What happened to the Summer?? Yikes

Where did the summer go! I just realized I didn't blog in July or August!! I hope you all had wonderful summers or winters depending on where you live.

We were away for a couple of weeks up in Parksville on Vancouver Island and that was fantastic, such beautiful weather.

Redecorating with new floors, furniture and now counter tops in the kitchen took a bit of time moving everything. I love our new linen look so much!
We enjoyed our season's pass to Butchart Gardens and went for picnic lunches about 12 times, so gorgeous and good for the soul. We are so lucky to live so close. I kept working and designing in between so I guess that is where the summer went!! I do love Autumn!

Above you can see 2 new quarter scale laser cut Reading Nook kits I will be selling soon on Etsy and our website, need directions though. They were so much fun, love choosing trims from my vintage stash and printing the silk with designs.

I'm showing the photo above from 46 years ago when John and I were married. It also shows my folks and John's. We just celebrated our 46 anniversary Sunday. We had a lovely dinner and movie. We went to Mama Mia Here We Go Again. I loved it so much, the music is extraordinary.

The new album shown above has just been released by my son Tony Day and Daughter in Love, Gerogia Murray aka LIINKS. It is so exciting and soulful!! It is called Ridge Road and can be listened to on so many music hosting sites such as Spotify and other places. You can buy it on iTunes too. We are so proud of them. Georgia is such a fabulous singer and Tony does the wonderful music and is a producer. They write music for Universal Music Publishing Group.

Well, that is it for today. Oh, yesterday I started making laser cut roses and had a great time.
Mini Hugs, Jean

Free Printable of a Spring Song

I hope you enjoy this new free printable.I really loved this sweet image that was on the cover of one of my vintage needlework books. Just imaging getting a magazine with this image on the cover in the mail, so many must have been delighted. It is filled with such joy and I can just hear the birds chirping. Outside one day I heard so many birds chirping all at once, it was like a choir, really amazing.

We just got back from visiting my oldest son Tony and his partner Georgia in Huntington Beach LA. It was wonderful to see them again and our favorite granddog Artie. We really enjoyed the sunny weather and wonderful restaurants with so many Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Vegetarian offerings. So different than when I started being Gluten Free about 28 years ago. They gave us such a wonderful time while we were there too!! Tony and Georgia are coming out with a new EP soon and produce their music under the name LIINKS, their song The Break was on radios across Canada last year. We are very happy and wish them loads of success.

I'm back to mini designing again and have been enjoying many new lace designs I hope to have finished soon. Shelly's show "A Mini Miniature Show" which is not so mini any more is coming soon  so be on the look out for that March 17 to March 20.

Happy Miniing or any other Creative Outlet you are into at this time!

34 years of designing miniatures and still going!

 

As I'm getting older time seems to go so much faster and I am becoming much more nostalgic. It is so hard to believe I have been making and selling miniatures full time since 1980 after teaching Art in Jr. High. I would like to write a few blogs of how my miniature business started and evolved more for myself as a journal or record but if you don't mind a bit of reading you might enjoy it too.


The first show where I sold miniatures was at a Christmas craft show when I was pregnant with Alex my youngest son who is now 32, see how time flies!! I used a bunch of large round metal 8mm film canisters. I put a pin cushion on the bottom area and a miniature scene in the top. I made a sewing room, kitchen, baby's room, and a few others that sold well, so I was on my way. We then found that the miniature shop in Victoria was for sale Alex was so small he couldn't talk but thought all the tiny things were great. We bought it, moved everything to a room in our business and I called my business Daydream Miniatures because my last name is Day and it was all a dream. We had a room in our basement where I sold the miniatures by appointment and I also had made a miniature catalog. It was so difficult to make a miniature full line catalog. In those days, nothing was digital. I had to take black and white photos of everything and have the catalog printed. I then put an ad in a miniature magazine and hoped someone was interested. My first show was the local Hobby Rockhound and Stamp show in 1984, shown below. Mom used to take me each year to the Hobby show when I was younger so I was very pleased to be in it myself. I had a very large display with all of the houses John and had built and other kits we were selling. John worked very hard making room boxes and house designs to sell and I finished them inside. I also started fimo and handcrafted miniatures to sell as well. You can see a photo above of our house kits and my roombox of miniatures.

My first miniature show was in Vancouver with the Vancouver miniature club in 1984, since there were other dealers selling full line miniatures they wanted me to sell only my handcrafted miniatures. I had started dressing tiny plastic dolls and took fimo items and tiny pottery that a close friend of mine had made. John made a wonderful open toy shop for me to sell my miniatures. If you look closely at the top photo in the lower right hand corner you can see a room box my old son Tony made of a music room filled with photos and albums. I wish I could find a better photo of it, he did a great job.  It had a dance floor inspired by Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" when he first did his Moon Walk. There is also a container of mini wax by my receipt book that I think is the one I'm still using.

