Tuesday 29 May 2018

MOVING IN , SLOWLY....

Well we here in the village are slowly moving into the new studio. Of course while this happens things are being rediscovered !

Granny Fortuna was seen dancing a jig! but when spotted immediately stopped and grabbed her back as if in pain before hurrying off in search of Bruno and a cart? She's not been seen since. This was while I had the old studio open and was looking at what to move first !

It would appear I have things in many sizes ! So carrying a few items down to the new studio and trying to place them I realised that the top shelf which I really wanted to keep for a few room setting would soon be covered in props!

So this set me to thinking and rearranging ,in my mind, and then a trip indoors and onto the internet to order a shelving unit with glass doors, to go beside the writing bureau in the left hand corner which will hopefully take a good selection of the props and which I can also use for some of the dolls maybe.
Having the door in glass will allow me to find things much easier and also see what I've got.


I moved the two piece that Paul made me based on the American Girl ones. onto the large room setting but I think they may take up too much space, so may land up being used just as backdrops, well the fireplace one.
The window seat would make a good display for a doll or two. I just need to find where I stored it's seat cushion.


This girl is a Dollstown Bjd doll, I bought from a friend recently. I have called her Phoebe and she's getting used to things.


I used Phoebe in the photos as I wanted one for a group I'm on and I wanted to see what she'd look like against these.


A closer look at Phoebe's face.


So if these are a little too big for the space, it means they need a space where they can shine! While waiting to be used......


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Sunday 27 May 2018

A DREAM FULFILLED


Well it's taken a while and with a slight detour but finally the dream has been fulfilled. Thanks to a lot of hard work by Paul with help from Roy in the building of the Studio, it's now ready to be occupied.

There are still a few little things to do, like get electric into the building but we can now move in!


After Paul ,with help from Roy, last weekend getting the roof on , so was then waterproof. Paul's spent most nights this last week getting the inside ready for the dolls arrival.
Shares at B&Q will have risen sharply with the amount of trips we've made this week. But finally Paul's said I can start putting my things in.


I was lucky in finding these teal blinds in the right size ! They were the only ones left in that colour and one of the blinds boxes was missing all the parts! So a worker helped by taking the missing items from another blind box.

Also after a lot or humming and ahh-ing about whether to paint the inside , I finally decided not to, as since the wall will move I could have landed up with wood showing through and having to keep touching it up. So I have stuck with the natural colour of the wood.

Did you want to see inside? or rather wait until it's kitted out? Will probably take a good few weeks because I now need to start weeding and working in the garden,  if it's to be opened along with others later next month.

You want to see it now? your sure? pardon?.. oh yes you have been waiting a long time as well... okay then.. here we go... if your sure?.....




There you go , what do you think?....... oh you want to go inside... okay....


View from the doorway, Plenty of double storage cupboards with oak boarding on top to form the floor of the room settings. Because the walls will move, Paul came up with the great idea of placing three narrow cupboard units on top of the base ones and running a white board on top to form the upper shelf for the extra room settings !



Then Jane S , when I was talking about it at the SCW suggested using the space in the middle or it would just really be wasted space and could be a great place for taking photos of the dolls, without room settings. I liked the idea , so we came up with this.
So we decided to have a double base unit come out at this centre point but make the top larger than the unit , so I can sit up at the left hand side and use the top with my sewing machine.You can see in the photo above that this leaves a large space behind,into which I can place lots of my storage boxes containing the items I don't use as much.




This photo shows my Arts and Crafts writing bureau,  still needs work, which will stay in here until we retire and then may go back into the house once the computer desk Paul works on goes. But for now It will be here where I can use it.
To the side by the window I'll also be stacking boxes or may put in some narrow shelving later.


On the right hand side is the beginning of a room setting. These items used to be in the doll cupboard that now stands against. the right hand wall. Now they have come out I can get more dolls in!


On the left another large room setting area and you can see the overhang of the centre worktop with a bin below and a couple of boxes awaiting sorting.


across from front corner is the other room setting area just shown along with doll cupboard that used to be up in bedroom .


Looking over towards the double doors.


I bought one set of these lovely colourful drawer units and brought it home , then finding it would fit perfectly in this area and thinking of all the uses it could have , I got Paul to take me back again the next evening to buy three more. Now I just need to make a decision , what to put in them, shoes and clothes colour co ordinated to the drawers?  Wool ? Fabric ? the choice is endless !


The view of the window.


The view out into the untidy garden where we'll put in a path to the studio later.

Well I hope you've enjoy seeing my lovely new studio, I am so happy! Now I have to go and play with Clara whose over for the bank holiday. Then it will be back to moving in ( if weather too hot )  and gardening ( if weather not ).

Have a lovely week ahead.

Dee



Friday 25 May 2018

ALL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGE....


"what's happening? "
 "where are we? "
" I feel ill? "
"Really? "
" A little !"
"What's all the noise? "


" Oh No ! We're being moved again!"
"When will it end? "



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Thursday 24 May 2018

ANOTHER MATCH


Winter is wearing one of the dresses I got from the SCW.


and without realising it, the Rosie Bloom olive shoes are a perfect match for the main dress colour!


