Three months since my last post??? Really???

I can't believe it's been that long.  I haven't been spending nearly as much time on mini projects as I would have liked but, in between many other things I had going on, I did squeeze in some time when I could.  So, I thought I had better catch things up to where I am today with my minis.

A long time ago my one of my sisters-in-law had asked me if I could help her replace a piece she lost from a tic-tac-toe game she had.  She has always been a big lover of horses and still spends every Sunday afternoon at a local equestrian school where she enjoys a few hours taking a horse or two out for a ride.  She has a small tic-tac-toe game with pieces that, instead of being Xs and Os, are cowboy boots and cowboy hats but she lost one of the cowboy boots.  She asked if I could make one to replace it.  I tried using one of the resin pieces to make a two-part mold but it did not work out well for me.  When I tried to use the mold to make a Fimo copy, it did not bring up the details very well at all.  A friend of my daughter had just started a business to offer 3D printing and laser cutting services.  I turned the resin piece over to him and he created two 3D copies so I could provide a replacement and a spare for my DSIL.  Here is the original and the copy.  They are about 1.5 inches (3.81 cm.) tall.

The details showed up really well.  Then I mixed some custom colours and very carefully painted the two copies.  You can tell which is the original because it has been faded over time but I think the two copies turned out well and my SIL was very pleased with them.

So, moving into March, Marijke, Louise and I continued to meet on Wednesday afternoons as often as we could and I managed to work away, little by little on my market stall project.  One of our Wednesday mini days was also used to celebrate Louise's birthday.  I made her a chocolate cake with cream cheese butter frosting.  I decorated the side with large chocolate slivers and the top with her favourite flamingos (and a couple of shamrocks to include her Irish heritage).  We had cheese, crackers, deli meats and fruit for a wee lunch then each had a big slice of chocolate cake which everyone seemed to enjoy. 

Louise took a picture of the cake before we cut it.  Notice the case she has on her cell phone??  Of course it's a flamingo.  How could we expect anything else?  *smile*

Back to my actual mini work - - -

In an earlier post in January about the market stall I introduced you to the decorative mesh Christmas gifts I was hoping to install lights in then find a place for them in the stall, if I could get them to work.  Well, I finished wrapping the last one with the mesh ribbon and yes, I was able to fold up some lights to go inside.  I glued them into the back corner of the stall.  You can see some of the remaining length of light string coming out from them but I had plans for them too!

I admit, I am very happy with how they turned out. Not only are they pretty but they will provide plenty of light in what could otherwise be a very dark corner.

I also saw a couple of other real life ideas that I decided to try in miniature.  Here I have cut out pieces of 1/4 inch square balsa wood then I drilled holes through the middle of each.  

I also cut out small blocks of wood in sets of three then stained all of these pieces and coated them with a crackle medium.

While I waited for the crackle to dry I took some seeds I had collected in the fall and coated everything with glue to keep them from drying out and breaking apart.  These were to be used for decorating the pieces I was planning to make.  I took a set of three rectangular blocks and painted the fronts of them with ivory craft paint then decorated them with strands of hemp string, tiny pieces of lycopodium, seeds and beads.  These will sit on a shelf in the stall.  In the second picture you can see I also painted up some wooden words to hang on the walls or sit on a shelf:  Welcome; Home; Family; Friends; love.

I painted the taller blocks of wood that I had drilled holes into in sets of three.  You will see more on these in a moment.

   I also took the pins out of some wooden push pins and glued them together to make pillar candle holders.  I aged them and added three of the candles I had shown you back in January.

Then I prepared an arrangement for the shelf on the side wall of the market stall.  I used the candle holders, one of the Welcome signs I had made earlier, a large Christmas picture I mounted on wooden sticks, cutting and separating the strips to make it look like a vintage sign, and one of the smaller candle holders I showed you back in January.  I think these will look good on that side shelf.

