MY MINI DIARY, page 9

5 November, 2003:
Entry #3 today: I was saving some nutshells (material for future nature scenes), and I had these walnut shells on my desk... Wait a minute, that looks like a little... roast chicken!! :-O (or turkey, depending on the size & dollhouse scale) So, here's a tip:

Break the nuts in halves..

Paint/polish (I used golden glitter nail polish only, but you can get more detailed and use acrylic paints, for example.. sometimes the nutshell is too round for a chicken or turkey, so you can paint darker and lighter browns to create some optical illusion of the shape.. however, I think some kind of glossy glitter finish is great as it really gives it that oily roasted look).

Nutshell chicken with a FIMO cabbage leaf - add potatoes, carrots, *etc* around the chicken or turkey, to display it nicely!

Entry #2 today: I'll put this new entry to the top, so those who have already looked at the new pics won't have to scroll through them again.
I've just received my decorative swap items from Finland!! Woohoo! Fresh pictures:

The whole lot before unwrapping..

From the top: Emilia's sunflower painting, Elina's three books, my candle and purple holder, the thick candles are by Renée and Eeva, I think the one on the left is by Renée and the other one is by Eeva (I didn't have room on my computer desk to keep the wrappings & name tags nearby), the thin candle + holder is by Eija, Satu made the little bead angel, Sari made the decorative plate, JJ made the lovely mask (excellent, I've just been planning to make an exotic mask as well, so one of my dolls might start collecting them..), and Jonna made the cross stitch landscape in black frames.

Riikamaria made the pair of candles (we did make loads of candles, didn't we!! Not that I'm complaining, I love them all), Brita made the desk set with the leather pad, pen, envelope, and two ink bottles (very classy!), Leena made the framed old photo (can you believe that used to be a bottle cap?!?), and Anne made the beautiful white wall rug.

The cow cushion, lace and shells are from Sanna, and the lighter cushion and rug are from Tarja.
I had seen photos of the swap items already, and read other swappers' descriptions of them (they got them earlier as they're all in Finland, the post takes a bit longer to come to Ireland), but it's never the same than actually seeing it all for real, touching the items, looking at them from different angles... Again, I'm really pleased with the items! Thanks for all who took part! (Finnish bit: Kiitos kaikille swappaajille!! Ihania esineitä!)
Expect photos from my dollhouse, sooner or later, with new items...

As I finally had our living room table all for myself for a while, I spread out all the items I got from Pinja, and took more close-up photos of everything! (It's so much easier to have photos of all the materials and stuff, rather than trying to look for this and that when planning projects.. Now I just browse my site offline, and see what I already have! LOL)

The whole lot (except for paint sample cards)

Loads of printables for kitchen mainly..

Really tiny & shiny stars, chilli peppers, falsies..

Bigger stars, lovely pastel flowers, sweets..

Drink glass, orange/lemon/lime slices, blue plates..

Hallowe'en confetti, various buttons, etc..

More confetti..

Really tiny pumpkins & ghosts..

Bigger pumpkins, pipe-cleaner teddies, ribbon..

More teddies..

O\ZON tin!! (Finally I have one as well!)

More teddies, and TINY beads..

Nearly the whole lot again.

3 November, 2003:
Well, Hallowe'en is over again, so enough with carving out the pumpkins, and on to mini stuff.. hehe..

To stay with the Hallowe'en theme for just a little bit longer, I received a lovely surprise from Pinja today. She had e-mailed me about some Finnish paint cards she was going to send me (really good standard postcard size!!), and said that she had thrown in some Hallowe'en confetti and stuff.. But I was NOT prepared for the total "miniaturist's survival package" I got!! All kinds of everything, I tells ya - have a look:

The paintcards, and a pink envelope full of printables!

