♫ 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!

The fine eye candy of Jeremy Paul

I hope all my American friends had a fabulous Thanksgiving Day. Did you score some good deals on Black Friday?!

I had the extreme pleasure to help Jeremy out with his booth at the Gainesville Craft Festival this weekend. Never have I seen such fine miniature work in person. It is awe inspiring to see his houses towering over you. His scratch built tudor stands at 5'3" and is nearly 6' long!! Here is a quick rundown before I leave you to your drool:

• The Victorian Mansion you will see is modeled detail for detail after a house here in Gainesville, Florida, known as the Sweetwater Branch Inn. It is a gorgeous B&B.
• It was Jeremy's first attempt at building a house.
• It is entirely scratch built and he uses cut to scale basswoood and real kiln fired bricks.
• He has been working on it for 6 years and is not finished yet!
• Each fire place has burned a real fire in it for 15 minutes at one point!
  

• The Tudor is built from a sketch of his own design.
  
• It has over 30,000 bricks; each of which he hand laid and mortared.
  
• The parquet floor is also his first attempt and took him 4 months to complete.
• The full basement features a hidden wine cellar with a movable door.
• The wine cellar also features a hidden passage up to the library. An actual full on staircase!!
  
• There are also cellar doors.
• The flagstone driveway was hand carved into wood.
• The carriage house features two doors and a swing out wall. It also has exposed pipe work, framework and electric.
• Each color is a separate tiny piece and there are 2,000 of them, if I am not mistaken.
  

Gaze on at the beauty and poke the photos to see them bigger!


THE VICTORIAN

















THE TUDOR




















Thank you again, to Jeremy for inviting me along with him. I had a great time. Look for another post about my fun purchases and creations!

Gobble, Gobble!!!!

After a fabulous Thanksgiving Day, there was no shopping for me today. I can't deal with that craziness. Instead, I am hanging with the kids and thinking about baking even though it is warm. I know it doesn't snow here in FL, but it could at least by COOL so I could enjoy the holiday season properly.

I miss snow.

Welcome to wenlaine, Marta y Carla and Stephaniejo. Glad to have you following along in my sane craziness. =)

I have some more work done on the firehouse. I brought all the spray paint inside and let Cayce pick colors for the inside. Should be fun for him to see on Christmas morning! I used the ivory for the bottom and the loft area, serious and peaceful. The sunshine yellow he chose is in the entertainment area for the fire fighters. And the storage area in the top left is celery green. =) I still need to paint it on the outside, re cut the hole for the pole and put up some trim. Also need to paint the window trim on the inside.

We haven't decided quite yet if we want to put a door on it or not. That would be fine for Cayce, but I am concerned about Charlie trying to pinch his fingers off... we may just wait on that until he is a bit older.

Here's where we are so far:
The overspray there on the bottom will go away when we put some trim in. We were thinking of using out of scale wood (the whole staition is out of scale at this point) that way it could double as benches and shelving around the floor.

The ridge is still there on the bottom, but *fingers crossed* if I get a Trio or Max Power for Christmas, I will whack it off first chance I get. =)


An inside that a 3 year old will love! The second floor is the wood grain vinyl tile from Home Depot. The third floor is luaun plywood that has been stained. The first floor is painted with flat gray primer to look like cement.


The hole for the fire pole is drawn on there.... just need to get up and go cut it out. I will try to squeeze in some painting today.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Another commission down and I'm still covered in dust!

The other night, I got a bunch of sanding done on the fire station and I added in the two upper floors and pole. The upper floor on the left will be for storage and the one on the right will be a loft area sporting a bed or two. Middle floor entertainment area should be fun to do, but I have to keep in mind how young my children are!!!

Here is what we got so far:

I also finished up the other commission painting I was working on. It took me a little bit of time, but I pounded the rest of it out VERY late last night when I couldn't sleep. The buyer is quite happy with the results, which makes me over the moon. I like to do a good job. :)


On a side note, I tried to send a USPS Priority Mail Box (flat rate shipping, up to 4lbs) from the UPS store and they wanted to charge me $8.25 to send it!!! It's only supposed to cost $4.95. It will just have to wait until Monday. >=/

50 posts? Woot! Sawdust, what a bummer.

Hooray for 50 posts! I should do a giveaway! Hmmm.... I'll see the kind of feedback I get on that idea and then we will see about it. :)

I recently finished a project and started a few more. I finished the first project for a friend. Her son loves Cars and she wanted the characters for her room.

I am currently working on another commission for an old friend from high school. It is for her fiancees parents' anniversary. That one is taking a bit longer, but I am really enjoying it.

Tonight, James and I started on the fire station we are doing for the boys for Christmas. It's going to be a lot of work, but I think we can get it all done before the holiday next week. Here's hoping!

I rock the safety gear!


Working hard, but forgot to take an "after" shot. I'll do a before next time. :)




I still have a few other fabulous things to do... two large projects for my parents. Can't go into detail though, my mom frequents the blog. ;) Have a Christmas village to do for DHM. A library room box for DHF. Another unmentionable creation for my sister, whom also frequents the blog. Blanket for Charlie, which I will work on on Saturday/Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Which, speaking of! I will be second chairing with Jeremy Paul at the Craft Festival here in Gainesville. He does AMAZING scratch built houses. And I mean AMAZING. To die for work. You can see his website here (click the link) and you can see his miniature work at the Greenleaf Forum galleries here (click the link, but get a bucket and a towel first!). I get to see the MacKensie House and the Tudor. :)))))) I will probably spend the first few hours gaping at his work. I am ecstatic to be seeing his creations in person! There will be a post about it. Promise. And pictures by the tons!!