The Tea Shop is farther along

Today it continues to be rainy and overcast here. I NEED sunshine. But I didn't have to feel guilty about staying inside and working on my minis. Aftergoing to exercise early this morning and doing laundry and some vacuuming I felt like it was time to PLAY.

I first sorted through all the quarter scale swap items I have received over the years to find things to use in my little projects. Then I began to choose things to go in my little tea shop. Here are a couple of pictures of the updated look. There are still things to be done on both floors but it is beginning to look better.


The upper floor will be a powder room for customers that visit the teashop. Their is a Victorian toilet behind the pink screen. I still need to find some kind of a sink.

And on the first floor you will see the silver tea set I bought a while ago.... it is actually a charm. And is just the right size for quarter scale. It is sitting on top of a little green table. I added carpeting for both floors too. Things I printed out from on line.

So I am happy so far.

I have continued on working on the little tea shop project. Here are two quick little pictures. I need to do a lot more work but this will give you the idea.

I seem to have been missing here for awhile. Don't have an excuse, just doing other things.
The week end weather was very nice so we managed to eat most meals outside. Didn't go anywhere for the holiday cause the shop was open. We had a lot of interesting buyers which was good!! We had a surprise fly over yesterday.... A BLIMP.... I didn't get out quick enough to get a picture but here is one I found on the web.... It is the Direct TV blimp. Don't know where they were heading, certainly nothing going on in our little town. It certainly made a BIG shadow as it flew over the house!!

I am getting ready to do some more miniatures. I found this birdhouse at a yard sale for just a couple of dollars. I asked my husband to cut out the back so I could make a little quarter scale tea shop inside. I have some things to use so it shouldn't take too long. I thought the shop was so cute I just had to do it. I hope it won't take too long. I will post on her when I have something more to show.

He gets in the act

I love to make doll houses and miniatures. AND...my husband likes to make dioramas and build models.... which is actually just miniatures. So we definitely have that in common.

Last Sept. we went to a blue grass festival in Arcadia, Maryland. They have a water truck they use to water down the dirt roads at the campground and my husband decided it would make a perfect subject for a diorama. It took him a lot of the winter to finish it. But he got it done in time to go to the Spring Festival at the same location.

HERE is the actual water truck






And HERE is the Model of the Truck

ATCs

I was really gung ho on making miniatures early in the year but have been taking a breather and gotten back into a different creating format.

I have always enjoyed making collages and making ATCs is a form of that. An ATC is an artistic trading card, ALWAYS 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. They are always TRADED, never sold. I have participated in a number of swaps over the years making them. I love the format because it is small. You can make an interesting one without worrying about how to fill a big page.

Here is a link to tell you more about them if you wish to start on this very addictive hobby...ATCs

Here are a few of the ones I have made recently for swaps on a group called SWAP BOT. It is a large group of different kinds of swaps and ATCs are just one part of it. I like doing themed swaps because it gives me an idea of how to work. But I love the fact that if 10 people are doing the swap you will get 10 completely different interpretations.

Dinners times two

I am continuing to be good about following my menu plan. Here is picture of the Wed. night meal. It is mini meatloaves with broccoli. Use any meatloaf recipe and make it in little patties instead of the loaf pan. The broccoli is steamed with cashews and raisins added the last few minutes and garnished with grated fresh parmesan.

Thursday night we had sweet and sour pork, fried rice and lima beans. I know some don't like lima beans but we do and it is almost a tradition to serve when I do pork. They are seasoned with Cavender's Greek Seasoning. I make regular basmati rice earlier in the day. Then when it is cool I use it for the fried rice. The Sweet and Sour Recipe is pretty easy.

I use a pork tenderloin. Cut up into small bits..... and marinated in a mixure of Soy Sauce, cooking sherry and a bit of ginger powder. 1/4 cup soy, 1/8 cut cooking sherry and a t. of ginger powder. You can vary this to taste. Don't let sherry or ginger overpower.

Let pork marinate in this for several hours. Can be in refrigerator.

Then mix 2 eggs, 2 T. of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of flour. You can increase this is you are making for more than two people.

Dump the pork and the marinade into the coating mix, cover the pork well and deep fry.

I use Sweet and Sour sauce from LaChoy.

I will take the lazy way out tonight and have a pizza from Schwan"s.

Snow, Red Sox and dinner

I woke up this morning to see snow on the ground when I looked out the window. Not a good thing. But now it has about all melted so not big deal I guess..... just the minor mental depression I felt when I saw it.

The good news is the RED Sox finally got their opening day and they won 5-3. Beckett looked great as did Pedroia. He hit a home run his first time up.

Last night's meal was a family favorite Pasta Dish. A few years ago when we were visiting our son we had dinner at a restaurant called the Town Dock in Rye, NY. This was the dinner Bill chose to have and he liked it so well we decided to try it at home. That was a couple of years ago and we still love it.

We haven't really named it, just call it Penne with sausage and mushrooms. There is no written down recipe. I usually just wing it but the basic things are

Penne Pasta
Shitaki Mushrooms (sliced in thin strips)
Roma Tomatoes (chopped finely)
Spinach (I use Baby spinach and chop finely)
Italian Sweet Sausage
Garlic
Fresh Grated Parmesan

I usually cook up about 3/4 cup of the Penne for the two of us. (about 15 minutes) And meanwhile, in a frying pan I crumble the sausage and add garlic and cook until done. Then I add the mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Cook until spinach is limp and they are all blended.
Then, when Penne is done I drain it and add to the mixture in the frying pan. And finally serve with a topping of fresh grated parmesan.

With this recipe I always serve what we call Patti bread. A friend of our named Patti introduced us to this recipe.


Patti Bread:
Slice Italian bread, as many as desired.
Melt butter in a dish and dip each slice in the dish about 1/2 way down, to soak the bread on one side.
Sprinkle with seasoning.... you could use Italian seasoning but I use a McCormick seasoning blend called BASIL and GARLIC.
Put the coated slices on a cookie sheet and put under the broiler until they brown nicely. You much watch carefully that they don't burn.

For us this is a great meal.