Gift Exchange "Wins" from Camp MiniHaHa 2015

As promised, here are my exchange gift items from CMHH this year. If we decide to participate in this exchange, we bring 5 items, made by us or purchased or a combination thereof, to a certain suggested value.  There are some excellent crafts persons at camp each year, as the photos will show.

This is a walnut (I believe) prie-Dieu, upholstered in wine-red velvet. It came complete with a black lace mantilla, and a tiny wooden cross. These were made by Debbie P. of Nova Scotia, Canada, who is very comfortable with a lathe and a jig-saw. The prayer stool will look wonderful in one of my medieval settings. I recently came across a miniature printie for Les Tres Riches Heures de Jean, Duc de Berry, on the internet, and that would look wonderful on this prie-Dieu.

Becky N. from the United States, gifted this wonderful harvest table, which has 2 working drawers, and is painted in my favourite shade of green. I can see this as a table with a complicated meal in the making on top of and under it, and that is most likely what I will use this for. The drawers just beg to be partially open with linen and cutlery showing inside them. (Thanks to all my CMHH co-campers for letting me know who made the table.)

This piece is from Elizabeth R. from Ontario, and is going right into my vignette; a folding chair/ladder ideal for reaching the high shelves in my antique book shop.

And here it is folded open in the ladder position. This piece is also distressed, which will suit the ambiance of the book shop perfectly.

Two takes on the same plant table; one is elegantly steam punk, while the other, which came with a laser-cut, intricate doily, green artistic vase, and a silver dish of licorice all-sorts, makes me want to do an Arts and Crafts vignette. They were made by Iris S. from Nova Scotia.

And last but not least, a  gorgeous leather and fabric pet carrier, kitten, and pottery cat dish, all made by Jo-Ann S. from Nova Scotia. (Jo-Ann sells her creations as Kilnworks by Jo-Ann via the on-line miniature show that happens at least twice a year, the next one in November, and her items have gone all over the miniatures world.) I'm going to attempt flocking the kitten....

It certainly was a wonderful variety of items that I was lucky enough to get in the exchange, don't you agree?

This afternoon I tried to start on the camp project, but am already in trouble. It is smaller than I had thought, so I will have to reduce the items that go into it. If lots of steam punk items are left over, I just may have to create another steam punk vignette to use them all up! Too bad, huh! I hope to turn the current  one into a book-end; miniatures that are useful are extra wonderful.

The backdrop for the photos is a corner of the steam punk project, held together by low-tack masking tape, as I try to figure out what I am doing....