21st Birthday!

I was 21 on the 28th June!
So I travelled home on the 27th, back home to Oxford and I had a fabulous time with my parents and my birthday (who was 18 on 1st July)! Double celebrations all round!

My mum and dad bought me an iPod so now I can listen to my music whilst creating crazy paint sculptures or mini's for my dolls house!
Rob (my partner) bought me two Heidi OTT dolls, which I shall be doing a product review for soon! (I will also compare the size differences of a 1/12, 1/6 and a 1/3 scale doll! They're BIG!!!)

I'm not a big partying person and I don't like the taste of alcohol, so I went out for a really nice meal at the Limoncello (in Abingdon, Oxfordshire) and it was all home made and SUPER DUPER YUMMY!!!

Then on Sunday we all went out again for another meal for my brothers birthday! :P

Then tomorrow (Wednesday 4th July) me, my partner and all my friends are going to the Thai Elephant in Leamington Spa!!!!

So much food! But it's all so good!

Inspiring Post and Blog

Just did a random search for retro dolls on Google just to see what comes up and if any of it is inspiring. Well today I found this;
http://patchworkunderground.com/inspiration-sunday-is-maryann-roy/
This is a blog about a woman who loves to sew and be crafty! Well she found these pictures which eventually led me to this blog/website;
http://www.maryannroy.com/index.htm
Here is her blog: http://maryannroy.wordpress.com/
This is a blog/website for a woman who creates items for 1/6 scale! It is truly amazing and so inspiring, it has really given me lots to think about! I really wish I could get started on my house, but unfortunately funds are holding me back, so in the mean time I will be planning the layout/measurements etc so that when I am able to afford to start I can go full steam ahead!!! :D
This is an example of her work:
(I hope she doesn't mind me using her image) :S

This piece of furniture has inspired me to create a similar piece for the bedroom and the colour is amazing! The colour really reminds me of some of the old furniture that Lundby and Triang used to make! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!

Product Review: www.minisquare.com

A couple of weeks ago I ordered from www.minisqaure.com a retro inspired coffee table and a bowl, well today they finally arrived!

They were very well packaged and arrived nice and quickly!
This is what I received...

The minute I saw this piece advertised on the website I knew it was the perfect piece for my dolls house! Fantastic design and the scale is just perfect as sometimes you do get overly large or small pieces... And it was only $13.00, so about £7.70! Fantastic!

The only downside to the piece is the finish, it has been stained a really dark dull colour and appears quite 'dusty'. Now I'm not really sure how to correct this... I might have to either repaint/respray it or try some bees wax or varnish, maybe even recover it with veneer?

The other problem with it is that it's not quite straight and even, I thought it might have just not been straight to the eye so I checked it with a right angle tool and it it wonky... So I am thinking of either just leaving it as it is or pulling it apart and re glueing it so that it is perfectly square...

I'm not sure if I am being too picky or not but I am a bit of a perfectionist. But I did only pay $13 for it, so I guess I got what I paid for...

The second item that I ordered from them was this little bowl!It cost me just $3.75, so around £2.40! Amazing value for money I thought and the pattern is simply gorgeous! It really fits into the whole modern/retro/Palm Springs feel that I am going for!

I can't really fault this piece at all, the only thing is maybe to have a larger range of crockery with the design on! That would be awesome! Maybe I can make that though...

Here are the two pieces together...

I really love the pieces that I received, not quite 100% on the furniture but the accessories are amazing! 

I hope you liked my first of hopefully many product reviews!

How Do You Store/Display Your Dolls Houses?

I recently stumbled across this link;
http://www.dollshousespastandpresent.com/magazine13june2012p13.htm

And it made me think how I store my dolls houses/furniture/accessories, how do you store your houses? I have at least one in each room (except the bathrooms and bedroom), and I even have one (my first) still at my parents house...

I wish I could have a basement like the one in the link above, you could build your own mini street of houses! Sort of like Wysteria Road from Desperate Housewives :P

I am awaiting some pieces of furniture through the post (from America so they may take a while) as well as some Heidi OTT dolls (which my partner bought me for my 21st next week!), when I receive them I shall be doing some product reviews! 

I also own some BJD (ball jointed dolls), in 1/3 and 1/6 scale, so I thought it would be interesting to have a photography comparing the scales of my 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12 dolls!

This is Ava, my 1/3 scale (60cm) Obitsu doll! She came unpainted and I since painted her face and applied eyelashes!

Check this out...

I just found this really inspiring collection of images...
http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/modernminiature/Interesting

Some really inspiring pieces!

What's this thingy?!?

I see people are clicking this +1 Google thingy...

Can someone explain to me what it is, I have no idea :P

Thanks :D

My Mini Mod Pod: Ta Daa!

My Mini Mod Pod: Ta Daa!

This is an amazing house that someone had made, (finally found the finished photographs of it) :)
Doesn't it look amazing! It really does resemble the houses of Palm Springs and other such houses of the mid-century!