Bit of a disaster......And Christmas came early

But first of all, Welcome Natalia!  Thank you for taking the time to visit here.  I hope you enjoy it and will come often to share my mini world.

So what was the disaster?
Flower Pot Man fell apart!
Why did Flower Pot Man fall apart?
It was the water.
What water?
The water from the tap.
Why put him under the tap?
Because he was sticky.
Why was he sticky?
From the coffee.
How did the coffee get on him?
The cup stuck.
What did the cup stick to?
The board.
What board?
The baseboard for the Town Square......

Now do you get the idea?  I put the coffee mug on the painted baseboard on which I have set out the seven Town Square buildings so far received.  Even though I haven't shown you the Garden Centre yet it is finished outside, and so is the Pet Shop.  So I wanted to take a photo of them all sitting on this base board.

It's not the final base board, it's not big enough.  But enough for now..  It is painted just in green craft paint, no grass or paths or landscaping.

The coffee mug stuck to the paint.  I went to lift it off and it splashed - and went all over several things, including the Flower Pot Man and some ivy.  Poor Bill/Ben!  Poor ivy!  Poor flowers!  I dabbed them with a damp cloth but it wasn't enough - they were still sticky.  So I put them very briefly under the tap turned on gently.  They all came through that quite well, and I patted them as dry as I could and put them on a flat surface to dry completely.  To my surprise, the paint didn't come off.  But the glue on the ivy lost it's grip and Flower Pot Man's head did too.

But all is not lost.  Some work with the tweezers 'fluffed up' the ivy around his body, which had become rather flattened in the patting dry process.  Some more glue secured his head back in place and reattached the missing ivy leaves both to his person and to the branch of ivy that had been stripped bare.  And the flowers came through unscathed.

Moral of the story is - don't put the coffee cup near the minis!

The good news is that Christmas came early for me as far as my present from my darling husband goes.  My hardworking Olympus camera has given  faithful serice for a long time now, but it is finally wearing out.  The battery compartment has to be held closed with masking tape because the catch is so worn; when I try to download the photos I keep getting messages that files are corrupted; I can't buy SD cards small enough to fit it any more and the macro function is erratic.  It doesn't owe me a thing - I have used it to death vbg.

So Peter took me shopping for a new camera.  I wavered between a Canon and a Nikon.  the Canon had more megapixels but was far more bulky, the Nikon Coolpix still has 14 megapixels and 10x optical zoom and is really compact.  I chose the Nikon because I have found that the bulkier camera (like my Olympus) has proven to be inconvenient when I've been travelling - and at other times too. 

So last night I took some photos.  The lighting wasn't good - the energy saving bulbs do not give a good light for photos.  But the macro lens worked really well - I can get as close as 1cm from an object which is fabulous for minis.  I was going to take some more photos today but by the time I had installed the software this afternoon then worked out how to download the photos to the computer the light wasn't good anyway.  Of course it all might have gone more quickly if I had read the instruction manual.

Anyway, here are some of the photos - they are of the flowers I did yesterday, not the same ones I did the other day.  I've made another six sunflowers:

And another dozen poppies, so there's a total of 24

Sorry the colours aren't good, but I put these ones on this little surface because it has measurements on it.  They are in inches, and each of those marks is 1/8th inch.  In the foreground are some of the dozen or so gerbera daisies (I've done this batch in a hot pink); some of the daffodils are there - I did another 12 of those; and further behind is a geranium head.  It is red even though it looks pink in this photo - I did say the light wasn't good. As you can see, the leaves haven't been added yet.

 Here on the left you can see two of the geranium flower heads and if you look to the left of the 1 inch mark, you will see one of the little red petals.  They are about 1/16th of an inch across.

Aren't the daffodils beautiful?  They are very delicate and yet fresh and bright and perky.  I really think they brighten a garden up. 

So I am very, very fortunate aren't I with my Christmas present?  In case you are wondering, I am allowed to use it to photograph my minis to get used to it.  Our oldest daughter and her two sons are arriving next week for a nice holiday with us and we want me to be used to the camera in time for their arrival so i don't mess up any photographs.

That's my excuse and i'm sticking to it hehehehehe.