Our guest Mary Cassatt

I love art and Mary Cassatt did such lovely works that I have placed her as an honored guest on the front porch tea of an old friend and the old friend's granddaughter, who has a habit of leaving toys around. The friend has a couple of paintings done by Mary hanging on the outside wall of her parlor.

 

There is also a painting by Mary's friend, Degas, in the foyer by the front door.

 

 

There's Mary in the lovely wicker chair! And the little girl just can't get her chair up close enough to visit with her.

 

 

There are lots of goodies to tempt your taste buds.

 

 

Such a lovely garden to spend a nice day enjoying the fresh smells of spring.

 

 

 

This was such a fun project to do and all of my friends at club did their own porches.  All were so different and interesting.  I had the distinct honor to win a first place ribbon for a room box/vignette at the Indianapolis Miniature Show, as well as a Best of Show Award. What a wonderful surprise!

 



Prettypotholders

I have been so frustrated that my computer doesn't want to stay connected to the Internet. I can't figure it out and therefore can't blog.  So here we go,  giving it another try. 
    I find when I get frustrated I work on miniatures to relax.  I went to a show this weekend and was inspired to try to crochet in miniature.  I already tat tiny things, so how hard could it be?   Well, it can be hard!  Needed to dig out the extra magnifier glasses so I could see what I was doing, for one. 
     The first try the scale turned out to big. not because of the stitch size, but because I hadn't made adjustments  to how to do a certain look.  Fewer stitches! Anyway, I did manage to achieve two vintage style potholders like my Grandmother used to use, after about 4 1/2 hours!

 

Kind of cute, huh?

Trunk for the junk

I thought I'd take a little side trip away from the work project today, and show you a recent hobby project in miniatures.  A dear friend of mine passed away and left behind a large collection of fine miniature's as well as lots of kits and materials to make more.  She was an acomplished miniatrist and had exquisite taste. She stipulated, before she passed, that she wanted to let the club have her trunk kits to put together.  Well, she really had the kits!  Kits, kits, and more kits!  So many that each member was able to choose 3 kits.  There were some left over that will be passed on to be sold for fund raising for one of our favorite miniature organizations.
  I volunteered to teach the rest of the club how to put these kits together, so I did one first to get the method down and have a finished one for everyone to see. I laid everything out before getting started.

 

The first step was wallpapering the inside of the trunk.

 

 

Then you start gluing the piece together, making sure that the pieces are all right side up!  We won't go into why I had to specify that part.

 

Next I sanded to get the curve and sides smooth and even with the fit being just right.

Next I painted my faux leather to be the color I wanted and applied it to all of the outside.

 

Next, shiny tape makes the metal around the trunk, wood slats which I prestained applied and finally the brass finding for the hardware.

 

Voila! After only A FULL DAY'S WORK, I had a finished ladies wedding trunk!

 

 

Great Expectations

 

 

 I love to read, and I especially love Charles Dickens.   One of my favorite stories of all time is "Great Expectations" and all the imagery the story commands. Given the opportunity, I couldn't resist putting my own touch to the imagery by doing a piece in miniature



"Miss Havisham's house....dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred."

"....draped table with guilded looking glass,... a fine lady's dressing table... in an arm chair....sat the strangest lady I had ever seen."

"... dressed in rich materials-satins and lace, and silks all of white... everything which ought to be white  long ago, and had lost it's luster... the bride had withered like the dress and the flowers..."

I'm here again!

It's hard to believe it's been sooooo long since I last posted. Much has been going on. Moved my business location, twice. Added 2 new grandbabies to the family and a son-in-law, lost a huge amount of weight, grew a garden, redecorated a couple of rooms at home, not to mention for clients! And had the occasional chance to work on some miniatures. One project that I totally enjoyed doing was the restoration of a dollhouse that belonged to my daughter's friend as a child. She had given it to me years ago, since she knew how much I enjoyed them. Well it was fun, and restored for the specific purpose of returning it to her for her own little girl to play with. She was VERY pleasantly suprised. She said she had forgotten about the doll house and she was so happy to have it back.