More little treasures

 I am so thrilled with these.  Seven little boxes of cookies.  They are so brilliantly in scale.

 They didn't seem particularly cheap at $15 (for the seven), but when you consider the work involved they really are. 

My original theory was that I would buy them and undo one of them and photocopy it several times or make a template from it to cut out loads from other papers.  I could then fill them with Easter eggs.  They look like the standard Easter egg box with a cellophane 'window' and an added flourish on top.  

Heavens to Betsy - not a chance.  They are constructed exactly like proper boxes that work this way.  They have folded over and glued bases and the tops have slits and interlock but they are sooooooo tiny I haven't a hope of constructing them.  They are also filled with beautiful and realistic iced cookies.  I just love them.  I found them on an EBay shop (Thailand?).  I have since ordered the unassembled set (half the price) so I can have them in the shop waiting to be made up......  by Vianne,  not me!

These next two photos show $20 worth of bits and bats from Nancy's - my local doll's house shop.  I had a credit note for something I bought and took back, so I thought I would pop in and spend it on quarter scale - another story!

Unfortunately she doesn't have quarter scale (she does have half scale) so I just meandered around picking up a miscellany of (reduced) things I fancied. They all turned out to be things for Chocolat

The jars will be on a sweetie shelf somewhere.  The rabbit with sweets is great for the Easter sales setting and the lovely little copper pan is the one on a ring (in the movie) ready for making hot chocolate.  I may have to fill it with hot chocolate (Fimo?) before it goes in place.

The cups and plates are for stacking on a shelf ready to go.  I am not keen on plastic but hope they will look OK when painted.  One issue I have with plastic things is they don't look as though they have any weight in them and don't therefore seem to 'sit' realistically in a project - maybe these will change my mind.

These photos will be added to Chocolat - Purchases web album

Srasota Show, 19th and 20th January 2013

This show is written up more fully in Bentleys Blog but I wanted to record the few bits and pieces that were destined for Chocolat.

These are from True2Scale .  

I have been wanting the pitcher and forsythia for ages. If you check out their site you will see the lovely Eiffel tower stand they do.  I want to fit it in Chocolat  somehow - it might happen; but I managed to resist for now.  I didn't resist the lovely dishes and decals even though I have no idea whether they will fit the story!

The lovely cake boxes certainly have a home and pride of place.

At Ron's stall (Dollshouse Shop, Orlando) I returned four of my five Little Women for something else.  I had decided before the show I wanted a better pretty pleater, which he kindly brought to the show for me.  I added in these three cute cake stands. The red one is destined for the window display.

I bought this trio from Marie's Minis. The bowl of nuts was for Chocolat; I then remembered it is set in Lent so seasonally they are more suitable for the October setting of Bentleys.  The hyacinth, though,is for Chocolat to help pin down the timing.  The jug and bowl may just join my Little Women stock of Victoriana for an (as yet) undreampt of project.

From Feather Your Nest I got this little set for $34  (£21.45) which I thought was a good price as I had been looking at the stools in various places at around eight dollars plus.  It was absolutely bought for Chocolat as there is something like it in the movie BUT as my project may be in the throes of veering away from the original it may end up in Starfish Cottage. I put a cup and saucer on it to give you a sense of scale.

Planning for Spring

For a few weeks now I have been talking to (emailing) the extremely patient and helpful Martin Butler of Small World Products Ltd discussing his great lighting system.  He had read my article about my frustration with removing and replacing pins on the plugs which come with the round wiring system and suggested I might like his system better.  I do before I even use it.

The solution to my frustration is his Power Centre (SW01&SW01S).  This is the basic component of the system.  It connects the wires from the lights and fires etc to the transformer/power supply via ten pairs of screw terminals.  So instead of removing a plug, threading the wire through a hole in the house and reconnecting the plug to shove it in the wibbly wobbly power strip all you do is cut off the plugs, thread through your hole, strip the wires a little and and connect to a simple terminal.  No more dancing round the room with plug pins in your teeth.

There is also a power centre with individual switches (as shown in this (bad!) photo) so you can turn things on and off individually at will if you want to.




This is a picture of the rest of the various bits of kit that I have as a starting point for Chocolat.  

I'm not talking about it in detail here as I will do that when I come to actually use it, but I wanted to give you a heads up about it in case you are about to buy your wiring system for your house.  Trust me - this is the way to go.

He has anything you could wish for any size project.  You decide what you want to do and there will be a way to do it - simply.

This set was intended for my American house - hence the American plug in the picture, but as that has been kicked into touch, it will now move on to Chocolat.

I never thought I would say this...... I am actually looking forward to doing the wiring!  Watch this space.

PS:  for anyone who is a bit girly about this stuff - and that includes me - don't be put off by it looking a bit electrical/technical - it isn't it is just that most of us don't mess with stuff that looks like this.  In a nutshell - you are replacing those nasty plugs and sockets with a simple bar of screws - open up a gap, insert the wire and screw it back down - just like you already do on the transformer connection - what could be easier?

All change!

