My Own Advent Countdown

There has been little time for minis lately, so I thought I would do a countdown of 5 (yes, only FIVE more days) reasons I love miniatures. Feel free to chime in with your own.

#5 - Even when your world is falling to hell, tiny miniature worlds are perfect and pristine.

Book Blanks

No, I have not disappeared off the face of the earth. Between the holidays and working a ton of hours, I have just been very busy. Miniatures have been on my mind though and finally today I found some time to work on them. What a relaxing and fun way to spend a few hours! A "mini" escape :)

There are lots of shelves to fill in my book shoppe, so I figured my time would be wisely spent making some books today. These are just filler books to take up some space, but I think they turned out pretty well. I cut varying sized pieces of wood and simply wrapped them in spare scraps of leather. I may go back and add some gold titles/details at a later time. A very simple project, yet time consuming. How many shelves are there again?!

On another note, I have finally come up with a master plan for opening up the Villa. Now I just need to get some proper tools for the job and then "surgery" will begin! I'm very excited!

I'm Batty With Happiness!

I can't believe I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Nina at The Tudor/Medieval/Jacobean/Queen Anne Dollhouse Project! What beautiful stuff she has!!

Check out the post here. I won the witchy one! I'll post more details and pictures later.

Thank you Nina!!

:)

Goodies Galore!

Here are a few of the purchases I mentioned.

Ahh..the perfect little nook to curl up with a good book! "Leather" club chair from miniatures.com. I lightly sanded it down to add some wear and take away the shiny appearance. Side table came from the old house. Mug of coffee from Hobby Lobby.

I bought a cute metal little bistro set from miniatures.com. It was white and came with a "glass"-topped table and four chairs. The table and other 2 chairs will end up in the Villa- (double-duty-bonus!) White seemed too stark for the bookshop so I painted them green. I'm not sure if they will stay that way though- maybe brown? I'm also thinking of adding some "tiled" flooring to delineate the cafe area.

Bakery case also bought from miniatures.com. I added some paint to darken it up a bit. Cherry pie and plates came from Hobby Lobby. Great cheap finds! How do you think my cookies look? Hoping to fill it up with more goodies soon!

Metal cash register (with working drawer) from miniatures.com. Lamp swiped from the old house ;)

Blast From the Past

This past week I went back to my old stomping grounds. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my family had saved my daughter's old dollhouse.

As you can tell, it was a child's choice of colors :0! Red and orange exterior--wow! I never had the time to finish it properly (kids will do that to ya), but maybe one of these days. Possibly as a gift to a friend or as a charitable donation.. It has good bones, but it's a bit flimsy .

I think it is made by Duracraft. If anyone knows for sure I would love to know.

Trying Out My Creativity..

Time to start furnishing the cafe for my bookstore. The store is not big enough to fit a huge cafe, but I still wanted to convey the idea. I had in mind a cute little bistro set.

Yesterday I was at Michael's and found an awesome metal pendant sort of in the shape of a compass. Viola! A table base! The top of the table was made to look like a Formica overlay. Chairs to come..

While looking at miniatures I have been in awe at some of the food I've seen (Kiva's Miniatures- amazing!). I swore I wouldn't even begin to attempt food. It just seemed so daunting. Last night however, I found a little "discovery" that I couldn't resist. I hadn't exactly cleaned up my table from my last adventures. There were little hard globs of Liquid Nails glue left over. Hmm.. a light bulb went off. What could I do with this stuff?

I laid out some intentional blobs on wax paper. This morning they were dry (and didn't stick to the paper). The result- chocolate chip cookies! Not perfect, but not too bad for a first attempt. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve for making the media more workable for my next attempt. Fun!

I also made my first major purchase last night from miniatures.com . Can't wait to get the package and share my goodies with you!

Here are  some miniature paint brushes I thought I would share. They were purchased a few years ago at Dick Blick. As I've said before, I think miniatures have been in my blood for quite awhile and I just didn't know it ;)

Building Resource Questions?

Does anyone know of a good place to get hardware (doors, windows, staircases, etc) for odd sizes? The floor to ceiling height for my villa is 11" and the arched windows and doors are not standard. Any suggestions?

Just in the initial planning stages now, but can't wait to get started on it!!