Christmas goodies!

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a lovely, relaxed Christmas. I just thought I'd share with you all what miniatures I received yesterday.

Everything above is from the Dolls House Emporium. The above items (in case you fancy them, too) are:

1. Letter box (non opening)

2. Door Plates and Knobs x2

3. Blue and White Jardiniere

4. Granny's Washtub

5. Angel Shelf Sitter

6. Queen Victoria Figurine Teapot

7. Sculptured Bust of Queen Victoria

8. Decorative Coal Shuttle

9. Hinges and Pins, 4 pieces

10. Bride and Groom Picture

11. Twelve larder packets

Here are some close ups of my favourite items:

The items are going to be spread between Wentworth Court and The Curiosity Shop. I'm glad I got the details for the shop front door because now I have no excuse to crack on and get it fixed! I'm also particularly glad I received new hinges as I'm afraid to admit I through the original fixtures away in a flash of bad temper! If anyone can recommend an easier way to do the hinges- please do!

I also received some wallpapers which I shall use in the bathroom and bedroom of the Curiosity Shop. For some reason, on the photos they appear textured- I can state that they are not. The wallpapers are 'Pink Victorian Cameo Wallpaper' and 'Blue Rose Pattern Wallpaper'. I have a huge affinity to the Victorian era for reasons unknown so I simply had to include nods to that era in the Curiosity Shop since Wentworth Court (Georgian era) couldn't possibly allow me to indulge!

Finally, I received a print out sheet of pretty things like boxes, Christmas cards, shop signs etc.

This is called 'Victoriana Cut-Out Sheet'.

Did any of you receive anything nice?

Have a lovely new year!

I'm branching out with technology!

Hey guys!

Welcome to my newest follower, Patricia :D

There's this thing called 'Pinterest' which is like an amalgamation between facebook/twitter and a regular blog. Basically, you can 'pin' things that interest you and I decided to set one up for miniatures on my wish list!

If you fancy joining, there is a short waiting list (I think I applied a week ago and I'm set up now).

Anyway, if you fancy having a peep- follow me at:

I have no idea if that link works- please tell me if it doesn't!

:D

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my lovely followers!

The picture above is the dining room from Wentworth Court. It was my first adult dollshouse and the decoration was rather rushed due to my impatience (we've all been there) but hey! The first house is always a special one.

The little vases on the fire place actually belonged to my mother-in-law's great grandma who had them in her dolls house all those years ago! The cake you can see on the table was made myself with polmer clay and the basset hound on the floor pays homage to my mother-in-law's own basset hounds- Boo and Larry. I'm actually a cat person and Wentworth Court is full of cats so I decided to get a dog to even things out!

I've seen some gorgeous felt animals which I'd love:

This is simply fabulous and think it would look great in the Curiosity Shop! This pussy cat can be bought from http://literatureinminiature.co.uk/Animals/siamese_cat.htm for a bargain £30! I also have my eye on the taxidermy stuff which, again, would look FAB in the shop. I'm a vegetarian in real life and would rather run over hot coals than have a stuffed moose head on my wall but for some reason- I really want it in my dolls house!

After Xmas, it's full steam ahead! Expect more posts and more progress!

Finally, I hope you all have a super Christmas and NY!

See you soon!

Jess

Bathroom!

Hey guys!

So sorry for the length of times between posts. You know how it is with these things-sometimes it can be slow process.

ALSO, massive hello to my new followers!

Just to let you know where I am now with the Curiosity Shop. I've started on the bathroom! I purchased these lovely floor tiles from an ebay seller (called 'gugbug') a while back and over the Xmas holidays I'm going to start looking at laying them.





This is how it will look :) ^^

I think it creates a gorgeous effect. The tiles themselves are hardy enough, especially since they're plastic, not actual tile.

Anyway, I shall update you on my progess! Santa is also bringing me a few goodies for both the Curiosity Shop and Wentworth Court so I will show you those things too!

Actually, since it's nearly Xmas- I may post some pictures of my Wentworth Court as it's Xmas in there, too :P Although you will have to forgive my sloppiness- it was my first house and I rushed the decorating because I was so excited!

Post soon!

Jess

P.S I've already painted the ceiling in this room! Result!

I haven't left you!

Hey guys!

I'm still here, believe it or not!

Sorry I haven't posted anything DH related in such a long time! I'm back at uni- final year- which means the dreaded dissertation. Money has been tight in the lead up to Xmas, as ever, so less money available to spend on DH stuff! :( Bad time!

Here is what I have been up to:

Lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream icing





Twilight cupcakes (chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream icing)



Post soon! Thanks for sticking around! :D

X

Drum Roll Please....

....

It's finished!! The flooring has been put in (although still needs sticking down and sanding at the front) but here we go!!