So, now I will show you where I am as of today:  I have taken the remaining length of lights and glued them around the edges of the inside, while using six of them to push up through the holes I drilled in those two sets standing blocks of wood. I really like them a lot and will use that idea again in the future, I'm sure.  I started filling the shelves with some ceramic pieces from Janice Crawley, some small blue "believe" signs I made, some more of the word signs, a set of the wrapped "presents" I talked about earlier in this post, and some little crystal angels.  I still have a lot of things to finish up and add but at least I can now see the "light at the end of the tunnel".  As you can see there are still a few lights hanging loose but I will weave those up onto the bottom shelf as I finish adding things there and on the floor beneath. 

 That brings us to the end of this post.  I know I have been including Bruce's cat cartoon contributions in posts and, even though I have not posted in a while he continued to send me his little finds.  However, the other night he sent me a different one with the subject in his email saying "This is us".  I think it is a good example of how we managed to make it to our 50th wedding anniversary last year. 

 Enjoy and I hope to be more active on these boards as we move into summer.  Love to all!  TTFN!! 

- Marilyn

Trying out a few ideas

 Okay - I still have to put the mesh covering on the smallest of the three wrapped/lighted gifts in the corner of the stall and try to install the lights.  While I am thinking about that I moved on to try a couple of ideas I had.  

I do love the look of Christmas wreaths that are made entirely from ornaments and I remember a tutorial from an old AIM magazine - sorry - can't remember exactly which magazine but I think it was about 8 to 10 years ago.  I remember that they cut two circles for each wreath with 2" diameters and 1" holes in the centre.  When I looked at that size the other day I thought it was a little large for my needs so instead I cut my circles 1.75" with .75" centre holes out of regular white Bristol board (or poster board as some people refer to it). 

I glued a small piece of ribbon to one of the circles (with a small jump ring inserted for a hanger), then glued the other circle to it to make it a little more sturdy.  

Then I painted the circles green in case I didn't get them completely covered in beads and I didn't want the white showing through.  I gathered a lot of beads of different colours and started making choices.

I made two wreaths - a pink and green one and a blue and silver one.  For the pink one I followed the instructions as I remembered them from the old AIM article.  I first placed 8 beads evenly spaced around the outside edge of the circle, then 8 beads evenly spaced at the edge of the inner circle.  Then I started filling in around and between them.  At the end I found myself with several tiny areas showing where I had to fit little beads here and there so the background wouldn't show.  For the blue one, I glued the beads all around the outside edge with no spaces between them then did the same on the inside circle.  Then I filled in the middle of the circle.  I added some small beads here and there to add a little more silver and just because I wanted to.  *smile*.  

I did find the second method better than the first so, if I ever make another one I will glue the edge beads without spaces between them.  Here are the finished wreaths:

These will be hung on the inside surface of one of the doors to the market stall.

Next I moved on to another one of my thoughts for market inventory.  I wanted to make some pillar candles so I gathered some straws with the thought I would make my candles from actual wax.  I had planned to cut the straws a little longer than I wanted and stand them up on small spots of clay, or on dots of hot glue.  Then I would have cut pieces of floss to act as "wicks", secured them to a toothpick and hung the ends into the upright piece of straw.  Then I would have carefully filled them with melted wax and let them harden before removing the straw from the outside.

While I know that would have worked and made perfect little candles to add to the shelves of my market stall, I really was not in the mood to go to all that work.  I started thinking about alternative ways I could get the look I wanted and, thankfully, I had a "eureka" moment.  

I have a package of those sticks made by Modge Podge that are used in a hot glue gun, melted and used to fill molds to make decorative shapes.  They are exactly the diameter, in 1:12 scale, that a standard 3" by 6" pillar candle would be.  Hurray!!  The ones I have are pure white - exactly what I was going for.  So, I gathered up some supplies and got started.  I used only one stick, and in truth only about half the stick, and cut it into 1/2" lengths to represent the 6" height of standard pillar candles.  Then I took a length of white covered floral wire, dipped the end of the wire in glue, made a tiny hole at the top of each candle and inserted the end of the wire into the top of the candle.  Then I clipped the wire to the length I wanted for the wick and moved on to the next candle.

Okay - I absolutely love these little candles!  They look so perfectly like actual candles and took only seconds to make.  My kind of mini!!

