Celebrating 20 Years of Dolls Houses!

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. My kids are all off to bed waiting for Easter Bunny to leave his goodies. I just wanted to pop in to wish you all my friends and fans a Happy Easter with something a bit different from the usual. 

Time does fly big time and I still can't believe that it has been 20 years since I started my very 1st Collectors Dolls House called The Chestnuts. I can still remember it like it was yesterday, starting my first few miniatures and furniture. Deep down it will be my favorite and I will never part from it. Even if I was a beginner and today I can see faults in it which I've learnt not to do in the long years, I wouldn't change any of it for the world.  There are so many sweet memories in the makings. Chestnuts took me 6 years to finish and complete. I had started it at the age of 16 turning 17 years and I was still under my loving parents roof. When I got married and moved to my new home it was the first thing to join me besides my cat. Since then a lot has happened. One by one I started off my dolls house collection and so far I have built over 20 dolls house projects and there is still so much more to do. 

Eventually all my dolls houses will be moved to a more appropriate place where they will be displayed for the public to see. Hopefully, if things work as according to plan, it will be all set up by the end of this year.  The one dolls house that will remain in my home is The Chestnuts. 

Here is a small video of my first Dolls House The Chestnuts

Thinking about it, Chestnuts is not actually my first dolls house and I am surprised at myself that I actually never shared any pictures of my very first dolls house that I had as a child. I might have mentioned it somewhere but I think that was pretty much it. 

My very first dolls house was given to me on Christmas Day in 1983 by Santa (or what I believed at that time) when I was only 4 years old.

My 1st Dolls House and I on Christmas Day 1983

I fell in love with it immediately and I guess I remember that day so well. It was the Little People's Cottage by Fisherprice. A 4 room doll house with a car garage too. I am very proud to say that this toy I still have and it is in a very good condition with all it's furniture and people. 

Here are some pictures of how it is today. It still has it's original wall papers. It might not be much but after all these years I think I should give it all my thanks to it. It gave me so much fun, joy and wonderful memories of my playtime. I guess it started the spark to love my hobby as much as I do now.

The Little People's Cottage by Fisherprice

Inside the cottage

The main bedroom with bathroom

The Kitchen

The Children's bed room

The Sitting room

The garage

Play time

The best thing ever is that this dolls house got it's second chance to be played with. My three children got to play with it. Obviously they play with it under my observation but as they are good kids and never break their toys, they are quite free to enjoy it.  Sometimes I end up joining in the fun and help them to put away the furniture in their right place or at least were I used to put them as a child. 

I have to admit my little Leah loves dolls house much more than her siblings. She is always playing with it and asking me to join her in playtime. 

My Leah playing with my dolls house.

Watching her play, reminds me so much of myself and deep down I know that eventually she will enjoy the hobby.

Last Christmas both my girls asked for dolls houses and so they got one each from the Sylvanian Families which they share together. Every now and then on a special occasion I get them something new and so they are filling up nicely.

Sylvanian Families dolls houses

Maybe eventually I will create a section on my blog for Children's dolls houses.

Before I close this post I wanted to let you know that we will be having a free give away for Easter.

This time I will be giving away this lovely  miniature ceramic platter dish.

Easter Give Away

All you have to do to participate is to be a follower of our blog and leave a comment below on this post. 

Closing date will be 9th April 2016 and winner will be announced on our blog shortly afterwards.

Greeting from the Fairy's Nook

I wish you all my dear friends and fans a very Happy and Blessed Easter.

Keep tuned for more updates on our Vintage project the Tudor Manor.

Take care and see you real soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Working on the Living Room in the Tudor Manor

Hello everyone,

How are you all? Hope you all had a great weekend. Finally it is Spring! I love Spring. The weather gets warmer. Nature starts blooming and it keeps getting warmer. This means I get more energy as Winter doesn't agree with me at all.  This also means that I will get to work more on My Miniature World. I also wanted to welcome a new follower to my blog. Welcome nika-1983-ira!

Today I wanted to share with you some of my progress on the living room of my vintage dolls house the Tudor Manor. 

The Living Room

This is one of the biggest room of this dolls house so space was not a problem. It also has a built in fire place and the walls are paneled with wood. It also has a lovely velvety carpet. 

The Room

As you have seen previously I have added a 1930's fire place that  covers the opening of the fire place. I also added a circular mirror which was hand painted by my father and also  I have a miniature clock on top of the mantel. 

The Fire place

Even if the room is quite big I was still careful what to add and I didn't want extra big furniture for the room. I have chosen a small sofa and arm chair for the room. Once again I got some furniture kits from Jane Harrop. They are quite neat and have an amazing finish.

The kits that I got are the magazine rack. You wouldn't find a living room without one of these in the period. I have also printed some 1930's magazine covers to fill the rack.

