Monday, December 26, 2011

MORE pickling !!!! And a fun pic of my little girl...

I did not have as much time  as I would have liked today, but I still managed to fill some more pots and to finish some others

The onions got labels. Anyone with more than my two brain cells would have hit upon label making in Word loooong ago... well, I did so, finally, today.

The cherries were labelled and got little covers (brrrr fiddly)


The bottles had dried and look nice, I think. They are solid acrylic, painted with glasspaint.


And I filled some marmelade jars, chopped orange canes by Angie Scarr, colored scenic water. The color is a bit VERY orange, I am afraid :-) and at least two of the pots are going to burst- bubbles are developing! There will soon a marmelade-bomb exploding in the Kendrew house,I think :-)


and while I was at the computer yesterday a little girl was playing acrobatics next to me:

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Added some more pickles to my stash

Today I had a play day again; I made labels for my "honeypots" that I painted some time ago. These are solid acrylic jars ( can be bought from Debbie , so cannot be filled, bu if you use glass paint and let them dry thoroughly, they do look nice. I also made textile covers for the pots.


( they are more amber colored than it seems in this picture, honest!)

In the same way, I also made a load of little jars of jam and curd:

( hmm, I am still think about very tiny  labels, I am afraid that is beyond me, but maybe....Textile covers are absolutely out of the question, I am afraid ! )

I also filled some pots with mushrooms
In case you think I can make these, forgeddit right now. Angie Scarr made those beautiful canes, I just filled the jars :-) I am also adding a layer of glass paint on the outside, as part of the scenic water was too pale to my taste.

Also did cherries ( seed beads ,on the left), yellow scallions ( small pearlized beads ,middle). Hm, I seem to ahve lost some of the covers for the cherries, so probably will need to make some covers for these.

And these were meant to be red onions ( purplish beads), but since I did  not color the scenic water, these came out too pale for that, so I did a re-think and am calling them plums. There.




They will all go into the very big rack in my Kendrew hose !



In the meantime kitties are very happy!




Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Tiffany's first Chanuka

Today is the second night of Channuka, two candles. I have got a cat-like Chanukiah (  that is the candleholder) and I love the combination of two kitties :-)



Isn't she sweeeeeeeeeeeet ??

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Stitched labrador

Meet Buster

Buster crossed over the Rainbow bridge not long ago. A friend of mine ( Thelma fron Arizona) asked whether I could design a chart for her to stitch; Buster was the dog of one of her friends, a well-beloved and loving companion .
I did ,and Thelma stitched it and framed it. The pic was taken with a phone, which discolors it a bit, but the colors are OK in real life, Thelma assured me. Thelma did a GREAT job and I am very happy to have been instrumental in giving the lady a memory of her friend.

Friday, December 16, 2011

My little retriever

Tiffany loves one game that Floris  did like, as well: playing fetch !! She jumps off and tears through the house when I throw something ( anything will do, wads of paper are favourite, though, but a  small rubber ball will do quite nicely) ,she brings it back to me, drops it near my feet or in my lap and wants to repeat etc ad infinitum- well, until the gas runs out, that is.










Sunday, December 11, 2011

Update on the BBB

And here it is again...The Monster....


But we ARE getting somewhere!! I can see it, I can see it....

In the meantime, Tiffany is growing fast and she is still a happy kitty, every day dreaming up something nice or naughty. She is a lovely girl and all of us are glad to have her in the house. This morning I even saw Jojo start a bit of playing with her- which means a lot, since Jojo never learnt to play with other cats while she was young ( I suspect, I adopted her as an adult stray)

Friday, December 9, 2011

And here is the first part of the harvest...

Some of them may still get gingham covers, but that is  later!IF I am adding them, that is.
The labels are from printimini's , the well-known site :-)
Euro in the back for size.


Pickled eggs ( I can do eggs in Fimo, hah !) and raisins in brandy (partially ochre painted mustard seeds)



Cucumbers sliced off an Angie Scarr cane, and green beans :



Apples ? Or peaches??? Well, yellow spilt peas :-) They do look impressive enough !


