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!

Shoes and Bags

How fabulous are these!!! They were a gift from my dear friend Bob.

I've always loved Patrisan's shoes and never thought I'd own a pair. Now I have two pairs and a fabulous handbag as well! Thank you so much, Bob. x

For my birthday Oly gave me a handbag kit by Janet Granger which I didn't start straight away as I wanted to clear some unfinished projects first so made it over the new year break. It's really pretty and will look lovely in my ladies shop.

For Christmas this year Oly gave me this lovely cupcake jug which will sit nicely in my Tea Rooms, Gift Shop or Bakery - I can't decide!

As I mentioned a while back, Oly and I made some felt animals which we were quite pleased with as our first attempts. Now I'm going to try and make Easter Bunnies with this brilliant set which I also got from Oly at Christmas. My favourite time of year is Easter, I love the pretty colours and the lambs, rabbits and chicks so Oly chose these for my Easter display. Thank you Oly, I love my gifts. x

I think you'll agree I've received some lovely gifts from special friends.
As this is my first post this year I'd like to wish you all a happy and healthy 2013!

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.

More Birthday Gifts!

Today I'd like to show you some other gifts I received for my birthday.
I've quite recently met Sonja through Blogland and she kindly sent me these lovely needlework items.
This is the vintage needlework basket. Look at the pins in the shoe pin-cushion!

 Here is the cloth basket of fabrics - so many colours!

Sonja also sent me a hole punch and a CD of some of her artwork designs and everything was wonderfully presented using the same pretty artwork including a birthday card!

Everything Sonja creates is so beautifully made and you can see lots more of her lovely miniatures on her blog minisonja.blogspot.com 

Oly, my 'mini' friend and the other member of our dollshouse club gave me a gorgeous chocolate cake and a Janet Granger kit to stitch a pretty handbag!

Oly makes so much more than miniatures. The only thing I know that she can't do is crochet. She has been making cloth art dolls recently and made me this cute pencil topper!

If you'd like to see more of Oly's work you can find her here www.olyslittleworld.blogspot.com
As you see I was totally spoiled this birthday!

Birthday Swap

This year I've been participating in Kaisa's Birthday Swap and yesterday it was my turn to receive all the gifts! It was so exciting opening so many gifts in one day. Here they are.

Drora used her little shells from the Sea of Galilee to make the framed collection and little box. She also made me flowers and jewellery. There's a lovely heart shaped jewellery box and a water cooler that lights up!

 Faby has been stitching table mats and a bread bag. And can you see the spoon holder!

 Maria has sent so many things from a bed set to useful beads. She also made a pretty bread bag with a loaf inside!

Rosella stitched me a cushion with the letter 'G'! And the sweet parasole opens and closes!

 Simona has been printing! A book with readable pages, a tiny stationeryset and bags.

 Teresa has made a sweet set of baby items and a vintage sign to hang on the wall.

Karin made a lamp trimmed with crystals, beautiful candle sticks and birthday chocolates!

It's been fun swapping gifts and interesting to see all the lovely miniatures made by others.
I still have four more to arrive, so this birthday will stretch our for some time yet!
A big thank you to everyone! 

Happy Tuesday!

Tuesdays are always happy days because it's 'Dollshouse Club' and Oly comes round to play.
She brought me some shelves she can't use and I gave her some basket straw and cake boxes. We are both like children with smiles on our faces.
Oly was putting together buffet food for her wedding scene and my goodness she must be planning to feed hundreds of guests! I'm sure she will show you on her blog when it's finished.
I was working on gifts for Kaisa's Birthday Swap.
Later the mail arrived and my beautiful hat arrived from Kat the Hat Lady. I don't collect anything witchy at all but have always loved her hats and this pink one was just too hard to resist!

Now I've finished a whole lot of cushions I was working on as well.

 What shall I make next?

Kaisa's Birthday Swap - Rosella

I'm sure you have heard that Kaisa organised a birthday swap for this year.
Rosella had the first birthday, in February and Kaisa has now posted photos of all the gifts.
Although everyone shipped their gifts in good time, so far only half have arrived.
These are what I sent to Rosella on 23rd January. She is still waiting for their arrival.

The late gifts will hopefully help to extend Rosella's birthday celebrations.
If you are having a birthday this week, Many Happy Returns to You!

Often Christmas brings incredible surprises for me and as usual the biggest surprises are the smallest!
An early arrival was a package from Kaisa! Such a kind thought and a beautiful decoration for Christmas. She has made it with four candles and the tiniest of golden cherubs.

 Kaisa loves Tilda! She used Tilda wrapping paper and even a Tilda label - so pretty.

There was also a bar of delicious chocolate! Thank you so very much Kaisa. X

I had four presents from Oly! One was this pretty box of miniature chocolates. She has been looking at my favourites on Etsy, I think!

.

 And these are amazing! Oly has stitched all these Christmas items! Aren't they fabulous?

Dear Oly, thank you so much. X

Sandra totally surprised me as well! A sweet little box with three perfectly made gifts.

Can you believe this is not a photo of full size mistletoe?

Is it my imagination or can I really smell the spicy potpourri?

Sandra, they're wonderful, thank you so much! X

I've truly been amazed by the generosity of my friends and feel thoroughly spoilt. Now I have to try to find somewhere for all my new miniatures to live - that's a problem I'll enjoy solving!

Time has flown by since my last post and I won't even start to tell you the reasons why I've been away for a month!
Despite everything there has always been somewhere each day where I've able to squeeze in a little time for making miniatures, even if I have to sit up until 2am to do it!

 I've designed some more boxes. These all have matching gift tags.

I've put together lots of boxed gifts. Here are two.

These boxes are to keep cakes or biscuits fresh.

Fun boxes to fill shelves.

And boxes for the Ladies Shop.

I decided, as a lover of bling to add some to the oval boxes but I think maybe I over did it!

I fell in love with some gorgeous art-work by Janet. She has these lovely tickets which I have miniaturised.

They are perfect for adding to keepsake boxes.

 I did the same with her vintage cards which I've tied into bundles.

You can find Janet on Etsy HereThese are just some of the new makes that I have to find room for in the gift shop at Jilly's Tea Rooms. Others have been made for gifts to friends and some will find their way onto Etsy.
Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit!