December 24, 2020

A #Mini Merry #Christmas Tale by Robert W. Walker part 1

 It's become something of an annual tradition that I've been sharing this little Christmas story my friend and fellow author Robert W. Walker penned for me. It first ran here in 2008. Enjoy!


Today I have the pleasure of presenting an original Christmas tale by Robert W. Walker, author of 70+ novels including the fabulous gaslight thriller, CITY OF THE ABSENT, featuring his detective, Ransom. Check his website for his latest thrillers and novellas.  


While Robert is known for his spooky and often creepy-gory horror books, he has a soft side, too! Never fear, this story, which will run in two parts, is rated PG. 


(Come back tomorrow for part 2)

The Thief of Christmas Present
By Robert W. Walker


(Photos: Christmas Santa House by C. Verstraete, more photos see website, Santa's House page.)




Julia rushed into her mother's room, her eleven-year-old arms flapping as she said, "Joannie stole my Christmas presents! I just know it was her!"

"Your big sister wouldn't do that, Julia."

"Then its one of her girlfriends."

"I've talked to Joannie, and she's given the third degree to every friend who has been visiting the house since Thanksgiving."

Julia's eyes filled with tears. "Musta been that boyfriend of hers then!"

"He seems like a nice, respectful boy, and whatever would possess him to steal your miniature Christmas presents from beneath your miniature tree?"

Anna Waldron hugged her daughter to her. "We'll find the stolen goods. They're likely somewhere on a shelf. Thoughtlessly moved by one of your little friends."

"No, no mom! I don't let anyone reach into my dollhouse and take out anything, not the figurines, not the furniture, and certainly not the presents under the tree."

Anna wondered how this could keep happening to her daughter. Julia had put heart and soul into her miniature house this year. In fact, she'd begun creating the tree, the ornaments, lights, stockings hanging over the fireplace, and the presents beneath the tree since last Christmas.

She'd got it in her head that her dollhouse ought to have all the ornaments and decorations of any home, that Mr. and Mrs. Cluewellen and their three children who lived in the miniature house ought to have a wonderful Christmas too.



Julia had worked so hard to make it happen, and now, day-by-day, all her work was coming unraveled. The day before she noticed an ornament missing from the tiny tree. The day before that one of the stockings she'd labored so hard to make was gone from the mantel. Poof. Now two of the tiny presents from beneath the tree-gone. Stolen.

"At this rate," moaned Julia, "by the time Christmas gets here, the Cluewellens won't have anything left."

Anna patted Julia's hand. "And The Christmas Crook of the Present will have won!"

"We can't let that happen, mom!"

"We must act, set a trap."

"A trap?"

"Yeah, we'll wire up a trap that will snap on those sticky fingers."

"Then you think it's Stevie?"

"I hope not, but your little brother is at that age. I sure hope he hasn't lied about this."

"Well...it's not a ghost. I asked the Cluewellens if they'd had any problems with anything like a poltergeist, and they said no."

"You believe them?" Mother Waldron laughed, but Julia stared at her, eyes saying, 'not funny'.

"They don't lie, cheat, or steal, mom."

"Neither does your brother or your sister for that matter, young lady."

"Well I'm not lying about it! Someone's stealing the Cluewellens' Christmas right under our noses."



"You set the trap," suggested Anna. "I'm going to set up a concealed camera, so we can get to the bottom of this before..."

Julia looked up at her mother, wondering why she'd stopped talking. "Before all of the presents and decorations are gone?"

"Before you make your sister and your brother angrier with you than they already are."

"Angry with me? I'm the victim here. Me and the Cluewellens."

"Honey, you have accused both of them of stealing and lying about it. Then you accused their friends."

Julia nodded, and for a moment Anna thought her child understood and agreed, but then Julia said, "It could've been one of Stevie's dumb friends."

"Well now, we're going to find out, aren't we?"

"You think it'll work, mom?"

