A day late

Apologies for being a day late with this week's post.  I spent my blog time yesterday fiddling around making a digital book to record Bentleys (a previous build).  More of this when it comes to fruition but suffice it to say it took much, much longer to do than I imagined.

Meanwhile in dribs and drabs throughout the week I managed to get the Rec room and the Mud room sorted.

These are the terrific boxes I keep my 'dressing stuff in.  They were sold as bead boxes for a couple of dollars in Wal Mart.  I try to collect things for one room in the same box so I don't forget what I have and duplicate things.

That worked really well with the three cats I seem to have acquired.  At least the quality improves as I go along.  All I can say is that I once owned a cat as ugly as the first one here.  He was also extremely stupid and quickly earned the name pudding, so I have something of an attachment to the ugliest one.  I suspect Mrs Perky on the right will get to inhabit the house.

A couple of the mini objects in this house sort of work.  The jukebox lights up and plays a couple of songs and the washing machine in the mud room is a Miele (can't find them any more!!!) and it lights up, the drum spins, it makes washing noises and then makes a spinning noise followed by a beep when the washing is finished.  The door also opens.  Such a nice piece of kit.  I used to have their cooker too in a previous project and that had hobs that lit and made cooking noises.

I am especially fond of this little basket of sea shells as they were all found by me during my time in Naples (Florida)  I had a sort of challenge with myself to find the smallest shell possible each time we went to the beach and I ended up with a zillion very teeny ones.  They are miniatures in their own right.

  

These must be the world's tidiest teenagers - biscuits on a plate and liquorice allsorts in a bowl!!!  What can I say.....I train my children well...... especially the resin ones.  Incidentally every sweetie and every biscuit is a loose separate item.  Such talented people around.  For non-UK chums each of these biscuits is a recognisable product.

My favourite object here is the cute little stapler.  Needs a bit more 'stuff' yet

Pretty much a shell collection going on here.  Indeed there is a box open with two new shells in that haven't found their home yet.  Again it needs games and stuff for the empty shells.  The china piggy bank is in memory of one I had for many, many years called Daisy Grunter.  Spot the mobile phone.

.....   and so the room goes back together......  I need a couple of posters for the back wall.  I am just not sure what to have.  Might go retro and have something to represent what my kids liked .....Star Wars? and....?

A few nice details in the mud room such as the whiteboard weekly planning sheet with pen on the wall, the smoke alarm, the alarm system board for this part of the house.  There is cleaning stuff left out as Simon has been cleaning his skate board.  Apologies for the poor quality photo, it was taken late in the day and in poor light.

I have just added a couple of things in the dining room since you last saw it.  I love the tiny glass horse on the huntboard, bought when I was doing quarter scale.  This photo reminds me that I need to clean up and re-trim the chairs.  They had some very flashy gold braid round them that I unceremoniously ripped off.  I really need to get down to filling the cabinets and dressing the tables - I actually have more than I need to do this.  I keep sort of hanging on in hopes of making another huntboard which is silly as that in itself doesn't prohibit dressing what's there.  Apologies for the BFG in the mirror.

Dolls House and Miniatures Fair - York

Dolls House and Miniatures Fair
(Established 2002)
York Race Course
Sunday 3rd June

 I managed to get to the York Show at the eleventh hour.  With current health issues and moving into a new house/garden and wanting to be around to help the family I wasn't able to make a decision until the last minute this year, but we made it.

When we do this show we go to York for two plus days, especially for the Spring Show when the weather is usually nice as York is such a lovely place to visit.  I commend it to anyone who could take a mini break there (or even an extended holiday) just remember to build in the June or November show!  It is on the 18th this year.

We go on Saturday arriving in time for lunch at our very favourite restaurant of all time - Trinacria .  It is not at all posh but has the most wonderful cook/chef.  They do arancinis to die for and I have never eaten anything there I didn't love. 

