Kitty Cat Tea Room: When I read your post about the kitty-cat themed tea room, my ears perked up and my whiskers twitched.....what a purr-fectly wonderful idea! I have Charles Wysocki's "Ethel the Gourmet" (in real life size) and have taken some ideas from it: Cookbooks - "Preparing the Canary", "Tabby Teasers", "Bye Bye Birdie Pie (4 and 20 recipes)" "Little Critter Fritters"; Gourmet items - Shoofly Flykiller & Piefiller, Mice Pudding, Long-grained Wild Mice, Flabby Tabby Diet Mix, Spay Poupon, Catprika Sour-Puss Pickles.

As for cat-people, I believe Alice Zinn does them. Hope you'll keep us posted on your progress & share pictures, too!

Jude in ND

Feline Fancy Tearoom - menu items: Fish and Chips with Tuna Dip, Mince Mouse Pie, Pigeon Pie, Mousie Mousse, "Four and Twenty Blackbird Pie", Starling Stew, Titmouse Turnovers, Cardinal Cookies, Lemming Meringue Pie, Cockatiel Pinwheels, Cornish (Hen) Treacle Tart, Blue(berry)Bird Pie, Robin Refrigerator Cookies, Scotch Shortbread Sparrows, Sand(piper)Tarts, Devonshire Cream Pie, Charleston Chicken Hash, Squabs En Casserole, Beef Doves, Deviled Chicken Bones, Sautéed Chicken Livers, Braised Game Birds, Steak and Kidney Pie, Grilled Sardines, Creamed Salt Codfish, Spiced Salmon, Mackerel Baked in Milk, Sautéed Turkey Breast.

As you can tell some are made up, some are "altered", and some are "real" recipes from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook ( 1972). Hope you can use some of these for your feline fancy tearoom. Mangia (sp.) Kitties!!

Joanne from South Jersey

For your "Cathouse" (since we seem to be working on similar kinds of projects) I'd definitely go with Victorian furniture -- it just seems appropriate for cats. Also, as a silly thing, I'm planning on having a restroom in my tea room, but rather than having a traditional toilet, I'm going to see if I can find a nice porcelain soap dish to use as a kitty-litter box, then fill it with sand. You might also want to have an ornately carpeted scratching post in the corner -- very pretty, but also useful for cat-people.

Laurie

Modern houses: The kitchen is what sets the date of your house and possibly the bathroom too. Aside from my Victorian, which is pure vintage, my other two 1/12th scale houses have up to date kitchens but have period furniture in the other rooms - just like we do in "real" life. One house has fairly modern furniture throughout, which I made, but my Town House has period furniture in almost all of the rooms. They happen to be Colonial, Federal or Queen Anne, simply because I like those elegant styles. Dee's catalog shows lots of kitchens and living rooms with up-to-date furniture - even the chrome kitchen sets of the 1950's.

Jeanette in Wisconsin

French townhouse: My building had a smooth cement-like exterior, iron railings in front of each window, and exposed wooden beams and stucco walls in the 16 foot rooms, with a restaurant in the bottom floor.

Whui

French townhouse: Here is a French miniature site showing a more modern French townhouse. It should give you an idea of the windows & railings. The one of the left is actual and the one on the right is the mini.

http://miniatures.online.fr/Maison.htm

Also, a French country mansion available for sale (but very expensive)

http://miniatures.online.fr/vente/orieux_dollhouse.htm

Old French advertising posters

http://miniatures.online.fr/impression/deco/affiches.htm

Inexpensive Plans for a dh with a French feel

http://www.u-bild.com/woodworking-plans/411.htm

Hope this helps. Sounds like we are working on similar projects, so hopefully we can share insights.

Whui

Baba Yaga's House -- I find that well illustrated Children’s books are often just the inspiration I need for a house. To compliment your family's memories of Baba Yaga, check out:

Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave by Marianna Mayer ISBN: 0688085008 wonderful illustrations of the house, inside and out, as well as period Russian clothing.

There's also a Baba Yaga book by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Vladimir Vasilevich Vagin. I haven't read this one, but I like his other illustrations so this one should be well done.

Ghia

Baba Yaga's house: As a first-time miniaturist, I don't want to get over my head! Besides, it's something *different*. I've long since figured out the chicken legs: coat-hanger wire armature covered with 'heavy duty' papier mache. Since the only mini samovars I've seen are around $300 (beyond my budget for a single purchase, I'm afraid), I'm thinking of making one from jewelry findings or Fimo. What would you finish Fimo with to give it an enameled metal type of look?

Molly/StormBorn

Baba Yaga's House: For the person who wants chicken feet for a Baba Yaga house but is not interested in using real ones (GROSS!!!-LOL) or creating their own, decoy carving places carry cast pewter "study" bird legs for carvers to use as is or copy when creating their carvings. They may not have chicken legs, but will probably have pheasant legs or something similar that you could use. I have bought these before, and since they are cast from the real thing, they are very realistic when painted up.

