Big Sky Dollhouse Miniatures Show, Great Falls, Montana

Last weekend I attended a Big Sky Dollhouse Miniatures show as a dealer. The show took place in Great Falls, Montana. It is a young show and the traffic was a little bit slow this year. Anyway, I wanted to thank Pamela and her team, who organised the show. We had fun, met some old and new friends, sold and purchased some minis.

Great Falls appeared to be a big and nice city with a very beautiful river and park.

I also wanted to say big thanks to Daphne and Jacky, 2 ladies from Idaho who are deadly devoted to the miniatures and stayed with us for 3 days while the show was on, taking classes and making their purchases.

One of the reasons why I love to attend the dollhouse miniatures shows is the possibility to meet new people, new customers, new dealers, and this time was not an exception for me.

I want to introduce you a new dollhouse miniatures furniture maker Gideon Wolf and his company Wild Wolf Miniatures. Here he is on the picture behind the table full of his little masterpieces. Don't forget to click on the images to see more details.

Gideon is a self-taught master and here you can see his work

some rustic furniture made from Montana cedar

Another artist that I had a pleasure to meet is Cecil Walborn. He does beautiful miniature turnings. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of himself, but you can see his charming wife representing Cecil's work on this image

This miniature vase was turned from the piece that contains 278 different pieces of different types of wood.

another example of his turning in miniature

Cecil is planning to give classes in turning this coming Fall. So, if you live in this area (Great Falls, Montana) or wish to learn how to turn in miniature, you can contact them using this e-mail cawwoodturning@msn.com

The dolls of Patsy Thomas (Patsy Thomas Porcelain Dolls) are affordable and reasonable with a huge range of characters!

She makes and sells naked dolls as well for you to dress them. I personally purchased a naked old lady for one of my room boxes.

There always was an exhibition of room boxes, scenes... Unfortunately, at the time I took the pictures there were no names to whom the pieces belonged to, so here are some of them for your inspiration:

... and many, many more...

I hope you enjoyed a little report from the Big Sky Dollhouse Miniatures show.

Have a great weekend,

Natalia

Christmas is Coming to Town

I finished commission for Christmas stockings, pillows and slippers.



1st set:



2nd set:



They were worked out on 49 count silk gauze with Gutermann silk.

Doesn't it bring you already the feeling of coming Christmas?

Natalia

Something to Brag About

I can't not to tell you what a Happy and Proud Mom I am! My son, Egor, 16 year old young man graduated from the High School this year. He finished the 2 years of Running Start Program at the Eastern Washington University and he has been accepted to the same University this year to continue his education. He wants to major in History.

We came to America 9 years ago and Egor was 7 years. I took him out of the Elementary school, 1st grade, he didn't speak English at all.

This is the picture of his first day at the school back to Russia, 2002. He is this little blonde boy on front.


It is him 10 years later, last day at the High School in America. Now he speaks fluent English and his compositions in English are used as an example for the students of the Eastern Washington University.


I am very proud of you, Son, and all your achievements!

Mama

Another Word for "F" or a Mini Weight Loss Challenge

Another word for “F” is Fat. Not too optimistic beginning, true? All right, I will start this way.

Today is my birthday. I am at the age when you think it can be your last chance, when you wonder: to be or not to be, to be fit or to give up.

I woke up surprisingly early for myself and thought “Enough is enough!”.
Put my clothes on, sport shoes and went outside for a little walk. It is so peaceful and quite at this time of the morning. Everything around you is just awakening up. Perfect time to think, analyze and re-evaluate values (one more time…) and start from 0.

Have you ever noticed that the mirrors at home lie? You always look if not beautiful then at least satisfactory in your opinion. Have you noticed that the mirrors that tell the truth are the mirrors in the fitting room at the clothes department? They don’t lie.

Do you know the feeling when you are looking in the mirror and all you can see are your problem areas: your face is puffy (you can call yourself Mrs. Puffy, he-he-he), your thighs are loose and jiggly and your stomach looks about 5 months pregnant, br-r-r. To make matters worse, your husband wishes to see you in bikini on the ocean beach this summer. Honey, are you blind?

We all have the same excuses: we have kids, job, obligations; we love to cook and eat; stress that causes BED (Binge Eating Disorder) that leads us to weight gain and obesity.

We blame everything: stressful life, genetic, a lack of time, when the real reason of how you look like and how you feel right now is only YOU – A PERSON WHO LOST HOPE.