On Sunday I go to the show and my other half tootles around on his bike seeking out various ice creams (home made Italian, or in Trinacria's case Scicilian) and cakes and coffee - so he is one happy man.  Not sure he takes in much of the fascinating scenery.  By the time he picked me up from the show he was ready again for cake and coffee at the lovely Goddards.  As a miniaturist and somewhat passionate about beautiful houses this is high on my hit list.  A modest (by grand houses standards) Arts and Crafts House once belonging to the Terry (chocolate) family.  If you are doing an Arts and Crafts project this is one to visit for sure.

we had our tea and coffee and cakes on the terrace at Goddards

I am afraid I was very forgetful about taking photos but I do have this one through the car window as we were leaving York for our trip home - you get a glimpse of the Minster.

We also squeezed in a quick flit to Beningbrough Hall but I confess to not doing the house or gardens as I was bone weary from the show.  We have been there before and, again, another trip worth doing if you are in the area.  This time you have 300 years of house to go at and on a grander scale - but still not overawing. (is that a word or did I make it up?)  We stopped in at their Farm Shop and I bought a couple of white foxgloves for a little empty corner behind my Buddha.  In the twenty four hours or so behind a car seat they managed to bend their stems to accommodate it!  I promise you they will be lovely when fully grown and open.

Beningbrough foxgloves

So to the show itself....

It is a bit naughty of the organisers to claim 'over 90 vendors' year after year when the numbers have steadily declined to 72.  Yes, I know there are folks out there who would sell their souls to be surrounded by 72 traders all selling their miniatures.  Part of the loss this year for me was a bit significant in that there were two vendors missing I had particularly gone there for.  Hey Ho.

I did see a lovely display by a family group called Raven Miniatures.  I googled them but without success.  They had created a lovely scene of our 1/12th friends looking at their very own model railway which was actually happily chugging round its lovely little track.  I have an email for them if anyone wants to follow up for any reason - fluff48@zoho.com

They had a second display of a BBQ complete with smoke rising from the grill - a light bulb and some oil it seems......

As I mentioned I am not super fit right now so maybe I was under par in general - all I know was I couldn't find anything I really wanted.  This has happened every time at the last few shows that it worries me - am I just not well, jaded as far as the project goes or just come to a natural end with the hobby?

I love coming up with an idea, researching it and doing the actual build of the house.  I enjoy some basic furnishing but every time on the previous four projects the enthusiasm peters out when it comes to endless shopping around for bits and bobs to dress the scenes.  With every build prior to this I had another project waiting in the wings so I felt OK about not quite finishing and passing the story along to someone else.  This time I am determined this is my final build and it will be carried through to the end and kept by me...... BUT..... I confess to being less than enthusiastic when it comes to looking for  things to finish the story.

Here's what I bought....

A bowl of eggs - I am not sure if I got rid of the one I had that looked like this or if I still have it

sort of tells its own story!

 I did like this buy - some things from the Luggage Lady (Sue Popely)  Beautifully in scale and made of leather.

 Talking of scale I also managed to get some liquorice all sorts, also spot on with their size.

 This is where it all goes wrong.....

I have seen these musical instruments many, many, many times on the web and at shows and have always decided I didn't like them enough to buy them and I would wait until I could afford some 'better' ones.  Stopping by a stall and desperate to buy something I spotted these on musical instrument stands.  One was a very nice metal stand which really gave the violin a boost in its appearance and for that reason alone I asked for a violin and a cello and two matching metal stands.  After saying she wasn't sure if she had any the vendor picked out two stand boxes and carefully opened both checking their contents (so she knew they were plastic?!) and voila I now have two instruments I am not fond of on two plastic stands which don't fit either instrument properly and I am over twenty pounds lighter in cash.

I bought my French post-grad student a very nice espresso coffee maker for her apartment.  I am sorry the photo doesn't do it justice.  It is a piece by Delph Miniatures and, as always, nicely done.

Finally I bought a cat only to discover when I got home I have the very same one!  My excuse is that the house has been empty now for about three months and I don't have a clear mental picture of each room any more.  Hey ho, we now have two cats.

So for me not a fabulous trip BUT do not let me put you off, it is a jolly good show for anyone with stamina and optimism - I know of a couple of ladies who had a whale of a day.

