Checking in

I was looking through my post list and realized that I have 2 different posts saved as a draft because I could not for the life of me get blogger to upload my photos, so I gave up and then got busy again - sigh- and so it seems to go.   I still have quite a few things I wanted to post, but I am not sure it will happen at this point.   But in the past year we have rescued a stray kitten (who is now 8 months old) and a gotten a Bearded Dragon so here they are....

Alice when we first rescued her.

Alice tonight.

Draco when we first got him ( I could not get one tonight, he is napping)

Then my miniature club has been preparing to host our NC State Day event, so that has kept me rather busy.  Besides the normal working full time, taking care of the house and 2 teens.  So at the end of the day I do not have the right frame of mind to post ANYTHING!  But I am looking forward to a little break after State Day is over.  Our group is meeting the weekend for an all day work session to start getting our kits together, so it should be a fun day!

Now hopefully, some time this year, I will get a chance to get all of the convention photos uploaded somewhere so I can add the link.  But for now I have a few of this things that I got while I was there.

A set of different tweezers, a mini glue bottle with holder,
a small and large gluing jig to get perfectly square corners.

These were all of the table gifts from my table mates.  Some are 1" scale
and some are 1/4" scale, but I cant wait to use them all!

Another table gift, the set of 3 bins (storing some of the things from above)

This was a class I took on how to make 1/4" flowers and plants.
I learned a lot and now have plenty of supplies to make more.

More flowers and plants.

 

Well, that is all for now, time to start the getting ready for bed portion of the evening.

Take care,

The Merry Mini Makers of the Triad: NC State Day Raffle Opportunity

I know I have been a bad blogger, and one day I might actually explain why, but for now I have other tihngs to focus on.  I do still get to miniatures a little, but it is mostly club stuff right now.  so, I just thought I would share a post from our Mini Club blog about an upcoming event....  Feel free to go check it out....


The Merry Mini Makers of the Triad: NC State Day Raffle Opportunity: Well, we are hard at work getting the details of State Day taken care of and some of the raffle items are starting to come in so I thought I...

My Swaps & Table Favors

I decided to participate in the swaps at the NAME convention.  You could choose whichever scale you wanted to.  I decided to do the 1" scale swap  and  the 1/4" scale swap.  For this swap, we had to make 20 like items for each scale.  For my 1" scale swaps, I chose to do pizza's our of Fimo clay.  I had never done it before but I found a few different tutorials on You Tube - watched them all - and then dove right in.

All of my naked pizzas.  The tiny ones all got squished together, they were just not working out.

At this stage I have used pastel chalk dust to get the crusts looking baked.

All Done!  They are a little bigger than a quarter, but I think they turned out pretty good for my first time.

For the 1/4" scale swap, I ended up making 20 of the eyelash flowers that posted about back here.  At the time I could not find my camera, so I used my daughters camera to get some photos to show you guys.  However, she deleted them thinking I had already saved them on the computer.  So I have no photos of those, but you can see the first one I made HERE.


We were also to make 9  - 1/4" table favors to share with our table mates at one of our meals.  I did a floor lamp out of beads.  Again, I found the tutorial online & played around with my stock of random beads until I found something that worked.  The black post is a toothpick cut to length.  Very easy to do this project.  I am fairly new to working with 1/4 scale items, but I just need more practice to get comfortable with it.

My lamps

I am also working on getting a blog for our Mini Club up and running.  if you want to take a peek, it is here.  Feel free to follow as well, it is meant to be shared.    I guess that is all for now.  Hopefully soon I can get all the convention photos posted.

Take Care,

NAME Convention

Well I am back from the NAME Convention in Charlotte.  I have  a lot of photos to share, but I am still sorting through everything, but I will get them posted soon.  I just wanted to post a few pictures to share form the exhibit room.  Enjoy!



This is all I have time to upload right now.

Take Care,

One more thing

Just a quick post to show you guys something else that I had gotten several months ago & I could not find my camera.  I just got around to taking pictures of it last weekend.  I was shopping at a local store and came across the perfect thing for yet another Harry Potter scene.  This is a small CD or DVD Cabinet that is about 2 1/2 feet tall. 

Not the greatest photos, but when I saw this, I immediately thought of the visitors entrance to the Ministry of Magic.  By the time I had it loaded in my buggy, I had already decided that I will do three separate scenes from the ministry.  One on each shelf.  There are several good one to choose from, so I get to plan that out as well.

Take Care,

My Lucky Day....

This past Saturday 3 ladies from my miniature club and myself went on a mini adventure. One of the few miniatures stores left on our side of the state was having a miniture garage sale.  They do this event once a year to let local miniaturists get together & get rid of things they no longer want.  So we all decided we HAD to go.  We all met up bright & early and took the 1 1/2 hour road trip to the store.  This is not a huge event by any means, but it is always fun to search for our new treasures.

Now to fully understand why the treasure I found means so much to me, I need to fill you in... This store also does and event on the first Saturday in December which is a day full of Christmas make-it - take -its, raffles, and just a fun time all around.  Some club members and I had gone to that event & while we were there, I fell in love with this partially finished house that someone had decided they wanted to sell.  Well, the owner of the store was not there at the time, but one of the long time helpers was there and gave me a price for it.  It was more than I wanted to pay, but I really did want this house, and I knew it was just perfect for me.  So after a few tortured hours of debating this in my head & discussing pro's & con's with my buddies, I decided I was going to get it.  I went & told the helper, that I would take it.  However, the store owner was there and after finding out the selling price said that no, he wanted almost double that the original price.  Which in all honesty, would be a fair price for this house, but it was way out of my range.  I was dissapointed to say the least, but it simply was not meant to be.  It haunted me - I had dreams about that house after this happened, & it would make me a little blue, but that is how it had to be.  The helper person had joined our mini club after that, and I would always joke with her whenever I saw her and would ask her how "my" house was doing?  Has he sold it yet?   (I had no bad feelings towards her, she was a s surprised as I was when it happened).
Anyway, fast forward 6 months to the garage sale event - and during this, the helper person came up to me and said that she had actually taken the same class for this house & she did want to sell hers as well, but I had to commit to it now, because she had someone else there that was interested as well, but she wanted to give me the first shot at it.  She was selling hers for the original price she had given for the other one (which by the way is still in the store), and gave me 10 minutes to decide.  I immediately got one of my mini friends who knows the whole situation to discuss.  Knowing how I felt about this house, it was really a no brainer, but when doing these things, I do like to have a second opinion to be sure it was not too impulsive.  So, I am now beyond happy to report that I am the proud owner of a Rik Pierce kit.  From what I can tell, this was a class he had done in 2009 or 2010.  I do not know which class my house was done at, but I can find out.   I ended up finding a link to a blog (over at Debbies link blog HERE) that does a chronicle of her taking the class & doing this house.  Her blog- The Witches Cotttage for the house is really well done & it will be a great reference for me.  My chimmney is a little different, but it looks like the same house otherwise.  Some of the photos are washed out a little, it was 102 degrees F. & the sun was just brutal, but I had to get the before pictures done so I could play!

The front of the house

The inside

The side and the swamp area

I just love this chimney!

Closeup of the fireplace.

As you can see, there is a minor repair to be done on the front awning, but it looks fairly simple.  Other than that, the only thing is the roof.  It is complete, it just needs to be painted and aged.  All of the electricity is done & it looks great!  I have a horrible photo of it, but it will show you what it is like when it is dark....

all lit up - (very poor photo!)

I think I have decided where most of my dragons are going to live!  This would be a great house for my collection... :)

It will be a while before I can actually get to working on this, I have to get ready for the National Convention in 3 weeks, but I did want to share before it got too hectic.

Take care,

Sorting today

I am spending a little time today sorting through my miniatures.  I am trying to get ready for the National Convention in Charlotte NC, and need to find a few tools that I want to bring.  I know I have them somewhere, but sometimes they get misplaced.  Which in turn launches a full scale investigation of every box/drawer/container that I have my minis stored in.  It is getting better, because each time this happens, I vow to make sure it doesn't happen again!  So I get more and more thing that belong together - together.  During this process I often get distracted when I come across some of my favorites.  Earlier I found one of my very favorite things to collect.  Dragons.  Over the past few years, I have been collecting dragons from Nicky over at nickycc.com, you can also find her on facebook here.  She has the most amazing dragons!  I just love the expressions she is able to create.  If you have a little time, she has all of her galleries of past work on her site & it is really fun to look through.
Anyway, I also realised that I have never taken any pictures of them all together, so I wanted to post one here to share with you.

The lighting is not ideal, but we have no sun today, it is very overcast.  Regardless, they are still the cutest things and they always bring a smile to my face.  I better get back to my sorting and find the rest of my tools!

Take Care!

Steam Punk Distraction

I have been slightly distracted with steam punk stuff recently!  I started searching for watch & clock parts at local consignment & thrift stores to use in one of my clock kit projects, but then came across an idea that I HAD to do.  Last Friday, I decided to go check out a local consignment store on my lunch break to see if they had any cheap old clocks I could take apart for the gears.  I went in, explained to the guy what I was looking for and he gave me an odd look for a second, but then smiles and walks over to the sales counter & picks up this green plastic Folders coffee jar and asks me is this what your looking for?  Low and behold, it was exactly what I needed!   It was over half way full of gears & pocket watch pieces!  I was so excited that it was already done for me & I didn't even have to pay shipping!  They guy tells me that this has been sitting on their counter for over a month & they had no idea what to do with it.  (I really think it was supposed to be mine)  But anyway, it also turned out that a friend of mine has a daughter that was graduating from high school the following day, so I decided that she really need a steam punk necklaces a graduation gift.  The timing for all of these things could not have been better.  Anyway, after that long drawn out story, I thought I would show you guys how it turned out.

this is the pendant

This is how big it is.....

One of my favorite things about this necklace (besides the gears of course) was the necklace part of it.  I actually ended up using a guitar string that my daughter was getting rid of, and I think it works perfectly for steam punk!  The "M" is for her daughters first name, and the green is her favorite color.  I gave it to her on Sunday and she loved it!   I think for my first ever steam punk piece, it turned out pretty good!    I think my next steam punk item will be a mirror or I may end up doing the clock project in steam punk.  Who knows at this point - but at least I am having fun!

Take Care,

Hello Again

Well, as seems to be the trend with me, it has been a long time since my last post.  I had given up blogging for a while because after our trip to Universal Studios I had lost my camera battery charger, and there for could not post any photos, so I found that to be quite boring!  It is so much better to talk about things with pictures, especially with miniatures.  Besides real life, I have been busy with our miniature club getting ready for the National Convention in Charlotte NC this year.  This one is actually close enough for me to go, so I don't want to miss out!  We are making 500 tote bag favors to donate to the convention - but out item is actually a pair, so we really have to make 1000.  It has been a learning process, but I think we are beginning to see the end of this endeavor soon ( I hope) and we can move on to other things.  We have also committed to hosting the 2013 NC State Day event, so we have been deep into the planning of that as well.  Hopefully soon I will have a blog for our club up and running, then I can post a link if anyone is interested. 
On my own personal mini front, I have been slowly but surely working on my Wesley clock project, and it is coming together nicely.  You can go back in my posts to see what the clock project looks like( I cannot find the photos on my new computer),  but my plans are to do a scene of where I imagine Molly would do her knitting and such.  I have imagined most of how it will be and have now over come 2 of my major obstacles with this project.  My First one was getting a background for the "clock" portion of the clock project.  I found someone online who had made one for her friend and she kindly sent me a copy of her file to use in my project.  I wanted the background to be exactly like it was in the movies, so it looks like Molly's clock - which I now have.  The second major obstacle was to find a miniature knitted sweater that she sent to Ron during their 1st Christmas at Hogwarts. I want the scene to be as if she is working on her gifts to send at Christmas.  Well, I have a very dear friend who is deeply & actively involved in the crochet community (she actually created the CLF or Crochet Liberation Front - if you enjoy crochet, then you should check it out) and I have been talking to her for about a year about finding someone who does mini crochet who would be interested in doing a commission for these pieces.  She recently ran across just the right person and got us together.  I am happy to say that I now have these pieces and the project can move forward.  The photos below show what she has sent me.  The light is not that great, but you can see them clearly.

This sweater is so small, but it does fit on my thumb!



Here is one of the scarves, I love how it is in progress....

This is the completed scarf.  Classic HP scarf.

All three together!

Then she threw in the basket and a Molly hat just for fun!  They are adorable!

This is inside the basket.... so much variety.

As you can see, they came out wonderfully and I could not be more pleased.  I loved working with her planning how these items would be.  She is also a fan, so it was important to her to make sure it was right.  Which I appreciate so much!  If anyone would like her info I would be glad to pass it along.  She does a wide variety of crochet items, and would be willing to try almost anything new. 

Now that I can get my pictures on my computer again, hopefully I will be posting more often.  Thanks for reading & Take Care!

Already?....

I cannot believe it is Nov. 1st already!  Life sure has a way of getting away from you when your too busy to pay attention....  I hope I can get back to blogging and doing my minis,  I have really missed them quite a bit.  Since I returned from vacation (2 -1/2 months ago) I have been facing some health issues that I am trying to get resolved and then my dear husband has been on me about getting a new computer (the other one worked perfectly fine).  So I called his friend who builds computers and told him what I need & what I plan on using it for & he works up a price, we agree and he builds this computer.  Now, we go to pick up the new computer & he has build me this MONSTER computer that is probably more suited for gaming (which my husband LOVES to do).  This thing has more power, memory, and video capability than I could ever dream of using, and my poor husband is so jealous now because it is better than his.  (Which I suspect was his friends goal all along!)  So I am kind of frustrated with this new computer because it wasn't really build for me yet I paid for it.  I have not even hooked up my printer or scanner yet.  All of my photos & Itunes & old files are all on this external hard drive which i cannot even find the cord for & I have not had access to any of it for about 3 weeks now!  Sigh, so now I have this ginormous machine that I can get online with and play spider solitaire.....  VERY FRUSTRATING!!!!
OK, I'm done whining now.  I just had to vent. 

The other main this that takes up my free time is doing coupons.  I started doing this in mid June of this year and I have to say, it is not a bad hobby.  I originally got into it to save money because the NAME national convention is coming to my state next year & I wanted to save some money up for just the convention so I can do some guild free shopping while I am there.  So far it is a win/win, I am steadily saving money for my trip & getting my groceries & household stuff for really good prices.

I have been working on a few minis here and there, and this weekend starting to make some parchment scrolls and little stacks of parchment paper tied up with string to use on my witch's hutch.  I am playing around with roughing up the edges so they look worn and like well read parchments, but that is a work in progress.  I read somewhere (forgive me I forget where) that using incense to burn the edges works well, and I did have some good results with that.  Hopefully soon I can get some photos posted if I can find my camera cord to hook up to the monster. 

I guess that is is for now,

Take care,

It has been a while

Well, I have been back from Leakycon for about a month now, and things are just getting back to normal.  I am just now getting caught up on several of my chores that got REALLY behind while I was gone.  The conference was AMAZING!!!  I was sort of like a lost puppy, I had no idea where to go or what I was supposed to do most of the time, but I still had a ball!  There were around 3500 people that attended throughout the 4 days, so it was crowded most of the time.  It was a blast walking through the hotel constantly passing people in their school robes, or uniforms, and the odd looks from people at the hotel who did not know what was going on.  :)  There were a lot of great costumes there as well.  I am planning on doing a day by day breakdown on my other blog with lots of photos, (so I don't crowd this one up), which hopefully I can begin tomorrow, so if your interested or want more details, be sure to check it out.  I will put a few photos in this post just to show some of my favorite places in Hogsmeade....

