Been playing with my Doll's House again

Yeah I know - when will I grow up! Although I still haven't quite finished the bathroom I've moved my attention to the 'Entry' which is on the 'ground floor' or bottom shelf of the cabinet - this doll's house is a converted cabinet and it is all about the interiors. Because the 'entry' is on the bottom shelf and because it is really small, this room is quite dark and in it's previous incarnation it was way too dark. The floor was dark wood, the wallpaper black with a red print ... and I forgot to take photos of it in the Before state. Sorry!

It obviously needed a face-lift but I hadn't any ideas until I saw the wonderful mini tiles at the Turkish shop in Newtown, Ferah. They sell little tiles with magnet stuff on them - for fridge magnets BUT peel off the magnets and with lots of polyfilla as 'grout' - Tah Dah
The 2 smaller tiles at the centre front (with the urn & the monkey - I think it's a monkey?) I've had those for ages - I think they are Dutch. The new wall paper is a gift wrapping paper, turquoise to pick up on the tiles and the gold will shine when I get the lighting working. Then I got the skirting board and cornice timbers out, painted them to match, glued them in ... then it was time to address the ceiling.





The old ceiling rose - made from Fimo - was black & red, so it got a whole lot of paint and some gold beads (more twinkle!) I had to cut through the rose to get the wires of the new light fitting through ...



And here we are - ceiling and cornices glued in and still drying (hence the sewing pins to hold everything in place). I've popped some of the old furniture back but some of this has to be replaced as it is not the right scale ... even the flowers in the boy-with-urn statue are the wrong colour now! Oh well, the oz$ is doing well again the US 'green-back' so its a good time for some internet doll house furniture shopping :-)

Meanwhile - I've encountered a problem with the lights that I've bought. They are a 12volt system & now I need a 12volt battery ...

But I'm really happy with the Entry now - the Turkish tiles and the French looking wallpaper are fitting with my new ideas about the family that lives here. Current fantasy is that it's a house in Paris, about 190something, the gent of the house was a diplomat who traveled widely with his lovely wife before they returned to Paris to raise their family ... sounds nice huh!

Lace knitting and some DIY for shoes

Last weekend I found the bargain of the decade - a 2nd hand copy of a knitting book I've been wanting for ages "A Gathering of Lace" as gathered by Meg Swansen; beautiful lace knitting projects including some gorgeous shawls (there are lots of mistakes in the patterns but the errata is readily available). Have spent some lovely hours trying to decide what to knit first - and with what yarn.

Decided on the Sampler Stole, for my sister, using some quite usual fibre that has been 'maturing' in stash for over a year. It is Habu Textiles AK-20 "silk with fern cotton" a very fine thread of silk with nubs of brown fluffy bits - presumably the fiddlehead fern fibre. I didn't actually fancy knitting a whole lace stole with finest thread - I'm not quite that mad! decided to knit it held together with something else. A Coffee and a Yarn (south end of King St, Newtown) now has some gorgeous Kaalund Yarns :-) After more lovely time trying to decide, I got a silvery blue/grey silk (the Enchante in "Glasshouse"). The pale blue of the silk and the brown bits of fern fibre really compliment each other.

Cast on last night and I've knitted a whole inch of the middle bit.

Somewhat less glam - all my shoes have been giving out lately! Took the expensive / good shoes to a pro for mending but the cheap shoes ... I had a fit of DIY


Sticky, smelly, yellow contact adhesive and pegs in strategic places until it dries ... should work and at least give me a few more wears from these shoes.