HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. I will be at work this evening while everyone is celebrating, so I am wishing you all well now!!

I've had a lot of time, sitting around, thinking about bits and bobs, thinking about what I want to do next year - my goals. But more importantly, I've been thinking about this year.

It's not been an amazing year, admittedly. It's been a bit crazy, and there have been several things about this year that have made me say "next year, that will not happen!" I'm looking forward to the fresh start and the chance to change a lot of things that I'm not happy with. Not depressing things that is, I mean things like - the fact my bedroom is always such a mess, despite the fact I'm never in it! Like the fact my car could easily be confused with a giant mole hill, I really should clean it more - or maybe, stop going off roading, or avoid that back lane and take the main road instead!

This year, I am not going to make New Year's Resolutions. I never keep them.

Nope, this year they will be called GOALS.

I'm going to list all of my goals for the New Year tomorrow. 

But I can say 2 goals right now:

- Get a new car

- Blog more!

Now, it's time I went for a shower, I'm dressing up as Katy Perry for work tonight (as I work in a club) and I have to admit, I'm just a little bit excited! Haha!

Of course, photo's to follow tomorrow!

Have a wonderful New Year!!

Heaps of love,

ShellbyFay

xx

Where It All Began Part 3

Now, we move on to the third and final part of my story. It has been a pretty lengthy one. My encounter with miniatures took a sideways on approach with me trying to create my own miniatures from fimo without plates for scale. I planned my future projects enough to keep me busy for the next 50+ years! And now I'm going to tell you about the people that really set the poison on me. The Dolls House Emporium Forum Users.

Oh yes, these people are pure evil. Once you've posted "Hello" there's no turning back. You try to get away... but they pull you back in!

I'm kidding, I truly love every single person I interact with on the forum. I adore reading their posts of dolls houses, randomness, happy memories and some time sad memories - but helping them get through it as a team is the best part!

I joined the forum on 30-07-2010 but didn't put in my "hello everyone" post until 24-08-2010 . That's when the trouble started. I quickly became an Esteemed Chatter Box member with over 2000 posts.

The forum is a place I simply couldn't live without. My miniature hobby would certainly have never got this far without this team of dedicated miniaturists, the wives spending their hubby's hard earned cash quicker than they're earning it - but isn't that the fun of it?! 

I have made some wonderful friends, met some amazing people from all over the world - speaking all different languages and each with their own unique project!

I hope to continue my miniature hobby further. I hope to complete all of my current projects. I hope to create and complete more! I hope to meet more amazing people through blogs, the DHE Forum and through fairs. And finally, I hope to learn more through the years of this hobby!!


Thank you for reading my story!
It has been a wonderful journey and thank you to all those have joined me in this journey over the past 3 years!!

Have a lovely day
ShellbyFay

Where It All Began Part 2

I'm back, with Part 2!!

In the first part, I told you about my discovery of a set of miniature cups and saucers, the discovery of April Cottage and The Dolls House Emporium...

For some weeks I researched dolls houses on the internet like crazy. I discovered Artisans and different ways of making things by hand. I couldn't get over how little everything seemed and could only imagine everything was made by machine! Sure human hands couldn't get that much detail into one piece... I was proven wrong, by Artisans such as After Dark, Hungarian Miniatures and Small Passions, as well as many more!
My breath was taken at an instant with the work of these amazing artists. I decided to try for myself, like many other miniaturists out there, making fimo food. I discovered a website called The Polymer Clay Pit and a book on Amazon that would provide me with the basics of creating miniature food. I eagerly ordered several colours of clay and a pasta machine as well as some simple tools, such as a blade.
I eagerly waited for my new purchases to arrive and as soon as they did, I didn't know where to start! I didn't own a single miniature item, not even a plate. I started out making a few simple items from the book, including bread and cakes. Then I started to move on to Youtube turorials and I made a roast dinner setting and some donuts.

I was really proud of my creations and wanted to learn more!

In November, a dolls house fair was held at The Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. My Mom noticed a little yellow poster outside the primary school in our village and told me about it. Wild with excitment I begged her to take me, of course she said yes and so the date was set and I was counting down the days!!

