It's a small world...

...well it is if your only 1/12 scale like my dolls' house which is what I did before I found stamps.

My first dolls' house was a metal 'Mettoy' one with printed walls and plastic furniture but it did have a garage and a car and was well loved.  I can remember making little blankets for the beds and cutting out pictures from magazines to fix to the walls but mostly I just played and played.

Some years ago  I went to see Queen Mary's dolls' house at Windsor castle and was gobsmacked at the details of the house and contents all of which had been made by skilled artisans and artists of the day.  I wanted my own there and then but had to wait a few years before I found out that dolls house - now called miniatures and collectables - were making a come-back.

I bought the house at a fair in Manchester around 15 years ago, decorated it with a variety of William Morris prints, painted walls with B&Q matchpots and added some samples of wallpaper border as cornices. 

Wasn't keen on the plain outside so it is now covered with 'bricks' - actually sprayed fine gauge sandpaper cut into tiny oblongs and glued to the wall individually.  My fingers weren't half sore cutting them all out.

Anyway, enough words, lets have a look at a couple of pictures.

This is the house front, complete with bricks and chimney pots which have a coating of real soot - isn't half hard to get it off your fingers afterwards.

and this is the inside.
This really is another world, in more ways than one, with a full industry in making the furniture, dolls, etc ranging from cheaper imports to craftsman made furniture and 'dolls' and I have a range from both ends of the market, plus a lot of handmade bits and pieces.

My favourite room is the kitchen with cast iron stove, dresser and a proper rag rug in front of the fire.  The housekeeper is wearing a shawl that I knitted (on steel pins - painfully sharp) and the back of the fireplace is tiled with real tiles. 

This is the lady of the house and her dog which has proper fur and a sweet face.  The doll was bought, again at a fair, naked but with her hair all done up so I had to hurry up and dress her to save her modesty.  The dress is silk and a pattern from a dolls house needlework book - I told you it was a big industry. 

The characters in the house are named after my Grandparents, Jo and Annie and as my Gran had  a parrot I just had to get one for my house.  The stand even has pretend (well I hope it's pretend) bird dirt and fallen seed.  It makes me smile every time I open the door.

The final picture - before I bore you all to bits, is of a sampler stitched onto silk gauze I bought as a kit.  It was so small I had to buy a strong magnifying lamp to see what I was doing so all in all an expensive piece of embroidery. 
I hope you have enjoyed a little peep into my private, miniature world.