some nice press

Miniland in Victoria and our club got some nice press over the weekend.

If you click on the + sign at the top of the page, it's easier to read.

Great and helpful website

Most of you will be familiar with Jennifer's printable wallpaper (over 200 different designs sorted by era and type). But you may not be aware that in addition to the wallpaper, she also has printable grocery products, vintage magazines and Victorian periodicals; gift bags and gift boxes; and toys and games.

PLUS her companion website, Let's Build a Dollhouse has wonderful info on building a dollhouse from a provided pattern and some really great tutorials including one on making a sofa and/or chair from fabric and cardstock and another on making curtains/drapes from paper.

Back to getting ready for my trip - according to the latest information from the Government of Canada Hurricane Watch all should go well flight-wise.

An idea and a bit of Trash to Treasure

I ended up cleaning out my RL jewellery box this afternoon. What a mess! To get some sort of order to my earrings, I cut up some pieces of plastic mesh and used them  to hold the earrings.

As I trimmed the mesh, adjoining pieces had the little bits of mesh left sticking out. I trimmed those off and they make wonderful little ice cubes!

If you don't have plastic mesh and need ice cubes, another option is the packages of expanding crystals that are used in floral displays. You can quite often find these at dollar stores.

Something a bit different for me

Several years ago, I made a lot of 1:12 books and, in fact, even sold kits for them for a time.

One of them was the "Rainbow Bridge" for people who had lost furkids. It was 11/16" x 9/16" and could be personalized with a dedication to and picture of the pet.

My friend, Cheryl, e-mailed this morning and asked if I would make one for friends who had lost their beloved Sheltie. But she didn't want a 1:12 book, just a small one.

I lost all my books (except for batches that I had already printed but not made) in a computer crash -not that that really mattered since this would be in a different size anyway.

So I did it up and printed it off:

Here are the print outs for both books.

Here's the one for Cheryl (2 5/8" x 3 5/8") beside the 1:12 scale copy.

Grunge at its best!

A while back I mentioned that Linda Austin from Spruce Grove does the best grunge I have ever seen. I emailed her and asked if she had pictures of the motel and diner that I could share with you....and this morning the pictures arrived.

I'm not going to comment on them other than to say that the Motel sign was electrified. They speak for themselves.

Some ideas...

I'm busier than a cat in a room of rocking chairs (just wish it was working on minis - but it's not) so I think I'll just pass on some great sites:

You all know what a great admirer I am of Joann Swanson. Her blog is the absolute best! The best I've learned about DIY minis has been from Joann.

Here's another very helpful one:
http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.ca/ Incredible tutorials

http://mishellyszoo.homestead.com/DIYprojects.html has some absolutely terrific DIY ideas.

For an Australian outlook, you can try http://jazziminis.blogspot.com.au/ Great modern look at minis and some wonderful DIY.

Once Hurricane Sandy passes, Belara Beach Miniatures will be having their $1 and $2 sale - probably on next Monday or Tuesday. Wonderful miniatures and GREAT customer service! 

Nothing about minis today

I've been busy lately but with my equal love - BOOKS!

If you've been following me for any length of time, you know I spend a good deal of my time reading. Books and music are my other passions pretty much equal to minis.

As much as I enjoyed the Mini Day Out on Saturday, I was so disappointed that it meant missing a breakfast meeting with some former school colleagues including Gerry Buccini, the assistant principal at W. D. Cuts School, where I volunteered then worked for a total of almost 20 years. When Gerry retired, I made a miniature of his office as a retirement gift - the first of my 'copy' room vignettes.

Gerry has just published his "That's Twice You Said It, Are You a Parrot?: Memories of a 35 Year Junior High Teaching Career" book. Since I couldn't be there, my friend and former co-worker, Velma, picked up three copies for me, Sean and Leanne. (It was no surprise, knowing Gerry, that he had written wonderfully personal notes to each of us in our copies of the book.)

I went to Velma's yesterday, picked up the books and had a wonderful long visit with her then came home and read Gerry's book.

Wonderful book and a lot of great memories and thoughts.

Then tonight five of us went out to dinner at Normand's Bistro at the Citadel Theatre then over to the Winspear Centre to hear Alexander McCall Smith as part of LitFest Dinner was delicious and Alexander McCall Smith was incredibly entertaining. Thanks to Joanne for organizing our wonderful evening. You can see him discussing his work here.

I'm a great fan of his No. 1 Ladies' Detectives Agency series so it was a great pleasure to hear him discuss that and his other books.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get away from books and back to accomplishing something with minis...

Mini Day Out

It has been SO long since we had a Mini Day Out and I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. Smaller crowd than usual this time, only 15 of us) but several were newer members of M.E.E and one was a former member whom we haven't seen for some time. Most were working on some aspect of the attic project.

Three were bricking their chimneys using the Bromley stencils. This is one of the best looking brick finishes I've ever seen.

(Same old story, took my camera but forgot to take pictures.)

Passed on Joann Swanson's method of making siding from foam core. That was well received.

Erika had a nice little wing chair kit that she had pulled from her stash. Natasha was quite taken with it so I found the instructions for making a wing chair in Joan McElroy's "Dollshouse Furniture Book". It was one of the first pieces of furniture I ever made.

