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If you click on any of the highlighted text when you're reading the blog it will take you to the thing it is talking about. Usually in my blog it takes you to some of my photographs which illustrate what I'm saying. Sometimes it might be a link to a site which I think is worth checking out.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

All change!




(Apologies to anyone who reads all my blogs as this appears (with minor changes) in them all)


I have just spent the best part of today re-jigging all my photo albums for my Blogs .  It was prompted by Google telling me I was running out of room.  This led to having a grand sort out.  On the one hand it was great to have all the new (purchased!) room, on the other hand it was a load of work re-assembling various folders to share with you.  Whatever web album storage I look at, it never seems to do what I want it to do, which is simply to replicate my photo collection as it is in my computer.  The major problem is (with Google web albums and others) that I can't nest folders within folders as I would like to and I end up with a bunch of small folders all jostling for position.  I then have to rename them all so that they will clump together in some logical way.  For example all the albums to do with any of my miniatures need to start with the same word, so they've become  - yup! - Minis.  This doesn't make files particularly simple to construct and probably not that easy to find.  I promise I have done my best with a duff system.

The re-jig means that any blog prior to this date which has a link to an album will be defunct.  I am sorry for that but it would have always been so at some stage.  I was already having to remove the older albums to make room for the new ones.  Hopefully, with all the extra space I now have, the future links will last a lot longer.  

On the whole it will be fine.  When I write a post and create a new album or add photos to an existing one I will give you the link.  You won't have to go hunting and searching for it.  Additionally, if at any time you are visiting  the blog and just want to find something not being written about you can click on the link in the right-hand column labelled  All albums  and that's where you will end up.  When you get there if you click on the drop down arrow of the 'Sort By' option where it says Album Date you can select Album Title instead.  That puts them all in alphabetical order (obviously!) and should make it much easier to find what you want.  The first clump of albums is Clavering then a bunch of Garden albums then a mass of Minis.

Happy wanderings.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Sold

I am genuinely feeling a bit sad when I am writing this.  38 Wentworth Court sold on the 28th September 2012. 

It is still with me for a little while longer as its new owner couldn't take possession until the 22nd of this month.

Such a bundle of mixed feelings.  On a purely practical level it makes sense if this hobby is to continue   We can't possibly have more than two (and a small one!) houses in this house at any one time and, as most of you know, I have Bentleys, Chocolat and Starfish Cottage all taking up space right now.  Also, as I don't want a house to dress and redress as some people do, it will just sit there in stasis and somehow that doesn't really suit me.

As I have said before it was a very personal house, representing bits and pieces of my life with my children and therefore evoking those and other memories when I looked inside it.  That has made the parting harder I think.

On the other hand I am really happy to think it will go on to make someone else happy and that it will have another life and be filled with other stories.  I wonder what its next life will be.  I suspect it might travel back in time from 1990.....

I wish it and its new owners (large and small) all happiness.


(Don't forget, my articles about it are still running in Dolls House and Miniatures magazine from September through to March)

Tuesday 18 September 2012

House up for Sale


Well, I've done it... the Wentworth is up for Sale.

I thought I might wait until next Summer but on consideration, now it has been emptied, it probably doesn't matter when it goes.  I will be sad to see it go, but it will be nice to regain the space on the chest of drawers in the bedroom.  That will mean all my doll house hobby will be tidily contained in my 'office'.  I do like 'tidy'!

Here's the advert in case anyone is interested.  It is listed under the Dolls House category and is headed 'Celebrity' Wentworth Court Dolls House.


This is the Wentworth Court which is currently featuring in Dolls House and Miniature Scene Magazine. 
There are seven articles running from September through to next  March.
It also has an accompanying Blog and a CD of photographs.

It is being sold unfurnished, so it is ready for you to make it your own.
Please contact me for links to its web albums and its Blog where you can find masses of more information.  EBay prevents such links being included here.


Dolls House Emporium Wentworth with Burghley basement.
Quick Style – i.e. DHE professionally finished exterior.
Decorated and trimmed throughout down to the tiniest detail such as a door bell.
Good quality real wood floors.
Blinds at all the windows.
Carpets.
Sixteen lights including two chandeliers.
Four fireplaces, all light up.
Wiring in place and everything working.
Fitted ELF kitchen.

Total value of items over £700.
No reserve price so this starting point is a real bargain.

Smoke free, pet free home.

Must be collected from Bury, Lancashire - too large and heavy to post.  
Prefer cash on pick up please, but you can pay to my Paypal account if you prefer.

Sunday 29 July 2012

The cannibal

As I keep saying I will not be near my Wentworth while the articles I am writing about it are ready to publish so I am living in hopes that memory and a lot of photographs will do the job.  I already have many images of the house and its contents but I spent an hour yesterday capturing some more just in case.


With that done and having made the decision to sell it next summer when we get back here again I decided I might as well empty it and find things to go in Bentleys.  It isn't as easy as yo think to just work out what's there and make a note so that it doesn't get duplicated.  There are so many tiny individual pieces in a collection it is nigh on impossible to be that accurate, so I decided to just get on with it.  This is the stuff I found for Bentleys.....



As I went along during the removal I tried to group the contents into Bentleys, Chocolat, Starfish Cottage and leftovers to keep or sell.  This soon became a logistical nightmare and it soon became Bentleys and 'the rest'.  Here's the rest........


In 1/1 world I have lived in eleven homes in three countries in the last eighteen years and without exception have been sad to leave each of them even though we have chosen to move on for whatever reason.  My homes are just that, and a home is much more than a house.  It is somewhere I make to fit comfortably around the way we live, they make and hold memories, I plant gardens and it all grows to be somewhere I come to love.  Leaving them is always sad and feels as though someone is cutting some string containing nerve endings which joins me to them.

I was astonished to find the same emotion attached to my 1/12th home.  It was perhaps a tad more meaningful breaking up this particular mini place as it contained actual memories of my life with my children and linked me back to how I felt when I moved on from their childhood home eighteen years ago when my peripatetic life began.  




Wednesday 25 July 2012

Fame and fortune

Just to remind you that, if you buy September's Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine, you will see my first article on the Wentworth.  It is out today. I have had an advance copy and it looks fine.  They have changed a couple of things very slightly and made a couple of mistakes when labelling the photographs, but nothing that actually matters.  The girl's bedroom is described as the spare bedroom and one photo shows the house on the basement and infers the basement is an Argos trolley.  As I said it only shows up if you are the person who wrote it.  I am very happy with what they've done with my stuff.

I have to get my copy in miles ahead of schedule because we will be in the States when some of the articles appear.  This also means I need to take a zillion detailed photos for when I am on the other side of the pond, just in case anything needs adding to or changing when I am over there and I get asked for a rewrite or photos.

I am planning on that photo session 'freeing up' the Wentworth so that I can cannibalise it for Chocolat and Star Fish Cottage.  When I come back next summer I am planning on selling the building to give me more room.  As I keep saying my home won't accommodate four projects.

I will probably have it stripped out by September so anyone reading this can have first dibs on it then if they are interested. The Quick Style (this means the exterior was professionally finished by them) Dolls House Emporium kit with free Burghley basement cost £250. If you add on paint, trims, wallpaper, carpet, wooden flooring there is at least another hundred pounds spent. It will also have sixteen lights, four fireplaces and a fitted ELF kitchen - more than another three hundred pounds. So something like £700 in total. I would like £200 for it. For someone who wants to save over five hundred pounds and a lot of time it would be a bargain.

You would also be owning a property with a blog and a series of (7) articles published about it.  After February it will have the seven magazines as part of the deal and a CD containing hundreds of photographs.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Fame at last ......

Thought I'd do a bit of self-promotion and give you a heads up on the September issue of Dolls House and Miniatures Magazine (on sale 26th July) where there will be the first in a series of six pieces written by me about the Wentworth.  Here's their advert for it (and other things, of course!) in the back of this month's issue.







Tuesday 1 May 2012

Honeychurch table

A lovely display table to set off your dolls house properly.
25 inches wide, 25 inches deep and 24 inches high.

64 cms wide, 64 cms deep and 61 cms high
weighs 21 kilos
you cannot remove the legs for transporting.

White
With useful drawer space.  Not always seen on these tables.
Please note this is a full size piece of furniture for your doll's house to sit on.  It is NOT a 1:12 miniature.


This item has to be picked up.  I am happy to accept cash on pick up. 
If you are considering using a courier to pick up, check the cost of the pick up before bidding as this can be very expensive.


The Honeychurch table is on sale on EBay if anyone reading this is interested.  This is the advert.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Just a little something

One of my 99 pence EBay purchases arrived today.  


I am sorry for the poor quality photograph I am being lazy and using my iPad rather than my camera.  


I trawled all over Wentworth Court and decided I couldn't find just the right spot for it, so I have (temporarily) stuck it to the inner door of the basement as a reminder of what this house is about.  It is like a warm full stop.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Welcome to Nicky and Otterine

Welcome to Nicky and Otterine.  Thank you for joining the followers of my Blog.  These are two very talented ladies and I've just bookmarked their sites and have to go now so I can spend hours trawling through them.........

Monday 9 April 2012

Welcome to followers

Welcome to Ilonka.  What fantastic things to look at on your site.  Your family (and friends) are very lucky as I am sure they get the beautiful socks and sweaters and other things you make.


Welcome also to Paula.  Again, what a busy lady, all those projects to be working at and what a lovely place to live.  You can be just as isolated in a city, at least you have the fantastic views to compensate.  

