Under The Tree

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Sadly our Christmas took a rather unpleasant turn when my Step Mother (who was hosting Christmas)
fell down the stairs and face planted the tiled floor causing multiple fractures. I spent the afternoon in casualty and my poor Step Mother had facial surgery on boxing day. They put 3 pins in her upper face and wired her upper and lower jaw. I am happy to report that she has made a very good recovery and is now at home.

On a brighter note, Christmas morning was lovely and as a gift to Mia I commissioned Patricia Cabrera from http://woolytalesminiatures.blogspot.com to make replicas of our Dogs Hero and Twiggy. They are divine, an amazing likeness of our Hungarian Vizsla's. I sent Patricia images of our Dogs (sadly Hero the large male died last year) and she captured their personalities perfectly. Hero the strong and loyal guard Dog and Twiggy the playful little female (she's so naughty, but in a cute way, right at the moment she is pushing her nose under my arm trying to get me to take her for a walk). Mia was so delighted and in fact quite emotional seeing them together. I thought it was a lovely way to remember him.

So please do have a look at Tita's blog, it is a sight to behold, her talents are endless, any one looking for Animal or Human figures will not be disappointed. Thank you Tita.....we love them!!

We received a few more goodies of the Miniature kind and I will post pictures soon.

I would also like to say a special thank you to Simon from http://miniatureenthusiast.blogspot.com/ he made a post about my new blog and without his support I would not have had most of you lovely people join my blog......so thank you Si, you are the sweetest blogger in the land!!! xxxx

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thank you all for joining my blog. It has been lovely to have all your warm welcomes, and I look forward to finding more post that might take your interest.

I have had a lovely day today preparing for Christmas Day, it is the first one in a few years where I haven't had to host some type of Christmas event, so I am very relaxed. The weather has been perfect Christmas Weather, 28 degrees, Sun high in the sky.....a bit of haze early in the morning, the bay still and clear. We opened up the windows front and back and let the breeze flow through....it was lovely.

My Mother in Law dropped around with her usual supply of delicious Mince Pies - I have posted a picture especially for Simon and Andy to Cyberly take part of........ ; ) They are the best I have ever tasted, melt in your mouth crumbly pastry and just the right amount of sweetens and spice in the fruit. I hope you boys are enjoying and I invite any one else that enjoys a seasonal mice pie to join in!!!

Another surprise of the day.....a friend of ours arrived on the door step with a fresh Cray Fish! He had a bundle flown in from King Island and kept them fresh on the end of his pontoon so he could give them out as Christmas gifts........YUM!!!!

In Australia we often have fresh Seafood as part of our Christmas Feast, the heat doesn't always suit Hot Roast dinners but some how we still have them, I'm often found melting in the kitchen in front of a hot oven.

I would love to hear about your Christmas experience - so many from different parts of the world, it would be an interesting show and tell.

May you all have a safe and Happy Christmas and find that special thing you've been hoping for under the tree!!

Good wishes to all.

Fi x

Far from perfect.

Hello again,

I have just posted a couple of images to show a glimpse of my kitchen in progress. I have been fiddling with my Blog template for far too long. I just can't seem to get it the way I want it, the banner is not as planned and some how I cant seem to move my profile and gadgets to the side again. So thus the title far from perfect, it also happens to tie in with the images I have posted. It's so much easier to notice faults in an image, I wont tell you what they are and I will hope you don't notice them straight away.

A little about our house ; I will on occasion laps into "my" house but while I remember that it is in fact my Daughters house I will use the term "our ". I have spent some time working out which era it is set in and have come to the conclusion it should be early 20th century particularly because Mia was determined to to have a bathroom and an AGA oven. I have a leaning towards a particular decade but will let it evolve as we collect items.

This brings me to the entrance where I have hung some paintings. These are temporary as I had intended to paint an oil painting and make the original oak fame and linen stretcher. As I haven't done this in miniature before I needed a bit more time to fiddle. As I had explained to Si, I had procrastinated long enough over my blog and thought it best to do a couple of quick water colours in ready made frames.( I repainted the one on the left ) I will also make a mirror to go above the little writing desk but that of course will take some time too. I have some lovely Indian Rosewood given to me by my framer, that is in itself and interesting story but I will leave that for another post.

