our favourite doctor

In  Medisch Contact, the journal of the Dutch doctors society, there was a very nice feature on the veterinary faculty in Utrecht, also featuring our hero , Jolle Kirpensteijn ( in this picture on the left), the guy who treated Floris, my kitty ,with this Holmium treatment.
I sent him some pics of my little guy to wish him ( and those who took care of Floris during his stay in hospital in March ) the best for 2011; we will shortly visit Utrecht again for a check-up. Floris is a very long disease-free survivor by now.

Genius invents wheel

Recently I suddenly realized that I had several empty videocases laying around wasting their time and doing nothing productive, so I decided that they are ideal for small projects-in-progress. Since I can hardly ever finish any project in one session and need to tidy everything up before the cats gets hold of it, I am always on the lookout for easy solutions. Well , here is the latest.
I know, everyone knows this already, but I am rather happy with them!

Meet Barnaby

Today I finished off my first version ( I am going to make two) of Barnaby , a little chihuaha, who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge last summer ; his mom asked to make some pic of him.
She sent two photos , this one had harsh shadows and whatever I tried , I could not quite get rid of them , so I am also doing another, from the other pic ; then she can decide whether she will like them both enough....
Unfortunately, I also need to frame them ?!!! Well, that is a problem for later on....

hollyhocks for Flowerpot cottage

Today I made some hollyhocks for my quarterscale cottage . That was a lot of work !!! I always found 1 inch scale pretty small, but it is no comparison to what 1/48 can do to your mind...( tearing hair out, shouting at the cat and going crazy generally....)
Well, I have planted them now ( they are the yellow guys on the left), one more down.

wire flowers again

For those of you who want to have  a go , the how- to of making wire flowers, specifically poinsettias , appeared in todays AIM advent calendar ( or day 19 here).Shelly Norris, who taught me did also write a tutorial for AIM. It is great, Shelly!

Good luck!! It is fun, easy , addictive and makes wonderful presents , as you can see from the nursery above:-)

For those of you who want to know where to buy wire : the wire is 34 gauge gold;in the USA it is readily available on-line, you can also find it on ebay and in British on-line stores.

some tulips

It is snowing here . And HARD !!! Glad I have a day off; the traffic will be horrific, as drivers here are not used to handling this weather; neither are the city authorities, who never do a blessed thning about sleeted bridges and streets, I am afraid.
Since I already promised to do so, I finished some wire tulips today and planted them. The background is a vague white- that is what the world looks like here right now....

update on the Big Boria

Since I can hardly use rude adverbs or nouns, ( certainly not in a header), I refer to it as the Big B..... Well, here we are again, one month later. I am working on the central field by now.
In the meantime I am going to start on some smaller projects, some portraits of a little English dog.

Floris again

He is a very sweet kitty- and he loves ( I mean LOVES )drinking from the faucet ! He is still going strong and we do hope that he will remain this way.

It is a joy to see this furkid, which was under threat of a very malignant tumor at the beginning of this year,happy and healthy after his operation and radiaton treatment

OK, here is some more Flowerpot...

Today I added the furniture and some accessories to the cottage.As you can see, the hearth and the chimneystack are not in alignment, but otherwise one would have to see the side of the hearth, which is definitely not its best side, while the front is OK.
In case you wonder where the furniture comes from , it is here. The  service is prompt and excellent.
I also proudly took a nearer pic of those pesky flowers....:-)

my first quarterscale flowers

OOOOOOPPPPSSS!

Well , here thay are. In case you haven't the foggiest what they should represent: the blue ones are delphinums, the smaller yellow ones are brown eyed susans. Those latter ones were meant to be potted, but the pot was actually a bit crushed ( by me, I suspect), so I decided to plant them next to the delphinums.
More flowers to come, when I have recovered from the nervous wreckage these brought on me.
The kits were bought here...They would be easy to make up, but the parts are soooooooooooooo small. Breathing is not encouraged while making these :-)

nope, not my scale.

