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 :)