Christmas Swap Results!

Caterina hosted a Christmas Swap on her blog. I got paired up to give to Flor, and I was quite tickled about this and to receive from Pepi. Pepi, I did not know, but through the help of google
translate, we were able to exchange our information.

This is what I received from Pepi.

It looks like just a plain envelope, but, look at the cute little box inside.
What is inside the box, you ask?

A ton of Christmas goodies!

A sweet little box, a wall hanging, a counted cross stitch pillow, and a tiny little card from Pepi. :)
But, what is in the little box?

A tiny perfume bottle and a single long stemmed red rose.
Thank you so much, Pepi! I love all of my swap items, it was a pleasure to have you as a partner! :)

For Flor, I popped over to her page on facebook and nosed around in her pictures to see what could I make that would compliment what she already has and would be in her style.

I discovered this Christmas scene, note the gingerbread men. :)

Well, off I ran to the fabric store and I discovered a tiny print fabric that featured gingerbread men. Great!

I made her a tree skirt (shown here with my tree that I purchased from De), a pair of pillows trimmed with bunka, and bunting- all made from the same fabric. 

Recalling what her salon looked like, I thought some pillows from my shop might blend in well if she were to decorate the room for Christmas.

Her decor seems to have almost a Scandinavian feel, so I thought these pillows with their minimalist approach would suit nicely.

While I was at the fabric store, I discovered these foam gingerbread men and other decorations in the craft section. I know that Flor is pretty creative, so I added these in, thinking she could do something fun with them.

Well, there you go, there is my portion of the swap. :) Pop over to Caterina's blog to see all of the blogs. Remember, anything in pink is click-able in my postings.

Enjoy! Until, next time! :)

Merry Christmas!

From my house to your house,

I wish you a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

I decorated one tree entirely in pink this year.

I love pink! :)

Our Christmas tree filled with memory ornaments and red, white and gold decorations this year.

A tree filled with vintage balls and tinsel decorations from the 30's/40's.

Tchotchkes, for and from the children over the years.

Some more decorations, yes, I save everything! 

I hope that your time is spent with the warmth of family and friends, eating good food and enjoying good cheer!

Best wishes,

dale :)

Sneak Peek, News and Updates!

These wreaths and swags and hopefully more, will be heading into my etsy shop shortly. :)

I have been creating like a maniac as of late. Which makes me behind in all other affairs, home, life, correspondence and of course, blog reading! Am hoping to catch up with everything soon.

There just always seems to be so much going on.

I guess that is just life. :)

I finished up a custom order recently and totally forgot to take a picture. Well, I remembered after I had it all packed up. Oh, well! lol

I joined up with the Christmas swap on Caterina's blog. She runs the best swaps. :) Just mailed out my swap to Flor, so tickled to have her as my partner. I hope she likes what I have sent her. You have to wait until Christmas to see the results of the swap. :)

I want to show you what I recently received in the mail, but first, I have to share with you this little guy.

The stories get related, don't worry. ;)

I don't think I ever shared with you all our latest addition to our family.

This is our little Tommy.

A feral kitten found abandoned by the side of our house. We discovered him on probably the hottest day of the year, back in July and I bottle fed him since he was four weeks old. 

Here he is more recently.

That he discovered the light box and feels so comfy in there should have been a heads up for me.

Here is the basket that Sans! sent to me, she wove this herself and I have to tell you how adorable and how well made it is. She never ceases to amaze me with her creativity. :)  Thank you, Sans!!!

I made the mistake of leaving the little basket in the light box as a reminder to take a picture of it to share with you all. Then, I discovered it's absence. Yes, Tommy had scooted off with it. I looked every where around the house. I almost cried. The basket was very special to me because of who made it, that they made it for me and a basket itself is almost a symbol of friendship. Woven together.

Don't worry! The story has a happy ending.! My son found it the next day. Tommy had scooted it under his bedroom door. I woke to a little basket being dangled in front of my eyes and I gave my boy a big hug and a kiss. :)

Black Friday thru Cyber Monday Sale

I am having a sale for Black Friday thru Cyber Monday in both of my etsy shops. Use the coupon code BFCM2011 for 25% off of both shops, links below.

dalesdreams

dalesdreamsII

Thanks for stopping by! :)



Latest Acquisition and WIP

I bought a new dollhouse last week. :)

Did I need a new dollhouse? 

Absolutely not, if you recall, I have two other houses already.

This one, that I left with my friend Richard over the summer, he's wiring it for me. :)

Which reminds me I have to send him some fixtures to put in it!

