miniatures in a display glass cabinet

Hello dear readers,

There is a lot of interest and it's only one miniature cabinet with four shelves.  I wanted it to be in my husband's ward for the medics, nurses,  take carers and patients' families to enjoy.   There is very little
space for it in this ward but, I insisted.

The moment my daughter unpacked the items, people gathered around us, very curious to see the items, wanting to know what they were made of.  Some thought the walnuts shells were plastic. Some wanted to know how long it takes to make a certain item.  The questions were and still are endless but fun to answer.  I, myself never know how long an item takes to make. I had to explain that for me crafting is occupational therapy. Some of the items are from recycled materials and yes, I can't deny it, I am a hoarder.  Whenever I throw something away I get to regret it.  I hoard wooden boxes, old tiny designed cotton materials, packaging materials, etc.  Looking at stalls, it was hard for them to believe that my only carpeting tools are a knife, a miter box, and a small hand saw.

I get inexpensive wood from boxes.  Saves me sawing efforts.

Back in 2011, I made a step by step photo tutorial for a simple very easy to make market stall.
If anyone is interested here.

There is always a  gathering near the display cabinet which makes it almost impossible to take pictures.

Wonderful surprise gifts arrived, sent to me by my granddaughter Tali who for the time being lives with her family in Utrecht, Holland on account of her husband's job.  Tali loves browsing in second-hand book stores. She found two vintage dollhouse books for my collection which made me enormously happy.

This hard covered, very heavy book is a l975 edition.

This hard covered, very heavy book is a 1976 edition.

I wish you all a wonderful sunny weekend with blessings.

A small exhibition

Hello dear readers

The staff at the nursing home where my husband is being cared for asked me to exhibit some of my work, offering me a small glass cabinet for the display.  Our New Year happens at the end of
this month, the exhibition must be as soon as possible. It will last from Sunday next week till the end of October. It's going to be one of the New Year and other October holidays attractions.

This kept me fully occupied for the last two weeks, making and stocking 3 new market straw stands.

All the hats were already in my stash.  The rest I had to create from a roll of string, raffia, jute,
 paper, etc. And, most important Glue. The best, fast holding glue I can get here is white wood glue.

Also made a few more nutshells, which were originally intended as holiday gifts. (I'll now have to
make more for gifts.)  Another lucky find was two old wooden boxes to display the nuts in. These will be on the top shelf.

Had to clean this old purses and bags stall to make it eligible for the show.

The glass cabinet has 4 shelves, each about 40 cms square.  Since it will not be easy to
see the bottom one, I intend to just display either the mini houses or the bags stall on it.

Wish you all a lovely creative rest of the week, with blessings.

Hello dear readers,

It is such a relief working with nutshells only. Less mess.
I don't remember when my home looked tidier.

Despite the big demand for gnomes and their homes,
and in order not to get bored, I want to try making tiny fairy tales scenes. Becoming an "expert" on tiny trees, I already have enough for the woods or forests where some of the story plots take place. Why is it that fairy tales are stories for children? How can a young child not be frightened and horrified when he learns that granny was swallowed by the bad wolf?...

My first attempt is Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Witches are also very popular.  Made two new ones and cats, which already have owners. More on their way.

We are having some very hot summer days. The Fimo clay became too soft, I had to cool it in the
fridge in order to be able to shape the figures.

I hope everyone was able to have a nice, enjoyable summer vacation and is happy to start
crafting again. All the best to you with blessings!

Nutshell witch

Hello dear readers,

After filling about one dozen nutshells with gnomes, I took a break and made one prototype autumn scene with pumpkin, black cat, witch, and broom.  After all, Halloween is much sooner than Christmas and winter scenes can wait.

There is no end to how many scenes can be created in nutshells.  I wish I had more time but for the time being, I can only spare a few hours a week.  At least I can enjoy following your works.

I wish you a lovely weekend with blessings.

Recycled material for making tiny mini trees

Hello dear readers,

Today I'm going to show you, with photos, how I make tiny trees for nutshell scenes.


These are dried out pieces of grape stems.

I glued on green pieces of foam and this is the result.  It is also possible to
create bonsai trees with this method.

For dyeing the foam I made a mixture of 2/3 green acrylic paint and 1/3 water in a
small container and pushed inside two small chunks of foam. The foam was kept
soaking for an hour or two and been turned around several times.  I used a bamboo
skewer instead of my fingers, for taking it out to dry on some newspapers.
When dry I cut very tiny pieces to make the leaves.  I love the results with the shades
of green.

Used this small container to dye two pieces of this foam.

                                                                                                                            

You can cut the foam into very small pieces before and the green will coat the pieces
overall and evenly.  I wanted the effect of shades.

These were cut again to make even smaller pieces.

Now every gnome has a home as well as a tree.  Both trees stand, temporarily
on Plasteline. The tree on the left is with bought railway foam. The tree on the right has
my recycled foam. Which do you like more?

I wish you a lovely weekend and blessings.

Fimo gnomes and ceramic clay houses

Hello dear readers,

It so happens that all my free time is now devoted to making nutshell homes for gnomes. Already
made and gave away 11 but requests for more keep pilling up.  Boring as it is,  they all
want gnome homes. OK, so the snowmen, nativities, fairytales, and other ideas will have to wait.  Good thing there's still time till Chrismas.

I need more walnuts, preferable fresh ones which are hard to get here.  My daughter Galia
promised to get me at least 20.


Grouped the little houses before separating them.  They look so pretty together.'
like a tiny village. Also made some trees from bits of scrap sponges.

Remember the kiln-fired clay houses?  This was before transformation.

Made seven gnomes for the seven empty nutshells.
The one on the left side is too large for the shell.  He'll be sitting on a flower pot soon.

A town's neighborhood. (smile)

I wish you a great week ahead with blessings.

My name is Katherine - my friends call me Kitty

Hello dear readers,

Would you believe it?  Today, two months later, I received birthday gifts which were sent to
me by Tatiana, my dear friend from Ukraine, on May 20.  Luckily, Tatiana realizing that
the parcel didn't arrive, sent me the registered number and I was able to track down the parcel.
At the post office, they told me that two messages to my cell phone to come and claim it
were left unanswered.  Of course, the messages were sent to a wrong number.
I'm so ashamed and furious that we have such a clumsy post service. At last, the parcel was
located.  Still, it took over 2 weeks to get to me.

You cannot imagine how happy and relieved I was to open the parcel and find
this gorgeous cat girl doll, handcrafted by Tatiana, one of the most gifted miniaturist friends
I'm fortunate to have.


Kitty has got on a beautiful dress, hat, and shoes all made by Tatiana.

And, Kitty didn't come empty-handed. She brought me a beautiful vase filled
with gorgeous flowers.  A beautiful piece of lace adorned the lovely box.
Look at how sweet her little tail pips out of her dress.

Suddenly, a welcome committee arrived to inspect the lovely newcomer.
Baalatova and Solly love Kitty. She was invited to listen to Baalatova old,
fascinating stories along with Solly.

So, all is well that it ends well.  Blessings my friends