A little Sunday update

Hello from a happily rainy Victoria. Not a lot of mini news here, but I did get a very exciting little parcel in my mail this week. I received my beautiful tiny Christmas gift basket from Deborah at The Half of it: My Adventures in Half Scale. I have to say that this little gift basket is even cuter in real life. So much so that I haven't wanted to unpack it - it just looks so cute with its tiny bow! Here it is on the doorstep of my Black Walnut cottage, and then on the dining table. It looks larger in the photo than it really is, but the table is quite small.

Thanks so much Deborah, I adore it, and one day it will take pride of place in a future Christmas cottage.

I have also done a bit on my doll shop. It went through yet another iteration and ended up with new wallpaper.

Here is a close up of the counter, which you have seen, but I have added some yellow glaze to get a closer match to the peachy tones of the wallpaper. Toy arrangement still in draft phase.

 I made some filler boxes for the shelves (which need labels I think).

Some close ups of my teddies I made from air dry clay and flocked (the teddy with the red bow is a painted metal mini I did years ago).

Lots more to come on the doll shop but I feel like I am pretty happy now with the interior decoration. Now it's really just filling the shelves. Oh and I need a couple of pieces of small furniture of undetermined size/style.

And lastly, unrelated to minis, I sold a painting today! I have been taking painting lessons for over four years now and we have an exhibition at the end of each year, usually with a theme. This year I had to paint on a palette and the theme was 'The Nature Palette'. I painted these cherry plums from my garden. You can't tell from the photo but the cherry plums are dimensional - I made rounded shapes from Paperclay. I am pretty happy with it, so a little sad it sold, but nice to recoup a little money.

Anyway, that's about it from here. Still arguing with the Chateau but that's OK. I will press on in baby steps. Take care all. x

Did a little painting

Hello everyone. A quick post to show you the cabinet I've been working on for my 1:12 doll shop. It is one of those unfinished wood ones I bought from an online UK shop (there is a whole set and I have bought quite a few). I had base painted it nearly 2 months ago, the started the painted curtains about 1 month ago, and finally finished them off last night with the dots and lacy edge. I should've made them shorter, as much of the design gets hidden, but the toys I've displayed are just props right now anyway. I will paint something across the lower front too, and maybe even add a glass shelf inside for smaller items. Then the painting would be more visible.

I hope you are all well and having warmer weather than us (-5.4 deg Saturday night, coldest in 38 years and completely destroyed half the plants in my garden). Happy mini-ing!

Doll shop updated

Well, it took 3 coats of ivory to cover all the blue trim (and four for the door!) but I am happy with how it has come out.

Now all I need to do is get the pastels out and age some bits of the wallpaper and the shelf wallpaper and I can stick the units in. They will need hardware, as I don't think I'll use what came with it. The counter (which I don't have) will be pink to match the back wall with the door in it. And debating installing a little fireplace on the left wall. I might try making a valance or something for the window tonight seeing as I am on a roll! 

It is amazing how many different iterations this little shop has had and never been finished. But I guess if you just keep painting, you will eventually get something you like! PS - I think it also needs a painted footpath out the front as it currently looks terrible!! (Yes I used it as a paint palette)

The vintage doll shop

Happy Saturday everyone! We had a public holiday yesterday (for football no less!) and so I got my doll shop out and finished off the shelf unit I started then painted everything blue. I was going for a more blue-grey, and lighter than it is. I tried aging and toning it down, but it is still too blue. I am not a big blue fan. I conferred with a friend and she is recommending green. I am now going to try green. Will try to post the results later. Wish me luck!

(You can see I ripped out some shelves. I will likely paper the back of the shelves)

Off on holidays soon

On Sunday, my husband and I fly out to San Francisco for three weeks, where I will be doing a Rik Pierce class at Shellie's Miniatures. Should be a great trip and September is supposed to be the best month in San Francisco. Will try to post an update whilst there. I hear they have some pretty buildings there! Tee hee!

For now though, some updates on my projects.