Do you have at least three of these health issues?:
- Obesity
- High blood pressure
- Type 2 Diabetes
- High blood cholesterol
- Gallbladder disease
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Osteoarthritis
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Headache
- Sleep apnea
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Stress

I do…

Oh, I can hear already you yelling:
“Once I put the weight on, I was unable to lose it. I tried everything: dieting, weight watching group, every supplement under the sun, diet pills. Nothing worked out for me.”

You gave up and this is when your health took a more dangerous turn!
I know it from my own experience. I started so many times and gave up. I lost and gained back, and always have had an excuse.

I am a competitive and ambitious lady. I am looking for a challenge and somebody who will accept this challenge.

If you are ready to change your lifestyle, eating habits and become healthier you ONE MORE and LAST time I encourage you to join me in this journey.

First I thought that I don’t need it and I can go through this challenge by myself.

Another part of me said that it might happen that there is somebody else in the world who needs it and would like to challenge her/himself and it can be fun to have a group of self-minded people who share the same ideas and even willing to compete.

If you are that kind of person and if you still care, accept my challenge!



The conditions are:

1. Your weight should be not less than 180 pounds, in a word you need to have something to lose, :))).
2. You agree to commit for 4 months of hard work (July, August, September, October). The Challenge will start on the 1st of July, 2012 and ends on the 31st of October, 2012.
3. You agree to post a logo of this Challenge on your blog. The special Private Blog will be build only for the participants of the contest. Each participant will be able to post on that blog sharing the ups and downs, program, progress, recipes, etc…
4. You agree to post an image of yourself how you look like now on the private blog. All images should be dated.
5. You agree to post the images of yourself on the private blog showing the monthly progress at the end of each month. All images should be dated.
6. You agree to post the image of yourself how you look like at the moment the Challenge is over (the 31st of October). All images should be dated.
7. You agree to reveal the “Before” and “After” images of yourself for public at the end of the Challenge (the 1st of November) by publishing them on your own blog.
8. To make it more fun, you agree to present a miniature gift each month to a monthly winner of the Challenge during 4 months of this contest. The winner will be a person who showed the highest weight loss percentage in a month that will be calculated. The number of lost pounds you give each month won’t be considered without the dated image.
9. You agree to present a miniature gift to the winner of the entire Challenge. The winner will be a person who showed the highest weight loss percentage during 4 months of the Challenge that will be calculated at the end of it.

The main prize is NEW Victorian Allison Jr. Doll House Kit by Real Good Toys



Please, if you consider to accept the Mini Weight Loss Challenge, contact me privately at scarletsails@live.com.

If you would like to be a sponsor and support the participants by donating your miniature as a prize to the winner, please, contact me privately at scarletsails@live.com. All sponsors will have the access to the private blog too.

I am going to the Big Sky Dollhouse Miniature show in Montana leaving you alone with your thoughts! A big decision to make!

Keep in mind, another word for “F” is FIGHT.

Talk to you soon,

Natalia

Navajo Pillow # 3 in 1/12th scale

In my previous post I mentioned that I finished 3 Navajo pillows and a little Navajo rug but posted images of only 2 pillows and the rug. Today I am correcting this and would like to present you another Navajo pillow in 1/12th scale. This is my favorite.

The pattern is available for $8.00


The pillow was stitched on 40 count silk gauze with The Silk Mill silk thread


I used Ultrasuede (black color) for backing, it gives such a nice velvet touch.


I fill up my pillows with the micro beads without holes.


Have a great Monday!

Natalia

Dollhouse Miniature Navajo Pillows in 1/12th scale

Since I showed you my Navajo Burntwater rug, it is just in time to show Navajo pillows in 1/12th scale that I finished recently. They all have been stitched on 49 count silk gauze with The Silk Mill silk.
There are 3 pillows and one little rug that also can be used as a table rug



Here is a front side of a little Navajo rug


and its back side


See you soon!

Natalia

Compound Scroll Sawing in 1/12th scale.Part 1

I decided to give you a little break from my stitching reports and show what I made while experimenting with compound scroll sawing in 1/12th scale.


If you would like to see more pictures of the process, please, visit my another blog

www.memyselfandscrollsaw.blogspot.com

that you can find on the right-hand side bar under My Other Blogs.

Here I will show you the finished result. So far, I made 3 figurines:
a swan



a cards' (napkins, newspapers) holder, or just decoration for a table




and a snail for your mini garden


A penny was displayed to give you the feeling of the scale.

Now I have to decide how I want to finish them. Any suggestions?



Talk to you later,

Natalia