Happy 2013 and Shop Announcement!

Hello everyone!
Happy New Year......! Yes I know, it's already 11th January 2013 and have only just found the time to wish you all a Happy New Year but I've been a busy bumble bee as of late! Hope you all enjoyed the countdown and have set off on the right foot.

Thank you to everyone who jumped on my big post-Christmas sale. All orders were shipped out promptly via First Class Delivery of course, and everything wrapped ready for gift giving as usual. :)

SHOP ANNOUNCEMENT
I am off to Manchester, England to work on some miniature sets for a film company, so I have set my shops to 'vacation mode' for a bit (hopefully not much more than a week or two). So please note that as of today my online Hummingbird Miniatures shop will be on vacation, but you will be able to buy again soon. Feel free to email me if you have any queries.

Until then - have you seen the latest YouTube video? It's show-casing products from last year and I finally uploaded it yesterday!
Click here to be taken to the YouTube channel and don't forget to subscribe. More videos and tutorials to come... ;).

Christmas Cake 2012

Moving away from the 'homemade cake' look, this is quite a fancy patisserie Christmas Cake in an English style.
This Christmas cake is a detailed one of a kind piece. 

* As featured in the Christmas issue of 'Dolls House & Miniature Scene' magazine!*

It is white frosted and has individually handmade gingerbread men surrounding it. Decorated with a meringue forest of trees, red currants and holly leaves, Christmas snowflake candy (handmade at Hummingbird Miniatures to unique design) and finished with a 100% silk ribbon bow. It sits on a delicate paper doily.

I only made one and it sold within hours of listing it at my online shop, but I thought I'd share it here on my blog anyway!

Shop for more 'one of a kind' Christmas miniatures at my online Hummingbird Miniatures shop. I am sending everything out ASAP and via First Class Mail of course - to have the best chance of your receiving your packages in time for Christmas. As usual, everything comes nicely wrapped and ready for gift giving.

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Christmas plates of Cookies

Christmas treats left out for Father Christmas! (or Santa Claus if you're in the US or Canada... Père Noël in France, Papá Noel in Spain and South America, Babbo Natale in Italy, Christmas Father in India etc. etc....)

I'll be listing a wonderful new range of handpainted plates of cookie selections with sweets, candy canes and clementines. You may have already caught a glimpse of some of these new miniatures for Christmas 2012 in this month's issue of Doll's House & Miniature Scene, in which I was featured and given the front cover.
Coming soon. :)

***

Shop News!............................................................................

Hummingbird Miniatures has re-opened after a few days closure whilst I packed up my entire apartment and workshop and left New Zealand (after a 5 month stay there). You can find my online shop here.

Thank you for your patience whilst I took a little longer to re-open than planned. The 30 hour flight (pausing in Auckland and then Hong Kong along the way) was fine but on arrival in Heathrow, London, I found that one of the large suitcases containing my miniatures, tools and craft supplies had split right open and there was a gaping hole in it! All's fine now and the airline even sent me a brand new suitcase. 

New Christmas miniatures will be made available in store very soon, I promise. 

Please also note that Hummingbird Miniatures will be stationed in the UK for a few weeks and then returning to California, USA after that. :)

Christmas Preview and Shop Announcement

Hello everyone,
Hope you're all wrapped up warm and starting to feel the Christmas buzz...
I'm currently in New Zealand and it's technically the end of their spring / start of summer, so it doesn't exactly feel like Christmas is coming any time soon for me!

Here's a glimpse at some of my new Christmas Range for 2012. Several of these Christmas items are featured in and on the front cover of this month's issue of DHMS magazine (I'll write a post about this soon).
Aside from the roast goose (which has already sold), there will be Christmas wreaths (entirely handmade by myself from scratch, and very detailed), Christmas cookies, traditional gingerbread houses, brussels sprouts, candy canes, festive candles, candle center pieces, hurricane candles, Christmas cakes and Yule logs. Note that some of these items are OOAK (one of a kind) - so there may only be one available.

!IMPORTANT SHOP ANNOUNCEMENT!

I am flying out of New Zealand in just less than 4 day's time and arriving in London Heathrow, UK on Wednesday 21st November. This means that I will have to close my shop for a couple of days whilst I fly. Don't worry - I'll open up again very quickly and make the full Christmas Range available so you can place your orders and get them in time for Christmas.

Until I fly (on Tuesday) there will be a DISCOUNT CODE available at my online Hummingbird Miniatures shop! Do me a favour and lighten my 'carry-on' load by grabbing something at a discounted price now. ;)

Just enter the coupon code: FLIGHT
after you click to buy but before you pay. A massive 20% will be deducted from your entire order but not from shipping. The coupon code is valid immediately and lasts until I fly out... a few days from now.

Happy shopping.... and please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Traditional Gingerbread House

Don't you just love the smell of gingerbread?! I love going to the Christmas markets in London and tasting warm soft gingerbread from the stalls, as well as mulled wine, shortbread and florentines.... and I love seeing all the brilliant traditionally German wooden crafts... handmade Christmas ornaments, nativities and candles...

It was my love of traditional and German Christmas things that inspired me to make this very traditional Gingerbread House. It looks a little like something out of the German fairytale Hansel and Gretel.

