Carolyn's Little Kitchen

And the winner of the giveaway is..

2011-12-05T20:43:00.016+13:00

First of all, thank you so much for entering this giveaway....it has been so nice to read your comments and of course I wish I could send you all something. So thanks again for taking the time to read my blog from time to time - it is much appreciated and thank you for all the inspiration I get from your beautiful blogs too!

And now it is time to announce the winner. Yes, this is being done a few days late but I think that you'll forgive me.....my little boy had a tenth birthday party in the weekend and we've been very busy trying to make sure he had the time of his life (he did!).

The winner of Carolyn's Little Kitchen giveaway is....

... Lataina (Iris) from It's Always Sunny in Miniland. I really hope she likes her giveaway...I'll be sending her everything in the photo below. A nice Christmas present - I hope it makes it there in time. Lataina, if you are reading this, can you let me know your mailing address??

I also said that I would have a second prize, which would be some homemade soap, so the draw for the second prize goes to.....

....Genevieve from Genevieve's Miniacollection. Congratulations, Genevieve....if you would like some homemade soap, let me know which one and I will send it out to you.

Of course now I feel bad for all the people who didn't win. So I am posting this beautiful photo of peonies for you, to brighten your day. I hope you have a lovely week.

500 Follower Giveaway

2011-11-19T19:10:00.010+13:00

It's definitely time for a giveaway at Carolyn's Little Kitchen. I thought I should celebrate having 500 very patient followers, so I have put together this little French provincial display as my giveaway - I really hope you like it. It includes a little tin "bus blind" sign, with French bakery lettering, some little posters and some coat hooks. And everything you can see on the shelves.
On the first shelf, there is a jar of pickled onions, some cute little jars of jam with polkadot lids, two of my French provinical style plates, a gorgeous little rolling pin, two little jugs I painted and a cute tin sign: "Cuisine".

Shelf two has an apple pie and a loaf of bread, a little cookbook and some more plates.

On the third shelf is a tin sign: "Bon Appetit", some more cute cookbooks, all with a French theme, another little plate, an Eiffel Tower statue, and a little basket filled with French provincial style tiles.

The bottom shelf has a wheel of Brie, with a few crackers, a crockery baking dish and another of my plates, with some co-ordinating cloths. I haven't glued anything down so whoever wins this giveaway can use this as a complete piece or just arrange the accessories where they look best.

I really hope you like this giveway - I spent quite a lot of time putting it together after my last post, but then had lots of trouble getting good photos to post so apologies that it has taken so long. I do really appreciate my followers, so thank you so much for being there!

I'll draw the giveaway on 1st December, so I can post it to you in time for Christmas. To enter, you just have to post a comment on this blogpost.....good luck to you all.

I have had this cute doll for a while. She was originally in my Victorian dollshouse but now she lives in a drawer (poor little thing!). She has been invited out of the drawer for a spot of modeling. Incidentally, she is also modeling an outfit I "made" for her (which does highlight my lack of sewing skills and fondness for not-hemming-things and for glue). It isn't that great but it's still better than what she was wearing when she arrived (very ugly tartan outfit with giant tam-o-shanter).

The reason she has been invited out is to show you the pretty hats that arrived a little while ago. They came from Just for You on Etsy. This one is such a pretty, soft lavender colour and so beautifully trimmed.

But this one is my absolute favourite! It is absolutely beautiful, with the pretty flowers. Thanks very much to Nina, - I saw the lovely hat she had purchased on her blog and really loved it.

WARNING - THIS BLOG IS ABOUT TO GO OFF SUBJECT.....

Now I am going to show you one of the reasons I haven't been blogging much about miniatures lately.....

.....I've been bitten by a new obsession: Soapmaking! I've been wanting to try it for ages, but haven't because I was really scared of using the caustic soda, especially with children and my little dog always around. Anyway, my parents gave me birthday money, so I decided to spend it on a book on soapmaking and some soap ingredients and had a go and it is HEAPS of fun!!

These are some of the soaps I have made in the last few weeks. The ones on the left are calendula, oatmeal and cinnamon, and luxurious lavender. The ones in the middle are calendula (made with calendula petals which I picked from a friend's garden and dried), lavender (bit disappointed with the grey colour of that one) and camomile. And...da DA! The cupcake on the right IS SOAP and I made it myself. I am so chuffed with it. I learnt how to do it by traipsing around on the internet and it wasn't too hard.

These are the calendula soaps....I love the way the dried petals have kept their colour. I figured out how to make the tops of these ones textured and they look pretty with glitter.

These are the cupcake soaps I made - the flowers aren't soap - they are paper flowers from a craft store. But the whole rest of the cupcakes are soap.

I had to put another photo of the cupcake soap in because it is so pretty!

Because I want to give these away as Christmas presents this year, I had to get on and make them right now, because they have to sit for a number of weeks to completely finish saponifying before they can be used, that's why I haven't had much time for anything else. Here is a selection of soaps in the little basket I bought for them today from the bargain store. A bit of celophane and ribbon and some labels on the soap and they will look nice, I think. I have tried a couple of the first batches I made because they have - only just - sat long enough to have mellowed, and they are absolutely beautiful to use. I've used really lovely oils and you can really tell the difference. I've never been one to fuss much over soaps and toiletries really, but these are so lovely to use that I don't think I want to go back to supermarket soap.

Anyway, for your patience in listening to all this, I thought I would offer a second prize in the giveaway which will be a bar of homemade soap. You choose which one you would like to try and if you are the winner I will send it to you. Just mention in the comments which one you would choose if you are the winner and good luck everyone!

I'm not sure that soapmaking is ideally suited for impatient people, however. Not easy to wait six weeks (or even three) before using your lovely, homemade soap!

Just to say hello

2011-10-02T13:07:00.030+13:00

It's definitely about time I reappeared! It's been so long since I posted that I have moved past feeling guilty and now feel exceedlingly virtuous for even showing my shamefaced self in blogland after such a long absence. I haven't been here at all - haven't even had time to read any blogs or anything. It's not through lack of enthusiasm, just overwork and lack of time. I didn't completely stop blogging, though.... .....if you want to see where my blogging energy has had to go, have a look by clicking here.

Anyway, now the crazy rush of the Spring season at work is starting to die down (oh, please, please let this be true), I am hoping to have more energy for the other things in my life, including miniatures!!
I did have one very happy moment in the middle of a very stressful time. I was the very very lucky winner of Daphne's wonderful giveaway. (If you haven't visited her blog - In the Court of the Gypsies - then go and check it out!!) I was so excited because I had never won a giveaway before. Thank you so much, Daphne, for these beautiful miniatures!!! They realled cheered me up just when I needed it! I just love the French shabby chair and the flowers and picture and antiqued flower tub are just lovely! I feel really lucky to have won this giveaway. And they arrived just when I really needed cheering up. What a lovely surprise!

Unfortunately, being so busy means that I don't have very much to show you this time. There are a couple of small additions to the cottage that you might like to see. I bought a cute little French planter from Pei Li - it is just so sweet! I have put it just inside the door of the cottage - I might pop some mail in it or maybe the lady of the house casually throws her keys in there when she comes in from outside.

I liked it so much that I couldn't resist doubling up by buying another one, this time with a pretty flower in it. This one is outside the cottage by the front door and I really love it. It is so pretty!
I recently attended a dollshouse show (sorry, I didn't take my camera) and bought a pretty porcelain candlestick from the neighbouring stall - here it is on the bookcase.

Earlier in the Spring, before life had ground me to a pulp, I decided to re-do the plate display in my "real" house. The chintz patterned plates are all Crown Ducal. The bottom plate had two corners broken off and badly glued back on when I received it. I managed to remove most of the old yellow glue-globs with acetone. Whoops - removed too much glue and the corners fell off. So I glued them back on and now it looks as good as new. The two plates with floral rims are Royal Doulton and the small one in the centre is a very hard to find (well, I found it hard to find!) pattern by Winton called "Caravan", which I really love. Hubbys comment: "Are you going to cover the whole wall with plates?!" No. Just these ones.

So, here I am back in the land of the living again, and realising that while I was a.w.o.l. I have undeservedly reached 500 followers. So one of my next posts will be a little giveaway to celebrate getting through the Spring season (yes, I know Spring is lovely, but it gets awfully busy when you work at a seed company!), and to celebrate still having some followers even though I haven't blogged for ages.

Thanks for still being there! xxxx

A lovely addition to the cottage

2011-07-21T22:55:00.012+12:00

Yay!! I think I've finally figured out how to load photos without it driving me crazy! Don't know why, but recently I've had so much grief trying to add photos to my blog. I used to be able to load them in and them move them around to where I wanted them fairly easily but lately it's been a complete mission. Anyway, now I've figured out that if I actually plan which ones I want to use and then load them in reverse order, then they will all end up in the desired order and all I have to do then is enter my comments and it's done. It was driving me crazy! How typical - I should've been planning it better. That's my whole life in a nutshell but I'm not sure that's a lesson I'm going to remember, going on past experience.

Anyway, what I am all excited about tonight (hubby is away so I can stay up really late blogging without annoying him) is this little bench which arrived in the mail. It is just so perfect for the bedroom of the Shabby Cottage. I had always meant to make something for the end of the bed but I've been lazy about working with wood lately. But isn't this just so lovely?? This was a gift from the lovely Norma, who planned it out and carefully checked measurements with me and chose just the most beautiful soft shade of blue and sent it over to me even though she hasn't been well. Thank you so much, Norma! I love it!

I set this arrangement up just for the photo but liked it so much that I have left it this way. The little gerbera flower was made by Pei Li - it is sitting in what is meant to be a scent bottle made of cranberry glass by Phil Grenyer of Glasscraft. I took the stopper off - it is just right as a little vase instead of a scent bottle. The shoes were made by Sylvia Rowntree and Linda Carswell made the little shoebox, which is full of the most delightful miniature mail. I was so glad to find the little Eiffel tower charm....it is so cute.

After my last post, a few people wanted a closer look at the little doll who was hidden away in the corner....here she is, looking very pleased to have a bench to sit on!

She is very sweet and even has bendable arms and legs and tiny pantaloons!

She also quite likes to be tucked into her cosy corner.

Now don't worry about the next photo. It doesn't look good but here's how it happened....

It is school holidays here now (and it is the middle of winter). Last week, my dear little seven year old Ella, followed closely by her nine year old brother Matthew came sheepishly into my room to tell me, in fear and trepidation, that they had accidentally landed a karate kick on the Shabby Cottage. So I went to see the damage and thought you might like a photo of the living room after Cyclone Ella had struck (could have been worse). Well the few things that were blu-tacked down stayed put but everything else (in all the rooms) went for a tumble. I'm not one for sticking things down much as I like to move things around a bit. I was very kind to Ella as she obviously felt terrible. Matthew's comment (wise from years of experience): "See, Ella....I told you it's best to tell her straight away." Anyway, no harm done. It's all back in place now. Wish tidying my real house was as easy.

I thought I would show you this cute little thingy. Don't know what to call it. I think it might have been meant as a candleholder or a too-small fruit bowl or something. Someone was giving away their unwanted miniatures and I was lucky enough to get this little cupid thing. The purple sparkly thing on top is a tiny bead I bought (thought it would make a good lid for something one day). I'm glad I've finally found a home for it before I lost it.

And here it is on the little table in the living room.

Oh....I have a funny story to tell you!