I was so pleased with the reception my minis received and knew then that I was going in the right direction. It was difficult when I first start making miniatures because I wanted to try to make everything that was large small!!!. Life had become so exciting for miniature inspiration.

Georgia Murray, My Son's Partner, "Cover Me Canada" invited her back for last episode!!

Georgia Murray and the other eliminated singers from Cover Me Canada have been invited back for the final episode of Cover Me Canada on Sunday CBC 9:00 in November sometime. Looking forward to looking after Artie if Georgia decides to go.

I didn't mention before that Georgia has a new EP out and available through their web site http://georgiamurray.net

The above photo is Artie, their French Bulldog, listening to Georgia on the phone when they were competing in the show. He loved it when I played her videos too. He seems to be a natural music lover!!

Here is a sample from Georgia's new EP, I love it!! Sounds reminiscent of the 50's!

Georgia Murray, Tony Day & band meeting John Mann on Cover Me Canada Set.

I was very excited to see Georgia, Tony and their band in this video of their visit with John Mann from the band Spirit of the West. They had a short visit with him last week as he explained how his song "Home for a Rest" was inspired. Very good story and so funny!

Cover Me Canada was a good show last night and I enjoyed all the performers but really missed Georgia Murray and her band performing. They have tremendous energy! It was also sad to see another band being removed from the show but there will be a winner!

This video is Jordan Knight, one of the judges on Cover Me Canada as he answers questions he has been asked about the show. With his years on stage he has been good at giving advice. Pleased to hear that Georgia surprised him on the show with his suggestion to up her style or as Jordan would say she "flipped her steelo".

Hugs, Jean

Georgia Murray and Tony Day (my son's) "Silver Lining" on Cover Me Canada!

 

Georgia singing Sunglasses at Night 

Aside from the very obvious benefits for Georgia and her band being chosen to be on a Nation wide show, when reviewing Georgia's elimination on TV again and in particular the comments that were made by the judges, I found something I had overlooked.

Ron Fair said to Georgia "Who are you... Georgia and Kytami or are you Edith Piaf? and in and earlier comment he mention being like Mick Jagar and Keith Richards. I took these as compliments for Georgia.

Since I've always tried to be a positive person, I got to thinking that most likely Ron really thought about what he was going to say to Georgia for quite some time. What a great choice... I've always been a fan of Mick Jaggar and Keith Richards! Edith Piaf is my favorite singer of all time!! If you have not seen the movie "La Vie En Rose" you really must!!! What a tremendous voice and I remember mentioning to Georgia years ago that Georgia reminded me of her in the way Edith loved to sing for the sake of singing and so soulful...what a soulful crooner, very much like Georgia!! What a choice.... of course I hope she continues to be the Georgia we love!

Georgia Murray and Tony Day (my son) TV show competitors, "Very Exciting News"!.

 Georgia Murray singing  "Up" on the TV show Cover Me Canada.



Georgia Murray, and my son Tony (D Whiz) were one of eight bands of over 3,000 bands that were chosen to compete on Cover Me Canada. John and I are so very proud of their achievements. The winner will win $100,000 and a record deal with Universal Canada. Pretty awesome so if you can vote and feel you want to, please do.

They have worked so hard on their music creating a very unique style. We really wish them the very best and respect all of their hard work. It must have been difficult to Georgia who loves Hip Hop and R&B to play Shania Twain's "Up". It couldn't have been farther away from her genre and comfort zone. I thought Georgia was fabulous and the rest of the band really ripped. 

Artie, their adorable French Bulldog is staying with us while they are in Toronto, we really enjoy his company so much. Artie is sending photos of his adventures with us each day to Tony and Georgia because he knows they miss him terribly. He saw geese the other day and has many people petting him. He went out past farms with pumpkins to a garden shop which he also enjoyed.


Their talented band includes the awesome violinist Kytami who wasn't scared to jump off part of the stage while performing!!
David Parfit on lead guitar with Jayme Langen bass guitar and Travis Nelson playing drums. Our son Tony is a producer and works the turntables.
This show is very different than other talent shows in that the judges have mentioned in their bios that they are interested in Creativity!!! To me uniqueness and creativity are really so important. The show and voting will also depend quite heavily on social media which seems really fair compared to when shows depended on multiple phone calls from viewers.
Tony and Georgia also released a 6 track EP called "Just a Dream" in June.