Inspiration

I've written about inspiration here before, and it can be surprising how quickly you can go from "stuck" to "Voila!"  

I wanted to make simple mice for a long while but somehow it never happened.  Then, while we were on vacation in Kincardine, this stunning fibre was found in a lovely shop on the main street.  On a top shelf in Stilara there was a basket of fluff... 

I was immediately drawn to it,,, but walked away.  I have so much fibre already!!  But I went back, probably because the color matches my sweet Zorro so well!  Look at that!  

Once I had the fibre, everything fell into place.  Kinny was born that same day!  

I'm terrible at replicating my work, so the next three mice were all different!  Stilara, Cameron and Baby were all completed in time for the Artisan Showcase and all three found new homes.

That's Stilara, Cameron, Baby and Kinny from left to right.

Even unborn, Baby was super photogenic.  

Once she was finished, there was no stopping that adorable little creature!

Still, Kinny is my favorite and I'm glad I kept him!

Finishing touches

So this is my first post for 2026... I like writing this blog but I find it hard to justify the time since so few people read it.  I suppose I write it for myself.

Anyway, just a quick one:  finishing touches!  What a difference they make!  Take a look at these two photos:

Adding the green napkins introduced a bright color and also realism.  I cut these from an actual napkin, separating the layers and using the edge that had a little embossing.  

The idea (or realization) came from the haunted food I ordered through etsy (another post on that later!).  One of the dishes arrived with a wee folded napkin and I thought it was very clever.  Thanks again to the ladies of PiccoliSpazi for planting the seed that spawned this improvement.

Bump in the Night: Hallowe'en 2025

It was a dark and stormy night... well, it's true.  The wind was terrible and we had to take in some of the decorations before they got ruined.  I didn't have much out on the lawn this year and the weather didn't permit adding much more.  Of course, we were still decorated more than most houses and looked good but I wish Mother Nature would be a little kinder to us spooks!  

Anyway, it was cold, very windy and started to rain again around 7:30.  We still had 59 trick or treaters, which is about normal.  There were some imaginative costumes!

The next day, our Day of the Dead celebration was sombre and beautiful, and there were treats laid out for everyone.  The dogs were restless, so I think we did have some visitors.  

Before Hallowe'en, I did needle felt a rather special fellow, a new addition to my perpetual spooky decor.  He started out as a rather large, white blob:

I used polyester fibrefil because I still have bags of the stuff and it felts super fast.

I then began carving out and shaping his face, building on the nose and cutting out the eye holes.

I wanted a yellow rind so I poked on a lovely bright yellow fine Merino where the orange flesh would have been cut away on a real pumpkin.

Then it was time for the orange fibre!  Gosh, I love the shading!!  It's "Orange" Brecknock Hill Cheviot from akara.

I went through my stash of pumpkin stems and found this one that suited him well.  I drilled a hole into the base and screwed in a skewer.  The skewer was then jammed into the top of the pumpkin (with the help of an awl) and it's quite secure.

It took some time to cover the entire pumpkin with the orange and in the meantime I played around with what I could use for eyes.  I had bought ping pong balls for another project but now they seemed the perfect choice for this guy!  I added small black plastic Teddy Bear eyes with posts and used the holes in the posts to attach strings that could be used to secure the eyes... but they are in the sockets pretty good and it's fun to move the eyes around so I didn't attach the strings.

But he was looking too friendly for my liking... what to do?

I started to experiment with colors and this combination seemed to bring out the creepy in my Jack!

Along with some pumpkin carving plastic teeth and the real stem, Bump became a first class Jack o'Lantern!  

We felt very safe on Hallowe'en with Bump guarding our house.  

Beach House Part 14: Come join us!

The beach house is ready!  The furniture is finished and only extra details will be added in the months (and years!) to come.  

So here it is!

  The beach and the doors opening onto the sand...

The beach house, waiting for us to return from our walk on the beach...

The garden, sheltered from the winds and the sun...

...by a lovely stone wall covered in blooms, enclosing a pond inhabited by fish, turtles and a lizard (and some rabbits nibbling the grass).

How am I getting such nice, clear photos?  With good lighting from the strip lights I found on Amazon.  These battery powered lights are taped to the underside of the shelf and turn on with a handy button.

You can see how important good lighting is in this Youtube video, where I get to turn on the sun on my beach!

Ta-da!  A dream come true!  

Beach House Part 13: a place for books!

 Here we are so far:  

If you know me, you probably notice something is missing... books!  There's nothing here to read!  No crafts or games either.  And no place to put them.  So this room desperately needs a coffee table with a shelf at the very least. 

I couldn't find what I wanted so I decided to build the table.

From a kit, I scavenged the table top and shelf and for the legs I pulled out the little square sticks again.  

The legs were made to support the shelf and make it nice and sturdy.  

I used watered down acrylic paint to "stain" the table before going further with the construction.

