It's in the Bag!

I spent the morning glueing shingles on the Mystery House. I am not going to show you photos.

That would be too much like watching paint dry. Instead I am going to show you what's in the bag(s). I don't remember where I saw this idea first. It has been around for a long time.

The first one I did was for my husband for Valentine's day one year.

I started seeing bags that would be suitable for scenes every place I went. I still have a stock of bags to do when I want a fast project.







The second one is in 1/2" scale. The wicker in it is much later than the chair that I showed you yesterday...... It was done with # 30 waxed crochet cotton.

The other side of this bag has an English thatched cottage on it.
















The third one is a sewing room ala Mac Kinzie-Childs. They are famous for putting a whole room in an armoire. They sell a kitchen and a media center that are complete in a hand painted aromoire. They are very expensive in real life. I certainly can't afford them but I can copy in mini.















The last one is in a bag that I got in London. The shop was an oriental import shop in Covent Garden. I met a net friend that lives south of London and we went shopping. She knew where to go and we really had fun. I bought some mini things in that shop and this was the bag that they gave me. It is a great way to remember a vacation.

I later added the paper dragon. My daughter brought that back from a trip.

Maybe tomorrow I will have a completed roof to show you. Back to work now.

The Next Time Will Be Better

This morning I was reading one of the dollhouse forums. One of the people on there was feeling blue that her first dollhouse was not coming out the way she pictured it in her head. It got me to thinking about some of my first tries. I have saved a few of them simply because they were my first go at doing something.

When I look at some of the first minis I made they just make me smile now. Back in 1979 I went into a drugstore to look at the craft magazines. At that time there were dozens. In the far corner something caught my eye. It was a magazine with a really cute little brown house on the front. I think it was simply called "The Miniature Magazine". The house was called the Pepperwood Farm. They had the floor plan and directions for that house right in the magazine! I scooped up the magazine and poured over it for weeks. Before then I had no idea that it was OK for grownups to play with dollhouses. I would have loved to build that house but it was beyond me.

That Christmas I took the second step. My daughter had turned 5 in July and I got the bright idea that she needed a dollhouse for a present. I went out and bought a slot together kit for a tiny 3 story house. At the time it seemed huge. I think it must have had rooms that were about 8" square, if that. There was a kitchen and living room on the first floor. On the second floor I made a bathroom and a bedroom. The third floor was an attic. I made it a playroom. I knew absolutely nothing about making miniatures but I was pretty good at other crafts and had an art background. I figured "What have I got to lose?".

I had no idea that there was such a thing as a miniature shop in town. I didn't even think to look in the phone book.

When I was about 10 my dad handed me an exacto knife and showed me how to do chip carving. That was the only lesson I had. I decided that I surely could make dollhouse furniture.

I went out and got some blocks of balsa. That was the cheapest and softest wood I could find. I carved a passable bath tub and sink. The furniture that I made was crude and block like but I was proud of it. My daughter loved it. I think that was more because I went to the trouble of making it than because it was beautiful. It definitely wasn't!

I wish I still had some photos of that house. My daughter played with it a couple of years and then lost interest. I didn't.

I started finding everything I could about making minis in books and magazines. I have never looked back. I wore out a few library books.

I don't have the first piece I ever made but I have a few very early pieces.

I tried my hand at some of the furniture in miniature books and magazines. I wasn't satisfied.

I decided to strike out on my own and make furniture from real plans. This was my first attempt. I was going by a photo of the bed and the measurements of height, width and length. All I had was an exacto knife and an emery board.

You will see that the right side of the headboard is noticeably lower that the left where it meets the posts. The finish is pretty much nonexistent. The mattress was about a half inch too big all around and has to be stuffed inside the frame for it to fit. That's OK tho. The thread that I did the rope with stretched out even before I finished. You should have seen the original blanket. This one came off of our sweet, lovable computer. How did we ever get along without these machines?

Next I had a go at dolls. This is my very first mini sized doll. I tried for an Elizabethan lady...... I got a pug nosed, beady eyed lady with boxing gloves for hands. Notice the shoes. My daughter's Barbie shoes somehow kept disappearing that year.