"At the rate things are disappearing, my hunch is that whoever's behind the theft will be back."

They put the trap into play.

They wisely left the miniature house untouched and unmoved, the same enticement as ever.

An entire day and most of the evening went by with young Julia wanting to check the Cluewellens' living room and tree every hour, while her mother insisted they wait and see. When Anna decided the camera's battery would be in need of help, mother and daughter went into her room to determine if anything had been taken. They found the front door closed. Julia gasped when she looked in through the windows. The entire tiny Christmas tree had been taken! All about the front door and steps, glitter appeared like colored snow. Whoever was behind the theft, cleaning up after him-or herself-wasn't a concern.

"It's got to be Stevie or one of his goofy friends," Julia said, tears forming. "Maybe Stevie's too chicken to tell on Tad."

"Let's reserve judgment and see what the camera says."

They made popcorn and popped the film into the USB port of the TV and sat down to watch the unfolding events. Unfortunately, during the first hour, nothing unfolded.

"This is a real snore and a bore," Julia complained, tiring of the popcorn as well.

After a while, Julia began making up a storyline to go with the miniature people inside the house on the screen, and it was so vivid that her mom could almost imagine that the little Cluewellen family was as real as Julia believed them to be. She began to see Mrs. Cluewellen move that feather duster in her hand. But clearing her head and eyes, Mother Waldron thought better of saying she'd begun to see the miniature people roaming around inside their miniature house. Maybe the miniature was haunted at that....

(c)2008, 2020 RW Walker published by http://candidcanine.blogspot.com


* The story continues tomorrow at part 2.)





December 20, 2020

#Christmas Gifts and Working on....

 

Goodies in the Christmas room... This year's scene. See other photos.

Just a "little" update... 

I may get quiet on here, but it doesn't mean I've been idle!! As Christmas is the time of giving, it's always fun to be surprised by a wonderful handmade gift. (click photos for full size.)



I just got this wonderful gift in the mail, an "exclusive" chair design by fellow author and miniaturist Camille Minichino. (You may know her as the author of the fun Miniatures Mysteries... see link in the side column of this blog!)

Camille often makes chairs and mini book scenes for auctions, so I'm tickled to death to receive one of her creations. I just LOVE this! And she even put my covers of my books on there. (Though the Lizzie book cover has been changed since...) But... isn't it great??

*************

Speaking of death... (how do you like that segue?) 😊 I got some work done on a rather, er, unusual project...  I shared some photos earlier of this interesting find, a small coffin, hubby found at the local Goodwill.


Since the initial photos I've dressed another skeleton lady for the coffin and added some crosses. I'm working on a rather "dead" bouquet for the top yet. 

I just repapered the room. The roombox had been sitting around for a while... I think it was initially it was going to be some kind of store that I lost interest in. So resurrecting it (ha!), it'll be a funeral parlor...

I'd never have done this kind of project but for finding that cool mini coffin.  The bottom of the walls show the old green wallpaper. It has wood wainscoting on the sides that I've re-stained darker and have to put back yet. I'm also adding that piece of wood floor in front, plus I'm making a covered stand for the coffin. Oh, and yes, there'll be plenty of "guests" that need to get dressed for the event!

There will be pillars in each corner and up front with more flowers and lights. I knew I was saving those plastic cake pillars and pedestals I picked up at a yard sale a looooong time ago for something! Warning: This is why you become a packrat! haaa!


Of course, you always need something else! As the Victorian standing lights I'm putting next to the coffin are a little short, I cut off the bottoms of two of the shorter pedestals to use as stands. They'll have that wood disc on top and the whole thing is going to be painted bright metallic gold to match the light poles. Or at least I hope. Never used that paint so have to buy some and I'm curious how it turns out. So far, it's nice to see when an idea starts coming together how you want!


