What Wonderful Kind Friends Part 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This mornings post man bought a part 3 to my blog posts!!

Firstly a HUGE Box addressed to Lola, should have seen her face again, she hadnt even finished getting ready for school , hair all uncombed but she just HAD to open it! The lovely Janice from http://onbeingaminimum.blogspot.com/ had sent Lola a whole range of goodies to help her on her way to getting all her list together for her Brambly House. Full of mini furniture and lots more she was over the moon and will be posting it all on her blog later after school !
Janice thankyou so much for your kindness and for my treasures too. In the box was a tub for me so I wouldnt feel left out full of beautiful little witches perfume/ potion bottles , just perfect for me as its one thing I hate to make, I just get glued up every time so thanks Janice they are perfect. Not only that but also some precious little mandrakes for the conservatory too. SO thoughtful!
Another box arrived with my new Hats I ordered from Kat from her new creations on Etsy. I couldnt resist the new weaved hats and bought the shell sea witch hat, and a similar one with feathers, and one with roses. They are all simply beautiful thankyou Kat, and also Kat had popped in a gift for me of little witches slippers, in leather with little fringes and buckles, OOoh love them! None of my witches have shoes so a great new addition. A bag of fruit and a hat for Lola too, thanks Kat your a star!

Today I'm making something for Lola and also up in the loft trying to get things to sell to save for some mini purchases Im desperate to add to my collection. The loft is heaving with things and although I hate listing on ebay needs must , so off to work!!
Thanks again girls!!

What Wonderful Kind Friends Part 2!

A Couple of days ago the postman came again! John is like 'What have you been buying now!' and I'm sure doesn't believe its just my pals spoiling us all the time and I haven't actually bought anything! !!

Well this time is was 2 parcels, one for Lola and one for me!! Lola was absolutely chuffed to bits and her little face lit up when she opened u her goodies but you can read about that later on her own blog!
The parcels were from the lovely Michelle http://wwwmichellesmadworld.blogspot.com/ and her super Mum Jill and were packed with lots of exciting minis for us both!

My parcel had the most fancy, witches hats, ideal for my 'Witchy Hollow ' hat shop project. I have loads of Kat's hats as you know, they are incredibly addictive and I bought myself another set last night, my finger just zooms to that buy it now button when Kat starts on a new style of Hat!! So to complement them beautifully are these new hats made by Michelle and her mum Jill. Arnt they wonderful!

Michelle also gave me 2 little boxes and made me 2 fancy books for the Potter house! She knows how much I love books and anything wizardy or spooky! One has a jewelled spider on it and the other a spooky face coming out of the cover! I LOVE them!!

So huge thank you and hug from me to you both for all your time and kind thoughtfulness!

Blogging is such fun and we have made such kind, talented and generous friends and everyone is always willing to put themselves out for you which in this day and age is such a rarity. Its why we love this hobby so much too!
THANK YOU !!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for their comments on the Swap with Ara. Yes i can make things when I want to but for 3 reasons i tend not to as much as I should!
One, I have little time with 3 little ones and 2 teenagers to run around after!
Secondly, Im lazy, one of my many faults!! and Thirdly, as i've said before it gives me so much pleasure to include my friends work and talent in my projects and not just things Ive made myself! Its abit like cooking a Sunday roast! I can cook a lovely one and everyone else eats it up and loves it to bits but I dont enjoy my own meal and would much rather get taken out for dinner! lol!!!

Also just to say apparantly some peoples dashboard arnt updating my blog posts as they go on, so you may have missed recent posts as they arnt all showing up.

What Wonderful Kind Friends Part 1!

A while back Susan AKA Tabitha Corscia http://tabithacorsica.blogspot.com/ posted she had a load of material and when I left a comment of how great the colours were she kindly emailed me to ask if Id like some for my Alice table cloths! Well I got them the other day, Susan I do hope you got my email as alot have been going astray, let me know if you didnt Ill resend it to you to thankyou! The bright colours are perfect as Im doing the picture I have on my blog, not the darker table scene from the actual film . I have also discovered a fray check product so it means no sewing yipee! I have got a couple of lacy smaller cloths to go on top but still need to buy more as I have a few table to set up.

