Souvenirs

It's been a long time since my last post, and so much happend IRL! I'll give you a list, to keep it short 'n sweet!
1) finished internships and assignments
2) got my bachelor of education in mathematics degree
3) celebrated with ridiculous party
4) did some traveling

I think those are some good reasons for my absence! Now things are more calm again, and so there is time for miniatures and blogging again!

I'll start slow, by showing some of the souvenirs I brought for my dollshouse. I like bringing back souvenirs that I can use for my dollshouse because they don't take up a lot of space and it will gives a bit more meaning to the hobby for me. So here is a quick picture of the reindeermoss I brought from Norway, I'll use that for plant and flower making.

Also shown here are some teeny tiny mussel shels, that I actually scraped of the bottom of our sailing boat... ieuw! But quite pretty!

And last but not least, a little crown... I usually would never buy a crown to put in my dollshouse, it's a bit out of place when it's not a castle.. But since my dollshouse is a German Schloss I thought it would be o.k.! Right? ;) I found this tiny 'Reichskrone' at the imperial treasury in Vienna, where the famous Reichskrone of the Holy Roman Empire is on display.

 

That's it for today, and I'll try and be a more frequent poster ;) 

Ice and miniatures

I just realized how long I haven't blogged. There hasn't been much miniature progress lately, real life got in the way ;).

It has been quite cold here in Friesland in the Netherlands. So all the canals froze over. This equals ice skating bonanza/heaven here in Friesland! And you won't hear me complain!

The canal behind my parents house was the ideal place to start and end many ice skating trips, and I've been doing just that this past week!


These pictures where taken very near my parents house. With frozen fingers after quite a few kilometers of skating ;p

This picture shows a view of the village where I grew up.

On the miniature-topic, I finished 1 wall... yes 1. I still have to figure out how I'll create the walls in the bay-window part. I want to make deep sills, but that will be a little difficult to do neatly. But where there is a will...

Meanwhile I'm cutting tons of little veneer strips for the floor. A big room is what I wanted, but that also means a big pile of strips to cut! That's o.k. it's quite therapeutic. And I still need to tackle the mirror for the overmantle.

I'm also working on a tutorial for a chandelier to share with you all... Better stop talking and start working! :D

I should let you all know, that I sent my proxxon saw back to the store and got a completely new one. It makes a different sound and seems to work perfect so far. I'm very happy with how this was solved! (see previous post)

Schloss dining room progress 2

I've been thinking about this hearth for quite a while, how to construct it, what material to use, how will I make it look just like the one from my inspirationpicture. Here is what I came up with. I used MDF, coffee stirrers, cardboard, popsicklesticks and some fancy woodstrips.


I'm constantly putting the pannel back into the room to see if the sizes work.


Afther the hearth was an obstacle overcome, I could move onto the panneling. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time! There was no way panneling would look good in my modern dollhouse, but with the Schloss I can 'pannel' to my hearts delight!

I'm a bit of a perfectionist and this part required lots of time, measuring, fitting and redoing.

Here everything lies roughly in place, not yet painted or glued down, so you still see small gaps here and there.
There will be a extension mantel piece on top of the hearth, it is to flat and unrealistic like this. But I'm still figuring out what material to use now that my tablesaw is out of order...

I've seen this beautifull mirror here from Lucy Askew that would be marvelous for this room. It looks so much like the inpiration picture and it would fit so nicely, but I'm still indecisive about paying 40pounds for a mirror. I could totaly reason my way into buying it, but then again where do I draw the line when I have more than 12 rooms to decorate?


And because I needed to see how the sizes would work (and secretly for pure enjoyment) I put the pannel into the room. Offcoures all the loose parts fell down. But when I squint my eyes I can see how this will work out, and I like it!

Now I'm waiting for the veneer I ordered to arrive. A dark nut wood, or a teak floor will be the next thing to do here.



I'll conclude with this non-related picture, that I took this week on one of the last sunny days. This is my parents' cat, who thinks he owns our boat with his big hairy ... XD

Byzantine miniature icons and tiniest seashells ever!

I'm back home from a very wonderfull holiday in Greece. Surprisingly and unintended I found lots of wonderfull miniatures during my trip!

First of all, these copies of old Byzantine icons. My pictures don't do justice to the detail in them. They are so small and precise, the pictures don't show it but you can see the relief of the paint strokes, they are so unbelievably small!
This is Saint Demetrius if I'm correct (and please correct me if I'm wrong) and his story

Please do click on the pictures to see the large original size, to see more details.
These icons will go in my new dollhouse in the making, a small castle.

This is Saint George (and here is his story klik)

I found these lovely little statues of the goddes Aphrodite/Venus de Milo and Nike (the headless one) goddess of victory. I think these will look good in a library or garden or something like that in my new dollhouse castle


Last but not least! We were on a beach, for a lazy day in the sun and some snorkling. I was happily bored and I was lazily running some of the grit/sand trough my fingers. I suddenly noticed a tiny tiny seashell in it!

So the rest of the afternoon we've been searching (again, very lazily) for these tiny shells and found many more in the most fantastic shapes and colors!


Please click the pictures to see them larger. I think nature made the most precious mini's ever and I'm glad I found them!

some inspiration

When I'm not building or working otherwise on one of my dollhouses, I like to read and daydream with some books. I have collected quite a few house/castle/dollhouse/interior/exterior related books the past few years, some are special and dear to me, others a lot less special but very usefull all the same.