Bits of nice fabrics, gorgeous blue plates, miniature pumpkins in different sizes, a glass jar of sweets, a drink glass, sliced clay orange & lemon, clay chilli peppers & false teeth (!!!!!), loads of different buttons and things that can be used for all kinds of miniature things.. I didn't spread them all out, cause I didn't want anything tiny to fall on the floor and go missing!

Close-up of the sweets and drink glass.

Another close-up, to show off those falsies!!

I couldn't resist.. meet my finger! LOL

Aaand, an O/ZON mint tin full of more little surprises! (Many Finnish miniaturists have made suitcases of these tins, but I haven't seen them in Irish shops) Six lovely little pipe-cleaner teddies, more Hallowe'en confetti, loads of really tiny beads, tiny ghosts, and a lovely brown ribbon.

Close-up of the ribbon, and one of the ghosts.

The teddies! Thanks so much Pinja!!!

19 October, 2003:
Last Friday, Daniel bought me an early birthday present:

"Miniature Worlds in 1/12 Scale", by Susan and Martin Penny. This is my first dollhouse / miniature book, and I like its style as they've included lots of alternative materials, which I like to use.
Later on that day, we ordered a pizza from Mizzoni's (Bray), and there was this plastic item in the box, keeping the lid from the pizza toppings:

It will make a brilliant little table for a mini scene!
I've also finally photographed what I bought last Thursday..

These stickers are good for my mini chocolate bar labels, etc. I've previously used green labels only, but now I'll be able to make other "flavours"!

I got these colourful pipe-cleaners, which will be perfect for making little cleaning items, such as toilet brushes, etc.. I also got some black and white ones, which are always useful.

I desperately needed some white FIMO, but the local stationery shop still didn't have any, so I had to buy this kit that had some white FIMO in it.

I'm sure the other bits of the kit will be useful as well!

Two bags of Hallowe'en nuts.. I've already eaten the peanuts as I was able to open them without tools.. We don't have a proper nutcracker (must remember to buy one!), so it's always a struggle with hammers and stuff.. LOL

My nutshell jar - so far there's only peanut shells, but there will be others.. These are good for mini scenes that portray outdoorsy places.. Just throw in some ground coffee and sand, and it'll look quite natural!

Later on:
I've been planning this next one ever since we went shopping in Dún Laoghaire, and I bought some more "railway people".. They came in a package that gave me the idea of making toy packages in miniature, using the railway dolls as the toys. I was sort of thinking of making a "Barbie" toy, but none of the female dolls suited the part, so I used a male doll, and named him "Spyman"!

I've cut the clear plastic from the original package, and a video cover for background, from a shop brochure (I've already written "Spyman" on the video cover picture)..

Tadaa! One Spyman! I glued the plastic to the background picture, and finished the toy package by trimming the edges with scissors. Then I cut a little bit of yellow sticker, and wrote a price on it - little price tag!

Now I just need to make a toy shop..

8 October, 2003:

Today I made this tiny garden. (This picture was taken before I put the see-through lid back on) ... It's the original package of these model railway dolls - I started by spreading a thin layer of glue on the "floor", and sprinkling some Kaunissaari sand all over it. Then I started adding trees and bushes (made of model landscaping stuff), and made a little bench of balsa wood, painting it with nail polish. Once it was dry, I glued it in place, and glued the little couple on the bench. It was actually at this point when I decided that a background image would be a good idea, so I started going through photo resource books, trying to find just the right picture.. and I found it! It even had trees behind the ones I'd already glued to my scene! I added some more trees and bushes, and the garden was finished.

Original package..

Before I started gardening..

Finished garden with the lid on..


Irene sent me this nice punch tool, so I can make "gold" coins! (Thanks Irene!)

I made this framed picture earlier on today. The frames were made of orange craft sticks, which I think looks really nice with the autumny picture. I've used clear nail polish to varnish the frames.

Hmmm, browsing these catalogues makes me think my dolls will want some photo albums.. or maybe I'll have to make a landscape photographer doll! (Good job we got the catalogues on CD as well, otherwise I couldn't grab stuff from the books!)