Little things

I just love little houses! So I've made the little houses on the shelf for the girls bedroom in my dollhouse. They're a little bit like the real ones I made for Liberty's room that I showed in my first ever post here

I also made the bed and the wall shelf a while ago. The bookcase was a cabinet with doors that didn't open, I got it at the $2 shop and modified it. As you can see the flooring still hasn't been finished.

I've also been making little notice boards. At the moment this one is in my little laundry.

The pink one I made for the roombox I gave my neice for Christmas. She changes that little room around every day and even bought herself a 'grand piano' at the $2 shop! You can see the whole roombox in an earlier post here

Here's a quilt picture I made the other night. I wasn't going to make anything that evening but was looking at this website.

The things they make are sooooooo cute. This little picture turned out better than I expected. I don't have enough patience to wait for glue or paint to dry, I had it all finished and hanging on the wall within an hour. And yes I was worried that I would get paint on the wall, but I didn't! I bought the little cupboard off a lady at the dollhouse club. I think I'm going to have to fill it with quilts.

I hope you're all having a creative day!

Mercedes

A little paint

Last summer I decided I had had enough of looking at my old dining suite (actually I really hated it!). I bought it about 18 years ago when I was single and had money and back then it was just the most beautiful thing! Here's a picture of Liberty standing beside it when she was a baby (a friend's grandma made her the funny hat and poncho).

I had been telling my husband for ages that it would look better painted white, I'm not sure he believed me. So while he was away on a business trip I painted it with undercoat. When he came back home he was very surprised at how much better it looked already and a couple of weeks later he finished painting it for me. I can't tell you how much happier I am with that old dining suite now, actually I love it!

That was a year ago and several friends asked me at the time if I was going to 'distress' the table. I never did distress it but of course the ravages of time, crafts and children are working their magic on it and it is slowly becoming 'aged' in a meaningful way!

Last year I bought a second hand dresser to go in the dining area. Here's how it looked, you may notice it has no handles, we took them off the moment we got it home because they were sooooo hideously ugly.

Of course my husband knew straight away it would have to be painted so...just after Christmas before we went on our summer holiday...out came the white paint again and three days later it was back in place completely transformed. Even I can't believe how good this turned out! And I don't think my husband will ever doubt me again when he hears me say,"Maybe WE should paint this"!

Mercedes

A little renovation

When I was a kid I built my own dollhouse from wooden tomato boxes and made every piece of furniture in it, mostly from matchboxes. Almost three years ago I was looking for a doll for my daughter's birthday on an auction website when I decided to have a quick look at dollhouses. I really had no intention to buy one I was just looking. However, this one caught my eye, it was about 45 years old and was being sold with some furniture and desperately needed someone to look after it. I couldn't stop looking at it and decided after a couple of days it was meant to be mine. I won the auction then had to wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive.
It was pretty obvious that it needed a total renovation. I remembered my mother taking me to a miniatures club meeting when I was about 12 (a friend of hers was a member there). So I decided I should try and find a club so I could get some information on how to renovate properly. Believe it or not the club I found has been meeting once a month for the last 27 years just a couple of streets away from where I live!

Most of the members of the club are well into their retirement years, the knowledge they have to share is invaluable. Almost two years ago Frederica joined the club. She's Dutch and could almost be the Dutch version of me! We have had nothing but fun, fun and more fun together since the day we met!

Here's the outside of the house as it is today. It's still a long way from finished but a fresh coat of paint has really livened it up. You may notice the front porch railing is now missing. That's due to a little confrontation Liberty had with the porch a while ago. I do still have all the bits. I can't say I enjoyed painting those windows, I had to pull them all to bits (they were well glued in) and it was like a mammoth jigsaw puzzle trying to put them together again. The front door was broken and had been glued shut when I got it because the hole for it wasn't large enough. It was a great triumph to be able to get the door to open. I want to keep as much of the original stuff in it as I can because it feels like it has a history.

I have re-wallpapered the house and am trying to finish the flooring (which I am not enjoying). The next big challenges are the stairs and then trying to light a house that is already built. Once finished this will be Liberty's house. She already plays with it in it's partially renovated state. I'll show you how the interior's looking in another post.

