In just a few days, everything has taken off around here. All of the crabapples are blooming or about to bloom. There are wee little leaves appearing on the maples. My neighbor’s flowering trees are in full bloom. It’s so healing.
Last year, we cleaned up the area in the front lawn where the weeping willow used to be. There was a sapling coming out of the ground – maybe around 5 feet tall – and we debated whether we should leave it or remove it. About 4 days ago, it suddenly had flowers – it’s a crabapple! It looks so lovely in the middle of the front lawn. I’m glad we let it be. At the time, I suspected it could be a crabapple because it had very smooth bark, but I wasn’t sure at all.
After haunting my local nursery, I was finally able to get some impatiens yesterday, as well as one of the hanging plants I always buy. So I spent the afternoon potting the flowers. As I was walking through the nursery, a woman saw me looking around and said “They said there is more coming tomorrow.” I guess I’ll be back there today or tomorrow. I still have to get some calibrachoa, lobelia, geraniums for the barrels, and some coleus for the pots in the secret garden.
I have to say it felt so good to see the porch starting to take shape.
My allergies are out of control, of course. Pollen, pollen, everywhere.
We’re going to have to mow the lawn in the next couple of days. Hurrah! I love to mow the lawn.
I was online yesterday and I saw an announcement from my favorite online shop – miniatures.com – that they were closing. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I have been ordering from them ever since I started working on dollhouses – which was around 2010. They have everything, especially building materials. I also got the kit for Don’s miniature music studio from them. They are a family-owned business of 50 years and they’ve decided to retire. They’re based in Georgia.
Well, the shock has reverberated around the American mini world. I’m not kidding when I say I was stunned. The news caused me to really think about the Beacon Hill, which I had been considering selling. I just haven’t been able to get motivated to do anything with it. Renovating a dollhouse can be expensive, though I certainly could aim for doing it on a budget (like I have any choice!) That shop is the place I go to get things like baseboards, moldings, strip wood, and wallpaper glue. Knowing that there is a deadline for orders – June 9th is the last day you can order and everything is on sale right now – I decided to place a modest order, including Victorian style baseboards. I’m sure I’ll place another one before they close. The closing notice put me on notice.
So I guess I’m hanging on to the Beacon Hill. As I said to Don, since it seems I’m being forcibly retired, what else am I going to do with my time?
I will miss miniatures.com so much. They were always so helpful and kind. It’s a gigantic loss for miniaturists.
Okay.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday,
I’m so sorry to hear about miniatures.com being retired. It sounds like such an outstanding resource. Yes, time to bite the bullet and spend ahead to be ready for a Beacon Hill rehab! I’m eager to see how it comes out.
Do you live in an area where you could teach a miniatures class? I’m not even sure what that would be but I’d take it! Or do a library lecture (if they pay) on that kind of thing — or collecting, or similar? I don’t know how one gets on the circuit for those kinds of things or if people pay for a class (I know at our community center here, they pay and split with the center) or if it’s by donation but it’s just a thought. There must be interest for people either just getting into it or who are interested and would love to see your houses/studio/cottage and hear your story.
Just muddling.
I don’t know. It seems like an awful lot of work…
Thanks, Jeanie.
Stay safe.
Hi Claudia, and thank you for the miniatures.com tip! I swear, this is the end of the world! (For me at least… being obsessed as I am… and hoping to “work on” my kits right through retirement into infirmity!) I rushed over there and filled my shopping cart… yes, a bit of panic buying… but I have electrical stuff in my houses… and not all of them are anywhere near completed… ! (And what about replacement bulbs through the years?) Yikes! And the mini metal-ware items I can’t imagine trying to make… doorknobs, hinges…! And the basic “lumber” for making parts… I am always reaching for some strip wood to use for “up-grading” the kits…!