Saturday 7 April 2012

My advert on EBay for the Honeychurch


I have put the Honeychurch up for sale.  It cost me seventy-four pounds plus the trip to pick it up and a table to put it on.  Just in case you are interested (or anyone you know is interested) it is in the Dolls House section of EBay and looks like this.






This is a rare opportunity to buy a lovely shop made by Honeychurch.  These are few and far between and are rarely complete.  This one has everything. There is nothing missing and nothing broken.  It has been finished and used as a dolls house rather than a collectors piece and could go straight back into use as that but it would make a wonderful starting place for a miniaturist looking for something special.  It is made of plywood - no MDF in sight.  The base measures 23 inches by 15 1/2 inches.  If you email me I am happy to send precise measurements of each room or any other details you want.  I can also email more detailed photos if you need them.

There is the normal amount of wear on an item which has been used.

Pick up only is advisable.  This is from Bury, Lancashire (near Manchester).  If you want to arrange shipping that's also fine. 

I am happy to accept a PayPal payment or cash on collection.  No cheques please.

Saturday 31 March 2012

Welcome Chris

Welcome Chris to the followers list.  Nice to talk to you here as well as email.  Thanks for joining.

Transforming stuff

I have been buying lots of bits and pieces from EBay while I was away and I snared these scales for 99p.  I know you are saying "Yes, and I can see why" but I promise you they will be transformed into a thing of beauty with a little wire wool and some paint.  At about twenty when I was first married I found a pair of shop scales in a junk shop being used as a doorstop and bought them for pennies.  I then painted them a lovely British racing green and polished the brass pans until they shone.  I loved them for many years afterwards and they moved from home to home, usually living on the kitchen window sill and always being used as they were my only kitchen scales.  Believe me balance scales are fantastically accurate.  I admit the real ones needed calibrating initially by sticking a couple of penny coins underneath the pan side.  The children who bought sweets from that sweet shop in its lifetime obviously always got an extra one.  So these tiny ones, which actually balance, are perfect for my Wentworth as it is an homage to my life with my children.  Sadly Wentworth doesn't have windowsills but, however much room they take up in the kitchen, they will have a home there to remind me of my real ones.  (My daughter has those now).  

Welcome to Lies and Susana

I just popped in to check on some photos and what a lovely surprise... I have two new followers.  Thank you for taking time to 'sign up'.  I know I have lots of readers and that makes me happy but they are only numbers.  It is a real pleasure to have names and faces to jolly me along.  Not so lonely for Linda any more!

Saturday 24 March 2012

Returning to Wentworth

I probably mentioned a while back that I'd written an article about my ELF kitchen for an on-line magazine called Dolls Houses past and Present w...e...l...l...  even better, I have just been commissioned (for money!) to write six articles with photos  for Dolls Houses and Miniature Scene magazine.  They will be published September through February.  This means I shall be writing pretty much all Summer and will also have to return to the Wentworth to finish off some bits and pieces for the photographs.  So, watch this space.

Saturday 11 February 2012

Just to say Hi!


This isn't really a post, but I know a couple of people who have the blog(s) on an RSS feed and I want to reassure them that I will be returning to this Blog occasionally after April when I get back to the UK.


I follow a few Blogs and sometimes people drop off the radar for very long stretches and you wonder if they have decided not to do it any more, so I thought if I just reminded you I was still here and itching to get home to my hobby in the UK, you might not give up on me.  


My new project is Le Tout Paris and I am sure that will take up masses of my chattering time but I will pop in and out of Wentworth Court now and then as there is still work to be done there.  I have curtains to make, some furnishing to buy/rearrange/finish off. I want to do something with the seating alcove on the street level - the fountain needs water and it needs some plants in pots maybe?  Suggestions welcome.


I envy you, using your wintery days indoors getting on with your miniatures - what else can you do when it is freezing outside?   I am sure many of you envy my winter in the sunshine but believe me when I say I get very homesick for my proper homes - large and small.

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Flying Visit

I paid a flying visit to my Wentworth for Christmas.  The couple of weeks did include a Christmas break at home and visitors and some gardening but I managed to squeeze in a little Doll's House playing.  For Wentworth it consisted of doing some dusting and general tidying ... a woman's work is never done ...  and adding a couple of bits and bobs.  The most important of these was 'hanging' the pictures I'd taken home.  I then decided that as it is pretty close to finished I ought to do a set of room pictures.  That said there may be changes ahead.  I noticed items which might work better in LTP and be replaced by something else, such as the wash stand in the bathroom which I haven't plumbed in yet for the modern house and other bits of furniture and vases of flowers.  I don't think either of these properties will remain static for very long in my care.  For the moment if you want to have a look at the nearly finished product I have posted about two dozen pictures in the photo album....  Wentworth Court Contents