Miniatures

In my previous life when I didn't have an adorable but demanding mini human to care for, I very much enjoyed miniatures of another kind. I made dollhouse miniature food from polymer clay, which is a kind of modelling clay you can cure in a normal home oven. I usually stuck to 12th scale (one real life foot = 1 inch in miniature) as this is the most common scale for dollhouse collectors.

12th scale dollhouse turkey dinner

I enjoyed making my miniature food so much I set up a shop on Etsy in 2009 called Little Time Wasters, and have had a fair few sales over the years. I'm not quite quitting my day job, but it certainly paid for itself and was pretty satisfying as hobbies go. 

12th scale dollhouse fried breakfast

Unfortunately the dollhouse food making has ground to a halt. It just isn't compatible with caring for a baby. Your hands get dirty, there are lots of small, sharp components all over the place, and it's not the sort of activity you can just pick up and put down when need be. You need to dedicate a couple of hours in one go, which is a luxury I rarely have nowadays! I still run the shop as I still have a few bits I've made available, but it doesn't get the time I'd like to give to it.

12th scale dollhouse cupcakes

I also make 12th scale miniature quilts as this combines my love of patchwork and miniature. I still make one of these every so often as they don't take up much space (of course!) and more importantly I can do it sat on the sofa and put it down when I need to. My dollhouse miniature quilts are entirely hand sewn and usually paper pieced as it's the only way I've found to maintain precise joins on such a small scale. 

Eventually I hope to start making more miniatures again, although I have no idea when this will realistically happen. At what age do kids get easier? Haha who am I kidding?