Happy New Year

Just a little early but I want to wish all my followers a very happy year 2011 and hope you all enjoy your miniatures and reading each others blogs even more than this year!
My daughter's wedding is in a few days time and I'm now preparing for the 'big day' so will be away from blogland for a few days. I'll report back with some photos soon.
Best wishes and love to you all, and thank you for following my blog!Kisses, Gill

Last but not Least!

Caterina had to tell me to look in the little bag for another present! Inside was a tiny but perfectly readable Christmas story book with pictures. It's beautifully made and has a jacket too! Thank you again Caterina! X

Christmas Swap

Some tiny packages arrived early for Christmas and I had to wait patiently to open them and discover the wonderful miniatures Caterina had made me!
Now I can show you the sweet little Robot which came in a tiny box. Here it is in the workshop of the Christmas house. (WE know Caterina didn't really make it - it was made here by Santa!)

And here it is, without the box in the lounge on Christmas Morning. There is also a carrier bag containing a present from Caterina under the table.

 Santa hasn't had time to finish decorating his house but Caterina also sent a Christmas Garland to cheer up his very dull front door, all he needs is a nail to hang it on!

And finally - a BEAUTIFUL, soft, warm and cosy dressing gown. When the summer is going and the nights begin to get chilly this is perfect for putting on and curling up with a good book on the sofa. Caterina has made it from the softest wool and decorated it with matching trim and a satin sash which is held in place with tiny belt loops!

Thank you so much for all the gifts, they are all wonderful and beautifully made.
I have looked on Caterina's list and have to say how imaginative everyone has been and delightful all the gifts are! Well done everyone and thank you again, Caterina for organising this very successful Christmas Swap.

Merry Christmas!

At last I have managed to get back to my blog, just in time before Christmas!
Considering we are having no visitors at our house this year and I've not been cooking or madly buying last minute presents, I've still been mega busy with real life.
My poor husband had to have an operation -  nothing to worry about but he has to be home for six weeks and take things easy. It is quite like having a child around me wanting his meals, another drink or even my company! I usually have all the days to myself and I'm having to adjust but now he has a new TV and DVD player to play with so I have managed to escape for a while! Ha ha! It's not really so bad!
Last night I decided to set up an Etsy shop to sell some of my gifts from my Tea Shop. I was still setting up when some of my items disappeared. I was worried that I had made a mistake but in fact there had been a customer already and last night I sold three items and another this morning! I am so happy but think this might be a full time job, loading up my shelves in the little shop!

Can anyone tell me how to activate a link on my blog? I have put in the address for my Etsy shop but it does not 'work'. The same thing when I put a notice for someone's giveaway, it does not link. I would appreciate some help!

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve is our wedding anniversary, so we love Christmas time very much.
We are spending Christmas day at a friend's house, there will be 25 of us for dinner and Secret Santa - almost as exciting as waiting to open our gifts from Caterina's Christmas Swap!

Now I just want to wish you all a really happy time this Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful new year. See you all in 2011!

Boxes for the Ladies Shop

I'm still mad on making boxes and these are what I've just finished designing for the Ladies Shop.

No more time tonight as I've got an early start in the morning. Our dollshouse club has increased its numbers to THREE! Our new member, Caroline has a Delprado house she collected weekly and never built and I have to confess that I have one, still in its packets, too! Caroline has devoted a big room in her house as our workshop and we're going to finally dust off our house parts and, hopefully, put them together. I've heard they can be tricky, has anyone else made one that can offer some tips?

Interior Design and Christmas Sparkle!

I've been putting together some 'bling'. Quite a bit more than I planned, as I got carried away with the sparkle and glamour. I also made a few candles, all glittered and sparkling for Christmas, or if you're like me, -  any old time, I love sparkle! So now I shall have a 'home decor' department somewhere in my shop!

More Cakes for the Tea Shop

Today I made some cakes and two shabby style cake stands.
I enjoy playing with polymer clay but I'm amazed at how many different kinds of other things are needed. My table was crammed with stuff but I still needed to get more things out until my room felt very small!
It took almost two hours to clear away, putting every piece of ribbon and all the different beads into the correct boxes, the oven gloves and timer had to go back to the kitchen, the glue, varnish, paints and chalks, all back in the right place. Then there are the tiles, paint brushes, scissors, knife, tweezers, cocktail sticks, card, plates and dishes! I did a good job tidying up, but I'll do something different tomorrow although some cakes still need ribbon and a plate!
Here is a photo of the table with all the cakes.

