Not a mini but...

...fun to make, none the less. I had the beads out today to make some light fixture for the little girls' dollhouse and decided to make some earrings, too.The color washed out in the photo but the beads are a deep red. Now I've just got to figure out what I'm wearing to church in the morning so I can wear my new earrings. :-)

Life's a little crazy right now

So hubby, son and I are mostly over the h1n1 creeping crud...but hubby exposed our oldest when he took her to RediMed the day before he got sick. So she's home from college for the week. Poor thing is really sick. This is not fun stuff.

I hope next week to return to a somewhat normal life. I will "see" you then. ;0)

A Christmas cactus for the kitchen

I worked on this last night while watching TV with hubby. A tray on my lap kept everything close and contained. I used Becky Windsor's tutorial in American Miniaturist issue #44. However, as usual, I didn't have everything on hand so was forced to improvise a little. Becky used a handheld oak leaf punch and the little leaves were just the right size. I don't have an oak leaf in that size but I do have one that's the size of a one inch scale oak leaf. So I punched my leaves with that and then took a small set of curved scissors to cut each pair of leaves down to size. I tried to cut the leaves freehand but that didn't work well for me. Having a basic shape to start with made a huge difference. My cactus leaves probably should be a bit smaller but that just wasn't gonna happen last night, lol. My flowers are made from tiny stars punched out of red tissue paper, again not how Becky did it but it worked. A few more stems would have looked nice but I got tired of cutting little leaves and it still looks pretty good. I don't think I'll be making any more of these in the near future but I do like this one. It looks good on top of Mrs. C's cabinets, too.

One of Santa's helpers

This is Alfred Eloysus Elf. His parents wanted to give him a distinguished name. Little did they know he'd end up being called Alf Elf. Alf is also for sale in my etsy shop. He was really fun to make. Adding all the little details was the best part - fancy elf shoes with curled up toes, bright red buttons holding the plaid suspenders in place and the jinglebell on the tip of his stocking cap.

It's been a wonderful day so far. We started the morning with really thick fog. The drive to church was a little scary so I'm glad we don't live far from the church. When we came out, the sun was shining and it was unseasonably warm. Then my hubby took me out for Chinese for lunch. Now I'm comfy in my sweats and watching football. Life just doesn't get much better than that. :0)

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Sunday, too!

A new doll for my shop

I'm beginning to work on stocking up my etsy shop for Christmas. This classic Santa is the start. He's nicely plump, stands on his own and is dressed in a traditional red suit with white fur trim. He turned out so well that I may have to make yet another set of adjustments to my Santa doll, lol.

Today's project is to assemble and dress the elf I sculpted last night.

Christmas is just around the corner....

...so I've been upgrading some things in the Claus's house. I originally had a handpainted round table and two chairs in the kitchen at the open end.That just didn't give Mrs. Claus enough room to work and move in her kitchen so I made the island with a butcher block top and two stools to replace the table and chairs. It's much more efficient now.

Santa has been through several surgeries, lol. I first made him nearly 20 years ago and he had a bead head, with blue mittens and black boots made from polymer clay. Last year I gave him a new polymer clay head and new green mittens. Those mittens were bugging me since he's actually working inside so I made him some hands. You can see him here discussing the Christmas Eve delivery plans with his head elf, Pete.

And, finally, here's a better photo of Dasher after his reincarnation from gold glitter to furry reindeer.That's Red behind him. Red is the elf in charge of the reindeer.

Christmas is my favorite holiday so I have several Christmas themed projects. Besides Santa's house, I have the house I live in now as it was when my children were very little. It's always decorated for Christmas. I also have a small roombox. Next month I will show more photos of Santa's house and the other Christmas projects, too.

Baby Landon and his bed

I apologize for the quality of the photos. I'm still having to use my cellphone camera. Last Christmas I decorated a dollhouse for a friend's two young daughters. They were recently joined by a baby brother, Landon. I found a little rubber doll to use. I just had to dress him. The bassinet is made from a small plastic basket glued to pizza saver legs. I will deliver the doll and bed on Sunday (if I am well enough).