More pretty houses

Whilst on our holiday, my husband and I took a bus tour to Carmel and Monterey. I had really wanted to stay in Carmel but it just didn't work out, but at least I got a flying visit. Many of you may be aware of the Hugh Comstock storybook cottages, which are what we wanted to see. We managed to track them down during our 1 hour at Carmel, but they were very difficult to photograph, due to the terrain, trees and landscaping. If you ever plan to visit, they apparently sometimes have open houses, so I think that would be the best chance of viewing them properly. It was a very picturesque town anyway, so well worth a visit. 

This was a B&B in Monterey we found. Loved it.

And lastly, we took a drive down 17 Mile Drive which is apparently where all the millionaires live. It was pretty spectacular with the rocky coastline and twisted old cypress trees. Someone there had the good fortune and good taste to build a French gatehouse. Again, hard to photograph. I was down the hill from it, on a narrow windy bit of very busy tourist road without a footpath. 

A really lovely spot to visit, but it has been a very expensive holiday - more so than France that's for sure. But on the upside, the people are friendly. See you all!

A little hello from California

Just a quick post to show some photos of the beautiful San Francisco painted ladies.

The ones below are right next to Alamo Square, just down hill/next to the very famous ones you see in every brochure. And there were about a thousand people there in Alamo Square photographing them!

Also, for Elizabeth at Studio E, I thought you might be interested in seeing the photo of the little cottage right next to the water in Sausalito. The photo is taken from a boardwalk over the water. There were a few metres of sand and then water.

This is a little shop I found in the store window on Haight Street. Notice the little posts out the front of the door? Hmmmm...

Also, whilst in Sausalito, we visited the Daniel Merriam gallery (he is apparently local). You willrobably have seen some of his artwork, which often include fanciful Victorian style buildings. The deceased father of another artist exhibiting in the gallery had made this little San Franciscan:

Hope you enjoyed. Have a great weekend everyone.

Off on holidays soon

On Sunday, my husband and I fly out to San Francisco for three weeks, where I will be doing a Rik Pierce class at Shellie's Miniatures. Should be a great trip and September is supposed to be the best month in San Francisco. Will try to post an update whilst there. I hear they have some pretty buildings there! Tee hee!

For now though, some updates on my projects.

I have decided to lightly grunge up the interior of the doll shop. I've grunged all the painted surfaces (architraves, door, skirting, cornice) with a gel medium/linen coloured paint mix, and will grunge the corners of the wallpaper just a little with a light chalk pastel dust. I decided it would be more in keeping with the overall feel I am aiming for. So thanks to readers for their suggestions (Elizabeth, Margaret and PILAR6373), they were greatly appreciated.

I haven't ordered the accessories I was wanting for the Mountfield, so progress is slow, but I've done a bit to the laundry, including installing a sink with taps and towel rail, a shelf (actually made two but so far only one has been attached to the wall) and painting up a Phoenix metal vaccuum cleaner. I will show pics soon, when I have got a little further. I have also finished the two chairs from the music room. I added a few more splashes of paint, covered the cushions with a floral print fabric and made some cord from embroidery floss for trim. I am really happy with them and think they suit the room perfectly.

I have also been working on accessories for the French shop. I purchased some Lisa's Little Things kits, so some of these are going into the shop. The thread box is on top of the red display table on the left. 

The notions counter on the right (below) is also one of her kits. I have always loved her kits, so it is great to finally have some to put together. Still playing with the placement of little accessories but do you ever just leave something where you put it initially? I keep changing lots of things in this house.

And a little photo of the back room:

I also don't think I've shown this room yet, as I wasn't quite sure for a long time what it would be. It is now a sewing room, given that the occupant of this shop is obviously into sewing. The sewing machine is a Rement one. I think it is reasonably within scale, but strangely the peddle cord is too short to go from the machine all the way to the floor. I might need to replace the cord with a longer one. It's not shown in this photo as it was dangling off the table and looked silly. You can see my hand painted metal kitty playing with wool in the foreground.

And lastly, I have put together the shell of my chateau. I will need to get the windows cut up very soon, before I can start installing the interior walls, so hopefully I will get organised and have them done whilst I am away. I have them mostly drawn up and ready for laser cutting. I need to find something to have them made from first though. The laser cutting place doesn't stock thin enough boards.

This photo shows a wall that will go in the salon. They are the Robert Dawson (the Modelroom) wall panels I got at the Kensington Dollshouse Fair in 2012. The spaces between panels will be the windows. I want to paint these with a bit of colour and can't decide if I want to turn them into something like the panels from the Dauphine's private study at Versailles or not. I'd need to add a fair bit of detail to get that effect, and it is a room I have to replicate somewhere in this chateau, but not sure if it will be in this room or another. I have a little while to think about that though, whilst I wait on windows.

Here is a pic (from a google search) of the Dauphine's study. It is my favourite room at Versailles.

 Well, I hope you enjoyed my updates. I am off to vaccuum my floor and water the plants and then pack. Hope you are all well and happily miniaturing away.