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!