My own Lea Frisoni "Maison Miniature!"

For Christmas every year my mother always gives me a crisp $50 dollar bill.  This year I decided to invest it in real estate....

This is the base of my soon-to-be "beautiful" French house re: Lea Frisoni.  I received the English version of her book"Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature" or in English "Big book of a Miniature House" for Christmas from my DIL Sarah and had to get started right away.  Owing to the fact that the lumber yards were shut until 2 days ago, I don't think I am doing bad. I have ordered the limewood stripping for the floor from Australia as it is not sold in Canada and used up a little chunk of my dollhouse savings account to order light fittings as I will be needing them right away.

I am still planning on finishing my little Georgian townhouse as I have finally bought the required base boarding (I seem to be cutting twice and it is always too short) so with supervision it should be done fairly soon.  I am not convinced that the lighting doesn't need some attention so I will attend to that first.

Anyhow, here is my progress thus far.  Colour me tickled pink!!

Here is a picture of my long suffering husband toiling over the miniature scroll saw, bless him.  He was complaining today that dollhouse construction wasn't in the marriage contract, but he didn't read the small print!

Happy Christmas 2014!

I 

Hope you found time to enjoy the Christmas season amongst all the holiday shopping and preparations.  It is boxing day here in wintery Canada, a day which is recognized both here and in parts of Europe but I don't believe in the United States.

 Arguably the best day of the year for shopping for post Christmas bargains. This year we gave all the children gift cards which I must admit was much easier than the countless hours previously spent scouring the malls for that perfect gift to delight.  So today we have five little grandbabies to babysit whilst their parents are at the shops.  No good deed goes unpunished LOL.

I must admit that my lack of computer skills is proving to be increasingly problematic.  I accidentally hit the update button on my ipad and now find myself really struggling to do the things I used to be able to do.  I can no longer post pictures from my flickr to my blog, hence the lack of updates to my blog and really makes paying for a photo sharing website ridiculous.  Anyhow, I have figured a way 

to do this old school until I can get a kid over here to help me.

In the above picture I wanted to  showcase my Stokesay ware including my "Merry Christmas to me, from me" new Stokesay ware Chelsea plates with sterling silver galley.  I ordered them in the Imari colours and I am so pleased. They are just perfect!

Yesterday I received  from my daughter-in-law Sarah, the English version of Lea Frisoni's book "The Big Book of a Miniature Dollhouse" needless to say I was thrilled.  I had bought the French version and few years back and have been waiting for Amazon to send my pre-ordered copy of the English version for a few months now with no release date in sight.  Needless to say I have cancelled my order since I am now the proud owner of this beautiful book which I can read without the help of google translator.

Sorry for the long post, hope everyone had a happy Christmas and have a safe and joyous New Year. I wish you all the very best!!!!!

French Townhouse

Thanks to delayed jet lag and dare I say... menopause, I find myself with a lot of hours to kill in the middle of the night.  So I am endeavoring to complete my little French Townhouse from Small Time Miniatures. Plus I am anxious to start my La Petit Palais from Petite Properties but have promised myself that I won't until I have finished this little project.

I am actually very close to being finished but am having troubles with the electrics. You can see how dull the bulbs shine compared to my little Georgian house  Unfortunately the problem seems to be with the switch.  I don't have the ability to fix it myself, but I can shop for another one (shopping is in my skill set). Unfortunately the shop is way across the city so I will have to be put on the back burner until I can get there.

Also I didn't realize that I failed to decorate the base I made for the Georgian house.  I have a AAA battery lighting that little house with no switch so I have to take the battery in and out.  Not ideal.

So I have to finish the little Georgian house and the French townhouse before I can move on... oh yeah, I haven't install the fireplace in my Petite Properties Washtub Cottage so I suppose I should do that too.

I have to share with you this beautiful miniature Laduree boutique that I found here
http://vitrinesminiatures.wordpress.com 

I contacted the artist but unfortunately she only sell these little boutiques in France at the Christmas markets.  They are too fragile to be ship, sigh. 

I think that eventually I am going to have to have my own little Laduree's boutique.  I love that place!  It is responsible for my new diet of fresh air and regret as I came back from Paris with a few extra pounds. Hopefully I have enough small projects to keep me busy so I keep my snout out of the trough.  The sound of my thighs rubbing together is now deafening!!

Home Terra Firma

We are now back on home turf after a lovely week in Paris where my son Michael married our beautiful new daughter Becky in the gardens behind the Eiffel Tower.

What felt like a lovely, touching and intimate ceremony was actually witnessed by dozens of on-lookers who erupted in applause and loud cheering after the kiss at the end.  It was the perfect end to a magical moment.  The newly weds have now managed to shake off the parents and are now honeymooning on their own in Paris for another week.  I believe Euro Disney is next on the list of things to do.

