Brass ornaments, other ornaments, tree, candy

Aside from all my boxed ornaments and the ornaments on pegboard, I have a HUGE collection brass ornaments and others. Here I've sorted out about 2/3 of them.

 WOW! Cannot believe I have almost 150 brass ornaments. The ones in the upper left-hand corner are all music themed so I'm thinking I may make a black lacquer coffee table for the music room and cover it with music themed brass pieces.

This Lemax tree is 9" tall and has flashing lights. I'm thinking I'll remove the garland but leave the balls on it then finish decorating it entirely with brass ornaments.

Don't know yet what I'll do with all these ornaments.

I bought a bunch of Christmas candies from Belara Beach and transferred them into these bottles that held nail ornaments (from Dollarama).

The Christmas Shop

Oh, my goodness, the ideas are coming fast and furiously! Am so excited about beginning work to complete this.

I've taken out everything that I collected for this project and set it out on the table in the living room.

I thought I would use that Lemax lighted tree in the upper right corner as a highlight....centered at the back of the room ....decorated with all the tiny brass ornaments in my stash!

Oh, my, I think I have enough to fill four rooms this size...

Thought I had everything  on the table then took a look at my Christmas bulletin board and found some more things....

Have to finish sorting through all ideas and visions then start work...

Joanne and I are going to see the Harry Potter exhibit tomorrow. Maybe the day away will let me see something else that will work in this shop.

Catch up

Oh, my goodness....hadn't realized that it had been SO long since I posted.

I've been up to my eyeballs in things around the condo...not as a Board member...but the things I do as as volunteer.

There were several boxes of books donated to the library so those had to be shelved and I had to add some shelves and shift books around to make it all work.

The Board had given me permission to turn one of our amenity rooms into a "movie" room and that entailed moving all the VCR/DVDs out of the library .... long story...

I had to clean out my laundry/storage area to allow for some plumbing repairs.

We finished the trial run of the "Put and Take" so that had to be packed up and the untaken items donated to Goodwill. Couple great things I got from the Put and Take:

Wonderful lamp!

Got this great carriage clock. Inner measurements are 3 3/8" x 4 3/4" so I originally picked it up as I thought it would make a nice setting for a smaller scale scene. But then I replaced the battery and it works! So for now it will be a handy clock....but who knows what the future holds.

This 12" x 12" piece of MDF was an access cover to some plumbing in my storage room. It has a bevelled edge so I'm thinking it will make a nice base for a future mini.

When all that was taken care of, I did a major clean of the condo (all done except for the workroom) and now feel free to start work on the Christmas shop.

from April 27, 2011

These were my projects at that time:

Just discovered this draft in my posts. Probably a good one to finish.

Now I can concentrate on actually working on my projects. At this point, the list includes (in no particular order):

           1.   The art gallery that I started at Camp Mini Ha Ha 2009

2. My Christmas shop (have a good start on that one)

3. Victorian style parlour

4. Lady’s bedroom

5. 1940s detective's office above a bar

6. A Secret Garden

7. Travel trailer – still in the box

8. Wire my Bombay house

9. Oriental room

10. Log cabin (I’d give up on this one but I’ve got too many things to go in it!)

11. My English dollhouse – just needs a few repairs and furnishing but there are design problems with it.

12. The wharf and beach that should be the base for my Serendipity Shop(another Camp Mini Ha Ha project - 2008).

Let's take a look:

First of all, I forgot to include the project done in the Russian bread box:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

But aside from that:

1. The Art Gallery: Totally different from the original plan but finished and, I think, one of my best pieces.
2. The Christmas Shop: I'm starting to work again on this one this week.
3. Victorian style Parlour Finished then updated.
4. Lady's bedroom: Still no inspiration on this one. If I could just get the canopy bed dressed, I think the rest of it would come together.
5.1940s detective office above a bar. Very pleased with this once the final piece (the actual bar) finally came to me.
6. A Secret Garden: Have the builders' foam to make the walls and it's (sort of) coming together in my head.
7. Travel trailer: Decided not to do this one after all. Sold the kit to the club for this year's project.
8. The Bombay house is wired with 15 lights. I'm planning on renovating the kitchen and adding a window seat in the office area. At some point, I plan on adding a deck with a hot tub.
9. The oriental room is done.
10. Log cabin. My issue with the log cabin is that the walls are smooth inside and I want them to look like logs. I think I may have a solution so it's seriously back on the list.
11. The English dollshouse: Off to my friend Barb's so it's off my list and on to hers.
12. The wharf and beach - kind of hard to get enthusiastic about this when the shop itself is all finished and is a good stand-alone piece....maybe someday.
13. Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Still on the 'someday' list.

