Emily has a Blog!!

It had to happen didnt it! Emily is now on her summer holidays before starting Uni in September so she thought it would be fun to start a blog and I think a good idea as its something she can show her new tutors in the autumn. It will give her something to get out of bed for !!

It wont be miniature based but on various topics and although fashion is her thing she does want to give some minis a try in the summer so keep an eye out for her helping me with some projects. She also really wants to make shoes like me so we will have a go at that sometime!
So if you'd like to read another of the family's ramblings please follow her at
http://emilyclairefashions.blogspot.com/
She'd love to see you there!

A Fun Day out at the Fair and Emilys amazing Results!

Just to say a HUGE thankyou to everyone for their lovely comments to Emily on her college presentation . Emily is an extremly insecure girl, dosnt have any self confidence and it meant such a lot to her to recieve such complementary and encouraging comments! We are always telling her shes so clever, talented and beautiful but she dosnt believe us so it did her the power of good!
Her results came through Friday and she achieved a brilliant 3 Distinctions which is just wonderful , we are even prouder now!
She has moved back home with us full time now and has the holidays to learn to drive so she can drive to Uni, and just some time to chill after doing such a lot of hard work. She would love to get a part time job in a stables as her second passion is horses.
Yesterday it was Reillys school fair and one of the mums has a lovely horse and offered to do pony rides if we could pick him up in the horse box with the Landrover. So John, Lolaand Emily went over to help get him to the school and then Emily was in her element doing the pony rides taking all the children round on a lovely walk. She had a good canter herself on him and is now really wanting to get some work with horses, easier said than done!
The queue for the rides didnt subside for 4 hours, poor old Adam the horse , it was so hot and we had to keep resting him and sponging him down but we all had a lovely day and ended it with a celebratory meal at the pub!!
Well Im off to play with my car boot bargain, I got a Wii fit board and game and with just a month to our frineds wedding I need to get into that size 8 dress so the perfect buy this morning, worth getting out of bed early for!
Back with more minis next week and Lola is feeling much better so will be posting too!

A Congratulations Post to My Eldest Daughter Emily and her Fabulous Fashion Exhibition!

Yesterday we were out all day as it was my eldest Emily's end of college fashion Exhibition. It was a lovely event with all the class's work being displayed, all their sketch books to view, their dresses set out on mannequins, and nibbles and wine too , a perfect day!

The inspiration for Emily's subject for her final project was Medieval armour and dress as its something shes always been interested in . She went up to the Tower Of London with John and they had a great day out and she took lots of photos and sketches for her research.
She used influences like Jen Kao's Fall 2010 collection and Reem Acra's Prefall 2010 collection for her work.

Her finished design took her only 2 and a half weeks to complete and I think its absolutly stunning! The fabric is stretch jersy silk and we had a nightmare of a time locating it in the right colour and it cost an arm and a leg but it was worth it as the dress hung and draped so beautifully.

Emily took the photos of the dress modelled by her friend all herself and i think she could even have the ability to do fashion photography as they are superb!

We visited the exhibition and viewed her sketch books, art books etc, and her dress really stood out in the room! I know we are biased but we think hers was the best by far and everyone was commenting on it. Even 3rd year fashion graduate students were saying how wonderful it was, what compliments! Her tutors were thrilled too.
She will keep the dress, she was going to try and sell it to recoupe the money spent but she cant bear to part with it now........and anyway I want to wear it!!!

We are so so proud of her! She will attend Epsom university in September to further her career in Fashion doing a BA in design and I think we could have a star on our hands!!

So well done Emily, your hard work in the last 2 years has really paid off and you are showing all the signs of being a top designer so keep it up, we are so very very proud!!

Here are some pics of the dress both on the mannequin at the show, on her friend and with her and our 3 little monkeys ( who were so well behaved i have to say!!) at the show!

As you can see she had to have new shoes for the show, all near 5 inches of them so as she towered over me and everyone else!

In the background you can see some of the other dresses, the one behind Emily's was an Alice in Wonderland inspired dress so of course we loved that one. The friend of Emily's Jen had designed and printed the fabric all herself and it was lots of tiny images of Alice characters, very cool......but we still loved Em's the best!!

