Monday 31 December 2012

Hello Fellow Bloggers!!

Hello everyone!  What a rollercoaster 2012 has turned out to be!!  I've been caring for family members and generally running everyone else's lives while they've been incapacitated - happy to say that I've now handed them back the reins with instructions to get on with things!

We also thought it would be a good idea to do some major renovations at home but this proved to be a stop-start affair because whatever we planned was always railroaded by something (or someone!) else.  Things are starting to settle down now and I'm tentatively starting to craft again.

I note that I have only managed a paltry five posts this year so far...must do better! 

I've also noticed that quite a lot of the bloggers I follow seem to have been side-tracked this year too so if that's the case with you I sincerely hope that you're back on an even keel soon xx

So - what have I been up to?  Making things mainly for other people...

A Roman blind for my sister's house...

And a bench cushion to match...

Untitled

A cross-stitched cushion for my son's girlfriend (it was her Christmas gift!)...

Untitled

A cross stitch 'Row of Cats' for a work colleague for her 50th birthday along with a cover for her Kindle - both of which I forgot to photograph!!

A couple of cross stitch kits made it back onto frames, one is a Cocker Spaniel for my sister that I started two years ago before remembering that I hate Anchor kits!  I had intended to give it to her as a gift at Christmas but it's more likely to become a birthday present - her birthday's in September!

Anyway that's enough for now...if you're still reading you must be longing for this post to end so I'll say bye for now and will definitely be back soon.

Wishing you all good health and every happiness in 2013!

Wednesday 8 August 2012

A quick check-in!

Hello Everyone and a special welcome to my new followers!
There has been so much happening here lately with home and family that hobbies have been shelved meantime.  However I feel the winds of change and am trying to work out the best way forward for us all.
Please keep your posts coming because I do try to catch up with reading them every few days.
Hugs to all,

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Comment Verification ..... why?

I have been driven mad by the "type-what-you-see-even-though-it's-illegible!!" piffle I have to go through to leave a comment on your fabulous blogs.  Checking the settings on my blog I noticed that it was switched on here too!!!  It is now disabled!!
If others are as bothered about this as I am (and it's not just me being 'at-that-age'!!)  could you please switch it off?   Rant over xoxox

Sunday 13 May 2012

Bedroom & Dressing Room

Spurred on by your lovely comments I've finished the master bedroom and converted what used to be the wasted space of the staircase into a dressing room.  Because the carcass had half-landings built in the only way round this problem was to add a false wall in front of the landings resulting in a small but functional area.  The false wall in this room is meant to look like a wardrobe :)









I'm not sure that the style of furnishing in these rooms suit the overall feel of the house but until I revamp the other set of furniture I have it'll do for now.

Hope you like it so far!  Back soon x

Thursday 3 May 2012

It's been such a long time....

It’s been such a long time since I’ve posted anything and I feel I have been away from blogging for what seems an eternity due to every conceivable ‘life stressor’ landing on my lap en masse since the start of this year. However on a positive note there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel now and immersing myself in all things creative has certainly helped me through. So after a quick scroll through my blog to help my memory, shall I start with an update of what’s been achieved in my miniature world of late?

Just after Christmas, and after much heart searching, I had decided to part company with my Laurels doll house. I hadn't worked on it in a year, it takes up too much space and I really couldn’t see me finishing it. I started to strip out anything I wanted to keep with the intention of selling it ‘sold as seen’ but I never got round to advertising it for sale. Perhaps that’s just as well as one day I rolled up my sleeves and just started working on it like a maniac…although now slightly regretting that I had stripped out the wiring!!

The Laurels is a five storey townhouse with five large rooms and five narrow halls / staircases. I decided that the staircases were a complete waste of space and with some ‘bashing’ it now has nine rooms and one entrance hall. It then crossed my mind that the little people wouldn’t be able to move around the house!  Hmmm...I decided it’s my dollhouse and if I think that doors are not a necessity then the house will just have to be viewed as a series of room boxes!! Besides which I have other houses-in-waiting in which the flow of movement around a normal house can be established!

So as not to bore you to tears I’ve split the unveiling of The Laurels into a number of posts. So let’s start at the top of the house; on the left is the nursery and on the right is the bathroom.


You’ve probably already seen a lot of the miniatures in the nursery. The main difference is the doorway has now been covered with a huge shelf for toys, books and games. The 144th scale houses I made previously now have a home, at a recent fair I bought a little desk that you can see to the right of the fireplace and the light was reinstated above the bed.



It’s at the stage now where I can continue to make or buy miniatures to fill the gaps in the room.

Moving across, the bathroom was actually the top hallway. As the house originally had dog-legged stairs there were bits of half landing built into the carcass of the house. This wasn’t too much of a problem at the top but, as you’ll see later, it caused some difficulties with the rooms below  A piece of foam board was cut to fit the hole in the floor and the room was tiled with some black and white tiles that I bought ages ago, finally glad to have found a use for them! The bathroom suite was a Chrysnbon kit that I made a while back and blogged about then – I just love these kits!


The room was too narrow to build another shelving unit so I used mountboard to build a vanity unit into the old door frame and inset the sink from the kit.



I intend to buy a Chrysnbon bathroom accessories kit and add them to the room too along with some shelving and, of course, loads more miniatures.

So, that’s the top floor. Next time, and I promise it will be soon, we’ll move down to the master bedroom … with dressing room! Until then, take care xx


Sunday 1 January 2012

Welcome 2012!

Well, that's another year over and a new one just about to start!  I don't want to reflect too much on 2011 as it wasn't the happiest of times so let's leave it in the past and focus on the future.
I was absent from my blog for much of 2011 but I fully intend to remedy that in 2012 so I would like to start by sending a warm welcome to all my new followers and extend thanks to those who are still following despite the lack of posts!

Here's to a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful 2012!!