Wow, this is in far rougher shape than I remember. ;)

And, this one, that my hubby surprised me with, he nabbed if off the curb. I was so tickled when he found it. He wasn't sure I wanted it, but, of course I did!

So, yup! Another house. This one is actually in the best condition of all that I have.

View of the inside. There are two more rooms on the top floor, but you look down on them through the roof when removed or just peek in the windows.

The first thing that had to go was the pink accents. It just really dated it back to the 80's.

I wanted the majority of the house to be a dark charcoal gray.

Many people have suggested using the little paint samples that you can get from your local hardware or paint stores. I was worried about it not being enough paint, but took a chance and only bought the one container. It is just the right amount, thank goodness! This is Besalt D36-7 Paint Pod from Ace.

The white trim was just a bit to stark and bright for me. I toned it down with Oyster White from Ceramcoat. It is just the most subtle difference from white to off white, but, I think it has a richer look to it. 

Cutting in around and in between the gingerbread and trim was so tedious! 

It's so dark it looks almost black, but it's just a dark charcoal.

And what is more welcoming than a red front door?

This obviously needs a few more coats on it.

Does anyone else think Elizabeth Arden Red Door?

As cute as it is, the quality of craftsmanship is not the best, but, I'm not going to complain all that much, because I am not a builder! Originally, I had the window trim on the third floor painted the oyster color. But, it just cried out how crooked those dormers were, so I painted them black along with the roof. They seem to fade back now a bit.

Still need another coat on that door! That is Folk Art Lipstick Red.

The roof is Crafter's Edition Acrylic Paint , Black.

And, with the roof on. I still have a bit of touching up here and there to do, that blue base must go!

I'm pleased with the progress so far. :)

Amazing what a difference a bit of paint can do, isn't it? :)

I hope all those that are celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends have a wonderful and safe time. :)

Making Miniatures for and with Children

A while back, I was asked to donate for a Girl Scout function from someone on etsy. 

I have a special place in my heart for girl scouts, I was a girl scout, my daughters were, I was craft-mom for the scouts, cookie mom for five years. My sisters were scouts, my cousins, my mom. My aunt was a leader, my grandmother was a leader. I guess you could say scouting runs deep in my family. ;)

I did my research and made sure that it was a genuine request for a real troop. Well, when I did, I was quite impressed with the troop and it's leaders. They did a lot of philanthropic work in their area/community.

They were having a girls day and it would be of girls of all different ages, I was asked if I would provide a gift for a giveaway and perhaps a project?

Of course, I immediately thought of pillows. I know for myself as a child and lover of dollhouses that pillows were one of my first creations and, also one of the simplest things you can create. 

I chose these two fabrics for the fronts and backs of the pillows. Although they were produced by different manufacturers, I thought they worked really well together.  I especially liked the fabric featuring the girls. It spoke Girl Scout to me, because it represented all different types of girls, just like scouting does.

I sent the fabric cut so that the girls could easily put them together and sew them up by hand. Yeah, I sent along something for the giveaway and little extras for the girls, too. I later heard back that it had been a great success and they had appreciated my contribution. It's nice to do something nice for others, isn't it? :)

When I visited my girlfriend in June for her daughter's wedding, of course, I could not help noticing the Fisher Price dollhouse she had for her grand daughter. She's just a little thing, so I wanted to make her something that was relatively safe, but that she could have fun with as well. :)

In my etsy shop, I create for the adult collector. The majority of my items are too fragile to be used as playthings for children, plus, I don't have my items tested according to CPSIA requirements. I feel I have to make note of this for those of  you that do buy my miniatures. Those that I create for sale are not intended for children.

But, I can create gifts for the special people in my life. :)

I remembered the fabrics that I had picked out for the scout troop. When making things for and with children, I like them to be tactile. That both of these fabrics were flannels, just felt so right for a little person. It feels nice and soft, you can rub it on your cheek. :)

So, I made as many pillows with the different gals as I could and made her a little quilt to play with as well.

Serendipity!

I discovered it could even be a learning tool! You could play a simple version of tic tac toe with the pillows on the quilt. Tic tac toe is probably one of the earliest games I learned to play with a piece of paper and a pencil. Good for hours of quiet play. :)

My one gf once told me that I was very intimidating when it came to raising my children. I couldn't understand what she meant. She said I was constantly teaching my children. I never realized it, it was just instinct, just what I did. :)

So, if you have a little person in your life and you want to get them started with miniatures, think about sewing a little pillow together. Even very young children can sew a simple pillow together if they are being supervised with needle and scissors.

Keep your eye out for vibrant fabric such as this, that feels soft to the touch.