Also in progress and nearly done: the record store. I'm putting things in now and have to glue the top decorative trim on yet, but here's a peek of part of the outside. I'll do a full post later. Yes, it's busy and very '60s "kitschy." I'm especially happy with the outside sidewalk - that is actually a heavier textured fabric that I knew would make a good walk when I saw it! And it also glues very well. It's actually costume fabric, but it really works well. Stay tuned for more updates!



I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

Thank you for following my blog. I really appreciate it!. And... yes, I do hope to get back to updating my miniature project books. I fell behind, but it's something to look forward to in 2021!








December 06, 2020

Update: Ladies Shoppe #Miniature Cabinet

 Realized I never put up the finished photos of the Ladies Shoppe Cabinet. (Click photos for full size) 

Finished cabinet. 

Partial inside view:



Front, inside shelf insert (special order from MiniEtchers.com)


The original cabinet.

Transformation:

I took out the wood ledges on the sides so I could put a false floor on top of the drawer. The floor is matboard covered with scrapbook paper.



December 02, 2020

New #Miniature #Christmas Room

 Finally got this done. While actually it only took a few days I had to fix a couple things so it had to sit a few days longer. (click photos for full size)


I got this roombox partially done a few years or so back.  It's nicely stained on the outside and has a really nice wood floor and door. The walls were painted blue on the bottom before with rope around the inside like it was going to be some kind of nautical room. It took so long since I couldn't decide what to put in it! (And yeah... every time you take a photo, then you see that something fell or is leaning. ha!)

Since I like to set up a Christmas room, I thought, why not decorate it so I can change it later? I decided to use some cool scrapbook paper printed with maps on the top part of the wall and painted the corrugated paper for the bottom in a matching tan. Once Christmas is over, I'll put in a vintage desk and other items for the world traveler's room. Figured I'd use some of the things I collected until/whenever I set up the mini world museum.

I like to use vintage miniatures so the art on the right wall is an embroidered picture I cut from a vintage Christmas card. The girl doll is also older. The tiny angels are little figures I added on top of the mini trees. I know the LED light string on the left is out of place, but I didn't want to wire the room and needed more light. Maybe I'll add an LED wall sconce later. 


Here's a close-up of the ceiling. I love how this turned out. 


I used a vintage candelabra I had and fitted it with crystal beads. The medallion is a paper compass shape with added rhinestones. You can't tell here, but the paper is a pretty textured scrapbook paper with a light golden yellow color. It goes perfect, even if I had to piece it since it wasn't wide enough. I'll definitely use these papers again!

Side table: (I have a paper Santa mail box and letters I wanted to put here, too - and then I found I was out of printer ink! So waiting on that to come.)


I added snowflakes as handles on the side table and put part of the gold Christmas card on top. The mirror is separate but I thought it added something. 

There's still a couple things to do  - done since this photo: filled and painted the top of that cactus ornament. There's also another small vintage stand on the left of the fireplace. I have a special Christmas plant I made from petals punched from Christmas scrapbook paper. The punches end up with a cool variety of designs on the petals. Love how these turn out! I made a Halloween one, too, with the spider web pattern and I know I'll make more with other pattern papers.


This was a fun project and nice to see the room done. It's a good sized room but not huge, which I like. It'll be fun to change it after Christmas, too. 


December 01, 2020

Merry #Christmas Miniatures Advent Calendar

   


 Today starts the daily miniatures Christmas Advent Calendar!

Daily miniatures - mine's on my birthday, Dec. 7.

See calendar here. 

* The NAME site - National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts  - Create.org - also has a daily miniatures calendar. Find it here. 

November 09, 2020

Unexpected Creepy #Miniature Project Idea

 



Ideas can be found in the strangest places, or be inspired by certain things.

Latest Goodwill trip had hubby find this - which of course, couldn't be passed up. 

I've got an interesting idea for this one. Now I know why I keep buying and saving all those Skellies every year at Halloween, before they quit making them....

