Have to See Dollhouse Displays: A to Z Blog Challenge 24

 Some things seen at the annual dollhouse shows. 

Miniature Chicago Sports Bar

Today for the A to Z Blog Challenge (See Day 1, April 1 ), I thought I'd share a few of the neat things I saw at the shows. I also just got the box for this year's half scale swap but I won't be able to share it for another week at least so everyone has the chance to open theirs. Stay tuned!

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Went to the annual dollhouse shows in Chicago on Saturday, which is always fun. I love to show some of the things I saw and what I got. (*Click photos for full size for better view.)

Always fun to go see what's new, meet people, and well, buy stuff. ha! 

Saw some neat things at the Spring Miniatures Showcase in Schaumburg, IL - T&D Miniatures. I'll try to credit the makers if I can find the information.

Cool Miniature Sports Bar

This was so cool! Fantastic project by Kelley Kuehnert. What's neat is this mini Chicago sports bar also has a working TV showing the winning 2016 world series game! Actually it is an mp4 player which is a cool idea I haven't seen anyone use yet. It's really a well-done project.

Another cool table. She has a lot of neat haunted items. That haunted cauliflower is a riot and she said she'd made a whole haunted garden for someone years ago. How fun!

The spooky foods are a riot!

Another cool haunted table.

Found quite a few neat displays at the Bishop Chicago International Show at the Marriott hotel in Chicago. 

Room setting in a frame

Pretty table. I really liked the floral border.

Longtime miniaturist Kathi Kuti dolls had the cutest display table. And aren't these cat and animal figures just adorable???

These foods from Whimsies Dollhouse Shop are sooo realistic. Yum! Hungry yet??? (Pizza photo: Gigi N.) (The watermelon had a great transparency, better than my photo shows.)

This was the cutest thing. Someone shared a photo online of another lady with a yellow house purse. Happened to see her on the bus and then spotted this lady's purse. Now isn't this great? (Her daughter shared the link on Amazon. Link I found shows it at  $19.54 (other link didn't work anymore. Search will bring up other sellers.)  It also comes in black and white. Very tempting! It was a decent size, too, and not too small or too big. Just  so cute!!! Maybe I found my birthday gift. ha!

This is but one of several amazing crystal chandeliers made by artisan Frank Crescente. Here is a link at the Museum of Miniatures of a miniature view of the Titanic grand staircase and ceiling by him as well. 

New house kits from Little Vintage Lane Miniatures. Half-scale model, too.

(You can see full views of the full HS model at link above.) I like that it has an attached deck/greenhouse.

Scary snakes, cool lizards, great detail. Karl Blindheim animals

Next:  4/12 Fri: J-K - Just a new Kit   👱

Got at Dollhouse shows: A to Z Blog Challenge 24

1" scale tins and plant kits from CastleCrafts.

Today for the A  the A to Z Blog Challenge (See Day 1, April 1 ), I thought I'd share a few of the cool kits and things I found at the annual dollhouse shows in Chicago. Come back tomorrow for the letter H-I to see some of the Halloween & Other items I saw at the shows. 

* Click photos for full size and larger view.)

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Some of the kits I've come to love are from CastleCrafts (from South Africa and also shipping from New Jersey.) The kits are cut from a sturdy mat board, (similar to Petite Properties in the UK), but they go together well and have a great final result. 

Now while I mostly get and make half-scale (1/24th) kits now, I still occasionally have a few 1" scale projects I like to do. I liked the plants and tins in the top photo, and while I don't need another house project, this 1" scale storefront is a neat display project and not too big. So I couldn't resist. It'll be a nice smaller way to store some things between projects. I think I'll do a brick with gold and black like an older French or English shop.

For half-scale, I found quite a few fun kits. I really liked this cooker and the sink, which can fit in a cabin kit I'll eventually work on. I liked the European look and it's different than the usual furniture kits.

I was also tickled to find this weird "wonky" clock in half-scale. It's just too cute to pass up! The parlor chairs are also nice as I got the matching  French chaise lounge.

My other favorite vendor, SDK Miniatures, always has a great selection of furniture and plant kits. I love her Gothic items! I also got the second cafe table/chairs for the mansion diner and these unique poison plants for the witch's cottage. The philodendron will go in the mansion. I also found the second cafe' table/chairs for the diner and another set of plain wood chairs. That's after I fix a light problem. Darn. Knew these wall lights with pin-bulbs would be a problem. I'll have to re-solder one and attach a new light.

Cindy McDaniels (Cindy's Minis, IN) had some great half-scale pieces. I like furnishings I can remake, like these resin pieces, including a vintage Tootsietoy ice box that I'll paint. I found the painted metal stove at another table. There's a also a resin fridge (cabinet?) that came with the bed lot. The bed will be covered with fabric.

Also found some cute Chrsynbon plates painted for Halloween.

The assorted bookcases and counter were from J&J Miniatures from FL. He had quite a few half-scale pieces and since they were priced similar to kits, it saves me from doing the work. I just have to paint and decorate them. I liked the TV display stand (left), too, as it's similar to the stand/bookcase I decorated with a travel theme in my yellow Victorian house. (Other furnishings: Victorian bed, twin dressers, bookcases at link above.) I also got a bargain lot of wood doors from him.

Also got some nice tile flooring from Melvin's Miniatures. (I used the black/white stars tile floor in the witch's house and a couple vintage-look patterns in the mansion, too.)

There is more. Plenty of tiny decorative items and other furnishings like a couple bathroom sets, one plastic, one painted black, maybe for a Haunted house or I'll have to repaint it. Since I used all my bathroom pieces in the last couple houses, it's nice to find some inexpensively priced items. I found some tiny metal/pewter pots to paint for the diner kitchen, also, I really did get a good selection of kits at both shows.

Here's one of the bath sets, the fridge (or a cabinet that doesn't open?) and a fun little robot figure from another table. He kept staring so I couldn't resist. ha!

So fun stuff to work on and keep me busy for a while! I'll share things I finish later.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for H-I. - Stuff seen at the shows.

Next: Friday, 4/12 for J-K  - Just a new Kit I'm working on.

October Update: Halloween & More

 

Scene from my Haunted House.

Thought I'd add a best-of-the month and show highlights for October.

Halloween in Miniature went well, though it did seem long (well, to me, since I was scheduling things! ha!)

The month's best post:

Besides the first post, everyone must like witches! 

The witchy post for Day 2 got nearly 100 views and counting as of this writing. 

Next popular was the first skeleton post on Day 3. 

Also popular was Linda's cool ghostly parlor on Day 6 and JP Sligh's Witch's Kitchen, with my companion short story on Day 8. 

This month's projects:

I finished the half-scale Witch Cottage, of course. Check out the videos. 

I got the skeleton funeral parlor long-set-aside roombox out and made some updates. Added some faux doors to the side, which I thought turned out well. I'll share more as I get it done. 

Don't worry, this'll be over. ha! I'm done with Halloween, too, (except for my cottage). It'll likely be changed then to a store. I don't decorate much for Christmas except in miniature so I'll probably change this to a Christmas store for now and then a doll shop, I think. I have quite a few mini-mini dolls here and there so maybe it's time to put them in one place.

I'll also be working on the half-scale Park Ave. Mansion. Stay tuned for updates! 

 Thanks again for visiting!

Halloween in Miniature 23-2: Witchy!

Welcome to this year's annual Halloween in Miniature! You can see past years' posts on the top tab. (Click photos for full size; see other posts in left column archives.) * Schedule/Start at Day 1 

This year, I'm doing something different by posting on Instagram and here, according to the day's themes. Be sure to friend me there (cwrite12), play along and share the list!!

Here's the theme schedule: Post your minis based on the day's themes and tag me @cwrite12 and the post theme - @halloweenmini23

Since today's theme is "Witch Way," which I'm interpreting as something witchy!

