Day Tripping...

I am officially on Spring Break from school. Hubby took the week off, too. We're hoping to get the garden ready and I plan to tackle the disaster area aka as the sewing room. But tomorrow we're going to take the day to explore Frankenmuth, Michigan. I was there once with friends but DH has never been. When I was there before I didn't get to go to Rau's Country Store - where they have a dollhouse and miniatures section - but I am looking forward to going tomorrow! I will post pics of any mini finds.

We had a wonderful Easter. Worship services this morning and a large family dinner after. Just enjoying a quiet evening at home tonight. Wishing you all a great week!

Life

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. We've been doing several organizing projects at home and I've been working a few extra hours at the elementary school. I enjoy those things but they do take time away from minis. My hobby, blog and zibbet shop are suffering. Summer break is coming, though. I hope to have lots of time to work on mini projects. The garden takes up a lot of time but early in the summer I won't be canning. Fingers crossed that I will find the time!

Wishing all who celebrate a blessed Easter!

Another birthday

Today is daughter #2's birthday. She is 23. She graduated from my alma mater in May and now works as a toddler teacher at our church child care center. I'm very proud of her. She's currently living at home so she can pay down her student loans. She has a wonderful work ethic and she loves the children she teaches. I'm so very happy to be her mom. :) This photo is one of my all time favorites of K. It's a high school graduation picture taken by her best friend.

Where did the years go?

My oldest child turns 25 tomorrow. We dropped her off at O'Hare airport today for a flight to Germany and then Bulgaria for a mission trip. She returns a week from tomorrow. I am so proud of the young woman she's become, even though in my heart she will always be the baby I brought home from the hospital. Here she is as a toddler with her very young mama. The other photo is from several years ago when she studied in London for the summer.

What to do with an empty printers box

Why look on  pinterest, of course! I knew I didn't just want to put random minis in it like some do. I think that those look really nice but it wasn't what I was thinking for mine. The problem was I didn't know exactly what I was thinking, lol. I spent some time on pinterest this afternoon and got inspired. This is what I came up with. The top two baby pictures are of DH and me. The other three are our children. There's a current family photo in the top right box along with a foam letter T for our last initial. Each of the other boxes represents one or more of my family members or our whole family. This was so much fun to put together. I raided the scrapbook supplies, the mini drawers, a couple of junk drawers, toy boxes, and some random crafting supplies. The sticker at the top is Hebrews 11:1,"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The bottom sticker says "Delight in the little things." A  perfect play on the blog name and my love of minis. :)

Just a bit of fine tuning

 I think this really is the final exterior update. I added icicles and some Christmas decorations as well as a house number.

 James is holding an unpainted metal airplane. He has red and green paint ready to go. (Paint cans are made from moisture absorbing canisters found in pill bottles.)

The dollhouse area looks like someone is working now. The house has windows and partial wallpaper and flooring. The roof shingling is in progress. Extra wallpaper is rolled up and stored in the bucket on the floor. It looks so much better now that it looks like work is being done.

Updates...'cause you all know I can't be done the first time

 Usually, after I "finish" a project I let it sit out where I can see it frequently. It's during this time that I make lots of adjustments, until it's just the way I want it...for now, anyway, lol. Last night I decided I didn't like the rough surface of the painted ceilings upstairs so I wallpapered. That had the added bonus of covering all the rough edges around the dormer. It all looks so much nicer now.

 I organized all the toys and was able to fit the last of the ones I had saved. I had some fun with the blocks. They would be really large stacking blocks for children but we'll pretend they are made of foam so the little ones won't be hurt when their towers topple over. ;)

 Poor Moe looks a little overwhelmed by his list in the storage room.

I also added snow to the roof like Santa's house has. Now the workshop looks like it could be in the North Pole, too.

Well, I am off to work. Have a great day, everyone!