Where I sleep

                                               

I love my bedroom.

It's really quiet and still. I can't hear the road or even the wind in there.

It's at it's best when the rain hits the tin roof, Claud and husband are asleep next door and I have a good book and a packet of chocolate digestives.

The bed head is an arch from a mission church.

(Yes, we've heard all the jokes about the effect on our sex life)

I love the dark brown wood with the duck egg quilt cover.

Pillows feather, and lots of em for reading propped up.

I have to have white sheets and pillows.

It'd be like wearing non-matchy undies.

Just. Not. Right.

The bed is king sized, a super-dooper number due to husbands bad back.

Best bed I have ever slept in.

Good for co-sleeping too; room for everyone to roll over and not fall out.

Kiwiana painted plaster lamp. Pania of the reef is on the other side of the bed.

Sack cloth doilies; nearly dead jasmine, and in the corner a pottery dan dan box I keep my precious things in (little rocks, shells and Claud parapanalia rather than jewllery).

Hmmm. I notice my favorite rock is missing from its place by the lamp.

CLAAAAUUUUUDDDD!

Print 'Cities and Towns' (as seen from the air) by Roy Cowan.

Not properly hung as we have poured concrete walls and need to get the hammer drill out and book an afternoon if we want to 'knock a nail in'. One of these days.

Folk art sackcloth bag.

 I can't use it cause it's smelly.

Far enough away from the bed to not be smelled, I think it looks pretty.

I renovated the kauri chest of drawers all by myself a couple of years ago.

Loads and loads of books and magazines.

Big reader with insomnia.

I love looking at peoples book shelves, but I can't get a very good photo so I'm going to list my faves of whats there:-

The life of the robin-an old pelican book. I miss robins.

Spring Story-Jill Barkelm. Clauds, but I love obsessing over the detailed drawings.

At Home-a Century of NZ design-Douglas Lloyd Jenkins-For doll house inspiration.

Adventures in tandem nursing-Hilary Flower-a required text for La Leche leader training

Yvonne Rust-Maverick Spirit-Theresa Sjoquist-About an interesting, female NZ pottery pioneer, REALLY well written unlike most books of a similar vein.

The complete book of baskets and basketry-trying to research a new found japanese looking basket.

Celebrate the earth-a present from Cat, gave me some idea's for celebrating southern hemisphere may day with Claud today (dancing in the garden and apple blossom headbands :0)

And mostly night-time orientated art.

Sunset over Mt Grey (our local mountain)

Painted by the local postman.

Funny story about that.

Our neightbour chopped down all their mature trees and the most massive and ancient native clematis recently.

I was heartbroken, then angry, for a fortnight until I saw the wood for the trees and realised what a glorious view of Mt Grey we now had.

I got quite zen about it, watching the sun set every night with Claud.

Then some arse close neighbour built a two story house down the next street and blocked the view.

I needed that painting.

The World of the Night Kiln Firers by Juliet Peter.

Circus by Juliet Peter.

Comet-can't remember who made this.

Having a go at 'My Place and at Yours'

Op shop sunday

 

 I know its really spring, and nearly summer when it's French-fest.

Akaroa was where the French landed, just a few short week of the Brits who claimed NZ way back.

Overfamiliarity (we go there all the time) doesn't make it any less lovely in my eyes.

(As are the French sailors, in uniform, who sail over every year from French Polynesia for the celebrations, and drive the local teenage population wild. Mmmmm).

I wore these, one of a HUGE box of gifts I will slowly unveil, from Leonie courtesy of Cat's Tilda Christmas swap THANK YOU LEONIE!

We beachcombed and picnic-ed

And I saw somemore cool letter boxes whilst we were out there

Dolly house!

Tea and taps at The Giants House, a big mosaic garden thing, like a tacky Gaudi take-off. 

                                            This, I believe is where the Akaroa plumber resides!

                           And there was the lure of the annual bowling club fundraising book sale

This kids book is so beautiful, every page made me sigh and think it was written about Claudine.

Umm and the dirt wiped off ;)

There is both a play and a book about what might have happened to New Zealand had the French arrived first.

Nuclear power aside (and don't mention the Rainbow Warrior) it's quite an alluring what-if...

I'm a Giant Challenge-Doll House-do-up #6

Hello. I don't have a whole lot new to show you since last week so I'll just update you on each room, and tell you of more, grand-if-small,  plans.

For the 'kids' bedroom

Think red and white, scandi-style.

