Happy New Year to you and your families

I wish you and your family a year of good health, love, happiness and lots of laughter.  And of course many minis as well.  Remember that we cannot give to others unless our emotional cup is full - so take some time every day for yourself even if it is only a short time.  Recharge your emotional batteries.

Welcome Paula - thank you for taking the time to share my mini adventures with me, and for becoming a follower.  I hope you enjoy your visits here and pop in frequently - please feel free to leave comments.

Lovely day out

First let me welcome Elga.  Thank you for taking the time to visit here Elga, and to sign on as a follower - I hope you enjoy sharing my mini ramblings, and that you visit often. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions for improving things.

Today was a great day with friends and family.  We went to a local reserve, Nurragingy Reserve (it's named after an Aboriginal man, one of the Wianamattagal clan (South Creek Tribe) of the Dharug people who inhabited the area before European settlement in 1788.  Our friends Rick and Marilyn are the ones we went with to Kiama a few weeks ago.  We have been friends since Kylie was a baby.  She grew up with their son and their daughter Nicole.  Kylie and Nicole are still good friends and now their children are too.  So it's a three generation friendship, which is pretty special.

The three boys - our grandsons Cameron and Luke, and Nicole's son Daniel, had a ball riding their bike and scooters, exploring the paths and generally keeping their mothers and grandparents on their toes trying to keep track of them.

Marilyn, Peter and I went for a walk and Peter took this photo of the two of us at one of the waterfalls.  We ignored the 'do not climb on the waterfall' signs - but only a little bit vbg.

Apart from 4-year old Luke going down a hill too fast on his scooter and taking a tumble with nasty grazes resulting, then a couple of hours later getting his foot caught in the bridge and Cameron falling in the water trying to dislodge Luke's foot, it was an uneventful day.  We won't go into the matter of how Luke happened to be near enough to the spot he was to get his foot caught by slipping on the seaweed in the pond lol.......... 

We have all had a kiss of the sun - not enough to be sunburnt but enough to know we've been outdoors (forgot the suncream.  Oooops!).  The fresh air - well, we were still in the suburbs so it is still city air.  But Nurragingy is 40ha and it has some of the last remnant bushland in the area, so it feels as though it is fresh air.

Most of all there was a lot of laughter and good company - all in all a lovely day out.

A retrospective look at some RL Christmas needlework

I saw a pattern for a really lovely quilt in a magazine a few years ago and must chase it up.  Of course  it will be for decorative purposes only because a quilt is the last thing one needs in Australia at Christmas time usually.  But there's still ways of doing patchwork for the festive season.  In 2005 I decided to make some Christmas presents for both of our daughters and for our grandchildren.  At the time we had three.

First I made each of the girls a wallhanging, featuring a rustic 12 Days of Christmas.  It was printed on a panel, and it is padded, backed and quilted then bound.  On the backing I used my embroidery machine to do the label, stating who it was for, from whom, who made it, and the date.  This was added after the quilting - just like i do with full size quilts.

This is a strange angle for the photo because it is draped over a couch here, but it's the best I have.  It has a nice wire hanger to hang it from, of course.

For Cameron (Kylie's only child at the time) and for James and Grace (Kirstie's children then) I made two Advent Calendar wall hangings.  Again, these were based on a fabric panel, padded and quilted.  Then I sewed buttons on the spots indicated and hung the ornaments that I had also cut out and backed from them.

The children love adding the ornaments day by day in December on these calendars and I think their mothers love them even more vbg.  Again, they are hung on the decorative hangers.

The final thing I did was a Christmas tree skirt.  Here is the skirt in full:

 Here is a closer view of the machine embroidery I did at the front.  I bought the designs especially for this project and I think they are perfect for it. The colours show up particularly well against the background which has a self-patterned contrast to it, and they blend well with the gold in the border fabrics.

And here is a closer view of the fabrics in the border.  I selected a number of fabrics that I really liked and repeated them around the border.. You might guess from the Town Square 'O Christmas Tree' in the previous blog that I really love red and gold for Christmas, so it will be no surprise to see red and gold here.

Both the Christmas tree skirts and the Advent Calendars have the embroidered labels on the back as well - I do them for all the quilted projects I do, having had the necessity to do so drilled in to my head by the teacher of the class I was attending at the time.