Finally, the fair day arrived and I was up and out of bed at the crack of dawn! The fair started at around 10:00am and I wanted to be there on the dot! The weather was snowy and horrible, we slipped and slid across the car park getting to the entrance, but we finally got there.

At the entrance of the fair circle there was a lovely couple with several dolls houses on display, some decorated some left plain wood. Unfortunately I cannot remember the couples name. I fell in love with a shop and a terraced house the couple had on one of their tables. The shop was £95 and the house was £80 if I remember correctly. My mom bought them, telling me that they were my Christmas presents and I was not to have them before Christmas day!

I decided straight away that the shop would become a bakery. We bought a few decorating supplies from the lovely couple and then wandered around the fair, oooh-ing and aahh-ing at all the tiny, delightful goodies on show! We came across a stall selling handmade food. I knew instantly it was all handmade and was made from fimo! I told Mom that I wanted to practise making these vegetables, and it would be a good idea to buy some now, so that I can compare as I learn! I still haven't made those vegetable yet!

We spent lots, we smiled lots, we aahh-ed lots.

Dad was pretty good at listening and seem pretty intrigued. He couldn't believe the size of the dolls houses and thought they would be smaller! I had to explain to him the 1inch to 1foot ratio, and he understood.

The next few weeks were filled with excitement. Mom and I visited The Dolls House Emporium once again and spent a fortune on furniture and goodies to begin my dolls house collection!

Christmas morning couldn't come quick enough. I think I was as eager as my brothers and sister that year (2009). I ran downstairs like a looney and found my precious dolls house sitting at the back of the living room waiting for me. Next to them were several large boxes and as I opened them, they revealed more and more tiny pieces of furniture and accessories. My brothers and sister were amazed at the detail, as were my parents, and definately so was I! I filled my houses with the furniture as I went along and made plans for each room.
I couldn't wait to get started.

Here is a photo of my dolls houses, this was a little while after Christmas as the house, which was bought plain, is decorated in this photo.





I decorated the house to match the shop, sourcing the exact colour of the red on the shop window.




This was the first step to my new hobby, but I still had a feeling my parents didn't believe it would last!!

UNTIL - I invited my boyfriend at the time to come to the Petwood Fair with my mom and I the following year. He was amazed at the details he could find in items and loved the houses. His job was working with wood, on a much larger scale and not in dolls houses, but he showed an interest in my hobby and expressed an interest in building one himself! He got as far as making a window (which looked pretty neat!) and then we unfortunately broke up.
As a birthday surprise, my mom and then boyfriend decided to club together and bought me, what is now the Bakers Dozen (still a work in progress unfortunately.)
Here's a photo of the bakery when I recieved it:

I was in love. This was the most perfect surprise ever and I had so many ideas wirling around in my head.

Now, maybe this is the time to give you a break, this is a lot of reading! I'll be back shortly, with the third and final part of Where It All Began!!

Have a wonderful day
ShellbyFay
xx

Where It All Began...

Since I've not been a very good blogger, posts have been few and far between recently, I thought I'd let you all in on how this hobby started for me. I thoroughly enjoy reading other people's stories of "how it all began..." so here's mine..

It was the summer of '09 and I was holidaying with my Mom, Grandma and my brothers and sister. We were caravanning in Mablethorpe, which isn't far from us, actually. My Mom, Grandma and I were wandering around the beach and shops at Mablethorpe when we came to a little souvenirs shop. Something in the shop caught the eye of my Mom and Grandma, so we went it. After a short discussion and a wander round the shop they decided whatever it was that had caught their eye wasn't worth buying.
As we walked out I noticed something tiny in a little plastic bag on a display. I stopped to pick the tiny thing up and on close inspection I noticed it was a set of tiny cups and saucers. I was amazed at the detail. They looked handpainted and the detail was incredible, so I thought. I put them down, since I didn't have a dolls house and thought maybe it was a bit "child-ish". Little did I know then, that dolls houses expanded way beyond the child play toy, but into a world of miniature-mad-miniaturists (yes, that is a mouthful isn't it!). I was yet to discover this though, but for some reason I could not get those tiny saucers and cups out of my head.

