Update on the Glencroft and new findings!

Hi all!

I have been so busy lately, but took some time tonight to clean out my miniature supplies. I was inspired to add a couple of things to the Glencroft and to the blog.

So, without further ado, here are some pics! :)

This is a painting I've done of a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop and I *love* it. (I play guitar, too!) So, I decided that it filled up some empty wallspace *very* well in the Glencroft living room!

Just a small addition to the kitchen: a miniature Betty Crocker cookbook I received in a swap a while back. :)

I added this owl painting to the living room as well. I was feeling very inspired a couple weekends ago and did some painting. I love the 60s era band Canned Heat and one of the lead singers (who passed away at the age of 27 in 1970) was nicknamed the Blind Owl. So...while I was listening to their music, I painted a very cool owl. :)

I also painted a bear (for Bob "The Bear" Hite, the other lead singer in Canned Heat's most famous period). I also moved the bed around a bit and put the laundry basket next to the doorway.

I was tired of the empty space next to the fireplace in the bedroom, so I put a little basket in there. One of my favorite little features of dollhouses is seeing just a tiny bit of something in a nook or in a hallway. It adds a bit of realism to the scene.

 I also wanted to show you these CUTE storybooks which would be perfect for any dollhouse children's room (they are sitting on the bedroom floor of the Glencroft so you have an idea of scale). I found these in the charms section of my local Hobby Lobby. They had eye pins in them, but I easily pulled them out with needlenose pliers. They look like perfect oversize books for your (1/12 scale) kid's library.

Here's the packaging, in case you decide to look for some. :)

Birthday gifts!

Last weekend, my fiance treated me to an amazing weekend in Vermont for my birthday. We stayed at an awesome little place called the Manchester View (in Manchester, VT) and enjoyed a fireplace and a lovely Victorian-decorated room. I loved it!!!

Not only did he treat me the whole weekend, but he spoiled me with some wonderful (crafty) gifts, too. (And a dress from the Marimekko outlet!!!)

Anyway, here's the eye candy:

The little shelf with hooks and basket are from Memoriesnminiature on Etsy. The book is one I have been wanting for a while and has lots of cute crafts, many of which are definitely applicable to miniatures. :) Maybe I'll share some stuff I make from the book. :-D And of course, a cute little maple leaf punch which are really hard to find in any of the chain craft stores around here. :)

 The cute little stamp is from Terbear Collectibles, also on Etsy. And of course, more HoM stuff to grow my collection. The book is one I think I already have in my collection (my bad, since I likely didn't update whatever wishlist he used). He mentioned he didn't mind if I did already have it, that it would be good for another giveaway. ;) What a sweetheart! I will announce that in the new year.

It was a fun birthday and we had a lot of fun.

Today, I have been getting ready for Christmas. I made gift card holders and money holders for some of our family members.

And I decorated the dollhouses, too. :)

I still have lots of baking to do, as well as wrapping presents, but I have most of my shopping done, which is nice. :) I hope all of you are having a good holiday, no matter which one you celebrate. :-D

I've finished the bed!

The bed I was working on the other day is all done and dressed. I am really pleased with the color. I painted it with Martha Stewart Crafts Lake Fog mixed with the same brand Antiquing Medium. It turned out great! I made the box spring and mattress, pillow covers and dressings. I love how it turned out! This bed kit was awesome and it was so much fun to make - easy, too! I wish Daisy House hadn't gone out of business, but if I see more of their kits, I am going to snatch them up! I put this bed in the Glencroft and it's *perfect* there! That's where it will stay. The brass bed was nice, but this is a much better look for this room, I think. :) Now I have to figure out what to do with the brass bed, whether I want to keep it or not. :)

Anyway, on with the pics!

Closeup of the footboard. As you can see, I added some lovely embossed paper to both the headboard and footboard as I built the bed.

Close-up of the pillows! :) I love the fine lace detail.

At home in the Glencroft bedroom. I added Dale's Dreams' pillows which were on the old bed, as well as the cute pajamas I won from Little House at Pine Haven a while back. :) Oh, and of course the teddy bear! :) I really think this fits nicely in this eclectically decorated room.

Home sweet home!

Stuff I've made recently

So the last couple days, I've been busy at my desk just brainstorming ideas and making things. I've just been in the right mood lately and I find it very pleasant to sit and create.

Here are some of the things I've been making since Monday:

This is a sign I made for my desk area. :) I got the idea from watching so many craft videos on Youtube and a lot of the crafters there had made these cute signs. Maybe I'll use it in a future video!