Thankyou Susan for thinking of me , so kind and now I can get to work on those tables and really get into the project.

I would also like to thank Nikky Cooper http://nickycc.blogspot.com/ for my fabulous set of 4 kingfishers. Do you remember I posted a picture of the 2 I won on ebay , but alas my minx of a 3 year old Lacey decided one day to rearrange all my Snow White garden when I wasnt looking! She has a thing about lining things and I found the blue birds I won,and other things all out of the garden and lined up outside the house. BUT the kingfishers were nowhere to be found so goodness knows where they have gone!
I emailed Nicky to ask if she had any more and she so kindly sent me this beautiful set of 4 Kingfishers for my pond. as with the others they are beautifully made and really suit the house so thankyou and hugs to you too Nikki!

I have now moved the Snow house as with my new beautiful dolls I do not want to take the chance of her playing around with it again so it has a new safe home in the conservatory.

Back later when the camera allows me with more wonderful pressies !

Another Fantastic Sweeney / Adams Swap!!!

Yipee it came! I have been virtually stalking the postman all week as I knew Ara's swap to me was on its way and it arrived all in one piece and even more fabulous than I could have imagined. I got the parcel 2 days ago but have been busy helping my eldest Emily get ready for her Fashion exhibition so went to post this last night but then my camera konked out on me!! I then got dragged to a motorbike evening by John and woke up this morning to find Ara got her parcel yesterday and beat me to it with her post!!! So glad it came Ara and that you like it!! Great too, that we can show them off together!

Remember Ara and I did a swap way back , and Ara made me a fantastic Sweeney Barber chair and I made her a Adams Family Potion cabinet? Well we got in contact again as i saw a crib on ebay exactly the style I wanted but it was too clean and perfect and i couldn't bring myself to buy it and rip it up and make it all grungy so I knew the perfect person to ask to make me one from scratch!! Ara kindly agreed and when I asked her what she needed in return she told me to surprise her again with something to cheer up the Adams family who she felt had been neglected lately :-(

So, we both got started. I really wanted a crib as in the movie Sweeney and his wife have a child before his bad luck befalls him and when he returns to the Lovett Pie shop he is taken up to the their old apartment to find the old crib, all eaten away and rotting , very sad!

Ara captured the haunted creepiness of the piece perfectly. It is made of a wicker look with wooden legs and tatty grungy drapes. The crib has rotten areas and the little cover inside is really gruesome. ( In a great way of course!) She has figured out to do do a wicker look perfectly and I bet it was difficult for her to have to mess it all up and put holes in it as it was so beautifully done!! I really want to keep an eye out now for an old porcelain type doll to put in it!

It is so perfect thank you Ara, I love it so much as you know!

Both Ara and I really enjoyed this swap and neither of us could quite bear to part with our creations but knew that they were only suited and perfect for each other's particular projects . We both knew how much the other would appreciate all the hard work and love gone into them.

With a HUGE hug to Ara, Sweeney and I thank you very very much for such an awesome addition to his Barber shop!!

I apologise for the fact it is not in situ in his shop, but I have photographed it in the haunted house for now as my walls and floors are still in bits as I'm tiling and flooring still!! When its all up, Ill take another pics so you can get the whole scene and look! I just couldnt get good shots last night so will replace or add new ones later and for now Ara has taken a great couple of pics that show it off much better than mine!

Here also is the swap I made for Ara. Lola and I were watching the Adams Family Values film and 'Cousin What', ( Cousin Its Son!) in his coffin pram just lept out at me and I knew I HAD to make it for Ara and the Adams's. I do not do woodwork well so the coffin was a major challenge and as I said to Ara dont look too closely as its just roughly stuck together , filled with glue and painted!! Then I made spider web wheels ( I was inspired by Jamie Moores fabulous bigger pram she made and her wheels so thanks for the idea Jamie!!) and put on a couple of spooky spiders and a dagger rattle! Cousin baby 'What' has his little dummy, . Then I figured I should have someone to push the pram ( though not sure how with no arms!!) so made Cousin It too!
I wish I had taken pictures of the steps of how I made it but I was so enjoying it, I got carried away and just got into it and the next thing it was finished! Oh and to get the leather stitched look i just put on peel off in a patterned line and then painted over with black paint.

I do love swaps they are such fun and cant wait to do another !!
Ara also was an absolute treasure and included a little Texas pin badge and pack of Texas playing cards so all the family is happy too thankyou!! Now I just have to play them for money ha ha!!

Check out Ara's post at http://afminimansion.blogspot.com/ to see how at Home the 'It's ' are at home with Morticia and the others, !

More Pics of My Dormouse !

Lola and I are fighting over the PC to do our posts for you, if you havnt checked out her fair report yet please do, it has some great pics and she has been busy compiling it!! She loves to write!
Here are 2 better pics of my new Dormouse by Jain Squire, superb isnt she!! Oooh I so want the rest of the set badly now. When Jain and Julie get back, I may have to give them my wish list!!!
Mad Hatter ( 1 for me, a different style for Lola!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Mad March Hare
White Rabbit
Cheshire Cat
The Red Queen
The White Queen
The Caterpillar

That should keep them both busy. Now I just have to go raid Johns garage again for more car bits to sell....shhh dont tell him!!!!!

Kensington Part 2 Beautiful Dolls and Witchy Goodies!

Well here they are, my oh so beautiful Snow White, isnt she superb with her rich red dress, a ribbon in her hair and such a sweet kind expression on her face.
And the old hag too!! With a evil glint in her eye but a little smirk like she could possibly do no evil!!!!
Here is a pic of them outside the house and i know it needs moving to my other chest as this one has an annoying surround so you cant see my flowerbeds!
They are a magnificent pair and Im delighted to add more of Julies dolls to my ever growing collection.

My little Dormouse is being a Minx and not photographing well in the light so Ill try to get her infront of an Alice picture to set her off in her true glory and add the picture! I would like the hare next and the Cheshire cat, and then Im going to have to ask Julie ever so ever so nicely if shed indulge me in making another Johnny Hatter!! Im also hoping to see pics of Jains one too as I still hanker after a different style for Lolas Hatter shop project!

Here is a picture of my Gertie Mc Hagood's new furniture! She is smiling away, as happy as larry with her new Hat making table in that beautiful pink, her hat stand which is going in her bedroom and the bookstand for the kitchen so she can get inspiration for her spell making recipies!

I have pinched lots of jars out of the Potter house which was loaded with them to put on shelves in Gertie's house so just need to find some nice shelves!

The 3 hats are from a new range by Kat the Hat of course! I love the little cameos, how tiny! Lola has already asked me for the gingerbread man hat which she loves!
I also got a little dragon in a tiny pot and frog disection jar which I saw on Nikki's blog and loved! Lola got the dragon book for herself. There were loads of great books, some had spider webs and faces but Lola chose this one as she like the colour ( it was also the most expensive book so she has pricier taste like me lol!)She also wanted the matching dragon eye hat but we ran out of pennies so maybe another year !

Im hoping to attend a small local dollshouse fair in June with Lola so we can get some little things for lots of projects as its usually smaller sellers who are quite cheap and thats what we need for shelf fillers. Kensington is fab but out of my budget rather. But I got exactly what I wanted in my new dolls so Im a happy Bunny!

Our Fabulous Day at Kensington Part 1! Be Prepared for a read its a Long One!!!!

Well , with sore feet but happy hearts we are back and what a fabulous and fun day out we had!

