CAUGHT IN THE ACT !

 

 "Bruno make sure you shut the door properly !" Granny shouts as she hurries away.

Grumbling Bruno goes back up the steps and pushes on the door ,several times, to make sure it's fully shut.

As usual he'll have to pull the trolley back to the house and then unload everything and then put it some where safe so Granny can take photos!

 He is so busy grumbling to himself, that it takes a moment for him to realise he is no longer alone !

" Hello Bruno "

" Hello Mrs Mum "

"That's some nice pieces of Emma Bridgewater pottery you have there"

" Is It? " Bruno mumbles " I wouldn't know. It's what Granny picked out "

" Granny? Of course why am I not surprised Granny's involved!"

" Yes Granny said Steve or it could have been John " Bruno pauses " said she could sell some on ebay "

"Really? "

"That's what Granny said ! John or maybe Steve? or someone at Gregoropolis anyway ,said something about ebay, your pots and selling "

" Mmm so just where is Granny? "

" Oh she's gone to find one of the Sasha's or Gregors to take photos and help her list them on ebay !" finishes Bruno smiling.

" Well Bruno " smiles Mrs Mum knowing Bruno as no idea that he's just dropped Granny, never mind John or is it Steve right in it! " Well Bruno, help me put the pots back as I think Granny may be a little confused about just what was said and by whom and who can and who cannot sell these pots "

Bruno willingly helps put everything back and It's only as he's heading to the house that he starts to wonder if somethings up.....

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EMMA B

 a collection or obsession? Today I cleared out the welsh dresser, so it could be moved. In order to do so I had to put the Emma Bridgewater pottery into the studio.

So first up were all the Chritsmas plates and dishes.

I had cleared a good area for it all to fit onto.

More Christmas plates plus others

 More Christmas based bowls etc

I do collect EB 8 inch Mince Pie plates that come out yearly, I don't get every years just the ones I like.

 Being a lover of all things miniature I also have a fair few of the small mugs and jugs and teacups plus the orginial small candle sets.

I also love the shape of jugs , so have bought a jug or a mug in a pattern I have liked.

Most of these are still Christmas pottery used mainly up to and over Christmas and New Year.

I have also asked for EB mugs or Jugs for Christmas presents over the years.

 May need to start stacking a few items!

Good more space

more mugs and jugs..

I'm pleased to say that very few of my EB pottery as been broken over the years, although Rufus's tail did break a mug by knocking it onto the newly uncarpeted floor boards last week ! But this mug, which is one of my early ones and a favourite, handle brock off a good few years back now but I could not bare to part with it, so it now has a new use as a pen holder !

A few other pieces of china from the dresser have been added, my collection of old china Jam/ preserve pots etc.

 So that's most of my Emma Bridgewater pottery.. well apart from..

The bowls we use daily and the spare mugs we alternate

 with these mugs which we use daily ....

There are a few items not shown, those in use bowls and mugs, a children's china tea set ...

So collection or obsession? I think collection because I don't have every pattern ever made since I fell in love with Emma's pottery ,when it first appeared way back when ,and from that point maybe not even a proper collection? 

Mmm maybe I need ... more.........

NB No pottery was harmed in the making of this post... but a bank balance could be..... !!!

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ANOTHER SUNDAY! SO SOON!

 This week, just gone, was a very good week on the decorating front. The living room was finished in four days! 

Since Paul only needed, she says like it's nothing, to repaint the ceiling, the wood work and then the plain walls and since the wallpapered walls were fine and we didn't want to change them, it all happened quite quickly. He even went off and did some dog training with Rufus on the Wednesday and was still finished on Thursday afternoon!

So for now we have laid the new big rug and have to again wait for the flooring to be laid before we can finish completely. It's not worth bringing any more than we need, back into the room as we'll only have to take it all out again in a few weeks time. I still need to do the soft furnishings but again I'm not doing anything until we are finished to save having to again store them until the rooms are completed. However we will hang the pictures and replace the light shades.

I've added this photo so you can see on the left the orginial paint which was I think F&B's Dimity and the new paint on the right which is Matchstick. Just a slightly deeper richer cream.

I still do not have a laptop! Yes I did say after a long anixous time I finally ordered one, only for it not to arrive from a famous company,that begins with and A and ends with an N, they sent an email to say it would be late, then a couple of days later to say it was not coming and the order was cancelled! After contacting them they said it had been damaged on route and I could not be refunded until it was back with them !! Well I had a wedchat fight with them and got my refund , to be told it would take up to seven days to return to my account!!!! I told them I'd be buying my laptop elsewhere! 

