Cover Star!

It's been nearly two months, but we still can't help smiling when we see the photo on the cover of "our" issue of American Miniaturist. And with temperatures around 32°C today (around 90°F for les américains), smiling is about all we can do without flopping over from exhaustion...

We just realised that the apple tart that we listed on Etsy yesterday was the very same one that was featured on the cover of the magazine...you know, the one where we're on the cover. Us. Our photo. On the cover. Of the magazi...well, you get the idea...

So if you want to own a slice (ho ho!) of Emmaflam & Miniman history, you can find it here!

We'll be listing a couple more pieces on Etsy in a few minutes, so watch out for those too.

Thank You Cherry Much!

Knock, knock, knock!

It's Saturday lunchtime and we're tucking into our chicken salad sandwiches (you see, we don't eat foie gras and snails at every meal...!). It's a slightly out-of-breath Monsieur de la Rue, our neighbour. He has a h-u-u-u-ge garden and generally when he knocks on the door, you can be sure that he has harvested something from his garden...apples, flowers, pears.

Today he looked a little stressed so we thought that maybe there had been some accident for which he needed our help.

"Non!" he explains holding out a large tub filled to the brim with cherries. "I have to pick the cherries today, there are far too many for me and they are starting to go bad on the tree! I don't have enough tubs for everyone. Now fetch something to put these into..."

You can be sure that come this evening, the majority of the village will have received their share of cherries. Guess which two miniaturists have cherry clafouti for dessert tonight...! Merci M. de la Rue!

But here's a cherry dessert of a different kind for the rest of you :-p

Cherry tartlet dessert shown with freshly picked cherries

Miniature cherry tartlet dessert

The miniature dessert is due to be listed on Etsy over the weekend...if we're not too busy pigging out on cherries...

Darkness Falls Across the Land...

A sucky day for showbiz...

So many great songs...

And poor Farrah...

SIMP 2009

So this is summer...we had a bit of a lie-in following yesterday's SIMP and on opening the workshop this lunchtime we were greeted with an oven-like waft of hot air slapping our faces. A quick check of the thermometer revealed that the workshop (basically a closed veranda) was baking in 46°C (115°F). So we closed the door and went and had breakfast...

It's the evening now and most of the leftover miniatures from yesterday's SIMP show are safely packed away.

So before settling down in front of the TV with some stuffed tomatoes (real, full-sized, edible ones - woohoo!) , we just wanted to give a shout out to a few people we met yesterday...

We arrived a good hour before the show opened which is unheard of for us. We have built up a reputation for always arriving the last, with a few minutes remaining before opening, but not this time! However we still weren't ready as the opening time arrived, no pieces were stickered up with prices, but we were delighted that Stéphanie (who is obviously much more organised for her first show than we are after 5 years!) took the time to come and say "Hi!" before the show got under way. It was a pleasure to finally meet face-to-face.

With that, the doors were opened and, braced for the rush, we were pleasantly surprised when our stand neighbour whipped out a thermos of hot water, some coffee and some delicious chocolate filled cookies and offered us some. Breakfast at last! Thank you MamiBlue!

Coffee and cookies behind the scenes!

We were also delighted to meet Christel Jensen who had a stand. Apart from a very small number of photos on the internet, we'd not seen much of Christel's work until yesterday, so it was lovely to see her romantic stand.

But star of the day has to be the completely crazy Rosanna, who made the round trip from Genoa to Paris in one day just to attend the show! How on earth she managed to be so bubbly and chirpy after a night spent on a train, I've no idea! That's a passion for miniatures for you!

We made a few purchases, of course. The one which surprised us the most is this miniature angel sculpture which measures just 2cm (3/4") high.

Miniature Angel Sculpture from Maria Victoria Heredia Guerbos

Not usually the kind of thing I go for, but I couldn't resist! (I can't find a site for this maker, so if anybody knows of one, please leave a comment and I'll add a link to it here...)

The day seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were on the way home, happy to have met new people, seen new work, and added a few more pieces to our own collections!

Roll on next year!

The Longest Day - Loads to Do!

It's 21 June...

There are lots of things going on today...here's a list!

1 - It's the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the official start of summer. Time to dance naked around some odd shaped rocks!

