Merry Christmas!

Well, they waited until 7:01 to come get us to open presents, so I can't really complain. The funny thing is that these kids haven't been up before 9am since they went off track in November. But presents are presents!

Weeks of planning, days of shopping, hours of wrapping. . . and it's over in minutes and my living room looks like this. Notice the neat orb in the upper left hand corner. You can believe or not believe in that kind of thing- it certainly doesn't matter to me, but I choose to believe we have a Christmas Angel visiting. :-) Dust mote? Not on Christmas!!! Perish the thought.

I got a Nikon Coolpix camera and I love it! The whole back of the camera is the live picture screen. Very cool. I also got a Garmin GPS- all the better to find miniature stores with my pretty!

This one you will either love or hate. After years of hinting and hinting and singing the tunes, my family finally got me The Sound of Music on DVD. This is a long standing joke in the Family because my husband loves Mary Poppins (and I can't stand it) and I love The Sound of Music, which he hates. Mary Poppins could have been OK- I think Julie Andrews is fantastic, but long, strange animation sequences and fourteen minutes of dancing chimney sweeps makes me nuts.

On the other hand, I was German major in college and find anything remotely connected with German history quite interesting. Yes, I know The Sound of Music is in Austria, but there is this little thing called the Anschluss when the Germans took over Austria which is why the von Trapps traipsed over the Alps into Switzerland.

Just be aware that the Hollywood version isn't quite the way it really happened. The true story is actually even more interesting. But I'll let you research it on your own. The bottom line is that I have loved The Sound of Music since I was a child and I always will.

But I digress. Getting up early resulted in this on the way to my Dad's house. Even Ninja was sound asleep until I turned on the really neat new Nikon Coolpix Camera. You can see his glowing eyes in the back of the truck. Notice the rain out the back window. We had a very wet Christmas. But much nicer, I think, than when it gets hot. I'm not a fan of the 90 degree Christmas.

So it was a nice Christmas and of course there hasn't been a second in weeks to craft anything. I took some time off next week, but who knows if I'll get to mini at all. I have to work tomorrow. It's Boxing Day, for heaven sake! No shopping for me, except maybe at lunch.

Isn't this the perfect Christmas scene? The house makes me think of the Garfield or the Joseph Angel House. I wish Christmas looked like this. It makes me wonder, did it ever? Hard to say, but I like the picture anyway. I wish one of my dollhouses looked this good! With enough time, anything is possible, right?

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Santa Claus is Comin to Town. . .

Merry Christmas Eve! The kids have been waiting all night and have heard that Santa has been seen flying over various parts of the world. They really get into this. In our house if you don't believe, Santa doesn't bring you anything. You have to be able to hear that bell from the Polar Express!

I worked a half day and then came home and cooked and cleaned and wrapped. We had a lovely ham and our best friends came for dinner. I never complain about spending time with our dearest friends- good friends, family and good food are what make the holidays special!

Now the kids are in bed and I can sleep for a few hours before the destruction of all my hard work. Well, not really. Their delight is well worth it. I made them promise not to get me up before 7am. Let's see if they can stand it that long.

I hope Santa brings me my little camera. I've hinted enough-that's for sure. :-)

I hear sleigh bells. Santa is definitely close. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

A Bit More Trim

On Saturday the kids and I and the dog went on a hike up a local hill called Mt Roubidoux, which is a pretty famous trail in the Inland Empire. We braved the rather chilly day and had a really fun time. I didn't think I would feel much like working on the San Fran when we got back from our 5 mile jaunt, but I actually did.

I like to listen to audio books while I work and yesterday's book of choice was Eclipse, part of the Twilight series. I got he windows for the addition panted and glued together. You can see one of them in the bottom of the addition. I also painted a number of the corbels and glued them on. It makes a big difference.

I also added eaves above the bay window. This is also just card stock with glue and gesso and a punch done at the apex. I like it- it certainly was easy.

Last week the kids and I got the tree up. Like Casey, I wish I could shrink this down to 1/12th scale and stick it in one of my houses. Maybe next year.

You'll notice there are no presents under the tree. This is mainly due to a mini Australian Shepherd named Ninja who I'm afraid would try to open them all before Santa even got close! But that's another story.

I have some more trim and clean up work to do, and then I need to start on the lighting and other interior finishes. I can't decide if I should start the shingles or wait until the very end. I'm the unusual miniaturist that kind of likes the monotony of the shingles, although there are a lot of angles on the San Fran and it might not be as fun this time. I'll let you know.

Trimming the House

No, it's not adding Christmas decorations. But I did do some work on the San Fran on Wednesday night- trim work. My whole office is obsessed with the Twilight Series so I listened to it on on my ipod while painting and gluing trim. On a side note, I love Audible.com for audio books. I am an avid reader but I can listen to a book and do another task (like minis or needlework) at the same time. How's that for multi-tasking? Unfortunately I got white paint all over my headphones. Oh well.

So here is the San Fran with some trim added. The trim isn't done by any means, but it adds so much to this house! Of course you can click on it to see it a little larger. You'll notice I changed the front trim a bit. I couldn't stand the flat slats that would make up the bottom railing on the lower porch, so I cut them off and replaced them with turned spindles.

Here is a picture from the right side that shows the added bay window and the rather large dormer. Perhaps it's a little too large for the house, but it was an experiment and I like it. That's all that matters, right?

I think it will not look as bashed once the shingles are added. I also notice from the pictures that I have a bit of a gap to fill where the second and third floors joined not quite perfectly. It's funny what you will notice in pictures that you don't see as much with the naked eye.

On the other side is the door I added to open on to the terrace. This trim is simply card stock cut with fancy scissors and covered with white glue. It's quite stiff and I will cover it with a coat of gesso next. I'm happy with that trim. The center piece is cut from a scrap book corner punch. I'm sorry the picture is crooked. I guess that's user error, trying to shoot at an odd angle.

I would really like to have a simple, easy camera. My husband is a techie and has always been in love with Nikon. So we have a Nikon D-70, which is a really nice (big) camera, but for me it's like using a firehouse to fill up a water glass. In other words, much more than I need! Maybe Santa will bring me an easy, small camera that actually can fit in my purse. . .

Thanks, Casey, for reminding me that my dollhouse deserves time to be worked on too! It was very satisfying to spend a couple of hours on this the other night.