Year 2013 in review

It was a wonderful year.   I did lots and lots of things in the miniature world.   My best miniature - is  my first grandchild.   She is wonderful and I am sure I see a dollhouse or two in Kaylin's future. 

My husband, Ron, and I with Kaylin - she was 3 weeks old.  

I have a few favorite projects.   I think my favorite would have to be the Tropical Shotgun House.  You can look at that post HERE.

I almost didn't complete it.   It was a bit more tedious than I thought it would be.   I like it because it is very similar to the houses in Key West.   I love the front porch.   I could sit there for hours on end.   When I wanted to eat - I think I would barbecue and eat outdoors.   All in all, I think it will be a favorite for many years to come.

Wouldn't it be fun to drink an ice tea or a glass of wine and let the world go by.

I also loved my dome house.   It too took me a while to get done, but once I started it went together quickly.  

You can see the Victorian Dome House HERE.  

I really think I would enjoy a bedroom just like this one.   I love the colors and I think the bed looks really comfortable.

The 3rd project is the 4 little season boxes that I made myself.   Made them from cheap yard sale frames and furnished them appropriately for the season.    You can see them HERE.

 

Little guy looks very happy.

 

I love working on miniatures and do something nearly every day.   I like the shows I go too along with all the workshops I attend.   Fun Days in Orlando and Lakeland are fantastic!!!!  

 

I especially like the feedback I get from my followers.   Your time is appreciated.   

 

May you have a fantastic 2014 and may all your mini wishes come true.  

 

NAME Region E-3 Butcher Shop Swap

As many of you know, I am the Region E-3 swap coordinator for NAME.   We've done 3 swaps and they have been so much fun.   The last one was for a butcher shop.   Unfortunately we were unable to do a quarter scale for this theme - not enough interest.   However, we had a full swap for the butcher shop in 1/12 scale.

 Charrita made a cutting board of meats, a wheel of cheese under dome and a tray of cheese to sample..  

Sheila made a tray of cheese.

Elaine made a rolled roast.

Irene made a set of porcelain signs we can paint for our butcher shop. 

Marie Bird made a rolls of butcher paper on a dispenser and a sign showing cuts of meat.  

Annilee made sausages and some sliced sausage  along with game cuts. 

Glenda made a ham on a silver tray. 

Carol made an assortment of meats.

 Claudette made paper, twine, pencil,  and various signs and meat.

Mary Jo made a large quantity of meat. 

 

 

I made the following items.   Tray of meats and cheeses for sampling, assortment of cookbooks, framed signs for beef cuts and port cuts. 

 



 

 

I am most excited to get the butcher shop ready.   Lots of goodies!  

 

If you are a member of NAME and live in  Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee and would like to participate in our future swaps, please contact me. 

ME Cottage - December OMB project

The yahoo group, Quarter Connection, has sponsored a OMB (One a month bunch) challenge to its members to complete unfinished projects.   I built the project in November and when it was done, went to work on the furnishings and landscaping and finished that in December.
 

Kit in the plastic bag.

 

Assembled, but not much more. 

 

Interior - without furnishings.  

 

Living Room

 

Entry Way  

 

Bedroom

 

Kitchen

 

Finished house - all the rooms

 

Close up of Front  

 

ME is traveling.   She has her dress bag and two suitcases to load in her little red bug along with her Scottie.   She will have fun.

 

 

I've really enjoyed the challenge this year and some months I didn't think I would get with it, but did.  Oh so much Fun to complete projects..  

 

 

 

 

Kindred Spirits

Every once in awhile I find an article or picture that speaks to my soul.   As you know, I consider myself first and foremost A COLLECTOR.   Well, I've met my match and then some.   The link to the right leads you to HOUZZ which is a wonderful WONDERFUL   WONDERFUL site!!!!!   Lots of great pictures and lots of inspiration.  I hope you enjoy this.  

In case you need a liik its HERE

New Color

I changed my blog color to fall Pumpkin colors.   Happy Thanksgiving.   Thanks for all my followers.  

October OMB - The Lauren

Quarter Connection has been having a challenge this year where you take an unstarted or unfinished project and finish it.   You can do the building one month and the furnishing and landscaping the next.   My September OMB was to do The Lauren House.   It is a lovely project.   This month I furnished it and landscaped it.    I love it.  

This is what you had in September.   The kit still in the box. 

 Instructions:

 Pieces

 At the end of September I had it built and wall papered.   I really like it.  

 Now in October it is finished.   I have laid out a patio on the side with a table and a grill - ready to throw on the steaks.   I've added plants and a couple of pine trees.  

 The little grill is wonderful and the table exciting.   Still some blooms on the plants that make them very attractive to view from the patio. 

 On the top, you see from left to right - a bathroom, a nursery done in Raggedy Ann & Andy, and the master bedroom.   On the  bottom is a lovely large kitchen, then a wonderful living room. 

 The Finished Project fits in a football case.  

 The living room sofa, chair and ottamn is from BlueCrystal28 (Joanne Whise) and she sell on Etsy. 

 The bed and chair and ottoman in the master suite is also made by BlueCrystal28.

