Every Little Thing

Dormer Frustrations

2012-01-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm glad my goal was only the dormers and not all the windows this month. I'm hoping the flat windows will be easier. It's pretty tough to clamp and glue the dormers to anything so, I used these little dollar store containers on the inside. That moment of genius came a few days after I walked away from an exercise in futility with tape and clamps.

They fit in about perfect. There were a few thin wood strips added

where needed (not shown) for a good solid glue in.

It took a fair bit of dry fitting and cutting

to get the rounded tops just right.

This part went pretty smooth, but
left obvious spackling work to be done

Are your houses made of spackle too?

Fill...

fill..

fill.

This is special for everyone who says my room is always photographed too clean.

This is the reality of what goes down mid project.

Can't you just hear your Mother's voice yelling "clean your room!"

I've got 5 days left on that list....cross your fingers for me.

Beacon Hill Dormer Windows

2012-01-19T09:57:00.000-05:00

The instructions fell a bit short in photo department (in my opinion) here. So here are some additional detailed shots, hopefully they are helpful to someone one day.

There are left andright sides to the “L” pieces and the window frame sides, so be careful thatthey are positioned correctly. I think you can tell the sides are flush with the bottom/feet and top/decorative offshoot in the photos.

The base, frame, decorativetop molding and “L’” window pieces are madeby sandwiching a small and large matching piece together.

You can see how the frame, L's and molding fit together here.

These are pieces for over the screened windows.
EDIT: they do not go over the frame outside. They go inside.

My set of instructions told me to go find a whole pile of tiny wooden pieces to build the curved roof section, however my kit had 4 veneer with cardboard backed pieces. Thank goodness they made that change, kudos to anyone who built these when that was true, yikes!

For the interior, there are 4 larger U shaped frames and a sill. Looks like I somehow managed to avoid getting a shot of those. I left everything to dry overnight and am going to start the install today. So far so good.

Now, for the bad news: January’s #5 - Finish the mini boat project - The Dinghy. PROJECT ABORTED.

I ran into someserious warping that could not be resolved regardless of my attempts. Instead of the jig making the boat curve from end to end; it warped down from side to side, which also lead to popping off the framework. I don’t know if it was due to the age of thekit, my inexperience or (most likely) an unfortunate combination of the two. In any even this is the first time I canrecall completely giving up on a project. In the end, I think it was a good choice. Since I only made it about a third of the way,my limited advice is this: When they sayuse Windex or alcohol to soak the base, don’t use Windex. It stained thewood and it was noticeable when dry. This would be fine if you planned on painting it I suppose.

I'm a little disappointed because it was going to be perfect for my beach house. I really was enjoying the build and thought the instructions were fantastic. Sure, I have time to find an alternative and sometimes you just have to accept that things don't always go as planned. But darn it...I really wanted that one to work out!

Moving right along

2012-01-11T20:19:00.000-05:00

The goals list is diligently being tackled and it's only the 11th. This is working out great.

#5 - Finish the mini boat project, is underway. There are 96 steps and as of today I'm at 32.

First I needed to wet and pin down the base of the boat to give it a little dip or curve in the center. Just as I had it tacked down; the center support came unglued. It got re-glued and I let it sit for the afternoon to harden. Since this is what holds the piece to curve it, it has to be right.

I punched out the parts for the next step and got them all nicely sanded.

It is being left to dry overnight and is holding tight.

#6 - The BH living room got it's first coat of paint. I see now that the spaces above the windows need more attention. That is the one nice thing about getting pictures; the camera sure sees a lot I don't!

(1) ~~pack up the holiday decoration~~s ~~and put them neatly back in the storage space.~~
DONE
(2) ~~file that frightening stack of receipts, bills, etc and prep for taxes~~
DONE
(3) ~~Organize the closet in the office and Xavier’s room~~
DONE
~~(4) Seriously, stop putting it off and my get hair done~~
DONE
(5) Finish the mini boat project - The Dinghy
in progress
(6) paint the Beacon Hill living room
in progress
(7) assemble the Beacon Hill dormer windows
(8) ~~get the holiday pictures off the camera,~~ loaded to shutterfly and printed
(9) have a Mommy lunch and catch up with a friend
invitation sent - need to set a date

So far, so good. See you soon!

Setting goals

2012-01-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

Last year my resolution was to make a blog entry at least twice a month. That goal was met, sometimes more but never less. I got to thinking; being a fairly self-aware lady can and should be taken advantage of. I often make a physical checklist for household responsibilities and those items get my attention ASAP. It’s just how I operate. It is far time miniature projects were added to that list. That said, this year I’ve decided to set monthly goals, some of them will be miniature and some will be “get around to it” kind of things. Which brings us to:

JANUARY GOALS

(1) ~~pack up the holiday decorations~~ and put them neatly back in the storage space.
Will finish that one today

(2) ~~file that frightening stack of receipts, bills, etc and prep for taxes~~
DONE

(3) ~~Organize the closet in the office and Xavier’s room~~
DONE

(4) Seriously, stop putting it off and my get hair done
OK, I’ll do it today!

(5) Finish the mini boat project

(6) paint the Beacon Hill living room

(7) assemble the Beacon Hill dormer windows

(8) ~~get the holiday pictures off the camera,~~ loaded to shutterfly and printed

proof I unloaded the camera :)

(9) have a Mommy lunch and catch up with a friend

Now it’s all out there for everyone to see, so it has a sense of urgency in my mind. Suddenly my hair is completely intolerable, gotta run!

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T20:00:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day. We are looking forward to a nice quiet day at home with Grandma coming for dinner. Everything is ready to go and the camera is charged.

Warm wishes from our home to yours this holiday weekend and for the new year!

Let's get Retro

2011-12-19T15:58:00.000-05:00

As of last week, most of the kiddo's presents are out of my craft space; though the big stuff that can't be wrapped is still in there. All of that said, with most of it moved out I was able to get a project done today!

I wanted to make a blanket for my Son. He's really been digging those retro wind-up robots I used for his birthday party and has added 'robot' to his vocabulary. So I'm going to transition his room from baby to toddler with retro bots. There is some cute fabric called Robot Factory circulating right now and all you need for a baby or toddler blanket is about one yard for each side. I followed a fantastic tutorial at iCraft - see it here. Thanks Jenny :)

No need to repeat her wonderfully detailed instructions. It's basically this:

(1) Measure and cut to your desired sized.

(2)Face fabric wrong sides out.

(3)I added batting which clings nicely to the cotton (it's chilly here)

(4)ADD ALL YOUR PINS - worth every single extra minute

(5) Sew - Leave an 8 inch (or so) opening in the center of one side

(6) Turn out

(7) Pin hole

(8) Iron flat

(9) Overstitch the perimeter

Done

Now these are some happy robots! The background on this last shot is flannel fabric that I am going to make a few coordinates with. The best thing is I don't have to paint the bedroom because the color still match.

Now THIS is what's plugging up my craft space. All the foods and dishes for it are in another box that is also in the way. I really don't want to get paint on it or worse and this is the safest hiding spot. We are going to set it all up after bedtime Christmas Eve and put a big bow on top. I think this should tie right in with the retro feel :D

Who wants to play kitchen? Xavier's making Pizza and Cupcakes!

Playing Santa

2011-12-02T11:40:00.000-05:00

Well as per my post title I can imagine you'll understand I've been a bit overrun the past few weeks. I'm sure many of you are in the same place, so let's just get back to it and spare each other the apologies ok? OK!

If I don't get back here before the big day hits I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday filled with loved ones and smiles.

Birthday Treats

2011-11-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share some tasty pics of hubby's birthday treats with you today :)

This is my very first attempt at butter cream frosting and it's good... like dig out my fat pants good. Of course you have to actually like mint chocolate to agree.

This delicious pile of sugar is now sitting on top of

devils food cupcakes with a peppermint patty center

I wish we had scratch n' sniff monitors for times like these!

I got the idea from Kathleen who shared her Grasshopper Cupcakes earlier this year. Thanks Kat

Holiday Prep

2011-11-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

The mini room is currently doubling as Santa's workshop. I really need to get down there and clean up the tornado of packaging, but today I'm hoping to finish up with the Christmas list. I decided that it wouldn't be much fun for the kiddo to open presents and have to wait for us to free everything from the boxes, so I'm doing so before wrapping them up. Toy packaging is no joke! There were a few things that actually required a screwdriver to remove. Overall, I'd rather get those fiddly things off in the safety of my work space where it's not a big deal if they get lost on the floor.

I spent close to 4 hours yesterday building two gifts. They were not complicated, just had a load of pieces and I wanted to be sure I built them properly for little X :)

I'm excited about the holidays this year, it's been many years since that was true. How are your holiday plans coming along?

I'm off to fight the crowds and traffic, wish me luck!

The most wonderful time of the year

2011-10-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

Now that cooler temps are here to stay, I've tucked away my hiking shoes and have been happily spending hours being more crafty. I adore Halloween, it is so much fun to see all the smiling little ones reigning in the goodies. We get quite a few visitors as our city does not have set trick or treat times, I load up on candy at Sams Club.

This year I couldn't choose just one pattern, so I carved three.

Why the crater over the graveyard you ask?

Well the squirrels around here really appreciate a fancy lunch
(the pumpkins are now inside until Monday)

The camera doesn't show it very well, but

the bats have little glowing eyes.

Kathi if you're reading this, thanks again for sharing the Dingy Boat kit that Grandpa found. I could no longer resist. I will say that so far it's very utility knife intensive, so be ready to get back on that horse. Hope you are healing fast!

The instructions are very clear with

diagrams, blueprint and assembly pictures.

They tell you to put plastic wrap over the blueprints to keep you from gluing to the pages. Let me just say you will likely just be gluing the plastic to your boat.

Here's the trick I used: A glass cutting board that used to have a decorative image on the back. Those pictures come off very easily with a razor, hot water and soap. It's been very useful for other projects as well.

Step 15 / 95 (about an hour)

Now, following up on punch needle. After much searching for carbon paper (I wanted to use this quilt pattern as the template) I was finally able to get a practice piece made.

I used what floss I had on hand so the colors could be better (see quilt pattern).

I learned so much from this one tiny piece. I got my needle from Carol Sherry Miniatures. Thank goodness for the Greenleaf forums or I would have never found a single thread needle at a decent price. It was fun and easy to do. I look forward to improving :)

Oh I almost forgot. Since I'm sure you will ask what little Mr. Xavier will be dressing up as this year, I let him pick his own costume out...

I tried to teach him "Skunk" but he insists on "keyty cah" (kitty cat).

Final recap and Fall Intro

2011-10-04T22:10:00.001-04:00

As the fall colors start to peek through more and more every day, I thought I would share some warm weather shots and lovely surprises from my hikes this year. Then I figured this would be a great time to share some early Autumn fun with Xavier too. (all the shots click larger)

Wild Columbine

Insect drunk on pollen

Pond lilies

Someone worked hard on these trails.. thank you.

Wild Iris - my favorite

Bridge between the Manistee River

and North Country Trail

A few pinks and oranges coming through - Sept 17th

From above it all

At the base

The colors are not quite peak here just yet. The cool air sure is and there are so many fun things to do like,

straw mazes

decorating Mama's birthday cake

playing in the corn box

and cow rides!

(please excuse my hairdo, urgh I've been growing it out from a very short style)

I know, I know...Xavier is so big now, almost 18 months already. He amazes me every day.

Summer Recap - Craft Room Upgrade

2011-09-21T20:24:00.000-04:00

Some of you may remember when I gutted and painted the basement in March 2009 and created my own craft space.

This year for my Birthday & Anniversary gifts I got a new desk with loads more organization! All the pieces are from Michael's and I'm sure many of you have seen them in the store. I finally landed at 25% off your entire purchase (sales included) coupon and got all the pieces I really wanted. They go together quickly and for the price they're a dream.

I added some very inexpensive task lighting from IKEA.

Some of these drawers that are actually empty! (for now)

Sigh...

Yes I see you Beacon Hill

and yes those window frames are ready for paints..

Now there's a quiet corner for my crayfish.

Oh yeah, my cray is HUGE now.

I am going to start setting up the big tank this weekend.

Poor fella is as long as this tank is wide :(

This is probably the most tidy you will ever see that room again. Bring on the creative disaster!

Summer Recap - The Patio Project

2011-09-12T20:27:00.001-04:00

Some of you may remember me posting in June about our patio renovation. I wish I was joking, but we finished the last bit this past Saturday. To say there were bumps along the way would be an understatement. The initial plan was to paint and put down new outdoor carpeting... we know full well at this point: plans with a 100 year old house will need much wiggle room.

