Happy Thanksgiving!!

 Happy Thanksgiving! It's been forever since I have posted. 

I've been meeting monthly with my mini club, but I've been so focused on writing books that other than that, I have not been playing with minis much. 

But after publishing my latest romcom, I had an operation recently that forced me to rest, and minis are the best therapy! I'm also hoping this post even works, it has been that long. I hope you have all been well. I've missed all my friends here.  

I love this turkey. I couldn't attend the Philadelphia Miniaturia (still recovering from the operation) but my friend Ketsia shopped for me. I think this is from Giulia's Miniatures!

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving and a great week!

Happy Holidays 2021!!

 Happy Holidays 2021!

I hope everyone has been well! I've been busy writing books so I haven't been playing with minis as much, but I'm looking forward to getting back to minis and catching up on everyone's blogs. 

My next book, Is This for Real?, has a writer who is a miniaturist and posts scenes with a couple called Piper and Rob. 

Unfortunately, I'm not actually that good at posing my dolls, as this is Rob and he is supposed to be looking at Piper. I couldn't get his head quite right. 

But anyway, Happy Holidays!!

And Happy 2022! I hope it's a healthy and more social one!

When The Magic Portal Celebrates Partner Pursuit

 When The Magic Portal celebrates my debut novel Partner Pursuit, it goes ALL IN.

 Lol. It helps when you know the owner :)

Here's a book reading:

One of my closest friends Ketsia Elie of Itty Bitty Adventures made mini versions of my book for me.

I am so touched. And now all the animals get to listen to it :)

Here's the author opening up the box of those first copies of her novel. 

And yes, The Magic Portal is featuring Partner Pursuit in its windows. 

My second book Is This For Real? will feature a miniaturist, but Partner Pursuit features a lawyer. Here's the blurb: 

 

When a workaholic lawyer meets a fun-loving music marketing executive for opposites attract, friends-to-lovers adventures, which partnership will she choose?

Workaholic lawyer Audrey Willems is not going to take any chances with her bid to become a partner at her New York law firm--especially with only six months until the decision. 

Until she bumps into Jake--her new neighbor. Jake is a fun-loving music marketing executive who might just be The One.

He's funny, caring, supportive--and able to kill water bugs in the bathroom.

But Jake will never date a woman married to her job. His father was a workaholic lawyer who never had time for family.

And she's just got the case of a lifetime--the one she needs to make partner. Working 24/7 at the office may not even be enough hours to pull off a victory.

If only she had not met him now.

Audrey is determined to prove that she can juggle work and romance--even if managing court cases, candlelit dinners, and bike rides around Manhattan is a lot harder than it looks. She keeps canceling dates for yet another case crisis.

But when making partner is like a game of musical chairs and the last seat is a business-class alone, which partnership will she choose?

 #

I hope you are all doing well! Things seem pretty chaotic here with the launch, but it was fun to play with my minis again. And to feature my book in my little book store.

The desk of a writer

The desk of a writer.

I am sorry I've been away from mini land. I've really missed you guys and playing with my minis. I've been writing a women's fiction with romance novel. So, writing (and remote schooling) have taken up all my time. 

Actually my desk is a lot messier than that. I have craft reference books and binders and all sorts of things on my desk. Eventually, I will do a more realistic desk of a writer. :) 

We finally had a Big Apple Miniaturists meeting again in person (distanced and masked), and I was so happy to see everybody. And I also got so happy looking at my minis again as I was searching for various supplies to bring to the meeting. 

Once this book is released, I hope to play with my minis again. And my next book in the series has a miniaturist in it!

Anyway, we made books at the Big Apple Miniaturists meeting, so it was perfect.  

I hope everyone is doing well! 

January and the #minikitchallengemonth

 

So Robina of #myminiatureabodes on Instagram created a mini kit challenge to complete a kit from your stash each week. I have three boxes full of kits. And so I was in.

(Picture of my flower shop. The purple flowers in the stone work were purchased from Artistic Florals.) 

The first week theme was Outdoors. I chose a tulip kit from Artistic Florals and made the bright pink tulips above in front of the flower shop. (I really need to make a sign for that shop.) The white flower pot is from HBS Miniatures. 

Week Two was Vintage. pick a vintage kit or the oldest kit in your stash. Since I was afraid to go down in the basement and face my two boxes of kits down there, I decided to go with vintage-themed and made this Art of Mini hatbox.

Week Two was a piece of furniture. I loved this kit by Doreen as soon as I saw it, but I was definitely daunted by the prospect of making it. And rightly so. It took me the whole week, because the bottles each had about three coats of paint, then painted the tops white, and then I sealed them. And I discovered that many of my paints are drying out. 

But it was worth it. I am so happy I made it. Here are pictures of my progress. I think Doreen still has more kits, so if interested, let me know and I can put you in contact. 

I think I bought the kit via NAME, when the theme for a project was craft room.

Painting the little bottles

Almost there. figuring out the colors:

And we're done!

This final week was grab bag: to pick a kit from your stash with your eyes closed. I only took out my kits that are stored in the box in our apartment, but I picked out this kit from Nancy Enge. I also loved this kit as soon as I saw it. So, I'm looking forward to making it. 

Hope everyone is doing well. Wishing you all a great rest of the week!

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!

The Restaurant Kitchen and a Range Hood tutorial for the non-perfectionist

Range by TYA Kitchen, Pot filler by paperdollminiatures
and Chinese food by TwinheartMini

I have been working on my restaurant kitchen. I worked on the floor. I had copied this picture of blue tiles that I liked and I glued them all down. I added the white subway tile paper and gluing in the pot filler. (Quite happy that I managed not to lose it since I bought it/spray painted it.) I glued in the fruit tile picture I'd found and I glued in a shelf. 

I also worked on the other wall, adding another subway tile on one side. (I had bought several different versions, but I was happiest with the one on the wall above.) And the shipboard on the other side (seen).  And I added the swinging door.  I haven't yet glued the wall in. 

 Because the range from TYA kitchen is large, as befits a restaurant, the range hoods available for purchase are too small. So I decided to make one. But I am trying not to shop for supplies, so I used what was around (but I am well-stocked):

Range Hood Tutorial

-cardboard

-3V battery lights from Evan's Designs

-mesh from clementines bag

-silver paint

-aluminum paper

-aluminum sheets

-cardboard box

-glue

-magnets

I actually made this twice. In the end, my original version, which I took apart, was, maybe, the better version. Oh well. 

I first put two pieces of cardboard together in the length of the range hood.  Then I drilled two holes in the cardboard where I wanted the lights to go. I put the lights in those holes. 

I painted the mesh bag silver. It came out GREAT. I was really pleased with this result. I painted it on top of the cardboard, which gave the cardboard a silver bottom. I then first covered the cardboard in the aluminum paper, creating a slit where the light wires emerged.

Silver paint on the mesh bag

With the aluminum paper - smoother over the edge

My friend suggested I use the aluminum sheets. I had forgotten I had the aluminum sheets, and I thought that they would look better. So I took apart the original one and re-did it.  Apparently, the trick for getting the edges is to score it first with a knife, although you may end up cutting through your aluminum. As my friend told me after she saw my latest creation. Lol. So that's the pro tip for anyone trying to make this from this tutorial. 

I did not do that. 

I just bent it around the cardboard and then I ended up denting it and giving it all sorts of weird angles. 

Looking good at this point

Then I attached it to the ceiling with magnets because I want to be able to remove it for pictures.  Anyway, I am still pleased with it. Apparently, it's a well-loved, much used range hood. And I love my lights!

And here is the kitchen now:

I still need to make a small refrigerator covered by a counter, glue in that wall and add potentially more shelves. Oh and paint the ceiling white.

Hope you are all doing well and #stayingsafe!