Check out this Amazing Sweeney Room Box!

We have a great time Wednesday and thanks to everyone for Lola's birthday messages! Had a lovely pub meal of scampi and chips then onto the cinema to see Nanny Mc Phee and the Big Bang! Reilly's birthday Monday so no let up on present buying !!

The film is brilliant! We couldnt decide which film we liked better, 1st or 2nd so have decided we love them equally! As always I watch with a different eye to the others, seeing what can be done in miniature!
The children are great little actors and I didnt realise one of my all time fav actresses Maggie Smith was in it, shes so great! Go see it if you get a chance!

Here is something I have been meaning to show you for days!

Before Christmas last year I read an article on Lesley Hughes of Ooak Diddy Dolls and we have kept in touch since I bought some of her wonderful dolls. Lesley specializes in fantasy dolls and you will love mine Im sure, but until they are in their settings to be shown off to their best, youll have to wait for that! Anyway we kept in touch and I emailed her before Minitura to see what she would be taking to the show, and Lesley came back with this!!

I was of course blown away , being in the middle of my own version of Sweeney Todds barber shop. Lesley has spookily created a room really similar to my own with the stripey peeling paper, similar chair and table, but of course they would be similar as weve both gone for trying to replicate the film version of Sweeneys room. I had told Lesley about alot of my projects but she didnt know I was doing Sweeney so she was pleased to hear I had my own version too!

This one is extremely gory so dont click to enlarge those pics if you have a weak disposition, loads of blood!!

I love it all, but what is so awesome ( sorry, a teenage word from my son but it really applies here!) is the fact that when the chair tips back, the trap door really opens and down goes the victim into the floor below!! You have to see this to really appreciate the brilliance and I am sooooo jealous! Apparantly it created lots of interest at Minitura, as I knew it would , so those of you that went have probably already seen it in action yourselves.

Lesley has been very kind and tried to help me out as much as possible to be able to do this with my lovely chair Ara made me. As you know Ara made it so that it would tip so Im halfway there. Trouble is I never listened much in Science when we did 'Levers' class so just am just not getting how to make it all work together. It may even come to me sending Lesley the floor and chair and letting the expert do it for me, as even John cant get his head round it. It is really kind of her to let me use the same technique as it should be exclusive to Lesley but thats how great she is!

Check out Lesleys new blog for more of her creations. This has to be my favourite and hope that soon I can show you my own Sweeney house and you will drool over it as much as I do this one!!

http://ooakdiddydolls.blogspot.com/ on the blog you can click on the you tube video to see the chair working with the trap door! And also Lesleys new dolls from Alice In Wonderland!!

Our Lola's 8th Birthday and her lovely Alice Book!

Today was our Lola's 8th birthday but all did not go to plan!
Poor little lamb woke up at 2.30 this morning sick.....again! Not sure if its something she ate that didnt agree with her or a bug! Seems the school say there is a nasty tummy bug doing the rounds again and being such a little mite she could have picked it up!

So her birthday plans were squashed rather. Still she had the day off to read her books and play with her pressies! As you can see by tonight she had her colour back and was much happier, just not too happy not to be able to eat her own birthday cake!
She loved her new conservatory and as always we bought her alot of books as shes a real book worm! ( oh and a 500 piece Simpsons puzzle with over 200 faces that we have been struggling with all day!!)

One of her favourites is here

Alice in Wonderland the Visual Guide. We got it in Wh Smith but Amazon have just dropped the price to about £8! Its a great book if you are planning anything to do with Alice. Ive sent Susan ( Tabitha) the link for her hatter shop and all doll makers would love it too! Plus there are some great potion bottles in there for the likes of Nikki! Jars of Buttered fingers, giant eyeballs etc that the White queen makes potions with !

It has great pics from the Movie and alot of info so a must for any Alice fans. Weve seen it twice now and love it to bits and it is a MUST for a project at some time in the future!

Here is a pic of the tea party id like to recreate with Hatter, hare and Dormouse in particular. Need to start collecting tea sets me thinks!

Hoping tomorrow is a better day so we can go and see Nanny McPhee, thats if no one else comes down with it again!
Lola says a big thankyou to all who wished her a Happy Birthday,all in all it wasnt too bad after all and this way it lasts abit longer too !

Ive had a brain Wave!! New Project coming soon!!!

Well I finally made a desicion to keep the Snow White house as it is but to put it on the garden that came with Kates cottage! I agree with Julie from Bella belle Dolls that it needs a window to have the wicked queen come visiting with her apples and I dont want to start cutting Kates Cottage about so thats now the plan!
The Kates Cottage will offically be my good witch house. I may or may not put it on a base. Or I may just leave it as it is and put the little shed next to it for the witches potting shed.
I want it in homely style, not messy witch style, and would like a nice stove, witches cooking table etc in the downstairs room, and a rustic bedroom upstairs.

I was emailing Michelle yesterday and I am so envious of her fantastic projects and really would love to do a Nanny Mc Phee house of my own but couldnt think what to use.
Then this morning I was browsing the blogs and found Debbie from Tiny Treasures new posting on some lovley 1 24th scale furniture and it got me thinking of my own 1 24th scale house.
This house was another Ebay impulse buy, but as soon as i got it I sort of regretted it as it didnt inspire me at all.

BUT, i was looking through the pics on the computer today and found the ones of the house and it just hit me..............Nanny Mc Phee, its perfect! Check out the already brightly, loud decorated walls. It is already lit too! It did come with furniture but Id like to change it and hunt down some of the Avon things Debbie has, especially for the lounge, they would be perfect if in the right scale.
The poor house was bundled into my wardrobe when it came and has sat there ever since. Some of the trim has broken off in transit so I need to remedy that. But as its only a small house I wont have a problem finding room for it, for a change! it may be tricky getting a 1 24th scale nanny made but Ill cross that bridge when I come to it.

Michelle! exciting eh, and this time we wont be fighting over the same things as mine is in a different scale. Its lovley to meet people with such similar tastes though, so we can bounce ideas off each other, and with Julia ( Bearcabin miniatures) and Old Maid into the same themes too, we will all end up with great houses Im sure!

Have a fun Sunday, Im off to dig around for it, and get fiddling!!

Oh and perfect timing as tomorrow is Lolas 8th birthday and we are off to the cinema to see Nanny Mc Phee and the Big Bang. I also bought her the book so we can read it afterwards. Will let you all know what the film is like.
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What the Postman bought me!

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My 3rd Post of the Day!
Well today John needed me to help out by coming with him to pick up something for his car, and not having a Sat Nav, needed me for directions. Unfortunatly I had to stay in to wait for my new dollshouse! Well he'd only been gone 15 minuites and the doorbell rang and it arrived, isnt that always the way! So he had to struggle finding his way while I had fun at home fiddling around with the new house!

Im so pleased with it, it is definatly a Sid Cooke, as Michelle told me yesterday, and thats great as their houses are so well made and solid! It even has a back door and back windows! Although the decor is nice, Im stripping it and having a raspberry red for all the trim outside, doors, etc and redoing all the interior walls to give a luxurious salon. Im having posh chandeliers for lighting. A shame it wasnt lit but as the flooring needs redoing so I can drill the holes when I do that. The only broken thing is the bannister and no stair rail , and 1 chimney pot so hoping thats all easy to find. But its a perfect size on the landing sideboard. Looks fab already.

The postman also bought a small box and look what is inside!
This magnificent Perelli Top Hat for the Sweeney house!
Thankyou so much Kat the Hat!! The perfect addition to the barber shop, it will go down the side of my trunk. The colouring of the ribbon is a great match to Julies wonderful arm she made me, and it even has a little 'peacock ' feather !
Kat's Hats are always brilliant and I love it so much!
Im held up on the house as Im still waiting on the wallpaper, it wont be in til Easter so Ill get on with that house after the Easter holidays i think and then can really get a move on with it filling it up!

2nd Post of the Day, what my Birthday pennies bought me!

As promised, here are the 2 things I bought with my birthday money from my Mum. All the family know how I love my miniatures so come birthdays and Christmas I dont get clothes or jewellery as they know it will just sit and not be used much, so know miniatures are at the top of my list!
So with my pennies I bought this lovely Reutter Fireplace and accessories, bid on it on ebay for a great price and had enough left to get something for the Antique shop Im starting, a lovely Glenowen glass top table .
Love them both, cant wait to put them in their new homes!

My full size Cupboard makeover

Yesterday I was busy making over a small bedside Cupboard.
We are very excited as my eldest daughter Emily who has been living with her Dad for a while now, is coming home to live again! She has been very homesick for some time but as her Fashion Course at college is nearby their home hasnt been able to come back to live until its finished. She visits all holidays and some weekends but its not the same!

She has been going for interviews at several Universitys to do a BA in Fashion Design and has been accepted at all of them, clever girl. Her work is pretty amazing if I do say so myself!
Anyway after much thought she has chosen to go to Epsom University of Art and Design which we are happy about for 2 reasons.
Firstly it has a great name, and 95 % of their graduates have fantastic jobs in the Fashion industry in top brand companys . The course is a small Uni but all the students are studying fashion, photography, journalism etc so its great as they all get together to do their projects and it gives them a real insight inot the Fashion world and how each job interacts with the other in the industry. She will get fab work experience there, and they go to Italy, France, even Australia for work experience in their year 2 and 3!

But the main reason Im happy is shes coming home to live! Even if just for a year so she can save some money in her first year. The she will see how it goes and maybe move in somewhere with otherr students.

So at home we have been busy moving to make a room for her,. Before she moved out, she shared with the girls, who are now 7 and 3 and really too young for her to share with anymore, and too loud!! We only have 3 bedrooms....BUT we have a huge dining room so weve made it into a bedroom! Its has worked out really well and it really cosy. Ive painted it a warm Aubergine colour, put up new curtains, new black wrought iron Day bed etc. She will choose the rest of the decor.

I found a little cupboard at the charity store , very shabby, and painted it black and matched the trim in the aubergine. then shabbied it further by sanding the edges to see the white underneath. Looks cute in her new room.

BUT, I can no longer close the door! He He! Now Marsha, if you are reading this do you have this problem when you do all your wonderful furniture makeovers??!!! It only has 1 coat of paint but now it sticks and despite sanding, wont close so Im going to have to really sand hard to remove whatevers making it stick!! Still , a lesson learnt!
Had fun, hope you like it, and hope Emily does too!

Back later with pics of what Ive bought with my birthday pennies, and what the postman bought today!

New Nanny Mc Phee Film out soon Yipee!

Im such a big kid, just saw a clip on TV for the New Nanny Mc Phee Film out on March 26th! Michelle, wish you were closer, you could come with us. John and I will be there, Nanny Mc Phee is one of our top 5 films we love , ands as its Lola's birthday on 29th March what better way to celebrate , and what better excuse for us to see it! Looks like its set in a beautiful Old English Farmhouse . Must admit though I did love the original house it was set in with all those loud colours. A great project that would be and cant wait to see Michelle's version! Heres the website to see clips, gallery pics etc to get you in the Nanny Mood!
Looks great, another Must see. Still have to go see Alice too though!

http://www.nannymcphee.co.uk/site.html#/home

My New Hairdresser/Beauty Salon and Lola's Project

Out with the old and in with the new here is one of my Birthday pressies I promised to show. It arrives tomorrow and no doubt as do all the houses I buy it will come in disrepair, Parcelforce arnt too great at delivering them in tact it seems but I saw it and knew it would make the perfect salon so took the chance!

I think, not definate its a Sid Cooke house, it looks that style anyway, and is already nicely decorated but no doubt Ill change that when it arrives.

Downstairs will be the main Hair salon and upstairs, 2 rooms, 1 for the couch and waxing trolley ertc and the other as a make up /facial room.

I owned my own Beauty salon when I was 21 so its fun to recreate it in miniature! I have been making sketches of a salon opened near me which is all done in a shabby chic French style with ivory chairs and elaborate mirrors and dressers for all the bottles etc so I may well also sell all my original gold sink units and make new ones to match this look.