I think the miniatures world is a generational thing… mostly your and my generation, and they are all retiring and going out of business. And I am 100% sure this is a tariff reaction too… the number of pieces that are manufactured in China is huge… can you imagine trying to integrate those costs into the mini market? Let alone the bookkeeping it would require all just to pay the government non tax income? Don’t get me started…
But I have noticed a huge downsizing in the Fairs (Sturbridge Fair closed the minis part a couple of years ago, and went to just antiques and dolls and bears…) My favorite needlepoint designer in England retired and sold all her stock… also the mini porcelain doll maker…. to name a few.
But anyway, welcome spring … it turned green overnight in my yard and all the bulbs are bursting and forsythia blooming… life goes on and remains beautiful and inspiring…(must complete my mini rhododendron shrub this spring!)
It feels like the end of the world to me, even though I’m not doing any kind of miniature work at the moment. It’s a huge, huge loss.
As to generational, there are a lot of young miniaturists out there. Lots! But as to companies, yes, it’s a lot of work to maintain a quality company online and the addition of the tariffs makes it all the harder.
Reminds me that I have to get some strip wood, too!
Stay safe, Betsy.
Yes, I was stunned to get an email yesterday from miniatures.Com about the retirement. I’m thinking about what I can stock up on. They are always such a good resource! Take care.
They are the best. I know of other companies, but none that carried the amount and variety of inventory that they do.
Stay safe, Mary Ellen.
Claudia, how invigorating for you to see all the new growth, and especially discovering a crabapple sapling on your lawn! You and Don were rewarded for your patience to leave it alone to see what it was.
I love impatiens but they’re difficult to find locally, possibly because they aren’t popular here?? However, I’ve been able to keep my one pot of impatiens going over-winter for a few years and they’re still going strong. I heard many people treat them as annuals but they can be perennial if conditions are correct. Thanks be to mild winters where I live.
I’m so sorry to read that your favorite miniature supplier is shutting down. I started reading your blog because of your miniatures but stayed because it is so much more! Looking forward to your posts about Beacon Hill whenever you begin.
Impatiens need shade, which is why I never saw them in Southern California. That may be why you rarely seem them there, though I know you’re not in SoCal. That’s why I have them on the porch and not in the garden.
Thank you Wendy.
Stay safe.
happy that you and don have a new crabapple tree (they are so pretty)! thanks for loving and protecting it.
hopefully their retirement is 100% on their own terms (i hope the same for you), but it’s too bad you’re losing the resource of miniatures.com. glad you could find some pieces there for the beacon hill.
also, you are a person with many skills and hobbies so beacon hill or not, forced retirement or not, you will continue to fill your time with interesting and beautiful things. :)
we have maybe two more weeks to enjoy lots of flowering trees around town (before winds and rains knock down the blossoms), including one a couple doors down whose blossoms get wind-blown onto our deck (love it). october maple and a swamp oak here; they are full of green buds and birds and squirrels. love them, too. :)
hope you, don and everyone else have a great weekend. stay safe.
kathy
It seemed as if their choice was simply because they are older and maintaining the company would have been too hard. And obviously no one in their family wants to take it on.
Thanks so much, Kathy.
Stay safe.
It’s lovely to see things blooming. I have to check out a forest preserve in town that always has fields of bluebells to see. I think it is about time for them…
Bluebells are so beautiful, Ellen. Lucky you!
Stay safe.
I did not know miniatures.com was closing. I loved their stuff! So many places closing. Sounds like your plants are coming together. Spring is here! Enjoy your time planting!
I know. It seems that every place we really like, whether a storefront or online, has or is closing.
Stay safe, Deb.
I really think that picture of Don is great!
Ok. Gripes – our election outcome that dad and I watched, our large bay department store closing, having to drive to calgary again thurs and the worst is just how dreadfully horrible I both look and feel. I really think I have cancer and I have a pretty good idea the location. I have so much pain. My eyes don”t look right, i can’t explain it. I think I’ll start taking a tylenol or aleve in the day as well as at night. Night to you all!
I’m sorry you aren’t feeling well, Irene.
I’m thrilled with the Canadian election results.
Stay safe.