These are some new crystal balls I made. I'll be adding them to Etsy very soon. I like these new bases. :)

This is an experiment I have been playing with. It's a lotus floating in a bowl of water. I found some plastic flowers at A.C. Moore and repainted them to look more lotus-like and I put them in an acorn cap filled with Triple Thick/Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. It seems to work. Perhaps I'll make more and/or do a tutorial.

I finally made a sign for the historical society! I named the little town it is in "Kleinburg" because I needed something that sounded German/PA Dutch and "klein" means "small" so...I think it's pretty obvious. ;) It was fun to make and it even has that aged, weathered look! Here's a pic of the whole front porch. :)

This is a Daisy House Kit bed I put together tonight. I was going to dress it and consider selling it, but I like it a lot and might replace the brass bred in the Glencroft with it. I do need to make a mattress as the ones I had bought do not fit quite right. I will enjoy dressing this, though! I love the blue accents. I am also thinking of painting the unfinished part, but not sure what color, I think I'll go really light or really dark with it.

I hope you enjoyed the eye candy! :) I have a few ideas for Christmas minis as well as some other stuff for the shop, so stay tuned.

*Blows dust off the keyboard and starts typing...*

Well it certainly has been a while since I updated this blog! The semester affords me little time for creating art, and certainly even less time for writing about creating. Yikes! I have managed to catch up this past week, though, and even had some time that I took to relax at my desk to make some things. Many of these ended up on Etsy, so check there for some brand new crystal ball designs, a witch hat, and a new knitting basket! :) (Here's the link.)

I have also spent a little time today making curtains for my Glencroft dollhouse! I have been debating about what type of curtains to make and how to install them and today I found a nice, easy method involving barbeque skewers and wooden pony beads to do so.

Here's the living room:

 Hmmm, those pics make the curtains look uneven, but I swear the panels are the same length! Really! :)

I also made a small sheer panel for the bedroom:

 

(By the way, the material from both curtains came from free samples I received in the mail from Smith + Noble. They have a very wide selection of home decor and window treatments...I recommend their site.)

As you can see (from comparing the last post's pics to the above), I changed the bedroom around a bit. I like the more open layout. :)

Yesterday, I made some lovely new crystal balls (as I mentioned earlier). I made one that I just love and can't bring myself to put on Etsy so I put it in the Glencroft. :)

 

You can see it just beyond the little metal box. The base of the ball is a metal acorn cap. :) Love it!

I hope I will have more things to post soon, especially for the holidays! I do want to welcome all of my new followers and I am keeping an eye on both this blog and Linda's Minis on facebook to prepare for a giveaway when I hit the next milestone on either (200 here, 100 on facebook). So stay tuned!

A bit of an update!

Hello there!

It's been a busy week as I have started teaching again. Next week is going to be even busier, so I am enjoying a low-key weekend, watching movies and organizing some of my craft area.

I posted a video recently to my new Youtube channel (where I have moved all of my mini videos) about toys you can find in your local chain stores that would make good 1:12 toys. One of those that I had featured is a small plush bear and I adopted him into the Glencroft. :) He's a perfect fixture in the bedroom.

I will be doing a giveaway soon (nearly 200 followers!) and will be giving away a mini chest of 1/12th scale toys including some of those I had in the video and others I have made. I will be finding another of these plush little guys to include, too! So cute!

Anyway, I also want to show off some lovely items I purchased from an online mini business, Timber Ridge Studios, I had seen advertised on Small Stuff Digest. The owner, Ronni, has so many wonderful items in her shop and it is all very inexpensive.

Here are some of the items I picked up (already in the Glencroft):

The tiny buri pot came from Timber Ridge. It's very cute! I believe the lid is detachable, but I have left it attached and placed it in the living room. It's perfect for this house as I imagine the owner is a collector of items from all over the world, especially of items from Asia.

I also purchased that blue decanter sitting on the sink. The little stopper does come out!

This is a faux marble vase that I believe Ronni had turned herself on a lathe in her studio. It's perfect for some roses I had made!

I highly recommend her website. You should check it out. In addition to the items above, I bought some vintage lace, fabrics, tiny pine cones and garland, and microbeads. She has a lot of variety there and lots of supplies that are difficult to find in your local craft store (especially if you're not super-close to a brick and mortar dollhouse store).

One more thing I recently received in the mail were some neat kits from True2Scale. A few weeks ago there was an online dollhouse show with lots of great dealers. I decided to take advantage of some of the nice items that were being offered and picked up a forsythia in French pitcher kit and another kit to make up 4 lovely French pillows. Both are from their La Boutique Bleue line.

