Miniatures make me happy

Alice – our Havanese dog – is the centre of our world. She’s full of love, fun and has a huge personality so of course it makes sense to have a miniature version of her. She’s a tiny dog (which we only realise when she’s with other breeds) but not twelfth scale – yet. I’m lucky I married someone who ‘gets’ my love of miniatures. Tim got a replica made of Alice which is one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever received. Finding a little bowl  (thanks, once again, to Shepherd Miniatures) at Miniatura  for her was just the icing on the cake.  Eventually she’ll live in comfort in my modern house but for now, she’s just guarding the doorway during the renovation works.

I love the 50s – from the furniture to the fashion – so I think my diner might be my favourite room box (at least for the moment). My 50s style 1:12 scale diner - built from scratch by my dad. The inside of the diner - still lots of space to fill. I’d been looking around for a kit for a long time but couldn’t find anything I liked, so my dad came to the rescue and designed RK’s diner from scratch, including the amazing electrics. I absolutely love turning the main lights off, switching on each individual element and watching it come to life.  The juke box is actually a toy I found on eBay but it was the right scale and I think it fits perfectly. The ‘clock face’ is a watch that my dad added LED lighting to, while the sign in the window is actually meant for model railways. The buttons are labelled so each element of the lighting can be controlled individually.  The doors are another favourite element, something he spent a long time over but I think it was worth it to get...

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 ...