Gifts and Waiting for Papa to come home

I really love my latest gift! Rosamargarita over at La Tapatia recently gave away not one, not two or three prizes, but five!  She was celebrating her first blogging year! I can't tell you how small, well-made and adorable these are. Look:

 

 

 Gracias Rosamargarita! Son preciosos y muy especial para mi. Tendran un lugar especial en mi casita.  =)

Here goes the second part of today's title. My BF is away on another business trip and this is what my little Lovebug does every time. He sits at the door waiting for him to come back. As soon as he sees the suitcases come out he knows what's about to happen. He'll hang around the door and take a nap there throughout the day, for about two to three days. That's when he realizes that his daddy won't be back any time soon.  =(

Still waiting......=(

Hola!

It's been a while since my last real post about minis, but not by choice. I've been really sick and only starting to recover. Since I am feeling better I've been catching up on all of your blogs and came across some giveaways I'd like to share.

This one you just have to see for yourself. Carolyn is celebrating 500 followers with a really great gift(s). Her blog is truly one of my favorites and if you don't know her here's your chance. She's also a very lovely person. =)

Mely celebrates her first 100 followers and has a really great giveaway as well. I LOVE her teapots!!!

And Audra has a fun giveaway she's doing. I love how it's all packed and ready to come home from the grocery store. =)

I hope you have time to stop by and say Hi!

I don't think I'll have much to show in terms of mini making. Getting sick kinda ruined my plans and I have family visiting next week, staying until January. Mini making time will be very hard to find. =(   I still have many blogs entries to catch up on and will continue to visit everyone as often as I can. I'm excited to see what you have all been working on!

Have a beautiful week!

Giveaways cont'd...

Ok, so picking up where I left off yesterday, I wanted to share a few more blogs with you that are celebrating giveaways.

Sjoukje is celebrating her first 100 followers. She has a blog I really enjoy. I like her style and the things she makes very much. Please stop by and say Hi if you have a minute. =)

Isabel celebrates one year in the blogging world! If you haven't already seen the mini games she makes run on over, because they're awesome! Of course it's not the only thing she makes but they are just so darn cute! =)

Peggy is also celebrating her followers by offering a giveaway. I think this one is adorable!  =)

It seems there are quite a few one year blog anniversaries going on. Eva too is celebrating one year! This is another blog I really enjoy. Again, because I like her style and what she creates.  =)

Flora tends to add a little story or history with her posts and I love it!!! She is celebrating 500+ followers.

The blogs in today and yesterday's posts are some of the blogs I love to visit, and I hope you have a minute to stop by and visit all of these lovely ladies too. =)

Happy Monday to you all!!!

Blog Giveaways!

Some of my favorite blogs are having giveaways and I thought I'd share.  =)  Enjoy!

I'm a new follower to this blog and absolutely love it. Pia makes the most beautiful plants and flowers. She has a great blog that you shouldn't miss out on. This is her giveaway to celebrate her first 50 followers.

http://lamisminis.blogspot.com/2011/11/50-followers-giveaway.html

Another fave is Caroline's blog. I'm a HUGE fan and fall more in love with what she does on every post! This is her first giveaway and I'm SO excited!  =)

What can I say about Drora? She is such a lovely person and very creative. In celebration of her first year blogging this is her giveaway.

LugArt petit is another wonderful blog. It's just too much cuteness and you know how much I love CUTE!!! LOL 

I hope you guys have fun visiting these beautiful blogs! There are some more to show, but too many for just one post. I'll be back tomorrow!  LOL

Hiiiiiiii........

How's everyone doing? Fabulous, I hope!  =D

Well, the BF is back early from his trip and has fixed my computer! Yay me!!! Bad news is, I lost all my files. =(   I don't have any of my pics or any of the printies I've downloaded from various places. I also lost all of the bookmarks of my favorite sites and new sites I had recently discovered. Those are definitely gone because I don't remember any of the web addresses or links. I'm really bummed about that.  =(  Hopefully I'll come across them again in the future and will make sure to make a hard copy of them. I don't have an external drive to save these things on so that's why it's all gone. My mother will be visiting soon and says she will give me the one my sister has. It won't be a loss to her. She's never used it.

I wish I could say I have something to show you during the time of  my computer mishap but, sadly I don't. I've been suffering from horrible headaches on and off that last for days at a time and all I want to do is hide under the sheets. I hope to get back into the swing of things in the next week or so.

I'm excited to be blogging again and thankful you guys didn't give up on me!

Have a beautiful day!!!!

Iris   =)

Two problems

Hi!!!! I'm still here....lol. I thought I would let you know what's going on at the moment.

First, my main laptop, which is about six years old, has died on me. I don't know what the problem is and I don't know how to fix it. I can't use it at all. It started having problems last year so my boyfriend gave me a smaller, basic one so that I could at least have something to get online with. That is the one I started to use this weekend when the big one died.