Miniature Patchwork Room

Just before my fifth birthday I started school and sat next to a little girl who became my best friend. We played together after school, rode our bikes, slept in a tent in her garden, went on holiday to Butlins and met boyfriends together. It wasn't until she was married and I moved to a different area that we saw less of each other but we always kept in touch.
My friend makes beautiful full size quilts and saves her scraps of fabric for me. When I moved to Spain I asked her to make a quilt for my guest bed and as a surprise she made a wall hanging to match.

 This is the Beautiful Full Size Quilt and Wall Hanging.

We met up for a special birthday dinner two weeks ago and I gave her a room box I'd made of her work room. She was over whelmed as everything in it was personal to her and I was so pleased she liked it.
I'd downloaded photos of her quilts and printed them onto fabric to make the wall hangings and quilts.

The patchwork on the sewing machine I made from her scraps.

My friend was delighted with her present, I was happy to make it. How do people manage in life without a hobby?

The Alexandra Palace Fair

I've been home for a week now, recovering from my birthday week visiting family and friends, enjoying meals out, a lovely party, shopping until I dropped, and the Alexandra Palace Dollshouse and Miniatures Fair. I met up with friends from the South East Essex Dollshouse Club I used to belong to which was lovely and managed to get around just about every stand and spend a little money! Ha! Sadly there were fewer stands than in the past and there were far fewer buyers but it did make looking a lot easier.
The highlight of the week was visiting my two grandsons and babysitting them for a day while their mum had a well deserved day off. They are definitely my favourite miniatures!

And The Winner Is.............

Today is the big day, for my son, his birthday and for us, the draw. I just can't wait to do it, so here is is. The box.

The names are in.

And the WINNER IS.....

MARIAJO of  MEAPUNTOATODO!  CONGRATULATIONS!!
Please email me your address and I will post your miniature prize.

Thank you all so much for entering my fist give away. I think I will find excuses to have more, this was fun!
Best wishes, Gill x 

Drawing the Winner Soon!

There are only  six hours left to add your name to the list for the Birthday Draw, I'm getting excited myself!
As for my birthday, I had a really wonderful evening, thanks to the hard work of my daughter and her 'soon to be husband', who I've mentioned before is a wizard in the kitchen. I was sent out for the day and during that time he prepared all the food for a delicious three course meal, made a fabulous fruit cake, and decorated the house with balloons and streamers. All the other guests were our children and partners who gave me such lovely presents I was really over whelmed, and over weight - well, my luggage was going back on Ryanair!
I'll be back tomorrow with news of the winner! Meantime a photo of lovely presents made for me by my friend Oly, the other half of 'The Dollshouse Club', stitched on silk gauze.

Halloween Parties!

My son, Alex was born on Halloween, 26 years ago. Every year he had to have a special Halloween party with a pumpkin cut into a gruesome face and a cake made to look the same. Now he's an adult he has grown up parties but still loves to have fancy dress and spooky stuff decorating the house, so the parties haven't really changed that much!
I started making a mini party but got so carried away that I've made enough for three parties, with birthday cakes, cupcakes in little cases, paper plates and presents.
I got the artwork for the tableware from http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com, it's one of their fabulous Confection Collections that I have shrunk down. I hope you like them - and Happy Birthday, Alex. xx

Birthday Give Away

Those of you who've been following for a while may recall back in September, that I mentioned a certain birthday I'm about to 'celebrate'. I've decided to have a Give Away to cheer myself up!
I'm heavily into box designing this week so the give away will be boxes! These are for a man, possibly his birthday as there is gift wrap included and also one of my little patchworks for his chair or bed.
I shall be away for a week with family and friends, so will draw the winner the day after my return which is also the birthday of my youngest son who was born on Halloween, 31st October.
All you have to do for a chance to win is be a follower, leave a comment on this blog and it must be before midnight 30th October Spanish time.
Good Luck!

Here are the boxes shown on the reverse of the patchwork.

Cosmetic Display

'The dollshouse Club' as the two of us like to be known on our weekly meet, decided to make cosmetics last Thursday and a very fiddly and time consuming project it turned out to be! Combining it with my new found passion for box making, I completed it tonight, so I thought I'd show it off as it turned out rather better than I'd expected!

Boxes for The Men in My (Miniature) Life

The men should have a department somewhere in my shop, it's long over due but I've been a little lacking in enthusiasm as I like to make 'pretty' things. Well, I finally got together some ads and made up a few boxes, I've a second sheet yet to be made up but as you can see, I quickly got into the swing of things! I did find a few raunchy under things....!

