A Few More Days Until My First Giveaway Results!

Just giving you all a friendly reminder of my first giveaway deadline. Just a few more days left! It ends 12/31/11 midnight (US time). I hope you guys are excited because I am! I will do a random drawing and announce the winner on new years day!

More Miniature Crochet Teddy Bears

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Now, it is time to share my experience with these mini crochet bears with you guys!

Best friends!

Let me tell you how I almost pulled my hair out with frustration trying to work with such small needle and thread, failing many times trying to make a smaller teddy bear. I felt so defeated and was on the verge of giving up. Luckily, with some helpful tips from my very talented friend, Christine from Dandelion Fair, I was able to do it!  Thank you Christine!

I learned that you have to use patterns that are specially made for miniature scale or else it won't work. They were quite challenging, but well worth it!

I used a pattern that I modified a little for both teddy bears and they turned out absolutely adorable. Best of all, they have movable joints!

For the first bear, which I named Abby, I used a size 10 crochet thread and a crochet needle size 1 mm.

Abby is about 2 3/4 inches tall when standing.

This one is special, her name is Rosie.  She is special because I struggled a lot with her. Rosie is made with a size 20 thread, using a 0.6 mm crochet needle. I had such a difficult time making her with such a tiny needle. Rosie didn't turn out as small as I wanted but still a perfect size for 1/12 scale dollhouse.

Rosie is 45 mm tall when standing.

Rosie next to my new 1/24 scale bed set I got for Xmas!

I'm still trying to make a smaller teddy bear and experimenting with different patterns. Please wish me luck!

Also, I'm thinking of including a mini crochet bear as one of the prize items for my 100 follower giveaway. What do you think? Yes, no, maybe?? ;-) If I get a lot of YES, there is something to look forward to for that 100th follower! :-)

Happy Holidays to You!

Happy holidays to all of my followers! Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you have a safe and wonderful time with your family!

This card is designed by my very talented little sister. Check out her website and her comic.

My First Visit to a Mini Store!

Yesterday, my mom and my sister took me to a miniature store in San Carlos, California to have me pick out my Christmas gifts! It was supposed to be a surprise, but they had to tell me because they were afraid of getting the wrong items since they don't know much about miniatures. I was still surprised though because I didn't know there were still miniature stores around!  I can't believe there's one near where I live. I was so ecstatic when they told me about Shellie's Miniature Mania located in old town San Carlos.

Hard to see, but there it is: Shellie's Miniature Mania

I felt like a kid in a candy store, running around, trying to look and touch everything. I had so much to see since they had so many wonderful displays. I felt like I could spend hours in there!

Wow!

They also had building supplies like lighting, flooring, windows and doors, moulding, wallpapers and more! (wow...that rhymed...totally unintentional!)

Ooohlala!

I've actually never seen a 1 inch scale house in person, so I was surprised how big it was! Perhaps too big for me, so I'll stick to my 1/2 inch scale.

My mom and my sister bought me some furniture for my Fairfield which I will show them to you after Christmas since I can't open them until then. I had so much fun in this store! I will have to come back again real soon!

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Shellie's Miniature Mania
732 Laurel St.
San Carlos, Ca 94070 (map)

Much Frustration!

Ever since I finished the staircase, the mansion building process  has been a nightmare!  First of all, as I feared, the walls and the floors started to warp.  I tried many known methods to un-warp them, which worked, but only lasted temporarily. I gave up after many attempts.

Ugh.

I believe one of the reasons why the wood is so stubborn is the paint. As the paint dries,  it shrinks slightly, causing the wood to pull and bend in this shape. I think this goes the same with glue.  All I can do now is to hope that I can fix the issue when I start gluing the pieces together. Fingers crossed!

I started the wall papering process using the free images from www.microjivvy.com. It's a tedious job, but it's going rather smoothly.  I also glued all the windows and doors.

However, once I got to gluing the walls together, that's when everything went down hill.  First of all, I glued the walls together on the wrong edge! However, by the time I realized it, the glue has already set. I gently tried to take them apart...until I heard a sound any miniaturist would cringe to: "SNAP!".  I froze for a moment  until I realized I broke part of the wall and the window! Noooooohohoooo!!!  In a panic and on the verge of crying, I managed to glue the broken pieces together. It was quite dramatic!

The piece I broke. Can you tell?

The directions for this kit are very unclear and hard to understand, which cost me this mistake!!  grrrr....

I hope this is the first and last downfall for this project.  I hope everything will go smoothly from here on. Aaaah...1/144 scale definitely challenges my patience, haha. Now I know why there isn't much people who work with this scale.

The base foundation

Flowers Blooming in Winter

My flower garden is pretty in pink!

I crocheted a bunch of these little flowers and I embellished with Swarovski rhinestones.  I've turned some into flower hair clips and they are absolutely precious!

These spring colors should brighten up the gloomy winter weather!

I also made some button hair clips to go along with my flower ones for my hair clip set. These are going to be wonderful Christmas gifts for my boyfriend's nieces! I hope they like them.

Hair clip set!

Packaged and ready to go!

I'm contemplating on whether to do a tutorial on how to make these flowers...what do you all think? Yay or nay?

More Painting Plus Staircase Construction

Can't get over how tiny it is!

I got most of the painting done and removed all the window and door pieces from their sheets. I used a craft knife to carefully remove them because they're too fragile to be punched out. I also started on the staircase and I'm very happy with how it turned out. There's actually going to be another flight of stairs, but that will come later during the assembly of the house.

Paint palette is perfect to contain these small parts!

I stained and varnished everything that needed staining. Here's  one of the floors that I stained using Minwax brand staining pen, color: Golden Oak. I also added a tile floor to one of the rooms, which will be the kitchen. I'm actually proud of how I came up with the idea. After no luck with finding 1/144 scale floors and tiles online, I used an image from a miniature wallpaper catalog! I sprayed the paper with matte sealer for extra protection before gluing it on the floor. Then, I finished it with high gloss coating and it turned out perfect! I love it when improvisation works!

First floor stained and tiled.

I have more painting to do. After I'm done with that, I will start wallpapering!