Parcels arrive!!

My parcel arrived yesterday from Etsy. Inside the beautiful wrapping was a scruffy little bear. He has been handsewn by Emily of marthasmakes.etsy.com and he is absolutely wonderful. I just had to share him with you!! He is now proudly sitting in my 12th scale nursery.





















My second parcel of the day to arrive was the alter display kit which I bought from the dollshouse builder. It will be a project for myself and I am going to make it into an old abbey display. I sold my beautiful church a few months ago as I needed the space, but this project is smaller and will be ideal for a christmas scene. I already have a wonderful vicar which I bought from Julie of Bellabelle dolls and I can't wait to get started. I will keep you all updated on my progress.
















The unwrapping begins!






















A dry run of assembling and all goes smoothly!

For anyone interested in 12th scale church scenes, take a look at St Hilary's miniature church on http://www.miniaturechurch.co.uk/ It is wonderful for inspiration.

For anyone wondering whats happened to my sewing, I have been busy in work this week, filling in for annual leave, but next week should be less hectic and I will be able to make up some new designs and colours for my cushions and stools. I am also hoping to get around to making some needle felted bears for Etsy in the next few weeks ready for christmas.

Hubby's project ~ final photos

As promised here at some of the final photos from hubby's cabin project. He is really pleased with it and even my dad who often raises his eyebrows at our love of creating miniatures was impressed. An achievement in itself!! I haven't decided yet whether to put the cabin for sale on Ebay or in my Etsy store, but as soon as it is listed I will mention it in a blog post.




















This pic shows the front of the cabin with the Potions 4U sign now clearly visible. My little witch is standing proudly at the door, but will soon be returning to my witch haunt house.




















This pic shows the back of the witches little helper. I will have to dig out a photo of him from the front. He is peering over at the gargoyle sitting by the potion stall.
















One side of the interior. Looks like the dragon from inside the fire has gone for a minute.

This is quite an early on photo, the fire wasn't completed, the lights weren't in and the shelves look empty but I wanted to show the head jars on the shelves. Hywel made them from Fimo one evening and I think they look perfect on the top shelf.

Church Hall becomes a conservatory!

Today, we took an hour and a half drive, (which turned into 2 hours because of road works!!) to a dolls house fair which we visit twice yearly. Unfortunately, this time there didn't seem to be as many sellers and we came out quite empty handed :-(

So, on our arrival home, I decided now was a good time to look on Ebay for a christmas church project. BUT... whilst looking through, I came across my own listing for my Olde church hall and thought, 'That looks nothing like a church !! ' So I have altered the inside decor and taken new photos and relisted it as an Olde conservatory. Thought I would pop the pics on quick and see what you all think!!

To make the conservatory, hubby had adapted part of another kit we already had and covered the outside in aged plaster with little areas falling off to reveal old brickwork. Each brick being painstakingly made out of real brick mortar. Inside, the walls are cream emulsion with a real cherry wood planked floor.

The roof has wonderful large areas of glazing and individually cut and applied slate looking roof tiles. (They are really slate effect lino floor tiles, but they look fab as dolls house slates)

I have photographed the conservatory next to Ivy Cottage. I thought it looked good until hubby said it would look even better next to my bakery as a tea room... now theres an idea :0)

Hubby's cabin

Hubby's cabin is finished and I promise I will post more pics as soon as I have taken the photos!! In the meantime, I thought I would share this photo with you all, as it is my favourite. It was taken quite early on in the project so the base had just been started. My first attempt at a tree is in the photo, I thought it was great for a first attempt, but hubby consigned it to my office shelf :-(

Hubby returns to work on light duties on monday after being off for nearly six months after being crushed by a 7.5 ton lorry. All is going well and although his legs still need more physio work, he can't wait to get back to normality. He will be extremely tired until his strength comes back, so he wont be doing any projects for a while, but we do have a fab wizards shop to show you, which he finished a couple of weeks ago. So after I have posted the final part of hubby's project, I will start a new weekly 'hubby's wizard shop' posting.

As for me, my full size Blackwork sampler is coming along slowly. Why slowly? because this week I have been giving the garden my attention. After all the rain we have had here in Wales lately, my garden thinks its a jungle and the cat has far too many overgrown bushes to hide in and jump out on our poor dog from!!

Time out

I am going to have a week off from miniatures and work on a larger piece of blackwork for myself. I have been busy of late, making new bears for forthcoming projects and designing new stool cover patterns, but I really need time to spend on the paperwork side of Bearcabinminiatures as I have ordered loads of new stock lately and need to write down how much I paid for each or I will forget and then the time time will come to price my completed sets and I will be stuck!! Typical me, really.. LOL

Oh.. and before I forget and waffle off on something else, a BIG thanks to everyone who left me comments or emails with details of suppliers. It was a great help and I have already used a couple. Also, A huge HI to my new followers and welcome, its great to hear from you.

Anyway, as I said, I am going to work on a larger piece of blackwork for myself. The idea behind it, is to make a piece about 10 x 12" with all the different blackwork patterns I use in miniature and hopefully some new ones. That way, I will have a stitched record of the patterns I have used for miniatures and if I can't decide a pattern to chose to work on one day, all I will have to do is take a look at my blackwork sampler for inspiration.

As I have already mentioned, I won't be placing a post for a week (unless something major or really exciting happens!) but I will still be around to answer emails, read comments and peek at my favourite blogs.

Julia xx

Hubby's project ~ part 6

Well, hubbys project didn't get finished this morning as we had hoped. We got distracted by food shopping and the eldest daughter wanting us to go and see a new flat with her. So I am sitting here now, in the middle of the afternoon, writing a quick post, with a cup of tea, a very sugary jam doughnut and the dog sitting on my feet, bliss!

The first picture is where hubby has been experimenting with his dragon. It was by chance that I had left a broken dragon pen in the garage and hubby had come across it and used it to make a mould. What resulted was me being in work, unindated with picture messages from hubby showing a new dragon at this angle and that angle, then he started hunting around the house for more things to moulds from and so the pictures kept coming..... You can see one of the dragons at the back of the fire, just don't look at the cat, he's fallen over and looks a bit strangly scrawny!

The next pictures show the finished exterior of the chimney. Now that it has been painted with a mix of artist paints, it is looking the part. The finished effect looks slimy and gungy, so its perfect for the hut. And if you closely on the top of one of the trees, someone has stuck a witch there!

Finished bedroom set

Just a quick post today, because I am back in work this afternoon, although I have monday and tuesday off, shift working, Fab!!

The bedroom set is finished and I am really pleased with the way this set turned... but I did get carried away with it and couldn't stop making extra bits to add to it. I must of been working on this set for a good couple of weeks on and off, with some nights being only an hour spent and other nights 4 or 5 hours. What originally was only going to be a bed, bedding, cushion and curtains, turned into a full room set and more. Although, I am still deciding whether to list the chair and bear, as they make a good backdrop for photographing my cushions.

There is more stitching going on, now that the bedroom set is finished and I have been doing a bit of blackwork, which is a favourite of mine. I bought a few more blackwork design sheets in Carmarthen yesterday, so I will be trying out new adaptions soon. I have also had time to stitch a burnished red and pink victorian Rose cushion for my chair.

A quick update on Hubby's project, lights are going in, the shelves are being dressed, hubby is nagging me to come and have a look every 2 minutues! Theres no peace!!.... So I will do a post on the project on monday or tuesday. It may even be totally finished by then, but I am still working on him to add more to the base.

Days out, giraffes and Ebay nightmares!

I have been rummaging around in blog land and found some fab new blogs to follow.


Judy has two great blogs ... Just another day on earth and Growing old gracefully. I also like Dollshouse miniatures and Hitty Art by Virginia folk artist K. Arthur. She has some lovely rugs on Etsy at the moment. Talking of Etsy, I must list some more items. We have been so busy this week taking the children on days out, that I haven't had much time to spend on Etsy, I just listed one item a few days ago and got side tracked by Julie's fabulous Laurel and Hardy dolls.


We are all really tired after our days out and the haematomas in hubby's thighs have swollen up hugely, so he is currently lying down with his feet raised, giving the odd wave as I chatter on, but we did have a great time and for once, the weather was nice . We visited places about an hour too an hour and a half away from us. So we have been to Cardiff's Techniquest to learn about space! St Fagan's living history museum to take photos for inspiration! and to Folly farm to see the giraffes!! I love St Fagans, but I must admit, the giraffes at Folly farm were brilliant and they are not somewhere off in the distance, they are about 20 foot away from you, so you can really see how tall they are.
































































I have finished one of my favourite cushion designs in a new colour. I think this colour has turned out well, but the blue is still a favourite for me and last night I started working on a green set which looks promising.


I have been buying my chairs and wooden picture frames from Ebay as I can't seem to find a supplier who will sell in smaller quantities. They either want trade orders of over £150 which is too much or they ignore my emails altogether. Does anyone know of any suppliers who will sell in smaller quantities? Or do we all get our supplies off Ebay?
I am looking for chairs, picture frames, glass bottles and tiny fabric trims.