Also on ebay I grabbed this £10 bargain for Lola. Lola has an Alison Junior house that come the summer we will paint up and add her conservatory but she would also like a hat shop/ Perfumerie so this will be great! It is the shell of a Jenny Wren shop from DHE but was missing the frontage. Not sure yet it we will make a new one or leave it openplanned! It is half done so she can decide if she wants to change the decor, I expect so!

So thats 2 new houses, I still have more new projects to show you.

Our own conservatory has now been made into the dollshouse room, as the house was getting bogged down with them. ( I still have 2 in the main bedroom and 2 on the landing, 2 in the Hall !) I have 2 sideboards with 2 houses no each, and 2 small tables with a shop on. I am going to be more ruthless this year though and have decided on which houses to keep and which to go, and already have 4 or 5 to go to the car boot this summer to make room for my newer houses. I think you learn as you get more into the hobby which style suits you and I have purchased such lovely character houses over the last couple of years that the simpler ones i got at the beginning now can be sold on to others to enjoy.

Right back outside now, its a lovely day and Im spray painting a full size cupboard for my eldest daughter Emily's new room!! Will show you the results later!

How I love my Wonderful Husband and my New Miniatures!!!!

I hope everyone in the UK had a wonderful Mothers Day. I certainly did and was absolutly spoilt rotten as always!
But this year John surpassed himself by really surprising me with not one, but 2 fabulous new miniatures from the oh so talented Debie Lyons, how lucky am I !!!!
http://piskies-and-poppets.blogspot.com/

Last week as you know we were all poorly so didnt get much time for blogging but John kept his eyes peeled for Mothers Day pressies and when he say Debie's posting on some of her new creations he jumped in quickly and managed to purchase this awesome Wizards table on Etsy. ( I was in bed at the time and it was all done craftily behind my back!!)
Complete with loads of potions, books, scrolls, etc this really is the most well put together table I think Ive ever seen! I love this style of work where everything is just toppling over, incredibly overflowing and messy in such a clever way. My favourite things are the books, they are so well aged and look perfect in my potion room. John knows me so well and what I love and he knew I would be so dissapointed if I missed out on this so thankyou darling John for being so thoughtful. It really is very me!
And it came in time for Mothers Day, already beautifully wrapped by Debie, and gift boxed by John.

He then told me I had another gift to come as he tried to get me Merlin on DVD but Tesco didnt have it so thought hed get me another Miniature instead.
So having sneakily emailed Debie before, he contacted her again to purchase the Amazing Troll Foot Umbrella stand that she had only just finished !

This arrived just now and WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Things are always even better in the flesh and this certainly is. Those nails are quite gruesome Debie but in a great way! I have put it at the foot of the stairs and now need to fill it. I have just popped in my elf head umbrella I made a while back . But it looks so at home like its always been there!
Thankyou Debie, for your kindness and for all your hard work. Your miniatures just get better and better and I am so proud and pleased to be able to add them to our collections!
Our Harry Potter house is coming along so well now, I have several other pieces in the pipeline that I hope to be able to show off this year, and it makes me so happy that all our blogging friends are now part of that house, ( and others) with dolls, accessories and furniture made by all the people we now know and love through blogging!

I had some other great gifts, will be showing them off later this week, and still have my birthday gitfts to show so stay tuned. One of them arrives Friday, and it is a new house to use as my hairdresser / beauty salon. I love my salon but the actual shop was quite childlike and had basic wooden windows etc so John bought me a Sid Cooke house on ebay second hand with bay windows and 2 upstairs rooms I can use as a beauty salon and waxing/ make up room! Im excited to take all my goodies out of the old one which I can then sell and restyle the new one!
So back in a few days with more pics of our collections. In the mean time, huge hugs to Debie, and keep those wonderful ideas coming Debie, and we hope to add more of your incredbile work to our collections very soon!!

Lets hope I can surprise John in as nice a way for Fathers day ! I have 2 things planned already, both miniatures, one to be made for me, the other by myself when i can find the time!!

Apologies to Giveaway Winners for delay!!

Hi just as quickie to say apologies to the 5 mirror winners for late delivery of them. Reilly bought home a nice tummy bug from school, he was off 2 days and then I got it, have been in bed feeling sorry for myself. Was hoping to get back on track today and then Lola gets it in the middle of the night, just when I needed the sleep ahhhhh! So now we are just on tenterhooks waiting for John and Lacey to join in and then Emily and Jake come for Mothers Day so hoping it will be gone for then!!
So sorry to you all, will post Monday without fail .
In the mean time I hope to enjoy my Mothers Day sickness free and hope you all have a fab day too!!
Kate xx

And the Winners Are........................

Lola and Lacey used their Snow Man Hat to draw 5 winners for the gold mirrors, and here they are, ( Can you tell I was saying 'CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to them'

Congrats to :-

MARSHA http://sassyminidolls.blogspot.com/ ( Lola was thrilled to draw your name as the first, she thinks she is kind of physcic so she was wishing for you to win one apparantly!!)

WENDIE http://wendiesminiworld.blogspot.com/

SABIHA http://sabsminiinteriors.blogspot.com/

JULIE http://bellabelledolls.blogspot.com/

TABITHA http://tabithacorsica.blogspot.com/ ( Lola says she thinks that worked out very well as you were the first to leave a comment so she was happy there too!! And no I dont want you paying for postage Tab, but thanks for asking in your comment !!)

Please send me your postal details to kt.whittaker@ntlworld.com and Ill get them straight in the post to you, hope you like them and cant wait to see where you put them or what you do with them!! And if I come across any more next Christmas we can do this again, always fun!

Mirror Giveaway draw Tomorrow I promise!

Sorry guys, had to postpone the draw for the Mirrors til tomorrow. We had a busy day at the Tower of London today and Lacey has fallen asleep and is 'out for the count' and as I promised her she could do the draw I will do it with her tomorrow so as not to upset her!
Will be back with the winner tomorrow!
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Sabiha's Giveaway

Just a quickie to say that I discovered the most fabulous blog yesterday, how I didnt find it before i dont know, as everyone else seems to know of it!

The blog is http://sabsminiinteriors.blogspot.com/ and Sabiha is having a giveaway also at the moment so I was just in time for it. Its is a surprise gift too so lots of fun. Take a look.

Now Im going back there, have been reading the blog all morning, all Sabiha's great projects and tips and now have a cup of tea, chocolate muffin to keep me company while I read through it and everything I have missed.

Sabiha thankyou for inspiring me, ( although it will make more work for me :-) as looking at your lovely tiles made from card, I am going to tile the whole back wall now of the Sweeney house! Off to buy card. just not sure what to use as a filler? I butted the patterned tiles I made up together so far but they look so much better to have a gap in between. I think Sabiha used a spackling paste looking at the tutorial but Im not sure what that would be in the UK, anyone know? Dont want to ruin the tiles by using the wrong filler them being cardboard?

Sabiha's blog has given me loads of ideas for our projects, wish I found it sooner, Im so slow!!

Good luck to all those in her giveway and will draw the names for the mirrors on our blog giveway on Friday as promised! And good news I now have 5 to giveaway, found another in my drawers!

Would anyone like a free Mirror for their Dollshouse ?

Been busy finishing the wood panelling, all done now, just waiting on the paper now to finish the walls off.

Been having a clear out and have loads to go on ebay but because of their fees am waiting for free listing day. But I found some things I forgot I had bought and instead of listing them , wondered if any blogger buddies would like one for their dollshouse?

The mirrors are actually Gisella Graham Christmas decorations I got in my local department store and thought ideal for a dollshouse! There are 2 styles, and one is approx 4 inches by 3 inches ( at widest part) , the other 4 1/2 inches by 3 inches ( at widest part) . Both approx 1 cm deep. Click on them for a close up.

They are quite a ornate decorative mirrors, great for spooky houses, regal houses, or can be painted shabby chic as they have flower detailing on them, up to you! Look good over a fireplace

If anyone would like one, ( I have 4) please leave a comment and if there are more than 4 people Ill pick out of a hat then contact you to ask for address details.

All free! All new, Grab them while you can!
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