Oh by the way Ive never learnt how to display pictures inbetween my text and can only seem to get it all with pics at the top whch dosnt show it off as Id like, can anyone email me to let me know how to get it so pics can be posted with text that goes with it ? thankyou!!

A very Happy Fathers Day and Welcome to 'Mad Merv'

Happy Fathers Day everyone, hope all those men are having a lovely relaxing day, I know mine is!!

The children spoilt him with Cd's, Books, and some new Harley Davidson badges for his jacket but I knew what I had in mind for a long time!

I didnt get round to finishing the motorbike room box and didnt want to rush it so that will be for another day, maybe our anniversary coming up soon!

But a long time ago John started planning to do the basement room in the haunted house as a mad scientist room and started collecting bits and bobs to do it. We saw Debie's (http://piskies-and-poppets.blogspot.com/) mad scientist on ebay but wernt lucky enough to win him and have had in in my head to get for john ever since as he was such a special doll and John thought he was wicked!

So leaving it rather too late to ask, I emailed Debie who kindly agreed to make another even though I was pushing her giving her short notice for Fathers day! And the other day he arrived!
I had to have a peak! well my excuse was the parcel was rattling and I dreaded him being broken but when i opened him was thrilled to find what was rattling was lots of goodies Debie has so kindly put in for us and our projects! A huge Hug!!

I wrapped him and John opened him this morning and was so happy with him, he thinks hes a great unique pressie! He has a little test tube in his pocket and stains on his lab coat and his hair is wicked!!! He has a calm kind expression with a hint of madness of course!

Now he can get to work after the summer is over on making Merv a room to be proud of! We have to get lots of glassware for the table and also a table will have to be made as the basement room is only about 5 inches high so anything too big looks wrong. Merv is the perfect size and Debie gauged him just right! He is abit wobbly on the paperclay rough floor but I will have to tacky wax him into position when his table is all set up. For now here is a pic of him with Mable's table. Dont suppose she is too happy, she is a stroppy little witch and he can only borrow it for a moment or she will be casting her own spells on him and making his hair stand on end even more! Please excuse the photo taken by me as my camera did not want to oblidge today buit Debies picture is great and you can see his fabulous features so well!

A big thankyou to Debie for making him so perfectly and quickly for us, he really made Johns day!

My 3rd post of the Day! My OOAK American Diner is Up for Sale

Well the time has come to really think hard about what projects to keep and what to sell!
I have decided that my Diner I made a year or so ago will never get completed my myself so I am selling it on to hope someone else will have the enthusiasm with it to really make it into the project it deserves to be !
I spent hours upon hours with this diner. I designed itmyself, made it, covered it all myself and then its just sat in storage! Such a shame. i can see it with all the details, a grill, wall cupboards, customers etc looking fab but just never got round to it!
So it is on ebay tonight. It consists of a double diner booth , 2 single booths, 2 tables, a juke box, a counter, and a chiller cabinet and single diner corner chair.

All in stunning pink and White ( Marsha You will like this i think lol!!)

I have listed it with a picture of all the food set up with it that I have for it but all this is being sold seperatly as i know from past sales of projects people like to put together or make their own food and drinks so this dosnt have to go with the sale of the actual diner. So you may like to bid on the food for your own cafe projects?

Anyway please take a look if you get a chance. It was a real labour of love , I was thrilled with how it turned out. I made another in Coca Cola red and White which sold last year but I kept the pink as it was more me and a bit different!

I hope someone can make it into a really stunning project of a room box or shop!
Here are some pics of it and just one of the food lots being sold seperatly. Also some diner posters and menus for sale.