Anyway, off to put the washing out now and then to the cinema this afternoon to see Ice Age 3 :0)

As promised..... Hubby's witch

Anyone out there who follows my blog, may remember that in Hubby's project posts I have mentioned that hubby made me a witch. Well as I have been looking at dolls on blogs this week, I thought now would be the time to show off my fab witch. She's not perfect, we don't make dolls to sell and her nose is a little large, but I love her. She lives in her little house, aptly named 'The Witches Haunt'. Inside her house is lots of furniture made out of our old tree and threadbare rugs, that I stitched when I was 12 and my mum found in an old box a couple of years ago. But those photos will have to wait for another blog day.





















So, here is my witch, not fab photos I admit, but it's dark out, so I am using un-natural light and the flash just makes her look all white. Look at those fabulously long finger nails, which are painted bright red. And her jumper, well if it unravels any more, she will be showing off her midriff!





















Now that she has turned her back on us, you can see her long, curly, greying hair.
















If you are close enough, you may just be able to make out those freckles on her cheeks!!

Now before I go, I just wanted to mention Laurel and Hardy. I have a miniature picture of Laurel and Hardy in one of my houses and a real life large picture of them sitting on a bench. In fact, my bathroom is themed around the laurel and Hardy picture and there is a little china Laurel and Hardy on the windowsill. So when I was on Etsy tonight, imagine my delight when I saw a listing for a 12th scale Laurel and Hardy. I had seen photos of them on Julie's blog before but hadn't realised they were for sale. Unfortunately, they are beyond my price bracket, but they are brilliant, take a look, they are at BellabelleArtDolls.etsy.com. Wonderful.

Also, if you liked the style of my witches house, I bought it from another Julie, who today has opened her own Etsy shop. Juliefiben.etsy.com. She has a lovely fisherman's cottage listed.

A challenge from Debbie...

Ok, I have recieved a challenge from Debbie and here is what you do...

1. Open the fourth file where you store your photos

2.Pick out the fourth photo and publish it to your blog

3.Explain a bit about it...

4.Pass the challenge on to 4 other blogs.

So this photo was taken last year in Legoland, Winsdor. I look like I am digging around in my bag for more crisps, these children never fill up... and don't ask me what monster Meg is doing, her arms are all over the place and I think hubby over crimped her hair! Middle monster's hair looks a bit weird too. Anyway, we had a wonderful day and even though it looks a bit foggy in the background, it turned out really sunny. We then spent a couple of days in London, visiting the Natural History Museum and Big Ben.

Okay, now to send it on, the 4 other blogs are...

Odd Fae and Autumn Things

Bellabelle's blog

Witch and Wizard Miniatures

Meli

I hope they will have fun posting their photo and having a little trip down memory lane.

And, thanks to Debbie for passing the challenge onto me x

Ramblings

No set topic from me today, just ramblings of the miniature kind :-)

It is the second day of my week off work and what have I done? Been to the dentist, who in his wisdom did a filling and made my face go all lopsided, much to the amusement of the 2 monster children! No sweets for them today, ha! Anyway, enough of dentists and back to miniatures. My 24th scale bits and bobs sold wonderfully and I spent nearly all day yesterday carefully packing and addressing parcels. They were all sent on their merry way this morning, it's a good job I was in school with the post office lady, she forgave me for turning up with loads of parcels first thing on a busy monday morning and holding up her queue :-(






















I think my favourite 24th piece was the bed and I stitched a little blackwork cushion to photograph on it before it was sent. The cushion is tiny and difficult to fill so that it looks nicely plumped and not just stuffed, so I don't think I will be doing many of these in the future, unless asked.

















I have had time to have a good nose around my favourite blogs and Nikki's advice on paperclay was timed perfectly because we have been thinking of trying paperclay out. She can be found at Witch and Wizard Miniatures.

I also visited Bellabelle's blog and absolutely loved Julie's christmas dolls. I think christmas mini making is a favourite of mine, though I always leave it late and then have huge inspiring moments for wonderful xmas designs on December 26th.. ! A couple of years ago, Hubby made me a wonderful Xmas cabin, which I add a little bit to every year. I decorated a huge christmas tree for it, (well, huge in mini land anyway) and it has a delightful santa and a rather sooty looking little boy. Nearer Christmas, when it gets brought out and dusted off, I will take some photos.

Got sidetracked again!! Back to Julie's dolls. I was lucky enough to purchase one of Julie's dolls a couple of years ago through Ebay and she stands outside my shop. I thought I would show her off and should Julie happen by my blog, she may like to see her looking at home in her street, outside the cake shop.































Well off to cook tea now, hope the newly filled tooth can take it! More ramblings to follow in the week!