Festivus for the Rest of Us

As some of you have probably gathered by now, Christmas isn't my favorite holiday.  I do like Christmas, what  I don't like is the comercialism and the pressure to buy stuff for people that they don't want or need just to buy something.  I do also love seeing Christmas through my kids eyes and having family traditions with them.  One of which is watching the movie "A Christmas Story".  Those of you who are familiar with it will appreciate this.

This is my favorite tree.  It was my grandfather's and it's the same age as I am!

Merry Christmas and in the spirit of Jerry Seinfeld,Happy Festivus! Truly wishing you all good things!

Butterfly House Kitchen

I'm not going to lie to you.....I LOVE this kitchen. I know I'm bragging, but I really do.  I wish I could make this in human size.  Of course, I would make it so all the doors and drawers open and close!  The only ones here that open are on the upper cabinets on the wall.

 I definitely don't think I could have done this without Elf Miniatures! Both the oven and extractor fan are kits from Elf.  I have to say I did a lot of looking at their web site to try to figure out how to make this stuff. The sink is a little metal wagon without the wheels that I painted silver and the faucet I made with aluminum tubes and a spring from a pen.

I made the cabinets from wood, aluminum piping and free laminate samples, even the striped metal on the island were free samples.  I made the floating stairs by screwing them inot the wall from the outside before putting on the siding.  The orange LeCreuset pot is a magnet from Williams Sonoma, the expresso maker and utensil holder are Rement, The bar stools are from Ebay, The trash can is also from Elf, the table is from Avi at Mninmodels on Etsy, the chairs are reac, the LED lights are from Evan Designs, The art is a piece of scrapbook paper with a little wooden frame that I made, The dining area rug is PRD Miniatures (I think...I bought it on Ebay) and the rug by the front door is a free sample from The Shade Store.

Next: either a Christmas scene or the bathroom...

Butterfly House Exterior

OK, So I got the pics taken and in the mail today.  The pics looked pretty good on the computer, but I was really dissapointed about how they turned out when they were developed.  The only wall I have in my real house that is blank is in my dining room and it's a muted pea green.  So that's the wall I used...it looks awful as the background!  Since the deadline for the  Creatin' Contest is midnight Monday and there isn't any mail on Sunday, I had no choice but to send them in.

I made the glass wall removable.  It's made of 1/4" plexiglass with model pinstriping to separate the panes.  It slides along aluminum C channels at the top and bottom. The front door is made the same way.

The house is front opening.  The front panels are held on with rare earth magnets.  The siding is 1/8" birch plywood cut into 2" strips with teak veneer in between the strips.

The sun room and windows are all made with the same plexiglass as the slider wall.  I also used the same aluminum chanels to hold the top and bottom of the sun room walls and the same pinstriping for window panes. 

The furniture on the upper deck is vintage german from Ebay.  The big cactus is from Hancock Fabrics, the flowers are an Ebay find and the little table is from Miniatures.com.  The orange rug is part of a placemat from CB2, it hides the wiring for the fans in the sun room below.  I also made the glass french doors from plexiglass and aluminum rods.

The Butterfly House - Preliminary Pics

Here are just a few preliminary pictures of "The Butterfly House".  These are just of the interior because it's night time and I think it looks pretty cool all lit up.  I'm calling it the Butterfly House because of the modern butterfly roof.

Bathroom and sitting room

Dining area with floating stairs

View from the front door

Kitchen (I made the fridge, stove, cabinets, island and vent fan - the stove and fan are Elf Miniatures kits).

Living area

Bedroom (I made the bed and lights)

Night shot

I'll have more (and hopefully better) pics later...when I take the "real" photos. 

Creatin Contest 2012

This is all I'm showing until it's finished...one week to go!

Slotto

Recently I saw an ad in a Bed Bath and Beyond flyer for a wooden building toy called Slotto.  The first thing I thought of course is that I could make some pretty cool mini things with this.toy, then I thought my son would have fun building things with it too.

Slotto

After I bought the set, I looked it up online to see if there were any reviews on it.  There weren't any, but I did find out some cool info on it.  It was created by a man who had lost his job and would stand on the street corner in a suit jacket holding a sign that said "I need a job".  You can read it here and see a video here. It is currently for sale at Bed Bath and Beyond and Overstock.com in the U.S. and Canada and should be available soon at more retailers. I would recommend Bed, Bath and Beyond because they always have coupons and this set only cost me $15.00.  It looks like a pretty cool toy for both my son and I.

New Modern Fireplace

Just a short post.  I just finished making this modern battery operated fireplace.  It doesn't have wood to burn but rather clear crystals.  I got the flicker fire bulbs and coin cell battery pack from Evans Designs.  It's so easy to use!

Happy Miniing and have a great weekend!

SD-1 Mini Models

So, the other day I was looking for modern minis on Etsy and came across these very cool little paper architectural models from SD-1 Architects.  They are small only about 4" tall, but oh so cool!

