Halloween Miniatures Compilation Video!

To celebrate Halloween, we've just put together a new compilation video showcasing some of the Halloween miniatures that we made this year.

It's so "hot off the presses" that at the time of writing, some of the pieces are still available either on eBay or Etsy !

Since the beginning of October, we've created over 40 new Halloween pieces. We've been overwhelmed by all of the kind comments, emails and messages we've received about them.

If you've bought any of these pieces, we hope you enjoy seeing them immortalised in the movie!

Turn up your sound and enjoy!

Freaky (Halloween) Friday!

Lunchtime today and I was just finishing up something in the workshop when I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye...

Looking up I saw this black cat...

The only thing is, we've been living in our small isolated village for over three years now, know pretty much everyone here and...NOBODY HAS A BLACK CAT...

GULP!

Final Halloween Miniatures....

Anyone wandering the streets of a typical French town this week would be hard-pressed to find any evidence that it's Halloween this weekend. The French don't really "do" Halloween, but are we going to let that stop us joining in the Halloween fun?

No!

We've just finished the final selection of Halloween miniatures for this year. Here are a couple of sneak peaks...

Halloween / Thanksgiving / Autumn Cake

"Table" Teapot shown with a Biro pen nib

We'll post them on eBay later this evening where you'll be able to see more photos of these pieces and the rest of the items we made.

A reminder that there are still a few Halloween dessert pieces available in our Etsy store! Don't miss out!

Steak and Chips!

"Chips", "French Fries", "Freedom Fries", "Pommes-Frites", call 'em what you will, nothing goes as well with a grilled steak!

Between making tons of Halloween miniatures and preparations for the upcoming "Paris Création" show, we've been trying to catch up with some commissions this week. It's been nice to work on some savoury items for a change! By the way, if you're still waiting for something, please be patient, we'll get round to you before too long...

One item requested was a "Steak-frites with salad and pepper sauce" which is shown below. Happy to report that the buyer was pleased with the result!

Click for a really close "close-up"!

Talking of satisfied buyers, a big thank you to Rosanna from Genoa who has thoughtfully taken the time to post on her blog about her recent first Ebay win!

Even MORE New Halloween Miniatures!!!

To think that at the start of the month we said to each other that we'd probably not bother too much with Halloween this year...

Now we can't stop!!!

Another series of Halloween and autumn-themed desserts are about to find their way onto Etsy!

Click here to see them!

More New Halloween Miniatures!

Just finished a new series of 6 assorted desserts with a Halloween theme and colours.

To find out more, head over to our Etsy store and look under the heading "Minifood Desserts".

New Halloween Miniatures!

Here's a quick presentation of our new Halloween items!

Hang on, there's something in the photos that I swear wasn't there when I was taking them....

All these items are now available on eBay - please click here to see them - ghost-free!

Sunday is the First "World Porridge Day"!

Thanks to this story on the BBC's website we've just found out that today is the first "World Porridge Day" which, as well as marking the World Porridge Making Championships, is helping to raise money for Mary's Meals.

Please spare a couple of minutes to visit their site and find out how to donate a little something to this worthy cause.

Or click here to go directly to the donations page. They even accept PayPal - and we pretty much all have an account!

Just 7 euros feeds a child with nutritional porridge at school for a whole year - that's the price of a single Big Mac Meal....

www.marysmeals.org/

To our friends across the Atlantic "porridge" = "oatmeal"!

Miniatures, Traveling Together and Paris at Night

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of meeting up in the centre of Paris with a tour group from America.

This particular "Traveling Together" tour was dedicated to miniatures. With an intense itinerary which, in the space of three days had already taken in Birmingham Miniatura, London, and a trip through the "chunnel", we were delighted to be able to spend an evening with some seriously addicted miniaturists before they continued their tour down through Burgundy and on to Lyon.

We arrived more or less on time in the lobby of the Novotel Hotel situated at Les Halles in the centre of Paris and were greeted by the smiling face of tour organiser Barbara Spohn. After a very welcome drink in the Hotel bar, we were invited to set up in Anita Mills' room. You can find out more about Anita here.

As you can see, the presentation was basic, but with a group of collectors chomping at the bit, installation time was very short! With a knock on the door came, in came the tour party with wide eyes and large, friendly smiles, grateful to have all the time and space they needed to move around and choose. If only all miniature shows could be like this!

It's not very often that we find ourselves in 4 star hotels, so we took full advantage of it to enjoy the views of Paris that the room offered us. Above is one of the entrances to Le Forum des Halles, and below is Sacré Coeur, both visible from the same window of Anita's room. Nice!

Once the group had made their purchases, we took up their kind invitation to dine with them in the hotel restaurant. We enjoyed a lovely three course meal, were looked after by some incredibly helpful staff, while accompanied by some live piano playing. Towards the end of the meal, the intense tour schedule combined with jet-lag was understandably starting to take its toll on some of the party, who returned to their rooms for some much-needed sleep. They had been on their feet since 6 am, and had earned it!

So it was about half the group who decided to go on the short walk towards the Seine and the Pont Neuf bridge. They were delighted when we said we'd join them.

Paris in the daytime is gorgeous, but at night it takes on a whole new look...

You'd probably never notice these apartments during the day, but at night, you can't miss them!

The Samaritaine department store with its art deco architecture looks out over La Seine.

The Pont Neuf metro station entrance.

The rue Pont Neuf with its cobbled surface. That's some of the tour group leaning on the wall.

And the Pont Neuf bridge which spans the Seine river. Off in the distance is...look at the next picture...can you see it?

Look, it's there behind the Bateaux Mouches tour boats too!

Yes, visible from here, at over two mile's distance, is the Eiffel tower!

And to cap it all, at the moment we arrived, it started its hourly flash! We filmed it...

We thoroughly enjoyed our few hours with the group and it was all over far too quickly. At the time of writing they're still in France, enjoying the sights of Old Lyon. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to meet up with them another time and find out if one particularly sprightly 83 year-old has added to her collection of 250 dollhouses! Go Dolly!

New Miniatures!

We're really snowed under at the moment (should that be "leafed under" seeing as it's autumn...?), so just a quick post to show you that we're still here making minis!

Most of these will be in our Etsy store soon.

We had a great time at the miniature show in Vincelles last weekend. Because it's so far from anywhere, it's generally the hardcore French miniaturists who attend, resulting in a small and intimate show with a great atmosphere.

The organisers even lay on a delicious lunch for exhibitors and the whole thing takes place a lovely setting. We'll pop some pictures up soon...

This year we were even graced with the presence of cameras from France 3 in Burgundy which resulted in Emmaflam's fifth appearance on French TV! And my first...if the back of my head counts?!