It's Going to be Quiet Here for a While!

Once I have a couple of medical appointments over and done with, my carpenter-in-chief and I are heading out for an adventure in driving. Two of our three children live in Alberta, and they both have houses of their own now, so we are delivering ALL those things they've been storing here forever to them, and crossing much of Canada in the process once again, which means there will likely be no posts until July. All too many of our Maritime university graduates end up on Alberta and other points west, because that is where all the jobs are now. Our neck of the woods is rapidly becoming a haven for seniors, with schools about to close as there are no youngsters to attend them any more.


Although I harbour a secret hope that this will not be my last long road trip, I have to admit that the C-in-C is not that fond of long drives, unlike me. We plan to travel the northern route to the Ontario-Manitoba border, where we will have to join the Trans-Canada Highway for a while, and then we hope to head off along the Yellowhead Highway, on the way to Slave Lake and then south a bit to Edmonton.


On the way back, we hope to dip into Wisconsin for a visit to the House on the Rock and its miniatures for me, and Taliesin East for the C-in-C, although I also enjoy Wright's architecture; a few years ago we visited Taliesin West in Arizona, and we are interested in seeing how this northern setting differs from the southern one.


Please check back in to the blog in July - I should have some photos and other things to share with you at that time. Thank you all for following this blog, and encouraging me to finish some of my projects in the process.

The Sun Is Back

Yesterday, I ran into some problems posting photos again, although it did work at last. This is another attempt to see if I have the photo problem beat.

Well, that worked! This is another old project, a wild garden setting. The flowers and plants include trout lilies, the little yellow ones in the foreground, a trillium on the left, bull rushes in the back and wild irises in front of them. The bird is a chickadee, which we have here year 'round.

The trout lilies (also called yellow dogtooth) grow wild around the back of our garage; these small flowers are very cheerful, as they come out very early in the spring. They aren't out yet, though. There is a pale lavender version of it, which I used to see in Ontario years ago, but have never seen here in the Canadian Maritimes. Our wild irises come in a pale version, and also in the deep blue version that is known as a blue flag iris. Trilliums show up rarely; they don't seem to like the northern parts of Canada too much, although they are found all over Ontario.I tried to keep one on our property alive, but apparently the ground had been disturbed too much for it.

Most of the day it rained, but now that evening is arriving, the sun has come out. Between yesterday and today, the leaves on the crab apple tree are popping open, and there are catkins everywhere else. Even the mountain ash is showing fat leaf buds, they'll likely open soon.

It has been a very long winter here; in two weeks' time I've gone from snow boots to bare feet in sandals. The Saint John River is very high, and there has been flooding in low-lying areas for a couple of weeks. Luckily, I live well above the river valley, it would have to be a flood of biblical proportions to affect our house, but one does feel sorry for all those in the river valley.

Hopefully, I have the photo problem licked!

Happy Mother's Day!

The sun was shining, the trees in the garden are showing a haze of green, and a crazy robin keeps attacking all our windows; what you see behind the window  is bird netting, which is currently draped around several sides of the house. It seems each time we drape a net, he finds a different window to attack. Considering we live in the middle of a lot of trees and "wild" land, why do they have to come and nest right on our house and drive us crazy with their aggression? The attack isn't the worst thing; if they get really ticked off at that other robin in the window, they poop and poop and poop..... Did you know the scientific name for a robin is Turdus? Guess we now know why.

There is nothing new to show, so I thought I'd post an old bird-feeder garden project. I made six or so of these years ago, and sold all but this one. The flowers in this garden are a mix of paper, dried flowers, railroad foliage clumps, and flower foam. If I remember correctly, this project is at least ten years old, which shows that if you keep dried and paper flowers out of direct sunshine, they last a good, long time. I hadn't yet mastered wire feet for birds back then, so these two just sit on their bellies.

The birds are mourning doves; we see them here for much of the year. They are very attractive birds, but their call is so sad and depressed, and totally unmistakable. I do enjoy their beige and pale peach colouring.

Currently I am working on a small commission, making up a prototype to run by my client. I hope to be able to show it tomorrow, weather permitting, as the garden is calling out for some more mulch removal, but I do need the sun for that. And currently the sky is clouding over....

New Miniature Acquisition

The only thing I purchased at the Moncton Miniature and Doll Show was the lovely little iridescent purple-pink bottle on the right side of the table. It came from an estate, so I have no idea who made it, but it is very thin and the colour seems to change.

This should look very nice in the Apothecary Shop. There was very little that would work for medieval settings available, but there were some little artist's dolls with wonderful clothing that caught my eyes. However, they were 12" tall and wouldn't work in a 1/12 setting!

More Trouble Ahead....

For the last couple of days, I've been trying to post a blog entry with photos, without any success. It is no problem to write the blog, but when I attempt to add a photo, everything freezes and nothing will go either backwards or forwards.


My apologies, therefore; I did try, but it just won't work. I will try again after the Moncton Show, on tomorrow.

More Things That Are Now Finished

If you are at all like me, you have a "safe" place where you put things you need to retrieve again; and like me, you probably forget where your safe place was. Well, these cushions and rugs turned up while I was looking for something totally different, so I decided to finish them and put them in my shop box which is truly a "safe" place. These are all 1/12 scale, the cushions and dog rug being done on 22 ct canvas, with the Navajo rugs done on 18 ct Aida - I love their colours, almost makes me wish I was younger and could allow myself to start a southwest project....

The plants are 1/6 scale; these were made specifically for the Moncton show. The fruit was made in both 1/12 and 1/6 scale, showing here is the larger size. I still have to stain the fruit bowls, but that will have to wait until next week as we are once again heading out for the Culloden Memorial in Knoidart, Nova Scotia. It has been snowing all day (that's right, snowing although it is the end of April!), so it will be a very cold ceremony, as it is held on a bleak spot on the Northumberland Strait shore. I feel sorry already for  the men in their kilts. Even people who generally love the winter season have had enough of this one!

My hands will not be idle; I have a larger scale wool rug that needs its background done in basket-weave stitch, that should keep my hands occupied while listening - indoors, thank goodness- to speakers, singers and musicians on Saturday. I am not a whiskey fan, like all those descendants of the Nova Scotia Scots!

Did I Fool You?

Anyone with a good 1/12 eye will be able to tell that these floral arrangements are too big, and you would be right; they are fashion doll or 1/6 size.

A number of fashion doll collectors show their treasures at the Moncton Miniature and Doll Club Show, held this year on May 4. They had asked me if I would try some fashion doll scale items, and I decided to fill an apparent little niche in my market. These are the first two arrangements I've done in that scale, and consist of a mix of purchased paper flowers, plastic foliage, and my own hand-made flowers. The little containers, of which I have 3 more, were picked up at flea markets and antique shows in the past year. They are sitting on a hand-carved Barbie-scale table my youngest daughter acquired, along with a whole host of other nice Barbie furniture to match, during the years we were living in Kingston, Jamaica.

I've also tried some fashion doll scale cushions, and a rug. If the items are well received, I may add this particular scale to my occasional show offerings. It's kind of fun trying another scale.

Back to work! The sun is shining, my glue is too thick, I think I have to head into town tomorrow.