Problem is, that one has issues with the power cord. It doesn't charge the battery and for it to do so you have to wiggle and jiggle the cord until you find a specific position where it starts to charge again. So I guess it got tired of the wiggling and jiggling because now the power cord is not working at all. The battery is on it's last charge and I'm sure it will die soon if it hasn't already done so. I turned it off and haven't used it since Saturday.

So, I guess I won't be able to post anything on my blog until my BF gets back from his latest trip (November). He's the techie around here.....lol. I will still be able to visit everyone's blog using my most recent birthday gift, an IPad. I'm really not one for these types of gadgets, but it was my BF's gift to me so I can't sound ungrateful.....lol.

Problem #2: I've received emails from some of my internet friends letting me know that they've been receiving weird emails from me. I'm sure you all know the kind. If it looks weird to you then don't open it. I have also been receiving them and if I'm not sure I won't open it up. This happened to me once before and I don't know if there is anything I can do to stop it from happening. It's so annoying that people have nothing better to do than hack, spam or try to scam others!

Ok, so I think that covers it all. I hope you all are having a great start to the week!

Have a beautiful day! =)

Sandra's Giveaway

A beautiful giveaway is being offered by Sandra. She is not only offering one, but two prizes. They are both very beautiful and quite generous. =)
http://samirasminis.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-first-giveaway.html

Maria's Giveaway

Maria is having a giveaway for one of her precious books! If you haven't visited her blog, you're missing out on some fabulous mini replicas of literature.  =)

http://ilcucchiainomagico.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-beauty-and-beast.html

Tub of flowers

This is where some of the flowers have been transplanted to. I made a rusty "tin" container for them. I also made some garden stakes and of course they have to be rusty.  =)

Eliana's Giveaway!

Over at Terra dos Gigantes, Eliana is celebrating two years of blogging! She is offering a really nice prize! Don't forget to browse some of her other beautiful minis!  =)

MiniTink Giveaway!

Sonia is celebrating a giveaway for her (now) 800+ followers. She has a beautiful blog and a rustic house with many little details that I love. http://minitink.blogspot.com/ 

A million flowers....

Okay, so maybe not exactly ONE million, but it certainly felt like I was making a million of them!

There are purple, blue, pink, yellow and white ones. I've already "planted" some of these, but I'm waiting on glue and paint to dry. So, in the meantime I thought I would show you these other things I made.  =)

I used some of the white ones here:

The little bird is a bead/charm that I glued to a toothpick, and the base is one of those jewelry findings. I rusted it up and eventually I think it will find a place on the porch of my house. I hope you can see it well enough. Taking pictures was a fuss!

"A" is for Alma. The name of my mini lady.  =D

Have a beautiful day!   =)

My first blooms!

Another thing I've been wanting are flowers! I love them in real life, although I don't have any except for two small house plants. Last week, I sat down and tried to figure out how to make them and with the help of some Google images this is what I have so far. Remember, my hands are very slooooowwww.....lol. Although, in my defense I wasn't able to work on them at all over the weekend.  =)

I also had an idea on how to make the flower pots and then remembered that Casey has a great tutorial on how to make terracotta pots. You have to scroll down a bit the page to see this tutorial. So with my weak first attempts, and the help of Casey's tutorial I was able to make these and a bunch more in other colors. The ones in these pics are going to get a little aging done.

I also tried making a plant, but I think I need to work at it some more.  =)

Have a wonderful day!

Surprise gift!

Fabiola offered a little surprise gift to the first person to guess what her new project was going to be. Lucky me to guess correctly!  =)  It arrived this week and I was quite curious to see what it was going to be. When I saw this adorable bag I couldn't help but to smile. Isn't the stitching just so cute? I think it's cheery!  =D  I still can't get over how tiny those little bundles of floss are. I'm so used to seeing every thing through a computer screen that when I see it in person I'm just so fascinated.  lol

Thank you so much Fabiola! I really do love my gifts!

Please stop by for a visit. She just made the loveliest plants and has a blog full of  beautiful things. =) http://fabiolamiominimondo.blogspot.com/

I've been working on making some flowers and hopefully will be able to show you soon. Aside from not having a clue on how to make them, it has turned out to be quite time consuming. When I say I am slow, I mean I am sloooooooowww.  LOL

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend!

From Russia, With Love, Part 2

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, there were more gifts from my friend's travels. Here are the rest:

Matryoshka!!! Not one, but two, and even an unfinished one in case I wanted to give it a try. I don't think I'll be trying to paint that one any time soon. I'm just not that brave.  LOL

Here are what the unfinished ones look like. There are five pieces with this one.

This one is painted red with gold flowers.

I tried to put the smaller ones in front for a better view. I think I tipped over the teeny, tiny one. I can't even begin to tell you how minuscule it is.

And here is my absolute favorite! She is painted pink & brown with beautiful flowers all over her head piece. 

Isn't she precious?

