Flowers and more flowers

Hi all, long time no see. Well, the problem was mainly  that, after that nasty fall I had back in August, my shoulder kept making trouble. Trying to keep on top of job (even though I just worked for 6 hours a day) and household chores, plus having pain nearly all the time , which did not exactly help if I tried to do anything with my hands, I simply let go.

I hope things are going to change now, though! Two weeks ago I got an implant instead of that useless shoulder; big thanks to my orthopaedic surgeon, who did an excellent job . Of course, I am still recuperating and in a strap, but that will be only one more month.

But I want to show you some things I recently received:

from my dear friend Pat in AZ, USA , these two wonderful bouquets , made by Era Pearce, IGMA fellow. Beautiful paper flowers, I am especially enamoured of the daffs, as they have such "full" trumpets. The tender irises and nearly diaphanous tulips are miracles in themselves.

And today I got this lovely surprise from Pim Sukkerd in Thailand , who works magic creating cold porcelain flowers ( you may remember having see her work before on my blog, try following the tag "fair

O M G !!!!

I will try to add another pic  tomorrow to show you how tiny they are, that lily of the valley is to die for!!!

Wot, me crazy cat lady?????

Recently I saw this trio on ebay and I could not resist....

they were made by this gal .They  have fun animals!! ( and also other items, if you are accidentally looking for a  miniature oldtimer car?)

I think I am going to rehome them with my dear old cat lady , but not sure yet. Oh , did I hear someone say that I am the crazy cat lady??? Errr, well, it is possible..:-)

And finally, thank you all for your wishes for a  happy new year and the same to you all !!!!

Long time no see

But had nothing fun to write about, sorry! I was unstrapped, have been busy trying to coach my shoulder to work nicely again and get back to work . Shoulder, unfortunately, is not listening to me, so I will probably be in for an operation ( prosthesis). But we will see about that later on, I am due for an appointment in 3 weeks.

I did stitch a bit on the Aubusson, not very much , though.

BUT , to show something....

Yesterday a friend ( Helma) came along to adopt my second Kendrew house. It is wonderfully built, but somehow I did not get any inspiration and I finally decided to look for another home for it.
Helma was the taker, she is over the moon and I am very very happy that , instead of sitting dejectedly in a corner of my house, this house is going to be loved. She has lots of plans with it.
She sent money to an animal shelter as a payment ( my usual fee ...)

However , she also made me these lovely presents:

One stitched kitty cushion ( neat , eh?? I love it!!)

And a wonderful open book of Alice in Wonderland

It is beautiful!!!

Later on another friend came to see my collection, she also brought some presents


Two open cans of kitty food for my cat lady

Kitty litter and a litter tub ( sorry, clearly in use :-) )

And some herrings with onions for the lady herself:. Well, if the cats won't snatch them, that is.

She also made a tin of sardines, but they refused to be photographed, the light is hopeless now. Gabriëlle makes the most inventive and fun miniatures.

Judy's table

A short while ago I bought (off Ebay) a lovely little table with a top, stitched by our Petitpointers member Judy Spadoni . That gal is an artist. she stitches as she goes !!!


                                                      Look for yourself :

                                                 Table seen from the top:

                                                           It is FANTASTIC !!!

I also received a lovely small stitched purse from Lisa S, that she had given Anne . I did photograph it too this morning , but in the dark weather it simply didn't come off. Will try again later :-)

Some more pics and update on the Aubusson

Anne sent me several of the pics she made during her stay here , this one I snagged from her blog , though :-)

You can see why it is preferable to view the canals either in autumn or in spring ; in summer the trees tend to screen off the view of the houses.

 These were some she took in the Rijksmuseum :

               These two she made for me , as they irresistably reminded me of Marsha's porcelain!!!

                                         These she took in the Willet Holthuysen museum:

(that gigantic fireplace was reproduced in miniature by Sue Cook , I think, but I cannot find it on her website now)

                            And now for the update : my Accursed Aubusson! It is still slow going , as I                                        cannot really stitch for long periods of time , but there is SOME progress....

the Rijksmuseum

This week I had a guest staying with me, Anne, Lisa's daughter. She wanted to visit the Rijksmuseum, so we went!

It had been closed for years for renovation, was reopened this summer. I did not fancy going there in summer, though, as Amsterdam is a tad busy with tourists , esp these places, so I hadn't been there yet.
We saw a lot of things- well, it is not exactly small. Fortunately , like in most museums here, photography is allowed (although preferably without flash), unfortunately though, I had forgotten to take my camera and ever tried holding an Ipad steady with one hand ? It won't do !

Anne took several pics for me and I hope to put them on here next week when she will be able to send them.

I downloaded these pics from the Rijksmuseum site. One can register there and happily download to one's heart's content.


(We also saw a lot of other "olde friends" in chest, silver , porcelain , etc....I had seen many of them before- in miniature ! Esp several inlaid "Barry Hipwell"chests :-) )


Here are some things we saw at the Rijksmuseum :

If you follow the links, you can zoom in wonderfully.

The Simplicia chest ( a collector's chest , actually, looking very much like a  miniature apothecary!)

Of course , the two Petronella houses ... 

The Petronella Oortman house

The Petronella Dunois house 

and something I saw at Jens Torp recently - he just made a very limited edition of these! ( yessss, I do know where one of these went, gal)

Miniroomba driver

About half a year ago I bought a RL robot vacuumcleaner (now called Annie) . She does a great job keeping my living at least a tad neat, esp as I am now a bit handicapped, of course. Nice investment! (And well, I always hated vacuuming, anyway...)

There is one  funny video that went viral on youtube "Roomba driver" .

Inspired by this , Alice Zinn, a very gifted US miniaturist made a miniature Roomba driver.

You can find it at her website, scroll down, there is a video on the right 

so recently my cat lady got one from me as a thank you present, rehoming all the homeless cats I have provided her with over the years :-)

Here is my Roomba driver!