Birithmas 2021 thru 2024

My 3 friends have never met each other, but they are collectively responsible for this project.

First inspiration came from my old neighbor and friend, Chip. He posted this picture from a "hippies" Facebook page and I fell in love:

I loved the colors, the flowers, and the vines overhead! But I couldn't envision it as a miniature scene; it needed something more. Then I was talking with my other friend, Maria, about her home town, Arequipa in Peru. It is called the white city since most of the buildings are white with white roads. And the pictures I googled inspired me:

Street in Arequipa

Another street in Arequipa

And it began to form in my head: mostly white street scene on one side and the colorful restaurant scene on the other side! But I have no time to create a new project...

Unless it was a gift for someone! And that's how friend #3, Best Friend in Texas, also became responsible for this project's life. Best Friend and I usually exchange Birithmas gifts: birthday and Christmas rolled into 1 gift since we both have Nov birthdays and don't want to pay shipping twice within a month to then ship each other Christmas gifts less than 4 weeks later.  But, due to Covid, graduations, college tours and trips for kids, and health issues, I have not exchanged Birithmas gifts with my bestie since 2020. So I got to work on our Birithmas gifts!

I knew it was to be 2 side-by-side scenes (one side an open patio and the other a street scene) and I wanted a tile wall fountain in there somewhere. Mocked up a design with foam core poster fairly quickly.

And then the project sat still for a bit. I needed wood to cut the final design on. And I had to research various products to find just the right tile, bricking, doors, etc. for the exact look I wanted. And then when I finally had most of the pieces, I got started:

Got the wood cut and rough designed the fountain/pond

Using molds I bought from Gravik (Link to Gravik's Etsy page) I created the bricks, cobblestone, and wall stone for the floorings and street side of the scene.

Since I have to ship this project, I was thrilled to find a LIGHTWEIGHT Sculpey clay!

I had to create a realistic "white" clay (didn't want a bright white)

Although my "street side" of the scene will be white on white, I didn't think a bright white (how the clay is sold) would look realistic since no city stone would look that clean. So I had to add some tan clay to the bright white.

Finished clay after being baked in the mold

I didn't like how the 2x2 stone looked on the wall. If it were a floor it would have been fine. But being vertical it looked too large and blocky. So I used my blade to cut the 2x2 blocks into 1x2 and staggered them on the wall to create a more realistic wall façade:

Then I used the bricking molds to create over 1,500 bricks (about 400 more bricks than I needed, but I don't math well so I had overestimated how many I'd need).

Added glitter to some, cuz why not?

Various shades of bricking

Laying the bricking down in the scene

Painted the MDF laser-cut door I had bought off Etsy to make it look like wrought iron and wood:

Painted the center black to resemble wrought iron

Painted streaks of brown hues on door edging to make MDF resemble wood

Both our doors together

Also bought amazing tiles from Gravik to create the wall fountain. Using paint, EnviroTex, and a product called Solid Water, I created the pond and fountain (Post about water effects).

Made ponds with Enviro Tex and plexi blister pack covers

The fountain caused some headaches since the water "stream" kept shrinking and breaking as it dried.  Took four attempts to finally get it to work.

As it dried, strands of "water" kept breaking where it met the pond

Finally finished with pond and fountain

Also made some pots to go in the narrow ledge shelf. Sawed a wooden bowl in half and created a back to cover the open side to create a half-round bowl. Then painted it to resemble terra cotta:

Full wood bowl on the left; cut bowl with wood backing in middle and on right

Painted to resemble terra cotta like pot

Unpainted bowl pot with flowers in narrow ledge on street side

Other walls were finished off with a textured spray called Orange Peel. I had used it before on my Moroccan vignette and thought it would work well on these walls, like a stucco effect.

The patio side

The street side

The spray I used

Prior project I had used the spray on

Then came my dilemma: My original vision had lattice and vines going over the patio half of the scene. But then that blocks the view from above into the pond/fountain.

With lattice in the way you can't see into pond fountain area as well

This way it's open and easily seen

So I made my friend's lattice first. Made it removeable so that if she thinks it blocks the view too much, she can remove it and fill in the brick hole with flowers or a bush or something.

People can always bend down and peek into the scene to see fountain wall area

Can really see the plastic under the dirt from this view - had to make sure she could remove it all if she doesn't like it.

And finally, I played, filling in some pieces to get a feel for its final destination (although it still will get alterations before it is "done"). My patio side will be the outdoor portion of a "restaurant", like the image my friend Chip inspired me with and the street side will eventually have many red pops of flowers on the bushes like my friend Maria's home town (I did decide to ditch the fountain at the end of the street as it seemed redundant - scene already has one wall fountain):

Cobblestone was also made using a mold purchased from Gravik

Chairs still need to be painted various colors

Can't wait to add all the details and more plants!

So, it was sent to her late, but friend finally received her Birithmas 2021, 2022, 2023, and now I'm counting it as our 2024 gift too since it didn't make it to her in time for her birthday/Christmas in 2023!

7-year Itch? (Checking on Water)

I cannot believe it's been over 7 years since my water experiment started (First post about water effects). Over 2,640 days.

So it's time to check in and see how they are doing:

Day 1 of experiment

Day 2,640+

By far the worse for wear is the Scenic Water:

Pock marked and discolored slightly

Has dust on top of it too

Scenic Water birdbath is not only pock marked but it is also dusty. And I am unable to clean it because the surface is spongy so there's no wiping off the dust.

Next up we look closely at the Solid Water product:

Cloudy streaks have gotten worse with time

Although it is firm on top allowing me to dust it and keep it clean, the cloudiness streaking that happened on day 1 has continued to get worse over time.

And the Enviro Tex Lite product results:

Both Enviro Tex birdbaths are solid on top (allowing for ease of dusting and cleaning) and look fairly similar to the day they were poured. The painted birdbath fell and broke last year and I reglued the red mushroom ring back in place (see the cracks at 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock?) and you can see it didn't affect the water at all!

All of the products together (Enviro Tex top left, then Scenic Water top right, Solid Water bottom left, and Enviro Tex painted bottom right)

So here it is, over 7 years later, and I'm inspired to add a new water feature to my upcoming project (a fountain with a pond). Glad I know from this experiment which water product I should use!

Office Computer (or is it just an Office?)

When my neighbor, Chip, moved away several years ago I saw 2 things he was throwing out that I asked him if I could take. The first: a semi-beaten up old Craftsman tool chest which I converted into a Harley Davidson motorcycle garage. The second item was technically two of the same things: computer shells. The guts (motherboards and what-not) had been removed before Chip put them out in the trash. But I saw potential for a neat office building. I just didn't know what business would be operating in the office space. Then it hit me: a software gaming company!  Thus "Mini Boss Gaming" was born and construction started on their offices.

First I had to strip the computer console shells down to bare basic bones: there was still some remaining wires and metal supports inside and a CD drive that needed to be removed. Luckily my brother-in-law had a handy tool that made removing the odd screws a breeze (especially when he operated the tool so I had to do was stand there and watch! LOL).

The "Before" photos of the workers' cubicles and CEO's office side of the building

The "Before" photo of the receptionist/bathrooms/conference room side

Then, I hit a stumbling block: weeks were spent trying to sort thru the remaining wires to see if I could wire the dollhouse lighting inside the structure thru the computer's on/off switch (spoiler: I never got it figured out). So, after weeks wasted, I scrapped that and focused on new wiring.

I divided the office into 2 parts: one computer shell would have the bathrooms, the receptionist's desk at the entrance to the business, and a conference room; the other computer shell would be the CEO's office and the worker's cubicles side (the Office Side).

The office side of the building

I was very excited that the fan on the Office Side still worked! So I wired that to dollhouse wiring. In the photo on the left you can see the CD Drive has been removed, the space is more open, and the fan on the side of the shell has been reinstalled.

And the fronts of the computers had lights along the edges that also still lit up when I touched the wires to a transformer so I also wired those to dollhouse wiring. Although after doing so, one of the computer shell's exterior lights stopped working for some reason (maybe a different voltage? I'm not sure. But I had already wasted many weeks upon weeks on the wiring and still had to create walls, floors, etc.)

Like the Harley Davidson Garage, I cut foam board to be the majority of the walls. There were metal stubs and screws sticking out of the walls and foam board allowed for the inconsistent wall depths, thus creating a smooth finished wall that I could now paper with minimum disruption along the walls.

Bathrooms (Men's on 1st Floor and Women's on 2nd Floor),
Conference Room on 2nd floor, and receptionist/lobby area

One half of the "building" is underway! Bathroom doors and stalls need to be created and the Conference Room's window needs to be planned/constructed.  And the front door is just a wide opening at the moment, but it's progress. Next up, lights were added to the ceilings:

Light fixtures are in place

I still have a long ways to go. Wallpaper, flooring, trims, etc. still need to be found, created, and/or installed. And there is still the 2nd half of the building to be dealt with. But it's coming along....