One more day

Working on the CUBEBOT challenge today. See pix here and o Flickr tomorrow.
Final hint to Paris Miniatures.

Fiddling with fabrics and women's lib!

Not much mini-ng done this weekend --mostly  spring cleaning, getting ready for Christmas as the rellies are coming to us this year. However, I did get a few minutes to make some drapes for the Cubebot challenge. I found the fabric during my R&R visit to my friend last weekend. Not much time to look for fabrics otherwise. I also found some Fraystop, so now I feel like a real miniaturist.

I pleated, rather than draped the fabric because I tried using a home-made starch from a recipe on the internet. It didn't work, but it did make me think about how long it had been since I had starched anything --we may be talking 50 years here, since ironing my brother's shirts was one of my household jobs! There's another one for the Mini-nuts: you know you're a mini-nut when you start doing things that women haven't had to do for half-a-century!

So here's to drip-dry, no-iron, no-starch, and boys ironing their own clothing! That's why we have time for minis.

 The other mini-ing was a detour back to my first, now suspended-- blog. Also having to do with fabrics. Read it here. These are the fabrics:

. TTFN
Second Cubebot challenge hint go to Drora's blog

Post-posting confusion

I know its been more than a week and I set my self the goal of posting at least once a week. The mitigating circumstances are : 1) I DID post and then accidentally deleted it; 2) I have been finishing up all the end-of-year marking, processing, etc. at work; 3) I did have 4 days away to give my friend the retirement home and have some R&R (which was the subject of the deleted post).

So on that note: she loved it. I wrapped all the bits individually in shocking pink tissue paper; then wrapped the roombox in gold paper with a big red and gold bow. It took her about half an hour to open everything, so it was a lovely ceremony. We drank (tea) to her happy retirement.

As you can see she had to get a magnifying glass to see some of the details. However, she loved it and kept moving it around the house to find the perfect spot for it where it would get natural light and she could see it. The next morning she made a lovely comment on being able to 'inhabit it'. So that's a great thing about minis: so much fun to make; and so much fun to give, two pleasures for the price of one. Somewhere there is a picture of how she set it up but I can't find it. Confusion reigns

On another note: here's the first hint for my CUBEBOT challenge:

Go to Brae's blog. TTFN

Challenge 1: The Mini-Nut Challenge

Does anyone recognise the items in the photograph below? They are the little doohickeys that you pull out of the seal in the top of vinegar or soy sauce or other  liquid. You pull them off so that you can pour out liquid, and then you throw them away, right? Well, most people do that.

The other day I opened a bottle of rice vinegar, tossed the doohickey on the bench (counter-top), made the salad and then, when I was cleaning up, I picked up the doohickey and found myself inspecting it minutely to see if it could be of use --miniature-wise, of course. And then, when I went to brush my teeth I found myself saving the little ring off the toothbrush head I replaced because I remembered someone (apologies if it was you, I can't remember where I saw it), using such a ring to make a magnifying glass. At that point my husband came in and declared I was off my head.

Now I think otherwise sensible people who happen to be miniaturists do this kind of thing everyday all over the world,  so I have decided to have my first challenge (I have to get you guys to notice this blog somehow). The challenge is to complete this sentence:

"You know you're a mini-nut when...."

Rules (there have to be rules)  are:

1) Be a follower of this blog
2) Leave your finished sentence as a comment
3) I you tell a friend and if they verify you and also leave leave a comment OR if you put this link on your own blog, you get a second entry.
4) Contest ends midnight 15 December New Zealand time (Remember we're a day ahead of most of the world so get your comments in early).

I don't have time to make a prize so this one comes from my stash. A Reac lips sofa (nuts not included; you supply yourself)

Taylor's pad

Just because I am trying to blog twice a week, I thought I'd post some photos of the furniture I made for my granddaughter, who shares my love of minis. The colour scheme of turquoise and brown, complemented by lime green and mauve was inspired by a beautiful Pareto a friend brought me from the Cook Islands, and two fat quarters I found at Spotlight. Sorry the pix aren't great.


The sofa and chairs have a 70s feel about them. I made the table and stools/bedside tables from craft box tops and basswood. Simple, but effective.




-
The pareo fabric reminded me both of tivaevae, the wonderful quilts made by Cook Island women, but also of Marimeko fabric that was so popular in the 70s,and seems now to be returning. I quilted around the hibiscus flower to give the cover some dimension. The bed base is covered with brown grosgrain ribbon.



-




I bought her a simple 2 drawer chest from Michaels which made a perfect 2 story modern townhouse (minus the drawers). My next project is to use my new dremel to build her an efficiency kitchen.

Still working on the challenge. Watch this space!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I just couldn't help myself

The blinds were all wrong; too pallid; too bland; added nothing and so, despite having a gazillion other more pressing issues to attend to, I made a new, more upmarket, and definitely brighter, set. The pictures aren't that great. My briefly found camera has lost itself again so I am once more reduced to the iphone (which is on its last legs).

I am resigned to fiddling with it until I have to pack it up for presentation on the 13th. But really,... I have Call Small' cubebot challenge to complete, and I have come up with an idea for a challenge. Watch this space.....