Making More Work for Myself!

Well remember I said the walls on the Sweeney house had bubbled somewhat in the damp from the workshop outside? Well it kept bothering me as when they dried out they looked worse, really bad wallpapering job, and Sweeney was not amused. So not to have him unhappy, I made alot of work for myself yesterday by ripping off the paper to start again. I guess I should have checked with my dollshouse supplier first to check they still made the paper as an email from them told me they no longer did the one with the border I had used, with the plain base, just a full length stripe pattern! GULP!!

Anyway after watching the film for the upteenth time today to make notes on what else was needed, I saw the Barber shop actually has wooden panelling under the Dado rail so decided to do that instead.

ALOT more work as I had to cut down small pieces of the iron on floorboards I use , cut around the windows etc and then out came the iron to iron them all on. Then I painted it all with a dirty brown acrylic wash so it didnt look perfect, but old and dingy looking.

Really pleased with the effect so far, this shows it with a different paper just put on the top to see the effect next to paper so it wont be this print, , but when the paper arrives to do the top it will look so much better. Its just tricky lining up all the walls to get the dado, panneling etc to 'but' up to each other. Would be better to have the rooms joined together but its so much easier to iron on the panels with the walls flat on the floor so its been a bit of guess work and keeping fingers crossed!

Finished the tiling, added the picture rail in the Pie shop and really pleased with that too. Adds that extra something to the room I think. Next will go the barrel on the wall, and Ive seen something rather unusal for Mrs Lovett to keep her meat in so will be ordering that too this week.

Wont get the paper for over a week so it will hold me back abit as cant glue the walls together until that is done but in the mean time Ill take Julie's advice and do my window acetates while the walls are still as they are.

More Beautiful Goodies and My Tiling Morning!

This morning I recieved some more of Nicky Coopers beautiful work. I told you it was addictive! Nicky put on some of her fabulous birds on ebay and I just couldnt resist, after all, you have to agree, they are just perfect for Snow's garden!

The woodpecker is amazing , and the pair of Love birds are for another house, but they looked so cosy together, just had to have them! Nicky so kindly made me these steps with bluebirds as a birthday pressie, thankyou Nikki, so kind of you! I adore the bluebirds and I 'borrowed' one off the steps and put him on the little birdhouse that Nikki popped in my last parcel and think he looks perfect there!

Lola was hanging over my shoulder to see if I won the birds and spotted something for herself, and here he is ' Bertie the Bear'! Isnt he precious. Nicky added another little white bear in the parcel for Lola and he is already on her shelf in her dollshouse!

Thankyou for all my great minis Nicky, I will be back for more , you can count on it!

This morning is a quiet one. John is helping out on Lola's school trip to Wisley gardens ( in the pouring rain, rather him than me!!) so I figured I should get some miniature work done.

Trouble is alot of the projects are waiting on work in the conservatory and boy its cold in there with no heating so I set to work on some tiling for the Sweeney house so I can stay in the warm!

In the film, as you can just see in this pic of Mrs Lovett, the kitchen back wall is part tiled with these glorious flowered tiles and I found a black and white version in my Movie Guide book, took a pic, loaded it onto the PC and then resized it and printed out a couple of dozen or so onto dirty white card.

Next I had to colour them in, so out came Lola''s pencils and I gave them their gold and green colouring as best I could then glossed them over with 2 coats of gloss to shine them abit and stiffen them up.

These will go on the back wall above the picture rail that i am waiting on, then I can put in the bread oven and put the wall on the house. I hadnt got round to glueing the walls together as you know it kept going wrong so could take off the back wall easily to make the tiling easier to do. Lucky eh!

Will take a pic when the picture rail gets here, and have finished the rusting effect Im now doing on the bread oven. I was looking at old pics and decided the black flue was too severe so have used browns and yellows to add some rusting to the flue part and it looks much better. Also found a bread oven door on a website Michelle gave me so may buy that and add it to the oven.

When this is all done THEN I will get round to glueing it all together and I will at last have a house for the dolls to go back into.

It is now staying indoors. Where it was in the outside workshop , the damp has has bubbled and dampened all the wallpaper. Good job it was this house as the effect goes, with the run down, disrepair of the rooms so I can get away with it!!

Off to colour more tiles!

Our Sunshine Award

Thankyou Jain from http://giddykipperdolls.blogspot.com/ for this lovely award the 'Sunshine Award'. We should pass this on to 6 blogs that we enjoy. Im sure alot of you have been awarded it already so apologies if Im doubling up but just shows how great your blog is if you get it more than once! And right back at you Jain we love your blog too!

The following blogs are all fabulous and I look forward to their every post as I do all the blogs I follow, its such fun!