I am so, so pleased with the result! I got the flooring sheet from my favourite ebay shop 'Little Green Workshop' for a bargain price of £6.99. (Their website is: http://www.littlegreenworkshop.co.uk/) It came with the promise of ease of use and I can totally pass the promise on- it really does.


I didn't need anyone's assistance in this which goes to show that anyone can use it! Hahah. It cut very easily and sanded well. You can see from the picture below that once you've started to cut the wood, it just breaks off very easily.

The backing is just thick paper and I think it might be sticky back stuff but it's not peeling off well so I'm going to attempt to glue it straight down.

So you've got an idea of size, I took this photo with a 1p piece on:

It would fit most standard rooms I think.

Finally, I'm not really sure what it is, but Little Green Workshop sent me a freebie, which is always lovely! I think it's meant to be a pot for a tree or something but I will put it in the shop once it's decorated :)

Next project: BATHROOM!

Jess x

One (almost) down, four (ish) to go!

Hey guys! It's almost done! I only need to do the flooring and that room is 100% complete. We've tweaked bits here and there so here's a quick run-down:

Stairs

In my last post, I said that my grandad was going to cut a bit of the dado rail away to allow the stairs to sit perfectly against the wall- well, taaaadaaaa!

A word of warning

I honestly don't know where I'd be without my grandad (in life, as well as DIY). I thought it seemed odd that he hadn't measured the dado and skirting right up to the edge until he explained that if he had done, we wouldn't be able to shut the door! It had totally not occurred to me! Anyway, here's a photo so you can see what I mean:

Many apologies for the picture quality; I'm still using my phone!

Skirting

Ah, the chicken and egg scenario. What comes first- the flooring or the skirting? I posed that very question to the Dolls House Emporium message boards but went ahead and did my own thing before remembering to see what everyone had put. Naturally, 100% of replies stated flooring and what had I chosen to do? Yup, you guessed it. Skirting. Oh well, some things never change!

Almost Completed!

Yey!

50 FOLLOWERS!

Yey! I've hit 50 followers! Thank you so much for sticking around guys, and for the few that have joined since my last post! I'm so glad so many of you are enjoying what you're reading.


Since my last post, I transported my dolls house down to my grandparents as my Grandad is very interested in the house. I've been so busy at work (and I didn't think my DIY skills could stretch to it..) so Grandad very kindly did my coving and dado rail for me. And what an excellent job he has done!




He's left a gap at the top which will allow the stairs to slot in nicely:



As you can see, the close up has two little bits that have had to be cut from another piece as, rather typically, one piece wasn't quite long enough. It's hardly noticed when the stairs are in, though.

The dado rail needs to be amended to allow the stairs to sit flat against the wall- we (like that- 'we' haha) decided it would be easier to cut a little bit away once the stairs were put in properly.

Something I've also done in this house which I didn't in my Wentworth Court was to continue the wallpaper and details on to the door. I saw someone's dolls house done in this way once before and I thought it was a beautiful touch- it literally looked as though you'd opened the side of a real house.



As you can see, I'm still yet to add the skirting. I haven't actually stuck the skirting down yet as still working on the flooring. My fiance's dad works away a lot on business and every time he stops for coffee he grabs me a handful of stirers so I can create a wooden floor. Very nice of him :)

Almost finished one room! So excited to work on the next!

Jess x

Curtains!

Welcome to my newest followers, Andy and Raspberry! So glad you stopped by!

As you can see, today I made some curtains! It's my second attempt following the same instructions from Sue Heaser's book 'Dolls House Do-It-Yourself: Curtains' as the first time I used cotton fabric and it simply didn't fall right.

This time, I used beautiful dupion silk *apologies if it's spelt incorrectly* and they have hung perfectly. Don't you just love the green rod? haha. I didn't have any plain wood ones so my grandad kindly donated this one to me from his greenhouse supplies!

I'm going to make a matching pair for the other upstairs window and am planning to leave the bottom windows without curtains or blinds as most shops windows are bare (I think- please correct me otherwise!). I think for the top attic windows I shall make little curtains that just pull to the side rather than meet in the middle. I have tiny hoops left over from jewellery making which should come in useful for that! According to Sue Heaser's book, curtains in the Edwardian times were very plain (in style and print) so I thought this fabric would be perfect.

To make your own curtains:

Note...this will make curtains like mine :)

1. Measure the window and cut two pieces of fabric each as wide as the length of the window and the length of the drop required, plus 25mm (1inch). Ensure the fabric won't fray by running some PVA glue mixed with water along the material where you've cut it. Sew or glue a hem (I sewed) of 3mm along the sides of each curtain and a 13mm hem along the bottom edges.

