~ A new look, a new mini and a Winner! ~

Hello everyone! First I'd like to thank you all for your sweet comments and for entering my Mini Give-away! Your comments about my miniatures warmed my heart for sure! I've been working on some custom orders all week and thought I'd share a favorite of mine. This shabby pale blue hutch has been sent out already but I adored making it, as I do with all the miniatures I make. When I design them, I often wish I could re-do all the life size ones this way also :). Maybe I'll repaint and design my own hutches when the snow thaws and the weather gets me motivated :)

For now, I'll stick with baking miniatures , creating designs, and because we were snowed in most of the week, I even found a bit of time for a blog re-new. I needed something a little lighter and brighter for spring and a bit of my pale blue back too! Thank you to Susan Branch for allowing me to use a pattern she painted in one of her books as my new background, I love it Susan! You're the sweetest and the bestest :)!! I added a new blog button on my side bar , so for those of you that would like to change out my old one or add this one, feel free to use it!

And now it's time to announce the Winner for my give-away: ( I used the Random Generator) and the number that came up was 10....

So .....Congratulations goes out to: Janet at Cottage Blessings ..... You are the winner! Please send me your address via email so I can get your goodies out to you!

Thank you so much everyone for participating! I honestly wish you all could have won, because each of you is a gift every day from blogland!

I hope you are all enjoying a better winter than we are :) We've had record snow this month in January and the mounds of snow exceed my height many times over, which makes seeing a Spring flower pretty far off from here. But I have hope.... and I'm hanging in there... waiting and waiting... making my miniatures, cleaning out rooms, trying to navigate the roads, chopping ice off the deck, eating a little too much, baking a little too much lol and just generally WAITING for that Spring air to make it's way here........ one day :)

Have a lovely weekend friends!

Hugs,

Cynthia xo

~ My first miniature give-away ~

This is my first "Miniature" give-away!

I've done many big -girl give-away's and figured it's a perfect time to do a mini one now! As always , it's my way to Thank all of you for being such wonderful friends and followers!

Even though it seems miniatures have taken over my blog somewhat, I'm still itching to do many posts on my usual design inspirations and before and afters and posts on my Cottage home life too. But yes, miniatures are for now , the nicest way to get through the winter here in snowy NY. The fun thing about doing them is, I can use such pretty spring colors and live vicariously through the scene's I create. So I've decided to create a little vignette and give it away as "hope for spring" package :)

My Miniature give-away includes the miniatures above.... A beautiful granny apple green mini Le Creuset dutch oven {which doesn't open, sorry, I wish it did too :), it's actually a refrigerator magnet} , A pink depression glass mini plate with pretty lace edging, a Jadeite copy candlestick, A small bakery island hand-painted with pink roses and vines ( a little smaller than 1" scale because I believe this is meant to be a "kneading table" and lower in height ) A beautiful pink and white pottery bowl, ( just like a Pyrex ), a pretty pink striped napkin, a spring green polka dot plate topped with a vanilla cupcake and rose, a sweet little sugar bowl with cherries, and last but not least , a cupcake blackboard sign :)

Btw, you don't have to have a dollhouse or room box to enjoy Miniatures! I think they make wonderful little pieces of art and a great conversation pieces anywhere in your home. I took this picture below to show you how I sometimes display my own miniatures.....

Here are some up-close photos of the table and items...


A yummy vanilla butter-cream cupcake, just for you :)


And this is an up-close shot of the pretty detail in this miniature Le Creuset...so cute , huh?!


And now ,on to the easy rules...Just leave me a comment and you're entered. I'm going for the simple one this time, no fuss, no work :)

I'll draw a name on January 29th and close out the give-away at 9am ( Eastern time ) on that day...

That's it, simple and sweet :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week! It's another snow day here today and really pretty and sunny too... the snow is sparkling :) If we "have" to have so much snow, lol, then it might as well sparkle!!

Here's a bit of cake to leave you with , perfect for the hips :)

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for being such sweet friends!!

Love,

Cynthia xo

~ Some sweetness for January ~

Hi sweet friends! Happy 2011 to all of you and blessings for a great New year ahead!

It's snowing here again in NY today and we're heading into that January and February without the holidays to look forward to, so for me, that means a long 2 months :) I start longing for Spring about the day after Christmas. So I've hunkered myself down and decided to make Miniatures for the duration of time between now and when I can smell the first hints of Spring. That's a lot of Mini making :) In-between I have a few goals: Re-do the boys bedroom, clean out closets and misc. drawers filled with old paperwork and broken pens. Get in tip top shape , and stick to miniature sweets instead of the real ones :) If I do all this by the end of February, I'll be very happy :) Here's a little picture tour of what I've been up to. I've re-stocked my Etsy store.... found some fabulous new ( to me ) blogs for inspiration, and a few other goodies I'd love to share. Hope you enjoy.....


A sweet little Bakers table that is already sold, but I had so much fun making it...I named her "Homemakers Heaven" :)


Some very tiny cookies....



An assortment of sweets that keep my tiny fingers very busy ...



A pink frosted yellow cake with zero calories...



And a girls gotta have some chocolate too :)




Is that enough sweetness for ya? :) There's more in my shop and hopefully much more to come in January!

Now on to more sweets...... Just when I think I have seen every decorating blog out there, I find another and this SWEETNESS I just had to share.......It's called The Yvestown Blog and she is such a talented photographer, decorator and has so much eye candy it was hard to chose what to highlight! The next few pictures are just a sampling of her work and journey. Click on her link and you can see for yourself what talent she possesses... It's all soooooooo sweet! She makes me want to re-organize my whole house :)





I'm loving the clean, yet cozy, sweet of white and accessories popping with pastels...



Can I fall in love with a plastic basket? Omg, yes.....




Isn't it all so lovely?!



Now this makes me long for Spring.....



Her blog is a must read for inspiration and do- it- yourself beauty! I hope you enjoyed just a taste and visit her for more....

Now on to my last "sweetness" find for the week.... I was searching for some inspiration to make Miniature cake stands and came upon these below. I will certainly have a challenge trying to make handmade cake stands ahead, but I'm meeting it with enthusiasm after seeing these! Not to mention the fact that I wish I had her entire collection on my "big girl" hutch shelves :)

I love the color of this one....

and these ...


and how sweet is this!?.....


To see the rest of her pretties, here's the link to her Etsy store: Vesselsandwares

Well it's off to go start some more Minis, I hope you have a wonderful week and that 2011 is already treating you great!

Thank you so much for all your comments and friendship in 2010! I look forward to 2011 with all of you!

Hugs and love,

Cynthia