The magazine rack

I also got the utility sideboard which is quite a lovely piece to build, with opening doors and drawers. This pieces fitted in so nicely and it was just right for the room. I have added some accessories to it too.

Utility sideboard

 Finally I got the octagon side table. This was quite a lovely piece and quite fashionable to the period. I have also added another lovely hand painted piece to it. A 1930's portable gramophone with records. It looks just right on it. 

Octagon Side table

1930's Portable Gramophone

The Walls did look a bit bare and needed a little color so I have added some frames with 1930's portraits. I am not quite happy yet and I am sure that I will be adding more to the walls.

In the 1930's televisions had already progressed quite a bit so I got this set and added a picture from the 1939 movie The Wizard of OZ. It is one of my favorite old movies that reminds me so much of my own childhood. I can say I loved it even if it wasn't in my era.

It seems there is Wizard of OZ on the Telly

In the room there was still something missing and as the room was decorated with mostly kit form furniture, I wasn't sure what to use as a coffee table. I have done some research for a 1930's coffee table and some how I liked this real one. So I decided to give it a try and make one myself.

To do this coffee table I used wood, perspex and lolly sticks to make the four legs.

Hand made 1930's coffee table

  I am so pleased how it turned out and fitted the room just perfectly. So far I think the room looks great. There is so much more that I want to add to this room. I am thinking of make a book case in the corner and add more accessories and lights.

And this is how the living room looks like so far.

I hope you have liked what I have done so far. There is so much that I still need to add and make but I think that now I am getting the feel of the period. 

This is all for today. Keep tuned for the next update on our 1930's project.

Take care and see you real soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

The little Nursery for the Tudor Manor

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all enjoying the weekend. Like always I am busy as ever and I just can't find enough time to indulge myself in my hobby. I truly wish that the day is longer but so far I think I manage to squeeze in some time for my miniatures. Finally we are getting rain. It has been a dry winter so far and in the past few days we have had some showers. Even if I am not a big fan of Winter, I am happy that Mother Nature has decided to bless us with some rain at least for the crops.

I took the opportunity to start working on the small nursery in my 1930's project the Tudor Manor.

The Nursery

The room is quite small and is set between the stair case and the bathroom. This means that the room has two doors; one leading to the stairs and the other one leading to the bathroom. This room is also carpeted and has a very cute wall paper. To be very honest I never seen anything like it. Once again just like the bathroom it is quite narrow and deep so I had to be very careful what kind of furniture I needed to add. Another disadvantage to this room is that both the doors are at the far end of the walls at the back facing each other which means the you can't add big furniture to the back of the wall as then the doors will be obstructed.  

I just went for a few pieces of furniture to the room so it won't look crowded and still I had to be careful what to choose. I got some bare wood furniture which are the wash table, a chest of drawers and the baby's cot. I have painted these three in a salmon pink color which were quite fashionable in the period and matched with the wall paper perfectly.

Hand painted furniture in salmon pink color

I have also gotten another Jane Harrop kit which is a 1930's style armchair for this room. I am pleased how it turned out.

1930's style arm chair

So the big question is; Did Mr. and Mrs. Nobel had a new addition to the their family? The answer is yes. I would like to to introduce you the baby Betty.  Betty is a sculptured doll made from the talented artist Ros. 

Mrs Nobel with baby Betty

Baby Betty is made out of ooak and is fully possible. She also came with her little teddy. I had Betty now for a couple of years and I thought it was about time I introduce her to her new parents and give her a loving home.

Betty in her cot

I have also got her some hand made crochet clothes for her which fit her perfectly. I have placed them in her chest of drawers and also put one of her sets out on the arm chair ready for her to put on.

Betty's clothes

I have found some Vintage nursery rhyme  posters and thought that they would look great in the nursery. These are quite sentimental as as a child I had the same posters in my own bed room. 

 My father was also busy hand painting a few toy miniatures for the room. A baby doll and a golliwog rag doll which in the  period was quite fashionable.  For some reason the golliwog doll is subject to controversy. I respect everyone's opinion in this matter. While some would cherish this rag doll as a traditional artifact and childhood tradition, others see it as racism against dark skinned people. I was shocked when I got to know about this conflict as it would have never crossed my mind as a child or as a grown up. I think it is very unfair to children as they are all innocent being white or dark and they play and love with whatever they are given. I had one myself and I loved it with all my heart. So to make it crystal clear, this sweet little golliwog rag doll is in this dolls house as a tradition toy in the period which also brings me sweet memories of my own childhood.

hand painted toy miniatures

So here is the finished nursery. I might add some more accessories but I think it is pretty much done. I am sure that tiny Betty will love her room.

 I hope you have enjoyed the progress of this room. I am really happy with it as everything fitted in so well.

Keep tuned for the next update on my 1930's dolls house project.

Take Care and see you soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx