Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sing

Remember from the last post I made about MJ's visit?  When I said we will fix the fact thet she didn't get to ring in the new year ?  Apparenly, MJ has a wild side...or maybe it's the company...  MJ made fast friends with Dawn and her friends.  They are all 7 ft tall models you know, unlike us 5 ft. tall moms.  Anyway, that had a LOT of fun making up for missing the New Years celebrations!

 They are having a groovy time talking to new friends! Austin Powers is sooo Charming!

 It looks like one of the girls had to visit the powder room...or get another drink...or both!

  

We will all keep this a secret...what happens in Indiana, stays in Indiana!

Uh...no comment...let's hope she drank a lot of water! Otherwise, she will need some aspirin and a lot of sleep!

Stay tuned!

Around the World She Goes, Where She Stops Nobody Knows!

Mini Jazzi has arrived in Indiana.  Actually she arrived on Friday January 4th.  I couldn't post anything because we were about to be bombarded with 6 8-9 year old boys for a Birthday slumber party.  Needless to say, it was chaos!  Anyway, she has gone from the much warmer California bay area to snowy Indiana!  My guess is that she was traveling over New Years and didn't get to ring in the New Year.  We will fix that. 

 Apparently MJ has not seen snow in real life before and just couldn't wait to jump in.  She is standing on top of our grill.

 Next, she wanted to make a snow man.  I helped a llittle.  It looks like she needs some warmer clothing.  I'm sure her legs were freezing.

She named her new friend Mr. Blizzard.

Stay Tuned!

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!