Bonnie Gibson

Ideas for your inexpensive wedding scene: I did a gazebo for a wedding present and was able to decorate it inexpensively. I bought some lichen and ground foam cover from the hobby shop. The lichen is in realistic clumps that I just glued down to make bushes. You can use ground foam for grass or buy the kind that comes on a fine spider web-like mesh which will stretch out as fine as you wish to make vines, etc. Then I went to Joanne's fabrics and bought some cheap white satin roses (the smallest they carry), cut off the heads and glued them randomly into the bushes. Looked very pretty and didn't cost much at all. Plus, I had some of the lichen and stuff left over for other projects! Another nice touch is to make a placard announcing the name of the couple and the wedding date, and put it up on an stand or something. Makes it personal. Working at a florist shop, I get to see lots of wedding ideas. We just did two weddings where they each spent over eight thousand just on flowers alone. See, minis aren't so expensive after all!!

Bonnie Gibson

Mask roombox: My daughter-in-law collects masks. I am making a roombox for her Christmas present. My plan is to build an artist's gallery with a "mask display". I will need a variety of masks to display. I have picked up a few pieces of jewelry, charms, etc. to make into pieces of art. I am looking for any suggestions, ideas, advice, patterns, items for purchase, etc. Let your imaginations soar!

Danny in Spokane

Danny in Spokane

Mask roombox idea: Since masks and Mardi Gras go hand-in-hand, you might want to consider the festive appearance of the exotic feathered masks, with beads and the traditional gold-green-purple colors found at Mardi Gras. Colorful ribbons flowing from the masks are a possibility. If your daughter-in-law collects African masks, you'd probably want to switch gears and go with earthy colors and animal prints for wallpaper.

Leslie Ann, Fresno, CA

Mask roombox idea: way back in NN there was a Halloween project that used papier mache egg cartons to make Halloween masks (egg cup bottoms cut into various shapes, painted and decorated as Dracula, clown, etc.). That could be adapted to make various ethnic masks by adding paint, beads, feathers, etc. Also, check museum or other gift shops in your area. I have a set of masks in the Deco house anthropologist's study that came from the public library gift shop!

Loretta.Sniarowski

Masks: Could masks be printed out on cardstock or photo paper and given shape with a stylus or something for dimension? It wouldn't take that much for mini. With a little embellishment, like feathers and maybe a little sparkle, iridescent or dimensional paint, they could be really neat.

Lita

Masks: you can make masks easily with paper towels, PaperClay & white glue. You need heavy-duty paper towels and a mask form, which can be a dolls head that you've covered with foil or plastic wrap. Cut the paper towel into two basic "mask shape" pieces (cut out eye holes, mouth, etc. into an oval that will fit over the form). Use a mixture of white glue and water, dip one of the paper towel pieces into this mixture and drape over the mask form. Place the second mask piece over the first and, using a round toothpick or something you can roll over the form, press the two pieces together and into the shape of the form. When this is dry add PaperClay features. Let the whole thing dry and paint or decorate as desired. You can see some finished masks made this way on my web site

http://www.minimotion.com

I also have some polyclay forms available from left over kits I did for our club but they aren't listed on the site.

Tori West

Gasoline Pumps: Aztec Imports has a number of them.

http://www.aztecimport.com/photos/Gearbox/gbgaspumpsmain. html

They only sell wholesale but you could check with your mini shop and if you don't have one, you could order from someone who represents Aztec.

Carol

GAS PUMPS: Here are a few links for the person looking for gas pumps, some come in different scale sizes

http://www.maxpages.com/pmm/Gas_Pumps

http://www.checkeredflag-gifts.com/checkeredflag/pages/gifts. htm

Good pics on this page for ideas- http://www.oldgas.com/getz/frick1. html

http://www.onmarkint.com/gaspumps_pg8. htm A free full color catalog is available as well as a Dealer case lot wholesale program from this company. Site was just updated.

http://www.corvettemuseum.com/virtual_tour/nostalgia. htm interesting gas station pictures.

Brooke, WA

Tree trunk mini house: You look hard enough you can find roots, rotted pieces, to scrape off the rotted wood down to the good wood, using some artistic license of course. I made a little wizard's house out of a almost round piece of thick bark from a roadside trimming operation. I marked a board with the inside dimensions of the bark, cut it out and glued it in. cut out a window by first drilling holes in corners, then using the craft knife on the rest of the window. for a top, I made a lid from a piece of plywood to fit inside, then another to go over it. I landscaped and covered the roof with our readily available "Spanish" moss, You know alongside the road in our rural areas. Let it dry well before using it, bake lightly in oven to kill any critters,I didn’t find any in mine that I happened to find in Clatskanie, Or. (daughter's home) We have it here on Whidbey Island too.

Rhoda

Memorial Nursery: What a difficult, but moving project! I like the idea of the angel girl in your memorial box. Maybe you could write a poem about the baby (or have one written) and have it framed in mini size for the setting, with a framed photo of the baby if available. If you aren't a poet, and the parents are religious, maybe a framed excerpt of appropriate comforting scripture could be a nice touch too.

Michelle Fox

Memorial Nursery: I also had a memorial nursery project. I reduced down the birth announcement of the twins and made a picture frame for it. The announcement had a tiny cross next to the child's name. I also included birth announcements of all the other children in the family as well. Since our twins were "boy & girl" also, the room was decorated in both colors. I know our family really appreciated the roombox, and knowing we wouldn't forget our one special "angel. "

Diane in SF Bay Area