I have decided to lightly grunge up the interior of the doll shop. I've grunged all the painted surfaces (architraves, door, skirting, cornice) with a gel medium/linen coloured paint mix, and will grunge the corners of the wallpaper just a little with a light chalk pastel dust. I decided it would be more in keeping with the overall feel I am aiming for. So thanks to readers for their suggestions (Elizabeth, Margaret and PILAR6373), they were greatly appreciated.

I haven't ordered the accessories I was wanting for the Mountfield, so progress is slow, but I've done a bit to the laundry, including installing a sink with taps and towel rail, a shelf (actually made two but so far only one has been attached to the wall) and painting up a Phoenix metal vaccuum cleaner. I will show pics soon, when I have got a little further. I have also finished the two chairs from the music room. I added a few more splashes of paint, covered the cushions with a floral print fabric and made some cord from embroidery floss for trim. I am really happy with them and think they suit the room perfectly.

I have also been working on accessories for the French shop. I purchased some Lisa's Little Things kits, so some of these are going into the shop. The thread box is on top of the red display table on the left. 

The notions counter on the right (below) is also one of her kits. I have always loved her kits, so it is great to finally have some to put together. Still playing with the placement of little accessories but do you ever just leave something where you put it initially? I keep changing lots of things in this house.

And a little photo of the back room:

I also don't think I've shown this room yet, as I wasn't quite sure for a long time what it would be. It is now a sewing room, given that the occupant of this shop is obviously into sewing. The sewing machine is a Rement one. I think it is reasonably within scale, but strangely the peddle cord is too short to go from the machine all the way to the floor. I might need to replace the cord with a longer one. It's not shown in this photo as it was dangling off the table and looked silly. You can see my hand painted metal kitty playing with wool in the foreground.

And lastly, I have put together the shell of my chateau. I will need to get the windows cut up very soon, before I can start installing the interior walls, so hopefully I will get organised and have them done whilst I am away. I have them mostly drawn up and ready for laser cutting. I need to find something to have them made from first though. The laser cutting place doesn't stock thin enough boards.

This photo shows a wall that will go in the salon. They are the Robert Dawson (the Modelroom) wall panels I got at the Kensington Dollshouse Fair in 2012. The spaces between panels will be the windows. I want to paint these with a bit of colour and can't decide if I want to turn them into something like the panels from the Dauphine's private study at Versailles or not. I'd need to add a fair bit of detail to get that effect, and it is a room I have to replicate somewhere in this chateau, but not sure if it will be in this room or another. I have a little while to think about that though, whilst I wait on windows.

Here is a pic (from a google search) of the Dauphine's study. It is my favourite room at Versailles.

 Well, I hope you enjoyed my updates. I am off to vaccuum my floor and water the plants and then pack. Hope you are all well and happily miniaturing away.

To grunge or not to grunge?

Waaaay back when I first got into the miniatures hobby, I purchased the Houseworks street of shops small shop. I always loved the brick and stucco exterior of their promo photos. I have had it tucked away for years in it's box, taking it out occasionally to start, make changes and then put away. For some reason on Saturday, I pulled it out and thought, yep, I am going to just put this baby together. It was partially painted when I pulled it out of the box - the trim which is now timber was green and the door was pink. So between Sunday and Monday, I have got it this far. 

I am really happy with the exterior. The only thing I'm not sure about is the front door. I like it, but should it be blue to match the pediment? (Which, for the record, is a much less intense blue than it looks in the photo) I am thinking that a sign and other details will add some more blue.

My other question is, do I grunge up the interior just a tiny bit? It looks so pretty as it is, but this is supposed to be an older shop. I just don't want to ruin it. I will do the cabinets in the style of Lilli-ann Hamilton, if you've seen her stuff. It is much like June Clinkscales' work, gently aged, antique patina, soft. Therefore, the walls may look too stark against the furniture.

The door and window will have curtains over them when I get them done. I think I made the door too tall, so a curtain will hide it a little.

Thanks for the advice and have a great week!