Orange Blossom Special!

My mini orange tree

"Orange" you glad I finally finished something?! I know I am!

Save Your Receipts!

I just discovered that the white paper from a purchase receipt makes the prettiest little white flowers for my orange tree! These are real oranges and flowers. I'm just a copycat! LOL


I'm off to work now but I hope to finish my tree tomorrow?

Hope you have a great day!

Orange Tree?

Here's a little orange tree that I've been working on this morning. I'm making it up as I go along...

As you can see, I have a lot more to do! The trunk is too fat so I'll add another branch or two to hide that.

There will be lots more leaves and oranges when I'm finished. I'm planning to make two of these so this will take a while!

Hope you have a lovely day,

Candle Labels

I found these little jars on Ebay by one of my favorite sellers, Beautifully Handmade. I think they will make cute little candle jars?



Then I did a GOOGLE search for "free printable labels" and found these!


I'm hoping to use them for my little jars when they arrive. I'm planning to pour real wax into the jars with a little wick so they can be lit, just like real candles. :D

These are free votive candle wraps from Paper Crave. They might make cute little labels, or maybe flower pots or pitchers? Love the colors!


I really wish I could find out who made the cute little jar candles I saw on someone's blog last year? They were really great!

I'm spending too much time gathering ideas and not making minis but I hope to have something to show you soon. Hope you have a beautiful day!

Fabric Shopping

I did some online shopping this morning. I haven't purchased anything yet but if you click this link you will see my "wish list" at eQuilter.com.


I'm looking for fabrics for the Flamingo Bed and Breakfast. I think these fabrics would be great!?



Just looking right now. I still have to remodel, paint and wallpaper the house first!

It's fun to look around and see what is available. If you haven't checked eQuilter, you should. You can purchase as little as 1/4 yard. Beware though. You might be there for hours!

Hope you have a sunny Saturday!

Making Paper Sunflowers

Here are my first three sunflowers. They are about 1/2 inch in diameter.

I used brown felt sprinkled with "dollhouse dirt" (dried coffee grounds) for the center of the flowers. When the glue was dry I cut out little circles.

The flower in the center of the photo above was made by cutting two circles from yellow painted paper. I cut some pointed petals and then glued the center on top of the flower. I think I like that one best?

The other two were made by gluing each tiny petal to the back of the center one by one. Not an easy task!

I'm still experimenting here...

Hope you have fun with YOUR minis today!

Does Anyone Remember?

I've been searching for but can't find who made dollhouse miniature candle jars like these from Village Candles?

I remember seeing them on someone's blog around Christmas time? They were really cute and I would love to have some!

If you know who made these, please let me know!

Sunflowers

I took these photos of my sunflowers yesterday. They are over 8 feet tall and just bursting with happy flowers! If you click on the photo above you can see one of the bumblebees that likes them too. :D

Just in case you were wondering. Yes, I am going to try to make some mini sunflowers!

Hope you have a sunny day!

A Real Road Trip

I've been in a mini slump these past few days. My bougainvillea has become rather frustrating. The beach house is a mess. My new dollhouse is sitting here looking at me saying "why haven't you done anything with me" and I don't really feel like doing anything!

So... my daughter and I took a road trip to Little River Canyon on Saturday. Who knew there was a "canyon" in Alabama? Not me!

This is the view from the top.

There were several trails to hike. We really wanted to get down to the river!

At first we found what we thought was a trail but after going a few yards we realized that there was no way we could get down there that way!

Then we found the real trail that was listed on the map as "rugged and steep." We were determined, so off we went!

It was well worth the hike to the bottom! We saw such lovely things along the way. When we reached the river we saw lots of beautiful butterflies playing in the sand. I managed to capture one of them for a photo.

Of course I just had to go wading!

My daughter took this photo of me climbing over some slippery rocks.

Sorry for the blurry photo. I just wanted to prove I was there! LOL

Here is the trail we climbed back to our car. It was only about 3/4 mile but it seemed a lot longer! Thankfully there were three benches along the way where we could stop and rest!

We counted them on the way down so we would know when we were about done!

I had a great time and am just a little bit sore this morning. Guess I need to get out and hike more often!

Hope you have a great day! Get outside and enjoy this wonderful world if you can. I have to go to work. Maybe I'll do some minis later but for now I'm thinking being outside is a lot more fun!

Summer Swap Gifts

I've had the best time participating in Caterina's Summer Holiday swap! Sonya was my swap partner. Look at all of the wonderful gifts she sent to me!


They are all PERFECT for my beach house! Thank you SO MUCH Sonya! I love each and every little thing as well as the cute fish tote bag!

