Season's greetings!!

Thanks for all your inspiration and friendship in 2012!

Let's do it again next year!!

Card image source http://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.com.au/p/my-freebies.html (text added in Picmonkey)

Not sure if I can resist the temptation...

I should be working on the dining room or the salon I suppose but I've been collecting inspiration pictures for another project and my fingers are itching ...

JeanJacques Brisson - Paris Rooftops

This amazing project by Jean Jacques Brisson is all over Pinterest so some of you will have seen it before.  It's definitely high on my list of the most intriguing miniature projects I've seen and I'm sure lots of you will love it too so I thought I'd share it as not all of you use Pinterest (and therefore have many more hours in a day to do 'useful' things!). 

Click here to see the source page which has a couple of other (very different) creations of his. That page is dated Feb 2010 but I don't know when this was made. Unfortunately  Brisson's website (www.rectoversminiatures.com) seems to have disappeared from cyberspace.  The URL appears in Google cache but the links don't work.  

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Thanks Nathalie for the information that a video of M. Brisson can be found here

UPDATE

I found his new website!!

click here 

'Fabulously Small'

I stumbled upon Monique's blog Fabulously Small today - if you haven't seen it yet be sure to take a look.

Amongst other things, I love what she's been doing with old clock faces and watch parts, this creation is one of my favourites from a post dated 26 July 2012.

As an added bonus she's having a giveaway to celebrate 100 Followers, so be sure to visit before the deadline of 17 December.

Images are by Monique and sourced from her blog. 

Hallway and stairs - done!

No further progress to report on the bathroom for the moment - I've turned my attention back to the hallway, kitchen, dining and salon which are located above the ground floor Brocante. 

The wallpaper is a single sheet with lines scored to create the look of wallpaper strips typical of old papered walls.  The fake 'edges' have also been lightly stained with tea to create a more aged look as this wall is 'subject to damp'.   In old houses the edges of the wallpaper strips often yellow with age, especially if they become damp from time to time.  Tea was also used to create the staining intended to mimic more serious water damage. 

Stairs in

Balustrade added 

Stairwell wall in place, completing the hallway

There are obviously major issues with cracked plaster on the exterior of the back wall of this house, particularly the left corner - over the years the constant damp has caused the plaster covering to fall off exposing the lath underneath. Emily is going to need to sell a lot of goods in her Brocante if she has any hope of affording repairs! 

The stairs were made using instructions in Lea's book*  Le Grande Livre de la Maison Miniature. They're not the best piece of work I've ever done but most of the staircase will be invisible once the walls go in, and it was good practice.

I have to make a small diversion from this project now, I'm participating in Caterina's International Christmas Swap and I have to complete my swap gift for Terry and get it in the post, it's got a long journey ahead all the way from Australia to Italy!

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PS - Lea's book* is written in French.  However, the illustrations are very clear so it's possible to follow the instructions even if you don't read French.  Occasionally I do type a sentence or two into Google translate just to check on something I might be unsure about - however sometimes the translation is very amusing and not much help at all! ;)

Crazy, busy months are nearly over...

Sorry - I didn't mean to be away so long!! 

Everything just got crazy including an unexpected house move followed by a few internet issues so I haven't even been visiting everyone much at all, let alone doing anything for myself.  However tomorrow is the last day of classes for the year so once I get my assignment finished I can get into my new workshop area (which presently resembles a bomb site!), unpack boxes and hopefully get some mini-action going.  So thanks for your patience, and your kind enquiries as to my health and so on,  I hope to be back soon!!

PS -  not only is it my last class for the year,  it's my final undergraduate class!!  I thought the day would never come - it's been a long haul!

Special swap gifts from Jennifer at Plushpussycat

How gorgeous is this corset  ...

... and these pretty antiqued Czech glass bead perfume bottles?!

They are the handiwork of Jennifer at Plushpussycat.

(The photos are also by Jennifer, the setting is her Lover's Cottage.)

Thank you Jennifer, they are so lovely and will suit Emily's French bedroom perfectly.