I received an email the other day from a journalist who works for NZ House & Garden magazine. She had stumbled upon this blog accidentally and wanted to know if my real house was similar in style to the dollshouse, in which case she would like to send a photographer down and do a feature on it. I had to disappoint her (and myself) and tell her that no-one in their right mind would want to do a feature on our very average family home, with train sets in the lounge and plastic compost buckets in the kitchen. But thanks for asking. Well I didn't say it quite that way (I was awfully polite) but you get the idea! I was pretty chuffed to be asked, however, and emailed hubby at work all excited about it. "It's a scam, don't answer" was his take on it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I will never have a home fit to feature in NZ House & Garden but at least my dollshouse is worthy of consideration. How cool is that??

Today I have been messing around with paint and some little metal miniatures that have been sitting around here for ages, and these little jugs are the result. The smaller one was meant to be a coffee pot but I ditched the lid because it didn't fit properly.

They look quite cute as a pair in the little kitchen. I'm still moving them around to find the right place for them.

They look quite cute up on top of the pantry cupboard but you can't really see them too well because they are right up by the ceiling. Not sure they go too well....maybe they should've been white....but I can't bear to part with them....I think they are cute!

Hope those of you who live in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying the summer....it is winter here and cold and wet. Looking forward to Spring

A really, really long blog post

2011-06-28T08:59:00.021+12:00

It's been a while since a posted (again) but only for good reasons.....too much socialising has kept me away from the computer. So I have a bit of a backlog of things to tell you, and little treasures to show you. A real mixture! I was really lucky to receive some lovely gifts, I made a couple of things that I'll show you, AND I did some shopping!

I know that posting about Easter gifts in mid June is awfully late, but these are photos that I took just days before our computer died. Just before the Easter weekend, a little package arrived from Mercedes (Liberty Biberty). It was so beautifully wrapped - there is definitely something awfully exciting about a "do not open until...." sign!It was so lovely to have a little gift arrive out of the blue, and when I opened it there were the most beautiful little Easter miniatures that Mercedes had made! They are so sweet! Aren't I lucky!
The rusty rabbits are now in the garden of the Shabby Cottage, and the little boys room has some very sweet bunny accessories! The little cushion and Country Bunny book are delightful and I love the little blackboard (it even has chalk) and the rusty "tin" items! Thank you Mercedes - they are lovely
I think my favourite item (is it ok to have favourites??) is this little table and potplant. Here they are in a corner of the bedroom. I had always meant to make a little stool or table for this corner, and this just fits beautifully. Such pretty colours. You can see one of Paris Minatures Laduree cupcakes there as well, on one of my vintage plates. And in the corner, on a tray made by Frederica, is another recent arrival at the shabby cottage....the little patchwork doll. I must admit I was blatently copying Flora when I bought this little doll. I saw it on her blog and just fell in love with her - thank you Flora for the link to Pamela's Etsy store.

Another gorgeous gift arrived in the mail a few days ago, this time from Norma, who recently came to visit! When I opened it, I was amazed to find that she had made a little beanbag for the little boy's room ....the fabric is gorgeous - covered in tiny stars. It looks so comfortable and now the cushions I made don't have to lie on the floor any more. Here is the beanbag in its new home.
And that wasn't all!! Norma had also gone to the trouble to make a selection of Biggles books - she had seen one of my posts mentioning that Biggles books were on my wishlist and had made some! I love the vintage covers and my little boy, Matthew, is most impressed. My daughter Ella says that her favourite thing in the Shabby Cottage is the beanbag. So thank you, Norma - you gift was a real hit! You are so kind.

I thought I would post a picture of the little presents I made for Norma when she came to visit. I made her a breakfast try in pink and green, and a little toiletry tray in similar colours. Norma chose a really lovely selection of plates to take home and I slipped in some New Zealand miniatures as well.

As far as other additions to the cottage go, I was really pleased to find these gorgeous vintage picnic boxes on Etsy. They are so lovely and have found a new home in the kitchen.
I was happy to have finally found an image of one of my favourite plates - it is by Royal Winton and has a picture of a caravan on it - I made a miniature version for the cottage!

Finally, I was reading through some of the blogs I follow a while ago and I found a wonderful blog post by Suzanna. What gorgeous things! Like her, I would like everything from this shop. Since they can't be had here (and I probably can't afford them either), then the next best thing is to make them in miniature. I really like these new sets - they are happy-looking.Goodness, you deserve a medal for reading all the way through this blog post. I've nearly finished now and I promise not to do such a long one again. The last thing I wanted to show you was this gorgeous plate set - my new favourite - aren't these just the picture of shabby chic!!

And the winner is....

2011-06-08T09:42:00.010+12:00

The winner of my giveaway for the breakfast tray is Lara from Lara's Miniature World. Congratulations, Lara....I really hope you like it - let me know your mailing address and I will send it to you with lots of love.

Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to enter this giveaway....it was nice to hear from you and read your comments. Thanks especially to Susan who saved us all a whole lot of headaches by knowing the reason why people couldn't comment and suggesting how I could change the settings to have it work better. Thanks Susan!

I have also had people send me links and images to replace the ones I lost...thanks so much for that - I appreciated it a lot. I have got over my dismay about the computer (I'm no longer crying over spilt milk) and am all excited about the new plates I am about to make!
I wondered if anyone felt like visiting Amy. She is new to miniatures and blogging and has taken on a big project and is going at it great guns. It's so great getting good advice and support from people who have been doing it a bit longer, so if you feel like stopping by her blog, I'm sure she would appreciate it! (Hope you don't mind the mention, Amy!)

I was so lucky the other day, because I had a visit from Norma! Those of you who follow her blog will know that she was visiting her brother in New Zealand and he lives not far from me, so they both came out for a visit and we had the most wonderful afternoon, chatting about both miniatures and blogging, and eating slices of his significant-birthday cake (yum!). Norma is just lovely and it was so nice to see her.
Well, that's all from me today. I'm sorry that I couldn't send everyone a gift! Thanks again for entering my draw - I'll be back soon with more photos to show you.

Giveaway - Breakfast Tray

2011-05-31T22:34:00.012+12:00

I had a lovely morning yesterday working on this little breakfast tray for my giveaway and here it is, all finished. I really hope you like it!
The tray itself was made by Al Chandronnait - I have painted it white. There is a little Greengate placemat and some of my dollshouse "vintage" plates decorated with purple flowers. The plain purple bowl, cup and saucer are made by Sam Dunlap - such a pretty colour. I have filled the breakfast bowl with yoghurt with a swirl of fruit flavourings and I made tiny berries to add to the yoghurt. Of course there is a lovely steaming cup of black coffee, a coffee pot for refills and a little scone with jam and cream. When my husband saw this he asked if this was my idea breakfast and I had to admit that it was! I think it is really pretty, and I made it with lots of love for this giveaway to celebrate having more than 400 followers. Thank you so much for all your support - it means a lot to me and I really appreciate you all!

If you would like to enter this giveaway, all you need to do (you know the drill!) is be a follower and leave a comment on this blog. I'll draw it in about a week.

Have a lovely week with your miniatures!!

Back in Cyberspace

2011-05-27T15:44:00.021+12:00

The last time I posted was 6th April!!! That is such a long time ago....you were probably wondering if I had dropped off the face of the earth after 7 weeks with no blog entries!!!

We have had such a disasterous time here. Not really, because actually everyone is well and happy and my beautiful children are just great and we haven't had any great tragedies to deal with, but it feels like I have had a tragedy anyway.

A bit of background....I run (actually maybe it should say ran) a dollshouse business here in New Zealand...., not my Etsy shop. I didn't really mention it much because I wanted to keep it separate from my blog, however like many dollshouse folk, I poured a huge amount of time and energy into setting it up - I ran it from home via a website. So....this is what has been happening with that: First the recession hit and that didn't do it much good, then my show displays were all at my mother-in-law's house when it burnt down so I lost those. (She is having a new house built and is ok but the displays are history.) Then someone hacked my website and destroyed it - one day the whole website was just gone! I have had a new one semi-built but I don't like the way it looks and also haven't had time to enter the about one thousand products back in. Which brings me to my recent misadventure...

...our computer fried itself about six weeks ago. It took with it all my business accounts, family and business photographs, basically everything, and I do A LOT on the computer! There's a lesson in backing things up for you. Please learn from our mistake!! We had to send the hard drive off to the men in the white coats and the computer had to be rebuilt.....got it back empty....no photo editing software, no email programme, NOTHING. We eventually recovered some things off the fried hard-drive.....our family photos of when the kiddies were little are all there, so that is good. My accounts are recovered up to Jan this year so that is a relief....I'll have to re-enter everything since then all over again.

Anyway, sorry to have to tell you all this - it's a bit boring to read!

But there are some things we haven't recovered, the absolute worst from my point of view is all the images I have collected over the last 18 months or so for my shabby chic miniatures.....everything is totally gone! All my images of plates, all my book covers I made, all my pictures that I used to make miniature framed pictures... just everything! I have to start all over again! So that sucks! Big time!

What amazes me, is how much it has completely thrown me! Even once we got the computer back, I just didn't know where to start trying to get started again. That's why I haven't been blogging - we've had the computer back for the last few weeks but I was so upset about it all that I didn't even want to have to tell you what had happened. And of course now that I have, I feel better.

So, let's look on the bright side....some of the plate images I had I have been able to re-find, and I can start collecting new images. I have now got a replacement photo editing programme that I can get to know how to use hopefully. I tried downloading a free one and look what it did!!! The photo at the top of this blog post is the result, but I saved it anyway because I kind of like the freaky 1960s hippy look....however that is NOT what I want all my photos to look like!

While all this was going on, I reached 400 followers. I don't deserve them, because I haven't been blogging for so long, but to those of you who are still reading, I have plans for a giveaway coming up to celebrate 400 followers and surviving my computer crash, so keep watching this space. Also, I received a lovely little gift from Mercedes for Easter, which brightened up my glumness...I'll show you photos next time.

Thanks for still reading my blog!

A few additions to the shabby cottage

2011-04-03T11:43:00.030+12:00

My thought for the week (this is aimed entirely at myself!) is that if you need to take time off from miniatures so that you can relax, then you must be doing it wrong!!

There have been a couple of additions to the shabby cottage recently.

This week I made a carpet for the bedroom....I printed the image onto my very last sheet of fuzzy paper. Sure enough, the paper folded over part way through the printer, but luckily it wasn't on the part with the large carpet on it.

Fuzzy paper makes a lovely, thin carpet but it can be a bit prone to lifting at the edges after a little while, so I have very lightly glued it down to the floor. I can lift it up easily enough if I want to because when I made the floor, I rubbed a candle all over the painted surface and then polished it to make a 'waxed' surface, so the carpet isn't really permanently stuck down.

This is such a pretty carpet. I thought I would also add the original image here as well so that anyone who would like it can copy it. You can see it below.

I am interested in trying out suede paper for carpet making to see whether that would stay flatter. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Here is the image I used to print the carpet. Hopefully you can right-click this and use it yourself if you like it.Another addition to the shabby cottage is a beautiful little teapot and cup/saucer which have come all the way from Brazil, made by Betinha out of cold porcelain.

They are just gorgeous, and I have put them on the kitchen bench, all ready for a very glamourous cup of tea! This week I have been absolutely plagued with headaches/migraines and haven't had much joie-de-vivre, but in between headaches I did manage to finally go out and get some plate hangers and make a real-life-sized plate display for my living room wall.

Here they are, hanging above my rather excessive collection of cookbooks! I haven't been, and won't be brave enough to try and "shabby-chic' my collection of dark wood furniture in my real house....that is why I love the little shabby cottage so much - my husband once looked inside it and commented that he could now see what I would really like the house to be like.

Shabby Chic Bunting

2011-03-23T13:34:00.004+13:00

For ages, I have been meaning to make some shabby chic bunting for my little cottage. It's not hard to DO it, just hard to find time, unfortunately.

I printed out some pretty Cath Kidston patterns on printable cotton fabric (which I managed to find in NEW ZEALAND!!) and spent a happy little while cutting out little triangles and messing around with glue. I am really happy with my bunting - it looks so pretty hanging over the living room mirror. Now I have to figure out how to make some tiny fairy lights

I want to make some fairy lights to drape over the ladder in the living room - they have to actually light up of course.

I found this photo of some beautiful fairy lights shaped like roses - these are full sized ones but I would love something like this in miniature for the shabby cottage.

I have had one try at this already but only succeeded in detaching a very important and very thin wire from the string of tiny lights I had bought. I couldn't fix them so that was the end of that attempt. Maybe it's time I tried again!

Too many plates

2011-03-08T20:43:00.009+13:00

I am so grateful to my Etsy customers for buying my little plates, because then I get to make more, which I really enjoy. I love finding new images to use and learning more about vintage china. That's why miniatures are so great - you get a chance to learn a lot about the full-sized thing you are trying to miniaturise. So now I know more about china than I used to. Unfortunately it has meant that I have spent too much of my very small amount of free time wandering round antique shops and I now I have fallen in love with some vintage patterns I didn't know existed before! The two above are so pretty - both Royal Doulton patterns. The one on the left is Wild Pansy and the other is Violets.

I don't have very much vintage china but here is one of my pretty plates, with the passionfruit biscuits I made this week. I'll show you some of my other china some time when I can get a nice photograph of it. I would quite like to put a plate display on the wall, like I have in the dollshouse. Not sure what hubby would think of that, though.

I have been very busy filling orders lately, and have been wondering why it has been getting more and more difficult. Anyway, the other day after we had done a time-and-motion study at work, I decided it was about time I was more organised at home....I waste so much time looking for things. So I FINALLY sorted out all my little plate decals and NO WONDER I was feeling disorganised....I have more than 200 different patterns for plates at the moment! It took me quite a few hours to sort them all out, label them, record them on the computer and file them away tidily. Now it all runs like clockwork and I don't know why I didn't do it ages ago! I'm not naturally a very organised person.

The strangest thing that has happened lately is that I now get to blog at work!!! The seed company where I work has started a gardening blog and they have given the job to me. It feels like a big responsiblity....a bit different from just doing a personal one and writing whatever comes to mind. I'm enjoying it though.

Thank you so much for your kind emails and comments after my last post. Here in New Zealand we are all having to come to terms with the Christchurch earthquake and just try to help our people as much as we can. This is becoming an iconic photo in New Zealand - the moment the earthquake struck - captured in time.

Thank you for continuing to stop buy and visit my blog. I haven't commented much on anyone else's blog for absolutely ages, and feel quite guilty about that, but time is so short....I can squeeze the reading in though, and it is wonderful to be inspired by all the wonderful miniaturists out there in blogland.

For Christchurch

2011-02-23T23:04:00.004+13:00

For the city where I was born..... I am so sad. This has been such a dreadful time.

To those of you who have contacted me, thanks for your kind thoughts. We live many hours away from Christchurch and are safe, but like most New Zealanders we have close family and friends in Christchurch and all our thoughts are with them. The whole of New Zealand is sad for our beautiful Christchurch.

First Dollshouse - Bedroom

2011-02-09T20:35:00.008+13:00

The final room in my little tour of my first dollshouse is the bedroom on the top floor. I must say that I definitely learnt my lesson by building this particular room. It is such a crazy shaped room that it is difficult to furnish and very difficult to photograph!

It is built in the triangle roof and even though I made it a couple of centimetres taller than the plan said, it is still very annoying having the two sloping roofs on each side - there is no room for the furniture (let alone a door - so there is no way into this room!) and there are not enough walls on which to put pictures. Oh well, we live and learn!

I really like the bed I have in this room. It is a Phoenix white metal kit - quite soft metal, but really finely detailed....I've seen the same bed painted really nicely in gold and white (that's probably what I would do now, and then add rust!!), but I like this old-fashioned look. Since I can't really sew, making the bedding was a huge challenge for me! I was really proud of my pillow case, which is made from an old linen handkerchief.....I love the cut work edge. The pillow was embroidered by a lady called Judy and it goes really nicely with the old broach that I found to use as a picture on the wall.

I like the dressing table, and had great fun making pefume bottles out of old beads. The dressing table set is a Chrysnbon set, which my friend Trish has beautifully handpainted. I made the hydrangea that you can't quite see behind the chair.

This beautiful doll was my "special" purchase at our national Convention about two years ago. I think she is gorgeous!Another favourite thing in this room is this sweet Alice in Wonderland doll. She was knitted by Helen Palenski, who is a New Zealand IGMA artisan.

She sits on the chest at the end of the bed. This was already a very nice plain wooden chest, but I have messed around with decals again here to make it resemble the Norwegian Rosemaling folk art painting. The pretty green shoes on the floor are by Sylvia Rowntree, the Dolls Cobbler.

Actually, silly as it might sound, I am really proud of the floors in this house. I found some pieces of paper that looked like wood, and before putting the house together I painted the floors black, then cut strips of the wood paper and glued them to the floor, leaving tiny gaps between so that the black showing through looked like the "gaps" between the floorboards. Then I painted the floor randomly with watercolours so that it wouldn't look so uniform, and finally it got two coats of varnish. I like this floor that I made so much better than any of the readymade floor papers I have seen.

This is the window in the bedroom. Yes, blinds again....you know I can't make curtains. This blind is also made from an old handkerchief. The cranberry glass vase is so pretty and here is one of my absolute favourite miniatures....the little "Butterfly Girl" bronze by Neil Carter. It is just so beautiful!

So that is the tour of my first dollshouse...I hope you enjoyed it.

The cider turned out very very nice! I'm making my second batch now.

Cyclone Yasi update

2011-02-03T19:51:00.002+13:00

Thank you so much for your kind comments and thoughts...you are all so lovely. I really appreciated it! Funny how you can get support from people this way. It made my day a bit easier waiting for news.

My lovely Emma is fine.....they got through the storm perfectly well and although I don't think she has been able to go home yet, it is likely that her home will be ok as it is concrete block rather than wood.

The photo is me on my first day of university (many many years ago now), with my three sisters. Emma is the one to the right of the picture, holding my hand.

xxx to you all!!

Cyclone Yasi

2011-02-03T07:39:00.005+13:00

This is my beautiful sister, Emma. She and her husband live in Cairns in the path of cyclone Yasi. She rang yesterday to let us know that they had left their home to stay somewhere safer with friends. We are waiting to hear how they got through the night. She is such a wonderful person - the most happy, postive, likeable person I know. It's hard having her live far away in Australia. I have three sisters and a brother and I love them so much!

Playing Big and Little

2011-01-28T16:30:00.005+13:00

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

2011-01-25T16:37:00.010+13:00

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

2011-01-18T16:33:00.006+13:00

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

2011-01-08T20:49:00.005+13:00

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!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-19T20:22:00.010+13:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I thought you might like a tiny taste of Christmas in New Zealand, so here is a picture of the Pohutukawa Tree.... here it is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree.

It is a coastal tree and flowers with these beautiful red blossoms every Christmas.

Most kiwis will spend some time sitting in a shade of a giant pohutukawa down at the beach at some time during the Christmas holidays.

Christmas is the start of summer holidays for us - last Christmas Eve our family spent the day at the beach and we're looking forward to lots more of that this year! It's way nicer than last minute Christmas shopping!

So for those of you who are having a white Christmas, chuck some snow around for me and I promise to wriggle my toes in the sand for you!

May you and your family have the most wonderful Christmas ever!

with lots of love from a kiwi girl in New Zealand!!

Christmas is coming early!

2010-12-07T10:25:00.011+13:00

It feels as though Christmas is coming early at the Shabby Cottage. Last week I opened a parcel to find the most beautiful little miniatures, which had been sent by Iris (Lataina). She hasn't got a blog for you to read (maybe we can talk her into it!!). I was amazed at all the little things she has made. These are her first attempt at minis, so I am most impressed!

Iris had included some absolutely gorgeous little birdhouses to add to the "birdhouse wall". I just love them. She is certainly a dab hand with the crackle glaze and has an eye for putting colours together.

Among the presents was this absolutely stunning little peg board for the little boy's room. It is so beautifully done! And Iris even went to the trouble to find out what the New Zealand flag looked like and has painted an approximation of it on the sails of the little boat. Iris - thank you so much - this is so lovely.

....AND THEN....

... a couple of days later, before I had even had a chance to put any pictures or thank yous on this blog, ANOTHER box arrived from Iris, with more amazing little minis!

You can see how good she is at crackle paint effects - this little tub is just gorgeous with its pretty pink and blue.

And it is just the right size to fit these flowers! You can also see Jenn's cute little birds egg soaps, which I don't think I've shown you before.

Iris made all these tiny pencils!! They look adorable in the little boy's room.

Here is a photograph showing all the little birdhouses. My father visited in the weekend and said that they were all too close together because birds are teritorial and don't like to use nesting boxes which are too close together, so I have spread them out a bit. I'm not sure if imaginary miniature birds are as fussy as real birds.

It was my friend Dorothee who inspired me to want a wall of birdhouses. She has made some for her cottage (we all made a cottage from the same kit)....this is picture of her cottage wall with its birdhouses.
And when she saw that I had started adding birdhouses to my cottage, she brought these ones round as a gift! Thank you Dorothee!

So you can see that Christmas has come early for the Shabby Cottage, with all of these lovely things arriving recently.

I haven't forgotten the tour of my first dollshouse - I will show you the living room next....

Wow, Frederica!

2010-11-29T13:14:00.007+13:00

I couldn't believe my eyes the other day when I opened a little envelope that arrived in the mail and out popped a whole lot of treasures from Frederica!!

She had sent a whole lot of lovely little presents - they are so sweet and I can see that the little brocante shop she is working on must be absolutely gorgeous with these lovely little things inside! She had made the most beautiful hand knitted cardigan, complete with tiny buttons and pretty silk ribbon threaded through! I took it to work and everyone was amazed, even though they are not miniaturists. It really seems as though everyone has a fascination with tiny things, and can appreciate beautiful work when they see it! And there was even a tiny knitted hat to go with it!

Some of the other things Frederica sent were these little bottles on a lovely aged tray and there are even gift tags and cards included!

I feel so lucky - I must admit I had really really longed for a little cardigan like the ones I had seen on Frederica's blog - I even bought some thread and knitting needles to see if I could manage it myself, but I must admit it isn't very likely I could make something like this! So thank you so much, Frederica! I love my little gifts and you are lovely to do this!

Here is the cardigan in pride of place in the bedroom. You can also see the little shabby picture in this photo. The photos are all a bit blue today, but never mind. At least they are the only thing in my life that is "blue" at present!

I think bloggers are the most kind, geneous people! Don't you agree??

Birdhouses

2010-11-22T12:23:00.004+13:00

One of the things I have had on my wishlist for the cottage is some little birdhouses. I want to cover the whole of the side wall with them, but haven't got around to making them yet. And then I fell in love! Katrina from Katie's Clay Corner posted about a birdhouse she had been making and I just adored it....some quick work on Etsy on my part and now here it is at my house! I couldn't believe it when I opened the parcel.....I could never have parted with it if I had been Katrina.....the aged paintwork is just wonderful!!! It is on display on my bookcase at present but here is a photo of it outside the cottage. Thank you Katrina....I really love it!!

The little birdhouses on the wall came in the same parcel - I will make some more sometime soon to add to this wall.

Now it is time to go outside to walk my little dog!

Some lovely presents!