The before shot: See the dark ceiling and astro turf flooring

First I ordered new carpet and had an install date. So we scurried to paint and tear up the old astro turf. During this we discovered the left support post has some dry rot and needed replacing. We also found the cement caps had seen better days and figured while we were tearing down, may as well do those too.

This meant organizing the cement guy and post guys' schedules before the carpet install. We really didn't want to risk getting paint on the flooring.

Here you see the new post and cement topper are on at this point and lucky us, before the carpet date. Now comes a near one month stretch between the 1st carpet guy never showing, the fight for my huge deposit back and a new installer, date, etc.

Actual carpet install day came and they did a beautiful job.

However, the right side cement topper still had not been installed. Here comes the crazy part of the reno: The cement guy comes back to finish, busts the old cap off and a HUGE SWARM of hornets comes out. I literally watched my contractor running down the road swatting and tearing off his shirt. *facepalm* Insert call to Orkin Man here. Thankfully, my contractor was not allergic, was understanding, and did come back after the recommended 24 hours on the Orkin spray.

This shot was taken yesterday afternoon. One final paint touch up.

You really can not tell that post is any different than the other 2. Our carpenter was amazing and fast!

We added a new energy efficient light, house number plaque, and repainted the shutters. I tore the plastic scalloping around the storm door window off. It gave the old door a new face.

I stripped the layers off the wrought iron handrails, gave them a new weather proof coating and love how they look now.

When we bought the house one of the things I loved most was the huge front patio and always intended to fix it up. I had no idea what I had signed up for! There was so much weather sealant, paint and caulking added this summer it will live another 100 years.

Summer recap

2011-09-09T11:15:00.000-04:00

It's been a tad quiet on the blog this summer, work needed me to cover for people out on vacation here and there. That has worked out fine since Santa will be here before we know it and it was time to buy a new bed.

A few new things I've tried are needlepunch and felting. I'll spare you the horror of my first tries, but I did learn a lot and will certainly have second and third tries to show this month. I have to order a good one-thread needlepunch in order to make mini rugs and such. The current 3 strand one I have is way too big, but was a great learning tool. If you can cross stitch you can needle punch! I used to cross-stitch years ago and even had nice tidy even stitches, but never really enjoyed it. This I like and can see myself poking away while watching movies this winter.

Then between this book:

(Amazon Link)

and some YouTube searches, I think I've got a decent handle on the how to's.. it' just the implementation and practice portions that need work now. So far I've only broken one felting needle. I consider this an achievement all on it's own :) My bunny attempt turned out more otter shaped than anything, maybe I'll be really skilled at otters? LOL.

Also, Blogger has been giving me trouble (I see I am not alone). Specifically, it often refuses to let me comment on your blogs. If it doesn't resolve itself soon, I may start looking for a good alternative. If you have found one, please let me know!

Hiking - Grand Island Michigan

2011-08-23T22:25:00.000-04:00

Saturday Morning we landed at Grand Island after a

long drive Friday and a short hotel stay.

First we hit a local spot for breakfast then headed for the ferry.

Why yes, that bear DOES have on a mosquito net hat.

Smart boy.

We didn't have to wait long at the docks.

The ride over was only about 5 minutes.

A small pontoon boat takes 6 people at a time.

First wildlife encounter - Look, it's a tree hugging hippy!

I brought home so many shots of the cliffs and lake,

these are some of my favorites.

That is solid stone on the lake bed with the grid lines through it

We stopped on top of this for a snack.

The park has a lot of lookouts and many have benches

One of many beaches with easy access.

Private Land - Lighthouse. This is as close as we could get.

The zoom on my camera saw it better than I did from the next clifftop down.

A couple of kayakers.

We saw quite a few people kayaking and biking.

Apparently this bear is not happy with the dinner selection.

Maybe sandwiches are not his thing.

Needless to say, we used the suggested bear pole at camp.

There are some historic sites on the island

The descendants of the founding family still reside here

and mixed with hundred year old head stones,

you will find modern ones

A Masons' compass on top.

Dove (at one time held an olive branch)

The cemetery was a few hundred feet off the

main path. A very peaceful and serene spot.

This lake front Cabin has been recently restored.

It's humbling to think this is what was considered a hotel.

As you can see we had near perfect weather. The trails were shady with lake breezes to cool you off for much of the way. The flip side is that the entire place appears to go uphill both ways.

The trail runs aprox 22 Miles circumference. We started at 9:30 am Saturday from the West side and camped at Duck Lake that night (18 Miles), then Sunday made our way back to the ferry by 11 am. We met a couple of young hikers waiting for the ferry as well. We were happy to share our remaining band-aids and ointment with them. I think it's likely many a hiker takes a blister home as souvenir from Grand Island!

Hope your feet are healing guys and maybe we will meet again :)

Letter Press Part Deux

2011-08-19T11:07:00.001-04:00

It's all cleaned up and ready to hang. Casey's mentioned she uses Scott's Liquid Gold to clean a lot of her wooden items. Well I am sold, I also used it to clean my kitchen cabinets and go haywire on the 1:1 furniture around here.

As the layers of dust and ink came off, the makers' mark came through. I know many of these were made by Hamilton Manufacturing Co. so the Hamilton & Baker has me a bit puzzled. Hamilton was out of Two Rivers Wisconsin, as it says on the 2nd line. Anyone know what the Baker is all about?

The other thing that popped out was someone had hand written the alphabet on the slats, I love finding unique character under all those layers.

I have really been getting things done the past couple of days. This is one of the kits that has been completed, I figured what better first piece to add to my old-school tray, than a mini of an old-school toy. He can be purchased here. It was SO easy to assemble and turned out great!

Some of the kits from the Chicago show have been getting attention as well. The Crabtree & Evelynn kits turn out so cute, pics don't do them justice at all. The tiny silver canister is made up from a few select findings. The seller at the show had HUGE table of tiny metal bits, oh the things you could create! It will eventually have itty-bitty cotton swabs in it.

That is all for now, I have to get my backpack together. We are heading to Grand Island to do the Rim Trail. It is a 22 Miles loops of overlooks, lake beaches, colorful sandstone cliffs, views of the pictured rocks, historic landmarks and two days of quiet. It's safe to bet I'll be sharing LOADS of pictures!

Letter Press Drawer

2011-08-12T19:48:00.001-04:00

I’m sure many of you have seen Casey’s printer / letter press drawers, which she’s using as shadowboxes.

Well, I really love this idea. It totally combines my love of antiques, finding a creative and unintended use for an item ...and well, being a sucker for a project. Seems like people are really snapping these up now and I’ve seen them used as jewelry cases, coffee tables etc. So, last weekend I bought ~~the filthiest one on the planet~~ the best priced one in the bunch and took it home. My mini time this week has been spent cleaning the old ink and dust from it. So far I’ve stuck to a popular brand of oil soap, which is doing the trick. Be warned this is slow work, if you think you’d like to try it be prepared. Lets just say the lady at the antiques mall wouldn't let me leave without it bagged.

I have intentionally left some "character" behind but need to get to the happy medium between that and actually touching it without dirty fingers afterward. If anyone has a miracle cleaner – which won’t destroy the wood – I’d love to hear it. For now I’m off to finish up and try to snap a few shots. Wish me luck.

Oh and Casey I know I blamed you for it, but that was very tongue in cheek! I can’t wait to put this up in my craft room so I can display my treasures.

Antique Bird Cage

2011-07-09T23:12:00.001-04:00

I wonder what could be inside this door?

Looks like he's made himself at home right away.

Toys, food and water, perches and

a clean home with plenty of space

I guess all a bird could want is a friend.

He does look a tad lonely in there...

Don't you love antique bird cages?

I thought about making a more "shabby" style

but decided this would be a better option for a resident.

Maybe I'll go that route next time.

For now, I'm tickled with how this turned out.

I must say the kit was silly easy to put together

(You just have to be extra careful with the filigree)

Birdcage & Table kit by Cynthia Howe Miniatures

What I added - what I used
Food & Dish -Jewelry finding and a mix of regular kitchen spices
Water bottle -blank resin mini jar, a bead, silver paint and wire
Rope/mirror toy -braided embroidery floss and tiny mirror
Ring Toy -colored jewelers wire
Perches -painted toothpick and a bit of branch
Door handle -Chrysnbon drawer pull (completed kit leftover)
Newspapers -free online printie
Parakeet -see previous post :)

**remember to poke the pictures, they took me forever!**

My new little cutie

2011-07-08T14:43:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share my new Etsy find and couldn't wait any longer. The finishing touches for his new permanent home should be complete tonight. The dehumidifier was turned up to get things moving on paint and glue drying times, as it's been pretty sticky here the past few days.

Yep, here he is on a clothespin

I've never actually kept a caged bird, so I had to do a wee bit of research to get his place set up just right. I'm told parakeets (and most birds) don't like to live be alone. Maybe I'll have to work a friend into next month's mini budget.

He is felted then covered in actual feathers. Check out some others at House of Hawkins on Etsy.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

More to come

2011-07-05T15:06:00.001-04:00

Looks like the real house project should be wrapping up Tuesday. I've been hiding from it in my mini room all this time! Here's a little taste of what I've been up to.

See you in a few days, if not sooner :D

Kit by Volker Arnold

No After picture yet.

2011-06-19T11:42:00.000-04:00

So much for my finish date of this weekend. The place I ordered flooring from flaked out on me, but happily cashed my check for $390.00. Long story short, the payment was disputed and they can argue with a very large financial establishment, instead of me. New flooring has been ordered from another place now and will likely be another few weeks before it arrives, then of course installation is weather dependent due to it being an outdoor space.

The contractor for the post repairs says he will be here to start tomorrow. I'm trying to be patient, really I am! I just can't stand having my place torn up and looking like it does right now. The good news is that we finished the paint work, door repairs, the new light fixture is here and we like the flooring from the second place better anyway.

Just wanted to pop in and let you all know I'm still around and as soon as this thing is done I'll be back to the BH. I'm sure you can understand that working on the big house makes work on the little house a lot less appealing at the moment :)

Also, a big welcome to my new followers! It always brightens my day to see new faces around here. Thank you.

Real House project

2011-06-05T15:14:00.000-04:00

I won't bore you with photos of the disaster , but we are in the middle of a renovation on our real house.

Everything with marks on it is being stripped down and either

replaced completely, resurfaced or repainted.

We will call this the "Before".

Not much will change in the way of color scheme

but a lot will in terms of condition.

I expect this to take another couple of weeks and am crossing my fingers for it to be completed by the 19th. Some of the work is hired - some of it being done by us. We are cramming in what we can after work and on weekends; weather permitting. Needless to say, any spare moments are spent keeping up with routine everyday tasks.

Until next time - hopefully with pictures of a completed project *wink*, wish us luck!

It's tulip time

2011-05-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

The weather here today was so beautiful. I wanted to share some pictures I shot at Dow Gardens this afternoon.

Let's begin with the tulips. Simple elegance

Some were not so simple

There were trees flowering everywhere you looked

We also ran into some critters.

I love the filled cheeks on my first friend

These guys have found Paradise

considering this is in the middle of a city

...and of course, all gardens MUST have sculptures.

My own garden is still trying very hard to bloom, I guess I couldn't wait any longer. Hope you enjoyed the colors as much as I did.

Green Timbers

2011-05-17T08:17:00.003-04:00

Sunday we woke up to a very windy, wet and grey day. However, two hours away it was forecast to be a perfectly beautiful sunny day with mild breezes. It was hard to believe we would escape the rain and cold. We threw our packs into the car and trusted those weather people, thankfully they were right on! Temps around 55 degrees with mild cool breezes make for a lovely day hike.

We arrived at Green Timbers around noon. This used to be a private hunting and fishing resort. A large portions is now open to the public. The trail is old two track and generally easy footing. We completed the 8 mile hike, which runs into 2 cabins. The second, at the top of a 400 foot elevation overlooks the Sturgeon Valley in a way that can simply not be captured in photographs to do it justice. I did my best (clicky for big pics).

Spring has certainly taken it's time to get here in Michigan. On May 15th in Vanderbilt, many of the trees, berries and wildflowers are just beginning to come out.

Marsh Marigold

Wild Strawberries

Looks like a fox den to me.

Too bad we didn't meet the resident

Prints are about the right size

We did run into quite a few friendly folks (and dogs) as well as other groups of hikers. One group came in Saturday, they spent the night in some rather nasty rains at the first cabin. Kudos ladies and gents *tips hat*, you are more hardcore than I.

I did spot a hummingbird at my bleeding hearts yesterday morning and see that the irises are trying very hard to reach the sunshine. I'm hoping by this weekend they will splash some color into my garden so I can share with you.

Moving along

2011-05-10T19:49:00.000-04:00

Last night I punched out and bagged the parts for the:

four single windows
kitchen bay
roof decorative topper brackets
wall corner brackets
front door
french door
shutters

That took WAY longer than anticipated! The estimated build time of 40 hours for this kit must not include punch out hours (may-as-well-be-400 hrs).

Now I'll need to decide which portions are going to be white or accent colors and re-read the instructions on all of them for assembly. The windows and doors are heavily layered so it will be obvious if I mess up, as the colors would be inconsistent from one the next. They are also a big focal point, so I want to pay them lost of attention and be extra careful with filling in gaps.

I'm hoping there will be enough pieces that by the time I get to the end of the lineup, the first pieces will by dry and ready for their next coat of paint. It looks promising at the moment.

See you in a few days!

Sandwiches done.

2011-05-08T21:48:00.000-04:00

This is what I've been starting at for the past several mini sessions. If you are building a BH, don't let this part scare you off. I would suggest putting this portion aside until you're in the mood though, as you can see there were a lot of pieces.

All four types of brackets are now finished and appropriately sandwiched together. They are being left to dry overnight in their little (open) baggies. As always there will be some final touch-ups when it comes time to put them on the BH. It's so nice to have this part done.

The next step is punching out all the window and door components, then laying them out for painting and sanding. For some reason that seems less tedious to me. I guess it's because there is such a variety of sizes and shapes *shrug* I see splinters in my future. Maybe I should bring the shop vac into the mini room.. maybe it should live there.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather here was beautiful and I spent quite a bit of time in my yard playing in the dirt. Hopefully there will be new garden shots to share very soon :D

Hundreds of pieces

2011-05-01T20:26:00.001-04:00

This weekend was kind of a bust. Our hiking trip got cancelled for various reasons. The whole household is getting over a rather nasty cold, we are all feeling much better but there certainly was some catching up to do with responsibilities. The good news is that it's finally warming up and I was able to do some much needed yard work. The whole garden got put on the back-burner last year with a newborn in the house. It was nice to get in the dirt again and tidy up my poor plants.

After the real life stuff was taken care of, I snuck down to my mini room. There are loads of trimmings for the exterior of the BH; the bulk of which are the brackets for the roof, front porch and 3 bay windows. For the most part, they come as one large center piece and two smaller side pieces that you sandwich together to give a more ornate looking bracket. Rather than leave them till the end, I figured I would get them out of the way. Getting tedious things done is very motivational for me.

So, I decided (to my own detriment) to be fancy and have the center portions be a different color than the outer pieces. Because of this, I thought it best to paint them all individually. I keep telling myself this is easier and I don't have to worry about avoiding or messing up the paint. It's literally been hours of painting and there are more coats to go. Each coat is one step closer right?!

This is right up there with roof shingles. Tedious. Honestly though, when the time comes to glue the brackets onto the BH, it will be so nice to shake them out of their ziplock bags and put the - cherries on top - so to speak.

There will be pics when they're done. For now imagine one desk, and a kitchen counter-top covered in tiny bits of half painted wood. Oh yeah, don't forget the pile of splinters and dust all over the floor!

Saturday Party

2011-04-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Xavier's first birthday. Dave and I worked most of Friday evening setting up and getting food ready for the flood of friends and family to arrive. Grandma kept Xavier overnight, which was a colossal help.

Early Saturday morning, I received a package. I didn't expect it to get here as fast as is did, since the artist/seller recently had a birthday of her own and I imagine was very busy. I've been eyeing this teal blue birdhouse since she first put it up on her blog, then this week I grabbed it from her Etsy store.

There was even an extra surprise inside :)

I LOVE them both Katie! Thank you so much, the

sign is going to look fantastic in the nursery *hugs*

Shortly before lunchtime, the crowd of family and friends started to arrive for the Robot Party.

These three got a little strung out on soda and candy

Hershey's tiny candy bars wrapped in printables

Marshmallow pops, so easy and tasty.

Yummy white chocolate and sprinkles

Robo suckers anyone?

The shot sized cups are filled with Jelly beans and M&M's

The cake topper is a Hallmark tree ornament.

The buttons can be pushed to make the Rock em' Sock em's fight.

The printables I used can be found here.

Including the three of us, I believe the head count was 23, this was by far the most people that have been in my house at one time. It was a bit tight on space, but we managed (thanks to a pile of folding seats borrowed from our friends).

The birthday boy was very excited about the ribbons, tissue

and boxes :) He played with all the toys last night and read some

of his new books with Mama too.

Opening all those presents was hard work, Violet was happy to help.

Overall I think the party went really well and the little ones were in pretty good humor the whole time. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food and company. Of course, Mr. Xavier was spoiled silly and we all needed a good nap afterward. It well was worth all the work and preparation, but I have to admit I'm looking forward to some downtime now.

I'm off to catch up on your blogs and we have a friend coming over to help finish off the boat-load of food. Dinner's at 5, feel free to stop in!

For Sale: One wife. Sold as is!

2011-04-10T22:10:00.001-04:00

Cleans, cooks, works and is even willing to run errands. However, can not be trusted at Dollhouse shows, and will blatantly and unapologetically ignore her self imposed budget. (Honestly, this is kind of how I expected hubby to react. He shrugged it off and I'm thankful that he understands the whole mini obsession.) Now on to the fun!

My friend Kim and I left Thursday night and arrived at our hotel around midnight. We did the IMA and Three Blind Mice shows Friday. On Saturday we spent the whole day at the Tom Bishop show. We had such a great time meeting all the extremely talented artists and having the opportunity to see their fantastic work in person. There were so many familiar names, being able meet the people behind them was well worth the trip. We even got to meet Katleen from Little Thoughts from an Average Mind, many of you may know her as MiniKat :) Go check out her recent post about show, she took home some drool worthy items.

Here are my finds. Of course, all of these things had a place and/or plan in my minds eye (or at least they do now)

Cottage of Miniatures

Cookies Bits & Pieces

Mesh Metals, Bindels, Jan Be Nible

- wonderful supplies, paintable pieces and findings -

Carols Bloomers

Joyce Bernard Miniatures

Sue Jo's Enchanted Cottage

Designs by Janet

Paula Ghilhooey

- So excited to find her kits!-

Bill Lankford Studio

- I'm in love with his landscaping items-

Tiny Threads

SDK Miniatures

(I can't find the receipt, I will give her credit as soon as I find it. So sorry)

Templewood Miniatures
- there are even dollhouses in the window of the shop-

(receipt has the vendor's name torn off, again sorry)

Volker Arnold

Wilhelmina Miniatures

As you can see, the To Do list just EXPLODED. I am very happy with my over inflated list and can't wait to start them all. Where to begin!?

If you ever get the chance to attend, here are my tips: First off, DO IT. Bring cash and/or checks, not everyone can take credit. Wear comfortable shoes and light clothing, it gets hot. Give yourself lots of time, there are so many tiny things it becomes visually overloading at times... it's the best kind of overloaded though!

Chicago show and other plans

2011-04-03T22:20:00.000-04:00

This month is just going to be insane. I'll keep it short since I don't think I've ever been so busy in my life. First off, I've gone back to work part-time, 3 days a week. Xavier is now in water babies class, this coming weekend is the Chicago mini show(s), then it's Xavier's 1st Birthday party and to top it all off I've got a big hiking trip at the end of the month!

Needless to say all of that has meant a pile of planning and preparation. I'm not unhappy about any of it, in fact I'm very excited, it simply means to make any of it come together, that is where my free time has to fall for the moment. As you guessed there is not much in the way of minis to report today, but there should be lots after the Chicago shows.

Maybe I can tide you over with some cute baby pictures?

Dinosaur Exhibit at the Museum today, Xavier even had on his Dino hoodie.

Playing with Daddy and the swim instructor at water babies

Momma tickles!

Bit by bit

2011-03-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

So, since the last time I updated about the BH work has been progressing. I managed to change all of the tape wiring to round wire. It has held up much better! The switch was more time consuming than costly, but rather that; than waste a perfectly good transformer and many working fixtures. Not to mention I'm stubborn as a mule and regardless of how much the BH has fought me on this, I wanted it to have working lights. I learned a lot thought the whole process and can now honestly add blood to the sweat and tears of this build. Anyone who has encountered the nasty end of a tape wire tester can attest to it's rather nasty bite.

The top floor is now painted and papered. It still needs touch-up but I save all of that till the end, just in case anything else should make a mess along the way.

The chimney topper is finally how I wanted it. There is a wash over the entire paint job, much like the shingles. I found the black & white were much too stark and needed toned down. I think it matches up nicely with the roofs now. Besides, a clean chimney looked ..well.. just plain odd.

The front step is now covered in "magic brik". It needs a quick cover of wash and then sealant to match the foundation. That will be done during my next mini session. There will be trim around the entire front porch as well.

I was unable to to sit down with my projects this weekend, though I'm happy to say I spent a beautiful weekend at Crystal Mountain with friends new and old. My hand is completely healed (though I have a permanent telltale mark) and I'm ready to get back to business (by business I mean making minis) Also, I'm really getting excited about the Chicago Show.

Now a quick heads-up that I will be slacking on posts this coming month. Xavier's 1st Birthday is 5 weeks away. Yes Already! So of course Mommy has big plans. I know I said no more side projects, but this one gets a big exception.

Quick post

2011-03-01T16:38:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know my hand has healed up for the most part and I should have some new pics to share very soon. I've still been working on that early spring clean up and, thankfully, have been accident free since last week.

See you soon !

Couple days off

2011-02-21T16:39:00.001-05:00

I've been in the craft room working on a the BH's front step, the 3rd floor fireplace and measuring out the rooms for baseboard and moldings. Things were moving along well with no big hiccups. Sadly due to todays events, I'll be taking a forced hiatus.

This morning, while getting some early spring cleaning done; I noticed the wine glasses needed a cleaning. Well, I broke a goblet and it cut up my left hand. OUCH! So I'll be keeping it clean and dry for the next few days, which means staying away from pain and wood dust. I'm betting I'd make a mess of my work it I tried any of it one-handed too.

Not much left to do but go pout for Hubby to help me make a snack. See you all in a few days.

Chicago Dollhouse Show 2011

2011-02-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

I'm making plans to go to the three show weekend this spring in Chicago. I'd love to know if any of you are planning to attend. Maybe we could do lunch!

The shows are each at separate hotels with different time lines, so I drew up this little chart to help me plan out my weekend schedule. I thought I would share and hope someone finds it helpful.

Here are links to all three shows:

Three Blind Mice

Tom Bishop

Independent Miniature Artisans

Shuttles are approximately 20-30 min rides
IMA Shuttle bus runs Friday 9 - 5 & Saturday 9 - 4 between Doubletree and Marriot
TBM is also providing shuttles from Radisson, however, I can not find details on times.

And the winner is

2011-02-14T12:12:00.000-05:00

First I’d like to thank everyone for joining my draw and I hope you all had fun I know I did!

I am not posting pictures of the prises because I want part of it to remain a surprise for the winner who will receive:

A "Tiftiny" ring,bracelet and necklace. Remember that the bows will slide on and off the boxes so you can display them any way you wish.

A Chrysnbon table, spice chest and lamp kit

A set of 3 garden stepping stones

A 26 antique book set kit by PaperMinis. A picture of them I made can be found here

and a pair of white flip flop beach sandals

All the entries went into a basket and I pulled one out

CONGRATS

I will send your package just as soon as I hear from you with your mailing address. Please either email me
(kwapril@gmail.com) or leave a message on this post and I will not publish it. I’ll pop over to your blog and leave you a message as well just so you don’t miss it.

Happy Valentines Day to all!

I'm off to tell Mr. Wiskfish the good news :)

The big tiny idea

2011-02-11T23:45:00.001-05:00

I mentioned yesterday that the tiny jewelry I had, just wasn't my style. Well, I wasn't able to find jewelry I really loved for my dollhouse, so I decided to make some. The rings ended up being so small that my lady can't wear them. Guess it'll have to go get sized :)

First I made a Sapphire Ring

then a pearl

a charm bracelet (the charms are on the to do list)

Then I got to thinking, minis are all about having whatever you could possibly dream of, only in tiny size. I don't know about you, but I think my 6 inch people have some nice things that I'd love in 1:1 scale, but I can't budget (nor would I want) 4 real houses to put it all in.

Now, most ladies I've met would be quite pleased to receive an iconic little blue box and most of us can not afford the luxury, so I thought why not make REALLY LITTLE blue box?

I realized most of what I'd made jewelry wise was Tiffany's inspired anyway so why not roll with it? I named my line of mini jewelry T I F T I N Y & Co. and got to work on the boxes.

The diamond ring does not photograph well unfortunately.

It appears to be a silver ball. I promise it looks like a solitaire up close.

the starfish diamond necklace and blue enamel key

are probably my favorites

White bows will be made next. I plan to have them slide sideways off the boxes and remain in form. I suspect I'll have to try lots of different glues to see which can stand being moved best. I also intend to try some yellow gold creations.

Here's my big brainstorm idea, I'll be making my RGT front opening store into a "Tiftiny & Co". It's been unopened in the box for far too long, and had never really spoken to me before. But now, I am putting aside all my sidetrack projects and finishing the BH so I can make it. If you see side projects posted, you all have my permission to virtual slap me and leave reminder comments about my motivation!

Nursery

2011-02-10T20:44:00.001-05:00

I had never considered doing a nursery until Kat suggested I make a nursery room box for my Son, which looked like his real room. I still think that is super cute idea. There was one room in the BH I was undecided with, so I opted for a nursery in it. I found this kit at the local antique mall.

Every time I search for more like it, of course I find Calico critters. I’m thinking I was very fortunate to find it. If anyone knows how to find more please let me know. It’s exactly like Chrysnbon kits. Did they change company names at some point?

In any event, I had a great time assembling the crib and am very pleased with the results. After that was finished. I gathered up all my baby accessories and kits then got to work.

The swaddled baby was really simple to put together. The only challenge was explaining to hubby why I had a “disembodied baby head” on my desk. He proceeded to amuse himself with teasing me about it for a bit, then let me get back to work

I’m sure many of you recognize the Chrysnbon rocker and stool. There is also a Michael’s hutch which got a bit of dressing up with cardstock paper and scrapbook stickers.

The gift basket on top is a Craft Pack kit, but I added the rubber ducky and rattle. I plan to paint the rattle, after seeing it photographed; it needs more color. Both additions are button style scrapbook decorations; I clipped the button loops off the backs.

The “A, B & C” blocks in the hutch are from the same package, as well as the safety pins.

The ducky bank with coins, diapers, alligator and baby products are Ebay finds. The bib, onesie, gift basket, and baby in bunting are from Kitz. (Links for all can be found on my Mini Links page). I think the gator’s eyes really should be painted black. The white just kind of freaks me out. Other than that, he’s fantastic, he even has poseable limbs.

So, I’ve check all that off the do to list. Now I still intend to make a diaper bag, a quilt (which is half done), and some baby food. I have the jars but need to create labels for them. I’m not sure I have any fabric that I would like for the bag right now. I’ll have to add it to the list.

Geez that list is about to need its own page. Oh no, I think I just gave myself another task, however that might help me stay on track.

Moving on! I’ve been wanting to make a light /photo booth box. Well it is finally made. There were enough supplies hanging around here that I was able to just whip one up. Honestly, the supplies probably came in under $10.

Supplies: Box $0.00

Garage sale -desktop aquarium hood & light - $4.50

Fancy Duct tape - $3.00

3 sheets of colored card stock - .50

Maybe it’s not pretty, but it does the trick!

As you can see, one other kit that was completed was of jewelry and flocked stands. What do you think? It turned out pretty well, but it got me thinking... I’m more of a silver or white gold kind of gal. Then it started, “the brainstorm”, then a trip to the craft store....

I’ll explain more tomorrow.

Blogaversary Contest

2011-02-07T10:17:00.001-05:00

January marked two years since I’ve started this blog. It’s been so great to have a network of creative people to share with and inspire me during that time. Last year was so overwhelming that minis and blogging were neglected, but I’m very happy to be back. All of that said, I’d like to do a contest and giveaway. Let’s have some fun!

Last week, I added a small desktop aquarium to the craft room in order to be forced to go in there daily and feed my critter. So far it’s working out great. First, I feed him then get immersed in a project. The problem is I simply can’t think of a good name for him.

Meet “crayfish”. The contest will be to name him!

Here are the details:

1. The drawing will be on Valentine’s day - Monday, February 14, and I will announce the winner that day.The last day to enter will be Sunday, Feb 13th.

2. To enter you simply need to be a follower and leave a comment on this post with your name choice.

3. You will receive one additional chance to win if you promote my giveaway on your blog. (please email me the link at kwapril@gmail.com so I won’t miss it).

4. You may pick any name you like except Dave. There’s no need to have confusion with anyone about why Dave (DH) escaped the basement, shed his skin, is acting strangely etc.

5. The prize(s) will be in 1/12 scale and will be announced along with the winner. There may be clues this week about the prize, so keep watching!

GOOD LUCK

Thanks snowstorm!

2011-02-05T23:18:00.003-05:00

Having some free time this week when the roads were rotten really helped me get back into minis. You may have noticed some things were moved around again on the blog. I've been wanting to clean it up for ages and finally got to it. I'm really happy with the clean simple and much more organized look. However, the craft room is a disaster, I love it! I did manage to finish up a thing or two while creating that tornado. Right now there are 3 projects at midpoint. I even put some work into the Beacon Hill. I wanted to get pics and upload today, but it was time for a haircut and errands. I guess I can only hide in the craft cave for so long....maybe I should have longer hair :p

So, I have crossed the blog clean up off the list (fixing all those labels was a chore, woah) and now I will get back to my tiny works. I'm very excited with my latest brainstorm and can't wait to share it with you all!

Expect a big update on Monday!

Very funny, that’s enough

2011-02-03T10:20:00.016-05:00

This is the view from our front door this morning. I do believe there was once a street there...

there’s seems to be some street signs on the corner.

Being the one neighbor with a fully fenced backyard is great for the dog, not so great for collecting leaves, blowing snow, litter, you get the idea.

The white fence stands 4 1/2 feet high and yes, that is snow piled up over it. I had to battle the storm door yesterday morning. I was able to open it just enough to let the poor dog out. He proceeded out about a foot, made a very sad looking face and then squeezed back inside.

As you can see, the basement is pretty much void of natural light right now, which means finding some extra light sources to do minis today. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.

I don’t know about you all, but I’m ready for spring! In an effort to feel like it’s right around the corner, got myself sandal ready :D

If anyone is interested in the nail color, it is Nfu.Oh #394. The place I purchased from seems to be sold out right now. I will add a link if I hear if they are expecting more.

Checking off to do's

2011-01-17T22:14:00.019-05:00

I’ve really been going on my to do list. I discovered that I ran out of viable large paint brushes though, so a few projects are at a midpoint for a day or two. It would normally be simple to go pick some up, but there appears to be a good bit of snow coming down today and it really doesn’t merit taking Baby Xavier out on bad roads. There’s plenty to update regardless. I finally got around to refreshing the blog layout. Don’t be surprised if a few more tweaks should appear.

The hanging basket and dish plant are from SDK miniatures kits. However, the strawberry plant was made by me. I made the berries from clay and rest is paper and paint. The very cute strawberry pot was purchased from Braxton Payne Miniatures.

The quilt was made from cheater cloth block, I simply outlined with a fancy stitch on the sewing machine. I found patchwork style last year with loads of different colors and block types. The other nice thing about cheater cloth is, usually you will find small patterns/prints within the blocks.

These garden furniture cushions were made by me. I simply traced the furniture shapes onto cardstock and used them for pattern pieces. This has been on my to do list forever.

These Hourglasses were made by following this tutorial By Charlene Crawford Horrocks. They do actually work. The white one is filled with salt, which is fine but the sand does move through much better.

All the books are Ann Vanture’s Paper minis. As you can see they have very high quality images. The botanical book has a sleeve and a box cover, it’s a beautiful coffee table book, fully illustrated with so many gorgeous images.

I was impressed with the antique book kit (26 total books) as they were all different sizes and thicknesses.

I think I’ve finally caught up on your blogs, I know when I loaded up reader there was a list of over 300 entries! So I likely didn’t leave you a comment, but certainly had fun seeing all the progress.

Winding down

2011-01-10T15:37:00.009-05:00

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m happy the holiday rush is over and have taken advantage of the downtime. Don’t get me wrong; we had a lovely Christmas with family and Santa was very good to Baby X. Of course, he loved the bows and paper best of all.

This new mommy has been getting better at learning that every chore doesn’t need to be done every day and have made some changes I can live with.

1. If no one has to leave the house nekkid, there is enough clean laundry
2. We can grab a clean dish off the drying rack just as easily as the cabinet
3. We can grab clean folded laundry from the basket just as easily too
4. People come to see us, not the house.
5. The house can be vacuumed less often when the dog’s hair is short, a $30 groomer visit saves me hours
6. Don’t take on new commitments. For me this meant bowing out of book club. The time it took to read the book, make a dish and travel to the meeting was too much. I will however, miss getting together with the ladies.
7. Workout while baby is in his jumper or napping.
8. Keep in touch with friends and family via email & blog instead of Facebook. I intend to stick to the twice a month update (gives me an extra excuse to mini...like I needed one). Also, I can write my entries while baby has his play alone time in the morning :)
**If you’ve got more suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

So with my new rules in place, last night the Savannah was completed!

There are projects ready to be photographed for my next entry too. See you in a few days :)

Early resolution

2010-11-10T13:51:00.004-05:00

In an effort to find small pockets of time for myself I've decided to disable my Facebook page at the end of the year. I posted a message to FB as well. I wanted those of you who are friends there to know that I didn't block or remove you!

I'm hoping this will allow me more time for my blog and minis. I'm going to try to update twice a month here. Now it might not always be a mini update, as some of you know I often post off topic :)

So here goes my first November post:

November is always a busy month for us. Hubby's birthday was yesterday and we went out for dinner. Our wedding anniversary is also this month. I can hardly believe it's been 6 years. The last year has simply evaporated! Those of you who have followed here for a while know that I was preggers last fall and have seen my post frequency drop dramatically. I see alot of new followers, a big welcome to you all and stay tuned, I've got a project list that should keep me full of topics for a long time.

The Savannah is still getting my attention. I've got the wallpaper and ceilings up, flooring in and very carefully cut the paper out around the windows and doors. I think I need to do a bit of touch up on some exterior paint and then I can start gluing in the staircase. Wish me luck!

There will be pictures of the progress in the next post and as an added bonus, I finished up a tiny side project.

Savannah almost there!

2010-10-16T20:50:00.018-04:00

Today I'm adding a load of shots of how all the pieces fit together for anyone building this sweet tiny house. Please note the front inside is shown painted, because I had to misfortune of gluing improperly and starting over. Hope this saves at least one person!

The roof instructions just were not working out for me, so instead I used painters tape to position all the pieces then glued them all in place and left them to dry overnight. Here are a few shots of it together with the paint and wash started.

Next, is the front of the house. This is what you will likely piece together first. I purposely left these unfinished so you can easily see how and where the piece go.

The back portion of the house does not get glued to the front ever. The kit is designed to be pulled apart for viewing. Again, it is very important to have the pieces connected properly and I think a visual is so much better than a written explanation.

The foundation slides into the front of the house. Be very certain you have the floor in right position or it won't fit together. I plant to cover my floor so writing "top" on it help me a lot. The bay window extension (painted brown here) is not exactly center, so you absolutely have to get it right.

When you put the back face on note that the thicker slat does go on the bottom edge.

Here see you see the front and back together.

So now my basic assembly is done and I can get to the finishing touches. Hooray !

I've been working on the all the teeny bits while glue and paint dried. As you can see a small divided dish can be really helpful for these 1/144 kit bits. I think this particular tray was under a dollar but I use it constantly.

On a side note, another birthday came and I was lucky enough to receive a few mini things I've been wanting. I loved the SDK kits in 1/144 so I can't wait to tackle these 1/12's. I do eventually plan to add them to the Beacon Hill. (yes it's still in progress! I know, it's taking forever!).

Hubby got me the magnetic jig board from MicroMark I've been wanting. I love it already and have used it twice to get the Savannah square :D

Till next time. Miss you all loads and am so much more thankful for the time I do get to spend on minis these days.

Savannah mid point

2010-09-21T08:15:00.008-04:00

As you'll see from the one quick picture, most of large parts of the kit are together. I painted all the tiny trims and bits while the bigger assemblies dried. At this point it's about halfway done and it's just a matter of putting things where they go, gently and without breathing :) Am I the only one who holds their breath during gluing? LOL

I've had some trouble with this kit.
I'm sure the instructions are correct but they may as well be in Swahili. I ended up just dry fitting and using pictures as a guide. I really think this is going to be my nicest micro when it's finished and the house is so pretty, but I felt the instructions should have been more illustrated as you went along. For example: 22 paragraphs that go from starting point to half your house built, then fully illustrates how to put the very simple front steps together (5 progressively smaller rectangles that you sandwich on top of one another).
Don't get me wrong, they were very good about showing which pieces you needed by giving you an ouline of the real size/shape of the piece, but not how the main 2 assemblies should look once together. This house comes apart for show when it's complete, so I felt that was really cruital to get right the first time. I managed to assemble the front pieces backwards and was so confident it was right, had even painted it. It wasn't until I built the back that found it didn't fit.
I will also say I managed to snap 2 pieces with nothing more than the pressure of my paintbrush. I was able to fix them both with glue but it was very tedious. Maybe the problem was just me?
I will be sure to take lots of clear photos of the front and back next for anyone who may come across this and is building one.

Yes, I'm still here

2010-09-13T15:56:00.004-04:00

I promise I have not forgotten my minis and mini friends. The camera appears to work again to my amazement. I am still having a hard time managing my time however. There has been a bit of work done on the 1/144 Savannah and as soon as I get some more mini time I'll share pics with you all.

Sadly, it seems like minis are the one thing that I can't just pick up and start. Paint takes setting up and protecting from drying out, so that is sometimes why I choose something else that needs to be done with my small time slots :/ I suppose Mommy should really do something she wants to do and not clean up once in a while.

I have been keeping up with you all and really love being able to see what you've created.

P.S How did you all get through teething with your kids?! I swear this child is possessed LOL

Here he is attacking Godzilla :)

Camera issues

2010-08-23T08:55:00.004-04:00

I am still slowly plugging away at the Savannah kit. I would love to post some pictures but my camera had a bit of an incident this weekend.

Saturday we left for an overnight canoe/kayak trip with a friend of ours. Well I foolishly did not pack the camera watertight and I'm embarrased to report that it did not appreciate the spontaneous swimming session. Yes, that's right we capsized a huge canoe full of 130lbs worth of gear. Everyone is fine, Hubby has a couple of impressive bruises to show off at work today though. My favorite bandana dissapeared but considering what could have been lost, no big deal. We managed to retrieve all the gear, pull over in a sunny spot to dry out and continued on.

The camera actually turned on this morning after a good drying out. I figure another 24 hours indoors then I will see how it does. Otherwise, I may have to ask for a new one for my birthday this year.... maybe a more "rugged" model :)

Savannah

2010-07-23T12:41:00.005-04:00

I've got a new project on the go!

It may take a little while to get finished, but I'm certainly thankful for the small windows of time I get for minis. We seem to have established a fairly reliable nap & sleep schedule now so, I should be able to work in some Mommy mini time :)

There should be new pics of the progress up soon :)

I also wanted to welcome all of my new followers. So sorry this welcome took so long, but time seems to evaporate with a little one in the house!

A Saturday well spent

2010-07-18T14:58:00.009-04:00

Shingle Mills Pathways 10 Mile Loop

Saturday we got an early start and hit the highway for Vanderbilt Michigan. The weather there was perfect with a high of 80 F, light cool breezes, and the occasional fluffy cloud offering a nice break from the sun. We arrived around 10:30, threw on our light packs and headed in. We barely noticed our packs without all the gear we would normally take to camp overnight.

After the trailhead, the first real stopping point was the forest headquarters. This area is surrounded by other log cabins. I suspect they are either available for renting or for staff use. They had electricity boxes outside and were locked up, so I've no idea what accommodations were inside.

We continued on north to our lunch point at the limestone sinkhole.

We had to climb down about 40 feet in rather loose rock & sand. Getting up was a bit tricky but obviously we made it.

A group of Canadian geese decided it was a good spot for lunch and a swim.

I did not recolor the photos, the water there is actually teal and extremely clear. You may fish it with a limit of one trout and you can go in the water with inflatables. The dept. of Natural Resourced only recently allowed fishing here.

The next quick stop was at grass lake.

Next, we made the long slow incline upwards to the overlook. There was a much welcomed bench at the top. I think this would be even more breathtaking in the fall.

Now it was time to make the long hike south back toward the car. There is another sink hole not far from the overlook named Devil's Soup Bowl. You can see it easily from the trail. We didn't find our way down to this one, largely due to needing our energy for the rest of the hike.

We checked out a few of the walk-in camp sites along the way. They were fine, but not quite as nice as some of the others we've been to. This area is much more geared at RV'ers and car campers. We saw lots of both in the first few miles around the forest headquarters. I think this would be a great place to use the campgrounds and do the 6 mile loop, which allows you to see all the sites.

Hope you enjoyed the relaxing version of this hike!

9 Weeks

2010-06-18T10:34:00.005-04:00

Well I've got no new minis to share with you, so you'll have to live with a quick video of what's been keeping me busy. Enjoy :)

Baby's Home

2010-05-11T19:29:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know baby Xavier came home a week ago today and is doing great. Mommy and Daddy are adjusting to a new more colorful sleep schedule right now, but it's all worth it.

We got to go for a fun trip to the grocery store on the weekend, and he slept the whole time. He looks so tiny in his car seat, you'd never know he's already up to 7 Lbs, 7 Oz!

As soon as he reaches 8 Lbs we can put him in his Baby Bjorn carrier and then maybe I can toy with the idea of fiddling with some minis.. wish me luck!

Xavier Tristan Wright

2010-04-19T17:34:00.008-04:00

Baby Xavier joined us on Friday, April 16th at 10:18 am. He weighed 6 Lbs, 2 Oz and was 19 Inches long.

I'm healing up just fine and was released on Sunday afternoon. Xavier will be spending a few more days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as he had a lung issue and is still clearing out air from his chest. It is nothing permanent and healing up great. The Doc clamped off his chest tube this morning which means they're letting him clear up the rest on his own now. Mommy & Daddy have been visiting lots and have been able to feed, change and touch him lots.

Tomorrow I will be able to finally hold him, which has been driving us both crazy but has been necessary so no to disturb the chest tube. It's so cool to watch him open his eyes and and stare at us.

A big welcome to all my new followers and please bear with me while minis are on a temporary break :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T21:28:00.005-04:00

I invited Hubby's Mom to come along for my ultrasound this morning to get an early peek at her new Grandbaby. She happily attended. Baby hid his face from the camera, this is definitely my husband's child :p He did, however, give us a nice wave and then played with his foot while the technician took measurements.

This is definitely the coolest mini I've ever made.

Rant time (it's not my hormones, it's their stupid)

2010-03-14T01:41:00.012-05:00

An obviously pregnant woman walks into your dealership asking about a four door car. Do you (A) tell her about all the safety features/ratings, fuel economy and storage or (B) ask her 4 times about color preferences, "Sun and SYNC" (MP3 player and moon roof) options, and completely ignore that her husband's knees are practically tucked into his nostrils in the drivers seat? Then when she says she's not even interested in a test drive, ask her if she'd like you to start to write up the figures, run the credit check and let you know how fast they can get the car in!

Dear Salesman (B)... the car we bought across the street, rates better than yours with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, my spouse's 6'4 frame fits comfortably (hell he can even get in the back if needed), it has no moon roof or MP3 player (really not worth your price tag of $1340), actually rates a tad lower than yours on fuel economy (figures I found myself online), and we pick it up Monday. "We speak car"... really, can you say lost customer for life?

Oh! of most importance; it's Red. End rant.

Thank you Mr. Christie at Thelen for a wonderful transaction and for selling us our Jetta.

The car was one of the last things on our big list of To Do's before baby comes and being me, I had to research all the options to death. As you can imagine that's eaten up a fair bit of my free time lately.

All baby's remaining needed gear arrived over the past couple weeks. It is now set up and waiting patiently, which is more than I can say for myself. I have been poking around the craftroom and keeping up with your blogs in between package arrivals. The mail carrier actually rang the door bell one day, passed me a small bin and said "you've got a pile of stuff ". I'm glad I was home and he didn't have to figure out where to put everything

I have another full week on the horizon but some of it is fun stuff, like Alice in Wonderland on Monday night. So many of you have mentioned seeing it already, I'm really looking forward to that.

See you soon!

I just had to share

2010-01-30T22:56:00.008-05:00

This afternoon Hubby and I were off to the Antique Mall here in town. Yes, that's right "mall". The place is a city block in size, full basement and full upper level. You can not possibly get through without setting aside at least 2 hours. It is sectioned off via vendor as well, so of course you have to visit them all. I have not been there in some time but after Casey mentioned antique shopping the other day I realized I was long overdue.

I know many of you must have seen this sewing box in miniature, but I found it in real size!

I'm sure my eyes must have lit up when I spotted it and then it was marked $10 off. I asked Hubby if this could be my early Valentines Day gift. He gave me the "Yes Dear" and so off we went.

I can't get over what great shape it's in. I thought there was one screw missing from the handle, turns out it was inside the box. I had to do some minor cleaning, then gave it a good wood conditioning and put the screw back in the handle. Someone either took very good care of this, or it's a knockoff. Either way I love it.

I also spotted this very cute basket. I'm kind of a sucker for neat looking containers and I adore being able to take something old and put it back to work.

To my surprise it was a sewing basket filled with notions. The colors match my craft room, how could I leave it behind? Yeah, I couldn't. There was some very cool stuff in here.

There's a bundle of elastic marked 15 cents, a pair of "shoulder straps" for 32 cents with an ever so retro package, a set of 6 buttons for 39 cents, some floral Hallmark brand notes with envelopes and an invoice from Florida dated 1979; among other things. Again, the basket needed just a little cleanup but nothing major.

I'm off to fill up my new finds and introduce them to their new home. *waves*

Believe it or not...

2010-01-28T14:44:00.007-05:00

I finally got back to the BH! I'm between paint coats on the trim for the roofing

and the vertical trim is all up, filled and sanded :)

I also ticked a few things of my mini accessories projects list. I gave some prinities a shot and then made some tulips for the containers. They were really fun to make . The baskets are just hemp rope and tacky glue.

The short bundled arrangement is my favorite. For a first try I'm pretty happy with them. I will definitely give paper flowers another try.

Clearly I'm ready for spring. I scaled down some pictures of butterflies for the garden, I think I'll try to make them just a tad smaller still.

I used these to turn an inexpensive plastic bunny into an antique looking one for the garden. These were so easy to use, I'm sure there will be other antiqued items to go along with it soon.

This was my first attempt at fimo cake and I made the picnic basket using an online tutorial.

Then just for fun I picked up a teeny dinosaur kit. The company makes a few different dino kits, but I figured I'd go for the ever popular T-Rex.

He's so cute. He would look great in so many different mini settings! (EDIT: you can find the dino kits at Everythingtiny.com)

Mini Doll

2010-01-19T16:47:00.007-05:00

As some of you already know, I've left my desk job and am taking the next couple of months to get ready for baby and take proper care of myself. We decided that I will be a stay at home Mommy after baby arrives. This will definitely involve some financial trade-offs but we think it will be worth it. Yesterday was my first day at home and it's very nice to be fortunate enough to be able to do this. I certainly am not taking it for granted.

On the mini side, I now have some spare time to finish up some to do's! Using the instructions from Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay

I gave the jointed doll a shot. She is poseable, after some extra tweaking on my end. For a first go, I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. Her dress is fine and overall I'm content with the proportions of the body, arms and legs. I still need to paint the shoes on, hence the rounded feet *wink*

I'm not thrilled about her face shape, features and hair. I'm certainly not an expert at wigging or sculpting and I never expected my first try to be perfect. Maybe should I practice painting the face on paper a bunch and then give it another go? I know practicing the sculpt is only half the job.

I expect the next one will be more to my liking but, I just can't toss this girl. I'd feel guilty about that.

Any pointers would be welcome ladies!

Happy 2010 - Warning Giant Post

2010-01-01T21:30:00.017-05:00

It's hard to believe this blog is almost a year old. I started it with the intention of keeping a journal of my Beacon Hill's progress and never expected much more from it. It's become so much more. First, my project list has certainly grown as you all fill me with new ideas. This is a side effect my husband (thankfully) has learned to snicker and eye roll about :) Secondly, it has become a window to meet some fantastic people who otherwise would have been too far away. I still can't believe I have over 90 readers, well get ready to read today ladies and gents :)

I certainly wish I had time to leave comments for everyone, but know that I put blog reading pretty high up on my daily to do list. You're all so full of fun, imagination and talent. Thank you for the year of your encouragement, inspiration and sharing. Here's to many more!

