Dolly's Dreamings

A little mini magic

It wouldn't be Christmas if it didn't come full size and miniature size in our house.

We have two houses to decorate for Christmas, but one is much smaller than the other.

My 1/12th scale doll house gets all glammed up for the holiday season too. It has three Christmas trees dotted around, garlands on the fireplaces, presents under the tree, a wreath on the door and, of course, a full blown Christmas lunch served in the dining room.

The food is absolutely perfect and the people who made it were real craftsmen and artisans. It truly does look good enough to eat and so realistic.

The china ont he tables is goegeous and even the tiny crystal goblets and the crackers add to the realism.

The fruit in the fruit bowl and the stilton on its marble platter is so carefully crafted. I LOVE the dining room at Christmas.

The page was made with new festive goodies and templates by Dawn Inskip and they are all available at her store ay Scrapbookgraphics.

Thank goodness today is Friday - I am incredibly tired and ready for a chilled (not chilly just chilled) weekend.

I hope you all have a super weekend in store. x

 

 

A little tired

I really feel like I am on holiday now - just wish my body did

I went to work for a meeting and once that was done my holidays really started ... so if someone could just tell Nigel and then he'd let me relax a bit!

I went straight from school to the dentist to have a small filling that turned into a major filling as the back of the tooth fell of as there was a crack.

Still, all repaired.

We then went to Ikea to get extra shelves and then came home and I have been humping furniture and books ever since.

It is not done yet but here are some progress pictures.

What it was like before (I seem not to have a photo of it so have just got one I took of the doll house and some I used in a  mini book.

 

 

 
It was very green, very old fashioned and we had a yew desk and leather chair that was huge.

 

Picture of the walls stripped and the doll house shrouded in polymask

Nij doing curtain fixings

 

Sort of finished - well one side anyway.

 

 The furniture is all walnut (well wlanut effect) and the walls are cream, the carpet a light brown and the accents peacock blue. The unit the doll house is on was custom made and we are going to stain it walnut as it stics out like a sore thumb.

The room looks much bigger, much tidier and so much better.

I haven't had time to scrap - well not stuff I can share - but this is one I made yesterday for a sketch challenge.

 
Today I am thankful for

• Novacaine - so the dental work didn't hurt

 

And finally this was soemthing Hilary posted today so I have poinched it as I thought it was very good.

 

Noah's Ark : Everything I need to know, I learned from Noah's Ark .

ONE: Don't miss the boat.
TWO: Remember that we are all in the same boat!
THREE: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark .
FOUR: Stay fit. When you're 70 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
FIVE: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
SIX: Build your future on high ground.
SEVEN: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
EIGHT: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
NINE: When you're stressed, float awhile.
TEN: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
ELEVEN: No matter the storm, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Pink fantasy

I love waking up on the first proper day of the holidyas. the weekends don't count  - it is that first day when you should be at work but are not. It is a lovely free feeling.

Nothing special today. We went to Castle Point and bought a few bits, had a late lunch and then relaxed at home. I have lots I want and need to do but today wasn't that day.

Hair cut later - thank goodness. My hair is way too long but Nigel's is ridiculous. Can't wait to have it cut later.

I have new pages for the dolls house book to share. I am quite keen to press on with it now and get it as finished as it can be. Not sure wether to assemble the book and leave spare pages for the unfinished rooms or leave it un bound at this stage. I guess I will bind it and, if need be, take it apart at a later date. I mean it is not like I am going to finish the other rooms any time soon.

Anyway, in my imaginary world, this room is inhabited by the young lady of the household. She has a new beau and he buys her choclates and flowers and she has his picture on her washstand.

She is very girly and so the room is a riot of pink.

However, there are many tiny details in this room that I just love.

 
Apologies for the crooked scan. It is straight in real life and where it says pull it pulls out to reveal journalling.

There are several pairs of gorgeous shoes, some embroidered fabric and some the softest leather. They were made by Peri's miniatures and the detail is incredible.

There is also a sewing box which opens to reveal tiny scissors, reels of thread and a needle case.

One of my favourite pieces is the miniature box of chocolates. It opens to reveal the individual choclates and yet is so tiny.

 

 
The imaginery inhabitant is obviously very messy as there are bags and boxes strewn around along with a very fetching corset, silk stockings and gloves and sundry other items of clothing.

It is one of my favourite rooms for just looking at and enjoying.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• holidays

 
It's why I always eat them in secret!!!!

Scrappy selling Sunday

It's been one of those lovely relaxing days today.

OK so I have done a couple of much needed loads of laundry, but it's been a great day.

I had some lovely mother's day cards from the fur family (yes - we are truly bonkers, but very happy!) I find mother's day very hard every year. It never seems to get any easier. I miss her terribly and mother's day is a bit of an ordeal.

However, we have Nigel's mom coming over for a meal any minute. She wasn't with us for Christmas this year, and one of her favourite meals is Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, so that is what i am making for her today. Turkey, stuffing, parsnips, etc etc and even Christmas pud for dessert.

We have listed another load of clothes on ebay and I have even managed a little light scrapping - though not a great deal that i can share - as usual.

This is another page for my dolls house album

 
The formal drawing room was the very first room we did and probably has the most basic furniture too. We decorated it with regular wallpaper and it is a nicer blue than it looks in the pictures. I wouldn't choose it again and it is a room I am not totally happy with. However, it is very formal.

There are some stand outs I love in the room. The watercolour on the back wall is one I painted.  There are some gorgeous pictures and glasswear and ornaments int he china cabinet and the corner unit, including a tiny photo frame with a picture of Cinders in. Cinders was the first cat we lost, back in 2000, and so when we decorated this in late 2000 it was appropriate that she was there.

The dado rail and dentil coving were a challenge for me. I used my new miniature mitre block for the first time.

The table and cabinets are very cheap (and look it) but the chaise, sofa and wing arm chair are by Maggie Brown and are a nice quality.

 
The lounge has a balcony with french doors out and the curtains in here were made again by reverie and are gorgeous.

Christmas comes to this room too.

 

Jackie S you asked about travelling to America and what to do that was relaxing. I gather you are off to New York. There is loads to see and do in New York itself obviously. I recommend a trip to Ellis Island which moved me (of the two I would recomend Ellis Island rather than Liberty island.) We did a helicopter tour too which was awesome and also I recommend the open top bus tour as it is hop on and off and you learn a great deal. Plus the other must sees like 5th avenue, Empire State Building, etc.

However, if you have a car (you won't want it in Manhattan, believe me, )then maybe a drive north into new England. it is so beautiful up there. My brother in law lives in New England.

Today I am thankful for

• lazy Sundays
• getting rid of some of my clothes

 
 

and finally today I just HAD to share this.

 

Enjoy!!!! http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

More of the dining room

I know I say this often, but a head's job is a many and varied thing. It really is.

I think today I have been .....

 ......a head teacher, a PR agent, a landscape gardener, an interior designer, a trouble shooter, a nurse, a social worker, a strategist and a politician. The one thing i haven't been is a teacher! It sure keeps me on my toes - so much on my toes today that my feet are absolutely killing me!

Anyway, back tot he dining room .

This is the second page

 
The dining room is almost permanently in 'Christmas time'. The table is all laid out in its finst with ebtter china than i have on my real table! There are crystal glasses, tiny knives and forks and even crackers on the table.

There is a large Christmas tree and a veritable banquet laid out on the side board which really does look good enough to eat. The parquet floor was laid in individual strips of wood and took ages, but it was worth it.

The grandfather clock works, and like every room in the house it is lit with gorgeous handmade lights by Ray Storey.

I can't resist sharing some close ups

  
 
Bear in mind the dish of vegetables is under 1" long and you see how skilled the makers were.

 

Today I am thankful for

• taking my shoes off!!! (You have no idea)
• My very very exciting new book arriving. It is Jean Auel, Land of the Painted Caves ... the very last ever in the Earth's Children series that started with Clan of the Cave Bear published in 1980. It has been a long 31 year wait for the conclusion of the 6 book series. I can't wait to start reading it but almost don't want to as I then won't have it to look forward to (if that makes any sense)

  
 

Dolly's Little Dining room

The weather was meant to change but, thus far, it hasn't. I am really pleased. I'd be more pleased if I was off work, of course.

I am sat here typing listening to a new CD that i am already loving - it is Seasons of my Soul by Rumer. I have been going to buy it for ages and just didn't get around to it. I tend to buy music direct to my Ipod but i wanted this for the car as well - and at £5.99 I think it is a great buy. I actually think CDs are incredibly cheap. When I think how much an LP (Oh yes I am THAT old) cost relative to wages I think CDs are a steal. I am loving it because I was a huge Carpenters fan and the similarities in music, voice and style are unbelievable.

I have a new page  to share today. It is another page from my doll house album - this time of the dining room.

