The time seems to be going very fast lately - the Summer's gone and Christmas is just around the corner! Last night I made some little hearts out of Fimo (my favourite) clay. I did them in Duck egg blue, which I love, being a shabby chic fanatic! My attention is turning to Christmas goodies - I bought a brilliant little book from the market last weekend, it's got loads of ideas in it for simple gifts, decorations and wrapping.



The other day I bought a little cabinet from a second-hand store, they wanted £15 for it but the top was damaged so I got it down to £10 - it's lovely, just right for practising my shabby chic painting technique. Nigel's going to take the top off and repair it for me, then I can get down to business with my paints!

Flower shop :o)

My latest project is a little flower shop. During a recent visit to a charity shop I found a little box shaped like a house, the front opens outward to reveal two little rooms inside. It only cost 50p and I was going to furnish it in the usual way with a living room downstairs and a bedroom upstairs but the front of it is nicely painted with two little topiary trees, so I decided to make a little shop downstairs and a living area over it. I painted the inside soon after I got it home, and last night I built some little fixtures and fittings. I made a shelf unit which covers the whole of the side wall, a counter, a small shelf for the wall behind the counter, and a door on the back wall (to access an imaginary staircase leading to the living area). I'm pleased with the way it looks even thought it's still very bare - there's still a lot to do, I need vases and flowers, seed packets, ribbons, wrapping paper, paper bags, etc, etc, etc. - oh, and a little cash register, of course! Then there's the upstairs to do!







Meanwhile, back at the 24th scale house, I now have a bed! Hooray! I wasn't too impressed with the bedding so I decided to make my own. I wanted to try to make a patchwork quilt, so I gave it a go, but I'd never done any patchwork before and it took three attempts to get it right. The first one was totally wrong, I had no idea how to do it and completely bodged it! I persevered and had a look online and found out how it should be done, so I started patchwork number two - which was much better but I wasn'thappy with it because I made it far too small, I wanted a cosy, snuggly looking quilt with plenty of drop at the sides, so I started again. Patchwork number three was a success, thankfully - it took six hours to make but it turned out well and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I even made two little matching pillows.

Old-fashioned light bulbs and a dolls house!

On Monday we went out shopping and bought a load of lightbulbs - not the 'energy-saving' ones, but good, old-fashioned, 'normal' ones. The ones that do not give me headaches, make my eyes sting or make me feel tired and weak after sitting under them for an hour or so. I felt the difference the same night, I didn't get so tired, my eyes didn't hurt and when I did go to bed, I slept well and felt refreshed when I woke up. I will never use 'energy-saving' ones again - I'd use candles first! Actually, someone told me that 40 tea lights placed in a room would not only light it but also heat the room, even in Winter - so I think I might try it, sounds nice and cosy!


I gave into temptation last week and bought myself another dolls house - this time a half-scale one. I've never worked with that scale before but I'm really enjoying it. It doesn't take up much room, which is a good thing because space is at a premium in our little cottage! I've made a dresser for the dolls house and I'm very pleased with the way it turned out - I didn't expect it to look so good! I made it out of a little cardboard box and some other bits that I had lying around. I prefer to make my own stuff and put some of my character into it. I've seen some lovely houses with beautiful furniture in them, but they have no life in them, no surprises. and the same furniture can be seen, laid out in a similar way, in a hundred other houses. It gets boring and predictable - I love to see home-made furniture, with all it's little quirks, it's much nicer and much more fun.

I love this picture, the room is starting to look cosy and lived-in. I made the dresser, the little circular rug, the door on the far wall (it doesn't lead anywhere but it gives the impression of more rooms, lol) the 'carpet' is a piece of wallpaper. The 'blanket' on the armchair looks very comfortable, I could just snuggle up in it! There are a few bought pieces, which I'll probably remove later and replace with my own hand-made stuff, but for now I'm really happy with it - there's still loads more to do yet though! I haven't even started the bedroom yet!

Where's the time gone???

Good grief - I just realised that it's been ages since I created this blog and I haven't writen anything for over a month! I really must put more effort into this, lol! It's quite late at night... oh, actually, it's quite early morning now.. (blimey, there's another example of time going quickly!), so I'm not going to launch into a big post right now as have to be up fairly early for my Saturday caretaking job. I'll probably settle down and write something later in the day when I get back home. Nighty night!! :o)

To do..or not to do..

Sunday. Always a kind of 'What shall I do?' day. I made some iced doughnuts yesterday (miniature ones, not real ones) and they turned out quite well, so I'm thinking of making some chocolate eclairs today. I have a pile of ironing as tall as Mount Everest which I'm trying hard to ignore, but every now and then it creeps up behind me and says, 'Hey - remember me? I'm your big pile of ironing and I'm making the bedroom look like some kind of jumble-sale...' and then I feel guilty for a few minutes until my auto-ignore mode kicks in again. But yeah..... I'm going to have to get it sorted. In a bit.

I was going to make some real-life fairy cakes yesterday but my muffin tray seems to have disappeared. Where on Earth do muffin trays hide? Why would it even want to? It's not as though it has a hard life - I hardly ever use the damn thing so it has absolutely no reason to be this troublesome.

I'm sitting here in the hope that suddenly I will write something profound, or at least vaguely interesting, but I don't think it's going to happen. Not today, anyway. It may do, perhaps on Wednesday or Thursday, but definitely not today.

Update: I made the eclairs... the fact that they're made from Fimo clay does NOT stop me wanting to eat them!

First Scribble.....

Looking out of the window, I can see that the sky is grey again. I don't think it's going to rain today it hasn't got that feel to it, but I don't think I'm going to get an hours sunbathing in today! I'm drinking a small glass of apple cider vinegar and honey - something I started taking for a sore throat a few days ago. It's really doing the trick! I prefer homemade remedies rather than the stuff dished out by doctors.

This blog is a place for me to write my thoughts, my interests, little snippets of life when I feel like tapping away on the keyboard with a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) in front of me. I might even write the odd story or poem, if the mood takes me - though that's something I haven't done for a long time! I like taking photos - I'll probably put quite a few on here, and I like dolls houses - one of my hobbies is making miniatures and I'd like to eventually have a dolls house furnished entirely with things that I've made myself. In fact, I'd like to build the house itself, that would be good :o)

I'm getting into gardening this year, I have some veggies coming up - my potato plants are growing huge now and I'm waiting for them to get some flowers on. I think I'm going to have to prop them up a bit because some of them are falling to one side - I'll have to tackle that after work tonight. My tomatoes are doing well, I've got two different varieties and they are looking good. I've got marrows and cauliflowers too.