Which is great because when I bought the olive green shoes, I was not sure what I'd be able to put them with.


Winter's not happy that I didn't brush her hair before taking her out for photos!


On the way back in , she wanted to stop and check out the time on the sundial !


She was not impressed when I told her that since the sun was behind some cloud, she'd not be able to see the time.


"Well I know what time it is!" she stated  " It's time for tea! " and laughing she jumped down and ran towards the house!


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Wednesday 23 May 2018

WEDNESDAY WISTERIA


This wisteria this evening. I'll be back tomorrow with another Sasha in a new outfit...


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Monday 21 May 2018

MORE OF THE SPOILS..


Belle is wearing the dress by Kath Barnett that I bought back at the raffle sales at the SCW.


along with the new blue Rosie Bloom shoes.


Belle does suit blue .


We went up onto the Lychgate for the photos and the early evening sun was shining between the plants.


The blue of the shoes are a perfect match to one of the blues in the dress.


you can see the match in this photo.


a close up of Belle.

 x


 Getting tired..


 in the sunlight.



So more tomorrow of my spoils from the SCW.


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Sunday 20 May 2018

SUNDAY IS HERE

Well this week's gone so fast! I cannot believe the Sasha weekend was just last week!

It's been a week of ups and downs.



On the down side, my daughter Lauren's lovely Westie Archie had to be put to sleep on Wednesday, he was a cheeky little dog who used to come over and stay everyday while his mum went off to work and then when someone was home , he'd stay there.
We'd not seen so much of him lately because he's dad was home more and he had a few health issues , one of which was that his heart had started to beat four beats , then stopping for four! It had come to light when he'd started keeling over if he did something like jumping about greeting Lauren when she arrived home , then climbing the stairs with her.




The Vet's had never seen anything like it but as long as he didn't overdo it  he was in fact fine. However it did mean he could not be put under anesthetic because he'd not wake up. But he'd happily gone along but then had an eye problem which they'd been dealing with until on Wednesday he woke up and was wobbly and seemed confused. He'd had a stroke and due to his heart problem nothing could be done, so at the at the good age of 14 he's now joined his friends Hamish and Izzy. We found him a spot in the garden just along from Izzy .


My daughter is heart broken, he was her first dog and her friend. He was a big part of our lives too, so of course we are very upset at his passing.


So now there are four dogs and a dragon buried in the garden ! Should ,in a couple of  hundred years this house be no more and they start to dig up the site, I wonder what they'd decide was here!


Now to move on to happier things. The garden is slowing getting tidied and the plants are growing well and giving us splashes of colour.



At the end of the garden I spent some time yesterday finding the path through this section that had become overgrow by a rose pushing down the lilac on the right.Now we can walk round to the end where there is a small table and chairs.The yellow and orange Azalea's along with the Lilac's giving this border some life.



This Rhododendron and Azalea are giving some colour to one side of the flower garden. While on the other side


The Wisteria is starting to bloom giving us a beautiful show of lilac.


and finally are years of waiting the bloms are starting to drop down through the trellis to hang in wonderful colour. This was on Friday.

This is Saturdays photo, I want to take one everyday to see how it looks.


Sundays photo as is the one at the start of this post. There is still a fair part of each bllom to open , so they should drop down further

On the Studio front, the insulation and flooring were laid.


Paul was working hard in the hot sun. This shows the insulation being covered by the floor boards. Now I'm trying to decide if I should paint the wall inside white or just treatment with the wood care and leave them as is? I was originally thinking to paint them white to keep it bright inside but I'm now thinking it's pretty bright anyway and if the wood is likely to move opening up , will I land up with streaks of wood appearing amongst the white? it's so hard to make my mind up!
But I need to make the decision now before we sort out a carpet !

Today hopefully the insulation and roof tiles will be put on, then it's all down to fitting out the inside and then it's open for business!!




Yesterday we had the wedding of Price Harry and Meghan, the bride looked stunning in a beautiful understated dress. One of the stand out photos for me, was of her walking into the chapel with her two little twin pageboys holding her train. I hope they will be very happy together and that they ignore the media trying to cause them pain and trouble. All this talk of not inviting family etc to the wedding. Sometimes your friends are your family. Having seen the behavior of some of her family I'd not have invited them either. Also I have seen how they , the media,have been trying to compare Kate and her against each other. I say leave them alone to become family, stop trying to put a spanner in the works.

Today is hot! and Paul and Roy are putting on the roof insulation and the shingles! So nearly done with the building work, then it's down to equipping the inside. Thinking I may leave the woodwork natural , because as Roy , SIL, so kindly put it, you'll never see it once all your stuff's in there!


one side done and working well on the other.

I went out to look for a carpet but the store was closed and I didn't have time to go to another one, so may try online or looking one evening this week but I'd like to get it this week, so I can finish the inside over the bank holiday weekend that's coming up next.


Casper is growing well and very interested in what we eat and drink! as shown in this photo from this morning! " What's that then Dad? should I have a bite just to check's it's okay? "

Well I'm off to look at carpets, so have a great week and I hope you all have some of this lovely weather we're having here in the UK.

Dee