Halloween Treats GIVEAWAY

Just in time for Halloween, I am having TWO "Halloween treat Giveaways".

Both platters offer pecan topped fudge brownies, cinnamon sugar powdered donuts, caramel and candied apples along with an assortment of candies.

Each tray comes with a bowl or dish of delicious candy corn!

For a chance to win one of these Halloween treat trays and candy corn bowl,

please leave a comment on my blog answering the following question.

If you were to dress up for a Halloween party this year, what would your costume be?

Two winners with be announced on October 8th.

Good Luck!

Donna

Gifts From my New Friend

I would like to share with you a pictures of these beautiful gifts from my new friend, Jeanette.

She e-mailed me with a question about a workshop that I had taken. After e-mailing back and forth a few times, we realized that we only lived about 20 minutes away from each other!

Now, what are the chances of that!

And to makes it even more ironic, she is a teddy bear artist like myself!

How thrilled I was to make a friend that lives so close to me with so much in common .

Please stop by her blog for a visit

http://jrbcreations.blogspot.com/

Donna

More progress on Fair Rosemond's Bower

Painting the stone and brickwork was a fun but tedious task.

In this photo I am starting to work on the many shingles on the roof.
They are made of paperclay.

Now that the painting is done, I will finish the roof and then tackle the landscaping and

add the water under the bridge.

Rik Pierce is teaching another wonderful class at the Chicago International in April 2011.

I highly recommend his classes. You learn a great deal and have fun too.

Donna

New Purchases for my Roomboxes

I fell in love with this crate of grapes from Tiny Towne Hawaii at the Chicago International.

They look perfect in my wine cellar.
The tray of cheese, wine and grapes were from Janet at Tiny Towne Hawaii also.
She was so kind to add more of the purple grapes on the platter while I waited.

These exquisite desserts are from The English Kitchen. If I buy two or three of her desserts a year, my patisserie should be filled ......eventually!

My favorite is the center cake which has a chocolate grand piano on top.

Enjoy,

Donna

Taste of Chocolate kit finished

I finally finished a kit from the wonderful Lisa Engler of Lisa's Little Things.

This kit is called "Taste of Chocolate".

The display is placed in my patisserie.

Lisa's kits are wonderful. I might be her biggest fan.

I just received a package in the mail today with a few more of her kits for another bakery room box that I am currently working on.



Here is a closeup of the pretty chocolates that are displayed in the heart candy box.

MMMMMmmmm. Have a chocolate and enjoy!

Mini hugs,

Donna

Chicago workshop with Rik Pierce

"Fair Rosemond's Bower" is the name of the workshop that I took at the Chicago International.

Rik Pierce is a kind, down-to-earth man and a great teacher.

I learned so much in the class that I feel it was well worth the price of the workshop.

We worked from 8 o'clock in the morning until late at night for four days.

In class, I completed some of the paper clay on the exterior of the structure. Here at home, I am working on finishing the stone work. After I complete applying all of the paper clay, pressing in individual stone shapes, and cleaning the grout lines, I will be ready to give the stone a watered down wash of black and dark burnt umber paint to tone down the white of the paper clay. Then I will start to add washes of color to the stones.

Rik supplied everything for the class. He gave us all of the paper clay, the tools, and even the board, tile and a piece of plastic pipe to roll the paper clay to the right thickness.

This photo is of the ground floor interior that I finished in class. The base of the structure is just foam core board and surprisingly lightweight. I still have to add the flooring.

This photo is of the upper level. We learned to distress the timbers in class with a make-shift saw blade. We also leaned to make the stained glass windows. One of my favorite techniques is the plaster covering some of the brickwork.

I will keep posting photos as I make progress. When it is finished, the house will sit in a wood base supplied by Rik.

If you ever get a chance to take one of his workshops, jump at the chance!

Have a great day,

Donna

Finished Old Shoe House

These are photos of the Old Shoe House that I completed. It is a Quarter scale house kit from Suzanne and Andrews Miniatures. They make wonderful kits in quarter scale.

The third floor is the dormitory and bathroom for all of the Old woman's children.

The second floor is the living room. The kitchen is in the shoe part. You can barely see in there unless you have a flashlight but I put a stove and dry sink in there anyhow.

The landscaping was so much fun. I added grass, a brick path, hollyhocks, vines and even made some trees from twisted wire.

Now that I have finished this project, I am working on the Pickett Hill in Quarter

Scale from Suzanne and Andrews Miniatures and Fair Rosemond's Bower from a workshop that I just took with Rik Pierce. I will be posting photos of my progress soon.