2010-11-17T22:10:00.010+13:00

I am a very lucky girl.....I have some lovely little bits and pieces to show you! I was very excited that at our recent Convention I knew that I would get to see Marion. She is just lovely, and I was looking forward to spending a bit more time with her before she went back to Australia. On her last day, she popped round to visit. I really wish I hadn't been so busy and had had more time to spend with her! She made these beautiful miniatures for me! This gorgeous basket has been so beautifully made and given a wondeful shabby finish! And inside it are a whole lot of lovely tiles that she has made herself from air-drying clay. They have the most beautiful pictures of flowers and birds on them! I just love them....thank you so much Marion!

Here they are in the bedroom, next to the washbasin. The colours are just right!

Marion and Dorothee had also been busy making little cats that sit on a door frame. I am a bit short of door frames in my little cottage but one of my little cats looks very much at home on the picture frame in the living room. Sadly there are still no curtains at the window, and the window looks as dirty as my real windows in this photo, but the cat is very cute!!

Now that it isn't long until Christmas, it is time to fill the house with Christmas goodies. My Dad always had bowls of nuts at Christmas and here is a lovely big bowl of walnuts in the dollshouse. The wooden bowl is absolutely gorgeous....it was given to me by a lovely gentleman who does the most beautiful woodturning....he had the stall next to me at the recent Convention and this was his parting gift .... I probably need to show a photo of it empty to show it off properly.

I was pretty happy with these little walnuts, and so I have to share the secret with you. I work for a seed company, and one of my jobs is filling packets of seed (we still do it by hand). I really like seeing how all the different seeds look, and of course can't help looking at them with a miniaturist eye! And the other day I had to fill Euphorbia Marginata (Snow on the Mountain) and the seeds looked just like walnuts! So here are a few of them waiting for Christmas in the cottage.

This is what the plant looks like.

I had a really amazing parcel arrive today so I will post some photos of the contents soon!

My First Dollshouse

2010-11-15T16:00:00.011+13:00

Well, just as a change from shabby chic, I thought I would give you a little tour of my other dollshouse. This dollshouse is the first house I built, about four years ago - from a pattern in a library book, with my father-in-laws help. This was back in the days when I thought you had to BUY all the furniture and accessories for inside the dollshouse. This dollshouse is Victorian/Edwardian (hmmmmnn??) and has three rooms.

Today's tour is the kitchen. Here is a photo of the whole room, populated by the cook, her friend from the country who is visiting, and the butler, who would quite like to have a cup of tea with them! I don't really like to put dolls in my scenes any more, but I did put dolls in this house and so they have to stay there!

I am especially attached to these two dolls because they were made by a lovely New Zealand lady and they have such a lot of character in their faces! They look as though they would be very nice friendly people to get to know!

I love the stove, which was "as cheap as chips" (that means very cheap!) I love all the ornate details! The copperware on the stove was made by Ken Wyman here in New Zealand. I really love the little kitchen rack you can see in the top photo, with all the copperware on display. Isn't it great that you can have the things in miniature that you would like to have in real life but can't afford!

This shelf was meant to be a bathroom shelf, but I am pretending it belongs in the kitchen because I really like it. It looks like someone has used one of those old parcel racks from a train carriage as a shelf in the kitchen. The coffee pot is totally out of era but I don't care at all because I am a coffee fantatic in real life.

It was great fun filling up the dresser....I have ginger beer bugs there because the cook is making ginger beer every week, and there are some wonderful preserves. The "shawl" hanging on the hook is an old lace collar that was given to me by my lovely 90-year-old neighbour, Elsie, who has since passed away. She enjoyed visiting and looking at the dollshouse.

I made most of the preserves but the asparagus spears are the wonderful work of Linda Cummings at Linsminis, who makes wonderful miniature food!

This is my favourite item in the kitchen and I made it myself! I made lots and lots of jam and jelly last summer (in real full sized life) and this is a miniature apple and blackberry jelly board I made. I love the little blackberries!

Finally, here is the kitchen window, which is on the opening front of the dollshouse. My husband's family are Dutch, so I made the little Dutch plates above the window. The little windmill on the windowsill was a bracelet charm. The gorgeous blue art nouveau "plate" is an antique French enamel button. The picture to the right of the window was a broach that was in my little boy's kindy play box....his kindy teacher said I could have it for the dollshouse. I made the little jams on the windowsill and the peaches. The lovely pink bowl that holds the peaches was made by Bill Helmer.

Well, that will do for now. I have lots more to show you but will do that another day. I hope you have enjoyed this visit to my "old" dollshouse! And have a lovely, lovely week!!!!!

Look at these!

2010-11-02T17:10:00.004+13:00

I didn't particularly set out to end up making vast quantities of dollshouse plates, but it seems to have ended up that way! I just couldn't resist showing you these ones!! Arent' they just gorgeous??? One of my Etsy friends suggested I make some plates like this and here they are. I just love these!

Show and Tell

2010-10-31T10:48:00.013+13:00

It has been a week since our big Convention (we only have one every two years). I am still absolutely shattered, but it was a great four days! I took the shabby cottage and it survived the trip ok - the only casualty was a beautiful little blue butterfly which blew out of the dollshouse when I was carrying it to the display hall, never to be seen again. I thought I would show you a photo of the little boy's room as it is now.... it's looking a lot more like a real room, with plenty of mess and toys everywhere!

I managed to find time to make the blinds and few more little cushions for this room. I did it the night before leaving for Convention.

I did manage to do a little bit of work on the shabby cottage before I left.....I also had all the displays and stock for my stall to prepare so I was pretty busy in the lead up to Convention. But I managed to find time to add some pretty decals to the toaster in the kitchen.

Now it is time for Show and Tell! I was quite a good girl at Convention and just bought a few little treasures to add to the shabby cottage.

I bought these gorgeous little toys for the little boy's room. The little pedal car and the castle are made by a New Zealand artist called Jewell Lewis. I added them to the shelves in the little boy's room.

I usually buy something from Jewell whenever I see her. Jewell also made the little teddy on the bottom shelf and the old fashioned golly money box that you can see in the photos - I bought them four years ago at a previous Convention. Jewell is so clever and a real character! In the photo above you can also see the little "Hornby" box I made for extra trainset bits and pieces.

I also bought a very pretty cake tin, also made by Jewell, decorated with pretty pansies.

This pretty flower arrangement was made by my friend Elizabeth. Such pretty colours! I bought these two little cushions from a lady visiting from Australia. She had filled them with seed beads, which I think is a fantastic idea. I'll try that for my next cushions because it makes them beautifully floppy and soft! They are trimmed with bunka, which looks great.

I also bought this gorgeous rusty metal bucket, filled with flowers. It is so pretty! I hope it doesn't fade, as I have put it outside the front door of the cottage.

The cute little resin bunnies were meant to be for sale in my shop but they decided to stay at the cottage instead.

While we were at Convention, it was my birthday, and my mother-in-law bought me these beautiful hand-made slippers as a birthday present. Lucky me! She spent the whole four days helping me, along with my lovely friend Ann-Maree, and it made such a difference having some help. I suspect that all three of us went home exhausted! I was so grateful to them both for helping me. Ann-Marree - thank you so much - I know you are lurking out there!

It was really nice to be able to see some other bloggers there. Marion, Mercedes and Frederika were there. I had made them each a little present (but I forgot to take photos), and I was so glad I had made the time to do that!

Finally, here is my most optimistic purchase over the weekend! I wanted a pretty little shabby chic cardigan to put in the white bedroom, but the only miniature knitting for sale was baby clothes, so I bought a pair of knitting needles and some thread and I will have a go at making something myself. AAAAarrrgghhh! It will probably make me pull my hair out but I will do my best! You never know what you can do until you try. Last time I attempted miniature knitting I chose an extremely complicated pattern (I am a great one for leaping in at the deep end), and then cast all my stitches off too soon and the shawl ended up too small to use. I will keep it simple this time and see how it goes.

I am hoping to have a bit more time from now on, as my work hours had dropped back to three days a week. And summer is coming! Yay!

Trying to get done for the show

2010-10-19T20:07:00.006+13:00

I have been busy getting ready for our national Convention, which is held only every two years. I am taking the Shabby Cottage for the display area, so I need to get it a little bit more finished. Of course, there will still be a lot of little touches to be added as time goes by, but I didn't want it going to Convention with the little boy's room looking completely empty, so I have been trying to make it look a bit more lived in.

I bought some printable computer fabric (AND I got it here in NZ - I get a bit sick of having to order things in from overseas all the time, so I was delighted to find it in a NZ based online quilting shop. YAY....it only took two days to arrive!!) I printed some gorgeous Kath Kidson and Greengate patterns and have made some cute little cushions, pillow and blinds for the shabby cottage. I really like the pillows on the little boy's bed! They are so cheerful. I think I will make some blinds to match. I am a huge fan of blinds (that's because I am so crappy at making curtains. I used a cute strawberry print for the blind in the kitchen.

I also used the unprinted edges of the fabric - the bit that was outside the margins - to make some plain white blinds for the bedroom. I had pictured beautiful diaphanous curtains here but the blinds will do for now and I can figure out the curtains later. I also made the little patterned cushion on the bed and the big square lace-edged pillow.

And this little cushion for the living room.

I had to take the shelves out of the little boys room and redo them - they were all wonky and the shelves were sloping and sagging. I pulled it all apart and sanded it back, then reglued it back together with some spacers in between the shelves to try and hold them straight. And at the same time some friends called round, so I was making cappucinos and talking at a million miles an hour, while hoping that it was all straight because the glue was drying. Another coat of white paint, and back in it went. On the shelves you can see all his toys....he even has a tiny rock collection like my "real" boy! And lots of books, but I need to make more - I want to make some old-looking Biggles books, as my own Matthew really likes reading those! That will have to be done after Convention.

This is the table in the boy's room....he loves nature and butterflies and you can see that he has all sorts of things that interest him on his little table.

Thank you all for coming to visit my blog - I love reading your comments! Wish me luck at Convention!!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

2010-10-11T19:19:00.010+13:00

I am so delighted with this beautiful bead curtain!! I have always had a cunning plan to make a bead curtain for this little cottage but of course haven't found the time up until now. Recently, I went to a dollshouse show at my old club, and while I was admiring my friend Lynn's wonderful miniature holiday home (or bach, as we call them here in NZ), I saw that she had a multicoloured bead curtain hanging at the door. There really are no new ideas under the sun!! She told me where she got it, and when I went and had a look, there was one in white and pink. It arrived a couple of days ago and I just love it! It fits in beautifully.

The first picture was taken with the lights on in the living room, so it has a definite pink cast (which I like so I have shown you anyway). The above photo taken from the kitchen shows the colour a bit more realistically. I am so glad I have found this curtain because I am really short of time at present!

I am working on the little boy's room now. I must say, I don't think I have made my job much easier for myself by having a boy's room in a shabby chic cottage.....a little girl's room would have been a darn sight easier! But there you are, this girl loves a challenge!!

I have made some built in shelves, which you can see in the background, and here is a gorgeous little train set I have had stashed away for ages. It wouldn't stay together at all until I glued all the pieces of track to a piece of very thin acetate. I glued the train on the track, and then cut the acetate away so that you couldn't see it. If you look closely you will see I have done a crappy job of the trimming - I'll come back to that job later. The "station" by the track is a lovely little "dollshouse for a dollshouse" made by Twelfth Dimension. I bought it a long time ago and am glad to have found it a good home. The little pull toy dog that you can see in the background was bought at the same time, and is identical to a real one my father bought me when I was three.

I am taking this little cottage to a big dollshouse show in two weeks time so I have a bit of work to do in the next two weeks, that's for sure!!

I haven't been able to get hold of Marta, who won the giveaway, so if any of you can help me make contact with her, that would be wonderful. I had a similar problem with the last giveaway....don't know why!!!