I thought that I would like to make the stand in two levels so I could insert one level of greenery between the two, then another one on the top to provide more bulk and realism.  So, I cut out a series of 1/2" circles for the bottom and 7/16 circles for the top.  I doubled up each layer to make them a little thicker and painted them brown to be less noticeable under the greenery I was using.

I added a small clear bead between the two levels to allow space to fit in the bottom layer of preserved lycopodium.

These two have the lycopodium glued in two layers.  The one on the left has since been trimmed down to a smaller diameter and to even out the ends of the greenery.  

I glued some ornaments to these two candles.  Don't you love how I don't wait until the glue is dry to take pictures?  I am sure these will look much better when you don't see those blobs of white.

Looking at the others that are left I think I may start experimenting with other ways of decorating.  I'm thinking just the bottom layer of lycopodium and the top circle covered in ornaments?  Or perhaps a flocked greenery with simple ornaments?  Stars?  Pine cones?  Hmmm - I can see a playtime coming up!

I started to think about the overall look I want for this little market stall and, in my mind's eye, I always imagined a shabby chic chair in the corner with a blanket draped over it or a special cushion on it, some rustic/shabby chic decorative items or linens for the shelves, etc.  I looked through my "stash" and found the perfect chair.  This little item was one of the first things I wrote about when I started my blog.  I had painted the ugly brown stained wood and embroidered the seat for it.  It has remained in my stash, waiting for just the right place to put it.  I think it is perfect for this corner.

So yes, the shelves are still quite empty but I have so many ideas I just can't settle on how I want to fill them.  

I hope that the next time you see this little project it will be all decked out in its final condition.  Although we all know how unlikely that is since, let's face it, is a miniature project ever truly finished or do we keep changing it over and over???  I know the answer from my standpoint and I suspect we are all the same on that issue!

Until my next post - stay safe and healthy!  God Bless.  TTFN!! - Marilyn

Return of the Market Stall

 With Christmas over, decorations down and housework all caught up with, I am now getting back to working on my market stall I had started in the fall.  When last you saw it I had the basic building done, the inside floor was done and a few shelves were in.  Since then I have had few opportunities to work on it but here's what has been done up to now:

I made a base for the market stall to sit on (in case I would need someplace to hide batteries, of course!), added a few shelves to the back and one on the side, and built some doors.  After finally settling on a name for the little shop I made a sign using a piece of acrylic for the background and some wooden letters I painted to look like metal.  By adding spacers between the acrylic and the building the sign stands out better and provides some shadows behind the letters. Then I started adding chunks of foam around the sides to provide support for snow hills, since the setting for this market stall is meant to be at Christmas time.

I continued to add chunks of foam, then I mixed up some plaster-of-paris and water, soaked strips of paper towel in the mixture and draped them over the chunks of foam to make snow hills.

I made a flat roof to look like it was made from metal with a large skylight in the middle to allow more light into the stall, laid a textured paper on the base at the front of the stall to look and feel like cobblestones, then I mixed paint and white glue 50/50, painted over the "snow" mounds and sprinkled them lightly with white glitter.

Now I have to turn my attention to things to put inside the little shop.  I've started a couple of projects for some slightly larger items for inside.  I made these wooden trees that I plan on hanging ornaments inside.  Here is one finished one and the others don't yet have the ornaments added.

I also had an idea to replicate those sparkly sheer Christmas presents with lights inside that people buy to put outside their front door when decorating for the season.  You know the ones I mean???  Anyway, I made three box frames: 1.5" square, 1" square and 3/4" square.  I painted the wooden frames then wrapped them with sheer ribbon.  Then I put gold sparkly ribbon around them.  I have the two larger ones finished and will cover the little one tomorrow.  Then I have to decide where I want to put them and try to see if I can get some tiny lights inside.  I might put them outside the open doors, or perhaps in the back corner inside which would have the added benefit of providing extra light inside.

   

So, I will finish these two store inventory items and put my thinking cap on for other items I would like to have in the shop - household goods like linens and decorative accessories, plants, Christmas ornaments - who knows where my mind will go?  I look forward to seeing how it will end up - I'm usually the last one to figure it out!!

So, Once again, Bruce's contribution to my blog is to supply another cat image.  This one made me laugh out load as, in our house, and with the number of cats we have had over the years, it is a very familiar event.

