Houston we have a problem!

 Dollhouse construction had come to a total stand still while I waited on supplies to arrive.  Although it was lovely coming home everyday to a little parcel on the door step, they never seemed to arrive in the order I wanted them to.

Finally, I thought I had all I need to go ahead start the finishing on the house.  My husband has been out of town for the last ten days so I set up shop in the living room ( I won't tell if you don't)  only to find out that a grave error had been made during the cutting and assembly part of the house.  The front had been put on upside down leaving the smaller windows at the bottom, the taller windows on the top and the doorway had been cut.  God bless me, not being that bright it took a minute or two after building the first transom window for the front door to contemplate why I had a 6cmish window, a 5mm transom and needed to make a 16.9cm door all to fit in a space that measured about 17cm. Finally the light went off it is UPSIDE DOWN.
So here is the newly cut dollhouse front, unfortunately I didn't have any 5mm ply left so it was made out of 5mm mdf that is black on one side. No matter, I will paint it twice.   My husband comes home tomorrow so I can work on the dollhouse in the living room for one more day, I just have to make sure I do a really good job hoovering up the sawdust.

Here is what I was working on while waiting for the mail to arrive.  I just found and bought a Jane Newman single bed, isn't it lovely?...and have been constructing a tiny English paper pieced quilt out of little hexagons.  I don't think I thought about how fiddly it was going to be.  I am about half done but have put it away for a bit.  It is the perfect project for doing while watching t.v, but then so is dollhouse construction if your husband is out of town.

Happy New Year 2015!

Hope everyone had a lovely New Year Eve.  Despite the best laid plans we ended up in the house cuddled up on the couch with a movie.  I did however purchase a bottle of bubbly which I am now drinking as I type this on New Years Day instead.

I spent the most day in front of the telly (severe weather and snowfall warning for our area) with Monty Python trying to work out the angle for my French house staircase.  I have never been good at math so it took a ridiculous amount of time and effort to finally figure it out.

 HINT: make sure when you are measuring you draw your 23cm (height of the wall) on your bristol board before you start. It will help you get the right angle for your staircase

Here it is as complete as I can show. The gesso is just about finished drying as is the stain on the steps but it still needs paint.  Tomorrow the railing will be added, along with the cut and bent metal wire stair rails that are the right hand corner.

I am pleased with my progress thus far. Unfortunately I foresee a delay in the very near future because the lime-wood is being shipped from Australia and half the items I ordered ie: lights, doors etc. are either back ordered or unavailable.  I will soldier on and chart my progress.

Finished staircase.  I must admit it provided more challenges than I thought it would.  I am not entirely happy with the newel post as it attaches to the rail but it will do for now and if I can't live with it, I will attempt to fix it before installing it in the house.

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.