Today I made up some more 1/48 furniture kits. Oh bl...It is really NOT my scale, the furniture is wonky and wobbly and when I placed these pieces into the house I accidentally broke the legs off teh first table ( glued them on again, of course).
Also made up a quarterscale FLOWERKIT ( Sandra do you hear ? Sandra, are you out there?!) I will plant them later, though , when I have more flowers. I do feel certifiable right now....

A POSH kitty!

Thi lazy guy ,also by Bridget McCarthy, has been living in my Kendrew house since a long time :-)

And some lilies

 
Thanks to Ladybug ( well known for her teeeeenie fairies)who sent me the booklet by Pat Snyder (and some Sobo to try for this technique, too!Thank you!)I made a bunch of lilies today.I had figured out how to do the flower;not,however,the stamens and not the leaves Well, of course, these are my first ones, not exactly perfect, but they do look nice :-)
Could not photograph them by daylight any more, of course,5 pm is definitely dark out here in winter.So I used my big ultraslim light.

Wire flower: poinsettia

 


Today I made a set of poinsettias like Shelly Norris taught me at the time.If I am honest, I left some steps out; as the real BIG flowers need more petals.But I was happily and totally lazy as usual, so took shortcuts :-)
If I understand rightly,Shelly may publush a tutorial on them in the next issue of AIM

I still love receiving mail...

 

 

 

 

Especially when it contains nice minikitties!
Yesterday I retrieved the kitty with catflap and the sleeping tabby from here.
Last week I received Bridget McCarthy's two kitties in a tub , they are also irresistable :-)

A good day for the cat-lady,I suppose...

If you look very closely at the pic taken of the outside of the cat lady's residence(where you see the kitty butt going in) you can see that I planted a little mouse in the window in front , which entertains the kitties on the windowsill no end. I nearly hear them quacking, the way my cats do when they see a prey they cannot hope to catch:-)

Two other links :

This link will also take you to another film ( youtube ) on Queen Mary's dolls house.


This one will show you The Miniature White House , esp for my American friends !

Two other links :

A wonderful little film

( I snagged this from Wikipedia)

Of a vey big dolls house
There is a lovely film on the web right now on the famous dolls house of Queen Mary's Well, OK, the first ten minutes of the film are about this one. Go and have a look, it is a beauty!

we love mice and mail

Today Kristuy's adorable babymouse in her crib arrived. I am afraid my Fluffy scared the jitters out of her :-)
I found a nasty long legged spider ( by Georgina Marfels, Germany). When the house is ready, I will hang it over the crib, I think. Or one of the naughty brothers can swing it over the cot....

I also love receiving e-mail

Remember Kristy's naughty mice?
I asked Herdwick Landscapes to build a halfscale mouse-house for me( as I am not much of a builder, no patience).They came up with these first sketches. I think I am going to love this project!

I loooooooooove receiving mail

I bought a lovely cloisonne vase from this website. They also do delightful pets and other things.This vase has gone to live in the Kendrew house, of course!
( That delightful piano was made by Tony Scammels from the UK)

Making a palm

In Arnhem I bought a kit for a plant, a palm, to be precise, from Jan van den Doel(Miniatures from Delft).I would give the link here,but the website is closed for the time being.The leaves are laser cut. Hardest was , of course, to paint these very fine leaves:-)
While I was starting to plant the palm in a pot, I suddenly realized I have some beautiful Carol Mann pottery and this bowl filled the ticket quite nicely. I have been careful to use Aleenes, so that it will be possible to clean the bowl, if anyone wishes to do so, in the future.
Oh, and did I tell you my kitty loves mini-ing???

A chilly sunday afternoon

 

 

 

 

My zoo is curling up in all sorts of nice warm places while I am stitching....It is really snuggling-weather here, and Sunday is a nice afternoon to be home and warm!