The Mouse Market

Original Martha Stewart Cake

I was feeling inspired yesterday to try something Halloween-y, so I decided to tackle a Martha Stewart haunted house cake. I ended up making a few changes, but for the most part, I worked very closely with the photo at left. For the base of the cake, I used up leftover clay from the “eat me” caning debacle, and since I plan to make a great deal of holiday cakes in the coming months, I’m pretty sure I can reuse the rest of that massive project’s leftovers. Rather than swirling the icing like I normally do, I used a toothpick to smooth the frosting in one, long sweep, much like I would with an offset spatula when frosting a real cake.

A Haunted, Little Cake

No question, the house and the tree took the most time, and I made them out of a thin sheet of chocolate brown clay, slicing away sections here and there with a blade. The shingles are cocoa-dusted white chocolate pieces, and I made a Skinner blend of yellow and orange for the windows and doors. I chose to make a little ghost peeking out of the front entryway, rather than the figure in the Martha cake. The crumbled dirt on the tops of the layers is baked clay, chopped to look like chocolate, and the chocolate covered almonds ringing the bottom layer are little balls of a darker chocolate clay. I had hoped that there would be more of a contrast between the frosting and the other components, but after baking, the frosting took on a much darker hue, so I’ll have to adjust next time. (See more pics on my Flickr page.) Sneak peek: When I get back, I’ll be working on a tutorial for a haunted gingerbread house.

Chocolate-y Details

Well, this is it, folks. I’ll be gone until next Tuesday night, and if you happen to purchase anything in my Etsy shop, keep in mind that orders won’t ship until first thing Wednesday morning, so apologies in advance for the delay. If you’re in the Louisville area, be sure to check my show page for directions to the show, and in the meantime, have a great week, and I look forward to sharing my mini show stories when I get back!

Fourth of July Celebration Cake

After packaging up a few orders this morning, I started working on a custom request for two cakes: a strawberry cake with rainbow sprinkles and a fourth of July berries and bananas cake. I’ve also begun restocking my painfully low jewelry supplies, a task that has been further motivated by the fact that nearly all of the jewelry that I’ve sold in the past week is the last pair of each particular style. I’m officially out of chocolate chip cookie, broccoli, sunny side up egg, chocolate bar, and pink cotton candy earrings. Yikes.

Slice of Celebration Cake

Luckily, I have roughly two months until my next jewelry show, and it shouldn’t take me more than a week to rebuild my stock of dollhouse pieces for my next miniatures show in August, since I still have so many pieces left, so I can spend the bulk of my summer making jewelry like a madwoman. Slowly buy surely, I’ve begun switching to sterling silver, although I still have silver plated head pins and jump rings that I need to use up, but once those supplies are exhausted I’ll be buying sterling from here on out. I have super sensitive skin, and while I’m usually itch-free provided the metal doesn’t contain any traces of nickel, silver plated pieces can sometimes aggravate my ears after prolonged wear as well, so as a courtesy to all of my fellow sensitive-lobed jewelry lovers out there it’s high time that I make the switch to sterling.

Strawberry Cake with Rainbow Sprinkles

On a side note, a fellow Missourian and crazy talented photographer, Lisa, sent me a link to a really great food blog called Girl Interrupted Eating. The author takes top notch photos of her yummy-sounding dishes, and she often incorporates ingredients found while foraging through the UK countryside. Pretty nifty, eh? (Speaking of nifty, if your day could use a dose of cuteness, take a peek at my friend Molly’s adorable mouse family photos. I’m so tempted to spring for another set of mice, since, after all, the Nutmegs need neighbors, right?)

Before I forget, the monthly newsletter is coming out tomorrow, so be sure to use the sign up box on the upper right corner of this page to ensure that you’re not missing any Mouse scoop. I never send out more than one email per month, so you won’t be bombarded with mini food news, and your privacy is important to me, so your email address and information are always kept safe and sound from prying eyes.

Explosion of Party Foods

I decided to swap my day around, working on mini foods in the morning, and then tackling my photo-taking and blog-writing in the afternoon, just to see if I could get a bit more done, and this highly scientific experiment has helped me to determine…absolutely nothing. Heh. If there was an improvement, it was so slight that I didn’t notice, so I guess I can work in whichever order I feel like. Good to know.

Happy Birthday

I’ve finished the party section–well, the foods, at least. I still need to make a handful of party hats and wrapped presents, but I’m going to save those until the very end, just in case I run short on time, since they’re only going to be used as displays. Today’s creations include two sundae bowls, four ice cream parfaits, one plate of white chocolate chunk cookies, six plates with a slice of pizza and a cookie, two cakes–one sliced, the other decorated with birthday candles–a bowl of multi-colored cotton candy, and one plate of lemon bars. (See more photos in the gallery.) I think I might need to take a little dessert break, so I’ll likely start working on the world market section this weekend.