Carefully handmade with enormous patience (hand-iced of course, so it required a lot of time and a magnifying glass) this gingerbread house is currently featured in the Dec issue of UK magazine 'Dolls House & Miniature Scene'. It is in one inch (1:12) scale and entirely handmade by myself, including all the cane candy as I never buy pre-made canes!

I will make it available at my online Hummingbird Miniatures shop soon.

More Christmas items coming soon... :)

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Happy Halloween 2012!

Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween! Hope you all have fabulous plans for tonight and fabulous costumes.
As many of you know, I am living in New Zealand for a few months (leaving next month on November 20th) so we're a day and a half ahead of you in America, and 12 hours ahead of the UK. I've already celebrated Halloween dressed as a pirate wench at a Weta Halloween party!




Thank you to those of you that used the exclusive Halloween coupon code advertised in The Dolls' House Magazine this month. Hope you enjoyed your 25% off coupon. And thank you to all that used the other coupon code issued here on this blog (see past post about it here). Glad to see so many of you used this 25% off code also. :)

Don't miss all the Christmas treats coming very soon to this blog and of course to my Hummingbird Miniatures online shop...

PS Did you know you can browse all the different Hummingbird Miniatures seasonal and holiday ranges by clicking here?

Slice of Halloween Cake?!

Who has a sweet tooth this spooky season?!
This is a slice of chocolate Halloween cake with mint frosting and it's served up with a stripy Halloween candy cane on a spider web party plate. The cake has a tiny bite taken out of it. One inch scale and handmade by me of course.

I decided not to create a Halloween range as such for Hummingbird Miniatures this year (2012) for a variety of reasons - which are...

1 - I'm crazy busy making my first short film (details here),
2 - I am volunteering at Weta Workshop whilst I am staying here in New Zealand,
3 - I have been busily creating quite a spooky Halloween 2012 Range for my other miniature brand (blog here, shop here),
4 - I have been working on a Christmas Range since July,
and finally...
5 - I still have so much lovely stock from last year and I don't want more miniatures to add to what I already have to take on the plane as carry-on when I fly back to the UK next month, and into the US this Dec!!

So, enjoy this one and only new Hummingbird Miniatures contribution to Halloween 2012! I made 4 - they're super cute and detailed and I'm actually listing them at my online Hummingbird Miniatures shop here for only $10 each - so get them before they go. :)

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Over the Rainbow

I love outdoor summer parties! Growing up in the countryside of England, we had a big garden surrounded by fields and our back lawn was quite big. My younger sister Stephanie has her birthday in July so each year my mum would throw a summer birthday party for her and it was wonderful because we'd have a barbecue outside, sometimes a marquee would be erected with a live band inside, balloons, and often a massive bouncy castle (or as Americans would say - 'bouncy house') as well. I loved it! 

Whether your birthday is a summery one (or a winter one like mine), have a piece of cake from my new Birthday Cake Range (available in store soon) and enjoy the last of the summer days.

This cake is white frosting on chocolate with rainbow confetti and very detailed tiny rainbow candles. One inch scale and handmade by me of course.

Caroline xXx

P.S. Important news.... there's a competition running over on my other blog. Take 2 minutes to enter for your chance to win a free miniature.

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Cherry Chocolate Birthday cake

This is the whole, un-cut version of the birthday cake I shared with you yesterday (this cake)! It's iced a little differently too so that you can see the layers. It will be available at my online shop later today.

Don't forget to stop on over at my other site and enter the COMPETITION for your chance to win a free high quality miniature. Find out how to enter here.

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Summer Party - New Birthday Cake

Welcome to this Hummingbird Miniatures summer birthday party and have a piece of cake...!

This is my all new Cherry Pink Chocolate Birthday Cake handmade by me in one inch scale. It will be made available at my online shop in the next couple of days. More designs to come soon, so stay tuned.

The candles are 20% smaller than the ones I have made before! So we're talking some serious detail here.

If you're a fan of my work then don't forget to stop on over at my other site and enter the COMPETITION for your chance to win a free high quality miniature. Find out how to enter here.

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HAPPY EASTER 2012!

Easter Day today! Hope everyone is having a fab time with your families. :)
I'm at home in Oxfordshire staying at my parent's house over Easter, and my 3 sisters and 2 brothers, and sister's husband have also been staying here - so it's been a full house for my mum! She cooked roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, baked red cabbage, roast vegetables, gravy and horseradish sauce, then we had a traditional Russian Easter desert - 'Pasca' (owing to my Russian heritage). Since then we've had homemade Cornish pasties, homemade Stilton and broccoli soup, English cheeses and biscuits, then homemade raspberry and white chocolate cake and chocolate cornflake nests with tiny chocolate eggs inside. Today my mum is roasting lamb with garlic and rosemary which we're having with flageolet beans, baked red cabbage and apple, and roast potatoes.... boy do I miss English food when I live in America!!!! Like crazy.....

So, Easter is the time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ after he was crucified (if you're Christian like myself), and it's also Passover or a time for family, chocolate and bunnies as well!

So here's a nice new Easter Range for 2012 entirely handmade by me. It's really a one inch scale Patisserie & Cake shop decorated for the season with white tree branches hung with tiny coloured eggs and a fancy white table filled with an Easter cake, candy and soft fluffy Easter bunnies and chicks.

Scroll down to see all the pics, or for fun take a look at Easter last year (2011).










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