In the first picture you see a booklet with postcards from France. I bought it on my first holiday that I went on, without parents but with my boyfriend. We visited chateaux Rosanbo, such a tranquil and enchanting little place it was!

No picture taking was allowed. Lucky enough there was a small stand with only postcards and pens for sale, and the booklet are the only images I have of the fabulous interior and exterior. That, and those in my photographic memory offcourse;)
This one is a lot less special but nonetheless very usefull! I bought it at the bookshop "de slegte". It is a very heavy and large book, full of lovely pictures and some usefull background information on european gardening styles for estates and casltes. It is very inspirational since I will have to do a lot of exterior work on my castle-like dollhouse soon! ;)

And so my bookcollection is ever growing :)

Embroidery

This little boat I embroided this past summer, but I never got around to finish it into some object.. So I've turned it into a pillow now! Not very creative, but it's always better than hidding it unfinished and out of sight in some box! ;)


This is a little needle book I made, it's 1:1 scale, not 1:12. I really needed a needle book since I often take my needles with me and I always loose my needles and pins that way!
It took me a horribly long time to finish up this little book, I whipstitched it all around to put the front and back together and it really feels like doing the same thing 3 times over >_> but I'm so happy with the result!

More from Germany, and from the Arnhem dollhouse fair

This beautifull little plate I found in one of the souvenir shops in Schwangau, the town near Neuschwanstein castle. There isn't a building there that hasn't been turned into a restaurant, hotel or souvenir shop. It did spoil the romance about the castle a little, all those tacky souvenir shops... But we didn't let it spoil anything for us, we just went with it and laughed at the silly things they sold there.
But this little piece caught my eye and I thought it could make a nice walldecoration in my new dollhouse. It's very detailed and quite pretty I think.

The castle and the whole vacation in the forests has enchanted me as you can see by the number of posts I've allready made about it :P

Here is a picture of some of the things I bought at the Arnhem dollhouse fair, a whitewood bed, a ebony turned wooden cup, a real silver candlestick, a net of oranges and one that's beeing peeled open. The crate with beerbottles is one of the brands my boyfriend actually drinks. And offcourse you see the souvenir plate from Neuschwanstein. All sitting on top of my new favourite book.


In this book I found this picture, I like it very much and I think I'll use it as inspiration for the library in my new dollhouse.

Wonderfull books from Germany

I promissed to show the books I bought on my holiday in Germany. I visited Neuschwanstein and was so impressed. I didn't want to forget all the things I saw but taking pictures wasn't allowed, so I bought a book about Ludwig2 and all his fabulous homes and castles. (Möbel fur den Märchenköning is also known as furniture for the dreamking). I bought it at Schwangau but I couldn't find it on the internet later on, sorry about that.
The other book is filled with pictures and information about beautifull German castles, mansions and other buildings. The following two pictures are from te first book.







These pictures are from the book Möbel fur die Märchenköning

guess where I've been

Last week was the fall holidays, and my boyfriend and I decided to go on a last minute vacation to the amazing forests in our neighbour country Germany.

We spent a whole week in a little house in the middle of the Bayerische Wald. Large parst of this old forrest are Urwald wich means there hasn't been any intervention or medling with nature from humans for centuries! The birth, growth and decay of trees is all regulated by nature itself. The most beautiful surrounings you've ever seen! You can walk in these forests for hours, find many idyllic scenes with little creeks, crooked trees and secret paths, and not see a single person on your way. It is not so strange that the German forests are the birthplace of the brothers Grimm fairytales!

The wonderfull forests are not the only nice thing about Germany! Beside the good food and the very kind people there are also countless castles and other beautifull old buildings.
If you think France is the only country with refined and pretty buildings and interiours, think again!

We visited Schwangau, where king Ludwig 2 his unfinished fairytale castle 'Neuschwanstein' is built. Rumour has it Walt Disney based his sleeping beauty and cinderella castle on Neuschwanstein. And this is probably the part where it gets interresting: pictures!

King Ludwig 2 his bedroom in Neuschwanstein castle:


King Ludwig2 his fathers castle, where Ludwig grew up:


Later on I'll show you the books I bought, filled with pictures from the interior of the castles Ludwig2 has build. (yes he had many, beside Neuschwanstein!) Wich form a great source of inspiration for my dollhouse that I'm building now!

the reason I haven't blogged for so long

The reason is that I had a big summer break from school. And I have to use my computer a lot for school, so when the summer break from school started, I turned off my computer.... and only turned it on every now and then to check my mail or something quick like that.
I've had a wonderfully lazy summer, the weather wasn't great but that doesn't really matter much. I started cross stitching again, because it's so time consuming I usually only do it when I have days and days of free time. Here is one of the things I made, a scissor fob and a biscornu in the making. I also made some 1:12 cross stitchings, but I'll show those later ;)

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!

Here is a picture of my very own personal easter bunny; Kronk. In action as you can see!

sunshine

After a few days of rain, the sun is shining again and I'm quite happy about that! My little plants really needed more sunshine. In front you see cherrytomato plants, basil and parsley on the background. If the sun keeps on shining the way it does, most of my plantsies will need relocating soon! :D yaay!
(I'm not sure what the official words are in English, so I'll just say relocate ;) )

LENTE!!!

Spring has definitely sprung! :p There is no denying now!
This beautifull butterfly visits my balcony daily, and today I took this picture of the pretty little visitor!
(please click the image for a better, larger view! You'll see amazing details if you look closely! ;) )