What To Do With Your Old Miniatures That Don't Have A Home To Go To!

 A visitor to my real life size house the other day spent a few moments lingering in my hall.....inspecting my tiny little Victorian Dolls House that stands on top of my coat peg shelf to see if I had put anything inside. Well other than a tiny wonky metal bed, a 1930s china dresser and a tiny broken tin range, I haven't really. (One day I will get around to furnishing it properly....it is on my very long "to do list"!) However, their eyes soon averted to some new additions standing right next to it....and I wondered how long it would take them to pass a comment! Hahaha....

And for once....this person, who is not a "dolls house collector" and who usually just humours me over my old dolls house obsession, actually passed a complement saying..."what a brilliant idea" and that "they loved them"! Actually, the concept was not really my idea....as it was whilst flicking through the pages of one of those rather lovely posh country furnishing magazines in the dentist waiting room, that I came across a photo of various assorted artifacts rammed into separate frames for decoration. I think they had used keys, old sewing cards, cotton reels etc. But the "seed" was well and truly planted...and  left me wandering what I could do with the concept. 

Hence, this is the result......all my little miniature dolls that I have fallen in love with and kept for various reasons, have finally got a place where they can be viewed easily on a daily basis. Followers of KT Miniatures may remember good old Charlie Chaplin, the unusual Grecon doll. I did reluctantly put him up for sale and then rapidly changed my mind....I simply couldn't part with him. 

He hid in my Pit-a-Pat wardrobe for a few months, in the bedroom of my Hobbies 186 Special....but unless you opened the wardrobe door, he could not be seen. Plus my little bisque dolls, the little wooden 1920s waitress, Victorian Frozen Charlotte Doll, Grandpa Grecon etc. are now all on show in a dust free environment.

Then I had a go at randomly displaying some bits and pieces that I want to keep...for various reasons (sentimental mostly) and placed them in another frame.

I have used modern black frames with approx 1" depth.....so am limited as to what can go in them....but I think they are fun. Actually another "fun" aspect of this concept, is that I can add to the display or change it, as often as I wish.

I have had this old wooden printer's frame on my wall for well over 20 years now and is a fabulous way to display all those tiny bits and pieces that you accumulate but don't know what to do with. This was bought for a few pounds off a local market junk stall. The only downside is that it does get dusty but I have a tried and tested solution.....just stand up close, shut your eyes and blow hard.  Haha....it really does work!!!

 

To be honest,  I have pinched quite a few items from this display many a time for one dolls house or another, so there is very little left on there that is dolls house related. 

  

None of these items are valuable but the majority I have a sentimental attachment to such as my NNEB Nursery Nursing Badge that used to be pinned to my uniform many years ago; the sparkly 1930s brooch was my mum's as a child; the tiny china rabbit was given to me as a child by my maternal grandmother and sat on my dressing table for years as I grew up. And even though it has been broken and glued back together more than once, I love it!

 

My hubby bought me the miniature egg timer for me from a shop in Chelsea.....way back in 1978 when we were still courting! Haha. Then there is my old school badge which we were all given in 1971 to celebrate the school's 50th birthday! (OMG...have just realised that in seven years time, that same school will be celebrating it's 100th anniversary....I suddenly feel rather ancient)!

Then there's my Sindy pendant which I got when I joined the Sindy Club back in the 1960s! Plus the Judy badge which I got when I joined the Judy comic club.....(haha...yes, I was a very sad person even then)!! Am also rather partial to 1930s cake decorations.......and there are one or two on here!

I hope you've found this inspiring...even if only in some small way.....hahaha (excuse the pun)!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend all!

Celia