Strangely, I dreamt that night that I owned a dolls house. I'm still not sure to this day what dolls house was in my dreams, maybe one day I'll find it, perhaps by chance, but it fuelled my imagination further! We was only 2 days into our holiday and I couldn't wait to get home, just to Google dolls houses to see what I might discover!

Finally, we got home. I showered, unpacked my bag and then claimed a laptop for the night. I Googled "dolls houses" and straight away The Dolls House Emporium popped up. I clicked on it and that, my friends, was the poison! The first thing I saw was April Cottage. I still adore this property and hope that one day I will be lucky enough to own it.
One to believe in signs and everything happens for a reason, I believed April Cottage was the key to something. April is my birthday month and therefore this was a sign for me. I clicked around the website, continously coming back to the same cottage.
I told my Mom that this cottage would be my dream Christmas present. My Mom just nodded and raised her eyebrows. I'm pretty sure she wasn't convinced that this new craze would last up to Christmas, how wrong I have proved her!

My story doesn't end here, but sadly I have run out of time and must get ready for going to work. I will be back some time this week, maybe next - you know what I'm like now! - with the next installment!

Bye for now :)

Have you got all your presents ready yet?

Nope, me neither!!

I've been busy making miniatures these past few days, and my latest completion is this adorable little gift wrapping table!

The table includes everything that you see here.

- Old wrapping paper box, brought down from the loft!

- A gold wrapped present.

- 3 Christmas cards

- 3 poplar children's books, including Robin Hood,

Through The Looking Glass and The Jungle Book

- A colouring book

- A chess board game

- Handmade scissors

- Handmade roll of cellotape

- Red stocking, complete with a skipping rop.

The table itself is unstained white wood and is finished with a green ribbon, reading "Happy Christmas" !

I absolutely adore this table, and it will really finish off any Christmassy scene!

Frost On The Ground!!

Just lately, with all these Christmas miniature's I've been making, I've been feeling very Christmassy!

I've been searching the cupboards for tomato soup and a crusty roll, and I've already invested in a super snuggly dressing gown! I'm on the look out for a warm winter coat, gloves and a scarf! My poor Mom hates that I'm already thinking Christmas presents for the family! I've already decided on hers, and I'm currently looking for someone to make Dad's!

I feel so organised!

Anyway, I woke up really early this morning, and was delighted to see how white the ground was. Through my blurry, sleepy eyes I thought it was snow - I was up and at the window in seconds! Sadly not, just frost. Here's a couple of photos of the view outside my windows at 7:15am this morning :)





This photo is a bit blurry, I do apologise. I was still half asleep! It's a photo of the cows in the field opposite my house.

I love the colour of the sky in this one!





And this is a photo of our lovely Icelandic pony, Bjartor. I can't wait for the snow! He's all wooly like a Mammoth all year round, in preparation for the snow! Haha. You know the horse's you get on the front of Christmas cards, when they're all covered in snow - Bjartor is one of those. Prononce Bjartor as - B - Yar - Tor. :)



See you soon!

More Christmas Miniatures!

It seems awfully odd crafting Christmas mini's when we've still been having some sunny weather - albeit, not brilliant this week - but certainly no snow, and no Christmas songs on the radio yet!

Still, I must admit I have seriously enjoyed making these miniatures, and I really hope you'll enjoy looking at them!    




  This Gingerbread Man Preparation Christmas table is simply adorable and would look amazing in any kitchen! The table includes rolled dough and cut out Gingerbread Men, a plate of finished and decorated Gingerbread Men, 5 Gingerbread Men cooling on a rack and a beautiful Gingerbread House decorated with white icing, peppermint circles, candy canes and tiny Christmas coloured balls. The tiny balls were applied individually to ensure a good range of colour and detail! All items are glued to the table.




