the key to success ...

... is exposure. Among other things of course, but in the end, probably most important. And that's what I got thanks to Kathi from Beautiful Mini Blessings, who proved to be a real blessing to me. Thank you SO much Kathi for your post on your blog about mine and the very kind words about my work!

I am truly overwhelmed by the fantastic, heartwarming and great comments by so many of you since then and the new followers it generated: the number was going up by the hour from 21 to 79 in less than 2 days! :)

A while back I thought about wanting to do a give-away when I reached a 100, since I noticed that's often done, which I think is a great thing to do. At that point I already cherished every single one of my followers for finding and following me and was thrilled every time for a new follower I saw had joined. But I did laugh in myself thinking that in regard of the 100 mark I 'needed' for a give-away with the former rate of new followers, I still had a couple of years to think about that. And was fine with that, because had no idea yet. Now, with Kathi's very nice gesture I might reach that number by this weekend!

So I need to think of that a little faster, but I'll do that with great pleasure and gratitude!
Kathi: THANKS again! Also I would like to give a very warm welcome to all of my new followers, but also like to express my gratitude to my followers who already somehow found me and decided to follow me somewhere along the past 1,5 years.

KEYS
A nice bridge to the titel of this post (or actually the bridge I thought up because it fits so well with what I wanted to show in this 'thank you-post') is the set of keys I 'made' for the entrance of the Oldtique Store that I am finishing and will show you soon. The keys are from Le Mini di Pierluigi (the silver and black one (=a silver one I painted)), and The Dolls House Mall (the tiny brass one and bigger brass one). The blue thingy Dutch readers will probably recognize as an 'Albert Heijn Bonuskaart'  I made, a keychain-customercard from the most famous supermarketchain of The Netherlands.

The second photo is from the keyplate I'm making, For that I punched out three rounds of tinsheet, glued together and filed in order to get the bevelled edge. Now I need to drill a slot so I can actually place the key in the door of the store, but hope that I'll manage since my bits keep falling out of my bithead from drilling in metal too much (head is worn and doesn't hold the tiny bits no more..). Will thicken the bit with tape and hopefully that works. Lastly I scaled a picture of a keyplate for a decal that I'll place on the keyplate for added realism.