....and the winner is....

2010-09-21T17:13:00.005+12:00

First of all, apologies to any of you who noticed that I have done the draw a couple of days late. I didn't forget, but it is very busy here and I ran out of time on the 19th. And the 20th. To make sure it was fair, I entered only those who had entered up to the 19th September in the draw.

I was amazed at how many names there were - thank you so much to you for entering!!! My gorgeous little Ella was very pleased to help me draw the prize.

The winner was Marta, who has a lovely blog with the most gorgeous shabby chic dollshouse! I would love to shrink small enough to go and live in it!! Congratulations, Marta...I really hope you like your prize. If you could contact me then I will mail your parcel out to you.

I hope you have a lovely week, with lots of smiles and laughs!!

Party at the Shabby Cottage

2010-09-18T11:12:00.007+12:00

I little while ago Kim set the table for a spectacular party and I thought it was a great idea, so today there is a little party at the shabby cottage, with delicious cake and cupcakes. I made the little Greengate table mats today and the pretty flowers in the pitcher were made by a lovely lady, Elizabeth, from my miniatures club. The cake is from Kim and the cupcakes are by Lory.

A Shabby Window Mirror

2010-09-07T21:44:00.006+12:00

I have been meaning to make a mirror for the living room for ages....I wanted one that looks as though it has been made from an old window frame. Then the other day when I was lost in blog-land, I saw a wondeful photo here of a lovely full-sized one, complete with shutters, and got all inspired. The main thing holding me up has been getting hold of a piece of real mirror that was around about the right size. I've pulled apart makeup compacts (mirror was too big) and shopped at the $2 shop (mirrors were too small), and then I remembered I had another mirror lurking in the shadows.

Now, no offence to anyone who has this mirror in their Victorian dollshouse, where it probably looks fantastic, but it doesn't suit my little shabby cottage at all, so....

....OFF WITH ITS HEAD!

...and a bit of paint, and glue and after the addition of a shutter that has been cut in half, here is my mirror and it looks just right in the living room. That wall needed something to brighten it up and I am really happy with it. It's not quite the same as the one in the photo but I thought that too much more embellishment in addition to the shutters would probably be a bit over the top.

Tutorial - Decorating plates with waterslide decals

2010-09-04T13:38:00.023+12:00

I have been thinking for some time about doing a tutorial to show you how I make the little plates you have seen on my blog and on Etsy. This is my first go at doing a tutorial, so please forgive any mistakes... also, if anyone can tell me how you get the photos to go bigger when you click on them, that would be greatly appreciated as I seem to have forgotten how to do it!!

So... first tutorial.....here goes.....

I make my little plates (and lots of other things) using waterslide decal paper. I bought it here. If you are in the UK you can also get it here. Unfortunately for me, it is extremely expensive to get it shipped half way round the world to New Zealand (it doubles the price!!!) but for you lucky people who don't live so far away, it won't be as expensive. You need to order the right decal paper for your printer....I have an injet. I use the clear waterslide decal paper.

For this tutorial I will show you how to make a collection of shabby chic plates. You need the images first of all - for these ones I bought a magazine with a wonderful plate display on the cover and photographed the cover to get images of the plates. You will need to crop them down as tightly as possible so that you can later easily make them the correct size. I also photoshopped a few things out - I took out the visible edges of the plate hangers on these plates.

However you get the images, you will need each individual image cropped right down to the edges. Then you need to accurately measure the diameter of the plates you will be using. The easiest surface to apply decals to is something smooth and flat....it is WAY WAY harder to apply the decals to cupped, curved and scallopped surfaces. If you can find some nice, delicately made plates, you will end up with a nicer result than if you use something clunky.

Once you have measured your plates, you need to make a document on your computer with your desired images sized to the correct size. Eg, the plates above are 24mm in diameter, so I have sized the images to 24mm in diameter as well. Print your document out. I use the best quality printing option and choose the "glossy photo paper" option....actually there are really good instructions included with the decal paper. If you are organised it can be better to print a whole page of images at once (that is what I do now), but you CAN print just a few....

...If you do this, then cut the printed part off the main sheet and save the main sheet for printing on again later.

Once you are sure the ink is properly dry (oh, I am SO impatient!!!), then you need to spray with a fixative. I use an acid-free matt fixative from an art supply shop. If you are buying your paper locally and don't have shipping issues, you could get the fixative from the same place you get your decal paper. Note: If you have a laser printer, apparently you can skip this step as the paper is already waterproof.

Then you have to wait for the fixative to dry. I clip it to the clothesline or leave it somewhere dry and try really hard to be patient. Once it is dry you can get started! Cut out your decal, keeping close to the edges. (Put your glasses on Carolyn!)

Drop your decal into a shallow bowl of water. It will curl up and then a short while later will flatten out again. The decal will be loosening from the backing...don't leave it in there too long.

When the decal has loosened from the backing, you can gently slide it onto the plate. Position it carefully, and then try to remove all water and air between the decal and the plate. I do this by pressing my thumb firmly down on the middle of the decal and then rolling it to the edges. It gets easier with practice....I've ruined plenty of decals - it certainly pays to have made spares!

If you manage to get the decal positioned nicely and the air and water out from underneath, then that's fantastic - put it carefully aside and let it dry out properly.....it's pretty frustrating if you knock it crooked and ruin it at this point. The decals are a little bit forgiving, but lots of handling will just ruin them - they can fold on themselves or stretch if you mess around with them too much. You can, however, make small adjustments if they aren't quite straight. After they have properly dried, they are pretty permanent.... when I have tried to scrape them off it was easy as pie just after they are applied and nearly impossible a few days later.

Here are the finished plates!

If you are making decals that don't cover the whole surface, like the little flower decal on the plate above, they are much easier to apply because you can just cut round the picture itself and don't need to be as accurate with positioning.

The little logo on this mixer is a decal I made and added.

I am a huge fan of these decals - I have made all the items in the above picture using them. If you use the clear waterslide decal paper you need to be aware that anything in your decal image that is white will be colourless on the finished decal. So if you then apply it to something green, the green will show through instead of white. The decals are slightly transparent, so putting them on a surface that is any colour other than white will alter the other colours too. Therefore it is easier to use a white background. But you can apply them to many different surfaces - the toybox and kitchen board above are wood, the Chocolate Pot is porcelain, the cannisters are metal and the little shabby cannister with the pansies is painted resin.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial....you are very welcome to contact me with any questions. Have fun with your decal making!!!!

Giveaway and a lovely swap

2010-08-29T20:39:00.006+12:00

Well, I thought I would do a giveaway to celebrate 200 followers...thank you all so much for following and commenting on my blog - it is really motivating and I appreciate it so much.

Since so many of you like the little Greengate plates I have been making, I thought that it would be a nice thing to offer as a giveaway, so here it is. There is a little shabby table, some little books - one is a cookbook, one is called "Shabby Chic" and the third is "Vintage Style" by Cath Kidson. There is a chocolate pot, a cakestand, and six large and six small Greengate plates. I really hope you like this giveaway!

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is be a follower and make a comment on this post. If you feel like copying the picture and linking from your blog, then that would be great. I'll draw the giveaway winner on 19th September.

I was very very lucky this week, because one of my blog-heroes agreed to do a swap with me and look at the lovely, lovely things that arrived. Kim sent a gorgeous cake and some cake slices, some adorable cupcakes, and even a little bowl of icing and a wonderful shabby heart shaped board. I love it all, thank you so much, Kim!!! She is having a party at her blog at the moment and the pictures are to die for!!!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you so much for stopping by. :-) You are all lovely to come visit and I really appreciate it.

It's (not) all about the kitchen

2010-08-21T20:40:00.009+12:00

I seem to post a lot about the kitchen, and I hope you are not getting sick of seeing it. Warning....lots of photos in this post. I decided that today was the day to fill the kitchen cupboards. I made this cupboard quite a while ago, and it has been sitting nearly empty on the kitchen wall ever since, with just a couple of things sitting forlornly on the shelves. So today I had a lovely time filling up the cupboard.

There is quite a mixture of things there....on the top shelf I made the jars of jam by filling real glass jars with resin. I also made the little cookbooks (they are mostly about making cakes, cupcakes and macaroons), and the label for the food can. The blue tumbler is part of a Chrysnbon set - I am a huge fan of these - you may have seen the green pitcher in previous posts. The purple vase, along with the matching milk jug on the bottom shelf are by Sam Dunlap.

Most of the boxes on the middle shelf were made by a fellow miniaturist - I bought them at a show. The lovely little pastel cupcake papers were made by Cindy - aren't they wonderful! The stoneware jug on the far right is by Elizabeth Causeret. I made the spotty plate, and the two on the bottom shelf (more about them later).

Also on the bottom shelf are more books and a little sugar jar with a cute polkadot lid which started life as a scrapbooking brad.

I had two lovely things arrive at my house this week. My lovely friend, Dorothee left a little parcel by my front door, and inside was this beautiful flower arrangement. What a lovely surprise at the end of a long day!

And then I opened a parcel from Lory and look what was inside. These cupcakes are so beautiful! I absolutely love them and I think I must be her biggest fan.

I was really pleased this week because I have finally found some really nice, delicate porcelain plates to use as blanks for my Green Gate plates. I had a lovely time today making plates, and then of course I had to re-do the other kitchen shelves because I had different plates I wanted to display. So here is the new display - I really like the spotty plates and now I can do big and small plates so that is great. The only problem is that I really can't fit any more plates in the house.

Here is a photo of one side of the kitchen. Can you spot the thing I forgot to do??

But while we are trying to find more places to put plates, here is something I found that I was really pleased about. The little glass cakestand that arrived the other day, which was too jolly small for anything in 1/12 scale except the tiniest cupcake, fit perfectly over one of my small plates, and look what is displayed inside...one of the pretty butterflies that WAS going to be in the little boys room. This one has been stolen away and moved to the bedroom.

I really should stop faffing around with plates and make some curtains.

Thank you so much for reading my blog....I enjoy your comments. And keep watching because, to my amazement, the 200 followers is approaching and I think I will do another little giveaway. I hope you all have a wondeful week.

Polka dot chocolate pot

2010-08-15T19:00:00.012+12:00

I thought I would show you what I have been working on today. I had a little chocolate pot that I have been meaning to play around with for some time and today I decided I would decorate it, so here it is with green polka dots and floral designs. It has been on a little trip around the cottage, trying to decide where it would best like to sit....

....would it like to be on the kitchen bench? No, it feels too big here and doesn't know what to say to the sundae glasses.

....would it like to be in the living room beside the bookcase? Well, no. That is just a silly place for a chocolate pot. But there's plenty to read!

....would it like to sit on the shelf by the door? Well maybe... .....but what are the other options??

....would it like to sit up high with a good view of the kitchen? Yes, for now that will do.

Yes, the only thing I have made is the chocolate pot, so I needed to take lots of photos of it!

I am happy because my knee is feeling less sore and today I took my little dog for a walk myself for the first time since I hurt my knee a month ago. It was raining but I didn't care. I was a bit slow but I didn't care.

It was so nice to be outside and I am so happy that it is a bit better.

Butterflies and some French Country treasures.

2010-08-08T15:48:00.008+12:00

I have been very busy catching up with commissions lately, so I STILL haven't made any furniture for the shabby cottage, but I thought I would show you how the little boy's room is progressing. I have decided that he is going to be a little nature lover. He has a rock collection (just like my own little boy) and he goes out hunting butterflies. So here are some of the treasures in his room. He has a beautiful butterfly poster on his wall, and his butterfly net and jar are on the floor - he has five beautiful butterflies in the jar (made by Susanna).

