What I did ...

...after pondering "what to do" (see post below if you're a new visitor).

Here's what I came up with after all that pondering.  And I'm real happy with how it all looks now and especially happy that I finally got my three singing birds hung.  It turns out I bought that in the fall of 2010!  So, it definitely had not been treated well.

The shelf arrangement ended up like this:

Several reasons why I chose this arrangement - I like the bird with only the cream wall behind him, I like the smaller piece of art with the fairly narrow shelf, I like having the doll because not only does it have exactly the right colors, but now the arrangement has something from all three of my children, and I like the fact that the pin is so small that people need to go closer to see it.  Of course probably not everybody is like I am - if I go to someone's home, I love looking at everything they have displayed - it's a nice way to get to know them better.  And if I have to get up close to something to really see what it is, I do.

On the left are my three birds hanging over two things that were already there - my petitpoint cat matted within a quilted circle and the delightful postcard that my grandson sent me from Paris with such a nice little message on the back that I had it framed between two pieces of glass!  This grouping is in my hallway right before you go into the bedroom.

And on the right are the cherries painting and the ceramic plaque together again, but now in my bedroom on the closet wall looking down the hallway to the living room.

I'm real happy with all three arrangements and now should never buy another single thing to hang on walls but I probably will.











And one more thing I did was finish another little miniature project.  This is a half inch scale bed that I've had in my collection of beds awaiting quilts and I decided to make a cross stitch coverlet for it.  I really seemed to drag my feet on the stitching but finally got it finished and managed to then get the whole thing put together yesterday.

The one on the left is a better picture of the bed itself and the one on the right shows the pattern and finished bed better.  For the bedskirt I used corrugated scrapbooking paper that I painted and then glued onto the sides of the bed.  For half scale, it works very well.  And I was lucky enough to have a very white and very tiny trim for the edges. 





So there you have it.  I've decided I should always be in a state of waiting to take a big trip because I really seem to be getting some things done.  I have to stain a couple more pieces of wood to finish up the two bookcases for January's roombox but they're very near completion.  And then I'm hoping I'll get a start on the box itself before I leave.  Although it's a well known fact that I work in slow ways my wonders to perform! :)

Thanks to those of you who e-mailed and commented on my "what to do" post.  I always enjoy hearing from everyone.

And Then There Was Light...

in my half inch scale kitchen roombox, that is.  I had made a little list of things to do today in order to be as ready as possible for the coming week (mainly go wander around Lowe's and Home Depot one more time).  But after my tea, newspaper, and crossword puzzle at Starbucks (and discovering that it was an hour earlier than I thought - oops!), I decided to heck with that, I'm just not going to have anything to do with the vanity today.

Instead I decided I would be brave and try and get the light fixed in that roombox.  It's been hanging on the wall in my kitchen with all the accessories stuffed inside, all the tweezers, etc., on the counter below, and me looking at it every day and thinking "if I couldn't do it before, I won't be able to do it now".  But today I thought "well, okay, what have I got to lose?" 

So, I rigged up my big magnifying lamp to see where it was I was supposed to put insert the lightbulb wires and just slid it right in there like I was a pro or something and it lit up!  Hooray!  Then I went ahead and set up all the things I have for it so far, using that blu-tak type stuff except mine is white.  I had more trouble with that than with the light cause it is all so tiny and my hands have gotten so shaky.  But it's back in place now and to celebrate, I took the protective film off the acrylic front.  I still need to add stuff to it.  I want probably an upper and a lower cabinet on the bare wall in the kitchen - maybe I'll order that tomorrow in the midst of getting my real-life vanity cabinet.  Bet it will be a whole lot easier. :)  And I want to make little placemats and maybe seat cushions for the chairs, but who knows when that will happen.  I should stitch some kind of tiny sampler too...

Then I went to the opening of the annual miniature art exhibit in the Renaissance Art Gallery here in Huntington.  It's my favorite exhibit of the year and each year just seems to get better and better.  Enjoyed that, and came home and ironed 4 shirts - I've ended up doing a bunch of laundry cause I just felt like all my clothes had spackle dust in them even though I had covered them all.

Didn't take any pictures of the shirts (tee hee) but here is a picture of the lit-up kitchen roombox back where it belongs and waiting for a little more decorating.

And, Wilbur, I am content. :)

What We Brought Home from IGMA Show

Okay - this will be a little show and tell and poor Chris will hang his head and cry when he sees the pictures I took of his treasures.  I even sat the camera on the shelf so it would be steady and they still look grainy to me.  But, Chris - you will have to take pictures yourself at some point and then you can post them on your Better Photo Gallery and they will be gorgeous.