The lovely sunny Day begun catching the train to London which takes us under half an hour so we were lucky there. Then Lola's first trip on the tube and luckily we didn't have to use any high escalators which she hates so she really enjoyed the experience. 4 stops later we arrived at Kensington High Street and headed straight to fill our tummy's, knowing we wouldn't get much time at the show with a long list in hand!
We were half an hour early so took a slow stroll to the Town Hall but it didn't matter as already a huge queue had formed and we were about 50 people down the line already!!
We grabbed a show guide so Lola could find out where to head first.
Doors opened at 12 and Lola guided us straight to Nikki's stall! http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/

It was completely breath taking. Beautifully put together, with little mushrooms everywhere, even Nikkis light was painted as a mushroom! Little steps held dozens of witchy goodies and the whole table was laden heavily with hundreds of fabulous miniatures. Nikki excelled herself and it was so wonderful to meet her at last after so many conversations by email and blog!

What a lovely lovely lady,and her miniatures are just to die for!
Nikki was a little apprehensive and justly so, as in the space of a few minutes, the people flocked to her stall and she was inundated with people thrusting items at her to add up and pay for!
I managed to get these shots of the stall before the rush but after that I simply couldn't get near for at least 3 hours!! I just managed to grab some goodies and told Nikki Id come back later, giving her some time to work out all the prices and packing.
I think Nikki will agree she'd like help next time, as it would have been nice for her to have someone to do the adding up and wrapping while she talked to the customers as so many were eager to speak to her about her creations and there was no time with so much to do. She was extremely popular as we knew she would be, but I don't think even Nikki was prepared for just HOW popular! Alot of Nikki's larger minis were sold out straight away and I had to resist the hat making table that I had so wanted, as i ran out of money!!! I had wanted it for either the witches hat shop, or even my new witches house as I see her as a seamstress/hatmaker. So instead I treated myself to a smaller version until i can save up and hope that Nikki will make some more of the larger ones as I did so love it !

We bought lots of lovely minis, but didnt really get to look at the smaller items as couldnt get near enough. But my witch will be happy as she has got some new additions for her house. There was a box of glass and little bags of witchy ingredients but Im hoping I may still get some on Etsy as i missed out on so much as there was so much to take in! Have never seen a stall so packed with treats!! And lovely Nikki had put together a box of minis and material for Lola too thankyou Nikki she had such fun going through it last night together with Kats bag of goodies too!

While at the stall, Kat ( the hat!) and her hubby Dan arrived, so we had big hugs and a great chat! Iv have known Kat for many years now. we 'met' via ebay when Emily and I had a hat shop and we discovered Kat's fabulous Hats and have kept in touch ever since, long before blogging started! Kat's always sending us fantastic parcels for both me and the children , hence the children calling her 'Auntie Kat'. They are always spoilt rotten by Kat and yesterday was no exception with Kat bringing a parcel for me and for Lola, which i'll show off later!! Thank you Kat, what a lovely gift. In fact we were all exchanging gifts and joked that wed been at the show 10 minutes and could go home happy already without buying a thing he he!!

Kat and I felt like Nikki's stalkers looming over her stall from a a distance as so many pushed their way in front of us . Our fault for standing there gossiping, we should have got in there quicker and I wouldn't have missed out on a few things I had wanted so much!We met up later for a chat and a sit down and had a good giggle . Kat is, as I knew she would be a beautiful person inside and out, and her and Lola compared their gothic clothes and I think we bored poor Dan silly with our dollhouse chat! I just Wish Kat lived nearer, we'd drive him crazy I'm sure getting together for a good gossip!

Next on the list was a dash downstairs hoping that nothing had gone from Julie Campbell of Bella belle Dolls, and and Jain Squires of Giddy Kipper Dolls stall that we wanted!!
But Damn it , something already had!

Jain and Julie, the glamorous twosome that I'm going to call them! had set up their shared stall beautifully. It was stacked high, and I mean really high, with the most amazing creations and you really didn't know where to look first!
I could just see their pretty heads poking out over the tops of the stall and managed to get these pictures of them. Please click on them all to see close ups of the dolls too !
I knew Julie was doing some fairytale dolls and had really hoped she had managed to make the 2 I most needed and wanted. And there they were! Snow White and the Wicked Queen in Hag form. Even with just a quick glance I knew they were perfect and just meant to be! I gave Julie the thumbs up to start packing them for me right away, didn't want to lose out on them!! They are perfect, Snow is a true fairytale version in her pretty dress and soft pale features, and Julie had grabbed the Hags features so perfectly. She has a basket of apples and is holding the poisoned one in her hand. I was thrilled to bits with them thank you Julie for making them!

Then to Jain's stall and immediately something grabbed my eye!! The Alice stand you can just see top left hand of Jains stall.

Set out with the Hatters table was the Hare....SOLD, the Cheshire Cat.......SOLD, and the Hatter.....SOLD AND GONE!!!! Now bear in mind this was only about 20 minutes into the show!! But lucky for me, one of the characters on my list that I had so wanted from Jain was still there in all her glory. The Dormouse in the most superb outfit you can imagine, complete even with her little eyeball and little sword!!
I hadn't banked on buying Alice dolls just yet but couldn't pass her up as i knew Id regret it later. I really had wanted to see Jain's Hatter too, as although I would really like the Johnny Depp film version and I knew Jain hadn't made hers exactly like that, I had thought of buying Jains version for Lola for her Mad hatter Hat roombox, but it wasn't to be :-(
Still the Dormouse is fabulous, you can just see her in the pictures, but Ill show her off properly later on.

Lola bought something on Jain's stall too, she will show you herself later! And she got treated too!
Jain also had the most amazing display of witches, all huddled around a table which i loved, and one witch in particular took my fancy but as I said to Jain, it would mean another project to work around her, so I had to resist there too! I am still thinking of her though, she was so cool! I would love to have a witches inn with afew of them like in Jains setting as that looked amazing!
It was lovely to meet Jain and Julie at last. Of all the dolls stall there, there's was by far the best in my unbiased opinion!! How fantastic to see Julies Wilbur the giant in all his glory and the Elves at work too.

I was hoping to wake up this morning to find that 84 million Euro million lottery ticket belonged to me, and that I could waltz into Kensington today and tell all the girls to pack up all their stock, and i'd have the lot.......but it wasn't to be, so Ill get back to selling off my worldly possessions on ebay in order to start saving up all over again for more of their spectacular dolls!!

Lola and I then covered all 3 floors of the show in full, but as things were very expensive we didn't manage to get alot of what was on our lists. Still its always lovely to look even if you cant buy isn't it! We had a walk around with Kat and Dan before seeing them off for their sightseeing trip .

Soon we bumped into the lovely Michelle http://wwwmichellesmadworld.blogspot.com/ and her smashing pretty mum and we both said the same thing that there wasn't as much on our lists there for us to buy but still some great things. We had a sit down later on, all looking like bag ladies sitting by the stairs, sipping our drinks and having a snack to keep us going! All surrounded by bags, ( Kat said I in particular looked like I had been to the chinese take away with half a dozen brown paper bags in tow!! ) We had a good gossip , and then a lady approached us asking if we were Kate and Lola! It was Janice from the great blog http://onbeingaminimum.blogspot.com/ which we love to follow with Janice's awesome witches house! It was lovely to meet Janice too and we all had a discussion about how wonderful blogging is and how helpful and friendly everyone is compared to those people we meet in everyday life that don't 'get' miniatures and think we are all a little crazy. Well we probably are, but 'good crazy', and we all think its a great hobby and that blogging makes it all the more fun.

We left after about 4 or so hours. Lola had fun doing the children's competition mouse hunting where you had to find tiny fridge magnets on different stalls. We only got told of this halfway into the fair and had already been round all the stalls twice so then we had to do it all again to try and find the elusive mice. She did well though we we didnt have time to find all 20 of the: -( If we hadn't had to miss the rush hour, Im sure she would have walked around and round until she got them all as the prize were 2 baby mice that were perfect to add to her mouse house.

All in all, it was a great day. We came home with lots of bags, some amazing miniatures and the best bit of all, meeting lots of friends that we have waited so long to get together with, and who made the day an incredibly special one to always remember!

