Greenleaf's half scale Chantilly

I have been hanging out for this kit for sooo long. I adore it. And so hence, when it arrived, I couldn't help myself - I had to start putting it together!



It will be French, simple but elegant. I think the exterior trim will be dark brown, the walls will be a beige stucco and there will be a stone base. Many places we saw in France had a hexagonal/honeycomb patterned rocking around the base (or around the walls like in my photo) which I really liked.




The downstairs will have a salon and salle a manger, and the upstairs will have a boudoir and chambre. I am using Bespaq furniture. The half scale furniture available (what little there is) is so varying in scale, you can't mix brands. Such a pain.

As an update on my Gingerbread Cottage, I've hit a snag. I made a small kitchen bench/sink to go in, but forgot to measure the height of the window. The bench is subsequently too tall and can be seen from the outside through the window. I could of course just move it, but I don't like any other options. I may have to ditch it and make a very small sink to fit beside the window. Plus I need more materials.

The project list

I was reading someone's blog the other day, and they'd posted a list of all the projects they wanted to do. It was quite interesting, so thought I'd do the same. These are all my one inch scale wanna-dos:

- French chateau - large, fancy townhouse (a bit like Linda's!), to use up a lot of French ideas I have.
- Small castle - like Rik Pierce's Toadmoor Manor. I already have all the furniture.
- Dura-craft Heritage - I will use some bits from an incomplete Heritage kit to make a Toad Hall gothic English manor house.
- Greenleaf Sugarplum - rustic xmas cottage (pink, white, silver).
- Greenleaf Willowcrest - Very Victorian!
- Greenleaf Beacon Hill - I have always loved it. It will be a vaguely Cinderella themed house in rich pink, green, gold and black.
- Dura-craft Sweetheart - Cottage. No real theme, just a cottage!
- Art Nouveau house - modelled after a gorgeous cottage in France. Pale olive, cream, caramel, black, duck egg blue, those sorts of tones.
- Dutch canal house - scratch built.
- English townhouse - a bit more fantasy style than English though.
- Dura-craft Chelsea - Aqua, white and red summer cottage.
- Greenleaf Brimbles Merchantile - Will become a Martha's Vineyard style cottage in earthy French tones. Timber/black lacquer furniture, etc.

That's a lot, isn't it??? I will be busy for ever!

I also have some shops on the list, including a doll shop (in a Houseworks shop), a chocolaterie (actually two of those!), perfumerie and an Easter shop (this is well on it's way, I am just being lazy!).

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. It is my 6-month wedding anniversary today! Yay for us!

Which bed?

Or rather, which finish? I need some advice please! I can't decide whether I like the bed for my Gingerbread cottage plain timber or with fabric panels. Please ignore the roughness of my sanding - it isn't finished. Also, I won't neaten it up if I put fabric panels on it.



Also, here's a pic of some seating for the cottage. I have yet to add piping/cord trim to neaten them up a bit, and can't decide whether the timber should have a sheen or be matte.



I am still working on the house itself, but need some of the styrene stone sheeting, as I am not good at the paperclay stone thing!

Award and cool website

Is it just me, or is making up a heading the worst part of blogging??



Anyways, thank you to Jaime at JLilRoomer for the lovely award. I now need to give it to five other blogs. I've done some blog-surfing tonight - gotta love Friday nights, lots of time to spend doing nothing! So I thought I'd pass this on to some of the awesome blogs I found tonight:

ShinyNewThing (sorry I don't know your real name) from A Greenleaf Fairfield for Miss Lydia Pickett

Ingrid from mijn droomwereldje

Sylvia (I think!) from Miniaturas Natasylvia

Margaret from My Petit Parterre

Carol from True2Scale

All these ladies do some seriously gorgeous work. Go over and check them out if you haven't already.

And as for the cool website, if you're looking for something that's not quite mini-ing, or maybe if you have some kids you need to entertain, check out this site. It's awesome! I haven't made anything from there yet, but a few people from work have.

Have a great weekend!!

On to next project

Although I have not finished the French shop. A few stumbling blocks there!

I loved the gingerbread house that Teresa Layman did and more so her mini gingerbread houses that she was teaching at the Philadelphia Miniaturia I think. Very sweet. I decided that the Duracraft Lafayette was crying out to be a gingerbread cottage. So I have commenced down that road!



I hadn't intended for it to be too Christmasy but then I scrounged out some metal minis I'd painted a couple of years ago and so will put them into the cottage. These are dollhouse-size ornaments so a maximum of about an inch high.





I am still waiting on some furniture and will need to order more, but unfortunately I only get paid so much!! Also the wood trim that is supposed to go around the windows is too wide, so I need to trim some of it down. That is a real pain. Never mind, I don't need much of it. Hopefully there may be more progress pics soon!

The lovely Daisy from Antique Daisy has given me this award:

Thanks Daisy! I am pleased that you enjoy my blog so much that you gave me this award! Now I need to give it to 6 other bloggers:

Julie at Diary of an Edwardian Dollshouse, because I love this shop and have found her diary very inspiring and useful.
Karin at Karin Corbin Miniatures because she not only makes gorgeous minis, she is full of fantastic tips, encouragement and patience, of which I am very jealous!
Nell at Miniature Miniatures, for same reasons as Karin - she is true inspiration.
Joanna at Joanna Thomas Art Dolls because her dolls are what little (and big!) girls dream of.
Gina at More Minis, because her blog is very comprehensive and provides awesome advice for building various kits.
And lastly, to Mariella at Muffa Miniatures. Her crochet darlings are so tiny and detailed. She is very talented.

French shop under way!

I did some work on my little shop over the weekend and here are some part-way-there shots. You'll see the chains of the lights dangling all over the place - I haven't fixed them to the ceiling yet!



The back room is accessable - the wall pops out!



I think it will be a gourmet foods shop. I hope to buy some Lisa's Little Things kits some time to go in it.

Lastly, here is a pic of my half scale chateau that I did for the 2009 Miniatures.com contest. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps one day I will have the patience to finish it off properly. It is loosely based on Lea Frisoni's, which is the subject of her DIY book.