Mouse Mansion

This is a gorgeous flyleaf from the Dutch book "Het Muizenhuis Sam & Julia" by Karina Schappman.

Please check out the posting about the book on Dutch Sisters HERE.

There are more pictures from the book there, including an adorable built-in bed.

The author's website is HERE with a bit more info.

I sure hope there is a plan to publish this book in English.

The House That Mouse Built

I just found this wonderful book,

"The House That Mouse Built" by Maggie Rudy & Pam Abrams.

It is just so lovely and clever! 

This is a picture of the inside of the book cover.

Look at the hanging lamp over the table.

It is a pod with holes in it and electrified.

So many details to look at and admire. Love, love it!

Here is Maggie Rudy's website called Mouses Houses.

This is a little acorn lamp I made that is just dollhouse size.

I took one acorn cap and a slightly smaller-sized acorn turned upside down.

I glued them together to make the lamp.

Comforter and Pillow

Just a little project while I was at the lake.

Here you see the gingham quilt and pillow on a nice doll bed. 

Here is the little embroidered pillow I made of felt.

I just plopped down any old flower shape in my favorite colors.

And here is the same quilt and pillow in a little fairy home near the lake.

I fashioned a little twig bed and two acorn lamps

for the fairies as well as a wee broom.

The acorn lamps were made from a small acorn

turned upside down and glued inside a larger acorn cap.

The broom is just a pine needle cluster and a stick

with a little bit of string wrapped around them both to hold them together.

The twig bed I am not happy with--I used wire to hold the twigs together

and it got really unwieldy. I'll need to try again.

Doll's House

Isn't this dollhouse cute? I like all the do-it-yourself ideas and the peg wooden dolls. Has anybody seen the booklet that seems to have been offered about the Doll's House?

Mouse House

Finally I can show you what I've been making this month. The girls are always checking my blog to see what I've posted so I didn't dare make any mention of my makings. This is the house for a mouse that I did up for Emily. The bed and house were purchased--unpainted and I made the table, mushroom stools, food, teapot/mugs and soft furnishings. Close-up pictures will have to wait for a sunny day--the rainy day we are having here is the pits for photos. :-) Some of the ideas here were inspired by the Danish company Maileg's Mouse House.

This is the mouse that I made of felt to go with the house. I like how she turned out. I made up the pattern myself. The hands I would change--make them part of the arm pattern and her bottom could be a little rounder. I put little plastic pellets into her body so she could sit on her own on her wee mushroom stool. The table is an unpainted wooden candle holder glued to a round piece of wood edged with felt.

Once upon a time when I was eleven or so, my brother made me a life-size round table for my room. It was made of 2x4's and had a skirt made from a white chenille tablecloth. I remember spreading out my precious nic-nacs on it. This little mouse-sized table reminds me a little of my brother's gift.

Here is the back of the mouse's head, showing the gusset I added.

The two-sided dress I made for the mouse. Lynn of Molly Chicken inspired the double-sided pattern.

My Favorites

The miniatures show yesterday was fun and the display area was inspiring. I especially liked the Christmas Market stand and the Village Bakery. I was amazed at all of the different scales that people are working in....the smallest I think was 1:144. There were rooms or should I say a scene all done within a small teacup. The Mary Engelbreit house above was all handmade except for the bathroom equipment and it is all sooooo small.

When we looked around the sales area I got all confused by the different scales. Teeny tiny furniture next to much larger versions, yikes! It was good to see variations like the Egyptian miniatures and even tiny Hopi Kachinas.

Miniatures

Going to a miniatures show and sale near the Chicago airport this weekend. It is put on by the Wee C miniature club. Looking over the pictures from last year's show at their website is tantilizing--lots of dollhouses and box rooms. The picture above is from one of my favorite paperdolls--I have the outside cover but the dolls and clothes have gotten lost. :-(

Anyway, I think if you right click and save the picture you can print it out to dollhouse scale for personal use in a dollhouse toyroom or store.

The girls and I are working on a dollhouse for Christmastime. I guess this is just the busiest time of year but we got all inspired over at turkeyfeathers with their yummy dollhouse bakery and so we are off our own adventure. Our dollhouse kit came last week and we have started to sand and pry the pieces out from the surrounding plywood. One of the plywood sheets of pieces is not cut all the way thru so we are having a hard time removing the kit pieces from it. Oy! UPDATE: I called the 1-800 number listed on the instructions and the very nice representative is sending me another sheet # 5--so I don't have to struggle with getting the pieces out. :-)

Pictures will be posted when there is something to look at. :-)

FFForgot about....

Flowers--what's not to like...I like the wildflowers and garden grown best. I picked lots of wild daisies and road-side roses the day before my wedding to use in bouquets.

Fairy Houses--Em and I had fun putting this together in a hollow of a tree.

Re-ment miniatures

Found these miniatures at a Japanese grocery, opened the box to find a mini grocery cart and little mini food items. They are very cool, so I looked online to find more about them only to find that the company has opened a US operation in VA. Currently they are offering two lines of miniatures....sweets and foods. Each is sold in a blind box in which one of twelve or so sets are within. I hope that they start offering more...the japanese version can be had thru e-bay and other imports but the shipping is quite dear--too expensive for me.