Interviewing Maria, fan number 250 in Facebook

Wohoo, nice to see where are growingin every front, recently we reached a milestone of more than 250 fans in Facebook. It will be interesting to see which services (Facebook 268, Flickr 258, Twitter 178, YouTube 28) reaches first 500 contacts :).

Hi Maria! How does it feel to be the 250th fan in our Facebook page? It feels fine, that means that there is lots of people who likes this lovely hobby :)

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do?I am Maria, mom and wife, miniaturist and engineer from Tammela, Finland.

Do you have any hobbies other than miniatures?
Yes, music is important for me, also reading.. I am big fan of Agatha Christie.. I am also quite a collector.. Beatles records, dolls, teddy bears, old toys etc..

When and how did you start doing miniatures?
My husband did me a dollhouse year 2000. All started then.

What is your latest / next mini-project? I am doing dollhouse Väinölä and Dollhouse Välitalo.
How did you find Mini Treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? JJ sent me the wiki address. I like the instructions/prints part, 40's, 50's.. there is lots of everything!

What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? Difficult part.. all kind of projects! :)
Thanks for the interview Maria! You forgot to mention the shop you have ;).

HeiaHeia! (move babe move)

I have a confession to make: I do not move enough. But as there are two times a year people make promises I am now trying to improve the situation - with help of you of course: chearlead for me!

What?

I am member of HeiaHeia. It is like Facebook but the status updates are all about keeping fit. And as they say: everything counts. It is better to walk the stairs than use the elevator, it is better to walk to shop than to drive a car, it is better to take a bike instead of a bus and so on. And it might be a good idea to go to a gym but I am not expecting too much from myself ;). But I just took a walk so that I would have something to report to HeiaHeia before writing about it to you (which proves it is working, it got me moving). I have created a group for Mini treasures and I feel myself very lonely there - come and start moving with me virtually and spiritually - I cannot be the only miniaturist who rather stays at home with dollhouses than goes outside to look for some sweat...

Ps. Remember to participate to our contest - you have still one day to participate - edit the wiki, correct a spelling mistake, introduce yourself or add your favorite link, everything counts also for that ;).

Interviewing Grace who added the photo 3333

Wohoo - I just love seeing our Flickr group growing, this week we got the photo number 3333. To celebrate the occasion let's interview Grace :).

Hi Grace! How does it feel to be the one who posted the photo 3333 to our pool?
It feels humbling, actually - like it should have been somebody better or more important than me! It was only me by accident! But 3333 is a lot of pictures, so I'm glad the pool is so full and active.

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do?
I'm Grace White from North Carolina, USA. I work as a paper conservator, preserving damaged artworks and documents (sometimes called restoring, though we conservators don't use that term). It's a great career for me with my love of tiny details and history, working with my hands and eyes. It uses a lot of the same skills that I developed over a lifetime of making miniatures.
Do you have any hobbies other than miniatures? I like quilting and making bead jewelry. I also love reading, especially books about the sea and ships and historic exploration, fiction and non-fiction. And in my spare time I make miniatures, and sell some of them on Etsy! My shop there is honeyandbee, and I also post miniatures on Flickr and my blog.


When and how did you start doing miniatures? I grew up playing with a dollhouse that had been built by my great-grandfather for my mom. I can't remember when I first started making things for it, but it was always my favorite thing to play with. Now my nieces have it, and it's fun to see them loving it too.

What is your latest / next mini-project?
I'm working on a polar explorer's hut. I love the history of polar exploration, and I'm infatuated with the Antarctic huts used by explorers like Scott and Shackleton that are still standing today, and are being preserved by conservators like me.


How did you find Mini Treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki?
I found it through Flickr when I kept seeing that my favorite miniaturists were having their images linked to it. It's hard to pick a favorite page, but I love the section on treasures made from trash! I love seeing how creative my fellow miniaturists are - and I like knowing I'm not the only one who gets wacky inspirations from things discarded by "normal" people.

What would you like to see in the wiki in the future?
Something I love at Wikipedia is the random featured article of the day. It's always something interesting, and usually a topic I wouldn't have thought to seek out. That would be fun to see, a random miniature page, maybe a button one could click that says "Surprise me!"

Thanks for the interview Grace and thanks for the idea of random page :). I added that to Mini treasures yesterday the first random page beeing character dolls. It is one the most edited page on the wiki - we have a lot of links there but not that many pictures so I am hoping that by highlighting the page we could get more pictures of dolls made by our readers. And we need to make a page for polar stuff too, just give me the correct term for the title :).

Edit in MTW and win @ellebanscuties

Elleban26 from our Flickr group and from Etsy donated a wonderful prize for our new contest. If you want to get the goodies from the picture edit our wiki during the following week. The winner is picked among the editors next Friday 20th August. Good luck and have fun! :)

Embedding Picasa pictures in MTW

Embedding Picasa pictures

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MTW roombox poll

I like reading interviews of miniaturists but currently lack the time to do them regularly in this blog (I have asked if one of you would like to come to do the interviews here).

So this time I take the easy way: I interview all of you at the same time :). Answer to the questions either by commenting or by blogging (add the link to comments in that case). The poll is open to everyone.

1. Do you have roomboxes? How many? Link to pictures?
2. If you make roomboxes, why? what is the best thing for you in roomboxes?
3. Have you ever given a roombox as a gift? What was the reason and theme you chose?
4. What is your favorite roombox about? Share a link/picture.
5. Have you been inspired by someone's roombox? Who was it and can you share a link?
6. Any other sources for inspiration?
7. What kind of boxes or containers have you used for your projects?
8. Do you also have a dollhouse? What are the similarities and differences betweem them?
9. What kind of roombox you are planning to do next?
10. Anything else you would like to tell about roomboxes?

Roombox month

With help of Lunika's rooms I open the first theme month: during August we are concentrating on roomboxes. They are fast to do, easy to move (e.g. to exhibitions) and perfect places for small miniature collections. And once we are making gifts for our closest people we often give them a roombox. Now it is the perfect time to share your favorite sites and tips :).