Keeping the 1 Inch Scale

Just a little thought - 1/12th  actually. Doesn't that mean that 1 foot becomes 1 inch? Some people call it the inch scale.
A six foot man is represented by a six inch doll. A three foot table becomes a 3 inch table. That is so easy to understand, measure and recognise, so why do some miniaturists now try to give measurements in metric, i.e. millimetres?
The metric system works in tens and is not easily and obviously divisible by 12.
It isn't just miniaturists in countries where only metric has been used but the English and Americans who have always used good old feet and inches are now doing it.
Anyone not understanding imperial measurements can easily buy a small ruler made of plastic for patchwork workers. They are marked in 1/8th, making it easy to measure parts of a foot to scale.
This little doll is the equivalent of a 3ft child but could you visualise if she was to scale if you were told she was 76mm or 7.6cm?
Can you visualise whether  a cupcake measuring 13mm is too big?
Well, it is. It equates to 1/2" (6 inches), you'd need two hands to hold it!
Please let's keep it 'the inch scale' and not ' 2.5cm scale'.

Cream Horns for Tea?

Fascinated by mini cakes I've always dabbled but following a tutorial Saturday night on CDHM with Linda C. and despite not having all the required ingredients I managed to make a fairly edible looking batch of 16 cream horns! Half a dozen I've put aside for the other member of our dollshouse club as she wasn't able to join Linda for the class.

It was a great tutorial and Linda always shares her secrets of how to make the food have that extra realistic look. I had so much cream left over I filled up a little basin as well. More goodies for the Tea Shop!

Boxes at Last!

I love computers,  for years I used one for drawing in the engineering field using Autocad which is so precise and accurate so you can imagine how impatient I get when trying to create straight lines and match up corners with arty software. But, I've just had a crash course and a few very useful tips from the very nice son of a friend and I managed, after 14 hours to design and make these boxes!

Christmas House

After completing my little rug I decided to take on the challenge of getting the Christmas house in order. I managed to get the shelves to stay up with wood glue and the use of supports instead of the small brackets. The house, which was bought for one of my sons as a child, is just three rooms, one on top of the other. The bottom is Santa's workshop, the middle his living room and the top is his bathroom which still needs a lot of work, but I thought you might like to see a photo of the workshop - not a lot of Elf 'n Safety in here!

Christmas Rug

Hooray! Tonight, almost two years after I started it, I've finished my little rug for the Christmas house. It's been one of those on-going things I pick up every now and then.

All I have to do now is work out how to get the fully laden shelves to stick to the walls. I thought I was being clever using a hot glue gun but because the walls are painted, they didn't stay up long. Surely I haven't got to empty out the house and sand the walls? Anyone got any good ideas, I've only got until Christmas!

My Work Space - Part Two

With everything that's been going on here lately I forgot to mention that the terrible state of my work space that I wrote about back in July has been fixed. I have a fabulous, newly painted and fitted out work room.

I'm so embarrassed about the old room - I can't believe I worked in that mess! I now have new cupboards, Shelf unit, desk and chair. Nearly everything fitted back in with the exception of my wool stash which is boxed up in the utility room. I've promised myself I'll keep this room tidy now!! Haa!

Busy Morning

I'm supposed to be cleaning the house for the next round of family arriving today but I just had to squeeze in a bit of making as I haven't done much lately due to my husband being home for two weeks holiday.

These are jars of Bath Pearls.

And these are jars of  bath confetti. Messy job chopping up the real stuff!

Birthdays

I have always wondered why people knock a few years off their age, as if embarrassed about when they were born. You hear people thinking 'yeah, and the rest'. My thoughts are - why not ADD five years, then everyone will think how good you look for your age!
I've always been honest and quite amused about being 40, then 50, but 60 - I don't like this one. A give-away to celebrate a birthday is such a nice idea. I've decided to have a give-away in October, not to celebrate but to help take my mind off this one! Details later.

Lindsey's Cupcakes

Cupcakes have grabbed me big time, I mean, just how many cupcakes does a teashop need? I've made six of every kind and filled loads of boxes and plates with them.They are so cute and fairly easy to make but I know when enough's enough!

Now, I'll move on and make some other goodies for the teashop. Lindsey, by the way is the Lovely Linds my son is engaged to -she makes the real thing!

My New Chairs Have Arrived!

I've spent what has turned out to be a mega hot day in Granada, searching for a new sewing machine. The search was fruitless, the heat was stifling, my feet hurt and all I could think of during the twenty minute drive home was getting into the pool.
That all changed as soon as I found the post lady had left me a parcel - and I'd been waiting impatiently for this one! Two fabulous retro chairs from Kris Compas. She has a website,
www.1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/ and sells on cdhm.org.

 I've only recently discovered Kris and her wonderful miniatures but she's already one of my favourite miniaturists, not only is she a talented maker with incredible attention to detail (see the fine piping and the buttons) but she doesn't mind sharing her 'how-tos' and tips.
I did finally cool down in the pool but not until I'd played with my new chairs! Thank you, Kris, so much!

Helping Hands

Going back quite a few years to the early 90s I started making cakes with polymer clay. They turned out well enough for a local dollshouse shop to buy some Valentine, Christmas and Wedding cakes from me. The Christmas cakes had holly and snowmen on top and the wedding cakes had a teeny bride and groom. I didn't know about liquid Fimo, so all the icing was twisted snakes and dented with a pin. Never really happy with the results the clay eventually went into a biscuit tin and I reverted back to mainly sewing.
The quality of miniature confectionery has improved 100 fold over the last few years and I've been itching to get my clay out again. With the help of Linda's tutorial on CDHM I made some broccoli and an artichoke, then last Sunday I made oranges and peel with Hannah's tutorial.

And with a helping hand from Christel Jenson and her DVD I just had a fabulous day making cupcakes!

Thanks for all your help but worry not that I shall become a competitive threat - I still prefer to sew!
(Eat your heart out, Linds, they're not real!)

Room Boxes 2

Going back to the subject of room boxes, here are some photos of the one I made for my elder son. He is now thirty and has twin sons, born earlier this year. When I look at the things in this room box, his Play-doh, toy dog (Woof-woof, no less!), cuddly soldier, knitted by my father and then later, his passion for the guitar, his Marshall amps, his idol, (he wanted to change his name to 'Slash' when he was 14), and I wonder at how quickly the thirty years went. I miss my children, their little voices, the excitement over an outing to London and the cuddles. As they bring up their families and beyond, they can look back and these little room boxes will remind them of their youth.
Wow, that was a bit heavy, I need to make something!

Jugs in the Teashop

I've been noticing some really cute jugs/pitchers around lately and found a site which offered a pattern to make them from paper but the site wasn't working. I was really disappointed for a couple of weeks, then, quite by chance I found another site with a pattern! They are such fun to make and the results are very pretty. Here is a photo of one that I've made, on a tray made by my friend Bob which I painted, with some dessert bowls and the finest little spoons I bought years ago at a fair.

Typical of me, I got on a roll with the jugs and now have a few more than I need but I'll soon find homes in my other houses and shops.

Favourite Patchwork

As I've mentioned before, patchwork is my favourite miniature to make. Looking through some of my photos I found one of the first miniature patchworks I ever made and I think it's my favourite. It's in my Victorian house, completely out of place but I think of dollshouses as fantasy and I'm not too precious about details. If I like something, it goes in, within reason!

Human Again!

Just a message to announce that I am still in the land of the miniaturists - but only just. Lack of sleep and the humidity have done their worst and despite all the preventative medicine I take, I have had a round of nasty migraines. Since last week, today is the first that I've felt human, so I have made nothing for a few days, although I've been thinking about it a lot and been feeling very frustrated that I'm 'doing nothing'!
Last week I emptied a bit more of my cabinet and made room for a lovely 1930s three piece suite by Gill Rome. The wooden furniture all made by my dear friend Bob. But, oops bit of an overlook by the photographer - it's a real mirror!

Making Kits

The temperature here has been 39 degrees again today; it's been hot so long I can't remember what it's like to have energy! In the house it was only 29 so after I made up some guest beds for visitors arriving on Friday I set about putting together some of the kits that had been accumulating in my 'to do' drawer. I often buy these from Zena's  or Craft Pack Co. They are quick to do and always so pretty.
Tomorrow is 'dollshouse club' (still just the two of us) so I'm off to bed 'early', it's midnight, but last night I was still awake at 6.20am what with the heat, the crickets, and the sounds from the fiesta in the next town. The Spanish really know how to party! Music and fireworks until morning! I love it, Viva España!

Pinocchio's Bed

I mentioned my friend before who makes me all the things I don't like making out of wood. He asked me recently to make him a patchwork for a lady friend of his who has a Pinocchio House. Pinocchio needed a quilt for his little bed and a matching bed for his cat. I had fun finding all the bright fabrics and those with little prints of flowers, hearts and a teddy. The cushion in the cat bed is reversible, with a fish on one side - the cat can choose, depending on his mood!