(Apologies to anyone who reads all my blogs as this appears (with minor changes) in them all)


I have just spent the best part of today re-jigging all my photo albums for my Blogs .  It was prompted by Google telling me I was running out of room.  This led to having a grand sort out.  On the one hand it was great to have all the new (purchased!) room, on the other hand it was a load of work re-assembling various folders to share with you.  Whatever web album storage I look at, it never seems to do what I want it to do, which is simply to replicate my photo collection as it is in my computer.  The major problem is (with Google web albums and others) that I can't nest folders within folders as I would like to and I end up with a bunch of small folders all jostling for position.  I then have to rename them all so that they will clump together in some logical way.  For example all the albums to do with any of my miniatures need to start with the same word, so they've become  - yup! - Minis.  This doesn't make files particularly simple to construct and probably not that easy to find.  I promise I have done my best with a duff system.

The re-jig means that any blog prior to this date which has a link to an album will be defunct.  I am sorry for that but it would have always been so at some stage.  I was already having to remove the older albums to make room for the new ones.  Hopefully, with all the extra space I now have, the future links will last a lot longer.  

On the whole it will be fine.  When I write a post and create a new album or add photos to an existing one I will give you the link.  You won't have to go hunting and searching for it.  Additionally, if at any time you are visiting  the blog and just want to find something not being written about you can click on the link in the right-hand column labelled  All albums  and that's where you will end up.  When you get there if you click on the drop down arrow of the 'Sort By' option where it says Album Date you can select Album Title instead.  That puts them all in alphabetical order (obviously!) and should make it much easier to find what you want.  The first clump of albums is Clavering then a bunch of Garden albums then a mass of Minis.

Happy wanderings.

Birthday Treats

Just a few more things to add to the Chocolat collection box . They were bought with my birthday pennies when we visited California.  The story of the trip will be in Clavering at the end of the month and the details of the dolls house part of the trip is in Bentleys. 

I love the doilies and have done for a long time, so these were a treat.  The syringe is for piping decorations on the cakes and chocolates I hope to make - assuming I make them and assuming this syringe works for that - lot of assuming going on here.  Sorry I didn't take the hasp and padlock out of the bag - hope you can see it if you click on the photo as it is very nicely in scale.  This is for the outside toilet door probably.  As for the senior squished up the corner.  You might not know it but this is Judi Dench!  Well it is the resin figure I shall have sat at the counter drinking chocolate as in the movie.  I hadn't seen her before so was happy to acquire her.  She was just a tad pricey at $14.99.  I suspect I will now see a zillion of her for five bucks.  

The flesh is weak ....

I know Chocolat is at least a year away from needing any of this but there are times when you have to buy something because it may not appear again.  This stuff from Miniatura is a case in point.

The fantastic shelves were each under a fiver and they are unfinished Jiayi so are really nicely made.  If they don't get used in Chocolat they will go on to Starfish Cottage beautifully. 

Similarly with my only doubtful purchase of the day.  The wire corner shelf caught my eye as it was a bargain.  It is House Works and cost me about three pounds fifty.  Being a bargain is a bad reason to buy something.  I don't think I like the wire stuff when I get a chance to consider it.  Another show I went to ages ago I bought a bird cage and a coat stand in wire and ended up selling it on through EBay at a loss.  I hope this one doesn't go the same way.  Again it (maybe?) has a use in one of my future projects.

Everything else I just love.  The earthenware jug with a glazed inner neck was in a one pound jumble bag of six pieces from the charity stand.  They are always good for little treasures.  Sadly I couldn't get near it as it was one of the first I came to in the morning when I arrived and everywhere was pretty crowded.  By the time it had thinned out so had I and, I suspect, so had the little treasures, so I never went back. I was happy to have snared this and a couple of other things which are going in Bentleys.

The jars, trays, copper lidded cake boxes, cake stand and doilies were, again, all terrific bargains and without a doubt will be needed.  Truly too good to miss

The silicone mould at the front is for making those Belgian shell-shaped chocolates you can buy.  Hope I can crack on and make a load of chocolates as good as the ones on the silver tray.  How someone does the level of detail they do on these I can't imagine.  Even less am I able to imagine I am going to be able to do it.  Click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see.

The Easter chocolate basket is just what I want for the window display.  It is perfect and only six pounds.  The tray of fudge and the éclairs came from another favourite of mine - Delph.  Not someone you'd think of first for this sort of thing.

I nearly forgot to mention the little bird box, too good to leave behind for eighty pence.

What a great day I had. 

Printies

I bought these wonderful 'printies' from a Belgian lady at Miniatura yesterday.  She does masses of stuff ranging from single sheets to ones like these.  This was probably called Boulangerie (?)  It has four sheets of fantastic things - pictures, tiles, beautiful little boxes and even doilies - masses and masses of stuff.  I only hope I can do them justice when I come to use them.

I can't find an on-line shop of any sort for her but if you Google Trezoort Jes you will find links to her stuff.  I should have looked harder to see if there was something for the Chocolaterie part of my shop. I hope to see her at another show some time.