I think the dining room is my favourite room in the house. I love the many many tiny details (no pun intended) The dining room furniture was hand made by a local artisan and is a work of art. For example the sideboard drawers are lined with green baize and contain the minitaure cutlery. There is a corkscrew that is so perfect and so tiny. the food, by a company called Etcetera, it is so real it is not true. Not only the Christmas dinner, but the bowl of fruit is amazing. It is so real.

 
The front of the house has bay windows and I had curtains made for the main room and for the bay. They were made by a company called Reverie and they are so beautifully detailed.

 

 The flap lifts up for a closer picture of some of the details.

 
If you look really carefully you can just make out the tiny corkscrew (love love love that) in front of the minature Bonsai.

I will share the other page which has the whole room on tomorrow when I have scanned it.

Today I am thankful for

• music and musicians who brighten the soul

 

Sunday's are for scrapping and selling

Sundays are for scrapping - I said so, so it must be true.

Mind you, if I actually got on with it and scrapped it would be even more true! I seem to accomplish so much less these days as I have the attention span of a gnat. No- maybe that is unfair on gnats!

I have made a couple of pages, but needless to say i can't share them yet - but i can share one near the end of the week.

I have one week of term left and then I will, hopefully, have more time.

Sundays are for selling too. I have been gradually putting clothes on e bay and selling them. I am still on bin bag two and have another 15 to clear so i am likely to be doing this all year as I only put ten items a week on. And the rule is that if they don't sell that week they go to charity. Charity is doing well LOL

Trouble is when I get the momey in paypal I spend it and it has gone already on a new watch and on an anniversary present for Nigel.

This is the watch - I have the gold version with the white face too and it is just so comfortable and practical. I hunted for a watch I liked for years - literally. So when i saw this one - and at a very cheap price - it had to be.

 
 Nigel has worn a wooden bead necklace for the last 11 years. Not the same one - as they don't last forever. I think the one that broke last week was version number 3 or 4. However, it broke at just the right time because I convinced him he needed a leather troll bead necklace for his anniversary present and so we have not bought on. (I hadn't realised quite how expensive but heck - he is so worth it) He has the leather necklace, the silver lock and safety chain and a silver heart bead. he has picked two more silver beads (he will only ever have the three on there .... don't worry he isn't turning into Mr T) The beads I have ordered for him are the fortune bead and angel feathers (Poole Speedway and Angels MLB!) I am just pleased that he has had something silver for our upcoming silver wedding anniversary.

Apart from my gorgeous new platinum wedding ring and solitaire I also had this bead for my troll bracelet for our anniversary.

  It is actually two hearts that interlock so you can see why it was the perfect silver anniversary bead.

 
I have another pair of doll house pages to share today . This time they are of the second room we decorated - the gentleman's study. Actually the mythical gentleman who lives in my house does rather well as he has his own study and his own games room. But then I suppose the mythical lady doesn't do too badly as she has the music room and a rather lavish conservatory.

Anyway - here is the left hand side.

 
It is straight really - honest - and the edges are deliberately distressed - promise!

And this is the right hand side.

 
Today I am thankful for

• lazy days and not too much ironing!

 

Naughty cats - but smaller

Isn't there a phrase that art mimics real life. Well it sure does in my dolls' house.

The dolls' house doesn't actually have any dolls in it. I have never felt moved to add 'people' to the house. For me it has just never seemed like a necessity. There are 'people' who live there and each has their own story, but they exist only in my imagination. There are, however, plenty of inhabitants of the house.

One of the first things I bought for the house was a miniature cat - and that was kind of the start of an addiction. There are rather a lot of cats who live in the dolls' house. I can't resist them - they are so cute and each so different. however, most of them seem, very true to real life, to be very very naughty.

There are the cats who feel the need to climb on top of things (just like Fiki!), a cat who can open drawers and pull things out (just like Fiki), a cat who tries to steal food (just like Boo actually), and a very bad cat who is trying to snaffle a goldfish.

Seems that even in miniature I only have naughty cats. So needless to say they have their own place in the album. This is just the first of their pages.

 
Oh, did I foget to say, the house has a name .... it is called Catalina of course!

 
You will no doubt see more of the cats as the book takes a tour through the house.

In keeping with blogging for scrapbookers I made this page last night.

It documents why I blog.

I used a screen shot of my blog (Monday's post) as the image to support the text.