Lemon Bars

In other mini news, my friend Becky sent me an awesome article from the NYT about modern miniatures and the people who collect them. I was completely dazzled by the little slide show, and I spent an inordinate amount of time following all of the links in the article to blogs and shops, and now I’m completely, utterly obsessed with the idea of making my own dollhouse, as opposed to my usual room boxes. What I can’t decide is this: Do I go for a Martha Stewart-esque house, which is definitely something I fantasize about but could never bring myself to actually recreate in my own home, or do I stick with what I actually care about in “real life,” which is cob building? Decisions, decisions.

Pizza Party!

From a practical standpoint, it would probably be valuable to create a miniature version of the house I intend to build in the future, sort of like a dry run, and it would definitely allow me to share information about cob, greywater systems, a living roof, etc.–all things that I hope to incorporate into my real house one day. Hmm…I’ll have to think about that one for awhile. And then there’s the book shelf idea, which Becky also shared with me in a recent email: I could build a series of rooms into a bookshelf, which would mostly solve the problem of where to keep the darn thing, since the top of the bookshelf could be used for non-mini things, so it wouldn’t be a total space drain. Or, at least, that’s the story I’m stickin’ with.

Peach Berry Mimosa Cake

I began work on one of the two party sections for my mini booth yesterday, and I managed to complete two cakes with slices–one Peach Berry Mimosa cake and one Lemon Poppy Seed cake–and I also made one pair of earrings in each flavor, which was a little time consuming, but I really need to start adding more jewelry to my shop. I also created a sheet of Rainbow Sparkle Fudge Cookies and two pizzas.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

I feel like I’m hitting a bit of a wall, and perhaps it’s simply because I’ve been a little tired for the past couple of days, but I’m itching to take an entire weekend off, something that’s not likely to happen until after the first weekend in May. Bleh. But, enough complaining. I’ve been having a lot of fun thinking about how I’m going to structure the doll and mice stories once I finish these next two shows, and I’m also looking forward to sitting down and going over the progress I’ve made with my business since it began in September of last year, and mapping out where I’d like to steer things in the coming months.

Pink Cotton Candy Charm

It’s hard to believe sometimes (actually, most of the time) that all of this started with just a few miniature food pieces listed in my Etsy shop and feverish hopes that someone would buy them. Now, mini foods are my full-time job, with the freelance graphic design and copywriting serving as a stable thread in case I have a slow week (as well as a welcome break from mini-making). I feel so lucky every day that I wake up, and instead of going to a job I despise (I’ve had plenty), I eat breakfast and choose which miniatures I’m in the mood to make. Granted, there’s all of the boring administrative stuff that takes up at least a third of every day, too, but it’s still a pretty sweet deal, and I’d never, ever have been able to make it happen without the support of amazing fellow crafters and Etsians, my blog readers who have shared so many helpful opinions over the months, everyone who saw my minis and told a friend or two, and, of course, my customers. I’m not sure how this post became a blubbery, emotional thank you novel, but I might as well run with it. So, to all of you who have been so instrumental in helping me do what I love for a living…thank you.

Fruit Tarts Galore!

Whew. Yesterday turned out to be quite productive, and I’m nearly finished with the first of the three dessert displays for my mini show booth. I had forgotten how much quicker desserts can be to make, since many of them require less details and/or lend themselves more toward assembly line-style production than do the savory meals, so I’m feeling a bit better about my progress. *huge sigh of relief* I managed to finish five cakes–two chocolate fudge, one carrot, one dark cherry chocolate, and one Neapolitan ice cream sundae cake–five fruit tarts, two plates of fudgy brownies, one sheet of M&M cookies, and one plate of chocolate chip and one plate of M&M cookies.

Rainbow M&M Cookies

I’ve also just received a notice that the Artisans in Miniature magazine is finally ready for perusal, and my sushi platters made it into the seafood/shellfish section (p. 67), and I also wrote an article about my studio, which you can read in the “Through the Keyhole…” section (p. 82). I was a little confused the first time I tried to read the magazine, so to save you any possible frustration, simply click on the cover image to load an in-browser, clickable version of the magazine.

Carrot Cake with Chopped Walnuts

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve discovered iTunes podcasts–I know, I know, I’m a little late to the game–and I’m totally hooked. I was so traumatized by my first experiment with listening to audio books while I work due to a poor selection choice (I listened to Stephen King’s The Library Policemen, and the foul climax scene left me in a rotten, spacey mood all day) that I haven’t given them another chance, but my wonderful day o’ podcasts has revived my earlier enthusiasm, and I’ll probably pick one up on my next library trip.

