Playing Big and Little

I love playing big and little. When I have been making lots of bread, I also make miniature bread....when I have been making preserved lemons, I make minature preserved lemons....when I have been making blackberry and apple jelly, I make miniature jelly.

I love messing around in the kitchen! My latest experiment is having a go at making apple cider.....a friend gave me a recipe that just uses bought juice from the supermarket, so I bought a demijohn and it has been bubbling away on the kitchen bench for nearly a week! How fascinating!! If it tastes nice (not all my experiments are a success!!), I will try making it with freshly juiced apple juice next time.....it's nearly apple season now.

And I just happened to have a miniature demijohn hanging around and here is the little version in the dollshouse kitchen! Giggle, giggle!!

First Dollshouse - Living Room

I started a little tour of my first dollshouse - quite a while ago now, so you have probably forgotten all about it. Here is a photo of the outside of the house. I found a pattern for this house in a dollshouse book from the public library (this was before I had managed to track done a dollshouse club so I was doing it all on my own). The house is a bit Dutch looking - I didn't mind this even though I'm a kiwi girl, because my husband is a little bit Dutch (born there, brought up here). But it's very English on the inside.


I thought I would continue the tour today, with a look at the living room. Here is a photo of the whole room. Yes, there is no door into this room..... .....but I have a good reason.....

I needed room for a bookcase! So the bookcase is now hiding the door. I guess I could always pretend it is a movable bookcase hiding a secret door. Anyway, I don't care and no-one ever notices the missing door - I mean hidden door.

Books are very important in my life, so I had to have a little reading corner! Quite of few of these books are by Treefeathers. I love the convex mirror and the butterfly collection. You won't see many home-made miniatures in this house, I'm afraid, because this before I thought of doing that!!

The gorgeous Fruit Charlotte cake is by Lesley Burgess.

This is the other side of the room. I hankered after a leather sofa so I put one in the miniature house. (We have got a leather sofa in real life now, yay!) The picture of the sleeping girl is one of my favourites - it is called Sleeping June and was painted in 1895 by Frederick Lord Leighton. The picture of the nasturtiums (I love nasturtiums and have them growing outside my front door) dates from the same era. I love the dragonfly stained glass lamp because I have one in real life.I quite like this little doll still, although I don't put them in my scenes any more. I embroidered the footstool for her.

Just one room of the house to show you now....the little bedroom at the top of the house. I'll do that soon. Thanks for dropping by.

Forever Keen on Purple and Green

I don't know why, but I have always loved purple and green together. There is a very disproportionate amount of purple in my house...my pyjamas are purple, all my socks are purple, most of my jewellery is purple....even my engagement ring had an amethyst in it (before it got lost). My handbag is purple, my ipod is purple.....need I go on?? Not everything in my dollshouse is purple but a LOT of it is, so today I thought I would share a purple/green photo of some of the treasures from my dollshouse. The painting is by Sandie Coe, I made the two framed pictures, the little bowl of irises are a commercial product, the Laduree cupcake is by Paris Miniatures, and the beautiful cake and cold porcelain basket are by Lory Tonetti. You can see my favourite bracelet off to the left hand side....

...and I made the little plate with violets...

The other day I was looking through the internet and came across the most gorgeous vintage plate I have ever seen. I couldn't afford it in real life, but I have made one like it for my dollshouse. And since violets are my favourite flowers of all time (they are purple AND the smell is just the most beautiful smell ever!), I decided to make some more plates all with gorgeous vintage images of violets.

I like them so much that I had to take down the little shabby plates I had displayed above the bookcase and replace them with this set. I would love to have this in full size!!!! That shows how much I like them, because I didn't think I would ever want to take the other ones down, but there you go!

Thank you so much for reading my blog. May you have a happy week with friends and family!!

Pastel Cake

It's the middle of the lovely summer holidays here, and our family has spent all our time lately kayaking on the local rivers, having long, hot days at the beach, and visiting the local waterholes. It's been absolutely lovely. I have a few days left before I go back to work.

But one day, it rained!!!

And I had time to make some miniatures. My miniature making stalls big-time in summer, because I am outside playing. It's very good for the soul!

When I announced the winner one of my giveaways, I posted this picture of a cake and someone thought it was a miniature cake. It wasn't.....I had found the picture somewhere on the web and really liked its pretty shabby colours. Ever since reading the comment about it being a miniature cake, I have had it in the back of my mind to have a go at making a miniature version.

So on our one rainy day recently, I made this little cake. I think it looks pretty on these little spotty plates.

I made a few little macaroons too.....I have a very big problem - there is NO MORE ROOM in my little shabby cottage for any more baking!!! It already looks overfull. I need to make a bakery and cafe scene, so that I can move all these cakes out and put some OTHER sorts of accessories in the shabby cottage!