This Little Doll House

The New House!

2012-01-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

I'm back! I guess it's been a while, but I have a good excuse! We just spent the past 6 months trying to find and move into our new Dream House! If you have ever bought a house, you know you probably don't buy the first house you see, and of course, that's what happened to us! We spent 2 months this summer in 100 degree heat looking for the perfect new home! Thankfully, our Realtor was very patient with us! We started out looking at new new homes, they were all gorgeous and anyone would love to live in them, But...as a miniaturist and all around crafter, they all just didn't work! So we started looking at older homes and hit the jackpot!! Not only were they on bigger mature lots, many of them had great custom features! We didn't have to look at many before finding this gem! It has just shy of 4000 sq. ft. and 3 garages! It's in a wonderful neighborhood of eclectic houses and more than fit our requirements! I guess the house is pretty standard, a big Master Bedroom (without the luxury bath! 2 other large bedrooms and another bath on the main level which also includes a very large living room, big family room and dining room and kitchen. The family room has wonderful wood sliding doors leading out to a very nice deck with views of all downtown Albuquerque! It's the lower level that gets pretty great! There is a huge family room with another gas fireplace, (This is Mark's "Man Cave" or so he thinks! Off this room through a set of wood doors is my library (another huge full bath leads from there) on the other side of the family room is a large sunroom which leads out to a great walled backyard. The dogs are loving life out there! There is also a large laundry room which thrills Mark to death since he does all of the laundry! Down a short hall is a closet that is the size of an average bedroom! Beyond that (yes, there's more! is a large room we will use as my craft storage room. From that room, you go through another door to my large Miniatures workroom complete with bathroom! There is a door to the yard and another into MY garage It's the 3rd garage that has been outfitted as a workshop! Finally! All of my miniature tools have a home! We are going to have to get at least 2-3 work benches or tables to set them all up on. The garage also has outside access and best of all, it has it's own heating and cooling system! I can finally work all year round! Well, that's the end of the description, here's a few pictures of the disaster areas as we move in!

Here's the front of the house, pretty normal looking, huh?

This is the view of from the front porch! Those are the foothills of the Sandi Mountains! Those cars parked up on the left are at the beginning of the trailhead! Our street is the highest you can go in the city!

This is just the beginning of our moving in! This is the 2 car garage that I actually got to park in for the first 2 weeks we loved here! It's now full to the brim of boxes!

My Library! Currently painted baby poop brown! LOL That will all change soon with a fresh coat of paint and all of my books!

The "Blue Room" or my craft storage room. It will be nice when it gets organized!

This is supposed to be the Guest Room, but for now it holds all of my jewelry stuff! At this point, there is a Queen size bed in there just in case you want to come help organize! Our son Chad flew in from South Carolina for a week to help with the move, thank goodness for sons!

This is "My Garage" This is where I will have all of my miniature tools! A whole room just to build my dollhouses and castles! Yippee!

The Miniature Workroom!

This room will be totally devoted to finishing my houses and building other miniatures! That's my private bathroom with a deep sink in the back!

My Sewing/Craft Room

This is upstairs in one of the bedrooms. On this wall there are 2 large sets of steel shelves. The one on the left will be for all of my papercraft/mixed media stuff. Paper, Xyron machines, Cuttlebug and down on the left, my big Cricut on a wheeled cart. On the right will be all things fabric! Fortunately, I have plenty of room downstairs for my 30 bins of "overflow" fabric!

This disaster is actually my sewing table! I have been sorting bins and boxes for days!

This side has my "project" table for painting fabric and doing all of my mixed media work. As you can see, I own a lot of the white storage boxes from Michael's! 50 at last count! Mark was kind enough to place them all. Unfortunately, none of them are in the right order and everything is in the wrong order! I am in the process of rearranging the contents to make everything more convenient! A huge job!

Last but not least... This is the "Living Room" which will be the upstairs Miniature Showroom and my office. All of the boxes contain miniatures, mine and those that will be sold on my new Website that I hope to launch very soon. The other half of my miniatures inventory and all of my dollhouses are currently in the garage awaiting this room to be set up!

I thought you might be interested in some of the organization tips that I have been scouring the Internet for, so I will be following this post with some of the better ones I find!

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour, feel free to drop buy and help unload boxes!

Later!

Michael's Castle

2011-08-04T19:04:00.000-06:00

Well, I was sort of right, it's almost a Quarter Scale castle. It's going to take some major renovation!

So you can tell the difference, I took pictures of both half scale and quarter scale furniture in the castle to compare the sizes. Take a look!

First- Half Scale Furniture

So... You can see from these pictures, that the windows work, but the furniture is way out of scale!

Now the Quarter Scale

Here is the open castle with a few pieces of Quarter Scale furniture in place. Do you see whats wrong?

The windows are completely out of proportion!

So... I have measured the windows and will be cutting new windows more in scale and in better positions for the quarter scale. Since the windows will be lower, I shouldn't have a conflict with the current windows. A small piece of wood cut to size on both sides, or one of the right thickness will fill the current holes and Paperclay will cover everything! Problem solved! It sure sounds easy doesn't it! I plan to use the "Rubble Stone" mold from Malcolm's miniatures to do the outside walls and I'm not sure what I will do for the inside yet. Possibly stucco, quick and easy especially in tiny scales. I found that Golden Fine grit Pumice mixed with little paint is the perfect stucco for small structures! It's a bit more expensive then sand and paint, but the finish is superb! You can get it at Michael's with a coupon too! I will use the brick mold on the stairs of course.

So... this all sounds so easy on paper doesn't it? It's the "doing" that's the hard part There are a lot of windows that have to be filled! I also have to order more S kits to fill the rooms!

ON the home front, I have been complaining for years now that we live in a teeny tiny house with no room to display my houses and other mini's. My workshop is a big white tent out in the back yard, so no working out there in the winter! BUT... Tomorrow, Mark and I start shopping for a new house! Whoopee! We have been preapproved and have picked out houses that all have large workrooms for me! 2 of them have craft rooms the size of a 2 car garage! Can you believe it?

Well, that's my big news of the month!

Heather

Quarter Scale Castle!

2011-07-31T16:51:00.000-06:00

I always seem to be apologizing for not posting! LOL! But my health this summer has kept me from doing quite a bit and it hasn't been a whole lot of fun. From the knees down, my legs look like tree trunks and the Drs. are completely stumped! I have had so many tests you would think they would come up with something!

I haven't done much in the Mini department, I have no room to work and it is very discouraging! I think I posted that my son Chad moved in with us last October and took over my sewing room. We had to consolidate ALL of my crafts into one f=room and that just didn't work. I literally had 12 square inches of desk space to work on! I am still trying to get my 1920's Night before the wedding roombox together. I still have to paint the vinyl brick sheets and place all of the accessories. I'm still working on the wedding gown, but it just needs a bit more beading. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show you!

To relive some of the clutter in the back room, I decided to organize my 30 year collection of beads. Being in bed or in the recliner is a great time to bead, so... I didn't realize what a project it would be! Nor did I realize I had that many beads! I have divided each box by color and so far, each large plastic box is full! and I have 2 more large bins of antique and estate finds to go through! I have found some beautiful beads that I had forgotten about and can't wait to make some jewelry!

BUT! That's not the big news! Look what I found at Michael's! A Quarter scale castle! Just last week on my Posse group I was whining that I need a castle project! That afternoon, Mark drove me to Michael's, I wasn't feeling really well and kind of dragging through the ailse. I just happened to be walking by thee wood aisle and looked up and on the top shelf was the castle! You should have seen me climb those shelves! LOL!
I didn't even know how much it was, it was coming home! I had a 40% off coupon pus a 25% off all purchases coupon! It was MINE!

The castle is made of unfinished wood. I don't like the drop front door so that will be changed to a side opening door.

The castle folds up! How convenient is that!

When fully open, this is the front. Okay, It needs work! I have lots of Paperclay ready! Soon that wood will be covered with stone! I'm not sure about the Windows, but I'll think of something!

This is the inside! 3 staircases! How cool is that! I have lots of kits for furniture so that's taken care of! I can't wait to start designing the tiny torches! The windows are very high on the walls for the furniture so I may have to elongate them. Time to get out the Dremel!

I think this little, or not so little,( it's over a foot tall!) has lots of potential!

I', sure there is a Dragon or two in my stash just waiting to call it home!

Stay tuned!

Stuck or Moving Along?

2011-04-09T14:11:00.000-06:00

Hi All!

A few updates on the 1920's Roombox! Things got a bit stalled because I was working on a "Posse" swap! I will post pictures of that once everyone gets their treat bag in the mail. I don't want to spoil the surprise!

First things first, I repainted the room. It was looking less like coral and more neon orange the more I looked at it! That just wouldn't do! These pictures show the first repaint. I made a mix of acrylic pink (Bubble Gum of all colors!) Titanium white and glaze and heavily sponged it on the walls. Well, most of the coral was gone, but it turned very pink! I HATE pink! I chose pink because there is so much pink in the accessories. It has since been repainted a barely there pearl pink! Very pretty and I can live with it! I will probably have to do something with the linens on the bed, oh well!

My first dream for this box was to include this gorgeous closet from Hazel Dowd in the UK! It took a month to get here and I could hardly wait! As you can see, It is WAY too big for this room! I'm so disappointed! But.. I have been inspired to make a bridal shop using the the corner shop from the Houseworks corner shop and use the closet in that! Won't it look great with bridal gowns and accessories in it?

I have been playing around with the room arrangement! I am waiting for the matching armoire for the bedroom set. Have to have somewhere to put the clothes I'm making! I have also added the new mannequin I bought from Cynthia Howe Miniatures. It will hold the wedding dress. It is made of porcelain and is very delicate! No, I still haven't put in the window trim and it's a good thing since I repainted it again! LOL

Here's a bit of the closeup of the left side.

And the right side

And with the trunk. I haven't a clue where I'm going to fit the armoire!

Notice anything different? Small stuff maybe?

I have been playing around with some accessories! Here are a few things I have for the vanity!

I bought 4 beautiful lamps on Ebay. 3 of the 4 light up. Sorry the pictures didn't come out so great! Some of the accessories are made by me and some are bought. There are many more to try out!

The candy jar is fill with #25 brown beads to act as chocolates! LOL!

This lamp is so pretty when it is lit!

SO... That's what I have been up to this week.

I volunteered through my club, the Albuquerque Mini Makers, to make 65 pearl necklaces for the gift bags we are making for the Denver show. I'm using #15 beads. They are going together very quickly but 65 seems to be a huge number at the moment! I have a few tricks to quick string to show you but I will save that for my next post!

I hope you all are well and that the snow is finally going away! We are have some very nice weather and I even have tulips blooming in the yard! Aside from the wicked winds, Spring is the nicest season here in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, it only lasts about 2 weeks! LOL!

On the health side, I have been going through many tests, EEG's, EMG's, MRI's ABC's LOL! To find out why my pain has increased and my eyes have deteriorated so quickly. More tests coming for my eyes... For the pain in my back and legs, they found several badly displaced disks in my back. No good with the arthritis in my spine! I had 2 options, injections or surgery. I chose the injections. My theory is, once they cut into your back, they will be cutting forever! So, I had my first set of injections last week. Very painless. That night was the first night in years that I slept through the night without moaning and groaning and screaming in my sleep! Mark called the doctor and thanked him! LOL! I can stand up strait without pain! I don't know how long this is going to last, but I am in Heaven at the moment!

Mini Hugs!

I'm Back! New Room Box!

2011-03-28T16:14:00.000-06:00

Hi All!

Well, it's been a long painful winter with no place to play with my mini's! Our youngest son chad moved home in October and we had to turn my sewing room in to his bedroom! So... where does a jam packed room full of stuff go? Everywhere! There are boxes in the Dining Room, The living Room, and my Craft Room was completely refigured to take in most of the stuff! So what have I been doing the past couple of months? Mostly dressing 16" Goth and Steampunk Dolls and playing with my Cricut machine! Both activities are much easier on my back then hauling plaster castle panels or trying to paint impossible little corners in a doll house! LOL!

But leave it to my Online Posse friends to get my juices flowing! I know I have talked about "The Posse" before, we are an offshoot of the Minidoll List and meet to chat online 4 times a week. Being pretty much housebound, these women have become my lifeline to the outside world! I don't know what I would do without them!

We had a Christmas Swap and I received the most beautiful coat, hat, glove, and shoe ensemble. We are now doing a Trunk swap, based around a steamer trunk. Some built their trunks from kits, I, being terribly out of practice, took one look at all those little parts and immediately ordered a Heidi Ott trunk! LOL! Fortunately, as a dealer, I don't have to pay full price!

The following pictures are the start of a 1920's Pre-Wedding Roombox! There will be a doll sitting at her vanity in her "unmentionables", her wedding gown will be on a mannequin and her bridal veil will be hanging from one of the posts of the bed. (Wedding veils were very long then!) Her armoire (Not in pictures) will be open with sumptuous dresses and lingerie as will the trunk starting to be filled for her Honeymoon! Get the picture?

So here we start! I am using a basic Houseworks Roombox with acrylic front, it's approximately 10" tall by 16' wide and 9 1/2 deep and definitely not big enough! LOL

I have no idea how I am going to finish the outside yet, but I definitely heeded a window! I thought I would pass along a little tip for painting windows. First, I carefully measure the plastic surface of the window material then transfer the measurements to the paper backing of clear shelf paper! Cut out each piece, grind your teeth and say a few nasty words while attempting to take the paper backing off and apply to both sides of all windows! No paint drips to clean and nice clean edges! I take the plastic off as the very last step before installing the window!

Window with all 4 sides covered with plastic and ready to paint and stain!

Here I have all of the woodwork aad floor stained in a nice soft mahogany. It's not as deep as the furniture, but I haven't figured out yet how they get that color!

Peach was a big color in the 1920]s, so here is the 1st attempt! Blaaah!

This is the final color, I wish the camera picked up the color better. I mixed up a batch of Quinacridone yellow and gloss acrylic gloss and heavily sponged it over the peach. The yellow is barely there, but it gives it a lot of texture and a nice sheen to the walls!

Here's the basic box with the floor. No woodwork, nothing! Pretty boring!

Okay, I had to do it! Here is the furniture, minus the armoire and mannequin that I will be using in the room!I'm just starting to play with the floor plan! The bed is so bloody big!It came completely dressed like that with a full set of sheets, bedspread and 5 pillows! But, as nice as they are, I think I might change them!

That's the beautiful coat I tossed on the bed! I've added a few hat boxes and the hat that goes with the coat. Wait till you see the lighting! It's gorgeous!

I have been busy making the dresses for the armoire and trunk, I will leave those as a surprise! I have also been making the jewelry and vanity accessories. I haven't found a carpet I like yet! The window will be totally dressed out as per the period!

So,,, That's as far as I've gotten so far, Still lots of work to do! The wedding gown for the mannequin is a copy of a real gown I found online! I can't wait to start it!

Any suggestions you have for this room will ne greatly appreciated!

Joann's Online problem!

2011-02-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

I know I haven't written in a while, but life has been very strange around here the past few months! It all started back in October when son Chad moved in! Now, I know I have mentioned this before, but Casa Rayl is very tiny! Barely enough room for Mark, me and the 3 dogs! Add in 6'3" Chad and all of his worldly belongings and... I watch TV from my chair over a field of boxes! LOL!! My sewing room is now his bedroom and my craftroom is one giant closet with a tiny space to work in! It's cramped, cold and so organized I can't find a thing! When I want something, I have to unload 2 or 3 boxes to get to it. By the time I get my materials assembled, I'm in bed for 3 days for the effort! No fun at all!

My health has taken a turn for the worse also. My team of doctors are stumped again. I have been having test after MRI after CT after gallons of blood drawn! They are finding all kinds of interesting stuff, just no what is causing all of the headaches and burning sensations in my legs. I also fall asleep immediately upon sitting in my chair. think like when you are in church or school and you are desperately trying to stay awake? Head bobbing? I do that for hours on end! If I try to give into it and take a nap I am instantly awake! LOL! No, it isn't narcolepsy. Been there, done that! It's the most irritating of all of my symptoms! Aside from the unrelentless pain, but I'm getting really good at ignoring that!

So... what does all of this have to do with Joann's? Well, Chad got into an accident and totalled his car. This has left me car less even on my good days! So I have been shopping online! I got an e-mail from Joann's about this great sale. Here's the catch! You do a search for items and it gives your choices with a price underneath. Sometimes it's a sale price. For instance, I searched for Tim Holtz ink (I use it a lot on my mini's) the search came up and it said sale price $2.99 a bottle! Great! I clicked on colors hit add to cart, went back to search and found some other stuff on sale. When it came to check out, the total was WAY over what it should be. I checked the prices and each item was .50 to $3 more than the original search said! I went back and clicked on each item and there it was, a higher price! I hadn't looked inside the listing! I just assumed it was the same! Dumb me! I think that is a terrible practicee! I sent them an e-mail and got the standard response. Please call us at 800... so we can help you with your order! I hate that!

So... be forewarned if you order from Joann's! Thier online store has lots more stuff than the stores and they usually have great sales! especially when they are offering free shipping! Just double check the prices!

Didn't mean to ramble on here. I miss all of you! I can't wait for Spring to get back outside in my workshop!