This was one of the first books I ever bought and it's still one of the best!

Once the decision had been made not to include a chimney on my attic, I was able to finish siding the outside. Did that late Friday night and managed to get it painted on Saturday. Still have to put siding on the gable and paint that.

Right angle molding to cover the corners.

If anyone is interested in doing an attic, there are instructions for two great attics in Nutshell News. Joann Swanson's attic project is on page 76 of the July, 1987, issue and Ann Maselli has plans for one on page 70 of the April, 1983 issue. Ann's is closed to the one we're doing as it has the gable although her's is on the side of the roof rather than centred.

The attic

Tonight (this was a delayed blog),I started work on the outside of the attic...

Although we didn't have an actual attic, I want to base this on the house we spent most of our married life in so the attic roombox will have siding.Here I've used Houseworks siding from my stash.

If you're a DIY kind of person, thanks to Joann Swanson, the queen of DIY miniatures, you can make your own siding from foamcore.

This siding is from foamcore.

Rule off the width of your siding on your sheet of foamcore. This one is done at increments of 1/2" (6" RL)

Carefully cut along each line...once through the top cardboard layer, then a second time through the foam layer.

Then take a tool ( I used the top of a pair of tweezers) and run it at a 45 degree angle along the cut edge.

Kind of hard to explain but this is the end result so hope you can follow it from the pictures.

I had decided not to do the stone chimney that Tina taught...and had thought that I would go with a brick (long story and thought process) then I talked with Pat today and decided not to include a chimney at all.

Sometimes you just have to go simple....

couple neat websites

For those of you who make food from polymer clay, there are some great tutorials here.

I haven't dealt with this company but they do have some lovely things at pretty reasonable prices. Free shipping and you can get a tracking number for $2.50 USD.

Baby Shower

Jillian, one of the younger members of M.E.E., is expecting a baby in December so after the meeting last night, we held a mini baby shower for her. One of the members supplied the nursery room box, another decorated it, a couple members made furniture for it and the rest of us supplied all manner of items to go in it.

One of our members, Teena, was unable to attend the Show and Sale so she brought her completed "Mystic Shop" to Show and Tell last night.

Where did the last week go?

Somehow RL has gotten in the way of mini-ing and blogging.

I've given a lot of thought to the attic project but haven't put anything into action yet.

Was going to get started on the studs on the inner walls of the attic but made the decision to put siding on the outside of the attic. It'll be easier to put the siding on before the studs go in in case the siding needs to be clamped or weighted in place. Had thought about using double-sided tape to install the siding then I remembered I have a tube of Liquid Nails that I think will work better. Have to get cracking as I'd like to have the siding on and the studs up before Mini Day Out on Saturday.

I did get started on one piece for the attic though.

We have three pieces of furniture that belonged to Vern's parents: a drop leaf table that his mother used when she canned; a beautiful end table; and their china cabinet.

Vern's brother took over the house and the farm when Mother and Father Heuchert died and he and his wife gave us the furniture. Edwin had used the drop leaf table to hold plants and when we got it, it had several coats of paint and was water-damaged from the plants. Vern stripped and re-finished it.

I had this Chrysnbon drop leaf table in my stash. The basic table is just about perfect but the leaves are too long and the wrong shape. I've re-stained the table and will be removing the leaves and make new ones to match the actual table.

On the weekend, I bought a telephone at a garage sale. In the same box was a second telephone that didn't work too well so I took it apart and ended up with a small box of bits and pieces that may or may not have mini uses at some time. But I think this emergency sign has definite possibilities.

Our club meeting is tomorrow night but hope I'll maybe get some mini-ing done during the day.

Thanksgiving weekend

Saturday I cleaned the guest suite here (not a usual thing as we do have a cleaning service). We had had the carpet cleaned in there a while back and there were wonderful little blocks of incredibly dense styrofoam under the legs of pieces of furniture. So I liberated them for future miniature use - don't know what but am sure something will  come to me eventually.

Have twelve of these - each 2" x 2" x 1"

Leanne and I didn't manage to have our Mommy/Daughter day on Saturday but did get together on Sunday. Went to several stores on 137th Avenue and browsed and visited.

At Pier 1 Imports, we found this little package of Christmas gifts - 80 of them for $3.99. This one is all red with silver cord and silver with red cord. The other box they had contained packages in pastel colours. Each package is 3/8" x 3/8" x 3/8".

Went to Michael's also. Leanne picked up some Wilton baking pans and I got some basswood (still that awful Revell stuff but it's the only game in town) and some blue paint for the outside of the attic project.

Also went to Best Buy and Leanne bought my Christmas present. (She tried to make a deal with me that I could have it early if she could have part of hers that I bought on our Nevada/California trip early...Didn't work. VBG)

Then we went to Famosa's for a very late lunch.

Most of the weekend was spent finishing "The Book". Finally got the last of the 12 copies bound today.

Just have to get half of them wrapped and that will complete most of my Christmas 'shopping'. Have Jonah and Holly's Christmas and birthday gifts ready to wrap as I'll take them with me when I go there for Hallowe'en.

My friends at Canada Minis found some printies for me for a couple things for the attic so I'm working on some of the things that will go in it.