Treasured Finds; Some Things to Share

Its been a while since I posted my treasured finds; to be fair I have not been searching or buying a lot lately, but I do have a few photos to share with you. I decided that this year I would only buy things that I either collect, or can't live without (or for the caravan). I've left a few pieces behind this year already!

I hope you all enjoy a fun filled weekend. We are heading to the coast to sort out our newest purchase, caravan #2. The kids are itching to go to the beach as they haven't been there in years. I will catch up with you all in a few days. Tam x

1960's tin moon globe and silver plated footed bowl from the Canberra Swap Meet Nov 2012

Hubodometer...I know what you're thinking...awesome right? haha

Two tiny miniature oil paintings for the dolls house

Original Kookaburra painting, c1920's, found amongst the rubbish at the tip shop

I asked the seller of the clock if it worked or if the ballerina danced. She said no to both, so she reduced the price. I was pleasantly surprised when I got home that the clock does work and the ballerina dances when you lift the dome. She is c1940's, made in West Germany.

Picked up this gorgeous tile at the annual Church sale for $2.

A Spot of Miniature Decorating

Today we:

Bought a new pet budgie named Snowy...

And glued him inside a tiny birdcage with a dove for company...

Sat him near a new white ceramic clock and flower painting...

Hung a new chandelier in the bedroom...

Bought a yummy horse shoe cake, grapes and an original mesh covered cake stand...

Decorated the xmas tree with baubles, I wonder if it is bad luck to have it out so early?

The bedroom is the most complete room so far...

The bathroom is awaiting a slate floor, a sink and the mirror to be hung...

We fitted the butler sink in the freestanding kitchen...

Are waiting to hang the flying ducks and added a wooden wall clock...tick tock...

You would think these chocolates are real, well a mouse did! It has eaten the foil from the faux chocolate, bloomin thing!

Items mentioned were purchased today at the 2012 ACTME Miniature Fair and Doll House Show. You can see last years purchases here and our dollhouse progress here, here, here, here and here.

Back soon...we are hitting the car boot tomorrow and have a couple of things to show you from our op shop finds today :) T x

Thanks for the support of my sea creature creations and all your lovely comments, I truly appreciate it as I know that time is precious.

2011 ACT Miniature Fair and Dollhouse Show

Little Miss and I headed off this morning to the annual ACT miniature Fair and Dollhouse Show. It was the first time we have been and it was pretty good. Apart from driving around looking for a car park. Aaahhh....it's so much better living in the country.

The little blue wren was a favourite find for Little Miss today. We have a blue wren that lives in our garden and every spring he taps on the window, eating bugs. The kids call him bluey and are excited to see him every year. She also selected the little paper flowers.

The blue/green cupboard was an Ebay find. As was the ceramic Lavender Lady statue, purchased from vrjwm from the UK.

We also came home with a miniature lounge by Jiayi. Its soft and squishy and tufted, just like the real thing.

The hand made cushions were an Etsy purchase, GIGI N STUDIO.

This is our real life size chesterfield lounge. I made the cushions from flour sacks in this post.

Below are a few shots of the doll house so far.

A little shot of the bedroom dressing table. The Victorian cards, dressing pattern kit, and Queen Victoria bust were all purchased from Ebay.

The little perfume bottles I made from a few beads and a tortoise shell button as the tray.

This fantastic miniature water colour was hand painted by Annette M Crawley, another UK find and was purchased here. The detail is incredible, especially as it is only 2 1/2" x 1 3/4" in size.

Another quality street tin :) although this is the tiniest that I will ever find.

Here is a shot of the progress in the kitchen. I still need a sink (I want a butlers/belfast sink)and blinds.

A closeup of the little shelf. The Queen Elizabeth plate is amazing as well. It is ceramic and the detail is incredible, purchased here.

Don't forget the Goulburn Swap Meet next Sunday 3rd April...see you at 7:oo am near the egg and bacon rolls:)

***To enter my Easter Giveaway, just leave a comment in my last post***

Bedroom

Wallpaper and a New Floor

Hiya, our renovations are coming along nicely. We finally added a new floor to the doll house on the weekend. We pulled it apart, took off all the old plastic windows held on with industrial staples and gave it a fresh new coat of Dulux Shell White paint (it was painted blue originally, you can see a picture in this post.)

I decided to wallpaper two feature walls only; the little birds in the bedroom and the roses for the bathroom. This floor will be open plan with no internal wall or door and the bathroom will be screened off.

I will post a snippet of the bedroom tomorrow,

Sweet dreams, T

Big and Small

I am still accumulating bits and bobs for the Dolls House. Its amazing the little things you can buy. Its great because our house is full so I can buy all the things that I like in miniature at a fractional of the price. Well, that being said, I can't afford a $100 chandelier!!

I found this fab mini linen covered mannequin on Ebay and just had to make some rosary beads to adorn it, just like the one next to my bed. I have amassed quite a few rosaries haven't I (and there are more).

I was amazed to see that you can't find doll house rosary beads so I had to make my own (string, a few tiny beads and a rose stem crucifix).

I know....I am insane!

Making Some Miniatures Of Our Own

India and I have been making a few little miniatures for the dolls house. I wanted to add some old photos because we have some displayed in our house (see last photo in this post).

Instead of shrinking down some photos, we searched through our magazines to find photos displayed in peoples home which would be about the right size. We carefully cut each picture out and pasted it to some backing cardboard destined for the recycle bin and let them dry overnight.


Today India painted this little bookcase cream. I blu-tacked each picture into position until we were happy and then replace each with a thin line of PVA glue. They are still standing, so hopefully it won't be too winding in the little house.

We also made a few of our favourite magazines. We cut out the little thumbnail of the magazine that they have in the front pages of the real magazine. Again, we pasted these onto some cardboard. I glued three together to place on a coffee table etc.


Above are the three little things we made today. The little stool/table was painted white and the top was cut from a picture of a wooden crate.

Above are the photos displayed in our 'real' hallway.

We are waiting on some wall paper and wood before we touch the house. But I have bought a few things already; teeny tiny seed packets, some books, pennant flags (this is homage to Mr T who collects these in real life) and some garden bits. We were initially going to make the house at 1:16 scale but decided on the 1:12 scale as the there is so much more available.

Our wish list includes:
Flamingo for the garden, cream Aga stove, Butlers sink, roll top bath, chesterfield lounge, vintage style clothes hangers...the list goes on. Lucky our doll house will only have 4 rooms :)

Tomorrow is the Bungendore Show. Hopefully I will get a few photos to show you...we will definitively buy a Bertie Beetle showbag (small Australian chocolate with tiny pieces of honeycomb mixed in)..my favourite!



p.s. Cate @ Vintage Mum just sent me a link to some free downloads including wall paper, household packaging, chocolate boxes etc: http://www.jensprintables2.com/

Let the Renovations Begin

India and I are renovating....the dolls house that is. After being inspired by the wonderful miniatures that I blogged about in this post, we decided to pull out our dolls house from the granny flat and give it a makeover.

We will slowly do it over time and will show you some of the new additions along the way. It should be fun, Mr T says that it is going to be expensive :) At least this way we will get our new bathroom..hehehe



Our little gnome will be watching over the garden.

Wishing you all a fab-u-lous weekend!!