Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

Hit the title and you will find a lovely slide show of wonderful tiny gifts for the man of the house.
The slide show was created by GoldenUnicornMinis who maintains our teamMIDS blog.

She's done a fabulous job. After you check out the slide show, make sure you check out her shop at etsy and her blog.

I hope all of the Fathers out there are enjoying a relaxing day. :)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

In the mean time!

Haven't been able to keep up with blogging, I'm sorry. Dealing with a family emergency and a pending high school graduation.

When I get 50 followers, I'm going to do a give away, so recommend my blog to your mini friends, to follow. Make a comment on any of my blog posts and tell me what you'd like to see from my shop as a giveaway. http://www.dalesdreams.etsy.com

Next blog entry will be a tutorial on remaking glider/rocker cushions in a new fabric to match your decor.

Until next time! :)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Best Dollhouse Miniature 1/12th Scale Luggage!

Rolling Suitcase and Vanity Case


Garment Bag



This is just the best set of miniature luggage I have ever seen. Actually, you don't see to much miniature luggage out there, well, I haven't. ;)

This is made by my friend at WhimsyCottageMinis you can click on her name there to see her shop on etsy. She's also a fellow teammate in teamMIDS (Miniatures in Dollhouse Scale) and minimakers team.

It's not operational, but, it looks so real and is so to scale! The pictures do not, do it justice, you have to hold these little pieces in your hands. The handle on the rolling bag does go up and down. The wcm tags (WhimsyCottageMinis) is actually stamped on to metal. So cute!

I love the color and pattern. (My favorite colors are black and pink, is it getting obvious yet? lol) It just reminds me of a designer fashion forward statment. Very classy.

At first I was going to get one piece, then two, then changed my mind about which two and finally, decided I really needed to have all three. Don't be a bad customer like me (giggles).

Thank goodness, I think she still loves me.... well, she has to now, don't cha tink? lol ;)

I hope to make favorites a featured item of the week. I love all of the minis in my collection and those that I have aquired recently, it's nice to see other people's minis. :)

Until next time.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

My favorite tools for making Dollhouse Miniatures

Here they are, my favorite tools that I utilise in my mini making.

I love this green cutting mat, it's magic, cause you can slice right on it and it never wears! It's a great surface to work on. I use the clear straight edge with the rotary cutter to make precision cuts. In mini making this is a must, to have the most accurately cut and scaled finished products.

The tortishell like scissors harken back to my cross stitching days. They were also the cause of my first hand injury, after using them for days on end making miniatures. I damaged the nerve in my thumb and had a numb thumb for a long time, lol, try saying that three times fast. ;)

Now, their only job is snipping thread.

My pink tape measure, 'cause hot pink is one of my favorite colors, can you tell?

When my oldest was little she played with it so much, I ended up getting her, her own, so she wouldn't ruin mine.

Beeswax! I never sew without it. I sew with a yard of thread at a time and this keeps it from ever having a knot. Okay, not ever, but not so often. And, even if your thread does jumble up, I can usually get it untangled fairly easily.

My exotic scissors that I bought in Paris. (The black and white ones) I thought they were an exotic animal print, until my middle informed me that it was a cow pattern. A cow pattern! I'd have gotten a different pattern if I had known that. Oh, well.

My most favorite sewing tool is my pin cushion. I am never without this pin cushion, it is with me where ever I am sewing, even ventures away from home.

My sister in law used to be the General Consul for the Escada design firm and with that job, she traveled around the world. She brought me back a little something something from where ever she went. This came from England and holds a lot of sentimental value to me. :)

If you liked some of the items I made for my Fourth of July custom order, you can find them newly listed in my etsy shop. http://www.dalesdreams.etsy.com

Friday, June 5, 2009

Dollhouse Miniature Favorite; Peach Pit Basket

Isn't this just the cutest thing!

This is one of my most favorite miniatures in my collection.

It's a basket that was carved out of a peach pit by my grandfather. I guess he had made it for my mother when she was a little girl, it's probaby seventy some years old by now.

Have you ever heard of people carving things out of peach pits?

I never really thought about it before, so I did a quick search and found there is a lot of information out there.

These two links stood out.
http://www.cst.cmich.edu/users/dietr1rv/peachpits/index.htm
http://www.shamey.com/pit/pit.htm

Pretty cool, huh? :)

I like the tiny little woven basket next to it as well. I can't remember where I got that, but you can see that in relationship to the peach pit, it's pretty tiny. It's the smallest basket in my collection.

Between pillows and baskets, you can never have too many. This is true in real life and in the miniature world. Though, my husband may beg to differ. ;)

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Miniatures in Dollhouse Scale

Miniatures in Dollhouse Scale is a team I belong to on etsy. It is filled with some of the most wonderful people I have met on etsy. We share about our miniatures, we exchange ideas, thoughts and resources and techniques, but we also share the daily stuff with one another as well.

As a team, I could not ask for a more supportive bunch of people. I can't say enough about them! :)

If you are searching for miniatures in true 1/12th scale on etsy, put teamMIDS into the search bar and you will see the wonderful creations that my team members make. You will find furniture, crocheted items, food, pottery, florals, turnings and so much more. I am just in awe of a lot of of the things my team members make.

We have a spot on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/mids
A blog http://teammids.blogspot.com
and a website http://www.teammidsdollhouseminiatures.goods.officelive.com

If you click on the title of this post, it will take you to our current team thread in the forum, where we do most of our daily bantering. :)

The team also has members that are just collectors as well, if you are a miniature maker on etsy or would be interested in joining as a collector member this this our team profile page. http://team.etsy.com/viewteam.php?id=473 Which tells a bit more about our team and contact information.

The picture above is some treasures I brought back from Paris on a recent visit. Aren't they cute? A topic for another blog post. ;)