So, until my next post, I hope you are all happy, healthy and safe and are geared up for a great year of mini projects!!!  TTFN!!! - Marilyn

Epiphany 2022 ...

... or, as some of us call it: 'Little Christmas' or 'Women's Christmas'.  Traditionally the Feast of Epiphany was, and still is to many, the end of the "12 Days of Christmas" when families - particularly those of the Catholic faith, spent Christmas day and then the next 12 days fulfilling the duties of their religion, spending much of each day in church with their families and neighbours.  It was on the 12th day, the Feast of the Epiphany, that, in Ireland, the men were left home to handle the children and household chores and the women of the community would have a very well-deserved respite.  This would often include the ladies all meeting up and taking over the local pub to have a wee "drop" and to catch up on all that had happened since they had last gotten together.  It was also the day when most of their family's gifts were exchanged as Christmas Day itself was for honouring the birth of the Christ child, not for trading gifts amongst themselves.

On this day, the 12th day of Christmas, any greenery or other decorations for celebrating Christmas were removed from the home.  In our household, it has continued to be the day we remove all of our decorations - and what a job it is!!  Although, I must admit, it seems to take less time to take the decorations down than it did to put them up.

So - this morning, as I was looking around the house and trying to get up the energy to make a start at "un-decorating", I thought that perhaps before I began I would take a few pictures to show you why I don't look forward to this chore.

First, since before the last post there had been several weeks since I had posted anything, I hadn't shown any pictures of our Remembrance day tribute for November 11th so I will start there and move forward.  last year we decorated the whole front verandah for Remembrance Day but this year we just made one very large wreath of poppies and hung it from our flag post along with a Canadian flag, again in honour and respect for not only my own late father and father-in-law but for all those who have served in the military, past and present.  We are forever grateful for the sacrifices made and the work they continue to do.

Each year I start decorating for Christmas around November 15th - as long as Remembrance Day is over, I am ready to go.  So before I take all of this down today, here is a walk-through of what I have to remove and put back in storage:

Foyer:

On one side of the front door we have a 6 foot tall wicker lantern which, of course, lights up beautifully at night.  Unfortunately I never thought about taking pictures of most of these things before this morning so you will have to see them in their daytime look.

On the other side of the door - oops, it looks like Santa left behind a pair of boots - and the naughty elves have filled them with greenery and lights!

Visitors to our home, of which there sadly have been very few during this second Covid Christmas, were greeted by a 4.5 - foot tall Welcome Santa..

a large picture of Santa which, if you were able to look more closely at it, you would see within his beard, mustache and eyebrows are pictures of many happy children...

more pictures of Santa, or, as I prefer to call him, Father Christmas...

... and lastly, in the foyer, a little entry hall table with yet another picture of "the Big Guy" above.  The trees and lantern on top of this table light up so beautifully at night - it might be my favourite little decorated area when the lights are twinkling and casting shadows on the walls.

 

Moving out of the foyer we could go straight ahead into the dining room or take a left turn into the living room.  I think we'll check out the dining room first. 

On top of the buffet I have a small lit tree, another lantern, a star with a laser cut front and lights inside which looks quite pretty at night considering it is just a Dollarama buy, and a tall thin Father Christmas made by Lennox which I purchased many years ago.

A wicker reindeer stands beside one of the extra dining chairs...

On top of the china cabinet I have put together a little scene with a church and carolers - all completely out of scale with each other but I don't care.  I like them anyway!

..in the corner of the dining room we have a cluster of three "rustic" trees which are usually one of the first things we put up at the beginning of our Christmas decorating.  At their base is another Father Christmas along with the two gnomes I made last year when I used them in an outdoor display on our front verandah.

Right next to these trees is a tree of another sort.  While it cannot be called a Christmas decoration it does serve its purpose as someone tries to figure out how much fun can be had before someone catches them at it!!!

In the opposite corner of the dining room, on the way into the living room through this archway, is another lantern.  I did have a picture taken a week or so ago at night as well so I will show both below:

As you can see from the foyer, I often take down our regular pictures and paintings and substitute others during Christmas.  I only did that in the foyer this year and with these three pictures in the dining room which replaced two larger ones that hang there the rest of the year.  I love these little scenes of wildlife winter.

