Dollar Store Halloween Fun! Plus Challenge

After seeing some of the things that fellow miniaturists have been finding at the Dollar Store, I've been stalking my local shops. See what I found here? A package of drinking straws with four jack-o-lanterns per straw! My husband used a hacksaw to separate the four pumpkins from one another. Each pumpkin is approximately 5/8 inch (1.5 cm) tall.

Pretty nice potential here for dollhouse miniature Halloween scenes, wouldn't you say?

Now onto the challenge: Ninni from Finland at Nipsun Nopotykset blog challenged me to answer some interview-type questions here on my blog. So here goes:

1. How and when did you start your miniature hobby?

I originally started my miniature hobby when my Dad built me my first dollhouse at around age 9 or 10. Several decades went by, when I'd almost forgotten about my interest in miniatures, but I saved my dollhouse. Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I made some plushies with the idea of selling them. As I was starting to photograph them, I thought of my miniatures collection and pulled some out to use as props in my photos. I started this blog, miniaturists found it, and my interest in the hobby was re-ignited. I turned some of my plushy photographs into greeting cards, and now I have a business selling them in local shops.

2. What would you want to do in miniature size?

I like to create miniature dioramas and scenes using my own playful handmade plush characters, recycled and repurposed materials, and dollhouse miniatures. I take photos of these scenes, and some of them become greeting cards. The type of scenes I create are whimsical with touches of shabby chic and vintage styles. I intend to create more scenes along these lines.

3. What kind of miniatures interest you the most?

I love sweet, cute, whimsical, and romantic-style miniatures the most. I love to purchase miniatures from individual artists who create in these styles. Examples include Lovejoy Bears, CuteinMiniature, and FloraDollhouse.

I also enjoy repurposing found objects and "shabbifying" old dollhouse furniture. Recycling is fun!

4. Mention five things you like.

1. Positive people.
2. Having fun!
3. Animals.
4. Needle felting, sewing by hand, and making miniatures.
5. Photographing miniature scenes and blogging.

5. Mention five things that you don't like.

1. Drama and negativity.
2. Mainstream media.
3. Cruelty and bullying.
4. Politics.
5. Social networking.

6. What is your biggest dream?

I just take one day at a time and see where it leads me.

7. Tell about some tradition you have in your home place/country.

In Portland, people spend a lot of time in bookstores and coffee shops during our rainy, dark winters. I love exploring bookstores and libraries.

8. If you could choose any place you wanted in the world, where would you want to live?

I like living in Portland, Oregon. It is green and beautiful, progressive and fun!

9. In which countries have you been? And which did you like the most? 

I spent a few years in SE Asia and have been to Mexico and Canada. My favorite place was the island of Bali in Indonesia. It was a tropical paradise with lovely people and an interesting culture.

10.Tell something interesting about Finland? OR What do you know about Finland?

Finland is known for its natural beauty and its peace-loving citizens. It's renowned for being a wonderful place to live!

Thank you for the fun challenge, Ninni! OK, that's it for me today. I'll have something fun to show you this weekend! xoxo Jennifer

Mama Tucks In Baby Mouse

I went to Green Bean Books on Wednesday and installed my first public diorama. Wow! I've been excited all these weeks all the way until it was my scheduled time to be "in the box." I was planning and visualizing, photographing and fretting a little bit too. Jennifer at Green Bean was so supportive and nice and helped me feel relaxed about the whole thing. I'd gathered my supplies up a few days before the big day. Yes, everything was packed and ready.

What's behind this door?

I think I see something!

I spent over two hours putting it together, making sure everything was in place just so. Then, it was done! Whew! What a relief! So, without further ado, here's my diorama:

It's my first public diorama:  Mama Tucks In Baby Mouse!

It's called Mama Tucks In Baby Mouse. Mama has just read baby mouse a story, and now Baby is asleep in bed. And guess what else? There's a greeting card to match the diorama!

Latest greeting card by Plushpussycat Cards!