I have a half-made Christmas tree skirt for us as well, and here it is five years later and I had forgotten all about it - it's still not done lol!  As I sort out my sewing and patchwork, that will definitely be on the 'must finish' list.  Oh for a few more hours in each day!

So that is a retrospective peek at some of my Christmas patchwork. 

Yes, it was done in time for Christmas.....

O Christmas Tree

The instructions for this kit start 'Working in miniatures allows us many luxuries, one of which is selective snowfall.  It is not only plausible, but also quite beautiful to have snow on the roof of one shop, while down the street, not a flake is in sight'

The kit I ordered from Debbie Young arrived on 19th December, so there's been time to make it up ready for Christmas even though the one from Judith hasn't yet arrived.  I have been preparing ahead for this little shop, in a way. My efforts to find a tiny Christmas tree to use in it were in vain, but fortunately one came with the kit. I still want some more though and will continue to try. In the meantime I also got some tiny beads and gold thread to put on the tree as decorations. And I had a pot of poinsettias, one of four that I made for this shop and the Yule Tide Shop from Petite Properties. I’d also collected a supply of printies of Christmas paper and boxes in miniature to print out and I had some Christmas books to print out and make up as well.

I'm delighted with the accessories that came with this kit.  There's a table and a tablecloth (a 1:12th scale doily- it's perfect); a kit for some nice shelves for the wall; the little Christmas tree; and some tiny blocks to wrap as bags to hold 'baubles' for decorations.  There is also some plaster of paris and fine glitter for the snow.

Here's the exterior completed:

The exterior of this shop is shingled, to give a nice contrast to the other buildings in the Town Square.  I kept to the same Hunter Green that Debbie Young used - it is such a perfect Christmas Green.  And I did the shingles on the roof in a darkish brown to complement the green.

I am hopeless at doing the trim on these doors!  that red detailing took me soooo many tries.  Debbie makes it sound so easy and it should be - but when I get the red paint onto the white I let it dry as instructed and try to scrape it gently off.  No matter how gentle I am, the white paint gets marked and a red stain remains.  So I touch up the white - and get some on the red.  So I touch up the red - and get some on the whtie.......and so it goes until I'm ready to tear my hair out.

The snow is plaster of paris, with fine glitter sprinkled on while it is still damp.  It has obviously been snowing a fair bit - the pathway is half covered and snow is banked up against the walls as well as on the roof. I have found that it chips off very easily unfortunately and will have to replace some of it.

The wreath on the window is again made from the frosted greenery from another kit, and a red bow - I am really pleased with the result.  And also with the shop name sign, which I did in on the computer to fit in the transom. I have carried the poinsettia theme through from the interior to that sign.

So here it is almost finished inside.  I just have to add the star to the top of the tree and some bits to the bottom shelf of the unit on the left wall.. 

Looking at the ground floor, you can see the tree that came with the kit.  I used a piece of gold for tinsel, and beads in gold, red, green, silver, blue and purple for baubles.  The bags around the tree hold baubles for sale. 

The table that came with the kit looks great painted red, and with its white cloth added.  I made three Christmas candles to go on it. The base of the candle is a sequin - I used one red, one in gold and one in green.  The candles are pieces of toothpick painted red, inserted into the hole in the centre of the sequin.  Each candle is surrounded by greenery snipped from a 1:12th scale wreath, and each has three beads to match the colour of its repective base.  Not that I needed to worry about that - you can hardly see them vbg. 

Also on the table is one of the pots of poinsettias that I made and posted about before.  On the floor to the left of the table is a nutcracker from my collection of 1:12th scale Christmas items.

On the wall between the window and door is a wreath, made from twisted wire painted brown with a poinsettia snipped from the pot of flowers on the table, and some gold no-hole beads. I'm really happy with that. 

And I am also quite chuffed with the poinsettia detail in the transom on the top of the door.  Can you tell I like poinsettias as Christmas decorations?  Not overly keen on them as an actual plant though.  Maybe because they grow like weeds here in Australia and the trees themselves are often rather scraggly.  I've actually never seen them grown in pots.

The window has a garland draped across the top, made from more of the greenery snipped from that 1:12th scale wreath and a bow added, and another garland decorates the white shelf unit on the left wall.  This one is made from some snow-encrusted greenery that I filched from a kit for a Christmas scene in a cup that I have. 

And of course if you have been following my Town Square shop series you know by now that there has to be a cat in each one somewhere.  Here a naughty tabby is playing with a gold bauble that she has removed from the tree - a situation familiar to all who are owned by a moggy.


Here's a close-up of the first floor.

This is where extra stock is kept. We have a box with rolls of Christmas paper, a collection of gift boxes and a bag with rolls of ribbon.  I had lots more that could have gone in there too but there isn't room.. So I will keep them for the Yule Tide Shop.

And it was finished - to this stage at least - on  Christmas Eve.  It adds a nice touch to our caravan, being one of the few decorations we have.  There isn't the space (and hasn't been the time) for much more!

Happy Christmas or Holiday Season to you all!!

I have been trying to get a chance to write this for a few days - but now the hectic activity is over, and we are having a well-deserved respite from the chaos of two noisy boys opening Christmas presents at the speed of light and of providing a traditional baked Christmas dinner for 14 people this evening.  After going to bed at 3.30am and getting up at 6am vbg.  Our other daughter and her four will be up sometime within the next week, hopefully.

But the reason I am posting before sleeping is to wish you all a wonderful, happy Christmas if you celebrate it.  For those who don't then I wish you a wonderful, happy day anyway!  Whatever this season is for you, I hope it brings happiness, love, friendship and lots of miniatures.

Thank you for visiting here, and I sincerely hope you will continue to share my enjoyment of the wonderful world of miniatures in the coming year.

Hugs to you all,
Sandra

And it would pay to read the instructions next time!!!

.....instead of thinking I remembered what to do!  The other night I found I was gluing the geranium leaves on to the hydrangea flower stems.  Last night I 'remembered' that the stems had 2-4 small leaves and 2-4 large leaves on each, so I did the small leaves on a whole lot of stems.  This morning after I finished the geraniums and posted about them, I finished off the hydrangea leaves.  Then I re-read the instructions to find out how many leaves to put on the flower stems.  Oooops!  They should all have gone on the flower stems - there aren't meant to be any leaf stems.  I wonder whether that is why I was running short of leaves vbg?  Take a deep breath, Sandie, now take another one....and start again.....

Sooooo - I removed the leaves from most of the leaf stems and started gluing them on - again.  Only this time to the flower stems.  I decided to keep just a few of the leaf stems.  Then I 'planted' them into some dirt on a piece of baking paper.  i couldn't get to my clay, so I improvised by using glue with the dirt over it.  Here is the result, again against a ruler to show it's size.  And again it is just 2cm wide (less than 1 inch). 

Boy, do I love the macro lens on my new camera!  I cut the stems the length suggested in Susan's instructions, and this is the size it ended up.  I think maybe for the next one I might try a larger shrub by cutting the stems longer, and see how it goes.

Here's a closer view of the bush.  I'm really, really happy with it.

 

And guess what - I am part way through the next kit of the same flower.  I must be bonkers!  If I'm not, I soon will be.

Ta-daaaaah! Drum roll please!

Ladies and gentlemen, miniaturists all, let me present for your viewing pleasure, all the way from Sandie's Studio (well, the lounge chair in her house actually) - geraniums in a hanging basket!

'Where is the ruler?' I hear you ask!  There isn't one.  Have you ever tried to hold a little basket of flowers and a ruler in one hand and a camera in the other?  It isn't possible, take it from me! But that little basket measures just a bit under 3/4" from the edge of the sticking - out flower on the right here to the outside of the extended stem of leaves on the left. Can't find my ruler at the moment to convert that to cm.

Here's a slightly closer view: 

 The wire is still wonky after all my fiddling and fussing to get those stems to stay in the pot last night.  I will straighten them (again!!) later. 

Here is a close-up.  The patch of glue you can see on the side of the pot is where one of the stems kept coming out of the pot and left a residue.  Isn't it interesting the things you see in a photo that you don't notice with the naked eye?  I will clean it off this morning now everything is dry and set.

That's the first of the two pots completed.  I will do the other one after Christmas, probably.

By the way: when you are carrying these little creations, you don't put your clumsy big hands on them, it is better to hold on to the wire part so the flowers don't get disturbed.  Don't ask how I know this.......

The geraniums are done - yaaaaay!

But I have to wait until tomorrow to take a photo - or read the instructions!

And since it is past 1am I'm not going to start doing that at the moment vbg. It was quite hot again today and we had a meeting at Sunnyfield, the sheltered workshop that Nathan goes to 3 days a week.  It was his annual program planning meeting, the first one as an employed person.  People with disabilities have them in one form or another right through from pre-school and into their working lives.  He was asked about what he liked about working, whether he had made friends, and whether he knew who his friends were, if he remembered the things/jobs he had learned while there, which ones he liked best, what he would like to learn, whether they were giving him the support he felt he needed, whether there is anything else they could help him with.  Then his wages (which are minimal, because he receives the disability pension) were reviewed and the manager explained that he would be staying on the same rate because he tended to become distracted easily and start talking.  Then the others around him start talking and of course then the work doesn't get done - which means that the production slows down. 

What - my son, a talker?  Wherever did he get that from? !!!  It wouldn't be from my side of the family, would it? The McNee family could all talk under the ocean buried in a ton of concrete.  Of course, I am different!  Stop choking you!  Show some respect there, please.

Anyway, if the production slows down it is a problem because they have contracts to deliver to produce a certain number of items by a certain time, of course.  I wish them luck in trying to get Nathan to stop talking though lol!

Back to the geraniums - I was determined to get them finished last night.  Then I realised that I was putting the geranium leaves on to the hydrangea flowers.  Ho hum, time to go to bed methinks, but first I had to remove all those carefully attached leaves.  That took almost as long as it had to glue them on in the first place.

Then I did a big clean-up in the kitchen this morning, got distracted by emails after that until it was time to go to the meeting.  So it wasn't until after tea that I got back to the geraniums.  Finally they were all done, some stems done with leaves and the flower stems with leaves attached too. 

While they were drying I went on with more hydrangea flowers.  Then I 'planted' the geraniums into the hanging basket - and I am delighted with the result!  Took some photos with my dandy new camera, but again the lighting isn't right.  I really will have to do something about that.  Maybe I'll have to read that instruction book after all and find out what setting to put it on to get a nice shot. 

Meanwhile I'll take a photo in the daylight and show you tomorrow - keep tuned, it's the cutest thing! 

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.

Is it Bill or is it Ben?

When my son was young he watched a television show called ‘Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men’.  I don’t know whether this is Bill or whether he is Ben, but I’ve made a flower pot man.  Strictly by trial and error and with a lot of pulling of the hair and gritting of the teeth, let me say.  Then when I visited BJs Miniatures site, I saw that there was one on there for sale – I could have saved all that work lol.  But I do enjoy making things for myself, so perhaps not.  I really liked the way the one on there had ivy growing around him and on the area around his feet, and I added some ivy to my creation too.  He is an ornament to go in my Sunflower GardenCentre.  Here he is: 

Not exactly huge, is he?



He doesn't show to his best in the photo but there are still some things that I can see could be improved.  His head is obscured a bit too much by the ivy, and the stems on the flowers are probably too long.  I've been able to move the ivy down a bit so it looks better.   Unfortunately he used up most of the tiny pots that have come with the flower kits I've bought. I carefully hoard those that remain whole, to use in my mini Greenhouse. But all in all I am quite chuffed with it! 

So now I've shown you several of the items that go in the garden centre.  It's nearly there - I was doing little seed packets yesterday and became totally frustrated with those.  But I am determined to do them, and very soon, because the Town Square Christmas Shop is due to arrive quite soon from Debbie Young.  I hope!

When I got fed up with the seed packets I started on some poinsettia flowers in pots for my Yule Tide Christmas Shop as well as the Town Square Christmas Shop. It took me almost two days to paint and assemble three kits of these, and they are now ready for their new homes.

The stalk-like thing at the rear of the one on the right is a wire stem for one of the partly-made poppies.  Well, I had the red paint out........

I have used cheap plastic pots from Grandt Line, having used the clay pots for my flowerpot man. They are well sanded then painted with Antique Gold craft paint. I considered coating them with gold glitter too but decided against it. Maybe a tiny gold ribbon later on. I’m really happy with them. Are you inspired, Elly?  And yes, I know I still need to complete the geraniums too.