Sunday, September 22, 2013

What a Mini Weekend!

Hey friends!

I just had to send out a quick post, for it's been a great weekend for miniatures.  We had our Midwest Miniature Guild board meeting this Saturday.  I am the new librarian for the Guild and had a wonderful time at my first meeting as a board member.  There's a ton of ideas and activities going on with the Guild.  What a great group of people!  We are so lucky to have an organization like this here in the Twin Cities.  If you're in the midwest, please come join the Midwest Miniature Guild!

A HUGE thank you to Ilona, Giac, and John for your great advice on fabric resources.  Wow.  What beautiful selections!  I will definitely purse all your suggestions, for sure.  Alas time is running out for mail deliveries with this project, so I had to settle on some fabric that I found at a local Joann Fabrics.  I found a blue striped fabric for upholstering my couch and chairs.  I also was looking for silk scarfs (Thank you, Ilona for the great idea!) and found a blue men's neck tie at Goodwill for $3. I think I will use it for some accent pillows.  I'm not that sure how these fabrics will read in 1:12 scale.  Fingers crossed.

Things are really cooking and time is ticking away.  I finished a jade and an alabaster figurine and pick up some other items for the room.  I have to finish the exterior, construct all the furniture, finish the electrical, make a gazillion picture frames, construct and fasten the front frame, and then pray that the few little trinkets I've assembled will look somewhat decent in the room. Here's a sneak peak at the fabric and some artsy chachkies that will be going into the room.

Upholster and pillow fabrics with a few items for the Blue Room.
Uh oh.  Looks like the neighbors are moving in!  Ha ha. Don't worry.  The modern table lamp is not part of the room.  It's just there to shed a little light until the chandelier arrives.

Alright my friends, I must get to gittin'.  This all is so exciting.  I wish you well and send a big, grateful, and friendly heart-felt thank you to all of you for your kind support and comments.  Please keep them coming.  I will need them for the next two weeks as I meet my deadline for this room box.  Zoinks!  I hope your projects are going well.  I can't wait to see more of your beautiful work too!

All best,
Brad

Saturday, September 14, 2013

A Quick Hello

Hello friends,

Just a very quick blog here...The rug for my Blue Room arrived yesterday in the mail.  Hurray!  I'm so excited. It was made by Terry from www.minibeesknees.com.  The colors and details turned out beautifully.  Sorry my photos don't do it justice.  I can't wait to see what it will look like in the finished room.

Now I need to find some fabric that will match the rug.  I have a sofa and a few chairs to upholster!  Any suggestions on good fabric resources?

Thanks again for your kind comments and support.  I hope you are doing well!





Monday, September 9, 2013

A Promise, A Hope, and Another Promise

Hey dear friends!  How are you?

OMG!  Life is super busy right now.  Summer is almost over and I'm now back to my full teaching/singing schedule.  So life is definitely full tilt right now.  I want to do a quick post and thank everyone for the supportive and encouraging comments.  You are amazing artists and I promise (first promise) to get caught up on your blogs too.  You are all doing fascinating work and it's a pleasure to see your beautiful miniatures come to life.  Keep up the great work!

So...my hope is to have my Blue Room done in a couple of weeks.  I have to show it for the Midwest Miniatures Guild meeting on October 5th.  Gulp.  Yikes!  More on that later.  I want my next post of that project to be a showing of the completed project.  Fingers crossed.  More to come.

My second promise is a promise I made to myself.  I promised I would not be a collector of many miniature projects and a" finisher" of none.  But...I found this cute fixer-upper on Craigslist and I just could not let it slip by.  So...after I finish Barton Cottage...I will get started on this dollhouse rehab project.  I blame Fi from "A Passion for Miniatures."  I read her August 11th blog post and was inspired.  Thank you, Fi.  There's a lady in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota with one less dollhouse and $30 bucks in her pocket.  :)

Here's a quick peek at the fixer upper--and it's a real fixer upper.  But it was just crying out for some love!  So I had to get it. What period style do you think would work for this house?  Please feel free to give suggestions or ideas. I would love the feedback!

The front view.
70's brown shag carpet!
Notice the cobweb above the door frame AND the dead spider in the coweb.  How's that for authentic miniature artistry?

Many...many layers of wallpaper.
It's got great bones...right...well...maybe?