Miniatures make me happy

It seems we have accidentally acquired a new miniature hobby over the Christmas period. Next December we will be assembling - somewhere in the house - a very small Christmas village made up of a few buildings, a pond and a tree. Wandering around in the snow will be Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, as well as Mr Scrooge. For some reason it is a tradition in our family to visit a garden centre or two after Boxing Day - you never know what bargains you might be able to grab. While my mum was sorting through the reduced rolls of wrapping paper, my husband was eyeing up the half price model houses as he has done for several years now.  The trouble with being accustomed to 1:12 scale hand crafted miniatures is that some of these looked rather crass to me. I am fully aware that an LED lit village with moving parts could be seen as a little (a lot?) tacky but as we throw ourselves into Christmas anyway, why not? The beginnings of our Christmas village The idea is that we'll buy

After our successful trip to the Christmas Kensington Dollshouse Festival recently, I was determined to clear out our spare room so I could decorate my house for the festive season. After a few days of very hard work, the room is looking an awful lot better and tonight I was able to deck the halls, as they say. Much like in real life, I'd forgotten quite how many decorations I have... The first job is to get the tree in position although to be honest, it doesn't matter where it goes these days as I don't use the lights. When my dad first built my dollshouse I, for some unknown reason, felt the Christmas tree should have coloured flashing lights - so that's exactly what it has. The socket that connects to the plug on the tree Next year I am hoping to swap the bright lights (although you can actually adjust the brilliance on them as well) for more delicate white bulbs, though I'm not sure quite how easy this will be. I got over excited and put the fair

Yesterday my mum and I made our annual trip to the Christmas Kensington Dollshouse Festival  which turned out to be a very successful shopping spree for us both. Unlike the previous exhibition , the Christmas show is held on just one day and we immediately noticed it was a lot busier. I saw a couple of friends on the way to the show who both suggested I was heading out to consume a glass or two of wine. Little did they know I was off to enjoy one of the most sedate hobbies around, mainly taken up by middle aged women. That said, when I was being elbowed out the way by an elderly lady struggling to see some tiny vegetables a couple of hours later, I wasn't thinking of it as a 'sedate hobby'. The main hall - which is one of many - at the Kensington Dollshouse Festival I didn't really have a shopping list on this occasion but knew I wanted to get a few Christmas themed pieces. This is partly motivation to sort out the room where my dollshouses live so I can decora