Mini Finds

So, I found a mini find totally by accident today. My husband and I were grocery shopping, a chore I do not like. We were going down the baking aisle and I spot these spice packages from Club House. I pick up two, Rosemary Roasted Chicken and Cran-Apple & Sage Pork chops. You add the spices to meat, rice/potatoes etc. I was looking for something "different".

I say to my husband, "Look what I found". The smartie pants that he is says, "Oh, let me guess, grass, pebbles, dirt, planter material?" I say, "NO! It's for food silly!" So, I buy them for under $2 each and I get them home and THEN I see the mini potential. I didn't see it until I got them home.

So, for less than $2 I now have six small containers. Each is about 3/4 of an inch long and can be storage containers.

I love finding stuff like that!!!

Santa's Workshop

Santa's Workshop was my second kit. I got it for Christmas 1994 or 1995. I collected items for several years before I put it together. It was a labour of love. I finished it around 2000 but it was damaged by moisture/mice during our moves in 2002 & 2004 so I had to fix some of it. This is what the front looks like.

I removed the wall between the bottom two rooms and didn't add the staircase. Staircases, to me, are a waste of space unless you have really great quality railings and steps. So, the bottom is one big room.



Shot of the whole house

I have battery operated lights. The Christmas tree has coloured lights and even the stoves have lights so it looks like glowing coals inside them.







This is a closeup of the top right hand room. It's the "Wrapping Room". The elf makes, sorts and wraps gifts. Notice the little dollhouse box on the bottom left side, it's the replica of the box this actual house came in.

The next picture is the top left side of the house. It's the break room. The stove is a metal pencil sharpener. I used a piece of orange candy wrapper inside the bottom and put a light in it to look like coals. The brown bear was a Frenchy's find. It's from Germany and may be quite old. His arms and head turn. On the bottom left is a Rudolph that I made in a minis class. He's made of little pom poms.







The next photo is the bottom floor. This includes Santa's desk where he is checking his list. The list includes names of everyone that was in my life in 2000 when I finished the house. On the right, Mrs. Claus has some baskets from shopping and is making cookies.

Bottom left:

Bottom right:

The Christmas tree was a plastic tree we found in my Grandmother's things after she passed away. She used them in her Christmas scenes every year. The decorations were made by my mom and me. I made the angel in a mini class.

This is a hutch I bought at Dollarama. I stripped it and painted and added decals. The berry baskets and chocolates were from a swap. The "Gingerbread men" are the sequin sprinkle candy I got from Bulk Barn. The rest are items I bought.



The "NOEL" wall hanging was stitched by me. I think it was 28 count aida. It was hard on the eyes but I am very please with the outcome. I made the Santa teapot. It was my first attempt. 

I made these ornament boxes. I printed the pattern (from Jim's Printies, www.printmini.com) on to the back of Christmas scrap book paper. The bulbs are beads that I either covered in glitter glue or glued hole-less beads to.

I love my little cuckoo clock. It was a Hallmark ornament. I thought the original price was too much so I kept watching the store. In January of that year I bought the ornament for 95% off. It ended up being about $2.50 or so. It fits perfectly. The deer head is hilarious. Kind of a funny thing to find in Santa's residence. My mom made it from one of my Grandmother's ornaments.

This is the Santa I bought at Wal-mart. He's a little big but he works.

I still have a few things that I want to add or redo. I want to cross stitch some seat cushions for the chairs and would like to have better curtains. But, that's it for now. 



My First House

My first kit was a Sugar Plum cottage. I think it was a Greenleaf kit. I got around 1993. I originally decorated it in pastel peach and green and a little old lady lived inside.

I can't find any pictures of the old inside but it was all the tab and slot furniture that comes with kits. It was all painted brown. It was boring and I was never really satisfied with the results. So, I decided it was time for a remodel. I am turning it into a Halloween Costume shop. It will be called "All Dressed Up". I even have a fabric ribbon I bought at Michael's that is orange with black pictures and letters that say "All Dressed Up". (Since I named this, a fancy dress store opened up in the area named "All Dressed Up", too funny!)

I have several Madame Alexander dolls to use in this house. The ones that came from McDonald's Happy Meals. I thought they would look like kids in costume.

This is only a small assortment of M.A. Dolls I have. I also have most of the Wizard of Oz ones for a some day project.

So, now my S.P. Cottage is All Dressed Up. I have painted the shingles in multiple shades of grey to look like slate. The outside is in grey and I have added bricks for a walk way and on the fireplace that are cut up egg cartons which I have painted in four shades of brick/red/terracotta, etc.

The proprietress of the costume shop is a witch. There will be various Halloween themed items in the shop. I have been making and collecting things for a couple of years now and have a ton of items for it. I can't wait to get decorating. My mom has made a lot of cool things for it and recently found some awesome scrap booking paper with bottle labels and some that will be great for wallpaper.

Stay tuned for updates.....

How the Obsession Began

I remember growing up hearing my mom say that she always wanted a doll house. I thought it was a cool idea. I remember longing for the doll house that I saw in some magazine once. I was facinated with all things small. We used to make things out of scraps of fabric and cardboard for my Barbies. My favourite books growing up were Little House on the Prairie, Stuart Little, The Borrowers but my all time favourite has to be the Littles. I always dreamed what it would be like to have them as friends and build them a home and supply them with their needs. It would be so fun. I kind of lost that feeling during my teens.

Then one day I was walking through a mall (For those of you familiar with Halifax, it was Barrington Place Shops) and found a store called "The Doll House". I was spell bound when I walked in and saw all the doll houses and all the little things in it. I remembered how much Mom wanted a house. I called my sister that night and said I had a brilliant idea for a 40th Birthday gift for my mom. So, we pooled our resources and bought her the Greenleaf Victorian Farmhouse. A nine room house, very ambitious but I was a novice...what did I know then! (That was in 1991)

I could barely lift the kit so I ended up just putting it in my trunk and wrapping a small box with my trunk key in it for Mom's birthday. The tag said, "Remember, good things come in small packages!" So, we all march out to the car in the dark and she sees by the street light what it is. She kept saying, "It's a mother [big] one!" She was so funny. So, over the next while she and her friends (non-mini) helped her put it together. It was fun listening to her stories. (I live a 3 hr drive from her so I didn't get to help often)

I kept going back to the store to buy her little things when I could. The store eventually went out of business but I started making her things because some of the purchased things looked tacky and/or were expensive and I knew I could make her things. That is when I got bitten by the bug.

I got my first kit in 1993 as a gift from my step-father. It was a Sugar Plum Cottage - I think Greenleaf too.

Now, after 20 years, Mom and I are still obsessed. We buy or make things for each other all the time. We also get inspiration from each other constantly. My daughter, Alicia, has a fantastic eye for minis. She can spot a mini use for a real item a mile away. She said she might make a room box but doesn't have an obsession... yet. My niece, Macayla, is a budding miniaturist. She loves all things small and has since birth. She's always making stuff. If I get to move to Yarmouth, NS, she will definitely be one of the first people I invite to our club.