Julie at her new blog http://diaryofanedwardiandollshouse.blogspot.com/

Nikki at http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/

Ara at http://afminimansion.blogspot.com/

Julie and Hywel athttp://bearcabinminiatures.blogspot.com/

Michelle at http://wwwmichellesmadworld.blogspot.com/

Mercedes at http://libertybiberty.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your sunshine awards and have a great Sunday

Tillie and Herman in their New Home!

Here are a couple of pics of Herman the Potion Master at his Potion Table and Tillie already sent to work in the Attic room.

Both are happy in their work as you can see. Tillie especially is loving all the cleaning, mop in hand, dustpan and brush at the ready.

The attic room is filling up nicely with trunks, an old Hat probably a going out hat for Professor McGonagall, books and documents, an owl in its cage, an old chair and lots if bits and bobs. Still have lots to put in there, but so far Tillie has enough to tidy!

Not sure what to do with the walls yet, at the moment they are the colour they came when I got the house, a yellow paint, any suggestions?

The new place for the house is on our chest of drawers which is long in width allowing for the conservatory and hopefully a Whomping Willow at some point! Only downside is every time my heavy handed husband opens and closes the drawers something falls off a shelf or bookcase, so Ill need to start white tacking everything down or it will all end up in a heap! The house is really coming on now, I need to give it a good going over and post some pics of it so far as I was quite taken aback today when I had played around with it, at how much is now in it! Not quite sure where to start with all that needs doing, so need to start making some serious 'To Do lists!!'

And the Winner is........................

..........Jayne of http://tallulahbelleoriginals.blogspot.com/ with the gorgeous name of 'Tillie'

Thankyou everyone for the fantastic names. It was spooky though as in the back of my head when I first saw her when Jain sent the email i thought of Tillie and when Jayne offered it up I thought yep she is defiantly a Tillie!

But Id promised Lola she could choose and she went through all the names, told me she thought it should just be one word, wittled down the one word names and looked at me and we both said 'Tillie!!!!'

It is perfect for her and her nature she will soon be up in the Attic room dusting away with her dutpan and brush Jain kindly gave her.

I also have a huge thankyou to Jain for the MOST wonderful of birthday gifts. In my parcel was a tiny box from Jain not to be opened until my birthday. Ooooh I wished and wished for what I really hoped would be in the present and when I opened it this morning my wish came true!!

Jain had made one of these beautiful shell babies for Nikki and I had drolled over it and Jain made me one too. She is so precious and will be the first doll on my display shelf thankyou Jain, you are too kind!

Thankyou everyone for your kind birthday wishes. Ive had a wonderful day, too spoilt as usual, loads of pressies to show off to you in the next week! We went out for dinner, and I embarrased myself by berating the poor waitress for overcharging us for our dinner! You pay as you order and as I came out of the Ladies I saw the price on the till and told her kindly she had overcharged by £25. John and her reassured me it was correct but I kept on that no she had made a mistake and could she check her figures!! After more of her argument that I was incorrect John and her had to reveal the secret that John had ordered a bottle of fine Champagne that was supposed to be a surprise to come to our table, hence the bigger bill!!!!!! OOpps didnt I feel a wally, and quickly and quietly slithered into my seat and shut up!! The waiter then turned up with the ice bucket saying 'Not much of a surprise now but here it is!!!!!!!!' I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me!!

So after TOO much champagne and lots of choccies Im all set to fall asleep!! Will have a nice fourty winks then we are off to see 'Leap Year' a nice romantic film this evening. All in all a fab day

Jayne, email your postal details to me at kt.whittaker@ntlworld.com and Ill be sending your projects book in the post to you. Well done , thankyou everyone. So many great names, will have to buy another elf Jain to use some of those names :-)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My Beautiful Birds and I am a winner!!

One day to go til my birthday and we choose my little house elf's new name, but before that I simply had to show off a pressie to myself that came Saturday and I just adore!

These beautifully made birds are made by Nicky Cooper http://nickycc.blogspot.com/ and I could not be more delighted with them.

I found Nicky's work and thought how well the kingfishers would fit in the Snow White garden and then discovered the fab butterchurn for inside!

Nicky sells the most wonderful selection of birds as well as other animals and people too of course!

I am now officially hooked and will be back for more and more to add inside and out in the Snow Houise, they are just perfect for it.

Nicky was so kind and included a pretty little birdhouse in with my other birds, thankyou Nicky, it will look lovely on the edge of the house.

Im hoping for some rabbits, and maybe even the odd deer here and there too :-) Getting ahead of myself as usual with so much to do.



I had the best of surprises yesterday too!

Not the best of Valentines Days having a lousy cold and cough ( although I got some beautiful gifts from John :-) to cheer me up ) so when I turned on the PC to check my emails last night how pleased was I to discover I'd won the most exquisite 1 144th scale dollhouse made by the talented Lori of http://ohminiofmine-loshcosh.blogspot.com/

I have drooled over Lori's houses many a time . I adore the Beacon Hill especially that she is making at the moment as I have the 1 12th scale house as my haunted house and wonder if Lori has ever done a 1 144th scale spooky one as that will be on my wish list!!

When I entered her 100th follower giveaway draw I never expected to win. I never win anything ever!

Lori has made up this beautiful house but it will be painted and decorated in my choice of colours and even landscaped! I am over the moon to win and cannot wait for my little dream house to arrive. Incase you are wondering what I will choose, as I have a love for the darker side usually, then no this one will be a real girly house in shades of pinks and creams for one of my prettier dollshouses! Thankyou Lori! Just shows I should enter things more often, maybe I should have entered the Euro Lottery last week if Im in a lucky mood, I could have been the lucky 56 million UK winner! I WISH!!!!!



Thankyou to you both for making my day!

Back tomorrow Night

My Birthday Name Giveaway Game!

As promised here are details of my Birthday Giveaway!

Recently on Jain Squires Blog , http://giddykipperdolls.blogspot.com/Jain had the most wonderful House elf and I contacted her but unfortunatly someone had beaten me to it and he was spoken for. Jain very kindly agreed to make another and within no time at all, ( Jain is incredibly speedy considering how wonderful her creations are, and how much detail !!) Jain emailed pictures me, of not one , but 4 House elves to choose from!

It was a difficult decision but I kept getting drawn to one in particular. I surprised not only Jain but also myself when I chose the little lady elf! I had always wanted a Dobby lookalike but there was just something about her adorable face. She looks like she would be a little scatty, and very timid and I just fell in love with her!

I have a tiny attic room in the top of the Potter house which has trunks, antiques, piles of washing, old hats and chairs etc and I could just see her up there cleaning away all the dust. She looks to be a very tidy elf who likes things 'just so'

SO...now to the fun part. She has no name. If Jain had named her all well and good but she hadnt so the name is up to you guys please!

Im not brilliant with names and would love any suggestions that match her personality as I see it. She arrives tomorrow but must stay boxed til the big day so Im told, but here are photos Jain sent to me so you can see her and how fabulous she is !

The winner will be chosen by Lola on my birthday, next Tuesday 16th February. In the evening, going out for the day!!

And the prize will be a new copy of this wonderful special Limited Edition 'Dollshouse Projects'

This mag came out for a limited time in WhSmith shop only over Christmas and I grabbed a few copies as they never reprint them and it is stacked with loads of amazing projects.

Here are a few and you will notice a name you know!!

Make a Tudor Fireplace

Build a 1950's lean to

Make Jigs

Create a preperation Table

Georgian furnishings for a bedroom setting

Make a spinning Wheel

Make Victorian Costumes

Apply Exterior Finishes

Build a Tudor Market Place

Make a four poster Bed

An Art Deco Fireplace and Mirror

Make a 1930's Dollshouse , all the plans

Aging Techniques

Make a bathroom Roombox.......and loads more, including knitting, patterns

AND the best bit I think

Create a Mouse House by Julie Campell of http://bellabelledolls.blogspot.com/

This mag is more like a book it is so full of great articles .

Now I know international bloggers probably will love this but in the UK alot of you may have grabbed a copy already so if the winner is in the UK and has it, then your prize will be

The brand New DVD by Charlotte Stokoe and Darlene Stevens , One to Twelve Scale, A Documentary about the curiously charming World of the dolls house makers.

Alot of this is Filmed on Location at Kensington Dolls Fair 2008 . I would think this is region 2 only so this is if the winner is UK and has the mag already.

And if you have both, then Ill have to think of something equally great!

Have fun , please post your names suggestions and see you on my birthday if not before!!

New Display cabinets and Conservatory for Lola

Well my New years Resolution of getting on with existing projects has not gone to plan!

First my poor Mum was taken ill again and then her husband found out he had bowel cancer and has been taken into hospital so it seems to be yet another year of ill health! So been doing lots of running around and trying to keep busy inbetween to keep my mind of things.

Before I tell you about my real life size bargains, heres a pic of the great conservatory I got on ebay for Lola. She has an American ' Alison junior' house, it is on my blog somewhere. It is at the moment , blue but come the Summer its going out in the garden to be painted cream and white and i got this to go on the side. It was an absolute bargain, about £15. Has lovely marble floor and panelling, plant pots etc. It is to be a surprise for her birthday in March and I will then paint them both up for her, as she now has my old dressing table which both can fit on nicely, in her room.

I, myself , have been busy working on real life painting and decorating instead of what I promised myself and that was to get on with Sweeneys shop in January!

