Off Sick (Please read with a sense of humour!)

I have been blighted again during last night and today with more stomach cramps (etc.)  To add insult to injury, last night whilst biting into a digestive biscuit, (one of the very few things I'd eaten all day, due to being ill) a large filling came out!

In the early hours of this morning whilst clutching my hot water bottle to my tummy, I decided that due to having to pay for a dentist to fix my tooth, I'd have to go to work with or without stomach cramps as I couldn't afford to not get paid.

However, at about six thirty, a rapid trip to the bathroom was the first of many and the decision was taken out of my hands!

Every cloud has a silver lining...

...I haven't been able to leave the house today, but between trips to the loo (ok, I'll stop going on about it now!) I have sat with pencil and paper and started to design my kitchen.  I have measured the room and drawn a birds-eye view of it to scale, putting in the details of where the window and doors are and trying to fit in cabinets so that they look asthetically pleasing when the house is opened, but which also look realistic.

I think I'm going to go for a classic looking modern kitchen with cream shaker-style units, a wooden work top and wooden floor.

Originally I was going to have the wall between the kitchen and the dining room opened up to make it open plan, however this limits the wall space I have so I've decided against the original idea.  This will also give me wall space in the dining room to add a casual sofa that I've seen on Ebay.

I've also been surfing the internet this afternoon looking at other peoples blogs (some of them are absolutely amazing!)  I can't believe how realistic these things are!  One web site that I will be using is http://www.jennifersprintables.com/ where you can download and print off wallpapers and grocery wrappers etc.  She also has links to some great tips on making your own items.

Well this evening, being Monday, I would normally be helping Mario rehearse for this week's salsa lessons, however tonight I will be watching him and hopefully getting the ladies steps correct from the sofa.  If not, I could be looking a bit daft tomorrow evening.  Let's hope the tum is better by then or Passion de Salsa will be without it's glamorous assitant!!!

Bathroom Bliss!

Well just because I couldn't work on the bathroom yesterday doesn't mean that this weekend's mission was in vain.  Oh no!  Mario went out for the day and so that meant that I had several hours peace and quiet to work on the bathroom.

I went to work with balsa wood and PVA.

I decided to paint the balsa wood and use mosaic tiles from Hobbycraft for the areas that I wanted tiled (around the bath and the walk in shower).

Much patience, measuring, glueing and 422 tiles later, I had a bathroom mini-person would be proud of.

The door handles are beads from Hobbycraft

The shower is a kit from Elf Miniatures as are the sink and toilet.

The mirror is a craft pack of four for less than two pounds!

There is also a spot light in the hidden ceiling above the bath, one above the mirror and there will be one in the shower area too.

Wash Day Blues

Well last night I managed to put together all my balsa wood and build the bathroom in.  Unfortnately today I have been blighted by two things; firstly I have had the most appauling stomach ache and secondly, the tiles I was going to use for the bathroom wall and floor look wrong.

I had found some lino floor tiles in Homebase and thought if I cut them up small enough, they would be perfect for my bathroom, but they just look wrong.  Maybe they're too shiny and make the scale look out, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I'm now on a mission to come up with something that will work.  Nothing less than perfect will do for Mini Jo Jo!

The Next Room Is Going To Be... ...The Bathroom!

So I've decided that the next room I will work on will be the bathroom.  I've ordered a small corner bath, a walk in shower, a toilet and a sink from Elf Miniatures and am busy planning.

I plan to build in the corner bath and give it a tile surround and a lowered ceiling above the bath with spot lights inside.  Then I will build a false wall so that the cistern for the toilet will be inside the false wall and the sink can also be built into the wall.

I saw many beautiful bathrooms on the Elf Miniatures website (http://www.elfminiatures.co.uk/) and decided that I wanted one that looks that realistic.  Now, I could spend lots of money on furniture, but I've decided that even if it looks good, I won't be as proud of it as I am my hallway.  (I look inside several times a day and giggle at myself, that I panelled it all by myself!)  If I can make my own fitted bathroom, I will not only have far more pride in my efforts and hard work, I will have saved a good few pounds too.

If I can build a bathroom, surely I can build a kitchen too?!

Making A Grand Entrance (pt 3)

Well there was six or seven more hours well spent (although I didn't bake a single cake this weekend!)

Almost there... just flooring, skirting and picture rails to go...

All done!  And I'm so pleased with it, I just look at it and smile to myself that I managed to create that!

Which room to work on next?  Will it be the bathroom or the kitchen?  Hmmm...

Making A Grand Entrance (pt 2)

Well so much for waiting until the weekend!  Last night I just thought I'd do a couple of odd two minute jobs on the dolls house and three hours later, I'd stained the stairs and panelled wall!

Here's the before photo...

and here's the mid way photo (panelling done and stained, but wallpaper, flooring, picture rails and skirting still to be done)

Hopefully, my wallpaper and carpets should arrive today (and the tiny hinges for the cupboard under the stairs door) and I can complete the hall and landing this weekend.

Making A Grand Entrance

Having almost completed the front exterior, I have decided that I need a change of scenery and my next mission is to complete the hall and landing.

My Mountfield is going to be a 1930s built house, but based in the modern day.  The occupants are going to be those lucky people that get to live in a great house with all the mod cons, but with a lot of the original features still remaining.

So, the hall way will have panelling on the wall under the stairs and picture rails just like it would have done originally, but the under stairs cupboard will have been converted to a downstairs loo (just like in my Auntie Mary's house!)

To this end, I carefully cut a door way out of the wall last night and then started to panel the door and wall with little bits of timber.  The trouble was that the dampness of the glue on such a relatively thin piece of MDF, started to make it warp.  Disaster was averted by a heavy dictionary being placed on them whilst they dried and that's why there's no picture as yet!

This weekend I hope to be able to stain them in an oak colour to match the internal doors.