Giveaway winners

Congratulations to Sharon (Hollyshan) and Flora (la casa delle bambole di flora)!!  

Yes that's right - there are two winners!!  Ann asked me to draw two names - my husband did the draw from an old straw hat :) - as the first name out of the hat Sharon gets first choice of either a modern or vintage grocery set and either the children's book or the cookbook - the remaining set of groceries and remaining book will go to Flora.  

If you didn't win don't be sad,   you can purchase groceries and books of your choice at a VERY reasonable price from Ann.  Click here to see my previous post which mentions her prices.  You can also visit her website (click here) or email her at logan@optusnet.com.au  Purchases are paid for via Paypal and Ann happily ships internationally. 

Thanks to everyone for entering, and thanks to Ann for providing such special prizes.

M. Culat takes a bath - at Emily's!

Thanks for all your interesting suggestions regarding my bathroom issues, I think that Emily's neighbour, M. Culat may have come up with a solution.  He is trying out the brass bathtub and he seems to quite like it.  I suspect he's going to try to talk Emily into letting him move it into his place next door, not a bad idea as it would allow Emily to choose a new bathtub that would perhaps suit her (and the shower unit)  better.  I think M. Culat would be quite happy with a very simple tap system, he's not really a shower type of guy preferring a leisurely soak in the tub.  

Beginning the bathroom (and seeking your opinions)

Firstly thanks so much for your encouraging and interesting comments on the previous post about the kitchen, I appreciate every single one of them.

As I mentioned I've started on the bathroom, still lots to do but at last I can see how the brass bathtub looks.   It's actually a soap dish, to my great delight I found it on eBay - Susanne @ Miniature Dreams used to have one on her blog header and I always admired it so I was excited to find one of my own. I thought it would be perfect for the old French bathroom and I'm happy to see that it looks right at home.

The bathroom is at the back of the house, above the kitchen.  Part of the bedroom will be in front of it with a doorway for 'ensuite' access.  (The door that you can see below is the hallway/bathroom door.)

When the dividing wall between the bedroom and bathroom goes in the bathroom will be visible only through that doorway and the side window.  There will also be a mirror on the wall opposite the vanity so that it, and the accessories on it, can be seen (perhaps 'glimpsed' is a better word) from the front.

I couldn't find an old fashioned toilet so I made one.  

I started out with this modern unit...

I microwaved it on full power for about 3 seconds to soften up the glue holding the two parts together so that I could pull the cistern away from the base.  About half of the back of the base was cut off so it fits closer to the wall.

I made the cistern from a small block of balsa adding some trim and a lid, also the flush lever, chain and downpipe.  The downpipe is a black plastic drinking straw painted silver,  it has a bend at the bottom just like a real one where it connects to the toilet pan.  I don't remember where I got the straw, I've had it for ages in my 'found things' stash just waiting to be turned into a toilet cistern downpipe :)

At the moment it looks like it would be impossible to flush this toilet because the lever is sitting on the top of the window blind but that's because both the wall and the cistern are temporarily held in place with blu-tac which is pushing them both forward a little.  Once everything is fixed in properly the lever should fit behind the window frame. 

I'm going to repaint the cistern (it's too dirty compared to the rest of the bathroom) possibly in a creamy colour to set it off against the white wall, but it might even go black!

I have a dilemma that I'd like your opinion on...

I'm thinking of spray painting the shower unit to dull it down a bit. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo but  it looks totally shiny and new compared to the bathtub, and the bathroom in general - I bit too shiny and new I think.  On the other hand it does match the toilet chain and the taps on the vanity, but they too may yet get an ageing treatment. 

The two paint options are a more aged gold/brass look or matt black.  The third option is to leave it alone, it does add a nice little bit of luxury to an other wise very practical home and I quite like having some contrasting features. 

Please feel free to share your opinion - (a) paint to look more aged gold/brass (b) paint matt black (c) leave it alone (d) some other option I haven't thought of.  

I'd appreciate knowing what you think!