So now I'm trying to find another one ! But have decided to get a different model as I believe that Fate worked to say no not that one!  Of course that means again looking at all the tech !

We have also finally been given a date that the flooring/carpet will be going down, they have allowed themselves four days at the end of November to get the job done. Which means all being well , we will be done by the beginning of December and sit back and enjoy the space and get ready for Christmas. This year we will actually have space for the Christmas tree in the living room!

So since Paul finished the living room Thursday, it meant we had a long weekend of no decorating. Mind you we did still put up a few of the pictures and spend time deciding on some new light fitting.

 I'm debaiting whether to use the pimpernel wallpaper on the back of the oak bureau as the colours are a good match or whether to wait and see what the Seaweed, a more colourful paper, would look like. Decisions decisions ! 

 

We have spent today in the garden, sorting out the greenhouse , Paul, while I have been weeding the front garden. The Cosmos and Dahlia's are still flowering well , so I cut a few to bring inside to enjoy.

We also visited the garden centre to get some bird food in , to start feeding them through the winter months. Whoever wrote the song feed the birds tuppence a bag would be hard pressed to write in the cost these days! I would say feeding the birds these days is big business! 

On the doll front, I was speaking ( messenger )to a good friend about the Schoenhut dolls and she was showing me the work she'd done on a few chips on her dolls. I was gleaming lots of useful information for when I finally get round to doing some work on a couple of mine, when I sent her a photo of Lillie, my most scarred girl.

I said if she wanted to have a go at repairing poor Lillie's's face I'd be more than happy to send her to visit. Well, wonderful woman that she is said yes! She'd be happy to work on Lillie ! So on Friday Lillie set off on her journey , wearing her over sized wig, the new one's not yet arrived, and her cropped trousers, she's still dressed for summer in a light jacket! 

I will have to find her a nice warm outfit for when she returns in a few weeks , if I can still get into my studio! Since Paul will start on the sitting/breakfast/kitchen room next , I need to remove all the china from my dresser and where is the only place it can be stored? Yes you have guessed it, the studio! So tomorrow, I'll be clearing a large space on the worktop to take all my EB china etc , which will then have to stay in there until the floor's laid at the end of November ! 

It's lucky I told the elctrician that the electric to the studio could wait a while ! I'd hate to think of him trying to wire in the lights and some power points while all my china and books were cluttering up the place!

I also received this little sweetheart on Friday. She is the smallest sized Zwergnase doll at 35cm and called Idje. She will be the last unless I fall for a handsome boy doll but that will be hard as they have yet to use a face sculpt I love.

I took a photo of her beside Kirsten , who stands at 55cm, my last Zwergnase girl, who I adore. I'm loving the pinks and greens combo that are in at the moment , not just in clothing but also in decor.

I did succome to Petrana's shoe sale and buy some boots and a pair of shoes, the boots were meant to be mainly for the boys but I seem to have gone for more girly colours, Although Valentine would not have an issue wearing any of the colours above, Toby would be straight onto childline, demanding they give me a sound telling off! I also want to use the boots on my other dolls that they would fit, so Toby may not even get a look in!

I will hopefully return during the week and again at the weekend, computer or laptop permitting!

Well on that note I will just say I hope you all have a healthy happy doll filled week ahead. 

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A HANDSOME TRIO

 

Sorting through the photo's I came across this one of Erik, Ragnor and Robin my three 68 NP eyed lads and thought I'd share it again.

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MOVING ON TO THE NEXT ROOM

 So today we spent clearing the living room and getting ready for Paul to start decorating that room.

So once almost everything was cleared out, Paul washed down all the walls and the ceiling with sugar soap.

The alcoves and chimney wall are papered in Morris & Co Thistle. Which we will be leaving up, it's as good as new, so no reason to change it. We will be refreshing the plain walls with Farrow and Ball's Matchstick colour.

Once Paul took a break , his boys were there to make sure he rested!! 

Meanwhile we also retrieved the Bureau from the workshop and placed it under the gazebo, so I could have a look at what needs doing.

I was pleased to discover that the back panel as been screwed on. So that will make it easier to paper because it can be removed and papered in one go raher than sections. However now I have rolls of Morris and Co wallpaper in the house, I'm thinking to maybe use one of those for the backboard.

 It's been repaired in places and not well ! This Paul believes could be where they glued it and then cramped it together but did not bother to clean off the excess glue which has turned red over time.

There are a few other repairs.So I will rub it all down with wirewool and then give it a good wax once I have made good all the poor repairs under Paul's expert guidance. If I decide to use the Morris & Co Seaweed paper, I'll have to wait to see if there is enough left once Paul finishes papering the sitting area.

