My mini story...how I fell in love with Miniatures

This morning I hit 100 followers so I thought it would be a nice time to tell "my mini story". I love asking other miniaturists that question "When did you know you loved miniatures?"
I can be nosey, so I will go on and ask "How did your idea of miniatures change over time?" "Did you every take a class or belong to a club or are you self taught?"

Ruth's Mini Story

Next weekend my husband and I will travel to visit my Aunt and Uncle on their farm in Saskatchewan. It is a four hour car drive. This time last year we went there. My Aunt Sheila has several books on Miniatures. I was quite enchanted with them. I asked her if she made miniatures. Later that day she climbed into the attic, bringing down a lot of dust and many miniatures she has been collecting since the 1970s. I had a wonderful time looking through them, and my Aunt did too. She hadn't looked through them in years!

She has a very busy life as a farm wife. My Aunt Sheila had two of some items, and she generously passed them on to me. As soon as we got home I hit the internet and probably sat transfixed in front of it for hours and hours as I read more and more about this wonderful hobby.

Last May I went to a meeting of the Miniature Enthusiasts Club of Edmonton and was very fortunate to sit down next to one of the nicest, most generous women I have ever been lucky enough to meet. Her name is Pat, and she has been incredibly generous with me, giving me things she doesn't need anymore, giving me advice, teaching me mini skills and I think she is just a great all around friend.

Then I started a blog, and the rest, as they say, is history. I feel very lucky to have found a hobby I adore so much. This coming weekend my Aunt Sheila and I will work on minis together, and I will post pictures of our time together and the beautiful farm. I spent a fair amount of time there growing up and for me it has always been a peaceful haven.

I will also show you some more pictures of my Nursery Room Box. I sent my dear friend Michelle an email this morning, with a link to the last pictures of the Nursery. I told her this will be a present for her :) She is having a baby girl in about a month. I will wait until the spring or summer to drive to Calgary and give it to her though. Michelle loves her present and now I can add some personal touches. I asked her to send me a family photo and when her daughter gets baptized, she can send me a copy of the baptismal certificate and I will shrink those down and hang them on the wall.

I was very pleased with the way the diapers I made for her scene ended up, so I think I will make a small basket of diapers and put them up for sale in my Etsy shop. I think I will make some up in play scale (Barbie size) also as an experiment to see if anyone likes the play scale ones.

I also have a lot of nursery furniture that I haven't used! So I think I will paint it up more nicely and put that up for sale too. I can always buy more furniture for the nursery box I plan to make for myself one day.

I think I will take my cue from Natasha who writes the blog Eat Cake Miniatures and say that if any of my followers see anything I have made on my blog, and would like something similar they can contact me and we can arrange for me to do a commission piece for you. Natasha and I actually live in the same city and (occasionally) see each other at our city's Mini group. She is a much more faithful attendee than I am. When Natasha and I do get together we have a lot of fun and make a big mess! And talk minis non stop.

Here are some recent pictures I took. I could have made them look better if I had taken longer, but I wanted to write this post today! As you can see, the items are arranged in a white box, or a photo box. To get an even better picture I could have set up two very bright lights and shone them at an angle towards the miniatures. That is how I take pictures for my Etsy shop. I will write a full tutorial on picture taking (and include a picture of what the whole set up looks like) in the future. This month I will write it! That's my goal.

I would love to hear my followers' mini stories! If you would like to tell them.

What do you think of my latest additions to the nursery? The small items are hard to see, I know.

A sneak peak at what my next project will be. Can you guess what it will be?

Love Ruth