Doll House do-up #2

Where to begin, where to begin, where to begin. I've been very busy on the doll house do-up front, enthused, to put it mildly! So here is...well, where I'm up to. Now, some of these ideas won't surprise those of you who follow my blog actively; such as a plan for map wallpaper in one bedroom; and this washi paper room plan...

This is for the 'grown ups' bedroom. The crazy drawers I found on a junk stall at the local school fair on Sunday. I think it was supposed to be a jewllery box, but had a handle missing. The tortoise shell mirror is made by moi from an old hair slide and the mirror out of a broken compact. I've got a couple of tortoise shell hair slides to use as handles too once I've sanded and stained the handle patches.

I've also ordered the craft gadget, called a 'yo yo maker' to make the following quilt for the bed...

Isn't it awesome!

(and totally in-keeping with the 'crafty' vibe I want the dolly-house to have)

I spied it at a doll house show held last the weekend in Christchurch. Whilst the show was VERY victorian doll house heavy, there were a couple of charmers I though you guys might like too...

                         And for Christchurchians, this might bring a tear to your eye as it did mine...

The Piko whole foods store, destroyed in the earthquake along with nearly all of our other beautiful redbricks. Sniff.
                                             Anyways, onwards and downwards to la kitchen.

This is the colour inspiration, the last remnant of my fave ever op-shop fabric find from years ago

Not quite sure what colour to ask for down the Resene shop... dead daffodil for my kitchen walls please? I'll make some little cushions with the last bits for the kitchen seating (ideally a miniture Saarinen tulip table and two chairs, but more likely a homemade from op-shopped balsa wood scrub top table and chairs).

Hey, check out that flooring...and this flooring...

Oh the things I've learnt about lolly sticks. The main one being, you get what you pay for cheapskate. What I'm going to do with 1000 crappy splintery hopeless-for-parquay-ing lolly sticks I don't know. Actually, does anyone know of any cool lolly stick crafts? Seriously, I'd hate for them to go to waste. Maybe I'll weatherboard the outside and turn it into a villa...hmmm. It was my own fault though. Normally I wouldn't quibble over the price of lolly sticks, but it is turning out to be a rather expensive exercise this dolly-house doing up. Lamps for example were $10 each at the show. Obviously I didn't buy any, and was later chuffed at my savvy when I found these buttons down the local craft store for a dollar each instead

   I'm trying to save my cash for one special piece of furniture, or something I just couldn't find or make.

                                             When I saw this at the show I got pangs

The A.G.A. A.h.h.h.h!

Wouldn't it be perfect in my Country Living (UK) style kitchen?

Given Aga's here cost 3 times as much as they do in the UK, where they cost loads anyway, my chances of getting the real thing are slim to say the least so I felt I deserved a miniature version.

'Only' 55 pounds when I googled it, eeeeyyyykkkk! Right scrub that idea then!

To stop me obsessing about it I went down the 'free-shop' (the backroom at the local charity barn where they let you sift stuff before it goes to landfill; where everything costs nothing).

Pah! Who needs an aga when they have...

                    A snazzy-placky microwave; plus kitchen friends! Zero dollars, hey, thats more like it!
                          Can't you just smell that roast chicken. You want to move in don't you?!

                             I also got the makings of a couple of beds for free, and some other bits and bobs.
                                                                     Long live the free shop!

 

                                                Other stuff I've been playing at making are:-

                                                             Mini pom pom bunting!

and

Lego mantelpiece-makings

Blimmey, this is fun!

I could go on, but phew for you, I think thats quite enought for one blog post, and certainly enought to cover my creative space; flea market finds; mantelpiece Monday and the 'I'm a giant' challenge for this week, heh!!!!

See thee next week x

op-shop find of the week

A baby ballet cardi for Claudine; a beautifully dog-eared copy of Madeline in London for Claudine; the Observer book of freshwater fishes for the cover colour and the colour plates inside; two handmade gingham pillowcases, rik-raked by moi for Claudines bed; a colour glaze tea cup and saucer for my growing collection (I can now invite 14 people for a cup of tea, but no cake can yet be served...); a, probablyWilliam Morris fabric, pinny for Claudines further cooking adventures; and a wild horse made from real fur.

Bit of a pastel thing going on there isn't there!

Showing off my flea market finds here x

The Doll House Do Up #1

Following on from  the successful dolls house finding mission, here is the first installment of the dolls-house-do-up-saga... So. I liked that it was reminicient of our own house and my initial thought was to replicate in miniture our place.

However, after a closer inspection of the house my mind wandered a little further afield...

Haunted house maybe? The front door even creaks! Or take the recently-raided-crack-den ambience a little further-think bratz dolls, a stained mattress, teeny tiny baccy pack and rizzlas? It'd be an antidote to the picture perfect pink ye olde worlde of the average dolls house for sure, but, to be honest, I have been rather brainwashed charmed by the world in miniture I've explored so far. And, oh yeah, nearly forgot, it's for my kid! Well once her interest in such things develops beyond climbing it in order to slide down the other side anyway, heh!

                                                The clean-up operation has been extensive

Icky chimney gubbins.

(The cup and train we're keeping, kinda like 'antiques-we-found-in-the-attic', and will be incorporated into the make over somewhere)

Sugar soaped, sanded, filled, sanded, ceilings and floors replaced, filled, sanded. Sealed. B.O.R.I.N.G!

Eventually some creativity was required to answer my first decor question "how am I going to replicate the    
stucco?" A quick rifle through my aging brain and the kitchen cupboard produced a light bulb.                    
  
                                                                  Cat-litter stucco!

It took me a whole afternoon of experiementing. It failed. Although cat litter looks the part perfectly when glued on and painted over (bottom left) it's just too soft to handle kiddy-handling (I sound like I'm taking it really seriously don't I?! That's because I did!).
Anyway, I was about to tootle off to the shop to get the necessaries for stucco-replicating idea number two when hubby (who has been banned from further interference in doll house matters-"it's mine, go play with your truck") asked what I was up to. He gave me a creativity-sapping stare when I said I was off to buy 'that gravel you get in fishtanks', and said "wallpaper" before returning to his brown pottery almanac. Feeling a bit stupid (I didn't mention that bubble wrap and arborio rice had crossed my mind) and deciding his suggestion didn't constitue interference I took off and found an off-cut of lumpy wallpaper in a bargin bin a the local decorating shop...bingo!

BINGzzzzzzzzzzzz Stucco...far out...bored of that already. Replica house plan abandoned.

                              Well, except for this state-of-the-art-in-1982 clock radio. I couldn't resist!

So, stuck in doll house inspiration no mans land for a few weeks, I was intriged when I saw this real estate firm advert on my trip to Oamaru last week.

Great vintage store, with doll house mania as a bonus!

Then I read this blog post about a cool doll-house 'styling' challenge.

 I've signed up. Dec 15th deadline, with weekly blog updates.

That should help get my A into G!

My enthusiasm is rekindled.

I've got a gazzillion new ideas!

So here's how she's looking thus far, my blank canvas, ready for the make-over

                                                                     To be continued...

My creative space

Summer in NZ is fierce. Not so much the heat, thought it does tend to be warm and dry here on the east coast, but with the lack of ozone layer over NZ the burn time is around 15 minutes. Scary stuff when you have a little one, especially when you reluctant to have her slathered in chemical sunscreen all over, all day long.

White long sleeved  t-shirts helped last year. Along with cute ye olde fashioned bonnets.

But toddlers fond of digging holes and drinking blackberry juice and white long sleeved T-shirts don't really mix, and within the month she started to look a bit shabby-chic.

My plan this year is to add one of these wee t-shirt decorating doo-dads, made out of little remnants of fabric (4 layers) and op-shopped buttons each time a stain appears.

( I have a butterfly template and I'm gonna use it...all the time!)

I suspect that within a month or so these T-shirts will be fair festooned

and I reckon that will look bloomin' cool!

(Although I need to iron in the crumple-effect in the fabric, which has all but fallen out already)

The scrap-stash-busting idea was posted on the prudent baby blog and originated from this blog post.

which is well worth a read if you want a larf.

My humble contribution to our creative spaces this week

Things I love about NZ #1

                              Post boxes at the end of the drive instead of a letter box in the door.

            Conducive to neighbourly interaction; brief, enforced communions with nature; and to creativity.

All spotted last week between Dunedin and Geraldine whilst having a few days away.

Cool aye!

More and many thanks to lovely bloggers

I skipped around my kitchen in the sun yesterday on receipt of this prize, now prized, parcel from Becky at Hazel and Blue. Pretty pink packaging to tear through and a cheery message in a gorgeous blossom card, and then at long last I laid my hands on a copy of Mollie Makes (plus the latest issue as a surprise-nice one Becky!).

In an ideal world Claud would have fell instantly asleep and I could have curled up with them and a cuppa immediately, but no such luck.

Instead we made biccies, with the cutters Alexa gave me in the tin swap.

We got carried away with all the colours and made a Helga Von Trollop biscuit which Claud is kindly pointing out.

Anyway, once Claud had conked in the evening (after reading about a baby kiwi from a cute retro kids book sent to her by Kylie from Lucy Violet Vintage) I took myself off for an early night...and what with that and seeing Sian Lile's Jammy Dodgers made from the magazine guide, I've just had to treat myself to a subscription.

If you want a subscription for free, the Mollie Makes Blog is running a competition, open to anyone anywhere to win a years subscription, enter here (before September 15th)

Thanks again Becky x

My creative space

 My creative space this week, aka 3/101 things to do with a Martha Stewart snowflake cutter

Bunting (of course)

Gift tags

Westling balls

Yes, it's early, but if I'm to catch the cheap-by-ship post to the UK I need to get cracking!

Wanna see my Tin Swop goodies?

Deb over at Works in Progress organised a cool swop, especially for a tin-lover like me.

The idea was to find a cool tin and fill it with something op-shopped, something handmade, crafty, sweet etc.

I was paired up with Alexa from Stitchy-Mama who, despite being quite busy giving birth mid tin swop, still managed to rustle up a great tin and contents for me!

Biscuit cutters for my collection (I don't have either of these!)

Feathers for my headband makings

Teeny-tiny origami stars

And a little book...

A retro kids book about a little mouse who grows fruit

Spookily, this arrived as we returned from a berry farm where we'd gone for high tea and lost Clauds little maileg mouse-how funny is that! And the book did a beautiful job of molifying her until said mouse could be search and rescued the following day!

And the most amazing bunting...

Handpainted cherry blossom on handmade bunting.

So beautiful!

Thanks so much Alexa, I love it all x

Op-shop find of the week

                                                  Fathers day dawned bright and 5am early.
                                                             Presents, Claud-made...

(I love that Playcentre encourages the use of electric drills amongst pre-schoolers as well as fires)

And presents op-shopped...

Asked how he wanted to spend his day, "to market to market" he said.

The 'shabby-chic market' is back at Rochester Villa, hurray!

Guess who we met there?

The one and only, and as effervescent in life as on her blog Ms, H-V-T

As befits such a market, the refreshements are pretty as can be

What did we buy?

A sweet Claud sized-rolling pin

A Fair-Isle-y knit hat

It's here, the first Sunday of every month

A great dada-day!