The Shabby House

The exterior of the shabby house is almost finished. Anne helped me to make the doors, windows and weatherboards.

Now I need to decide what to put on the roof.

The house will sit on a board so it will have a little yard around it - I'm looking forward to filling that up!

Mercedes

Tiny Treasures!

Yesterday the mail brought another wonderful surprise! Three little blue boxes and a skeleton from the spectacularly clever Debbie at Tiny Treasures.

Debbie had told me she was making something special for Noah. Liberty quite liked that skeleton until she saw that he had a big scar in the back of his head. Debbie hadn't just sent something for Noah though, there was a box for each of us!

Those are the tiniest ice-creams Liberty is holding. Each box was filled with so many wonderful tiny treats. I had one very excited daughter!

Just look at all that gorgeous mini food and the pretty clock. Liberty couldn't decide which thing she liked the best but before she went to bed she picked up the cake with pink icing and fruit on top and said, "This really is the best one!" Make sure you click the picture to enlarge and you'll see how fantastic it all looks...I can't decide on a favourite but even hubby marvelled at the tray of pastries and the tiny Christmas mince pies.

Liberty got out her dollhouse people and made sure they all had a comfortable seat so they could look at the party food.

Here's the Mister having an extra good look...but that's as close as he got!

Noah gets home after school an hour later than Liberty. It was torture for her to wait that long for him to open his surprise, she carefully supervised him.

I had told Debbie that her Harry Potter minis are the only minis that really interest Noah. And look at what she sent him. He was thrilled! There's even a bag of special bubbles so he can make his own bubbling cauldron...and with the summer school holidays almost here that sounds like a great idea to keep him occupied. Then we'll have to see if we can build a room to house all his minis (quite a challenge for me! I'll be moving to the dark side. LOL!). Those bones are quite spectacular...and as for those adorable toadstools...well I've just 'borrowed' those for a little while Debbie (I promise I'll give them back to Noah), you'll see them again next week!

Thank you Debbie!

Mercedes

Taps, tiles and gifts!

Thank you all for your lovely comments about the shabby kitchen! I'm VERY happy that everyone likes it.

For those who wanted to know the taps are the ones Sylvia sent me, they are made by Eurominis, they were gold and I painted them. I love them because they are different to what anyone else has here!

I made the 'tiles' by finding tiles I liked on a tile shop website and printing them on to photo paper. Once I had stuck them onto a piece of wood I grooved the top of the wood to make it look more real.

To make the coffee packet I just printed a logo onto some paper then cut and folded it like a paper bag, it was very simple but fiddly making a bag that tiny!

Yesterday I got these little pretties in the mail from Sylvia. A beautiful coffee grinder and delicate plate and some very useful little angels. Sylvia also sent me some handles for the shabby house but I'm already painting them so you'll have to wait to see them!

Thank you once again Sylvia!

Mercedes

A Shabby Little Kitchen

That's all the kitchen that the shabby house has room for! I still have to make a plate rack and some shelves to go above the sink.

The hotplate stove is just made from a piece of balsa wood, it still needs a cord and a power point. I used extra large domes for the hotplates. There's only one control knob on it because I dropped the other one and haven't bothered making a new one yet. The coffee pot is a painted metal mini. And yes! I made the packet of coffee.

Stay tuned for more shabby house this week...progress is being made!

Mercedes

The 1:1 Lounge

I promised to show you the result of the renovations in the 1:1 house some time ago.
Those roses are from my garden but I can't really take credit for 'growing' them, they just grow themselves.

Here's how the newly painted lounge looks now. That big chair will one day be re-upholstered. The picture above the fireplace I bought (at great expense!!) many years ago, it is an Amish print called 'Sarah' by American artist N A Noel. Wherever we live it always hangs above the fireplace, I never get tired of looking at it. The walls are a very pale grey.

This is the fireplace 'before'. Would you believe when we finally ripped it out we discovered those weren't even real bricks around it. It was just fake bricks stuck onto wood! The walls were a sage green colour before. It's amazing how much lighter the new colour makes the room look.

Our house was built around 1927. I had always wanted an old house. This house has unfortunately had most of the 'character' stripped from it over the years. We are trying put some of the original charm back.

The new fireplace. Very expensive but well worth it! And yes, it does work, if I'd been on to it I would have taken some pics in winter when the fire was actually burning. I've just thrown a few pine cones in there for decorative purposes.

That hideous light shade was just one of a matching set of seven throughout the house.

Here's the new light.

I can't show you the other side of the lounge because we have the world's most falling apart couch, I hate it! I just wish it was as easy to build a new 1:1 couch as it is to make a mini one!

Mercedes

A room for Emily

This is one of the things I was working on last week. You may remember last Christmas I made a roombox for my niece Holly (you can see it here). Her best friend Emily (who is also her next door neighbour) has always desperately wanted a roombox too. Holly's mum asked me if I would make a roombox for Holly to give to Emily for her 9th birthday...so I did.