Still feeling in the mood for Gingebread Men, I went on to continue this smaller Gingerbread Men Decorating Preparation board measuring a meer 3cm x 3cm. The board includes several Gingebread men, a plate of tiny silver balls and a handmade icing bag! All items are glued to the board.

This gorgeous little Christmas card set consists of everything you see in the photo, which includes 2 sealed envelopes, 4 loose Christmas cards and a selection box of cards (all cards in the box are glued inside.) This little set will look fabulous on a busy kitchen table, or sitting in the middle of the coffee table with a mug of hot chocolate waiting for your dolls to finish writing out their Christmas cards! The cards and envelopes are blank so that you can write your own messages and addresses!

I have had such fun making all of these items and am feeling very much in the mood for Christmas all of a sudden! More mini's to come shortly!

All of the above items are available in my Etsy shop.

See you again soon,

ShellbyFay

Going On Holiday!!

Hello everyone!
It's 9.08 here in England, in gloomy Lincolnshire, and I'm up, showered, dressed... but not yet packed and ready for my long weekend away with friends!! I'm going to Cromer for a few nights, sleeping under the stars. I'll be sure to take lots of photos and I'll share them with you when I get back!

I hope you all have a lovely few days!

See You Soon!

Anyone know what this cake is? And it's recipe?

Hello everyone!
We've finally had a few days of lovely weather, not good enough to warrant getting the shorts out yet though! I took a trip to Horncastle the other day and dropped by my Mom and I's favourite tea room, Henny's. It's gorgeous in there and they sell a delicious cake! The cake is cut into squares and is called "Ma's Cake." I've searched and searched everywhere for the recipe but I can't find it. :( I'm beginning to wonder if it's called something different. I'd love to try and make some myself, as the need to travel to Henny's every day for my lunch will become quite an expensive habit!!

I've included below some pictures of the last slice, obviously eaten straight after the photos!
The top is covered with a thin layer of chocolate. The base is crunchy, sort of rice krispie cake crunchy, or biscuity, but very chewy at the same time.

If any one knows the name of this cake (other than Ma's Cake) or the recipie for it, could you please let me know? I'd love to make this for my mom's birthday!

10 Things You Don't Know About Me :)

Since I haven't posted in a few days, I thought I'd do something a little different to miniatures, and baby bunnies. When I check out a new blog, I like to read the bloggers profile, information about them and read more into their blog posts (not just the most recent ones) to get a feel of the blogger and who they are. You can tell alot about people through their blogs. Good sense of humour, busy lifestyle, lives in the country/city, their favourite colour etc.
I don't know what you're thinking, but my blog doesn't really say that much about me. So I thought I'd let you in on a few things about me. Ten random facts :)

1) You may, or may not know, that I am 18 years young :)

2) I love my car! And it goes by the name of Gumpy!

3) My favourite colour is blue. I love pale pastels, but I also really like brights!

4) I'm very much a people-person, can talk and talk all day long - but I love my "me time."

5) I love my mom's lasagne!!

6) I used to horse ride, and had my own pony when I was younger. His name was Mr. Pickles

7) The house I'm currently living in is my dream home. I want to create it in miniature.

8) I spend too much time on the computer, and way too much time on Etsy and The Dolls House Emporium Forum!

9) I have a spider plant, called Spike. I have had this plant since I was about 8 years old. I love Spike.

10) Love the sun. Hate the heat. Love the snow. Hate the cold. Love the rain. Hate wet hair!

So there you have it :)

It will be really interesting to see you guys do this too, just 10 random things about you, lets see what you come up with :)

See you soon!

Literally - Anything Miniature :)

Hello everyone!

I realised today, that I suck at blogging. Or maybe not blogging itself, more like finding the time to make progress on my dolls houses, so that I have something interesting to blog about!! Well that stops here. I've decided to make it my aim to blog about something. Anything, as random as it may be, but hopefully miniature related. As the title says "Anything Miniature!" :p

So I thought I'd start with something I photographed today. Something adorable. Something furry. Something that hops. Something baby like. And certainly miniature :) Check him out::

Isn't he just adorable?! I took this photo from a window at work. There was two of these beautiful babies, but the other hopped away before I could get my phone out for a photo.

Well there we have it, I've posted. :)

See you soon

One Inch Scale Dolls House Miniature 31 Piece Bread Selection!! Yummy!!

What do you think to these?

I had so much fun making this bread selection. Each bread is unique, and therefore OOAK, as none of them are made from a mould and each one differs in details, size and colour.

I made these breads for hours straight, finding myself completely taken by each piece, adding colours and texture until they looked good enough to each there and then! I made myself a similar selection for my own bakery, but this 31 piece set is now listed on my Etsy shop, Diddies.

If you'd like more details on the bread selection visit the official Diddies blog here: http://diddiesatetsy.blogspot.com/ or my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/people/Diddies

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Tomorrow is my day off work and I have so many plans :) Hopefully I'll get something interesting done on either the bakery, Bruion, or my new top secret project... dum dum dummm!!

Watch this space ;)

Bye for now :D

Friday Feeling...?

Got it? Nope.. neither have I.


Instead, I'm overcome by irritation - or that could just be the fly buzzing around here!
I have no real miniature progress to post at this time, and this frustrates me. I seem to be doing a fair bit of mini-ing just lately, but nothing that I can show you.

I can show you this though:

I do apologise for the awful quality of this photo. It doesn't help that it was a bright morning and the bakery is sat right in front of a window. I dug out the date plaque (reads 1830) and the bakery sign (reads Bakers Dozen) and attached these the other day. I was hoping to get something else more exciting done so I could do a proper post, but nothing exciting has been done yet. Hopefully I can get something done today.


It's about time I did something on Bruion...

See you soon
ShellbyFay
xx

Preparing For Christmas, Already!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have started my preparations for Christmas, in miniature scale!
My Etsy shop (Diddies) has been empty and closed for quite some time! At last, I have re-opened and I thought I would share with you what I have been up to!

I absolutely adore this prep. board. I spent days making, and remaking, most of what you see here. The first board I made, I decided was too big. The pastry was then the wrong colour. I didn't like the look of the mince meat I made. The colours of the book weren't clear enough, and then I kept ripping the flour bag. In the end, I think I came out on top with a gorgeous little mince pie prep. board that I am so proud of!

I hope you like it! :)

Next up I decided to make some cookies. I had a bit of practise with making cookies last Christmas, but this time around I think I've really improved! I love the little gingerbread men and the candy cane really finishes off this plate!

More Gingerbread Men!! :)

Hehe, these were so much fun to make! I made lots of mince pies with the intention of displaying them on this plate, to go as a possible set with the other two. I had a bit of mince meat and pastry coloured clay left over from the prep. board, so I decided to add a bitten into mince pie. I coloured these with chalks and watery paint and I think the effects are wonderful! I adore this item, I hope you do too! :)

Now I'm all Christmas-ed out this week, so I'm going to get back to the bakery and get some progress made there!

Have a great day everyone!

ShellbyFay

Me Not Working Hard? Yeah Right Picture That With A Kodak!

Or better yet, go to Time Square and take a picture of me with a Kodak!

I was working super hard yesterday. I did lots of painting, while I was sunbathing, and ended up looking like a smurf in the end! Thankfully, it all came off in time for work!

I was working on the bakery yesterday. I spray painted the front door and removeable roof. I also painted the inside ceiling and the inside walls. I've also re-painted the mortar between the bricks, as I was unhappy with how the stencilling turned out in some places. I really like the fresh effect it's given to the bricks! I usually hate painting, but this was really relaxing, especially in the lovely warm sun.

The best thing about having a balcony is that you can make as much mess as you like without your mother nagging you about getting glue on her kitchen table. You can take as long as you like, without your mother hurrying you to get cleared up for tea! You can also enjoy the sunshine, the birds, the fresh air and the peace of it all... until mother comes along with the lawnmower!

Never mind, I got plenty done regardless and still had time to nose through some catalogues, planning future buys!

Here's some photos :)









Don't forget, clicking on the photo's will bring them up bigger.