The dress was made out of men's ties that I bought at the thrift shop. At that time they were selling for 1.00 a bag. I bought lots.

My husband guarded his ties with his life.

The last one I will show you is the wicker. I had a try at that in 1989. No directions at all. I didn't know that you could buy linen thread. Remember the Penelope canvas in the basket making segment? Yup. I sat and unraveled yards and yards of that stuff because I thought it looked like wicker.....

My hands were raw by the time I had made a couple of chairs. I was smart enough to use covered wire. I was not smart enough to use it for the larger corner posts. I used bamboo skewers and bent them by wetting them and gently putting pressure on them.

This chair lives in the third floor of the Witches' Warehouse. The spinner sits in it now. She is very happy with it. It is a bit small but then so is she.

I hope that you enjoyed the "Dummy's Guide on How Not to Make Minis". I could show you a whole lot more but I won't.

The point is, no matter what you do, it is all valuable experience. So go out and do something mini. You might just like what you do next time. See you tomorrow.

Sooner or later I am going to figure out how to keep the spacing between paragraphs in these entries.

Very Easy Basket Tutorial

Today is officially "Make a Basket Day". I decided to put you all to work since I am still trying to put my house back together. This is a very simple way to make a fancy basket that I came up with for a class a few years back.

You need three materials. First you will need some scraps of needlepoint canvas. I use Penelope because there is more of a resemblance to a woven basket than with mono canvas. A lot of the needlepoint stores sell it by the inch. I find a lot of it in thrift store craft bins. Much cheaper that way.

Second you will need some "Woodsies" from the craft store. They are wooden shapes that come in a bag. They are very inexpensive and can be used for all kinds of projects. Each bag has several different shapes and those in turn are in assorted sizes. All are suitable for some kind of basket and they can be used for a lot of other things in mini besides the basket bottoms. I buy the ones with circles, ovals and rectangles. I imagine any other flat round object the right size would work as long as it is glueable. Or, if you are desperate, you can cut your own.


The third material that you will need is some embroidery floss. Use whatever colors will look good in your house or for a more natural basket just use shades of beige.


Tools that you will need are white glue, scissors and a 24 or 26 tapestry needle. Those are the ones with the blunt end.They can also be found at craft stores and the needlework shop.


1. Choose a Woodsie shape that you like. For your first one I would suggest one of the round ones.


2. Decide how tall you want the sides of your basket. You will notice that the threads running in one direction of the Penelope canvas are tightly packed(horizontal). The ones going the other way(vertical) are looser. You want the tight threads to run around the basket and the loose ones to go up and down. Carefully cut a strip of the canvas that is long enough to fit around your woodsie with one or two courses of the double thread overlapping. I try for just two threads(one course). For your first basket you may feel more secure with a larger overlap. Now run a thin line of glue around the edge threads and smooth it a bit with your finger. Let dry a bit.


3. Run a line of white glue along one line of the threads at the bottom edge of the strip and up one edge and wrap this around the woodsie. The bottom of the canvas should be even with the bottom of the woodsie. Now glue the end of the canvas strip over the start of the strip. You will find that if you hold it for a minute the wood and canvas will stick together nicely. Sometimes I use an old fashioned hair clip to keep the seam closed if I am impatient. Let the glue dry completely before starting to sew.


Side bar here....I glue the canvas to the woodsie before I start to embroider. If I embroider it before, I have to cut the threads at the end of each row. With the canvas glued on I can just continue from one row to the next. It makes for a neater finished basket.


4. Thread a needle with two strands of the six that the floss comes in. Put a dot of glue on the inside of the basket where you want to start sewing and lay the very end on the glue. Let it dry for a couple seconds and then pull the thread to the front through one of the holes.


Now just for practice do a running stitch around the basket over two single threads and under two. It should look like the body of the orange basket at the front of the photo.On that basket you can see clearly the transition from one row to the next without stopping. You can experiment with any kind of embroidery stitch. The top and bottom rows of that basket are done in stem stitch.


The taller waste basket is done with the threads closely packed doing a simple over under weave.

The handle on the little basket on the right front was simply two lines of the tightly packed threads cut in a strip. I glued the edges and then weaved in the open spaces in the middle.

