Miniature crime scenes

Since I put in the effort to make little CSI vests for the Playmobile people on my birthday cake I wanted to use them for something else once all the cake had been eaten.

So I put together these little crime investigation scenes just for fun.

"It's bad news son."

Nick and Catherine figure out what the slippers mean.

Did she fall, or was she pushed?

I'm thinking poisoned.

(Yeah, the people in my dollhouse watch ER)

Doc Robins performs an autopsy.

Catherine talking to Greg back in the lab.

A few days after this I discovered the Nutshell Studies by Frances Glessner Lee. This awesome lady created miniature murder scenes back in the 1940s to teach police officers the finer details of crime scene investigation. She also helped to establish a department at Harvard university for legal medicine and was honourarily appointed a captain of the New Hampshire State Police which made her the first woman to hold such a position.

All this from a woman whose parents allowed her brother to go to university but not her. 

source

The 18 dioramas are now kept in the medical examiner's offie at Baltimore city morgue and in 2004 a book was published containing photographs taken of the models by artist Corrine May Botz.

Paintings on display

I currently have some of my paintings on display at Franklins Art Gallery in Haynes.

They only charge 1p per square inch of painting which makes it really affordable for a student like me.

The work is for sale and there's an auction next month.

You can see the paintings a bit better here, here, here, and here.

The gallery is in a barn and they've attached hessian across the beams to hang the work from.

These people seem to like my work.

(These people are my sister and my Mum, heehee)

Now lets hope they sell!

Simple hairbands

I used these discarded ties from a dressing gown and a dress to make some simple headbands. I think they were my sister's, she doesn't know I used them. She will now.

The style is based on some similar ones my Mum made when she was younger.

I could easily go crazy embellishing them, just give me time.

I could definitely see this one with some added bling.

Since the fabric was already in a tube all I had to do was cut a suitable length, fold the ends in and sew the elastic on.

They're a simple way to dress up my short hair.

Trip to Brighton

Yesterday I went to Brighton with my parents and my sister because that's what I wanted to do with them for my birthday.

Unfortunately it rained quite a lot whle we were there, but we still found lots of indoor things to do.

We went to the Toy and Models Museum which was just a little place where my parents went around pointing and saying, 'I had one of those'.

But there was also an old machine for making this stamped metal plate. You put in 20p, then turned a cog to each letter and pressed down on a lever, and then when you were done out popped this little keepsake.

I'm thinking of punching a hole in one end and making it into a keyring.

We also went to a couple of flea markets and found wonderful things like a sombrero (modelled by my sister)...

... a fencing mask and boxing gloves...

...and a small photo frame containing a photo of Ben Fogel.

As difficult as it is to believe we didn't purchase this treasure.

(Excuse the blurry photo, it was a sneaky shot)

Fun times!

Photo Scavenger Hunt

As well as eating cake on my birthday, my friends and I had a photo scavenger hunt.

I'd seen the idea online somewhere and thought it would be something a bit different to do.

I got my sister to write up a list of 21 things that we'd have to take a photo of around my town.

Me and my friends split into two groups and gave ourselves a time limit of one hour to find everything.

 Then we came back home and went through the photos with my sisters judging them.

The other team won but it was still really fun (but unfair since it was my birthday haha!)

This was the list; 

1) A red car

2) A small child or equivalent

3) Something Mexican

4) Make your own crime scene

5) An interesting piece of litter

6) A prime number

7) Alcohol

8) A kissing gate

9) A blue door

10) Something a bit country

11) A closed sign

12) Reenact a moment from Doctor Who

13) A timepiece

14) The fanta cat

(It's an in-joke between me and my sister)

15) Something that Lisa will like

16) An interesting cloud

(It's a shark!) 

17) A piece of fruit

18) A piece of graffiti

19) An action shot

20) A funny looking house

21) Something you wouldn't find in Stotfold

CSI: Cake Scene Investigation

It was my birthday at the weekend!

I turned 21.

My birthday cakes aways reflect my current interests so this year I made it CSI themed.

(See my previous birthday cakes here and here)

The scene was a roadside with a dead body, pieces of evidence and some recently unearthed ground with a shovel.

I used Playmobile people for the team and made little CSI vests for them out of felt.

Here's Jim Brass and Grissom discussing the case.

Greg Sanders looking at a tyre mark.

Nick and Doc Robbins inspecting the body.

Catherine pointing at the dirt, and a suspicious gooey substance is marked.

Here's my friends cutting into the cake to find out what had been buried. The gooey stuff was a clue.

It's gummy bears!!

I didn't want to ruin my cake by sticking candles in it so I put them in the strawberries that were in the middle of the jelly.

It was two-tone fizzy jelly and it was awesome.