2. Press down a 13mm hem at the top of each curtain. Sew a line of fine stitching 1.5mm from the raw edge of the hem. Place a skewer or dowelling in the resulting casing and push it against the stitching with the side of a ruler. Mark a line between the ruler and the skewer with the pencil. Remove the skewer and sew along the line to make a snug casing that fits the skewer.

3. Thread both curtains on to the skewer and push the sides of each together to gather them up to about one third of their original width.

4. The final stage involves starching the curtains and adding the finishing touches such as tiny little fimo clay knobs on both ends of the rod. I haven't done this section yet but I will.

^^ The above is taken from Sue Heaser's book as mentioned at the start of the post :)

I haven't done that little bit at the top of the curtains because I'd measured the drop incorrectly (typical of me, naturally) but I think they look ok like this!

Jess x


P.S The glue on the ivy did not work! Back to the drawing board!

A different kind of miniature!

Hello again!

Has anybody seen Angie Dudley's 'Cake Pops' book? I got mine at Christmas from Amazon.co.uk and it's fab!



The book is full of amazing things to bake and all very miniature, of course! Here's some examples of things I've made. (I didn't follow a project for these although were inspired by similar ones).



I made these ones for father's day and my dad loved them! The second cakes (below) were made for a birthday party:



Basically, you bake a standard cake and then once it's cooled, you crumble it into tiny pieces, like breadcrumbs. Then, it gets mixed with a frosting of your choice and it allows you to form little balls. They go in the freezer for 20 minutes to harden and then get dunked into melted chocolate. For the little cupcakes, I used a silicone mold with melted choccy (white, but dyed pink) and then once set, I peeled it away to leave a chocolate cake case! So everything you see is edible!

Sooo much fun! I can't recommend it enough (and I don't like cake!!!)

XXX

Made a start on the ivy!

Good afternoon, everyone! What a horrible, wet day it is here. To think, it's July!! Where's our summer?!

I made a start on the ivy and I'm pleased with the results. The lady from Templewood Miniatures sent me too different style ivys as she only had one pack of the original style and I ordered three. Although both are lovely, I think the newer style is more effective as ivy- the first looks more like a fern. This doesn't matter to me- my crumbling old house will have god knows what growing up the front so the more variation, the better I say!

Original Ivy:

For this ivy, you simply popped the whole piece out of the paper and glued the wire to it's back. I like it because you can't see the wire but the join where the second sheet of ivy meets is a little odd. I think I'm actually going to use some little leaves off the new ivy to disguise the join. Instead of using PVA glue, I used the glue spray left over from when I did the stencilling. I have no idea if it will work long term- but I will let you know!



New Ivy:

The newer type of ivy is very fiddly, as you can imagine! I do like the way you can do your own thing with it, though. It definitely allows for more freedom with how you wish your ivy to look.

You have to leave them to dry flat which they're currently doing (fingers crossed the glue works!)

Jess x

So very busy!

Hello to all my new followers!

I've been sooo busy lately, I haven't had a moment to do anything moderately miniature related or to blog!

I just wanted to keep you up to date with the progress of the dolls that were going to be made by the lovely Julie of Bellabelle dolls. I'd been on the waiting list since about November 2009 and only paid my deposit. She emailed me this month to ask if I'd still like to go ahead but unfortunately, due to my approaching wedding, I decided that I really couldn't bring myself to spend £130 on two dolls. *My other half would be proud!* Julie was so lovely about it and since I'd been on the waiting list for so long, she assured me I could go to the front of the line if I'd like them done in the future (which no doubt I would 'cause she's amazing!).

I've had a lot of work on with the homeless young people I work with which is good because it keeps me busy until I start my third and final year of uni in October. More miniatures soon though, promise!

Ivy from Templewood Miniatures

I recently ordered some lovely little ivy DIY kits from Templewood Miniatures. It's the first time I've ordered from there and I must say, I was more than pleased with the service. The lady emailed me and said she was away so there would be a slight delay on my order (that was fine, and if I'm honest I don't think I'd have noticed because it came pretty soon anyway!). Unfortunately, the type of ivy I'd ordered wasn't available in two quantities so she sent me one type I'd ordered and two new ones (including a free one). This was totally fine by me- I don't mind if my ivy doesn't match! In fact, I think it adds to the authenticity of the whole thing! I will show you when I finally get a move on and do it...it looks fiddly but I've been assured it leaves fantastic results! The shop also stocks an ivy cutter which is definitely useful!

Until next time!

Miniature Skirting and a Celebration!

Taa-daa! Here's the skirting. I haven't stuck it down yet but you can get a good idea of what it will look like. Sorry about the picture quality- I will make sure a better one follows soon. Also, I managed to paint the ceiling without any bother! Luckily, this is the only room I've started to decorate so I painted all the other ceilings a bit more haphazardly.