Having seen all the beautiful houses other people in the blogoshpere are working on I just really want to get this finished so I can start on something special just for me!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you are having a lovely day! Here's a heart mosaic I made because I had always wanted to buy one but when I found out how simple it was to make a mosaic I made my own...and yes, it was great fun smashing the plates!
And here are some mini hearts for the miniaturists out there. I was looking at Marlies Dutch website and found this tutorial on how to make a wreath - thanks Marlies! Now, I don't understand a word of Dutch but she had very helpful pictures. I used some waxed thread to make my wreaths and was easily able to shape them into hearts. And here's what Liberty found the Valentine's Day fairy had left in her room over night - a pretty little row of hearts pegged to the valance at her window. She noticed them straight away!

And lastly what's the use of having a heart shaped cake pan if you don't make a Valentine's Day cake. Liberty had the cake pan out of the cupboard at the crack of dawn, that girl lives to bake...and eat cake mixture...and icing! As soon as she saw the hearts on top (she was busy licking the icing bowl when I did them) she said,"Did you use cookie cutters to make those hearts mum?" and she was right, it worked surprisingly well. I just put the cookie cutters on while the icing was still fairly wet and sprinkled the 100's & 1000's in them and carefully pulled the cutters off. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!! (That's just a little expression we have here in NZ, not sure if it's worldwide!)

Enjoy your day!

Mercedes

Little pretties!

I'll start by clarifying this isn't a post about miniatures. My dear friend Frederica always gets confused when people switch from minatures to 'real life' LOL!!

I was in one of my favourite shops in the city the other day, it's called 'Japan - We sell everything $3' except now there's an economic decline everything is $3.40! They sell almost anything you can imagine there, it's a great place to rummage, it's so jammed packed with stuff. Anyway, I saw these gorgeous little mugs there and I commented to my friend that I was sure I had some scrapbooking paper that looked a bit like that. I bought the cups and came home to find that I had the exact same design on my scrapbook paper! How amazing is that! The scrapbook paper came in a pack of 'Dena's Closet' and I bought it in Australia about two years ago.

I used the paper for Liberty's second birthday scrapbook pages. Unfortunately I only have a little square of it left now 'cos it would have been funny to have been able to make coasters to match the cups.

And Emma I can almost hear you saying, "Only YOU could find those cups"!

Hope you've all had a great day!

Mercedes

A little comfort

Here's what I did last night. I made these little, teensy, weensy house shaped cushions. My dear friend Frederica gave me the fabric (every time Freddy buys fabric she cuts it in half to share with me, how nice is that?!). I saw Amy at Inspire Company's real life couch here and knew what to do with the fabric. I love her blog it really is very inspirational!

The smallest cushions are only 17mm tall (3/4 inch). When my husband saw me with the tiny bits of fabric at the sewing machine he didn't think I had a hope of making them. And they were a challenge but he should know by now there's nothing a miniaturist can't make if they put their mind to it!

I made the little couch (and a couple of chairs) a while ago at the miniatures club, it turned out pretty well! I'm trying to do-up my dollhouse in a relaxed country style which is why I chose the country star fabric, it has an aged look about it. Miniatures club is this Sunday, I'll be getting the basic bits to build a garden for the summerhouse to go in, I can't wait! (Too bad about all the other half finished projects around here! LOL!!)

Mercedes

How Exciting!

I can't quite believe it but I've been given my first ever blog award! It came from Shannon who has the lovliest blog about her miniatures and other clever things she does. Check out the French style dollhouse she is building and the beautiful furniture she has in it, she's one clever girl! I find her blog very inspiring. It's so lovely of her to give me the award and very encouraging! The blogosphere is proving a great way to meet nice people with similar interests.

Thanks Shannon!

Freedom!

Finally the kids are back at school and kindy. I can hear George Michael singing "Freedom" in my head and it sounds oh so sweet!



This little summerhouse is where I'd like to be (it's a stinkin' hot summer here at the moment) but alas it's only about 15cm (almost 8 inches) tall. At the miniatures club we're each going to make a little garden to go by the old porches we built (see my Christmas post). We're not starting the actual garden until our next meeting but I couldn't wait to make this to go in it. It's not quite finished (is anything?!) I still haven't decided what should go on the roof, shingles, slate or rusty iron. The garden is supposed to be derelict! But then again so was the porch. I think mine is best described as 'lived in and loved derelict'.



I made the little table last night. The platter of food my friend bought me in Thailand, it's so detailed. There's a little box of scorched almonds for after lunch.



Here's the little wall shelf I made. The blue bowl is just a bead. The candlestick holder was made by one of the club members it's made from a giant dome. The wooden bowl is an acorn cup, I remember making a whole dinnerset out of those when I was a kid. I drew flowers on the flat ones for dinner plates.

Thanks for lookin'! If there are any other miniaturists with blogs out there please leave me a comment so I can find you!

Mercedes