"To Market, to Market...."

"TO MARKET, TO  MARKET, TO BUY A FAT PIG!  HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN,  JIGIDY JIG....TO MARKET , TO MARKET TO BUY A FAT HOG, HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN JIGIDY JOG"

So when I was thinking about a title for this post, it was almost called GETTIN 'JIGIDY' WID IT (then thought NOoo, maybe not).....  So by now I am sure you've guessed that I am doing a post about market baskets not pigs or hogs.  My little piggie "Arnold" is just waiting for the scraps from the market basket to make up his afternoon snack.  If the baskets are left on the floor  too long, Arnold might also be able to eat his dinner at the same time as his lunch!

(rats! another fuzzy photo)

I've made up 3 market baskets so far.  I am trying to use the items that  I have been making and make the itty bitties look more substantial.  An example is the bunch of green onions that are on the table top.  Not much to look at on its own, but snuggled into the basket it becomes...... A CONTENDER! (cue theme from "Rocky")

For whatever reason, the grapes did not photograph very well?  I looked at this pic and then at the actual basket and there is a big discrepancy!  You'll have to believe me when I tell you that they do look like grapes in the basket.  Moving on, I shall tell you what is also inside. I've already told you that I made the green onions.  I made them from fake flower stamens that you get from the craft store. I had planned to do a tutorial on them but they took too long! and I started to bore myself charting the procedure so you will just have to buy some 'stamens' and find the 'stamina' to try it on your own.  hahah  I made the breads from air dry clay and you can see how many I made by referring to my blog #2" Nights before Christmas.  There you will see just how many of these loaves I've made and why it is so important to find something to do with them.  Who wants just bread??? (Oh boy, I better get on with it) I made the jar of honey with the blue cap from a cut up glue stick and glass paint.  The 'Edam' cheese is air dry clay coated multiple times (with a red nail polish) to look like red wax on the outside.  I used a cheese label that had a picture of Napoleon on it but it reduced to nothingness by the time I had scaled it down.  It is a pretty color though.  The radishes are tiny foam balls that were  berries picked off of some fake christmas tree and they reminded me of radishes so I found some old railway landscaping stuff and glue the balls to the foliage;  results Radishes!   The tulips are dried grape hyacinth pods and the leaves are plastic from Fat's Finds at the dollar store.   I included a garlic bulb( seed pod) and some dill ( plastic flower stamens)

And here is basket #2 .  It is a summer basket ( the first was spring with the tulips)  this has pink roses  which began life as dried flowers which I've had for decades. I touched them up with some glass paint to liven them up a bit.  I put some mild blue cheese in this basket and also some of the countless nectarine/peaches that are also in blog #2( if you want the full impact.)

Another view, showing the "roses"

There is close, and then there is TOO CLOSE!  

Here is Basket #3, also a spring time arrangement.  Tulips, radishes, honey. green beans (plastic flower leaves) a wheel of Brie cheese that I wrapped in cellophane and wedged into the centre, too bad you can't see it better because it really looked like Brie!

Verging on blurry:  The radishes are front and center and the honey to the left side.  The breads and the tulips ( see blog #2 Nights before Christmas, to see ALL the potted tulips!) 

And here is the back side of the basket.  You can see the tulips better  from this angle.  I think that no one does a better job of mini anything than God and so I am always happy to let Him do the hard work for me in making the flower heads, that I in turn, can just dry and paint up and take ALL the credit for! hahahah.?????... ( I'm Just kidding, God.)

Now this is a Market Basket!!!!

This beauty was made by none other than my dear friend and comrade in arms, JANINE!   She hand sculpted this whole basket of veggies from Fimo and gave this to me as a gift, back in the late 90's, ( I believe, she'll phone and correct me if I'm wrong) The contents are all sooo real and as Janine is an avid gardener with a food production from it that allows her and her family to Eat Fresh all summer  long and then into the fall.  Fatima and I enjoyed some delicious home-made soup there last November, with the veggies picked directly from the garden.  Yum.  Knowing how exacting Janine is, you will appreciate the details of the basket.  Leeks, potatoes,  green peppers, tomatoes, still on the vine and some tiny green beans tucked under the spuds.

Now I think that this is a melon( or a squash?) Anyway, I think it  IS a melon ( winter melon?) and look at the way it is colored and mottled!!! I could NEVER do this kind of work!  My efforts in Fimo are....let's just say."NOT GOOD".  Janine has some carrots to the right of the melon and it all sits in her remade basket that she cut down to the size she wanted and then re-inserted the bottom into.  It is perfect and the cloth draped over the edge is in harmony with all the colors of the arrangement.  It is wonderful and she should make some more.  Right now she and Bruce are working still on the garden of her french doll's house.  Soon you'll see her mini veggie garden where all this produce came from, right Janine? (now she'll phone me to tell me that not everything will be in the garden, I know her soo well, hahah) You will all just Have to go and have a peek over at MINWORKS to see what Janine has in store.  Meanwhile, here is the pig again!   To market, to market, Good- Bye, you fat pig.....  ( errrr,... no offense)

elizabeth