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SUNDAY SUNDAY

  Well that was a busy week ! lots of comings and goings ! But even better the hallway and stairs have been decorated ! So now it's just a case of waiting for the flooring to go down, which won't be for a while yet but we are one down and two to go!

The best part is it will be completely finished once the flooring's down , we are hanging the pictures so it will be just waiting..  So after having the weekend off, we'll be moving on into the living room to refresh the paintwork etc. Mind you seeing how nice the wallpaper in the hallway is , we were tempted to maybe change the wallpaper over the chimney wall but I still love that wallpaper, it's still in great condition and we've bought the paint to suit it.

However, never say never because there is always the chance we could suddenly decide to strip those walls and re paper them.... only the next couple of weeks will tell!

We have finally booked an electrian to do all the small electical jobs around the house, so that will start moving forward and means, we won't get stuck waiting for the electric job in the wall in the sitting area to get done and slow us up on the decorating of that area, hopefully !

 

 We have now started to hang the pictures back up in the hallway, so that will make space as they are no longer standing around.

 and we have a lot of pictures!

We have finally ordered a laptop ! What stress! there are just so many out there , that do all sorts of things and have all sorts of figures that it's a nightmare for someone who just wants something that will do what this computer's been able to do! Someone out there, in the world of tech, needs to start adding extra notes for people like myself. That says after all the jargon , it will have great picture quality, a proper keboard, good storage, etc , even if you read the reviews they can be techo gobbled d gook !

But it's now done ! So we can start clearing out Paul's old work desk etc once it's arrived and it's up and running. And I can finally bring in my arts and crafts bureau.

 Yesterday would have been the Chat n Snap, which sadly was cancelled this year due to the covid virus , however it will make next years one all the more special, once we can all meet up again and chat about what we have been doing personally and also dollwise and again snap a photo or an item of or for our dolls. Lets hope next year we will all be able to go about our lives without any thing but normal worries.

On the doll front I have had a good week, selling a couple more after my p/t exchange deal, so there are now actually less dolls here, who knows how long that will last but I did notice space on one of the doll shelves... a first !

However on the doll shoe front, thanks to Petrana, it's been colour colour colour!  Did you all see the wonderful different colours and styles of shoes she's now got available? No ? then go look at facebook to see them all together in their different styles, such beautiful collections in their own right.

But Petrana did give me permission to use a couple of her photos here today, so look at those colours people......

 Look at those colours !

 Such gorgeous colours.

 So far on my larger bjd dolls, I've looked in one box and removed my Maskcat doll from the other and she's been just sitting on the dresser, waiting for me to try some different wigs and clothes on her !

Instead I've been paying some attention to my Schoenhut dolls , especially poor Gloria. Who now sports, along with her new shoes, a new red jacket from Ginny and a hat that I had sitting around.

She even got taken outside for a little photo shoot!  So at least she's now happy and warm for the winter. I have also organised a new dress for Gudrun, the old Kathe Kruse doll, and bought some tights for her as well, so in a few weeks she'll be nice and snug for the winter.

 

Well I have spent most of today with lindsey and Paul while we decided what picture should go where! When you look at the following photos you will now understand why I had Paul board the downstairs walls. You see the problem with being an art lover while also being a person who get walls knocked down is you will invariably land up with more pictures than you have walls to put them!

 

 

 However by boarding the doors they came become part of the wall and therefore become available picture hanging space!

We have used these new command strips for picture hanging on the doors but also the normal hanging picture hooks especially on the larger pictures. Time will tell if they are as good as they say! and for the sake of my watercolour collection, that I have acquired on various holidays over the last forty years, I hope they are! 

So I will wish you all a happy healthy doll filled week ahead and hopefully be back new week, new laptop permitting!

Dee

THE HALL AND STAIRS UPDATE.

 Well Paul's been working almost everday on the stairs and hallway, trying to get it finished.

We have run the wallaper above the picture rail and below ceiling.

I think it works well with the Farrows cream paint.

The walls are very high and even with this ladder, it's a struggle to reach the very top, while holding a long heavy piece of pasted wallpaper.

Paul's been spending a few hours each day wallpapering. It's hard work with having to change the ladder position and having to try and reach across to highest points. Plus anyone whose done decorating and needed to constantly go up and down a ladder will know it's hard on the feet.

The wallpaper is up!!!!! and we are very happy with how it all looks.

another view

Looking down.

The wallpaper has really warmed the area up.

x

So apart from a couple of touch up's on the paintwork, it's all finished!!!!!! well the decorating side is. However we will need to wait another four or five weeks before the flooring and carpet can be laid !

Now it's a weekend free of decorating, then it's into the living room to freshen that up!

 

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