2 - In France it's "La Fête de la Musique" a national music festival. There are thousands of concerts ranging from small events held in village hallls and churches to massive organised events under the Eiffel tower. Anyone can go out in the street and sing, play an instrument and generally make merry with music on this day.

3 - It's Father's Day! Treat your Dad - or if you are one, use it as an excuse to not help with the lunchtime dishes and stay on the sofa in front of the TV watching...

4 - ...the Formula One British Grand Prix! Button's not on pole position, Hamilton starts from 19th and Neil can't even watch it live on TV because he'll be away at...

5 - ...the SIMP! The fourth edition of France's largest miniatures show. We've no idea what to expect this year apart from the usual sore feet and aching calf muscles from standing up all day! Will the economic crisis have an effect on the French miniature scene...? Here's a photo of some of the pieces we'll be hoping to tempt people with.

Crisis or no, how can anyone resist that...?!!

Please click to enlarge

6 - The most important news of the day - TOP GEAR IS BACK!!!! The only motoring programme you can watch and thoroughly enjoy even if you don't give a damn about cars! Ask Emma...!

Whatever you're doing today, have a great time - remember that as from tomorrow, we head towards winter...what a depressing thought!

Souvenir de Paris - French Butter Cookies

Tomorrow sees the fourth edition of the SIMP miniatures show in Paris. At the time of writing, we're putting the finishing touches to the last of the new pieces while trying not to worry about all those new ideas for pieces that we'll never be able to realise before leaving home tomorrow morning!

We'd like to share with you one of the new pieces we'll have on our stand tomorrow...

Click to enlarge

The photo of the Eiffel Tower used on the lid and on the inlay is one that we took ourselves and we even went as far as photographing the little cookies so that we could use them for the design on the sides of the box!

But the cookies are the real stars of this piece - there are two sorts in each box. The first sort has "Paris" etched into them (and yes, that's a tiny heart dotting the "i"...!) and the second has a tiny drawing of the Eiffel Tower etched into it.

If you're now tearing your hair out and screaming "It's not fair - I can't get to the show!!!" then do not despair. This piece is now available on our site! Click here to see it...

Etsy Store on "Vacation"

In order to be able to take as much stock with us to the SIMP show in Paris tomorrow, we'll be suspending our Etsy store from Sunday morning (21st June) until we return home.

You may of course continue to purchase from the store between now and then. Any one-of-a-kind items from Etsy sold during the show will not be relisted, so don't miss out!

A Real French Miniature!

This story had slipped us by, as appears to be the case with most of France...

It's not surprising, seeing as how France's (and Europe's) biggest TV station, TF1, is owned by Nicolas Sarkozy's buddies, and Mr Sarkozy recently passed measures that the President of France (erm, so that's himself then...) should have the power to appoint the head of the "public" channels in France - France 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Five channels potentially under the control of a very media-obsessed President! This explains why anything that may criticise or ridicule him very rarely makes it to the airwaves. So we're fighting back from our corner!

We first heard of this while watching British TV this past weekend, otherwise we'd have never known.

Speech time at the recent 65th anniversary D-Day commemoration near Omaha beach (well done Gordon Brown for screwing that up by calling it "Obama Beach" in his speech...you make me proud to be British!). Emma made the same joke about 20 minutes earlier so it wasn't even original! :p

Feeling overshadowed by President Obama's impressive 6' 2" stature, little Nick at 5' 5" (an inch shorter than Napolean...) required some help in order to measure up to the charismatic US President...

A wooden stool! And that's in addition to the platforms that are built into his shoes...

Apparently Obama's chopper is quite a bit bigger than Sarkozy's too. Helicopter, I mean...

Pinwheel Danish Pastries - Childhood Memories

I can't help looking at these without being transported back to when I was a little girl - I was always fascinated by how pretty these pastries looked and often wondered if I could fix one to a stick and blow and make it turn...

I never did it, the pastry lasted barely a couple of minutes in my tiny hands before I had gobbled it up!

I finished these up earlier today. And they'll be on Etsy here:

Earrings

Pendant

I'm really excited today, because we had a chat with someone who'd like to be able to stock some of our jewellery in a real shop! No idea if it'll go anywhere, but doesn't hurt to hope, does it?!

Friday Flashback - Charlottes!

It's hard to hear the name Charlotte without immediately thinking of a web, a Bronte, a Church or (for the more "mature" chaps) a Rampling!