One of the butterflies has escaped - you can see it sitting on the top of the jar - I hope he carefully recaptures it in time to return it and the others safely outdoors! As you can see, I spent way too much time on Etsy about a month ago!! The marbles, which are tiny and perfect and made of real glass, were another Etsy find.

I thougth I would also show you some gorgeous little treasures that arrived a little while ago. The originals, made by Lory, were lost in the mail and are sadly somewhere out there, still lost. :-(

Lory made me some replacements - aren't they just so pretty! She is one talented and generous lady. I have some of her cupcakes on a pretty stand in a corner of the kitchen. The little keys hanging on the nail on the shabby blackboard were a wondeful ebay find.

Well, this has seemed more like a guided tour of Etsy than a proper post, but I knew I would have to own up sometime to all this shopping. I don't have any time (or money) for shopping now, so it is back to making things. That is just so much fun, and so satisfying. I had a nice time the other night, adding some cute little coat hooks and a pretty scarf to the display shutter in the bedroom - here is a photo of the bedroom, still minus curtains, but looking pretty.

I''m sorry that I haven't had time for making many comments lately, but I am really enjoying reading your inspiring blogs!

Anne of Green Gables

2010-07-29T16:52:00.004+12:00

I thought that as I haven't been able to make many little things this week, I would show you a picture of a project-in-waiting....

I am a huge fan of LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books - I have all the books she wrote and I've had the ones pictured above since I was fourteen. This lovely little Anne doll is one of the first things I bought when I discovered miniatures....she was made by Connie Suave (of The China Doll) . I had to wait two years for her to be made.

Her clothes are beauitfully made with the tiniest stitches, and her hat is so finely woven that I am just amazed . It can be taken off. She even has green eyes, just like the "real" Anne. I'm not a huge fan of dolls generally - I have a few in my Victorian house which have to stay there for sentimental reasons now, but I have decided I won't put any in future projects - I like the rooms to look as realistic as possible, which seems easier without dolls. But I would like to make a scene for this beautiful little Anne one day....since she has her carpet bag, I would like to show her waiting for Matthew at the train station. I'm sure my own little 8-year-old Matthew would be delighted if I built a miniature train station, since he is train mad. I'm even more sentimentally attached to this little doll now that I have Ella, my own little 6-year-old redhead with plaits!!

If anyone who is reading this hasn't read the Anne of Green Gables books, they are just delightful - I would hightly recommend them!!

My knee is finally starting to feel a bit better and therefore I am getting very keen on making things again so we will see what is next. The little boy's room in the shabby cottage needs some attention! Everything is on the floor because I haven't made all the furniture yet.

I am really enjoying reading your blogs, even if I have very little time to make comments these days, and I appreciate you reading mine! Thanks so much for taking the time!

Sweetpeas again

2010-07-25T18:44:00.003+12:00

Today I managed to squeeze just half an hour of mini making into my day but here are the results - my second attempt at sweetpeas. I like these ones much better - they have been made with tissue paper. Now I need to make a few more stems of these so that this is a nice big bunch of sweet peas. :-)

Reject Sweetpeas and a Reject Knee

2010-07-23T15:24:00.005+12:00

Well, I promised that I would post a photo of my sweetpeas no matter how they turned out so here they are. I don't like them at all and they are probably headed either for the bin or my daughter's dollshouse..... I made them from cold porcelain but couldn't find my thin green wires anywhere so I had to use white ones and painted them. And then I did a bad job of twisting the individual flowers into realistic stems of flowers. I have decided to try to make some from tissue paper - it might give me more the delicate look that I want. And I will make the stems first this time.

I do have an excuse for this terrible work! Last Sunday we decided that as it was the last day of the school holidays, we would take the children iceskating for the first time. New Zealand isn't very big, so there are probably only about five iceskating rinks in the whole country, so it was a whole day expedition, driving up to Auckland and going skating. The kids had a fantastic time but I now have a badly damaged knee (cruciate ligament), which is going to take about 6 weeks to come right (if I'm lucky). So I have had a difficult week, both at work and at home and it is very sore and I am sad. :-( The picture is NOT of my sad knee.....my knees are not pretty enough to post on my blog, so I am using someone else's sad knee photo! I do a lot of my miniature making kneeling on the floor by the coffee table, which I can't do at all at the moment. I fell over about a million times so no wonder I hurt myself. Ella fell over just as often but is totally fine.

But anyway, since I am generally a positive person, I will end on a happier note, so here is quite a cute photo I took of Matthew skating. He loved it so much!

Keep your fingers crossed for my next attempt at sweetpeas.

I am a Mail Junkie!

2010-07-17T16:39:00.010+12:00

Well, I have to admit that I have turned into a mail junkie! I couldn't resist this gorgeous miniature mail that Jenn had in her Etsy store! It arrived about a week ago, but now that I am at work all day, it is too dark to take photos when I get home from work (don't forget it is horrid, cold winter over here in New Zealand), but I managed to take some photos today and here they are! Firstly there are a whole lot of little sealed letters....I have put them in this shoebox - I'll put a label on the shoebox later.

Then, Jenn made a whole lot of letters that were opened....and look (!!)...

....when you open them (with tweezers, because they are so tiny), there is a real letter inside! And I opened them all and they are all different!! It must have taken ages to do.

This letter says "I love you" about a million times. How cute is that!!

Then there are a whole lot of little postcards, with gorgeous vintage images ...

... and when you turn them over, they have the writing and address on the other side, just like a real one! Everything is made so beautifully and they are all on paper that looks truly old - such a nice little group of miniature mail.

Some of these things are going into the Shabby Cottage and some will find a home in my Victorian dollshouse (which I must show you one day). I have put this lovely old vintage calendar on the bedroom wall. Sylvia made the pitcher.

Jenn also included a gift of some little soaps in the parcel (thank you Jenn), and here they are on the washstand.

As I suspected, I haven't had any time to do miniatures this week. What I would like to do next is to try to make some miniature sweet peas out of cold porcelain. Now I don't think that is going to be easy!!!! I spent a little bit of time today mixing the colours, so wish me luck. I have a feeling that it might be too hard for me.

I promise I will show you the result no matter how bad, so you will probably have a chuckle at my next post!!
And just in case they are truly awful, here is a lovely bunch of sweet peas to say thank you to my followers and welcome to my new followers - I hope you have a lovely week!

No Time

2010-07-11T16:51:00.003+12:00

I am definitely suffering from miniature making withdrawal at the moment. I knew this would happen....it's the school holidays and I just haven't had time to do anything much for the cottage since my last post. The kiddies are off to Nana's for a week now, but I start my seasonal job tomorrow, so I'll be VERY short of time from now on. Please don't give up on me if my posts are a bit less frequent!! In the meantime, here is a picture of the living room in the shabby cottage - this is a hard corner to photograph because the light hangs down in the way, but I have managed to get a photo for you....the gorgeous picture above the chair arrived yesterday - it is a stunning miniature oil painting (a fantastic ebay find!) of wildflowers. It is by Sandie Coe and it is so pretty!

All I have managed to do for the cottage over the last few days is to have made a few more books for the cottage....lots of very pretty books on baking - the person who lives in this cottage obviously loves making cupcakes and macaroons!

A very nice parcel arrived in the mail yesterday...one which excited the kids (and me!) no end. After finding something called scoubidous mentioned in Nadine's tutorial for a gorgeous little table, I wondered on my blog what a scoubidou was, and Lara offered to send me some!! They arrived yesterday - and Lara even took the trouble to translate the toy instructions into English for the children so that they could play with them too, along with an example of a little key ring made by one of her children! Thank you so much, Lara - the children had an absolutely wonderful time with the scoubidous....I had to be very quick to take the photo as they were keen to open them straight away. Now I have some to play with too, so soon I may be able to show you whether I have been able to make some little tables with them!

This is the kind of thing that makes hanging out in "blogland" so nice....thank you all for your comments, support, motivation and inspiration!!!

Rose Petals

2010-07-03T15:23:00.006+12:00

I have finally got around to having a play around with cold porcelain. I've had the ingredients sitting around for a while, but have been held up by not having an old saucepan that I didn't want to use again for food. Yesterday my lovely friend Dorothee emailed me this tutorial, and I thought it was about time I got round to it. I found an old saucepan at the op-shop, and cooked up my first batch of cold porcelain (here is the recipe). Mine turned out a bit sticky, but I added a bit more cornflour and it seems to be a bit more manageable now. I didn't feel as though my roses are as good as I would like them to be - I think I need a bit more practice with those, but I was really pleased with my little rose petals!

I coloured the cold porcelain quite a few varying shades of pink, made these tiny petals, and dusted the edges of the paler colours with pastels to get a realistic, graduated colour. They are really pretty - I have put them in a bowl on the table in the cottage living room.

You can see the graduation of colours a bit better in this photo.

Once I had all these lovely rosepetals, I couldn't resist making some cakes. It's been ages since I've made any miniature food - I've been busy working on the cottage instead.

Here are the two cakes I made today - my absolute favourite is the one with pink sugar.

My daughter Ella likes the one with red rose petals.

Roses

2010-07-01T16:00:00.009+12:00

Wow! I am so delighted with these beautiful roses. I have never made any flowers from kits before and although I have been horrendously busy over the last couple of days, I have managed to steal a few moments to make up a few roses from the flower kits that had arrived from Bonnie Lavish. These are the result. And they were really easy to make!

The trickiest thing is making them stay in the vase and not leap out onto the floor of the dollshouse if given the slightest bump. (I bumped them LOTS of times last night when trying to arrange them!) And I might work on trying to get them to droop their heads a little. I think I will mix up some clear resin to use as water, then when it is set the flowers won't be able to move around and jump out of the vase when I am trying to adjust each flower head to look graceful and realistic. I still have some little pansies to make - there are a few more steps involved with those so I need to make some quiet time to do them.

Tomorrow is the last day before the school holidays start so there might not be much quiet time around here for a while!

The little macaroons filled with Chantilly cream are from Emmaflam & Miniman - they arrived yesterday and are just beautiful!

I couldn't resist adding this photo too! My mother rang today - she is missing me! Although I wouldn't put this poster up in my real life house, I love it in the cottage kitchen - (now that I am a mother, I think my children should have a copy of this poster - Giggle!) I just think it's funny!! And I like the colours. The little parfait glasses are a homage to Mercedes and her wonderful blog - she had the original idea and I loved it, so here are some similar ones in my cottage kitchen, because it's true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

xx Carolyn

Filling the bookcase

2010-06-29T13:44:00.010+12:00

I have a welcome sign for my cottage door now. Isn't it cute?

I spent all yesterday evening and some of this morning making little books for the bookcase. These are all titles I would LOVE to have in my full-sized bookcase! I still have a few more "shabby" themed book covers to use, even though there are really more than enough decorating books now - I need to work on some novels next or my poor little cottage-dweller won't have anything to read except froth!

As you can see, I still have more books to make before the bookcase is full enough to satisfy a real bibliophile, but I'm glad the shelves aren't sitting empty any more. Some of the books on the bottom shelf have been stolen out of my other dollshouse - they are made by Grace at Treefeathers and are just gorgeous. But I have to make nearly all the books myself because I have made the bookshelves so small that only teeny weeny books will fit on the two upper shelves.

NEWSFLASH!!! I went to the optician last week to finally have my eyes tested (it's always easier to do a good job of looking after the children than for a mother to look after herself, so I am proud of myself for even doing it!) . I was sure that I was short sighted and thought I might need glasses for driving. Well, how wrong can you be! Apparently my distance vision is perfectly fine but I need glasses for reading and doing close up work. And here am I thinking I could see. My new glasses have arrived and I put them on and ...

...WOW!! EVERYTHING IS BIG AND CLEAR!

