Thank You Oiseau!

The package from France arrived late last year, on a day when I desperately needed to be cheered up! My good friend of many years was leaving the country, so I was sad ... Oiseau's tiny treasures brought a smile on my face that day. The package included roast chicken, poached pear in chocolate sauce, pate, seashell chocolate for Christmas, an amazingly detailed Hortensia plant and carrots in a handwoven basket!

For more minis by Oiseau deNim, visit:
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/OiseaudeNim
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/oiseaudenim
Blog: oiseaudenim.blogspot.com
Blog: oiseau.pixnet.net/blog

Thank You Eve!

These photos are long overdue! This fabulous cheese tray is a gift from Eve of After Dark Miniatures. I am a big fan of cheese in real life, so this is just perfect!

I had not gotten the chance to photograph it until the winter break ... so here it is!

For more minis by Eve at After Dark Miniatures, visit:
Etsy: afterdarkafterall.etsy.com
eBay: shop.ebay.com/merchant/afterdarkafterall
Blog: afterdarkminiatues.blogspot.com
Website: afterdarkafterall.co.uk

Thank You Caroline!

Thank you Caroline, for making this pizza specially for me, with the black olives, bell pepper and the cheese sprinkled with oregano ... my favorite!

For more minis by Caroline of Hummingbird Miniatures, visit:
Blog: hummingbirdminiatures.blogspot.com
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/HummingbirdMiniature
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/mini_food
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Hummingbird-Miniatures/135669596465117?ref=ts

Also visit Pixie Dust Miniatures:
Blog: pixiedustminiatures.blogspot.com
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/PixieDustMiniatures
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Pixie-Dust-Miniatures-Quality-dollhouse-miniature-magic/146811252030388

Paperclay Bricks

These photos were taken in July ... the last time I was able to work on the Garfield. Since then, I have been so very busy at work that blogging and anything dollhouse-related has taken the back burner.

I came across the photos today and wanted to share them with you. I haven't made significant progress with the bricking, but whatever I have, I am very happy with! The bricks are uneven and sometimes the lines get shifted slightly. However, I think the imperfections make the building look older and lend a hand-made quality to the bricks.

Oh I wish I could get back to bricking right now!

Paperclay Bricks

Not much has happened since the last time. I did stain the roof a dark walnut color like the inspiration photo.

By the way, I have finally gotten the paper clay for the exterior bricks. I bought them from paperclay.com and they were wonderful! They have discounted price for wholesale items. So I bought 19 packs of "Pearl" paper clay for only $2.65 each ... each pack contains 17.5 oz. of clay! If you have shopped for paper clay before, you already know how ridiculously inexpensive this is in comparison. They also credited back almost $10 on shipping when they found out they could ship out the clay in a USPS flat rate box. So, my thanks goes out to the folks at paperclay.com.

I have started bricking the house, and I can tell you right now, it will take me forever and a day to finish making the bricks. I tested the paper clay on the front door steps. If you remember from the post about stairs, I had used the original front door steps on the third floor of the Garfield instead. So this time around, I had to fashion stairs out of cardstock and masking tape, which I later covered with paper clay bricks. The "Pearl" clay dries very hard, and I am loving it so far ...

The Garfield Manor of Sara Mendez

These are photos of Sara's Garfield Manor. I love the mysterious play of light and shadows ... so haunting!

Sara bought this house for $40 on craigslist.com! Can you believe it? She thought it would be a good idea to photograph the house before she makes it over, so that she can look back and marvel at the transformation ...

For more minis by Sara Mendez, visit her blog: http://honeystarsandfireflies.blogspot.com

Thank You Tara & Kellie!

While I am sharing photos of the gifts I received, I thought I'd post some that are long overdue. These were gifts I received from Tara Ryan and Kellie Wachter last year, but I never got the chance to photograph them until this morning.

The screen and the pillows were made by Tara, especially for the Garfield Manor. She knew that this was to become a nabob's pleasure palace, and wanted to create something with a distinctly Indian flair.

Kellie Wachter created this crazy quilt with all the colors of the peacock, knowing full well how much I adored the bird. She even embroidered tiny peacock feathers, bees and butterflies throughout the quilt ... anywhere you look, you will find a tiny something or the other hidden in the patchwork.

You can see more of Kellie's works at:
Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/yankeedimes
Blog: http://yankeedimes.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.yankeedimeprimitives.com