Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!

A Halloween Mystery

Can you figure out what happened?  

The dragon seems to be occupied reading a book and eating candy (although maybe he is looking at all those potions spilling over madly).

It looks like someone was studying and eating candy corns and then the chair fell over.

There's a haunted dollhouse near the bed.

A table with lots of spells and potions. It looks like someone created a frog.  He looks a bit bewildered to be there. 

And a little witch on the floor with a dropped silver potion bottle and a spilling container of eyeballs.  And a very upset black cat who is arching his back. 

Have you guessed it?

Nobody in my family was able to guess it (what does that say about my story scene-setting abilities?)

💥

*******

Yes, the girl witch drank a potion to shrink herself so she could go play in her dollhouse.  👻👻😉

Happy Halloween!

Big Apple Miniaturists Club Porch project

This year, my dollhouse club Big Apple Miniaturists is doing a Painted Lady or Shabby Chic porch facade project with a garden.  I am so excited about this project.  We will work on it over the course of about 18 months.

First we worked on the porch.  Here are the beginnings of my porch  --with my 2 new cats checking it out.  (The cats are made by www.literatureinminiature.co.uk). 

The flooring is popsicle sticks cut and glued and then painted with a whitewash:

I made nails using the technique described by Otterine in this post Milo Valley Farm - siding, part 3
(except that I did not add rust, as I feared that I would add too much rust.)

And here is the house facade (we're not building the house,but maybe I can put a shallow box behind it) with the siding added and painted.



And here you can start to see what it will look like with the posts and the railing (although it still needs the roof):

I love the little paw reaching up to catch something in the air (pretend there is a butterfly going by).

The grey tabby was custom made by  www.literatureinminiature.co.uk from photos I sent of my cat Audrey.   Here are some close-up photos.  

Have a great weekend!

IGMA Show - September 2017

And now to post about the shopping:  I went to the IGMA show in September with my whole family.  It was a great show.

The kids love Small Beginnings - the Children's Table (no grown-ups allowed) as do I.  I kept sending them back in so I could shop.  The first time my son came out, he had only spent 80 cents.

But we also went around the whole show together.

From Cinen Miniatures, I bought the bakery sign - here it is in front of my bakery:

Here is a picture of everything I purchased from Cinen Miniature:

A Halloween crow:

A suitcase from Sylvia Rountree of the Dolls' Cobbler - she was also very nice to talk to.  

Beautiful flowers from Artistic Florals by Arlene Finkelstein - we always enjoy chatting with Arlene and my daughter told her all about her dollhouse plans.  We bought these to give as a gift, but now I think I like them too much:

Lots of goodies from The Little DollHouse Company from Canada.  First a beautiful pot and a clock:

And then a little bat, a shooting star cookie cutter and a set of paints:

Flowers from Karen Aird's Dollhouse Shop (I bought these so I could keep the flowers from Arlene, but now I think I like these too much):

And yes, there were more purchases made, so To Be Continued. . . 

Have a wonderful weekend!

N.A.M.E. Grandparents' Attic Swap

I can't believe I completely missed September on my blog.  Well, I can believe it.  Our renovation was not done, so we had to move to my mom's.  It was completely chaotic - what with the start of the school and moving to a different house and still coming back to our apartment to check on the renovation and deciding on all the final items.

But I still found time in September to make some minis (and to do some mini shopping).  It was much needed to save my sanity.

I signed up for the N.A.M.E. online group swap.  The theme was Grandparents' attic, so I made romantic letters tied with a ribbon and a "Celebrate" Banner. 

And this week, the return box of swap packages arrived.

Also, the renovation is now done (Hurray!) and I have been unpacking boxes.

And unpacking boxes.

(This just shows 1/2 of boxes. This is a side view of the children's dollhouse and that pink dollhouse is an ice cream parlor).

And unpacking boxes.  Another dollhouse roombox!?   I had completely forgotten how many roomboxes I had.

We still need to design my new space in our bedroom, so there will be boxes for awhile yet.

And here are the return swaps - so many great items:

(That's an unfinished quilt in the background that Grandma still intends to make)

(maybe with these sewing supplies also provided in a box - and the box of tiles had little tiles)

(a box of Christmas decorations) 

(I like the interior patterns on the suitcases)

(little lighbulbs - I have not seen those before)

Excited to use the books and the paints!

Have a wonderful weekend!