There's a celebration in order! Myself and my other half have booked our wedding!! It's not until 2013 but it's on our 8th year anniversary so it will be super special :)

Jess x

Mouldings

Good morning curiosity shoppers!


I have just received some gorgeous mouldings in the post from a lovely ebay seller called littlegreenworkshop. They have excellent feedback and I must say that their prices are a lot cheaper than other leading dolls house suppliers. They also have a website where you can buy miniatures from which is www.littlegreenworkshop.co.uk. It's worth taking a look :)


I am going to post the pictures that they have used on Ebay because I couldn't do the mouldings justice on my little camera phone!


For the living room as pictured in the previous post, I have bought:



> Coving. Real wood, 18inches, £1.25 (!!)



> Dado rail. Real wood, 18inches, £1.20. Did you know that dado rails were invented to stop the backs of chairs from scuffing the wallpaper?





> And finally, skirting boards! Real wood, 18inches, £1.25!



Excellent prices and great delivery rates- I would recommend this seller! (I haven't been asked to, by the way! All opinions on here are totally mine! :D)

The 18inches of wood does mean, I'm afraid, that I'm going to be let loose with a hack saw....


More on this later!

Until next time,

Jess x

Pretty walls!

Hello everybody!

Welcome to my newest followers: Ayamontinomaria, Angeles, Georgie Steeds and Angela Warwick! Thank you for stopping by!

The first room is officially wallpapered!







I love it! Bright, clashing prints, garish- what else could a late Victorian/early Edwardian home maker want? I'm actually going to buy some wood for the picture rail-at the moment it is just printed on. This room is the living/dining area in the 'house' part of the building. I'm also going to wallpaper the doors which open out the house because I think it looks really good. I've also seen dolls houses with picture frames on the opening doors and it looked lovely.

My wallpaper is from Jennifer's Printables (http://www.jennifersprintables.com/printables1.html) and I printed in on decent heavy paper, not card. I think card would work OK, but this has turned out fine and the ink hasn't run when I applied the wallpaper paste.


Sorry if the photo is a bit dark- I wanted to have the lights on in the room and it gets kinda lost when I put my flash on :)

As always, it didn't go without a hitch! For a start, I forgot to paint the ceiling, which I'm sure is going to be a barrel of laughs! (more on this later!). Also, for the wall on the right hand side of the pictures, I cut the sheet a couple of millimetres too short. Not wanting to waste another sheet, I simply cut a strip from the waste paper and stuck it along the bottom! haha! I've managed to match the pattern up so it's all good! Besides, the stairs cover most of that wall and who doesn't have a few cleverly placed photo frames in their dolls house? (or actual house for that matter!)

Until next time!

Jess

A house in progress!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my newest follower- Alennka! :D

Here is the Curiosity Shop as it currently stands! The brickwork on the front is finished- I'm aware there's gaps but they're meant to be there- you'll see why soon enough!

Last night I sat and painted all the window frames then realised most Edwardian windows were white...silly me. It made me think though, does my shop have to be Edwardian? I chose that era because it's one I've never really studied before (hence my mistake) but now I'm thinking maybe I'm going to do my house based on the things I love. It's still going to have strong Victorian influences which will lead into Edwardian because I love the Victorian era. The brown frames are born out of inspiration from my grandparents house...my favourite place in the world.

Let me know what you do with your own houses- do you strictly stick to a certain era? Or simply go where the wind takes you?

Jess x

Printables!

Hey guys, Have you all had a look at the printable websites? They're absolutely brilliant. I have used Jennifer's Printables before for a room box and the quality is very good if you have a decent printer and use heavier paper. Here are some ideas I have for the Curiosity Shop. The wallpapers are generally going to be Victorian prints- except maybe a couple of rooms where the occupants have afforded to redecorate! I want something to reflect the Edwardian era but still have echos of the Victorian times past, as this is accurate. After all- when can any of us afford to do the whole house when something new comes into fashion? hee hee. The following prints are available at: www.jennifersprintables.com

There's also the delightful Jim's Printables which can be found at: http://www.printmini.com/printables I can't ever work the link button so many apologies!

Some examples include:






And for those of you working on modern projects:




Until next time- enjoy!

I'm still here!

Hello guys!

Just to let you know that I'm still here and I really appreciate you all still sticking around. I'm coming to the end of my university year so all of my effort has been pushed to meeting deadlines.

A new dolls house post will follow soon!

:D

Happy New Year!

Hello everybody!

Happy New Year!

A special hello to my newest follower, Grimdeva. Thanks for stopping by :)

This is just a quick update to let you all know where I'm at with the brickwork. I have sooo many university assignments I hardly have time for anything else :(

As you can see from the image, I'm almost finished on the front too! I just need to add the finishing touches now and then sand everything down.

I will add a longer post soon- promise!

Jess x