Happy New Year...New Decade!

Well, I have decided on my New Year Resolution. This year, I am going to work harder on my Mini Projects....and complete them. The big one is the Christmas Dollhouse. I have had a Greenleaf Mckinley kit hiding in my closet for 4 years!!! I have loads of the exterior & interior bits and pieces. There are evergreen trees and shrubs with working lights, mini stockings, web pages book marked with printies for the wallpaper, kits for the Christmas tree....now I just have to do it!!!! Wish me luck!

Last year, my resolution was Buy more Shoes....and that worked out just fine!

I have found that if I make a commitment to myself for something that will bring me Joy everyday, everything else seems to fall in place as well.

Cheers!

Christmas Angel

Now it feels like Christmas...sort of, there is snow, it's cold...... My decorations are buried somewhere in my storage room.
*sigh*

This is my parents' tree last year. I made the angel on top.

Shingle bells, shingle bells, siding all the way!

It just doesn't feel Christmas-like outside yet. We are having amazingly unseasonal weather for November, high today was 14 Celsius, or 57 degrees Fahrenheit. and surprisingly not too windy. Yet, here I am indoors, shingling all the way! It's still 8 Celsius outside (46 Fahrenheit)!

Shingles and siding, Michael's house part 2

I have finished the siding, it's gaping in spots but once painted will give much character to the house.
I have begun the shingling, very labour intensive, each one is hand cut from a business card sized veneer.

I have space!

Happy to report that I have swam through the sea of clutter and procrastination and have arrived at the work table! I have finished the siding on my littlest doll house. Now I just have to figure out what I want for a roof. Perhaps a trip to LeeValley is in order, they have great maple veneer business cards that can be cut with scissors into the perfect shingles.

Puttanesca, evil temptress!

My sister, Janay, the queen of cooking, gave me this recipe and it's now become an obsession, we have eaten it twice this week already!
She decided after reading "Belong to Me" by Maria de los Santos (Excellent book!) that she need to try this.
Love it!
Fantastic over angel hair & must serve with parmigiano reggiano cheese

Still here!

Life has been busy, unfortunately that leaves little time for mini stuff. Also, the clutter has accumulated around my work space, it's like an island of calm in stormy seas! Unfortunately, I can't seem to swim (aka procrastinating)
Happy though that it's Hockey season & my Patrick is getting his game on:
http://www.calgarysledgehockey.ca/

Most recent Project: 1/24 Scale Play house

I am terrible for beginning projects when others are not yet completed. This is why I dare not take my McKinley kit out of the closet.

This is a puzzle dollhouse from Micheal's that my best friend, Allie, got me for my birthday. There is also a furnishing kit.

I have primed it with metalic primer, put it together and filled the gaps with wood filler and sanded. Now to spray with white primer. After that I will decorate! It's the perfect size for my child dolls to have as a club house.

 

Bit's and pieces of past work...until I get a new camera :o(

This is a picture of what I made for my Mom on Mother's Day one year (2006??) She's an avid gardener and has a beautiful yard.

This is my first "commission" piece. I made it for a friend of mine for his wife for Christmas. He was trying to get her the last piece they needed for their wedding china and it was on back order and wouldn't have arrived in time for Christmas. So I offered to make it in miniature so she would have something to open on Christmas. She loved it and now hangs it on the tree every Christmas.

Chickens in the chicken run. I built the chicken run from plans in one of my bazillions of dolls house magazines. I can't remember which one though. The Bantam hen and Rooster were part of my childhood playthings that my grandmother had in her "Toy Box" for when we would visit. I asked my mom if I could have them for minis, she thought my Gran would have liked it. They were plain white chickens, so I had to paint them up to look like the Bantams I grew up with on my parent's acreage.

One of my 4 Orphans: Stone Farm house

Oh how I am a sucker for orphans. This dolls house was built for my friend's little sister when they lived in Jakarta.They brought it all the way back to Canada and stored it for 15+ years, alas, the girl grew out of dolls houses...not like some of us. One year they decided to have a huge clean out and were going to throw it away! I, of course, had to adopt it.
Sadly, the bamboo shingles didn't survive very well in our dry Alberta climate and kept snapping off every time I moved it. The carved teak wood trim was worse for wear and had to be removed...much of it was missing too.

The shingles have been removed, now but this is what they looked like, from a distance they look nice, not really nice up close and I added stone work using this technique shown here, recycling at it's BEST! http://www.miniland.ca/EggClass1.html. It has a LONG way to go, but I will keep you posted!

Halloween Magic and Witches supply shop.

This is a press out puzzle dollhouse that my Dad (my biggest enabler of my mini obsession) found for me at a garage sale for $5.00! This was a couple of years ago now, I haven't worked on it since.

It had never been opened (or loved, kind of sad actually) and was still in the plastic.

I painted all the pieces before I punched them out and put it together. The shingles are from "business card" birch veneer from LeeValley tools. I snapped them in half randomly and painted them with watered down grey and black paint, then sponged it off.

Broom parking to the left of the entrance, for your convenience. For your safety, no alighting betwixt the gables, thank you!

Our hours are from 12 midnight November 1st until 12 midnight September 30th. The jack-o-lantern is made of paperclay, a great tutorial from MiniMotion: http://www.minimotion.com/HOWTO/jackolantern.html

We do not accept credit or trades.

Happy working space

I was successful with my furniture tetris, and now have a happy, if tiny, working space. Alas, my camera is no longer working so I cannot take any new pictures of my on going projects until Christmas (as a little purple camera is on my list to St Nick!)
As Halloween approaches though, I will be posting pictures of my little witches shop, which hasn't had the interior completed yet, but the exterior is looking ok.

Back to the Original plan

Hmmm. So being in the giant room (with the poop coloured walls) was not as productive as I imagined, after more than a year of having the space I worked on absolute zilch! So back into the small space I go. I am excited though, the big room is going to be painted for me and my sweetie to enjoy as a tranquil bedroom. The small room, will be cramped, as it always was, but more productive! Keep watching for updates. First thing on the agenda: Tetris with the furnishings LOL!