Of course no trip to Paris would be complete without a visit to my beloved Laduree shop (typical tourist eh?).  I managed a trip to their flagship store on Champs Elysee where I envisioned myself strolling in and browsing at my leisure all their wonderful offerings.  Not so!  We went on a very, very busy Saturday afternoon and it was the most stressful event of my life.  We had to line up outside the door and wait our turn to be let in and then my little mind was racing as I tried desperately to take it all in and make a decision and be ready to order when my turn came.  I think I did alright though.... but a little more time would have nice.

One of the best surprises was when I opened the beautiful "L'Esprit decoration Laduree, Paris" book.  It contained a pop-up paper Laduree vignette that is so beautiful.  It is sitting on my sideboard weighted down with paperweights and then I will slip it into my doll cabinet in between all my tiny antique mignonette dolls.

 It even has little tiny mirrors behind the flower arrangements on the wall of the salon.

Off to Paris and Petite Palais

My son Michael and his lovely fiancee Becky have decided to get married..... IN PARIS!!
They will have the ceremony there and then have to come back to Canada to do the legal bits but we are so excited nevertheless! 

Having never traveled before and not being fluent in the language, they confessed to being more than a little nervous. Andrew, my husband and I have been to and LOVE Paris so when they asked if we would tag along we didn't hesitate in saying yes. So there you have it, I am off to Paris again!!!  I am so excited to see my first child tie the knot and I can't think of anything more romantic than Paris in the spring.  

I really don't expect that I will be much help with the language barrier as I seem to only have the ability to suss out French when it is written and don't understand much Parisian French when it is being spoken to me. Oh, well, at least I can stop him from ordering Cuisses de grenouille (frog legs) or Lapin (bunny rabbit) so that is important.  Becky is vegan, gluten free and non-dairy so yikes, it will be hard finding appropriate meals for her.

Anyhow, I just received my new dollhouse kit from Petite Properties, it is the first in their dollhouse series and oh so French, La Petite Palais.  It is so pretty but I can't start it until I have finished my small-time miniatures French townhouse.  The rate in which I am acquiring projects vastly exceeds the rate in which I am finishing them but I am planning on having a long and productive old age though so it is all good.

Newman Collection

Just thought I would take a minute to show you how far the Jane Newman addiction had progressed.  I now own a dresser in every size including two of the large.  Plus about 3 tables, chairs, two washstands, dressing tables, stools, coffee grinder, linen racks etc.  I haven't bought any for a while and have yet to complete a house to put it in but it is all sitting there looking so pretty with my Stokesay ware just waiting.

The Upside/downside of everyday in an auction house

 Sometimes things come into the auction house that you just can't resist, especially if they are going for a song during the sale.  This Asian inspired antique mahogany cabinet called to me when I first saw it at the estate.  I had problems but so much potential. I like not only the style but the fact that there was so much display room and a cut out middle shelf for displaying taller treasures.

 

  The day after the sale I stopped and picked up some fabric on my way into work and proceeded to strip and reline the back and shelves in a beautiful robin's egg blue (it looks paler in the pictures.)

It also received some minor repairs to it's finish, plus a little oil to freshen up the finish  plus a tiny blue tassel for it's key and today I brought it home. I loaded it up with some of pretty porcelain I have been collecting over the last few years (Yes, I may have a slight porcelain  addiction... did I say slight?)  I am so pleased with my efforts and everything looks so pretty, I love the pretty candy colours!! and it fits in so nicely exactly where I wanted it to! 

A little progress

A little progress is being made on my tiny French townhouse.  Unfortunately my eye sight isn't what it used to be and time being an issue, the details aren't as great as I wanted.  Still I am pleased so far.

Starting again... but small

I can't believe it has been nearly a year since my last blog update... who does that?
Anyhow, I thought I might get back into miniatures but start small.  Since I have had my Smalltime miniature French townhouse for well over a year or more, it seem like a good way to start again.

I am such a disaster when it comes to making or doing anything.  I am not tidy.  My husband jokes I can use every pot in the house boiling an egg and when I sew I pull out reams of lace and fabric so I can gain inspiration and co-ordinate everything before beginning.

After working on this sweet little house most of yesterday I am going to have to find a little box to keep it tidy in as another long work week approaches with no play time insight so.....

FYI: I just found some teeny tiny dollhouse sized lace doilies that might pass a curtains. Hopefully this project will not take me too long and I can start to tackle some of the other miniature kits I have purchased over the years and finally finish my dollhouse.