Dollarama buys!

Don't often buy minis at Dollarama anymore - mostly because there really isn't anything that I need. (Quit laughing!)

But I did find these the other day.

I spotted these (erasers). Didn't much care for the colours but the soccer cleats are pretty great. You can even see the cleats on the soles of the shoes. There are six shoes in all. All for the right foot but with judicious positioning, they can work.

Then I spotted this container of 8 soccer balls in the correct colours! Very nicely done and very close to 1:12 scale.

Bought them for Vern's attic and I'll try to remember to take the extras to club one night.

Even the containers will have a use.

These nail stickers certainly weren't a 'need' but I can use them if I ever do a St. Patrick's Day scene.

Estate Sale June 3 and 4

The family of Lorry Saunders, long time member, friend and mentor of the Miniature Enthusiasts of Edmonton, has asked M.E.E. to hold an Estate Sale of Lorry’s stash.

Over the years, Lorry went to shows and sales in Britain, the U.S. and Canada as well as going on Nutshell News and other miniature tours..

This sale will NOT include any of Lorry's finished scenes or roomboxes. There is one 'in progress’ front-opening dollhouse. But after roughly 40 years of collecting, there is something for everyone - from the less expensive day-to-day bits that we all need  to complete a project to Bespaq and artisan pieces. Most things are in 1:12 scale but there are a few 1:24 and some 1:48.

The sale will take place  at 78A McKenney  Avenue, St. Albert, Alberta, in the Social Room.on the 2^nd floor. Go to the entrance at the far (South) end of the complex and someone will give you further instructions.

Saturday, June 3: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday, June 4: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cash only. Cheques will only be accepted from members of the Miniature Enthusiasts of Edmonton. There is an ATM in the Reder Store in the strip mall next door.

Parking: There are over 40 Visitor Parking spots. Please do not park in any of the Reserved Parking stalls. Additional parking is also available at the strip mall next door.

A wonderful gift!

On Monday, Tina, Joanne and I spent the afternoon at the home of Don Saunders, husband of our late friend and mentor, Lorry.

One of our tasks was to make gift bags for each of the members of M.E.E. from Lorry's stash as a gift from the Saunders family. Each bag contained a chair, a piece of porcelain (mostly by Janice Crawley) and either a teddy bear or a piece of art. We began handing these out at last night's meeting.

What an incredibly kind and thoughtful thing for the family to do!

My bag contained:

Sorry, I didn't have the lid on the teapot properly.

Barb R. wasn't able to attend last night so I picked up her gift bag for her and delivered it this afternoon. She received a chair, a lovely picture in a brass frame and a brown betty teapot.

We both hope to make little scenes in her memory from these items.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent packing up about 1/3 of Lorry's stash and moving it to Joanne's where club members will price it next week. Then we will be returning and packing up the remainder of her stash and moving it to my place so we can price the rest of the items.

I hope to publish the details of the sale of her things tomorrow so you can start saving your money and saving the date!

This sale will NOT include any of Lorry's finished scenes or roomboxes. There is one 'in progress" front-opening dollhouse. But after roughly 40 years of collecting, there is something for everyone - from the less expensive to Bespaq and artisan pieces. Most things are in 1:12 scale but there are a few 1:24 and some 1:48.

SAVE THE DATE!!!

Just a heads up that we will be holding our annual Show and Sale on the third Sunday in September!

Same location as in the past several years.

As inconvenient as it is for our club and  the Doll Club of Edmonton, due to venue issues, the Doll Club of Edmonton Show will also be held that same day. So if you're from out of town, this could be a great opportunity to take in both shows!

We keep our table prices quite reasonable as we want to encourage dealers to join us! If you, or someone you know, might be interested in selling at our show, please contact me and I will forward our sale information.

This is the only miniature show and sale remaining in Alberta so it's important to us to keep it going. As great as buying online can be, there is nothing quite like seeing and touching your purchase before you buy.

The library scene

Thought I'd take a momentary break from the baking scene to work on the library scene.

"Just a quick job: paint the box and extend the rug."

Well, I started with scanning and extending the rug on photo paper. My first try went well but it wasn't wide enough. So fixed that.....and after 8 tries still have not been able to print it. 😝

So I reconfigured my paint booth in the tub and started spray painting the container gloss white. ABSOLUTE disaster! The paint didn't go where it was supposed to....just didn't work. So turned on the fan to let the fumes out and will try again tomorrow.

