What will go inside the ball?

So what am I working on with this ball? I loved reading your comments about it!
I found this Christmas tree ornament at a craft store and thought it would be nice to make a tiny miniature scene inside it. Once finished, it could be hung on the tree or maybe set on a base and used to decorate a table.

It is going to have a small Christmas tree with presents around it; this way it can be seen from all sides. Once the floor is put in, there is a space below that has to be decorated or filled in some way.



I thought it would look nice to have letters to Santa in this bottom part of the sphere and to have the presents on top. :) So I wrote tiny letters inspired by what I used to write and pasted them on the bottom part of the floor. They look as if they were floating in the sky and clouds off to the North Pole!

Next post... work on the little tree.

What will my next project be?

Thank you for accompanying me on My Dollhouse tour and for your comments about it. Being my first miniature project there are things that I would do differently today as we very often learn as we go while planning and building the rooms. But, because it was my first mini project and my only dollhouse, it also holds a very special place in my heart! Here is a picture of the whole house:



Now... what will my next project be? Here is a sneak peek on what I'm working on now:



What do you think it is?

The last two rooms in my Dollhouse tour

The parent's bedroom:



The bedspread and the curtains in this room are special to me as they were put together by my mother with lace made by my great grandmother and great aunts. I love it when I can incorporate personal things with meaning into miniature scenes and I enjoy reading about other people's stories too.

The little girl's bedroom:

Contest winner

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest. The hidden product was this Halloween pumpkin puzzle and it was hidden in the Little Books category.



We are ready for the draw. All the names have been put into the vase.



This time, the mummy will help me pick the winner.



And the winner is...



Glenna Humberstone. Congratulations!

I wish you all a happy and fun Halloween!

Vanity table with a Halloween touch!

Now who do you think this table belongs to?
I think a rather elegant witch is about to get ready to go out on a scary night tour! Or maybe the table is ready for welcoming a special guest who will stay over for the holiday weekend...

All the necessary toiletries have been set out together with some unusual decorations:

My Dollhouse tour continues with the sewing room

The second room in the house for enjoying hobbies is the sewing room. This is a cheerful room where a cat is playing with yarn and full of sewing notions.



The piece of furniture against the wall is the first one my mother and I made from scratch and it was a lot of fun. It is constructed from wood and the feet are pieces normally used for the stairs. Of course we had the most fun creating the compartments and making bolts of fabric, yarn, and thread spools to put in them!

On a different subject, there are only a few days left for me to announce the winner of the hidden product contest on my website! I'm very excited about this, many answers have already come in. :) If you would like to participate, scroll down a few posts to read the rules. Have fun!

A present from Kathy in the mail!

I was so excited to receive my "Pay it backwards" present from Kathy yesterday! There's nothing quite as nice as opening a surprise package of miniatures. :) A beautiful pot with flowers, a japanese fan and a little wrapped shoe box.



Luckily Kathy also sent me a little note mentioning that there was something inside the box because I probably would have left it nicely wrapped! Aren't the boots wonderful?
Kathy has a very nice and interesting blog http://kathycalhoun.blogspot.com where she shares the construction of her Garfield Manor Dollhouse.

My Dollhouse tour: the Study

Can you see the cat sculpture standing at the right corner of the room next to the bookcase? This piece is very special to me as my husband copied it from a real sized one at my parent's house. He carved it with a little knife and then painted it. It took him many many hours to finish it. He doesn't have much time to help me with my miniatures but I love it when he does as his style is so different from mine and he's very talented. He also carved the mask which is on the wall over the cat from a pistachio shell and made the lucky bamboo plant which decorates the small bookcase.



Rooms with slanted walls and windows are not as easy to decorate. For the window, I stained and varnished some trim which I then glued around it. The inside of the window is stained in the same color. Adding a windowsill added some space to put things on it: I was delighted to find the gnome book in miniature as it's one of my favorite books!

I have prepared a special Halloween contest which involves searching for a misplaced product. I hope you have fun! Here is how it works:

It seems that ghosts and goblins have been playing in my website as one miniature product has been misplaced and is hiding in the wrong category.
When you find it, write me a message telling me where you found it and I will enter your name into a draw. You can send me a message until October 30th at 9:00 P.M.(PT) and the winner will be chosen on October 31st. Please write “Hidden product contest” as the subject line of the message.
I will post the winner’s name at the same place where the product was.
The prize is the hidden product!
Here is the link to the website: www.maiastwinkleminiatures.com
Happy hunting!