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!