I made all the flagstones from balsa wood and painted them in various tones to imitate the natural colours . I don't think they show up as well in the photo as in real life. I made all the wall paneling from balsa wood also and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It was my first time using a mini mitre saw (thanks John ) and I now feel more confident in tackling other things.

The stars in general are a disappointment for many reasons I could not list, I should  have painted the balustrade white and may still do. They warped after I took them out so they didn't go back in easily and I didn't realise till much later, any mini person travelling up those stairs would need to be very stooped over. They were the configuration supplied with the kit so I just went with it.

Now to the riding boots!! My original plan was for them to be wellingtons but after reading Johns post many months ago I realised my house was far more likely to be Johns neighbour than Andy and Simons,   so rather than fight it I happily went with it. I love the riding boots by the way, they are real leather and I bought them from Kerry at "The Doll House" in Camberwell Melbourne.

In another post I will talk about where I think it is set and what I have named it......it is I think, a place for someone to get away to, some where to relaxed. Some how the banner of my blog does not work with the location but I will get there eventually.

Well thats enough babbling for now.......

Fi x

Welcome to my Blog

Hello,

I would like to welcome you to my Blog. Firstly I would like to explain that I am a complete novice in Blogging so please bare with me as I fumble through, the likely hood of mishaps is fairly high.

I guess I should start by mentioning that this is my first endeavour into Miniatures. Three years ago I bought a Doll house for my Daughter Mia, as it was something I had always wished for as a little Girl and I thought it would be a an interest we could share. We bought some furniture that was appropriate for her age at the time and as we began to do so the world of Miniatures opened up and we discovered the endless possibilities of collecting and creating. As Mia has Grown and matured her expectations have also. I was set the task of lighting the house. In June 2011 I began, and as I explored the internet for explanations, my interest grew more intensely until I found I was absolutely passionate about miniatures.

I will talk more about the details of our house but before I do I would like to acknowledge the inspiration I have gained from other Miniature Bloggers, there are so many talented people I have learned from and developed friendships with.

Lind Carswell from Une Petite Folie: Petite Maison is the first I would like to mention as Linda was the first person in the Miniature world I contacted and she has been so willing to give help and direction. Lina's blog and her Dollhouse "La Petite Masion" shows perfect attention to detail and stunning elegance and will always be an inspiration to me. Thank you Linda.

Lea Frisoni from Un Jour à la Campagne - Atelier de Léa  I have Lea's book and it has completely opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of creation in Miniature. In Lea's beautifully designed and illustrated book she sets an incredible standard.

There are two very talented ladies I have been inspired by and could only aspire to the quality of their work and that is Josje from A Beautiful World   and Deb from petit. Their tutorials are so helpful and the work is Devine.

 I must mention my two favourite Gemini boys. John from Merriman Park must be the funniest Blogger in the Miniature world, his writing is fantastic and has me laughing in every post, not to mention his fabulous house Merriman Park where he never  ceases to amaze me with his level of ability.

Simon from Miniature Enthusiast is the sweetest blogger I know that has amazing vision and ability to transform a flat pack into a the stunning structure of "clarence Place" overnight, his exquisite taste has been known to fool the eye into thinking his miniatures where real life.

There are a few others I would like to mention that have wonderful blogs that I check in on and that is  Irene from Hambleton Hall  Flora la casa delle bambole di flora and Giac from Late Victorian English Manor Dollhouse: 1/12 Miniature from Scratch all wonderfully inspirational.

And last but by NO means least Andy from dollshouses and miniatures. Not only does Andy have a beautiful Georgian Doll house that is a perfect example of the Georgian period he is an absolute wealth of knowledge on the History of the time and is so willing to help with any information. He has been a constant source of inspiration for me with endless images and explanations as to how the Georgians lived. Not to mention his extensive knowledge on Scandinavian Pineapples and  Sponge Bob!!
Thank you Andy for suggesting I start this blog,you are a great support, it has taken a while to build up the courage to do it, as you are all sooo talented, but I guess I had to do it so I didn't keep taking up so much room on your blogs with all my babble, I will have a place all my own to babble.

I will now attempt to post this and then some photos of the entrance to our house. It is the first and only room I have completed thus far although there are some items that are temporary until I have made others to replace them. I will explain in my next post shortly.