 

Today I haven't got my thankfulness sorted yet. truth to tell I am writing this on Monday - yesterday for uploading tomorrow which is today now! Got that! I am stuck at school for a governors' meeting until probably 7 pm (having been there since 6.30 am no doubt) so need to do this post ahead of time. But I am sure I will have been thankful for things. I am just not sure what they are yet.

 
and we have dog gates at home on the door to the study/scrap room and the door to the library where the dolls house is. Fiki scoffs on those too and when he feels so inclined can leap them. Invitation to the scrap room is by invite only. He is usually invited in, lasts about ten minutes before he irritates us to death and then has to watch from behind the gate. On rare occasions he will come in, create mayhem for a few minutes than sit nicely and go to sleep. We have tried reasoning with him that if he was good he could be in all the time but he pretends that, as he is a cat, he doesn't understand!

 

Updated to add I just got home and today I am thankful

• That I managed to keep my temper when insulted and didn't let rip till I got home (That was actually a miracle!)

 

The building materials

It's been another of those gorgeous spring days today,. There is a bit of a chill in the air, but a beautiful day - just a shame I had to work through it but heck - I have windows!

I have another couple of pages to share from my doll house book today. I have a feeling there are going to be A LOT of pages to this album.

 
This double page records some of the details about the outside of the house.

There are two tags under each photo on the left hand page which explain the basic materials.

As I said yesterday the house arrived in its raw state. I used buttermilk exterior paint which gives a slightly rough feel to the walls of the house.  The windows and quoin stones are all painted in white silk finish paint. The brickwork on the balcony walls is made of real doll house bricks, each individually laid and then the whole lot groted between. The paving slabs are made of unfinished slate and again all grouted between each one. (The basement was a real labout of love)

 You can see the close up better.

 
and because there hasn't been a photo of the whole house once the basement was added (yesterday's only showed the original house not the basement) this is what the whole thing looks like externally.

 
The roof was a very special gift. Nij did the roof for me as a Christmas present one year. teh roof is hundreds of real slates, all cut to fit and laid as a real roof would be. He even took a book out of the library to learn how to do real lead flashing round the eaves and the chimneys. It is quite stunning and comes complete with the odd broken slate to make it look real.

 

 

You can see the lead flashing and even the soot on the chimney pots.

Funny story - we did genuinely break some on purpose to add to a weathered look. However, when the roof was just a year old we bought two bengal kittens. They got into the room where the dolls house was and onto the roof. result .... quite a lot of broken slates and some extremely serious scratching where they tried to cling on when they were slipping off. Result - a ruined roof that we couldn't face re-doing. It is now part of the dolls' house story.... santa had an accident with the reindeer one Christmas!

 
Shimelle started her blogging for scrappers class again today and so I had better declare my intentions for that. They will, however, be brief as time is in short supply today.

I will dip into the class again so I remember that my blog needs to be a daily record of things I hope to scrap one day in the future. All to often I record on my blog and then don't scrap it. I promise to do better! Or at least to try.

I am going to try and do a page tonight about why I blog.

Today I am thankful for

• the resolution of a problem
• the odd pain in my back and chest not being QUITE so bad today

  
 

Mini Mania - Doll's House Delight

It's beena  glorious weekend here. Really sunny and summery (though quite cold)

We went out for a meal again last night - very spoilt this weekend  - and I have to say i had the best pizza I have ever ever had (well apart from the one in Moab actually) We went to a new restaurant we hadn't tired recommended by a friend. It is in Poole Old Town and called Calimero and it was lovely. The pizza was absolute perfection and a proper italian pizza. We will be going back for sure.

I have had a very pleasant day scrapping and haev rediscovered my Doll House book which I never did finish (OK so I really only started it)

Here is the cover.

 
The bricks are real (well doll house real) bricks and are the left overs from the brick walls ont he basement of the doll house, all grouted in, so the cover is really solid, heavy and dimensional. My doll house is incredibly special to me as it was my 40th present from Nigel and it has been a labour of love. It isn't finished yet. I have completed 7 rooms and the halls and have 4 to go. It is a very expensive hobby as most of the things are artisan made and so it takes me a long time to do a room these days. One a year or even one every two years is about all I can manage. But i am loving recording the house in scrapping form.

This is the opening of the book.

 
Again it is very dimensional.

and this is the first double page

 

 
The picture on the left is a little out of date as the house now has a basement, but that was what it looked like when I first had it. well actually that is not true. When I first had it it was wooden and I had to paint it buttermilk and texture it and paint the quoin stone and the windows and the door and tile the roof and add the chimneys - but you get the general idea.

The right hand side is the front door. The house is number 40 (well it was my 40th birthday present) and, of course, there is a cat on the front doorstep to welcome you inside.

 

I will share more in the coming days

Today I am thankful for

• scrappy time to play and create

 

 

And I so identify with this LOL cat as it is just how Fiki and I read together!!!