Thanks to Anne.

One facebook friend put a side on her page.
This is a wonderful side for all who likes to knit, embroider, crochet.

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/catalog.htm

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, productive and Happy New Year !!!

Pakjesavond.

As promised. The gifts for our family by Sinterklaas.

My daughter draw a lot with my name. Because I like to do projects 1:12 she gave me a lot of little wrapped in Sinterklaas paper presents. Wood and paper inside the paper.

My sons girlfriend bought me a little birdhouse. She didn't know I had a birdhouse for my son also.

I draw my son. They're looking for an apartment but that's hard to find in 's-Hertogenbosch. So my surprise was.....a birdhouse. It was to small for my self made items. I put them in the shoe box.

A little kitchen with view. St. Jan's cathedral.

I used a pushpin for the top of the coke bottle.

Fimo clay for the coke and cap.

I used the microwave for the Fimo. 1000 Watt for 2 seconds. You put your bottle in a microwave dish filled with water. Then you put it in the microwave.

Bottle is not perfect but for this project good enough.

For the jar I normally use spar. But this was from a broken pencil. That was made of cork. As cover a thumbtack. Just paint and you're ready.

The dishes I also made of Fimo as well as the food. This is the first time a made food with Fimo clay.  I used the blog of :

http://joannesminis.blogspot.nl/

Her video explanation tells exactly what to do. The sink is a painted cap. The tap is painted plastic wire with little pearls on both side. Counter is also Fimo clay.

So far Sinterklaasavond and the self made presents. 

I like to try this. But first I need permission from my husband. When I make a mistake he's the first one in line to solve the problem. And yes...I do create all kind of problems with my little projects. I'm an impulsive person. So that brings me in situations I could avoid. Have a nice weekend to you all.

Elga got a very nice present. A great book. She refers to the book on her blog. This is  a wonderful book about furniture. Just click here.

Would you like to create wonderful furniture please refer to this book. I'm completely astonished about this website. 

Jewelry Armoire Box.

I'm still on a search. Thanks to Elga. I could search on a much better way. She told me the name Jewelry Armoire Box.

Then I realized that the legs also tells you from which age the furniture can be.
The legs are made in Queen Anne style.

A Queen Anne style furniture is a style of furniture design that developed during and around the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (1702-1714).The cabriole leg has been described as "the most recognizable element" of Queen Anne furniture.^[4] Cabriole legs were influenced by the designs of the French cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle^[5] and the Rococo style from the French court of Louis XV.
Source: Wikipedia.

So I'm the proud owner of "a piece of antiques" for my dollhouse.... ;-)

But I still believe that the people that lived during the Victorian age used the antiques in the right way. 
Not the way I do. Using an antique covered dish for a flower arrangement or a closet that was used in the bedroom and now used as a cupboard. 

Thanks to my, still in the box, dollhouse I've become an new interpretation of my life. When someone told me, a few years ago,  to take a dollhouse as a hobby I would have laughed. But now I think, talk dollhouse, have friends and l love this hobby.

Even my husband is enthusiastic. He bought me the cupboard because he couldn't make that himself he said. So I showed him the blog of Elga. My husband is very handy. He's making all kind of things in our own house but thinking small was his problem. After visiting the blog he realized he could do that also.

When he has finished our staircase I think he will start with the dollhouse also.

Jewelry box?

A lot of drawers. That's for socks and underwear. 

A mirror on top ?  Okay you put your jewelry on top and when you put the mirror in the right angel you can find your jewelry.

I also got a nice present from my son and daughter. But I couldn't show it yet. I didn't know what it was.
My first thought was something for jewels but my husband brought me into confusion.
Such a big case for jewelry wasn't possible according my husband. Okay.... I have a smaller jewelry box so I went surfing on the internet.

I couldn't find a case or cupboard that was similar. The children just bought me a nice present but didn't ask what it was. So I was wondering during the evening what it could be.

This morning I took a picture and mailed the picture to the store with my question. This afternoon I got my answer. It was an English jewelry box. Only from which era she didn't know.

So I went surfing again and I came across a similar jewelry box. Unfortunately the age was not mentioned. But I saw that there were pocket watches hanging in the side door.

I'm glad to know where it was used for. It would be a bit embarrassing when I put it in my doll house filled up
with underwear and socks. Yes I know that we use antiques nowadays for other purpose but not in my dollhouse.

Sinterklaas

I was just explaining to Natalia who Sinterklaas is. But while I was writing it down I realized that it's a strange story.

It's a man on a horse that rides on the roofs of our houses during the night. He has a lot of helpers called Zwarte Piet (black Peter). On the 5th of December he and his helpers are traveling around the Netherlands and drop presents down the chimney. When you don't have a fireplace they came through the heating system and sometimes through the door.
They come into the house. The children put a shoe nearby the fireplace (nowadays by the door) with a carrot, bread for the horse....and sometimes water and drawings for Sinterklaas also.

When I was younger we always ate hotchpot with carrots during the time that Sinterklaas was in our country.

