Miniatures make me happy

This weekend my mum celebrated her 70th birthday and as it was a special occasion, I'd decided on a special present. We're very lucky to share our love of miniatures and I thought it would be nice to give her a room box that reminded her of all the things she loves. So without further ado, here's the completed room. The accessories won't mean much to other people but most of the items in the room mean something to us. The completed room box The photo above was taken in the middle of the day so the lights aren't having much of an effect but in the shot below you can see they do really light up the room. A homely feel with the lights on When I started this project I had the idea that I would do all the work and that would make it more special. Then I realised that actually it wouldn't be much of a present if the walls fell down and there were bubbles in the wallpaper so after buying a kit and the necessary items to decorate, I handed it all over to...

A few years ago I mentioned we had 'accidentally' begun a new miniature hobby . As this one is seasonal it's a slow burner but our Christmas village is growing little by little, year by year. We still go to a garden centre for the annual post-festive sales and pick up some half price bargains. Amazingly, this year I escaped having only spent £3. This little horse and carriage fitted our specification of 'nothing too big' as storing the village from January to November is a bit of a challenge. The village sits just in front of our TV, largely because it's an empty surface but the fact it's white means it adds to the snowy feel. As you can see, it's still a manageable size - for the moment... We were hoping to pick up a 'firework display' my dad had seen online but unfortunately we couldn't find one. The film below is something to aim for next year!

I love going to dollshouse fairs but it's not quite the same when your current projects (my house , pub and shop) are almost completed. Window shopping is all very well but if I don't come home clutching a tiny paper bag that cost me a fortune, I don't feel quite the same level of happiness. With Kensington Dollshouse Festival  fast approaching I've been wondering what to put on my shopping list. It's also that time of year when my husband is nagging me for Christmas present ideas and picking up a couple of things at the show has become tradition. I joined a few dollshouse groups on Facebook recently, partly to nose around other people's houses and partly, I admit, to promote this blog. It's been really inspiring to see what everyone else is making and I've also spotted a lot of bargains in the 'For sale' sections, particularly for beginners. So what's this got to do with my shopping list? Well something caught my eye in one of the gro...

I can't tell you much about it yet but I've been playing with Lego again (as if the first time wasn't time consuming enough). This is the state of our dining room after weeks of waking in the night with a new idea, immediate eBay searches and lots of late night bidding. It's all for the work Christmas competition so I'll tell you more in December...

These days it's possible to buy almost anything you can think of in miniature. There was a time when choice was limited to a Victorian or Georgian dollshouse so it wasn't too hard to pick a theme and get going. Not any more... One of the ongoing projects in our house is my husband's castle. He had seen a kit for sale but my dad knew he could make something far superior so for Tim's 40th birthday, my parents gave him the three room building below. Quite rightly, they didn't decorate it as that's such a personal choice they wanted Tim to decide how it should look. He was thrilled with it (still is) and it meant a lot to me that we could share the hobby. I was pretty lucky to marry a man who not only tolerates my miniature obsession but also joins in. The problem is Tim's going to be 50 next month. Yep, that's 10 long years the poor castle has been nothing more than MDF.   There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, we're perfectionists when...

Continuing the tour of my 1:12 scale Tudor dollshouse that I started some years ago, the nursery is another of my favourite rooms. The nursery in 1:12 scale I could have filled this room many times over because tiny toys are so very beautiful. I'm particularly fond of Humpty Dumpty and Paddington Bear - in fact, I would love to own the entire range from Sally Reader Miniatures but these two are my favourites. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall There's a lot going on in this room - all on top of the rug my nan made more than 20 years ago. Right at the back of the nursery is a toy garage that I'm also rather fond of - complete with cars. Spot the garage. Look out for the kite and skipping rope too - both have lovely details I'm always in two minds about whether or not to add people to a room. There's no doubt it takes away from the realism and, particularly in photos, the vague doubt over whether or not you're looking at a miniature...

I'm very lucky because I like my job - a bit of a rarity these days. Sometimes, I absolutely love my job. Recently I was able to get a bit creative and came up with something for the company website I'm rather proud of. I work for PR agency Maxim  and am always trying to think of new ways to get different messages across. Photographs are really important when trying to gain media coverage but some of the images we're sent for issuing to the media are truly terrible. Obviously we can't share these pictures so I decided to recreate some of the issues we have to help explain to people how to take a good photo for the media. And that's where my love of miniatures came in... My first job was to beg, borrow and steal until I had a team of Lego figures ready to help out. Lego people - ASSEMBLE!  I turned our dining room into a makeshift photo studio using an old cardboard box, my mum brought some of her miniatures round and I raided my own collection. It ...

It turns out I'm not good at regular blogging, pretty terrible actually. It's been so long I can hardly remember how Blogger works... I'm not going to make any promises about being better but when I want to blog, I will. A couple of things have inspired me recently. I've been 'playing' with Lego for work and managed to incorporate some mini props into pictures I took that turned out to be rather popular. I loved doing it and it reminded me that miniatures really do make me happy so perhaps I should be spending a little more time with them. Secondly, my friend and colleague Erica Jones was on Saturday Live on Radio 4 yesterday, all because of her blog The bookshop around the corner . She is extremely dedicated to her love of bookshops and to her blog (she's been known to leave the pub early so she can meet her self-imposed publishing deadlines) and she generally makes me think 'must try harder' on a regular basis. Of course, I also marri...

Today is Shrove Tuesday so it seems only right that my miniature family should be treated to some pancakes. Lemon and sugar, anyone? Earlier in the year we visited the Inn on the Lake dollshouse show in Gravesend where I picked up this incredibly detailed board containing a selection of 'freshly made' pancakes. The woman selling them was so enthusiastic it would have been hard to leave them behind. The only difficult part was choosing which board to have as they were all different. Take your pick! All individually handcrafted and all slightly different. In case you're wondering about the scale, you can see my massive thumb in the picture below. I love that you can pick up each individual pancake and 'serve' them. Now, where did I put the lemons? Giant thumb alert!  Happy pancake day, everyone! 

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...