Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are all having a lovely Thanksgiving. Or what the Americans term "Canadian Thanksgiving". Or what the rest of the world terms "Monday". We just know it for what it is, Thanksgiving, and ours is first, in year and in founding . That is, by the way, very Canadian in attitude. We like to yell "We invented it!". We are the equivalent of that wag who gets to a comment section before anyone else has launched their opinion and yells "FIRST!", but doesn't actually add anything else to the conversation, because the important bit was being first. It tends to annoy everyone else while we wallow in self-satisfied "firstness", but in this case, we actually were - 1578 for Canadians, and 1798 in the US. See? A good 220 years. That gives a nice wide margin for being first. We as a country are totally smug about being number one.  We are the first to admit it too. Either way, it was a brilliant day to celebrate everything tasty and be thankful for the bounty we have received. Interestingly I had the  chance to be thankful with respect to voting today as well. It was an advance polling day,  and I decided to take advantage so next week I wouldn't have to run around like a madman getting to the polls on the "official" election day. Apparently many Canadians also had the same thought -  the second thing you get to learn about Canadians (which might be first, I am not sure) is that when we are ticked off we like to get our opinions on the table early and we like to complain -  loudly. This weekend there were more than 850,000 Canadians lined up to tell the current government what we truly think of them. This is an 11% rise compared to the last Federal election. That says something. The line ups were long, but the discussion in the lines was amazing, in that there was a great appreciation when it came to the freedom we had, just by standing in that line, free to vote in the villain of our choice, instead of having a villain foisted upon us. Not too shabby at all, albeit there was a few grumblings in line about the wait and also because they weren't first in line....  anyway, to business.

Of the seemingly thousands of pictures I have, I didn't have any Thanksgiving pictures to share. I will go a little "Halloweenie" instead. This is something I started working on last October, based on a pattern by Loreleiblu (Etsy). She has since sold this particular settee, but she did published a how to in American Miniaturist in October 2014 if you would like to make one yourself, if you can track down the article. I haven't quite gotten to the pillows yet. Its only been a year. The only caveat is that she didn't quite put in the actual measurements for the coffin. So...either you go find a coffin (cough) or if you happen to have an extra (cough cough) then you can take the measurements off that. Or Google. Google is good. I suppose you could just bat wing it though, it isn't like a coffin has changed dimension over the years. You can just eye of newt it and go from there.

Loreleiblu's original design of Coffin settee.

Day of the Dead looms - interestingly the custom is sneaking into Canada bit by bit, to the point where I could have bought a DOTD Halloween costume...which probably muddies up holidays, but oh well. Pictured also are Edith and Ethel Hemlock, the two headed witch sisters, and also Scarlett Ravensblood, my treasured vampiress. Both these dolls are by Loreleiblu (as above).

 I think I have shown this before, but I like it and I have the password for the site, so I am showing it again. So there.

As fall soldiers on, it is getting a bit cooler, and thoughts turn to warm quilts and more nesting kind of pursuits. This was a tableau (unknown artist - well, not "unknown", I just don't know whose it is. Like a UFO - someone HAS to know what it is, just not the viewer at the moment...but I digress)  from our show last spring. This is a great way to showcase your special collections.

The following are from my tableau "After Dorothy left Oz". After Dorothy was gone, Glinda took over Oz, as she had plotted all along. Glenda wasn't all that good, lets just put that out there. After all, who encourages a young girl to steal shoes off a dead woman, and then further incites a murder of the grieving relative who just wanted family property back? Glinda, girlfriend, we are so on to you! The 4th witch (of whom we don't hear much in the story) decides to lie low and lives a blameless and anonymous life lest someone drops a house on her, and establishes a new life as a  specialty coffee cart owner/operator. She does a brisk tourist business just outside of the gates of the Emerald City. She carries a number of different products, and although she realizes that apples from a witch is just "expected",  the tourist money can't be argued with either.

Yes, you are seeing right,  our coffee witch has a pet winged monkey. Okay,  a winged baboon. Apparently the jury is actually out whether a baboon is a monkey or an ape, although they are officially put in the barrel with the old world monkeys. It was more fun that way. What I was thinking was more of the classical chimpanzee, closer to what they showed in WOO. Sadly, whereas there was a whole ark of primates, there were no chimps. When I asked the clerk the whereabouts of said chimps, he gave me "the look", like I asked him for his first born son, so I just quietly purchased a baboon and ran from the store. My flying baboon turned out well though, leathery wings (perhaps these wouldn't keep him air borne, but then again, neither would the wings they slapped on the monkeys in Wizard of Oz, either....!). I put a bit of a collar on him, as you really don't want a 100 pound pet flying around where foodstuffs are being sold.

These pumpkins were once people, who were turned to pumpkins by an annoyed witch (she no longer goes by South, by the way, but Esmerelda).  They apparently wanted credit from her roadside coffee cart.  This just goes to prove the old adage, just because a witch is acting harmless doesn't mean she is harmless.

This is a polyclay gnome of my own design. Kind of diggin' the happy on his face. His name is actually Tipsy, because apparently when I sculpted him I gave him rather rounded heels and an overbalanced hat, so ...well...he tips over. He is fine as long as he has something to stand by, and as long as he sticks to the coffee option. In the background, a few  of the coffee flavours available - anyone up for a Zombie Au Lait? Please note, curses are available upon request.

What is an homage to WOO without a little toy farm house to drop on unsuspecting women and their nice shoes? 

The cart itself. She has a nice set up, I think, lots of tempting goodies. If you look carefully, you will find ruby slippers, Love Potion #9 (big seller, she transfers it of course to smaller vials, it is powerful stuff) , a black widow spider plant, a Dorothy doll, and a fairy in a tree (hint, the fairy is in the tree).

A close up of the gingerbread witches' cottage , Dorothy, the Ruby slippers, and a sparkly farmhouse.  I found some cool raven stickers, which I have used as spook covers...um, spoke covers. The windows of the farmhouse and accenting the shoes are fingernail decorations.

 Esmerelda - Esme, as her friends call her  (by Kate Lansing) has her cauldron on, ready for customers. Interestingly, the cauldron was one of the first things I had made in my miniature career. It is classic "early mini", bubblegum machine prize case, black paint, beads, and a bit of wire - one of those "McGyver" deals most of us at one time or another have whipped up. I used cotton batting to make the steam, and added a soucon of sparkle just to add that bit of mystery and "Steamy" effect. The banner decorations for the cart I picked up at Michaels in the sticker/scrapbooking section, I believe.

Fine, I couldn't resist another flying monkey. A flying sock monkey. A flying sock monkey with a jaunty cap. This is a tourist trap, just the kind of vacation treasure that gets taken home for the kiddies, with a jaunty label somewhere saying "A Present from Oz" or some such.

Okay, everyone! I held my nose, I closed my eyes - I took a drink. I couldn't tell if it was day or night, I started kissing everything in sight. But when I kissed a cop down at 34th and vine, he took my little bottle of......
 

 

Now that I have polluted your minds with an ear worm, I can leave you to enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving/Canadian Thanksgiving/Monday. 

Later Lovely People!