I just love these jars in Honeydukes....

This is at night going into the Three Broomsticks 

 Every ones favorite Every Flavor Beans

 Going through the main arch into Hogsmeade Village

The Hogs Head Inn

Well, there are a few photos for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Like I said, I will have loads of  photos on my day by day account of our entire trip on my other blog.

As far as what is going on with me & miniatures, that has been hectic as well.  I think I had mentioned previously that i had quit my local miniature club back in April.  Well, since then a few other members of that club also decided to quit & we ended up getting together and forming our own club.  It seems that we all agree on how we all want our club to work & what we want our club to accomplish, so everyone is much happier in this new setting.  So we have been busy getting that set up & making some basic decisions on what we want to work on & focus on as a group.  2 meeting ago, we all got together & made about 80 plates of cookies to donate as State Day Favors for a State Day coming up in September in South Carolina.

These are our cookies, the photo is a little washed out, but they are cute none the less.

These were done in 1" scale.  I was surprised at how simple these were to make!

Well, I guess that is it for now.  Hopefully now that things are settling down, I can get back to my regular routine & catch up on what everyone else is doing on their blogs!!

Take care!

Finished my Mirror (finally)

Just a real quick post to show you guys my mirror. 

Now I just need to make sure it stays in one piece on the trip down to Orlando!  I will have lots of pictures when I get back.

Take care,

Lori

Almost time .....

I cant believe there is less than a week to go before we leave on our trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the Con!  I am getting so excited but also starting to panic a bit because I really don't feel prepared!  I have done so much planning and thinking about this trip, it just seemed like it would NEVER get here.  Now, with only 6 days left to go, I do not feel ready at all!  All of the big stuff is done.  Now it is the hundreds of tiny details to worry about.

 The Conference is shaping up to be full of activities and things that I just cant miss.  They came out with the schedule a few weeks ago & I have almost sorted out what activities I will attend.  There are several that overlap, but at this point I will just have to wait & see how I am feeling at that time.  A few really cool things that they recently announced is 1.) about the movie & 2.) about the actor signings.  For the movie, they got special permission from Warner Brothers for the con people to see the movie 6 hours before the official midnight release!  For the actor signings, They have all of the new actors that play the children in the epilogue, so Rose, Hugo, Scorpious, Albus Severus, Young Lily Evans, Young James Potter.  Also the actors who play Percy Weasly, Luna Lovegood, & Pansy Parkinson will be there as well. 
At this point, I am not sure how good my chances are of getting autographs, but I will try my best!

Originally I had planned on making 4 mosaic tiles mirrors to donate for their charity auction,  but time and supplies did not allow for that, so I will have one mirror to donate which is almost completed.  I chose to Hufflepuff because I had both of their house colors on hand.  I will try to post a photo on here before I go, but if not, then definately after I get back so you guys can see it.

My offer from March still stands, for anyone who wants a postcard postmarked from Hogsmeade, I will be glad to send you one, I just need to get your address.  My e-mail link should be on my profile now.  I have several people that I am sending them out to, so it would not be a big deal to add a few more to the list.  I have Cates info from Solet Luna Studios, and I could have sworn there was at least one other from blogland that sent me their info, but for the life of me I cannot find it in my e-mail, so please resend it if you would like a post card.

I guess that is all for an update for now,  I need to get back to packing & checking my list!

Take Care.

Not much going on....

I have been doing a lot of planning for the Harry Potter conference that I will be attending in July.  I have been scouring the web for deals & ideas on hotels, tickets, travel & any other thing possibly related to my trip.  We have decided to take the train (it will be cheaper than driving), which really, I am soooo happy about because really, how else SHOULD one travel to Hogwarts if not by train! 

