If Tessie Is Happy...

Everybody's Happy! 

I went over to the mini  museum this morning to pay my membership fee.  I have not been a member since last Christmas... Real life interrupted.  Now that everything is pretty much back to normal, I renewed our membership.

There was a method to my madness.  With membership, you get four free passes... And this year, free entry to the annual mini show and sale.

It is being held at the Mini Time Machine this year. The admission is $7.00.  If you are a member of the museum, the admission is waved.

While I was there, I picked up Tessie a couple of new pets.  Bunnies.  I probably won't hear a peep out of her for the rest of the day. Lots of cooing though.

While I was there, I bought some post cards.  I didn't have my camera with me.  So you get what I could find in the way of photos.

This is the center hall of the museum.  At the four points of the compass there are different halls that you can go into to look at the different displays... The first one is the entryway.  Then there is the section that is all antiques.  That's where most of my work is.  The second is modern minis... I have a couple of things in there. 

This one is my favorite.  It is all fantasy.  This tree is from floor to ceiling and has mini rooms here and there all around the trunk.  I wish that they had taken a photo of the other side.  That side has a large knothole in it and there is a fairy that comes out and flutters around every so often. 

The whole room is fantasy and make believe. I have several witches in this room and a couple of fairies that I made.

You have seen this one before. This is one of the oldest houses in the museum.  I worked on it for about a year.  I told about it somewhere else on the blog. 

That was before the museum was even built. It was painted with seven or eight layers of various kinds of paint that had to be stripped off.  One at a time. Not a lot of fun to do, but after it was done, it is one of the most beautiful in the museum... The date on it is 1775.  It is older than America!

Anyway, I got to go wander around for a while this morning.  It is kind of like visiting old friends.  I am happy to be back in the real world, once again.

See you tomorrow.

An Afternoon at the Museum....

This afternoon, Tessie, I and my friend Joan headed for the mini museum to meet a couple of on line friends from Phoenix.

We spent a couple of hours with Deb and Lynette wandering around the museum.

I didn't take a lot of photos.  We were having too much fun looking at all of the goodies and talking.

I threw in a couple of photos just to keep you drooling.  The first is a  wedding scene in one of Lady Jane's glass cases.  I feel sorry for the lady outside the gazebo.  She wasn't invited...

This is one of Brooke Tucker's of a  designer's salon from the 20s. 

As I said... Not a lot of photos.

I did get to take a lot of photos of the goodies that Tessie received...

Deb brought her a Steampunk Broom!  Her first!

It's just a good thing that it is fastened down or she would be whizzing around my head.

Lynette brought her a beautiful pot of Iris, a yo yo pillow and  some  lovely perfume bottles. 

Tessie says thank you very much to Deb and Lynette.  She is now trying all of the goodies out in different houses. 

I bought Tessie a new bulldog... I had to.  There was all of this wailing and whining coming from my purse.  As soon as I spent 90 cents for him and tossed him in, she quieted right down...

I didn't tell her that I also bought an Orangutan and three Octopuses... I have no idea where they will be used.  I just liked them... I am somewhat like Tessie.  After I bought them, I quieted right down too.

Now that I am home, I am wandering around looking for a place to put them also.

Back to wandering.

See you tomorrow.

It's My Party...

And I'll play hooky if I want to...This morning we went over to April's house.  Amare made me a Birthday card with autos, planes, trains, and dump trucks, among other things. Those are all of the things that he loves, so he assumes that we love them too... We had lunch with them.

Then we then went looking for cat supplies and possibly a cat.  No luck so far.  Either too old, too young or just plain not the right cat.

We will keep looking... Maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile I will let you look at this house that Pat Arnell mostly restored by herself.  The shell was just about the only thing that she didn't replace.

I neglected to get the original builder's name.  I know it's called Chateau Meno.  I managed to cut the rest of the card off in the second photo. 

The house is L shaped  and quite elaborate.  I will have to go back over and collect the rest of the information.

For now the beautiful rooms will have to satisfy.

Even the dog has a fancy bed in this room.  I am not sure if the original owner made the furniture or if it was purchased.

I am sorry that I can't give you more information right now, but they are pretty to look at.

I especially like the bathroom... Who wouldn't like a fancy tube like that, with a crystal chandelier hanging above it. 

I will try to get back over there soon and get more information on it.  My apologies to the original builder. 

So for the time being, enlarge the photos and dream of living there.

By the way, I refuse to get older... I am sticking with 12 1/2 years old.  Young enough to still play with dollhouses and old enough to be responsible for a cat or two. 

See you tomorrow.



Diamonds Are Forever...A Traveling Show

The subtitle is "The incredible journeys of world famous diamonds and the people who owned them..."

This is a traveling show and will be here through April 19, 2015. That' at The Mini Time Machine Museum, Tucson AZ
http://www.theminitimemachine.org/

These amazing figures are by George S. Stuart of Ojai, California. They are a quarter of life size.  Maybe about 15-20 inches tall.

The diamonds are copies of the real thing and made by Scott Sucher of Tijeras, New Mexico.  They look like the real thing! You could have fooled me!

The first two are Victoria and Albert. The diamond is on the branch between them. 

The second one is Elizabeth the First.  The diamond is to the left.

In each case, one of the figures is wearing the diamond on their person.

 Louis XVI kind of fell asleep at the switch...

This one was my favorite of all of them.  The other 18 people were very formal and neatly posed...

Louis was the most real of them all.  I do believe that is an empty cup on the floor by his foot...

Marie Antoinette got to pose with the diamond in this case.

It's at the left edge of the photo. 

In all three cases, the diamond was worn on the head, in a crown or diadem. 

Do enlarge the photos to get a better look at them.

Anyway, I hope that you all get to see these one day.  They are definitely the most beautifully done dolls that I have ever seen...

I am still digging in the workroom.

See you tomorrow.

A Morning at the Museum...

This morning I went to the Mini Time Machine Museum http://www.theminitimemachine.org/
here in Tucson, to pay my dues...  I can't walk in there without wandering around.

I remembered the camera.  So you get to look too.  I know it's not the same as being there, but maybe it will entice you to come to Tucson, just to look.

I have enough photos for a couple of days of blogging. I hope you enjoy.

These first two room boxes are wall hanging and about six inches deep.   That's what is amazing about them.  They give the illusion of being much deeper. 

Jean-Jacques Brisson  did these in 2003 and did a fantastic job.  Do enlarge them and look at all of the detail!

Everything in them makes you think that it is a whole room.  The stairs look like you could actually walk up them to get to the second floor... Remember?  Only six inches of space!

This is one that Pat Arnell, the owner of the museum did.  I can say that I watched it come together.  I couldn't picture what she was doing at first, but after she was done, I understood.  It is a little shelter made from discarded doors, windows and other pieces of discarded wood that the inhabitants have put together.  Really an interesting piece The doll is by Marcia Backstrom.  It's called "Hobo Shack"

 The photo doesn't do this building justice.  Mark Turpin made the windows by hand and everything else in the setting too.

There are plants and other things inside.  Unfortunately, it is hard to see all of the detail in this photo.

And last but not least, I bought a bust of Michelangelo and a new puppy.  I actually have one of these puppies already, but now Spike Junior can be in two places at once.

It is debatable as to where Michelangelo is going to reside.  I think that I will hide him until I decide.... Less arguments that way.

I am going back to try to finish cleaning the workroom now.

See you tomorrow.

Extreme Lateness...

I am in so much trouble.... I am late.  I do have an excuse though.  I had Wednesday Witches Mini Meeting here today.  Turkey salad, garlic toast and Strawberry cheesecake can cut into mini time.

I am going to try to appease you with some of the museum goodies.

I didn't have anything to do with any of these three rooms. They kind of go with the German Kitchen that I worked on. 

They are from the same area of the world and about the same time period.

This is the card that goes with the above photo.

I find it interesting that the boxes are just about the same size and shape on the first two.  They built this same shape for a long time and furnished them with similar furniture. 

This one is a bit different.  I think that the cupola adds a lot of dimension to the box.  That might be an interesting project for someone.  Use a similar cupola in  new room box. 

Sorry about the line running down the center of the photo.  That's a seam in the window.

The curtains and windows are just about Barbie(1/6th) scale... However, all of the furniture is 1" scale.  Actually the height of the ceiling and windows would be about 12 ft. in real life, which is accurate for the time period.  What is strange, is the scale of the curtains... They are definitely more 1/6 scale.  It lends a strange, surreal effect to the whole scene.

I promise to try to get back on schedule tomorrow. 

See you then.

Lke the White Rabbit...

I'm Late!  Sorry.

My closet is now officially clean.  I am well on my way to messing it up whilst cleaning the rest of the workroom...

I still have 14 drawers to cover.  And about half of the labels to finish...

I got the labels from a friend.  Now all I have to do is fill them with information.

OK.  The real reason that I am late is this...

We met April and Amare at the Mini Time Machine this morning.

Sometimes I forget that there are new followers that don't know about the museum.  I used to work for Pat Arnell.  She's the owner and I used to do restoration work for the museum.  It is right here in Tucson.  http://www.theminitimemachine.org/  I came back and added this so that newbies will know what I am talking about. Thanks for the reminder, Dawn.

You can also get some other photos here on the blog by hitting "Mini Time Machine" under labels...That will send you here to previous photos on the blog.

That's Amare crawling around on the floor in the fantasy room.

There is a whole town under thick glass and you can walk, crawl or lie there with your nose pressed to the glass, as Amare is doing.

He is now talking a blue streak and understands a lot more than the first time we took him last year.  Typical boy.  I asked him what he liked best...Trucks!

Since I don't have any Casey minis to show you, I will throw in a couple of minis from the museum.

This is the "Forget-us-not Fairy Castle by Ron and April Gill.

It is probably about as tall as I am if you set it on the floor.

There is a cave at the bottom with an underground river running through it and it also runs all the way around the castle.  I will try to show you more of those in the future.

For today, I will just show you the dragon training room...The guy in the center is the trainer and he continuously turns in a circle with a leash in either hand.  The baby dragons that he is training are hard to get a photo of.  The keep flying all the time.  Poor tired dragon babies.

The guy gives the illusion that he is shifting his weight from foot to foot as he moves around.  Very realistic.

I didn't take any photos of mine, but I have two dolls in this one.  I will get them next time. One is the tooth fairy and another is an elderly spinning fairy.

I feel honored that I am represented in this wonderful castle.

Here is a list of the company I keep...Actually, I have only met a few of them, but it's quite a group.

I am off to do more to the workroom now.  Or maybe a nap... Amare has way too much energy... He never stops moving... A nap sound awfully good right now.

See you tomorrow.

Monday Witches...

 I am cleaning kitchen cupboards today, so I decided to let some of my witchy friends entertain you.

These are some of my witches that reside in the Mini Time Machine Museum. http://www.theminitimemachine.org/

The first one is a cousin of Tessie's.  Don't mention her name around Tessie.  She is very jealous.  This one was in Nutshell News, way back when she first started riding around on her pink bike.  She is a biker witch in all ways.

You can't see it, but she even has a black widow spider tattooed on her right hand.  Scary chick!

This one resides in one of the upstairs bedrooms of Pat's Witches Mansion... She holds a bottle of beauty potion in one hand and a magic mirror in the other.  Obviously, she needs the magic mirror, complete with a beautiful face....Because the expiration date on the potion passed a couple of decades ago...

There are lots of witches and other strange characters living there.

Some of them aren't too smart.  Some are forgetful. Thus the sign.  The bookcase actually lifts up when you pull on a rope that is behind the witch.

This is one of the out buildings on the grounds of them mansion.  It used to be a dance and exercise studio.  It is now a Decorator's shop.  The owner is the Beast from the old TV show, Beauty and the Beast.

The lady that is waiting has a spider web attached to the brim of her hat and it hooks over her nose to hold it on.  Very practical. A spider hangs down in front of her eyes.

This is a direct copy of one of  Malcolm Byrd's witches, from the "Witches Handbook".  Real book.  Very funny.

This is the lady downstairs.  She used to run the dance studio...Thus the workout clothes.

She is also from the "Witches Handbook".

At one point, the Wednesday Witches decided that we needed the book and every one of us ordered it.  There is a lot of handy information in there.  Spells for every purpose. Design ideas for your home... Even recipes.

This is where they all live.  I am not sure of the exact measurements of the case, but I think it is probably somewhere about 10 feet long.

Pat did this one all by herself.  When I was working there, she was on one side of a large worktable working on this some of the time and I was on the other, restoring.  I don't know who was having more fun.  Best job I ever had!

Anyway, it is time to go back to cupboard cleaning... Worst job I have ever had...

See you tomorrow.

A Day Away....

My mini friend, Joan and got out of the asylum for a while this morning. 

She is not Tessie's size.  She does miniatures and is one of the Wednesday Witches.

We went over the Mini Time Machine Museum to see the Madalyn Cook exhibit.  I had seen it before, at Madalyn's home, when she lived in Tucson, but Joan hadn't.  I loved seeing it again and Joan loved seeing it for the first time. 

It is spectacular.  I didn't have my camera with me, so I will throw in a Eugene Kupjack Dining Room box that I restored in 1986.

