Just Pretend!

Hello Every One,

First of all I would like to welcome my new followers. Thank you so much for joining, I truly appreciate you taking the time to have a look and I hope you enjoy your time while your here.

I have called this post 'Just Pretend' because that is what I will need you to do. I need you to pretend that the wallpaper is indeed a Chinoiserie mural. I have had in mind from the early days of decorating this Dollhouse to make the Drawing room/Living room Chinoiserie themed. The challenge of painting such a mural in miniature is quite exciting. I have many sources of inspiration, the original from a book I love, Early Georgian Interiors by John Cornforth  there are many beautiful images but here are just a few I have taken photographs of. I particularly like the colours of the bedroom which is in Erddig in North Wales and the design in the Bird Cage Room at Grimsthorpe Castel Lincolnshire if think this is very pretty and whimsical and it is a feeling I would like to create in Ambrosia Place. Perhaps with a little more patina though. I have a collection of Chinoiseire images on my Pinterest but I haven't worked out how to put the gadget on my blog so here is the Link if you would like to have a look. I keep a lot of my inspiration there.

The whole point to this exercise was to show you my new fire surround and lamp. The fire surround is from Pheonix Miniatures but I happened to come across it at the my local Dollhouse shop which is where I found the lamp which is Clare Bell. I have jumped the gun a little and gone off focus because am actually working on the Twins room, but, I have been painting the iron bed steads and thought why not the Fire surround as well...... My New Years Resolution - to do more posts. Post as you go Fiona!!! Take snaps of the work you have done and move on!! I couldn't help setting a little scene though......you know how it is???? I just want it to look nice!! 

I have painted the fire surround in many THIN coats of off white because it has such lovely detail and I didn't want to spoil it. Above is a close up although still doesn't do it justice.The rather strange coloured table is a cheepy I stripped back and haven't painted yet. I think Si's mirror will look better with the chinoiserie, this one will go in the master bedroom. SO, this is why I want you to pretend!!!

Imagine how it will look!!

This is my moody shot of Pears, next is a warming shot, i have noticed the stem of the lamp is crooked so I must fix that!

I made the little Pears and thought it was a good opportunity to show them to you along with the lovely plates I told you about from Carrie A Lavender Dilly I have shown all but one that was too difficult to get out of the cabinet, it is a black Roster.

 Now before I come to a close I would like to do a Shout Out for a couple of rather fabulous blogs I have come across in the last few weeks. AM first introduced him self here last week and I just love what he is doing, along with his adorable cat Thunderbird South Hampton Grey is his blog so please check it out, I know a few of you already have. I can't remember how I stumbled across Liduina's blog

Miniature House but she has so impressed me with her Brick work and her beautiful House I think you should all take a look!

Well thats it from me folks! Happy Minis!

ML Fi xx

Happy Birthday Ilona!!!

To my Dear Friend Ilona,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEARIE!!!!!!!!

I know today - 19th January is your Birthday, today is almost at it's end here and in it's early stages in the Nederlands. I hope you have a wonderful day full of Family, Friends and celebrations! I would like to thank you for your kindness and friendship, it is hard to imagine a friendship growing over such long distances but some how, as we all know connections can be made without ever having laid eyes on each other. You are an inspiration to us all and the dedication to your craft shows in the exquisite work you create.

I have a little poem I found which made me think of you -

We take our friends with us where ever we go -and say to ourselves: 

"They would love this"' "This I must remember to describe", "I wish that they were here to share this view, this meal, this adventure"

Pam Brown, B. 1928

and

Friendship is unnecessary,

like philosophy, like art.......

It has no survival value;

rather it is one of those things

that give value to survival

C.S. Lewis

So my lovely Lady, I have been thinking of you all day today, whilst at the Australian Open Tennis.

Waiting to get home to make my post. I hope your day is wonderful!

It has also been my Nieces 21st Birthday and I have given her the gift of some Jewellery she liked but I also wanted to make her a card, my original idea was to make a miniature scene out of paper, but you know how it is.......once the mind gets ticking over......paper became Fimo, houses had to have lights, and trees made from seaweed, a path, a figure.........

These are not my greatest photos but I took them last night at India's birthday dinner....with my iphone again, so, they could be better, but you get the idea. The figure is not exactly to scale but I have to admit that the whole process took much longer that I thought and I whipped up the figure 5 mins before walking out the door!! 

The village sits on top of a shoe box lid covered in linen. Underneath is a collection of LED lights connected to a battery pack. I drilled holes in the lid and pushed the lights through and stuck the little houses in place over the top. The trees are twigs with little balls of seaweed attached, they do look remarkably like trees I think.

I had so much fun making this little Diorama, I really like the way the houses have turned out, I intended to make them straighter but I kind of like the way they look quite organic.

Happy Minis every one!!!

ML Fi xxx

Kitchen Tiles

Hello All,

Just a quick post today. I was recently very excited to come across a fellow Australia blogger of miniatures. We are few and far between compared to you Europeans and Americans, ooops not to forget Canadians, but you all get my drift. The most exciting thing is that , Emily from Architecture of Tiny Distinction is from Melbourne!!! Incase some of you weren't aware that is where I am from, down south.......

Any way, Emily asked me how I did my kitchen tiles and rather than take up a huge amount of space on her blog I thought I would explain here incase any one else wanted to know.

Firstly I followed Josie's direction were she explains in the Kitchen section of her Cannel House website . I painted some card stock the colour of my choice, then sprayed with several thin layers of Varnish.(more on that later) I then cut the tiles to the required size (I used a guillotine as I found it most accurate) I then stuck each tile to a piece of graph paper I had cut to the correct size of my wall and marked out where the tiles were to go. Once this was done I used gap filler to grout the tiles. This in brief is how Josje explains it but I made one VERY big mistake that cost me hours later. I was impatient to get it done and didn't realise at this early stage that it is important to do several thin coats by watering down the paint, this way you don't get brush stokes. I found it difficult to get the paint to level without brush stokes so I change course and used an Acrylic Enamel for house painting. This is were my problem began. The spray varnish reacted with the paint and left spots. SO, because there was already a gloss I decided to skip the varnish, only to find that when I filled the gaps in the tiles, instead of wiping away easily it grabbed and was very time consuming to remove. It then left my tiles dull with no shine. I then chose to paint every single tile again which took hours, I nearly gave up on miniatures all together. It improved the result but I am still not entirely happy with the finnish.

Well you live and learn!! I am currently painting my new fire surround and the white iron bed steads and how am I doing it???? With lots of very thin coats!!!

I am also doing another little miniature project as a gift for some one and I am really very happy with it so far. I will post about it in a day or two.

Until then, Happy minis every one!!

ML Fi xx

Thank You!

Hello Every One,

I just wanted to say a very quick thank you to all those who left their lovely comments on my last post, your thoughts and encouragement's are so inspiring and appreciate so much you taking the time. I hope to get back into some miniatures very soon.

Much love, Fi xx

Kitchen Effects

Hello every one!

Firstly welcome to my new followers and thank you for taking the time to have a look.

I had a few ideas about how I would show you detailed photos of my Kitchen and I hadn't quite got around to taking the next lot which as you all know can some times be time consuming if you are fiddling around with lenses and lighting. Whilst sitting in the evening, not doing much else than watching the TV  because I had no daylight to take photos I decided to experiment with my iphone. How would the kitchen come up if I used this nifty device instead? Well I must say, it did an okay job, it was much easier to take pictures because I could fit it inside the DH which defiantly has its advantages.

The iphone took good accurate pictures but they didn't have the usual atmosphere I like to achieve so I used the instagram app I have on my phone to give them a bit more character. I think the final result is a bit of fun! It probably doesn't do the finer details much justice, so some of the lovely things like Carrie's plates from A lavender dilly I have hanging on the walls and shelves really look much prettier in RL so in another post I will show them in better detail. The basket I have mentioned before is by Liddy from Basket case miniatures and the paintings I did my self although I must say they didn't come up well in the photo so there is another future post. The Geraniums I have shown in a previous post and mentioned that the lady who makes them does not have a website but I believe she will have a display at the Sydney Doll House Fair. Mia and I made most of the food except the ham which was one of our first purchases made at a local DH fair. It was a must have considering we both adore The Tale Of Two Bad Mice, and the scene where Hunca Munca tries to cut the ham with no luck. Every thing else was either made by me or purchased from my favourite Doll house shop ( sadly the only one in Melbourne) The Dollhouse including the Kitchen dresser already assembled with the items attached, Mia was fortunate enough to received this as a gift from a family member. It hasn't come up all that well in with the effects but will do in the future posts.

For now I will leave it there, my apologies in advance if I don't get to reply to your comments immediately but I will be out of action for the next few days. So until then, happy minis every one!!

ML Fi xxx

The year that was!!

As we are all aware the New Year is a time for Reflection of the year that has past and Hope for the New Years possibilities. My initial intention was to post on my latest miniatures but found my self reflecting on the year that has passed and how you all have played a part in it. I would like to dedicate this post to my son Jay, who has faced  the most difficult years of his young life. Having said that, it has been one of the most challenging years of my life supporting him through it. He has just successfully completed his final year of Schooling which included an Art folio and a Media folio along with studying, English, English literature, Music and Psychology.

Above is an image of the first of a series of pen illustrations Jay created based on a waif theme, progressively getting darker as the year went on, I think there were eight or nine in total. The particular feat in creating these images is that each one is at least a meter square, some even larger than that and whilst I spent at least an hour trying to work out how I could enlarge sections of this image to show the intricate paterns of cross hatching that make these pieces so amazing, I was not able to. Jay created all of these illustrations as well as making an amazing movie whilst facing some incredible personal challenges which were at  times debilitating. I am so proud of all that he has achieved whilst dealing with these issues, his hard work has been rewarded by being accepted into the course of his choice and first passion, Film and Media based on his folio alone.

This is were you all come in!! This year has been nothing short of stressful, I could not fully express in words how difficult it has been at times. Having my miniatures to escape too has been a delightful relief and whilst I haven't created that much at all, reading your blogs and having wonderful communications and friendships with you all has been my saving grace. I appreciate so much your encouraging comments and kind words, the great humour and inspiring images. At times I have had tears in my eyes and laughed out loud at some of your comments. I consider you all dear friends and I am so grateful for your support throughout this past year.

I wish you all Great Happiness, Good health and Amazing prosperity!!!!

Much love and big hugs,
Fi xx