Some Kitchen Progress

 Hello everyone!! I hope this finds you well!!!

I have been making some real progress (despite it being school holidays, miracle!!) and took a few photos while the light was good this afternoon. I have been working on the kitchen mostly. Such a small space but kitchens are so full to brimming with goodies and a wonderful way of including so much colour and interest. Years ago I tackled making my own mini food. I got one of Angie Scarrs books and dived right on in. I went nuts and made a lot of things, bread and veg mostly. I do love making bread..... but anyways over the years my stash had dwindled somewhat. All my peaches were gone. I have no memory of ever giving them away but alas they are no longer here. So I found all my fimo and the weird things I had used as tools and thought for sure they would be yick by now but no!!! After four years they were all still good and my hands were strong enough from making 10,000+ plates that I didn't need the pasta machine to soften it. BONUS!! Which is so really good as I have no idea where the thing is now. Gah don't you hate that about moving!! I don't know where my sewing machine is either. ??? So peaches adorn my cheap shop divided box once again. Along with a mountain of spuds, eggs, carrots, zucchini, apples, pears, parsnips and of course a loaf of bread. Love  making bread. I also now had some Scenic Water to make jams and preserves. Love Scenic Water, so very easy to use and not messy. So now there are jars full of things suspended in liquid. I resisted the urge to put a teeny eyeball in with the pickled onions. I did say it was school holidays and my boys are starting to affect me. Kitchen is looking better already. There are some brilliant tuts on YouTube so I also had a go at some puddings and pies. Bikkies and muffins and things shall be tackled on the weekend!! Every Aussie house needs lamo (lamingtons) and some Iced Vovos! But anyhoos here are some photos I took this arvo between watering the yard and getting dinner sorted. Dinner never sorts itself out despite me having waited years for it to do so. Lazy dinner.

My mate Sue from MiniCrochetMad made me the teeny crocheted pot holder hanging of the stove knob. Her work always amazes me. I have a lovely tea cosy she made as well that I was going to photograph but thought better of it. Red and black colouring, chalk dust mess, teeny delicate pretty thing...chances of them touching remote but possible. So it has stayed in it's little container till I clean it all up.

BREAD! I know, it a thing. It there on the butchers block. I had to make a strange tall loaf as there isn't much bench space and there must be bread!

The vase of sunny flowers I bought from Minicler on Etsy. I think they are just perfect for this room

Tis all for now. Real life kitchen now needs to be cleaned up. That doesn't happen on it's own either and I have given it as much time as dinner sorting. 

Hoo roo!!

Carriexx

A Kitchen at Last!

I thought the kitchen would be the best place to start. I haven't got a photo of the entire house yet as it is so tall it was impossible to catch it all in the cameras frame in my tiny workroom. This French townhouse I made for my niece Rebekah who recently turned 18. It took 18 months to complete. We both have a passion for all things French, Italian, old and just wonderful. The townhouse used to be an old narrow bookcase. Perfect I thought for a small bedroom. It is 144cm high. The shelf spacing completely lent itself for the towering ceiling heights of grander old homes. Not many of the walls were square or flat for that matter but that didn't bother me. I find those sorts of challenges make you think outside the box and come up with something different and new. I used foamboard, balsa and heavy card. Lots of gesso and Spakfilla. Items that I have purchased from other artists I have credited so that you may find their work if you like. If I have missed something please shout out and let me know!!

 Table by Janet Stoffel from Etsy (Minisby Jan). Chopping board by Hungarian Miniatures.

 Oil can and food canisters made by Susi at MiniEden Tienda

We are Aussie and love our Vegemite!! A must have!! Amanda Speakman (amanspeak on Etsy) made some Vegemite toast for me.

Bottle of Grand Mariner on the range mantle was made by My French Cuisine on Etsy.

I can finally show off all the glass ware I have been hoarding. This cabinet which is so lovely I bought form Villa Miniature on Etsy.

Ring cake made by My French Cuisine on Etsy. Shabby utensil rack by Hungarian Miniatures on Etsy. Another food canister from Susi. Knives from Hungarian Miniatures.

I used Lea Frisoni's staircase idea here to construct a stairway to now where. Rebekah and I absolutely love all things Art Nouveau and in particular Mucha so I added a bit here and there. This woman's face was a jewelry finding from long ago. 

Stack of books on the staircase are from Monserrat, Monbio on Etsy.

I have a rather tall space vacant now in my mini mess room. Mmmm what shall I do next?? So many ideas!!

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed it!! Be safe!!

 Carriexx

A Sink!

Just a quick pic. Sink is done, yay. All made out of cardboard and balsa, bit of cornice trim. Sorry for the terrible photo. Took it with my phone. I keep forgetting to buy new batteries for my camera! Cannisters are from MiniEden Tienda on Etsy. Love them. Will have to get some more I think.

Bye for now and be well!!!!

A Start for Maison de Livre

What a start to the new year!! Crazy as usual. I hope it means it is all getting itself out of the way now and the rest of the year is quiet. My computer crashed twice, under my house flooded ( the Esky was the first floatation device to find its way out into the street), lost the Internet soooo many times, my roof leaked in my mini room so all furniture moved out and sooo many other things happened that I need a holiday to have a rest from the holidays!  And Blogger has all changed, argh. It doesn't like long posts it seems and wants page break. ??? Hellloooo says 2012!!
Deep breath in and out. I started this Parisian inspired townhouse with book shop on the bottom floor for my niece nearly a year ago. I've lost a year!!!! The main problem was as always I had too many ideas. I couldn't decide. Soooo many ways to do a Parisian townhouse with a book shop on the ground floor. Then life came in as it does and filled in the little areas of quiet bits I had left and Maison de Livre (book house) got pushed to the scary grey area and never seen again. Up against a wall behind Greenleaf kits that is. Then the wonderful Christine Lea Frisoni started up her blog and the wonderful ease in which she does her beautiful homes helped clear up my messy head. I knew I didn't have the room for stairs and was trying desperately to get my head around that. I knew I had to give the illusion of there being more to this tall house as it was a skinny bookcase in a former life. Not a whole lot of room, just a lot of rooms. With my inspiration freshly awakened from it's coma I got stuck into it. So after nearly 12 months of face pulling I did the kitchen in a week. Insane isn't it. I like to tell myself that I used that time to collect all the bits n pieces I needed for it. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I started with the entrance. A room 5cm x 12cm wasn't too much to take on and easy to rip out and start again if it was awful. I used heavy cardboard for just about everything. Bristol board is relatively unheard of in the Land Downunder. Gesso, my best friend, on everything. Use it as a spak when need to. Comes of my clothes very easily. The range is a cheaper one made over to look more Frenchified. I drilled a hole in the back and have put in a flame flicker globe. It comes with a flue but I didn't want to use that so I glued a finding over the hole so the fire light will flicker through. I painted over all of it with a matt black to give the look of cast iron and change the handle and knobs to ones more in scale. Everything else is made from balsa. I love balsa because it's soft and easy to work with. I hate balsa because it's soft and hard to work with.

The tiles I made myself. It is something I thought of quite some time ago and it was great to finally give it a go. They came out way better than I expected. I have some tiles coming and I will be doing some more to put in my Etsy shop. They are easy to put in and give a great look.There are also sooo many designs out there. I have found some wonderful Art Nouveau ones for the bathroom. Rebekah had a look at her kitchen over the weekend and I took the squeals of delight coming from my mini room as a good sign.

A Warm Kitchen

Told the kids to look after themselves on the weekend, I had a kitchen to do. They did for the most part. I haven't done much to my little house for quite some time. The boys took in turns to get sick and Etsy orders to fill. As well as other general life stuff that gets in the way. But the majority of that was all settled and I sat down and finally put all the bits n pieces I've been hoarding into some use. This side of the kitchen is done for the most part. Need to add a few things here and there. Hanging bunches of herbs, more utensils, tea towels and fire wood. Stuff. The other side will now get my attention. A pretty shelf over the table and a little cupboard to go behind the door for all of Mrs. Thatcham's pots and bowls. It is so nice to see it finally come together. Canned food is just lengths of dowel cut painted silver and printed out labels gluesticked on. The jars of preserves are filled with clear silicone with a drop or two of food colouring and then polymer clay slices pushed in with a toothpick. The muslin tops were off an old quilt. The cotton had worn down so much into lovely soft muslin. Squares lightly glued on the top then very fine gauge wire around to hold. Then trim off the muslin. Had a go at ageing enamel canisters. Now where as scary as I thought.

Looking through the net on how women cooked with open fires I discovered all sorts of cast iron 'technology'. One of which was a swinging plate to cook on directly or to put pots on. I made one up from carboard cirlces glue together to for the plate. Electrical cable bent and glue to another smaller cardboard plate that would be glued to the brickwork. All glued together and painted black it works a treat.