Cherry Tomatoes 2012

I just HAD to post my cherry tomato harvest today.  I have been bringing in almost this much for the past two weeks!  I grow these for my family, who LOVE them.  I don't care for tomatoes at all.
I am so proud!!

Mouse Family

I was looking up at my fireplace mantel the other day and saw something move.  I realized that my little mouse family that lives up there was never been caught on film.  I whipped out my IPhone and managed to capture the whole family together!
I made this little family last year before Christmas, thinking they would be cute at my craft show table.  I never did take them as I was struggling for room as it was, so they have been hanging out there since then.
The white mice are needle felted with white merino wool, and the brown one is felted with alpaca wool.
They all have wire armatures so are pose-able. The mom and dad mice are 3.25" tall and the toddler mouse is 1.75" tall.  I have no idea why I have not made more.  I have so many miniatures I could use with them, it would be so much fun to add these little extras.  Keep your eyes on this blog as - you never know!

Needle Felted Bunny

Every year (so far) our ski club has their annual Black Diamond Bash.  Parents are required to supply items for the silent auction in a predetermined amount to cover their child's year in skiing.  It is not usually very hard.  I usually put in a Holiday Card Making Class, that is worth $150.00.  This year I am also going to make something.  I don't think I am going to tell you the full idea yet, but I will show you the what I have made so far :)
This little guy is 5" tall and he is needle felted with alpaca wool from here in Alberta.  He has glass eyes.  His parka is hand-stitched out of wool felt, with an added hood and pocket.  The faux fur is hand-stitched on as well.
Comment if you know what this little guy will be up to next :)

Felt hair clips

Before I left for Winnipeg, I took some photos of the hair clips I will be adding to my ETSY shop when I get back. These were fun to make. I drew the patterns for each myself, cut the felt and hand stitched them.


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My ETSY store now OPEN!

 I have finally bit the bullet and opened an ETSY shop.  As most of you know, I was selling on Zibbet with nary a sale.  Almost all of my sales have been at markets and craft shows, and the resulting referrals and recommendations - of which I wholeheartedly thank you all!  I hope this shopping experience will be as much fun as our other venues!  To celebrate, I am reducing my regular prices for the month of August, so go ahead and take advantage while it lasts!
You can see the ETSY widget on my sidebar - this will show at a glance, any new items I have listed.  I have started with my wrapped bracelets, and will add other item types soon.

Some More Rustic Bling Coming Your Way!

I have two more of my Rustic "Bling" bracelets completed.    These really sparkle as they have an AB coating that it just glitzy!  I figured out a way to make them kinda adjustable so now one bracelet (the blue one) may fit a larger group of people than the one size (the red one).

**The bracelet in the previous post with the red crackle beads has sold!**

Wrap Bracelets for Stampede

I am finally putting up pictures of my wrap bracelets.  The first one I made is the goldstone one.  I love goldstone and it gives this shabby chic type bracelet a bit of sparkle which pleases my inner goddess :)
The second one I made with Czech crackle beads and 4 small mountain Jade beads at each end.  While I was making this one, I was thinking about the upcoming Calgary Stampede and how perfect these rustic bracelets with the inner "bling" would be to dress up any cowgirl.  I am going to put this one on my Zibbet shop and maybe advertise on Kijiji.  I am keeping the goldstone one for me unless I get a custom order.  Goldstone is expensive to have lying around waiting to be sold.
If you know anyone in Calgary that wants to wear some rustic "bling" to the stampede - send them my way!!

A Visit From Mayor Nenshi

A neighbor of mine Erin, thought of me (knowing how crafty I tend to be:), when Mayor Nenshi's coveted bobblehead likeness met with a tragic accident.

Mayor Nenshi's Bobblehead (hereforthwith known as "Mr. Mayor") arrived sans pomp and circumstance to our little abode for his surgery and recovery.

Surgery was quick and easy, but recovery was going to take a little longer.  While resting on the back deck during a most warm springtime day, I shared some of my coveted Pina Colada slushie with him.  Don't worry Mr. Mayor, it was a virgin Pina Colada - he was recovering from surgery!

The next morning, Mr. Mayor was feeling much better and I put him in charge of making sure my daughter drank her milk.  This can be an arduous task, but I was quite impressed when she drank her milk right down.  Apparently Mr. Mayor has some pull with the 6-7 year olds!

Barbie learned of our famous guest and proceeded to invite him to her mansion for a Gala.
He met various styles of Barbies and Princesses including Rapunzel and her Husband Flynn Rider.

I do believe that Mr. Mayor was well rested when he was sent on his way back to work.  We were glad to have hosted such a famous Calgarian.  Thank you for stopping by Mr. Mayor!