If you are going to venture out to make miniatures or any items to sell for children, make sure you are informed about the requirements for CPSIA.

Happy Crafting!

dale :)

New listings.....

are now live!

Come take a peak!

click here^^^^^

Thank you!!! :)

Just a taste! ;)

Just a taste of what is coming to my etsy shop Sunday night! :)

Click here to see my etsy shop. :)

I hope you'll stop by and join in the fun. :)

A huge thank you goes out to all of my customers for their continued support in my creative endeavors. You all mean the world to me and making your dreams come true is making my dreams come true. :)

Creatively yours,

dale :)



My kids! :)

In June, my middle daughter graduated, we had father's day and my husband's birthday all rolled into one backyard BBQ!

I wanted to do something special for my husband this year, so I took my kids to get their pictures taken.

 Just getting all the kids together at one time and keeping it a secret from my husband was quite a feat! I left them at the photographer (while I ran off to get my hair done- scheduling don't you know!) with specific instructions for them to behave! lol They were allowed one silly shot, but the rest had to be good pictures!

I apologise for them being slightly distorted. I don't know how to scan, so I took pictures of the pictures. Actually, that's wrong. I do know how to scan... I just don't know where it goes after it's scanned. ;)

Imagine my surprise and joy to find these lovely shots of my kids. :)

I just wanted one good picture to hang in my living room. They were all so good I almost cried! I couldn't decide which to get, so I got some of them all. :)

The top pic I will have enlarged for the wall. So hard to pick just one!

Have you ever seen the website AwkwardFamilyPhotos? If you haven't you should definitely take a peek at it. It's very funny and puts all of us in stitches!  There is a photo like this one, but is like a family of six laying on top of one another. So, when the photographer put my kids in this pose, they could not stop laughing. I can tell from the pic that my oldest in the middle there was in hysterics! :)

So, despite my oldest coming home with green hair (it was brown the last time I saw her), I think the pictures came out pretty good. And all the long hair covered up the majority of piercings, nice! :)

a pic of hubby and I from mumble, mumble, years ago. ;)

The last time I had their picture taken (besides the yearly school shots) was when they were two, three and four. I think they were those ages! lol ;) This one was done by a professional photographer. And cost almost as much as my wedding photography, but well worth it I think. I love this shot of my babies.

This time, we went to JCPenney's Portrait Studio. I don't think I have been there since I used to get baby pics of them. What a great value and my middle ended up with a job when they found out she was going to art school. It pays to brag about your kids! :)

I think my boy would make a great model. :)

Featured Artisan Anita from MiniPotteryByAnita

On our trip down south in June, the first stop we made was at Anita's Pottery.

Anita and I have been chatting online for a long time now. She's a fellow member of TeamMIDS on etsy.

While we have chatted on the phone, we never saw one another and didn't know what each other looked like. It was so much fun to put a face to the voice. 

And, to get a nice big hug in person! :)

Anita is a lot of fun and very animated and chatty, so I knew I was going to just love her, which I did. She has what I can only explain as a girlish charm about her, fun, happy and excited about what ever she is talking about and mostly that's pottery.

Anita lives in a town called Seagrove, NC. Hubby and I noticed driving through the many, many pottery shops that were there. I'm like, oh, my goodness, Anita lives in Pottery Heaven!

Actually, when Anita began her work in pottery in the late 80's there were just around 20 pottery shops. The  area became a destination point for pottery buyers and eventually, other pottery makers as well. Now, there are around 100 pottery shops in the area.

Anita has a lovely country garden to walk through to the entrance of her shop. A kitty cat awaits on the stoop. There is her dog behind the counter, keeping her company.

The shop has a country appeal to it as well. She sells her own pottery, full sized and of course in mini. She also sells some vintage pottery and some works from others. It's a darling shop.

 Anita has been featured in the local publication, "In The Grove."

Anita is one busy lady!

Not only does Anita maintain her brick and mortar shop, she has a shop on etsy, and a shop on artfire.

Of course, while I was there, I had to pick up a few items.

 The stack of blue bowls is actually for 1/6 scale, fashion or barbie dolls, but, I could not resist them.

Look at the sweet blue basket! The little aqua pot directly behind has the sweetest detailing on it and the green one next to it reminds me of vintage pottery.

The purse on the right is one of her latest creations and was her gift to me. You don't even have to be a miniaturist to love it!

You can see more of her mini purses here.

Even hubby got into the pottery and bought this life sized vintage piece. 

I love the frog holes. :)

All of the links in pink are clickable, have fun! :)

I'm almost at 400 followers! Yay! Thank you all for your support!
I might have to do a giveaway when I reach 400! :)