The Museum of Miniature Houses and Simply Sweet Shoppe

While you are in a 'mini mood', you'll want to visit The Museum of Miniature Houses in Carmel. It's a beautiful museum with wonderful exhibits that will inspire you and they have a tiny miniature store that's fun to browse in.

Helio's is a darling tea room across the street that would be a great place for lunch. For dessert, head over to Simply Sweet Shoppe and say hello to my neighbor Jill. Be sure and tell her that Donna sent you. Sounds like a fun day to me!

National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts

This week is a BIG week for Indiana miniaturists. The NAME National Houseparty Convention is right here in our state! There are events all week for NAME members. If you are not a member of NAME, you can still see the exhibits and sales floor this Saturday, July 18 from 1:30-5 and Sunday, July 19 from 11:30-4 at the Indianapolis Mariott East at 21st and Shadeland. There is a small admission charge. This is the first NAME National Convention in Indiana even though the main office is in Carmel. You don't want to miss out on this weekend! If you are a member of NAME, be sure and remind us when you are at the shop because you receive a 10% discount!

Our New Mailbox

My dear friend Jane painted this charming mailbox for us. It looks so cute on the front of the shop. Jane and I have been friends since she came to the shop back in '86 for a miniature class I was teaching. Now she and her husband Mel live down the road from us in Brown County. She is a very talented artist as you can see and creates treasures in miniature and life size. You'll be seeing more of her work at the shop in the days ahead. I think these mailboxes would make a wonderful housewarming or Christmas gift. She will custom paint them just for you, but you'll need to order early. Come in and we'll get you in touch with her.

Sarah's Fun Flowers

Daughter Sarah has been punching out these little flowers day and night, lol. They make the cutest little impatients or phlox. They come in a variety of colors and they really are a fun little project. A bag of 200 prepunched petals are only $2. What a deal. Great project for the kiddo's too. When you come in we'll let you give them a try.

The Dollhouses Have Arrived

Pam has managed to find a few darling dollhouses. Pam's daughter Kimmie assembles them, so they are ready to go! They are very well priced for the beginner or young miniaturist. These two are both front opening houses which save you space. Kimmie has two other styles she's working on and they'll be in the window soon. These are not available at any other store in Indiana, but I'm sorry to say that we only have a limited number of these cuties.

I'm a firm believer in prebuilt dollhouses. Many a kit goes home, and when opened, is quickly shoved under the bed because of the overwhelming contents. With a prebuilt house you are ready to get to the fun part of decorating.

On Display

Wanted to give you a chance to see some of the things that are currently on display at the shop. I plan on changing these around at the end of the month, so try to get in to see these if you can. The majority of these are from my own collection of roomboxes that I've made with just a few exceptions. The purple and green roombox on the bottom right was made by my daughter Hannah, and went to the State Fair through 4-H a couple of years ago. The dolls were made by my friend Pat Angrick, Elegant Dolls by Pat. For Sarah , Hannah and I each she made a beautiful doll. The one on the right daughter Hannah dressed and wigged. The large building on the bottom left was made by Bill Lankford and given as a gift to Pam's dad. Lots of fun things to look at to get some ideas of things you can do yourself. We'll be glad to share the stories and ideas with you. See you soon.

Our First Month

We want to thank you all for helping us to have a very encouraging first month. Lots of friends and family have visited and we've made many new friends.

We want to thank Suzanne's granddaughter Aya for creating this beautiful website for us. You can see her own website at http://www.strawberrykoi.com/. There is a link to the left. Besides being a very talented artist, she does graphic design, website design, photography, and collects vintage clothes. She has some delightful YouTube videos on vintage hair style how-to's. She is a very creative young lady and a joy to work with. So if you need any web design work, she's your gal!

Besides Aya's fabulous website, our only other advertising was a very tacky sign written in glass paint by yours truly. I never claimed to be a sign painter, lol. Since you didn't even know about our website at the time and I can't believe your really liked my sign, so my conclusion is that good old 'word of mouth' has been our saving grace. We appreciate you supporting the reopening of The Homeplace and all the years that you supported us in the past.