"Around the same time they gave me back the house, I discovered one of Whitledge-Burgess's gorgeous room boxes at the Miniature Cottage (my local dollhouse shop) and thought one of their workshops might be a good way to ease myself back into the hobby."

The discovery of two popular CDHM food artists clinched the deal for her.

"The first time I saw Betsy Neiderer's work I was completely blown away! I couldn't believe it wasn't real food, and then that it was 1:12th scale.

"Then I discovered Kiva Atkinson's yummy mini creations and there was no turning back. I really love to make mini food (especially sweets!) and I also enjoy assembling and upholstering mini furniture (I love Nancy Summers' kits). I've taken several workshops from Ray Whitledge & Scott Burgess and love their room box workshops as well," she added.

She finds getting or making the dishes to display her work on to be a bit of a problem, but scale is not - as long as there's a measuring tool around.

"I enjoy 1:12th scale but I have to be really careful and measure what I'm working on over and over again. When I first started working with Fimo, I had no idea how exhausting kneading it would be! My forearms and hands would ache after an evening of conditioning clay.

"I read a post in one of the forums by Betsy about how 'warming clay' helps make conditioning it easier,

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