Honest Neighbors and Canada Post Inefficiency plus Miniature Bar Kit

This morning my dog barked again to announce another man at the door with a parcel.  This time it was my miniature DIY bar kit, which had been delivered to his house by mistake by a Canada Post Parcel delivery guy.
The man apologized as he handed me the parcel and said his daughter had opened it.

 He wasn't kidding.  She had opened it with a knife or a pair of scissors and cut right through both the exterior box and the interior one.  He was elderly, so I highly doubt that his daughter was young enough not to know better than to open someone else's parcel.

Maybe she didn't bother to look at the name and address on the parcel and just opened it?  I don't know, I didn't ask.  I just thanked the man profusely for being kind enough to go out of his way to deliver it for me. 

I did ask what address they delivered it to, and he said 328.  Mine is 379.  I could understand if the delivery guy had accidentally brought it to 397, reversing the last two numbers, but how could he mistake 328 for 379?  This parcel was ordered over 3 months ago and this was the second time the poor seller sent it out, after the first one was lost in the mail.  Had it not been for the kindness of the elderly man, this one would have been "lost" too.

 The interior box was damaged and also opened. 

 They had taped it shut again. 

 I opened it, very worried that the items had been damaged.

 I was also worried that items may have gone missing since the man's daughter had opened it.

 Thankfully, nothing was damaged and it looks like all of the bags and pieces are there.  Hopefully she didn't open any of the interior bags because it is easy to lose the tiny pieces.

 Like the parcel I received yesterday, it was in the smaller, cheaper box, but I don't care as long as the interior stuff is the same quality as the first kit I did (the pet shop kit).

Another weird thing, when I googled the address the parcel had been accidentally delivered to, I discovered it was the home my family lived in when I was a baby, up until I was almost 5 years old!  What a coincidence, lol. I"m going to buy a thank you card for the man and bring it by, if not later today, then tomorrrow.

Miniature Cafe Kit Arrived from China Today!

This morning my dog Mac woke me up barking at the door.  Thank goodness he did because the delivery guy was there and I didn't hear him knock or ring the door bell.  He brought the mini cafe kit that I ordered from banggood.com on July 9th.  Today is August 27th so it took quite some time, but I knew it would, as it was coming from China.  I paid less than 2 dollars extra to insure the package and get a tracking number, which also allowed me to sign for the package as proof that it was delivered, which I think was so worth it.

Mini Cafe kit

 The box is covered with different kits that the company sells.  Mine is the one in the top right hand corner, weirdly named "Dense Feeling Moment" but referred to by me forever after as "Mini Cafe".  I'll probably come up with a different name for the place.

Unboxing kit

 The first thing I noticed was the box this kit came in was super flimsy compared to the box my Pet Shop kit came in.

 The next thing I noticed was the instructions were on very thin paper, and appeared to have been shrunk compared to the pet shot instructions.

Mini Cafe kit parts

 The kit itself seemed OK though, with three little bags of parts, some printables, the main wood pieces, and even glue (which I was told would not be sent).  Glue was also sent in the Pet Shop kit, so I don't know why they say they won't send it, lol.

Instructions

 I pulled out the instructions from the Pet Shop to compare them, and the pet shop instructions (on the left, below) are much larger, with illustrations showing each part in each bag).  The whole page (on the left), showing the contents of a package, was shrunk to the little box midway down the page (on the right). This may be a problem, as I really found the package part descriptions with illustrations to be helpful because so many parts look similar.  Other than the package description shrinkage in the new kit, all else seems to b the same in the instructions. 

Comparing instructions from pet shop kit (on left) to mini cafe kit (on right)

 In the picture below, the Pet shop kit box is the blue one on the left; the new cafe kit box is the yellow one. The blue box is thick and lustrous and a real box with a lid.  The box holds it's shape when opened and it was very convenient for keeping the kit pieces together while i was working.  The new, flimsy yellow box on the right falls apart and lies flat when opened, losing it's box shape completely. It can be put back together again, but without the front lid down, it loses shape.  I guess the company was trying to cut corners and save money.  Hopefully the kit itself will be OK.

Comparing kit boxes

Despite the changes, I am looking forward to starting this kit. 

I have another one on the way, that I ordered 3 months ago, from Ebay (Green's Bar).  That one got lost in the mail and the seller had to resend it. He begged me to choose another kit (one that was in a tin can) and was very unhappy that I wanted the kit I had originally ordered.  He said he had lots of the other kit in his warehouse, but that is not my problem; I wanted the one I ordered, or to get reimbursed so I could order it elsewhere.  I ordered my Pet shop kit from the same seller with no problems so hopefully Green's Bar will arrive without any more problems.

Completed Miniature Pet Shop Kit in 1:24 scale

I finished my little Pet Shop Kit; woohoo!

Pet World DIY miniature kit in 1:24 scale, completed

 My Dad had to do the wiring for me, and it looks so great all lit up at night!

 I am really pleased with the way it came out,! 

Sadie had to duck down to take a look.  She says she'd like a 1 inch scale pet shop so she can go shopping for Rufus.  I told her I'd think about it ;-).

In the meantime, I ordered another DIY storefront shop kit from China; called Green's Bar.
This is what it will look like:

Sorry for the grainy image, but it's going to be so cute! It has already been shipped but it's coming from China so will probably take a month to get here.

Mini Cat Climbing Tree with Scratch Post and Bowl

I made this cute little cat tree, from my Pet Shop kit from China.

Miniature cat tree with scratching post and toy, 1:24 scale

Isn't it cute?  All of the wood pieces, the legs, bead, and green felt were provided in the kit, along with instructions.

Instructions for mini cat tree

 I don't know if you can tell, but the wood pieces for this item are nice and sturdy; great quality.

Wood parts for mini cat tree

 I glued the pieces together with Alene's Tacky Glue, Quick Grab.

Assembling mini cat tree

The scratch posts are tiny lengths of toothpick or skewer-type wood, wrapped with unraveled rafia type paper.

Making the scratch posts

 The base was just a piece of felt but I found it wasn't sturdy enough that way so I added a piece of cereal box cardboard onto the back.

The base

 After the parts have been glued and allowed to dry, they were glued together.

Pieces of mini cat tree ready for assembly

 I also made a simple pet dish, using a length of corrugated cardboard glued around a cut out circle of cardboard.  The instructions said to use a circle of paper but I wanted it sturdier.

Simple cardboard pet dish

 The cat toy is just a bead glued to a bit of the rafia paper, which I rolled in my fingers to make thinner.

Finished cat tree

Here it is; the glue is still wet in this picture.  I think a mini cat would like this, don't you?

Mini Hassock for Pet Shop DIY kit

I've been going through mini making withdrawal so I decided I'd better continue on with my mini DIY Pet Shop kit from China.  I'm already on Bag number 3; the last bag (see contents below).

Bag 3 of Pet Shop DIY kit

 Here's a close up of the contents:  various bits of fabric, thread, wood pieces, lights, wiring, beads, ribbon, and round metal things (can't think what they're called).  Also cut wood pieces to make a cat scratching post stand, and two round wooden pieces to make what they call a sofa but what we would call a hassock or ottoman.

Bag 3 contents

 The instructions say to start with the "sofa" (aka hassock or foot stool) so that is what I did.  I pulled out the two round wood pieces, some corrugated cardboard from Bag 2, the piece of red felt, and the 3 black beads and put them aside.

Instructions

 Next I measured the corrugated cardboard and cut it according to directions.

 Then I rolled the cardboard around  the edge of one round piece of wood, and glued it in place.  I left some room for the cardboard to overlap a bit, glued it, and put a clip on it until it dried.

 The next step said to glue the second round wood piece on top, so I did that.  It's starting to take shape and looks very cute.

 Then I cut out a paper circle to match the wood circle, traced it onto the red felt, and cut that out.  I also cut a long strip of red felt to glue along the side of the hassock.

 After the felt was glued in place firmly, I tipped the hassock over and added black beads for the feet.

Adding bead feet to the hassock

 And here it is; a simple but cute hassock.

Completed mini hassock

Mini Pet Shop contents: pillows, collars, books, dog bed

I've been busy making these teeny tiny items for my pet shop.

Mini DIY pet shop kit items

The tiny collars are so cute.  They're just strips of felt with little buttons glued on, and the silver part is a silver twist tie (like for tying up garbage bags).  The books have pages, but they're blank, lol. So tiny!  I wanted to get a photo with a coin to show size but the battery on my camera died so it's recharging now.

The white pillow is just three layers of felt, cut in bone shapes and glued together.  The blue pillow is an actual pillow that I sewed and stuffed, with a felt dog paw applique glued on.  The dog bed is ingenious; it's just a printable rectangular box, with strips of rafia paper glued on in the round, so it looks like a basket.  Then a bit of cloth was glued inside.  The dog came with the kit.

DIY mini pet shop kit

So this is what I have done so far.  I have to glue the shelves into the store, and then I can start gluing the items down.  I still have some of bag B to finish, and then I can start on bag C, the final bag.  Then I'll get my Dad to do the wiring for the lighting, lol, and it will be done!  It will still take quite awhile as the tiny items that go inside are very fiddly and time consuming.  I'm enjoying making the items a lot more than I enjoyed making the shop itself.

Min Pet Shop KIt Outside Portion Finished

It took forever to do the outside portion but I'm finally done.

Mini Pet Shop DIY Kit outside

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out; it is very cute and sweet.  The hardest part was putting the darn hinges on.  I put them on twice, in the wrong place the first time, and backward the second, and finally had to get my Dad to fix it.  He did, and the front swings open great now.

The front portion consisted of assembling the door pieces and gluing them together, the window pieces, the decorative paws, The awning, hanging sign, including the thing it hangs from, the door knob, the sidewalk, and the cute little welcome sign.  The only difficult part was getting the glue to stick.  I ended up having to use a glue gun to glue the wire hanger for the sign together, then onto the house, and also for the beads that make up the doorknob and to attach the sidewalk strip to the main front piece.  I used the glue that came with the kit for everything else.

 I bought the little pink clips in the above photo at the dollar store and they came in handy, but I need to find some longer ones.  They worked to hold the tall orange sign and the bone sign in place while they dried.  They really helped for the bone, because that was a bit warped and didn't want to lay flat.

In the above photo, you can see how the entire front swings open.

 I decided to start on Step 3, which is the assembly of the contents of package B.  The first two instructions said to make the shelves, which I did.  The glue that came with the kit did not work for these shelves; they kept falling apart. In the end, I used Alene's Quick Grab Tacky glue, and it worked much better.  I didn't line up all of the long pieces on the orange shelf properly because every time I touched it they shifted out of place and after redoing it 5 or more times, I gave up and decided they didn't have to be perfect. 

The kit is very cute but it is very tedious and there is no sense of creativity like there was when I made my bake shop.  I liked the freedom of making whatever I wanted with the bake shop.   This is more like putting a puzzle together, and it's all cutting, placing, and gluing.  I still enjoy it, but I don't get that creative buzz that I like with this.