Finished Birdhouses

Ok! I know.. 3 posts in one day?!  But after seeing what happened to the birdhouse pictures, I want to see if I've fixed the problem. I'm still learning my phone over here, so bare with me:) 

And.. I did get the roofs and aging finished today. I dry brushed several coats of gray and green on them to give them that old feeling. The key to aging is wiping most of it off your brush before you paint. I know it sounds silly, but it only takes a little bit of paint to age minis... And you can always add more...YOU CAN NOT TAKE OFF PAINT.   

I am hoping to start listing times next week. I still have a few more things to finish up.. But here's a couple of pictures from today's garden visit:)

Ok.. I can see it didn't work with the first two pictures... Note to self.. Edit all pictures in a portrait position and not in the landscape position, or however you say it... 

Night and Day

Night..

And Day....

Coming soon..

In between everything else going on.. I have been working on two new lines of items for the store. One is a bit of a surprise for later... And the other is all kinds of Beach Themed items. 

I thought you'd like to see a bit of what I do. I put a lot of hand work into my birdhouses. Lol- you should of seen the look on my physical therapists face when I told her I do all of this kind of work with an exacto blade:) Danger! I had to explain to her I be more deadly with a machine, lol. 

You can see that I build these houses hollow in hopes that one day a small enough bird might actually come along and move in:) I don't use patterns, so no two end up the same, I measure and cut as I go. And each little house ends up with several layers of paint before its all over, to give it that perfectly aged look.. To make ten houses, it has taken me six separate days. That's why I charge a little bit more from them. And this set is smaller than the normal ones I make:)

All of them got their roofs last night, now I just have to age them again:)

But first, I gotta convince these two to let me get some work done!

Otis

...and Rufus

...until next time...

Update on the Treehouse Part 2

Oh, my dearest friends... Blogging from from phone is far from easy.. But relearning to use my hand has been no easy task either. I promise eventually I will get around to posting on my other blog the updated pictures of that situation, we will just say that I am Not one to give up, lol. With that being said, it is still really hard for me to use my middle finger. From an artist stand point, I've had to relearn stupid things like how to hold a paint brush, and as of now I can only paint for a little while before my hand hurts. This is going to take a loooooong time to get somewhere close to right again. But with or without it(meaning i just dont use it) I will still create. -although my physical therapist has me taping it another one so I have to use it. 

Ok.. I've been working on this tree house for a know over a year... I always seem to get going on it and then run out of supplies. If you look in my labels under treehouse I do believe you can find the beginning of it. Here in the past couple of weeks I have put in the front steps and the shingles. This was my first time doing shingles.. Thank goodness I plan on putting a lot of moss on it:) I have been filling up my 'treehouse' Pinterest board with lots of ideas- it's the first app on my phone! What ever did I do without this thing before I just don't know, lol. Anyways.. Getting a little sidetracked here...with such a tiny screen u can't see anything you've just written, so it's easy to have a duh moment..... Like I seem to be having right now, holy cow... Lol

Ok... The treehouse Katie! 

LOL

I have also been working on the top. I had run out of the normal paper clay I use, so I bought a different kind, and it was almost as stiff as polymer clay. I'll have to remember to write the names down next time I'm at the store. Although it might hold up better on the top- like I said, I had a really had time mashing and sculpting. Yes, mashing is a technical term, haha. I also put an extra layer of cast material on the top as well to make it a little more sturdy.. Some of the cats around here think its their cat tree.. Lol. 

I do have a family of Calico Critters- The Hedgehogs the are going to live in the house... And I think the idea of a bug in the top house is a super cute idea.. I have a book here with a picture in it that gives me an idea...the book is called The Woodland Folk in Fairyland by Tony Wolf. Beautiful book! 

--OK.. I went back and looked for you- everything is labeled under The Mousehouse- you can see how the whole treehouse was built... And I have been working on it for three years now, not one. Lol

Ok..

I feel like a dummy now... All I had to do was up load the blogger app... Everybody together now... Duhhhhh. Lol 

Ok 

That's the treehouse in the last post.. I've been working on it here and there.. Still having a really hard time with my fingers , everything takes me twice as long, BUT.. I can DO it:)

After sculpting this tree knot for days, I decided I wanted another home instead.. And cut everything out and added a hole.. Not to sure who's gonna live here yet:)

Was it really this easy?

iPhone help? Blogging

It's been awhile, I know... I am sorry. We will just say I've been hiding. You know how life has it's ups and downs and well for some reason 2013 seems to be full of downs. But we are not going to talk about that.. Nope. We're not. That is not why I created this blog. Sometimes I forget why I started blogging in the first place. And it was not to get on here and tell the whole world that life can really suck sometimes. No... I started blogging to find like minded people that I could talk art wih.... And somewhere in there, I found miniatures... Again. I've always had my critters- the were a big part of my childhood... And now that I've carried them over into the adult world, my world almost seems complete... I'll explain the almost in a minute... So. With that being said... Lets get back to the almost part....

There comes a part in a mothers life when you have to start letting go... My oldest Drew graduated from high school on the 12th. One of the proudest moments of my life... I'm gonna put myself out there for a minute and tell you that I got pregnant with him when I was only 15 myself.  Yes, I know. It has been a long road but it everything to me.. Sometimes I feel as if its all I know- being a mom that is... And to watch my son graduate was probably the proudest moment of my life- I finally did something right- I got the kid through school- woowho! Anyone with teenage boys understands what a task getting them to school can be some days, lol... Or getting homework done- yeah, I know- what's homework? But anyways.... My little boy has become a young man:)

And while My parents were here they decided to upgrade me and got me iPhone:) I'm on their plan, n still had a dinosaur of a phone... We will call it my graduation present, lol... Hehehe. Best gift ever...... But- can someone out there teach me how to blog with it... I've figured out almost everything.. I'm trying to get my ETSY store loaded and cleaned up, I've been playing around in Pinterest... Ooh and I can finally load my own pictures in Pinterest- all of the ones I had up until now were from all of you... But I can not figure out how to put a picture here. Annoying! Any one? Or any other advice you may have about blogging from an iPhone... I would be most great full:) I promise to reward you with lots and lots of pictures:)