Saturday 31 December 2011


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

Wednesday 7 December 2011

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

Tuesday 6 December 2011

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


Monday 5 December 2011

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 :)