You can line the basket if you desire by cutting a piece of index card and covering it with fabric to fit the sides and bottom of the basket. I usually just fill the basket with something. That way I don't have to bother. I have made these baskets with #22 harganger or aida cloth a couple of times. I don't like those nearly as well. They don't look like real baskets and they are more flimsy.


There are endless variations for these baskets once you get the hang of it.


I usually start a bunch all at one time so that I can work on one while the others are drying. They are kind of like potato chips. Bet you can't make just one!

True to My Word.

I promised to come back today.......Why did I do that? Moving real furniture all day for two days in no way resembles moving mini furniture! The carpet is stretched and so am I. And I'm slightly frazzled besides. Needless to say this will be short. Picture show coming right up.

How about a couple of oldies but goodies? This one is one that I did some years back. I asked my husband for a hand held color TV for Christmas one year. Not because I wanted to carry it everywhere I went to keep up with the soaps. It is a real working TV in this room box. To the left of the fireplace you will see a black outline. It is hard to see but that is the TV!

The guy on the couch is a burglar. He has the safe above the fireplace open and there are jewels and money spilling out of his valise sitting on the floor by the Van Gogh. That was covering the safe before he took it down. He is taking a break from the break in. He has cheese and crackers and a glass of the home owner's best wine. He has the current TV Guide in his hand. George the cat sneaked into this one. He is sitting on the white chair waiting for a hand out. Never mind that his owner is getting robbed......

When I first did this room box I had it at a show. I went into the display room and noticed that there were several men gathered around it. I thought "Wow! Men like this one!". Wrong again....They were all watching a football game that was on the mini TV!

This lamp was made at an Iowa State Day a few years ago. I went back to visit a friend that lives on the very edge of the Mississippi River on the Illinois side and we went to state day on the Iowa side together with a group of mini friends that all got together on the net. Great fun!

I made the building and had it pretty much done on the outside when I got home. My husband took on look at it and said "Can I have that?" It now sits in the living room by his favorite chair. It is a golf shop called"Above Par Golf Shop"


The guy standing on the porch is my husband, dressed in plus fours and an argyle sweater and socks. The two cats on the porch with him are Mookie and our other cat Widget.

The shop is fully stocked with golf sweaters, hats, visors and a rack of golf clubs behind the door. You can't really see them in the photo bur there are chocolate chip cookies and a cup of something not specified on the counter.

These were taken with our old camera. I am going to have to take some new ones with the better camera. Just not today, please?

It's time for the frazzled woman that can't type anymore to take a nap. See you tomorrow. Hopefully I will still be alive and writing.......

The Real World.......

You guessed it. The stupid real world is interfering with miniatures again. Tomorrow we are having our carpet stretched. It wasn't installed right in the first place and now you could do some nice skateboarding over the hills and valleys in it. So for all intents and purposes, I am not being a mini person today unless you count moving minis out of the line of fire of the power stretcher that is coming tomorrow.

Therefore I will entertain you today with the Egyptologist's Office. This is one that I did just a little while ago. Somebody kick me for not dating these things!

This one was done in a raw wood box that I bought from Big Lots. I bought 4 of them for 5.00 a piece. They are just right for a small room vignette.This one had a bowed lid so I had to curve the back of the walnut shelves to fit it. That was, shall we say, interesting?

No. Don't ask what is in the other three boxes. Not yet anyway.

The stuff that you see inside is a collection of things from Egypt that I have found here and there over the years plus stuff I made to go in it.

The carpet bag on the floor is one that I made with upholstery fabric that had tiny hieroglyphics all over it. The macrame above, I made long ago when I was still into that sort of thing. The center medallion was a link in a bracelet from Egypt that someone gave me.

The King Tut sarcophagus actually opens. It has a mummy inside. I covered the outside with real life wallpaper with antique looking writing all over it.

The statue on the desk is Tut's wife. The hangings on the back wall are done on real papyrus.

The egyptologist is out. I think that the snake on one of the shelves either got him or scared him away.

I don't know if I will get any mini-ing done tomorrow but I may be stuck in the computer room with the cats. I will either be building or stalling again. One way or the other I will see you tomorrow.