I have had a real downer on my ebay sales with my laptop charger now not working and not charging my battery either so no laptop! Only just out of warranty and the Dell forum tells me it is a wide spread fault with their faulty chargers but they wont give you a replacment as they make a fortune on the fault as they obviously recommend only their chargers at $80 or so! I have looked on ebay to find them cheaper but been warned against cheap ones that can then blow up and blow up the Pc too!! So my fund has gone back down. :-( Looks like its back to the workshop to find more furniture to sell!
Lots of other minis and dolls etc going on this weekend also.
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/witzend-minis
Only some of the items are listed to show up in the us as it cost more to list in both ebay.com and uk, but if you go to Ebay.co.uk you will see all of them and I will ship inernationally.

Thankyou Lorraine and Kat!

Yesterday the postman bought a parcel from the US and I hurridly opened it as i knew it was the new wizard minis I ordered from the lovely Lorraine from http://dollhouseminisbydfly.blogspot.com/

They are simply amazing and I love them all so much! Check out the tiny wands and the detail on them! There is a wand box for Dumbeldore and this will go on a new desk I have coming, and the other wands i want to keep as I have plans for a wand cabinet in his room.
The workmanship is truly superb and i cant wait to go back to Lorraine for more goodies as i know she has lots of new ideas of things to make for us Potter mad lot! great eh! Lorraine kindly put in some of her special tiny candles which i adore! The labels are so detailed and I just have to buy some in different colours for Mables house, she loves them!!
Thankyou Lorraine , such treasures!

Then this morning another box, what could this be! I know that writing and as always its the best parcel from my dear freind Kat the Hat!! Thankyou Kat for this lovely leather hat and bag, will look great in the attic room of the Potter house ! Kat also sent me some yellow leather that I was missing to be able to put some more Hogwarts book stacks together. Just perfect Kat thankyou!

I am so luck to have the loveliest and most talented of friends!

Introducting Mable Mc Mildew and her New Broomstick!

Here she is, my newest Doll, Mable Mc Mildew! I actually named this one myself as the name jumped out at me as i unwrapped her.
Mable is made by the Wonderfully talented Jain of Giddy Kipper Dolls and is the first in what I hope to be a few wicked witches for my new Coven house!
I saw Mable first at Kensington and admired her but didnt have a bad witch project so had to pass her by! However when I found my new Tudor style house that Im going to' witchyfy', I knew shes fit in a treat and guess what? Out of all the witches Jain took ot the fair she was the only one that came home with her, so I thought, meant to be for me then! Jain kindly hung onto her while I made some pennies and I recieved her last week. She has this great dreadlock style gungy green hair and this fab outfit! She fits in a treat and Jain also kindly made Lola a tiny fairy book which shewill put in her Brambly house.
Mable is holding her new broomstick made my the fabulous Nikki Rowe. I bought one from Etsy for Gertrude the good witch but could hear mutterings coming from Mables house and didnt want a nasty spell to befall me so ordered another sharpish!
She loves it Nikki thankyou it fits her so well! I was lucky enough to get the 2 i really thought would suit each witch.

So look forward to more of the furnishing of Mables house to come. Lots to do and starting with the downstairs meeting room for all the witches so I hope to buy another from Jain soon so they can get together and havespell plotting meetings together!

Later today I will post some pictures of other minis I recieved in the post, all fabulous and Im such a happy bunny today to have such amazing work from my blogging friends! Will be back with pics and thankyous later!

For all those who have been kind enough to bid on my dollshouse item auctions recently i thankyou so much, i hope to have enough pennnies soon to order another comission!So you will know that you have kindly contributed to them and have had some part in putting together my future projects thankyou!
I am listing more tonight and a very specail lot is going on so keep your eyes peeled!

Needs Must! Furniture sets on ebay!

Hi all, just to let you know that as well as the book stacks I made new, i am selling some various sets of furniture and shop counters etc on ebay. I have a few dolls Id like to have for various houses and so am going to be putting things I no longer need on ebay from now for the next few weeks.
I have some used and some brand new things going on. I used to buy a lot of furniture with the intention of repainting it, but have not got round to it and need to generate some money.
Please take a look , maybe you could repaint it, distress, shabby chic it etc?
I will send internationally but for larger items like this it is extremly expensive to send unfortunatly and I only send airsure for larger packages also which adds more on. But happy to do so if you are desperate to have it!! Lots more to go on, I have 3 large sets of drawers in the shed full to the brim with things that need to go, including material, trims, laces, beads etc, as its just sitting there being neglected and needs a good home !
Many thanks
Heres the link http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/witzend-minis/

Starts tonight and more to follow this week and next, lots of furniture plus things helpful for miniaturists.