This is the card next to it...I did more than replace missing curtains and add fruit.  It had to be cleaned.  When it came in, it had dark fingerprints on the ceiling and the whole thing had to be repainted as well.

I feel honored to have done the work on this room.  For those of you that don't know, he is the creator of most all of the Thorne rooms.  Narcissa Thorne collected miniatures, and at her direction he did most of the work on her rooms.   

Joan and I get along well... We aid and abet each other in collecting things...We both do minis.  We both do bead work... If one of us wants to go to a bead shop, the other will follow... At least that was how it was today.  Then when someone asks, we have each other to blame.  I didn't want to go to a bead shop.  Joan made me do it!

Anyway, when I got home, I had to experiment with some super duo beads that I bought.  Those are the turquoise ones in the ring that Tessie is trying to rip off of my hand.  She seems to think that it should be hers... Isn't everything I make eventually hers?

She's not getting this one.  I made it.  It's MINE!

I started it with a video on U Tube from Beadfulnights.  I got as far as the part where I had to start the band...Then I went off in another direction.

The person doing it, was having trouble with making the ring any size other than a size 8.  I needed a nine.  So I improvised with the Super Duos.  It worked.

I am going to have to do some more experimenting with these two hole beads.  They are fun to play with. 

I really need to get back to the rug now. I did a little more, but not enough...I only have 30,000+ stitches to go...  Wish me luck! I'm going to need it, especially if I keep playing hooky.

See you tomorrow.

The Albion Inn...

This is the Albion Inn.   I really didn't do much work to it.  Cleaning and repairing a few bits here and there.

It is one of the most unusual miniature buildings that I have ever had the pleasure to work on.

The whole thing was made of cork! I suspect that sheets of cork were used to ship bottles.  Someone very clever decided that they looked like brick.

A couple of years ago, I needed some brick for a fireplace in my colonial kitchen and decided to follow suite.  I used the sticky backed shelf liner kind, but it worked well.  I can see how the original artist made the connection.



It is a replica of a corner pub that actually existed before the second world war.  As the sign says, the real one is no longer there.

The person that had it, also had a map of where the original pub was located... Unfortunately, we went to London twice and I never thought to see if I could find the location either time.  Now I wish I had looked for it.

I did, however, buy a piece of land in the center of London, while we were there..

OK.  I admit it.  It's only a four page deed for a piece of land in the center of London.  I got it at the Portabello Road Market, one Saturday. 

It is a real deed. It is four pages on sheepskin and when unfolded it is about two feet square and  covered with fine handwriting.  It has all of it's seals.  One of which is the blue strip at the left.

I "translated" it from it's 1636 language and we did find out where the land was... I really wish I owned it!  I would be filthy rich!

Oh well I was a few centuries late to cash in on the deal.  Now back to the Steampunk thing. And Daisy.  Time Travel?  Hmmmm.... Maybe there's still a chance....I have to think about this.

See you tomorrow.

Two More Favorites...

With any of these houses, the restoration process is about the same.  Find out what the original colors were, mostly by cleaning them.  Then putting the color back on.

This house was from the early 1800s.  I am a very bad photographer when it comes to shooting through glass, but I wanted to tell the story of this one...

It seems that the time that it was in use, it was popular to light candles in the mini houses when a battle was fought and won by the English, as well as when holidays came around.  This one has some of it's history with it.

As I remember, one of the battles that was celebrated in this manner was the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo...

When I started cleaning it up...There were circles of burnt wood on the ceilings in several places.  Hooray for Wellington!!!

Now let's burn the house down to celebrate!  Turn the kids loose with candles and matches...

It's a wonder that there are any doll houses left from that time period!  We had to find furniture to fill this one.  There was some, but not all of the original furniture.  Some of that was from a later time period.

This next one, is one is one of my favorites.  It has the best story.  It was built by the father of Thomas Andrews.  He was one of the designers of  the Titanic and was on the ship when it went down.  He had taken over from the original designer. 

It is a copy of Ardara House, where he was born.

It was a difficult restoration because the two sides come off, but the catch is, there is a center hall running the whole length of the house from front to back...The only openings were the space behind the front porch that you see and another similar opening at the back...the two don't both open at the ends.  One opening is for the bottom and the other one for the top...

Just picture me laying sideways with my arm stuck in those small openings to reach the other end.  It isn't a small house.

This is a house that I wish I had some help from Zar and Tessie.  They could have done the center hall in no time at all.

Me, not so much...

The Wednesday Witches Mini Group are coming here today, so I had better get to work.  Witches, mini or big, like to be fed and entertained.

See you tomorrow.