But we bet everyone following this blog is already thinking "a cake"!

We've made a few (dozen) miniature charlottes over the years and love their versatility. It's interesting to create these in miniature because the decoration can be as wild and as original as your own imagination!

So here are a few from our recent past that you might have missed...

Floral Charlotte - May 2008

This one has a floral decoration. I really enjoy making tiny roses and this piece just called out for some in pastel colours. As always, a good bow is very important - if it's too big and uneven, it ruins the whole piece.

Marie Antoinette Charlotte - September 2007

This one turned out very pink! Again, there are roses, some sugared rose petals and some French Calissons d'Aix candies. We baptised it the "Marie Antoinette" although it was created a good six months before our popular Marie Antoinette Collection was even dreamt up. I don't think we'd even seen the film at the time this piece was born.

Eclair and Religieuse Charlotte - October 2007

This charlotte (again, very pink!) uses those two classic French pastries the eclair and the religieuse. The eclair replaces the traditional sponge lady finger biscuits. Not too sure how you'd go about eating a real one of these...

But charlottes don't have to be sweet...

Asparagus Charlotte - July 2007

This asparagus charlotte uses the traditional structure of the charlotte and replaces the sponge fingers with asparagus and the filling is creamy goat's cheese and herb.

But let's not forget the newest addition to our charlottes - the long macaroon charlotte...

Long Macaroon Charlotte - March 2009

This particular one is ready for the SIMP for collection by one of our regular stand visitors.

So, as with the girl's name Charlotte, charlottes can span a wide variety of styles and tastes :o)

New Miniatures!

Two posts in the same day - you'd think we had nothing else to do!

Au contraire...! We've been working on a few new pieces which will be posted in the Paris Miniatures Etsy store later today.

Here's a compilation photo...click for a big-sized souvenir version!

Hope you like them! :0)

Dollhouse For Sale - Only £50,000!

Saw this article on the BBC News website this morning.

There is a cute little video featuring the rather chirpy reporter shrunk down and reporting from inside the dollshouse.

See the BBC report (opens in a new window)

But fifty thousand pounds...? Looks like nearly all of us are sitting on a potential fortune!

And it does seem to be missing some miniature cakes and
pastries! :)

Close up on a Chocolate Fondant

When we're looking at the photos of our work, sometimes we're taken aback by how good a particular piece stands up to being viewed close-up.

This afternoon, we couldn't help letting out a big "ooh la la!" when we saw this tiny dessert on the PC!

We thought we'd share it with you. Click on the photo if you want to see a large version...

Doesn't that just make you want to dip your finger in that runny chocolate sauce...?! We will later because Emma made some real ones for tonight - woohoo!!!

An yep, that's Martine's pen nib again showing the smallness of the dessert on a plate that measures barely 1.5cm (5/8") in diameter.

This was made for Etsy - you can see more photos of it here...

Friday Flashback - Marie Antoinette May 2008

It's Friday, which means it's the second in our series that absolutely none of you have been waiting for since last week...!

Yes, it's the Friday Flashback!

Today we're killing two birds with one stone as we're v-e-r-y busy at the moment. Therefore this glimpse back through the mini-mists of time to one year ago is also an opportunity to announce that we're now on Flickr! Yay!

And the Marie Antoinette Collection is our first set...



We'll be adding many more photos over the coming weeks, but wading through tens of thousands of photos is not something we're particularly looking forward to, so if there's anything in particular you'd like us to upload big pictures of, please leave a comment below!

A Golden Opéra-tunity!

I've just finished up a few more items of jewelry for Etsy - with a chocolate Opéra theme...

Can't get enough of the real cake and I think it works well as a fun piece of jewelry - especially with that flash of gold - just like the real ones!

I love the dangle earrings with the small Opéra cake and the tiny cup of cappuccino! So much so that the ones in the photos are the second pair - I kept the first for myself (for a change!)

Hey, a girl has to treat herself once in a while and that was my golden opportunity to do so without leaving the workshop!

Brinner!

A little while ago we enjoyed an episode of "Scrubs" where Turk was bugging Carla about having "brinner" or breakfast for dinner.

Getting this latest piece finished at the end of this afternoon, I wouldn't mind a brinner of my own tonight!

Miniature French bistro breakfast with Bonne Maman jam