Sweet Treats!





Aren't they gorgeous? My daughter and I joined Claudine Hellmuth and Amy Powers for a class taught by Patricia Wehmeier in Tyson's Corner last weekend. We'd all made miniatures before, for Club Littlehouse, but with Patricia's instruction, we took it to a whole new level. She is a fantastic teacher, and two of our classmates were seasoned miniaturists as well. We had so much fun, and even at the end of the day, the novelty hadn't worn off. They were sooo tiny!

How tiny? A cupcake, petit four and swiss cake roll all fit onto a dime! We learned about the importance of scale, and how to get the colors, textures and finishes just right.

We even learned how to do placemats, napkins and napkin rings. Pat made domestic goddesses out of all of us. Here is a look at our "kitchen".

Our classmates convinced us that we should make the trip back to Tyson's Corner the next day for the miniatures show, and I'm so glad that we did. The  variety of items was amazing, and every booth was packed to the gills with tiny little delights.

 These fascinated me more than any others. I guess because they have the steampunk vibe that I love, but in miniature! All these creations are the work of Fred Cobbs of Georgia. You can see even more of his work here. If I could live inside a dollhouse, I'd want it to be furnished with all of these wonderful creations. You can click on any of the photos to see them in more detail.

Making all of these tiny little goodies reminded me of my own crystal cupcakes line of jewelry. I am going to do a blog giveaway of one of my crystal cupcakes items. Just leave me a comment before November 15,  and I will choose one person to win a necklace or a pair of earrings - the winner gets to decide.

In the meantime, I am also going to put all of my crystal cupcakes jewelry on sale for $20 each (plus shipping) from now until November 15.  To see all of the cupcakes jewelry go to http://www.crystalcupcakes.com/.

Domestic Goddess!

The idea of my name and the title Domestic Goddess being on  the same page makes me laugh! Most of the time if I'm working in the kitchen, it's because I'm drying acrylic paint with a heat gun. Luckily, my husband is a great cook, and he doesn't mind preparing dinners for us. Despite my domestic shortcomings, I decided that my latest piece would have a kitchen theme. 

She has an oven timer for a head, and a tiara, of course.

Her upper body is made from a tart pan and the top of an old mixer. As you can see, she is built like a brick house.

 Her body rests on top of a mouli shredder. The handle moves and has wings on it. When the handle is in the forward postion, the wings sit right against her shoulders. The mouli shredder also has her motto on it: "When in doubt, bake at 350." It's always worked for me! I learned this rule from my dad when I went away to college.

After I was finished with my domestic goddess, I felt like I had met her before. I think she is related to Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons.  I found this picture on thecartoonarchive.com.

My First Etsy Item and Some Girly Stuff

 After years of threatening to actually put items in my etsy shop, I did it! Okay, I put one item in my shop, but at least it's a start. I had about a million reasons why this particular task never made it to the top of my to-do list.

It was mostly a matter of getting organized. First, I had to gather all of my items, then photograph them, then crop the photos, and then figure out the shipping and the postage and... you get the idea. I finally got everything together in one place and took the plunge. My goal is to get one more item listed tomorrow.

I think it will be these earrings and the necklace that goes with them. See, I already have the photo ready to go, so I'm halfway there, right?

In the meantime I took a detour around the table in my studio today. I went in there to make some more punkmen, and decided to clear off some space on the table. This was in the space where I wanted to work. I had set it aside waiting for the right piece to come along to tie it together. 

I bought this little rectangular metal pan at a doll show this weekend. I think it will be perfect over her head. I'm not sure what it'll say yet, but I do think the doll's name is Sweet Pea, so maybe it'll have something to do with that.

 This pin was super-shiny and full of colored rhinestones and porcelain flowers. It looked way too new to go with the little metal pan at the top. So I dulled it way down with some brown and yellow, and then dry brushed it with a little pink. Of course, now all of the doilies look too new, so they are soaking in a coffee bath as we speak. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Felted Punkmen

When my newphew was little, he called pumpkins "punkmen". I was thinking about that this weekend when I stitched together these little creatures. Their bodies are felted balls. They're embellished with stitching, ribbons, beads and other little doo-dads that I had in my Halloween box.

 They make me smile when I look at them. These are going to be mailed to some special people this week. I think I'm going to have to make some more, though. They were so much fun to do!

I also created some more of the large pumpkins that were featured in my article, "Paper or Plaster? A Very Vintage Halloween Makeover" in the September/October issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Some will be going into my etsy shop, and others will be going to local stores for sale.

I made a bunch of little ones that are currently for sale at the emporium in LibertyTown in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

This was my original display idea, but my family vetoed it. They said it was too creepy. Imagine that!

This is how the final display looked. More cute. Less creepy.

 And, I finished off my robot that I posted a week or two ago. He is a little more streamlined than he was originally. He also has a spiffy new paint job. (I didn't cover up all of the peeling paint, though. I liked it.) My daughter named him Waldo. He is currently on display at LibertyTown's 6x6x6 Show. When I went to see him at the opening last night, he had a red dot on his tag, and had won third place in the show. Good job Waldo!