We do hope we can get together a bloggers Christmas outing as Julia suggested to KDF this year as we think it would be great to all get together again, and its a one day show so not so much hard work for the stall holders than 3 whole days! Though I think we'd have to have a serious word with the organisers to arrange a table large enough for us all to sit and gossip with a cuppa as we found with so many stalls taking up what is usually restaurant space there wasn't much room for tables to sit down at!

Well that is the lengthy part 1, be back later with pics of the goodies and wont bore you quite so much but have lots of photographs!
Lola will try and post her version this weekend too so please keep your eyes out for that . At the moment shes busy organising her new minis!

Our Love of Books both big and Small

John and I both love books, we have many many bookcases full! John loves the old ones, and scours charity shops and car boot sales for lovely old books he remembered as a child!
He loves to have the bookshelves full of old, beautifully covered antique books.
I do too, but being a miniaturist I eye them up , not just to read or to just admire but with a different motive in mind!!

Alot of these old books make fantastic and cheap miniature books. One book can make me up to 20 or so mini ones with beautiful covers!

Now dont get me wrong, alot of these books are far too precious to cut up , and it would be sacrilege to do so but now and then you find the odd one with faults with it like a damaged spine or writing in it etc
Yesterday John came home pleased as punch with a lovely old copy of Jules Verne's '20,000 leagues Under the Sea', an old Boys book.
Straight away I was eyeing up the gorgeous cover, red with black and gold detailing and the pages were gold leaf. 'Don't even think about it' he told me. Hmm spoil spoilt!!

Anyway I wondered why it is was so cheap at £1.49 and on looking at it abit closer found the reason to be half the pages had fallen out so big chunks of the story were missing

Yippe so that meant I could have it, no good to have a unreadable story after all!
So last night whilst watching Midsommer Murders, i got out my wonderful Hobbycraft laptop workstation, turned on the little halogen light and got to work.

I have read a tutorial that suggest just using thick old book covers to cut strips off, using the outer edge for the book spines for mini books that are just to be put on shelves . The edge of a thick covered book of about 2 -3mm just then looks like a book spine when on a shelf and you can decorate with a gold pen to make the detailing on it. . But with such a wonderful design for a cover, I ended up carefully peeling off the entire fabric cover, then using cardboard to make a new book sleeve and covering it with the material. Here's some pics of the process and how some of the books turned out.
Once the cover is made I then cut my pages. The outer edge was gold leaf so this gives a great effect for the mini books! Thats part of the beauty also as the pages are already aged and stained so no tea staining process necessary! Im so lazy anything for quickness and ease!

Cutting paper straight with just scissors is a nightmare as you cant get all the pages even and lined up! I need to look into a guillotine or some sort of cutting tool. If anyone makes books and knows of an easy way to cut paper evenly Id be thrilled to learn from you! Instead for now I just measure my book page size, cut a chunk of paper with scissors and then cut into the width of paper I want. I then glued the spine of the paper pieces onto the spine of the book, pressed while drying between more real size heavy books and voila , here are a few I made last night!

The cover should give me about 10 books I reckon. These will go on Dumbledore's shelves. I'm going to need loads so I am going to be buying some as well as making some myself as I get bored easily lol!

So now I need some more great books like this, in shades of red, blue, brown etc with exciting covers such as this one. Car boot season is starting so Ill be on the rummage for them!

John has a remarkable book about Lawrence of Arabia which has the most beautiful cover in cream and gold with wonderful embossed designs on the cover but I wouldnt dare touch it!!!!!!!!

I forgot to take a pic of the book before beginning. As always , too impatient to get started , but the picture here is more or less the same book in blue. My favourite book I made is the tall thin one with the entire '20,000 leagues under the Sea' on its cover. This was the part of the book spine originally.
I have also cut out the larger title portion on the book cover with the same writing and glued it onto a piece of card. I'm now going to frame this and it will be used as wall hanging. Goodness knows where but it looks good!