Cherries ( again painted mustard seeds) and carrots ( painted points of cocktailsticks, some lichen for parsley)



Gherkins ( painted cumin seeds )


Prunes ( pepper seeds. yes, I know these are biscuit jars, but I like them better this way, and it is MY house!!!)


More jars and bottles to follow, I think !

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Still in food-mood

Since I had been going happily in food modus , and- while I was rummaging in my stash yesterday to find some plates for the jellies and some canes, finding a load of blanc pickling bottles, I decided on a pickling day !

Recently Marianne Colijn wrote an article in American Miniaturist about pickling without Fimo. Of course, me being the best Fimo-impaired person of the world, that was something I felt even I could do.
So I am already proudly looking at the first results. If you don't look too close, they look convincing enough. I do hope I will also find some nice fake labels.
I do feel, however, that I could have pickled away a whole RL size harvest in the same time:-)
I have made some more jars since taking the pic, but it is dark now and I am too lazy to make an EZ setup just for now. Maybe later, when they are finished .


( Front: apples, made from yellow split peas, second row: cherries, painted mustard seeds ; third row: cucumber pickles, made from painted cumin seeds )

Monday, December 5, 2011

Tried some kits

by Linda , of  Milton miniatures . Of course, me being a non-Fimo person, it was a bit hard for me to do the breads, but Linda's mixes were really good, as are the instructions. I always loathe conditioning the clay, as, for some reason, my hands are always cold when I even think of doing Fimo.

I also filled a fishbowl, with some greenery, a fishie and scenic water ( now that is something quick and fun to do !). It will move to the cat-lady's house, where about 80 cats will be awaiting its arrival



And- here I blooped BIG TIME- I also made some jellies from molds. Nearly destructed the mould ( it is still functional, though), did not fill up well when pouring mould no 1. That was outdone later,however, when I decided to use the rest for a bicolor jelly. Being creative, it is called :-)
Those in the background will either be heavily decorated or remain in the background for the rest of their natural lives.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Some new flowers

It has been a long time since I made some, but I decided to do so again this week. It is obvious that I am out of training, I am afraid, and the first set were even worse, but here are the final ones :




Amaryllis and geranium.
The first picture shows a euro in front, for size.The geranium is tiny, I mean tiny ! It is a bit scraggy, but then, all my plants tend to be scraggy....



The Amaryllis was fun, though. I did apply a coat of varnish,since I was not enamoured of the dullness of the paint, even after havingbeen mixed with Sobo.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

OK, more Tiffany

Although,having taken a week off to do some mini-ing, there is not much to be shown for it, I am showing off my little baby again. She is so delightful that I cannot resist.
I do miss my old analog camera here, though, the digital one is much slower and it makes an annoying sound when I put it on, so that kitty immediately stops whatever she is doing.And she is quick as water, anyway!

Still, I have these shots for you:

(a slight disagreement over the chair)


( good place, near my head , and an excellent view of the room)


(also a good place, excellent view of birdies and very nice and warm to snuggle!)


Sunday, November 20, 2011

In memoriam: Bobbie Schoonmaker

Today I read the sad news of the passing of Bobbie Schoonmaker, the lovely lady who had the needleworkbusiness of microstitchery . She died after a long and brave battle .

We stitchers are going to miss her; many of us ,me amongst them, have stitched her charts and kits, and have learnt much from the tutorials on her site.

RIP Bobbie, I am happy that your fight is over, but we will all miss you.

The following lines are from the message that Joy Perkins sent:

"In closing, I would like to let you know messages of condolence can be 
sent through the following Web site:

http://www.beinhauer.com/obituaries-2 "

Here are some of the things I stitched :









The business will be taken over by Joy Perkins from Canada, she hopes to catch up on outstanding orders and the other work soon.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Latest update on the Big B of a Rugger

Yes, there IS a definite difference between last month and this! But ohmy, it is very slow.....

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

More Tiffany- and Fluffy

Some very happy kitties playing about. Fluffy is really happy to have  a new friend after Floris died, he has started eating again ( the poor thing had lost a lot of weight simply refusing to eat adequately and was depressed).


Every night they play together before plopping down on my bed.




And Tiffany is  a BIG MONSTER :






and she loves my miniature needleworkshop, of course.....