See you all again soon!

HELLO!!

Hello everyone!
I hope you are all well, happy and are getting on brilliantly within the mini-ing world.
I apologise for my extremely long absense. I've been so busy finishing college (qualified at last!) and I have also moved bedrooms!

If you can remember my last post was about the moving of The Olde Post Office to the annex and the extreme lack of space in my bedroom. Well now I have moved bedrooms, to the biggest bedroom in the house! I have tons of room for dolls house, I could buy hundreds more now - and I have a balcony to fill if I wanted to!

I'm unable to post any photos at the moment, but I am quite eager to show you photos of the move around and then shortly to follow there should be some more progress posts on Bruion and The Bakery when I finally get round to spending some time on these projects! :)

Bye for now!

A Sad Day For The Residents of The Olde Post Office

This weekend I grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of space in my very small bedroom. You've seen the photos - it's ALWAYS cluttered and there's never a lot of walking space. So something had to go. And considering I'm now working on two new projects and I can't decide which one I like do the best, The Olde Post Office drew the short straw. I'm not getting rid of it. Ohhh no!! It's visiting the annex for a year or so while I finish Bruion & The Bakery. I'm planning to re-decorate The Olde Post Office and do it to some kind of time scale. It might not even be a post office once I've finished it for a second time. Who knows?
Anyways, here's some photos for you!!


Deciding on where to start was the trickiest part. I had heaps of boxes to put everything in and I found a box full of unstained furniture too!

Zena took refuge on my bed. The floor was too cluttered to move and around and the bed looked comfy. Yes, they are stones in the roof of Bruion. I am using real stones as large stones to decorate the outside part of Bruion. I needed somewhere to put them, the roof seemed like a good idea!

Here is my small collection of mini's.At this point I still hadn't finished emptying the house. I sorted everything into groups.

The residents of The Olde Post Office. Greg didn't seem all that happy, he was comfy in his bed and now misses his book. Penny hasn't shut up moaning, she doesn't find the laptop charger a very comfortable seat and would like to return to the post office. Malcom is happy, he keeps asking me if he can have a job at the bakery when it's completed. Ernie says fair well to The Olde Post Office, he knows it's not gone forever.

All the mini's now put away. Zena looked pretty confused...

*Sob sob* the empty space where The Olde Post Office once stood..

I tried to convince mom to let me leave the houses on the landing, but it appears everyone likes to use the bathroom...

  

Zena got mardy with me. She gave me a look to say "This is my bedroom too, shouldn't you consult me before making changes?" I guess she has a point. Now that she lives indoors and spend 90% of her time asleep on my bed, maybe she should have a say on what goes on in my room... to bad I can't bark.

So the Olde Post Office has gone upstairs to the annex, where it will stay for a little while. I'm not sure if I'm sad or happy. I'm sad because my very first dolls house has been removed and is now hidden away where no one can see it, but I have now space in my room - enough so that I can even do a little dance! - but the Bakery now has somewhere to go.


I'm off now to find a box to put the residents in... Penny is getting on my nerves!!

It's been so long!!

Hello everyone!
Blimey, it's been a while, has it not?! I'm sorry I haven't been here for a while, but real life has been getting in the way pretty badly just recently. Hopefully this weekend I've found myself some time to get some mini-ing done as I'm missing it so much!
I have a couple of things to show you this morning.

A few weeks ago I was making a trap door for the inside of Bruion. Making the trap door was simple enough, and if you would like a tutorial posting up on how I made this - just let me know! It's pretty self explanatory though by the photos.
Glueing the door into place, however, was the most tedious task going! I had to hold it in place for hours on end while the wood dried to the flooring and the string dried to the sides. If I moved just slightly, the glue untacked and I had to start all over! Eventually, I managed to find something that would hold it in place and it's been left like that for about a week. It's well and truly stuck now! Here's a few photos for you.

                                      

Please forgive the bad lighting!

 Those hoop hooks? Yes - there's another little something I'm in the process of making. I've made it once already, but I'm not happy with a part of it, so I need to tweak it until I'm happy. Then I can show you what the hoop hooks are for!





