Happy 2021!

I wish everyone a happy new year! 

 

N.A.M.E. Holiday Swap 2020

 I love participating in the N.A.M.E. holiday swap because I love receiving minis as gifts. It's so much fun to open the swap package. 

The theme was the holidays from Thanksgiving to New Year. Ten of us signed up so we had to make nine gifts. 

I made two items: a platter of holiday cookies:

Here's a close-up:

And gingerbread dough for cookies in progress:

Here's a picture of my making the first cookie tray in progress:

Figuring out how to arrange the cookies

The molds are from The Mouse Market on Etsy. I really like her molds. 

And here are my swap gifts back: 

I can't wait to use them in a scene. They're all so impressive. At first, I wondered, "why is there a scissor attached to this wreath?" and then I realized it was a candy wreath and my mini person is supposed to cut off the candy. 

Anyway, we make gingerbread cookies every year, so here are our real-life ones (already quickly disappearing):

Happy Holidays!

Christmas in the World of Penelope's Dollhouses

 Here are some more pictures of Christmas in the world of Penelope's Dollhouses. :)

Yesterday I had time to play (in the calm before the storm of Christmas Eve dinner) and so I made some scenes.

The golden retriever is by Ines Angelon (Tigrorso on eBay).

A more detailed shot of the children making a Gingerbread house. 

The plate of sugar cookies in Christmas tree shapes is by PuppenStuebchen. I bought it at the Chicago show. The gingerbread reindeer are by Caroline's minis and the assorted gingerbread cookies are by TinyArtMiniatures on Etsy. I made the gingerbread house and the icing bag. 

Some pies for Christmas dinner (bought on Etsy):

The strawberry tart is by TinyAppetities on Etsy. It makes me wish I had a real one to eat. The miniature fruit tart with kiwi is by Hobbymini on Etsy.

And the bakery is baking sugar cookies:

This cookie dough set was made by Sue Ayers from her shop Sue'sLittleThings on Ebay.

And a little girl is making her Xmas present. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Getting ready for Christmas in the loft

 We are getting ready for Christmas in the HBS loft. I had previously made this into a bar/dance place for the 2012 #HBS #creatincontest . Ah, the days when we danced together. 

Anyway, now it's an apartment. The real estate agent has left flowers. 

Here is a close-up of the flowers.

And someone has started to move in.

And wrap presents for Christmas:

Hope you are all still enjoying the holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving 2020!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Our family has made it to the dessert stage and we have basically a pie or cake each (not counting the kids' cupcakes)!

Wait and See

Checking the election results. All anxious but still hopeful.

Hope all my fellow mini lovers are doing well. I've been busy with remote schooling and work. 

 

 

And the Porch is Almost Finished!

I've made a lot of progress on my porch. It's one of my favorite Big Apple Miniaturists projects. I can't believe it has taken me this long since we started it (in this post). Thank you everybody who encouraged me to continue!

 I planted the flower beds in the front and the side. I still have to complete the other side.

The front flowers are all made from kits by Artistic Florals.

The peach poppies are from the estate of Helen David. They were unfinished. I mixed them in with a yellow poppies kit from Etsy. I love how they came out. The daisy kit was from Artistic Florals

I finished shingling the roof. I am going to paint it a washed-out grey.


And then I made the grass. I wanted to replicate what we had done to make the grass in the Theresa Layman class making the garden cottage. We used a static grass applicator--the electrical current makes the flock stand up in the glue. And so I bought the static grass applicator three (3!) years ago on eBay.

Unfortunately, it did not work as well for me this time. I don't know if it's the machine (I never tested it when it arrived) or me or both. I think maybe I needed to make the glue more watery.  Anyway, I am still happy with my grass. I think it partially stood up. And I will go watch some more train videos on electro-static flocking to find out to improve. Lol.

Here are some cats fighting that I bought on Etsy before the pandemic and which finally arrived safely. 

Have a great weekend!