Under the weather

I received the kreativ award recently but have been unable to think of 7 things about me that nobody knows or who to pass it on to. I think I've been sick every week since the New year. I hope to be feeling better soon.

Aging miniatures

I decided to age all of the wooden crates for my General Store. I even aged the ladder & crates I bought at the Atlanta Miniature Show.


I used a mixture of rubbing alcohol and India ink. It only takes about 5 drops of ink to every 8 oz of alcohol. This picture was while they were still wet. They darken up a lot more. I will try to add a photo tonight of the final outcome.

Old House

I've been looking into buying a house for the past couple of weeks. I feel in love with this house.

The house was built in 1906. The walls are 3 bricks thick. Apparently whoever bought it had planed on fixing it up but only got part way into the project before it went into forclosure. They cut into the orginal plaster to install new wiring.
It still has some of the most beautiful features and orginal woodwork and two sets of pocket doors.
I love this curved wall under the stairs.

Upstairs hallway.. just look at those beautiful hardwood floors.

One of the out buildings still has a slate roof.

Everything was moving forward on making a deal on this house until we had an inspection under the house. There are rotten floor joist and a lot of termite damage.
I knew it would be a project home but this new find wasn't something I could afford so I had to walk away from this one. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
I'll just keep looking.

Storage containers

I love storage containers. I like seeing how other crafters store their supplies too. I thought I would show off some of my neat storage containers and their contents.

The Winner is.....

Jessie at http://beyondbaffled.blogspot.com/

Email me your address and which beads you want.

Bead Giveaway!

Time is running out to enter the drawing for some vintage beads. The drawing will take place tonight. I will post the winner tomorrow morning.

Bead Giveaway

I thought since I had such a huge response to my yard sale bead finds that I would have a Bead Giveaway. What better way to share my find than to give away a portion of the collection. Leave a comment on this blog entry and you will be entered in a random drawing to win a Ziploc sandwich bag of your choice of vintage beads. The drawing will be held Monday March 1st so enter now.

BEADS!!!

My grandmother had a big yard sale this past July. All of the family was there to help out with it. Of course we got first pick of all the stuff. While helping set up the day before the sale I found a 15"x10"x6" box labeled "Beads and craft stuff Whole box $1" . It was packed full of acrylic boxes and a plastic jewelry box. She said she had used them to make fancy beaded Christmas balls years ago. I claimed that box without ever looking in the acrylic boxes within. Over the following weeks I started sorting out all the different findings. Every box contained a lot of rusty straight pens so it was a little dangerous digging in them. Here are the pictures of the majority of my finds.

Sorry this is blurry my camera just wouldn't focus on the white beads.

All of these large beads are covered in tiny holeless beads.



These are the random things left in the bottom of the jewelry box after I picked out the above picture.


Jewels

Trunk

I designed the pattern to this little trunk using AutoCAD back in college. I printed it out on card stock and traced it onto cardboard for the structure. I acquired some old fabric backed veneer and covered the outside. The paper lining is from one of the many free wallpaper sample books I have. I still haven't made the hardware for it. I just can't ever seem to finish a project. Hopefully posting pictures of it will inspire me to finish it.

Miniature Hats Updated

I worked on two of my hats last night while watching tv in the bedroom. I can't really work in my work area with feathers because of my cats.
The large brimmed hat with the brown ribbon now looks like this..

I'm pleased with the brown. This would be the style and color hat I would wear if I was going to the Kentucky Derby. lol

The smaller woven hat now looks like this..

I'm not really happy with how it turned out so I'll probably add flowers or something to it. Its just too gray...and dull.

The cowboy hat I made was quite by accident. I was making a tan leather bowler hat that ended up being smushed before it was completely dry and stiff. I just worked with the dents and reshaped it more like my brothers cowboy hat.

My first Award!

I just received the Sunshine Award from Kim at http://flowerkim.blogspot.com/
Thank you so much. Its so hard to pick just 6 bloggers to pass this award on to.



The rules are to pass the award on to six blogs that you follow then let them know you gave them an award. So I narrowed it down to these six:

Jessie at http://beyondbaffled.blogspot.com/
Lori at http://ohminiofmine-loshcosh.blogspot.com/
Josje at http://josje-bouwt.blogspot.com/
George at http://tallminiguy.blogspot.com/
Nikki at http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/
Casey at http://caseymini.blogspot.com/

Miniature Hats

I love making miniature hats but I can't seem to ever finish them. I've acquired a lot of old leather gloves over the years that work great for hats. Any pointers on how to finish these hats would be greatly appreciated.

Polymer Clay Creations

I decided to share some of my various clay creations. These are polymer clay minis.




Other polymer clay projects




I still haven't finished this little guy but I love his face. I covered a glass Christmas ball for his body. His head got a little burnt when I baked him

Feathers... natural miniatures

I found some perfect miniature feathers in our yard after a local feral cat had killed a bird. I washed them in hot soapy water let them dry then I put them in the freezer for about a week to kill any bugs or mites.

I had a neighbor had two pet birds she let me collect all the molted feathers I wanted. I crawled around on her floor picking tiny feathers out of the carpet for about an hour.


When I was in Girl Scouts we visited a local bird farm we were all given a peacock feather. After years of storage it had begun to look a little rough so I stripped them down for usable parts. I bought a small package of peacock feathers at some point too.

I even find myself saving the feathers that manage to escape from my down comforter. I just can't stop collecting them.