A little girls room......

Hello every one,


I am going to spare you all the usual explanations as to why I have been so absent in blog world, except to say we are all good here and I have been having fun planning a trip, but more on that later. Whilst I haven't been blogging much I have been busy with miniatures. I actually finished all the textile aspects of the Twins room and am now working on the furniture, hopefully I'll be finished in time for a nice Christmas post....fingers crossed. So without too much waffle and quite a few pictures I will show what I've been up to.

Now the top photo is there because you all know I love a sneak peak, it's also gives the best view of the blind I made to go under the sheer curtain, which I might add was made from a piece of my favourite beach dress that I happen to tare.

 I used the same fabric which is a cotton voile for the blue bed cover and chose a quilting fabric with a tiny blue rose for the coverlet on the bed and the canopy. The rose fabric was a pure white but I decided I wanted to break the starkness of all the white by antiquing it so I tea dipped it all before sewing. I like the white and cream together and I think it brings out the antique rose on the fabric of the wing backed chair which you can see in a later photo.

For the valance I used a cotton voile napkin that had a lovely edging that sat so beautifully and covered the underneath of the bed, a great place for the twins to hide sweet treats they are not supposed to sneak from the kitchen....; )

A close up of the rose fabric cushion trimmed in lace and the contrasting fabric I lined the canopy with.

 Here is a close up of the top of the canopy, I decided to use a different method to the traditional crown as I thought it more casual and suitable for the room. Going with the rose theme I found a necklace made of cream roses and used them as trim on the canopy and window ties.

A close up of the chair fabric and inside of the canopy.

The bed on the other side

Close ups of the coverlets 

A peak through the window because you know I like them!

A view of the room as a whole which I'm a bit disappointed in because it doesn't show it's depth, it really is a large room.

The lace trimmed pillow 

A close up of the rose curtain tie

This one just because I like it!

And this because I haven't even begun to show you some of the sweet little items I have collected for the room, that might have to wait till Christmas....; )

Well, I hope you all enjoyed, I have bombarded you with photos but I wanted to cover everything, overall I did a bit of research on girls bedrooms of the 1930s and 40s and this type of traditional floral on floral theme seemed to be the style of the time, whilst it wasn't what I had pictured when I first imagined decorating the house it has certainly evolved into something I love and as time goes on I realise how similar it is to painting, it's all about telling a story and I hope you see one emerging here.

Much love to you all and a very warm welcome to my new followers.

Fi XXXX

Miners Cottage

Hello All,

While I have been a little quite in blog world I have not been neglecting my miniatures. With newly restored miniature mojo (thanks to Ilona) I managed to complete the textiles in the twins room, bedding and drapery done! However, I have not yet photographed my progress and intend to do that soon along with the items from Ilona I have yet to reveal.

In the meantime I thought I would show you this lovely little 48th scale Miners cottage I purchased from Emily at Architecture of tiny distinction a while ago. It is an absolutely darling little house, so perfectly and skilfully put together. Emily modelled it on a miners cottage in Tasmania, although there are many similar to this one throughout Victoria and beyond.

       Note the beautifully detailed wall paper complete with borders and the oh so tiny fire place.

I couldn't resist taking a few snaps with the light flooding though, it gives it such a cottage feel, so warm and cosy, I can't wait to find some teeny tiny furniture for it. Whilst this is a dollhouse for a dollhouse, I enjoy having it displayed on my living room shelves, I have quite a fascination for miners cottages, so quaint and reminiscent of the Australian settlers and their lives. For those that are interested click here for a little information on Australian miners huts.

Finally, I would like to thank those that voted for Mia's cyber bulling video. Mia was placed in the top 5 winning a $500 voucher and an encouraging supply of confidence. As it turned out she won on her merits and not by popular vote as was first thought, a clever way for the organisers to get exposure which is the major objective. Thank you so much to those that emailed me about boosting exposure, your support is very much appreciated.

A warm welcome to my new followers, I will be posting soon with an update of the twins room.

ML Fi xx

Between the tissue

Hello All,

As promised, another glimpse at some of Ilona's treasures sent for Ambrosia Place. I must say that this item was my biggest surprise. In fact it took a couple of days to realise it was there at all. As I mentioned there were treasures hidden inside treasures and in my correspondence to thank Ilona she mentioned something about undergarments. Undergarments??? Most of you perhaps saw her post on the lovely maid that was upstairs in her attic sewing undergarments for her Mrs but I had unfortunately missed it. ( perhaps the surprise was greater) I went to the box shown below that had a lovely picture of a Lady in her undergarments and between the tissue..........

My jaw dropped, I couldn't believe I missed it!! So elegant, so pretty and such beautiful work, above is a photo I think shows the detail a little better, folded over the arm of the chair is the pantaloons, a full set. Each sleeve is finished with the tiniest tassles and you will see if you go to Ilona's post the most delicate button too.

Immediately with all this lugage and lovely items inside, a story for Ambrosia Place came to mind, the Lady of the house had long been awaiting the arrival of her dear friend, after the loss of her husband she longed for her friend to visit. Here is the scene of the guest room, her dear friend arrived, barley unpacked, too eager to talk into the night about the loves they had lost, missing each others companionship.  The wash basin, jugs, soap dish and towel set for her friend ( all made by Ilona's hands) and her comforts so that she may feel most welcome but almost forgotten as they talk and talk into the night about the year that has passed.

How fortunate I am to have such an imaginative friend! And so talented to!

I hope you all enjoyed my next instalment, more to come, Ilona's efforts do not end there, so I will leave you in suspense yet again with yet another story, but perhaps of the Summer House next time.

Until then I have one thing to ask of you?? I would appreciate so much if you would have a little look at this link I will leave for you. A special young person in my life has made her first short film in support of cyber bulling, those of you that are close to me will know who I am talking about. She has written, directed and edited the 2 minute film her self and is only 14 years old. It is a competition to help raise awareness on cyber bulling and has so far she has been the weekly winner of the competition voted by the organisers. The final competition is voted by the public and she needs a few more votes to be in the running of winning the competition. All you have to do is register your email address and a password then you can give her the thumbs up, don't worry, you wont be inundated with advertising. I would appreciate it so much, there are lots of great competitors but I do think her work is worthy of a vote.

Thanks everyone for trying to vote, I have fixed the link and hopefully this one will take you directly there. XX

Click somethingincommon.gov.au/backmeup/video/back-me-be-one-do-something-about-it-edited to go directly to the video

If the link doesn't work cut and paste the address below.

http://somethingincommon.gov.au/backmeup/video/back-me-be-one-do-something-about-it-edited

Much love to you all and thank you for voting!!

Fi XXXX

Mojo Rejuvination

Hello All,

I feel almost ashamed to have been away so long, not only from my miniature work but from blogging all together, so firstly I must apologise to you all for not being up to date with what you are all doing, I will do my best to rectify that.

I don't know what happened but my Mojo just seemed to fizzle out, I became distracted with RL house projects and my little minis took a back seat....: ( However, it seems a little fairy had enough magic to sprinkle some Mojo dust my way, that little fairy lives all the way on the other side of the globe and has a wonderful blog most of you will be acquainted with Minimumloon yes thats right, my magical fairy is none other than Ilona, and we all know just how clever she is. Some time ago I asked Ilona to make me some things for Ambrosia Place and the Summer House, I requested that she take her time and surprise me, knowing she creates so well with a free mind. 

I had almost forgotten about it and then a little parcel arrived. SURPRISE!!! And indeed I was, surprise after surprise. Almost trickery really, because little boxes that were treasures in there own right only revealed more treasures inside on closer inspection, for example....the hat box that I investigated to see if it actually opened, only to find this exquisite lilac clouded hat inside, feathers and all...I was blown away!

Now I hate to tell you but I am going to keep you all in suspense a bit and not reveal all at once. Why I hear you ask? Haha....because it's more fun!! And I would like to create a little story for you to show the items at their best. I have set a little scene that you can see above. As you may be aware I have not done the bedroom in Ambrosia Place but I had a few things that I threw together to give the illusion of a bedroom.....something I am itching to tackle next.

Below is another illusion of a Summer House room with a glimpse of the perfect items made with a sea side theme, the hand sewn white throw rug on the end of bed adds the perfect feel of relaxation.

There are more pictures to come, but I didn't wan't to leave it to long before I thanked Ilona for her kindness and thoughtfulness, she has completely rejuvinated my Mojo and I thank her form the bottom of my heart. I would also like to thank those of you who emailed me just to touch base, it really is these special friendships that help me feel connected, thank you so much, I have missed you all!!

A huge welcome to my new followers, my apologies for being a little on the dull side!! 

Much Love to you all,

Fi XXX

New/Old House

Hello all and welcome to my new followers.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I almost tripped over this very cute and I think coastal looking Dollhouse in the thrift store, it had a $40 price tag and there was no way I was going to leave it there!

It has been sitting on the table in the family room and I have plenty of time to think about what I might do with it. All sorts of fresh summery looks have come into mind and I am itching to make a start. I promise I am still working on Ambrosia Place but I thought you might like to here my ideas for the new one and I would welcome any thoughts from you.

As you can see it is a we bit dusty and dirty too, I think you can see the odd cobweb in there I didn't notice but I think it will be a bit of a fun project. The ceilings are a bit low and the rooms a little small but there are plenty of them and they all have interesting possibilities. I love the room with the French doors that open out to the patio, I have always wanted to do a little terrace garden and just look how the sun shines through into what I think will be a sitting room, perhaps another sitting room below, it also has a door onto a veranda. I dont think that will be the main entry as I want to put a front onto the house, so the middle room on the ground floor will be perhaps some kind of entry, I was thinking casual dinning above it but logically should it be next to the kitchen which I think will be bottom far right, it has a nice big window I would like to put the sink under.

Under the roof line will be the two bedrooms, one with a ladder that leeds into the attic storage, I think I can have all sorts of fun with white boards on the ceilings and floors of the bedrooms, I have collected some great inspiration images from  pinterestif you care to have a look at the direction I'm going in.

I love the look through the doors to the coastal grasses outside.

 This I think will be the bathroom, I like the idea of putting a bath inside that lovely little arched alcove and a sink under the window ( I think I have a thing about sinks under windows)

This is a view of the kitchen window and I'm not sure if you can see through the RL window a very sleepy dog enjoying the winter sun.

A close up of the entry and dining upstairs....hmmm I'm still not sure about the dining area? Think worn old elm table and faded chairs, hts and bags on hooks in the entry?

I'm thinking I may have a separate blog to a passion for miniatures and make it more coastal like the old one.

Well let me know your thoughts and I will leave you some images of some of my orchids and the winter sun in my garden yesterday the bad weather finally cleared to a fresh morning and bright sunshine. I hope your not all too hot over there!

ML Fi XXX

A New Life

Hello Everyone,

Two weeks since my last post and I have been very busy bringing new life to an old Dollhouse. I mentioned in my last post I have acquired a couple of extra Miniature Dwellings, both have possibly seen better days and are in need of some love and attention. 

Today I would like to show you the house my sister in law and I bought through an online auction for my niece Brooke who has developed a love for miniatures, (welcome to the club Brooke) each time she comes to visit she loves to explore Ambrosia Place which lead us to work together on a room box for her. Recently I was fortunate enough to come across a house exactly the same as Ambrosia Place and couldn't resist, it came fully furnished with nice quality furniture and was a third of the price we purchased ours for fully assembled, so we snapped it up.

Once home I realised that the original description of excellent condition was not quite so, it had been in storage for a while and was quite water damaged, I'm sure the Lady that previously owned it saw it as perfect but not perfect enough for my niece. So I set to work and who doesn't like a before and after??

The windows and doors were not in good condition, unfortunatly  I pulled out the doors before I took photos, but they were water damaged and falling apart and the windows had yellowed glue smeared all over them, painting every window frame took some time but it was worth the final result.

As you can see the inside wasn't too bad but I couldn't resist making a few changes to the decor, I hate to tell you though, with all the excitement and rush to have it ready on time I didn't take photos of the interior but I am happy to say that I put to good use the green leaf wallpaper and rug for the nursery and  lots of other extras and it looks lovely. I will hopefully take some pictures next time. There was quite a build up to the presentation, children whisked away on other activities while I snuck in and set it all up only to be revealed from under a sheet on arrival. When Brooke arrived home I said "oh it's your Birthday???" and I forgot to bring a present....but perhaps you would like this instead???? Jaw dropping disbelief was what followed and we couldn't tare her away from it!! 

Now I wish I had taken some better photos but I was cutting it very fine between completion and arrival but this will give you the general idea. I took these just before she arrived and the lighting wasn't the best. Modern colours to suit the decor of my Sister in laws house and a red door I think any little girl would love, number 10 for ten years old and if you look closely you can see a topiary tree with gardening tools and a little puppy watching on, a good example of the little treasures inside that came with the house.

Well thats it for now, I hope you enjoyed, the experience has given me lots of ideas for Ambrosia place not to mention the new/old Dollhouse, but more on that later.

A big welcome to my new followers thanks for taking the time to have a look. 

Ta,Ta for now!!!

ML Fi XX