The perfect project!!

Ok, I've had an epiphany and only my "mini friends" can truly share my excitement! Couldn't sleep last night and so I was thinking about my Celerity Corner Store building that I bought a few months back. I had planned to do an Irish Pub on the ground floor but just couldn't get fired up about the details. Then it hit me!! The perfect business---a thrift store!!!! Oh, I am so excited to get started!!! Every mini-nut loves the treasures at a resale shop!! Why not make a miniature secondhand store??? Just the ticket, baby!! I have tons of lovely little things of all kinds that could fit right in!! Now, what to call it?? The Treasure Trove? Nifty Thrift?? Anybody have suggestions???

Check out this giveaway!

Hey, kids!  There is a great giveaway over at miniaturepatisseriechef.blogspot.com. Go check it out!  Pei Li has some absolutely lovely tiny treasures!

I have been working on the artist cottage but mostly in my mind. (Ha!)  I did take a whack at a stucco exterior using DAP plaster patch becasue I have read others had used it successfully.  It IS like frosting a cake!  Much thinner than spackle.  Took me a while to get the hang of it but then......What fun!!!  I had a blast getting my hands all crusty and goopy!  I'll try to post some pics later today between loads of laundry!
:)

I stopped by Dollar Tree the other day (don't you just adore that place?) and found a china doll!  She has a sweet face and her toes are pointed so I think I can work with that by making some shoes for her out of clay.  I mean, who wants to walk aroung on tippy-toe all day? Ouch!

I also have "cracked down" on myself to organize my craft room.  I am really bad about stashing stuff in all sorts of places by the kitchen so I can work on mini projects if I get a spare second. My hubs isn't overly happy with this since I already ahve a huge craft room downstairs!!  I see his point...So I have been busily moving all my stashed goodies (there are ALOT) from upstairs to the downstairs room.  And going thru little stashes I find here and there.  So fun tho sort thru my mini goodies!!! I'll take some pics later to show you my progress.  Found a big set of shelves this weekend at a church sale for $5.  Awesome bargain!!  Ok, back to laundrry for a bit!!

Ideas and inspiration abound!

Hello to my lovely followers!!  Hope you had a bit of time for some creativity and dreaming today.  I am excited to finally have a direction for the cabin!  The answer was staring me right in the face all along. Miss Vivian has been needing a place for her twin sister, Vanessa, to live.  Of course she is welcome at the Big House (AKA Lilac Hill) but it really isn't her style.  She lives more of a free-spirited Bohemian lifestyle (She has aqua hair!!).  Very much a creative soul, Vanessa currently is living in a tent in the back yard.  She doesn't mind it really but she has no place for her artwork.  She loves to paint and sculpt, using all kinds of mediums and finding inspiration every where she looks.  So naturally the cabin would be great for her studio!!  It is on the family property, but would allow her complete freedom and privacy to create however and whenever the mood strikes.  Oh yes, I am on to something now!!  The old Merriweather Family hunting cabin shall be made ready for Miss Vanessa! I have already started gutting it.  The top floor will be cut into a sleeping loft in order to let in more natural light (very important to a painter!). I think the outside will be stucco perhaps.....  So much to do!!

I was lucky today to have my friend, Cassie, come over to work on minis with me!  I showed her how I made the baskets we chatted up a storm.  I wish I had a picture to show you of her latest creations.  She is very talented in making detailed miniatures. I have no patience or skill for the tiny accessories, but Cassie real excels at it!  She made some tiny pencils and small packages of sandpaper for a craft shop she's currently building.  So amazing!! So extremely detailed!!  We decided to do some swapping, which we really should have thought of sooner.  Since she likes my red sofa, I'm going to make her a modern chaise lounge piece. In return, I get some of her tiny "craft supplies" for Vanessa's artist studio!  I promise to post pics of everything. :)

Today I finished a rug that I have been working on lately.  I am amazed by those of you out there that do needlework on silk gauze to make those exquisite rugs!  I am just plain toooooo lazy and impatient (bad combo, huh?) to do that myself.  So  I was looking at that burlap the other day after making baskets and had an idea.  I put some on an embroidery hoop and stretched tight and fairly straight.  Took a big blunt end needle and some embriodery floss and set to work "weaving" a line as long as I wanted my throw rug.  Then just turned at the end and went back. Over under over under and so on. When I had enough lines to look the correct width I wanted, I quickly looped around the end edges and snipped off my floos.  Turned it over, still in the hoop, and smeared Elmer's glue all over the back and pretty heavily around the edges.  Once that dried well, I simply cut out the rug and Bingo!  It turned out pretty well for just winging it (which is how I do most things!).  I think I'll unravel a bit o burlap and glue it to the ends for some fringe.  Man, burlap is cheap and proving to be pretty darn useful!!

Livin the mini dream!!

