Saturday, May 31, 2014
Best birthday card EVER
Friend Hannah presented me with this Teeny Tiny People card for my birthday:
Perfect in so many ways. I just wish I'd thought of it first...
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Peeking inside The Pink Door
As promised, here's a tour of Div's creation for this year's Sydney Miniatures Show. It's a shabby chic shop called The Pink Door.
Div's houses always have a fascinating back story to them and she has agreed to share the story of the shop's owner, Lily Love:
'Lilly was born Elizabeth
Langham in England to a well to do family in Tonbridge Kent. She grew up
in a somewhat run down old Georgian mansion that belonged to her Grandmother
who it was rumoured to have been the mistress of the Prince of Wales before the
First World War.
Lilly loved her grandmother and the family always told her how
much “Lilly Beth” looked like her. Lilly Beth became an actress with her
grandmother’s encouragement much to the dismay of her parents and brothers, who
did not approve of a life on the stage .At the age of twenty she ran away from
home to star in the Australian production of “Hair” and created the stage
name…Lilly Love.
While
in Sydney Lilly met and fell in love with a handsome young artist Damien
Miller. They planned to marry but he was conscripted and went to fight in
Vietnam. So they became engaged and had a blissful 6 weeks before he was
shipped out to fight.
Lilly left the stage so she could always be with Damien
whenever he had leave. She got a job with an interior decorator named Ray
Siede. She rented apartment in a big old Victorian mansion on Moore Street in
Surry Hills owned by a star of “Le Girls”.
Damien survived his first 12 months
and they had a wonderful holiday together in Hong Kong. But six weeks after he
returned to Vietnam Damien was killed in the battle for Long Ton.
She has never married and lives
a full and happy life with many friends in the art and entertainment industry.'
(Thank you Div, for sharing Lily's story with us!)
Lilly lost the love
of her life but thank fully with the support of her landlord and a close band
of friends she survived those first months of utter despair and loss. Lily
decided to stay in Australia and with a generous inheritance from her
Grandmother she found a house she could afford to buy in Surry Hills next door
to her landlord. She threw herself into her work and doing up her rather run
down new home. She loves cooking and the kitchen is the hub of her home.
She
found she had a talent for decorating and a number of the stars of Le Girls had
her create on a shoe string budget comfortable rooms and flats for them. Then she got a call from
America to make a film in Hollywood.
So off she went really excited only to find
it was to be an erotic movie. The producer saw Lilly in Hair and thought that
as she had taken her clothes off in Hair she would not mind staring in an
artistic film.
Lilly was taken aback but when she found out the money that was
being offered she thought what the heck, she put on a black wig and called
herself Lilly Loveless and went ahead and starred in the movie.
Lilly spent six months in Hollywood and met a lovely young
English lady called Rachel Ashwell who was just starting to make a name for herself,
as an interior decorator. Rachel had introduced America to the concept “Shabby
Chic”. Lilly fell in love with the concept, it reminded her of the happy home
she had shared with her much loved grandmother.
She left America with the idea to return to
Sydney and open a shop. While in Hollywood she visited a shop called “The Pink
Door” and liked the name so much she thought she would name her shop “The Pink
door”. Lilly liked America, but found she missed her home and her life and
friends in Sydney. She realized she did not want to act anymore so home to
Sydney she came with idea of the shop firmly fixed in her head.
Shabby chic
made her think of the home she grew up in and the comforting surrounds of her
grandmother’s home in the beautiful Kent countryside. She knew she could make a
success of championing the style in Australia.
Lilly opened her shop in 1982. It is a treasure trove of the style and her
home next door reflexes her love of the
comfortable style that is “Shabby Chic” She loves the soft pastel shades and
has created a shop and a home that reflexes her instinctive ease with this type
of interior decoration.
She has a couple of pieces that are family heirlooms
and collects blue and white china and antique books.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Houses in the Highlands
On Sunday my friend and I popped into Bowral for a poke around the shops on the way home from Div's.
Here's a round up of dolls houses and related items that we spotted while browsing Dirty Janes* and the attached antiques centre. (This sort of post seems to be becoming a regular feature around here...)
The first dolls house we stumbled across was in the emporium itself:
Homemade with love, we were particularly taken with its pokerwork detailing which included a water barrel and pipe, quoins
and iron lace.
In the antiques centre, we were captivated by this vintage wire house which was being used as a lamp at the Suzie Anderson Home stall. Alas, it was out of my price range,
Around the corner and almost at the end I spotted this house, made from packing crates:
I was tempted to send a picture to Rebecca to see if she was interested, but my phone was playing dead.
The final house we spotted was less interesting:
and faced a 1/6 scale ghost chair being used to display vintage jewellery.
as were the other similar pieces she had on display...
The next stall had a sweet house made of felt, displayed on a vintage dresser with very clever trompe l'oeil, which I'd like to try on a miniature cupboard some time.
(*I consoled myself by deciding there must be several people called Jane who were dirty...)
How I spent my birthday (part 2)
while first-timer Celia's was more elaborate (and much healthier!).
Sunday, May 25, 2014
How I spent my birthday (part 1)
The day involved three mini friends (and one non-mini friend).
Jennifer brought a present: a hand-knitted cashmere scarf.
After morning tea, we headed up to Div's studio,