If you like architecture or modern minis, these are something you might want check out. Which one is your favorite?

The Halloween Scene

Here are some of the Halloween Scenes that I have come across so far.  If I missed anyone, please let me know.  These are Awesome!  Enjoy and have a happy and safe Halloween!!!


http://minimumloon.blogspot.com/

http://www.plushpussycat.com/2012/10/halloween-party.html#links


http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php


http://universe-in-miniature.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-at-mr-toad-office.html


http://fourlittlewalls.blogspot.com/

 

http://kyle-lefort.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-scene.html


http://mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.com/


http://miniaesthetics.blogspot.com/


http://minisbhappenin.blogspot.com/


http://jazziminis.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-10-22T18:11:00%2B11:00&maxresults=6



http://smidgehouse.blogspot.com/

http://call-small.blogspot.com/2012/10/idle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed3A+CallOfTheSmall+28Call+of+the+Small29
And these from Mini Modern from the last couple of years:
http://minimodern.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-11-17T06:06:00-08:00&max-results=5&start=30&by-date=false



 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidTSyNFMjdC-Nc59dfzKimfz7y9-DeMB1dXR2WfGx7UkVMjrL2lazQXm9oaI4NnbE1JYFS-g2qbEeLQQZDvxMskE8x1pjVDCY5sfmGfCu8fTey7QJJ30sTHQvwdB7EV1IY4defsimKEQ/s1600/HappyHallow7.jpg

Rocking Out With the Band

This October was a busy and wierd one for me.  Usually, I have the place decked out for Halloween inside and out somewhere near the first of October.  This year, I didn't put up any Halloween decorations at home and I didn't put them up at work until last week. I take that back, there are two boxes of Kleenex with skulls on them in the bathrooms. We let the kids pick out their pumpkins at the pumpkin patch...as it was beginning to storm, so we didn't stay long.  The hubs and I didn't even get pumpkins (we usually get some and carve them with the kids).  My neighbor and I have an agreement that she gets to do the neighborhood Halloween party every other year.  I was a little relieved that this was her year as I really didn't have the time or money to do it this year. I went to Ikea and spent my money on organization instead, but that's a whole other story.

I really love all of the Halloween scenes that everyone did and I really appreciate everyone participating.  I also love all of the other Halloween scenes that have popped up on other blogs. Anyway, here is my sorry excuse for a Halloween scene.  It's not much, but I hope you like it...

 I got the light on my trip to Ikea.  It's actually black, but doesn't appear like it.

Skeleton Rockers

 



Have a drink, Baby yeah!

Happy Halloween!!!

Say Goodbye to Ocean Drive

I'm starting to get a little burned out on making dollhouses for contests and I really want one that is complete and easily assembled. So, yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Ocean Drive Dollhouse from DHE Minis, however it wasn't available.  So, I e-mailed the sales department to see when it would be back in stock.  I got a reply last night and it has been discontinued.  To me is so sad because there are so few modern dollhouses that are in production...

Goodbye Ocean Drive.  I hate to see you go even though I never had you...

You look like a great house and reasonably priced too!

Let me know if anyone has one they want to sell!

...And the winner is....

First I want to thank everyone for following my blog and welcome the new followers.

I had 43 entries for the giveaway including comments on my blog and likes on my Facebook page.

To choose the winner, I didn't use the random.org generator this time.  This time I did it the old fashioned way.  Pulling a name from a hat.  My son's baseball hat.

I had my charming 8 year old assistant pull a name.  However, he refused to have his picture taken for this.

...And the winner is:

Congrats Mandy!  Please send me an e-mail at alamod(at)hotmail(dot)com with your mailing information.

A Spooky Challenge

It's that time of year again.  Time for my favorite holiday...Halloween!  You may ask why Halloween is my favorite holiday, I'll tell you...The only pressure there is for Halloween is to out do myself from last year and make sure we have enough candy (preferably chocolate) on hand. 

I know some people love Christmas or Hanukkah and can't wait for it. I'm not knocking it.  I actually love the lights etc.  For me, there's way too much pressure to make things perfect and purchase that perfect gift or purchase gifts just because you know you have to. 

To me, Halloween is all about fun and being creative.  To make my point clear, I've included a few pictures from our last couple of Halloween parties:

This is not the real Gene Simmons

 That is me on the left and my awesome husband on the right.

 

Here are some "awfully" appetizing hors d'oeurves .

 

These worms are made from jello, cool whip and food coloring. Gross, huh? Not many people ate them because they looked a little too real.

 

Anyway needless to say, I LOVE Halloween.

 

On to the challenge:

The challenge is, should you accept it..

Make a Halloween scene.

 

It can be whatever you want: gory, gross, funny, artsy, modern, traditional, scary, friendly...whatever you want to make.

 

Just post it by October 31st.   If you can't post it by then, post it whenever you get to it!

 

Have fun and remember it's all about fun!