I finished out the last couple days of 2009 with some much overdue mini time. My wonderful husband spoiled me with minis for Christmas and then shared his seasonal cold : / Needless to say I had some down time... and so there are LOADS of pictures to share today! Here are some of the new additions to my collection.

Sock Monkey couple. Thanks Kim (who happily feeds my addiction)

Two clay books

1/144 Bath set.

Eventually you'll see my 1/144 furniture get into it's home

Gold Leaves dish set

I've had my eye on these for a bit.

Sink and Stove (the faucets were repainted)

This fantastic kitty made by Bridget McCarty

I'm so happy to have one of her cats. You can find her work on Ebay here if you're interested. The first picture is from the Ebay sale taken by Bridget. The next picture is kitty making himself comfortable on my best leather chair. I posted Bridget's shot as it's more detailed and does her work justice.

As for the BH, right now the vertical trim is being prepped & painted. Sadly, I encountered another short in the electrical tapewire system. I will never use tapewire again, it's too finicky and unreliable. To make a long story short, I pulled the plug on it... literally. I pulled out all the plugs, tapewire and that (insert potty mouth here) junction splicer, which viciously attacked me last summer. It was very liberating. Ahem.. moving along. So in between paint coats I dove into my basket of kits and bits. Here's what I've been up to:

Bonnie Lavish birdhouse kit

Bonnie Lavish Clematis kits w/ Trellises

The 2 beacon fireplaces are finally finished

I'm really loving how the brick worked out.

Bonnie Lavish Orchid kit, with Asian porcelain pieces.

I quick made the plate holder from some 20 Gauge wire.

Snowman kit from Michaels

It's a fun winter yard decoration

Christmas Tree and fireplace garland

These were made last year from kits but I wanted to share

Bedroll pillow.

I still need to get the rest of the

pillows made, but it's a start

Hope you enjoyed the big update and that your new year is off to a great start!

Now it feels like the Holidays

2009-12-19T23:48:00.014-05:00

I finally managed to finish up my 2 last 1/144 kits. Wow it's tough to shoot white tiny things, this doesn't do the finished product justice at all. Hopefully you can see the the little glasses on the top shelf of the hutch and cute drop leaf table. These were both great kits to work with.

This was cookie making weekend. It doesn't feel like the holidays until I've gone on a baking binge. This friday night I made the dough for Russian Tea Cakes and formed the Peanut Butter Balls, a.k.a Buck Eyes depending where you live. Honestly, the idea of deer parts doesn't appeal to me at all :/ Mine are Peanut butter Balls!

As you can see this was quite a big batch, 15 dozen to be exact. To add a challenge to all of this, I had to keep an eye on the circling vulture formerly known as "husband". The man's willpower is no match for Holiday goodies!

This saturday morning I got started on the chocolate coating. I always struggle to get the chocolate texture and temperature just right. Once that's under control, it's smooth sailing. After I get them all coated, they go into the frigde so the coating hardens.

I promise we have food in the house! It was temporarily relocated for this :)

While those hardened, I got going on the Tea Cakes. These are so easy to make and just melt in your mouth. As soon as they're out of the oven they go right into their confectioners sugar bath until cooled. Yummy!

By the end of the day I managed to get them all seperated, boxed and labeled for giving on Monday. I love the take-out style boxes, they're the perfect size for a dozen or so goodies.

Real size furniture

2009-12-08T21:20:00.013-05:00

Today was furniture delivery day. The place we brought it from brings it in and sets it up for you. Dear delivery guys: should you ever come across this THANK YOU, getting this stuff up the stairs had to be killer.

Now there's still lots to do in here and loads of gear needed for Baby, but at least the major stuff is in place.

I purchased the bedding set very early on. It's the Migi Splash set and I liked that it was nice without being overly cutesy.

On the wall over the crib were are going to put some fishies to match the bedding. I will use coordinating scrapbook papers and foam board to make the shapes. Don't you just love the fun fish & argyle pattern.

The crib coverts to a day bed, then a twin bed. Here's hoping it lives up to what our little one can throw at it until then.

I bought some papermache letters and covered them in coordinating scrapbook papers, but we are keeping baby's name a secret so you'll have to wait a bit to see how they turned out. They fit perfectly across the floating shelf and I'm very pleased with how this little project turned out.

We decided to go for a glider / recliner chair in here. I'm sure this seat will have been a wise choice come spring.

I really love this dresser. The changer part detaches when you no longer need it, so this will also be a long term piece. The handles sold me, they don't dangle so there's no clink clink noise every time you open and close it.

Now that the big pieces are done I can get back to mini things and holiday fun. I can hear my mixmaster calling me, it knows it's cookie time! Also, my friend Kim sounds like she needs a mini day too. Well who am I to argue when there's baking and minis that need to be done :)

Re-organizing the house

2009-12-06T19:35:00.006-05:00

The past couple weeks have been so packed! It looks like there are a few new readers here. A big welcome to you all!

I was back to work this week and so far so good. All the ladies at the office are making sure I'm taking care of myself, it's like having 12 Moms! They're sweet and I adore them all.

The last few weeks, we've been shifting everything around in the house to make room for our new family member's arrival in May. We are almost done with the closet cleaning, furniture moving and tossing out stuff we really didn't need.

The baby's furniture is to be delivered this Tuesday and so we wanted to get the room ready before it arrived. So all of hubby's office furniture had to be moved out, the carpets were cleaned, the painting was done, the closet shelves were installed and the new light fixture went up.

Well, that shouldn't have been too hard BUT add in that the house is 100 years old, so nothing is square, level or to standard sizes. We even had to drill a proper sized hole in the closet to make a current standard doorknob fit properly. With the new knob in place hubby had to chisel out the receiver plate to the right size. Well, to test the fit he closed the door.. from the INSIDE of the closet... it was TOO TIGHT! He couldn't get the door open and neither could I. There was no opening to pass him any tools. Thank goodness he's a big guy. The man actually busted himself out a la bad cop movie and split the door frame! LOL! The closet is fine now and closing properly.

The lesson of today was: test the door from OUTSIDE the closet.

I have some new minis to show you all. I will make a point of getting some pictures up very soon. There should be a few nursery shots later this week too, it's so cute I can't wait till my little one is here to see it, and the day he's old enough to hear about how Daddy locked himself in the closet! Oh yeah, how could I forget....

IT'S A BOY

Four more micro kits

2009-11-16T12:48:00.006-05:00

I'm still going on my micro furniture kits and have four more completed.

The bookshelf was very easy to put together, how cute is this!

The coffee table and end tables will be leveled out with some very fine sandpaper before I add them to their permanent home. Again, these were not hard to assemble.

I adore the teeny fireplace and the kit comes with 4 different brick colors to choose from.

So far I found the bedroom set the most challenging. Positioning the tiny drawers was a bit rough, but the X-acto blade was about the perfect size for spacing them out.

Getting the chair together was the hardest part. It's one of those things where you have to glue all 3 pieces together at once and have them stay at 90 degree angles.

Next will be the dinning set and that means more chairs :0 See you soon!

Micro Kits

2009-11-12T14:09:00.008-05:00

Way back in April I bought some 144 scale furniture kits from SDK Miniatures. These have been on my to do list for far too long.

Yesterday afternoon, I grabbed a few and read over the directions carefully, then gave it a shot.

The kitchen kit was moderately rough. I eneded up painting the handles on with a toothpick. My paint job is not perfect, but given the size I'm very pleased.

The sofa and chair kit was a breeze. Tacky glue and very pointed tweezers are a must for these tiny bits.

The rubber plant and sunflowers were probably the most time consuming. You have to let the layers of leaves dry completely before doing the next row. Trust me, it's worth the wait. When you knock off a lower row that wasn't quite dry, you'll wish you'd waited :)

I'm very pleased with the instructions,and quality of the kits. Anything that looks out of place is my fault. (Not to mention how difficult it is to get a good shot of anything in 1:144)

SDK does offer their items already made, but you get a much nicer price if you buy the kit. Besides, isn't that what this hobby is all about anyway, making your own?!

Dusting off the blog

2009-11-10T14:37:00.006-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month already! First of all I want to welcome my new followers and apologize for the delay on that.

There hasn't been any time at all for minis since my last post. I even had a dream that I went to my craft room and the Beacon Hill was simply gone. Everything else was exactly as I had left it, but no Beacon. I think it would like some attention :p

The last few weeks have been full of doctors appointments and last week they decided to put me on short term disability . My test results from a 1 hour glucose, then 3 hour glucose and then an A1C test did not come back with good results. Looks like my sugar levels have been all over the charts for 3 months. So they gave me two weeks to get my diet under control. I'll be re-evaluated on the 18th as to when/if I can return to work. Baby is doing fine, and if we can get my levels evened out there should be no cause for concern. This does explain why I've felt over tired and generally rotten.

Long story short, right now I'm testing my sugars 4 times a day, ketone levels twice a day and breaking up eating to 6 times a day. I've been doing well with my diet for the most part, but have had a few learning experiences with certain foods. Overall I am feeling better and now that we're in the 2nd trimester I should have some added energy.

I'm hoping to get some much needed mini time in during this time off. I sure could use a distraction from meals and finger stabbings! I have been cathing up on all the blogs I follow and seeing what's new on Ebay for some much needed motivation.

Keep an eye out ladies and gents there should be some actual mini updates soon!

Time to let the cat out of the bag

2009-10-03T21:26:00.010-04:00

Well folks, it's been far too long. If you remember from my previous post I had come down with a touch of the flu after finishing my exam and it had really set me back. I also intended to get working on my big list of mini's, not to mention finishing up the Beacon Hill.

It turns out my flu was nothing more than 1st trimester fatigue :)

These were taken Thursday morning and we will be at 10 weeks on of the 6th. Baby Wright will arrive sometime in early May 2010. Everything checked out great at my appointment and we are very excited.

For the most part I've been fine, though I sleep more than I care to admit. Poor hubby has really been working overtime around the house to keep it from getting too scary. All the books say the exhaustion will wear off soon. I sure hope so, otherwise Hubby is going to have a LOT of solo shopping to do LOL.
We had been actively trying for a couple months, but I was convinced I was ill. I really didn't believe what I was feeling could possibly be pregnancy. When Hubby suggested it ... I bought a test just to quiet him down. I suppose an "I told you so" is in order, hehehe.
Today I attended a baby shower for friends of ours and then passed out the minute I got home. Apparently, sitting in a chair for 3 hours and eating a piece of cake is equivalent to a 10 mile hike!
Next weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving. Even though I've been in the U.S.A for 6 years, I still do dinner every year. None of our friends seem to mind the extra turkey dinner and I love making it. I did agree to let someone else be in charge of desserts this year. I will be sure to pace myself and ask for lots of help if I needed it.
So, for a few more weeks I expect my minis to be limited to reading your posts. I sure need to get going on that list as soon as I've got some energy or it's likely sit for a VERY long time after the baby arrives!

Be back soon..

2009-09-15T21:24:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the long absence, I figured I should pop in and let you all know I intend to be back very soon.

I did get my class finished and my exam was on the 9th (yes I passed ). Then the next day the flu caught up with me and that forced me to take some down time. Urgh. I'm not feeling 100% yet, but have managed to return to work.

I've certainly been trying to keep up on my blog reading and miss having time for minis a lot right now. I can tell my friend Kim is getting ansy for a mini get together again, and that will give me a nice time slot to get a few projects done.

Missing you all and Mini Hugs

April

Bad Student

2009-08-23T16:59:00.014-04:00

While I should have been studying, I got together with my friend Kim the last 2 Saturdays. Hey, I'm moving along fine with my books so I figured I deserved a break :p Here's what we've been up to.

We worked on dressing our beds. This is Kim's very first bed. Isn't it fab! I think it's going to be perfect in her modern house.

My iron bed still needs pillows (cough, I need to decide which pillows to add). The afghan blanket, was an old sweater that I saved the fabric from.

This display was made using skinny sticks and a tutorial from Katie at katiesclaycorner ;)

and the grapevine wreath was purchased from Kitz.com, 4/$1.00

I had a little jar of mini shells around to make some beachhouse projects. She had a BOX of them! I spend a long time picking out a dozen mini shells LOL.

Using Angie Scarr's book, we made some food last weekend and sealed them yesterday. They're by no means perfect, but considering it's a first try, I'm very happy with how everything turned out.