And there it is, with lots of room for our books, games and pastries!

But you can never have enough books, and there are three of us, so...

I built a wee little plant stand with a shelf...

...that just fits by the door!  I think 5-6 books should fit on there...

Next:  the end?  Only for now!

Beach House Part 12: The beach and the garden

**Progress in the next few posts didn't happen in the order I'll be talking about them but I grouped events together so you can see how it all came together.

Structurally, the roof needed extra support if that heavy, battery powered lamp was going to hang from it, so I glued on a beam along the front of the house (matching the one along the back) and added strips to the roof along both sides to hold the roof in place.  I also glued on the lamp base.  This way the roof was still removable but more secure.

Here you can see the lamp hanging from the ceiling and the white structural beam along with one of the brown strips that hold the roof in place.

The outside of the beach house needed to be finished.  The best souvenir Mom and I brought home from our little May vacation was a few handfuls of flat, small rocks.  I knew I needed them as stepping stones outside the door so we enjoyed collecting them as we walked the beaches.

Now I could finish my beach.  After testing to see which stones fit so the doors could still open, I cut the foam so the stone would sit nice and deep in the "sand". 

      

 

Ta-da!  The doors open without touching the stones and you can now shake off some of that sand before coming in!

And what would be better than having a nice, woven mat to wipe your sandy feet on?  

So I made one:

I found colored hemp cord a while ago at a thrift store and it was perfect!!  Even the colors were beachy!  So I slowly glued and rolled, glued and rolled until I had a nice sized mat.

Somehow it got a little uneven but hey, it was a first try.

And it looks great!

How about the garden side?  I decided to use a leftover piece of floor tile to make a step into the garden, the reverse side just didn't look finished and there was no room for real stones.  

Then I played with the grass along the house and glued wee bits in the cracks of the flagstone here and there.

A patio set?  Of course!  Who wouldn't want to sit out by the pond, smelling all those lovely roses?  

Also from the Toronto miniature shop I bought this Bistro kit and used my Sharpie to color it red... at least one side, the other came colored black.  The chairs were a little tricky to assemble as the back pieces are very delicate; luckily the mdf was strong enough.  From Miniatures by Vio this is the third table/desk, also a kit, which I saw as a potting table in the garden.

I had planned the windows to be high enough for the table to stand leaning against the outside wall and there's enough room to open the doors.

And so here is the garden up to this point, a lovely spot to relax and listen to the birds and the waves on the sand.

Next:  making a few tables from scratch

Beach House Part 11: the furniture

Now it was time to play, setting up the inside of the beach house!  

The OMEGA Miniature Show in Fergus came just at the right time and I found many wonderful things there, especially 1 very beachy chair and a lovely 2-seater wicker bench that were perfect, from Georgian Bay Miniatures, along with 2 battery powered lights!  Also cushions for the bench from Les Ateliers Menu Art.

The third chair I decided to order from the Little Dollhouse Company in Toronto, and while I don't like ordering things sight-unseen, this wicker-look chair turned out to be a perfect fit.  It just needed a better cushion.

Great start!  So we humans all had a place to sit, what about the dogs?

I'm not sure about adding doggy beds, but my sister gave my 2 doggy dishes, one for water and the other over-flowing with biscuits.  She also gifted me these 2 pictures, and I had planned the room so they could hang on either side of the big window.  They look great!!  (These goodies were from etsy vendors.)

Now we needed tables, some place to put our beverages and reading material.  From the same etsy artist who made the 3 windows, Miniatures by Vio, I had also purchased 3 table kits, 2 for inside and 1 for outside.  So now it was time to assemble these kits!  

The kits are laser-cut mdf and I used a PrismaColor pen to color the pieces to mimic wood before putting them together.  The pieces fit together so well, very little glue was needed!

  I wasn't completely happy with the mdf, though, so for the table tops I colored and sealed with ModgePodge very thin veneer so my table tops are real wood.  

Here's two of the finished pieces!  I highly recommend these kits if you don't mind the mdf!  The designs are lovely, they would be absolutely stunning in wood! 

And, oh yes, the pastries on the tray are as mouth-watering in person as they are in the picture!!  They are from Sweet Moment Miniatures: a strawberry shortcake, a macadamia nut cream and a raspberry chocolate mouse.  

So this is how far we are now:

This is my sister's spot, with a gorgeous plant and a refreshing glass and jug of lemonade ready to enjoy.  The new cushion looks good and suits the decor.

This is Mom's spot with her tea at hand.  I needle-felted a warm, fuzzy pillow for her back because she's always cold. 

  

And this is my spot.  I'm always warm, so I don't need a cushion under my bum, but one at my back to lean against the wicker.  I do like to read with the book against my knees, so this bench, while not planned, turns out to be really quite perfect for me.  There's no room for a table, so I made a corner shelf where I have my lemonade.  

Next:  Finishing the outside and a carpet!