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!!

Farmers and Puppies and Corn, OH MY!

but first, a surprise! I got a present! I got a present! (read that in a neener, neener voice) **Edit: I had a really great rendition about how I got home and scared the mail man knowing that I was getting this today, but Blogger is being a nasty biotch and just messed it all up.*** RAWRG!!! So, cut to the chase now:

I received resin cast a modern bookcase from my friend Ann of Amazing Miniatures and Dollhouses go see her rad stuff at her blog. We originally met on the Greenleaf forum as we were constructing the same house. We bonded. And now she is a dear mini friend. :) I was working on something to send her when she asked me if I wanted one of these. Really, I don't know why she even asked. My answer was clearly going to be, "Duh!" :) Check it out:


If you like what you see, she is currently doing a give away for one of these on her Facebook. Win A Modern Mini Bookcase

You can enter for it twice by "liking" the page and/or commenting on the post about it on her blog. Hurry! You only have until November 19th!

She also has them for sale in her etsy shop, along with an Ikea inspired round table and chairs. I encourage you to go look and possibly get something, although I am holding out for that table. My unbuilt Washington 2.0 wants it!
Shops Ann's Amazing Miniatures on Etsy

So, I have to use every ounce of strength to contain my excitement and not rush off to work with the bookcase. I already know what house it will go in and what color it will be. Unfortunately, that house is not built yet and will not be happening any time soon. :(

Now that you know all about that, I haven't got much done mini wise lately. I have a couple commissioned paintings that I am working on; along with several Christmas presents. I am on project overload at the moment. And, because being a parent includes your kids having horrible timing: Charlie was recently diagnosed with salmonella poisoning and has been quite ill. This sickness is highly contagious, so we have been without playgroups and will be for a month or two more. This stinks. Literally. I have been pooped on more in the last week then I have the entire time I have been a mom. Rawr.

He is getting better though. Back to his normal cheerful self, just with vast amounts of nasty diapers. >:P

As for the passing of Halloween, we had a really good time. We went to the pumpkin patch on Friday, trick or treating in a little town on Saturday and then again around here on Sunday night. The boys really had a lot of fun, as did we all. We were joined by a couple of our friends and their little ones. Enjoy the pictures below!

Pumpkin patch where Cayce was a knight and Charlie was a ghost.




Saturday night, James and I were terrible vampires; Cayce was Tow Mater from Cars and Charlie was a bookworm, but all his books were off by the time we took this picture.

Sunday, I was a farmer with my little ear of corn. James was a dog catcher and Cayce was a puppy.
















I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend and that you are all now having a great start to November. We are entering my favorite time of year!!! Happy holidays!