I was lucky enough to buy those cute bed ends off a man from another club who had made them himself. I had to make everything as quickly as possible (because I had so many other things to get done last week!) so I searched around the house for something to use as a bed base and I found a plastic box that was exactly the right size. I covered the box with fabric then glued the bed ends to it.

The pink chair is from a plastic outdoor set I bought at the $2 shop, it was bright yellow so I painted it. (Liberty hasn't noticed it's missing from the set yet, I'll be in trouble when she does, lol!) I love the 'Emily Rocks' poster!
This table also came from the $2 shop, unfortunately that range of furniture is becoming very hard to find, it's been very useful! Holly made her friend a card so I got her mum to scan it and send it to me so I could make a mini of it to go on the table. There's some badly made mini food on the plate, lol! It was my first attempt at fimo (since I was a kid). I made it last year.
This shelf was part of a funny little $2 shop dresser. The round painting is a button! The house is a printie from Jean Day's wonderful site, you can find the printie here. That's the wallpaper Jo sent me, it looks so lovely and fresh.

The 'Emily' sign above the bed is made from Sabiha's pasta (there isn't much of that pasta left as Liberty decided it would be a good idea to eat it raw the other day, yuk!) I made the little pink table, the photo on it is of Holly and Emily. The title of the book on the table is 'My Friend Emily'. I've put that little cat in the bag there so Emily will get a surprise when she looks in the bag.

I found as many books with 'Emily' in the title as I could! The Milly-Molly-Mandy books are some of my own all time favourites. 'Emily of New Moon' and 'Emily's Quest' are by LM Montgomery, more favourites of mine. There's a 'Hannah Montana' book because the girls love her and a book called 'Mercedes Ice' which is a very cute story and was given to me by a dear friend a long time ago.

I almost got the whole roombox finished last Monday. All day I just kept saying to myself 'Do it NOW'. So instead of starting something then putting it down to finish later I made each thing from start to finish right away! I totally surprised myself with what I achieved!

Today it was Emily's birthday, so somewhere out there across the other side of town there is one very happy nine year old!

Mercedes

Published again!!!!

Here's Liberty reading the November issue of Miniaturas.

This time there were some pictures of Liberty in the article so she was a little more interested, lol!

Thank you to those Spanish readers who have already sent me their congratulations!

I blogged about this little Christmas porch last year when I wasn't blogging much about miniatures at all, my how things have changed!

I built the porch as a project at the club. It was a way to learn new skills. Everything was made from scratch, right down to the door and weatherboards. I even learned how to install wiring and lights.

As I had finished the porch in November I decided to decorate it with a Christmas theme.

'Tis almost the season, again!

I've been working on another little Christmas project, I'll show you soon!

Mercedes

Marvellous mini mail!

I got some REAL mini mail the other day from Katie. Look at all those beautiful, detailed envelopes. That big cream coloured one there is a mini of some real mail I sent her - hubby was very impressed with that envelope!

I love Mary Englebreit and Katie sent that gorgeous card of hers to me. We both agree it would be great to build a 'Mary' dollhouse....hmmmm...one day!

Katie also made some wonderful magazines. I am so lucky to have such a clever friend!

Thank you Katie!

I know I haven't blogged much lately but believe me I've been a VERY busy girl. You'll be seeing the results soon!

Mercedes

Little Treasures from Norway!

A week or so ago I surprised Christel Jensen with a little gift I mailed her. But yesterday I was the one who was surprised with a beautiful gift from Christel. Just look at that gorgeous card!

The most exquisite box of tiny macaroons and a plate of the sweetest little cupcakes.

Here they are in the shabby house (which is really not set up properly at the moment, there's a bit of building work going on!) Don't they just look perfect there?!

I really think I must be the luckiest person around these days!

Thank you Christel!

I thought I'd let you all know that Linda Carswell at Une Petite Folie is in hospital for at least a week with a back injury so we won't be seeing any beautiful blog posts from her for a while.

Mercedes

Questions, quilts and cushions!

So many of you wanted to know where those exquisite glass bottles came from I asked Benedetta and she emailed me the link so here it is Glasscraft. I'm sure you'll agree I am a very lucky girl!

I've also been asked about the little bird picture, it is a scrapbooking brad and was part of a very useful set!

Benedetta sent me the bottles in return for a country quilt and some other things I made for her.

This is the country quilt that I made for Benedetta.

And this I just had to show you. It is a cushion stitched by the one and only Rosanna.

Rosanna is a friend of Benedetta's and when she saw the quilt she was inspired to stitch this perfectly matching patchwork cushion, how fantastic is that?!!!!!! Pop on over to Rosanna's blog and tell her how great she is!

Mercedes

Glass bottles for the shabby house

The other day I received these stunning glass bottles from Benedetta who lives in Italy. Bendetta doesn't have a blog but believe me she does have some beautiful miniatures. I would have shown them sooner but the memory card for my camera decided to give up, I guess it's been overworked! I had to get a friend to take the pic for me.

I made a little shabby shelf for them and they look so perfect in the shabby bedroom.
Thank you Benedetta!
Mercedes