How I spent my birthday (part 1)

The day involved three mini friends (and one non-mini friend).

Adelaide brought her Italian garden courtyard for us to admire...

 And her trunk project, with a most appropriate tag,

Jennifer brought a present: a hand-knitted cashmere scarf.

(Which made me feel very special).

After morning tea, we headed up to Div's studio,

where Adelaide had arranged a surprise workshop!

The group ranged from experienced miniaturists to first timers.

I was pleased to find I had been given the special black and white version of the kit...

(to be continued...)

A long weekend away

Yesterday evening after work I set out on a big long-weekend adventure to visit the wonderful Div in Bowral.

We plan to spend the next couple of days holed up in her studio, sorting things out before a couple of other miniaturist friends arrive for the weekend.

And she's given me the back-story to The Pink Door, the shabby chic shop she displayed at this year's Sydney Miniatures Show, so I can share it with you soon!

Scaling up

My friend Hannah and her partner moved into a new place almost six months ago. And for six months we've been meaning to make a time for me to visit them and make some suggestions on how to arrange their possessions to work better within their new, much larger, flat. In the words of Hannah: 'Pretend my house is a dolls house, but on a bigger scale'.

It finally happened this weekend just gone. Hannah blogged about it here but I'm going to share the photos I took (do you think either of us remembered to take 'before' photos?)

 It was all  a bit weird to start with as I'm used to making up the stories of the people who 'own' my scenes in my head as opposed to getting to ask them in real life what significance their objects has, if they love them and working out where they fitted in the story. And there's the added stress of unintentionally insulting them on their taste.

But we soon got into the swing of things and focused on three main areas. The lounge which I dubbed 'playful' as I needed to work with the colourful felt bunting and the one-of-a-kind borrowed purple chairs, with added hand-knitted patches. This is the room that is used for games nights and such.

 A set of wall shelves in the dining room area was originally a hodge podge of seemingly randomly dumped items. We turned it into a bit of a shrine to the story of Hannah and her partner and their relationship (the needlework needs to be hung higher, but we couldn't find the paperclips...)

The hutch on the other side of the room displays Hannah's partner's seal collection and the chess set Hannah was given for her 21st: she's hoping to teach her cousin to play. The cupboards below hold the liquor collection and the drawers are the official junk drawers (this made her partner quite excited).

 Upstairs on the landing is a reading nook which the real estate agents found so uninteresting they didn't even picture it in the rental listing. Hannah had the chair and lamp up here, but little else, and wasn't using it as much as she'd hoped.

I swiped the rug and cushion from the lounge, where they'd been fighting with the rest of the decor, and a vintage chair from the dining room to use as a side table.

The bookcase came out of the office and was used as display space for more of their treasures, this time in a more subdued palette and with a theme of 'Oh the places you'll go' (a significant book Hannah had in her collection downstairs). Hannah took the chance of arranging the books in colour order, much to the horror of my inner Librarian.

And then we got the urge to go shopping. The op shops were shut, but The Green Shed was still open (just). In fifteen minutes flat and for a total of $90 we picked out six dining chairs (two tall-backed ones for the ends of the table and four shorter-backed ones for the sides, all in the same wood and all with the same seat covering and not at all what we'd originally been looking for),

Photo by Hannah Mattner

 A small bedside table with two drawers—at first glance extremely ugly

Photo by Hannah Mattner

but with definite revamping potential —for the reading nook,

Photo by Hannah Mattner

 another lampshade for the lamp and a footstool/ seating for extra people.

Photo by Hannah Mattner

All of which quite wore us out. Throwing up a miniature scene is definitely an easier option, but the excitement of two happy friends made it all worthwhile.

Hannah thinks I should set up a business as a Recessionista, styling for people using their existing possessions. Another friend thinks I should become the alternative Kirstie Allsopp and start a YouTube channel.

I think I should stick to dolls houses. For now, at least.

Small achievements

The week just gone included a(nother) new job and three late Eurovision-filled nights in a row. I was feeling tired and down on myself for not having done all the things that had piled up over the last two months.

Until I realised that I had achieved some small victories. The printer's tray I bought at the Sydney Show, for instance. I found a home for it. And managed to buy a hook to hang it from (let's hope the real estate agents aren't reading this: I've stopped counting the number of illegal picture hooks I've put up over the past 16 years...)

I even picked out a few things to start the process of filling it...

 With Margell School sitting on the dining table, it's in the perfect spot for me to give it some attention while I wait for the kettle to boil. So, in five minute increments, it's been stripped back to this:

(I still need to clean off the Blu Tack stains. And the blackboard)

I hope to start spending the weekends here and slowly work out what it wants...

It looks like a rooly trooly magazine!

Sydney Show Stash: The 2014 edition

I was quite disappointed when I realised there wasn't a clear theme to this year's purchases, so I couldn't create another version of the pop-up shop like I did last year.

