A Mini Merry Xmas to you

My workspace calendars came full circle with the Mini Merry Xmas miniature celebration, to help you with your event planning. The first countdown calendar that I ever did had celebrated the whole doll's house, appearing more like the traditional design of a cardboard calendar, showing all the windows over the house (see first blog page). It was not mobile friendly and I had to swap files every night to update it. Following calendars were automated, set to display the right day of the month at the top each day in December, so that you couldn't cheat and open extra windows ahead. Now you can open them in any way you want to.

2022 was a good year for love of miniatura with the doll's house challenges for craftspeople on television - The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge on Channel 4 and the Best in Miniature competition from Canada shown on the Discovery channel in the UK. There are many amazing makers producing miniature objects. The pieces collected together in this calendar have been found over decades of attending the Birmingham Dolls' House & Miniatures shows at the NEC, now having moved to the Stoneleigh National Agricultural Exhibition Centre.  I acknowledge all the regular stall-holders there, as well as having found pieces online recently from suppliers including The Doll's House Emporium, The Little House at the Priory, and perfection from Life of Riley Miniatures.

I am very aware that the detailed event planning and spending of extra money, that can go into preparing for a family Christmas, is in enormous contrast to the hardship that has struck so many more people this year. I worked on a design project a number of year's ago using 'Put Shelter on your Shopping List this Xmas' as a tag line. Nothing has  changed - it's only got worse. There's a link to the Shelter website on this calendar, with a second link to the Trussell Trust to help support food banks in your area.