Christmas Cookies ... Part 1

Hmmm... whatever went wrong?  Both Francesca and Mi mundo de miniatura did not come forward to collect their giveaway prizes. 

Could both of you email to ilovelittlethings@gmail.com? Whoever respond first shall get the prize and the other will get a miniature cutlery set (please refer to my previous post for the pictures). If I still don't hear from you until I put up my next post, I will pick a random winner from all who had participated.    

It's about one week to Christmas. Are you looking forward to it? Meanwhile, enjoy a plate of Christmas cookies! 

Gingerbread men and hot chocolate

I love December because my favorite season is coming. Just 24 days to Christmas. Due to some special circumstances, I've not stepped out of my house to celebrate Christmas for almost 4 years. However, I do celebrate in my heart. Maybe I will order a Christmas feast delivery this year. I checked out Cold Storage and there are Boston lobsters, fresh oysters and roast turkey. *feeling hungry already*

I'm grateful for the unexpected good sales this Christmas season. And through this process, I got to know a few customers and had some interesting conversations with them. I realized even more strongly that handmade and custom orders aren't just about the product. It's mostly about love for the person receiving the handmade item. I've had a husband requesting a special order for his wife and a very nice mummy requesting a jewelry that matches her daughter's birthday party theme. It gives me immense satisfaction creating an unique item that fits the special occasion. Thanks for giving me the chance to work with you.

Oh oh... I didn't forget about the giveaway result. First of all, big thanks to those who participated! *hugz* The correct number is 17 and there is a tie between Francesca and Mi mundo de miniatura. I wanted to do a random draw but it seems weird as there are only two of you. How about this? Can both of you email me at ilovelittlethings@gmail.com and guess the month of my birthday? The closer answer wins the hot dog set (I've included another 2 mini cheeseburgers - see picture here). And the other wins a miniature cutlery set - see picture here .  

More Christmas-related posts to come in the next few weeks... do look out for them. 

Pancakes with Berries and Giveaway

Recently I was talking with another Etsy seller and she said something that made me reflect about making dollhouse miniatures. She said that selling on Etsy is not her main activity (just a hobby) so she has to feel happy with this. She's so right. I think it's important to feel happy about what you are doing, be it work or hobby. I need to constantly remind myself about this and think about where my life is heading.

Here are some photos of the miniature pancake stack with fresh berries. Hope you like them. 

Keep scrolling down ... the giveaway is at the bottom of this post.

Recently I gave away two molds (one to make miniature donuts and one to make popsicles) on my Instagram. I like to giveaway craft supplies on Instagram because there are many fellow crafters there and they would certainly have a use for these things. On the other hand, I like to giveaway my creations on this blog. This is THE place where I first started my dollhouse miniature showcase in 2008. (I'm such an old miniaturist!)   

So here is the prize - a set of hotdog with fries, coke and chilli/ketchup dip. All you need to do is to guess a number between 1 and 31. If the number coincides with the day of my birth date, you are the winner! Just leave a comment and indicate the number you selected. I need time to approve the comments so don't worry if your comment doesn't immediately appear on my blog. The closing date is 30th November. Have fun and good luck!  

Chocolate Cake Preparation Board

I made a chocolate ganache cake preparation board recently and I couldn't decide between rose petals and fruit toppings so I ended up doing both. It seems the rose petal cake is more popular. Which one do you prefer? In case you can't tell, it's a yellow macaron on the fruit version.

I'm such a procrastinator too. I haven't had the chance to organize the giveaway but rest assured I am already gathering some craft supplies and working on a handmade miniature food item. I did take a few pictures but they turned out crappy. I want to make the prize attractive as well as think of a creative game to play. Please give me a little more time to prepare.

Here are the photos of the prep board. Hope you like them. :D

More Rainbow Cake and Nutella Banana Toasts

I'm feeling so good today. I had long hair all these years and I cut it really short. They call it a pixie cut. I also colored my hair red-brown. I've been feeling down for several years now but I think this drastic change helped to lift my mood a little. So if you are feeling depressed for some reason, why not go for a haircut? My hairstylist said everyone can have short hair. I think he was more ecstatic than I was. He then revealed that he LUUUUURRVES cutting long hair short but most girls walk into the salon only wanting a trim. No wonder he looked so bored when he cut my hair in the past.

Hope I didn't bore you with all the hair stuff. (hmm.. wanted to put an emoticon but realized blogger doesn't have it, or do they?)

Back to miniatures, here are more pastel rainbow cakes, but in slices this time and made into rings. If you have some extra cash to spare, you can get them here.

This is a set of Nutella and banana toasts. A brother bought it for his sister's birthday and told me that his sister loves Nutella and miniature, so this would make a perfect gift. When I hear things like that, it really warms my heart. I'm so glad that my miniatures can make someone happy. It's a wonderful feeling.

Excuse me while I toast some real bread with Nutella and bananas now. :P

Gummy Bears and Rainbow Cake

Hmmm... I don't know why the uploaded photos here look so dim while the originals look so much brighter. Any of you had the same problem with blogger?

I made a gummy bear necklace as I recently fell in love with glass globe jewelry. I think glass globes look so beautiful. You can put anything inside... macarons, cookies, candies ... What would you put inside?

I also made a pastel rainbow cake. I wish the photos would show up brighter to accentuate the colors of the cake! It looks kinda dull here. Sigh! I can never understand how blogger or other social media work sometimes. Sign of getting old perhaps. Maybe after I click the "Publish" button, the photos would miraculously become brighter? #hoping #clickingnow

I finally figured out. It was due to a new feature called "Auto Enhance". I think my originals are better than the enhanced ones! So I reverted to the originals. It's a cumbersome process and I couldn't do it for all my previous posts. If any of you know how to automatically turn this feature off for future uploads, please let me know!

Banana Split Prep Board

Hello everyone!

How is weekend? Are you having a good rest?

I'm feeling exhausted and a little depressed so I won't talk too much here. Hope you enjoy this mini set of banana split in the making. Thank you all for dropping by and a bigger thank you to the usual people who always leave me kind and encouraging comments. I don't always say it but I really appreciate them!

I didn't forget about the giveaway to celebrate my 500th sale on Etsy but my table is in a mess and I need to get organised. Please be patient with me... :D

Pink Ombre Cake and Ice Cream

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner of the polymer canes giveaway. My laptop died on me!!! I took several days to look for a repair solution and in the end had to settle for a new one. Anyway, thank you for the overwhelming response! Now I know you are excited to find out if you are the winner but how about having some cakes and ice cream first?

As for the giveaway... did you guess correctly? Many of you guess No. 3 whom I agree is kinda cute but she is my neighbor. I am actually the grouchy No. 2 fiddling with the hands. There are two persons who got it right but I would like to award Drora's minimundo because she cited "the one busy with her hands". She totally nailed it! Arantxa wins a consolation prize. Could both of you please email me your name and address? My email is ilovelittlethings@gmail.com 

Thank you to all who participated. I'm so happy to reach 500 sales on Etsy so I will be having another giveaway. Do keep a lookout! 

Butter Toasts and Giveaway

I made some miniature butter toasts a while back and thought I'd just share these photos. :)

How do you like the butter effect? Everything is made from air dry clay except the plates and knife. Nope, I don't use polymer clay because I don't like to bake. Maybe one day when I have lots of time (though this day may never come), I may just decide to learn polymer clay from scratch. 

And yes! I've got a set of polymer clay canes to give away (I didn't make these and I don't use these). These are perfect for miniature cupcake toppings or for beautifying your nails. There are a few fruit canes, a few Christmas canes, and a few butterfly canes. The winner gets all 14 of them and shipping is on me.

It's so easy to win too. Make a guess which one in the photo is me when I was a kid. You just need to indicate the number when you comment on this blog entry. If there are a few correct entries, I will do a random draw. Deadline for entry is 3rd August (Sunday). Have fun!

Strawberry Fraisier Cake

While I am preparing to gather all my fancy canes for the next give-away and trying to find time to take a photo of them, hope you enjoy this miniature strawberry fraisier (or frasier?) cake that I made. It comes with a little recipe card and a cup of cappuccino drizzled with chocolate syrup.

Nowadays, I prefer to create one-of-a-kind miniature scenes. I used to make quite a bit of food jewelry but it seems that everyone else is also making miniature food jewelry these days. Just type miniature food in Etsy search engine and you get more than 10,000 results! Hence I decided to stick with what I really enjoy doing - dollhouse miniature food, just like this strawberry fraisier board. :)

Have a happy weekend my dear blog friends!

