Miniature Shows and Finds!

My friend Gigi and I went to two of the miniature shows held this weekend in Schaumburg, Ill., The Miniature Show and The Three Blind Mice Show. We went on Friday and managed to beat the snow (which btw was way overblown, only got an inch or so and it's already melted.) We were pretty tired by the end so we didn't go back on Saturday to see the Bishop International Show. Maybe next time.

Didn't take as many photos but here's a few of the "interesting" finds for you to guess the price at that we saw at The Miniature Show. They had some nice items, a lot of expensive items, but we found a few dealers we found really neat kits at. I'm sure Gigi will be sharing the unique hand-made LED lights she found for her Paris Miniature Project. (If you haven't seen the progress, click the Paris picture in the left column.)

First the Annual Guess the Price Game: (Answers will be at the end.)

One of several shelves with gorgeous, hand-blown crystal. Really sparkled but... ahem....  costly.

Very nice furred Reindeer...

Hand-turned ivory and wood urns

A mini cabinet house

Hand-knit doll clothing and dolls.

Also a few of my finds at The Miniature Show:

I most often look for different kits as I enjoy building things myself. Otherwise I usually buy only a few tidbits and small furnishings, that's about it.

I love the half scale kits from sdk miniatures from Pennsylvania. Nice quality flowers and furniture. I really like the style of her Gothic line that I'll use in my haunted house. I have the single bookcases and had to add the double sided bookcase, which is really neat looking.  I also like the look of Hollyhocks in a garden. I also got the Gothic table, a second one as the first one is being decorated as a cobwebbed Miss Havisham table.

I was thrilled to find these vintage style kits (hat boxes, top hat and shipping box set) from Looking Glass Miniature from Canada. Really reasonable and nice to find different types of kits! I like the shipping box set and want to put that in the eventual Attic roombox I will be making. A nice touch is the hats when done will fit in the two boxes I made up.

These were cool, too. I like the kits from Art of Mini from Germany. I got these two suitcase kits and a sheet kit of vintage scrapbooks.

At the Three Blind Mice show, I also got a half-scale craftsman plant stand kit and a real nice Craftsman Library Table kit, both oak for half price from TMC, Teresa's Miniature Creations. I also got a mid-size Mayberry Street room box for $10 from another dealer as it has a slight scratch on the top of the acrylic. Barely visible, so a great find!

Did you guess the prices?

From top to bottom:
Crystal vases and items ranged in price from $275 to $445 each. (Jim Irish crystal)
Reindeer, $495 each
Ivory - $995 each; Wood, $165 each
Mini house (I think this was the photo of the one I was amazed at) for.... $6,900
Clothing - left bottom outfit, $237, right side outfit, bottom, $197

There were others, too, but these caught my eye.  No, I didn't buy any. Maybe next time... haa!