So anyways, in my depressed state last night - having finally snapped and deciding to forget real life and college for just a couple of hours, I went ahead and made a start of the "grass" effect for the downstairs of Bruion. Here's a photo:

As you can see, I've finished painting the stones and I've added some stepping stones and random stones here and there. I still need to add a second layer of "grass" to thicken it up a bit but I'll get that done this weekend at some point, hopefully!

So there we have it. You now know I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth! I'm still mini-ing and I'm still making progress.. just slowly! Hopefully, I'll be back later on to show you some more progress!

Also - I still have my 20% discount going at Diddies! :D

Have a good day!!

In A Nutshell

I've finally got round to adding the nutshell fruit bowl to my Etsy shop, Diddies: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Diddies

If you are interested you can find much more information about the fruit bowl, and get yourself a 20% discount code here: http://diddiesatetsy.blogspot.com/ at the official blog for Diddies.

I'll be back later, hopefully, with some more progress on Bruion and The Bakers Dozen.

See you later!

Progress On Bruion!

Hey everyone!!

I hope you've all had a good week and a constructive weekend!
I've been extremely busy this week with college work, hense why there's been no progress to post up... up until tonight!

Today I had a bit of a wobble over the brick work on the bakery. Thankfully, yet again the lovely folk on the DHE forum helped me see that the brickwork was authentic, and they told me to stop expecting perfect.. not in those words, but it was a general hint in some of the posts! So I soldiered on with the stencilling and now leaving the brick work to dry over night, ready for sanding and finishing tomorrow. So I wont show you now, as it doesn't look anything special, but I will show you hopefully tomorrow if all goes to plan!

Now onto the real reason for this post... Bruion. I've finished the painting on the inside, and outside. So today, while I can't do much else on the bakery, I decided to glue on the beams.

Here's what it looks like so far on the outside:

Ignore the gaps in the mossy roof... I have to buy some more mossy stuff to finish off the otherside of the roof and then I can fill in the gaps. Looking pretty good so far is it not? :D

Well, considering I was on a roll... I decided to go ahead and make something else. Now you all know I am terrible with wood, but I just about managed to make some windowsills. They were easy to make and took about 5 minutes! Fabulous stuff :D

Here's some photos of how they turned out:

You'll have to excuse my dad there! hehe

I'm currently making something else wooden. Considering I'm on a roll tonight, why stop? I might just carry on until I have no wood left!

See you tomorrow

Bits of progress, here and there.

Hi everyone!

Okay so it was Tuesday since I last posted. That's so long ago! And I have to be honest, not an awful lot has happened since then.
I'm still poorly with the cold. I've been sneezing and blowing my nose a lot today, so I think I'm starting to get it out of my system. Yay! Kind of wish my nose was a body part I could de-attach and leave somewhere while I worked... but then I'd lose it and look pretty strange for a while...

Anyways, enough of that. In between studying, sneezing, sleeping and sniffing Olbas oil - I've been doing just odd bits of work on The Bakers Dozen and Bruion. Not an awful lot, but every little helps - or so Tesco says.

I've been painting the outside of The Bakers Dozen gray, ready to do the brick stencilling. It still needs a second coat, but I can do that in the morning. I've also painted the inside of the extentsion. Here's a photo:

 The Georgian's didn't have many colours, not until the Regency times anyway. I found this shade of colour on a website that showed you different colours the Georgian's had. I thought this would look good in the bakery part. It's a colour that will open the room up a bit, as it isn't very big. Everytime I think about furniture, I have to remind myself it's not as big as The Olde Post Office kitchen. I really like this colour, although in some lights it can look too pinky. It's a homebase brand tester post (I never get the big tins or the expensive stuff!) and I think it's called Ballet. I might have to dirty the colour up a bit as I go along with the project, I don't want it to look too new and fresh.

Last night I painted the roof of Bruion. I've had a change of plan. My original idea was to thatch the roof, but during my research, getting some inspiration, I came across a few fairy dwellings that had mossy roof's. I've been doing that staring thing again. Looking at Bruion with unusually wide eyes while my tea gets cold and I've decided Bruion would look a lot better with a mossy roof. It would look more woodlandy I think... I hope anyway.

