I'll be gone for awhile

From now until the end of December, all my energy is going towards stocking my Etsy shop with my handmade beauty products, and filling Christmas orders. This means I won't have time to complete my Halloween Scene, I won't be going to attending any Miniature Club Workshops or meetings until the New year, and I will only resume if I have the time or the energy, which is a question mark at this point.

I have been very happy and lucky to be able to devote so much time to my blog over the past six months. Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury any more, since paying the bills takes priority.

I hope to have more time to devote to this blog in the new year.

Ruth

A quick post to tell my followers how much I appreciate them

Anyone who has been following my blog for awhile knows that I love quotes, and I fit them in whenever I can.

We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love. ~ Mother Theresa

 I think this quote is a great one for miniaturists!

I wish I had time to take pictures of my Nursery Room Box, which is coming along nicely, or work on my halloween scene, which I have planned out in my mind, I just have to put it together.

It is a good thing that I am extremely busy filling orders for my new Etsy shop. It you want to hop over and take a look the link is http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetheartBodyCare. There is currently only one item listed, but by the end of the day there will be four more, and by tomorrow there will be two more, and each day I will be adding more!

I do not talk about my personal life very much on my blog, it is somewhere where I can simply share with my followers my love of miniatures. I will only say that the past decade has been extremely hard and the chronic illness I have was very severe for a long time. My health started to improve in the last couple of years, and then I started to heal and thrive creatively.

I'm happy to welcome my new followers, little green fingers who is from Edmonton, my own city! I hope we will meet face to face some time. I also welcome Tiggy and Victoria Rocus. Just to let my new followers know, and any existing followers who  don't know this, when you comment on a post it arrives  in my inbox, and I reply to every comment I receive, then I publish it. I have it set up this way since I have enabled threaded comments, which you can learn about if you click on the label on the left sidebar that says blogging tips. If you want to email me privately, click on view my complete profile, and click on the link email, under the heading Contact Me.

Hugs and Kisses to all of my lovely Blogging Friends and Followers,

Ruth

I'm opening an Etsy shop! But not to sell miniatues...

I am excited to share the news with all of my followers that I will have my Etsy Shop, Sweetheart Body Care, up and running next week. Unfortunately, I am only going to be shipping within Canada since shipping internationally is too expensive. I have created a Facebook page where I will be sharing do it yourself beauty recipes, natural home remedies, as well as diet and lifestyle advice that has improved the look of my skin. So anyone who enjoys experimenting with simple beauty recipes or is curious to learn about how to get started can benefit from liking my page. This is a link to my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SweetHeartBodyCare.

I want take a moment to say I'll be very pleased if you like my page, but on the whole, I like to keep my personal Facebook Account and my blogging life separate. So please don't send me friend requests. I have a very small group of Facebook Friends and that's the way I would like to keep it. I hope this does not hurt anyone's feelings as I enjoy corresponding with many of you by email, and your comments really touch my heart.

Since I am putting a lot of time and energy into making a success of my homemade beauty products, I won't be able to post as much on this blog, which makes me sad, because I love blogging about miniatures.

I will be posting about the ongoing progress of My Nursery Room Box, and a Halloween Scene I'm working on. I'll try to fit in as many tutorials as I can, but these tutorials are more time consuming and don't bring me as much joy as blogging about my miniature projects. If you have a tutorial question, feel free to email me and I"ll do my best to help you solve the problem.

This year I'm going to create as many miniature scenes as I can, and when I have the time and the money, create miniature toiletries and, perfume bottles, and vanity table scenes. The miniature toiletries and vanity scenes are what I plan to sell on Etsy. That's right, I'm planning on eventually opening  another Etsy shop to sell my miniatures! Another miniature goal of mine for this year is to learn how to make polymer clay food. Luckily, there are lots of great tutorials on the web, and a good friend of mine has offered to teach me.

I would like to welcome my new followers: charipili , debbie, Rosethé Perdita Marsh, ANGELES, CWPoppets, Bercuhi Kip and Elianna Martin. I feel very blessed and inspired by my followers, and always enjoy hearing your feedback.

How to remove the word verification feature

Do you comment a lot on other blogs? Do you get extremely annoyed when you have to squint and try and read those squiggly words and numbers? Do you sometimes get so worked up about it that you yell at your computer? :)

If you answered yes to any of these questions, join me in the movement to get rid of those annoying squiggles. They may be actually preventing people from leaving comments on your blog, since they are  so frustrating.

It's a very simple thing to change. Go to your settings tab, then click on the Posts and Comments Tab.

Next to Show Word Verification, choose no.

Adding comment authorization is simple as well. Under the Posts and Comments Tab, you will find the option to moderate comments. Choose always. Underneath there is a box where you will type in the email address where you would like the comments awaiting approval to go.

To enlarge any of the photos simply click on them.

Miniature Breakfast Scene for my Mom

I have decided not to include pictures of my mom accepting her gift, since I have added all the social media buttons to my blog and want to respect the privacy of my friends and relatives.

Working on a miniature project is so calming. It is totally absorbing, and it distracts me from any niggling worries or everyday anxieties I have.

I really enjoyed making this miniature scene. I'm pleased that I was able to make it mostly with items I already had on hand. The chairs are part of a kitchen set I picked up at Antique Mall in the spring. The little table is from a $2 wooden living room set I picked up at the dollar store some months back.

The base is a picture frame, with the glass and backing removed. I inserted book board and glued a vintage linoleum print that I found on Joann Swanson's Blog. You can buy book board at specialty stationary shops, or you can cut up an old binder and use the board underneath the vinyl cover, which is what I did.

The only thing I had to go out and buy are the adorable breakfast plates. They came with the cups of coffee. There aren't any stores in my city that specifically cater to Dollhouse and Miniatures, but there is a store in St. Albert (a small city north of Edmonton) called Daisy's Dollhouse which carries a small selection. The owner specializes in wooden play scale,  (Barbie sized) dollhouses and accessories, but her daughter in law orders some 1:12 scale furniture and accessories for the store.

Don't worry, Michelle and Wyrna, I will be writing tutorials for both of you soon :) But today I must prepare for my parents' visit. They are driving up from Calgary, a city which is 4 hours away.

My guest blog at Simplyfrugal.ca

Oh wait, I'm supposed to be at home with no internet, right? Well, I spent about four hours unpacking and cleaning this morning, and clearing a space for the small table which will be my temporary workstation.
When my poor exhausted husband returned from a friend's house with a larger dining room table (to replace the small table which is becoming my workstation) he wanted to take a break. Since I had nowhere to work on the miniature scene I am making for my mum's birthday, I decided to come to the library and take advantage of the free internet they provide :)

http://www.simplyfrugal.ca/2012/10/how-to-save-money-when-you-follow-a-special-diet-a-guest-post/

Before I sign off, next on my list of blog topics is  to to write a blogging tutorial about how to to remove comment verification and I might as well include how to authorize comments in the same post, since my friend Michelle has asked me how to do it.

Wyrna, I read the comment you left and I know I can help you in regards to your second question and I will look into the first. I want to let all of my followers know that if they have any blog related issues or troubles, don't hesitate to ask about them in a comment. Or you can email me directly by clicking on "View my complete profile" and clicking on the link "contact me". Wyrna, I would like to email you privately to further discuss your questions but I could not find an email address on your blog. So please email me from your email account and we can get sorted out.

I think I will head home pretty soon. I am quite sore from running up and down stairs, lifting boxes, ect.

I'll be back soon!

Oh No, I'll have no Internet for 3 days!

It's not that long, really. I just enjoy cruising the blogosphere so much! While I'm "cut off" I'll be working on the miniature scene for my mom's birthday. All the supplies are gathered. Itching to get started!

I'm also looking forward to getting together with two friends from the Edmonton Miniatures Club to do a Halloween Project. We haven't decided what to do yet, but I would really like to try Joann Swanson's Halloween Peddler's Cart: http://joannswansondiyminiatures.blogspot.ca/search?q=Halloween+Peddler's+Cart
There are also a ton of ideas to be found here: http://true2scale.blogspot.ca/2012/09/50-miniature-halloween-and-fall.html

Whatever we decide on, it's sure to be a lot of fun. I have more exciting news! I have found enough creative ways to make money from home that I don't have to go back to work for someone else. This is a HUGE relief. I have a chronic health condition that only allows me to work part time. My husband works really long hours and life is so much more pleasant when I have more time and energy to shop for groceries (we both have special diets so shopping is even more of an adventure!), cook dinner and keep our home clean.

I was also really worried that I wouldn't have the energy to go to the Miniature Club meetings if I had to work outside the home. Now I can go to mini meetings, and I'll have time to practise and learn new mini making skills, and start having products parties for my homemade beauty products.

Perfect!

I'll be back on Friday! I will miss all my mini friends from around the world.

Mini Hugs,

Ruth