MY MINI DIARY, page 11

13 December, 2003:
Marjukka posted basic felting instructions for us (in a Finnish group), and I had a go last night.. I only 'sacrificed' a little bit of the swap wool I had, just in case it would end up as bin material.. heh..

Starting with three extremely thin layers of wool..

Hmmm.. it became very thin.. (still damp)

Dried.. It could be a bit thicker, but at least I can use it for something in the dollhouse. Maybe for a baby mattress, etc.. It was easier than I'd imagined!

12 December, 2003:
I haven't had much time to make minis this month (Christmas cards to write and send, Christmas shopping, wrapping pressies, putting up decorations, etc..). So, the new stuff on my site is just pictures of our advent calendar swap items - see the temporary page.. Here are some new pics from my dollhouse, with the swap items I've gotten from Marjukka so far:

Cheese tray and cover (cheeses from an earlier swap).

Paper bag with a box of Kellogg's Special K.

Sewing basket, book and colour pencils (also in the basket for now), and a white felt bag.

Orange jumper.

This is just a picture of some misc. materials - the weed stems are from our back garden (I collected and dried them some months ago), and the little springs and plastic bits are from old floppies we threw away.

2 December, 2003:
Our Finnish advent calendar swap has started (it now being December..), and I was relieved to hear that Marja got my first 12 pressies in time.

In the picture, the siku (Peruvian instrument) I made of FIMO some time ago.. Now that I received some lovely bright-coloured threads from Marjukka (day one of the calendar swap), I was able to finish the siku! Below, the siku in my dollhouse..

There is a temporary page where you can follow my calendar swap - I try to add pictures everyday, of what I get from Marjukka and what Marja gets from me. After Christmas, I'll add a full page to my site menu, though..

Later entry:

We were talking about pipe cleaners in the Finnish group, and I promised to take a picture of the different kinds I have. The one in the middle is what I'd call the "regular" stuff (as that's the type I've seen and used most often.. for example, I used that stuff for the dolls I made), the stuff on the left is much finer, and the stuff on the right is quite rough, perfect for dollhouse cleaning items and such!

27 November, 2003:
Excellent post day today! I received my advent calendar swap items from Marjukka (24 little pressies):
They were all in a nice green gift bag, individually wrapped in golden wrapping paper, and there was a lovely card with them! (Kiitos, Marjukka!) This will be the only advent calendar swap picture in my mini diary as I've already made a page for it. I can't show the page yet, though, because there are pictures of my swap pressies for Marja on it! So, expect to see it sometime in December...
We also got our new business cards (about time we got some proper stuff!). Mine's kinda childish and cheeky as it mentions the dollhouse miniatures as well.. =)
Teresa (from Beyond the Moat) kindly sent their group project instructions to me as well, although I wasn't gonna take part this time. It looks like a lovely shop front project, though, so I might have a go with it someday when I've more working space! (Thanks Teresa!)
And my mam sent us a house - LOL! She had warned me by phone, that the Christmas parcel was going to be huge.. And it is! I had to lift it upstairs step by step, it's so heavy. All our Christmas pressies are in it, and also Finnish chocolate and stuff for a few other people.. There's a package of fair trade coffee that just smells so GOOD!!! Honestly, I could spend the rest of the week sniffing it! LOL ... If only coffee could taste as good as it smells.. I mean, it does taste good, but never as good as its smell..

24 November, 2003:

I made even more rosary beads last night, with different colours.. I'm kicking myself for not having bought more cross shaped beads from Yellow Brick Road, but they didn't actually have that many of them left, and they only had this one colour (which I like a lot, though!). We are going to Dublin again soonish as we need to do some Christmas shopping, but I might also make my own FIMO crosses as then I'd get them in any colours I want. However, I'll still go bead shopping in "YBR"...