Crystal and Pearl Bracelets

I signed up for a bracelet making class called Pearl Bling and learned to make a beaded bracelet with crystals, glass pearls and seed beads.  I have not had the patience to learn how to make beaded jewelry as I usually learn by looking at items I want to make.  The instructions for making beaded items tends to try my patience.  Now I am hooked and am trying to find more patterns to try more things. These are so sparkly and the seed beads on the sides look like delicate lace when on your wrist.  For now here are some pictures of two bracelets I have made since the class.  I will be listing these in my Zibbet shop very soon.

1:48 Scale Melon House

This 1:48 scale Melon House is made by Grandt Line, and I thought it would be so neat to build.  I realize they say it is not a beginner project, but overall, it was not hard to build - except for one thing - THAT melon!  Carving out the melon was awful!  I tried everything and anything I had on hand.  The foam in these melons was so dense, even my carving tools could barely make a dent.  It took me a LONG time to get this thing carved out.  Then I had to figure out how to get the walls smooth and the floor level.  That foam was not going to get smooth on its own.  I coated the walls and floor with PaperClay, leveled the floor so I could add the round floor that came with the kit, and let it dry.  Then I used sandpaper to sand the walls smooth, added more PaperClay where needed, let it dry and so on.
Finally the inside was nice and smooth and ready to be decorated.  Since I had manhandled the melon so much, I was no longer happy with the appearance of the outside of the melon.  I mixed up some various colours of green and re-painted the outside, then sealed it with varnish.
I think the floor and where I placed the door was a little higher than what the instructions wanted so I ended up having to build some stairs so that customers could get up into the front doors of the shop (I used some scrap basswood pieces I had around).  The pathway with the kit, was not going to cut it. It was basically paper with instructions to emboss the stones to make them look 3d.  I made my own stones out of polymer clay, textured and painted them, then added small bits of green Flowersoft as moss.
The kit came with some round "things" to make into tiny melons, of which I did by using the same paint I had used on the melon house.  But there wasn't enough, so I made more using PaperClay.  There was also not nearly enough greenery or flowers to make a nice garden, so I added to it using my own and pretty FlowerSoft colours.
The tiny Kitty Doll is a kit from Pamela Junk Minis.  Look for more of her kits to show up in my blog in the future.
The only thing left to do is finish the interior.  The plan is to make this a "Melon Shoppe" with all things melon.  Cookies, cakes, books, art, melon by the slice, whatever I can fit in there.  I'd like to be able to also fit a small cafe table and two chairs, but with the counters to show off the wares, I am not sure they will also fit.  I made a tiny mushroom teapot to have in the shop as well.
Enjoy - although this started out as a hair-pulling experience, I am very pleased with the result.

Robin Betterly's Secret Books

I found these Secret Book kits by Robin Betterly a while ago. The outside looks like a tiny book, but inside are two secret rooms. They are so neat and well made. The instructions are easy to follow (it was my own fault that I put the book together backwards).  This one is called Castle Spells; the top room is a bedroom, and the bottom room is an office (where all the spells are kept).  The scale is approximately 1:144 - so this is tiny!  I really enjoyed putting this together and wish I could get some more (so that I can put them together right this time and show that I am NOT an idiot :)

Dollar Store Find

I am always scouting out the dollar stores for mini-items and this time I found something interesting at Dollarama.  The first picture is from the packaging, and the second is a dry fit as I figure out what to do with it.  The closest to scale I figure is 1:48 but that is by eye-balling it. The quality of the wood is surprisingly good, even better than some Greenleaf kits I have. If anyone else has seen these and has more info, please share!

Custom Cupcakes - Ski Theme

Before I made the Easter cookies, one of the ski moms from our club asked me to make her son some cupcakes for his upcoming 11th birthday.  She wanted a ski theme and the colours blue and brown, and the cupcakes to be chocolate.  Of course I told her "no problem", then stressed over what I would do.  I had been thinking for some time of trying gum paste as I had read that it is similar to sculpting like Fimo (only edible).  So I bought a small bag of gum paste at Michaels, and armed with several knowledgeable websites, coloured some gumpaste a nice blue.   I cut and sculpted some skis and let them dry over night.  I used an edible black marker to enhance the top rounded edge of the ski, I then crossed two together like and "X" and stuck them in the "snow".  I piped the bindings on with brown icing.
I custom made a cupcake pik with "Happy Birthday xxx" using my Cricut - et voila!  This is what you see.  The photos are not that great as I quickly took them at night before delivering them to my customer. She was so sweet and enthusiastic over them, and I was quickly over my stress that she would not like them.  She asked me for a bunch of business cards and told me she would find me more customers.  Most importantly though, the birthday boy loved them.

On a final note - gumpaste is not as easy to sulpt with as Fimo - it is WAY harder.