Margaret Grace - Murder In Miniature

After another minute or so of action in the atrium, with more “evidence” being turned up, we heard the voice of the real Maddie coming from the Maddie on the screen. I could see that I needed a whole new vocabulary if I was to participate fully in the twenty-first century.

“I used an object-oriented program to create my video game,” the screen Maddie said. “Choosing predefined motions, I was able to model the actions of avatars of three detectives-a man, a woman, and a teenager.”

“A teenager?” Mary Lou interrupted.

“It’s fiction,” Maddie, the preteen, said.

“What’s with the detective work? Is there something going on that I should know about?” Richard asked.

“Shhh,” Skip said, but the narration was over anyway.

The presentation ended with a bow from all of the players, and a roll of credits: written and produced by Madison Porter. The Pink Panther had played throughout the game, at various levels of volume.

In the dim light I looked over at Richard and Mary Lou. I didn’t even try to hide my tears. Maddie’s production had taken less than ten minutes to watch, but we couldn’t have been prouder if it were an Oscar-winning feature film.

Maddie switched the lights on and smiled at her audience. “If anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.”

In fact, there were questions from the more technically literate of the group, and there were more viewings of the video. I’d have to wait to watch it again when my vision cleared.

I moved one room closer to Maddie, as Richard and Mary Lou took my bedroom for the night. They’d decided they’d done enough driving for one day. Fine by me.

I went in to say good night to the family star.

“I’m so proud of you,” I said, in case she hadn’t heard me the first few dozen times.

She looked at me with sleepy eyes. “We do make a good team, don’t we, Grandma?”

“The best.”

“Remember the coin I threw in the Ghirardelli fountain?” she asked me.

“Of course.”

“I wished you and Mr. Baker could be BFF.”

I smiled. “You’ll be the first to know.”

Before I turned in, I went to the crafts table that held my Christmas scene. I took two Christmas stockings and sketched out names that I would embroider on them later. One would say Taylor , and the other, Henry.

It was a tiny addition, but held the promise of something big.

Make a bathroom plunger of any size for your dollhouse or room box.

Materials:

1. Suction cups of the scale you’re working in. These are available in hardware or office supply stores, and often in the household section of a grocery store. Usually they’re made of vinyl or rubber and often are attached to a hook or another storage or hanging mechanism.

2. A rod or pole of the appropriate scale. This can be of wood, such as a barbecue skewer or a long toothpick, or plastic, such as a straw or other stick-shaped part. Remember it doesn’t really have to be strong, the way a real plunger does!

3. Acrylic paint of your choice.

Directions:

1. Remove extraneous wire or hooks from the suction cup.

2. Make a hole in the top of the cup, big enough to hold the rod (handle) you’ve chosen.

3. Paint the cup inside and out. Black or deep pink are the most likely to give a realistic effect. Let dry.

4. Insert the rod into the hole at the top of the cup.

5. Place the assembly in a convenient place in your miniature bathroom, and never have to call a plumber again!

Add realism to your dollhouse or room box kitchen with crumbs from crackers, bread, or cookies, a sure sign that someone lives there!

Materials:

Soft clay or crafter’s dough or clay

Fine grater or crafts knife

Needle

Steps for cracker crumbs:

1. Fashion crackers from the appropriate color dough, either white or yellowish. Or paint the dough the color you desire. Make small, flat circle shapes, or small square shapes, or a variety for your counter. Use a needle to make holes or lines before the dough sets, depending on the kind of cracker you’ve chosen. Hint : choose a color for the crackers that will show up on the counter you’ll be placing them on.

2. After the dough/crackers are completely hardened (the method will depend on the kind of clay you’ve chosen), use your finest (real-life) grater to shave the edge of one cracker until it is completely in “crumbs.” If the crumbs are too big, cut with a crafts knife. Hint: wear gloves to protect your fingers while grating the tiny crackers.

3. Arrange several crackers, plus the crumbs from the one cracker you used to make them, on a counter in a haphazard manner, to look as though someone didn’t clean up after himself!

You can also do this for breadcrumbs or cookie crumbs, just by changing the colors and shapes of the dough.

A teen’s room is full of odds and ends that can be replicated simply. Here are some ideas for things you might find in a boy’s room.

1. Make a winter cap by cutting the tip from a finger on an old pair of woolen gloves. Turn up the brim and toss on the floor!

2. While a baseball mitt is hard to make, a bat is not. Fashion one from modeling clay of an appropriate color and lean against the closet door.

3. Make a jigsaw puzzle: glue a picture to a piece of thin cardboard. Cut the picture into puzzle shaped pieces and place in a small box, or lay the pieces haphazardly on a slightly larger piece of cardboard. If you have a second copy of the picture, glue it to the cover of the box.

4. For a small boy, make a kite using balsa wood for the frame and colorful tissue paper for the covering.

5. Look for party favors such as small wagons or gum-ball machines and place in the room. Check for toys also in the cake-decorating department.

6. Make a dartboard for the door using cork scraps and a Magic Marker. You can also use cork scraps to make a bulletin board for the wall. Add tiny notes, photos, and ticket stubs.

7. Don’t forget to add food snuck into the room late at night! Cut tiny candy wrappers or potato chip bags from ads in the newspaper and glue onto foam board or wrap around wads of tissue.