Some trash to treasure ideas - What would you do with this?

These are the three items Barb S. and Marg W. brought to club Tuesday night for our "What would you do with this" round. Unfortunately I sent them around late and they only made it half way around the room. However, there were some great responses.

Barb brought in this clip from a print cartridge:

 Ideas were:
1. traffic light (isn't that marvellous - wouldn't have thought of that! But it makes wonderful sense.)
2. sled for an elf
3. store fixture

Marg brought in this bulb from RL mini Christmas lights:

 1. enclosed flower vase (think Beauty and the Beast). I didn't have a full flower that fit but did have a bud and greenery that did.

2. baby bottle. I painted the top tan for a nipple and painted inside the bulb white for milk. Then I used some fine fingernail tape to hold the nipple in place. For size, the bottom really should be cut off but since this is glass, don't think I would try that. BUT in order to disguise the length, you could make a little bottle warmer from a small piece of balsa and set the bottle in that.

3. apothecary jars. Fill with fine spices (or paint the inside). If you fill it, glue a small circle of plastic to the bottom. To make it look like you have a separate lid, you could use the fine tape (as with the baby bottle) to indicate that.

4. light fixture. The nano bulbs from Evan Designs would fit in here.

Actually with that bothersome base off, I think it would also make a wonderful pop/soda bottle. Just paint the inside of the bulb whatever colour you like and paint the knob on top white or grey and slap on a label.

Marg also brought in this plug cover that we're finding more and more on new electrical appliances. 

Two suggestions here:
1. table base (thinking 1:48 scale)
2. brick

Please feel free to add any ideas you may have for these pieces. I love it when someone sees something that I don't!And it adds SO much to our hobby when we can share.

Some personal stuff...please read the book recommendation....

FINALLY found someone (a group home) to take my old couch and loveseat! (It's only been six months since I bought the new furniture.- And a certain amount of the delay was my own fault.) Oh, my, does my living room ever look big now. But I may have to re-arrange some furniture as everything is now crowded into 2/3 of the room. But will have to think on that...  😃 And how many times have you heard me say that?!?

And why is it SO hard (if you require pickup) to find  a charity who will take good furniture?

BOOK RECOMMENDATION: So many of us are of an age where either we (or our parents) are at risk of having a stroke. As you know, my Mom had a stroke mid-July. We are incredibly fortunate that the stroke didn't affect all her abilities as she was up and walking within days. Her recovery has been slow but steady although there are certainly some issues. But she is at home in her own apartment and quite self-sufficient.

Dear friend. Joanne. lent me a book "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey" by Jill Bolte Taylor. While I don't think that most people who have a stroke as severe as hers survive, her ability to describe the stroke as it happened was very insightful as was her telling of trying to communicate when her speech, hearing and sight were impaired.

I don't think that many of the things she experienced (such as the inability to see colour or three dimensions) will happen to most of us but I think it's important to "see" the whole picture as she paints it....if for no other reason than to tell ourselves "it could be much worse".

As it turns out, DS Shirley had read this years ago but had forgotten about it until I mentioned one particular passage. So she is re-reading it and I'll pass it on to DD Leanne, If, God forbid, I have a stroke, I want her to have the information in this book.

One of the last pages in the book is 40 things I needed the most.,  Good information.

WEATHER: We have been blessed with wonderfully warm weather the last couple days (+5 to +8C) and the forecast for the next while is around 0C. I'm sure it will turn incredibly cold again but for now, I'm enjoying this good weather.

BINGO! fpr MEE. one project completed (or not)!

Thanks to Marilyn D. of NB (and CMHH) for giving us permission to use our own take on the CMHH Bingo card for our club.

Sorry the picture isn't clearer.

We passed the original Bingo card from Marilyn around a couple meetings ago and asked for suggestions as to what we could change to make it our own and I made some changes accordingly.

We're going to run this for the next 17 months until June 2018 and see how it goes. I'm looking forward to it!

Shoot! One of the items on the original card was "make a readable mini book". But I dropped that in favour of something else so this won't count after all. 😒

Today, Leanne and I had an appointment at the office where friend, Barbara, works so I wanted to make her my "City of St. Albert" book. Got it done - then she was home with the flu!

But at least I did SOMETHING!!! It's been a long time!

I started with the 'already done' sheets. One of these days, I'll try to write up the instructions but they're pretty involved and don't know when I'll get it done. Anyway...

Here are the inner pages for 11 books:

And the front and back covers (on cardstock):

And the spines (on copy paper):

And here are the pieces cut out for one book:

I took the page strip and ran it over the end of my X-Acto knife (much like you would to curl ribbon)

Then, using the dull side of my X-Acto blade, I scored along the solid line between every second page. These will form the spine of the book.

Then I  very carefully matched up the scored lines and folded each of the two pages together, being careful to keep everything even.

Then I covered the back of the entire piece with a gluestick.

Folded everything back together then added the front and back covers.

Coated the spine piece with gluestick, then added the spine to the book.

Finished!

Sorry the pictures are so poor. I was working on my lap in the living room which isn't exactly conducive to good pictures DUH. But I got it done in plenty of time for our appointment.

MEE meeting - garage sale

Oh, my goodness, what wonderful gifts!

Tonight was a 'garage sale' night at MEE. I went prepared! Had about $30 in change in my purse. BUT jusr didn't want anything. Oh, my, I have SO much in my stash!

Oh, Shoot!

Joanne gave me one of her librarian pieces! Gorgeous piece with wonderful background. I think I can work with this.

Oh, MY! Thought this piece from Erika would be great for the librarian scene.

But my best thought is that this red piece will make the absolutely best setting for my annual Christmas scene at the potluck dinner.

Now WOW! All these oriental pieces were in the red case. 

This will be one of the "repair" pieces for the BINGO card.

Oh, my goodness! This is the shoebox containing all the other things I've kept for "oriental".

 This is what I did originally! Absolutely love the lamp BUT it is SO small!

I definitely need a roombox for all this!

As always, have to think on this.

A train station by Louise

Over the 40 years that I've been doing miniatures, I've been fortunate to see some incredibly wonderful and beautiful things. Among them are the Thorne Rooms in Chicago, Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle, and the exhibits in the Mini Time Museum of Miniatures in Tucson.

Closer to home, members of our club do the most amazing things year in and out. I won't even begin to name any as I'm sure if I made a list, I would have to keep adding to it every day as I remembered something else.

For years now, there has been a miniature camp, Camp Mini Ha Ha, in Nova Scotia. I attended it for three years after I retired and met miniaturists from all over. I'm still in touch with many of them today.

On my last trip to the Maritimes, Cheryl and I went to PEI where we stayed with Marilyn and Bruce D. They are now living in New Brunswick where Marilyn, some other CMHH alumni and other miniaturists have formed a new club, F.A.M.E. (Fredricton and Area Miniature Enthusiasts). They are very enthusiastically spreading the word and have already held their first show and sale.

One of those miniaturists is Louise whose  CMHH project from last year is one of the "OMG" moments in a miniaturist's life.

Marilyn writes a blog "Charminis" and a recent post was about Louise's project. Please, for some incredible eye candy, check it out here. And, as Marilyn wrote, it's pretty uniquely Canadian!

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

More Christmas party pictures

Many thanks to Theresa who sent me these pictures of some of the things I missed at the Christmas party.

Better pictures of Joanne and the book:

Tina (lower left) looks very excited about something!

This bow maker was a gift.

Joanne received this lovely tiny scene from Theresa.

 This was the gift that Judi R. received from me. I bought four of these in different colours from Liz at Grandpa's Dollhouse as a Daily Deal. This is the last one I have.

 This was from a local scrapbooking shop. Think it was from Joanne to Kyla.

One of the three trees to be decorated.

roombox for sale

Kristy from Lamont County has a roombox for sale.

"I have a dining room room box for sale. It has a garden/yard attached to it and you can see it through windows. It is lighted in behind the dining room. I am asking $100.00 or offers. I have made the whole thing except for the dining table set and cabinet.  I have also recently added a little boy peaking into the dining room window from the yard for an added feature. Thanks."

the roombox

 Showing the lit windows:

The entire set up:

The dining room:

From overhead, the back addition showing the garden that's visible through the windows.

 The young man peeking through the right hand window.

If you are interested, pleased contact Kristy

Wasn't that a party!

After two cancelled nights in December (our by-laws call for the cancellation of meetings when the temperature with windchill hits -25C), we finally decided that it was a go for last night regardless.

Although the weather agreed, family commitments and a spate of colds prevented a large number of members from attending. So although we were a jolly group, only 11 of us were able to be there. Two others had sent their gifts in for the gift exchange.

Joanne had made two cushions (1" x 1") for all of us and left them on the tables.

Barb S. gave us each these great snowperson printies.

Tina McD. also made each of us a miniature coffee mug marked Miniature Enthusiasts of Edmonton. For some reason I can't upload the picture to the blog right now. I'll try to remember to show it to you later.

Trineke made all of us these cute pins. Very festive!

Bev A. (who was one of those struck down with a cold) made several of these wonderful nativity scenes for, I believe, members of the Executive. Bev is quite new to the club (and miniatures). She is our newsletter editor and has some incredibly innovative ideas.

These three trays of cookies were my exchange gift from Barb S. Best of all - no calories!

Putting on our snowman pins

Trineke's birthday also.

Some of the food!

The punch!

Each year, Joanne reads us a book. This year's was "And  a Porcupine in a Pine Tree" by Helaine Becker.   It's a Canadian take on the Twelve Days of Christmas. You can read the lyrics here. Joanne sang it and the rest of us joined in.

The book is beautifully illustrated and would make a wonderful gift for any child but particularly for those who don't live in Canada.

Some of the gifts:

Tina received this nativity scene, as well as some other things, from Bev.

Corinne M. in Calgary received this lovely teaset from Judy S.

Judy S. received these minis from new member Kyla M.

Barb S. received this lovely set of china but I don't know who it was from.

Sorry but that's all I got pictures of.

The final activity of the evening was the draw for the Christmas trees and ornaments. Each year the club supplies three Christmas trees and members bring in ornaments to decorate them. There was a great selection of ornaments this year and the trees were won by Corinne M., Bev A. and Tina M..

Aside from the absence of many of our fellow miniaturists, it was a wonderful evening and a good time was had by all.

To those of you who were unable to attend, hope you get well soon. We'll see everyone at the meeting on January 17.