Thursday, June 30, 2011

Kitty post again

In case you are wondering..


Floris is still alive, against all odds. If I am honest, I did not expect him to tough it out this long. Still, he seems to be comfortable, he sleeps a lot, though ,and is quiet. But he is still purring, drinking from the faucet, stealing my milk and eating regularly and he loves to be cuddled- gently.

The other two, guy and gal, are fortunately still in robust health, I am happy to report.
 Fluffy ( usually called "little baby by me) on the sofa.....( he is shy, cuddly and very naughty, I am afraid, usually planning some kitty-naughtiness and teasing Jojo out of her wits)

And Jojo, laying on my needlework shop, from where she has a commanding view both on the street and inside....Also, she feels reasonably safe from the little b/w brat here.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Playing with pots and pans

Being in a baaaaaaaaad mood because of a rather stupid vote that passed here yesterday ( parliament wants to forbid rirual slaughter in this country), I decided to treat myself  to an evening of playing with the mouse house.

Of course I have got so many pots & pans now that they are spilling everywhere! Here they are standing on the stairs...

If you look closely to the overmantle, you can see a  little pan hanging on for dear life on the edge of the overmantle. I only saw it when I viewed the pic, but decided to leave it for now.It is hard enough to get things in back there !

And here I decided the chair was doing nothing useful with its time, anyway, so it could easily be used as a parking place for pans. Handier for mom.

Now I do really need to get on with the little quilts (but to be honest, it is a bit boring)

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Elga's presents


And look what I received from Elga:

All of them were made by herself. Often home-made minis don't take very well if you look at them closely,esp painting can be a pain in the neck for any maker (and don't ask how I know that!)but you can see that here is a master-in-the making at work!!! Thank you so much Elga!

Visit from South Africa

Yesterday night Elga from SA flew in for a short visit to Amsterdam. Elga had been to Castine last week ( she will tell you all about it when she is home, I think) and she broke away from a visit to her brother in Norway to visit here, so sweet!

Here you can see what she had taken for show and tell. Her work is exceptional, outstanding, gorgeous !!!! I especiall loved the combinations of PP and woodwork, that she excels in.




She also gave me some presents for my miniature home, I will take pics of them later on. Just now I am busy washing etc.

Thank you so much Elga coming to visit here and I hope to see you again!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

a bit of grunging added

And now they look like this...
I absolutely overdid it here and there, it is hard for me to get the paint as fine as I want, but will cover those with food or other pans :-)
In case anyone wonders: I first washed the metal minis with simple detergent,then I sprayed the whole caboodle (on my balcony, I might add) with spray paint, like they use for cars.Well, it actually IS a car product.
Then I started with acrylic paints. Oil paints will not work very well on this primer :-) I could have used carspray for the yellowish glazing, of course, but did not have that  and I was too lazy to go out and buy it...So I simply made layers upon layers of acrylics and lastly used a glossy varnish to give the enamel effect.Only the basket escaped glazing, of course.

Lots of little kitchem items

for the mouse house...

As you all know, mice have mighty big and hungry families, so mammamouse needs lots of pots and pans !
I had bought a lot of white metal miniature items and have been busy painting them. Most of it is done by now, I need to repair some edging here and there, but basically it is done
Now, I need to have a good think about where to leave all these little buggers!

Also, I am quite sure that I saw two paella pans. Do meece eat paella??? Hmm, Kristy's meece might :-)
Now sometime soon I will put it all into the little house!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Two stitched kitties


This is Maikel, a cat living in Belgium. You can see I had to phantasize a bit on his eyes, but I think it has worked reasonably well.

And this is Junior, the b/w kitty living with the same mom.
I hope she is happy with the portraits.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

My client and the half (less or more) Boria...

Today I drove to the lady who I am stitching that big monster for. She loves it!

And here is the room where it is going to live  in a very far future, I am afraid.....
In this house:
An article about this house appeared in Poppenhuizen en Miniaturen, a Dutch dolls house magazine(issue 105):






Friday, June 10, 2011

Here it is again...

The Big Bugger of a Rugger....
Slowly, slowly I am seeing at least the centre of the thing unfolding. Still a massive load to be done before I will be half way through the monster, but there is a chance I may be getting there in my lifetime !!!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

mouse house bedding and a little new friend



Friday and today I made some bedding for the mousehouse. Bedding is one of the things I usually avoid as much as possible. I can do it, but it is so booooring...
And somehow I thought I could have a shortcut and just glue the textiles. Bwahaaa! I should have known better!!!! I am OK with textiles, but only with a needle in my hand, Glue goes everywhere, especially on my fingers- which get grubby big time-, but the stuff does not stick textiles. So by the end of several frustrating hours I just started afresh, took out the silk threads I use for mini-sewing ( YLI 100 in case you wonder) and sewed the whole caboodle together. Much easier and more effective.
Well, this morning I finished the beds for the time being, that is ( they will get some little quilts, but it is still summer, so they don't need much quilting, as yet).

In the attic, a little stranger has moved in , my baby werewolf with his voodoodoll. I think he is dying to play with the little meece, and his mother has assured me that if you get babywerewolves young enough, they can be house-trained , so he may yet move in into the bedroom. He is looking so sad and lonly right now....


Thursday, June 2, 2011

Decorated mouse house


For safety reasons KITTIES!!! ( and to try and make my RL living room less crowded) I had moved the mousehouse to a bookshelf. After having shifted around and dumping loads of books. (In case you are worrying: I have hundreds of books left; the discarded ones went to charity, or I bought them on Kindle) I created a nice niche for it, but it looked very much out of place..
Anyway, I dove into the cellar and came up with some artificial ivy that I draped around the house. I find it looks a lot better now, but I do plan to paint a background when I get round to laying my hand on a piece of painter's board.
I am also working on making miniature ivy to clad the front with.

miniatures and minicats


This is a golden oldie from when my black and white little brat was a baby. He loved walking into and out of dollshouses, neatly using the door.And the stairs in my bigger houses. Later on , he also tried sleeping on a dolls bed. Bed did not survive. Cat did, of course, I mean : what can one do? He looked so happy and innocent ( and still does, for that matter...)
The shop eventually did not survive the cats' interest, too, They used the roof to bask themselves in the sun , but the plexiglass crashed down when they grew older and heavier and the shop did, as well, around their ears. That is why I bought a sturdier shop, which will eventually be moving into the new Kendrew house !