New projects since that list was compiled:
14. The Quilt Shop: SO close ;-( Just have to finish making the notions and put them on the pegboard.
15. Vern's attic: The lighting is an issue that I'm hoping I will solve with the LED lighting I ordered from Grandpa's Dollhouse. Once that's done, I can finish putting in the insulation, building some shelving and finish it. Have most of the items I want to put in it.
16. The music room: Once again, stalled due to lighting issues. But once my order arrives from Liz, it should come together fairly quickly.

Along the way, I made a couple other projects as donations to groups I'm close to:
1. The miniature of the Leo Nickerson Art Studio that was done for a silent auction on behalf of the Stollery Children's Hospital.
2. The scrapbooking room that I did for a silent auction at DD Leanne's day care.
3. The Teddy Bears' Picnic for Leo Nickerson School.

Even though I haven't been accomplishing too much lately, I guess that I have accomplished a fair bit over the past three years.

RIP - Tommi LeBlanc

I just learned of the death of my friend and fellow miniaturist, Tommi LeBlanc, in Ontario.

I met Tommi through the online group Canada Minis where she was a member/contributor and a moderator who also looked after birthday greetings for the group for a long time.

For years, we exchanged emails, both through the group and privately. She was a great source of support and encouragement to me for a long time.

We had always hoped to meet 'in person' but it just didn't happen.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends at this time.

Fabric, natural or synthetic

The highlight of our M.E.E. club meeting on Tuesday night was a fabric sale. Because Lucille will be leading a workshop in March on making the cushions for the trailer seating, this was a chance for people to sell off some of their extra fabric pieces and for members who don't have fabric stashes yet to pick up some suitable fabrics. Luba Barnes from Spruce Grove also joined us with her collection of bunka and trims for sale.

Due to my usual procrastination (not to mention my hoarding tendencies), I left going through my stash too late and didn't take any pieces in for sale.

You would think with a fabric stash of the size above, I would have NO need to add to it....and you'd be right!

But that didn't stop me! VBG

(l. to r.) a gift of some silk from Luba; fell in love with this piece - could see it mounted and framed for a piece of modern art; some fairy lace from Luba for trimming pillow cases; the upstairs' rooms in the Bombay House are done in white and black with red accents so I bought this piece from Carol K. to upholster the cushion on the window seat I'm planning for the desk area; and the tartan, well, I don't really have a plan for it but it spoke to me.

HINT:

For miniature purposes, natural fabrics (silk, cotton, linen and rayon) are best for their draping and pleating abilities.

At the meeting, Carol K. demonstrated how to tell if you're dealing with a natural or synthetic fabric. Apply a flame (match or lighter) quickly to the edge of the piece of fabric. Extinguish and feel the edge of the fabric where the flame was applied. If the fabric is 'natural', there will be a soft ash where the flame was applied. If it's a synthetic, the edge of the fabric will be hard where the synthetic portion of the fabric has melted.

Thanks, Carol, I did not know that.

Roomboxes and Miniature settings

I went down to the "Put and Take" this afternoon and there was a wonderful old approximately 15" diameter world globe there.

Not the same one - but similar.

It's at least 40 years old so I can't imagine anyone taking it...but I could just visualise cutting a rectangle in the face of it and building a foam core roombox in it....

BUT I can't visualize what might be in the room...for me...perhaps a scene from some home country or a small museum from a country such as Egypt.???

So many possibilities....but none are coming to me personally...

So, for once, I was able to say "no". (If you're in the Edmonton area and this is speaking to you, please e-mail me and I'll snag it for you. The woman who donated it would love to see it used in some way. She was quite interested when I told her I could visualize a scene set in it!)

That's an unusual one but this is more accessible:

I first saw this use of a night stand drawer at a dealer's table at our Edmonton Show and Sale (think it was Myrt and Bill Smeaton but I could be wrong). Have seen it since in the miniature roomboxes that we silent-auctioned off from Joyce Buchanon's roomboxes....

One of the advantages/disadvantages of hosting MDO is that people bring a lot of "giveaways" and, somehow, I seem to get stuck with the leftovers.

This one, fortunately,was a drawer was filled with incredible pieces of hardwood: walnut, rosewood, and several other pieces of hardwood whose names I didn't recognize. (They were pieces that no one wanted and would have been too expensive to ship to anyone I knew so I packed them up and took them next door to the woodworking shop in my Mom's condo.) Anyway, they were stored in a night stand drawer that I recognized immediately as a roombox

This inner measurements of this  particular drawer are 11 1/8" wide x 10 1/2" high and 6 13/16" deep. (The handle on top is a bonus!

Could be a great roombox for the oriental room that Barb is hoping to do with her DD Vicky! She gets first dibs but if anyone else is interested, let me know.