A little update on my French shop reno

 Hi all. I can hardly believe I am posting for the third time in one month!!!! Crazy!!

I have got a bit done on my renovation of the French house and getting close to being able to put the roof on and finish all the exterior. Soon anyway. I am still a little unsure about how I will finish the exterior but will work on that. 

So top floor rooms. Firstly is the room the stairs open into. Lots to do here. It will be last to complete as I need to run wiring through it. A wall will be added on the left side of the room with a built in cupboard  to store linens and stuff. And the sewing table will also go here.

Here is the ante chambre where the desk will sit. A curtain will cover the clunkiness of the end of the wall panelling where it meets the large door. And a wallpaper border will go on after the ceiling beams have been added.

The main bedroom. I made a stone wall for the left, as you can see and feel moderately happy with how it turned out. The chest probably won't stay.

And the guest bedroom. I continued the stone wall into here because I wanted it to look like the joining wall with the house next door, and it has been stripped to expose the stone.

So that is the reconfigured top floor of the French shop. Still lots of tidying up to do but making progress! I love this house, and I wanted to retain a lot of the details of the original structure. And reconfiguring the top floor gave me more space to make the bedrooms larger.

Hope you all have a great week ahead! XX

Testing....

 Trying this out on my ipad to see how it works. My husband, who is the most fair and patient in the land, got all my lights working. As it turns out, it wasn’t me. I had a dud light! Which I am glad about because it was too dull so having to remove it was a blessing in disguise. Here is the Nob Hill with lights on!

All in the order that the blogger gods choose...

So cute! 

Trials and tribulations

 Hi everyone. Happy new year. I think. I hope. I meant to post blogs in the last few months of 2020 but time got away from me. In efforts to finish some projects, I pulled out my 1:48 Nob Hill by Suzanne and Andrew's Miniatures. To be honest, it's been a slog. Too much manual measuring and cutting, and some parts were wrong. Anyway, I am happy with it now so that is all that matters. It had lights too, but I managed to blow all them today after spending half of yesterday fiddling with them. Sigh. Fortunately I got a few photos from yesterday.

So here is the living (left) and dining (right) rooms, with sitting room (left) and bathroom (right) upstairs.

Kitchen (left) and entry (right) with bedroom (left) and sitting room (right) upstairs.

And the exterior with the tower just sitting there. I need to attach that (permanently or with magnets to be determined). And it also needs some sort of plastic over the windows. I might use vellum.

And front on, without the tower. I have also since added a strip of green card around the base painted the same green as the gables. I would love your thoughts on the porch roof. I just don't like it. I feel like it competes with everything else. Very tempted to paint it to match the rest of the roof.

It really is cute and I am glad I persevered. I have quite a bit of furniture to put together or paint but think I might need a couple more pieces. And then some landscaping. But for now I need to finish some other bits and pieces.

And on that note, I will leave it there. I hope to post a little more frequently than last year. Maybe it will keep me motivated and moving along. Take care everyone. xx

Progress on various (too many) projects

 Hi all. After a very stressful and tiring year so far, I am having a week off to work on my mini projects to get a few things done. I really want to get some projects ticked off this year (you know, as finished as my projects will ever be). So today I have been working on my 1:48 Nob Hill from Suzanne and Andrews Minis. No I haven't mentioned that one before.... I didn't intend buying it, but I adored it and have worked on it in spits and spurts. I am pretty close to completing the structure so will post some photos soon.

Also I worked on my French reno today. I 3d printed some balustrade I designed and cut my own staircase (it is basically just stacked layers of wood/MDF - although it probably looks a little fancier than it is). So I rearranged the rooms a bit. The stairs are now in the entry which was part of the shop. The kitchen is through that back door.

And a side view

The salon in progress:

The other wall of the salon with a French fireplace by Halls Miniature Clocks:

The shop truncated (this will be a sort of craft room):

And the upstairs stair hall with the salon to the right:

Not sure about the wall colour, but it will do.

Here is my new little buddy, a beautiful Jack Russell Terrier by Ewelina Hasnik, which I purchased at the online Kensington mini show. I loved her and wasn't sure so decided if she as still there next morning, it was meant to be. Well, she was still there, soooo.....

And I have finally fixed almost all the lights in my Duddingwells! With my husband's help. So here is the shop as it is. Lots of accessories needed obviously.

And the front, landscaping done:

And the sitting room:

Lots of accessories still needed. I couldn't get this room to work and then one day recently I decided to swap the sofa to the right and table and chairs to the left and I liked it. I have birds for the cage too.

And bedroom:

I have aged the table a bit, so now I need to right the lamp..... currently not a good look!

Teapot not staying. Lots of bits needed yet, but I like it.

And that's it for today. I will try to post again this week and show more progress. It's good to feel like I am getting somewhere. And like anything, starting is the hardest part. After that, it's much easier. Hope you are all well everyone, and getting some sunshine (or rain if you need it!). xx

Mountfield wallpaper updates

Hello all! Wanting to just post a quick update on my Mountfield. Have I banged on before how some of this house I love and some of this house just isn't working for me?? I don't recall, but I really love The Infill's 1930s house (plus all their other stuff!!!). So I bit the bullet and repapered the front bedroom, the living room and entry/hall. At first I glued the paper on top of the existing paper and quickly decided that was too risky, so went with double sided tape. That made life much easier and would highly recommend it. I learnt a few things, and it is by no means perfect but I am OK with that. Nothing furniture won't fix. Now I need to decide on fireplaces, although I have purchased the Phoenix metal fire grate things. So, some photos for you! (FYI it appears I can't reorder my photos on the new blogger, so I apologise for the disorder....)

The hall upstairs:

And overall view of the right side:

The front bedroom: (the colours on the nightshade no longer match...)

The living room (with the cabinet covering up a dodgy wallpaper job):

The entry (and the paper got a bit smushed up as I had to squeeze it in between the stairs and wall and I cut it too small..... sigh):

And entry again:

Which brings me to having to stain and varnish some picture rail to match the other wood. I have the stain still, but no idea what varnish I used. What could possibly go wrong??? 

But on the upside, I am pretty happy now. I LOVE the bedroom and hall, an pretty happy with the living room. And this is the original paper I chose for there. Silly me.

Anyway, take care all. I hope you are well and that those in the northern hemisphere are enjoying some sunshine. We are enjoying a tiny bit of rain although still not nearly enough. Talk soon!!

Are we there yet?

Augh.... hello blog followers. Wednesday and feeling very much like hump day. Why? It's a beautiful warm sunny day. Because I have been trying to make mini flowers. Irises to be specific. And not very easy instructions. And flower making IS NOT my thing... They have been pushed aside for now. Which is why it has taken me a good two years to get to this point:

It has been a long and taxing 5 months and I am finding it a little hard to find motivation and inspiration. Also I have SO MANY unfinished projects that I have decided to finish a few things off before starting anything new. Baby steps I am telling myself.

At the end of last year, I made up some little 1:24 suitcases. They are yet to find homes (and yet to be finished), but I really like how they turned out. Made from little bits I had around the mini stash, and mostly just printed paper stuff.

I spent much of my summer either at my mum's farm, which was under bushfire threat for the best part of four months, or working for the government department responsible for managing the bushfires. It was rewarding but also tiring. We had the odd little critter come visit, including this little sweetie. It makes nice break during a long day. 

Anyway, I hope your time in isolation, wherever you are in the world, is going well. Look after yourselves.

My tiny Christmas gift basket

Hi all. Just a quick post to show you photos of the very tiny and adorable gift basket I won from Deborah Randolph of The Half of it. Augh it's all so cute I can hardly stand it!! And TINY! I thought I would be a little used to the size of half scale stuff, but no. The tiny chocolates and gingerbread men are amazing. And the mug. I can't believe Deborah made it so tiny and perfect.

The mini Black Walnut folks have ripped off the ribbon and cellophane and thrown them on the floor to peek at all the goodies inside!!

Look at that mug! So perfectly scaled!

And here is the bottle of brandy, candy cane and chocolates (I will try to post a better photo another day to show how truly tiny and perfect these are):

The bonbon and box of four tiny gingerbread men:

The gingerbread box is so fine I thought I would squash it getting it open!

And here is everything out, including the jar of cocoa, bag of coffee (for the mini coffee loving man in the house who can't do anything until he has had at least 3 cups in the morning....) and the book (oh how I love this book):

The mini folks are very happy right now, and probably mildly drunk on the brandy! Lucky them!

Hope your week is going well. I am off on two weeks holiday tomorrow - sunny Queensland!! Yaaay. Take care. xx