miniatures — Page 97

Mini Presents in the Mail

April 4, 2011 at 2:15 pm by Claudia

I drove home in my rental car yesterday. It was a Nissan Cube – funny looking, but a great little car. It really has a lot of power and my problematic lower back loved, loved the design of the driver’s seat. There’s quite a bit of storage space and lots of head room.

I liked it so much, I took a picture of it. The light was strange but sort of otherworldly and cool.

Sitting on the kitchen table were 2 packages that arrived while I was away. Today, I’ll share the contents of the 1st package to arrive at MHC. Casey of Casey’s Minis had a giveaway and I was one of 3 winners. Casey let us choose what miniature we wanted and then proceeded to make them for us. She is amazingly talented. I continually gasp at her creations. I mean, let’s face it, I am in the midst of the slowest dollhouse renovation in history! I have no idea what I’m doing. Casey, on the other hand, is constantly making miniatures and most definitely knows what she’s doing.

But I digress. Here is my present:

Gasp! (See, I told you I am continually gasping.) Casey made this wicker chair. Isn’t it beautiful? Look at the detail. Unbelievable. I had my choice of fabrics and I chose this sweet design.

She added a slot for reading material.

And she sent along some extras:

The sweetest, most whimsical ottoman – or ‘pouf’ as I like to call it.

And this basket:

I’m in love.

A side view of the chair:

Such incredible detail.

Thank you, Casey! These are priceless additions to my dollhouse. Don absconded with the cigar box in which the chair was snugly packed. So I guess he won something in the giveaway, too.

If you haven’t visited Casey, please do. The ‘tenants’ of her dollhouses, Tessie and Zar, make frequent appearances in Casey’s posts. In fact, Tessie had a hand in the making of this chair.

As you can see, I took lots of photos in different lighting conditions in order to find just the right shots of this miniature furniture. It was a little frustrating. My new mantra? “A new camera with some spiffy lenses is coming my way. A new camera with some spiffy lenses is coming my way. A new camera…”

You get the idea. Maybe one will magically appear on my doorstep?

Mini Baby Carriage

September 17, 2009 at 10:10 am by Claudia

This little mini wicker baby carriage was found when I was in San Diego. At Vignettes, of course. I couldn’t resist it. There are hand painted flowers along the top and the sweetest cushion inside. I don’t know how old it is, but it is definitely vintage. The scale seems to be a bit too large for the dollhouse, but I love it nonetheless.

The details on the cushion are so lovely. For now, it is in my china cabinet in the den.

Life here at MHC is a tad stressful at the moment. Both my husband and I freelance and neither of us is working at the moment – with no work in sight. I don’t know about you, but when I am feeling stressed, my worries seem to pervade everything I do. I wish this wasn’t the case and it is something I am trying to let go of. Trust, faith…I know these things are the key, but sometimes it is very hard to remain calm and trusting.

In the midst of the worry, I found out I had to get new tires for my car in order to pass inspection. And I spent an hour on the phone with the cable company arguing over an overcharge that they insisted was valid. I felt like my head was going to explode. Try as I might, I couldn’t change their minds and they couldn’t change mine. When I asked to speak to a woman from the main office who spoke with me (and agreed with me) about the problem last month, I was told that it was impossible: she couldn’t call out, I couldn’t call her….it wasn’t done. I hung up in tears of frustration, convinced I had a battle ahead of me.

A couple of hours later, the phone rang. It was a gentleman from the main office calling to tell me that he had researched the problem and that I had been ‘exactly right.’ I was dumbfounded and very grateful. I don’t know how he knew about it – I suspect customer service calls are monitored – but he took the time to take my complaint seriously, researched it, ran it by his co-workers, then called my local office and explained it to them. I will be getting a credit on my next bill. Yesterday was a long day, full of worry and frustration. Thankfully, this call ended the day and I was heartened by this man’s extra effort to resolve the problem.

Sometimes, a gesture like that can make all the difference.

Collecting Furniture For The Dollhouse

August 18, 2009 at 12:54 pm by Claudia

Look how happy the birds are about the new arrival at MHC! Oh my gosh, could this cabinet for my dollhouse be any cuter? (Frankly, my husband and I would like a life-sized version for MHC.) My friend Marsha wrote about a cabinet almost exactly like this one that she purchased at a show. The cabinet was made by Dollhouse Land. I fell in love with it and wrote her to ask about the maker and how to contact them. As luck would have it, Marsha was going to another show the next weekend and she volunteered to check out Dollhouse Land’s exhibit and buy one for me. Isn’t she a sweetie? She even emailed a photo of it from her phone!

I love it and can’t wait until it finds a home in the dollhouse. Moving on – the other day I was in an antique store and I saw these:

Now this will show my age, but I remember when these were a big deal. I was a kid – not sure what age – and Ideal Toys came out with a whole line of Petite Princess dolls and furniture. I remember thinking it would be so cool to have a collection of this stuff. My parents, alas, didn’t go along with that idea. The antique shop had several different items from the line in the original boxes.

Of course, I had to buy two of them – they were marked at a very low price. I bought the “Palace Chest” and a wing chair. The palace chest is made of plastic, but I think I could make it work in a Shabby Chic way in the dollhouse.

Do you see what I mean?

The wing chair is pretty flashy and would definitely have to be toned down. After all, my dollhouse isn’t a palace. I will have to perform some kind of magic.
It has potential, don’t you think?

And I finally got my Petite Princess furniture. Shall we say, a ‘number’ of years later?

Mini Presents in the Mail

Mini Baby Carriage

Collecting Furniture For The Dollhouse

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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