I have not welcomed my new followers in a very long time. Please forgive me. I very much appreciate all who take the time to read my blog and post comments. In fact, I think it's about time for another follower give-away. I will post information about it soon.
I found some printable houses on About.com. Printed without adjustment they are approximately 1:144 scale. I made a few changes with the extra components and added snow and glitter. The evergreen is curled chenille stem. I think these would make adorable tree ornaments.
I also reduced the houses by 40% to make a village for the boarding house mantle. That was a bit of a pain but it looks great now that I'm finished. I also added snow and glitter to these houses.
Here are our real stockings. Hubby and son have snowmen and the girls and I have angels. They are very oversized - about 2 1/2 feet long or so. One year my sisters-in-law and I got together and made stockings for our families. We all did different things but they all turned out really cute. :-)
This is the mini living room with stockings. I used felt to make the actual socks and scrapbook paper for the appliques. I'm having so much fun miniaturizing our special things.
We have some family decorations that are extra special for one reason or another. I am working to miniaturize them for the mini version of my real house. It's always Christmas in that dollhouse but for some reason I never thought to make minis of some of our things. The boot was my childhood stocking for almost as long as I can remember. My mom found large pressed cardboard Santa boots and we got to choose pictures from old Christmas cards for her to decoupage on to them. Mine has elves, Santas and snowmen. My sister's has pink fur and lots of glittery angels. The older of my two brothers has always been a history buff so his boot has a patriotic theme. My baby brother was too young to choose so his is red with a big Santa on it. They have held up remarkably well. I now use it to hold the pieces for the advent banner hanging above it. My mom and I made the banner for my kids. The very last thing to go on it is baby Jesus on Christmas morning. These days I'm the one putting the pieces on each day, lol.
Here are both items in mini. It's Christmas Eve in the dollhouse so everything but the baby has been put up. (Although after I took the picture I noticed that one of the angels was still in the boot - oh, well.) I also had to draw in the "R" because the pink didn't photograph well. The banner was always hung low when the children were young so that they could reach it. In the dollhouse the children are 5, 3, and 8 months old.
Tonight was my husband's "Holiday Party." I still call it the Christmas party. Anyway, for the second year they had a photo booth. Here are this year's photos. I love the middle one.
All of the reindeer got a makeover today to match Rudolph a bit better. I like the darker color. I also painted the sleigh runners and trim. Once Red gets those reindeer hitched to the sleigh Santa is ready to go.
In the mini version of my real home, my young daughters share a bedroom. They never have in real life and rather than choose one of their real rooms over the other as inspiration I just made a generic girls' room. Over the years the fabric I used for the bedspreads has faded and I was recently thinking I should at least make mini versions of the real comforters they had at those ages.
To keep things cohesive I used the same ribbon for dust ruffles and pillows for both. My oldest was five in 1993 and she had a Little Mermaid themed room. My middle was three and had a Sesame Street theme. They are now 23 and 21 so I couldn't find photos of their actual comforters online. Instead I used a card program and graphics from online to make approximate representations of theirs. I am quite happy with the results.
Here are the beds in the room complete with toys, books, and various little girl stuff. (Sorry for the blurry photo. It's really hard to get to the third floor of this house. Even my tall son had trouble getting a good picture, lol.)
I got everything home from the library yesterday. I loaded it into the car in heavy rain, unloaded it into the house in freezing drizzle, and by last night we got several inches of wet, heavy snow. School was canceled today.
I added a few new things for the library display - Three more reindeer + Rudolph and a large tree. It looks like Red is busy harnessing everyone to the sleigh. Rudy is using skis to deliver the last minute mail.
When I bought Rudolph I also bought the snowman "played" by Burl Ives. He's enjoying his cocoa near the gazebo.
After loading the car yesterday I rewarded myself with a quick trip to my favorite resale shop. I bought several vintage glass ornaments and a "new" Santa for my collection. The second one from the left looks just like one my mom had when I was young so I had to get him. The third Santa from the right was made by my MIL before hubby and I were married. That makes him over 30 years old! I guess he's vintage now, too, lol. The Santa on the far right and the two egg shaped ones were made by my mom. I have other Santas scattered throughout the house but these are the larger ones.
We traditionally decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. We usually have 2 trees. One is upstairs in the master bedroom - that's our "big" tree with all of our family ornaments. We have our Christmas morning gift opening in our room EARLY in the morning. My kids are all young adults but they still get excited about Christmas. :) This is the downstairs tree. (It's the first year in a while that I've been able to put up a full sized one with all the pets.) This tree usually has some sort of theme based on ornaments we already have. I love vintage glass ornaments and I've collected a few vintage ones and more reproduction ones. The tree this year is all of those ornaments. The bottom few are all nonbreakable in case the pets bump them but the rest are glass. The lights are red as are many of the ornaments. I love how it turned out!
A new collection this year is this little Christmas village. My mother-in-law has a beautiful collection of larger buildings that she sets up each year - and everyone in the family has contributed to it at some time or other. I don't have that much space but when I saw a few smaller houses at Goodwill I was excited. All of these have been collected from various thrift stores in the last month or so. A few people and trees came with the first Goodwill purchase and I found a few more people at Walmart and trees at JoAnn's. I think it looks great under the tree. It has the added bonus of keeping the cat out as there's no good place for her to lie down. ;-)
The online group I belong to, Small World, has a swap every month or so for most of the year. The last swap had a Tudor theme. Look at all the beautiful things I now have to display in my castle. I think I'm going to have to start that castle expansion project soon.