How could something so simple turn out so wrong?

Baking vignette coming together

I took the smallest of the three bowls and added some white glue to it for egg whites.

When that had dried clear, I added some puffy yellow paint for the yolks of the eggs. Still need to make a whisk to whip them. (Working on that.)

Here's the prep table so far. Across the back are flour and sugar canisters; oatmeal (for cookies, of course); vanilla; four spice shakers and a sheet of green Christmas tree cookies. Across the front are the three mixing bowls, a measuring up, an egg, measuring spoons and a spatula.

Eventually, the rolling pin will go on the table.

Easy-peasy to make: Cut a 1" piece of 1/4" dowel and drill holes in each end. Glue in  handles cut from the ends of toothpicks.

A basket of cupcakes made by former MEE member, Natasha, a cherry pie from my stash. On the left middle and bottom are two cakes from my stash and on the right are the tins of coconut meringues and thumbprint cookies I made.

 Still don't have the flooring in place but it's coming together.

Have this for the wall. Want to change the decoration to red.

Not a great deal left to do.

Mini Day Out

As I was tidying up on Friday night, I looked at my Asian scene

then at all the wonderful furniture Erika gave me plus my shoebox of Asian accessories and decided I didn't want to do another Asian scene.

So I made an offer to the members of MEE of all the furniture and accessories to anyone who was coming to MDO with the proviso that it was an all or nothing offer....didn't want anything left!

Cheryl H. from Nova Scotia just happened to catch that email shortly after and needed furnishings for a doll she got here a few trips back. So within minutes, they were gone!

Well, of course, with that much 'stuff', when Cheryl saw it on Saturday, she felt she couldn't possibly use it all but Lucille, Trineke and Bev took up the slack and by the end of the day, everything had found new homes; my stash was a bit smaller and everyone was happy! Good ending.

Although the day was arranged with only a week's notice, we will had a good turnout of 12 people. Carol and June were kind enough to give the workshop on the dressed table that had to be cancelled last week due to the cold weather snap. They'll also be teaching it at our next meeting but Trineke was pleased as she will be away at that time.

Barb R. joined us. She hasn't been able to attend meetings this year due to her husband's health issues so we were glad to spend time with her. She has a great Christmas scene in mind so we all chimed in with ideas for it. Barb also brought down her duplicate Nutshell News magazines for the freebie table. Joanne brought along a UFO that she worked on and also made one of the tables.

Lucille, Tina and Cheryl H.

This is the 1:12 prototype of a bench Tina is making for Joanne in 1:48. She also worked on some kits for the Sacramento NAME Houseparty.

Lucille finished her punch needle welcome mat then started the punch needle rooster mat that is the finishing touch for a room box she is working on.

Erika, June and Carol

These are the 'demo' tables Carol and June brought along. You can see a 1:48 table below the tea cup!

Just for fun, I brought one of the tables I made for Meals on Wheels a couple Christmases ago. It's simply a styrofoam cup cut down and covered with a cupcake liner for a tablecloth and something Christmas-y added on top.. 

Trineke and Bev working away on their tables.

Add caption

Waiting for the glue to dry on one of Bev's table.

Another of Bev's tables - again waiting for the glue to dry.

Trineke's table

Trineke's overskirt with pulled bunka trim being added.

Trineke sent me this picture of her completed table. It's just lovely!

It is always such a joy to attend one of Carol's workshops. She is always SO well prepared and full of helpful hints.

One of the problems when dressing a table is getting the pleats even. She even has a hint for that!
Take a 1/4" or so strip of paper that fits exactly around the bottom of the table. Fold it in half, in half again and yet again so the strip has 8 sections. Lightly mark each fold with a pencil then glue the strip off paper to the bottom of the table. As you glue the tablecloth in place with a thin vertical line, follow this order: glue #1, then #5, #3, then #7, #2, then #6, #4, then #7. Hold each pleat in place with a fine clip or a bobby pin. Once those pleats are dried in place, halve each pleat again and glue in place to give you a total of 16 pleats. It makes such perfect sense but never would have thought of it myself.

Another piece of Carol's wisdom:

I got this display of Librarian Action Figure Nancy Pearl (a real person) from Joanne at the January club garage sale.

I have a wonderful mini display piece that this will fit in beautifully. BUT the front of the display case is curved and the carpet on the piece is straight. My idea had been to (hopefully) find some carpet that would match the picture and could be curved  to match the plexiglass front of the display.

Love the forced perspective of the bookshelves!

What an incredible idea! Scan the extended carpet piece, make a larger sheet of it and print it on photo paper! (From Carol and also from Joanne who hadn't thought to tell me yet.)

Just have to paint the display piece, extend the carpet and put it all together. Love it when a plan comes together!

This will be donated to the circulation department of the St. Albert Public Library with the information about Nancy Pearl on the back of the piece. Hope to display it at our Show and Sale before I donate it.

Canisters and bowls

At one time, Joanne worked for a pharmacy so through her I have a good supply of the plastic barrel type holders of dessicants. Awhile back I took a bunch of them, attached them to double-sided tape and painted them white with enamel spray paint.

So for this project, I used two of them - one for a flour canister and another for a sugar canister.

My original plan was to use these mini letters and the longer nail decals to decorate them. Although the lettering would have worked for the flour, it would have been much too large for the sugar. So I did that lettering on my computer.

I wanted to use matching decals on both the canisters and the three bowls so went with the butterflies.

The three bowls, the two canisters and the decals.

Here are the canisters (I think I'll cover the paper with clear nail polish):

And here are the bowls!

Knew I wanted a carton of milk on the table so I found this one on Toni Ellison's blog  I did resize it smaller than Toni had it but I thank her for it. (All the folds on the top are challenging but worthwhile!)

Mom was SO impressed with the milk carton (especially loved the cow on it).

We have our Mini Day Out tomorrow so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get this project finished.

And take it to show Mom!

Some baking

I have a fair number of these cookie tins in my stash. The round one is almost 1" in diameter and the square is 3/4" x 3/4". The decorations for the tops of the tins are nail art.

SHOOT! I was certain I had taken pictures of the cookies I made. But evidently not! Thinking on it, I had made the cookies on a piece of aluminum foil and thought the picture would have too many reflections so didn't take the pictures. Then forgot until they were in the tins.

On the left are the coconut macaroons (a family favourite). These were made by squeezing white puffy paint onto aluminum foil and drawing it up into a point. I let them dry for at least four hours then lifted them off the foil and put them into the tin.

The thumbprint cookies were made by punching 1/4" holes from beige fun foam and adding a dollop of red puffy paint in the centre. My hole punch didn't cut the cookies out well so I folded a piece of foil around the foam and cut through all three layers. That gave me a clean cut.

I didn't have a baker's rack in my stash so I decided to take the black shelving unit from my original plan and repaint it white Krylon enamel.

Since it's too cold outside to spray paint, I used my makeshift paint booth to do this. I set one banker's box in my bath tub, covered that with a large painter's drop cloth, put a second box lined with wax paper on top of it and draped the drop cloth over the box and the tub. The drop cloth protects the tub from any overspray and the box contains any direct spray. BIG PLUS - I can turn the bathroom fan on to get rid of the smell!

The shelving is on a separate piece of wax paper.

After one coat

After the second coat. Still a couple spots that I missed so gave it one more coat.

After the paint has dried, in the morning, I'll decide whether I'll take a pin and clean out the paint in the holes - or put decorative paper on the shelves.

I love that this is coming together in my head (always fun). It's nice, too, that as I work on it, I can take things over to show my Mom. She's enjoying watching the progress.

The table - tutorial

Didn't really need to sleep on it LOL! Started building a table shortly after my last post.

For the legs, I used Houseworks balusters.

Cut the tree skirts from some 1/8" x 5/16" strip wood. Two pieces 4" long and two pieces 2" long.

Glued a baluster to each end of the 4" pieces and let glue dry

 Glued the short pieces between the balusters to form the short end of the table frame. Held them in position with Lego on one side and my small gluing jig on the other.

Cut a piece of 1/8" thick wood 3" x 5 1/2" for the table top then, using an emery board, sanded and rounded all the edges

Glued the table top to the base.

 
and clamped in place until the glue dried

Painted the table with Plaid Apple Barrel gloss acrylic enamel.

Sanded between coats of paint with a piece of brown paper bag

Ended up using three coats of paint.

Here are two of my four Kitchen bulletin boards.

And here I've pulled out some possibilities for the scene.