Interesting is that it also talks when the lid opens. ha! (It's a quit smoking gag, I guess, so several sayings about that. Ashes to ashes, etc. ) And the Skellie lady will fit better once I do some, er, "embalming" work on her...heh-heh.

Project #1001. ha! Or something like that. Btw, the Halloween shop and record store are - finally - about done! Photos coming soon! I was trying to figure what to work on next, so this may be one of them. Yes, I seem to do several projects at once. (Why it takes so long to finish one, I guess.)




November 02, 2020

#Halloween #Miniatures!

 Well, yes, I'm still working on the Halloween mini book project, so bear with me, please.

Thank you all again for visiting Halloween in Miniature! (If you missed it, click the skeleton in left column.)

****Prize Winners: J Root - an e-book when I get it done; it might be a bit. R Jensen - a fence and scary faces. Thanks for playing along and visiting the blog!

Otherwise, yes, I've been doing minis - I'm still in a HALLOWEEN mood!!

A few pix while I'm finishing things... 

I was positively thrilled to see this cute metal and resin (?) sign on FB and knew if I didn't get it for the outside of the Halloween shop I'd kick myself big time!! Isn't it adorable???? (I'll get a better pic later, but the bottom reads Novelties.) It's by VT Alsen of Tonya's Miniatures on FB. She's also starting an Etsy shop soon.)

She also has these incredibly teensy bottles for half scale which I couldn't pass up for the HS haunted house... 


What else? Here are a few progress shots from the Halloween Shop. More pix will be coming soon! The lights are in, too.

So far... here's the outside of the Halloween Shop. It's in the larger of the Houseworks' Street of Shops set. Yes, it's a lot of #$%^ painting and touching up! The sections are backed with scrapbook paper.

For a change and color, I used dimensional stickers on the outside. I'm so glad I found these stickers at a garage sale or Goodwill or something. No luck finding anything similar this year. Just as - gasp - I didn't see any of the moving - lenticular mini pictures which I love! No wonder we turn into hoarders!! 

I feather-paint my columns. TIP: Use a real feather (I find them outside) and lightly dip in your paint. Make light lines on the wood. Seal with Mod Podge or light water-based varnish.

Inside: I'm in love with how the curtains came out! I'll have a how to coming up soon! The wall inserts are scrapbook paper. (Oops ignore my missed spot on the door. I fixed that!)

Here's the door and part of the curtains since I finished the outside. The curtains are double-faced, different patterns on each side. The other side of the curtains showing outside is a lighter orange swirl pattern  as seen partly here. And the wreath came out great, too, thanks to that feathery trim. It 's hard to tell, but it has punched out leaves, a couple punched out cats and colored bones and a skull from a dollar store necklace. There's a fabric triangle valance hanging the door on the inside.


Making witch hats also. Here's one style:

Teapot cabinet for inside the store. Teapots are by my friend Kitty.

Potion cabinet. The wood shelf is a box insert that I painted and added scrapbook paper. The pillow is by my friend Gigi.


Another bookshelf I'm going to paint and fill. Some books with "bookends."


Stay tuned. More to come!








October 31, 2020

#Halloween in #Miniature: Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat!


 (Candy, Megan Conlon, see interview, Halloween In Miniature, 2010 - https://candidcanine.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-in-miniature-2010-day-8.html

👀 Start at Day 1: https://candidcanine.blogspot.com/2020/09/halloween-in-miniature-2020-start-party.html

Today I bring you the perfect Trick or Treat story...heh-heh....

LITTLE SQUIRT

By A.L. Kaplan

Chocolate, gooey caramel. My mouth almost waters. If only I could still taste that luscious candy, but the reanimated can’t do that. It wouldn’t be bad if I got out more. I mean, Grandma is great and all. She brought me back to half-life after I was killed. It’s just not the same without other kids to play with. Halloween is the only day I can go outside without freaking the living. Believe me, you don’t want the pitchfork and torch brigade chasing you.

“Trick or Treat.” I hold out my sack with the other children.

