Crafting together & and other christmassy things

Last week our little crafting club met again. We had decided to make some Christmas miniatures instead of working on our own projects.
I'd thought it would be fun to make a nutcracker together like the one I'd made a week earlier, and the other girls agreed :)
I had made us little kits with the materials needed, but it was still frustrated - but fun - to put all the parts together and paint the nutcrackers ;)
Together we must have made at least ten noses, which went flying the moment we wanted to dab some glue onto them 😂
But in the end we each had a finished nutcracker. Standing beside a Christmas tree ornament you can see how tiny they are. Approx. 2 cm :)

Since I already made a red one, I went for green this time :)

I think it's fair to say we each had problems with painting the faces, they do look a bit creepy, don't they? :')

But fortunately, you won't notice that when the nutcracker is surrounded by other miniatures (a)

I'd started making a Christmas market stall two years ago but hadn't set it up untill now. Though it's not finished yet, I like the display of - mostly - selfmade miniatures.

Hopefully next year I can add some to the surroundings :)

I've also made these centerpieces last week, and some Christmas cookies which I put on the Christmas plate I've bought in England in May :)
A tutorial for the centerpieces and cookies was shown in the latest Dutch dollshouse magazine P&M.

The Nutcracker is one of the most beloved Christmas stories of all time. It has been adapted into a ballet, as well as many television and movie adaptations.

The story is adapted from a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which tells the magical tale of a young girl whose Christmas gift, a nutcracker, comes alive.

Hoffmann's story is of a young man, the nephew of an inventor called Herr Drosselmeyer, who fails to complete the task required to marry a princess. As a result, he is cursed by being turned into a nutcracker with a large head, wide grinning mouth, and beard. She rejects him for being ugly and he is banished. Drosselmeyer gives his goddaughter, Marie, a nutcracker for Christmas and tells her the tale. After various "dreams" in which it comes to life and they defeat the evil Mouse King, Marie tells it that she would never reject him as the princess did but would love him no matter how ugly he was. This breaks the spell and Drosselmeyer arrives with his nephew, magically restored to his handsome self. He marries Marie and takes her away to the magical kingdom.

In 1892, Pytor Ilytch Tchaikovsky set a variation of Hoffmann's story by French author Alexandre Dumas to music. Then, together with renowned choreographer Marius Petipa (working with Lev Ivanov) they created the ballet "The Nutcracker". Source

A surprise from abroad

The previous weeks have been a bit chaotic and challenging on many levels 😏
Among other things, my hard disk died and even though I always save everything in a cloud, I haven't been able to recover any data. Well, nothing but the miniature related files and photo's which happen to be in another cloud :') (writing English is hard enough, but writing about computer stuff is even harder ^^)

So, it definately made my day (and week ) when the postman rang (just once :P) and delivered this parcel from my dear friend Kim, from Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.

The best things come in small packages!

It's all so gorgeous and incredible tiny! I had
to hold my breath or the quill and ring would
have been lost :')

Together with some other items she included. I'm sure Bianca
of the Hogsmeade cottage will be very pleased with all of these!

Inspirating from ánd for 1:12 scale decorating

November has been more about decorating my 1:1 scale living room than about the 1:12 scale cottage :) Though the first inspired me to do miniature versions and the other way around :)

 

 The living room, which had been done in red (with gold) and white

 (well, after 18 years the walls were more grey-ish ^^), has turned to

 cottage-green with off-white/beige.

I glued some fabric on terracotta flower pots, covered them with
Gesso (primer) ...

... and painted them with the green wall paint. Also covered
a pink flower vase that had been my grandmother's :)

Like the new flower pots with the green of the leaves!

Then I wanted some lace covered flower pots
for the cottage as well :)

Almost looking brocante, I think ;)

Painted more little pots cottage-
green as well as the mantel piece (a)

  

 I've always wanted to have a little fairy door, so I decided 

to make one ...

... and cover the opening from where the gas heater used to be.
I will decorate it with ivy and flowers some other time :)

 

Then I pimped a light fixture - I'd gotten to install above the dining/craft table - 

with trims from lace curtains and painted it :)

Wanting to do some miniatures again,
I made this tiny nutcracker.

Though the doors and posts still need to be painted the living room feels so much more cosy and warm. Starting to look forwards to the holidays now :)
Time to start making (more) Christmas miniatures!