A quiet corner...

... to catch up on some holday reading.

The third wall

Before I dismantled my latest scene, a set of IKEA Lillabo cupboards I bought off eBay arrived and I decided they'd be perfect for the third wall of the scene...

(I think this may be the first time I've created a scene with three walls!)

Beady eyed

A quick trip to the local op shop on the way home from the Post Office.

A $1 bag of large wooden beads. Makes a perfect stash of miniature lamp bases!

Time for bed

So it would seem that this afternoon's scene is not finished with me yet. It demanded I put the lunch dishes away, return the table to its usual spotand make up the bed. Bossy scenes, I don't know.

What will it demand next? Breakfast in bed?

White and bright

I finished the third coat on my white floorboards this morning and brought the piece upstairs just after I shot the ROUND HOLE squared gallery scene.

I was reading my blog feeds over lunch and Ellen Giggenbach's blog inspired me to try something I've never tried with a scene before. A riot of bright Scandinavian retro-style colours:
I even came up with a backstory involving a designer who works and lives in a tiny studio apartment who has invited three friends round for a celebratory lunch.This scene took forever to complete. Not only was I racing round the house trying to gather all the relevant pieces from various other houses, but filling the shelving unit was incredibly fiddly. Just as I thought I had everything safely arranged something would fall over, fall out, or just decide it wanted to be moved to another spot.
I liked the end result so much I just had to pull the blind and try some "night" shots:
(Rug thanks to Neomig, Kaleidoscope House crockery and glasses thanks to Mini Dork)

The opening...

The inspiration:
* New black painted floorboards
* A set of glam decorative accents sent to me back in February by Mini Dork (like them? She's having a giveaway!)
* Attending three friend's openings yesterday

The goods:

* Aforementioned flooring
* My standard sheet of Precision Products' plastic brick
* Mini plinths from Craft ACT's Call of the Small exhibition
* Mini Dork's pieces and a couple more from my collection
* My P-touch labelling machine for the exhibition title

The time taken:

* About 20 minutes, including time taken to try and convince the piece at the back to balance on one point!

"Little Wonders of the World" photography competition

Stitch, not for profit organisation that raises environmental awareness through the arts, is running a photography competition with categories "Green in Cities/ Greening Cities" and "Little Wonders of the World".

A £5 donation per image submitted goes to the charities Back2Earth and Butterfly Conservation.

Finalists will be exhibited in London the week of 14th May and there are £200 in prizes

For more information see The Stitch Project website.

(I'm tempted. Are you?)

I made a black floor

with the third piece of bamboo table runner I bought back in September. Since then I've also bought a (much cheaper) one at Target with narrower boards which I'm going to trial as wall panelling...

(Vintage picture thanks to Neomig, chair thanks to Claudia.)

In the pink

When I said I was going to spend some time today tidying up my studio, I meant my full sized one...Oh well, it was fun playing with a colour I don't use very often.
And try out my new bottles of paint!

Long overdue

Tonight I'm (finally) working on a swap which was due three months ago. Sorry Neomig...
(And here's a photo showing how mini reflects reality. Except, oddly, there's less colour in the mini version!)

Do you think...

... I should take it as a sign?

In which I appear to have mislaid my mini book stash

Last spotted here and (obviously) tucked away somewhere safe. And new. Since they're not in the old safe spot.

The problem with misplacing minis is that they're very very... small.

Show and tell

Yesterday was the ACT Miniature Enthusiasts Show. I almost didn't go, as I'm not feeling very enthusiastic about miniatures at all, even with the recent arrival of miniature gifts and swaps.

But go I did. The display was very small this year, with nothing that caught my eye enough to photograph.

I did buy a few things, the most expensive being a miniature Nibbs:plus lots of containers, some ferny stuff to make pot plants out of and some plain white vases that I'll probably paint with nail varnish.

I do like little drawers...

I find miniatures everywhere

Last week I was invited to a special sale evening at local furniture store Domayne.

I'm sure you know the sort of thing: glasses of bubbles, trays of yummy canapés, talks and presentations by "famous" people off the telly and special "on the night" discounts.

And freebies. In my goody bag was a mobile phone holder advertising Classique outdoor furniture. But, alas, it's 1/6th scale.
Do any of you work in 1/6th? If so, would you like two (my friend donated hers to the cause) rather well made outdoor chairs for your Blythe or Barbie scene? (It looks like the name plate can be unscrewed and prised off) I'll post anywhere in the world.

Supermarket scale

Earlier today I popped over to the supermarket for boring basics and spotted these hanging with the kitchenware:I immediately grabbed them, thinking it was time for a party to (belatedly) celebrate my 6 year blogiversary. Watch this space... (and let me know if you'd like some!)

February...

... a big fat lump of no inspiration.

(But thanks to Claudia for arranging delivery of the chairs)

A new dolls' house!

I went to the markets this morning and came home with a new dolls' house for the collection:50 cents. A bargain!

Knitting and thinking

There's not been much happening here mini-wise over the past few weeks.
Except I've (oddly) found myself buying bags of Powder Puff and Fairy Floss yarn, in colours I don't have, on the two times I've been op shopping this year.

And have been trying them out. Which is good, as I do excellent thinking when I'm knitting (and mini flokati rugs are easy knitting leaving plenty of brain space for excellent thinking).

Part of the thinking revolves around my penchant for getting excited about things and making commitments I can't maintain. Something I'm aiming to address in 2012.

While I knit my rugs I'm currently pondering the option of opening an Etsy shop. And the opportunity to have a stall at the Sydney mini show in May. Both of which would be good outlets for selling said flokati rugs...

Mini distractions

Not much in the way of creativity has happened this month. I've had a Phantom Flatmate. Plus a house guest. And visitors. Been away. Went to a Wiki camp.

Often all at the same time.

This is the first scene I've made in almost 3 months. (No, I can't believe it's been that long either...)

The Shopping Sherpa needs a Shopping Sherpa!

So everyone's been all over these chairs from CB2:And they've just dropped in price again (to around 50 cents each). But for me to buy 2 Igloo chairs and 6 Reed chairs would cost $56.30 in postage...

Anyone in the USA fancy doing a deal with me to buy them on my behalf and forward them to me?

That wasn't on the list for today...

But I suppose after a week of mainly house cleaning, and no creativity to speak of, I should expect this to happen when I return to my studio to (supposedly) clean it out:
And Blurb does have another 20% off deal at the moment...

Not quite my scale...

But pretty amazing:

Miniatur Wunderland

(Thanks Kerry!)

La minis at La Cloche

It's tradition on my last day in New Zealand that The Parental Units pick me up, we have brunch, and then they drop me at the airport.

This year we went to La Cloche, a french cafe in Kaiwharawhara. Where I discovered these, made out of wine cartons:
Apparently, the owner's wife studied architecture and makes these for fun...

Bad blogger

I had exciting mini related news last week. Shared it on Facebook but completely forgot to mention it here.

2013 is the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Canberra, and there are many celebrations and events (and a cake!) being planned to mark the occasion.

One of these is a conference called Shaping Canberra: One hundred years of the lived experience of a home and a capital, which is being held at the Australian National University in September 2013, focusing on "the lived experience of Canberra and the way local and national events run through this experience." The conference aims to "highlight the wealth and interest of material about the experience of Canberra in national and local collections (with some emphasis on the local collections which are unknown, overlooked or underused)."

At the same time, the ANU School of Art Gallery is planning an exhibition "about Canberra's real local life (as opposed to the standard media-driven political points of view)" and are offering an introduction and free access to a range of historic collections within Canberra for inspiration gathering.

And I've been invited to participate.

How fabulously wonderful to get to make miniatures about a city I love so much AND get to rummage through old photos and (hopefully) ephemera in the process.

That's next year's major project sorted then...

Missing

Something. I don't quite know what.

After I pulled the Deer ♥ scene down and was left with just the carpet and one wall, I felt the need to create another scene with the same bones.
But somehow, no matter how much I tweaked it, made the back story for it (holiday home, near the coast, available for rent when the family isn't using it themselves.... I guess I'm realising how long it's been since I've been down the coast in real life)
I just wasn't satisfied.
I left it alone for a couple of days, waiting to see if inspiration struck.

It didn't. So it's coming down tonight.
Oh well, these things happen, right?

Yes, I know four posts in one day is a bit much

But can I get a squee?

I keep breaking wine glasses...

Deer ♥

With a lovely clear workbench (I won't mention most of the contents are now on the floor) I felt the sudden need to make my Amazing Miniatures deer trophy (amazing! I've had it less than a month!) And you know what? If you follow the instructions, it's actually quite easy! (A dry fit wasn't actually necessary, but I did it anyway just in case)
And in less time than I expected, I was done. Well once the glue holding the head to the backing dried, which didn't take long at all.

Since this is an (almost) step-by step post, I thought it was about time to do another "behind the scenes" on how I put this scene together:

Step one: I wanted a plain wall colour to show off the head, but wanted a warmer colour than the white card I usually use, which can be a bit blue. So I used some watercolour paper I had on hand. And from my pile of flooring choices I picked a sample piece of carpet I picked up from the hardware store for $5 months ago: Step two: Keeping with the natural theme, I tried out three or four shelving options and finally settled on a Lundby piece I'd removed the legs from which works well in 1/12. While I was digging through the mini store cupboard, I spotted this cane rocker which I thought might work:Step three: Dressing the scene...
Three a: I really like how the wooden vases and bowls continue the theme. The rocker cushions were from last year's Advent Calendar Swap, used the wrong way round to hid the stars. I'm pretty happy. Except for the items on top of the shelving.
Three b: With a different plant. Still not right, but I think the basket looks better on the right side.
Three c: Yep, I think that's it. I especially like the way the square of the basket is now mirrored in the square of the clock and pulls the eye towards the box in the middle...

(Time taken, including making the deer trophy head? 2 1/2 hours)

Lazy Sunday morning

Not exactly how my morning was. .. But I did have a late start followed by an unexpected long and lazy breakfast date with a friend at a cafe across the road. From which I returned energised, bursting with ideas and, more importantly, the urge to clear off my workbench.

So I made a scene instead.

(Credits on FLICKR)

About bloody time...

(Photograph shamelessly stolen from the book's Facebook page)

I think it was 2004 when I first heard that this book was being produced I was quite excited at the time.

But every time it looked like publication was imminent, the dates shifted. Now, finally, it's available to buy.

Anyone got a copy? Care to share a review?

Make it mini

During a recent forage around Ponoko* I stumbled across this Adirondack Chair kit:I contacted the designer who tells me that it's "approximately 1:12 scale".

Two mini chairs for $38? I'd call that good value!

(*I'm slowly working on a mini project with a talented 3D modelling friend)

This week I applied for a job

That is all