Modern Scene at Midnight.. well, nearly.

I was talking with Brae yesterday, and in our conversation, she mentioned entering a Modern Mini Scene contest over at minismodernas.  This turned into showing pictures and later some egging to enter myself.  So, after much hunting and pecking through my stash, I came up with a scene tonight.  I am sure, Brae's was much more effortless than mine.  Ha!  I went through about twenty choices for the paper and flooring before settling on the carpet from Houseworks and the walls are scrapbook paper (Reflections brand).

Then I had to decide what furniture to use- I settled on a couch from Pepper over at Mitchy Moo Miniatures.  I won this (and an extra) from her last year in a giveaway.  I swapped her pillows out for pillows of my own.  The sofa table is from the Dollar Tree and I threw some glossy black Krylon spray paint on it.  The lamp was made by me and the leaf dish is a random mini from my stash.

That fabulous fireplace was a gift from Brae for my birthday.  The books are all made by me.  The collection features some classics like Alice in Wonderland and Catch 22, along with some newer books, such as the Twilight Saga and a few Nicholas Sparks books.

The pansies are from a Bonnie Lavish kit and the vase is unknown.  The Monopoly dog is borrowed from my son's game.  =)  The other mini's on the fireplace are from my random collection.  The artwork on the wall is my own.  The three panel painting is on watercolor paper, framed and glassed.  The large art is actually a print of my life size work.  My husband suggested it as a mural type thing.  =)

 Hope you enjoyed!

Newest Creations and a Finished Puzzle

After all the hard work to get everything together, I did get some time in the Mom Cave and I managed to get some paintings done and finish up a puzzle house (that still needs to be listed.)

When I finished a commission last month, I dumped a lot of that money into art supplies.  I bought face paint for the new business; supplies for my _________ that I am building for the HBS contest and an EZ Cutter. Holy!  How have I been getting by without one of those things?!?! What a FABULOUS tool!  I used it a lot to make frames for the paintings I did.  :)  Again, amAAAAzing!

So, here are the paintings I managed to get out:

I love them all, but the chateau with the sunflowers is my personal favorite.  :)

And then I finished up the puzzle house that James' mom got for me ages ago:

All of this was done on my very lovely, very aLONEly, Mother's Day.  :D  And here was my haul from that.

Oh, and I posted in rapid succession, so in case you missed the first two The New Mom Cave and Personalizing Space

The New Mom Cave

ONe of the most exciting things about this new house is the MOM CAVE that's downstairs.  Actually, the whole downstairs is pretty fantastical.  James has an oversized two car garage, just for him, with a storage room/wash room off of that.  It's completely out of his way-which is great for both of us.  The laundry isn't in his way, and he isn't using my top loader washing machine as a work space!  Plus, there is more than enough room for all our holiday crapilap and the various sundry things that you need in/for your house but don't need cluttering up valuable closet space.  :)  But never mind all that, because what I am so eager to tell you about, is the nearly 400 square feet of air conditioned real estate that is MINE!  *insert maniacal laugh here*

Feast your eyes upon THIS my friends:

 Yes, there really is all that left over space in there.  :)  And, whenever I muster up the energy to get the last piece of furniture in there, it will look neater, too.  I have a big wardrobe looking thing that will hold all the scrapwood, boxes of furniture and loose canvas.  So nice!  I might make James move it in there tomorrow night so the house is looking so fresh and so clean, clean, for our guests on Sunday.

 The dressers here still need to be gone through in a ridiculous way.  There is no organization to them at all-and if anyone cleans them for me, I will be so screwed.....  right now, even through the craziness, I know which drawer(s) all my clay is in and flower making materials; floor materials, extra mini furniture...etc.  I am very fond of the paint shelf though.  All the colors are right there for you to see!

 The Highland will be going to a new home at the end of the summer.  I, somewhere down the line, fell out of love with it. But, do not despair!  The young girl (12) that is getting it, adores it and I think it will be quite happy there.  I will give the house a very thorough sprucing before I send it off, too.  The shelf that it sits on holds all those art supplies that I cannot NOT be an OCD helicopter mom with the boys.... :)  Generally speaking, it's the paint and glitter and projects that require stronger glues.

 That wee pile in the corner there, is the stuff that I don't want to mess with right now.  I deals with it laters.  This room doubles as our guest room, so I am certain, that it will sit there until we have some needy guests, since that's the corner the bed goes in.  :)

I hope that you are not TOO jealous and put off by my new room.  It really is quite fabulous.  And I am sure it will be more so once I work out all the kinks and get some entertainment and a nice chair in there.  :)  Now, off to create!  (Actually, I already did that, and have a post to share those, too!)  Until then!

Personalizing Space

When I am doing things in my dollhouses, a lot of the things I choose are decorating styles that I would like to use in my own home.  Since we moved this month, I finally have the chance to start doing some of those things, and it feels great.  One thing I have wanted to do for years, is have personalized rooms for my kids. Neither one of them got the super cute, done up, babied out nursery.  I really wanted them to have a room that just shouted, "I AM A KID!"  In this new place, I got to do it twice.  Once in their bedroom and again in their playroom.  And, a super cute kid bathroom!  Because I want them to enjoy it in the end, I let them pick the themes.  So the bathroom got Toy Story; the bedroom, Outer Space; and the play room got Dinosaurs-specifically, Land Before Time.
Cayce chose the color for the bathroom- Oriental Mandarin Orange and picked out the decals for the bathroom.  Here is what we ended up with:

The bathroom before, very bland and taupe

Ta DA!

Not pictured are the book rack, toy basket and the blue waste basket that we put an alien decal on to make it match.  We will also be getting the alien shaped bath rug.  :)

Their bedroom got some wall murals, a dark blue with glowing star ceiling and a Buzz Lightyear decal.  My son informed me that it was okay, because he is from space.  Duh.  And here is the room:

The playroom got the dinosaurs from the past two dinosaur birthday parties.  I also have tree stars to attach to the ceiling, but I haven't done that yet....

One of the last things I put together for the kids was an art corner.  Everything that I would be okay with them using without my hovering around like an OCD helicopter....

I painted this quote on the wall: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."  Albert Einstein.
I agree with this whole heartedly and make sure to stretch my kids brains every day.  And you know what my reward has been so far?  I never hear "I'm bored."

The shelf holds markers; chalk; a can full of pencils, pens, scissors and erasers; glue; a chalkboard; and a plastic case of paper scraps and googley eyes.  The IKEA buckets are mesh and vinyl and they hold fun supplies, crayons and playdough.

And what better art for their special corner than their own?  Drawings by Cayce and finger painting by Charlie.

So nice!  The last thing to do here is to add one more magazine holder to the right for specialty paper and get a kids art table from IKEA.

That's all there is to share for right now.  I started this post several days ago (it's now the 18th of May), but I will get pictures and show you the rest of the awesomeness I have been working on.  Until then!

Moving on to Bigger and Better!

Just dropping in for a moment to let you all know that I am, indeed, still around.  We just finished moving and I have yet to set up the ginormous crafting area.  :)  Pictures will come soon- hopefully, later today!!!  Prepare to be dazzled, and possibly jealous.

I will now have more room than I know what to do with for crafting area, which means more projects and more posting!