It is also that time of year for State day again, (which has snuck up on me this year) and is actually this weekend.  It should be a lot of fun & I will get some photos posted of that after I get back.  This year we get to make a clock which I am very excited about!

I also have recently decided to NOT renew my membership to my local mini club this year.  I am kind of sad about it, but there was some drama going on & I am getting too old to play games with people.  It was meant to be an enjoyable thing spending time with others who enjoy minis as much as I do, but it turned into something completely different (at least for me).  I have made several good friends there & I am sure we will still get together every once in a while to play & catch up.

Well, kind of a short update & no new photo's but that is all I really have for now.

Take care!

Exciting news, but I wont be posting often for the next several months.

I have decided to go to Leakycon This year.  For those of you who don't know, Leakycon is a Harry Potter Fan Convention that will be held @ Universal Studios In Florida.  I normally don't get to do these types of things (due to budget), and I have never been to any sort of fan convention, but this is something that I CANNOT miss out on.  This is the end of a era for Harry Potter fans, and it IS possible for me to go, so I am going to grab this once in a lifetime opportunity & not think (too much) about how that money could be better spent.  My love for all things Harry Potter runs very deep & I will be able to share this with the most enthusiastic, die hard, dedicated fans from around the world!!!  I am sooo excited, ever since I paid for my registration I cannot get to sleep at night because I cannot stop thinking about it!!!



So, I will be busy planning for this trip for my family & I, which will not leave me much time to blog.  During the con, they will be holding a charity auction of fan art & fan crafted items to raise money for the HPA (Harry Potter Alliance)  & Book-Aid International, so I am trying to come with some ideas of things to donate.  I have an idea for some mosaic tiled mirrors, I just have to see if I can find the right colored tile.  I could also make some cute little potion necklaces which wont raise much, but every little bit helps!  Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome of more stuff I could make in my spare time.
I will take photos of what I'm doing, but I'm not sure when I will get to post them.  I might start a temporary blog just about Leakycon so I can ramble on about it just not on here....

Oh, last thing, I was thinking that since I will be going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, if there are any of my followers out there that would like to get a postcard with the Hogwarts stamp & postmark on it I would LOVE to send you one.  Kat the Hat Lady, I know you are a big fan, & Debbie, I know you are too.  Cate, I know your doing The Burrow right now (the pipes are brilliant by the way) (I haven't had time to comment), so I am guessing you are as well, and Janice, Doing the Leaky Cauldron right now... well enough said!  :)    If I missed anyone, I am sorry, But I am putting this invitation out to anyone who follows my blog, I just need you to send me an address where you want it sent, your favorite character, your favorite house, and your all time favorite scene.  I am not sure what the choices will be for postcards, but with that info, I should be able to find something you would like!  I have added my email address to my profile.

Thanks for reading,
Take care!

Cubbies (finally) all finished & potion jars....

Well, I finally finished building all my drawers for my shelf.  I am really glad that is over!  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Right now they are functional, but not pretty.  Eventually I might paint them or cover them with pretty paper, but for now they will work.  I have been busy sorting & trying to figure out how I am going to organize all of my mini's.  I keep on finding more containers & bags & boxes that have minis in them.... (sigh)  I might have to open a shop just to get rid of some of this stuff I will never use.  Below is my shelf thing completed....

I went to the craft store & found some small wooden threat spools that I ended up using for the knobs on all the drawers.  They worked out pretty good.  You can kind of see the plastic drawers to the right of my shelf unit, I am using those drawers for the larger things, like furniture, glues, paints, stains, pasta machine, etc...  I am using the temporary stickers to label the drawers until I finalize where everything will actually go, then I plan on printing out some pretty labels & make it look a bit more consistent.

I have also finally gotten a chance to play with my resin stuff to try out filling potion jars.  It is much more fun than I thought it would be.  I have only tried 4 different colors, but I do like them, once I figure out how to finish the tops of them, I think they will look great on my spooky hutch.  Below is a photo of a few of the ones I have done....

My son really like the teal one, it reminded him of kool-aid!  The solid red one is supposed to be blood of some sort, but I think I need to tweak the color of that one a bit more... but that is the fun of experimenting!

That is really all I have for now.  Thanks for reading,

Take Care!

Organizing...

Just a quick post, I know it it has been a few weeks, but I have been busy working on a full size project.  Recently at work they have gotten new office furniture (which has been great by the way) for almost everyone in our office.  They were donating all of the old furniture to local charities (which again, is great), but in the piles & piles of old furniture that were stored out in our warehouse, I spotted this shelf that would be well suited for storing & organizing miniatures.  I asked If I could buy it, but they gave it to me instead!  I was so excited, it is just perfect....



Ok, so this is the shelf.  It is very dusty & the back panel was coming off, so I had to re-nail it, but other than that, it is in good shape.  It is actually an old literature rack so I thought it would be a simple thing to get trays to fit into the slots & that would hold everything I needed it to.  Boy was I wrong!  I did finally find a company that had trays that would actually fit each cubby, but they were 16.95 each & I need 22 of them!  So I decided that I would make them myself out of foam core.  Each cubby is 12" wide x 12" deep x 4" tall.  As you can see in the photo, I have a few of my boxes done ( all the white ones) I was just trying them out to make sure they fit.  I still need to figure out some sort of knobs for the front, but first I need to finish making all the boxes.  Currently I have 10 left to finish.  Hopefully by this weekend I can finish them up.  The really nice thing about making them myself, is that I can add dividers into whichever box I need them in & they should be easy enough to change around.

Well, that is all for now, I need to back to gluing my drawers together....

Take Care!

Aging Paper

Well, I finally got my first attempt at aging paper sealed & cut finished.  I have actually been done since Sat, but my kids have been sick & work has been crazy busy, so this is the first chance I have gotten to get it posted.  This project was actually a lot of fun!  I really enjoyed "painting" my paper with tea and experimenting with adding coffee & salt... I am really happy with the way they turned out. (You can click them to make them larger)

These are all my little parchments...I have no idea what on earth I will do with all of them, but they sure are cute!

On this one and the next one you can really see the ages spots well... I am most happy with those! 

I think before I actually use them in my scene, I will dirty up the edges a bit or burn them a little to get a more authentic feel to them.  Next time I want to do some little stacks of blank parchment and some scrolls, I think that would a be a lot of fun, and I need some anyway! 
Well, I don't have much spare time, so I will post again soon!

Take Care!

Magazines Everywhere!!

Recently, I found out that one on the ladies in my miniature club has a subscription to American Miniaturist.  Now when I stopped doing minis 14 years ago,  There was a magazine that I loved called Nutshell News.  At the time, it was the only one I would get because it was such a good magazine.  When I started back up a few years ago, I was sad to find out that they no longer do that magazine, but the new one "American Miniaturist" was close to the type of magazine it was, so I found one & bought it.  I liked it well enough, but never really found it in my budget to subscribe for a year...so when I found out a club member had hers for the last several years, I had asked her if I could borrow some of them just to look through for any interesting projects.  Well, she shows up at the next meeting and brings me this.....

I was so excited, but quickly told her it may be a few months before I could get through all of them... I really only expected her to bring me 5 or 6 of them, which would have been great!  Then she proceeds to tell me that she really never looks at them & she does not want them back... she is giving them ALL to me!  I was speechless to say the least.  I tried several times to have her keep them but she really did not want them anymore, and I really cant get a subscription right now so I gladly took them, and sang "Merry Christmas to me"  all the way home.  I spent the next night sorting and organizing them, and finding a new home for them in my cramped space, and come to find out She had given me 6 years worth of issues and I am only missing 9 of them for a complete set!  It was so amazing, it still makes me smile to think of her wonderful gift!

Take care!