One more shot, directly from above.. I love making these! (I'm sure you can tell.. LOL)

And now, a tool moment.. *heh*.. I haven't even tested my Dremel yet, but I was reading its manual last night, and organised the box. I'm just putting these eight photos here in case anyone's planning to buy a Dremel (ours is Dremel MultiPro variable speed), so you'll get an idea what you get with this particular package. If you're not interested, just scroll down to more mini pics.

The whole box, with the lids open..

Close-up of the actual Dremel..

Different attachments.. #1 (There are LOADS of other attachments available for Dremel, but the ones you see in these photos come with this package)

Different attachments.. #2

Different attachments.. #3

Parts for the attachments.. #1

Parts for the attachments.. #2

Parts for the attachments.. #3

Today, I received the Christmas issue of the Finnish club magazine ("Suomen Nukkeyhdistys ry:n jäsenlehti"). It's always full of great stuff, and I even read the articles that are not about dollhouses/miniatures as they are all just so interesting and well written. Maybe it always comes through when an article is written by a person who is really passionate about what they are writing about!
There was one little disappointment, though - my DIY advent calendar, which was included in the colour special, was way too small (it was about one quarter of the size it should have been), so if anyone tries to follow my instructions to put it together, they'll probably end up ripping their hair off.. This was really nobody's fault, we all just forgot to check the printing size! Here's a picture of what size it should be when put together, and what the size was in the magazine:

(I've pixelated out other parts of the colour spread for copyright reasons) If someone actually manages to put the magazine version together, I'd love to see a picture! I don't think I'll try, unless I make a smaller scale Christmas scene someday.
There were also lovely traditional Christmas cards, Finnish flags, Christmassy wrapping papers *etc* on the colour spread, so although I'd love to keep the magazine in tact, I just might be tempted to use these in the dollhouse as the print quality is so much better than what I get from my printer..

Later on..
I was just exploring the bag of Instapak Packaging Foam, which came with some computer parts we ordered for a client's PC upgrade. Many of you probably already know the stuff, but I'd never seen this stuff before, just the usual styrofoam.. I haven't tried using this for minis yet, but I'm wondering it it'd be any good for carving something out of it. We'll see.. Here's a few pics of the material, though:

A little bit I broke off the edge.. The shiny side was against the bag.

It's kind of like styrofoam, but it feels lighter and it seems to be more fragile - easier to break..

There's a fair lump of it, so I should be able to make at least something out of it! Also, the bag is nice metallic shade, so I might be able to use that as well..

I bought that little mitre box and saw last week (the ones Daniel had were way too big for miniature use), so now I can finally frame mini pictures *etc* without any hassle. Here's some slightly 'erotic' art my tiny gallery owners have bought recently:

Both these pictures (this one and the one in the next pic) are from a photo source book. I've glued them on white card, and then framed with pre-dyed craft sticks.

I've been told that my dollies will need a little dungeon (apparently, a friend in Finland is making a cage just for that purpose?!?!), so maybe this picture could go there..

Fresh from the art dealer..

OK, just a few more Dremel pictures, I promise.. LOL ... We finally had a go with it tonight, and we're both (myself and Daniel) LOVING this tool!

You hadn't yet seen a picture of the box with the lids closed, eh..

First attempts with the engraving tool(s)!! LOL =) Let me walk you through: I started with that "HI", having never ever tried any carving tool before.. Then I made the smilie, which is already better as I got the touch of it.. Daniel made the "DAN".. Then I wrote that "Stello".. I later made that "2003" and the mesh with another Dremel attachment.. (These pics are just so pathetic that I had to share!!)

I wrote "Handspun", which is actually not that bad, and the traditional love message, hehe..

And I wouldn't be me had I not tried some "primitive art" on a piece of wood.. (yes yes, I'm really ashamed..)

This is completely unrelated, but I was wearing one of my favourite shirts (which I bought back in 1996), and noticed how worn its sleeves are.. So, I took a picture:

"Marge... Are we poor?" (our private version of a certain Homer Simpson quote..) But I still can't stop wearing these shirts, I've two identical ones and the other one's just as worn! I likes them, they have really long sleeves, I like that.