Been in a decorating frenzie, first the kitchen, teal blue, then the bathroom, raspberry pink! Next day the cloakroom, and bedroom, in a deep Plum! So with a gold lounge, red hallway and pink and lilac 2nd bedroom, our house resembles 'Nanny Mc Phee's ' house at the moment, all very bright and cheerful!

Ive also been on the look out for display shelves for various rooms. I found these bargains on ebay.

A lovely pink and lilac bookcase for the girls room, which they have their fairy books and ornaments on, very pretty!

For our room a great Ikea cream bookcase in which to keep all my books and various ornaments. I collect gothic fairies and am thinking of painting this to match the bedroom and go more with my darker coloured fairies.

My final bargain was a small 3 shelved bookcase which again Im thinkinig of painting. Not sure what colour, maybe Ill take a leaf out of the lovely Marsha's ( Sassy Dolls) book and do a shabby chick black!

I thought this was great for displaying dolls. I often see dolls in 1 12th which I cannot commit another room box or house too, have no room, and no time, but would love to own, so this way i can buy different dolls and display them on their own without having to do a whole scene for them.

So been a busy bee, if not with miniatures.

I have a huge list for February though, once half term is over I promise to make a start and get back on track!

Keep an eye out as tomorrow I will be having a birthday giveaway. Only a week til I go up yet another year, ( although I tell myself and everyone else that I am , and will always be 33.......I wish!!)

So if you are good with names, please check in and help me out with my latest wonderful doll, soon to arrive , a pressie from John, but she is nameless! And of course for the winner , a gift to say thankyou!

See you tomorrow !

A Day of Wonderful Gifts to say thankyou for!

Today I went to the Parcel Depot where 2 parcels were waiting for me.

The first is from Dear Julie of http://bellabelledolls.blogspot.com/who has so kindly made me a pressie for the Sweeney house and I couldnt be more delighted with it!

I found a chest and have stained and partly decorated it with leather trim etc and sent it to Julie to work her magic and produce an arm of one of Sweeneys victims. The most famous of them all of course was Perelli himself, and Julie has made a fantastic job of him! In my Sweeney movie book there is a pic of the trunk with the fur throw Perelli wore dumped with his body in the trunk and this is so like it now!

Here is a picture. I was going to be a meany and not show it just yet as I havnt finished the trunk, need to get a lock and find the top hat to complete the look , but I knew you would all want to see Julie's work! So remember it is only half done on my part, and will look even better when I complete the trunk! I had already made the top hat, just had to finish it off with a blue sash but have put it somewhere safe and now cant find that somewhere!!

It is going to set the room off a treat and I will do my best to finish it soon . But dosnt it look great so far!

Thankyou Julie, so so much !!! . As always you have produced a wonderful and precious creation for me!! You are a great friend!

Also Sweeney is back from repair. If you remember his finger flew off when I tried to attach the razor so Julie has kindly remade his hand, ( dont ask me how, she is a miracle worker!) and he is all set now for his razor !! And after seeing Julies blog today on her new barber and his customer I have just got to put in my order for Sweeneys next victim in the chair, dont you all agree!!!

I am in the midst of putting the walls and floors etc together in the house. I cant say Im making an easy or good job of it, nothing seems to be going right, and the walls just wont go together flush, so I have walked away from it for a while and will go back to it!! In the mean time Im working more on the roof and getting together all my victorian furniture for dressing the room when they are finally put together.

NOW FOR MY SECOND GIFT!!!!!!!!

I have 'met' an amazing company of lovely people who I pride myself on calling my friends through our blogging, and feel very privaledged to know such wonderful, helpful and kind people. And this is why my next gift is so so special, as this lovely lady has been following Julie's blog and is a friend of hers and saw a posting I made about needing some infomation on shoe making.

The lady's name is June and she contacted Julie to ask for my details in order to send me a gift she thought would be of use to me.

I recieved it today and was completely taken aback at June's kindness. After all June does not know me, only by our blogs and yet she chose to send me this beautiful book, called " The Art of Making Beautiful Fashion Doll Shioes" by Timothy J Alberts .

Once again I thankyou so much June, it is a wonderful book. I have briefly looked at it and cannot wait to sit down tonight in peace and read in more thoroughly and then get to work on some of the patterns , turning them into 1 12th scale and I can then at last, try and make some shoes for both mine and Emily's dollshouse shops.

Everyone was so kind on my posting and helped me to find infomation on shoe making. Alot was for making shoes actually on the doll but I really wanted to make shoes for displaying on shelves, and now with the help of June and this book, I can!!!!

So to you both I send HUGE hugs!

To you Julie for all your hard work when you are so busy, and to June, for being such a treasure , I thankyou both from the bottom of my heart, you have made my day !!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx