Friday, December 31, 2010

31 Days of Etsy...Stolen, uh, borrowed from Ann

My friend Ann had a wonderful idea to create 31 one new things for her etsy shop in January. See the details here: 31 Days of Etsy Challenge! I have decided to do the same! I already have several ideas lined up, although, most will be mini paintings. I will also have a sale at some point using a coupon (good only for my blog readers!)

I can't wait to get started on it! Look for the first item sometime tomorrow.

Happy New Year to all of you. May the coming year bring lots of love, happiness, prosperity and of course, MINIS!!!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Fun with the camera

I just wanted to share some fun shots I got with the camera. I was trying to figure out the settings so I could get as good as pictures as Ann and Brae.

Hope you enjoy some of the finer details of the house. :) And the mess I made of the little kitchen hehehe :)









Welcome and a Welcome Move!

First of all, welcome to my new followers: Klara, JFolke and beatrice. Glad to have you here, reading along with the ramblings of my adventures!

There wasn't any particular work on mini's today, but I got my OWN ROOM!!!! Wahoo! So cool and I love it. I just thought I would share it with you. =)


This is our back porch/Florida room. It is completely glassed in, so it can be heated and cooled after I get the landlord to put stripping on the door. The desk is on casters and can be wheeled about. When I get it cleaned off, it will be my actual work table.

The dresser holds printies, flooring, fabric, furniture, *stuff* to make stuff and various other small projects that have nothing to do with mini's. On top of the dresser is the cottage and several spaghetti sauce jars that hold brushes, pens, scissors and such.

The shelf to the right of that has lace on top and a bin full of WTF's. Within the shelving is materials for scrap booking, crayons, markers, pencils and chalks... several mini magazines, broken down cereal boxes and two tubs of doors/windows and *stuff* for the dollhouses.

Shelf to the right of that has thread, inks, stickers, scrap wood, paints and stains, Dremel, sander, Dremel Trio, sandpaper and gooey things in cans.

The white dresser is home to several more mini supplies and the Highland.








The Highland! It needs some minor repairs after the trek across the house. :/ Annoying.


Hopefully, I will get to post soon about mini makings from this fab area.

One last thing: Just before Christmas, Brae sent me some great little Christmas things (presents, paper and cards) but I never did get them set up. Look for them next year along with lots of decor! For now, you will get them just by themselves....



Happy New Year to you all!!

♫ A very merry un-Christmas...wait. A very MERRY Christmas! ♫

Happy early New Year, friends! I trust that everyone had an amazing Christmas day. =) Ours was fabulous! We were completely spoiled by the family this year and it was the first year that Cayce really understood what was going on.

Christmas Eve was spent with my parents. We had dinner and then I took them to see Christmas lights around Gainesville. We went to a house about 30 minutes away that has thousands of lights and you can get out and walk around them. We go every year and it is one of my favorite things at Christmas time. It was cold this year, so we were bundled up and had hot cocoa in a thermos.







When we got back home, the boys each opened a gift. They were supposed to be pajamas but I mislabled a package and Charlie opened his blanket instead. Oops! Then Cayce left out cookies and milk for Santa, along with a note. And he left carrots for Rudolph. I am kicking myself now that I didn't take a picture of that!!! Rawrg!




The next morning, what a surprise at all the gifts that Santa had brought!





There were many fabulous gifts given and received. Cayce loved his firestation (it's Charlie's too). My parents loved the bar and chairs I did (the projects I could not mention.) My sister got a lamp that I made and a bunch of framed photos from me, as well as a giant book of Italy.

The boy children got lots and lots of toys and books, which is to be expected. Some of my favorite gifts were a Dremel Trio, a Cricut Expressions machine, a waffle maker and final permission to plan a wedding for next year (ring is still pending since James and I never do anything in a traditional sense.) It was all in all a very great day full of laughter and joy, just as it should be.










And this is how I reacted to opening this gift. I am spinning on my butt like a top because I show little to no restraint when I am excited. =)


I would say I was happy!!!



After gifts were done here at my house, we all threw on our shoes, still in our Christmas jammies, and went onto James' parents house. This is where I got my Dremel Trio and James got an awesome shop vac. Such a pair we are!!!

