Sometimes being a worker's mate is hard work!

Husband has been working on the hall for me..................I have been sanding, hoovering dust etc. A lot like our real life!

I had been dreading stripping the hall as the handrail had been glued on after the red felt carpet had been fitted and I knew the little wooden spindles would all fall off and they did!

Believe me it was like sanding matchsticks and I broke several that then had to be painstakingly glued back together.

However they do look much better now! The wall panels are maple and look just lovely - as you can see I also have a new hall carpet and a smart new floor.

A wee close up of the maple panels, shaped, bevelled and fitted one by one!

The wood panelling has

continued upstairs although

not in the maple, the second

one is oak and mahogany is the third!

I have wallpapered above

as these were not full height.

The top hall is needing

pictures on the wall and

Two little handmade tables

awaiting table covers!

All the halls now have cornice and skirting.

I have ordered some new lights but they have not arrived - the beauty of internet shopping!

I have now wallpapered the bedroom, twice! If you remember I bought some books with srapbook paper and now have too many choices - I wasn't sure about doing the room in black and white but am happy that my wallpapering is much improved!

The lady of the house appears to be gathering hats, not to mention shoes!

So although I have not been blogging I have been busy.......!

Quilts and other matters!

Our new Housekeeper, Mrs Ott is still moving about the house waiting for her room to be ready! She was delighted to recieve a beautiful new patchwork quilt in the post the other day - as you can see it was a big hit with everyone!

A friend kindly offered to try her hand at quilting 12th scale! The pic on the left was her first attempt and quite beautiful but a little small and thick however it has made a spendid rug for the bedroom. The quilt on the right was the second attempt and fitted the little single bed that husband made well.







The above is the third rug and just delightful! Mrs Ott just adores it and so do I, the colours are wonderful and the clever effect of going from light to dark is beautiful, this one drapes over the bed and, a bit like the story of the three bears with the porridge, is just right - thank you so much Jo if you ever look in on this blog!


I reckon you could have a career in dolls house quilting!

A wee preview of the new room/parlour for the housekeeper - skirting etc still to be fitted!

And finally the stairs have been painted with a stone effect paint, three coats, not that we are counting - they are hard to see in the pic so......



here is a close up of the little wheelbarrow, still not painted but now filled with tomatoes, carrots, oranges, potatoes and bread......well the vendor decided to diversify in order to fill his cart.


Mrs Ott has a little, slightly wonky, basket also made from Fimo!



The other little 'stall' is to be a flower stall whenever I find the time to make the flowers.....!

An 'inside the house' update............

I am very happy to report that we have just about finished the Parlour - as you can see I chose the floral paper and have used cream for the coving, skirting and dado rail. The floor has proved difficult and does not photograph well, it is made from veneered oak and red cedar but for some reason bubbled...............! It has now been sanded down and looks a lot better. I had to move the mirror to take the picture with the lights on due to the flash - the two little candles on the sideboard are working. I have temporarily misplaced the ceiling rose but as soon as I find it that will go above the light.

I have been making pictures, and am now using long gone relatives!

Since the death of my mother and my inherited boxes and boxes of pictures I have despaired with what to do with them and have started putting them on disk - it occurred to me that many of the black and white images could be used in the dolls house!

I am not sure what the relatives would have thought but I think it is quite nice for them to be seen after so long in a cupboard under the bed!

On the right of this room there is a small pic of my mother and then my father - my father would have been amused to learn he was now in a Victorian dollshouse.

.This is a pic of my maternal grandmother in the hall - sadly I only ever knew about her from this photograph as she died when I was very young. My grandfather always had this picture on his desk

Our housekeeper arrived and is moving into her little bedroom come parlour - she is luck enough to be having a friend make her a patchwork quilt. So she is looking forward to that - she is an older lady made by Heidi Ott and arrived naked! We have quickly managed to get her some clothes as clearly that would never do........................they are a little big!

She has greying hair and some subtle wrinkles so looks quite authentic..........and a bit like me.....!

The other rooms I have decorated still need coving etc to be fitted - apparently my other half (note not better!} tells me you are supposed to do one room at a time................but I got carried away with the wallpapering once I had got the hang of it.

A Venture into Polymer Clay!

Given dollshouse miniatures are so expensive I have resolved to master the art of making things from polymer clay!

First attempt at bread!

Second attempt at bread and some tomatoes

I then moved on to try carrots which a little girl on You Tube assured me were very easy! Mine are a little flat but I am hoping to make various vegetables for a little wheel barrow I am going to have as part of the street scene.

This is the wheelbarrow in it's infancy - it is going to be painted in bright colours and filled with vegetables for sale. Of course the vegetables will be organic......!

The stairs are now completed and have had an undercoat of paint - they will be sprayed with a stone effect paint.

As you can see I have still to paint the basement - I hate painting unless it is in the form of a spray!

Inspiration and Innovation!

Having discovered Heidi Ott and thinking life could not get any better! Now I have discovered Jiayi and Reutter - don't worry I bought some Fimo!

Currently now lusting after one of Jiayi's beautiful handpainted silk sofa sets.........!

Bought this Jiayi unit second hand - my usual Ebay!

Suitably inspired I set about a coffee table that cost £1 and painted it cream - then tried a small flower transfer - I was very impressed!
It doesn't quite live up to the wonderful workmanship of Jaiyi but sometimes innovation is called for!

This is the parlour waiting to be decorated and I found a good selection of papers in a craft book for scrapbooking - the above burgundy paper is one and I do believe it is 12th scale!

Here are a couple of the other designs - it is linen paper and I think works quite well.

Well all I have to do now is paper! So far my papering has really not been good and has been stripped off again - I am reluctant to spoil this paper!

In the meantime the dolls house stairs are still under construction!

There has been a lot of work, not by me!

I have joked about it's likeness in build time to the Forth Rd Bridge - it took a very long time.....!

Home Made Additions to the Laundry!

The laundry is coming along - we have now added a little ironing board, a sink - the other one was borrowed from the kitchen! We also have a new stove/burner to heat the water!

The sink was made from scraps of MDF - husband lectures in a building college and is now picking up remnants from the floor for the doll's house!

The edges were rounded and the whole thing painted Chalky White - legs were papered using left over brick paper that did the fire surround.

Ironing board was fiddly to glue together - we didn't achieve it opening and closing but it looks fine - the cover is a piece from an old shirt!

This is a close up of the stove - also made from let over MDF - again husband more handy than me but my painting is coming along well............!

The kitchen is also coming along - similar oven surround to the laundry - really needing more things to stock the shelves!

Building Progress and the Sheila's Maid

This is the lower floor now - minus the front steps to let you see!

Yet to be painted but looks in keeping with the rest of the house!

This is the new laundry which is just painted with emulsion and quite basic as it would have been at the time.

The fire surround was made out of MDF and then papered with brick effect paper - a piece of coving was used for shape at the front - still looking for a suitable little boiler.

(The linen, as far as I have got, is cut from tiny baby wash cloths - six cloths for a £1 at the pound shop!)

The Sheila's maid was quite easily made with five bamboo sticks - the ends were a little fiddly.

String laced through as shown and it does actually work!

The new bed is pretty although the room still needs to be decorated and the bed will look much better when the room isn't in pink!

That basset gets everywhere - like a true basset he is where the humans are!