At the end of the hall leading to the bedrooms I have a small vignette sitting atop an antique sewing table.

In the kitchen I have displayed two of my Christmas minis by Bruce's coffee centre...

...and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a candy and fruit table set up somewhere.  This year it is in the kitchen, up against the stairway leading to our lower level.  It is looking a little bare now since, after all, it is more than a week after Christmas and much of the chocolates, cookies, and other fruit is now gone.  I'm sure it won't be long before the rest is as well.  Although our nephew who is serving in the military in Germany right now did provide us with a few bags of Dutch licorice treats he picked up on a recent visit across the border to the Netherlands, we find our North American palate is definitely not used to these and, sadly, cannot eat them.  Luckily my good friend Marijke from Punchinella's Cellar has agreed to take them off my hands as she says they will bring back memories of her childhood before coming to Canada.

While on the subject of my kitchen, I will mention that I did a lot of baking leading up to the big day and then I boxed up a dozen of each of five different sweets I had made and gave one box to my sister and one to my daughter.  They both appreciated them but now I will need to come up with different recipes for next year.  No problem!  I love to cook!

I'm sure you're getting tired of reading this long post but we have only one more room to go! 

The living room:

First, in case you haven't guessed yet, I am a collector of Santas, or Father Christmases if you prefer.  Nowhere is this more evident than in our living room at this time of year.

Just inside the door from the foyer is a large old-world Santa under a bare gold tree with a rocking horse and poinsettia by his side:

On top of one bookcase is a large Father Christmas primed and ready to play us a tune on his bass cello.

And on the other is another version of him as he is bundled up for a walk through the forest.

On one end table is an animated scene with a train running through it.  Our grandson loves this one.

On the other end table is a picture of a Santa Gnome that was done by my daughter using the diamond painting craft.  Also is my "modern nativity" set and a wind-up skating pond scene - another of our grandson's favourites.  

On the table behind the sofa is a small nativity scene and a lovely framed mini scene in white and red that my friend Louise made for me last year.  It is battery operated so when turned on a soft light glows through the windows - quite lovely!

As for the Christmas tree itself, alas, several years ago now I finally gave in to my allergies and we bought an artificial tree.  I so loved our real trees but I love being healthy over Christmas more.  This is a narrower tree we purchased several years ago.  The tree topper is one which we have used every year since 1974.  The large "prism" in the centre of the star contains a black cylinder with many coloured stars which, when the star is plugged in, rotates within the prism sending beautiful light effects on the ceiling and walls.  Our kids have always called it the disco ball tree topper and it is such a tradition now that they both wish they could get one for their trees to carry on the tradition.  Alas, although these vintage tree toppers occasionally show up on places like ebay, they are now prohibitively expensive!

So - back to my collection of Santas.  Next to the etagere in the living room is a large Santa purchased from Costco a couple of years ago.  He is next to two of a set of three lighted trees also purchased from Costco several years ago.  The third and smallest tree of the set is on a shelf in the etagere.

The etagere itself houses most of my collection.

You may not have noticed but, in the night time picture there are only four Santas on the bottom shelf but in the daytime picture there are five.  That is because Bruce bought me a new one for my collection this year and "hid" it in plain sight with the rest of them.  Apparently it was there for a full two days before Christmas and I never noticed it!  No, that does not mean I have too many!

My other Christmas gift from Bruce this year is a wonderful surprise and I will make very good use of it.

Now you all know why I was so long between posts in November and December - I was very busy!  But now I think the reason I decided to do such a long post today is because I am procrastinating on actually starting to take down all these decorations.  However I have just received an offer of assistance which I suppose I shouldn't ignore.  She is in the living room waiting for me so we can get started.  This should be an experience!

Thank you for taking the time to read such a long post.  My next one will definitely be about minis - my market stall!  In the meantime I wish all of you the very best in 2022 - a year which hopefully holds a return to a healthy population and prosperity for all.  God bless! TTFN!!! - Marilyn