Good Intentions.....

I experimented today. I woke up at 3AM wondering if I could make mini moldings for curved windows and arches with polymer clay and an extruder. I couldn't get back to sleep thinking about it. Making plans.

Today is the regular Wednesday meeting of our group called the Wednesday Witches. No. We aren't really. Some other people started calling us that and the name stuck. Anyway, the meeting was here so I decided to work on my theory. As I said, good intentions.

I first started with Super Sculpey. Loaded the extruder. It was too hard. Then I used some Fimo soft....Yup. Too soft. At the same time, I am trying to serve snacks, look up websites, serve dessert, keep the Fimo out of the dessert, keep the cat out of the dessert, and a couple of other things. Let's just say "So much for the experiment."

I am thinking that it will still work but I have to go about it in a different way. The Three Bears approach is not going to work. More on that after I work on it some more. I AM going to win!

Meanwhile, I need to feed you a bit of eye candy since I have nothing to show of the experiment.



This is Eskiaga. He is a sculpture that I made of the man in the photo. Eskiaga was a real Apache scout for General Crook back in the late 1800s. I found his photo in a book at the U of A library. I liked the looks of guy so I copied him. It was fun to do. He is made of a mixture of Super Sculpey and Fimo.....See you can succeed with poly clay. You just have t o talk to it nicely. His clothes are copied right down to the rawhide boots with beading across the toes. He now lives in a modern southwestern room box that I made. He seems happy not to be blazing trails for Crook. He sits on a couch with his feet up most of the time.













This is an Elizabethan lady that I did about the same time. She is also a mixture of clays.

Her hair is in single curls all over her head with tiny pearls in it. The body of her dress was made from a man's silk tie. I did gold work embroidery on the skirt and on the antique lace petticoat that shows in the front. Her stand up collar is handmade, antique bobbin lace. Her fan is of feathers.

The poor lady doesn't have a name or a home so far. Another project to work on........



I'm sorry that I don't have more of the experiment to show you today. Maybe tomorrow, if I'm lucky. Fingers crossed.

Tales From the Crypt

OK. I'm stalling again. I didn't work on the Mystery House like I planned to today. So as a special treat you get to spend the day at Spike's place.

If any of you watched the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series when it was on you got acquainted with Spike. He was a vampire but he was kind of, sort of on Buffy's team some of the time.

Before he died in the Victorian age, he was an extremely bad poet and kind of a sissy. To make up for it when he became a vampire he went through stages and wound up a Billy Idol type. Black leather and bleached blond hair.

Now here is the crypt where he stays. Notice I was careful not to say he lives there......

I made the crypt because I was fascinated by the character.

I found a wood and wire birdcage that reminded me of his crypt. I filled in all of the sides and then marbleized the whole thing with acrylic paint. I didn't change the shape or the window and door placement. It came with the balcony on the front.

I used a framed bulletin board for the yard.

The two characters are Mac Farland action figures that were put out while the show was on. They just happened to be the right size for miniatures. I redressed Buffy in real leather. I textured Spike's coat to look like leather. Then I repainted both characters to look more like the real people. The detail on the dolls are amazing. The sculptor did it with computer measurements of the real people. If you blew them up to life size they would look just like Sarah Michelle Geller and James Marsters.

Bad Buffy! She sneaks up on him with a dagger. Silly Spike thinks he can win her over with a cookie.

Spikey always liked his beer and his cigarettes so of course there is a case of Corona on the bottom shelf of the bookcase and a carton of Marlborough's.

I made the wing chair and Jack Chasteen made the tavern table.

The rug is #22 cross stitch from an old Dover book. It is one of my favorites. I have made it 3 times in different colorways.

All of the weapons in the vase came with the people.

The little windup toy of death actually works. A friend sent it to me from England.

There isn't much more to say.In their off time the do scenes from Romeo and Juliet.

They have to do something fun when they aren't saving the world!

Back to the real world now. Tomorrow I will go back to work on the Mystery House or something else mini. No promises of what it will be.......See you then.

Barrel Bag Tutorial

OK. You asked for it. For now I am just going to give you the simplest bag to make.