Here's my haul:

The printer's tray was $40, which I thought was a steal. What I didn't think was where I'm going to hang it but I'm sure I'll work that out eventually.

I picked up some more kitsets from JWT Dollshouses, very reasonably priced

and a bag of letter beads, in brighter colours than the ones I already have, for $2.

Table-mate Jennifer was having a clean out of her collection so I grabbed these three bags of bits for $3 each.

Mountain Miniatures had a bundle of back issues of The tiny Times, going back to issue 2, for $2: so I snapped it up to complete my collection.

For quite a lot more than $2, but still a very good price. I bought Adelaide's paper-cutting machine. She gave me the instruction booklet to bring home but we decided I won't collect the machine until the weekend of my birthday, when she'll be attending my weekend mini-gathering at Div's place and will be able to give me some lessons on how to use it.

These modern rugs were 50 cents each from Mountain Miniatures. And, from the same stall I picked up these bar pieces for $3 the set

and this set of industrial kitchen fittings, also $3.

Finally, and also at Mountain Miniatures, this collection of vintage 1/16 scale furniture appeared on Sunday morning. It's a mix of Europa and Jean, with many pieces over-painted. After a little bargaining it became mine for $50. I've promised Rebecca decent pictures, as she's researching the history of Europa so will be doing a separate blog post on them.

And, apart from the school, that's it.

A gifted miniaturist

I was very fortunate at last weekend's miniature show to be given rather a lot of gifts by rather a lot of lovely people.

New Zealand miniaturist Judy Foster heard my Facebook call for Whittaker's L&P mini bars and bought me a couple of bags. Plus two black and white cat coasters she's had for ever and no longer needs, one of which she thought looked a lot like Nibbs (and she was right), a 'Be a healthy Kiwi' poster, which matches the full-sized one I have in my top cupboard, and a director's chair.

Adelaide Cann dropped off this package of coffee and ring binders as I was setting up on Friday night.

 Blog reader Catherine visited with these large printed rugs which she'd made and didn't have a use for and thought I might like. She says she got the canvas from ALDI a couple of years ago: I'll be watching for it to turn up again so I can buy some.

 Adelaide returned on Saturday with these IKEA-inspired bed trays, plus another set of her cars and planes so I had a spare wheel after last year's whoopsie when putting them together.

 And, soon after, local friend Rosemary arrived with a bag of printer's offcuts that she thought I could use for making miniature books.

A group of stall-holders had dinner together on Saturday night and Adelaide gave each of us a tiny koala holding a macaron.

On Sunday the fabulous Jewel Lewis gave me two of her New Zealand cuddly toy kits,

 complete with New Zealand-themed black and white tissue wrapping.

Then my table mate Jennifer gave me the left over clay and tools from the recent Lidi Stroud Italian Courtyard workshop she attended, plus a piece of lovely 50s-style black and white fabric.

And that's not all: I had another very generous offer which I shall keep under wraps until that parcel arrives. I'm feeling very spoilt.

Not-so-vacant possession

Margell Public School has closed (cost cutting, don't you know? The children are now being bused into town.)

So the children, school bags and exercise books have gone home for the very last time.

The desks and chairs are stacked

and the shelves emptied of anything of value.

 The school is quiet, awaiting its new life...

Greetings from Olympic Park

Blimey! How did it get to be May already?

And May in this part of the world means three things: Eurovision! Birthday season! And the Sydney Miniatures Show.

I managed to buy a library while setting up my stall on Friday. And managed to sell it again before the evening was out (or, to be more precise, allow someone more worthy to buy it, as I hadn't actually paid anything for it at that stage...)

The Karma Fairy obviously took note because since then I've been showered with gifts.

And, just before I left this evening, I took a stroll around the displays and admired a small one-teacher school.

 Then noticed a 'for sale' sign next to it.

So this weekend I've bought a library, sold a library and bought a school.

 There's a lovely back story to this building. The owner was a teacher who had always wanted to work in a one-teacher school but had never had the chance.

So when she discovered miniatures many years ago the first thing she built herself was this one-teacher school.

 I, on the other hand, have always had the hankering to have an old one-room schoolhouse as a holiday house (and even, back in New Zealand almost rented one with a group of friends until we realised it was too far down a dirt road for any of us to seriously consider visiting regularly, espcially as most of us were on two wheels.)

 So I plan to sympathetically strip it of many of it's educational items then renovate it to include sleeping, cooking and bathroom facilities (although I may decide the bathroom remains in the adjoining toilet block, which I know is rather a cop-out), incorporating many existing fixtures.

I'm rather excited as this is the first 'play' building I've had since I left New Zealand, almost 20 years ago. I just have to find room for it in the car before I can start playing...