birthday swap

My birthday swap arrived yesterday afternoon, all I can say is that the ladies in my swap group really out did themselves once again. This swap has to be one of my favourites. We get to pick the themes we want and then we get to make what is on the lists of things the ladies ask for. This year I chose three of the shops I will be working on. I chose petshop, flower shop and sewing/fabric shop. And by the looks of the gifts I received I better start working on the sewing shop.

Here is what I got from my talent group of friends.
Thanks ladies.

From Adrian

 

from Mel

 

From Audrey

 

from Barb M, Ethan must have walked off with the little puppy, when I find him I will post his picture.

 

From Sheila

 

from LaGail

 

from Fern

 

 From Barb K

 

Well as you can all see I have lots of wonderful goodies to add to my latest projects.

 

 

 

 

pet shop minis

So over the weekend I was able to get enough dog printables done to fill the first shelf I built. I also was able to install the book racks on the counter. Now on to the cat shelf

 

 

 

Pet shop

Well the pet shop walls are all up and papered. The floor is in. I have put together the counter, which needs a coat of paint and some decoration on the front, I might install a book rack for the mini how to care for animals books. So besides the outside needing to be done ( I have not really figured out the look of yet, I am kind of thinking brick in maybe greys) I am going to concentrate on the little things for the inside. With my birthday being Monday my family bought me some gift cards for Micheals so I purchased some more minis (yes micheals appears to be selling minis). I bought another dog house with puppy and a little bird in a white wire cage and a large wash tub that could be used to bathe a large dog in.

Tonight I am planning on printing a bunch of printables I have saved on the computer and I will take them with me this weekend to camp and work on while my cub pack watches the jungle book and falls asleep. that should keep me busy.

I am still waiting for my birthday swap box to arrive, so as soon as I get that I will post pictures of the wonderful items.

Here is the completed frame of the pet shop

Now that I look at the counter I am going to install magazine racks to hold the little books.
They will be attached to the front and side of the counter.

 

more minis

On Friday my other swap arrived. It was an Easter swap and a Family fun night swap. As usual the ladies out did themselves once again. I really enjoy participating in the swaps because everyone is unique and you really end up with some amazing minis and some wonderful friendships.

This is the easter swap, the windsock I am going to hang in the corner of Grandmas porch, the colours will look great there.

this is the family fun night swap. The Chinese checkers game is completely playable, the little pins come out and can be moved. That is an awesome piece.

I have also been working hard on my pet shop, the shop now has 4 walls, all I have to do is the back room where the dog grooming stuff will be done. I have to go to micheal's and pick up some more paper for the floor and I need more kitty cat ribbon for the border around the top.

Well that is all for today, back to work on my minis.

 

oh happy day

I am soooo happy today, and the sun was not even shinning. This morning I received my February swap box from the one group I am in. The wonderful items that were in that box were amazing. One lady made a beautiful quilt with matching pillows, and they look amazing on Grandma's bed in the new house. And then the day got better. My hubby and I went to micheals craft store to pick up some supplies to work on the pet shop and when we were checking out the nice lady at the cash (she knows about my minis) she said to me that micheals now carries dollhouse miniatures, so I had my hubby take the goodies to the car while I went to go check out the minis. Of course I could not leave with out purchasing a few goodies.

The swaps from swap_shop this month that I participated in were: Master bedroom, Living room and the Nursery.

 

 

 

The pet shop is coming along nicely. The revamped design of the shop will have an addition on the back of the shop with a door entering the back of the shop. This addition will be a grooming room.

 

 

The walls are a grey with a silver sheen to it the bottom half is black and white paw prints. The paper that will be on the floor is a metallic silver with a small checker print. While at Micheals I found some small print ribbon with kitty cats  and ribbon with puppies on it, I thought it would make a cute boarder for the top of the walls. I am thinking the kitty cat one in the main shop and the puppy one in the grooming room.

 

 

These are the minis I purchased at Micheals. I bought a dog house with puppy for the pet shop, the sand pails will be cute in the beach shack. And the little glass jars have a cherry pattern on them I thought they would make a cute cookie jar for the willow kitchen.

 

 

 

cross stitching in miniature

Well blogs ago I showed you some pictures of a carpet I had started cross stitching in miniature. Well this weekend while watching Canada win some Olympic medals I finished the carpet. It's home will be the master bedroom of the willow house in front of the fireplace. Now that this carpet is finished on too carpet number 2, it is a small rectangle one in pinks and lilacs for grandma's cottage bedroom.
I will have pictures of that one soon.

I thought I would add this picture of my new dishes for the willow kitchen. They are white with cherries and gold trim. I have always wanted to order this set, and up until recently it was not available at the dollhouse store I order from. So when I noticed a few months ago that they were carrying these china sets I ordered this one for the willow and a set of blue and white dishes for Grandma's cottage.

finishing touches

Well the dollhouse is complete except for the shingles which I will adventually get around too. Some of my friends have asked what does the house look like with furniture in it, so I took the furniture that I made and some other random pieces just to show you what the house set up will look like.

this is the main room, that little round table with the lamp on it I want to replicate it with a table that will match the colour scheme.

Welcome to the tiny, tiny kitchen.

 

that bare space with be a fabric covered dressing screen.

here is the completed side of the dollhouse the front has the same roof trim which I painted the rest of the trim.

 

cottage trim and more kits

So today I painted the outside trim daffodil yellow and installed the front door and then I thought I would try putting together the other two chrysnbon kits that Trevor bought for me. I am really enjoying putting these kits together, they go together easily and are fun and easy to do. The two kits I put together were the old stove and the dry sink kit. I started playing with the furniture that will go into the cottage to see what works, and the more I try to figure out what kind of chair for the cottage I am really liking the looks of the 2 wooden chairs that came with the cottage kit. so I am thinking of covering them in a nice material and add some stuffing to the seats and chair backs they will be pretty comfy chairs.

 

I also dry fitted the roof, I need to paint the underside of the roof lilac for the bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

dollhouse porch and a kit

So this morning I installed the porch railings and while they were drying I checked my facebook to see what video my friend Joanne had up this morning. To my surprise she is working on a furniture kit that Trevor and purchased for me to in Grandma's cottage.

The kit was called the Chrysnbon oak table with 2 chairs. The table is supposed to expand to be able to add 2 leafs in it, however both of us had a snag and for some reason the pieces in the kit were wrong. Joanne choose to redrill the holes. Mine I decided right from the beginning was not to have the expansion added since there is no space in my cottage for a table that big. I choose the kit for the cute round table. So since she was doing the kit as the weekly video I chose to build the kit. I love it.
I did not add the braces for the chair seat as I want to add cross stitch chair seat covers. I have a few patterns to choose from.

 

cottage life

The cottage is almost finished, the outside is painted in the two main colours, floors are finished and sealed, all that is left is to install the porch rails and the roof and trim.

For the porch floor I used a self stick tile sheet I picked up a the dollar store (3 for 1.25) The tile I chose looks like stone, all I had to do was cut it to fit.

so tomorrow I am going to install the porch railings and start working on the trim.

Here is what I have so far.