A Lovely New Miniatures Blog

I think you will just love this blog.evalinarose.blogspot.com
It's fairly new but already has me visiting regularly as Lucy seems to be able to make absolutely anything and she does it all beautifully.
There are tutorials where she gives all her tips along the way and some really lovely photos to drawl over.
This is a very special blog for miniaturists, definitely one of my top favourites!
Do take a look.

Happy Tuesday!

Tuesdays are always happy days because it's 'Dollshouse Club' and Oly comes round to play.
She brought me some shelves she can't use and I gave her some basket straw and cake boxes. We are both like children with smiles on our faces.
Oly was putting together buffet food for her wedding scene and my goodness she must be planning to feed hundreds of guests! I'm sure she will show you on her blog when it's finished.
I was working on gifts for Kaisa's Birthday Swap.
Later the mail arrived and my beautiful hat arrived from Kat the Hat Lady. I don't collect anything witchy at all but have always loved her hats and this pink one was just too hard to resist!

Now I've finished a whole lot of cushions I was working on as well.

 What shall I make next?

Underwear Stand for the Ladies Shop

I've always admired Marlies tiny creations especially her underwear. I bought some from her a few months ago but didn't have anything in the Ladies Shop to display it properly - until now!
Last night I made this stand and today I made the hangers.

 I've given each style of undies a name.

On the bottom of the stand sit a pretty pair of slippers that Marlies sent me to match the Sylvie set.

On top of the stand is one of Marlies corset sets and with such a pretty box.

Now I need more underwear so I made a set - not so easy as you might think!

Bras are really tricky to make but panties are a bit easier. I made these three a few years ago, they finally have a home!

Now I have the stand I need even more pretty underwear to fill it.

The secret to making the stand - Plastic lid from butter or similar.
Cut the lid in half.

 Cut the edge from one half

Draw round the shape onto mountboard or thin wood and glue the edge round it.

This will be the top as the edging forms a ridge and stops the hangers from slipping off.
Paint the other half of the butter lid white, this will be the bottom.
Cut a piece of thicker (approx. 1/4" thick) foam core or wood the width of the lid by 4 1/2" high for the back. Glue the three pieces in place and hold in place using books or something similar to keep the stand square until it's completely dry..
I used Tacky Glue but any you prefer will work. This is not strong enough for children to play with.
I hope this might be useful.

Cushions Galore!

Wow, there is life after cushions!
Today I had a break from them and made some more cupcakes, just for a change.
The popularity of my cushions took me unawares and my little Etsy shop has been bursting with customers.
Originally I opened my Etsy shop to sell the excess miniatures I make that I can't use myself but now I get so many orders for more and more cushions I don't get time to make anything else!

 It could be said that I'm a victim of my success - ha ha!
I'm really not complaining, I'm amazed and so happy of course that people love my cushions but now I really don't want to make any more for a while.
So, although I'm not the best at Fimo I've made a million cupcakes and I've found some new stuff that makes fairly good icing. Hopefully they'll be good enough to show you. Meanwhile here are some more cushions!

More Cakes for the Tea Shop

Today I made some cakes and two shabby style cake stands.
I enjoy playing with polymer clay but I'm amazed at how many different kinds of other things are needed. My table was crammed with stuff but I still needed to get more things out until my room felt very small!
It took almost two hours to clear away, putting every piece of ribbon and all the different beads into the correct boxes, the oven gloves and timer had to go back to the kitchen, the glue, varnish, paints and chalks, all back in the right place. Then there are the tiles, paint brushes, scissors, knife, tweezers, cocktail sticks, card, plates and dishes! I did a good job tidying up, but I'll do something different tomorrow although some cakes still need ribbon and a plate!
Here is a photo of the table with all the cakes.

Never Ending Miniature Projects

I didn't sleep well last night largely due to the planning going on in my head. Now that the visitors have left and a new week has started, I'm free to spend my days mini-making. But what to make? where to start? All the ideas I have and I want to do them all - now!
Never having been one for finishing anything, I have projects everywhere, half started. I had been painting furniture and made the most of our very warm days sitting under the new pergola and actually got a lot finished!
I have said that the ladies shop is ongoing - well, so is the tea shop. I painted a table, shelving and a magazine rack for that, as well as the magazine rack, basket and dress makers dummy for the ladies shop.
You may have just noticed that I mentioned magazine rack twice; that's because I had two of them made for me by my lovely friend Bob who makes me anything I ask, no job too small as it were, or too difficult. He's an absolute marvel. I now owe him breakfast, lunch and tea when we go to the Ali Pali fair in October.
As we're on the subject of fairs I want to show you the fabulous cakes I bought from Karen Kirby of Karen's Miniatures when she was here at the Nerja fair. They are beautiful.

Neither the Ladies Shop or the Tea Shop are yet built. Just two buildings still flat packed but I have emptied a huge shelf in my display cabinet for the ladies shop and half a shelf for the tea shop just so that I can get all my miniatures out of storage boxes and actually look at them!

A 'Me' Day

The house guests have now left and I'm waking again in the morning, feeling excited about what I'm going to be doing for the day.
As my husband is on holiday from work I showed willing this morning and put some washing in the machine before I started on my miniatures, broke off to hang out the wet sheets and broke off again later to make him sardines on toast.
He's happily putting up garden lights and even happier that I'm doing my own thing because when I'm busy I don't talk to him, or point out where he's going wrong. You know what it's like - very difficult not to mention that one of the lights is flashing and one isn't mounted straight but hey, I've got garden lights, a happy hubby and time for myself.
Here is a photo of a ladies writing box I made from a Spanish magazine Miniatura.