Mid-Century Modern Furniture

Along the lines of Paul McCobb and modern furniture designs... The School of Architecture at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had a Modern Furniture Exhibit in 2007. The website has these great historic photos as well as bios and pictures of most mid-century modern furniture designers. I have a few of these chairs in miniature, but I would love to make several others. I think the site is worth a gander if not just to find out more about the incredible designers that set the standards for modern.

(all images form School of Architecture at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign website)

Cassie Marie's Dollhouse Rehab

Merci beaucoup to Anne for the tip on the work of Cassie Marie Edwards. Cassie is in the middle of refurbishing an old dollhouse and making her own modern furniture.

You may recognize her designs inspired by the work of American furniture designer Paul McCobb (1917-1969). I love McCobb's work. He was a decorator and retail display designer with no formal design training. McCobb eventually turned to mid-century modern furniture and in the 50's his "Planner Group" collection became the best selling line of modern furniture in the US.

Great work Cassie! We look forward to seeing the finished house.

(image from Cassie's website and flickr page, but she also has a blog)

Giveaway Winner is...

I added all 63 Followers and the 6 others who follow through Google Reader and other servers (that left a comment letting me know) into an excel spreadsheet. I sorted alphabetically to make sure I didn't have duplicates and then used the random number generator function [=RANDBETWEEN(1,69)] to pick the winner.

Congratulations... marivigano!
Please email me your mailing address at modernminifan [at] gmail.com or go to my profile page and under Contact is a link to my email.

Sorry to those who didn't win, but I do plan to have more giveaways in the future and I will be selling these lamps and others on etsy, hopefully in the next few weeks.

Free Translation Tool for Blogger

For anyone trying to find a translator for their blog I think the new Google translate bar is the way to go. Some of the translator gadgets open new windows and translate the links, so anyone trying to bookmark a page or send a page to a friend might end up with a broken link. You can also customize which languages you want to translate into.

To add the translator to your blog. Go to: http://translate.google.com/translate_tools
1. Select the original language you write your blog in
2. Select the languages you want to translate to
3. Copy the script in the box
4. Open your blogger control panel under "Layout" "Page Elements" click on "Add a Gadget"
5. Open the + button next to "HTML/Java Script"
6. Add a title like "Translate this blog"
7. Paste the script into "Content" box
8. Click Save

If I left your language out, please let me know and I'll add it. Enjoy reading in whichever language you prefer.

Free Giveaway: Modern Lamps

And the surprise modern mini is... this set of custom modern lamps. If you are listed in my "THANKS FOR FOLLOWING!" on the right OR if you commented on my earlier post, there is no need to leave another comment, I already have you entered in the drawing. :)
If you are following this blog through another source (google, feedblitz, etc) please leave a comment and I will add your name to the free giveaway.

I will draw a winner on Monday, May 31, 8pm PST. Good luck. :D

East Bay Play Date

I'm used to having play dates for my kids, but today it was my turn. I had the pleasure of meeting callsmall earlier this month, and today I spent the morning/afternoon with My Realitty. My husband wants to know who's next. Anyone else in the Bay Area want to meet up? Email me anytime.

I had planned to photograph Carol's amazing collection of 20 dollhouses, but we had so much fun talking time slipped away. She did let me "play" with her MH1 house and we brought minis from all over her house to put these scenes together. You may have already seen similar photos on her My Realitty blog or on her new blog dedicated to just modern LeftCoastMini, but I had to post these here too for the memories.

The lamps were my first build of mini lamps. If you like them, you are in luck as they are the surprise giveaway prize as well. Carol gave me a couch and chair that she made and a bozart vase, that I can't wait to put in my new house. You can see photos on her blog here. I'll take photos soon.

In case you are wondering about any of her great miniatures here are the credits she listed on LeftCoastMini: Living room scene. MH1 house by Wes Christensen, Bozart vase, Texas Tiny buddah and African mask. Strombecker flocked deco arm chair. Bedroom scene: Minimodernistas bed and hanging lamps. Vintage DDR linoleum flooring, Tomy lamps and plant, Strombecker arm chair and ottoman and floor lamp. Contemporary computer, original mini art nude by Oese.

If you plan to be in the Bay Area, please drop me or My Realitty a line, I'm sure we'd both love to plan another mini play date. :D

Inch by inch, floor by floor

I knocked off work early tonight and was able to make some more progress on The Antrim dollhouse kit. So far we are at day 5 of the build. Priming and painting took up the first 3 days (late evenings when the kids were asleep). Tonight was the second day of building. This house is a beast. There is no way I could build this without my husband and all of his tools, which I'm sure he never expected would be used this way.

I painted it a flat white, but now I'm thinking a semi-gloss is going to look better. Yay, more painting. Any suggestions or advice on paint? I'm all ears.

Disappearing Act

ACK!!! Where does the time go? I'm sorry to say the giveaway drawing will have to postponed a few days until May 31. You may or may not know, but I'm full-time mom by day and web developer by night. Work has been extraordinarily busy and has taken over every spare minute I have. I'm so sorry to leave you hanging, but know that my inbox has been ignored, my hulu queue is overflowing, my Antrim dollhouse is begging to be finished, my back log of posts is getting ridiculous, and I got my first Paris and I barely had time to get it out of the box.