It is blank inside, so it can be used for Mother's Day, Get Well Soon, and New Baby! My diorama will be available for viewing through April 30, 2012 (that's two more weeks than originally planned!) at Green Bean Books in Portland. My greeting cards are available at Green Bean and in my Plushpussycat Etsy shop. You can view Plushpussycat's entire selection of cards in my Greeting Card Gallery. Hope to see you at the show! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

Favorite Mouse Plushy Photos

Yesterday, my mouse plushy was featured in an Etsy treasury called I love everything mouse. It got me thinking about a couple of things. First, I had wanted to take some new photos of my greeting cards for my Etsy shop. The original ones I took weren't very effective for viewing in Etsy treasuries, and since they hadn't been put in any treasuries, not many people had been exposed to the cards. To make a long story short, I took new photos of my cards, put new listings in my Etsy shop, and * reduced the price * on the cards while I was at it. You see, I added a new card to my line:

And I ordered a batch of these cards while Moo was having a sale. Then I added a coupon onto the sale price, so I got this order of cards at a really good price. So I'm passing my savings onto anyone who buys any of my cards. Yay!

The second thing I was thinking about was that there are some really cute pictures of my mouse plushy, and Friday is a great day for cuteness, so here are my favorites:

This last photo is on the front of two of the cards in my shop. One is a birthday card, and one is blank inside. These mouse photos are some of my very favorites, so I offer them for your viewing pleasure, my dear readers. Have a great weekend! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

Tucking You All In the Giveaway

As most of you know, my blog giveaway ends this Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 11:59:59 pm Pacific time. I have been randomly looking through the comments on the giveaway post, and I've noticed that there are a couple of problems:

1) Some of the people who signed up for the giveaway are not followers of the blog using Google Friend Connect (instructions on how to follow with Google Friend Connect are here).
2) Some of the people who signed up for the giveaway did not specify which prize(s) they are interested in (#1, #2, or both).

PLEASE do yourself a favor and double-check your giveaway entry in the comments (sometime before Saturday) and make sure that you have covered both of these requirements. I will not be able to include incomplete entries in the drawing. :-(  If you find that your entry was incomplete, write a new comment on the giveaway post with all of the information.

Now I have a question for all of you. Are there any people out there who have NOT been able to leave a comment on the giveaway post or who cannot follow this blog using Google Friend Connect? I have heard from three people who had one or the other of these problems, but in two out of the three cases, the problem has now been solved.

Is there anyone else out there who would like to enter the giveaway but cannot so far? If so, I would like to hear from you. Let's try to solve the problem so that you can have a chance at the prizes too! Leave a comment on this post or email me at plush (at) plushpussycat.com. Thank you!

What do you think of my little mouse plushy? She has just tucked her baby into bed. I hope you don't mind that I have tried to help everyone have a chance to win the giveaway prizes. :-) I feel like I am tucking you all in the giveaway! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

I Didn't Forget the Giveaway + Welcome

Hello to all my dear readers! I wanted to let you know that I have definitely noticed that this blog has reached and actually exceeded 50 followers--yay! And you must remember that I promised a blog giveaway drawing once we reached 50. I haven't forgotten, and I am working on the prizes as I write this. It will come together very soon--I promise! As soon as the prizes are ready, I will officially announce the giveaway, you can be sure of that!

In the meantime, let me tell you that I treasure each and every one of you. It means so much to be able to share my creative endeavors with all of you. The comments you leave me are priceless! I feel part of a precious community. Today I want to thank each and every one of you:

Jeni

Ann Knutson

missy lewis

Brandon

Linda

Bitterbetty

Maureen Mackey

pop-i-cok

Hawaii Kawaii

Mirja

Catherine

Societe des Monstres

starscastle

Lara

Peggy

Jollie

Cara Carmina

q.D.paToOtieS

The Sun and the Turtle

Elaine Accioly

Wynter Chan

anna

kikithespunkymunky

Cr8zCat

kate

Heleni

Jill D

Oiseau deNim

REread

Fiver

klara

drora hed

Rosamargarita

Jenya

Raquel

Petra

petitesorbet

Nuria

Agata Pie

carmen

Tracy

Susi

La Belle Brigante

MrsPitStop

Nati

beatrice

Minna

rebeltakipte

Miniature by Juli

Flor

Sans DD

Thank you for following my blog! :-)

There are a few people missing! The people above are the ones who have followed this blog publicly by clicking the Follow with Google Friend Connect button, which puts a small picture (or standard image, if you so choose) of you amongst the other followers. Some of you have followed privately (so no picture shows up) or have only followed by email or via a reader, without using Google Friend Connect. I cannot see who these people are, so I cannot thank you by name. Thank you, though! Thank you one and all!