Sewing for Dolls and My Jewelry

2010-11-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

Nothing Mini today! Sorry! I am still redoing my workroom and making space!

However, I am sewing again! I am still working on my pattern line for the Heidi Ott dolls! I hope to have a few patterns out in January with more to come latter.

In the meantime, I will be passing along lots of Tips and Techniques for sewing for dolls of all sizes on my other Blog Dragonfire Designs! I have just started a new dress for one of my larger dolls, but quite a few of the techniques can be used for any size doll! I hope you will follow along and add your comments and questions!

I should have the first post up with a few days!

Right now I have a few pictures of jewelry I have been making in the evenings.

Here's a peek at my best selling pair of earrings! You can see the rest at Dragonfire Designs! No, I'm not selling them on line yet, but if you want a pair, I'd be happy to make some for you! They come in a variety of metals and stones!

That's it for now! See you soon! Stay warm and Stay Safe!

New Project!

2010-11-14T15:03:00.001-07:00

Did I mention I have another Blog? Of course I did! It's all about my jewelry making and sewing for my larger Fashion Dolls! http://www.dragonfiredesigns.blogspot.com/

So, you ask, what does this have to do with you? Well, bare with me here!
Let me introduce you to Agnes Dreary!

She is a 12" tall fully articulated young lady of the "dark" persusian!

"Dark" meaning all things spooky! LOL

So, me being me, I decided that this you lady needed a very special spooky castle! Off to the drawing board I went and went totally blank! LOL! I have never designed anything in 1/48th scale! I do have a castle in that scale which I took a class for by Shaun Crawfor in Denver, but it isn't anything like what I wanted this castle to look like! But it gave e the basic dimensions for room height etc.

So, back to the drawing board! Now, where was that ruler...

I told you we were completely redoing my workspace, I still can't find half of my stuff! LOL! Okay... found the ruler and pencil and the graph paper.

Oh! You expected more? Well, you'll just have to come back later! LOL!

New Blog!

2010-11-13T09:49:00.001-07:00

Hi All!

Well. I am expanding into another world with a new Blog!

http://dragonfiredesigns.blogspot.com/

I have a new love and her name is Agnes Dreary! She is a 12in "Fashion Doll" made by the Tonner Company! The little darling is very "Dark" as her name implies and I am having a ball dressing her (um, 8 of her! LOL) in all manner of Steampunk, Witch, and Medieval clothes! I even have her sister who is getting dressed for a Grave Yard wedding!

I didn't stop there! I have all manner of these dolls now including Antoinette, several Ellowyne's, Medieval looking Tyler's, a couple of witchy looking dolls and a new favorite Tiny Kitty!

I hope you will follow the new blog as I transform these dolls into witches, fairies, Medieval Maidens and Steampunk Wonderkinds!

Of course, if this isn't your thing, I understand completely!

No, I am NOT giving up my miniatures! As I have told you before, my miniature workshop is in a huge tent outside and at the moment it is 45 degrees out there! So, for the next couple of months I will be sewing for my big and small dolls!

I hope to have my line of sewing patterns for Heidi Ott dolls out by January!

Doll Shop Room box and Chad!

2010-11-07T09:32:00.004-07:00

Hi All,

Well! Talk about life getting a bit strange! So many things have changed in the past few weeks! Our son Chad called about a month ago and said, "Hi Mom, I should be there on Wednesday!, Can I stay for about 6 months?" Um, Ah, Well, what does a mother say in this situation except, "Sure!"

Now, we live in a very small 2 bedroom house with a small addition. Aside from the bathroom and bedroom and the kitchen, the rest of the house houses my sewing and dollhouse crafts and business. There is hardly room to fit another doll chair in here and I'm supposed to sleep a 6'3" young man? Where? For 6 month? LOL In 3 days!!!!!

Well, he arrived with his stuff on the appointed day. Fortunately, like his mother, he drives a sports car and can't carry much! (I'll tell you the funny story why I drive a Mazda Miata some other time!) We obviously didn't have time to clear out the house! So... Poor Chad has to sleep on the couch for 3 weeks.

We have finally done some major moving and reorganizing! I will post pics of my new work room soon! It's very workable! I'm amazed!

In the mean time, the Dollhouse Shop I was building came to a grinding halt but the Swap and Showcase Parade deadline didn't stop!
Here is a little roombox I literally threw together for my online Posse group!
The swaps were incredible! I wish I had taken better pictures of some of the individual swaps but they didn't come out! There is an incredible set of clay tools sticking out of the grey roll around caddy! Tiny paint brushes, porcelain doll molds and tiny dolls, tiny embroidery cards with thread, and the tiniest spools of thread! There are tiny doll patterns and lots of pattern books, scissors and a pin cushion with tiny needles, cans of paint and a can of stucco for the house! The sewing machine even light up!

In the room, Kathy (the doll) can make and dress her dolls and build dollhouses! In this picture you can barely see the tiny dolls on the fabric on the desk!

You can see some of the tools on the top of the grey caddy! All of the drawers open and they are full of sewing and building tools.

You can't see it very well, but here she is working at the doll house table. Over the table is a peg board filled with tools including a tiny dremel, solder iron, electrical tape, blue tape, t square, etc. She has lots of kits to build by her feet!

I was going to pull out of the swap completely because I didn't have a roombox to put everything it! Then I thought of this room! I painted it one day and decorated it and took the pictures the next day which was the deadline! Fortunately, there were no prizes given for the Posse Parade! I was just glad to participate!

I will be finishing my other Dollhouse Shop! I have tons of stuff to put in it! But at least this is a start!

Many thanks!

Heidi Ott Redux

2010-10-22T11:45:00.002-06:00

Hi All!

After reading my last Blog post, my husband made a comment that I thought would be important to pass along to you!

When I offered to order a Heidi Ott doll for you, payment would not be due until the doll is ready to be shipped to you! NOT when you order it!

That way, you are not out any money until the doll is ready to be on it's way to your door in a couple of days (or weeks if your are international!)

I am placing this this large order anyway, and I am just trying to help my friends by offering this service! If you change your mind, I can always sell the doll on Ebay! No problem! No hard feelings!

All payments would be made by personal check or preferably PayPal.

I hope this all makes more sense now! If you have any questions, e-mail me at hcrsold@aol.com and put Heidi Ott in the subject line. You can order as many dolls as you wish!'

Heidi Ott Dolls

2010-10-20T16:52:00.003-06:00

Hi All!

Here's an opportunity for you! I mentioned in my last post that I will be putting put a new line of clothing patterns for miniature dolls! There will be 2 kinds, one set will be for the undressed Heidi Ott sized dolls, female and male. I will eventually include children in the line starting with Medieval designs. The other set of patterns will be for "regular" porcelain dolls, which will be easily resizable to fit the myriad of dollmakers dolls! I have been working on those patterns for almost 2 years! All of the patterns are designed to be sewn with a minimum of gluing! Though I suppose someone who is good at gluing can interpret them! There will be patterns for all skill levels from beginner to advance! A DVD will be included with each pattern which includes the patterns and upclose videos of lots of the tips and techniques included in the written patterns! Expensive you think? Not at all! You will be very happy with the prices!

But that's not what I wanted to talk about here!

I have to make a large order of Heidi Ott dolls! More than I can use! So... If there is a doll or dolls, undressed or dressed that is on your wish list, please e-mail me at hcrsold@aol.com put Heidi Ott in the Subject Line! I will be placing the order in the next several weeks. I will be happy to order your doll/s and pass along a 35% discount plus shipping to you! If you order a doll now, it will also entitle you to a 25% discount on your first order of my patterns!

Please feel free to pass this invitation on to your friends! (I have to place a BIG order!) LOL!

I hope you are all looking forward to Halloween! I have been playing on all the other Blogs and having a great time!

Just A Little News

2010-10-16T12:20:00.005-06:00

Hello My Friends!

It's been long, No good, very bad Summer!
I have to apologize for not writing, but my thoughts have been a massive jumble these past few months. I have not been well for months, and that has not been fun!

As most of you know, I live in the high dessert in New Mexico. Well, this summer, it has been one of the hottest summers on record! My workshop is a very large white tent that adjoins my tiny house. At times this summer, temperatures rose to over 120 degrees in there! Not a pleasant place to work! To top things off, my doctor put me on a medication that reacted badly with the heat! Bad choice for anyone living in a desert! I could barely make it from my house to the car!

So... I spent most of the time in my sewing room. This was somewhat productive. I will be putting out a line of patterns for mini dolls soon! These will be sewing patterns and will range through all periods in history! Now, no boos and hisses over the sewing part! I make it easy for anyone, beginners and experience sewers to make the outfits for the men and ladies! I also have a set sized for the ever popular Heidi Ott dolls! I am working on videos to go along with the patterns, (Well, I was, read on! ) which shows how to do some really great finishing and sewing tips!

Surprise! Three weeks ago, our son chad called and asked if he could move in! WHAT! Where the devil are we going to fit a 6'3" 30 year old man in our tiny house? Being the loving, accommodating parents that we are, we said of course, come on down!

Our tiny house has 2 bedrooms, a living room and my craft room. The second bedroom is filled to the ceiling with all of my sewing supplies, 3 sewing machines, a computer with printer, and more fabric and trims then 3 people could use in a lifetime! Plus all of my research books that take up 2 bookcases! Yup, they all have to go somewhere! The room is tiny to begin with! My craft room has all of my dollhouse supplies, and a wealth of craft supplies I have been hoarding over 20 years! You can barely fit in another toothpick in there!

So, Chad arrived last week and we have been moving things as best we can. My body doesn't let me do much at a time, my knees feel like they are going through a trash compacter every time I go up and down our 3 little stairs. I am waiting for Mark to put up a second tent outside to add to our storage options. I have bought tons of new sturdy plastic bins to store my fabric outside in the second tent, plus my doll house (the unfinished ones) will go out there too. What a mess! Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, we will have things straightened out so I can get back to work!

Below is a Dollhouse shop I started and have been working on slowly as my health has permitted. It was supposed to be done y October 31 for our Posse showcase! Not a chance for making the deadline! The first pictures are my inspiration pictures I found on the Greeenleaf forum! I have tried over the past couple of months to contact the owner for permission to post the pictures with no luck. I don't know her name except Dianna. I hope she doesn't mine! Her work is awesome!

My shop will be totally different from hers! First, I won't have as much "ironwork" as hers! Too bad, that's the part I like the best!

I chose to close off the door in this room to gain more wall space.

I decided to put in an arched door between the 2 shops. I made 2 steps to adjust for the difference in height. I also changed the front window. I am installing a half window instead of the doors which are called for.

Here the interior has been primed and the tape wire has been installed. I plan to have a work table towards the back of the shop with a light on it, so I had to have tape running on the floor for a plug.

The tape is running high on the front wall to accommodate the outside lights. Well, here is the plug in the floor for the work table light. It doesn't show in the picture well, bit that light is lit! Yeah! all of the tape wire works! I didn't show it here, but I used the tiny tubes that are available for installing tape instead of putting the tiny nails in! You only need one tube versus 2 tiny nails per connection. Much easier! I drilled all of the holes for the tubes with my handy dandy new Dremel!

This is a better shot of my Dremel Stylus! This is by far the best "Mini" Tool I own! It fits in my hand perfectly, fits into tiny places, recharges very quickly and uses standard dremel tips! I use it on my clay, jewelry work and of course on my mini's! It's powerful enough to cut all sizes of mini wood and sands like a dream! I got mine on Amazon of all places! It's not cheap! But worth every penny!

Well, that's the past 4 months news in one post! Whew! I hope it all made sence!

I have een reading all of your blogs and have been blown away by all of your progress! I am in awe! Keep up the great posts!

The Wizards Lair! Finally Furnished!

2010-06-21T12:49:00.000-06:00

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've posted! So much has been going on! I have lots of pictures to post for your enjoyment! But first! At the very beginning of this blog, you might remember all of the pictures of Mark and I building the Wizards Lair!

Well, 2 years later...LOL

I finally fished out 5 boxes of Medieval furniture and decided to furnish it! The pictures below are a trial run. I have only pout up a few temporary pictures and a few plates so far. I have tons of accessories! I can't find my box of weapons! Boo Hoo!

The Tower stands almost 5 feet tall!

This is the 2nd level Great Hall. All of the fireplaces and lights work and are handmade by me!

Another view of the Great Hall

The Throne Room

I'm nit sure what this room is, maybe a library?

The library?

Top Level, Ladies Room

Top Level, Ladies Room.
Needs Accessories!

Wizard visiting the Library!

I love the cabinet at the back of this room! All of the doors open to reveal shelves to put stuff!

The Wizard get around!
This is the lowest level and the biggest room.
I have tons of accessories for a Wizards Lab! I was originally going to make this a horses stable for the castle or maybe put a Dragon here. Haven't decided yet!

So... there you have it. The first stages of decorating the Wizard's Lair!

Close Encounters!

2010-04-16T09:45:00.004-06:00

Good day my friends!

It's been a while since I have posted! I'm afraid I was stricken with that nasty bug politely called N1H1 otherwise known as the Swine Flu! Yes, it was awful! My temperature rose to over 103 degrees and I suffered from the most hilarious hallucinations! Mark said it was hysterical watching me do the most intricate work with my hands while holding nothing! My dreams where in 3D and technicolor! I was very lucky he didn't plunk my butt in the hospital but he and the doctor decided that I was best off at home! Thank goodness! Unfortunately, the flu was closely followed by pneumonia so I had a double whammy and it took almost 6 weeks before I started to feel like myself! No mini making for me! But I did read all your blogs for entertainment!

I was just feeling myself when I got this odd e-mail from a woman in Canada! She asked if I lived near Albuquerque and if so, where there any Mini shops or attractions nearby. It turned out she and her traveling companion Elizabeth where taking the train from Kingston, Ontario the next week to visit her 90 year old mother and would be in town for 4 days!

I quickly wrote back to Adrian that, no, there were no mini shops in town but I would be happy to show here and Elizabeth around town. (Praying they weren't ax murders) Bright and early on Wednesday morning I met them at their hotel, and to my delight, out comes two women with big bright smiles ready for a day on the town! Big Relief!

We spent the day hitting a few of Albuquerque's tourist highlights, we hiked up the Petroglyphs, (Elizabeth made it to the top!) I wimped out about a quarter of the way up the hill! LOL!

This is Adrian at the bottom of the hill!

To show how high the hill really is and why I wimped out! That's Elizabeth at the very top! She's the blurry figure on the top left of the picture!

We spent the afternoon with lunch and stopping at my favorite quilt shop before dropping Adrian off at the Aquarium and Botanical Park. Elizabeth wanted to go shopping, so off we went to Old Town and hit the shops! Both of them did exactly what they wanted to do and had a great time! After, we went back to their room and I looked at computer pictures of their wonderful work! They are both wonderful miniaturists!

As it turns out, Adrian is a castle builder! LOL! She is the co-designer of the Camp Mini HaHa castle project this year! It's gorgeous! Oh, I wish I could afford to go to camp! Not just for the castle, but to see Adrian and Elizabeth again! Oh well!

They took off on their own on Friday to explore New Mexico on their own and ended up in Madrid (a wonderful crafts market town) and Santa Fe! They put quite a few miles on their walking shoes those 2 days! Plus a few dents in their wallets I expect! Sunday morning I met them for breakfast and to return their rental car. I took them and their luggage back to the train and sent them back on their way East... To the Chicago Shows!

I have been getting wonderful daily updates about their adventures and classes!

I have learned a valuable lesson... check your e-mail carefully! You never know what treasures may lie there! I have made such wonderful new friends! I wish them well on their travels and may we be friends for many years to come!

Adrian, Elizabeth and Me!

Until next time!

Heather

Ebay Find

2010-02-20T23:08:00.004-07:00

Hi All,

I have to show off my latest Ebay Find!
Aren't they great? I hesitated when I put in my final bid... but said what the heck, we can eat Mac & Cheese for a couple of days! LOL!! They were a tad over the budget for the month (and next!) but I had to have them! The artist's name is Coleen and she does supreme work! These are even more awesome in person!

I have been busy working on a bunch of UFO's and trying to clean up the studio. It's a hopeless mess! I have decided I don't need 13 dollhouse kits so look for an announcement for when they go up on Ebay! I will also be selling a huge amount of craft, bead, and doll magazines I have been faithfully saving for the past 15 years! It's time to let go!

I keep telling myself it will feel good to be able to walk around the room again. It will won't it?

Play Day kit is Done!

2010-02-08T12:29:00.007-07:00

Hi All!

Well, I have been busy working on the kit for New Mexico's First Play Day!

As I said before, this is a small half scale project that will be completed in one day with roundtable projects to decorate the porch in the afternoon! I went together like a little dream! The kit is available in two finishes, siding and stucco, I chose to do the stucco finish obviously! See below to see the siding version done by my friend, Dianne Williams!

Siding Edition done by Dianne Williams from the Albuquerque Mini Makers! As you can see, the design opens the door (no pun intended) for lots of decorating opportunities! Our Theme is "Seasons of New Mexico" and the roundtables will be based around decorating the porch for the different seasons or holidays! So far I have seen the Winter roundtable and it is adorable! Jeri Stephan-Debuty from the club has put together a wonderful wreath and a snowman. Dianne's roundtable will include a bench with birds, a nest and some flowers. There will also be a traditional New Mexico scene with hanging ristra's and a cactus and of course a Halloween display presented by Joyce Bernard and her granddaughter Kristy! Other members of the club have been busily designing their roundtables to add to the excitement!

