Happy Halloween!

Some time ago, I showed a glimpse of this room box, meant specifically to hold a Halloween party scene. It's going to be a work-in-progress for a while as I slowly collect autumn/Halloween miniatures I like.

The ceiling rose and fireplace are Unique Miniatures. The dentil moulding is from Houseworks. I made the paneling by combining Houseworks chair rails and baseboards with basswood. The "paintings" are tiny copies of Black Apple prints, and the silhouettes are scaled-down copies of souvenir silhouettes from Disneyland (look closely - that's Tim Burton's Sally on the left and Jack Skellington, in "Sandy Claws" hat and beard on the right). It's hard to see the fireback, but it's by Romney Miniatures.

A closer look. Chairs are House of Miniatures upholstered in vintage (1970s?) fabric found in my grandmother's stash (a very lucky find; it's the perfect shade of poison green and has a subtle watermark-satin texture). The table and bench are from a now-defunct Etsy seller.

The mantel. Pumpkin crate and anvil survived my childhood dollhouse (I know the anvil doesn't really belong here but I have nowhere better to put it yet). Candles and jack-o-lantern were made by Pixie Dust Miniatures.

This kitten and mouse lived in my childhood dollhouse. Also shows a nice glimpse of the table's barley-twist legs!

Closer shot of the food on the table. Cake stand and plates are from A Lavender Dilly (again, look closely - Jack Skellington is on those plates!), candy jars are Lola Originals, "poison apple" cocktails are by Carolyn McVicker, and the cake and chocolate bats are by Hummingbird Miniatures.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Upstairs Construction

Welcome, new followers! Please excuse my construction dust, glue globs, and wiring channels...I will be moving soon, so I might not be able to make much progress on the house beyond this point for the next month or so. (John, if you're reading this: you think your unfinished room box looked "rustic"? If it weren't for wood putty, plaster, and miniature moldings - to cover up all the holes, gaps, and clumsy cutting - I would never get any of my mini settings to look remotely realistic.)

The upstairs is a plain, glue-stained plywood shell for now, but this should give some idea of the layout.

Master bedroom (with walk-in closet...yes, I decided this house had to have a closet somewhere):

(I swear it's bigger than it looks, even though I carved out closet space!)

In between the bedrooms is a tiny, not-yet-finished bathroom. Since this is supposed to be a 1920s house that saw some "updates" circa 1962, I decided to turn the "midcentury pink bathroom" thing on its ear by giving the bathroom hot pink walls (the floor tile is identical to that of the kitchen and is meant to suggest original tile from the '20s).

Last but not least, the second bedroom (this will be a bedroom/playroom for a little girl):

There likely won't be any updates on the house's construction for several weeks, but I will still be posting pictures of my Spring Fling after the winners are announced. (That's going to be a long post...I went a little bit crazy with the details!)

Spring Fling Teaser #2

First of all...am I the only person who suddenly can't post comments on blogs? It's been going on for days and it's really driving me crazy. Rest assured that if I'm following your blog, I've been keeping up and like your work.

That said...

I finally did it.

I took pictures of my completed Spring Fling, chose three, and sent them to Greenleaf.

I don't harbor any illusions about winning (there are some incredible miniaturists out there who are sure to beat me by a pretty wide margin), but I've had a similar project in mind for years, and this gave me the kick in the behind I needed to finally do it.

I will post all of the pictures, and the inspiration behind my build, when the winners are announced. For now, have fun trying to figure out how the heck THIS could possibly relate to the previous clue: