I went to the Dorking Fair!

Unable to attend the fair in Malaga this year due to being in England with my poorly daughter I was happy to discover that I was in the right place at the right time for the Dorking, Makers Only Fair.
I am so excited about adding these new items to my various houses and room settings.
First are these gorgeous flowers and plants by Jan, The Flower Lady, who I think only sells at fairs, I can't find a web address for her.

The lemon tree will go with all my Spanish miniatures.

Already the sweet tea cups are in my tea shop.

I have a few items for the garden shop. I shall plant the chimney pots with Oly during one of our club making days.

AS usual I couldn't resist the children. I bought this beautifully dressed baby from Pat Alston at Tiny Treasures.

Also from Pat is this gorgous doll. I've been collecting odd chairs with a mind set on doing a version of the Mad Hatters Tea Party so meet my little Alice!

I did buy another chair for the tea party and also these other finely made wooden items from World of My Own 

I just had to have these beautifully made frames and mirrors from Wood Supplies.

I'm so behind with my own making that I bought some food items for the freezer from Shepherd Miniatures as the miniature family were starving!

I hope you enjoyed seeing all these, now I have to place them all, it's going to be fun!

Beautiful Gifts - Lucky Me!

I struggle with making flowers as you may remember me mentioning before. Dear Oly surprised me with not one but two gorgeous displays!
The hydrangers.

 The roses are all hand painted.

They look wonderful in my gift shop.

Today I received this beautiful underwear set from Marlies. I have some of her bra and pants (miniature of course!) but this set has suspenders as well!

 

  Thank you Oly and Marlies, your kindness has made me smile!

Flowers for Hazel

This is the flower stand I made as a Christmas gift for my mother Hazel in 1999.

 The only flowers I had were tiny dried flowers and I made the roses from punched circles of coloured paper. They look a bit basic to todays standard!

My mum treasured this, she loved flowers.

2013 Minutes, Dolls and Vases

Oly, who is the other member of the 'Smallest Miniatures Group in the World' came up with such a good idea and a great solution for me to finish all the projects I've started and not finished.
In the year 2013 I have to spend 2013 minutes working on the UFPs.
If my maths are correct it means less than 6 minutes each day - even I can manage that!
Last night I finished a kit of pansies which I bought from Bonnie Lavish and started four years ago! I know I'm terrible, especially as I dislike making flowers but I did it!
Here are the pansies in a beautiful vase turned by the very talented Bertie.

I've had a slow start to the year because my mother passed away. I'm trying to get myself together so little jobs are the way forward, nothing to concentrate on for too long.
 Lucy kindly sent me two of the little china head dolls she makes and a selection of very fine wool she uses to knit the clothes. I really appreciated her thoughtfulness which was a grateful diversion and gave me something new to think about.
My husband took me to Portugal for a few days and as it rained most days I was able to start knitting. I only got one set of underwear made, using Gutermann silk sewing thread using the basic pattern which Lucy shares on her blog evalinarose.blogspot.com

I'm now planning to finish more flower kits as they look so good displayed in Bertie's vase and I bought more from Bertie last year. Here are three more.

Here is a photo I took in Porto. Wouldn't these houses make beautiful dollshouses!

 Thank you for dropping by, have a good week,

Spring Flowers in The Gift Shop

Spring is in the air, it feels a little warmer and I wanted the gift shop to have a fresh look. It's stocked with all things floral.

 I hope you're now feeling spring-like and enjoying a warm Easter weekend.

And More Birthday Gifts!

My birthday celebrations have been extended by receiving more gifts on Friday! These were made by Kaisa. I love the nursery coat rack, made with her scroll saw, I think. Last year I received a real bar of chocolate with my gifts but this year Kaisa kindly considered my hips and sent me two very neatly made, miniature chocolate bars! Thank you Kaisa, everything is lovely.

Floral gifts from Cristina Diego arrived the same day and I had to photograph them all separately to show them off properly. As you see Cristina was so generous!
I love the pot holding this plant.

 This plant is so delicate!

 These flowers are very pretty and I have a new vase to put them in.

 There are so many teeny flowers on this trellis!

Isn't this is a beautiful trough of mixed plants? Thank you Cristina.

If you'd like some of Cristina's work she has a shop on Etsy.
I hope you are all safe from storms and floods. Take care.

Beautiful Floral Gift from Cristina!

Girls love to receive flowers and even better if they are not real as they will last forever!
Even better when the gift is a complete surprise! Not my birthday, not a swap, just from a dear friend because she wanted to.

Here are Cristina's beautiful hydrangas standing in their urn outside the Victorian Shop. Never mind the customers can't get in! Thank you Cristina, your generousity has made me very happy!

Basket of Flowers

Like a broken record I'm frequently heard saying I don't like making flowers. I ordered some kits from Pascale as I'd admired them on blogs and thought I'd be able to make some.
I started on one kit and then a year passed......
Oly encouraged me to take the kits from the back of the cupboard and yesterday  we made half each of two more kits. We were thrilled with the results and we now have a few Margarita's and peonies each. I have to thank Oly for her help and Pascale for her beautiful and detailed flower kits. Here are mine in a basket.

Now I hope to finish the poppies I started last year.