 

 

As you leave my Jack Russell is bidding you a fond farewell.   Come back soon. 

National Dollhouse Miniature Month - Day 31 - BOO!

My favorite holiday is Christmas, but a VERY CLOSE SECOND is Halloween.   I love Halloween and every year  I think I will do less decorating and every year I do MORE decorating.   We live in a community that does heavy trick or treating and our neighborhood is a great place for kids.   All the streets are dead end and we end up with 380 - 420 trick or treaters.   Lots of kids dressed in really cute costumes.  

I have lots of pumpkins outside, but my favorite decorations are my minis.

My first endeavor was Halloween in a Bag.   To see the whole post, you can check it out HERE 

 

 

 

My next scene was done in quarter scale and you can see that HERE

 

 

My most recent Halloween Scene was done at the Lakeland Show and it is lovely. 

 

You can see that post HERE

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this month's posts.   I love sharing my minis.   I am not going to make a promise this year since last year's promise took me a whole year to fulfill.    I love doing minis and I hope you follow my blog.   If you want to get a notice of when I post, sign up for email notification.  

 

Happy Halloween.

 

National Dollhouse Miniature Month - Day 30 - Oh My - what is my favorite scale.

I am frequently asked what is my favorite project and what is my favorite scale.  I am just fickle enough to generally respond that my favorite is the one I'm currently working on.   Well, that is not entirely true.   I started off on 1/12 scale and loved it and still love it.   It just takes up so much room.   My first quarter scale project led me to believe I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.   Well, so much for those words.   I have known some really good miniaturists and the first person that I ran into that did quarter scale was my friend Betty in Leavenworth KS and she was and is fantastic.   She was an inspiration but still not enough to make me jump ship.   I also had not run out of room. 

 

Then after years of working on 1/12 scale in Key West, I met Melody in Marathon FL and she had taken quarter scale to a whole new level.   Very talented and I doubt if she ever made something that didn't expand on the project.   She always added something to make her projects uniquely her own.   I took one little house that had lingered on a shelf for years and she immediately critiqued it and told me to add, mirrors, books, food, accessories of all types and presto change - I had a project I liked.

 

After seeing her incredible collection, I ordered a few projects that were nearly stand alone projects and made those.   After breaking a few pieces and re gluing lots of things, I finally had completed 3 more projects that were quite nice.   I was very proud of them.   She also told me about several miniature groups that dealt with QS exclusively and after sitting on the side lines I purchased some kits.   I was off and running. 

 

Now after doing years of 1/12 scale and about 3 or 4  years of pretty steady QS, I love them both.   

 

I like kits, but I like kits that allow me to add a lot of my own finishing touches.  

 

Here are some of the examples of how the same theme looks in two different scales.

 

Cocolate Shop - Done at Fun Day in Lakeland FL. 1/12 scale

 

Chocolate shop in a cocoa container in QS

Chocolate shop in baseball case QS

 

 

Love all 3 chocolate shops in each scale.  

 

They all are quite lovely, they all allow me the option of making them my own.

 

Antique Shop in Quarter Scale.  I absolutely love it. 

 The antique shop I recently updated, in 1/12 scale.   Love it too. 

 

I guess I am back to square one - I can't pick my favorite project or my favorite scale.  I LOVE BOTH!

National Dollhoue Miniature Month - Day 25 - Swap

If you have been following my postings this month - you must know that I do tons of miniatures.   Well the cost would be prohibitive if I didn't do something to acquire lots of 'stash' without spending too much money.   There are several types of swaps that I participate in.   Some are one-on-one and you swap with just a person individually, some are monthly where you mail your swaps to generally 11 other people one month of the year and sit back and receive swaps the other months.  There are lots of monthly swaps where you have a choice what themes you participate in and  you get 10 items for that theme.     Lots of exchanges with virtual conventions, fun days and other events.    Lots of scales to participate in.

 

I get forgetful sometimes and do a whole batch of swaps and never take a picture of them.   But I thought of those that I have taken the time to take a picture, I would share some of the things I've made since last October's National Dollhouse Miniature Month.

 

Perfume for table gifts for Lakeland Fun Day.

 Tablescape for monthly swap.

 QS box of books, xylophone, drum for Attic Swap.

 QS bulletin board for sewing swap.

 

 

 Box of items for Garage swap

 

 QS bowls of Spaghetti and loaves of bread.

 

Plate shelf for Raggedy Ann

 

 QS Rugs

 

 1/12 and QS Pumpkins for autumn and market stall swaps.

 

 QS Luggage for Virtual Convention and monthly swap.

 

 Plate of cookies

 

 Tins of Egg Plants

 

Egg plants 

 

 Filled Hanger swap

 

 

 QS Fire Pits for Summer entertaining.

 

QS and 1/12 scale fire pits for summer entertaining. 

 

 1/12 scale fire pits.

 

 Buckets of grapes

 

 

I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of everything, but you can see that I do a lot of swaps.   I absolutely love the process.  

 

When swapping, ALWAYS make a couple of extras for your own projects or for gifting others.   You'll be glad you did.!!!