Think Breakfast at Tiffanys style bed if I can get the blokes at the local car repair place to weld together the bits my husband broke off and can't solder back together (husband is sacked, again!).

Think white yoyo quilt, and oodles of pom poms, in some guise.

Think

Aarnio ball chair

For here it is in its nearly completed prototype glory.

Ok, in it's slightly wonky, dribbly painted mess-ness!

Tennis ball, too small and not turn insideoutable. Ball pool ball, too squidgy. But two ball pool balls, one inside the other, not bad. (Until I find a ball of the same dimensions but more rigid which doesn't have 'Made in China' embossed on it's side anyway.) Hmmm. Lightly sanded the spray paint sticks, but scrapes off again fairly easily, so overall it's not going to be much cop for a vigorous child unless a few coats of sealer help, and I don't think it will so... I'm either gonna make a red one sans paint job, with a white felt interior; or

I'm going to make a fur ball chair (ha!) with some left over white rabbit fur!

                                                               In other doll house news...

The grown-ups bedroom is not so grown-up now.

Look what happened! The grass grew.

The bed and the drawer handles went all flintstones.

Whatever next?! (No, I don't know either)

Hub of the house and hive of activity, la kitchen.

Plans afoot include making my own 'tulip' table from a cork coaster and goodness knows what else,

to match the two tulip seats I ordered from etraders :0))))))

Also making:-

 A clock from a doll house plate and a thrifted book of clock faces.

A kitchen bench and shelves from a combo of a piece of thin steel the picture frame magnets were attached to, and some free samples of wood finishes from the hardware store.

A feature wall of pictures and other decorative guff.

The hall.

Have sanded the door and miraculously the wood is the same colour as my stained floor boards.

I may or may not do more with it.

The grey is still not dark enough but I'm over it. One more coat, then a sand to get the shine off and I'll be sticking up the coat rack, art and sealing the floor and the kit set pew and sticking the blue washi paper on the ceiling, calling it quits and moving along to the next room. Hopefully this century.

The mid-century dining room-cum dusty victorian library.

Very early stages.

Will be making my own sofa, book shelves and a cool bendy floor lamp from half of that wooden bead and some piping from a model aeroplane kit set.

Also have vague plans to rustle up some mini taxidermy from some of clauds tiny animal figures and some feathers from the blokes fly tie-ing kit

(this doll house may look cack, but it won't be for lack of ambition!)

Bathroom.

Who knows really.

Maybe I'll just knock together a kiwi 'long-drop' with a few lolly sticks and a hole in the floor!

Tho I did find a little plastic bowl I may use as a 'modern' sink.

If you've not had enough of this doll house lark, have a look here at what the other

I'm a Giant challengers are up too.

Also serving as my creative space this week as the other projects I'm working on are top secret Christmas swap decorations...

Flea Market Finds

Vintage Missoni silk shirt.

Look at those colours.

Fits like a glove. Best clothing find in AGES!

                                                         Cutesy National Trust tea mug.

                    (And a whole lot of doll house related guff you'll get to see over the next few weeks...)

                                           Sharing my flea market finds for the week over here

My Creative Space

                                     I have the ingredients, can you guess what I'm going to make?

White paint, a tennis ball, a scalpel, a teddy bear stand thingy and some red felt.

                                          It has something to do with doll houses...of course!




                                                             And cool designer chairs

Ball Chair by Eero Aarnio, 1965.

                                                          I know, I know, rad mad plan

                                                            but I REALLY want one

                                                     they're 243.90 Euro's; for a miniature!


                                 Lets hope a tennis ball will turn inside out, and be smooth on the inside...

                                                          My creative space this week

Doll House Do-up #5

I've had the line from a song repeating in my head all week. I can't place the song, or the rest of the lyrics for that matter, but that line goes "who lives in a house like thissssss". Were it a real house it'd be a bit weird crafting a home for a person you didn't know or hadn't seen wouldn't it? As none of Claud's current dolls/creatures fit I'm toying (ha!) with the idea of a Blythe doll. I love the manga eyes, but can't get my head past the creepily big head on small body (eating disorder) thing going on there. Any ideas?
Anyway...

Look at my tongue-in-groove!

The colour is right (Resene Moby), but the finish is too shiny for the 'hall in a dark mood' I'm trying to summon up. I'm going to give it a light sand and see if that helps. The white is also too bright. I thought it would darken in such a small box, so now I'll have to mucky what's left of the white test pot with something to make it more mushroom-y and see how that works.