Here's the painted roof photo:

This colour is a Wilkinson's tester pot and it's called Oak Leaf. I usually use Wilkinson's colours and they are so unbelievably cheap and I'm usually in that area of town. This is actually a really lovely colour. I'm not usually a fan of green, but this colour is very calm and pretty.

Tonight I grabbed the bag of moss I found in Homebase and thought about sticking it to the roof. Only problem was, the moss was more like thin string. No. Didn't like it. So I put it back in the bag, gave it to mom as a late Christmas present (not that she appreciated it much) and dug out some other stuff I'd bought to use as grass for the downstairs part. Here's a photo:

Much better! The box I had filled just under half of the roof space and I pulled it apart and did it bit by bit. I'm really pleased with the effect so I've sent my mom to the model shop tomorrow to buy some more. This stuff is actually used for bushes on railway models. My brother got a model trainset for Christmas. I took him to the model shop to spend his Christmas money and found this. I don't think it'll make good grass though, looks a bit thick. But it's perfect for the mossy look! What do you think?

Tomorrow, I hope to get the rest of the roof done, and the second coat of gray paint on The Bakers Dozen.

See you tomorrow!

Brick Work Completed On The Bakers Dozen Extension

Hi everyone!

Today, I've been working super hard to get the brick work finished on the extension to The Bakers Dozen! I'm really pleased with it so far, as it was my first attempt at using the brick stencils from The Brompley Craft Products supplier. I used their flemish bond stencil and their red brick compound. It's come out beautifully.

Here's a photo of what it looks like now:

The window and door is not glued into place yet as I still have to paint them. I placed them in just to give you, as well as myself, a general idea. These will be painted white. I also placed the roof on to give another general idea. I'm going to be applying roof slates to this so hopefully this part of the bakery is going to look pretty swish.

Over the next couple of nights I'm going to be painting the rest of the bakery outside grey, ready to do the brick work on it on Friday. I'm also going to paint inside this part of the bakery if I get the time to do so.

Hopefully, if college work is kind to me, I'll be able to add some tiles or wood flooring to this building at the weekend!

I'm at college on Wednesday's and Thursday's, so I only have time to do mini work in the evenings. I'm suffering from the cold that's going around and the nights are dark; living in a cottage you can understand lighting isn't always great. So please bare with me!

Fingers crossed, I'll be back tomorrow!
Good night
xx

It's Snowing!

Here in Lincolnshire, UK I woke up at 7:30am to see snow falling! Yay! We've already got about an inch on the ground in such a short time, and so far it hasn't stopped for a pause!
Here's a couple of photos for you:

As I've seen from some of your blogs this morning, there's a fair few people who are wanting the snow, De from Delighful Mini's - I'm looking at you!

The photo on the left was taken from my dining room, showing the back of our house. You can just about see the surroundings around our land through the flurry. Very pretty!

The photo on the right was taken out of my kitchen window. Usually, we can see the Lincolnshire wolds out in the distance. But as you can see - no wolds, just trees and snow flurries!

Click the photo's for a better look!


I'll hopefully be back later with some progress photos. I have no excuse not to, I've already started the brick stenciling on The Bakers Dozen!

See you later

x

Good Evening Everyone

Today, I had the chance to show you lots of pictures. Pictures including the new Etsy item that will be listed within a few days, the progress I made on The Bakers Dozen and a few idea's I've come about for Bruion. But, I've decided to change my plans a smidge.

My blog is going to undergo a small make-over. You may not even notice it unless you visit every single day, but I'm making a lot of changes for the New Year. My Etsy shop, Diddies, will be going under a small make-over too! :D

So I apologise for not showing you any photo's today, I promise there will be an exciting blog post for you all tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm sorry that I dont have anything miniature related to post today, but I would just like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope 2011 brings you all health and happiness as well as lots and lots of mini's!!

See you tomorrow xx