(Dish and spoon, Julie Campbell Doll Artist)

A lady hands me a handful of candy. “Great Costume.” 

I thank her and hurry toward the next house. Two little girls sob at the curb. Halloween should be fun, not sad.

(Ghost girls,  Julie Campbell Doll Artist)  

“Are you ok?”

(Bunny pattern, larger size, The Wishing Shed, Etsy. Cute!)

The bunny points a gloved paw at three disappearing teens. Her ears bounce with each sniffle. “They…took… our…candy.”

I hate bullies. “Here, take mine.”

Big, round, adoring eyes look up at me. Being undead has its perks. I track the thieves faster than a bloodhound.

“That candy isn’t yours.”

(Candy bars, Patricia Paul on Etsy)

        They laugh and tower around me. “Get lost or get pounded, squirt.”

“Squirt, is it.”

I take a deep breath and squirt them with inky old blood.

      A moment of stunned silence, then they clench their fists. I point down. They stare as skeletal hands reach up and pull them into the ground. Half-buried, they shriek and struggle.

“Don’t steal, especially from little kids on Halloween. I’ll be watching.” ##

** For fun, here's a link to some great dollhouse candy printies. 

-----------------------

A.L. Kaplan is the author of Star Touched and Wolf Dawn, Gifted with the ability to wolf-talk, Kara has lived with the wolves since she lost her memories eight years ago. Now at sixteen, snippets of her past send her searching for answers. But the warm welcome she receives in the human village hides more danger than life with the pack.
      In Star Touched, Eighteen-year-old Tatiana is running from her past and her star-touched powers. Her power to heal may be overshadowed by more destructive abilities. Fleeing the persecution of those like her, Tatiana seeks refuge in a small town she once visited. But this civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble. Will Tatiana flee or stay and fight for the new life she has built? Only by harnessing the very forces that haunt her can Tatiana save her friends and herself.##
Thanks for stopping by for another year of HALLOWEEN IN MINIATURE! 
I hope you enjoyed your visit as much as I enjoyed planning it. You can check out last yer and previous years on the tab on top of this blog.
* Be sure to visit my website for the latest news on my new book, In Miniature Style - Halloween! (If it isn't done, It's in the production phase, so stay tuned!)

A big THANK YOU to all the artists and authors who kindly lent their talents to this year's event! Please visit their sites and check out more of their work.
 (Be sure to come back for a few late posts on what I've been working on! Halloween never ends, you know. haa!)
The Artists & Authors:

🎃 Julie Campbell hand-sculpts an incredible array of dolls. Check out her Halloween dolls preview on Etsy.
  If you didn't know, she also made the figures featured in the movie based on the book, The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. (See more about the film. Read more about the film's dollhouse and Campbell's dolls here.)

😈 Debra Hinton makes some ghoulish minis at Darkside Morbid Miniatures. Warning: not for the fainthearted.  Also be sure to check out her amazingly detailed 28-room Victorian-era Kangley Hill Asylum.

💀 Other miniature creations by Meredith Paige and Angela Potts from the Haunted Orchid Dollhouse Club on FB.

👄 Patricia Paul makes the most fun and spooky Halloween and Haunted miniatures. (PS - sign up for her newsletter for a free printie book cover set!)

 ðŸ˜¸ Carola Dunn is a multi-published British author of  the Daisy Dalrymple classic mystery series, the Cornish mysteries and over 30 regencies. See her author book page here.

👹 Leta Hawk loves writing about fantasy, ghosts and other spooky things. She is the author of the Kyrie Carter Supernatural Sleuth series.

 ðŸ‘ºA.L. Kaplan is the author of Star Touched and Wolf Dawn, plus some great (and spooky!) short fiction.  See her author page here.

👀 Be sure to check my website and this blog for more news on my upcoming In Miniature Style: Halloween book and ebook by C.A. Verstraete! 

** See you next year!! **

HAPPY