I would love to introduce you to three very fine miniaturists this month. We are going to see some lovely miniatures from Bluebear (Tracy), Monica the Haunted (Monica), and Shelly N (Shelly).

Tracy had a hard time deciding which miniature to pick. She collects both trains and working clocks, so she had to decide which she liked the most. She decided to ask her son his opinion, he said, "What about the oranges I made you?" Tracy does love those oranges but she settled on her working Reutters clock. She purchased this lovely online with her Christmas gift certificate that she received from her Mama. At the time, she only owned the McKinley dollhouse so she wanted it to go in that one. This clock was not something she specifically looked for, she just loved the idea of a working miniature. She has a thing for collecting clocks in real life so this purchase was an easy one to make. She has since acquired three more working miniature clocks.  Tracy wishes that her passion for clocks meant that she was always on time, but sadly that is not the case. She is a techie/engineering person, so she thinks that is why she likes working miniatures so much. In the future, she hopes to get a working ceiling fan and a working train.

Monica also had a hard time picking which miniature was her favorite. She had to narrow her decision down to hand made items that were made by her mini friends, and in the end she could not choose just one. So she sat and thought about which one she would run to rescue if there were a natural disaster, and she decided. It is the Mad Hatter doll made by Sherr. She had the doll made for an Alice in Wonderland scene that she has plans for.  Monica is going to do a "Tea Party" scene with many of the characters as well.  This doll was something that Monica had been musing over for a while now. She had hit the jackpot with Christmas money so she decided to buy herself something spectacular. She feels that this doll certainly represents her in many ways. She admits that she is a bit of a nutter herself, in a good way! She is especially fond of anything avant garde. She loves him so much that she would shrink herself down for a minute so she could hang out with him. LOL

Currently, Shelly`s most prized possession is the in progress Solarium. She had been looking for a greenhouse type of object to place all of the flowers and trees that she likes to make. She found this at a garage sale and it was constructed for real life plants as a terrarium. She removed the glass so that she could age it. She then added a floor and set it on top of a bed of rocks that she made using the blue foam and carved rocks into it.  Shelly is now filling the inside and outside with different flowers and trees that she has made.  She creates her flowers using enamel, some are from kits, and some have been made of her own design by hand dying the petals and leaves. Shelly has always wanted somewhere just like the solarium to call her own. She may not have one in real life but she can create it in miniature!