Yes, I said Paris!!! My amazing husband surprised me with these three incredible pieces for my birthday from one of my favorite designers in 1:1 and 1:12. The furniture is 1:12, but my real life dream is to have a house filled with 1:1 Paris Renfroe Designs. Here are the M.U.T.T. Floor Mirror, M.U.T.T. Coffee Table with Spring Leg and M.U.T.T. BENCH from PRD Miniatures. I am chomping at the bit to put this in a real room, but sleep has been getting in the way.

THANK YOU to everyone who has followed me to the new site and for all of your comments, I have blocked out time this weekend to start to catch up. MORE TO COME, I SWEAR!!! Back to work for me.

Welcome! Free Giveaway!

Thanks so much for checking out the new location of my blog. Things to come...I'm working on a post all about scales with a cheat sheet buying guide to help you buy the right scale, plus many posts on where to buy modern minis, more houses old and new, more give aways and whatever else modern I can drum up. If you like what you see, please come back any time. Mi mini casa es su mini casa. :)

Free Giveaway for Followers!

As a way to say thank you to all my followers who have made the move with me (and any new one as well) I have a surprise modern mini that I'll be giving away. All you have to do is sign up to Follow this blog by Monday, May 31, 8pm PST and your name will be automatically entered in the drawing. No need to add a comment, just click on the "Follow" button up top or over on the right and I will randomly select one lucky winner from all of the Followers on May 31st. Good luck! (If you subscribe through google, feedblitz, etc please leave a comments and I will add your name to the giveaway. Thanks so much Heather C-R, I wouldn't want to leave anyone out!)

Update 5/26

Thank you all so much for your comments! Sadly it's going to take much longer than I anticipated to respond. I started a race to build the Antrim kit, but then a co-worker is on vacation and I'm taking over her work as well as mine and have been working extremely late hours. She is back next week and sanity will return shortly. I had to change the giveaway date to the 31st, since I won't have time until this weekend to finish building the surprise.

Mini Shopping Spree

I redeemed my credit card points for cash and had a mini shopping spree. I couldn't wait for everything to arrive to share, so here are some pictures from Australia ebay. I've seen the modern wash stand with sink on two peoples blogs with a large mirror behind it, but I couldn't remember where. If you have one can you leave a comment so I can check out your gorgeous bathrooms again?

If the links don't work, search for the listing titles below; and yes Carbinet is how it is listed on eBay.
  •  DOLLS HOUSE MINIATURE MODERN BATHROOM CARBINET
  •  DOLLS HOUSE MINIATURE MODERN CARBINET WITH VASE
  •  DOLLS HOUSE MINIATURE MODERN SIDEBOARD
  •  NEW 1:12 SCALE MINIATURE WOODEN WASH STAND WITH SINK
  •  DOLLS HOUSE MINIATURE MODERN COFFEE TABLE & STOOL 4PCS (this is the only one I didn't get)
  •  Bedding and vases from Manor House Miniatures

(all furniture images from http://stores.ebay.com/EurekaOnlineStore, other items from Manor House Miniatures)

VERO on German eBay

Okay, I have spent a lot of time drooling over the vintage houses on Puppenhausmuseum, but this is the first time I've actually seen one of these houses in this condition on eBay. Alas, its only being shipped to Europe.

Details from eBay posting
(919) uraltes schönes Vero Puppenhaus mit Blumenbänke Terrasse, Balkon, 4 Räume, mit Gardinen, Kunststofffenster, und bei Terrasse Schiebetüren, Sockel 98x41,5cm, H: 53cm, Puppenstube mit Lampen, und Trafo, mit Aquarium, oberen Lampen, Oberen 2 Lampen funktionieren, unteren nicht, Puppenstube ist in sehr schöner Erhaltung ohne Schäden, in original Karton der etwas kaputt ist

Google Translator:
(919) vintage beautiful Vero doll house with flower boxes terrace, balcony, 4 rooms with curtains, plastic windows, and patio doors, base 98x41.5cm, H: 53cm, dollhouse with lights and transformer, with an aquarium, top lights, the upper two lights work, not lower, doll's house is in very nice preservation without damage, in original box which is somewhat broken.
I'm a little obsessed with VERO right now, and I really hope to own one some day, but for now I'll just drool over any pictures I can find.

(all images from eBay posting)

Vintage Legos

A few weeks ago I saw these vintage lego sets on ebay, and I thought "how cool are these?"

Not even a week later Oese posted pictures of her lego creations on Mini Friseursalon. Then I thought "how cool would it be to be Oese?" Her creativity never ceases to amaze me, and now I can't believe how many cool things she is making out of legos. Truly impressive. Check out all of the pictures on her website here. And if you are interested in purchasing legos, Oese shared this great link where you can pick out the individual ones you want Pick a Brick LEGO SHOP. Thanks Oese!!

(Lego images from ebay, amazing staircase image from Oese's blog Mini Friseursalon)