Diamonds from a girls best friend

Afternoon!
Hope you had a lovely Christmas?
I have just about shaken off the turkey coma and am now trying to be sensible until NYE. Let's see how that goes ...
Now, I am a believer, however, this year Father Christmas shouldn't get all the credit!
My BFF boldly went where nobody has dared to go for my Xmas pressies. A dolls house fair!!

And the girl did good!


Cartier and Chanel, I knew our paths would cross eventually, even if it is in 1:12 scale!!

Lovely!
X

The Countdown continues

A week today is Christmas eve. I know you already know that, but it's fun to say anyway!

Christmas eve at our house is one of the best bits for me. Lots of festive spirit ( mines a G&T) naughty food and catching up with friends.
Inevitably it will end in my taking a disco nap on the sofa then being woken up by guests leaving and godparents giggling things like "off to bed now, or Father Christmas won't come."
In my sleepy, sozzled state I'll play along with and scurry off with the sisters, but Not before insisting Dad put the the mince pie out for the old boy and a carrot for Rudolph.
...Did I mention we're now all in our mid twenties?! Oh well.

Soo, that leaves 7 doors on my awesome advent calendar.

Can't believe it's taken me this long to show you! A present from my BFF, an gonna save it and use next year too!

And before I go, just a reminder that it's just 19 days till the launch of Four little Wall's 52 week challenge!!

Had some nice little comments and tweets so far, can't wait to get started!!

Ta Ta!

X

Christmas Shopping

Ok, so I know that it's maybe a bit late in the day to start shopping talk ( full size stuff is all done and dusted, most unlike me!!) but I thought it doesn't really matter if we're just (browser) window shopping?!

I put together a little Etsy treasury of my fave Christmas bits, LOVE them all, and there were so many more that I wanted to include. Hmm, may have to squeeze in another list before the big day?

Anyway, enjoy the teeny tiny shopping fix.
Ta ta
x

Click here to go to the real thing!

 

Pssst... I have an announcement!

I write today's post sat virtually on top of an oil heater and a blanket over my lap, like the old woman I am clearly destined to become.

There's muttering of snow. This does not thrill me, as I'm sure is the case for many of you, there's still far too much to do before Christmas close-down to be getting snowed in!!

Besides the usual Sherbet lemon based potterings and life in general there's been another project going on behind the scenes, one that I'm very excited about and have been looking foward to sharing!!
So with out further ado, I present to you Four little walls!!



Four little walls will be launching officially on January 6th 2012 and will ( I hope) become an online hub for lovers of miniatures, interior design and a load of other lovely stuff inbetween.

Essentially, Four Little Walls will be the big sister to Sherbet Lemon, with a slightly cleaner, simpler look and a focus on ...the fab 52 week challenge!!!

Every Friday throughout 2012 I will be sharing a mini make, that's a mini make, once a week, every week for a year. Let's see how that goes??!
There is a list of the makes already on the go but if anybody has something they want to see as a project give me a shout. It could be anything, furniture, accessories, wallpapering tips, kit builds, whatever.
Just no dolls please, to read why head to the Four little walls page!

Now to forewarn you, I'm far from an artisan!
I'll have done a practice run of most projects before I share them, some will work, some won't. It's all part of the fun. The main point of this is to see how much you can create for a dolls house yourself , ideally without breaking the bank, or losing your sanity!

You'll also find shopping posts, reviews and general wittering on from me, (much as you do here!).
The facebook page is now live, so, if as the weeks go by you feel like having a go at any of the projects you can share your pics with me and anybody else that stumbles across the page, I would quite like that.

Soo, let me know what you think.
Fingers crossed that Snow holds off, i'm off to hover over the oven while dinner cooks!
Ta ta
x

Ooh baby

Today' post is dedicated to all things nursery and is also host to Sherbet Lemon's very first tutorial!
After the kitchen, the nursery is usually my favourite room of a doll house and the one I find easiest to fill!

In my mind a nursery should be stuffed with toys, ooze cosy and fun and maybe look a little chaotic, as if it's inhabitants have just torn through the room on a sugar high leaving a trail of disorder behind them.

First up, a bit of show and tell.

My best mini find this year I think has been these guys.

They were displayed in sweetie jars in Wickle, a fab shop in Lewes.

A snip at 30p each, have a feeling I'll be going back for more!

They lend themselves perfectly to marching across book shelves, mantel pieces or the floor. LOVE 'em.

A not so recent addition is this splendid looking lady, maybe my favourite mini of the whole house!

Got her about 8 years ago at a little teddy shop in Canterbury (now closed down) I'm afraid I can not remember who she's made by but I do know she cost more than the 30p spent on her zoo animal room mates! If you can identify her let me know!!

Right, without further ado, let's get to the tutorial.

