Old Fashioned Gardens....Big & Not So Big!

My Real Life Size Old Fashioned Garden
Followers of this Journal will know that I love gardening.   I simply haven't been able to spend as much time out there as I would have wished in 2012 though!  Needless to say, it  has rather more of a "rambling" look than ever these days. But you know....yesterday, whilst enjoying a much needed coffee break out in the sunshine I had a few moments and REALLY looked at my garden through different eyes....and realised that if I ignored the weeds, the broken bits off my lovely ancient arbour, blight on my box hedge etc..... suddenly it doesn't actually look too bad out there!

This year I seem to have more Valerian and Acquilegias than ever before! Nature has worked magic and they have seeded all over the place......wonderful. My Choisya in the background is magnificently in bloom and the heady aroma is delightful. At last, my garden has that real old fashioned country garden feel to it and am chuffed.

 

Even my newly created herb garden from last summer is looking rather nice and well established. I have a huge container of pebbles sitting on my front driveway, currently waiting to be carried round to the back for the herb garden pathway. Hmmmm....guess who will be doing that! They have to be carried en route through the garage in order to get them round to the back. Trouble is, the garage is currently jammed pack with junk that will have to go to the skip first.  I think I'll need to eat double or even treble portions of Weetabix to summon up the energy for that little job!

Now A Video Of Our Four Little Vintage Garden Workshops All Together
We've finally got round to creating our latest Nostalgia In Miniature Workshops promotional video.  This time it consists of a compilation of photographs from all four workshop projects in our Little Vintage Garden Workshops Series. We ran with this theme from last June 2011...culminating in an all day  Little Old Garden Shed Workshop at Waterperry Gardens earlier in March this year. Hope you like it!

G&J Lines No 71 Dolls House Circa 1915

First of all....I am chuffed to say that our phone line is back up and working.....hurrah! (Re Thursday's post on here).

Antique G&J Lines No 71 Dolls House

I am delighted to announce that I have a gorgeous  and quite rare G&J Lines No 71 dolls house for sale as from now.

It is a large front opening dolls house with two large rooms, original fireplaces, original wallpaper that was found underneath layers of other wallpaper, original flooring paper (rather faded), stairs, interior doors, all glass glazed and metal framed windows intact including a beautiful attic window.

There is a hall with a staircase up to a landing.

A beautiful attic window with original lace curtains is a real feature of this dolls house. Actually, there is no attic but this has cleverly been created to give the illusion that there is one!

This house appeared in a Gammages advert in 1915 and is well over 90 years old so can be forgiven that it's front door is missing and a tiny balcony above the front door is also missing. It is understood that the door would probably have been metal and maybe the same colour as the window frames.

Original wallpapers were found under layers of other wallpaper. There is some residue of other wallpaper still visible but with lots of patience, this can be removed if necessary. Much can be hidden with carefully placed pictures, furniture etc.  Antique lace curtains hanging at the windows would look fantastic and whoever takes this on can have great fun furnishing.

This wonderful dolls house is now up for sale on KT Miniatures website:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Below is a short video made with still photos of this house.

Enjoy............



Our Phone Line Down - Customers Not Able To Ring!

Just to let you know that our main phone line is down and has been since early this morning. So if you have been trying to ring KT Miniatures, you will have been getting strange noises coming down the line at you! Although those lovely people at BT are aware of the fault and assure us they are onto it....as yet it is still not working ! It looks like this is going to go on for some time. Don't worry....I am still here! However if you wish to contact KT Miniatures at the moment, it will have to be by email at@ info@ktminiatures.com

Grrrrrr............Happy Days!

Celia

c1950s Tri-ang No 62 Dolls House

Just listed today on KT Miniatures website is this lovely little Tri-ang No 62 dolls house. It is in great condition. Has only ever had one owner and has been a much cherished dolls house.  But now the time has come for it to move on and find a new owner.

All the windows are present and correct....even that elusive small single side window to the left of the front door!

How many of us have these No 62's without that tiny window? Personally I think it was a design fault on Tri-ang's part.....as the two tiny tacks were simply not enough to keep the window safely in place!

The interior was re-decorated with 1960s/70s wallpaper, including flooring. It maybe that the original is underneath but even so, you could move straight into this dolls house without the necessity to re-decorate. It is very clean and in such good condition.

A really nice touch is this little vintage car in the garage....the previous owner thought it only right to leave it with the house.

This little house is now up for sale on KT Miniatures. As always I strongly recommend that this is picked up from me in person to avoid any risk of damage in transit. However it would be possible to post (UK only) if necessary.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL INFO

Mrs Sooty Paws!

Oh my goodness....when Molly, my beautiful black and white cat appeared yesterday morning for breakfast, she was decidely a lot blacker than when we'd last seen her!!! We didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Her legs, paws and around her face were black.....where they would normally have been white!

At first we hand't a clue what the black stuff was ....but then on closer inspection realised it was some sort of black dust. A friend suggested that maybe it was soot and that same friend suggested we try and wash her legs/paws.Hmmm...seemed a good idea at the time, apart from which she was leaving sooty paw prints over everthing.

   Soooooo....never having ever washed a cat before, happily and confidently filled the kitchen sink with warm soapy water and between two of us, endeavoured to wash Molly's front legs and paws.  

HA-HA, HA-HA....!!!

Has anyone ever attempted to wash a fully grown cat before...even just paws and legs?

To say it isn't easy is an understatement and obviously Molly was having none of it!! Even though she was wrapped in a towel (apart from front legs) with husband firmly holding her and I was gently splashing water over her front legs/paws she snarled, scratched, wriggled, you name it-she did it.....and got herself free in seconds!! 

So....she is destined to be Mrs Sooty Paws for a while.

However, since yesterday, she has slowly attempted to clean herself and her face is almost white again (where it should be white). So too most of her legs.....it's just her paws now she needs to attend to.

Cat's eh...........

What I want to know is....where and how did she get herself so sooty!!! Maybe it's best that we don't know.