically jogged empty handed. Then I got an ipod shuffle by chance where I could put music in. I started listening to music while I jogged. When that gadget died, I started holding my phone. I thought that was a good idea as I started longer distances and it's just safer to have a phone around for emergency. I'd still listen to music, but when I'm bored, I would switch it off and just enjoy the sounds of nature.

And then, apps such as mapmyrun was created and I found it handy to track distances, calories burnt. I started to use it as well.

When has jogging become a "game" of some sort? Now, there are even apps made to make jogging more fun. They make games, and you listen to a game scenario while running. You collect "things" that will be useful in the game while running. To increase the fun aspect, you can select the option to "chase off" where zombies will chase after you. You'll need to outrun their pace in order to win.

So last week, I decided to try zombie run. The GPS component is still wonky and doesn't always track accurately. For instance, there was once I was on a path but it tracks me as running in the canal. It was quite fun for a change, to listen to a story scenario while running. However I didn't try the "chase off" option as I'm just focusing on my own pace.

Honestly, I did find it fun - it provided a different distraction or purpose. But I just don't think I would subscribe as it is something I can live without. My next game scenario can only be unlocked on 17 July unless I subscribe. I'll wait instead.

Meanwhile, I'm back to running listening to music, or just plain sounds of nature. :)

If you do jog, what is your routine?

On a Peonies Roll

I'm pretty much down to the last bit of that colored clay I showed you in my last post for making miniature peonies. After that, I might probably be switching to another color.

I made another bouquet of peonies by request :)

I wanted to quickly show these pictures before I "archive" these photos.

I love those green bulbs. I don't have a name for them...but I saw similar ones in an artificial flora bouquet and I just loved that idea. So I'm putting some into this bouquet.

Also, the light green helps the pink to "pop".

Here's another view of the peonies. Loving the full petals. :)

I'm quite liking this new method of working, which is making as many peonies as I possibly can with one color I've mixed and then come up with various items with that. I'm still not sure if I will stick to it, but I'll try different ways and see what works best. Knowing myself, I like to switch things around so that I don't get "bored" with one way.

I like to make another bouquet before the color "runs" out, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to have enough of this color to, if not I'll have to mix some more of it. We'll see :)

I hope you're having a great week!

Practising Making Peonies

Over the last week, I practiced making dollhouse miniature peonies using the new technique.
I am trying to make as many as I can, while the air dry clay remains fresh :)

I'm loving this color very much, so I'm trying to use up all of it. It looks like a fairly large chunk of clay, but in actual fact, it isn't really. But the color is hand mixed, and I just didn't want to waste it. So I'm going to make peonies out of this. Besides, the color of the peonies that I made did turn out looking really nice.

We had a fair share of really hot days and some cool rainy days here for the past week. When it's really rainy, it's a great day for just staying home and making peonies. :)

I use this small cup to place my peonies to dry. These are small sample cups where you'll find in supermarkets where they'll put samples of drinks or even sometimes food. I used to stick it in the flora sponge, but in this way, I can really inspect all the petals while letting it dry. It also helps to give me a sense of how they'll look in a bouquet or vase arrangement. 

While letting it dry, I noticed that there were some gaps in my peonies. See the above circled one.

So I filled up the gap again. Yup - I did managed to do just that! 

____________________

My last Miniature Pink Vespa and flowers bouquet post received a huge amount of likes and probably the most comments of all my posts on my facebook page. 

It blew me away... I'm so grateful for all the likes and comments. I didn't know that many people love the Vespa and flowers :) Thank you so much! 

Wishing all my US friends a Happy 4th July!