I try to make my own mini's where possible and when they turn out well it's one of the single most satisfying bits of being a dolls house weirdo !

This pram was done a while back now, there's been a few variations since that have gone to friends or family, this one currently lives under the stairs of big house so it was nice to dust it off and take some pics for the blog.

You will need:

Plain metal pram ( the one pictured is Dolls House Emporium)

Silver enamel paint

Cream enamel paint

Small piece of thin, soft leather

Light weight canvas

Selection of trims and ribbons

Paintbrush

Tacky glue

To make:

Word of warning: Enamel paint can take a long time to dry, manufacturer's directions recommend leaving 6 hours between coats for best results. Also, bear in mind the shape of the pram makes it difficult to paint some areas while others are drying so you may want to do the painting in stages to avoid smudging as you go.

Apply a thin, even coat of the cream enamel paint to the whole of the outside of the pram. (You can leave the outer hood unpainted if you plan to cover it later.) Apply second and third coats as desired.

I used silver paint to pick out the wheel spokes. I left the handles black.

Once the paint has completely dried you can start decorating.

I used a scrap of soft, glove leather for the hood. Cut to size and attach to one side of the outer hood using tacky glue. You can use super glue but I found tacky glue gives more flexibility as you stretch the leather to fit the shape of the pram. For a neat finish I made tiny folds at the base of the hood and glued in place.

Cut 2 pieces of the canvas, 1 for each side of the pram.

Apply a small amount of the glue to the back side as of the panel and attach to the pram, repeat for the other side.

To trim I used co-ordinating lace and picot edging.

Apply the Picot edging all the way around the edges of the side panel.

Attach the lace to the hood edge, let it over hang slightly to create a frill.

Your pram is now finished!

You may wish to add bedding or a doll. For this one I added a little mattress very easily by cutting a piece of card to fit inside pram. Cover the card with some calico or plain cotton. Add a little stuffing for a comfort!

For an aged/ vintage look try staining the canvas with tea before applying it to the pram, or you may wish to leave out the canvas altogether and experiment with lovely glossy paint finishes instead.

Think my next one is going to be a Silver cross inspired Sapphire blue with white, will let you know how it goes!

Phew, well I hope that was interesting?

I'm off to bake Christmas cakes (real sized ones!).

Ta ta for now. x

Recession busting : in miniature

I don't know about you but I'm still not really sure if I actually condone the use of the word 'upcycling'.
Many would argue that it's just a fancy way of saying recycling but it sounds trendier? (don't get me started on 're-purposing'!)

In my mind if I'm "upcycling" I'm reusing something for the flat or the dolls houses, while recycling is more what you do with scrap paper or in the kitchen, separating cardboard and plastic, rinsing out yoghurt pots etc.

Do you agree?

Anyway, lately I've been trying really hard to not spend money unless it's purely essential items.
Unfortunately I also live and breathe dolls houses, possibly one of the most frivolous, indulgent and non essential past times going.

Problem.
Now if you're a doll house weirdo such as me you will already be familiar with the often eye watering prices of mini's.
I'm more inclined to go a few months buying nothing rather than just getting something I like less because it's cheaper and I can have it right this minute.

It would be easy to despair (particularly if you listen to/ read the news lately regarding economy/recession/ultimate demise of retailers/ job Market/ the world) but with a little imagination it's easy to get your mini fix from stuff just lying about the house.

Here's a couple of things that have gone on to have second lives in the dolls house.
If you fancy sharing any ideas of your own please do, would love to see them!!

First up, postage stamps.
Actually have my Dad to thank for this. He's a real stamp fiend and has done great stuff incorporating vintage collections built up by both my grandads. So many colours, sizes and designs around your sure to spot something that can be reinvented as mini canvas, book cover etc.
This Winnie the pooh one currently lives in the nursery, awaiting a frame when funds are at healthier levels!

Next up is the umbrella stand, formerly known as perfume atomiser.

Simply twiddle off the lid and voila!

Well, That's a couple of my most recent efforts. I'm sure there'll be a few more along soon.

So until then, Ta Ta!

X

Just playing

Right, have pulled my finger out and got a few exciting posts up my sleeve for you this week.

But before we get stuck in let's talk about wallpaper!

You may already be aware of the craft line Tildas studio? If not you're missing a treat. Gorgeous project books stuffed with inspiration. Plus, as I recently discovered, scrummy looking fabrics, papers. Oooh!

Picked up one of the Tilda card stock books at John Lewis last week. They're really intended for scrapbookers but the size of most of the patterns lend themselves perfectly to Dolls house projects; plus, the colours are lovely and motifs a bit more stylish than some of the clip-arty, pinky-pink papers available!

So, i had a bit if a play about with a few papers. Feeing florals at the moment, see what you think.