Take a breather

I am not alone in mini world in believing that 'thinking' is a huge part of 'doing'.  I suspect I spend as more time 'off' the project thinking about it, researching for it, problem solving, shopping, seeking inspiration than I am actually hands on doing.

Now and then I gather all my thoughts and clobber together and see just how much of the house I am able to complete.  I dress each room as much as I can, using the furniture I will keep for that room and other stuff as stand-ins just to give me an idea of what's to come.

From this I can figure out what I might need to complete the room and the order of work.

So this is where I am up to:

The basement which has the Rec Room, the Hive and the Mud Room, is finished other than collecting a gazillion little bits and pieces to dress the three rooms.

The ground floor which has the Dining Room and the Vestibule and the small Sitting Room, is fully decorated and lit except for a couple of lamps and one ceiling rose.  I also have most of the furniture.

Dining Room using some stand in furniture

Sitting Room using stand in table and mirror

The upstairs which has the Music Room and the Library is where I am working now and has some furniture waiting for it, which is helping me find where to put the fire and lights etc.

Music Room - a mix of keepers and chuckers

Library with proper table and chair and some stand ins

The attic level which has the Bedroom (bathroom off there) and open plan Kitchen and Sitting Room seems a long way off right now, but I need to be working towards it in case I find things at a show that would be useful for it. 

kitchen and sitting room - paper cupboards

bedroom - paper bed and cupboards and borrowed desk

Doing this dress rehearsal has the benefit of clearing up my work area and, being a bear of tiny brain, I need a clear pathway to enable clear thinking.  I can keep my perpetual shopping list up to date and order anything practical that I am going to need to let me get on with the step after the one I am currently working on.  I hate being held up for a door knob or something silly like that.

Hope you had fun deciding which pieces are staying in which room and which things were stand-ins.

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I thought I might just do a post scrip in case it helps somebody.

While I was having my grand tidy up I dropped a plaster ceiling rose (aaarrggghh).  If you are lucky and it breaks leaving you all the pieces you can fix it and use it.

two pieces broken out

the solution

I peeled off one side of double sided sticky tape (it is very, very thin) and stuck the pieces carefully in place.  I then trimmed off the surplus tape.  The fine cracks will fill in perfectly if you want to put a coat of paint over it.  I am not even bothering to do that - they really are not visible when its on the ceiling.  When I come to stick the rose in place I will remove the other covering from the tape and the exposed double sided tape will help in the process of sticking the rose to the ceiling.

Moral of the story is don't bin something in a temper (as I nearly did) put it aside for a while and see if you can find a solution.

Adding details - the Rec Room

Having so (not) enjoyed the furniture making debacle it was time to cheer myself up with some bits and bobs to finish off the basement.

I have a small collection of the tiniest shells I could find on our beaches in Naples (Florida) so was determined they were going in.  [ in mini fantasy world Joanne has the same addiction and has a shell collection from their holiday home in the sun.]

small basket filled with shells I have collected

desk area begun

Joanne's shell bits and bobs and Simon's cell phone to start the TV unit

Cheque book from Valerie Claire

I made a cheque book (Valerie Claire's kit) I added in cheque stubs to make it more realistic before realising it is out of scale..... a bit on the large side.  That said I do remember working somewhere where I had large business cheques????  For now it is tucked on a shelf

I made the card house when I did my first project, the rest are purchases.  Paper dolls are from from Mini McGregor and the 'plane and fortune teller were made by a little boy - his first venture into selling his mini origami - he is the third generation of Ron Stetkewicz to make minis.

Back to the Future

A little bit of my past arrived in a carton today.

I am probably the only person who is loving this stuff and I totally understand if you don't feel this is what dollhousing is about but, for some of us it is as much about representing our lifetime as it is about replicating history.  I have no particular preference and I love both.  On this project (after a U-turn earlier in the game) my Georgian is now a 2015 house.

So much for 2015, I go and buy retro 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc furniture.

I first saw this Reac furniture for real in a miniature (mostly trains!) shop in Calgary years ago when I had just started with minis and I fell in love with it then.  I have come across it now and then on EBay and when webtrawling since then.  I have finally conceded that it needs to be admitted to one of my projects to pander to my lust, so here it is.

Once I decided I wanted it I spent an age trying firstly to find a vendor and then to find a vendor at a price I could afford.  The average price (if there is one) is probably around £20 - £30 per piece I have seen them as much as $90! and even more.  Eventually I came across a company in Canada (full circle) who claim to be the sole North American importer of Reac (???).  I was thrilled to find they charge $10 or $15 dollars per piece and ordered these.  

I still love them.

The Eames chairs and ottomans (I have two sets) are for the Rec. room.  The rocker, arm chair and sofa could be for there or for the apartment.  I won't know until I come to play with them.  Looking forward to that day.

Finishes and finished

My final decision on what finish to use on the ELF furniture was to use one coat of Danish Oil.  My thinking being: if one liberal coat didn't look enough then, fine, I could always add another...

I loved the way it looked after it was buffed up. I actually used my not-Dremel rotary tool for the polishing and think it made a real difference - it is much beefier than doing it by hand.

When I came to make the things for my work room I wanted them to look like the bog-standard 'contiplas' sort of thing that you get in cheap Ikea flat pack stuff. (this is what my real ones are)

I thought if I constructed them and then tried to apply several coats of paint and rub down in between I was going to struggle with the 'joins'.  

I did pre-assemble the Expedit (bookcase type thing) piece because that was so dependent on getting things in grooves and I didn't want those impeded in any way by paint.  However, I was right in that it made the painting/sanding process more of a challenge.

The desk and table pieces were all painted first:

starting to assemble them

They were assembled using my favourite DeLuxe glue which really does glue painted surfaces together.  I add a couple of blobs of Super-Glue gel on every join, just to lock the pieces in place while the other glue dried.  This also helps to keep everything squared up properly.

I did four coats of paint, followed by buffing and they look the part.  this time I did the buffing by hand - the rotary tool was too hefty for the paintwork.  To get a slight sheen on painted tings you just need the finest of fine abrasive as the last rubbing down process.  A scrumpled brown paper bag, or scrumpled computer paper, a piece of kitchen roll, a coarse piece of cotton fabric, whatever you can bring to it that has enough fibres in it to act like the finest of sanders.

Expedit - the castors work

my work table - bit of a 'nip' on the side but it is now fixed

computer trolley - keyboard tray slides in and out and the castors work

I know all these were bespoke but they are incredibly inexpensive and I get just what I want.  Bookmark ELF there will be a time you need her magic.

What finish for the wood?

waiting for its finish

For the two Elf pieces I have been making I wanted them to pretty much stay as they are - in light wood.  That doesn't really mean unfinished though; 'raw' wood somehow looks just like that and cries out for something.


Many people use liquid wax which brushes on, is left to dry and is buffed to a slight sheen.  It looks lovely.  I have only tried to do it once and I suspect my impatience overcame me and I didn't leave it long enough to dry - basically it made no impact on the furniture I used it on.  My bad.  I binned the wax!

Not wanting to invest in more I wondered what Danish Oil would do as I have some of that.

six choices

Imagine these colours a little darker!  

Top row left to right Danish Oil - one coat, two coats, three coats.

Row below water-based clear satin finish.

I did the oil and decided I was not sure about the way it brought out the grain.  I think it is rather too defined and I am concerned I have all sorts of grains going every which way on the finished pieces.  It also darkens the wood which, on the one hand warms it up but on the other, it loses that 'blonde' look.

That drove me to trying the satin finish which doesn't change the colour very much or open the grain too much but it does leave a slight 'varnishy' sheen that's not right for these (?).

I am totally stumped and can't decide for more than two seconds at a time which one I am going with.

peep-o

This is a handy way to look at colours of paint, fabric etc.  You need to isolate them from the distraction of their background and other samples nearby.  Make a 'window' in a piece of white paper and look at them through that - useful when looking at paint chip cards.

If you have an opinion on which to choose, please share it - it is moments like this I hate working in isolation.  I want someone to tell me which one...........

Here's the TV unit waiting for its TV (I have one) once the unit has been oiled or varnished.