Christmas comes but once a year

I have a lot of Christmas decorations, but this year our real tree is about two feet shorter than last year due to significant price increases and I didn't have room for all my ornaments.  I was looking for somewhere to put this set of ceramic Alice in Wonderland ornaments when my eye fell upon my Willowcrest front yard. 

Look who's come to browse the fabric and yarn sale!

It's Miniatura time!

Yes, it was Miniatura time again, which embarrassingly seems to be the only time I blog on here.  But I've pretty much finished up my Fairfield build, so perhaps I will be able to continue with the Willowcrest when I get more time to do minis again.

Anyway, I had a lovely day up at the NEC in Birmingham, going around one of the UK's largest miniatures fairs.  I was mainly looking for 1:24th scale accessories for the Fairfield, but I ended up getting several things for the Willowcrest.

I was pleased to find all of these modern resin figures, including two that are actually knitting!!  They were on the Jennifer's of Walsall stand.  Normally I only see figures in Victorian costume, but these will make great customers for the store, and the knitters can go into the 'knitters' corner' on the top floor workshop area.  The man with the coffee cup might go behind the counter and be staff, although I need to make him look a bit older as he looks far too young to even be drinking coffee, much less working in a store. I also got the little vacuum cleaner there, because stores usually have those to clean up with at the end of the day.

I made most of my bolts of fabric for my quilt shop myself, but I couldn't resist being lazy and buying some more from Shepherd Miniatures, as well as the basket of fat quarter fabric pieces.

The 'No Smoking' and 'Private' signs are for the shop, as is the solid oak footstool which was an astonishingly cheap .80p from a stand selling mainly Tudor furniture. 

The kits at the front for three display stands and a knitting bag are all from Model Village Miniatures, who don't have a website but they do mail order and here are their details:

I got some other nice things for other houses, which are on my main blog here.

It's a miracle

Yes, I am actually posting here.  Just to say that I have made a few jugs from paper using printables, which will go in the quilt shop as 'artistic decor'.  You can read about it on this short post on my Fairfield blog.

The Willowcrest has been weighing increasingly on my 'guilt' button, more and more I feel like I should be working on it and getting it to a more finished state.  I'm almost 'finished' the Fairfield (are they ever finished) so I think after that I will try to return to the Willowcrest and clear up some of the chaos on the ground floor.

Thanks to anyone who is still hanging in there!

Display detail

This week I was so desperate to work on a dollshouse, and I'd had to put away my Fairfield construction project as we had a guest in the house, that I actually did some work on the Willowcrest (gasp of amazement).  I'd been chucking things into the quilt shop on the ground floor as I acquired them, where they sat waiting for their final destination.

Some of those things were adorable 'kits' for making teddy bears, which I bought at Miniatura, together with a mini teddy bear to display with them.  From the same stand, I bought some mini x-stitch 'kits'.  So these all went up on the wall in the quilt shop as a new display.

Not much progress I admit - but it's something.

To quote Monty Python: "I'm not dead yet!"

Despite the temporary abandonment while I build my Fairfield, I have not given up on the Willowcrest.  And today while I was at Miniatura, the biggest dollshouse fair in the UK (I think), I snagged a few more accoutrements for it. Plus we went to the big Dollshouse Emporium shop in Ripley, where I picked up a few others.

The two woven silk rugs, from Dollshouse Emporium, are intended for children's rooms but will make great quilts to display in the Willowcrest quilt shop.  I may cut down the 'applique' quilt into two smaller cot quilts.

The advertising sign board is a kit from Model Village Miniatures, who were also selling the tiny knitted teddy in the corner of the picture.  The knitted teddy, and the cute 1/24th scale fair isle sweater from another stand (being sold off for only £5!!!) will go in the knitting shop on the upper floor.

I'm being unfaithful...

For the patient people who are STILL waiting for me to finish this house, I have to 'fess up that I am being unfaithful.  I'm spending all of my dollshouse time now on a Greenleaf Fairfield kit, which you can read about on my other blog here.

I am still intending to finish the Willowcrest interior (well, as much as these things are ever finished) and I have picked up the odd thing for it at dollshouse shows.  But somehow it is just far more sexy to be building again, I am much better at construction than I am at interior decorating it seems.

Third floor workshop area

I converted a bare wood chest of drawers and a cheap cupboard, to turn them into furniture for my third floor workshop area in my Willowcrest quilting and knitting shop. You can read more about it on my main blog post here.