Above is the witch that is in my 1" scale haunted house I built awhile ago. See other photos of the house at my website. I know not everyone likes dolls, but I enjoy them in all sizes and all scales. I got this witch some time back from ebay. 

Another view of the witch and her, um, "friend." I put these in a small greenhouse temporarily.

Another witch, the Lady in Red, I also dressed some time back from a doll kit. 

I hadn't worked on a doll in bit, so it was fun recently dressing a much tinier Half Scale - 1/24th doll I got from Bonnie Glazier for my recently finished Witch Cottage. If you've been following the blog, I've been sharing the house's progress. (See last post, roof and accessories; see other posts in left column archives.)

And... we have guests! 

Oh, look, some friends have come to visit, or maybe share their favorite potions! How does that rhyme go? Double double, toil and trouble... Uh-oh, hope nothing goes wrong! These fun hand-sculpted 1/24th scale witches are by Lisa Tabbanor. (Check her Etsy shop.)  

How nice! Edwina (Julie Campbell's hand-sculpted witch 1/12th scale) brought dessert for everyone! Shh! Don't ask what the ingredients are! It can't be bad, though. It looks yummy and she has such a kind face - even if she has that glint in her eyes! 

(See more of Julie's dolls on her website or on Facebook.)

* Go back: Day 1  - Next: Day 3:  (Links active day of post.)

* Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to come back for more Halloween fun! * 

Miniature Witch Dollhouse Green Thumb

Time for some fun stuff!

(*See last post: lighting. Click photos for full size; see other posts in left column archives.)

Decided to take a break from all that building, painting, and trimming, (ugh!) to make some spooky plants! (House is the Laser Dollhouse Designs' Jasmine Gothic Victorian Cottage. Photo of kit from website.)

 

Well, not real spooky but more on the "magical botanical" end since this is a cottage for a witch who makes potions. 

You remember the potion shelf I made previously? See below. (Victorian Gothic shelf kit from SDK Miniatures.)

New: I had this other large shelving unit and thought it would be another bookshelf at some point, though I really didn't want to make so many books! So this works - figured it would be a good addition for the plants and poisonous materials storage. So the witch has large boxes of poisonous items like mandrake, hemlock, etc. Then there are the various pots and dishes of plant starters in case she has to pick something for a special potion. I like how this came out as I wanted it to be slightly different than the other shelves.

A secret: I cheated on the boxes! ha! I made fronts and sides, then covered them with scrapbook paper and poison labels. I cheated on the wood plant crates, too. They don't have backs since no one will see that. Some of the jars are beads and pot-shaped beads.

Another idea is I saw a photo of some real-life hanging boxes and thought it would be perfect to make a mini set of boxes to put on the wall with plants growing. Handy to have them right there for use, I figured. All the plants are just bits and pieces of the assorted plastic plants I have saved up.  

Ok, here's a fun guessing game. What kinds of flowers are these???

This is part of a group of unusual "punny" plants that I got a long time ago in a swap with the Half Scale group that could fit in this project. Some I already used in front of the haunted house I leave set up.  (You can see a few of the plants a little in this photo. Look for the odd plants in front of the house with purple trim.)

I haven't found all of the above plants yet, but I did find these below. Can you guess what kinds of flowers these are? The two in the center top row below are regular plants.

And here's an idea I hadn't thought of: I think I'll make a set of risers to go in front of the windows in the tower on the first floor as I wasn't sure what to put there but that makes more sense to put a bunch of plants in that spot. Of course, I made a small circular riser a looooong time ago that I didn't use, but not sure where it is.... ha!

Here's an interesting set from that group too. Can you guess what the plants are?

The crow is fun; not sure who made it. A perfect totem/mannikin for this house! Maybe a place to rest her witch hats!

Next is the potion making work table and deciding what to put on it. Also have to finish that center wood wall divider. So, moving on!

* Thanks again for visiting! Come back soon for more updates!