Clay obsession leads to miniature obsession

And so it goes...messing around with clay and miniature food has rekindled my love of miniatures. Years ago I built a couple of dollhouses from kits, but having no place to display them I eventually gave them away with most of the furnishings.  I kept a few pieces and some do dads and I've had this stuff in my craft closet for years. Now I've decided it's time to use my craft stuff, rather than saving it for some time in the future when I 'need' it. So I'm making room boxes.

First a little history - here are pics of the old dollhouses:

 

The Blue House

 

The Cottage

 

 

The master bedroom of the Blue House.

 

 

The kitchen of the Blue House

 

 

The kitchen of the Cottage

 



 

The bedroom of the Cottage with handmade quilt.

 

The interesting thing about the Cottage is that I had planned to write a story in which the heroine lived in this very Cottage.

 

Here's my current project - a living room/sewing room combo - in the early stages:

 

The furniture is placed just to give me an idea - I've completed the couch and the tables. Now it's time to add all the minute details and then display it on a shelf. I bought a lot of wooden pieces at A.C. Moore today, so I plan to make some more furniture for my next project. I want to do a bedroom and a kitchen. I could have spent some money on pre-made furniture but after looking at it closely I decided it has no real charm. I much prefer the handmade items now - and don't have any desire to just plop expensive pre-made items into a room no matter how realistic they may appear.

More to come.

 

 



And they're all calorie free!

I'm still at it:

 

Wine and cheese party - with some pumpkin and apply pie for a sweet finish.

 

Ice cream parlor - strawberry milkshake, a frozen latte, green bubble tea smoothie, lemon merengue and blueberry pie, chocolate mousse, a cherry sundae and a chocolate ice cream cone.

 

Ready for more presentation boards - I've got key lime pie and peach tart, Easter bread, coconut cake and pineapple upside down cake. For the bakery I've got a French baguette, a Danish, a blueberry muffin and some bagels along with a tray of cannoli. For the picnic, hot dogs, a hamburger and a cheeseburger.

Clay obsession continues

I can't stop now...

These bottle cap pies are actually a lot easier to make than they look.

Cheese for the wine and cheese soiree.

Country breakfast display - eggs, bacon, buttered toast, croissants, donuts, cinnabons and of course, quiche!

Fancy dessert reception - have some layer cake, strawberry shortcake, chocolate soufflé, chocolate Bundt cake, but that spice cake with the blue flowers is just too pretty to cut!

Stay tuned for a visit to the ice cream shop and the holiday cheese party.

Premo bellisimo!

Because fairy doors weren't enough... I finally decided it was time to take the plunge and give polymer clay a try. I've been avoiding it because clay gets annoying after a while - you have to store it, condition it, it can be messy and polymer clay needs to be baked, which can also be a time consuming pain.

But since I'm always looking for things that will consume time...

Bought myself a nice set for not too much money.

Started out making some gnomes. Meet Doolittle, Angus and Frye.

Made some fairy pumpkins.

Had Onyx inspect the doppleganger cats.

 

 

And then I finally lost my mind and decided to delve into the wild world of miniature food.

 

Bottle cap pies. My latest obsession. More to come!

 

The door to another world

I'm obsessed. This time it's with fairy doors. The one I bought kept me happy for a while, but it wasn't enough. I had to make my own.

 

That bag of popsicle sticks I got at a garage sale finally came in handy. This little gem made its way around the house and finally settled next to the staircase for a photo shoot.

 

After many plain years, my little wooden box finally found a purpose. It now hosts a purple fairy door, based on a craft project I saw on line.

 

Here's the same project in more natural light.

 

I know have a nearly irresistible need to make lots more of these.

New projects to chase away the cold

As if winter couldn't get worse, it's freezing and all I can think about is gardening.

In anticipation of spring, I'm prepping more fairy houses. This is an old flower pot with some embellishments. I made a mushroom cap for it to be added later today. I just need some varnish for the whole thing so I can put it outside.

My latest obsession is fairy doors, so I ordered a mini on line and made this for my desk. I have a larger door on order, but it hasn't gotten here yet so last night I started making rustic fairy doors from popsicle sticks. I'll post those finished projects soon. The whole fairy door idea has me completely bowled over - I can't get enough and my fear is that I will run out of wall space hiding little fairy doors all over the house.

 

Then again, how bad would that be?

 

In other news, I joined Pinterest in earnest and I'm liking it. [In time I'm sure will come the inevitable crash and burn of this social media relationship] but for now it's cool.

 

And I planted my coffee beans - so in two years I should be able to brew a cup of coffee from my very own blend!

 

So done with winter

It's been a while. I've been busy writing - yes, I finished book 1 of my sci-fi series, got it edited and am planning on an April release!

I've been fighting the winter blahs - I used to like winter .I had a great excuse to stay in side and read, write, create - but now that I seem to have kicked by reverse seasonal affective disorder, I get regular seasonal affective disorder and winter [after Christmas winter] makes me depressed.

I can't wait for the warm weather and to get outside and get back to work on my gardens. Today, we went to Lowe's in the snow and I plunked down $20 on my seeds. The only thing I didn't get was strawberry seeds - and I figure I'll have to invest in some plants when the season starts. I caved and bought carrots again - only because of the colorful variety and went with two types of beans [couldn't resist the purple ones] and multicolored peppers.

I also put my coffee seeds in water to soak and I'm planting them in their mini-greenhouse tomorrow. It takes 3-4 weeks for them to sprout, so I'm thinking by the time they're transplantable it will be warm enough to put them in a greenhouse at least.

I'm working on some fairy garden accessories and I plan to have some authentic fairy gardens this year. My indoor plants are hanging in there after some major trimming today. There's been so little sunlight, it's a wonder they're holding on, but they are.

Here's to warmer weather - it can't get here fast enough!