All Day for such a small project!!

Thats how long it took me today to complete the Snow White floor upstairs.
The upper floor of the Aster cottage by Greenleaf is all cut out on the left side and only really has one half of flooring.
So today, although leaving in the existing part wood floor I had to cut out a new floor to go on top of it but soon realised that that meant fitting a new ceiling too under the floor part that had the holes so you didnt see them from underneath! So I cut out 2 identical pieces of card mount board and put in a new hole for the top of the stair for the access to the top floor.
Anyway this is how it looks as it is. The new floor has new floorboards which were painted to match the downstairs floorboards very dark brown.
The beds are in, and I made a little extra floor for Grumpys bed so he dosnt have to make the others suffer with his snoring!The picture of all the beds is before i did Grumpys floor and the last pic is of his bed on its own on a little upper floor I made to fit in under thew window. I will make him a little twig ladder to get up there to match the ladders of the bunk beds.

It is not stuck down yet hence why it looks a little uneven! I ran out of floorboards right in the corner and for Grumpys floor and decided as i want to paint the room a stone colour I would leave the floor until thats done and then glue it in place . But you get the idea!

Then it needs new curtains and I think it needs a rug, some pictures and of course their names above their beds.
Then Im doing the fireplace downstairs and the sink unit before I can put all the little touches into the house and really start to dress it. Snow of course is ready to move in of course and Im still tempted to actually have the dwarves in there too at some point!
I managed to buy some great shutters to go on the sides of the windows with heart cut outs so tomorrow Ill paint these to match the windows and try fitting them and will post how they look! They were exactly the same size as my windows so meant to be and really fititng to the style of the house !

I spent the rest of the day ploughing through my workroom only to be quite amazed at so many boxes of miniatures! I have put on some more already to ebay but will continue to do so over the weekend and all next week as now I know its all there I need to start being positive and letting go of whatI dont need but others can make use of!
In explanation as to why I have so much. I used to sell dressed miniature displays on ebay but with5 children, their homework, clubs etc, and all my own projects i found I no longer have the time, and know I wont have for years to come . I want to make real progress with my own projects now so all this furniture etc that is not needed for my own houses can be sold.

Oh No another New House and The Sets for Ebay

Well you know i just cant resist a bargain and this fantastic tudor house was calling to me so just couldnt say no!
Its really well built, 3 floors, all lit, beautifully beamed, stairs etc, all ready for someone to move in!

I decided if I have a good witch house then surely I HAVE to have a bad witch one! Thankyou Michelle and Janice for inspiring me to make one as yours are both so fantastic I was itching to have my own!

Plus I have the excuse that I have 2 very large boxes of more spooky messy witch miniatures under the bed that just cant fit in the haunted house as thats heaving now! So this way I can instantly move things over to the new house.

I was also inspired by Jain Squires witch coven scene that she made for Kensington and decided this house would be perfect for that style project in larger form. So the lower floor will be an Inn style room with lots of witches gathering to discuss their potion making!
Next floor with be the witches living room and upstairs is a tiny bedroom, this opens by a small hatch in the centre of the top floor frontage, quite ingenious! You can see from the side view the lovely large chimney with all the hidden wiring. my only thing to do is change the wiring to a newer transformers system as the previous owner used only a 9 volt battery to light the wall, ceiling and fire lights! So I think all I have to do is chop off the old end fitments and attach the wires to a new transformer.........she says!!Will take some pics of the interior later when my witch arrives!

John is an angel I know for sure, as I straight away took it off to the conservatory but hes insisting it needs pride of place in the living room and has been himself trying to visualise what furniture can be moved around to make room for it! With all our houses we dont have a house in the main sitting room so I feel quite honoured that hes decided it needs one!