The picture below, which I spent ages putting in an op-shopped mini frame, will also help establish that atmosphere

It's an excerpt from Jingle Jangle Morning by Bill Hammond, NZ greatest painter.

From the Buller series (Buller was the naturalist who first documented NZ's indigenous birds, and extincted some of them with his wild collecting of specimens). That's the spine of the South Island I think, on the left, and one of his haunting birds, precognating man, and Bullers arrival on the right.

These painting make me weak at the knees.

Bill Hammond was a toy maker before he became a painter so I feel sure he wouldn't mind!

While the Hammond is a definate, this enamel brooch is a maybe, for the hall

                                I'm going to afix all the pictures/mirrors with rip-on-rip-off velcro dots
                                              like these so Claud can rearrange them as suits.

Ok. Time for a relaxing cuppa after all the work on the reno's

(kiwi's call morning tea 'play-lunch', how cute is that!)

Speaking of cute things...

D'ja like my granny square teacosy?!!

I know it looks a bit, well, nipple-y, and I wouldn't have picked the colours, but it was quite a hard thing to craft when I can't knit. It didn't seem that sensible to learn to knit for the first time on pins, so I had a couple of attempts at making one from cut up bits of an old acrylic jersey of Clauds, but they kept falling to pieces (yeah, I don't sew that well either *rolls eyes*)

As usual, this craft problem was solved by a trip down the oppy.

Imagine the work that went into this hand knitted racing car. It even has a knitted numberplate on the back!

But, dollhouse driven, I committed knitting sacrilege and snipped of the wheels and sew them together for my tea cosy. Claud quite likes playing with the (washed) knitted-man-driving-knitted-submarine it now resembles, so no real knitting harm done!

I'm so proud of this work in progress

I'm trying to resist the temptation to paint the base white, until I finalise my lounge colour scheme.

Base=Macrame beads stuck to a wooden BBQ skewer, glued to a little block of wood

Shade-made from a sheet of thin flexible plastic (the sheet was an advert for a car inside a magazine) with fabric stuck on with spray adhesive (lots of other glues don't adhere to whatever kind of plastic is, I know, I tried them!).

Currently held in place with craft wire

but it's too bendy to be Claud proof so I'm working on something more durable...

Back to square one with the bathroom, argggh!

I ordered a Fun Ho! (old NZ brand of kids toys) bathroom set last week as the husband had seen them on a boy's toys website. I got really excited when the bloke who runs the place rang and said they only had a mismatched set left, with a  turquoise sink and green toilet, because I am going colour crazy.

Sadly they're way too small.

 They must be 1"/24" not 1"/12". (Do I sound like a dollhouse nut afficianado now?!)

 No harm done there either as husband doesn't want to send them back!

 He confessed he's spent most if his day at work yesterday visualising what sounds excitingly like a Brambly Hedge style mini-mini house for Claud's maileg mice, starting with a skirting board front!

Dollhousing, catch-y like measles!!!

I'll post his progress too, if I let him start it before he finishes other household DIY projects

(ok, just finish filing the sharp bits off the letter rack-turned-Breakfast-at-Tiffany's doll house bedhead then you can go for it Bennett)

In the meantime he found this plastic bath, with a foot missing, of more suitable dimensions,

 and possibly super-natural origin... 

It's a shame it only glows when the sun shines!

Potenital bathroom greenery filtched (but paid for!) from a box of 'American War of Independence' toy soldiers kit down the oppy.

Not much else to report other than that the bed-to be that was once a container for tacky bird themed salt and pepper shakers now has macrame bead feet.

Thats all folks!

ps have abandoned Blogtober (in favour of 'Op-tober' judging by the number of visits to op-shops necessitated by this dollhousing!)

Op-shop Sunday

A little something for everyone in our household this week.

For me, simple placemats that remind me of the David Mellor ones I wanted but resisted last time I was in England. 10 c!

European dresses in lovely fabrics for the Claud, $2 each.

A Danish milk jug, for the hubby who's interested in this kind of stuff. 20c.

And the reason I've gone off the boil with Blogtober?

A combo of sick hubby, a sore throat and cold of my own, but mainly these

Not usual my type of reading matter, but for 20c I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about.

Hooked.

Just finished the last one and have ordered no 4 from the library.

Guess what I'm watching on DVD tonight?!!

Sharing my opshop finds with all the other op-ortunists here