For once I have enjoyed making the little closed books. I love to make open ones. I recently spent a bomb on some new paper for making these , to have thinner pages but the paper came and was virtually the same as my own printer paper so what a waste of money. If Nikki is reading this, i think making mini books, both open and closed would be a great subject for her wonderful Question and answer blog as I only know my own way of doing it and find some bits quite tricky. I'm sure there is an easier way to make both open and closed books and would love any tips or tutorials to help out. In the mean time these will do and were fun to make! hope you like them.

When I come back from KDF, Ill show you other things Ive made recently.

Off now to see if I can buy Lola a new outfit for tomorrow, well a girl has to look her best!!

My final Fantastic Doll before the Show

Well I did tell you all, Id be really naughty and bought 3 dolls before the show, so here he is, the 3rd of my wonderful new dolls to show off to you all!
Here is my very own Dumbledore made by the incredibly talented Jain of Giddy Kipper Dolls of course!
When Jain returned from Minitura she posted a picture of her stall on her blog and I thought I could spy him amongst the dolls.
When I emailed Jain she told me , yes she had made a Dumbeldore for the show and he had created masses of interest but lucky for me had not yet sold! She was going to take him to Kensington but I didn't want to loose out on him if I couldn't get there in time so treated myself early!
Now I always have had a picture in my head of how Dumbeldore would dress and I have never cared for the costume designers choice of hats for him in the films as I like a wizard to be a wizard and have a pointy hat, I'm funny like that! So although he had a small cap like hat Jain very kindly agreed to please this fussy woman and rehat him !
I think he looks fantastic , I love his robes and he has fantastic boots on too under his robes!
He comes complete with this fabulous owl podium with candles for when he is in the Grand Hall!
Here he is by his desk. I was waiting to show you a picture of him by his new desk and chair that is being made for me but it is not yet finished so for now he is at home as the room is!
I love him to bits thank you Jain. Both he and the other main characters will be the only ones true to the books in the house as all the other professors are my own characters as I would have them if I could create my own for a book!
Lots of plans for that room still. as I say , new desk and chair coming. And then the huge wall to wall bookcase with a secret! And of course all the many books for the shelves I have yet to make, though not my favourite pastime, I prefer making ones that are open .

In the last few days I have been busy making miniatures but none that can be shown yet! I have been making something little to pop in with the giveaway prize winners parcels for their houses/projects. All should be ready to go tomorrow to you all!

Also a most exciting swap with Ara for her Adams house and my Sweeney house. Our last swap was so wonderful so I emailed Ara to see if she wanted to do another. We both finished about the same time and were both over the moon with what we had made. Like little children we were emailing each other to say how happy we were and how well the creations had gone!! I found this one of the most rewarding miniatures Ive made to date as it is very exclusive to Ara and her project. Normally any wizardy, spooky items I make can be put in a range of houses but this is only suitable for Ara's house! It was one of those things that you find difficult to part with and Ara felt the same with hers to me too, so we are both really excited for the postman to come! Should take a week to 10 days I suppose, wonder who's comes first! I do hope it makes it there in one piece as some parts were quite delicate! So all top secret, no clues, you'll have to wait and see !! Swaps are such fun!


I am busy writing a list for Kensington today, though I'm sure once there it will go out of the window and my heart will choose what it likes!Hope what little is in is in my pocket matches that though! I have not got as much as Id like in my fair fund but what matters is I'm going to my first ever fair which to me is incredibly exciting, and have the added bonus of meeting so many people that I can only email or blog to, for the first time in person!! That's the biggest treat of all! Oh and Kat and I are very much looking forward to what the restaurant cake stand has to offer with our coffee too!
Will be taking my camera so will come back with lots of pictures I hope and also I hope some goodies too!

And the Celebration Giveaway Winners are............................

Drumroll please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations to not 2, but 3 blogging friends on our 200th celebration giveaway!

Firstly I put in all our 204, it is now, followers names into a random name picker website . I could not face writing out the names onto pieces of paper as Lola wanted me too for picking from a hat!!!

So the Lucky winner is Christel Jensen of http://christeljensen.blogspot.com/
Christel please send me your postal address for me to send on your miniature projects book and Dolls House World magazine and I do hope you have fun reading them and find lots of useful information for your many wonderful projects. Christel makes the most beautiful of Miniatures and I hope the articles in both magazines give her some new ideas to try out that we can all see!