My gifts went to Beatriz in Mexico. We went on a road trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.

There is no better way to see the USA than going by car! Does anyone remember Dinah Shore?

We saw beautiful view like this and even some wildlife now and then...

Photos courtesy of mysmokymountainvacation.com

When we got hungry, we just stopped at a roadside park and had a picnic lunch.

Of course we had to watch out for poison ivy and clean up when we left!

I hope you enjoyed our trip Beatriz, as well as the little things I've made for you.

Thank you so much Caterina for organizing this swap! Thanks again, Sonya for the precious gifts you made for me. This has been so much fun!

The Plant Zone

Gorgeous double hibiscus!

I found a new blog this evening. The Plant Zone. This is just one of the beautiful photos I saw there! You KNOW I'll be following this one! Just click on over, pick a category and you will see why!

I haven't been able to work on my bougainvillea much these past few days. My eye is getting better every day. Hopefully this weekend I will have something more to show you.

I'm also building a trellis for my planter box. I'll need something for the bougainvillea to climb on! :D

Hope you had a good day.

Holiday Summer Swap 2010 - Postponed Until July 16th

Tomorrow is the big day for Caterina's Holiday Swap!

I received my gift (still unopened!) from Sonya all the way from Italy! I can't wait to see what's inside! :D

My gift went to Beatriz in Mexico! I hope that she receives it in time!?

Beatriz will be joining me on a road trip to the mountains. We will be visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This is one of my very favorite places to visit. I hope Beatriz enjoys her little holiday in the USA!

Thank you so much Caterina for organizing this swap! I've had so much fun participating and can't wait to see what everyone has made!

A Little Bit Accomplished

I'm making some progress with my bougainvillea. Thanks to everyone for your helpful comments, links, emails and tutorials! You are such great mini friends!

What you see here is another idea I had yesterday. I'm using embroidery floss stiffened with glue. I strung my flowers on the floss like I did when I made the lei for Cheryl.

The string in the middle has two or three flowers close together. When the glue is dry I'll shape and position them. I can also cut these long strings apart and use the flowers individually. This is a whole lot easier than trying to make them one at a time!

The branch on the right is just painted florist wire and stiffened brown embroidery floss. I'm still working on my leaves! Thanks Tabitha for your terrific tips and photos! May used the cutest little flower pasta for her bougainvillea. Check out her tutorial!

I found this photo online. This is a real bougainvillea that survived a hard freeze in Florida.

I love how it shows the shape of the plant. I like having a picture to refer to when I'm making something.

I really didn't get much done yesterday but I do have an excuse! A doctor's excuse at that. I had to go to the opthalmologist on Friday. Seems I have a blocked oil gland on my lower eyelid. Not pretty and quite painful too.

I'm having to apply warm compresses to my eye every few hours and drops three times a day. Thankfully, the pain and swelling are gone and my vision is okay. I'm just not allowed to wear my contacts and I don't own a pair of glasses! Maybe I'll have to work on something larger for a while or go take another nap? LOL

Thanks again for all of your encouragement and help! Hope you enjoy this beautiful day!

Painting Paper

Here's the little planter box I made for my bougainvillea plant. To me it looks HUGE when I realize that I need to make enough flowers to fill it!


I painted my paper on one side. I'll flip it over and paint the other side when it's dry.

I used thinned acrylic paint here but I might try watercolors on another piece of paper? I'm loving these colors.

There will be a lot of punching going on here today. Not to mention the branches that need to be put together and the leaves and ...

This is going to take ALL day and maybe tomorrow too!

Hope you have a pretty day!

Reverse Images

I learned how to do something this morning and thought I would share it with you. I found an image I liked online and saved it. Then I copied it and pasted it to my Word documents. I formatted the picture to the size I wanted and saved that.


I want to use this image for the new front door I purchased for the "Flamingo Inn Bed and Breakfast."

To get the reverse image, I opened the file with the picture, clicked "ctrl P" and opened properties, then basic. When that window is open you will see "mirror image." Click that and it will reverse your picture. I was pleasantly surprised when this worked!

Here you can see the new door with the images behind the windows. I tried printing them on window decal paper but they weren't bright enough so this is probably what I will use?

I hope you will try this. It's always fun to learn how to do something new!

I'm making a planter box for my bougainvillea plant. There is NO WAY I can make enough of them to fill six window boxes! It will probably take me all day tomorrow just to finish ONE plant!

Hope you have a good day!



Here's the link to Barbara Sabia's stained glass that Tabitha shared! Absolutely amazing!