I can't believe that I have been managing all this time with such poor eyesight. Maybe I will be able to make better miniatures now.

I ordered some flower kits from Bonnie Lavish and they arrived today so I will be working on them next - hopefully I will have some beautiful flowers to show you soon!

Chest of Drawers (and some goodies)

2010-06-27T11:51:00.012+12:00

Last night I spent some time working on a chest of drawers for the bedroom. I wanted a certain style, so I had a look on the internet and I found the picture shown below....what a gorgeous piece of furniture!I had a couple of tries to make it....the first time I measured the space, printed a cropped version of this photo to the desired dimensions and used it as a template to cut the front and back pieces out of balsa wood. Such crappy wood but at least you can cut it with a pocket knife, which is a bonus if you are trying to cut curves without any of the right tools! I cut the top from balsa wood too and made the sides of thin cardboard, but when I put the chest into the room, it was too big. Yet another mini off to the bin.

So I made a smaller one, and this time made all the pieces from cardboard except the top, which is wood. The front and back are thick mountboard and the sides are thin cardboard. I didn't want the legs having that two-dimensional look, so I glued some small pieces of balsa wood to the legs to give them a more realistic shape. Then the whole piece got lots of layers of paint, trying to make it look old and worn. The bedroom is going to be white, with blue and pink accents.

At present, the handles are just the handles from the picture, cut out and glued on, so they are a bit one-dimensional, but I really like the style and don't know if I could make anything so fine any other way. I might print them on to thicker card and paint the edges black and then stick them on and they might look a little more realistic. By the time I got to this stage last night it was well after midnight, so I don't think I did too badly really.

I did say in my last post that I would 'fess up to having done some shopping recently. It's too far and too expensive to go to SIMP from here (New Zealand) but you can do way too much shopping just by sitting at the computer!! These beautiful baskets arrived last week, and you can see one of them sitting beside the chest in the bedroom. They are made by Glenda, who is a fellow kiwi. She sells them through her Etsy shop, and they are just gorgeous! I have a full-sized bag similar to these but in purple.

Here is another one on the shelf by the front door. The shelf is by Jemjoop.

And while I am owning up to shopping, you will probably have noticed the stunning vase of peonies on the chest....these were made by Pei Li and I am completely blown away by how pretty and delicate they are. They are made of cold porcelain and each flower is a different colour. She is so talented. I really love being able to include other miniaturists' work in this project....there are so many talented people out there! The little bundle of letters is part of the miniature mail that Linda made.

This is a photo of the whole wall. Still minus curtains but I will get to that eventually. One of the things I have made that I really love is the little birdhouse peg hanger that you can see on the wall above the chest. I made it from yet another photo found on the internet, mounted on wood, with a wooden roof and the very tip of a toothpick as a peg. It would be a good place to hang a pretty scarf or necklace. And my favourite picture in the house can be seen above the window. This is a reproduction of a beautiful watercolour painting my mother has hanging in her house. It is one of a pair, but my camera batteries died before I could photograph the other one. I really love this picture!

More later - I have to go and feed the family their lunch!

Giveaway Winner

2010-06-26T11:09:00.005+12:00

First of all, thank you all so much for entering my giveaway draw. Some of my blog-heroes entered, which made me feel most amazed and happy! I am so grateful for the inspiration I get from your wonderful blogs. You are all so talented, clever and passionate! My lovely children, Matthew and Ella, were very happy to help me draw the winner's name.
We did it the low-tech way by putting all the names in a bowl and Matthew drew the winner.Congratulations to Francesca (Chipironini) who is the winner of the draw. So the parcel is off to Madrid!

Blogging can be quite addictive! I've struggled to "wait" until today to do another post. AND it can be a bit of a timewaster. I spent absolutely ages yesterday trying to figure out how to add a translating button onto this blog but I finally figured it out. And as for blog makeovers..... (!!!!)....well, once you get started you pretty well have to keep going until you finish. So now I have a made-over blog but it took me so long that I don't know if I'll do it again in a hurry!

'Fess up time is coming....I've been doing some shopping! Now that the sun has finally come out (it's been a rainy, wet, cold winter here so far), I can get some good photos and show you some little bits and pieces.....

Carolyn's Giveaway

2010-06-21T09:59:00.004+12:00

I thought I would have a giveaway to celebrate reaching 100 followers, but the big 100 came and went before I had prepared everything. Now it is ready and I am delighted to be able to offer this giveaway. All you have to do to be eligible is to be a follower and leave a comment and I will enter you in the draw, to be drawn on 26th June.

Good luck! I really hope you like these little miniatures!

xxxx Carolyn

Washstand, Bench and some miniature mail

2010-06-18T15:13:00.019+12:00

I have been busy with cardboard and wire again and have made this little washstand for the bedroom in the Shabby Cottage.

I followed the instructions in Christine-Lea Frisoni's wonderful book Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature. When I had finished, it looked a bit as though it was up on stilts, so I shortened the legs down until it seemed the right size for this small room.

My friend Trish is a talented painter and had painted this Chrysnbon bowl with beautiful flowers, so I cut a hole in the top of the washstand and put the bowl in. Then I had to repaint the stand a more creamy colour to match the bowl.

I already had the porcelain jug, and it is just the right colour and size!

This is a picture of the bottom shelf - the basket is by Al Chandronnait (but I took the handle off). I made the little towels from some very fine towelling from a pair of baby mittens.

I made the round soaps from fimo and wrapped them in tissue and labelled them, and I made the "Cath Kidson" box and the bird's egg soap box.

The comb and the soap dish are also painted by my friend Trish as part of the same set as the bowl. The little cranberry glass jar is by Glasscraft and I made the perfume bottle from a pretty bead.

I was excited to open a parcel today which arrived from Lory Tonetti. I bought a beautiful shelf from her....matching the bowl she made. "Imagine my disappointment" when I realised that I couldn't fit it into the cottage - the cottage is really quite small and I didn't have much wall space.....however.....it is just the right size to be a bench by the front door....and here it is, with it's new legs, looking beautiful (I hope Lory doesn't mind!!).

And here is the co-ordinating bowl on the living room table. So beautiful!

I was delighted to find that the mailman had brought some miniature mail for my Shabby Cottage the other day.

This gorgeous little shoebox full of letters, postcards and envelopes arrived from Linda - all so beautifully made and detailed! Now I have some delightful little letters to place around the house.

Here are some in the letter rack (also painted by Trish). And some more on the bottom shelf of the table. Alison's little sweets are shown better here...aren't they gorgeous!

And finally... ...WOW....I have over 100 followers.....I am so amazed and happy that you are interested in my blog....thank you so much for your comments and your interest. I am really enjoying visiting your blogs too and getting so many wonderful ideas and inspiration from your work. Thank you so much!!

I dropped the bear in the paint!

2010-06-15T15:56:00.008+12:00

I can't believe I am so silly. I decided to paint the upstairs bedroom. I had papered it in blue toile paper when I was building the house, but have since gone right off it. Since deciding to move the little boy's room into that room, it needed to be redone, so I have painted the walls cloudy blue (I still have some retouching to do on the ceiling!). I somehow managed to DROP the little miniature bear Alison gave me into a pot of blue paint!!!!! I was so upset. Out he came and when I rinsed him under the tap (poor little guy), most of the blue paint came off. Unfortunately, so did one of his ears and his face, which had been drawn on with a pen. Oh dear! After he had dried out, I glued his ear back on and also added two tiny little no-hole glass beads to be his new eyes, and a cluster of three beads for his nose. And here he is, looking a little more worn but still very much loved! On a happier note, here are a couple more things I have made for the shabby cottage. I really like having old shutters as displays, so I have made an old shutter for the shabby bedroom. I might add some coat hooks or drape some jewellery/scarfs over it when I have time to make some. Next to the shutter is another table I made (this usually lives downstairs in the living room). Worn and old and rusty, and on top are some pretty fruit jellies made by Alison Brand. They look delicious!! You can't really see how lovely they are so I'll take a better photo of them one day. Here is a view of the shutter display taken through the window. Again, thank you for all your comments on my last post - I was delighted to find Nadine's table tutorial I was looking for, with your kind help. It is exciting to see my followers climbing towards the big 100....keep watching for a celebration.....

....and finally, I have spent some time today putting some shabby bits and pieces on Etsy....

including the firescreen pictured above and some shabby plates.

Shabby Table

2010-06-13T15:13:00.005+12:00

I was trolling around the internet in the middle of the night a while ago and found a wonderful photo of a little table - I think this was a tutorial by Christine-Lea Frisoni (by the way, if anyone knows where I could access this tutorial I would be so grateful!!!). It is pictured below. I just loved this little table, so I had a go at making one today (rainy weekend). I had the same old superglue issues but I am quite pleased with this little table for the shabby bedroom....I have made it rusty so it looks old and well-loved.

Thank you so much for your comments - I really appreciate them!

I hate superglue!!!

2010-06-12T16:27:00.006+12:00

I really hate superglue. It never seems to stick the things it is meant to, but always does a fantastic job of sticking my fingers together. I avoid it whenever I can but got it out today to help me make this shabby bed for the cottage.

I've spent ages on this today and I'm not sure if I like it or not. I used florists wire and cardboard and some findings and painted it all over with gesso. Then I stuck some little flowers on. I think this bed actually looks better in the room with the bare boards so I may swap the upstairs rooms over.

A friend sent me a bundle of lace the other day so I have used one piece as a coverlet but I'm not sure if this is really the look I wanted for the bed so it may change yet! The saying of the day is "not sure" !!

Tiny Bear

2010-06-10T14:18:00.005+12:00

In my last post, I said that I would try to get some better photos of the little bear who arrived the other day in an envelope. Here he is on the bed in the little boy's room upstairs in the shabby cottage. He is just 2omm tall when sitting down!!! I can't believe that Alison managed to make such a teeny weeny bear, all beautifully jointed. Alison is a bearmaker who makes fullsized teddybears... she made this bear as a special gift after I was talking to her about wanting a tiny polar bear for the shabby cottage.....my little boy Matthew's favourite toy is his polar bear Snowy (pictured with the miniature Snowy). What a nice surprise. Thank you so much, Alison!!

I made a garden!!

2010-06-06T16:01:00.013+12:00

This is the outside of my little shabby cottage - with the garden done!!! I have never made a garden before, so I was really grateful to my friend Trish, who taught me how to do it. The base is just an old black picture frame, which I painted white, and the garden is made from air-drying clay. I am so proud of myself. The only part of the garden that isn't finished is the vege garden which is at the side of the house...I have to make some tomato plants first. I didn't make all these flowers - some of them are commerically available, some I stole out of various paper plants I had been given over the years, and some are plastic goldfish bowl plants given to me by Trish, and some are little bits of grasses and sticks that I found while walking the kiddies to school.
I am really proud of my rocks and especially the slate stone at the front door. It was such fun painting the stones. And sticking "moss" in between them hides all the places that were hard to paint, or where the clay shrank too much as it dried.

