A Name?

Hello everyone,

Considering it has been some time since my last post and whilst I have actually been working on our Dollhouse, I have not been able to take any pictures since a certain little someone fiddled with my camera and I have to wait to get it fixed.

In the meantime I thought I would show you this picture of the Tabby Manse in Beaufort South Carolina. I came across the Tabby Manse whilst looking for houses with Architectural similarities to our Dollhouse. Not having a great knowledge of architecture, at the time I was surprised to find that our DH was not in fact English Georgian as we first thought but actually Colonial Georgian as I'm sure you would all know. This put me into a head spin initially because it was not what I had in mind, but the fact that our DH has windows with shutters, pillars and a porch/veranda I had no choice but to embrace the idea.

Once I thought about it I realised that I had had a long time fascination for Southern Style architecture and the beautiful landscape it sets itself in. It holds a sort of mystic romanticism, with the long languid days and balmy nights. I have dreamt of sitting on a porch swing, sipping lemonade whilst gazing upon cool green grass and beautiful old oaks dripping with spanish moss. I don't know where this imagery was born or why I was so impressed with it, I suppose many a movie has created such a seen which has obviously left an impression of tranquility. I do know, that after my Mother died this setting was firmly implanted in my mind and for some reason, in the process of trying to process my grief, I would meditate and imagine sitting on this porch swing with my mother. I would talk to her for a while and then wonder on to the cool green grass, touch the oaks and the spanish moss then down to a little jetty on the shores of a lake where I dipped my toes in the refreshing water. Once realising that the Southern architecture had a special meaning it all made sense, perhaps I subconsciously chose this style of house. After realising, I had visions of grandeur and once this house was done I would create the Southern Plantation house I had imagined.........

Back to reality Fiona!!! You haven't even finished the first floor!!

Reality is, that our Doll House looks a lot like the tabby Manse but the colours are completely different, the out side is painted a pale Naples yellow, with white window trim and pillars, slate blue shutters and roof. It was originally chosen because it went with the decor of Mia's room at the time, the plan is to change it to look like the Tabby Manse and eventually adding the basement with the sweeping steps to the porch. Given the speed in which I work I can't see it happening any time in the near future......; )

Now to the name. 

I have taken this post to a much more personal level than I intended but as you know I do tend to go off on a tangent, but now that you understand the inspiration, the name will make more sense. Given it is not a grand house, although it is set in South Carolina, it is not a Plantation house but a Place, a place of femininity and creativity, and of heavenly fragrance, a place to go back in time or hold time in place, a place of beauty, imagination and eternal youth.

Our House will be named Ambrosia Place.

I hope you like it the name and understand the degree of sentimentality, maybe one day I will build the house of my imagination but for now I hope Ambrosia place will hold echo's of my idea. The magnolia was my mothers favourite flower and also grows beautifully in Southern carolina.

Happy minis every one.

ML Fi xx

P.S This P.S is for John, I know exactly what your thinking, ( re slaves in the South ) as I did the same as you so Ambrosia Place is set in my imagination where no such thin existed. xx

Happy Birthday

  

Like everyone else

I feel the need of relations and friendship,

of affection, of friendly intercourse,

and I am not made of stone or iron,

so I cannot miss these things without feeling,

as does any other intelligent man,

a void and deep need.

I tell you this to let you know

how much good your visit has done me.

Vincent Van Gogh

From one mad Artist to another....... your friendship is invaluable!

Dearest David,

I wish you the Happiest of Birthdays. As you know I am not a writer or poet but I felt that these lines from dear Vincent say more than I can manage. Your friendship has been nothing short of thoughtful, entertaining, educational and some times laugh out loud funny. I am so glad I met you via Andy and although it has not been in person I feel a true friendship has evolved. As I have mentioned before my world would be empty without your wonderful posts.......; )

I have spent the afternoon making a little something in miniature to post for your birthday but sadly by the time I had finished the light had failed and was not worth photographing. I will have to leave it till tomorrow. The image above is from a clip I took this week but sadly it failed to load, it is my local beach where I walk most days and I thought you might enjoy catching a glimpse.

Have a wonderful day David,

Love always, your friend, Fi xx

Long time, no see???

Hello every one!! Yes long time no see!!

I'm sorry I have been some what absent from the blog world of late, we have had some family issues that have needed some careful attention but rest asured all is well and I will soon be back into the swing of things. I will also be changing a few things on my blog to ensure a little more privacy as I have had some un wanted exposure of a different kind recently ( exposure being the word of interest) and I just want to tighten a few things up. 

I don't really have any progress to report but I wanted to say Hi to you all and after seeing Andy's post where he so sweetly mentioned my kitchen curtains I thought I would show how I did them.

Firstly I measured the space and cut the fabric one and a half times the width then sewed a tiny hem all the way around. I then used a cork board and pinned my piece of fabric to the board in the little pleats I required, trying my best to keep to keep them straight so quite a few pins were required. I then sprayed it with hair spray and quickly used my hair dryer I had ready and dried it off. The curtain was then permanently pleated and as stiff as a board ( and I wont make any relevant jokes to other such things Andy and John.....; ) ) I then glued it to a little piece of card I had with the ends folded in then I glued the board inside the cabinet opening, and bingo there is my little curtain.

The little tea towels and dish cloth I used the same technique but folded them in place as you can see in the above picture. I used the coat hanger so I could get the right sort of fold to hang on the rail on the aga. The dish cloth I wanted to look like it was tossed on the draining board so I used an old towel to shape it on.

So there we have it! No pretty pleater but it does the trick when you don't have one handy!!!

 

Next I wanted to tell you about my trip to the tip!! John says it's a must tell story. Exciting I know, my domestic duties discussed on my blog and  you may ask why I show you a picture of a pile of rubble but look closely and you will see a very sad little Doll House. Yes, sad, because there it was, sitting there abandoned and who should arrive and see it there but ME, the perfect person to restore it back to life, it was fate I thought. Until the mean attendant said I was not to go beyond the barrier for public safety reasons. That pile of wood was nearly 2 stories high. I said to Paul maybe we could back up the car and I could run and grab it, but he wouldn't have it! There was no way I was bringing home any JUNK from the tip!!! If I was on my own I would have done it!

So even sadder it was that I had to leave it behind.....Austrian Chalet I was thinking. I stewed on it for days!!!  

Well thats all I have for you at the moment folks but I just wanted to let you know I will be back in the swing of things soon!

Much love to you all, Fi xx

Question?

Hello everyone, as you may have noticed I had a little play around with my blog layout, I have wanted to change it for a while but wasn't sure how to do it. I had some time to do a little experimenting and finally worked it out, so I hope you like it. As I was investigating I came across the Page views section and I am wondering exactly what the definition of this is. Some posts have less page views than comments so does this mean a page view is a view without comment? I have had one day that was triple other posts and it would be interesting to know what generates so many views. So if any one can help out this blogger noob I would be most grateful. 

I have posted this picture in as a filler, it is one of the original shots I took for my banner but it is in the original colour format, I toned down the intensity of the colours so it worked better with the blues on my blog. I was never that happy with the banner so I might some day change that to. This was taken on the deck of one of the boat houses on our beach. Hopefully today I will get some miniatures done and have something else to report on.

Happy minis every one.

ML Fi x

Plug Post

Hello everyone,

I have titled this post as plug post as I have a few blogs that I would love for you to take the time to have a look at. First up is Lidi Stroud's blog who is a fellow Australian and I stumbled upon her work a little while ago and can now happily say I am proud to own a pice of her extremely intricate work. Lidi makes these amazing baskets and a just cannot do justice in the photo the intricacy of her work. The moment I unwrapped her basket I was astounded at the tiny, tiny, weaves that I would not have thought humanly possible, I wish I had put in a match stick to show the scale.I will be placing the basket in my kitchen with goodies from the market but i thought wine and flowers would do the trick for now. Lidi has a huge range of baskets to choose from and you wont be disappointed. To go to Lidi's blog click Here

Next I would like to show you some Art works from Dr David Huckvale. I consider David a very dear friend of mine and have come to know him through his blog Dr Huckvale's Castle of Gothic Horror. Please don't be put of by the "spooky" title, David has had a twenty year long career with the BBC as a critic and presenter of classical music, he is a lecturer at Cambridge University and has published several books on music in film and has a special interest in the "Hammer Horror" genre. His blog focuses mostly on his artwork inspired by music and literature and as the above works show his talents are extensive. Any one that has an interest in the arts would not be disappointed, and warmly welcomed to comment. The followers button appears as you run your curser down the right hand side and comments appear by clicking on the heading. Please click Here to visit his blog.

P.S David is partner to none other than our lovely Andy from Dollhouses and Miniatures.

Finally a family plug. My son Jay has recently released a single with his band Animal Ghosts. Their genre is  Indie/PostPunk and whilst they are possibly not the type of music most miniaturists listen to whilst tinkering with their tinies, I thought there maybe a few of you that have young ones that might be interested. Jay is the lead singer and guitarist of the band and they have been playing gigs in melbourne pubs for several months and have independently released their single Oxana on itunes. I am a very proud Mum and love their gutsy sound. To check them out and sample Oxanna go to their Facebook page by clicking Here

Well thats all folks, I hope I have given you some food for thought.

Happy minis,

Fi xxx

Flag Stones

 

Hello every one,

I promised I would do a follow up post on my Flag stones, so here they are. The first photograph is of the flags in the Kitchen and the second in the hall. You may not be able to see the difference but to me I prefer the stones in the hall, they are a slightly cooler tone as they were done on different days, whilst the colours I used are the same, the way you mix them can vary, so slight differences can occur. I started out by using graph paper cut to the size of my room and loosely marking out the shapes in a random pattern, I tried not to be too fixed to a firm pattern so they looked a little more irregular. I then sanded them into softer shapes and then beat them with a wire brush so that the flags appeared to have pits in them that you usually find in stone. I then painted them in raw umber so that the paint would sink into the pits. Once it was dry I made up a pallet using three colours. White, raw umber, and yellow ochre, mixed together these colours make a nice stone using white as the dominant colour. I also keep these colours unmixed on the pallet as well as a terracotta so that I can randomly add small amounts to make variations in the stone. I work from darker to light so I'm guessing there is approximately three or four layers of paint on each stone and not one of them would be the same. As you can see from the photo each stone varies from light to quite a dark brown, I added small amounts of terracotta to add warmth (a little too much in the kitchen) and some flecks of white that is sometimes natural to stone. As you can see in the image the darker pits show through and I achieve this by dry brushing which is when you apply paint to a dry brush and lightly drag it across the surface so the paint doesn't soak into the pits. Oh and I did sand them between layers, it helps to bend the colours a bit too. I initially intended to grout them but was a bit nervous to do so and now that I grouted my kitchen tiles I'm glad I didn't try it. I think I will fill a few of the gaps you can see with a mixture of sand glue and just place it in the gaps as I am worried about damaging the surface.

Well thats it for the flag stones, now to the range hood. I thought all was well and every thing had gone to plan until today when I went to work on my house and I discovered my globe had blown!!!!!! GRRRRRRR!!!! I was so happy with what I had achieved and now I think I need to start over.......: (

Firstly I had come up with a plan to attach my hood to the wall that enabled me to remove it without lifting it as I planned to put in a flue above the hood. I drilled a larger hole in the back wide enough for an angle bracket to slip in and then attached the bracket to the wall as you can see in the first image. That worked well and it sat nice and straight on the wall. I made the hole at the bottom of the hood wider to allow heat to escape as Gaic suggested and attached a piece of copper inside to use as a heat sink as Tyla suggested, you may be able to see it in the image with the mirror. Now that the globe has blown and I can't seem to get it loose to try another one I feel I have to re do the light at the risk of it happening again. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The sooner I get this sorted the sooner I finnish my kitchen!!!!

Mini Hugs,

Fi x

HAPPY EASTER A familiar scene

 

Hello every one, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter. As most of you are enjoying the growth of spring we are feeling the cool breeze of Autumn........my favourite season. I love the crisp mornings and sunny days, the leaf fall and the beautiful sunsets showing the softer tones of Autumn not the bright harsh colours of summer.

As eggs are symbolic of new life and Easter I thought I would share with you a familiar scene. I have borrowed from Mulvany and Rodgers and put a RL egg in my miniature Kitchen. This did happen by accident as I was making eggs ( in Fimo ) I used a RL egg as a guide. I popped it on the table as a reference then the image from their Colonial kitchen came to my mind and I thought I would have a play with it. LOL
I hope you like it. The eggs are of course made of fimo and speckled with a little pastel dust. I did make a rather horrible job of the little egg cup as it was a last minute idea.So any if any one knows who makes miniature egg cups I would love to hear. That is RL Thyme I saved from dinner the night before as I thought the tiny leaves would work quite well to add that splash of green.

 

 

These are images of the kitchen minus the giant egg! I took these early morning to capture the right light as I would like to have the feel of early morning eggs for breakfast. As I have said before, part of the enjoyment of the miniatures for me is setting the scene. So I do hope you enjoy eggs in the morning and in the last photo I have thrown in some ham as well. The Ham has a special reference for Mia and I but I will explain in my full reveal of the kitchen. I have left the rest of the kitchen a bit out of focus as it is not finished yet. It at least gives you al little glimpse of where I'm going with the Range hood etc... I have finally worked out a way to remove the hood to change the light bulb as I will be attaching a flue and I needed to be able to remove it without lifting it and I have come up with a rather ingenious idea. Pictures to follow in the next post.

Have a wonderful easter every one and happy Minis to you all.

ML Fi xx