I made mandolins and "pewter" goblets for everyone.
Well, I think we've discovered Wanda's vice - she appears to love hats. (The two new ones on the hutch came from the Round Robin swap box but I think they were made by Sandy Copeland. She also made the other two.)
Wanda has been stocking up on potions. She now has a good selection of ingredients on her top shelf. Maybe she can figure out how to get back to her usual color instead of the green, lol. She now has a friendly spider, too. He's been happily spinning webs all over the kitchen. He even made a "lovely" curtain for the window.
Wanda got a new mama cat after one of my thrift store visits. The kitten is on the windowsill.
But I do have photos of my daughter's new cat, Blue. Isn't he a handsome cat? He's also a busy one. My daughter lives in a small studio apartment and I had to go help her "cat proof" by hanging plants and moving trash cans, etc.
I also bought him a nylon "cat cube" which has been a hit with Blue, as you can see. :)
In the round robin swap I do with friends I found a silver colored metal gazebo. I painted it green, added snow, icicles, Christmas decorations and a tree and now it's ready for Santa's yard. The Santa house is going to the children's section of the library tomorrow and the gazebo is a nice addition. It was also a nice quick project for the day.
I found instructions for this little mop dog in an old NAME magazine. It's supposed to be made with cotton welting but I had polyester cord on hand. She turned out really cute.
Before I got my Easy Cutter I used my miter box and saw all the time. These look just like my real ones - and are a lot easier to make than a mini Easy Cutter, lol.
I've posted photos of the cornucopia room I made for myself but this one was made for my mother-in-law. I also made one for my mom but forgot to take pictures before I gave it to her. For both of theirs I found cornucopias with an extended front. That enabled me to put chairs at the table which I didn't have room to do in mine. Dinner is a traditional Thanksgiving meal - turkey with stuffing, sweet potatoes, tossed salad, mashed potatoes, jello, pumpkin pie, green beans and cranberry sauce.
I didn't make the rug or the jello (jello by Gaye of My Small Obsession) and the photo over the buffet was taken by my friend, Tina.
I added another dollhouse to the top of the cabinet and there's a kit on the floor next to it. Leaning up against the wood bin is a steel yardstick. I had a gray yardstick printie that I glued onto a flat strip of metal hubby saved for me. I've got no idea what it came from but it worked perfectly.
I made 2 years worth of American Miniaturist magazines and filled the shelf. Now it looks more like my real book shelf. :) I also made a spool holder filled with mini spools of thread over the sewing machine.
My homemade ceiling light is clunky but it works. I used a battery powered tea light and replaced the plastic candle flame with a clear Christmas ornament globe. Since the switch is on the bottom of the tea light I had to suspend it low enough to be able to reach the switch. The chains worked well. The top of the left hand cabinet displays a tiny dollhouse complete with landscaping.
I made a tomato pin cushion and used craft foam to make more blocks of "polymer clay." I filled a small clear box with unopened blocks of clay and a second is filled with scraps. I also added an iron and ironing board to the room. The basket on top of the shelf is filled with multi colored cording for rugs. There are more books on the shelf, too.
Take-out coffee and a chocolate bar - now we're really ready for a marathon mini session.
These things were made by Brenda. The travel trailer kit is amazing!
These were made by Gaye (My Small Obsession.) Do you suppose Michael's would honor the tiny little coupon? I love the polymer clay on the tile.
Rosie even included a chocolate bar for sustenance during those marathon mini sessions. The craft knife has a tiny little blade. It's perfect.
This is what I made. The Dremel tool is modeled after mine.
The sewing machine was made from bits of wood, jump rings, beads, and thin metal sheeting. The shelf was made from parts of two hutches. I made the chairs and worktables. I love the fabric I used for the chairs and curtains.
This is the whole room.
There are two mini projects in progress, lots of paint bottles in the cabinet, a bin of wood scraps. The cabinet under the window holds polymer clay. The windowsill holds a plant and a jar of buttons.
The cabinet on this side has bolts of fabric, embroidery and knitting supplies, mini magazines and books, pens and a pad of paper. The sewing machine is threaded and ready.
...but the library display is set up. This case is next to the front desk and you have to pass it to get to the books. The magazine in the front left of the case is an American Miniaturist article featuring some of my "unusual container" projects. The Potting Shed is a garden center in a watering can. Next is De's Diner in a vintage tin bread box. The argyle box is a vintage hat box - it holds Zegelien's store for ladies set in the 1940s. The vanity case holds a bride's bedroom on her wedding day.
Banner announcing National Dollhouse and Miniatures Month, the pioneer log cabin, and A Rose Among Thorns western saloon.
The castle is sitting on a low bookcase but it has a plexiglass front so is safe from little hands. The castle is the only thing that required repair work. One of the turrets broke off and the front door came loose. Nothing I couldn't repair with my emergency kit.
The big wall display case is filled with a few houses and several rooms. I took the very first house I ever did, 2 half scale houses and a quarter scale Victorian. The general store and NYC loft apartment are on the top right shelf.
This side has the back porch, beach cottage and several rooms. I took 2 trash to treasure type rooms with lists of miscellaneous items I used for sort of an interactive activity.