His dad loved the library and I'm pretty sure it drew some tears. =) I have no pictures of this though since I was a dolt and forgot my camera. *sigh* We had yummy fat dinner whilst we were there and enjoyed playing with the kids and their new toys. The night was rounded off by one more trip around town to see the ligths. The boys had such a good time that they were both zonked out by 7pm!

Now, a few days later, all is cleaned up and packed away until next year. Cayce has already started his birthday/Christmas list for the next round. =)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Twain, Dickens and Sheen? Oh my!

Late last night, I finally finished the library that I was working on for James' dad for Christmas. I have to say, I quite love it! It is full of all sorts of personal items that make it that make it so special. I originally got the idea to make it when his dad gave me this big roll of red vinyl pleather. It instantly reminded me of those big, squishy, aged arm chairs that you see in a man cave or study. The kind that a stately man would sit in a puff away on a cigar or pipe. The idea to make him a library came flooding in and I could hardly wait to get home and sketch up the plans!

Everything that was chosen to be placed around the room was centered not only around things that this man likes, but to also compliment the chair.



The art on the wall reflects the delicate, refined taste that he has in art. There are several pieces similar to this one hung throughout his business establishment.

The map on the wall and the ones on the shelf are there because he has a deep passion for all things historical. The older, the better. I printed the maps off of Jim's site and roughed them up a bit. They have been curled, wrinkled, dirtied, sandpapered and burned in spots to give them age.





The movie poster (printed from allposter.com) is of his favorite movie, Groundhog Day.

Remember to click on all the pictures to see more detail!

You will always find a blanket in his chairs. Man constantly thinks he is cold!

On the laptop (also a printie from Jim's) is a screen-shot of his favorite computer game.





He loves old books, so I tried to make all the book printies, most of which have individual pages in them, out of the older looking leather bindings. A few are of newer books, because he reads those, too.

A poinsettia for Christmas cheer, along with candy canes on the other end.



















The TV features a scene from "Two and a Half Men," one of his favorite TV shows. There are boardgames below because he likes to pass the time with them. The Porche to the right is in tribute to his relationship with his son. While, on the top right shelf, there is a framed picture of his grandsons. They are so cute!

I am really excited to give this to him and to share it with you now. Nearly everything in here is hand made. Scavenged out of my drawer items include: the TV, clock, chest of drawers, coke, baubles and statues, the car. Everything else, down to the room, was made by my own two hands!

Hope you enjoyed looking at it! Happy holidays to you all if I don't post again before Christmas! :)

Monday, November 29, 2010

♫ Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....♪


you really are so tiny! ♫

While I was at the show this weekend, I worked on several things and had nice chats with some awfully nice crafters next to us. They were so sweet and the guy even passed on tips to me getting a booth next year. :)

So, I made a tree. My very first one and someone talked to me about me making one for his daughter's dollhouse.



It took me a bit of time to get all the little lycopodium branches in there, but I love how it looks. Thank you to Casey and Tessie for showing me, and lots of other followers, how on their blog.

I also made a heap of books! These are all for the library I am doing for DHF for Christmas. Several have individual pieces of paper and a few are just foam core.

A thank you to Angioletta and her website for all the great book printies that she provides. http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/USIM4531/mycustompage0009.htm
Some of them are also from Jim's Printables.

The rest of my time was spent working on a blanket for Charlie for Christmas and emptying my pockets of money. :)

I got myself a couple of bookmarks, a DIY scrapbook that I am going to add pages to and use on my trip home next year (pssst, Brae, I may be in Chicago at the end of June!) and some fabulous ornament earrings.

I also got two gifts for James' mom and another for his grandma. They are cute. There really was a lot of great stuff at this show!




Oh, and there was a guy making mini-flowers, but I don't have pictures of those ones because they are with DHM.


And one final thing, a friend of mine got these fabulous shoes and handbag a while back from a fellow mini blogger, and she is doing a giveaway!!! Go to her blog to enter for a chance to win the cutest tiny shoes you ever did see. If there were a mini Carrie Bradshaw running around, she would be all over this!