This is a barrel bag or duffel, depending on what size you make it.

I am doing one made from the outside of a size small Tampax tube. You need Tampax brand regular, not any of the fancy ones. They are the ones that have cardboard tubes. Maybe I should start with a list of supplies.

Tools: small sharp scissors, white glue(I use Elmer's white in a needle nose bottle) , and exacto knife to cut the tube. It is helpful to have a needle nosed glue bottle if you have one.
lined index card. Also 1/4" graph paper for measuring if desired.

1. I generally buy one of the Tampax boxes that has 3 sizes in one. That will give you a LOT of different sized bags.

2. A 6"square piece of natural fabric. Use cotton, silk or linen. Polyester and polyester blends just give you a headache. They don't glue well at all.

3. A 7" long piece of ribbon or trim. This is for the handle and can be longer if you want a shoulder type bag.

4. A piece of metallic trim for the zipper. It should be a little longer than the purse. You will have to put glue on the ends and cut through to keep it from fraying.

5. Four metal rings. The ones in the photo are from an old necklace that I tore apart.

6. One piece of a finding for the zipper pull if you want one.

The first thing you do is either with a piece of graph paper (1/4" squares) or a lined index card(they are lined in 1/4"), make a mark on the tube 1 1/4" from the end all the way around. I find it easiest to use the graph paper because you can cut a strip 1 1/4" wide, wrap it around the tube and mark it.


Next you cut a piece of the index card that is the same width. In this case,it's 1 1/4" wide. Then cut it to exactly fit around the tube.

Then you cut a and glue a piece of fabric to the outside. Miter the corners. Fold to the inside and glue.


Cut two circles of fabric about 1/8" bigger than the end of the tube. Run a fine line of glue around the very edge of the tube and stick one circle to each end. Let them dry a little and then cut little "V"s in the fabric all around the edge of the circles.





Glue down the clipped part of the circles to the body of the bag. It should look like this. Now take a scrap of fabric about 1/4"wide and not quite as long as the purse and glue it where you want to put the zipper. This is in case the zipper doesn't cover the gap when you wrap the outside around the bag.

You can find different metallic trims that work for zippers. There are a couple in the photo. The silver I found at a mini show. The gold is from a plain old fabric store.

If you have trouble finding something, take a close look at wider trims. Sometimes they can be cut apart to make them work.

Put some glue on one end of the trim and also in from the end about the length of the purse. Most of the braided trims will unravel unless you do this.


Now put glue on the inside of the covered index card piece and wrap it around starting by one edge of the zipper. Like magic, the thickness of the fabric will make a gap in the edge just about perfect for the zipper.


Poke pins in the edge and let it dry.


Next we come to the handle. Starting at the center bottom, 1/4" in from the edge, run a thin line of glue up the side of the purse and glue one end of the handle on that line, sliding a ring down to sit about 1/4" from the zipper.

Now take the opposite end of the handle piece and do the same on the opposite side of the same end. Make sure that it's not twisted.

You should have handle and rings both glued on one end and the middle of the handle loose.

Run a line of glue on the other end to match the first one. Take the middle and center it on the bottom of the other end. Pull the handle up, gluing the rings level with the ones on the other edge.
Glue your piece of finding to one end to represent the zipper pull if you would like one.

Happy purse making! Have fun!

There will be a slight pause......

This is going to be a short entry today. Real life is interfering. I had to make lasagna for real, not the mini kind.

Here's something to keep you busy.

This is my pet alligator, Friskie. I had to name him that because of the name on the bowl It seems to fit his personality tho. He is kind of like George. You will see him wander into a scene from time to time. I didn't make him. I do love him tho. He just seems to add something to the scene.

I also have a pet toad. You can see him in this photo in his little basket by the right leg of the armoire. I didn't make the toad but I did make the armoire. It was the project at an Arizona State day several years ago. I made most everything else in the scene. Oops! Not the little carved wooden jar by the left foot of the armoire. It was handcarved in India. It opens to store secrets.

Anyway, I thought I would stall you with cute pets until I can get back to work tomorrow.

I am, at present, cleaning up the quilt shop. WOW! You guys really know how to party!! OK. Who stuffed the jelly roll into the button bowl???

See you tomorrow.

You're Invited!!!

Today's the day! The Rusty Needle is, for all intents and purposes, finished. I still expect to add some things to the stock. It is officially open for business today.

Don't forget that you can poke at the photos to make them bigger!

The first photo is the front of the finished store. Come on in and browse for a bit.

When you first step through the door you are greeted by George. He's the resident watch cat. He wanders in and out of different miniature places. He seems to be at home in all of them.

Note that there are refreshments on the corner table. Please help yourself to tea and cookies or jellyrolls.

George is on his best behavior this afternoon. Other than shedding all over the quilt blocks on the worktable, he is really doing well.

We have 133 different fabrics for you to choose from and thread to match them all. There are fat quarters in the two baskets on the shelves. They are on sale today.

We have a few other items that are going fast. There are several antique quilts in the shelves to your left.

We have a few embroidery kits in the front window. There is also a fine selection of quilting books in the same area.

We also have a fine selection of DMC embroidery floss there by the window.

This is the checkout counter. Here we have a selection of crochet thread for those of you that are inclined to like that craft. The thread also works well for tying quilts if you don't want to quilt them. The wool at the back is for the knitters in the crowd. I still need to get the needles. The company that is supplying them is kind of slow. I may have to make my own.

A friend sent me a pot of daffodils. I will have to take them out and plant them, but for a couple of days they will look nice on the shelf.

I hope that you enjoy wandering around the shop. I'm happy that you dropped by. Stay as long as you like.

Finishing Touches

I am there except for the sign on the outside and a few little touches on the Rusty Needle. You don't get to see until tomorrow. That will be the grand reopening. I am baking cookies as we speak.
Until then I will let you browse through the mini shop next door.


I was mistaken about the house in the window. It is actually a resin piece. I was thinking it was metal. Wrong! It was still a raw piece that I had to do all of the painting on.


This is the interior of the shop. It is mostly a collector's shop. There are only a couple of buttercup kits for sale. The armoire at the back is about 1/8" scale. All of the metal minis that I bought for it were kind of an odd size. I made the scale fit the armoire.

There may soon be mayhem in the shop. There is a rather larger frog sitting on the counter. If he is real, the way that the dog is looking at him could indicate trouble......


This is a close up of the armoire. The headboard of the bed is a hinge from a Chinese box that I had that fell apart. I kept the hardware. Most of the rest of the furniture is metal miniatures.



Here is a shot of the back shelves. The houses with the thatched roofs on the top shelf are copies of real early American houses. The thatched roof on the bottom shelf is a copy of a Sweetheart cottage the I did in 1/12 scale. The lighthouse is sculpted from poly clay and painted. Some of the other ones are kits that a friend brought back from NAME nationals a few years running.The two in the center of the second shelf are little porcelain houses from England. The house on the bottom left is a straw house from China. It is an eclectic collection. A little bit of everything from all over.


I add to the stock from time to time when I find something I like. I don't think that this shop will ever be fully finished. It is just a collection that keeps growing.

Remember! Tomorrow is the grand reopening. I hope to see you there!

Almost There

I am making progress! I should be finished by Saturday at the latest. YAY ME!!!

The outside is finished all but the sign and a few little things on the sidewalk. I am thinking that it needs some plants or something on the sides of the doorway.

The inside is started. The biggest piece, the fabric shelves are almost done. Sorry about the weird photo. It is hard to get a good shot through the glass. The vertical column in the center is filled with 80 or so spools of real thread. I used the metal liners from eye shadow for the cases. They each hold 15 to 20 spools.

Each Christmas I wait for the 75% off sales. Then I go buy the neat little gift sets of cheap make up that they sell at the discount stores. They all have metal liners holding the eye shadow, rouge and lip gloss. I dig out the make up and use the little pans for various mini things. Again, it's a case of getting a present and playing with the package so to speak.

Would you like to see the neighborhood where the quilt shop is going to be living?

This is the miniature shop that stands to the right. I will show you the inside after the quilt shop moves in.

Mookie loves to open the door to this shop and fish things out with his paw. It is now at the top of a bookcase. I may have to glue the door shut. I am forever finding things on the floor and having to put them back where they belong.

