Debbie's dolls !

Long time no see ! But right now I have taken two weeks off for odd jobs at home, sorting out stuff, you know it (I am afraid..), in between , however, mini-ing and playing.

To kick off the week, I introduce you to two lovely little dolls by Debbe Dixon-Paver (SA) , they arrived here last week

                                   hope you like them too, I find them adorable big time !

                          Will need to find the right (and kitty-safe !!!) place for them yet :-)

Dutch fair ( Ulft) autumn 2015

Last wekend I visited the Dutch fair , held in Ulft nowadays ( about the end of the world and a bit over ). Did mostly buy things that aren't worth photographing - a nice maglamp with a ring of LED lights, big lens , some kits , some woodstrips), but also this Fern Vasi doll -no website, sorry-(halfscale ) :

She looks very much at home in her now kitchen , methinks :-) ( I may yet relocate her to my other 1/24 scale house, though, exchange of inhabitants and some furniture). And look at that mouse- was insluded ....

I also bought a half-asleep kitty from Shirley Scheibehenne ( I have been a long- time admirer of her work ) . All her work is hand sewn and this critter is just about 1 1/2 cms  I think . She is a lovely lady, btw

                                               and here they are all together in the kitchen !!

And now some more dolls and things !

Elga also brought me this wonderful doll by Debbie Dixon-Paver I had snapped off Etsy  earlier this year. we thoght it might be safer for postng. Dolly traveled all the way to Scandinavia, took some minicourses/workshops and then landed in the Netherlands- well, here she is, home at last :

                                                                  Sweet , isn't she ???


                                                 And now some lesssweet dolls !!!

As you may know, I also like bad tempered / crabby dolls. I saw this bawler on etsy while browsing; immediately grabbed her by the scruff -----

She was made by Alicia Volta ( Aligradolls)

Intrigued by her art, I asked her whether she would consider making two fighting little boys for me. At first she thought she would not have time right now, commissions and two fairs coming up to the boot - but she liked the idea so much that the boys went off and took over !

So here they are ( they made their way fighting all the way from Portugal....). I am afraid they are in for  a big whack when they will arrive home.

They are going to be in a yet to be built outdoor scene, on a green , where children are playing-or not.

On a sweeter note : I also received flowers from Pim Sukkerd ( beetree miniatures , watch out for her at the Miniature Online show!) that I bought from her a the on line show -also  some other things, but they are hard to photograph, sorry .

                                                                  Gorgeous!!!!

Elga in Holland !

 Last week Elga  visited our friend Josje after some weeks of teaching miniatures and a family visit to Scandinavia. To surprise her, we had set up a meeting at Josje's house .
When I cam in, she was still busy working on a delightful game table , which has to be covered yet with PP ( oh dear, another project that really has to be done !!!!)

                                            here she is working in Josje's studio :

                                              Josje watching her :

And here we are , together with Annette, another miniaturist who had visited Tune ( Denmark) with both ladies last year :

This is the little table !

Always lovely meeting up with friends !!!! And thank you Elga for this wonderful little table.

Some things from the web :-)

In Augustt, the Miniature Online show was held again. I bought this wonderful pottery from Jo-Ann Shaw ( Canada). Her work is excellent! 

Earlier this year I bought a couple of dolls by Carol McBride . I would have shown them earlier, but they were quite hard to photograph

                                                 Recently a little urchin landed here :

                                                              Adorable, isn't he ? :-)

                                  And ther is this snooty elegant lady from etsy ( Kay's Studio)

She looks suspiciously around, too, wonder what she wants to do here....

                                    and last but not least : another big beautiful kitty!!!! ( ebay)

New doll ( not made or dressed by me !)

Just before I left for hols , I received this doll that I bought from Gisele Sullivan, who has retired now. Isn't she lovely ?

Finally progress!!!

Back from really glorious holidays in Switzerland in one piece , I might add, thank you.( yeah, I know....but I am always quite happy to be there and return quite rested ) . If you need a good sleeping pill, try my album  :-) . Remember those days when people insisted to show their pics, even if they were quite bad and mostly showed off "us here and us there and everywhere "? With internet albums you are free to ignore or just say "how wonderful"without even looking , much better !!!!

Well, nuff of that now,  during the last days of my hols weather was instable at best, often rainy, so  I decided to get into my stitching again. I seemed to have a "stitcher's block" or something, but it is over now, methinks.

Here is where I have got to by now :

 Last pic I posted was in Nov 2014. To be fair I had done some stitching in between , but it was verrrrrry slow going , I was not really inspired .

Kitty landed

This is going to please Elga : this morning a nice big Maine Coon came to live here :-) .Has actually landed on the table. Should I lay the chandelier down on the floor next to it as , given their weight, s/he must have taken down the whole lamp ???? 

In case you wonder , the cat was made by Reve , she sells on ebay.

Arjen's little table

During tthe Rheda fair I bought two kits from Arjen Spinhoven and this week I put together this little table kit. The kit is well made, easy to do . Painting was a different animal , though. Still, I did my bestest and came up with this (not as neat as he does, but it does look nice ) :

It looks like this  if you look from the ceiling ( have a vision of a doll hanging in the chandelier..)

I think this is one of the first kits I did not mess up big time after my re-entry into miniworld!

Arjen has actually written a tutorial about painting this baby in DHMS # 251

Here is the table with a centimeter, just to get an idea:

Rheda !!! Long post , many pics.

Yesterday I visited the ( yearly ) fair in Rheda, Germany. If traffic is heavy , it can be a very arduous trip, but I was lucky this tme, esp in the morning. Roads were nearly empty so I could floor it ( and I did :-) ) . I even arrived before official opening time, a first for me .

I did restrain myself a bit. I missed several regular sellers, like Julie Campbell and Jain Squires (maybe too soon after Kensington) ; others were there allright, though. Unfortunately forgot to buy some things thatI saw while ambling about, but hope to be able to take care of that sometime later on !

Today I unpacked most of my treasures. 

These two little cherubs were made by Victoria Heredia  ( no website, sorry ). She makes them by hand, are incredibly tiny. Will look great on any fireplace- in a grand house, that is.

Time for tea at Miniaturen Schneider. I had hoped for some sandwiches, too, as they do make the most realistic sandwiches for a teaparty I have ever seen , but these were absent yesterday, alas.

So to comfort myself I bought some additional stuff from Georgia Marfels 

This time no rats or meeces , but rest assured, I WILL be back and she too, life permitting :-)

This little gel from Ankinaki dolls was whining so loudly that I decided to adopt her, providing she stopped bellowing of course 

I gave her a little sleepy cat from Shirley Scheibehenne, probably helped,too to stifle that horrid sound.

Was obvertaken by a wild desire to make a addict of one of the male dolls when I saw this ginormous needle, added an equally ginormous corkscrew. Saw some small plant here too, will do nicely for 1/24 scale:

I had heard of Vitreus Ignis from people who visited the Bishop Show in Chicago ; they were at this fair for the first time. The lady graciously allowed me to take pics at her stand :

And this is what I bought :

Got this little paperweight for free :-)

Of course, I also had to visit Elisabeth Bettler ( or Elisabeth Causeret, never sure which, she is a  lovely lady , unfortunately no website), to get more porcelain in halfscale , which I always loooove!

here is her stand, smaller scales on top ( halfscale on the right two rows, quarter scale on the left)

Caught some more nice halfscale pottery :

Headed for Susan Bembridge's stand , sorry , no pics now, was for wallpaper and flooring. Quality is outstanding. Wallpapers  safely rolled up for now, I am not going to disturb them , but here  you can see the design , the blue one. It is for the roombox, pics later on this post !

Then on to Ray Storey , as I wanted lights for selfsame box.

then some kits from Arjen Spinhoven 

                               ( these pics were nicked from his website to show you what I saw at the fair)

 

Be sure to check out his website , he has such great chests , some BIGGIES as well !

OK and now the roombox that I ordered at the latest Dutch fair from John Kilner at No1 Elite designs...

It is massive, it is oak, and of outstanding quality. Hmm, seems a  shame to use wallpaper, maybe use templates . Will see .

Front in place ( glaring, of course)

                                   Front glass closes with 4 small magnets, just like that.

                                 Wiring on the back , can chooose battery run or trafo

Inside. All panels can be lifted out. I have got extra sets of all of the with a blanc back too. Plus skirting. Plus a spare ceiling.It is lit, but that is hard to see/show in daylight. I have two packs of different background pics, they can be exchanged quite effortlessly using the selfsame little magnets. Lighting of the background is done by a vertical row of LEDs on both sides, like theater light spots.

And now sagging down , Hope you are still alive. But if you are, try to check out the websites, so many loverly things out there....:-)