New Lambs

When I tell people we raise miniature sheep, they just do not quite understand this breed called
Southdown Babydolls. This is Gracie born 10 days ago, weighing in at 6 pounds. She will get no bigger than 24 inches in height, these sheep are tiny , wooly teddy bears. As you can see in this picture of Buttercup, who had twin girls.
Gracie has become my baby, bottle feeding as her mommy was unable to give milk. We have gone from every 4 hour feeding to every 6 hours. I have brought her home and yes, she follows me just like the song " Mary had a little lamb", she follows me everywhere. She will crawl right up in my lap, snuggle in for a nap if I am sitting on the floor. Potty trained too!
So miniatures have been put away for a bit ...

Cincinnati Minature Show

Over the weekend past, I attended The Miniature Society of Cincinnati's 33rd annual dollhouse miniature show and exhibit.
34 dealers were in attendance, the crowd was wonderful, a buzz about 2010 and what is going on in this part of the world when it comes to miniatures. My connection is NAME and I do have a lot going on over the next two years. In July I travel to Seattle to attend the national convention
( there is a waiting list to be able to attend), I am traveling to Chicago for the international miniature shows, off to Cleveland mid April for a show and for a steering committee meeting of the NAME national convention 2011 to be held in Cleveland. Add in my own club's activities, a National NAME day event in Oct, several more shows and my own projects... it will be December before I know it ... her are a few pictures from this past weekend's show.. the vintage barn is now mine!

A favorite Quote

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. I'll always be with you.”

Kentucky Gateway Museum in Maysville - a miniature museum event

I traveled to Maysville, this week, to start making plans for a NAME A-3 Region event I want to host this fall and to have held at the Gateway Museum- Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection. If you are truly one of those people who can never see enough of the best of the best in dollhouses and miniatures this is a place you must visit.
Upon my arrival, for my meeting with Lynn David, the museum's Communications and Visitor Services Director , I was informed that a new exhibit was being installed in the miniature museum.
Here are pictures of what was going on and the newspaper article about it.

When you look at the facade of the Russell Theatre, each detail jumps out at
you, the ceramic tile encasing the box office, the wrought iron handles of
the double doors, all the way up to the urns topping the east and west
towers of the buildings.

The only difference between this facade and the real facade of the historic
theater is the size of the structure; everything else is replicated exactly,
all the way down to the design of the tile floor of the vestibule.

The newest addition to the Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection at
the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center has arrived and is now available for
public viewing.

The Russell Theatre miniature joins two other historically significantly
buildings to Maysville's downtown: the Cox Building and the Bethel Baptist
Church, which once stood on Fourth Street.

Browning commissioned the work to add to the ever-growing collection at the
museum and work began in May 2008, by artists Allison Ashby and Steven Jedd,
who also created the Cox Building and Bethel Baptist Church.

"It should serve as an inspiration for the community to want to save the
building," Browning said, referring to the ongoing efforts of the Rescue the
Russell organization to restore the theater, which was built in 1929 by Col.
J. Barbour Russell and hosted the 1953 premier of Rosemary Clooney's movie
"The Stars are Singing."

The next phase of the project is for Ashby and Jedd to create a miniature
which will showcase the interior of the atmospheric theater and will be on
display next to the facade miniature.

Ashby referred to the building as a jigsaw puzzle, because each piece is
individually crafted and painted before being assembled in its final form.

Taking almost two years to complete, a unique feature of this miniature
compared to others in the collection is the fact more than 1,800 of the
buildings 11,000 bricks are inscribed with someone's name, making this piece
more personal to the community than others.

The purchased bricks line the east and west towers of the theatre facade,
with the names turned inward, forming a time capsule of sorts for the
community.

In November 2009, during final work on the piece, local citizens could
purchase a brick for $1 and inscribe their name, or a family members name on
the brick, with proceeds of the fund-raiser going to KGMC and the Rescue the
Russell.

"All those good wishes are in that building, it's a good addition," Ashby
said of the brick project.

And while it is difficult to see all the fine detailing of the building
while standing on East Third Street and looking upward, the 1/12 scale
miniature allows visitors to view up close the architectural details that
went into the creation of such an elaborate building, which Barbour hoped
would be "what the Roxy is to New York."

Jedd and Ashby's work highlights such small details as the six "Comedy and
Tragedy" masks; the lions faces which serve as anchors for the chains
supporting the familiar green marquee with its heart-shaped Russell Theatre
signs at each end; and the orange and blue stripe on the bases of the
building's three urns adorning the top pediment of the building.

The couple created their work from pictures of the building, as well as
studying it from the street and while only the ceramic tiles encasing the
box office are real tiles, the replicas of the building's other terra cotta
tile work looks authentic due to as many as eight layers of paint to develop
the correct color tones and then coatings of varnish to protect the pieces.

To coincide with the premier of Clooney's movie in 1953, Jedd and Ashby also
researched movies of the same time frame so that movie posters are
accurately displayed in the display cases located near the box office.

Using archived collections of local newspapers, Jedd said the movie posters
created for the Russell Theatre miniature are actual movies that once played
to Maysville audiences.

The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center is located at 215 Sutton Street,
Maysville; for information contact 606-564-5865; to learn more, go to
www.kentuckygatewaymuseumcenter.org.

Alice in Wonderland

I posted a long time ago about this movie, how I would be there right away when it opened. I saw it on Friday and it is wonderful, more than wonderful. I will see it again, buy it and watch it again and again. As a miniaturist who lives in a magical world every day, I think Tim Burton has created magic.
But then in this picture, I am the rabbit with the white top hat on, so I guess I have been living in an " Alice in Wonderland World" for a long time.
Tim Burton's version is filled with "there is just too much to see" moments. I felt like I missed seeing so much as there truly is so much to see and take in. As always, this is an adult movie, well, yes you can take your child but there are some scary scenes, the Jabberwocky is scary and when you watch the movie in 3-D, I jumped several times in the movie as I felt I was right there, I felt I could catch the butterflies, catch the dandelion seeds floating, danced with the Mad Hatter ( oh, yes Mr. Depp is truly a Mad Hatter!). It is a must go see movie... ONLY IF YOU BELIEVE that is.

Thank you

Thanks to my friend, Roberta, who joined me in seeing Tim Burton's - Alice In Wonderland movie... see it in 3 D- the movie was beyond what I ever dreamed it would be about.
Your become fixed to the screen and every detail of this movie is a masterpiece of art in so many forms.

What a new day , a new spring can make you remember and reread..

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. i'll always be with you.”

WINNIE THE POOH

originals toys can be found in the New York Public Library on display ..

Egg Carton Castle

I found this castle on a site called Suffolk Scrap Store. Lots of cute ideas what a person can do with "scraps" of this and that. Don't we all have a box(es) of stuff?