Classic Chocolate Cake

There are more yoga (Faith Hunter–amazing!) and meditation podcasts than I’ll ever be able to listen to in a year, which is awesome, and I also checked out a few of the Scientific American 60-Second Science episodes before losing myself in the French PodClass series. Love it, love it, love it. Ever since high school, when I was taking French regularly enough to be semi fluent, I’ve always wanted to study the language again, and I’m really enjoying the little language lessons mixed with French book and movie reviews, as well as the musical interludes, some of which are…er, interesting but always entertaining.

Last but not least, the lovely Becky Kazana, a fellow Crafting in Color team member, posted an interview with moi on her blog, The Fab Miss B. Thanks, Becky!

Carnival Candy Apple Earrings

Whew. The show is nearly here, and I think I might be reasonably prepared. It’s a miracle. I ran a ton of last-minute errands yesterday, picking up a few more books of sales receipts (fingers crossed that I go through all of them!), candy for my booth’s goody bowl, and some random craft supplies. I still need to make two or three dishes, since we’re bringing most of our own food to save cash (and to avoid late night pizza binges), but overall, I’m feeling pretty good about everything I’ve been able to accomplish this week.

Cherry Chocolate Oreo Earrings

To top off my inventory, I completed ten pairs of candy apple earrings with a variety of toppings yesterday, as well as Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake Slice earrings/charm, Cherry Chocolate Oreo Cake Slice earrings/charm, Summer Strawberry earrings, Concord Grape earrings, and a few more pairs of Scarlet Nantes Carrot earrings, because I keep selling out of them. Hopefully, I’ve chosen a good selection of items that will be popular with the St. Louis crowd! If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by the Indie Craft Revolution and say “hello.” (Visit my shop/shows page for details and directions.)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Earrings

My Etsy shop will be closed starting Friday morning, and I’ll reopen it as soon as possible on Sunday evening, March 14. In the meantime, don’t forget to enter the Lolita Charm giveaway, which ends Monday, March 15, and use the special coupon code “LOLITA” to save 10% on Mouse Market purchases through March 31, 2010 (enter coupon code into order screen message box; discount amount will be refunded via PayPal). Have a great weekend

Confetti Cake Earrings

Today was my first “tutorless” work day, and I was able to finish a number of things before lunch, which was quite nice. I’ve just completed a custom order for a pair of Confetti Cake Earrings (I made two extra pairs since they seem to be quite popular), as well as a pair of French Fry Earrings in handmade paper containers. The french fries are definitely more time-consuming than many of my other earrings, because the teeny tiny box takes a good amount of time to make, and each individual fry must be hand dusted with pigment to give the appearance of crispy-fried goodness, but I’m really pleased with the finished product. I’ll probably make a few more pairs for my next show.

Golden French Fry Earrings

I have a number of other miniatures tidbits to share with you, but I’m feeling a little low energy this evening, and I have yet to make a trip to Lowe’s, where I found a very reasonably priced folding table that even comes with its own handy-dandy carrying case–a vast improvement upon my current method of taking apart my awkward, heavy wooden work table for every craft show!

Easter Bunny Charlotte

I know it’s a bit early for Easter, but I’m so tired of gray days and cold weather that I’ve started working on a few spring-themed desserts. The one pictured at left is my Easter Bunny Charlotte Cake featuring lightly browned ladyfingers encircling a strawberry sponge cake layered with vanilla bean icing and topped with sugar paste roses, green candy-coated chocolate pieces, and adorable marzipan bunnies. This afternoon I’ll begin working on my new collection of flower jewelry, which I’ll be showcasing at the Indie Craft Revolution show next month.

Spring Fever

I’ll admit that I’ve been feeling a little blah for the past few days, largely because my Etsy sales, which were doing quite nicely for the last four months, have tapered off in the past week. Granted, this isn’t exactly a booming season for shopping, and the economy certainly isn’t helping, but I realized that I’d gotten quite spoiled with regular sales. However, dwelling on the downside surely can’t help, so for now I’m going to focus on preparing for my next show and filling my shop with loads of springtime goodness!

Spring Flower Cake Decorating Board

I was planning on keeping my new spring items a secret until I had a chance to make more pieces, but I can’t help it–I have to let the cat out of the bag, or in this case, the flowers. I found a book called Clay Art for All Seasons, and it lit the creative fire under my butt, so I’ve decided to launch an entire collection of miniature flower displays, as well as flower jewelry and miniature foods featuring flowers.

Detail of the Flowers

Today was supposed to be my day off, but I was so hyped up that I ended up working on the Spring Flowers Cake Decorating Scene pictured above, and I created my very first flowers to use as garnishes for the cake. I’m particularly happy with the contrast between the pink flowers and the vibrant blue icing. The icing was originally whipped together for a cupcake charm, and I loved the color so much that I wanted to find another piece in which to incorporate it. Now that I’ve caught the flower-making bug, be on the lookout for new pieces in the upcoming weeks!