There are a few more things at Kim's place I need to get shots of and I expect that we will be giving Fimo food another try very soon :D

Away From Keyboard

2009-08-18T19:39:00.007-04:00

My Exam is in a couple of weeks so I have not had much time for blogging. I promise I have been peeking in on you all and will be back to my mini obsession as soon as possible!

I wanted to say a quick hello and welcome to

Marleeen & BrombeerPoppedein

thanks for reading and welcome to my little corner

of the internet!

Happy mini-ing :D

So much to catch up on...

2009-08-10T19:20:00.014-04:00

Let me just start by saying that I have been really in the mood to work on minis lately and unfortunately have not left myself much time for blogging. This is going to be a long one, so bear with me.

My most fun news is that I told my friend Kim I decided to go with a beachhouse theme for my Willowcrest kit . She was all over it, and I thought was just humoring me. In fact I thought that everytime she talked about how neat my minis were. She bought the Brookwood kit last week! Expect to see the occasional “Kim Feature” around here. She’s going to go for a modern-contemporary styled beach house.

This weekend we split the cost on a pile of Fimo and are going to give some mini food a try. I had some instructional books around but was too timid to make any. She made some little lobsters and crabs before I brought her the books and they were SUPER cute. I think we will be good at encouraging each other … and laughing at ourselves.

So as you can see I've really been working. The BH has been receiving some much needed attention to it’s exterior,

the vertical trim is ready for its’ first coat,

the fireplaces are in the works,

and the living room floor is completely done. It was hard to get a good shot cause this baby shines.

I threatened last week to finish off my projects list before taking on anything new. I have a small dent made now. Here is a tiny Bottle of Beach glass.

This project involved a lot of smashing glass and etching cream. The etching cream is rather volatile stuff so I'm not convinced it was worth all the time and effort for this little project alone, but I know I’ll find other uses for it.

I changed this metal bed from white to black. I couldn’t find a black metal bed I liked so I just painted this inexpensive one I liked the shape of.

I've completed my first Sock Monkey. I’ve just always wanted to know how to make one. Now I do :D

Which was a breeze thanks to this :

My old sewing machine died so I upgraded. This thing is a DREAM. The Singer “Curvey”. Love it, love it love it! The thing is self-threading with 30 different stitches. What more could you want?

I’m off to check a few more things of my mini list :)

August, how did that happen?

2009-08-01T12:23:00.014-04:00

I don’t know about you all, but this year seems to have flown by faster than any other. Maybe it’s because I’ve taken on a lot of new things in ’09. All of which I’m happy about mind you, but are real time eaters. Let’s see, I started the blog in January, I took 2 classes so far, hiking/backpacking is a new venture for us and my current job position began mid December ’08. I think I’ll make a point of not gaining any NEW hobbies in ’10. That can be my resolution: finish up all my current projects &; plans (LOL fat chance!). Wish me luck :P

Now, I found this little gem and thought I would share with you all.

I think it could be used in so many ways for minis! It’s called Karen Foster 3D Calendar. The Calendar measures 8-1/2''x8'' and the 25 boxes measure: 1-1/2''x1-1/2''. I think the boxes would make fantastic crates, baskets, etc and the box could be used as built-in wall shelves. I’m thinking about cutting out the bottom/middle 9 squares and making that portion a fireplace. How cool would that be? I’m betting you all have some great ideas on what could be made with this too! Please share :D

Best price I found online was at Joanne's for $14.99

And it looks like 2 more readers have joined!

Tink

Holly Shan

Glass Float Tutorial

2009-07-25T19:06:00.030-04:00

** All of the pictures can be clicked for a large detailed view **

You will need:

Translucent ½ inch marbles in your choice of colors. I found 100 on ebay for around $6.00, and $4.95 shipping. This was the best price I found and I got exactly the colors I wanted.

Some mesh for around the marbles.

I pondered a few different things for the mesh and finally decided on this wash bag. It is "beautfy your family facilitate life" how could I go wrong?! (to be fair that English is better than my Chinese). I simply cut out the seams and zipper.

Now I have plenlty of mesh fabric and figure I can try to make a fishing net later too. I suspect that cheese cloth might work as well. Doreen mentioned that sometimes fruit comes packed in mesh bags. Now I'll be looking for minis in the grocery store!

Moving on.. you will need some type of rope about this size. I believe this is hemp,

and tacky glue. I also used green and brown paint, but a beige color would work for less weathered looking floats.

First you need to cut out the pieces of mesh large enough to wrap around your marble.

Next, wrap it around and twist the end to tighten it up. Should like like a candy :)

Now, tie off the "candy" end with 2 knots. Make sure it is tight. I actually wove my rope through the mesh holes a couple times, then tied it up.

Leave about 2 inches of rope length on one side. The other I left quite long as I'm not sure exaclty how long it'll need to be when I find it's permanent home.

Now, trim the mesh top. Not all of it, we need a bit left for the next part.

Put a bit of tacky glue in the tuft of fabric.

This is the only tricky part. Twist and/or knot the two ends of rope over and around the fabric tuft. The idea is just to get the fabric covered and have a ropey tip.

I wanted mine to look used and weathered. The bright white mesh wasn't working for me and didn't match the rope so... I painted it.

I mixed brown with green and some warm water, until I got an army green color that I was happy with.

Spead it all over and then wipe off the excess.

There you have it 1/2 inch miniature glass floats for your beach house or nautical themed minis :D

Now you've done it!

2009-07-25T07:46:00.014-04:00

The Willowcrest finally spoke to me. It’s decided it would like to be a beach cottage. Lately there has been some lovely work around the blog world with beach themes. I can see why it decided to go that direction ;) See, you all are inspiring!

The house exterior is going to be Aqua / Robin’s Egg Blue and Cream with a big red door. Much like the Tybee Shutters by Jane Coslick. Thanks much to Kathi of Beautiful mini blessings who shared the link to Jane’s work and sealed the deal for me :)

Here are some other’s that have recently been spending time on the mini beach:
Karen shared a lovely beach cottage . Rosanna made this spectacular tea cozy for Sylvia ‘s beach house. Way back in March Katie made a sea shell shadow box that I adore and then this morning I see that De made a roombox!

This was why I asked you all about the red willow dishes a few weeks ago. Thanks bunches again to everyone for the links. I decided (after the sticker shock) to change my kitchen & dinning room plans to feature blue dishes instead. These seem much easier to find and more affordable too.

I was thinking this way I can still get the splash of red I was looking for in the chairs. I think this picture is the first time Pottery Barn has ever saved me money LOL.

I'm loving this look for the bathroom and will likely try to get as close as possible to this sink. I think I can build my own without too much trouble.

I figure that a cottage is for relaxing, so this bar will have to be incorporated somewhere.

Right now I am working on making mini versions of these glass floats.

I found the perfect marbles on Ebay and in all the colors I wanted. Hopefully I work something together that I'm content with this weekend for the netting portion. Cheese cloth maybe? Some kind of mesh lace? I looked at tulle, but it's too thin to pass as ropey... Feel free to make suggestions :) If I can avoid attempting to use actual rope and weaving it all out myself, that would be best.

I have not forgotten about my Beacon, and it will be finished first, but I was so excited I just had to share!

Award & Welcomes

2009-07-22T21:10:00.006-04:00

I would like to thank both Katie and Ana for the

This award was designed by Ces for her friend Bella. Ces wrote:- I designed this award to celebrate art in the blogs and to honour the value of friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. It is to be awarded to the gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger, whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best. That I named it after Bella Sinclair is because she epitomises all of these things.

The link to Ces's blog: http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/2009//07/bella-sinclair-award.html

A big

to my newest followers!

Cre8

Kim,

Hahn

and of course

Jody

Contest Prize!

2009-07-21T18:20:00.006-04:00

Karin of http://orrlakemusings.blogspot.com/ sent me some very fun Canadian minis for winning her Canada Day contest.

She made some very detailed booklets of popular Canadian destinations.

There is a directory and map of the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta (I believe), the Wineries of Ontario, Memories coast to coast, which starts in British Columbia and goes all the way to Newfoundland; Customized vacations, and a Canada Rail booklet. A popular trip is to take the train from one end of the country to the other, something I’ve always threatened to do.

Now my mini people will know all the best places to go and things to see!

There was even a super teeny tiny thank you note from Karin. I tried but couldn’t get the print to photograph clearly. It says:
"(letterhead notepaper) A note from Karin

Thanks for entering my Canada day quiz.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Karin. "

Thanks so much Karin, I love my little booklets. I have the perfect spot for them... you know as soon as I finish my kit ;)

Shingles, shingles everywhere!

2009-07-14T22:11:00.019-04:00

Last week Sans asked if I had any advice about an upcoming project she was going to tackle. She says “I am going to remove shingles from an existing house but I want to re-use them. These things are soooo expensive! Any advice?”

Where to begin? First off, that sounds really scary to me and so best of luck to you. I hope it works out. I have seen a lot of alternatives out there to using wood. The singles I’ve used so far have been included in the kits and so there was no worry about cost. I’ve seen people use sandpaper, which turns out very nice. If you’re set on wood shingles, you might be able to find packages of thin wood strips that you could cut to size. Then it becomes about time spent vs. money spent (and possibly vs. your sanity). If anyone has any additional thoughts please feel free to share!

The best advice I can give as far as the actual doing of the project, is to always be in a patient mood. If it gets rough… know when to walk away. Or in my case, walking away = cussing a few times and stomping upstairs :P

Now it' s update time!

I finally have the bulk of the shingles glued on their templates and sanded. A few small parts are left for when the mood strikes. There is still the 3 bays and the 2bits on the back.

This will be done with the help of a bottle of glue, a glass of wine and a long movie :D

Tonight I dry fitted all the pieces, then did a coat of gray wash.

You can see here, the look is much less stark after the wash and it helps cover the paper backing bits that can show through.

To do the wash:

I used 1 part gray acrylic paint and 2 parts warm water. Spread it around quickly with a big brush. Next, wipe it off top to bottom and rub some in to even it out where needed. Essentially a very watery stain.

Note: I did have one piece that got too wet and the paper backing tore a tiny bit. I gently set it aside to dry. A bit of glue should fix it no problem.

If your work area looks like this, then you’re doing it right!

Lil' Help

2009-07-12T12:13:00.009-04:00

Does anyone know where I can find a mini version of these red toile or red Willow dishes? Any leads would be really appreciated!

So far all I can find are the red speckled type :(

Thanks ladies & gents!

Bit of progress and Kitty sillyness

2009-07-06T12:19:00.009-04:00

The living room floor is coming along slowly. I will need to fine tune it this afternoon. Here it is dry fitted. There are a few spots that need sanded again and filled. I hope to be able to get that done today and start the clear coats :)

I did manage to glue a second roof panel together. Another one down, hooray!

So I get up this morning and start my coffee pot. Hubby comes in behind me and says ...what do we have here?

It appears a certain kitty found a new solitary nap spot.

Heck of a good one too! He can't reach and as you can see he's not exactly a short guy. LOL she thinks he's trying to pet her and rolls over so he gets just the right spot. Niko comes to see what all the commotion is about too.

I swear her face says Nah nah nah nahhh na you can't get me :p

Problem solved. Though I don't know what I'll do if she gets up there when he's not at home. I am a short person and the chair isn't going to cut it.

It's welcome time yet again!

2009-07-05T11:54:00.007-04:00

I’m still amazed I have any followers, let alone 61!

http://hannajaleijona.blogspot.com/

Be sure to pop over and have a peek at the adorable felted animals

and lots of other mini eye candy.

Beautifulminiblessings

Now, Blogger is playing with me by not putting your names in order.

I have another reader. I suspect it to be

Annette.

I could not find a link for Beautifulminiblessings or Annette. So, if I missed it somehow please let me know. Otherwise, thank you all for your interest in my rants. Hopefully somewhere along the way I help some of you with tips, tricks and inspiration as you all have for me.

We finished a long put off house project Friday and Saturday which left my arms, hands and back feeling 30 years older than the rest of my body. So, sadly I’ve been too achy for minis. A glass or two of wine made for a nice solid sleep and I’m feeling much better today. I took Monday off for a 4 day weekend, and I expect to get some much deserved mini time in over the next two days.

Now, I’m off to peek in on your updates :)

Here we go

2009-07-01T19:40:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, when I got home I had some mail that wasn't bills or junk mail. Someone had sent me a card. Apparently, the company I work for sends notice to the local paper when one of the employees earns a designation. I guess my Hubby's Step-Mother pays close attention to local happenings :D

This really made my day and I am getting my thank you cards ready to let her know just that. Don't you just love little surprises like this?!