Fruity Cheesecake and Giveaway Result

I made this miniature fruity cheesecake in 1:12 dollhouse scale. I still love doing 1:12 items although I am aware that bigger-sized (1:3 and 1:4 scale) ball-jointed dolls are all in the rage now. In fact, I've lost touch with dolls. I have a Puki Puki but I don't have time to play with it. Recently on Instagram I even saw dolls with boobs! Extra large boobs! *lol*

Anyway, why am I digressing. Here are the pictures of the fruity cheesecake... I personally like it a lot but it's sold and I only made one set.

  

And the winner of the gummy bears is Susan! I generated 5 numbers until there was a repeat. So you've got to be really lucky to win this. Congrats Susan! Can you please email me your mailing address? My email is ilovelittlethings@gmail.com

For those who didn't win, don't fret! I have another giveaway coming soon.

Happy 4th July to my dear blog friends in the United States!

Giveaway result in progress...

Sorry! Sorry! I've been so busy for the past few days. I will announce the giveaway result latest by this Friday. Sorry for the delay!

********** WORK IN PROGRESS**********

6th Birthday GIVEAWAY - Gummy Bears

It's been rather quiet in blogland but hey, this blog is 6 years old! I would like to celebrate its birthday by holding a giveaway right here.

The prize is a jar of gummy bears! 

To participate, all you need to do is to leave a comment on this post. You can write anything you want. Come on people, make some noise! And if you are a follower on my blog, please indicate in your comment because it will double your chance of winning.

The last day of entry is 28th June (based on my time here UTC+8) and I will announce the winner on 30th June. Have fun and Good Luck!

Rainbow Macarons

I was requested to make macarons with colored fillings and I was excited because I've always been using white fillings. Although it took much more work and time to get the color shades right, I was really happy with the end result. I made four tins of rainbow macarons altogether - 40 macarons, 80 shells!

Do you prefer the tins or the arrangement in the tray as seen below? My cutting mat looks so clean ... I cleaned it up before taking a photo. ^_^ Do you spot the Rement Pierre Herme box of macarons? That is my favorite series under Rement. I got it in 2008 or 2009.

It's Friday night over here, so wishing all a very good weekend ahead! 

Love it or hate it - Miniature Marmite Toasts

I can't believe I'm still struggling with Instagram since my last post. I don't know why my photos don't appear when I search for key words like "miniature". Then I realised I didn't use any # in my photo description. I wonder if that is the problem and I'm going to try putting # in future. I also realised I can only upload photos via my mobile. Is that right? Oh well, I think I shouldn't get so serious with social media. After all, I'm not running this as a business. I would be very stressed if I were.

I finally cleared my backlog and here are some photos of 'freshly made' miniature Marmite toasts. Do you like Marmite? I heard that it's a love or hate affair. But it's my favourite. I can eat Marmite with bread, rice, potatoes and even drink it! Please enjoy the photos and have a lovely weekend!

Pancakes, Nutella and Blog Revamp

How do you like the new look? I've been on the pink theme for very long and decided to switch to blue. I got Courtney from StudioShineVintage to make me a blog banner and although it is not the one-of-a-kind type, I'm absolutely in love with it. My Etsy shop has the same banner too. *feeling happy* 

The makeover is not done yet however. I still wish to put in some workshop details. Oh! Did I mention I just set up an Instagram account? I haven't figured out how to put the Instagram icon on the blog but you can click here to follow me there. I'm a slow coach in doing all these social media stuff.

Presenting to you two prep boards - one making pancakes and one making Nutella toasts. Enjoy!

Pooh Bear cookie tins

Oh my! Oh dear! No post for March? This is terrible. I don't know why work keeps piling up. Why do people work so hard as if work is the only thing they have in life? I've had emails coming in at midnight! I don't mean emails from my Etsy shop. I mean corporate work whereby people are supposed to work from 9-6. 

Now that work has slowed down a little, maybe I should clear some backlog of my photos first. I've made a few (yes, a few... progress is slow because it is always interrupted by work) new items but have not photographed them yet. Here are a couple of Pooh bear themed food tins I made a while back.

The tin of macarons is sold and hopefully, someone would adopt the cookie tin. Now I must go check if there are any more backlog and update my Flickr, Deviantart, Facebook ... hey, why are there so many social media? I don't even have Instagram! I don't know how to set up an account! LOL. My Flickr traffic is quite dead now... wonder if anyone use Flickr anymore? I'm thinking of terminating the pro account there and switch to Instagram. 

I need to look into these when I am free. When will that day come??? Hate corporate work. Hate corporate work. Hate corporate work.