Well as my plans included quite a few witches for this house I have decided I need to start a savings plan for them! So starting this week i have listed some book stacks on ebay in the hope they will sell and give me some pennies to put towards my next doll on the wish list! These dont have harry Potter styling as HP is very copyright conscious and Ive had items lifted off ebay before for breach of using the potter name so just went for plains spell books for any witch or wizard ! I figured if I can make a few things and manage to sell them once a month then every quarter or so I should have enough to put in a special saving up jar just for dolls!
I have the houses first occupant on her way this week and cant wait to show her off. She is very special and the perfect doll for this wonderful house!

Wish me luck, oh and please ignore the car parts if you take a look at all the items selling, poor John, soon there will be little of his garage left to sell!!!

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/witzend-minis in amongst the other 'stuff' that needs to go you'll find the 3 sets of books and some other mixed furniture bits if anyone needs some for painting

Harry Potter book stacks

Well hav'nt we been exceptionally lucky this week with the glorious weather. I am I must admit an Autumn/Winter person and one of those annoying ones who moans its too hot but we've had some fun this week.
The first part of the week we spent with my sister and her lovely boys at my Mums beach hut, having games of cricket on the beach, picnics by the river. Lots of fun. Unfortunalty the rest of the week went pear shaped with Lola poorly so I didnt get to see my other sister and nephews which was a shame so we've had quieter days at home. With one lousy day of rain that gave me the opportunity to get out some craft things. So while watching DVD's with Lola, armed with my lapdesk, glue, bag of leathers and ruler I got to making those book stacks I told you about.
The mushroom one was colour coordinated with Gertrude's house and style, so I figured the potter ones should do the same.
Here we have Book stacks for all 4 houses of Hogwarts.
Slytherin's stack is silver, purples etc and has potion bottles, ingredients, pestle and mortar and can you see that sneaky snake in there too!
Griffindor's is mainly reds and yellow/golds, again with potion bottles.
The other 2 stacks were trickier as I didnt have the colours of leather needed but the Ravenclaw stack is blues/ greys. All have their crests on the top book and plenty of HP documents in between the books, Marauder maps, Spell books etc.
These will go in both the potion room and Dumbledores study. I have also made a stack for the Potion Master with a skull and the advanced book of spells to pass out to some lucky pupil!

Hope you like them I have made more and am thinking of ebaying some just because I need some pennies for future minis on my wish list and am fast running out of poor Johns car parts and old Maternity clothes to sell !!!!!
Really enjoyed making them even if I did stick just about all my fingers together at one point!
More mini making next week as its term time and Lola hopes to get a start on her house once shes feeling more herself!

Introducing Lily Beth

Gertrude has a new friend in her cottage! Meet Lily Beth, kind of a Floozy at heart made unmistakingly by the incredibly talented Jayne of http://tallulahbelleoriginals.blogspot.com/
Jayne and I were chatting about her Alice In Wonderland flowers she is making and she sent me a pic of Lily. Being my favourite flower I fell instantly in love and knew she was perfect for Gertrude's cottage. Being a good witch she loves her cheeky little kissing lips!
So a huge thankyou to Jayne as we all love her to bits and the colours , style, and everything about her fits in perfectly. We now anxiously await pics of the Alice flowers as know they will be just as stunning!
There is a complete influx of floozies in blogland right now with Julia and Janice having recieved their own beautiful floozies recently. We are all very lucky ladies to own such treasures.

As you can see I made something for Gertrude too yesterday. Being half term, the days zoom by too fast and we have to take advantage of the good weather when its here so have been out and about. But with yesterdays rain came an opportunity to dabble abit. I made a stack of cookery/potion books for Gertie with mushroom documents and a jar of creamed mushrooms.


I also made several stacks for the Harry Potter house. Some are in house colours. For example I have made a Slytherin stack in silver, black and purple books with the crest on the top book and a bottle of snapes potion. Just finishing off some other stacks and willl take pics when they are made. All to go in the various rooms of my Potter house. Gone book mad! May sell a few of these also once I have them all finished as I wont be needing them all.