Overall, I think the attendees will go home very happy with a fully finished and decorated little kit that they can light if they wish. There will also be a show and tell table with a prize and prizes and raffles all day! Lunch and refreshments will be served too.

Gee, I didn't mean this to sound like an ad for the Play Day! But if you would like to come play, it's on June 12, 2010 in Albuquerque, NM! The event is being sponsored by the Albuquerque Mini Makers, our 1/12 scale mini club here in Albuquerque! There is a great hotel within a half mile with rates at $69.00 double room and we have a tour of the TinkerTown Museum planned for the next day!
The cost for the Play Day is $50.00 per person and is limited to the first 35 people who register! For more information: e-mail me at hcrsold@aol.com and put Play Day in the subject line!

Okay, enough advertising for one day! What do you think?

Half Scale Play Day Project!

2010-02-05T13:48:00.004-07:00

Hi All,

Well, I'm almost rested up from my trip out west and a new and exciting project has landed on my workshop table!

A while back I told you I had be instrumental in starting a Miniatures club here in Albuquerque and had also become the NAME State Representative. Well, both of those activities have been keeping me hopping! Back in November, Janet Smith, the NAME Regional Director for the N1 district proposed the idea that we have a State Play Day and asked what I thought of the idea. Ever the enthusiast, I thought it was great and immediately brought it up to the members of the club and "Seasons of New Mexico" New Mexico's first Play Day in a very long time was born! (More info later) So, as coordinator of the event, I get to make one of the sample kits for the website and the advertising brochures! Oh joy! (Actually, I'm loving it, I think!)

So...last Tuesday, Dianne Williams, Kit Committee Chairwoman hands me a bag of parts and says "Have fun!"So, I dump out all the parts... There are NO instructions! Just 2 big sides, (or little considering this is half scale!) a Houseworks door, window, coach light, and door knob! All righty then! Let's get this show on the road!

The kit was designed by Janet Smith who actually cut and routed out the pieces. I didn't take a picture, but there are 2 finishing options, 1 siding, Janet has routed in siding on the front of the 2 sides, and 2, stucco, which I am doing! Janet did a wonderful job of routing the siding and cutting the holes for the windows and doors! From what she tells me, this was her first major woodworking project! Kudos Janet! (Now she has 35 more sets to make for Play Day!)

This is the dry fit sample! I have already filled the routed gaps with Dap fast and Final!

Anyway, back to work! I decided that my kit was to be electrified and found I could run the wire over to the door hole and down to the bottom! No holes! The wires are so tiny that the steps just slid right next to it! Yippee, no routing! So, I got out my trusty old GOOP and secured the bottom half of the tiny light to the raw wood. (Coach lights come apart for easy installation and bulb changing. Make sure you cover it well with tape and keep the Bi-pin holes free from debris!) Then I proceeded to cover the fronts with a stucco made of a combination of paint, sand and Elmers glue.

Duh... What's wrong with this picture?

Well, I didn't put it together! So there was a very noticeable seam in the middle and the steps didn't fit! Yes... I actually woke up in the middle of the night with this brainstorm!

Now, my stucco is meant to stay on the wood, none of this flaking stuff! LOL! I mean it's like cement! So, I took the stairs and marked where they were to go and really soaked the stucco well with water for a few minutes then scraped it off with my Exacto knife and sand paper! Perfect!

So, I then put all the parts together using my favorite fast drying wood glue, installed the steps, used great quantities of masking tape to hold it all together and walked away!

An hour later, I returned and I had a nice solid little roombox ready to be touched up with stucco!

These pictures are a bit confusing! This one shows how I put the stucco on the sides and did the touchup! I didn't like the bare wood! There is some framing material that was supposed to go there, but I like the stucco! Well? The tape is off, the stairs are attached! You can see where I need to fill the stucco! What do you think of the window and door?

I really want to know what you think about this little kit! I know I haven't finished it yet! It's been lots of fun to work on! It will be the morning session of our play day! The afternoon will be devoted to round tables to make decorations for the porch and door depicting the changing Seasons and Holidays we celebrate here in New Mexico!

The date is June 12, 2010! If you want more information, write to me at hcrsold@aol.com and put Play Day in the Subject line!

Stay tuned as I finish up this cute kit!

Finally! My Purchases!

2010-02-02T09:51:00.009-07:00

Hi All!

I know... I promised these earlier, but I had to retake a bunch of pictures! My camera broke 3 days before my trip and I had to buy a new one! I bought a Canon Power Shot 1200 and I'm not too sure I like it!

Anyway, it took forever to upload and organize these pictures! So here goes!

First, This is an absolutely gorgeous knitted sweater made by my Posse friend Sol Zaga! She also made the matching shoes and handbag. Unfortunately, these are not mine! Boo Hoo! She made them as a surprise gift for Moonyeen! They are so beautiful I had to show them off! When I get my website up, I promise to sell Sol's gorgeous knit and crochet work!

This is a "Quick and Dirty" electrified fireplace that Moonyeen taught me the day I left! It is made with burnt sticks (Yes, I carefully burned the sticks over a candle!) glued over red plastic straws! You insert the tiny bulbs into the red straws! She said it is a Rik Pierce technique! Take real ash from the Bar B Que and sprinkle over the top! Very realistic! Someone asked me for a picture of the Peat fireplace in my roombox! Here it is! The "Peat" is made with chocolate brown Fimo, real dirt, and tea leaves! After baking, sprinkle more tea leaves on top and set with hair spray! Now my purchases!

On our way back from the Tom Bishop show we stopped at Cynthia Howe's House! What a fabulously talented lady she is! When she isn't taking care of business http://www.cynthiahoweminiatures.com she is busy designing and taking care of her multi talented family! She is famous for her fabulous Roombox Classes, (I'm saving up to take one!) custom laser cutting work, and now... Miniature Embroidery designs on her new sewing machine! Do Cyndy!

Here is my treasure box of doll kits I bought from her! I will be busy for quite a while dressing dolls! We also stopped at wonderful Miniature Dollhouse shop in Ventura, CA called Larrianne's Small Wonders. I bought 2 of my favorite pieces here! A beautiful carved trunk from England and....This wonderful Burner with glass bottle for my Wizard! Isn't it great! Now for my purchases from the show!

I found this weather table and chair set for my cottage roombox! It has a 150 year old English Oak top! This was just a plain unfinished bookcase! Nothing special! I put 2 coats of paint on it and Moonyeen went at it with a wire brush! Looks great doesn't it? It's also in my roombox!I couldn't resist these gorgeous laser cut chair with burl wood seats! They will be for the new castle we are working on! I think the table is the perfect finish touch!I had to show you the base of the table! The top is burl wood, not marble!Ohh.... When I saw these I HAD to have them! These are from the Dolls Cobbler! You can see them in this months Miniature Collector Magazine!

I can see these in my Witches roombox can't you? Or maybe, just maybe on a witch?Perfect riding boots also from the dolls cobbler! Ok, who can resist Elf boots? LOL!!! Well, I couldn't! I had to have them!! MINE!!!!

I also bought 10 1/4 scale kits for making furniture for my 1/4 scale castle that I made in Denver last September! Even a catapult! LOL!! Now that I have had such excellent instruction on electricity, I'm going to try to make some teeny tiny scones for the inside! Wish me luck on THAT one! LOL!!!

I am soooo into my projects! My brain is going a mile a minute! But first I want to finish my Cottage roombox! It still needs to be painted! I have to finish the little bed in the back wall. More accessories need to be made. And of course... the dolls! Plus the outside hasn't even been started yet! Oh my! So much to do, so little time!

First we Crawl!

2010-01-29T12:33:00.006-07:00

I promised pictures! I thought I would start with the whole purpose of the trip... Building and electrifying the Witches Roombox. The overall size is approximately 10.5 inches wide by 9.5 inches high by 10.5 inches deep (without the 3 inch base). Moonyeen had built the box before I got there. So... This (without the bookcase) is basically what what waiting for me!) She also made the fireplace ahead of time!

This is day 1! The roof! Or the top of the roof! All of the of the lights will be connected to the tape wire up here! I wish you could see my shaking hands while I was making those first soldering connections! LOL!! It's so hard when you don't know if they are going to work!This is my work log! Everything I did went into the log! Even the packages! We used Radio Shack parts pieces and transformers! What a savings! I will be carrying this book with me when I go shopping! For a little box, we used a lot of lights! Here is the basic box again! This is Monday! We have just returned home from the show. A lot of the major lighting has been done!

I purchased the table and chairs at the show! The table is wonderful! It has been weathered with a black finish and has a top made of 150 year old oak! The chairs are also weathered black. The book case is very simple but will fit in just great! Nuala is checking out my soldering and electrical work! So far so good!

This is under the base of the box! Let's see if I can explain what's going on here!

There are 2 transformers, both with fuses! The small one on the left is for the flickering/glowing fireplace! You can see that it leads to the small circuit board at the top! On the right is the main transformer that powers the rest of the lights. I haven't hooked up the main lines that go to the top of the box, they would be coming off the terminal blocks facing Nuala! The on/off switch and power cord are just out of camera range at the bottom of the screen!Okay, Here you can see the power cord and on/off switch! I'm so impressed with myself! I actually know what goes where and why! One of the most important lessons I learned was how to figure out what size transformer to use to power the quantity of lights in any given situation! Very important!

I didn't take a picture of it, or else I can't find it... But we made a practice board of all kinds of lights! Flourettes, drop down lights, can lights, plugs and sockets, you name it we added it! And I soldered them all in myself! Actually, I only failed one thing... stupid really, Um.... Would you believe.... Wire stripping! LOL!!! I couldn't strip a wire to save my life! Except the tiny ones I could do with my finger nail! LOL!!!EUREKA!!!! Power at last!!! And it worked!!!! This was the very first time I got to plug the electrical in, my head was under the table and I was afraid to see!

These wonderful candle sticks were turned by Jeff Speara specifically for this project! Moonyeen called him then sent a picture and asked if he would make a set for the both of us! We made the "candles" out of translucent polymer clay. The lights actually sit down inside the shaft of clay and glow through it! Totally awesome how Moonyeen figured that out! The ceiling of the cottage is covered with "rush" other wise know as dried bristly stuff from Michael's which I glued the heck out of and it was held down by a couple of bricks to dry! Then we put two sticks across as beams! Very cool effect! The walls are Paperclay. Those are some very interesting cracks behind the candles. To the left of the fireplace is an opening that will resemble a small bed. There is a light back there to give it definition. There will also be a curtain there. I think once the cottage is painted, it will make a very big difference! Here you can see the opening for the bed without the back on. Once the front is on, you won't be able to see the lights in the front! Can you see all the lights for the fireplace? 4 yellow bulbs and 1 blinking red one!

Well, a naked with has made herself cozy in my cottage! LOL!!!! This is our Posse doll Adella (Made by Nancy Cronin and put together by Moonyeen) who stopped by to check out the new cottage!

As you can see, I have done a bit of decorating! Baby Drago has a special ceiling hook for his cage! A loaf of brad and bowl of soup is on the table. That's a burlap bag of fish on the floor to the left! On the right on the floor is the wonderful wood turned bowl I received as a gift from Larrell (Husband of Cynthia Howe)! The cottage still needs a lot of work! But I had to take it all apart to bring it home!

So... this is what I went to Moonyeen's house to accomplish and I learned more than I ever expected! I'm overwhelmed with what I learned! I'm so glad I took careful notes! And lots more pictures!!!

As we went on errands, and of course on our long drive to Anaheim and back, she was dropping "Pearls of Wisdom" as rapidly as the rain was falling outside the car! I wish I had a tape recorder! I know that as I work in the future, I will hear her voice over my shoulder telling, "No dear, you might want to try it this way instead" or "I find that when I am doing this, it works better when I do..." I can only hope that I didn't disappoint her too much as a student!

If you are reading this Moonyeen! Thank you for making this an unforgettable trip of a lifetime!

Pitfalls of Dial-up!

2010-01-27T20:19:00.004-07:00

So... Here I sit, Once again, waiting for pictures to load at a depressing low speed! Oh my!

I promise, when I get home I will post pictures!!

Today we went to to lunch with Nancy Wantiez. After, we went to her house to see her collection and her work. What an extraordinary talent she has! Her favorite thing to make must be toys, because she has made thousands of them! Teeny tiny dolls! Amazing! Her roomboxes are spectacular! She has 2 Ric Pierce houses! I'm so Jealous! LOL!!

It's funny.. she has this wonderful roombox collection and it is soooo different from Moonyeen's! It just goes to show you what can be done in a little wooden box or frame! Amazing!

I have made a decision on this trip... Remember my telling you I had 13 dollhouse kits in the closet to build? Well... Guess what? Most of them are going up on Ebay! I have decided I want to do roomboxes instead! LOL!! So, if there's a kit you've been looking for, e-mail me! I might have it stashed in the closet and I will sell for a good price! I am keeping my Highlander and my Fairfield!

Mark just called... Oh dear! I think he's ready for me to come home! So far this week, the stove and refrigerator have broken and last night the furnace broke down! LOL!!! All fixed now for my great homecoming! Thank goodness! He has been coming home from work on his lunch break to give K2 his insulin shots. Poor Mark! That's my job! He'll be very happy to have me home I think!

I'm ready to go to. Moonyeen has been a wonderful hostess and teacher. But she does crack the whip! As many of you know, I am somewhat disabled and I am not used to working at night. Well, with time so short, we had to work evenings and that was hard! But I kept on going! As soon as we reached a good stopping point for the night though, I was in my bed in a jiffy! My poor legs had had enough! I will be glad to get home just so I can sit! LOL

But... We got the roombox done to the point that I can take it home and finish it! That was the point! Tomorrow night, I promise I will post the pictures!

Goodnight all and be thankful for DSL and high speed when you have it!

Return from Anaheim!

2010-01-24T22:16:00.002-07:00

Hi All!

Whew! 1000 miles in 3 short days!!!!

The Tom Bishop show was marvelous! Moonyeen and I managed to escape with our wallets relatively intact in Friday night! We were so tired and blurry eyed from our 7 hour drive in the rain and snow (yes! SNOW!) that we didn't really see much that struck out fancy! We both bought a few little things and were dazzled by quite a few things that were WAY over our combined budgets! Then we dragged our poor battered and beaten bodies off to bed on the forth floor. We hadn't planned on going back to the show on Saturday morning... until we heard we missed a room! oops! Major oops!

So.... We packed up the car and checked out of the hotel and made out way back into the show. Good move/bad move! We found the 2nd room and OH MY! I found all I needed (and so did Moonyeen!) for the fireplace for our "Rustic Cottage" roomboxes! We each bought about 10 pieces of Old Mountain Miniatures iron pieces! Too Cool!

I found 1/4 scale castle furniture kits (even a catapult!)to outfit my whole castle that I made at the Denver show! I'm thrilled! I also found some tiny silver dragons and gargoyles to cast in Resin! Moonyeen found a wonderful trunk (very jealous here! LOL) and some wonderful little mice!

Alas, we went back into the other room and WHAM! All heck broke out for me! You'll see in the pictures tomorrow! I bought 2 fabulous laser cut wizard chairs and the coolest table with a burl wood top! At another table I found the perfect table and chair set for my cottage. It had been antiqued in a black finish! Perfect! I promise... Tomorrow you will get pictures and no dialog! LOL

Moonyeen bought the most beautiful dolls from Sharon Carilo! A wonderful gardener lady and a man sitting in a chair reading a book, and a mechanic!! Just fab! She was picking up the greatest little accessories for her roomboxes! It's had to write what she was buying! Baskets here, little birds there.. EVERYONE knew her!

Well... we finally left there and drove up the coast to a gorgeous dollhouse shop! Laurianne's Small Wonders in Ventura, CA! OH! To die for! I wanted it all! The displays were to die for! She had everything a miniature maven could want! Wait till you see what I bought for my Wizard! Too Cool! I also bought the most beautiful carved chest from England! Again... If only the wallet could bare.... LOL!!! So many wonders, so little money!

Off again we went... This time to Santa Maria, CA (where Michael Jackson did his famous dance on his limo!) to the one and only fabulous Cynthia Howe and family live! Oh Wow, Oh Wow, Oh Wow!!!!!! What a treat! I think I enjoyed my time there more than the show! Cynthia and her husband Larrell are the most wonderful, kindest people on earth! And so incredibly talented! I wish we could have stayed a week so I could soak up just a 10th of their combined talent and knowledge! We actually got there late, so we went to dinner we them and their son Ryan (who I enjoyed tremendously, he shares mom and dad's interest in the business and we talked miniatures castles and such throughout dinner!) then it was off to the hotel! Today we went back and Cynthia showed me how to work the laser machine! How cool is that! Did you know she does custom work??? My club is sponsoring a NAME State Play Day in June and she cut the door numbers for our front porch kit for me! It's half scale and I could find them anywhere else! But Cynthia made them and I helped!) If you have a laser project call Cynthia! She can do anything!
Anyway... She also has some new molds coming out... we got a sneak preview! Awesome!!!!!
I bought some gorgeous doll kits from her for my MSAT Grand Astoria Project too!

Moonyeen and Cynthia spent some time catching up while I kind of hung out... ogling Cynthia's stock!

Well... It was time to get back on the road, our treasures in hand!

Sorry for all the dialog pictures! But it's late and Blogger takes forever to upload pictures when you are on dial-up! But I promise!!! I will have plenty of pictures for you to ogle over!!!

Just wanted you all to know we made it home safely!

2010-01-23T09:46:00.002-07:00

Hi!
I thought it might be easier to add the pictures then do the writing. We'll see! This is the floor for my Witch roombox! I used a Dremel 1100 and a variety of bits to carve out the lines in the floor tile. I'm not real happy with it, but I can make changes!

This is our wonderful Moonyeen! AT OUR POSSE MEETING! I snuck up on her Thursday and took this picture!!! You should have seen her jump when the flash went off! Yipes! I felt bad!

Here are the pictures of her wonderful backyard! I would describe them in detail if this connection in the hotel wasn't giving me such a hard time!

Isn't the monkey wonderful? His light is on all night guarding the back yard! The sweet sound of the fountain is something to behold! Now.... if it would only stop raining so I could enjoy it out here! LOL!!! I guess it's better than snow!

2010-01-23T08:47:00.005-07:00

Hi All!
Not so sunny here!
Welcome to drizzly and dreary San Francisco!
I finally made it after a 3 hour delay and layover in Las Vegas! What a drag!
But Moonyeen met me in her bright red van and off we went on out 10 day adventure!
And what an adventure it’s been so far!

I am writing part of this as we are driving down the California coast from San Francisco to Anaheim for the Tom Bishop Show! Thank goodness for laptops! I will finish it up and add the pictures and upload when we get to the hotel tonite!

Sorry I haven’t written, but it took until last night to find a phone outlet to connect the laptop into! My laptop is NOT used to Dial-up connection! It took forever for me to figure out how to connect! By then I was too tired to play in the Posse chat room, update the Blog and practice my soldering! (More on that later! )

Here is a picture of Kitty Boy and Nuala! They have become great friends! As long as she stays away from his food bowl! KB is all the wonderful things Moonyeen says he is!

I wish I could show you her house! ALL of it! It’s not a huge house, but it is perfect for her and Kitty Boy. From the outside door, you enter into an atrium full of wonderful plants and a wall mounted fountain. (this is my designated smoking room!) From here, you enter the living room/dining or center of the house. You then take a right to go to the kitchen and breakfast area which has the fabulous display of room boxes!

This wonderful display is in the KITCHEN! It's just amazing to sit and have a cup of coffee and gaze at her extraordinary work!

Back to the front door, if you take a left you go to the bedroom wing where there are 4 bedrooms. One of which is Moonyeens office! We used this room for my “Electrical and wiring lessons!”

Her garden, (I was able to go outside for 5 minutes between torrential rainstorms) is spectacular! There is a surprise around every corner! The center fountain is enormous and gorgeous and the monkey lamp a hoot! I hope to be able to enjoy some time on the lovely swing before I leave.

We had a visit from Moonyeen’s gardener/friend Enrique on Wednesday! He brought us fresh from the oven baked goods from the Mexican bakery! What a treat! He is bringing us fresh tamales on Monday night and staying for dinner with us. He will be inspecting my soldering and electrical work then! I hope it’s up to snuff!

So, what have we been doing besides talking and talking and talking? Lots more talking!

I have learned how to wire a roombox! HUGE accomplishment!
Moonyeen is a very patient teacher! She explains the “Who’s, why’s and Wherefores” of everything before we do and then makes ME do it! Not only did I do it, I learned what I was doing, WHY I was doing it! In the end, When I plugged it in… It all lit up!

As you can see from the picture, we used 2 transformers with fuses and blocks and terminals to run our lights. A bit different than running standard Cir-cut transformers. The reason for the two transformers in such a tiny box is that the small one runs the flickering fireplace and the large one runs the general illumination lights and the candles. I could have run 1 transformer, but then all my lights would blink and we can’t have that!

When we come back from the show I will be working on the fireplace and inside of the box!

So, here’s a few more pictures! I will be taking pictures of our treasures from the show later!
We had a visit from Moonyeen’s gardener/friend Enrique on Wednesday! He brought us fresh from the oven baked goods from the Mexican bakery! What a treat! He is bringing us fresh tamales on Monday night and staying for dinner with us. He will be inspecting my soldering and electrical work then! I hope it’s up to snuff!

So, what have we been doing besides talking and talking and talking? Lots more talking!

When we come back from the show I will be working on the fireplace and inside of the box!

I will be taking pictures of our treasures from the show later!

Okay.... So what happened to the pictures? Blogger is being a real pain and I will add a seperate blog post for them!

Meet Nuala!

2010-01-16T21:40:00.004-07:00

Hi All,

On Tuesday I will be leaving for a trip to San Francisco to visit with my good friend Moonyeen Moller. Moonyeen is a fabulous miniaturist and miniature collector who I met online several years ago and has become my mentor in all things miniature! She is also the Hostess of the Posse, (an offshoot group of Minidolls) on online group that meets 4 times a week where we chat about dolls, miniatures and everything that comes to mind. We have become a fabulous group of loving friends from around the world! We are currently working on a series of 4 dolls that we will debut next December! I will be showing you all about them in the near future!

But for now, I would like to introduce Nuala, my newest Witch!

Nuala will be my traveling blog guide! She will be updating my blog regularly while I am away! Giving you all of the details of our many escapedes with Moonyeen and her cat KB! Including our trip to the Tom Bishop Anaheim Miniature Show!

Here she is getting ready for her travels. She is packing her leather bag with her books and special teas.

Well, she has her coat on and Drago in his cage! I hope they let him on the plane! Well, that's it for now... Look for Nuala's Updates Soon!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-23T09:38:00.003-07:00

Happy Holidays Every one!

I'm sorry I haven't been around much, but these past couple of months have been very hard on me. Now that the weather has set in, I have been in a lot of pain and I haven't been able to work on my mini's much. I have pulled out my jewelry findings and beads and have been fitfully playing with those. I have completed a few fun pieces for myself but nothing really to write about.

But...Some exciting news! On January 19th I am flying to San Francisco to visit my online friend Moonyeen! She is a extremely talented (and somewhat famous) miniaturist. Our online friends, the Posse has asked me to Blog about our adventures which will include a trip to the Tom Bishop show in Anaheim, CA! Aside from our side trips, which I think you will enjoy, Moonyeen will also be teaching me to me how to install Nova lights! I promise to share!

Blogger is being extremely slow today... So I'll fill in more details later!

Have a wonderful Holiday!

New Project!

2009-11-19T08:17:00.004-07:00

I'm Back!

It's been a very busy time while I've been away! I've started a mini club here in Albuquerque! We have 9 members and it's been wonderful! We broke away from a smaller group to work on larger projects and WOW! did we pick a great project! A large Italian Garden Roombox! I promise I'll bring you up to date on that project soon, but first I want to show off my latest personal project! My first doll! At least my first doll that I'm will to show the public! LOL!! Her name is Adora and she was part of a group project with my favorite online sister list The Posse, a micro group of The Minidoll List. The face and hands were made by Nancy Cronin who only made 20 of these fabulous Witches! We were given a pattern and a wonderful stash of goodies from around the world, all contributed to by members of the Witch group. I chose not to use the pattern, but to do my own thing, and this is what I came up with. The pattern design is my own!

She is wearing a simple black dress with the vest over the top!

Here she is! All dressed and ready to go! She is carrying a plate of spiced apples by Patricia Paul and her Pet Dragon!

Just in case you were wondering... She is wearing black lurex bloomers! LOL!

Well? I can't wait for your comments!

Heather

Wake Up Call!!!!

2009-10-12T10:15:00.005-06:00

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to update you all on what I have been doing! But I have been taking pictures like mad for when I have time to sit down and upload them!

I have all the pictures from my Denver Miniature Convention, including my classes!

The new Miniature club I started here in Albuquerque that started out with a great first meeting! We made mini books that I designed!

The club is working on a long term roombox project that I want to show!

Plus... I have started dressing miniature dolls and absolutely loving it!

I am working on one now that I have photographed the whole process that I want to share! It's a bit different than the average pipe cleaner method! She's a real hoot! LOL

And now the wake up call! An Award!

J Folk from JLil Roomer sent me this wonderful award! Thank you so much!

Now, I have 7 tasks to do!
1. Thank the person who gave this to you. Done
2. Copy the logo and place it in the blog. Done
3. Link the person who nominated you. Done
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know. Done
5. Nominate 7 'kreative bloggers'
6.Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7.Leave comments on the 7 blogs you nominate, letting them know you nominated them.

My 7 things!

1. My mother and father were in the US Coast Guard, My husband retired from the USCG, and both sons served in the USCG! 3 generations!

2. I was a cloth doll maker for 20 years before switching to mini's. My specialty was Dragons!

3. I have 3 Miniature Pincher's who don't know they are dogs!

4. I have 14 Dollhouse kits waiting to be assembled!

5. Mark and I sell miniatures! We give very deep discounts! E-mail us, we may have what your looking for!

6. I collect anything for miniature castles!

7. Mark and I have been married for 34 years this November and we will both turn 55 in January!

7 Nominations

1 Doreen's Miniatures and Memory's

2 The Graphics Fairy

3 Dales Dreams
More to come!

2009-09-11T12:18:00.003-06:00

Hi!

I'm here in Denver! Would you believe there is NO free wireless service in the hotel rooms? I don't think I have stayed in a hotel in the last 10 years that hasn't had it! So.... I'm sitting here at the antiqueted "free" computer in the hotel lobby! LOL!
I just wanted you to know that Mark picked up K2 at the Vet Hpsoital today and took him home for a trial run! We think he will be much happier at home with Miss T and baby CK! We really think that now that he is feeling better he is just homesick! So, Mark has learned to test his blood and give him his insulin. I will be learning as soon as I get home on Sunday!

They have just started putting up the dispalys her, so no great pictures yet!

I had a castle class yester that was okay! Not great, but I will finish up at home. It has wonderful potential as you will see in some of the other finished castles. I have to take mine apart to bring it home, so I couldn't do all the lanscaping!

Okay! Off to another class!

Sorry, no time for correction! LOL

Off to Denver Convention!

2009-09-09T13:40:00.004-06:00

Well... I'm packed and ready to go and I'm sitting here waiting! LOL!!!

I don't have to leave for the airport for another hour! So.... I thought I would tell you all about the good and really bad things that have been happening around here!

First the really bad thing

Our beloved 5 year old Min Pin (Miniature Pincher) K2 has been in the Vet Hospital for the past 12 days! It started off with an acute case of Pancreatitis, then he developed diabetes. He then spiked a temperature of unknown cause and had bloody diareah (sorry for the gory details). He has been on pain meds since he has been admitted so he is very comfortable though not feeling well. on day 6 he was finally able to keep small amounts of water down but he still can't or won't eat. We visit him every night during hospital "visiting hour." Last night they were working on an emergency while we were there and it was amazing to see them in action!

The doctor has been superb in keeping us up to date on K2's condition. She calls every morning and afternoon with reports. Of course, all this isn't cheap! I have no clue where we will find the money to pay for all of this. I have already tapped out the relatives, credit cards and friends! LOL! So, please say a prayer to whatever God or Goddess you pray to for K2 to recover quick!

I think I told you in another post that I am going to be making a witch doll with my online doll group called The Posse! The doll itself is being designed by the fabulous witch doll designer Nancy Cronin and the dress/costume was designed by Kathi Mendenhall from the Creative Doll! This is a special limited addition of 20 dolls and the class will be taught by Nancy and Kathi!

Anyway, some of us in the group decided to make special gifts to share with the group. I decided on a Witch's book of Spells! I made 20 of them so they will go in the boxes with the pattern, doll kits etc. I don't know what other treats will be coming my way! Moonyeen Moller is the coordinator of the group and only she knows the what the final kits looks like! I can't wait to see it! It should arrive sometime the end of next week with the class to follow shortly thereafter! I am building a roombox to showcase my doll! She will be the proprietress of a small witch shop.

Here are some samples of my books! Yes, you can read the text with a mag glass!

Okay, I guess it's time to pack up the truck for the airport!

I will have my camera and laptop with me so I hope to send you some "at conference" pics!

Once everyone has gotten thier books, I will post the inside and cover of he books for you all to make your own! I used my xyron machine and ran the covers through and used a really cool fabric for the inside of the cover! I cover the outside with sepia toned Mod Podge and stippled it on. When it dried it gave the covers a leather like appearance. Very cool! You can get the same effect with matte Mod Podge. It also seals the edges of the fabric and paper. Before I put the mod Podge on I ran the edges through a gold stamp pad for a nice effect. Okay, I'll give more details later!

Long Dismal Summer

2009-08-25T13:05:00.004-06:00

To paraphrase Maurice Sendak, It's been a no good, very bad, Summer!

If you remember from last Winter, I was desperately waiting for Spring and Summer and the warm weather to get out to the workshop and start building! I had high hopes for the Fairy Cottage, the front opening English house and of course, my Witch's Shoppe! Well, the poor Fairy Cottage took that terrible fall, but I did rally a bit with the repairs! The English house was supposed to have a brick front but ended up looking like a castle (and not a very nice one at that, I'm afraid!) and the Witch's Shoppe, well.... that never got out of the box!

July and part of August was spent in my chair again in a dismal painful haze! Not what I had planned at all! It was all very depressing to say the least! Most of the time I couldn't even log on and follow my favorite Blogs! I'm so far behind, I don't think I'll ever catch up! And that's not funny! I love to see what you are all doing out there!

On a brighter note... During a recent tearful visit to my doctor, we did a complete rework of my medications and the results were amazing and the transformation almost overnight! Within a matter of days I was up and out of my chair and working in my inside studio! Not doing anything major mind you, but I managed to turn out a few pretty bottles which is more than I had done in 6 weeks!

My first major task was to clean my desk!

Okay, so this is a whole days work! There aren't many, but they sure are pretty! I have never made bottle before so this was my first try at digging through my bead stash! As you can see, I obviously grabbed the blue/green box! I even managed to get these together without sticking my fingers together with the super glue! That's a major accomplishment for me! LOL!

My newest project is a book. A very special book. I am part of an online group called the Posse which is a sub group of Minidolls. Well, 20 lucky members of the Posse are making a very special Witch doll! The doll is being designed and cast by the hugely talented Nancy Cronin! (You have to check out her Witches and other dolls! ) The dress/costume is being designed by Kathi Mendenhall from Mini Patterns! Nancy and Kathi will be teaching the online class! I am making spell books to include with the kits! This pictures shows the 3 separate sections. I will be sewing the binding before gluing on the cover. They are 1"x.75"x.25" and in full color and readable with a magnifying glass!

Last but not least!

I got a surprise in the mail from a Mixed Media artist friend! She knew I had been looking for watch parts forever and sent an e-mail asking of I was still looking! Well, she said she was sending along a few! This is what she sent!

3 bags full! It took me an hour to sort out 1 bag! What treasures!

Well... the next couple of weeks are going to be very busy! It's a good thing I'm feeling better!

I am in charge of the Miniature section of the New Mexico State Fair! So I will be taking in all the miniatures at the Fair and attending the judging plus doing all the arranging for the show!

Then... on the 9th of September, my friend Dianne and I are leaving for Denver, Colorado to attend the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys Annual Fall Show! I will be taking 2 classes, the Merlin's Spire, a 26" 1/4 scale castle and a doll in a tea cup! I can't wait! I have been saving my pennies to attend the showroom sale!

I promise to take lots of pictures!!!

Sneak Peak!

2009-07-23T10:21:00.003-06:00

Well, you were all right! The little Fairy Cottage had a mind of her own!

Obviously, she jumped right into that storm just to get away from my plans for her! LOL!
I did make a few adjustments! I really didn't like the gray exterior at all! At one point, I had added a glaze that evidently had put a seal over everything, including the stones! Everything was covered with it and it was obliterating everything! What a mess! I swear I spent more time taking stuff Off this little house then putting it on! But I'm learning!

So... out came the Dremel! Again! 3 hours and 3 different tips later, I finally got most of that awful glaze off and a lot of the old heavy grout out! I made some heavier indentations around the stones and even found some stones that have been buried! The pretty colors of the stones began to shine again! I knew I had picked out pretty stones to start with!

This is what I found under all of that mess! Much better! I have since put on a few washes!

Okay, now for the Sneak Peak!

Well, this is where she wanted to go! I have just started! But I am loving the effect! I have the furniture for the upper level and finished painting it yesterday! I am working on the bed linens and other fabric items today! This part is exciting! Working on the accessories! Finally!

Oh! The colors upstairs are a soft metallic greenish gold! I need ideas for the downstairs! Please give me some ideas! Many thanks!

Tutorial Info!

2009-07-17T10:21:00.003-06:00

Hi!

Wow! Two posts in one morning, this must be a record for me!

I just read a great Tutorial from Leslie at About.com Miniatures!
She has a 12 page tutorial on how to make spiral bound 1:12 scale notebooks! She makes it sound very easy using several different techniques! Great pictures too! Definitely a must see!

Go here! How to Make Spiral Bound Notebooks

Humbled by Award

2009-07-16T19:20:00.009-06:00

I was brought to tears by this new award I was given by MiniKat from Little Thoughts From an Average Mind!

The story behind this award is truly inspiring and beautiful. it was designed by Ces whose blog is Ces and Her Dishes and read her story of making friends around the world via blogs and one special friend Bella Sinclair and her recent tragedy.

Ces's words defining the award are... I designed this award to celebrate art in the blogs and to honor the value of friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. It is to be awarded to the gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best.

There are so many wonderful bloggers that I just adore out there! Since I have been sick, I haven't been able to keep up with my reading. What little time I have had, I try to pick one or two a day and read back a couple of weeks! Just trying to catch up with all of your activities and trust me, you are all an active bunch! I get exhausted just reading about what you are all doing! Just trying to keep up with the antics with Tessie and Zar on Casey's blog is enough to keep anyone in stitches! How she actually gets to work on anything I'll never know! Katie, suffers from ill health like I do, but she just plugs along! Her Marshmallow house is coming along quite nicely! I've been trying to catch up with Ara and family with their progress on the Adams family Mini Mansion among other projects! Whew! And of course, I can't leave out my dear Kat! She keeps me up on Harry Potter! Oh I wish I could go to the movies! I'll have to wait for the new Harry Potter to come out in video to see it! Boo Hoo!

I hate to leave anyone out when passing this award! I have no idea who already has it! So, I'm going to pass it along to a few wonderful bloggers whose blogs I have read today!

Texas Belle from Myrtlewood Manor Her work on her dollhouse is just outstanding!
Katie from Katies Clay Corner She delights me with her art and adventures!

Cathe Holden from Just Something I Made who does lovely crafts and shares!

Oh, a few of you asked why I have to work outside in my workshop in the heat! Well, it's the only place I can spread out to work on the houses! If I get up the courage, I'll take a picture of my inside desk! It's embarrassing! It's been a dumping ground since the warm weather hit! LOL! I wait all winter to be able to get out and work on the big stuff! I use the dining room table to sew and work on my miniature dolls! We live in a very tiny house and it is full to overflowing! My stock for shows has now managed to overflow into the living room! It's like living in a rabbit warren in here! Just follow the little paths to get to where you are going and watch out for the piles! LOL!!!

Today we are having a break in the heat! It's only going to be 95! Unfortunately I have to stay inside and deal with Taxes! Ugh! Seems the IRS wants to tussle and we have to go along! Just a matter of finding a bit of paperwork, but what a pain! All will be good in the end! Off to the file cabinet! LOL!

She Lives!

2009-07-15T12:26:00.004-06:00

Well... Amost!

I'm not sure whether I mean me or the Fairy Cottage! LOL!

Both of us are just barely limping along! The heat here in the desert has been unbearable! Over 100 degrees every day in the workshop! So lots of breaks in the house for me!

I have been working on the Fairy Cottage and have finally made most of the repairs! Here she is!

I cleaned up the outside the best I could! Even put on the shingles! It will be darker than I originally wanted, but there's nothing I can do about that! I have cut the base for the house so I can start the landscaping! I think it will look a lot better once I get the moss and flowers growing around and on it! LOL!! At least I hope so! Pretty bland looking right now! I'll decide on the shingle color once I do a few more washes on the house!

It still looks a little worse for wear, but sooo much better than with the cracked plaster and rain damage! I couldn't even take a picture of the damage! I really did cry over it! But a fresh coat of plaster inside and clean windows made all the difference don't you think?

Remember the Gloucester? I started it a couple of months ago and it stalled for awhile! Well, I started working on it again and it's been one problem after another! LOL! For a simple house, I can sure make it difficult!

First, I decided I wanted to brick the front! Well, three different treatments later, I gave that idea up! Nothing worked right! The front is NOT straight! So while I was working on that, I was painting the windows! I debated between white or black and finally ended up putting 3 coats of oil based enamel to make them look half way decent!

I ended up putting a stucco finish on the front of the house! Many washes later look what I ended up with!

Yup! A castle! LOL!!! Nothing like I intended! LOL! Now the white windows don't go at all! Neither does the door I bought! So, back to the drawing board! As you can see, I am now painting the mullions BLACK! I'm not sure what color the outer frames will be! Any suggestions?

I ordered a castle door from England! It should be here any day! Now to make some fancy hinges! All in all, I think this really is pretty funny! It's a good thing I have some cool furniture to go in it!

That's it for today! It's good to be back!

A Sad Tale

2009-06-25T14:18:00.005-06:00

Well, I think I'm finally on the other side of being sick! I'm almost starting to feel like myself again! I even managed to drag myself out to the workshop to work on the Fairy Cottage and a bit on the Gloucester for an hour yesterday!

Let me back up a moment. Here in New Mexico, we are in our yearly Monsoon season. Which means we can get these really nasty rain and wind storms at the drop of a hat. They just swoop in from the mountain that lurks right over my head, sweeps through the valley very fast and then they are gone in a minute! Sometimes it's nothing and sometimes it's terrifying with the lightning and thunder and huge raindrops that sends the dogs cowering under the covers on my bed!

Anyway, as I said, I worked a bit on the two houses. The Fairy Cottage got a new glaze on the stone work and I had stripped all the brick off the Gloucester! (The brick looked great, but the glue from the xyron machine wasn't sticking well, so it all had to come off! Boo Hoo).

Well, I had put the Fairy cottage out on a shelf to dry in the hot sun and forgot it was there! Off I headed to a doctors appointment. The weather was beautiful! Brilliant blue sky, not a cloud anywhere! No rain predicted!

Well, in the two hours I was gone, a nasty Monsoon blew in and BAM! Caught the Fairy Cottage just right and smashed it the cement floor below the shelf! Poor little cottage! It must have rolled a few times because it ended up on the other side of the yard in the mud! Needless to say, it's a nasty mess! The brand new shingle roof is beyond repair and must all come off. Two of the bay windows are cracked and need to be replaced (remember, I used real glass?). The wood floors remain intact and just need to be cleaned but the inside needs to be repainted. of course, the last thing I did before I got sick was paint the inside! Oh well!

I think it can all be repaired, but the glaze on the outside will have to go darker than I wanted it to cover the damage! We'll have to see. I just didn't have the heart to do much on it today except hose it off and pull off the shingles. Tomorrow I will replace the glass and do more repairs.

The rest of today I am working on the Gloucester. I have primed the outside and all of the windows and doors. I'm going to give the bricks one more try before bagging the idea and just doing a stucco exterior. If I end up just doing stucco, I don't know what color it should be. I need help here! This is supposed to be an English Manor house! What colors should the house and trim be? Please help?

A Wonderful Award!

2009-06-17T14:54:00.006-06:00

MiniKat from Little Thoughts from an Average Mind gave me this wonderful award!

It seems just when you are at your lowest point, someone comes along and lights up your life! Thank you sooooo much MiniKat you really brightened up a really bad week!

Yes, I have been getting up every day, even though it hurts! I have been working on my dolls because I can't go out and work on my fairy house! Jazzy has a new witch out she will be showing off soon and her sister Percy will be making her debut! Just a few more finishing touches when I can get my fingers to work right! LOL!!

The rules of this award are:

1.-To complete the following phrase: I AM A LIGHT AND WANT TO ILLUMINATE...the dark corners of the lives of those that live in constant pain and the depression it can lead too. Let my light help them find a brighter world of happiness and joy like I have found here through my blog and the many new friends it has brought me from around this small world of ours!

2. - Link the blog from where the award came from and leave a message informing that person it has been received.

3.- Link and pass the award to five blogs that, in your opinion, are blogs of light.

I have fulfilled rules 1 & 2, I have to think about rule 3! I have 2 blogs in mind but I have t0 do some research on the other 3! I will have to leave that for another day. It's back to bed for now!

2009-06-15T09:34:00.002-06:00

Hi All!

Sorry I haven't been posting! I haven't been feeling very well and have been off the computer. When I start to feel better, I have lots to tell you!

I hope you are all doing great things! I can't wait to catch up with you!

Heather

The Fairy Cottage

2009-06-03T15:00:00.011-06:00

So, as you know, I have been working on this little half scale cottage for over a week now, and I have done and redone it so many times I've lost count! I'm not sure what stage these pictures are from, but they are definitely before I took the Dremel and dug out all of the grout and redid it all again! LOL!!!

Here are a few pictures of the steps I took to get where I am now!

The whole house was prepared with Pre-sand to seal it. It's clear, so it looks like the house is unfinished.

First mistake. On the front of the house, I embedded the rocks in a mixture of spackle and glue. Don't ever do this! Big mistake! it took forever to clean up this mess! I never did clean it all up properly which in turn led me to having to take the dremel in the end and drill it all out! The sides were done properly with just glue!

Applying the "real" sanded grout! This was very easy! I used a product made for making mosaic tiles that I found at Michael's. I just happened to have it in my stash. You never know what you might find in my stash at any given time! This was there, so I used it! It worked perfectly!

This is a nice view of the stained glass bay window. The blue tape is protecting a piece of orange glass!

The top window also has orange glass in it. I didn't know it at the time. i will find this out later when I paint the interior. But my stones had moved during the gluing, and had covered a lot of the orange glass! The glue I used really stuck! I needed a chisel to get the stones out of the glue and plaster to fix them! LOL!

Side view. Thankfully, these stones stayed where they belonged! The grout was fine but I hated the paint hob that matched the front when I finished it! So, I drilled out the sides too!

I've painted the roof in preparation for the shingles. I have also painted the bay windows. I really don't know what color they will end up! I guess that will be determined by what ever color the grout ends up! You can see that I have added some trim around the windows. Just an added tough. This gives the windows just an added dimension. I did the same to the inside of the windows. I don't know whether I will paint the trim the same or a contrasting color yet.

This is the inside of the bay window. I have already plastered and painted it. The trim has been added too. I figured it would be easier to do while the windows were out of he house! I will have to do some touch up once I install them. So what else is new!

The floors. The lower level floor is finished and grouted. I tinted the grout with a copper colored paint. It really picked up the copper tones in the tile. Upstairs I laid the wood floor with skinny sticks. This also took care of the big holes left in the A frame space.

The floor was finished with an aged oak stain then both floors were finished with satin poly.

I haven't taken the pictures yet, but the interior is completely plastered now too. I haven't painted it yet, I will wait to do that until I have the bay Windows installed so I can do the plaster repairs. Because it is a Fairy house, I am thinking of a pale golden shimmer on the walls. What do you think? There will be lots of moss and thinks on the walls. Of course there will be lights inside to brighten things up! I will post about the lights next time! They are really adorable!

Off to stain the grout! Again!

A Challenge For You!

2009-05-28T10:18:00.006-06:00

Hi All!

I'm so excited! I finally ordered my Real Good Toys Front Opening Shoppe! (Like I have nothing better to do! LOL) I have always wanted this particular house to do a Witch's Shoppe! Sooooo,

Mark, the little darling, said we did so well at the Doll show, that I could order it! I have been collecting things for it for quite a while now, so.... It's on it's way! I want to get it done by Halloween!

I guarantee it won't be pink!

Isn't the interior fantastic? I love the upstairs gallery! Look at all of those shelves to fill! It's the perfect set up for a wonderfully spooky shop!

Here are just a few of the things that will go in it!

The wonderful chandelier!

A Long Bone Floor Lamp!

A Spooky skull candelabra!

I am a member of the online list Minidolls, and it's offshoot group, The Posse, and we are doing a group Witch kit specially designed by Nancy Cronin! (her witches are fantastic!) I have also commissioned a one of a kind witch proprietress to be made by Nancy! Oh Boy! I have also won some great hats and other wonderful treasures from Kat the Hat lady on Ebay too! What more can I ask? Well....

Now, on for your challenge! I am looking for links to other Witch shops or houses for inspiration! That's it! I know all of you visit a gazillion other blogs out there that I haven't found yet, so......, if you wouldn't mind too much? You can send them to me in an e-mail at hcrsold@aol.com or leave them in the comments for everyone to enjoy!

Many thanks my friends! I know you won't let me down!

I've Been A Bit Busy!

2009-05-27T08:18:00.010-06:00

Grab your favorite beverage! This could be a long one! LOL! I've been a bit busy here! I really should post every day, but I keep falling asleep! Hopefully, this new medication my doctor has put me on will help with the sleepiness!

Okay, here we go!

Progress on the Gloucester House!

Jazzy has been very busy helping me put the bricks on the side wall of the Gloucester House! I am laying them one by one! Very tedious work! I am doing this before I put the house together, so the panels are laying flat on the table! Much easier to work this way! I will be putting quoins on the sides, that's why they look a bit wonky. The house came with quoin strips for the front only, so I had to make my own for the sides! Thank goodness for the jigsaw!

Jazzy and little Miss T think walking on walls is pretty cool!

Now on to Project #2!

Like I don't have enough to do, I had to buy one of those little half scale house from Michael's that everyone is talking about! I have been checking out the blogs to see what everyone is doing so I didn't copy anyone!

This is the dry-fit little house! That big hole in the front is another Bay Window!

It took a couple of minutes to decide that this will be called the Fairy Cottage, but a few more before I figured out what would make it unique!

Yup! That's real glass in those windows! Once upon a time I did stained glass, sooooo, I dug through my stash of glass and came upon this clear wavy glass! If you look really closely at the pictures, you can see the shadows of the waves!

Then I decided I wanted to add some colored glass! So I chose an orange glass for the front window and the attic window! These will all tie in with the interior colors I am planning to use!

Okay, now on to the floors! I decided we needed stone floors for the main level. I had some "marble" looking self adhesive floor tile sitting on the table, so I decided to try something a bit different.

This is the floor before I put down the brown grout! The door on the house is meant to be open all the time and I think I'm going to leave it that way. Very friendly I think! You can see where the 3 "fairy glass" bow windows will go in this picture. The interior will be stuccoed between the beams!

All in all, I'm really having a lot of fun with this house! It's coming together very quickly! I did all of this in about 4 hours! Including cutting all of the glass!

So, that's what I have been up to here! Oh, I have also done more bricking on the front of the Gloucester! It is very tedious work and the little Fairy Cottage is a nice break!

Thanks for stopping by! I love your comments and support!

Jazzy got 2 Awards!!

2009-05-23T14:31:00.003-06:00

Jazzy is so psyched! Miz Mary of Miz Mary's Mini's gave Jazzy and I 2, count 'em 2 awards! WOW!!! Jazzy was soooo excited she made me print them so she could put them up in her house!

Miz Mary must have been reading a long time, because she even got to last summers posts about our Wizards Lair castle! Which is a 5 story tower Mark and I built and one a first place ribbon at the New Mexico State Fair! The whole building process is documented at the very beginning of this blog!
We are starting on a new castle, "The Keep" which will be another tower structure with 3 levels. Mark has been busy pouring the panels out of hydrocal and I have been playing around with the lights. I will start the picture taking soon! I promise lots of pictures once the building starts! I have also been collecting the furniure and accessories all year, so this one should be all decked out!

Now, back to those awards! Miss Mary gave us the following two awards!

I would like to pass them along! But I want a little time to think about it so I'll have to get back to you on this! I'll be back tomorrow with my recpients list!
MAny, Many thanks Mary! Your the best! Jazzy sends her thanks too! (Now I have to go make frames for her awards and put them up for her or she'll never let me rest!)! LOL!

Doll and Bear Show

2009-05-18T17:31:00.007-06:00

Well, I had a Doll and Bear show yesterday! I have been getting ready for it for days now! I was up bright and early, 4:15AM! I set my alarm wrong! LOL! So I just decided to stay up! Good thing too, it took me that long to make sure I had everything ready! As it was, we did forget some things and Mark had to go home and get them!

We didn't show any houses or castles this time. People seemed to be disappointed. So were we, but my health hasn't been very good this winter and we just couldn't get it together. But we will be ready for the next one! We have 3 houses under construction and Mark will be starting the new castle tomorrow, I hope! I promise I will post pics!

Anyway, my friend Dianne shared our 3 tables and helped us set up! We had plenty to fill the 3 tables! ( I brought my camera, but forgot to take pictures! ) Surprisingly, it was busy all day! We didn't sell out, but we did great! All but 2 of the dolls sold and we sold almost all of the accessories and food I brought in from England! I guess I shopped right this time!

All in all, it was a great show and I am really pleased to see that miniatures are alive and well in the Albuquerque area! Now if we could just get them all together!

Oh! I met 2 great miniature artisans too! Sheila Millendorf who just appeared in Miniature Collector! She had a huge two month article on how to build a Southwest kitchen. She and Mark were having quite a lively conversation while she bought up some mini's! I was so glad she found something she liked!

I also met IGMA artist Bunny Papke who paints the most beautiful petit point canvases! She has plain painted canvases and kits and of course made up rugs, pillows, curtains, table cloths and many other items! She did very well also! Her work is beautiful!

BIG NEWS! I will be selling Bunny's canvases and kits for her!!! She doesn't have a website or blog and doesn't want the hassle, so she asked me to represent her! Yahoo!! So, by this weekend, I will have all of the information for you! Bunny's stunning canvases and kits will be available here!

As promised, I will also be offering the "leftovers" from the show at a discount! So watch the blog for some great deals! I take Paypal with credit cards and will work out other forms of payment!

Stay tuned!!!

Special Gifts for Jazzy!

2009-05-15T13:05:00.004-06:00

Through all the excitement of the quilt tutorial, Jazzy had a very busy day yesterday! To top it all off, Jazzy got some mail! She was soooo excited! She would have been jumping up and down, but funny thing about that pin in the doll stand, it hurts! So, she calmly waited until I ripped open the big envelope!

Inside I found 2 wonderful shopping bags from Katie from Katie's Clay Corner!

Miss T and visiting kitty KB couldn't wait to see what was inside!

Katie had made Jazzy 2 great bowls from polymer clay! The colors go great in her house! She will be putting them on display on her hutch as soon as she clears off some fabric! LOL!!!
She also sent her some great beads! Jazzy made the 2 candles and the bottle on the floor from the beads! There are a few more beads that she has to do something with, I'm sure she will think of something!

Thank you so much Katie! Jazzy and I have something special coming your way soon!

Doll House Quilt Tutorial

2009-05-14T10:59:00.001-06:00

Jazzy is a Fiber Artist and Quilter who lives in a very eclectic trailer park called Elroy Woods has put together a short quilt tutorial for the Grand Opening of the new shop Quilts by CAT-titudes at the park! I hope you enjoy it!

Mini Quilt Tutorial
The following instructions and materials will help you to make a dollhouse size quilt measuring approximately 9” long x 6” wide which should fit an average full size bed. If you have a special bed in mind, please measure the bed and adjust the measurements to fit!
Please read all directions through once before beginning your quilt! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at Hcrsold@aol.com!

Materials Required
Assortment of pre-washed cotton fabric scraps

These do not have to be mini prints! I use a variety of quilter’s cottons and batiks
Base piece of fabric for the front of your quilt (white or off white mini print)

8x11 fabric for back of quilt, your choice!
½ inch ribbon or binding for your quilt to match
2 sided Iron on fusible interfacing. This is marketed under different names.

It MUST have paper on one of the sides!
Small, very sharp scissors for cutting fabric
Fabric marker that disappears with water
Pencil
12” Ruler

I recommend you buy an Omnigrid clear ruler. I have them in many sizes and find them invaluable in my mini work! They all have numerous size and line markings on them and they are not very expensive!
Punches

I used a ¾" star, and a ½" flower to make these two quilts. But I have used a ½" and ¾" heart and been pleased with both sizes. It’s really up to what size punch you have or look you want. I do recommend you use a punch with a bold shape and no fuzzy cutting or corners!

Plastic Template Plastic

You will use this for making a good quality template.
Iron

I used a mini iron, but a regular size iron will work fine
Ironing sheet

I use a Teflon sheet to protect my iron but a piece of parchment paper or typing paper will work too

Fabric Fusion Glue

If you must use glue, this is the one I recommend! It is from Aleenes and is a clear get and dries fast and isn’t affected by your iron. Tacky glue can be used too.
Sewing Machine with neutral colored thread OR
Needle and thread

That should do it! On to the quilt!

The first thing you need is a template!

Take your punch and carefully punch into the plastic template material leaving ¼ inch around all sides. Remove the cut out piece and put aside. Now carefully cut out a square surrounding your cut out. (see picture) This is your template!

Measuring for your Quilt
Decide what size your quilt will be. For this tutorial we will use 9 ½”x 6”
The punch size will be ½” flowers. Each “square” will be 1”
On your quilt top fabric, you need to carefully need to “square it up” I do this by ripping the fabric on the grain to make sure I have a straight line! Then, using your special pen, mark off a 1” grid. Each flower will go in each square. For this quilt there will be 11 flowers wide and 7 flowers going down for a total of 77 flowers!
If you are using a larger punch, you need to make a larger square! For a ¾ “ flower you may need a 1 ¼” square! The best thing to do is cut a few of your shapes and lay them out on your fabric and mark a nice square! Or better yet, work it out on graph paper! I must admit that I do it all on the fabric, but I have been doing this for a long time!
So… Now you know how many of your chosen shapes you need! Let’s get to the fabric and start tracing and cutting!

Preparing the fabric.

The more colors you use, the more fun the top of your quilt will be! Use lots of contrasts!
You must have pre-washed fabric! The interfacing will not stay stuck to unwashed fabric, trust me on this! There are many ways you can do the next step, find the way that works best for you! Since I use a lot of scraps, I lay the fabric scrap on the interfacing and free cut around it, then I iron it on! I usually cut a stack and then iron them all at one time. Some of you may want to lay out the interfacing and put the fabric down and iron them all at once. That works too! Just make sure you cover the scraps or ironing board with paper! Interfacing will make a mess! Do not touch the glue side with a hot iron! I always use a sewers Teflon ironing cloth. Of course, I have used this stuff for years and have learned my lesson! More than once I’m afraid! I have had to throw away irons! Just be careful and work slow and you will be fine!
(See picture of prepared fabrics! )

Once you have the interfacing on the BACK of the fabric it’s time to start tracing your pattern! Now you will find out why it is so important to use plastic instead of cardboard! Especially if you picked stars where sharp points are essential to the design!
With you pencil, carefully trace the inside of the template on the back of the paper covered fabric. No need to leave a lot of space between them, you will be cutting on the lines! It is critical you use very sharp scissors or you will get some fraying and have to toss out your design! Carefully cut out your design on the lines! Yes, this is time consuming but oh so worth it! Careful! These little buggers get everywhere!
Don’t worry if the paper comes off the back! As long as the back looks shiny, it means the glue is there!

See… now that wasn’t so bad! I hope you cut some extra! You might need them!

Now it’s time to lay them out in the grid you drew earlier. Take your time with this! Try not to put the same pattern next to each other! Watch your colors! This is always the most time consuming part for me! I fiddle around with this part forever!

Jazzy is doing it the smart way! She laid the quilt on her bed and has been rearranging the stars until she likes the arrangement! Next she will carefully carry it over to her ironing board to iron them all down! (If you missed the pictures of Jazzy's house, scroll down 2 posts and check it out! )

Once your happy with the arrangement it’s time to get out the iron and get them stuck down, carefully! If you have to move them to your ironing board, carefully put a piece of paper on top!
The ironing is always tricky! That’s why I use a mini iron! I start at the bottom right corner and work my way towards the top left corner. I’m sure you will find your own way. Oh, I forgot, I also don’t breath during this part! LOL! It’s a little fiddley keeping the pieces exactly where you want them, but it’s absolutely doable for the beginner! I recommend holding onto the piece with a pair of tweezers and NOT your fingers! That iron will get hot!
Insert ironing pictures

Whew! The hard part is over! Congratulations! You now deserve a strong cup or glass of you favorite beverage!

Breaks over! Back to the quilt!

You should now have all of your shapes neatly laid out and ironed onto your grid! It should now look like a quilt!

It’s now time to make your “quilt sandwich”. There are many thinks you can use for the center later. You can use traditional quilters batting, a piece of flannel, or nothing at all! I use a variety of things, it depends on what is within reaching distance of machine of you really want the truth! If you are going to hand sew the lines of the quilt I recommend a light piece of flannel of another piece of white cotton. If you are going to use a sewing machine, you can use a light batting, or flannel. Do not use anything heavy, you want the quilt to drape over your bed!

Take the bottom of you quilt and place it face down on your table. Place your middle fabric or batting on top of this, then place your quilt top, face up on top of the whole thing! Make sure all of the layers are flat! You may want to pin it in several places to make sure it doesn’t move while you are sewing!

Take the whole sandwich to your sewing machine and starting with the center lines you drew earlier, start to sew the short lines from top to bottom. I use a relatively small stitch. Keep switching from each side of the center line, making sure that the 3 fabrics stay flat and even! This is not a race! Work slowly and carefully. When you are done with the 6” lines, do the 9” lines in the same way. Cut all your threads!

Iron your quilt top and bottom! Take a damp paper towel and carefully remove any lines left from the marker! They should disappear immediately.

Binding Your Quilt
Once you have sewn your grid, sew all the way around forming a complete box. Trim your quilt approximately ¼” from this sewing line. You will use this sewing line as your guide for your binding. I use a ¼” fold over binding or 5/8” wide ribbon ironed in half for all of my mini quilts. You could make your own binding if you wish. I try to use a neutral binding or match a color in the quilt. Start you binding in the middle of one side and use one long piece to bind the quilt. When you get to the corners, neatly fold the edge into an angle and catch the edge with your thread. Do the top of the quilt first using a very tiny invisible stitch! (See picture!) Then do the back the same way. When you are finished, tuck under the edge and secure.

You’re done! Iron your completed quilt and take a picture of it and send it to me at hcrsold@aol.com!
I hope you enjoyed this small tutorial! I enjoyed doing it for you!

2009-05-10T12:00:00.003-06:00

Happy Mothers Day!!!

These are my wonderful sons! I don't know what I would do without them! They are my greatest creations!

Lee lives in Seattle, Washington with his lovely wife Amy and a grand assortment of pets! They both love soccer! Of course, living in Seattle, he has chosen the computer industry that he loves and has a great management position and hopefully quickly heading towards VP! He and Amy love to travel and they have been lucky enough to pursue their dreams that way! They have also just bought their first house! I'm so proud of them! Lee is the daddy of my only granddaughter Kara, who lives in California with her mother.

Chad is my baby, and always will be! (He hates it when I say that!) Cute isn't he! He is single (again) and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. he is a workaholic like his mom used to be! He recently transferred to Boston with the House of Blues from Myrtle Beach, SC. He started out as a part time bartender and worked his way up to management!

Both boys followed their dad and spent time in the United States Coast Guard! While Lee spent most of his time on boats in Maryland, California and Alaska, Chad wanted a bit more adventure! He chose to go on an CG ice breaker and toured the world! He went on 3 around the world tours! His stops included New Zealand, Russia, Vietnam, Fiji, Australia, Tasmania, plus many more and even celebrated his 21st birthday in Antarctica! Now that's cold! He took advantage of his travels and loved every minute of it! And only came back with one discreet tattoo! Thank Goodness! We won't talk about the piercings!

So, I have much to be thankful for on this Mother's day! Two wonderful sons with great jobs!
Thanks guys!

Jazzy's House!

2009-05-08T13:09:00.003-06:00

Here is a little roombox I made as part of the Mini Doll Annual Trailer Park Challenge! I thought I would share the pictures and Jazzy Worthington's story with you here on the blog too!

Jezibell Worthington arrived in the Trailer Park on a windy day in February of this year! Her arrival was met with many raised eyebrows by her neighbors, especially Mia Ow her next door neighbor! You see, Jazzy, as she is known, brought along her constant companion and best friend, Miss T (short for Miss Trouble!) her adorable Miniature Pinscher! Oh no! A dog, in a decidedly cat neighborhood! Jazzy’s road to the trailer park is not that unusual from the rest of the many odd residents, well…maybe a bit different! Read on for a little bit more about Jazzy Worthington and her sister Percy!

Jazzy and her sister Percy were once seamstresses for Rock and Roll stars back in the early days. Oh what a life! Their large old Victorian home was festooned with fabrics and feathers in every color of the rainbow! Their clients came from around the world to be dressed by the talented sisters! Needless to say, the neighbors around that house had a few raised eyebrows too! Between the limos, tour buses and motorcycles showing up at odd hours of the day and night and wild women and men parading around in the wildest costumes you can ever imagine in broad daylight… Well, let’s jut say there were a few raised eyebrows there too!

Well, all good things must come to an end and so did the good old days of Rock and Roll! Which was quite fine with Percy and Jazzy! They were tired of all the wild parties and traveling around! Last Christmas, dreams do come true and Percy’s one true love, an aging rock and roller finally popped the question and of course she said yes! So, not wanting to feel like a 3rd wheel, Jazzy decided to find somewhere new to live! She remembered a wonderful little diner she and Percy had stopped at one day and the quirky little trailer park next door. Off she went to see if there were any vacancies, and that was the beginning of her hilarious move to the trailer park!

While the girls were busy sorting and cleaning the big house and getting ready for the big move, Percy’s fiancé and a few of his rocker buddies decided to help out Jazzy and get the Trailer ready! So off they went to the local Home Depot for supplies! Needless to say, these guys are far better at singing then they are at home improvement! Armed with brushes, rollers and buckets of Oops paint they set off for the trailer park!

Jazzy is all moved in and it looks like she is already out of room! Her little trailer is quite bright with the paint colors the boys picked out from the “oops” paint they found at Home Depot! It’s a good thing Jazzy loves color! She won a blue 1st place ribbon for the big dog quilt over her bed and it fits right in with the color scheme!

She’s been having a wonderful time walking around the trailer park meeting all of her neighbors and making new friends! Tiny Miss T loves visiting all of the other trailers! She has made so many friends with the neighborhood kitties; she even let Kitty Boy nap on Jazzy’s bed! Mia Oww gave Miss T her very own baby kitty! You can see her crawling up Jazzy’s shirt in the kitchen picture!

Jazzy is all set up for her “Trailer” Warming party! Lots of food and booze for everyone! She hopes they all come! She has been working very hard to get the trailer ready for company! She can’t wait for them to meet some of her old rocker buddies who should be showing up soon! LOL!

She has also been working hard in her little studio! She made the Rhinestone leather motorcycle jacket for Mia Oww! Mia has been so helpful and friendly since Jazzy moved in! I hope she likes it!

So… Jazzy now that she is all moved in she will be giving a quilt tutorial for the new quilt shop on May 14th!

Thanks for visiting our little trailer! Jazzy is my first dressed doll!

Non Mini But Great Blog!

2009-05-08T09:27:00.004-06:00

I have to point you to a really great blog! Cathe Holden over at Just Something I Made has the most wonderful graphics for Blogs and gives full directions on how to put them in your blog so they work the first time!

She made the great banner at the end of my blog about older posts and a few new fun ones you'll see today. I love the one about "being nice!"

Please pop over there and say Hi and check out her wonderful crafts and tutorials!

Don't forget! If you borrow one of her graphics, don't forget to say Thank You!

If you are looking for something to Jazz up your Blog, check out the Background Fairy she has some wonderful backgrounds available to suit all tastes! Of course she has full, easy directions to make you blog go from blah to spectacular in seconds!

If you like pretty pictures and ephemera, go to the Background Fairy's sister site, The Graphic Fairy for wonderful free vintage images!

Okay, just something a bit different for today! You know how much I like to share!

My first Blog Award!

2009-05-06T19:08:00.013-06:00

WOW! I got my first Blog award! Yippee! I'm so excited!

This came from MiniKat from Little Thoughts of an Average Mind! Many thanks MiniKat!

Now to pass it along... Hmmmm, I follow so many wonderful mini blogs! It's amazing that I get anything done myself! But you know, I learn so much from all of you! You have all become my friends! Some of you may not know that I am disabled and there are many days that I can't do anything BUT sit in my chair and surf the blogs. Those are the days when I say to myself, well... lots pop over and see what Katie or Kat or whoever is up to today! Then I'm off on my world wide tour of mini;s visiting with you all! Some days I cry along with you but most days, I laugh right along with you and you funny tales! I love all of your houses and room boxes and of course my favorites are all of the witches, wizards and such! I try to leave comments when my fingers are working! I always appreciate your comments! Do I use too many exclamation points? My husbands says that's the way I talk! LOL! Always so excited with life!

Oh yes, back to that award... Okay, here goes... I hereby present the award to:

De at Delightful Mini's

Deirdre at Deirdres-Rabbithole
Kat at Kat the Hat Lady
Lena at Miniatymama
Mary at MizMary's Mini's

I hope you all enjoy your award! I know I am!

I am busy finishing up a special project and will be posting pics really soon!

Inquiring minds want to know!

2009-05-05T10:39:00.006-06:00

Debbie at Tiny Treasureshttp://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/ has this great link to find the meaning of your name! I checked it out and this is what it had to say about Heather! It was so "right on" it was scary!
http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyournameshiddenmeaningquiz/

You Are Unique and Inspired
You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

SO... people that know me well would say this is "spot on"! Try it for yourself!

Mini Dolls Quilt Swap

2009-05-03T17:57:00.003-06:00

Well, I did it again! LOL!
I missed a deadline!
So, instead of showing everyone my quilts where they are supposed to be, I guess I will have to show them off here! I made these quilts with fabric from from 12 fabric pieces that were sent by members of the Mini Doll Online list. They were my very first miniature quilts! The first quilt is just square patches but I got more adventurous by the second and third quilts! I will be posting a tutorial for the third quilt next Sunday which will coordinate with an event on the Mini Doll list but of course, every one is to it! I hope you like the quilts!

Busy, Busy Days!

2009-04-29T20:09:00.004-06:00

Wow, 2 post in two days! I'm on a roll here! LOL!!

Well... I have a lot to catch up on!

Let's start with the last 3 days. I have had a dollhouse kit sitting in the closet screaming to get out and get built! You know how that can happen! Well... this kit was delivered in January and has been making a racket since then! So... enough was finally enough! The box finally came out on Sunday!

The house is the front opening Gloucester by Greenleaf and the pictures on the site have it looking rather homely I'm afraid!

But... I think it has great potential! I always wanted to build a front opening house, so here's my chance! First, it will be all brick! I will be changing the door to the House Works Deerfield door which has a very nice pediment and all of the windows will have matching pediments which will definitely give it more character!

So... Not knowing what to expect, I opened the box on Sunday morning. I was surprised to find very few pieces! And those pieces can out nice and clean! Very little sanding needed! The house has very little trim, so no tiny little pieces to keep track off! Whew!

Here I am making poster board copies of the main and second floors of the house. I will be covering them with custom wood floors then installing them in the house over the wood floors. You can see here where I have put up the partition to make it's placement so I don't put the wood strips there. The wood will flow seamlessly throw the opening between the kitchen and living room opening.

Now, about those bricks! I have done bricks in several ways before and debated how I was going to do this house. I recently saw a house where the bricks were made with prepainted 60 grit sandpaper which was then cut into individual bricks then glued to the house. It looked fabulous! So... Am I crazy? Here's the sandpaper! I have started to rule out those lovely little bricks! It will take 15 sheets to do the whole house! That's a lot of bricks! So far, I have 8 sheets lined and ready, they are all painted though. None of them is exactly the same but are all various shades of brick. I will put them all in a bowl and pick them out randomly. I will be putting the bricks on while the sides and front are flat, before the house is assembled! The quoins will be cement color!

Handy tip, this is a quilt ruler! It has wonderful space markings on it in inches and mm! Great for miniaturists! You can even find them at Walmart! They come in all kinds of sizes and shapes! They are from Omnigrid and you can also get them from Joann's fabric on sale all the time!

Tedious work! All of the windows need to be sanded and primed! I use an airbrush to paint all of my windows! It's quick and I like the finish better. It lays down a fine finish and there are no goopy corners!

So... The airbrushing is done and the the next round of sanding begins! I use sanding sponges because they are gentler on the wood and my hands! I get them by the bag full at our local tool shop. The next step... repaint, then sand the windows again! It may take 4-6 coats of paint before I get them the way I want them, but it will be worth the effort when they are done! After all... Windows are the eyes of the house, Right?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So... that's only part of what I have been doing these past couple of days! I also unpacked a huge order from Handley House for my upcoming Spring show! I have 2 more big orders to come in, all of which need to be tagged and bagged with prices and such!

Big News!!! Anything I don't sell at the show will be offered here on my blog for really excellent prices! Including a couple of those big kitchens you see in the catalogs! I also have lots and lots of accessories and furniture you will have a chance to pick up at bargain basement prices! So watch for them!

Sympathy for a Blog

2009-04-28T10:07:00.004-06:00

Dear Blog,

Here you are, waiting so patiently for me to come back and post something! Always ready to correct my spelling and send my pictures into Never Never Land! While I blissfully ignore you while I spend my time racing around the world in search of your brother and sister blogs for entertainment!

Oh! The things I have seen! The marvelous dolls houses and room boxes, Harry Potter's house, Kat the Hat's wondrous creations, Katie's Star Wars shop, a Garfield built in 32 days! Men who have such outstanding woodworking skills them make me cry! I even "read" foreign blogs for their beautiful houses and imaginative ideas that are so different from here! Thank goodness for Google translator! LOL! I can get the gist of what they are saying!

But you, dear Blog, sit here neglected, waiting for me to upload all the pictures I have stored and write about my own adventures in Mini World! Pictures of my new Workshop! My new quilts! The new blankets I made on my felting machine! And the new new house I've started!

Yes, I have been busy... BUT... I have a good excuse! I have a new laptop and it has this terrible problem! VISTA! I hate it! We haven't been able to network this computer with our server and it has caused all kinds of nightmares in our once tranquil home! Funny, the only arguments I can remember Mark and I having in the past 10 years has been about computers! I guess that's a good thing!

So Dear Blog, I hope to do better, I have so much to tell you about and so many pictures to show you! I'm even going to post a tutorial of how to make one of my quilts! Isn't that exciting! So please don't be mad at me anymore and stop sending my pictures into the No Mans Land! Here is a pretty little sympathy card I found on the Graphic Fairy that I though you might like! I promise to be back soon!

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

Albuquerque Dollhouses and Miniatures!

2009-03-30T14:25:00.004-06:00

OK, I know you are out there! If you want to meet other people who share your passion for dollhouses and miniatures, please join us!

DUKE CITY MINI'S

We meet at the Hobby Lobby on Wyoming on the third Wednesday of the month from 6-8 pm. Whether you are a beginner or an "Old Timer" we want to meet you! We do projects every month! Please join our Yahoo Group and introduce yourself!

dukecityminis@yahoogroups.com

Big Oops!

2009-03-30T12:59:00.002-06:00

Okay here is the link to theEbay store whereI got all that great stuff!
Dollshousesuppliers
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Dolls-House-Suppliers__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Now don''t go and outbid me on everything! LOL!!!

Housekeeping Duties and Quilt!

2009-03-30T11:42:00.007-06:00

Well... I've been really bad about updating my blog with all of the wonderful Blogs I read everyday! So today I added a few more and I will try to be better in the future!

I added a new list! Wizard and Witch Links! These are either Blogs or Websites that I find that have great mystical miniature items on them! They could be dolls, houses or accessories and be for sale or not! But if you are into that sort of thing you will find them fun and interesting! I am always looking for things for my Wizards Tower I am always on the lookout! If I find an interesting Ebay auction I will try to spotlight it with the sellers permission!

***********************************************************************************

Now on to other things... Another quilt! This is just the beginning of a new quilt I am working on!

So far I have adhered all the flowers to the quilt top with fusible interfacing. The lines you see will be stitched through all 3 layers... the top, quilt batting, and the backing. Then I will put the final binding on the edges!

Just to make things interesting... I decided to outline each little flower in gold thread! I am doing this by hand. 77 times! Sewing through fusible interfacing is not fun! Trust me on this! To finish it off each little flower will have a center bead! This will end up looking a bit more contemporary than most quilts but that is the look I am going for!

Here is the quilt top before I started the gold stitching!

Then... I put the to in an embroidery hoop to start the gold stitching. I tried it without the hoop first but found the hoop easier to use... and much faster!

Here's a close-up of the little flowers! The stitching isnt great but it gets the job done! I now have 20 of the 77 flowers outlined! Yippee!

I won't put the beads in the center until after the whole thing is put together with the batting and the backing. This way the flowers will look more puffy!

Hint: If you try this use a thimble or be prepared to have a sore finger! Sewing through fusible interfacing is NOT easy! BY the way, I did try it by machine, I gave up out of frustration! LOL!

More Ebay Goodies!

2009-03-29T17:31:00.010-06:00

So... I found another Ebay Seller I really really like! Dolls House Suppliers out of the UK! They have both auctions and Buy It now Options and their products so far have been super! The prices are great and I have been very pleased with the free or cheap shipping! http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Dolls-House-Suppliers__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Check out a few of my recent purchases!

First, we'll start with the instruments! I bought a banjo, mandolin and a lute! The are incredible in detail! They all came in the nicest cases also.

Next the Food! It all looks so real! Plus, they don't stick the food down to the plates or in the baskets! Nor do they skimp! The basket of bread I bought, all of the bread wouldn't fit! LOL!!

All of the items on the cheese board are not glued down! You can move them to your own plates!

Next comes the Lights!
Truth be told I bought these because I can't get them cheaper wholesale! They all work perfectly with removable/changeable bulbs!

These Rugs and Tapestries are woven and the colors are gorgeous!

This is the cutest Welcome Mat!

This is only one of the numerous plants I bought! They are all beautiful!

I also bought some pottery and tea sets! All beautiful!

These are the cutest little Tobey Cups! Perfect for my Buffet or Hutch!

So what do you think? This is just a sampling of what I bought! Well its all the lights! But I need a bunch of accessories for my dollhouse and I'm very pleased!

Quilts! Quilts! Quilts!

2009-03-23T10:38:00.003-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted! I don't know how everyone else does it! How they find things to write about every day! My life must be very boring in comparison! LOL!

Here is what I have been doing lately! Mini Quilting!

I belong to a online group called MiniDolls (see sidebar for link) which currently has two groups gong for swapping fabrics to make quilts! I received 13 pieces of fabric to make my quilt which you can see below! Group one had to make a Crazy quilt, but group 2 (my group) could do anything we wanted! I chose to make a charm quilt instead! I think it came out pretty well for my first try!

One of the ladies in my group sent around some lovely patterns AFTER I made my quilt! I decided to try my hand at the mini technques outlined and voila! Here is my second quilt!

I can't wait to make another quilt! The tecniques are quite easy once you get the hang of them!

My next adventure will be another charm quilt using 1/4 inch squares! I think they will be much more in scale than the larger squares!

Please let me know what you think!

Calling Out To Albuquerque!

2009-02-25T17:01:00.002-07:00

Okay, I know you are out there! So where are you?
There is a small group of us that are trying to start up a miniatures group here in Albuquerque. Are you interested? We meet once a month on the third Wednesday!
Please let me know! E-mail me at hcrsold@aol.com!

Dollhouses and Dollhouse kits wanted! Do you have a house or kit you don't want, please let me know!
I am building kits to give terminally and very sick children! I am also giving a house to a charity auction! If you are reading this and have a charity that would like a house to auction or for a raffle, please feel free to contact me!

If you really want to know... I'm not nuts! I love to build the houses and have no more room to keep them myself! LOL! So... the best alternative is to build them and give them away!

Yes, we do build larger homes for sale but those are few and far between and mostly on commission!

If you would like us to build a house or castle for you please let me know! We wail be releasing a new castle design this Spring! It will be available in 3 sizes! 1:12 1:24 and gamers size! Our first castle which can be seen on this blog is also available in all 3 sizes! For Holiday season 2010 we will be offering houses in both 1:12 and 1:24! Our houses go fast! All houses come fully electrified, some with working fireplaces upon request. Get you orders in now for the best selection!

Okay I'll end my sales pitch now! Didn't mean to go there! LOL!

More Ebay Finds!

2009-02-18T10:13:00.003-07:00

I have been so bad since my surgery! Not much to do but surf Ebay! LOL!
Here are 2 more finds!
Actually 1 fabulous find and a free gift!
I was looking for something interesting to put on the desk for my "Professor" in the Ivy Cottage and found the Mother load!
I found a drafting set from seller youngworld-dhm

Yes all these pieces are perfectly scaled for a 1:12 size dollhouse!

Unbelievable! Way too many for one desk! I will be able to use these in at least 3!

Plus I got a free gift! The items below!

The composition book has 10 lined pages!

There are 3 keys, a skate key, pins, a shoe horn, and a church key! (bottle opener!)

What a deal!!

He has some interesting stuff up right now! Check him out!

That's it for now!

Ebay Finds

2009-02-16T15:30:00.006-07:00

Well I promised in a recent post that I would post some pics of some of my recent Ebay finds!
While I won't post the actual prices paid, (only because I'm too lazy to go check!) I will say that I didn't pay more than $20 for anything listed here! Many were less then $10! They are from various Ebay sellers, I have not grouped them by seller or by maker. I'll try to make some notes as I go.

These are both Concord Museum Miniatures. Both are corner cupboards. The one on the left is nice and rustic looking!

Two more Concord Museum Miniatures. The hanging cupboard is quite nice and the little shaving mirror is absolutely adorable!

More from Concord! The piece on the left is a Gothic Divider. I actually bought 4 of the chairs! They will be a good fit for the castle I will be building this Spring!

Moving right along! Another Concord! This is a Maple crib with adjustable side! It has a fitted sheet and pillow. I will probably make a new canapy to match a crib blanket.

This is a beautiful heavy brass bed with porcelain knobs! I will really have to think how I want to dress this bed! Something to really do it justice!

The picture does not do these chairs justice! They are wonderful also! The woven seats are beautiful. I was very pleased when I received these! They will be going in my Ivy cottage!

I caught this auction an hour before it ended! There were ony 2 bids on it! I got it cheap! It's a bit rustic and very old! I'm not sure where I will use it yet. Unfortunately it won't fit in the Ivy Cottage! It would be perfect in there!

This is a beauiful Lyre Desk! I love the legs!

It took 3 tries to get this fireplace! It is very heavy and very realistic in person! It's also quite large! I think this will go in my rehab house!

This may be one of those "What was she thinking!" pieces! But I couldn't resist! I think it's really cool! Almost wizardy! Is that a word?

Another cool piece! This little display piece opens on the side to put your treasures inside! Now to find some treasures to put inside!

I love this hall tree! I bought this to go in my big rehab house! The house has a very large front hall and this will be the feature piece!

What a sweet table! The carved swans! I couldn't resist! It has a lovely faux marble top that didn't photograph well. Really a nice piece!

Last but not least! I found this green velvet 3 piece set for the Ivy Cottage Living Room! It's a vintage set in great condition! The photo for the auction wasn't great and I was really pleased when it came! The auction included some tables and plants too!

Okay that's it for today! Now I have to put all of this away! Safe from puppy dogs mouths!

The rehab house is coming right along! I have most of the wallpaper off! What a job that was! Now I have to sand all of the walls! Then prime them! Still a long way to go! I'll post some progress pictures soon!

Look What I Just Ordered!

2009-02-13T12:34:00.005-07:00

This is the new front opening GLOUCESTER House from Greenleaf!

I ordered it directly from From Greenleaf. This kit was originally offered in the mid-nineties and was discontinued. Evidently they are in short supply and will not be distributed to other retailers! It sells for less than $110.00 and ships for FREE! What a great deal! I have wanted a front opening house for a while now and I will finally have one!

EBAY ALERT!! I usually keep the really good sellers to myself but there's plenty to go around here! Here's 2 great sellers I have found! JanetPlanet1 and Justreallygoodstuff999. JanetPlanet1 has a huge amount of Concord Museum Mini's that she will be selling for the next year or so! I have bought some really great pieces from her already! Every period from castle to Deco! Not to be missed! Her shipping prices are great! Quick to ship too! Justreallygoodstuff999 has a good selection also her prices usually start out at .99! Make sure you ask her to hold your auctions and ship them together! Her shipping can get high! She's getting better about it though! She does ship quick!

I will be posting a bunch of pics of my recent buys! I have been really bad lately! Nothing better to do with my time than surf Ebay! Wait until you see the tiny Drafting set I bought! Totally awesome! Really hard to photograph well! The postman knows his way to my house way to well these days and Janet has a pre-printed page of address labels for me! That's scary! LOL!

I'll get those pictures up ASAP! Later!

The Foot!

2009-02-05T19:55:00.003-07:00

Not exactly about miniatures but... it sort of changed my direction for awhile! I won't be jumping up and down changing saw blades for a few weeks! LOL! Or anything else that needs me to stand for that matter! Which leaves out a lot of my activities! Including standing at my workbench! Where I do 90% of my mini's! I had some nasty surgery on my foot on Monday, Feb. 2nd! But I'm doing great! I am a total klutz on my crutches! It's a very good thing we don't have stairs in our little house! Actually, I have 3 stairs which lead down to my workroom... but that room is totally off limits, per Mark, until I am off the crutches! Boo Hiss! Actually he said until further notice but he went back to work today! LOL! What he doesn't know won't hurt him! LOL! Okay, I'll be good... most of the time!

SO... in the mean time, during my off time from playing POGO on the computer and being very bad on Ebay, shhhhhh, I didn't say that! I have taken up miniature needlepoint in my over abundance of spare time! I am working on a cushion for my Tudor Settle! So far so good! I did the outline and the ends matched when they came together this is always a good start! LOL!! At least I got the count right! That's not easy on 28 ct. linen! I completely screwed up my first pillow! But... try, try try again! I am also planning to embroider a bedspread and hangings for my Tudor bed on Dupioni silk! Very ambitious! I actually love to do handwork! I will post pictures as I go along!

Thanks to all of you who sent get well cards!!!

2009-01-26T16:50:00.004-07:00

I have been very remiss in updating my blog this year! I promise to do better! I will have pics of the house I have been working on up soon!

I have also been buying some furniture on Ebay for my big house that I was given by a wonderful couple this past Fall. It needs some Rehab and TLC but it will be beautiful when it's done! It's a 12 room 20 year old Holly Hobby House!

You can only see half of the rooms in the picture! The front of the house opens too! So far, I have stripped off wallpaper in about half of the rooms. I have new windows for the whole house and and all new doors. I also bought a curved staircase for the front hall. I'm going to try to refinish the staircase going to the third floor. It's in good shape, it just needs a new paint job! I will be redoing all of the electric in the house too. The kitchen is huge! I have a 7 piece mahogany kitchen set that still leaves room for a table and chairs! I will be putting in all new wood floors throughout too except for the kitchen and bath which will be ceramic tile. I haven't decided if he foyer will be hardwood or marble tile, hmmm.... any comments?

I would love to know if anyone has any info on this house! I haven't been able to dig up anything on Holly Hobbie houses!

Well, that's it for now! I will take some pics of the furniture soon!

Half Scale Sale!

2008-11-20T19:16:00.007-07:00

I'm having a

HALF SCALE

JBM Miniature Furniture SALE!!!!

I am offering the following HALF Scale pieces at 10% of MY normal retail prices! My website is giving me fits, so I am offering this special sale by e-mail and through my Blog only! 1st come 1st serve! I accept PayPAl and US money orders only! For the price list, please e-mail at hcrsold@aol.com and I will e-mail you a price list right back! Prices are below Ebay and other retail sites! My photos aren't great, but the furniture is!

***I also have a limited stock of 1:12 scale JBM furniture that I will be selling at 10% of MY normal retail prices! If you have a favorite piece, e-mail me and I will see if I have it in stock!***

JBM doll house furniture made from solid Australian hardwood is either stained or painted using traditional finishing techniques, to enhance the beauty of the timber and the workmanship of each piece. Museum quality!

E-mail me now for the price list!!!

hcrsold@aol.com

Thanks!!!

Anniversay!

2008-11-18T16:01:00.003-07:00

Just a quick note! Mark and I celebrated our 31 wedding anniversary on November 12!! This is a slightly old picture, taken 2 years ago! But it's the most recent one I had! That's our youngest son Chad! I always feel so short when I'm around them! He lives in Myrtle Beach, SC and is a bartender for the House of Blues! He's available! He's a great cook! And he knows how to iron, clean and sew! Plus he would make a great daddy!!! (Can you tell I want grandchildren?)
This is our oldest son Lee and his wonderful wife Amy! They live in Seattle! They just ought their first home! Yeah!!!
They are the proud parents of my granddog and grandcat! LOL!!
Lee is working for a new company and loving his job! Since he lives in Seattle he is a computer "something!" Darned if I know what he does! I do know he does it well!

That's it for the moment! Just a bit of family stuff!

I have 4 dollhouses under construction and 1 more on the way and 7 kits in the closet!!!
I better get a move on to get these done before Christmas!!!

Albuquerque Doll Show!!

2008-11-16T11:09:00.006-07:00

Hi!

Well... We entered our very first show as a vendor on November 15th! I've uploaded the pics so you can see our setup. ( Yup, that's me!) We decided to go for quality over quantity which may have been our downfall, but we still stand by our decision! We decided to carry JBM Furniture as our feature product! JBM is relatively new to the mini market and the quality is outstanding!! Right up there with Bespaq! But the prices are so much better! Very affordale!! Plus there are a variety of styles from simple to Victorian to Tudor! Of course, we are partial to the hand carved Tudor!! It's that castle thing again! LOL!

The first pics are of our "Houses" side! We had a wonderful half scale house built by Majestic Mansions! We will be carrying them on our website! They are truly to die for! They come in 1:12 and 1:24 scales! The rooms are huge! For what you get, the houses are really quite affordable too! The 2nd house, Mark spent slaving over this past week getting it electrified! It has plenty of outlets for all of the lamps you can see glowing in the picture! Of course, our Wizard's Tower was there! All of the men at the show loved it! That's Mark pinning up the table skirt! He was such a great help! He actually made 2 of the 3 sales we had! LOL!!

This is the setup of the gorgeous JBM Furniture!!! I had both sizes 1:12 and the rare 1:24!!! I will be putting it all on the website this week and on some on Miniatures Only auction site and on Ebay! That's http://www.miniaturesonly.com/ a new miniatures only auction site run by Shelly Norris from Colorado! Check it out!

Okay, so the pics aren't great!!!

Last but hardly least are the dolls!!! The fabulous Lucie Winsky sent me a lovely selection of her dolls! 3 dressed, a lovely lady, a crying Little boy and an adorable baby in a Christening gown! Then there was a bevy of naked kits! LOL!! I had them standing in a glass case!! Check them out! LOL! They drew quite a crowd and a lot of Ohhhhs and Ahhhs from the doll makers but alas, no sales! I think they scared the pants off everyone! They were all amazed at Lucie's tiny dressed dolls! Many had never seen such beautiful work! One man wanted her doll sooooo much!

The glass prison!!! Cute!!!!

We didn't make many sales, but... we met a lot of "Mini" people!!! We are gong to form a club here!! Mini's are NOT dead in Albuquerque!! YEAH!!!!! So this was a great experiment!! Er.... Experience!!!! LOL!!!

So, now that the show is over, it's back to work!! I will be getting the furniture up on the website, finally!!! And on the various aucton sites! If you know JBM and want a particular piece, e-mail me and see if I have it! Deals are to be made!! There will be a very special sale coming up so say tuned!!!

Oh, and Mark says I have to get the 5, (yes I said 5!) houses that I have under constuction finished! LOL!!! I really can't wait to get back to work on them! Of course, now that the weather has turned here in ABQ, I have had to move them all inside! so there are 2 in the living room, 2 in the dining room and 1 in the work shop! I guess I better not start the new half scale kit! LOL!

Until next time!!!

Heather

Another Cool House on Ebay

2008-10-30T21:31:00.004-06:00

I found this house while cruising Ebay today. The starting bid is $150 with an unknown reserve. For those of you who don't know what a "reserve" is, it is the least amount of money the seller is willing to take for an item. So far there are no bids, but I doubt that will last long!

This is a quote from the listing!

"This is a beautiful, unique Victorian Brownstone dollhouse. It is a front and back opening house which makes it 4 sided. It was started from an unfinished house I got on Ebay a while back. I usually don't buy or finish premade house shells but this one had an interesting idea. It is actually 2 Victorian townhouses back to back! This way it is 2 rooms deep and can be accessed on either side, so it's a full house. We hinged the front opening walls on the same side so that the house could be against a wall with both doors open.(see pics) The dimensions are 32" tall by 24" deep by 17 1/2 inches wide and has 10 lighted rooms. It has a small footprint for a lot of house!"

From the looks of it there are a lot of neat features! From what I can spot.... Arches and ceiling panels from Unique Miniatures, some very nice light fixtures, (at least $70 wholesale that I can see! Houseworks doors and windows and wall panels I think, and many many more very nice upgrades. All in all, this is one very nice if somewhat unusual house! I wish I could afford it! It would definitely be fun to decorate!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this one!

State Fair Results!!!

2008-09-10T16:06:00.006-06:00

So, with much trepidation we went to the fair! Mark was had to work on Friday so we went after he came home on Friday afternoon. I don't know why but I was nervous all day!

Mark's knee has been bothering him, so I didn't know if he would even want to go... I didn't even bother getting ready! Well, he came home ready to jump back in the car! He was just as anxious as I was! So off to the fair to find out how we did!

This time we remembered the camera!

The first picture is the long shot from across the room!

The appears to be something on the floor of the castle!! Could it be a ribbon?

IT IS!! A First Place Ribbon!! Yippee!!!!

Just in case you're wondering the yellow dot means we are adult novices!

Channel 7 sponsored the event, that's their logo on the bottom of the ribbon!

So... with much joy in our hearts, we went off to celebrate with a double scoop from Baskin Robbins!! Bad Heather! Bad Mark!! LOL!!

Thanks for following our Grand Adventure of the Wizard's Lair!

Stay tuned!! I will start reviewing my collection books on Miniatures and my new tools we bought! We will also start selling on EBAY!! We are now selling fabulous JBM Miniature furniture! We have great accessories from other companies and will be carrying miniature doll kits from top designers in the very near future!! Our website is almost ready!!

We will be at the Albuquerque Doll & Bear show on November 15th!!!

A Few More Pics of the Wizard's Lair

2008-09-07T10:59:00.008-06:00

As you may know from earlier posts, we got a bit of a late start on the Wizard's Lair! We wanted to enter the dollhouse in the New Mexico State Fair which had a deadline of 5pm on August 31, 2008! Well.... We made the deadline by the skin of our teeth! We hit the registration table somewhere between 3 and 4pm with wet paint in a few places!! Thankfully, nobody noticed!!

Here are a few pictures of the final 24 hours!!

Early Friday Morning! All 5 levels are finally together!! Now to see them stacked!

Cool!!! It stands 46" tall! It's actually smaller than the original plans. We had to rescale everything to fit the specifications for the State Fair! It is actually 4 inches taller than allowable, we are hoping no one has a tape measure! Okay, now to take it apart and start the wiring and finishing!

All the parts and pieces that went into making the wall sconces!! The candles are made from paperclay. The wire is threaded through the "candle" then the square piece of wood which is glued to the long back piece! There are 2 metal parts also! Each sconce has a total of 7 different parts and in the end... they all 16 lit up!! Yippee!!

This is Mark at 3am making sure the wiring all works so the sconces and embers in the 3 fireplaces all work! Go Mark!!!

Looks like Mark had a few friends helping out with the wiring!!

Stairs? What stairs? Who said stairs have to meet in the middle?

Yup that's me! Yes heat guns DO make paperclay dry faster!! Or is that paint? I've lost track! This is the morning of the deadline and I am working on the rock floor of the top of the tower.

Lowest level of the tower. This is the 2nd coat! Not happy yet! It took 3 more tries!!

Me again! Not exactly my best side! But you wanted pictures! It's about 11am! Deadline is 5pm!!I'm just starting the painting!!

Still painting!! Yes, that is my red hair! You can see the top two levels in the background.

Here is a slightly better picture of the inside with the sconces and fireplaces installed.

Mark is checking on the trapdoor on the upper level!

Okay, that's it! We took a lot of pictures but you can get the general idea!!

Coming up next?

Did we win anything??

Stay tuned!!!

The Wizard's Lair

2008-09-04T08:29:00.005-06:00

We made it!! The Wizard's Lair Tower was delivered to the New Mexico State Fair just in time for the 5:00p deadline on August 31, 2008!

Here are 2 pictures that Mark took with his camera phone to show the guys at Home Depot why he was late for work! (Yes, he called in and told them he would be a bit late!!)

I will be putting up a full page showing the full progression of the building of the tower. Including "burning the midnight oil" or should I say the 3am oil while we were finishing up the building!! didn't start the PAINTING until 10am the morning it was due!!

These pics do not due it justice. The panting came out great. There are spiral stars that go all the way to the top. 16 handcrafted working sconces, hand laid hardwood floors, paper clay floors, working fireplaces on 3 levels, stained glass windows and so much more. But I wanted to get at least a few pics up right away!!

More Progress on the Wizard Castle!

2008-08-14T09:54:00.002-06:00

Well, we have decided on a theme for the castle!! I belong to a wonderful online group called the Mini Doll List which is a great group of Miniature Dollmakers! The list is owned by Dana Burton who keeps it hopping with great tutorials, special guests, games, prizes, and all kinds of daily, weekly and monthly treats! We even have a special meeting place to play online Bingo for prizes and chats called the Posse! All in all, it's a wonderful community for new and old dollmakers!! For the newbie like me, I have been welcomed in with open arms and made to feel like one of the group!

The doll kit pictured below is a Wizard that I WON!!!! It was made by LUCIE WINSKY!!!! THE Lucie Winsky!!! And I won him!!! Okay, so now I have to make him and dress him! I actually won a doll kit in a Monday contest and she gave me the option of picking a kit from any on her website. Soooo, of course I picked the Wizard! Everyone on the list knows we are building the Castle! I have been receiving so many tips of things to build and how to decorate the castle! Websites to visit! Even with the Wizard theme, it will still have an overall Tudor period feeling.

So, back to the doll kit... Lucie sent me the Wizard pattern and the directions to actually make the doll. Now to search through my fabric stash to find the perfect fabrics and trims!! I have to make Lucie proud!

This is the mold I made for the small window. It looks really awful! But it turns out perfect little windows!!

We decided to do hardwood floors on 2 levels. Thank goodness for my favorite Miter Tool!! It makes cutting the round tips off the sticks quick easy! I can't imagine trying to cut all of these corners without this tool! I bought it at Hobby Lobby using my 40% off coupon!!

Speaking of Hobby Lobby, you can sign up on their website for weekly e-mails that have their coupons!! How convenient!! They even send coupons when they are not in the newspaper!!! Since you get them in an e-mail, you can print as many as you need!! Good tip!!!

The wall tiles are all cut and ready to be assembled!!!!
Now on to the great castle build!!!

More to come soon!

Busy Weekend!

2008-08-11T08:35:00.004-06:00

Well, it's been a busy weekend!

Go USA!!! It was hard racing between the backyard and working on the castle and the studio to cheer on our Olympian athletes!! We had to watch the rain drenched beach volleyball players, the swimmers, and even caught a few minutes of the bike riders huffing and puffing around the Great Wall!

Mark played beach volleyball for years and years so we are always glued to our seats through those games! Go USA!! Our sons were both competitive swimmers, so swimming is also close to our hearts! Last nights relay was a stunner wasn't it!!! Oh my!!! The Gold is ours!!!!

As for the castle... It's moving right along! I will have pics later today!!

Moving Right Along!

2008-08-09T15:31:00.024-06:00

We have been working on the Stonehurst castle for about a week now. This is a MAJOR production! I will be honest here and say it is a larger task than we originally thought, but this hasn't discouraged us in the least! We have had some setbacks, a few things haven't worked out as planned, and even after carefully reading directions on both the package and the web... well, some things just didn't work out as planned!!

Here are a few pictures of our progress so far!

Day 1: This is Mark (The love of my life!) working out in the 97 degree heat here in Albuquerque! He ended up with a major sunburn on his head!! He always wears a hat! Why he's not wearing one that day is totally beyond me! He is setting up the mold for the first time! The cast will be made with Hydrocal White. The water and plaster has to be weighed to exact proportions to get the right mix for the plaster to set up right without bubbles! Very easy stuff to work with!!

The Mold

Crossing our fingers

Perfect Cast!

5 Panels Down 12 to Go!

These are 2 of the Paint tests I have done

The Windows: We have decided to change the windows from the original kit. I carved the window on the left in the mold (tall in red mold). There is a smaller window in the mold on the right. Unfortunately, the mold on the right did not work right and it's back to square one for that that one! I will probably have to carve another one! For some reason, even after reading and following the directions carefully, the mold did not work! Not only did it not work, but it ate my original! Oh well!

I am trying something new for the castle. For the Tudor house, I used Gallery Glass liquid lead and traced the lead lines on the acrylic panel. For the castle I decided to use wire form in the perfect diamond size! I spray painted the wire black on both sides with Krylon matte spray paint. I tried spray glue to attach the wire to the acrylic panel but it didn't work, so... I simply blue taped the wire to the panel. It worked great! I then applied the Crystal Clear Gallery Glass in between the diamond panes... and waited... and waited... and waited! This stuff takes forever to dry! It looks white when first applied.

I don't know how long it actually took to dry, I left it overnight! As you can see, it dried clear! The actual effect is wonderful. For the castle, the panels will be sandwiched between the window frames that I carved and molded and will be set in the wall panels. I will probably end up using color panels, but I tried the clear to test the wire effect. I will make a test window using the large molded windows with colored gallery glass next.

Day 3: Mark is hard at work carving out another window mold! Miss T, our 8 year old Min Pin is Marks castle building apprentice! She is tired from studying her Castle Building textbook! That's our binder which holds all of our research, plans, and wish lists! A very important book indeed! (Note: Mark is wearing a hat! Our other two Min Pins are in the house, probably getting into trouble!!)

Day 4: Finally! Cutting the panels! The panels have to be cut to very exact dimensions to fit the groves in the floors. Then they have to be glued to the builders foam, then... well, if you've built a doll house you know what comes next! Stay tuned!!!! More to come soon!

Houses, Houses, Everywhere!

2008-08-07T10:37:00.009-06:00

When I started this Blog I was very new to Dollhouses and Miniatures! I have been very lax in keeping up with the posting because I have been reading everything I can find on building houses and furniture I can find online and in print! There is a tremendous amount of information for anyone who cares to go online to look for it! It's not hard to find! Google Doll house, Doll's House, Miniatures, or any combination, pour your favorite beverage and you can spend hours surfing!!!

I recently had foot surgery and was confined to my chair for almost a month. During that month I spent many hours online doing research for myself and other online friends for future builds. I learned all about techniques for building Tudor homes: Everything from stone floors to thatching roofs! How to build every kind of fireplace imaginable! FREE!!! The tutorials available are amazing! Every time period is covered! Do you want to build an Art Deco house? or a Castle, maybe a house right out of a "Leave it to Beaver" episode? You just have to ask on any of the forums out there and they will steer you to just where you need to go to get the info, FREE!! The miniature community is truly amazing! Of course, once you get started it's hard to stop!

I started with one small kit! Now, I have kits coming out of my ears!!! It seems to be a common problem with miniature builders! You see a kit on Ebay selling for some ridiculously low price and you just HAVE to have it! Never mine the 10 (20?) you have stacked up waiting to be built! LOL! Fortunately, there is usually someone out there waiting to buy these treasures when you are ready to part with them!

Mark and I have just started building a wonderful castle! It's the Stonehurst from Earth and Tree in New Hampshire. We couldn't afford the kit, so we bought the plans and we are scratch building it. It's almost 4.5 feet tall! Here are a few pictures from their website:

Cool, Huh? It has stairs on the inside and the outside. I did a bit of "bashing" and made my own windows. The castle will have real stained glass windows! Slate and wood floors. The walls are made with Hydrocal white plaster molded to look like "castle stone". Very cool! I also made the two plank trap doors, one in the floor of the bottom level and one leading to the roof!

I will post pictures of "our" castle as we progress! Wish us luck!!!

Spilled the Beans

2008-06-05T18:52:00.000-06:00

Since I spilled the beans, I guess I better post!!! Here is the limk!!!

The first book review of 60 will be on Sunday!

Pictures of the castle will be posted by then too!

Heather