I am totally in love with them! I still have them packed away though.  =(   I want to have them displayed in a special way. I want them to be out in the open where I can see them everyday, but I don't want them to gather any dust or get ruined being exposed. Truth be told, I just don't want anyone to touch them. LOL  That might sound crazy, but I just don't want any greasy little fingerprints on them. Ok, that sounded even worse.....lol. But you get what I mean, right? =)  I'm thinking of putting them in some sort of shadow box decorated appropriately of course. =D  

Oh how I love them so!  =D

Hope you have a beautiful day!

From Russia, With Love

Earlier this year, I had a friend that did a little traveling and brought me back some beautiful gifts. I don't want to get too picture heavy in posting, so I think I'll break them up into several, and of course leaving my favorite for last. =D

Ok, so we'll start here:

I love the painting done on this! It's a bit set-off from the wood and so you can feel all the little dots. The colors are nice and bright, and it's just so well painted. I love it!!!

 A close up:

These little guys were anxious to get out. =)

And they even have their own tiny tree!

Aren't they cute?  =D

Hope you are having a great week so far!  =)

I won a giveaway!!!

Back in July, Gill had a giveaway on her blog to celebrate her first 200 followers! She did it in a very unique way by choosing those of her followers that have made the most comments on her blog. I was in a three-way tie for third place....lol. So now that I have a blog I can post about my gift!  =D It arrived about three weeks later, all the way from Spain.

Isn't it the cutest! I love mini bunting. It just makes me smile. =D  The pillow has an adorable cupcake pattern, and the little jar is full of bath crystals for my mini people to smell like Spring Blossoms...lol.

Thank you so much for the gifts Gill!

If you haven't already stopped by her blog, you should. Her minis will brighten up any space. I am a HUGE fan of her beautiful quilts! http://makeitsmall.blogspot.com/

Regali dalla bella Caterina!

I speak NO Italian so I hope my title makes sense and it's spelled correctly....lol.  =)

A few months ago I received a lovely surprise from Caterina. She was thoughtful enough to ask if there was something specific I would like, and to tell you the truth I was quite embarrassed to ask for anything. After a little coaxing the only thing I really, really wanted was one of her books. I love reading in RL and find mini books to be the cutest things ever! So imagine my surprise and delight when I received this in the mail!!!

Not only did I get a book, I got two! She also sent along that tiny bookmark, because of course my mini people need to remember where they left off in their reading....lol. I haven't undone the little packet of postcards and letter because I don't want to lose any. =)  Isn't that basket so sweet and feminine? And come springtime my mini door shall be dressed with that pretty wreath.

Caterina thank you so much!!! I know you always say that feminine and pretty is not your thing, but you have done a wonderful job and have made this girl quite happy!!!
Caterina's blog has a little bit of everything from minis to informative information about certain cultural things. She also has a recipe blog so stop by and take a look!  http://leminisdicockerina.blogspot.com/

On a side note: Today I'm another year older and I'd also like to wish all the virgo-librans of the world a very happy birthday!!!!!!!

Happy friday to you!!!

For Jenya

This is what I used to decorate the hutch. As you can see, you can cut them up to whatever design you like. I found them where Michaels has all the little packages of small decorative buttons. Lately, it seems that they keep changing things around so I can't give you a specific aisle. I just go around the store looking for them. Which, BTW, I haven't seen them in a while.

Another Giveaway!

It seems to be the week of giveaways! Isn't it wonderful!!!

This time it is Mona at http://www.remmedollhouse.com/2011/09/giveaway-do-you-want-to-win.html?showComment=1316721627318#c1949317447591641045

Aren't her minis great!?!?  =)

A Tisket, A Tasket, My Wonky Lil' Basket & Before/After

Okay, so for some time now I've been searching for some #18 needlepoint fabric to make some baskets I saw in an old Nutshell News magazine. I've checked three different craft stores and the only thrift shop I know of, and nothing! I really like how they look and just wanted to give it a try. I also want to try some of Casey's (http://caseymini.blogspot.com/) techniques with it.
So since I can't find the needlepoint fabric, I decided to try weaving in the meantime. I found a book at the library that I love because it's full of DIY. Very basic, but good for this newbie!  =)  I can get a better sense of scale and how things can be made.
Here is my first attempt at weaving a basket. My poor, sad attempt......

This is the shape I wanted:

ROTFL......It looks nothing like it......LOL! I was trying to keep the wires fanned outwards, but I think I was so focused on keeping the weave tight I lost the shape. I also couldn't find the waxed thread it calls for so I used hemp instead. Oh well, I still have other sizes and shapes to try so....

I also wanted to show you my before & after. The only mini furniture I can afford at the moment are the $1 hutches from Michaels......lol.  I've seen six different styles of them, but you can never find them all at once.

This is one of the them:

And from it I made this:

Ignore the opening of the door handles on the inside of the door. I'm still thinking on whether I should paper the inside of the doors with the same paper that is on the top of it. Not sure if it would be too much.....?

Again I tried to muck it up a bit, but it was not right. I painted, re-painted and re-re-painted it. So, before letting this small, inanimate object force me to use a bunch of colorful words that a lady should never utter, and fling it across the room, I decided to just paint and sand, and call it done!  =D

Happy Thursday to you!!!