The finished bed

Here's the finished bed in front of a piece of the wallpaper I made for the room. There's a border at the top that will be used for trimming the dormer in the room. The bedspread is made from a downloaded picture and an iron on T shirt transfer. The sheets match the pillows.

Fit for a princess

I am helping a friend with a dollhouse for her twin nieces for a Christmas gift. Theresa likes to do the exterior and I prefer the interior so we make a good team. :-) Her nieces love Disney princesses, Dora the Explorer and Tinkerbell.

The bedroom will have the princess theme. I still have to dress the bed but I think it turned out well.

I also made a baby bassinet from a cake decoration.

The kitchen will have the Dora theme. Here's the table with stools and a corner hutch.

Back soon, I promise

I'm sorry for the lack of posts this week. I am fighting some sort of bug and I've just not been up to doing too much. Hopefully, I'll be back by the end of the week.

Pie anyone?

This is actually not all dry. The cherry pie filling will be more translucent when it's dry but you can tell what it is. The canister are filled with "flour" (cornstarch baby powder) and "sugar" (glitter). This was my first attempt at a cracked egg and it turned out fairly well. I made the table from wood scraps, the canisters from tampons. The egg basket was made by my friend, Brenda. Isn't it cute?

A little project for the day

These two little topiaries were very easy. The top is a wooden bead covered in landscape foam with some dried flowers tucked in. I used a bit of real twig for the trunk and they are planted in clay covered with dried tea. Very quick and cute, too. :-)

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Please help me welcome Maria Jose, who says her obsession is miniatures. We can all relate to that, can't we?

And now for something a little different...

I have two tin lithograph houses from the 1940s. One was my mom's and the other one has the same interior but the other exterior that the company produced. I have a doll family living in my mom's house but only had a Polly Pocket doll for the other house. My younger brother customizes action figures and he thought I needed a more realistic couple for the house. These photos show the husband and wife who now live in this house. Didn't he do an amazing job?! I have to admit, though, that the lady of the house seems a little scary. She's also taller than her husband. I hope he doesn't get pushed around too much, lol.

Have I mentioned that fall and winter are my favorite seasons?

Tomorrow I'm gonna have to do laundry but today I worked on an autumn scene. I woke up with this idea in my head and you know when that happens, you just gotta try it, lol. I'm debating whether to keep this one or list it in my etsy shop.

The sunflowers are paper with coffee "seeds." The dirt is dried tea, the apples are seed pods, the marigolds are some ugly little white flowers that I painted. The dog chewed on the wagon and it had come completely apart. I used that to my advantage and finished the aging process. I made the sign and the little birdhouse from balsa scraps. The leaves are coffee filters that I painted and then used paper punches to make the leaves.

I love the way this turned out! It's just a mini glimpse of autumn here in the country.

More harvest arrangements

I had some fun making more autumn arrangements. I've been picking through bags of potpourri to try to find appropriate seed pods and leaves. I'm very happy with how these two turned out. I still have one more pumpkin so there may be one last arrangement coming. ;-)

Got 'em filled

This is the first cornucopia I made. I'm keeping this one.

This is the one I made for the tutorial. I'm selling this one in my etsy shop.

Cornucopia tutorial 1

I’ve been thinking about how to make a mini cornucopia for awhile and finally, today, I figured out how I could do it.

The supplies needed are a plastic milk or juice carton seal, 24 gauge wire, jewelry cord that looks like thin rope, tacky glue, scissors, needlenose pliers, and I found a set of small hemostats to be helpful for pulling the cord.

Start by cutting the ring off of the seal. Don’t throw away the other part as it makes a great plate. Then cut 7 or 9 four inch pieces of wire. Be sure to use an odd number. Bend over about a quarter of an inch, hook that over the ring and crimp down with the pliers. Once it is crimped into place, use the pliers to twist the end of wire around the longer tail. Space the wires evenly around the ring.

Cut an 18 inch or so piece of cord. Wind it round and round the plastic ring until the ring is covered, being careful to keep the wires spaced evenly. When you reach the end of the ring place a tiny amount of tacky glue on the last bit of exposed plastic and glue the cord in place. DO NOT cut the cord.

Pull it toward the horn part of the cornucopia frame and start weaving in and out of the wire frame.

Cornucopia tutorial 2

As you work your way around, pull the cord a bit tighter so that it begins to pull the wires into the horn shape. Weave for approximately half an inch then twist the wires together at the end and trim to the length you want your cornucopia to
be.
Now cover the “tail” with tacky glue and wrap the cord around to cover the wires. Trim at the end and hold the cord in place until the glue sets.
Now you have a mini cornucopia ready to fill with harvest goodies.

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Please help me welcome Maite of Miniaturista and the Invisible Disabilities Advocates.

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Welcome Casita Mini. This blog is done by a group of people.

I think it's really finished!

De's Diner is a busy place today. An elderly gentleman is enjoying his lunch in booth one. A group of teens has claimed booth two. One of them is at the jukebox and one of the girls is off to the restroom. There's a cute little girl spinning the stool at the counter instead of eating her icecream. Hmm, wonder where her parents are?