So, since I was having a good day I figured I should have enough patience to start plugging away at the shingles for the BH. I managed to get all of them apart on Sunday while watching some TV.

I outlined the tower on some regular paper and then measured & marked out where the pieces should line up.

I decided on the color pattern and got out the trusty Aleene's glue... how did I ever live without this stuff?

So far I only have the tower face done, BUT that's one down! I will finish up cutting off the excess after it dries. Once I get all the panels on the house, I plan on doing a wash color over all of it, just a tad darker. The plan is to tone down the color variation a bit and doing a uniform wash should fill in any touch ups at the same time.

So far it's gone well. Keep your fingers crossed for me on the rest... this is going to be a time consuming portion of the build.

Care to join me for another walk in the woods?

2009-06-28T21:18:00.022-04:00

This weekend we had a wonderful hike at Reid Lake. We only ran into one other pair of hikers the whole time, on our way out. This is probably why we saw so much wildlife. Barely past one mile and we came upon a deer… ok we scared the poor thing awake and it scrambled around 15 feet in front of us before finally hopping off into the grasses. I didn’t have time to grab my camera and take shots unfortunately.

We set up camp.

Then followed the moss covered trail to the lake.

There was a solo bat skimming along to grab a snack. Anything that eats mosquitoes is good in my opinion :)

During the night we were woken up by a group of 3 Barred Owls (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Strix-varia-005.jpg ) who were having a lovely conversation outside our tent. Apparently, owls make no concessions for sleeping humans when they have things to chat about! You know right away that it’s barred owls, they have a very distinct call. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barred_Owl/sounds

In the morning I decided to have my coffee on the lake docks. Hubby joined me and was very quickly inspected by the resident dragonflies. For some reason, they were quite taken with him.

Clicky the pics to enlarge.

One on each foot:

Two sharing a spot:

Pair on his knee:

He really was enjoying his winged visitors and the peaceful morning on Reid Lake.

Friday, in my hurry to get on the road, I foolishly forgot my fishing license, which was made worse by the fact that I could literally see the fish swimming around under the docks. They were plentiful and many were at least a foot long. Lesson learned, my license is now tucked into my tackle box!

After breakfast on the docks we did a 2-mile hike. Along the trails were many (poisonous) colorful mushrooms, beaver dams and wildflowers.

The loop we covered was around some wetlands and a bog. The water was covered with blooming white & yellow water lilies. We were lucky enough to see a group of 5 Swans, a painted turtle, 2 garter snakes and all kinds of birds and toads.

Back at our campsite, a chipmunk who’d been hopping around all weekend decided to be very brave and check out Hubby. He hopped right over and perched up on the back of his leg to see what he was all about. I said…I think you’re about to be climbed! Poor Hubby was not exaclty pleased about a rodent scurrying up his leg, LOL. I made a bit of noise and the chipmunk made his way back into the ferns.

I expect that the weather will be warm enough and the insects thick enough now to keep us off the trails until late August.

It's nice to be back home with our fuzzies and luxuries though. Now, I should go see what you all have been up to lately. According to Google Reader, I've got lots to catch up on!

New Pics Today

2009-06-23T21:14:00.013-04:00

Hooray for being home alone and not allowing myself to do any housework or studying! Yes, that's right I foolishly signed up for another exam and should be M.I.A late August to early September. Now, on to fun stuff !

This Alison Fleming Teddy Bear Kit was $1.50! I wasn't sure about my hands at these little guys at first, now I think they are too cute. I added the bows as a finishing touch. Another completed project for my Beacon. *pats self on back*

The center of the living room floor is secured down and the surrounding pieces are in progress.

The front patio roof now lines up perfectly with the kitchen bay window roofing. That took a bit of tweaking and touch up paint. Overall, I'm happy I took the extra time to get it just right.

The tower roof is on and everything is ready to start.....

SHINGLES. (insert horrible Jaws movie music here)

That will be put aside until I'm in the mood, otherwise it could spell disaster. I decided to do 4 different colors for a variegated look. I expect to spend a good part of tonight pulling shingles off their boards and separating them into freezer bags.
I was having Blog & Mini withdrawls there, whew.. I feel much better now!
Just a quick FYI, we are expecting nice weather this weekend and if the forecast remains promising we will be away again. This is likely the last tolerable (heat wise) weekend we will have for hiking so we need to take advantage while we can. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get to open my Willowcrest, Shop or any of my other projects for that matter. At least I can't complain about boredom! LOL

No pics today

2009-06-22T20:25:00.007-04:00

I'm at one of those points where even though I put in a decent amount of time on the Beacon, it doesn't look like alot happened. I did get some mini time Sunday afternoon. The tower roof is now glued on and so is the porch roof. Both needed some paint touch ups that will become hard to reach later on. Again, time consuming with little to show :/

The roof shingles have been stained. When I'm happy with the colors, you'll be the first to know. I think I'll only have to do some minor tweaking to get it the way I wanted.

Summers always seem so short and while I adore my minis, spending this time of year inside feels like a crime against myself. I'm sure once the humidity hits 90% and the temps rise even more, I'll gladly be inside with the air conditioning. Heheh.

I have been peeking in to see what you all have been up to and it definitely gets me motivated. I have the house to myself tomorrow night, lookout Beacon I've got brushes and glue and I''m iching to use them!

Also, a big welcome to Mags Casidy , be sure to pop over and say hello.

Thanks for reading Mags!

Off Topic - Hiking Trip

2009-06-14T12:49:00.020-04:00

I outlined our trip in green, this was a "break in our gear (feet & backs) trip". As you can see we barely touched this place.

Friday afternoon. We found our way to the parking area. We were surprised to see how many vehicles were already there. We made the 1.7 Mile trek in without any trouble and set up camp at the 2nd site. I really liked this spot. It overlooks Byron Lake, has a bench and a fire ring with a grate.

Here is the gathed food/trash to loop up in a tree, far away from the tent! Racoons, skunks and bears can be nosy in the night.

This little critter kept busy rustling up the ferns around us all weekend. Chipmunks were everywhere.

All night the air was filled with the sound bullfrogs. I can’t even begin to estimate how many, let’s just say it was LOUD. A couple of times we were woken up by howls and yips. I guess one of the other hikers wasn’t fond of the idea of coyotes in his camp. He yelled and they quit, I suspect running away as well. I love that guy ;)

In the morning we woke to 42 degrees, this is cold enough to know when someone is exhaling. There’s nothing like staggering out of your (15 degree rated) bag into the cold morning air and scrambling to build a fire. This hard-earned coffee tastes like the best thing EVER. The birds were nice enough to provide music while we had our breakfast.

Here we have Hubby warming his tooties. I call this shot "Captain No Beard".

We started our hike around 10 am. It had warmed up a bit, but was still cool enough to be comfortable. We kept this trip short but decided to fill our packs, to help get us in shape for future hikes. At this point my pack was around 25lbs and Hubby’s was at 35. The weight was well within comfort range. As you will see the skies agreed with our plans, I love when that happens.

I think this area would be breathtaking in the fall.

Beaver Dams are commonly seen in these areas. There are downed and chewed up trees all around.

Me at No Name Lake in full gear. I like yellow and blue, it lets people with guns know I'm not a yummy deer!

Wild columbine along the trails.

As for wildlife, there were tons of dragonflies, tadpoles & frogs (we had to be careful not to squish the tiny frogs along the trails), birds, chipmunks a-plenty, butterflies/caterpillars and thankfully never saw those coyotes :0

I came home to find my garden has been busy.

Welcome to Fong Franny (sorry, no link found) & Minimaker . Thanks ladies, hope you enjoy my chatter :) Now, I'm off to see what you all have been up to. But first... where did I put that Motrin?

Hiking Weekend

2009-06-11T22:20:00.002-04:00

Argh! I've had no time for minis & blogging at all this week. On a happy note, my Willowcrest did arrive yesterday. It took alot of willpower not to open it up. I did drool over the box for a while :)

We are off to our hiking destination after work tomorrow until Sunday evening. Expect to see some non mini related pics soon after.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Catching up,

2009-06-07T11:45:00.015-04:00

First I will show you all what I’ve been up to with minis.

BEACON HILL

Post construction was a lot of sand, glue, spackle, paint and then rinse repeat.

The porch support pieces have slots to slide the posts through.

I ended up having to cut them a bit bigger. The tricky part was getting it all level before I glued it in permanently. I will do the touch ups after it’s dry.

The family room floor is being constructed in modular portions so I can stain it 2 different colors. Here is the main part.

It still needs some final touches but you get the idea. It tends to bow up a bit when the stain is applied. I put some newspaper over it and a some heavy items on top of that to help it dry flat. That has worked well for me.

THE MICHAEL’S HOUSE

I managed to get all the roof trim on and painted.

I'm still not sure what I want to do with the front step. Next I bashed the furniture kit a tad. I removed the tabs that stuck out and glued the pieces together.

The sheep Mom & Dad fit fine on the big bed, they like to spoon so they don’t mind the tight fit.

Now, I need to pass on my tagging from forever ago (blush).

Six little things in life that make me happy are:

1. How my dog is always ecstatic to see me

2. Fresh cup of hot coffee in the morning

3. Knowing that hockey season is almost over. People seem to assume that if you’re Canadian you are a HUGE hockey fan, and also know the history of every player on every team. Then, when you explain that you are not, they (A) don’t appear to believe you or (B) tell you “you’re a bad Canadian” LOL

4. A big T-Bone Steak with baked potato and a beer (this is where the Canadian stereotype is true :p)

5. Line dried clothing, it just smells so much fresher.

6. Finding a mini use for an everyday item. (you’ve gotta see this!)

I picked 6 randomly to pass it along. You’re it!

Minimischief

A beautiful world

Las Minis De Katy

Rute

Mary

petite nouveau

And of course, I want to say hello to Erika

Be sure to hop over and see what she’s up to :)

Welcome

2009-06-06T21:55:00.003-04:00

I finally have had some time to sit down today

to work on minis and Blog!

I can't wait to catch up tonight on what you all have been up to.

It's great to see I have 2 more along, welcome ladies!

Please pop over and say hello to

Heather from This Little Doll House

and

Susan of Susan’s Mini Talk

I plan on a big update tomorrow,

so bring your tea cups and cookies!

B.Hill Living Room Floor

2009-06-02T19:26:00.007-04:00

Here is a quick update, there is more to come but I’m still very deep in trip arrangements, which should be taken care of by the end of the week.

The master plan has always been that the Beacon would have very ornate floors in the living room, but prices of pre-made floors were outrageous. I came across some cheap bags of wood sticks and thought I’d give it a go myself. Now that there’s an Easy Cutter added to the arsenal of tools, there was no reason not to try.

So I fired up the printer and made some ½ inch spaced graph paper, fitted it to the BH, and sketched the floor pattern. I changed my mind on the center a few times along the way, but that's what pencils and erasers are for!

I was ready to start cutting, when my helper came in to make sure everything was just right.

He laid right down, so I guess that means it’s fit for his royal fuzziness, and hence, a good floor. Then that mean lady (that would be me) chased him off and got down to business. The cutter made this easy and quick, especially with all the 45 degree angles.

I glued the pieces on the grid paper and only had to do minimal sanding/re-cutting.

and then filled in the gaps with wood filler.

It will all be stained after assembly to even out the color. I’m really happy I decided to try this. In the end the BH will have a unique floor, with a much smaller price tag. The woods was $2.33 a bag :)

June already, wow

2009-06-01T09:39:00.003-04:00

Sorry, I've been a tad quiet around here the last few days. I'm in the middle of planning and preparing for backpaking trip so that ate up most of my weekend and should cut in to most of tonight. I did manage to squeeze in a little work on my BH, and critter cabin though :) I hope to get some time to post pics tonight.

Also, I didn't want to forget to say hellow and a big WELCOME to my new reader Susan who has a new mini blog. Be sure to pop over and say hello !

And it appears that in my absence I've been tagged by Marsha, I'll be sure to pass it along soon!

-April

The house that spackle built...

2009-05-27T21:36:00.012-04:00

The stucco finish is all up and for my first try I’m very happy with the result.
The roof pieces were painted and glued. After these pieces dry, I can glue on more trim and paint it all to give the roofing a more finished look.

Just as I was cleaning up, the calico critters got restless and the piggy family came over to investigate.
They decided the cottage just wasn’t tall enough for Papa pig. Then sheep family wandered over to see the progress ...

and everyone agreed it would be just right for them.

They all spent some time getting to know each other since they will soon be neighbors.

There was much debate over how the piggy house would be finished. I guess they'll just have to wait see :)