Midwinter treat.

I decided to give myself a little after Christmas treat and order all three issues of  Miniologie magazines http://www.miniologie.com/

I came across their website during a late night mini hunt a awhile ago and now am so glad I decided to order them. They are simply delicious and diet approved!

It is advertised as a twice yearly publication but to date only Summer and Fall 2013 and Winter/Holiday 2013 seem to have been created.  I ordered them a few days after Christmas and in less than a week they arrived at my door in Canada which is absolutely amazing!

The Winter/Holiday 2013 edition features mini artist Lea Frisoni with some of her loveliest French style Christmas vignettes.

I also adore the "Home is where the hearth is"page with the pretty cozy cottage fireplaces decorated with creamy miniature bottle brush trees and soft muted decor.

This little kitchen scene is positively sublime.  If you need a little after Christmas pick me up I encourage you to order this little set of magazines and hopefully we can encourage it's authors to make more issues.

Perfectly imperfect.

Last New Years Eve found me working on the dollshouse. I believe I was making the staircase for the first floor.  This New Years Eve I am installing the second floor staircase and trying to complete the second floor landing.

I love the style of this little house, although you want to do the best you can, imperfection is all part of the charm.  I actually anticipate finishing the landing and bathroom this weekend as most of the components are already mostly made, so it is simply assembly. Although I don't have the wax needed for the bathroom floor  to have finished it so I will have do some shopping.

Love this little house, it is perfect stress relief for me.  Fingers crossed I can finish and furnish it in this calendar year.  Happy New Year to everyone!

Hello again and Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it has been 6 months since my last posting!  My husband and I made the decision to downsize our older home and move. Whew, if I had actually realized what downsizing and building a new smaller home meant, I don't think we would have done it.

I could write a book on homes behaving badly as the old house definitely made it clear that it was not happy to be abandoned.  Along the other little eccentricities that required attention our water heater burst hours before an inspection!  Anyhow, we are in now  in X 1 week ( I don't recommend moving at Christmas either) and with my own things now surrounding me, it is feeling more like a home and less like a hotel.

A lot of my collectibles are in a storage pod, but I did keep the little French dollshouse project in my possession as I had hoped to work on it in between packing and moving but alas it didn't happen.

Let me share with you all the first pictures of my new home which we have dubbed "the dollshouse" because it is so basically a one room kitchen, dining and living room.

Today we unpacked the dollshouse and my husband set up a table on a large rug in our new but unfinished basement.  Unfortunately the lighting is so poor that I will have to remedy that before work can resume.  Tomorrow we are heading to the hardware store to purchase better lighting and I noticed that most of my glue has dried up so that is on the list too.

I managed to find most of the windows for the second floor and get them together. Baby steps.  I received Lea's book in English from my daughter-in-law so the build is now one year and counting.

 Anyhow, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Snails pace

Dollhouse building has slowed to a crawl.  With playing catch up at work, grand babies and just summer, nothing is getting done. 

I did however finally manage to complete my second floor stair case which proved very difficult for me this time.  I couldn't get the railing to fit right and ended up extending the two wire stair rails on the first two steps in order to get things to look right.  The rail is a little wavy looking but I suspect that won't be noticed once the bathroom door is in.  Plus the living room/hallway wall is too tall so that will have to be cut down before I can continue.

I have also repainted the front hall.  What seemed like a hint of peach read as deep peach in such a confined space so I have painted it cream so it matches the kitchen and ultimately the rest of the house better.  I am contemplating changing the front hall ceiling fixture as I have managed to obtain one like the one used by Lea on the picture of her book.  I think I might move this one up a floor and have the hallway behind the bathroom lit up.  Hopefully I will find the time and more over the motivation to work on the little house.  If I actually worked on it instead of just thinking about working on it, I am sure I would be nearly done by now.

and still more pictures from Kensington

 This is one of the entries for the miniature artisan competition open to vendors of the festival. I don't remember the vendor's name as he didn't have any business cards left.

 My husband was in love with the scale of these large houses.  I think if he could have figured out how to get one home he would have.

 So wonderful!

 Another shot of the Mulvaney and Roger's "Miss Havisham Wedding Breakfast", as I said before, getting a good picture was a bit difficult owing to the amount of traffic in front of this exhibit.

Art of Mini exhibit.  So lovely.  This stall was always heavy trafficked so although I managed to purchase a few bits, there were tons more that I would have like to have taken home with me.

Some pictures from the Kensington dollshouse festival

 Ray Storey's beautiful light fixtures. I am sure he must have sold out as they were going very quickly.  So beautiful!

 Mulvaney and Rogers "Miss Havisham's Wedding Breakfast" was just incredible.  It was hard to get a good picture as it was a very popular exhibit.

 A beautiful Victorian kitchen, so inspirational.

Lucy Askew's exhibit with all the beautiful frames, furnishings and her exquisite gilt framed mirrors.

Back from Kensington

Back from Kensington dollshouse festival 2015!  What a wonderful show and a great week in London.  Back to work and reality now.  Before we left for Great Britain we had just secured a contract to auction the contents of the oldest bed and breakfast in Edmonton.  26 rooms of antiques, mostly bedroom suites, but also little settee, desks, chairs and sideboards etc.as well as artworks. While we were gone the rest of the gang photoed and catalogued most of the contents and today is finishing typing up the catalogue before the trucks come to haul it all back to the auction house which I have been informed looks like a bomb went off sigh....

I managed to acquire some of my beloved Stokesay ware in the Willow blue as I was determined to do before I set off. It is now set out on one of my Jane Newman sideboards and safely in the cabinet.

I am filled with inspiration since my visit but alas I didn't find too much to go in my little French house ala Lea Frisoni.  I did get some more lime wood the day before I left so I can start making my Versaille floors for the sitting room.  I also bought some lino flooring for the second floor hallway as the piece I had would have had to be pieced and I was not happy about that at all.

I sure anyone who has decided to follow this blog will soon tire of the endless photos from the festival but word of warning, once I figure out how to work the camera card, that is what it will be.

Have a lovely week everybody!