Cacthing Up Once Again, Almost Back to Normal!

Though I would leave you with this photo, of the project we did two years ago at Camp MiniHaHa. We decorated and painted the pre-made box, which had a base coat, did the interior finish as well as the exterior, laid the floor, and made the cupboard on top of the box, as well as the table and chair.

As I am a great admirer of Janet Brownhill (Country Treasures, UK), I wanted to do a very crowded kitchen in her style, so I made the large hutch in the box, and designed and made the kitchen sink and storage underneath, as well as the plate rack on the wall, to match the other pieces. Some of the items in this box I picked up while in Europe in my mini dream holiday a year ago; others come from my stash of items I've both made and items I've purchased, from artisans whose work I particularly admire.

There is Jane Graber and Sam Dunlop pottery, Janet Brownhill preserves, and many gifts and tidbit items I received over the years at camp. The box is lit with a battery-operated LED light made from a lucite bead and brass tubing. The scene outside the window is a photo I cut out of an article on Tasha Tudor, long a champion of doll's houses, a photo of her house and garden in the autumn.

The next entry won't come until April, as we have a wedding out west to attend. I will also get to meet a couple of miniaturists I have come to "know" through the international miniaturist site, The Camp, and view their minis. Can't wait.

Once I return, it is back to minis as my hand is working almost as good as it used to, before the accident. I will be left with some arthritis symptoms, but the fingers are almost all moving as well as before. The bad ones, my right ring and little finger, can be worked around.

Thank you for sticking with me during my hiatus, mini friends!

Still Around, Just Too Many Hobbies!

This is just a quick catch-up to say I haven't disappeared, just taking some time, while I have the energy, to finish up some UFO's (UnFinished Objects) from my other hobbies, quilting and embroidery. New Year's resolutions aren't my thing at all, too stressfull, but my mind is pushing me to finish some of the far too many other hobby projects that I haven't finished. Most of them just need a little more work to be done.

This weekend I layered and basted two quilts, a wall hanging and a lap quilt; the latter also required that a box full of pieced fabric had to be sewn together - the project has so many seams, my fingers hurt from pushing the needle through the layers. A third wall hanging got its pieced and mitered borders, now that is ready to be layered and basted. Three other, nearly finished wall hangings are in my "To-Do Basket"; I spent part of today sewing on applique panels on one of them. More sore fingers!

Then there are several nearly finished cross-stitch pieces, all small counts, and my eyes are just not as good as they used to be. Two of the pieces are elaborate Christmas pieces, so I started back to work on them in the hope of having them ready to give away at Christmas 2013. Also, I may need to go on to a higher count of fabric if my eyes continue to give me problems. There hasn't been a change in my glasses prescription for a decade or longer, but I may need new ones this year....

With all the snow, I really want to get back to making some miniature flowers. The kits that we received at Camp MiniHaHa '12 are calling me. Maybe my pushy mind will allow me to have some fun with mini flowers later this week.

Happy New Year

Santa brought me some Christmas minis. The wonderful gift basket and display boxes are from Westwinds Miniatures, which my older daughter bought at the MET show in October. They are designed to go into my Camp MiniHaHa '12 Project.

The Reutter set came directly from Dresden, Germany, a gift from my son who visited there in the summer. There is no direct purpose for them right now, but they will go into a nice setting, perhaps with some other porcelain pieces that don't have a home yet.

And yes, that is snow behind the items; we have had more than two feet of it, with another dusting on top of it today. I am not really fond of winter....

The People from the Miniature Market

Merry Christmas to all of you from the shoppers and the proprietors of the Chipping Littleham weekly market!

Miniature Flower Seller's Market Cart

This is currently the last of the market pieces; it is still a work in progress, as I have to make far more plants for it as well as a vendor for the cart.

It is a variation on the vegetable barrow; posts in the corners, a ridge beam, two end panels and side panels covered with a piece of striped "canvas". There are several brass rails not visible behind the canopy, from which will hang additional plants. The table top lifts in and out, and holds a series of flower buckets that in real life are Marr connectors (electrical caps for bare wires), from the hardware store.

Looking at the photo, I think I shall glue some small rails around the edges of the table, as they would make it possible to place small potted plants around the edges of the barrow. The stain used on this piece is one of my most favourite colours, called Ipswich Pine; it is a lovely warm rosy gold that looks wonderful on miniatures, and I use it extensively, especially as the undercoat stain on painted and distressed pieces.

The Christmas Holiday is fast approaching; we had a heavy snowfall yesterday, more than 30 cm (about 1 foot) of wet, heavy snow that stayed on all the tree branches. Most of our small cedars and birches are bent right over, touching the ground with their tops. More snow is on the way, but on the weekend it should get cold, which means it will definitely be a white Christmas here. The downside of all this lovely snow, of course, is the inevitable power outages; two lengthy ones and quite a few short blips yesterday. Fortunately, the house is warm again today. As we heat and cook with electricity, and have a well with an electric pump, power outages are more than just a slight nuisance; no hot food or drink,  no water, and no flushing of toilets, not to mention the chill that descends upon the house. I truly don't know how our ancestors read or worked by the light of a single candle.

Miniature "Junque" or Antique Dealer's Stall

Probably all of us who make or collect miniatures have "homeless" minis, things we wanted to try and make or were given, that we don't have a setting for. A second-hand dealer's stall in my market acts as a showcase for some of my homeless minis. This little stall is open to being raided, and some of the children's toys are quite likely to end up in my children's nursery shop. My friend Sonia W. keeps her homeless minis in a roombox antique shop. Sharon B. has a number of small glass and brass display cabinets, in which she keeps her miniature cranberry glass and rose-patterned china.

Other excellent settings for homeless minis include attics, antique shops, and one which really appeals to me, an auction house sales room. I made some of the items in this setting, like the telescope, doctor's bag, Noah's ark and contents, some of which are in the doll's cradle, bunny on wheels, and the rocking horse, among others. The cardboard box contains Christmas decorations, but the miniature nativity scene has been moved to a Christmas roombox. The wonderful sword in the blue and white jug is a Toledo blade cocktail pick, part of a set of four, complete with colourful enamel work on the guard. If you can find a set of these, they are pretty much 1/12th scale. The "estate" crystal on the little side table is from a number of Chrysnbon sets I assembled.

This stall has no dealer, which means I have to get to work one of these days and sculpt another batch of mini people. The keeper of this stall should be just a little shifty, as some of the items he has on sale (or she!) might well have dropped off the back of a truck....

 This week a stuffed envelope of plant kits arrived in the mail; once the hectic holiday season is over I'll get out my flower-making tools and put some of these together. The plant kits are intended for the Camp MiniHaHa '12 project, which means garden design is also on the horizon. As well, I will post another plant how-to.

Welcome to the new followers of this blog, and the people who wrote to say they enjoyed the plant instructions.

For Karen B.

The clematis vine in this photo is glued to a wire armature, with the green fiberfill stuff pulled very thinly along the wires and glued in place with glue dots. The two pails contain 1/4" 3-hole punch dot roses, made with 2 or 3 shades of paper.

The garden gazebo is a Joan Swanson design from a very old Nutshell News magazine, with a floor made of air-dry clay brick. One of the pails is a miniature pail, while the other is a Marr connector, which can be bought in the electric areas of hardware stores.