A Very Generous Donation!

Fresh back from my eldest son's wedding in Liverpool on Saturday, even though I'm still on cloud nine as it was a truly beautiful and magical day, am slowly beginning to catch up. I have to say that it's been a rather long time since I 've ever partied until nearly 2.00am in the morning and will probably be rather a long time until I'll ever do again but hey.....it was fun!!!

This gorgeous "mother of the groom" bouquet sat on my lap all the way back from Liverpool as our car was so jam packed with luggage (and people) there was nowhere else it could go...... good job I don't suffer from hay fever!lol

Ok...now to something else rather lovely. Followers of KT Miniatures Journal will be aware that every year I help co-ordinate fundraising for the Breast Cancer Campaign charity at the annual Thame Dolls House & Miniatures Fair which is held every February. Well apparently.....after reading about our charity auction winner in the latest issue of Dolls House & Miniatures Scene Magazine, miniature artist Ryan Terry of Petite-art got in touch as he felt compelled to generously donate  a painting to the next charity raffle to be held at Thame Fair 2013!!!  

Monet's Bar At The Folies Bergere Painted By Ryan Terry Of Petite Art - to be a prize at the 2013 Thame Fair Breast Cancer Campaign Grand Raffle

Sadly Terry has lost both his parents to cancer and consequently wishes to help raise money for a cancer charity through his paintings. So huge thanks to Terry for this donation. It will be put away safely until February 23rd 2013 which is when the next Thame Fair will take place.

Castle Drogo which will now be residing in my 1930s Hobbies House

Recently he has been painting several Devon landmarks and guess which landmark he has only just recently completed......yep, Castle Drogo! If you read the posting before this one on here, you will see the significance. So now thanks to Terry, I have my very own miniature painting of Castle Drogo which is destined for one of the rooms in my 1930s Hobbies House. Sometimes things are just meant to be, don't you think?

In fact Terry tells me that he currently also has a painting up for grabs on Ebay to help fundraise for Breast Cancer Campaign. So please do click on the following link and place a generous bid if you can - it's for a worthy cause
 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261045440440?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

The raffle page for the Thame Fair 2013 charity raffle will go live on KT Miniatures website late autumn but if meanwhile you wish to view more of Terry's work, please click on the following link: http://petiteart.yolasite.com/

Some Little Houses Of A Different Kind At Castle Drogo!

 On our quest to get out of the continual heavy rain on our travels around Devon last week, we came across a little treasure of a place called Castle Drogo.  I understand that it was the very last castle ever to be built in England (early first half of the 20th century) and some place it is too.

The architect was the famous Edwin Lutyens, known for all kinds of buildings including Queen Mary's Dolls House. I did take photos of the exterior of the castle in the rain but sadly none came out brilliantly - so won't bore you with them. Similarly my attempt to take photos of two dolls houses inside Castle Drogo were not much better but I will show you the best of the bunch and have added links further down on here, so that you can view proper official National Trust photos too. Visitors were not allowed to take flash photography inside Castle Drogo so I had to make do with taking photos in natural light along with the aid of a bit of computer magic!

I didn't catch the significance of this little treasure but the front was open and one could view inside so a little easier to photograph.  There were snippets of information about how one goes about restoration of an old dolls house...very interesting! I found the antique fixtures and fittings plus the style of decor fascinating too.

 Mary Drewe's Dolls House

A bedroom at the front of the house.

However, the massive dolls house found at the end of the Service Corridor was simply stunning. It was made for Mary Drewe, the eldest of the two daughters of the owner of Castle Drogo and was built by the estate's carpenter in 1906. It even had running water! However the little house frontage was closed so one had to be content with peeking through the front windows. My attempt at photography through the glass windows were not great but will show you anyway.

A brief peek at the dining room.

I think this is the dining room.....you can't see much as the light was reflecting on the glass....so I have included a second photo of the same room below.....not sure it is much better, sorry.

After a bit of Googling I found this wonderful link so that you can see some brilliant official photos of Mary Drewe's dolls house. Do go take a look, it's magnificent!

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/903091

Plus if you click on the official Castle Drogo website, there is a photo of the interior of this dolls house within the slide show.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/castle-drogo/

Bunty House

Last but not least, tucked away in the magnificent and vast gardens on the Castle Drogo estate is the most exquisite little Wendy house I think I have ever seen. This was made for Frances Drew, sister of Mary. Just look at the garden too......isn't it magical?

If you are ever in south Devon I can highly recommend a vist to Castle Drago....you will love it!

The Book Of Tri-ang Dolls' Houses 1919-1971 By Marion Osborne

 Marion Osborne's much anticipated brand new
THE BOOK OF TRI-ANG DOLLS' HOUSES 1919 -1971......
is now available.

This new definitive Tri-ang book replaces Marion's original Tri-ang book which is out of print.  It comes as a comb bound book, crammed from cover to cover with information including pictures of all 131 dolls house designs made by Tri-ang, which undoubtedly will prove invaluable for many years to come as a source of reference. Also accompanying the book is a computer disk containing over 5,800 photos....useful as an aid in identification and restoration. Marion has long been renowned as a leading light in the vintage dolls house world for her incredible knowledge and passion on old dolls houses and this latest book does not fail to disappoint.

As the title suggests, this book is about the Tri-ang dolls houses only. I understand that Marion has other books in the pipeline tackling G&J Lines and Tri-ang furniture separately under their own individual titles, having amassed a huge amount of information over the years. 

I can highly recommend this as a "must have" for any serious vintage dolls house collector as there is truly nothing else like it on the market anywhere. Already my own copy is well thumbed and have only had it for a couple of days!!! At the moment, you can only obtain your copy from Marion direct. Her contact details are as follows:
Marion Osborne. 29 Attenborough Lane, Chilwell, Nottingham, NG9 5JP. 
Email address is mike.osborne@ntlworld.com

Information about Marion's other books plus other reference books on vintage dolls houses can be found on KT Miniatures Recommended Reading Page For Antique & Vintage Dolls Houses.
http://www.ktminiatures.com/Recommended.html

Bit Of A Knees Up Here In The UK These Next Few Days!

Anyone who is based in the UK at the moment, will not be able to go anywhere without seeing Union Jack flags and bunting flapping around.  For those of you who live outside of the UK and may not know,  for the next few days over here we are having a good old knees up on a massive scale! It's our Queen's Diamond Jubilee (she has been 60 years on the throne) and it seems the whole country is going to be partying!! 

In Oxford town centre the other day......

So......for the duration of the bank holiday weekend and into next week, KT Miniatures is kind of closed for a few days until the partying is over! I will try and answer enquiries when I can.

Was driving through the village of Waterperry in Oxfordshire this afternoon and spotted this wonderful quintessential  British scene.....just had to take a photo!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Diamond Jubilee time!

Celia

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!