The little dollhouse in the window is one that was sold in mini shops back in the 80s. It is the main reason I decided to do a mini mini shop. It needed a home. They were difficult to decorate. They were cast with solid metal and the furniture was cast right into the rooms. Painting them was not fun. They were raw metal when you got them and the only thing that was removable was the front of the house!I made the shop in the mid 90s.

This is the bear collector's shop that will stand to the left. It is one of the first shops that I made from a kit back in the early 80s. I think that Houseworks put the kit out. It was raw wood and basically a box with windows. I had to add all of the fancy stuff.

It used to be a lady's dress shop. The bears started piling up and I needed a place for them to be. The dress shop moved out and the bears took over.

I will try to get some better shots of this one too. It is kind of hard to take photos standing on a step stool,holding the camera above my head and pointing it in the general direction of the shop.

This shop was done way before we had a computer. The sign is just a bit wobbly. I do like all of the folk art painting I did on it tho. The fans in the corner of the windows were made from toothpicks, wood scraps and beads. 7-19 was the date I finished the shop. It was probably '82.

That's it for today. Back to work.

One of Those Days

Did you ever have one of those days? I worked all day and nothing got done. All I have to show for today's work is the trim that is finished on the outside of the Rusty Needle and the rough design for the sign that goes on the front. I'm not going to show you that. It might change by tomorrow.

Oh! And I do have about 2o miniature balls of crochet thread. Those little things take a long time to wind. I wound them on drinking straws as I described before. I am not showing you those either. It would be like watching paint dry......Bored yet?

Here's something to take your mind off of the Rusty Needle for today.

About 3 years ago they were selling these little terrariums at Wal Mart for about 15.00. When I got it, it was plain white. I immediately thought "Garden Tea party". I got out the paint and started to fancy it up with embellishments.

The sides are Plexiglas and the roof lifts off so that you can get inside.

I popped in one of the Chinese cross stitch rugs that I designed. I painted some metal furniture that a friend gave me from a dollar store. I added a few plants and something to eat and drink. The painting of the vines and other embellishments took a while but after that, it was an almost instant project. Not bad for Wal Mart!

I seem to have an attraction to terrariums and birdcages. I have several that are finished(to be seen later) and several others waiting on shelves to be dealt with.

Here's one that I pretty much left as is except for the floor and the back wall. This time the find was at Big Lots. The floor is brick paper on mat board. The back wall is a piece of mat board with mini wallpaper. The chair is one of my wicker ones with matching footstool. The planter in the back is a ceramic one that was purchased as bisque ware and painted with acrylics. The small table is really a hand carved stone candlestick from India. I made the afghan from a real sized pattern and mercerized cotton sewing thread All of the plants are made of paper and wire. My cat George is made from Super Sculpey and painted.

This goes to show you that you can make a miniature from and in just about anything.

Back to the Rusty Needle tomorrow.

Proof of Work......

OK so I don't have a newspaper with the date to hold up by the Rusty Needle.......I am working. Honest!

I got sidetracked by my daughter this morning. We met for coffee and a long walk through the antique mall. All I got was a cookbook from 1968 for $3.00. I was hoping for 3 or 4 dollhouses that nobody wanted. No luck.

When I returned I started repainting more of the trim. Some of the trim was broken when I got it back. That slowed me down some. Luckily, I had the right stock to replace the parts that were damaged. Did I mention that this building was SO dirty when I got it back that it had to be scrubbed within an inch of it's life? It had been stored by the man of the house in an outdoor shed. Not a good thing! I have most of it done now. I just have to glue on some of the gingerbread and paint the sign.

Since I haven't done that much, here's a teaser to keep you coming back.

This is a display of baskets of various types that I have done over the years. Maybe after I finish the Rusty Needle I will sit down and write a couple of tutorials on how to make some of them.

These are coiled ones done with two strands of over dyed embroidery floss over cloth covered wire. They are done exactly like the Native Americans around here coil theirs. The feathers are from a friend's parrot and the stones are real turquoise, amethyst and jade.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will have more to show you of the Rusty Needle. See you then.