This re purposing trend...

This is Colette's favorite miniature from the exhibit. How clever is the repurposing of a ceiling lamp as the dome on this model of the Palace of Fine Arts?

In the absence of a miniature item... we have always had to improvise. What is the cleverest repurposing you've ever heard of? I like Oese's use of tick tac boxes as tables, and MiniModern's use of soap dishes as bath tubs.

This building, The Reserve Building, is made from cassettes. The TransAmerica Building, above is studded with computer keys. It looks so realistic from a few steps away.

The key to creative miniatures is seeing the similarity in a form even though the size is so different.

Here is the real Palace of Fine Arts.

My last favorite miniature building from this exhibit is the Port of San Francisco Ferry Building. It is especially witty because the Ferry Building has

become a mecca for great restaurants like The Slanted Door, and gourmet shops offering cheese, organic vegetables and spices, coffee and
wines from all over California. Notice the use of a cheese grater for the tower, wine crates for the base, a kitchen timer for the clock, a salt shaker for the apex, and forks and chopsticks lining the tower. Too funny.

Check out the Port sign made from Scrabble tiles!
Even corks are employed in the structure looking a lot like the columns of the Ferry building.

Here is the real one. How ingenious are these little models!



Then...Lunch by the Bay.

And a little chocolate and cappuciano should finish off the day nicely.

Improvising has been especially useful when making modern dollhouse scenes. Callsmall, for example uses Ikea bins for roomboxes. I have used thin colored cutting boards for walls and floors. Didn't I hear that someone made hanging lamps out of ping pong balls?

My most imaginative creation was using a lucite nightlight guard as a modern fireplace screen, like a glass one. What was yours? I would LOVE to know? C

Repurposing....

Someone asked me what I do. I thought about it and replied, " I'm a retired Mommy being repurposed as a Nana..."

I think I got the idea at this exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

These are the famous Victorian Houses in San Francisco nick named "The Painted Ladies"

See Lombard Street?


This is the Mission Delores, one of the first missions in California and in the City itself,

This is the Gate to Chinatown in San Francisco.

All made out of recycled material.

Why? To heighten awareness of the use of old material. To repurpose it.

Especially in a way to make it appealing to children, and Mommies, and Nana's. I can vouch for that!