Greetings and salutation, my friends!  I am over the moon excited to have 6 followers!!!  So I bet raise my game and have great entry today!  Well, let's see..... I have recently made a modern type red sofa that doesn't really go in Lilac Hill or any other house I have.  I just have been pondering a sofa for quite some time and I went for it using 1/2 inch formcore.  I loathe cutting the stuff (mostly because I cannot cut straight to save my life!!) but it has a ton o mini uses!  I love the sofa and have been adding to its scene on my shelf the last few days.  Also whipped up some baskets for my porch scene and Lilac Hill (AKA The Big House).  I am in complete and total awe of those able to weave tiny baskets (or anything really) ,such as Casey over at caseymini.blogspot.com (I simply adore her and have read every post in her archives!), but unfortunately I am fairly certain my own attempt to weave anything at all would prove both frustrating and futile. Oh, I'm also a bit lazy. Ok, maybe more than a bit.......

Anyhoo, I chose to make my baskets with a remnant of wooven ribbon (no idea what the actual name is) and some burlap from the fabric bargain bin.  Worked like a charm!  Hooray for mini baskets!!!

Now, I know that I have set out some clear goals for myself for this month so that I can start my giant Celerity Corner Store Kit BUT, think I'll change up my plans a bit. *Woman's Prerogative*  I few months back I attended a Miniature Garage Sale in St Louis. (The heavens parted, angels wept) Loved it!!! Treasure Trove!!!!!  Ok, so in addition to a ton o mini goodies, I bought a small dollhouse house "hunting cabin" for a $20 charitable donation. Score!!!  At the time I had planned to make it a tricked out man cave/fishing cabin as a project to with my hubs.  Thought it might get him interested in miniature musing.  Well, that didn't really go as I envisioned and the cabin was shelved after some bashing.  I brought it out yesterday and I think it will be my focus for awhile. Could be 2 weeks or 2 days, who knows? (And who cares?! Haha) I love the porch beams and they simply must stay. That is the only plan for now. It was thrown together quickly with a hot glue gun by the looks of it so some peeling and patching is in order. Then we shall see where the cottage leads me.........

Watch out-I'm very motivated today!!

Though I have always loved crafts and miniatures of all kinds, the last 6 months they have become almost an obsession.  If I don't get to work on a mini project each day, I at least read about minis on blogs and in old dollhouse magazines.  I am hooked on several mini blogs and today I decided to become an "official follower" and stop being a lurker! I also posted some pics of my recent projects.  I mean, why not?!  While seeing so many fabulous items out there by true miniature artisans is VERY humbling, I am a proud beginner! I love to create and inspiration is literally all around me.  Looking around with a brave spirit and creative eye keeps me young at heart.  This strange wonferful world of tiny treasures has truly given me a new lease on life and terribly needed creative outlet.  I just love it!!!

So what am I up these days?  Well, I'll just tell you..........The half scale house is nearly complete but I got a bit bored so it is resting in the craft room til inspiration strikes.  The poor Merriweather Family has been ever so patient with me and I am so grateful. The Lilac Hill house continues to be under extensive renovations and will likely be for years to come. The tore out the parlor (that I had JUST finished redooing) and went in a completely different direction.  Woman's prerogative and such. Then I demolished the bathroom I had just framed in. Decided I needed to let that property mellowed for a bit and focus elsewhere.  I have a new dollhouse kit just begging to be built but I am making myself do a few smaller things before I dive into another HUGE project. The new building will have a pub on the ground level, a book/gift store on the 2nd level, small apt on the 3rd floor and then a rooftop garden.  It is all detailed in my mind and looks excellent!!!  I made a list of what I must complete BEFORE I even open the box.  The biggest challenge on that "to do" list is to organize my craft room.  Ugh!  I get motivated, head down there and work pretty well for maybe 30 minutes (at best!) then I get sidetracked into a little project.  Ugh, Cara!!!  Ah well, it is my curse and my blessing. ;)

Break from blogging but not creating!

Hello! I have been very lacking on my blog entries but I have been working on plenty of mini things. I have nearly completed a half scale (1/2"=1ft) house that is based on a Sears&Roebuck kit real life "kit" house from yesteryear. I started this because my Littles dolls from my childhood needed a home. I have nearly all of the dolls and furniture from the early 80s. Anyway, I built this basically from a plan out of an old dollhouse magazine (Nutshell News, 1990). The shell is foamcore and all trim is done with craft sticks. The roof shingles are very coarse sandpaper. I still need to finish the lawn and some front shingling but then my Littles can move in!

I also put together an old porch kit and painted it to match my living room. I needed some minis where I can enjoy them daily. (Lilac Hill is to large and heavy to move upstairs so it has to live down in my craft room.) I am still adding to the porch decor and plan to add window treatments. There is also a crabby old man doll in the works to sit in the porch rocker. My hubs has named him Orville. Great name!!