And the winner or should I say winners of the Name Choosing prize and the great Alice books are

Jody from http://peachblossomhill.blogspot.com/ for the fantastic and so suited name of Gertrude or Gertie for short!! We all just loved it and think it suits her down to a tea!!!!

Reading through the posts with the great suggestions I also loved the suggestion by Jamie of http://creepycreations.blogspot.com/ for the last name of Hagood as she is a good witch after all. So as I also think she has a touch of the wee Scot in her I'm going to call her Gertie Mc Hagood!!

Hope you all like it, she has a very big smile on her face so I know she does!!

So please both of you send me your postal addresses and I will put your prizes in the post to you. Hoping the volcano ash doesn't delay them too much to getting to you all!

Jody, I know you and Joanna will love the book, it has some lovely pictures in it! Jamie, I know Kaylie will love the book, I went out today and bought another for you as just couldn't have the one name without the other, it suited her so well!
Thank you all for taking part, I'm sure there will be another if I'm lucky enough to soon add more Dolls to my collection!

Now as to why Gertie McHagood has a link to Alice in Wonderland in the first place!!

When I bought Gertie, Julie sent me an email to say that in my parcel was a little stowaway! Totally bemused I opened the tiny package of tissue paper and was completely taken aback to find Julie had given me the most beautiful and thoughtful gift!

Here she is, my very own miniature Alice! She is in between 1 12th and 1 24th scale so she really is a full size Alice that has drunk some of the shrinking potion!
Julie put in a delightful note from Alice herself telling me that she had sat at home on return from Minitura feeling sad and lonely and when she saw my blog posting on having a tea party, she demanded that Julie send her off to me in time for it!!
Well, Not only is she in time, Alice will be helping me plan and create the tea party table setting so watch this space for all that to come!
In the mean time today I made a stack of books and placed on it a stool( this will be for the Dormouse eventually!) for Alice to sit on for you all to see! Isn't she precious. I was quite emotional at such a kind and generous gift so thank you so so much Julie! Alice has very good home and cant wait for more of the tea party to come to life! I'm sure she'll send you all an invite when the time is right!!

That was fun!!

The Best Hats Ever!!

I love love love my new hats from Kat the Hat! Check out this beautiful Blue and purple steampunk witch hat and also the wonderful brown colour one with a netted train. Thank you Kat, these really are superb and my witches Hat shop will look all the better for them! Will be fiddling with the window display soon with pics to show.
I did have another hat but it seems to have disapeared..........I wonder where to!!!

2 more days til the name game giveaway is chosen so keep those names flooding in, more than 1 if you like! I will be asking my girls which name they think suits her the most!

Thankyou all for your lovely comments on Lola's blog, she is over the moon and I can see lots of postings as its really given her confidence and shes eager to get going! Your all great!

Our Daughter Lola's New Blog! Please check it out!

Well after much nagging I have finally got around to setting up Lola's new blog dedicated to her Miniature projects.

Princess Lola's Miniature Diary http://princeslolasminiaturediary.blogspot.com/

Lola is 8 years old and therefore all her posts will go through me as her Mum to make sure everything is A, OK! But Lola will be coming up with all the ideas and writing the posts herself.
She is an extremely good writer and English is her best subject at school together with art so that artistic streak she has picked up and love of anything to do with crafts and miniatures must be inbred! She is always on the PC writing stories and poems and has wanted to start a blog for some time.

When I bought her the little 2 story room box recently we thought this was the ideal project for her to start blogging. At first she fancied a hat shop but it was too big for this and has now acquired an old room box of mine for this very theme, so that is still to come! Not any old hat shop but a fantasy style one full of wild and wonderful designs of hat.

But the subject she has chosen for her New 2 story room box is the Brambly hedge Mice! Lola has the set of books and these inspired her to make this project a little mouse house!
So if you'd like to watch the makings of this and Lola's other projects and musings please make her day and follow her blog