Urban Girl And Drive-By Stares

I placed a custom order for the Urban Girl Dollhouse furniture. The pieces come standard in 1:18 scale, but I needed to see how these would fare at 1:12. So far they are working out okay. They are solid walnut and have a nice heft. The thicker wood necessary to create 1:12 scale pieces makes the finished product more susceptible to cracks along the length of the grain. The thicker wood also likes to fight the manufacturer's blade during precise cuts. When this battle begins, the company chooses to let the bias of the wood grain guide the lines. The pieces I have show these natural wood characteristics, but nothing that detracts from the finished product's appeal. Pictured above are the base cabinets from Urban Girl's furniture line. I got a few of these to use as kitchen counters, retail counters, dressers, and other various cabinetry. I'm currently using the base counters in the scene above as media cabinets. Speaking of the scene above... 

I'm trying not to lose interest with it, but I'm waning. If you have been reading this blog for a few years, you probably notice that I quickly get bored with miniature scenes. I start them and they somehow "displease me" and I scrap them. I'm constantly shuffling miniatures to the beat of 2 minutes here and then 5 minutes there and then the rare 15 minutes. I'm usually pushing miniatures around in about 4 or more scenes at a time. This is the process before I actually get the drive to complete a build. Recently, I was asked by a magazine to experiment with a tutorial or how-to about my miniature design process. I tried it out, but had to decline because my "process" is simply not interesting. And, to be honest, I'm not even sure I have a process. Some days inspiration takes over and the rooms make themselves and then other days, I have no idea what I want to build and thus the shuffling and procrastinating. 

The only consistency in the creative flow is the drive-by stare. What is the "drive-by stare", you ask? Well, the drive-by stare is when I'll pop open each of the 12 drawers that house some of my miniatures. I look in and stare at the contents for a minute. The view looks something like this:

Eventually, I'll move on and then later return to do another drive-by stare. Open. Close. Open. Close. Open...Close...

And I'll drive-by just one more time because, you know, I'm sure the contents have changed since I last looked. 

I do switch it up sometimes and make it even more exciting by standing with my arms folded like an old, crusty ship captain. I'll stand there and peruse the portion of my collection on several storage units = a sea of clear boxes--which looks like a lot of this:

It's a 30-second scan before I retreat, but, yeah, I'll come back and strike the commander pose again later. Sometimes my eyesight blurs over the clear boxes as my mind often wanders to other things like "Do we have any snacks?"..."Should I buy those shoes"..."What would Olivia Pope do?"...

My Mr. offers this advice when he sees me becoming bored with a miniature scene, "If you're not feeling it, then... you're just not feeling it. Let it go." I hear him. I do. But, I know I will return to my drive-by ways.