The New Alice Dressing Table , Curiosity Cabinet and Gifts

As you know Ive been after the perfect dressing table for all the Red Queens perfume bottles for some time.

Well I found one I liked with the same bow legs as the table in the roombox so put in my bid and won and its the perfect colour and style. It has a little lift up section in the centre with a hidden mirror so Ive done something abit clever with this!




Firstly I glued on this lovely tall ornate gold mirror onto the dressing table to make it look more like the one in the film. I added gold detailing to parts of the table.



Next I lifted the tiny mirror and replaced it with a sneaky picture of the white queen! Now the Hatter loves the White Queen but I dont think her sister would be too happy on him having portraits of her hanging in her room, hence why he has put this little secret picture of her in the dressing table , that only he knows is there!


On top of the dressing table is a fine array of perfume bottles, most of which are made by the talented queen of perfume displays, Victoria! I have added some of the smaller pretty bottles Dear Sabiha made for me and they go amongst the others a treat!


On Mothers Day my pressie arrived just in time to complete my roombox.



And what a stunning piece it is! I knew The fabulous Tara was making an Alice cabinet and asked her very cheekily if I could see it before it hit her Etsy shop shelf! I think we were both quite stunned by how perfect the finished piece turned out to go with my own pieces! Tara hadnt seen my roombox, she was actually making this cabinet at the same time as I was decorating my room, and neither of us had seen each others progress. So when I had finished the room and afew days later saw the cabinet in all its glory we couldnt believe how the piece actually looked like it was made just for my room. The colours, style, everything about it matched my room and all my other miniatures in there! So of course it was meant to be, and made its way to the UK in time for my Mothers Day treat!

A huge thankyou to Tara, and stay tuned to see more pictures of the dressing table and cabinet in their new home. I hope you agree the new furniture all works really well! The detailing in the cabinet is amazing, theres even a dainty red heart painted on the sole of the queens boots.


Squimberry Tarts, under a glass dome. A beheaded thieving frog in a red coat and black bow tie stares blankly from his stuffed perch at what he wasn't allowed to have of the Red Queen's. The Oraculum-bound together by red ribbon is also tucked inside, the calender of Underland currently in the Red Queen's castle. Bottles and Tottles in Red Queen style sit on a dainty tray. Photographs of both the JubJub Bird and Jabber-baby-wocky are framed in high-styled ornate frames. The crown of questionable ownership also sits inside on a velvet pillow. A well-worn copy of the study book "Dominion Over Living Things" sits beside it. A trinket and jewel chest, looking recently rummaged through, sits with drawers open and jewellry spilling out.

On top she has a lovely red bird, caged in a fabulously ornate wooden cage. Two lovely crystal bottles sit beside a gorgeous hat and hat stand. Red roses twine around the items on top of the cabinet. Beautiful!

Also for Mothers Day I recieved a darling little corner shop, already made up, and in need of tender loving care, which of course it will recieve in this dollshouse mad house! Not sure what it will become as yet, but have already stripped the walls inside and out and now it will sit on the shelf until it speaks to me. Something magical and different of course!



The exterior green paintwork has been started on Honeydukes, and has been extremly tricky as I had to mix 2 paints to get the colour I wanted and Im going to have to do the same on the interior units and walls as one matchpot was too green, the other too dark, etc,and the perfect colour cannot be found without some magical mixing! I have more primer to buy, surprising how quickly it dissapears having to primer so much furniture etc. So once I get the materials needed Ill move on and start ageing the woodwork on the exterior and painting up those cabinets! So not as quick a start as Id hoped for!

The pink spiral staircase , which was a dream of mine, will have to remain just that, and Ive decided to keep the existing staircase for ease and to keep it in my budget. It will be pink though, I still love that idea!

I am 1 wall unit short and the suppliers are out of stock, so Im now scouring the internet for a matching plain wood single wall unit to complete my shop furniture display!

Stay tuned, school resumes on Tuesday so Ill hopefully get more painting done !

Happy Easter everyone, we had our usual Easter egg hunt in the garden this morning, and the chocolate is not lasting long!

Not just Eye Candy! HONEYDUKES is On the go!

The Easter holidays have been a complete disaster so far, with all of us coming down with some viral flu thats knocked us for six for about a week each!

The poor children have had very high temperatures and sickness and its tricky coping when you feel the same, so weve had to take it in turns to all rally round those feeling better and do things with them and then try and catch up on sleep!

I have really wanted to start on a Easter project that the children could help with and had decided that the easiest house to do that with, the one with the least work needed, was Honeydukes, the Harry Potter Sweet shop.

I have a couple of great shops I was debating on using and at long last made the decision to use my 2 story Sid Cooke house that was previously used as a hair and beauty salon. I took all the contents out and have now got a small roombox for this instead and am selling alot of the hair salon pieces.

Honeydukes has a lovely bow fronted shop front so this shop is perfect. Id love to do a snow effect on top of the window, any advice for making this similar to the picture would be greatly appreciated!



I chose the 2 story in the end after seeing the Universal version of Harry Potter Worlds own Honeydukes. This is a combination of mint green and baby pink colours and has a beautiful pink metal staircase going upstairs!



I LOVE this, although I do not relish making the staircase kit as I know from Michelle its a nightmare to do! SO this bit may have to wait! There will be lots of mint green counters and shelf units stacked with candies!



Here is the original film version of the shop, which is not quite so bright in colour, so Ill be doing a combination of the 2 styles. I like the counters in the original but want to go more with the pastel combinations of the Universal shop. I'm unsure on the flooring , either black and white like I used in the Alice room, or maybe a black and cream smaller print I have.



Upstairs there are at the moment 2 rooms. The Universal shop I think combines the sweet shop with the joke shop but I think this would be tricky to find miniatures for, so I will instead have Honeydukes's special Christmas candy room! This is because I already have loads of Christmas candies so this is the perfect way to show them off.



Ive today taken out the central wall so now I have a Huge upstairs room which is just what I need as I have large detailed shelf units I put together from Lazer kits some years ago and this will show them off beautifully!

Having a regular sweet shop, that is rarely given any attention, I wanted to do a fantasy sweet shop . I have already got Emily who is a computer whizz, doing the Shop signs and today to get some fresh air , I went to Homebase and got the perfect colour paints ......well , after bringing home about half a dozen paint samples to match with my PC images! I have chosen a mint green like in these pictures and will do gold lettering around the top of the walls.


SO we are on the way!

Tomorrow if Im feeling better Ill primer and paint the outside and maybe interior downstairs. Luckily the walls of my shop are smooth and painted already so no preperation needed, just paint over!

Then next we have to do the same to the units, again which I already have. I wanted wall to wall units but as my existing staircase hole is cut at the centre back of the shop I have to arrange the units to fit in with that. So instead, Ill have one large counter, a double, a triple shelf unit, and 2 lovely tables , one with a tall candy floss display, the other with a huge , tall chocolate fountain that I bought from a fabulous miniaturist some years ago and have never been able to show off! Now I can!

Once that is done I can even start to fill some of the shelves with existing candies, but will have lots more to make, with all the wonderful Potter names, and will make sure I make doubles for Julia who is doing her own Wizard sweet shop, and I promised to make her some lollies and candies! I have a few people who Id love to make me some things as commissions so will be emailing them shortly as I have visions of certain things Id love made but no that I couldnt possibly make them myself!

I have found some labels on google for wrapping sweets and sticking on candy jars, but if anyone knows of any sites that show off packaging or labels I could use Id really appreciate any help! I also need lots of different style jars, like in the candy picture .

Im hoping its a project that will come together quite quickly and that the children can help out with , and its one that we can add to for a long time to come. Hopefully Ill find someone who has a spiral metal staircase already made up that wants to sell it to save me that task! If any of you find one already made up on ebay or suchlike while your surfing the net please let me know, its not that Im lazy ( well, maybe a little!) , but I am very impatient plus, if Michelle found it tricky I'm sure I'd find it downright impossible!

Here is the shop as it is now. The fibreglass stone paper will stay but all the outside will be in a mint green and a slightly darker green. May or may not keep the pillars on the exterior. The inside will be mint green and baby pink, very girly!

I have 2 great Mothers day pressies still to show off, and interior nightime pics of the Alice room still to load on, so more to come soon! Have a super Easter everyone, I hope we all feel like eating Chocolate come the weekend!!