Doll's House

Clara and Suzanne are playing with their cut out dolls. 

As I promised the rest of my victorian house, there are no long shots as it is just a shell, and I can't decide if I am going to do it up or just use the ply wood for furniture and boxes. 

The Nursery,  Suzanne and Clara play with their cut out dolls,
while Dora is asleep, so she can't tear them.

Betty is doing her mending

Betty's room in the attic

Dora is awake, and Betty has given her a nice bath.
"stop fidgeting Dora"  Dora hates bath time Ugh!

 

While the children are playing quietly, and Emily is asleep,
Sophie is reading her favourite  book.

 "Oh dear!  I must tidy up before George comes home.
 One more chapter then I will do it."

Minature Scenes

These are my room boxes and settings, that are not in houses and just dot, around the house.  I am constantly changing them or moving the characters around, as you will see.  The large photo is where Father Christmas was sitting after his rounds, having a cup of  hot chocolate.  Now it is an elegant sitting room.  This sits on a book shelve next to my table.   A D.H.E book box, with Jane writing her books, is also on a bookshelve and sits beside's, Eliza and her barrow.  Albert's market stall is also on a bookcase, needing a section to it's self.   We have a u-bend stairway, and have a half wall, mid way, little scenes are often created here as we walk up and down the stairs, but I don't always take pictures of them.  Albert is having a rest after work, and a well deserved drink.  Gromit and Shaun appear to have run away from Wallace, oh dear me!!!  Annabelle is holding on to her hat, although she is on a roof garden, she is not part of any seen at the moment and will properly be moved to a shelf in time.

Eliza, Jane and Hilda, (the lady in green), are wearing home made outfits.

Lydia plays the piano for family and friends, Edmund is particularly
attentive and wishes to do a duet.

Jane contemplating her next story line.

Nicola and Natalie are looking for a bargain, at Albert's, "Second Time A Round" shop.

  2 very strange characters look on while
Albert has a warm  by the fire, after a busy day at work.

Eliza is selling her flowers, it is very cold out here.

Annabelle is holding on to her hat "it is very windy to day"  "Oh no! I do not like the way Tabby is eyeing those birds. If he jumps my books will fly all over the place in this wind."

Fleetville Vintage Market

A few goodies I spotted at Fleetville Vintage Emporium and 

Scallydog's market round the back.

New Doll's house

As you can see I have a new house not that I have managed to get around to showing you my original one yet apart from a few pics. It is not a whole house, just a shell as you can see from the pictures, from my first post.  Then there is the shop, which is furnished and looks grand, but as it is my background I have not posted any internal pics of it.  My plan had been to strip out the shop and begin to  take pics in layers, the empty shop, then the back shelving, then gradually filling it. As the background to my blog you can't actually see much.

                                                                 
Well my dear Kevin saw a doll's house, sitting on a pool table in cash converters, so he has a look, and a poke and a prod.  The woman serving, tells him that there are four bags of furniture and fittings, to go with it.  So having an eye for a bargain and being the lovely man he is, he bought the lot. 

So I am the very proud owner of another dolls house and a modern family.  I have never done modern so I am looking forward to it.  As you can see from the pictures, some of the furniture is wonderful.

                                                                                        Over the next few weeks I will be painting walls and putting in skirting boards, and door frames, flooring, glazing, hanging curtains, lighting and then fitting with the furniture. I have loads of extra accessories, as the dolls house only had the furniture with it. It is the extra bits and pieces that turn a house in to a home. I also have some little craft packs to make up and also some craft sheets with boxes and packaging on them which will be more suitable for modern. 

Not forgetting my house, it was a part work that I picked up at a car boot, and I was going to fix it up, unfortunately at that time I didn't have the time or know how, so I had individual rooms in storage boxes from wilko's, and had them dotted around on book shelves. This worked well until a book shelve collapsed and  we decided to have less books.  It meant however that with a smaller bookcase I would have room on the top for my house.  It is not brilliant and still needs work, more so because I think it would be better to dismantle and start from scratch, or as it is ply wood to dismantle use the wood for furniture or room boxes, and have a new house.  The problem is my doll's and furniture, do I put them back in their little boxes, until I get a big enough house to do them justice still undecided.  

Now the shop I will most certainly be taking more thorough pictures of it because I think it is wonderful, and I may be biased it was given to me by a lovely lady called Diane, whose husband Terry is a friend of Kevin's.  Now Diane has 4 Dolls houses to die for, they are huge with lots of cupboards hidden hidey holes and little corridors, and the most beautiful furniture imaginable. 

So there will be plenty for me to do over the next few weeks, in my new house.  So keep posted and wish me luck.

Betty Boop mosaic

I had decided that I would have 2 blogs my dolly blog and an ordinary blog and I would keep them separate.  So any one not interested in my dollies doesn't have to read about them, those that do great.

However as with the Lego we over lap again, this being about mosaics, I have been looking how to create mosaics from http://cindyzlogic.blogspot.com/, who put up a mosaic and how to do it from another website. So to keep the chain going I thought I would have a go as it looks really good. I did mine by using my own flickr images, just to see what it looks like.   Using big huge labs.com Tutorial via

http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2009/07/making-photo-mosaics-tutorial.html   Right, enough of the advertising here is my effort with my Betty Boop Photo stream from flickr. 

Unfortunately my lamp has lost the top of it, and the others a bit tight around the edges.  As the photo has been transferred as the small thumbnail rather than the large picture, but never mind I'll learn.  However as a second attempt, it is not bad and I will have to practice.  Mosaics will be a good way to display my dollies.

As the background of my blog shows, I will be able to showcase each room, in their order like a house, and also my individual pieces.  Anyway it looks like fun, and when I do start making things again or re-arranging my furniture and making up new displays, it will be a good way to display the photo's on the blog page, rather than higglety pigglety  on the page.

Here are the individual pictures I used, in all their glory.

The Wonderful world of Lego

Lego has always been one of those toys that as a family we have always loved.  It is one of those toys that the whole family can get on the floor and play with.  As a child all I had was red and white bricks, then later blue and yellow.  Simple windows and doors and wheels.  When my children where growing up you could get an airport and police stations and for the girls beach houses and cafes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/6448751047

I went to Kensington, to the doll's house fair, in December and going through St Pancras International Station, I saw a Christmas tree at first, I thought oh a bit boring to symmetrical not how a Christmas tree should be at all, until I got close enough to see and what a wonderful sight.  Stood in the middle of the concourse was a beautiful Giant Christmas Tree made of lego, it was made of 600,000 lego bricks and stood between 10 and 12 metres high depending on which paper you read.

So go on get up in the loft or in to the toy box and get creating, lose your self, what a wonderful bit of escapism from the day to day worries and chores, even if it is only for half an hour.

Disney time

Well I filled the bath full of hot water, with flash and soaked the whole lot.  The lid containing the waffle bricks is in the shape of a roof so unfortunately that did not come clean due to the edged tile work, everything else looks and smells delightful.  The Waffle bricks contain a farm a fence and some little animals and people with a tractor really sweet.  The other box contains Disney sets which I have displayed and photographed.

Very sweet but they will properly have to go, as there is no point putting them back in the loft I may keep one or two if I can find somewhere permanent to display them.