These items are packaged very nicely. The kits are tucked into silvery envelopes as you can (kinda) see below:

I haven't made these up yet, but I peaked into the pillow kit and everything is just lovely, including the detailed instructions!

When I do make these, I will be sure to include pics and let you know how they went. :)

That is all for now, I believe. I have an Etsy order to send to Spain (yay!). Hopefully I will make some time to work on a few more things. But for now, don't forget to check out Linda's Minis' Etsy shop for some fall-related items!!!

Cute mini find

Yesterday, my fiancé and I drove around the area. We stopped at 10 Thousand Villages, which is a shop that sells fair trade goods from all over the world. They have a lot of locations and are worth checking out! They have great fair trade coffee and chocolates, too!

Anyway, while there, I found a little woven pouch with six tiny dolls inside. They are perfect for mini scale stuff. Here's the pouch:

Here are two of the dolls on the bedroom mantle in the Glencroft:

And the rest in the herb shop:

They are really cute and perfect for both scenes!

And while I was in the herb shop, I pulled out the little chest I had in the center of the shop and put it in the historical society. It fits nicely in there, I think:

Now I just need to add some items on top of it. :)

New Etsy item and other things...

I *was* going to post yesterday about these cute cupcakes I made. They are now on etsy!

I did a couple other things today, too:

1) I added a couple things to my kitchen to liven it up a bit. It's crowded, but it looks busy and well-used. (Kinda like my real-life kitchen, now that I think about it!).

This shelf unit was the one I picked up for a bargain at Chautauqua Miniatures! It fits *perfectly* in the kitchen above the stove. I've since put brass measuring cups on top of it.

These pillows are from dale's dreams. They make cute summer chair cushions for a kitchen!

This is a little apron hung over a stepladder (see pic below). The apron was found in the scrapbooking section of the craft store and is the perfect scale! It even came with little wooden utensils which I put in the drawers of the little hutch in the kitchen.

 

 

 

You can kinda see the step stool here. Also note the pans hanging on the wall by the working clock. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) I finally filled the window box on the front of the house with some plants. It was bugging me that it was empty. As you can see by the pic below, I also added a hanging planter by the door. I've had this in my stash for a very long time, so it's nice to get a chance to display it.

3) Last, I played with my new toy today. It's not mini-related, but it is pretty cool. I finally got an iPad. I've been wanting one for a while, but when I got a chance to play with one recently, I thought about how useful it could be for work and play. If you have a cool app you've discovered, please let me know. I installed Flipboard today and it's great to use to read all of your blogs!

Road Trip Day 2: Chautauqua, NY

Hi everyone! Happy Mother's Day!

So, we left the Buffalo area this morning and drove down to Chautauqua to visit our next stop, Chautauqua Miniatures. What a GREAT place! It was recommended highly by other members of the Greenleaf forum so I knew I was in for a treat. The owners have actually two shops in one: the miniatures store and the Two Chixx Gift Shoppe! The latter has decor, antiques, scarves, lotion, etc. Lots of cute and fun things!

If you go to the website above, please know that what is on the website is only a fraction of what is in the shop. Both shops are in one 5000 sq. ft. two-story barn. There is so much to look at here, so if you stop in sometime, do give yourself plenty of time to look around and take it all in!

I had to really focus on what I was looking for here...stuff for the historical society, beds to dress, etc., and I definitely came away with some great finds! One awesome part of the shop were the clearance items. I found some great pieces there! They also had a section of back issues of Nutshell News, American Miniaturist and other dollhouse mags. I have some reading material for the trip now! ;)

Anyway, here's what you've likely been waiting for - the pics!

On the left is a resin figure who would make a wonderful curator of my local historical shop. Also for the shop is the barrister book case to hold reference materials and some local artifacts. Below that is a wine bottle for the Glencroft kitchen, and on top of the book case is a cute basket perfect for a number of applications.

I added another HoM kit to my collection! Also a book on wine and a wicker frame which matches some other pieces I have.

This is a cross-stick kit for "Chautauqua Lake." It was a unique piece local to the area (yay! souvenir!) and was a bargain at 3 dollars.

These are some of the clearance pieces. The cabinet was very detailed and would go well in several possible places including the Glencroft kitchen. It was $4.00. The bed was only $8.00. I want to dress it up and add a mattress.

Lots of reading material and useful projects!

They threw in this pen. :) Jay bought a few items too (Mother's Day gifts!) and gave me his pen. I think one might go in a giveaway box. :)

I did very well at Chautauqua Miniatures and am close to getting all the pieces for my historical society! I can't wait to start building now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we are in our hotel down in PA and will be visiting Volant Miniatures and Lynlott Miniatures tomorrow. :-D Stay tuned for more!