Sinterklaas was a Saint who lived in Turkey.
While I'm reading my story I think everybody that doesn't know who that guy is declares me nuts.
Today Sinterklaas lives in Spain and he's coming to the Netherlands by boat. This Saint was a real person who lived in Turkey in a place called Myra around the year 300. He was a very generous person that shared his belongings with the poor people. He died on the 6th of December so that's the day the children find their presents in or nearby their shoe.


When you go to Sinterklaas You tube you can see how we Dutch people celebrate this party....so I'm not crazy but when I wrote this down I really thought people will think I'm crazy.




Sinterklaas You tube

Almost back.

The last week of our stay in Portugal I got a thick sore throat. We went to see a GP. He advised me to take antibiotics. We went back home and the antibiotics didn't work out the way they should so I went to my own GP in the Netherlands. She prescribed me another antibiotics and she sent me to the hospital for blood samples and photos. At the end of the week she rushed me to the oral surgeon. There I became a drain in my throat.
The next week the drain was removed. But a week later I was back in hospital again. I couldn't eat my tongue and ears were very painful. So another drain was placed and another antibiotics was prescribed.
A few days later the drain was removed again and I told the surgeon that I didn't like another placed again. I would be operated the 29 of November but the surgeon thought it was better to move the date forward to the 8th of November.
So on the 8th of November one of the salivary glands was removed. Now my throat is almost cured.

I'm back in making miniatures again at last. But I can't show them right now because they're for the 5th of December.
In the Netherlands we have Sinterklaas instead of Santa Claus. The children get presents and when they're getting older we also pull papers with a name of a family member written on it. We buy a special present for the person whose name is on your paper and make something that goes with the present. We also write a little poem to go with the present and its surprise. So I can show you my surprise after the 5th of December because my children can read my blog also.

But I can show you my present. I'm very happy with this cupboard. I got this present from my husband because it's my birthday today. 
The dollhouse is out of the box but I only made the steps of the stair and Frans made a parquet floor.
We hope to work on the doll house very soon.
At the moment we're making things for Sinterklaas and then Christmas is coming up. 
After 7 weeks going in and out the hospital we have a lot of outstanding things to do. 

Back from Portugal.

After a nice time in Portugal I'm glad to be home again. We visited two Palaces. I like to share them with you all. Maybe you can use some parts for your dollhouse.

The first one we visited was The National Palace of Sintra.
It was built in 1147. The current form is the result of successive building programmes carried out by several monarchs. (1261-1325) (1357-1433) (1469-1521)

This is the entrance of the Palace. The outside doesn't tell what it's hiding inside.

The interior has collections of furniture, painting, ceramics and textiles that date from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, most of which  were formerly part of the royal family's collection.

You enter the Swans Room.

The ceiling is covered with Swans.

This room had a wonderful floor. The length of the slipper is 25 cm.

King Sebastiao's Room

In the Arab Room the used early sixteenth-century tiles. They mixed styles.

The Coat-of-Arms Room. The wall covered with Azulejos. This are typical Portuguese tiles that were painted by hand.

The ceiling.

The chapel.

And some pictures from the 600 years old kitchen.

Reading the guide I saw a side for a virtual tour through the Palace. 

http://www.ipmuseus.pt/pt-PT/museus_palacios/visitas_virtuais/ContentDetail.aspx

The next Palace we visited was The Palacio de Queluz.

Established in 1654. Around 1760 they used a French architect. Almost everything burned down in a fire in 1934. It's rebuild.

The rooms are decorated with gilded carving and canvases. The taste in Portugal during the second half of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century was moving from the rococo to the neo-classical.

The Throne Room.

The main altar in the Chapel.

Toilet room with toilet seats.

We had a nice time at Estoril from where we visited these nice Palaces.

I'm still in paper pottery .....

It's still not perfect but it's allowed to stay in the doll house when that's ready. The bowl is perfect but the jug needs some improvement. 

The copy gel and the copy of the roses are beneath a sheet of wet kitchen paper.

How to work with copy gel you can read in an older post. Now I glued the copy gel to the paper jug and bowl with that same copy gel. When it's dried well, I put nail polish on the jug and bowl.

As you can see the bowl is perfect. To avoid seeing the ugly bottom of the jug, I glued the jug into the bowl so it's hidden.

On these small items you see every mistake you make and when you make a picture with your nose almost in the bowl you even get more critical.

Because of the nice weather in the Netherlands I did try to make a copper kettle from paper also. I think I should practice more with the paper.

I glued two of these bowls together with wood glue. I made two smaller rolls of paper. One for the lid and one for the spout.

I didn't use the met 54 but the Hembrol met 12.

From paper I cut two small pieces to fix the handle of the kettle. On top of the lid I put a small bead. The color of the bead doesn't matter because you'll paint the whole kettle copper.

For the handle I used copper binding wire that's used by florists. And a bead. this bead I painted white.

Here you can see my weakness. The handle is a bit longer on the right side. The spout needs some work also. So to be continued. It so much fun to make these little things. You don't need much material and working space. Only lots of sanding paper and PATIENCE.

Enjoy your week and play with paper !!!