An excellent idea....

As a follower of Casey's Minis, I had been looking through her Tutorial link and came across what I thought was a brilliant idea. Using a tile and some board, Casey had created a little backdrop that looked really effective when taking pictures of small arrangements.

It was something I just had to have a go at and here's the result. A tile, some board, wallpaper and scraps of skirting etc and voila, a decent backdrop for photos. Thank you Casey for the idea. I was very impressed!

I've been shopping - again!

I'm an avid follower of Flora's Blog and when I discovered she had an Etsy Shop I just had to have a look.

It was difficult to go there and not shop!

Today a parcel arrived - beautifully presented .......... what wonderful minis did it contain?

A delightful message from Flora, two intricately styled candle holders with candles and a box of mini mail. The mail especially is just so detailed, right down to the tiny bundle of letters tied with a bow - however did you manage that, Flora? - and folded in tissue paper

Mrs Admiral is certainly going to be pleased with these little accessories - I'd better start thinking about decorating her room.

THANK YOU Flora for an excellent service, I'll certainly be shopping with you again.

Welcome, new followers...........

A very warm welcome to all new followers.   It's very nice to have you here and I hope you like what you see.

I had a fun time today putting all the little items I purchased at the fair last into the Admiral's closet. On looking at the picture, I think I need something with a bit of height on the second shelf though.

Top shelf - grooming treatments and money; second shelf - braces, gloves and golfing socks; third shelf - sketch book, telescope and map and on the bottom shelf - shoes, pith helmet and binoculars.

One thing I hadn't noticed initially was that the Sketch book has actual sketches!

Lots of Goodies..........

I managed to pick up a good selection of items at the Miniatura Fair in Birmingham at the weekend. It wasn't deliberate but the Admiral has done VERY well indeed.

There really isn't a great selection out there for gentlemen's items so I'm afraid whenever I saw something suitable, I snapped it up.

The fabric and trimmings are for The Salon, the ladies dressing table set will find a home once I get started on Her room (that's the next project) and I'm not sure where I'll put the little candle holders, I just liked them.


The book is a little sketch book, the little tartan items are golfing socks and the item under the shoes is actually a pair of braces but they are a bit more obvious in the picture above. The playing card has 51 other little friends that have to be placed - by me - in their box. It could take a while!

My favourite item of the whole show just had to be the tiny opening and closing cut throat razor which was from Danny Shotton.

The box to the left holds a telescope and came as part of a set with the pith helmet and map; I'm really pleased too with the brush and comb set on the stand as well as the champagne (which I nearly didn't buy then changed my mind!). The item to the front is money in a clip.

Dressing a table.

It's not very often that I actually make minis from scratch. I prefer to leave that to the people who are really good at it but occasionally, just very occasionally I'm inspired to make a little something

That little something was a covered table for The Parlour. I had had the table there sitting uncovered since I put it in there but to me it didn't feel Victorian enough so......... here is what I did....


I measured the diameter and height of a table I had that I was happy with and cut two circles from balsa and also a section of the inner tube of a roll of foil to the required height. Remember to allow for the thickness of the balsa wood when working out your height. Assemble as above.

Next, cut a circle of your chosen fabric allowing for height x 2 and diameter, add your selected trim round the outside edges and let that dry. Meanwhile, cover the whole thing with food wrap. Spray the cloth with starch or hairspray then arrange over the table adjusting folds.

The next step is to invert the table into a suitable receptacle (in my case it was a jam pot) of similar diameter and deep enough to take the whole table. Leave to dry.

Et voila! One (hopefully) Victorian looking table. Much nicer, I think, than the bare piece of furniture I had before.

Exciting news....

First things first - a very warm welcome to all my new followers. It's very nice to have you here and I hope you like what you see. Thank you for following my blog.

The latest news regarding the Hall is that I've been published in Miniaturas! I've been grinning to myself all morning.

Miniaturas is a lovely magazine and whilst I had heard of it, I hadn't seen it until a few fellow bloggers were published as well.

I'm afraid I can't follow the content of the articles but looking at the pictures is just amazing. The little clock shop shown on the front cover is a work of art and so imaginative.

Madelva has shown Hambleton Hall in it's entirety and, because there are still three empty rooms, she has inserted pictures of the other two properties I'm working on. (The Tenement top right and left and Apples Tearooms, just underneath on the right). I thought that was quite an ingenious idea.

When I started working on this house six years ago, I never for one moment imagined it would come to this so a very big THANK YOU to Madelva for the opportunity.