I don't remember who pointed out that I'd forgotten the tank for my soda fountain but that's now installed, too.

De's looks like a great place to get a good meal and visit with friends. Anyone want to join me for lunch?

Come on in!

Please welcome Muriel. She has some beautiful dolls and other minis on her blog, Le Coffre d'Emilie.

The Diner's population is growing

I'm making the people for the diner as inspiration hits. This is the boyfriend for the girl sitting at the end booth. He's got a nickel in his hand ready to put in the jukebox.

I experimented with making a plaid pattern with the clay for his shirt. It ended up looking more like a 70s disco shirt, lol. A coat of navy paint over the print toned it down and made it look more like the subtle plaid I was hoping for.
I want to make a little girl eating the ice cream sundae at the counter and an adult, don't know whether it will be male or female, at the other booth.

This week is Invisible Illness Awareness Week. Many of you daily face the challenges caused by chronic illness. When that illness is not obvious to the outside world the challenges are increased. Find out more about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and the 5-day free virtual conference with 20 speakers Sept 14-18, 2009 at www.invisibleillness.com

Well at least I was productive

It's half time of my Green Bay football game but the lovely digital TV is out more than in. My team is winning but I haven't seen much of the game. To distract myself I played with some polymer clay. I've been asked to teach some ladies how to make some floral pins next month so I needed to figure out what I want to do. I made several options and I may have a couple of options for them to choose from. I'll use the pasta machine for the real thing so the clay will be blended without obvious lines. I was working on a tray in my lap tonight so just used a roller. I also made some mini dishes with some of the scraps.

The last photo is my son with a large chunk of ice from the chest freezer. He wanted steak yesterday but couldn't get the freezer baskets out to look under them. He decided to take care of that problem - and earned some cash from his dad for his initiative, lol.

Football - a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!

I love football. It's the only professional sport I have any desire to watch but hubby and I spend many Sunday afternoons cuddled on the couch watching our favorite teams - Green Bay and Indianapolis. Indy already won and the Packers play in an hour.

I hope everyone is enjoying a fun filled Sunday. "See" you tomorrow!

Welcome!

Come on in, Deni, and join the party! You can see Deni's miniatures at Deni's Dollhouse Mania. It's getting busy in here. I hope Harriet has cooked up something yummy to share with you all. :-)

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Please welcome Nikki of Witch and Wizard Miniatures
She has several other blogs but you can follow the links on the first. Thank you, Nikki, for stopping by!

Harriet remembers...do you?

In memory of all who lost their lives eight years ago.

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Please help me welcome Linda! I couldn't find any blog information for her -if you have a link you want me to post, Linda, please let me know!

Linda is my 84th follower. Wow! Thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy lives to stop in here. I appreciate you all so much!

A makeover story

After she saw that last photo, Kate had some questions about makeup. Obviously, she needed some help choosing the right colors. We found a soft, peachy lipstick that looks great on her. We talked about keeping the dark colors to nail polish.

She also had to have some hip surgery but she's already feeling much better.

And now it's nearly one in the morning and Kate and I both need to get some sleep. Good night all!

She got bored

Well, Kate had a lovely dinner with her boyfriend but after he left she got bored and decided to join me at the computer. She pulled up her own office chair and posed for a close-up photo. We were also watching Project Runway. I guess she got a mini model attitude, lol.

Say hello to Kate

I had kind of a rough day so I decided to make a doll just for me. I've been wanting someone to live in Magnolia Way. I knew that I wanted a woman in her mid to late twenties. I have been better at sculpting character dolls in the past. Today Kate's face seemed to flow out from my mind onto the clay. It was a real blessing after the day I'd had. She's by far the prettiest face I've sculpted.

She's dressed up because she's having her boyfriend over for a homemade spaghetti dinner. The wine is ready to serve, the salad is on the table, the bread is ready to slice and she's just put the spaghetti into the serving bowl.

She's wearing a patterned wrap dress and bronze flats. I will try to get a better photo tomorrow.

Welcome!

Please help me welcome Teresa. Teresa's blog, Too Many Heartbeats, is about her daily struggles with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. That's the same disorder that two of my children have. Teresa is not a miniaturist...but maybe we can change that. :-)

Yo Ho Yo Ho...A Pirate's Life for Me

Here is how I used my last skeleton. If you look closely you can see his large gold earring and two gold teeth. He's holding a rifle in his right hand and a beer stein in his left. His parrot, Jack, sits on his shoulder. The parrot is an oversized resin bird repainted in parrot-like colors. You kind of have to use your imagination to see "parrot" but, hey, don't you have to use your imagination to see a skeleton as a pirate? :-)

I didn't have any striped fabric that was just right so I painted the fabric for his shirt. I used the sleeve from one of hubby's worn out undershirts so it's really soft and worn. I'm guessing the pirate is much more comfortable with that piece of rope as a belt than around his neck like it was when I bought him, lol.