The tub of pansies is gorgeous and was made by a friend, Elizabeth, who makes the most beautiful flowers....she also made the daisies by the front door.
This is a view of the back of the cottage. It isn't very big - there are just four rooms. I have only been working downstairs so far. The kitchen is well on the way but of course there are lots of shelves to fill there. The living room is slowly filling up. The left upstairs room is to be the main bedroom but I haven't started in there yet. The room upstairs on the right is to be a little boys room. So far, I have painted and assembled the little steel bed for that room, and sitting on the bed is a tiny bear, just 20mm high, that arrived out of the blue the other day in an envelope, from a lovely lady, Alison, who I met recently at a fair. She had made him for me and sent him along as a gift....it is the smallest bear she has ever made and it is all jointed!!! I will try and get a better photo of him soon.Here is a photo of the kitchen - I have made some "Green Gate" plates for the shelf and I am delighted with them! The little pink and green tumblers are by Chrysnbon. The sink unit is a Dolls House Emporium piece - I painted it and aged it and took out three of the drawers and replaced them with baskets. I made the little "enamel" utensil rack after being inspired by Mercedes wondeful blog....you will see other ideas I have "borrowed" from her as well, I'm sure! Here is another photo of the kitchen....still a lot to do....I have to do the curtains and fill all the cabinets. The little parfait glasses are another idea borrowed from Mercedes. I made the tin signs. The appliances are a bit sleek and shiny, really, but I already had them so decided to use them in this house, rather than buy/make some other ones.Here is the cabinet I made, which sits above the kitchen table...You can see the gorgeous little salt container made by Sylvia . The inside of the cabinet didn't stay pink for long....I like this faded greeny blue much better. I have a lot of work to do to fill this cabinet now. I have started making some books....I will need to make a lot more to fill the bookcase!

Welcome to my new followers....it is lovely to have you visit my blog - I am really enjoying visiting your blogs and seeing your wonderful miniatures!!!

A little birdsnest on the new bookcase

2010-05-30T14:21:00.007+12:00

Today I have made bookcase for the living room in the shabby cottage - I had a lot of fun making it look old by scratching it with my pocket knife and doing lots of sanding and painting over with dirty coloured paint. I like this green, although I'll never be able to recreate it as I just mixed some dirty wash water with some paint I had and slopped in some more black and green. I have a LOT of bookmaking to do now!!!!

I also made this little framed picture out of a cute little button.....but my absolute favourite is this little birdnest with its three tiny blue eggs! It is made from florists wire and coconut fibre and the eggs are polymer clay. All made at midnight last night (hubby is away so I can stay up miles too late!)

Also, I have been making some old wire baskets, thanks to Mercedes, who posted a link to the tutorial on her blog. The birdcage I found at a junk stall - I think it used to be an earring. It is perfectly "old and shabby" already. The wirework was fun to do....not sure about the quality of the very small basket - I might redo that one - and also don't know what I'll do with the little basket with jars, but it was fun to have a play around.

Thank you so much to my new followers and to those of you who take the time to comment - it is so nice to hear from you and I really appreciate your time!!

Lots of time on a rainy day

2010-05-25T12:13:00.015+12:00

It has been pouring with rain over the weekend, so I had lots of time to spend making things. The kiddies played with playdough while I cut and sanded and made lots of mess. Here are some photos of what I have been making for the little cottage.

This shabby chalkboard is my favourite thing I have made so far. I love this quote from Cicero!!! It is so true! I love my vege garden (although it is in an autumn mess at present) and I don't know what I would do without my books.

I need a few more little bits and pieces to pop in the pockets and hang from the wire....I'll get round to that eventually.

I also made a cabinet for the kitchen....I am so pleased with it, as the doors even open! Again, I still have to find(make!) all the little bits and pieces for inside the cabinet. I like the little tassels - my first attempt. Maybe they should be pink?

And finally, these are the little plates I have made for a display on the lounge wall.....I found this wonderful magazine showing these plates on the cover and it has taken me a while to make my version. They are so pretty!!

The most gorgeous bowl and a coffee table

2010-05-22T16:54:00.015+12:00

I have been doing more woodwork....today I made a coffee table for the living room....it took me all day, which is ridiculous. It might be a bit on the large side, but it is meant to be a coffee table made from an old piece of ironwork or something similar, so I think it would be biggish. The woodwork is always a struggle so I am happy it is standing up and holding together!!

I have made some cushions for the green bench and I spent ages trying to upholster the lovely chair I got from Sylvia. I hope she doesn't mind....I had an old silk handkerchief that was just begging to be used in this room.

This stunning bowl is from Loredana Tonetti - it arrived today and it is STUNNING. Wow - it is just so beautiful. I couldn't bear to put it on the floor, so got working on the coffee table straight away!

There is still a lot of work to do in the living room - I haven't done curtains yet and have some other plans of things to make, but I like the way it is shaping up!!

An old ladder for the cottage

2010-05-13T09:44:00.009+12:00

I have been brave again and have been messing around with wood! This is NOT my strong point so every time I make anything with wood I am ever so pleased!! I wanted an old ladder to put in my cottage as a display and here it is. Don't breathe on it or it might fall apart. I am really pleased with the rough, peeling paint.....this was achieved by luck and my impatience - painting the ladder before the stain was dry and then trying to sand the paint while it was still wet. Anyway, I really like the way it has turned out. Yay!!

I have put some little bits and pieces on the ladder for the sake of this photograph but I don't really like this display too much so I am sure it will change greatly as time goes by....I have to look for/make some really very tiny little things as the ladder rungs are quite close together.

The little bowl on the bottom shelf has been stolen from my other dollshouse - it fits in so much better here. It was made by Bill Helmer .

The book is a gorgeous little volume of Emily Dickenson's poetry made by Treefeathers .

I made the little clock on the top shelf by sticking a picture onto tin, and I made the little glass brick underneath the clock by applying a vintage tile decal to one little section of a glass mosaic tile block I got from the $2 shop.

Thank you so much for being interested in my blog - it is lovely to have you visit!!

Some things for the living room

2010-05-06T13:46:00.024+12:00

I thought I would show you some of the things that will be in the living room of my little shabby cottage.

I was delighted to get a parcel in the mail today - inside was this absolutely stunning bench which I couldn't resist when I saw it in Sylvia's Etsy store.

I love it!

It is such a pretty shade of green. I thought the living room would be mainly pink but with this beautiful bench it may have to be pink and green!

Yesterday I spent most of the day assembling this little birdcage from a laser cut kit. Such fine little pieces. It is hard to tell, but inside are two soft blue lovebirds. I have yet to make a little table or cabinet for the birdcage to sit on, so it is lucky there are no cats in the house!

The little car is one I found in a model shop a couple of weeks ago (one of those train model shops where they assume that if a woman walks in, she must be lost). It is perfect for the little boy's room, which is upstairs in the cottage.

My Shabby Cottage - some things I've made

2010-04-29T10:07:00.019+12:00

Well, I am a bit ashamed of myself for leaving my blog unattended for so long. My apologies to the lovely people that are following my blog! You must have given up all hope by now. Anyway, on the bright side, I have become all inspired and am working on a Shabby Cottage....one of my inspirations has been following Mercedes as she has been building her wonderful shabby house.

So here are some of the things I have been making for my little cottage.

I am awfully proud of these little framed pictures - they are so pretty and shabby! Here is a picture of the pansy picture on the kitchen shelf.

The little shelf is from Jemjoop and the purple and pink china is by Sam Dunlop - I couldn't resist that gorgeous purple!!

The little rickity kitchen table I made from balsa wood is holding together ok - I think the paint is stronger than the wood! Above the table is my favourite picture - it is called Bride Roses and Violets by Paul de Longpre. So pretty!

I made the little tin calendar. A friend of mine gave me a little resin cannister so I have crackle painted it, touched it will gold and put a pretty picture (pansies again!) on it. It is one of my favourite things for the little cottage!

Finally, I had a lovely time painting the little metal minis to look old and distressed - they have yet to find a permanent home but they look great on the table for now.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!!

Cupcakes again

2009-08-23T10:49:00.002+12:00

I am still making cupcakes - these ones were fun to make, with lots of different pastel coloured icing - still jolly difficult to ice, though - I have to come up with a good way of holding on to them while I ice them....maybe sticking them on a pin will help. Gluing them to a tile doesn't - well it doesn't if you are too impatient to let the glue dry properly! Anyway, after many sticky fingers, here they are. They are on a gorgeous little pink pedestal server which was made by Sam Dunlap - what lovely china he makes. I'll have to post a photo of the lovely lavender set I have!

Some details....

2009-07-31T22:46:00.003+12:00

I think I'm not finished showing you my little cake prep table yet....I have to show you a couple of the details....the little book I made has the most beautiful cover you can imagine. The little bead is one of those things that has been hanging around here (along with a mountain of other things!!) waiting to be used for a miniature project and I thought it matched the colours beautifully. The little vintage box is also something I made ages ago - I'm glad I've found a home for it!

Shabby Chic again! Cake Prep table.

2009-07-31T18:48:00.014+12:00

Well, I have spent all day on this project and I am so pleased with it! This is my little cake preparation table, and again the look is very shabby chic.

The little table was unfinished when I got it, and I had a lovely time painting it in pale blue with a white top, sanding it back and distressing and aging it.

The little cake is sitting on a pretty heart shaped trivet (actually, it is some kind of embellishment from the scrapbooking shop - I attached little beads for feet). There is a little bowl with left over frosting and a messy knife. I made decals for the little cannisters of flour and sugar (and the third one on the shelf below), and they look really sweet. There are some more little cakes on a pretty blue plate and a glass jar of rose petal sugar.

On the bottom shelf are all sorts of pretty little bits and pieces - I really like the little cook books - such pretty covers - (there are no recipes inside though!). What a fun project!

Cupcakes

2009-07-22T13:46:00.004+12:00

I've had a lovely time today making cupcakes for these displays! I think I've caught the shabby chic bug!! I painted and distressed the trays yesterday, and this morning decorated them with tiny decals that I made. I think the blue one is my favourite, with its tiny pansies.

The cupcakes were very fiddly, but I am pleased with the way they have turned out. I thought they would be nice served as an afternoon treat with a glass of white wine! Pity they're not real!

I couldn't resist taking the little irises out of the vase in my own dollhouse...they are just so pretty decorating the trays. The pink plate is a lovely piece by Sam Dunlap...the blue and cream plates are from the Netherlands and very delicate - I love the pastel colours.

2009-07-06T19:46:00.002+12:00

Two posts in one day....well, I guess I need to get the ball rolling!

I have made two breakfast trays recently. This one uses some lovely cream coloured porcelain I found....it is so tiny and fine that it is a pleasure to work with! (The other tray is the same, but with blue porcelain.)

The coffee pot is just like my real one, and it is actually a small sewing charm I found in our local sewing shop....I had to do some surgery on it to remove the ring on top, and paint the knob and handle, and now it looks great! I thought I should include a little jug of milk (not everyone likes their coffee black, but I do!) The tray is a lovely serving tray made by Al Chandronnait.

After making this little tray, I thought I should introduce my children to pain au chocolat so I bought some home from the local bakery. My five year old daughter eyed hers with great suspicion but once she eventually tried it she decided it was actually very nice!

2009-07-06T14:27:00.003+12:00

Hi - if anyone is reading this, then welcome to my blog. This is all new to me, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I will find time to post regularly as well as read all the other inspiring blogs I have stumbled across.

Maybe I should say something about myself and why I have begun this blog....my main passion is making miniature food....I work with polymer clay. I am always trying to learn more, and get better. Every time I make something new, I am so excited. It's hard to send things off to their new homes sometimes, but I am glad that people like my work enough to buy it, because that gives me the excuse to make more. I often find that projects are bubbling away in my brain for absolutely ages before I find the time and inspiration to get started on them.

These are some of the projects I have been working on lately:

This litte prep board was for a customer who remembered her aunt making Fruit Salad Jam and wanted me to make her a prep board for it. Well, I had never heard of Fruit Salad Jam and the only recipes I could find for it anywhere used dried fruit, but my customer remembered her aunt using fruit from the fruit bowl, particularly peaches and passionfruit, so I made a board filled with fresh fruit for her....and of course the fruit bowl had to be included too! I am so pleased with my little kiwifruit - all fuzzy like the real ones. I like the colour of the passionfruit too.