Eduard's new 'old' leather chair

I recently bought this gorgeous aged leather chair from Margaret of My Petite Parterre.  

Photo from Margaret's Etsy shop 'Argus Minis'

I've always been a great fan of Margaret's work so as soon as I saw it in her new Etsy shop  I simply couldn't resist purchasing it for Eduard Culat.  He seems to be thoroughly enjoying relaxing in it! 

Clearly Eduard is the kind of guy who likes to relax a lot, last time we saw him he was relaxing in the bathtub at Emily's ...

Eduard has given the beautiful pillows and very fine lace edged throw that came with the chair to Emily.  Currently there's quite a tussle going on as to just who should be keeping the aged mirror that Margaret included with the chair as a special gift for my having been her first customer.  I was so excited to see it because I've loved her mirrors since I saw this one on her blog some time ago.  In the comments section of that post she explains how to age the mirror itself,  if you are interested in trying it out click here.

Whether Eduard gets to keep the mirror for himself, or if it'll go into Emily's Brocante remains to be seen...

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PS  Presently demand for these chairs is exceeding supply but if you want one and she doesn't have any in stock Margaret will be pleased to take an order.   Click here to visit her Etsy shop, Argus Minis, and see some of the other lovely things she has including pretty cushions and a beautiful draped cradle. 

When is a French attic not an attic?

... when it's a book-box!!  

Before Christmas I spent quite a lot of time making this little French artist's attic in a fake book (which is really a storage box) as a Christmas gift for my artistic daughter-in-law Lamina.  It was very difficult to keep it a secret as we're usually chatting regularly about the projects we're working on.

Sketches by Lamina @ doabit.blogspot.com.au
The Tale of Mr Cat from inalux.blogspot.com.au, reproduced with kind permission, visit them to see his true beauty 

The life-drawing and landscape sketches are Lamina's own work, copied from her blog.  The wonderfully colourful cat is a mini-reproduction of one of Lamina's favourite art works 'The Tale of Mr Cat' by the incredibly talented artists at inaluxe - many thanks to Kristina and Jason for generously allowing me to copy this work for Lamina's mini studio - it wouldn't be the same without the contrasting style and colour it provides. It's impossible for me to do it justice here, visit them to see Mr Cat's true beauty and admire their other fabulous creations.

Other credits are due too - the pretty jug and flowers were made by Flora, the well-worn little canister by Mercedes,  the tiny angel was a gift from Synnove.  The graphic on the box of rags is from The Graphics Fairy. 

Much as I enjoyed making this tiny attic I'm still feeling inspired by Jean Jacques Brisson (see post dated December 3, 2012) and continue to dream about creating a larger version...

Summer holidays in New Zealand

During my blogging break I spent several weeks at our cottage in New Zealand

(click on the pics for a larger view)

doing this 

on walls

and furniture

When we visit again this chest of drawers needs a lot more attention, it was a case of 'slip, slop, slap' this time to make a quick improvement so that it's okay enough to be used.  (During our absence a young couple with be house-sitting.)

But it wasn't all work and no play.

A fun highlight was a visit to Akaroa,
a French settlement about 2 hours drive from Christchurch.

The main reason for taking the trip to Akaroa was to visit a 

French shop that my sister had told me I'd love 

La Folie Jolie

Alas to my great disappointment it was closed!!

I couldn't believe it.

The only day it's closed is Tuesday, the day we chose to visit.

Next time I'm going somewhere special I'll be sure to check their opening hours first!

(You can visit La Folie Jolie online here.)

As always the end of our holiday came all to soon.

Flying over Farewell Spit (Tuhuroa), a narrow sand spit at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand, en route to Auckland to catch our flight back to Sydney.

Giveaway Winner Announced

My thanks to everyone who entered, and for your lovely comments,

and a huge welcome to all new followers.

My grandson made the draw this morning... 

Congratulations  Patrizia 

Paris in the Springtime is yours... 

When we were making the draw we didn't notice that when we shook up all the paper pieces inside the hat that Diane's name had become caught up in the plastic strap.  Unfortunately that meant that Diane had no chance to win so I want to offer her a small consolation prize (as yet unknown!).  Diane, please email me your address!

I have only recently returned to Sydney from a long holiday in New Zealand  where I had a great time visiting friends and family and working on our 'real human size' cottage.  During this time I had only occasional, brief, access to the internet so I haven't been visiting your blogs and feel that I am quite out of touch with what's been going on.  Hopefully I can catch up a bit over the next couple of weeks.  

I love Paris in the Spring-time - GIVEAWAY - NOW CLOSED

Let's celebrate New Year with a giveaway!  

This little 'I love Paris in the Spring-time' 1:12 vignette in a Paris themed book-box could be yours!

Rules of participation are simple

1  Be a Follower of this blog and  

2  Leave a comment on this post before 7 February 2012.

If you would like to mention this giveaway on your blog that is appreciated but not required.  

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! ;)