Chris ended up with three wood turnings by the same artist. He bought two and one one in the live auction after the show. This little piece has a beautiful grain which changes appearance as you turn it this way and that and the light catches it. The lid fits perfectly and it's a sweet little piece.

He also purchased the bowl on the left during the show from the same artisan.  Again, the picture doesn't come close to showing the lovely grain in the wood and the fact that the band around the top is of a different wood.  The footed bowl on the left is the piece he bid for and won in the auction and it's a beauty.  Chris told me the way he got the very thin white pieces into the bowl was not with inlay, but by first composing a block comprised of dark wood pieces and light wood pieces in such a way that when he turned the block on the lathe, this was the result.  It is beautiful.  The base is a black wood.

And the piece de resistance for Chris:  this stunning ewer in sterling silver fashioned by Pete Acquisto - probably the best known miniature silversmith working today.  You may need to enlarge the picture on the left to see that the handle has a double row of beading running the length of it and is attached at the base with a leaf-patterned design.  I apologize that you see the reflection of my camera but that's how shiny it is. 



Chris certainly brought home the true treasures this time.  I didn't really buy very much, just enjoyed the atmosphere after a long time away from it.  I went hoping to find bits and pieces for my little half inch scale scene and I did find plates which was especially what I was searching for.  First bought some plain white porcelain ones and then discovered Ginger Langdon Siegel was there with her wonderful 3-dimensional framed miniatures.  I had visited her site on-line and saw that she had pretty little 1/2 inch plates made out of paper but on line she just had them shown in sets of 4 plates, all with different patterns.  At the show, she had a whole bunch of loose plates and I was able to pick out six of one pattern and I think 5 of another, so I'm pretty well plated.

I also bought a beautiful little handwoven basket of fruit that I can put on the hutch, table, or wherever and a little cookie jar.  And I finally found a globe for January's library scene that may someday get built. I will probably take it off of this base.  It was part of a boxed set she had made.  The top of the box had a little magnifying glass insert and was quite delightful but I didn't want it in a box so she said she would sell me just the globe and save the top to make another one sometime.  I've saved her information, but it's packed away until I get home so I can't tell you the name of the artist.  But she had all sorts of neat things, including orreries (those antique mechanical thingies that showed the sun with the planets extending out on arms around it).  If anyone wants the information on her, either e-mail me or say so in the comments section and I will be able to post it when I get back home in a week or so.

So I think that really and truly ends the report on my NYC and IGMA trip.  Kind of hate to see it come to an end, but I've enjoyed today too, getting up to Heather's new house without getting lost one time (thanks for the directions, Chris), seeing my wonderful grandkiddies again, and especially meeting the alpacas!  Weird but kind of endearing...I will be heading down to January's on Thursday once I know Heather has come through her "let's break her arm again and fix it right this time" surgery...poor thing.  I feel so bad for her.  But, hopefully a month or two from now, she'll be feeling pretty much like a person with two good arms again and can put all this behind her.

I've Finished Building My Kitchen/Dining Roombox!!

Mind you, it will now be an ongoing project as I try to gather up some "stuff" to fill it up.  Right now it's looking pretty barren.  But it's done and I'm pleased with it.  It's not perfect, but my projects never are and for how long it's been since I've done anything like this, it could have turned out a lot worse.

So, of course, here are pictures...

The dark wood down the sides and across the bottom is dollhouse picture frame molding so I'll be able to slide a sheet of acrylic down inside to help keep it from getting too dirty.  I'll probably rearrange the furniture a few times too.  In fact, it already is in a different arrangement that I'll look at for a while.  I want to make some kind of little chair pads at least for the two Windsor armchairs, plus I want to put a finish on them - they just bare wood right now.  And I desperately need some dishes for the hutch, a little something for on the table, pictures, etc.  In the kitchen I'm in the process of trying to get just a little piece or two of the same cabinets I put in my 1/2" scale dollhouse kitchen.  And I have various pots and pans, a few canned goods, a basket of veggies, a baguette (me and my baguettes!).  A couple of throw rugs would be nice too...maybe a cat...

A closer picture of the little stove that made all this effort necessary.  I've glued the missing plate back on.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had an old cookbook with these charming pictures that I thought about using to make a corner scene, where the Italy page and a facing page with an Italian recipe would be the walls.  But I found I didn't want to put anything in front of the pictures or the recipe!  So, I took these two pictures and put one on each side of the box.  I thought about choosing Germany since I lived there for a year, but I didn't like the picture as well and who knows, I may get myself to Scandinavia!


















And this last picture is where it will be in my kitchen, except I'm going to mount it on the wall to get it up off the counter.  So, that's how it will look when I walk into the kitchen and I'm just real happy with it. :)

And, guess what?  Last night I was looking at the Miniature Collector magazine and saw the ad for the IGMA show in September right outside NYC, and I thought oooh, that would be a great show.  Then I thought maybe, possibly, conceivably, Chris might want to go and we could share the cost of a room.  Cause aside from not liking the job he had while he was working there, he loved NYC and especially the Artisanal restaurant and he's fairly intrigued by miniatures himself - not obsessed like some of us get, but enjoys seeing the beautiful work of some of the artisan miniaturists.  So I called, we talked about it and this morning I get an e-mail from him saying he went ahead and reserved a room and we can take our time ironing out the details.  Is that great, or what?!  I've never been to an IGMA show and am really looking forward to it.

And, I guess that's it for tonight.  I'm over my cold and just back to having apparently sinus issues with a drippy nose, achy teeth, and periodic headaches.  But since that's how it was before my cold, I guess I can live with that.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend!

A Summer Cold - Yuck!

I should keep track - I feel like I get a cold every summer.  Always start with my throat getting sorer and scratchier, then progress on to the start of sniffles and a sneeze or two and then yesterday and today, doing nothing much except blowing my nose!  Poor me...

But...I had just started working on a miniature project (I think I mentioned I was pondering a scene for my 1/2" scale stove in a previous post).  So, I quit pondering and got started on it and when the cold hit, I didn't let it stop me (even though yesterday, especially, all I really wanted to do was go to bed).  And I'm going to post pictures just cause this is the first time I've worked on a miniature project in probably 6 or 7 years.  I made a tiny little vignette about 4 years ago for a friend's 50th birthday party but that's it.  I wasn't going to post pictures until I was all done, but I got my two little light fixtures hooked up this evening and that's always such a great feeling when they work that I figured, what the heck and so here's the picture. :)

I used what miniaturists call "printies" which is stuff you can find on line for printing off and making all sorts of stuff for miniature scenes.  I just used it for the wallpaper and the floor.  The reason the two side walls baseboard and chair rail look different than the rest is cause I haven't glued on the wood pieces yet.  But I'm pleased so far - think it has a nice cozy look.  Next will be covering up the space above the ceiling with a facade type front and I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to do that - just hope I can do a decent job of it.  Then I'll cover the outside of the box with something and that will be pretty much be it for the box.  I'll put the bit of stuff I have inside and then I may just have to find a miniature show and do some shopping!

On a totally different subject, I had lunch with my friend, Peggy, who is (thank heavens) finally back from Florida and after lunch we went to the bakery for bread and then went into the Bottle and Wedge (the beer, wine and cheese shop) cause Peggy didn't even know it was there.  Turns out she and her husband enjoy brewery-type beers and the store lets you "build" your own 6-pack, so she did that.  Got me so inspired, I bought two myself.  One was a wheat beer cause I had just been watching a cooking show the day before and he was making a marinade or something and said "now be sure and use a wheat beer for this" and having never even heard of wheat beer, my thought was "yeah, and where do we get that???"  And there it was.  I also bought a summer beer and decided a couple of hours ago to see what a beer might do for my poor sick self cause I had been coughing and blowing til I thought I was going to have to be put down.  And, strangely enough, it's been somewhat better since I finished it.  Quite a while ago, I posted my medical discovery of putting ground up aspirin on a wound that wouldn't heal and was hurting like heck, and now I've discovered that beer can help the common cold sufferer.  I may have to put out a shingle soon!

I guess that's about it for now - I really haven't done much except work on my little project and feel sorry for myself.  So, everyone say there, there... :)

A Study of the Ohio River

But first a little excitement for today...I posted pictures a while back of the start of a little half inch scale kitchen (which someone pointed out I should explain what that is - it's where 1/2" in miniature equals 1 foot in real life) and mentioned that I was going to have to do something about the fact that the table, chairs and hutch were painted country blue and the stove was cream and green.  Well, the very nice lady I bought the furniture from (and have known through miniature shows for a number of years now) agreed to take back all my pieces, repaint the blue parts for me and exchange the hutch I had for a slightly shallower one.  I got them in the mail today and so here's a picture of that.  I am so pleased with it and am all excited about getting back to work on creating the scene.  Although I think I'm going to be starting from scratch.  The longer my shadowbox "box" sat on the windowsill waiting for the furniture, the less I liked it - particularly my attempt at a hanging lamp.  But that's all right...

Now, for my study of the Ohio River.  I could have sworn that I posted pictures of the river in its normal state at some point in time but I've searched and I didn't.  At any rate, yesterday I could see from my windows that the river was looking high and since it had poured rain for about the prior 24 hours, I decided I would brave the cold, walk down to the river, and see what was what.  First of all, it was freezing!!!  In the 20's but very windy so very cold.  But I got down to the river and, sure enough, it was quite high.  This time I had thought ahead and had my camera.  So I took these pictures (thinking I would show them side by side with the normal pictures that don't exist).

Now the marina that looks like it's in the middle of the river isn't.  Normally, it's quite close to the bank of the river.  (That's Ohio across the river, by the way.)  And in the picture on the right, you can see almost two of the handrails going down a stairway that leads to a lower walkway (completely submerged now).  The portion on the left beside the stairs that looks like very deep stairs are terraces where people sit in the summer because there is a bandshell moored at that lower walkway where they have concerts.  So, even though I froze my little fingers doing it, I recorded how high the river was.

Then last night I heard one of those little teasers they do to try and get you to watch the news and they said they were going to be looking at the possibility of high water and I thought "hmmmm".  So today, thankfully not quite as windy, sunny and probably a little warmer, I thought I'd check and see if it actually was higher than yesterday.  I fortified myself first with a hotdog and chips from Sam's Hot Dogs.  Got to the river and it was higher.  I didn't do another shot of the marina cause it still just looked like it was in the middle of the river.  But here's the same shot of the handrail...

And the picture on the right is shooting down at the top of the stairs where yesterday you could see about 8 or 9 steps and today you see none.

These two are to try and show the highest I have ever seen the water.  The one on the right is taken looking up from near those submerged stairs to the rest of the stairs that take you to street level.  The high black thing in front of the building is the flood wall.  I've never seen it closed, but one time since I've been checking the river, I did see all these stairs submerged - it was pretty incredible.  There was a 1937 flood (before the flood wall and various dams) where the water went up to the street that building is on and was at about the second story level of the buildings on that street!  And then the picture on the left is up almost at the top of those stairs looking across to Ohio.  I do love this river...

Speaking of Half Scale, Here's My Half Scale House!

In response to my last post showing the meager progress on my kitchen, I've received several positive responses which is nice.  One lady whom I've never met but we've been e-mailing back and forth for a while now, wrote:  "Wish you would take some pictures of your half scale house. Would love to see it.  LOVE the beams in the kitchen. Jean"  and that inspired me to take some new photos of that house.  I've had some on my website for a long time but they were taken with my old camera, the house wasn't landscaped yet, etc., etc.  So, now I've taken a new set which still aren't the greatest - I think there's a "depth of field" issue that probably my son (with his incredible photo-taking talent) could tell me about, but they're better than what's on my website (which I haven't updated since 2006!!).

Kind of a funny angle but I wanted to show the landscaping mainly because I am NOT a landscaper, so I was pleased with the results on this attempt.  I DO wish I had put a window in that bathroom wall.  This house was an old Houseworks kit, but I built and added the kitchen/bath addition and not putting a window there has bugged me ever since.  I like looking through the bay window (which is scratch built) into the cozy kitchen.

Here's the entire interior (except for the attic which is finished but has nothing in it).  I kitbashed the staircase cause I wanted that landing.  The picture over the mantle is one I cross stitched.  The sofa and chair are two of my prized posessions - bought them at the Tom Bishop Chicago show.

Here we have the dining room and the little girl's room.  Seeing these pictures sure makes me realize I need to do a little more finishing - very bare walls.  I guess I just need to start going to miniature shows again - gee, what a shame! :)  The valances in the girl's room I made using cutouts from the wallpaper border.  All the other valances I made from cardstock using those decorative edging scissors and painting them.

This is the master bedroom.  Sure would be nice if the maid would make the bed!  I keep thinking I'll make some really special coverlet for it but that hasn't happened yet.  The desk in the back of the room is a Lydia Pickett kit from Robin Betterley.  The picture of the staircase shows the mural I put on the wall - that was to cover a mistake that I can't remember now.

I'm going to keep working on the kitchen scene, but posting these pictures has given me the itch to do a little more to this house too - we'll see how long that lasts!