I am so looking forward to thanking you further with my upcoming blog giveaway. It will be ready soon, so keep a close eye on this blog for the upcoming official announcement. Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer 

More Cute Plushies!

Yesterday I found a few more cute plushy pictures on my computer while I was learning how to use Picasa to edit photos.

She's a cute little one, huh? I guess mice eat more than cheese, right? This is how we found her, hanging out in the collard greens. But once she spent some time at our place for a while, she got a taste for cakes and icecream cones--yumm!

And now for some kitty plushy photos that I'd forgotten about:

Here's Tomcat plushy again, with flowers, although this time he's on his own, not yet having presented the flowers to Plushpussycat at their picnic date. And here's Plushpussycat just before that fateful first date:

She's just a doll, huh?! No wonder Tomcat's whiskers get all jumbled up when he thinks about her (see above)!

OK, now I have some news. :-) I'm working on some bunny plushies to share with you soon. So stay tuned here for my next installment: Cute Bunny Plushies! Until then.... xoxo Jennifer

Dad's Dollhouse

Hi! I thought I'd share a little about what has led me to my interest in handcrafting cute small plushies. One of my inspirations has been my dad's dollhouse. When I was eight or nine years old, my dad took me aside and showed me some plans for a dollhouse that were published in the then-latest issue of Sunset magazine. He asked me what I thought about him building me the dollhouse for my birthday. Of course I was thrilled! A dollhouse of my own!

So my dad lovingly built me the dollhouse, and I picked out the color (I wanted wedgewood blue for the outside). Both my parents helped with paint, wallpaper, and carpet for the inside. The kitchen, livingroom, and master bedroom wallpapers were from the same rooms in our real house! And the attic wallpaper was from my grandparents' bedroom.

Mom took me to a miniatures shop, where I purchased my first dollhouse chair. It was a Victorian spring rocker with maroon velvet upholstery. I was hooked! After that, I dreamed about dollhouses, I read dollhouse books, visited dollhouse shops, and purchased furniture and other household items for my dollhouse whenever I had birthday or Christmas money.

My interest in dollhouses and miniatures kept on for several years, and even after I had moved on to other diversions, miniatures always had a special place in my heart. I kept Dad's dollhouse, with the miniatures inside, even when I thought I was beyond ever using it again. It moved with me several times--not easy, as it is very heavy, made from thick, solid wood.

Most recently, it was stored in my basement in a nook next to the laundry area. I had started making plushies and wanted a low-cost way to display them with props. Then suddenly it came to me: Dad's dollhouse! I'll pull out the miniatures and set up little vignettes (more here and more here) with them!

Now this is what I do. I make cute plushies from recycled soft wool and other fibers, I make vignettes for photographing them in my lightbox, and I blog about what I do. And I love it! :-) xoxo Jennifer

P.S. If it isn't obvious already, I really treasure this dollhouse, for so many reasons. First, because my dad lovingly made it for me by hand, and also because it is a family heirloom now, a solid record of places and people from my past. xoxo

Update: Check out Dad's Dollhouse: An Update for more recent pictures of the house.

A New Era: Felted Wool Sweater Plushies

After making my banana slug and worm plushies, I caught sight of several artists who were making cute stuffed plushy critters from upcycled felted wool sweaters. I caught a kind of fever for using this type of material, as it was and is a great fit with my values and interests.

I like the idea of recycling something that can no longer be used by someone else. It saves the material from going to a landfill. Using recycled sweaters (and other fibers and craft supplies, for that matter), reduces the raw material and energy needed to create brand new materials. Double-win for the environment! Plus, I LOVE thrift store shopping! I win too! :-)

Here are some fun pictures of my first felted wool sweater plushy. It's a sweet little woods mouse: 

First, I thoroughly washed and felted the sweaters I used. Then I made her completely by hand from soft recycled lambswool sweaters, cotton embroidery floss (including some vintage floss), and bamboo fiberfill, which is a soft and renewable fiber. I adore this critter, and designing the sets and taking the photographs was so much fun. Hope you enjoy them too! OK, that's it for now! More cute plushies next time.... xoxo Jennifer