Container love

I have a weakness for pretty packaging and containers and I know that I'm not alone. Here's what started me thinking ...

... the rearranged shelving in the work area of my garage. Remember, I told you about this the other day but had no photo to show you. Now I have the photo. Behind that shelving unit you see right in front of you is another section of the garage where my gardening and diy tools are stored.

You'll see immediately that some of my items are neatly organised into labelled plastic boxes - especially on that shelving unit on the left. OK, the boxes don't all match but these things are easy to find. There are boxes here for card and foam board, beads, flower making, hat making, fabric (sorted into silks and cottons), lace, ribbons, paints, adhesives ... and so it goes on.

Then there are those mismatched cardboard containers, which also hold precious mini-making materials but I just never did get around to buying more plastic boxes for these things. So - you see how the thought process progressed. I got to thinking about how I store my stitching materials in much more attractive containers.

I picked up this beautiful oddment of brocade in a remnants bin years ago. I was so taken by the design of Chinese dragons and stylised leaves and loved the colours. I covered this box and now use this to hold my lacemaking bits and pieces - designs waiting to be stitched, oddments of mat film, etc.

This tin has an oriental feel to the design too though this time in blue and white and here's where I keep the miniature embroidery projects I'm working on - currently two patchwork quilts almost finished and six embroidered cushions. 

This lovely pink tin with the delicate lacelike design in gold was filled with beautiful soaps and was a gift from my daughter - bought more because of the tin than the soap - she knows me so well! This now holds my threads for my lacemaking.

This is my latest purchase of threads which need to go in that tin. What can I say? Stef Francis had a sale so I just had to buy. These are all quite a bit finer than I've used before - extra fine and superfine silks and mercerised cottons - so I'll have to see how I get on with them.

These two oval tins were a Christmas gift from my daughter's boyfriend a couple of years ago - bought from Libertys in London. The butterfly tin now holds my pins and the one with the swans and flowers sits on my desk filled with paperclips.

And speaking of containers ... I made these little 12th scale boxes which will be going in my Etsy shop any day soon.

The curtains are hung

It's been bitterly cold here for the past few days and I've really struggled to do more work on the manor house as my work area is in the garage, which is unheated. I do have a piece of carpet on the floor on which I can stand and I have a small oil heater which I've pressed into service but it's really not warm. I've been moving my shelves around and trying to organise things a bit better so the gardening and real life diy items are separated from my minis and crafting supplies. I'm not quite there yet but I have placed one of the shelving units at right angles to the wall in an attempt to cut off some of the draughts from the door. I'll show you photos when it's finished and you'll understand better what I'm talking about.

Anyhow ... I did manage to get all the curtains made and hung so it's almost ready for the family to start moving in. 'Just' the electrics to sort out now and a few bits and pieces of furniture to finish.

I had to go into town briefly this morning, stopped to look in the window of my favourite charity shop and just look what I found!

This delightful little cottage to build. It is 1:50 scale but I reckon that's close enough to 1/48 and they were selling it for £8.50. How could I resist? Especially when the money is going to a good cause too. The kit contains the card pieces on which the model is based, and all the (real) bricks, roof tiles and landscaping materials for the garden. 

I shall have to modify it slightly to enable me to fit out the inside as it's not really intended as a dolls house but I don't think that should be too difficult to do. We shall see ... watch this space.

Thank you Mieke!

Mieke gave me an award!
I believe I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself so ...
1. Cats are my favourite animal
2. I love stitching
3. I've lived in the same town all my life
4. I'm vegetarian
5. I love good quality dark chocolate
6. My favourite place is the Scottish highlands
7. I enjoy gardening

Am I allowed to cheat a little on the other rule and say that it's impossible to choose just 15 blogs. I would give the award to every one of you as your work never ceases to amaze and inspire me and am constantly surprised and delighted to find that you care to follow my efforts.

And the winner is ...

Debs of Heverbellminiatures! 

Congratulations Debs. 

If you let me have your address I'll send the doll and chair on to you.

Welcome!!

A very quick post today to say hello and a very warm welcome to all my new followers - another 27 have arrived this month and I'm very pleased to meet each and every one of you. I hope you enjoy your visits.

Now, this is the crinoline lady finished and mounted onto a piece of green silk dupion in readiness for me to stitch her ribbon work garden. I'm taking her with me to the display up in the village this evening - along with the lace butterfly, the lace and goldwork autumn leaves picture, the blackwork patchwork design and the darning sampler. I think I showed you all those pieces before. I was just a little surprised to find that these are all pieces I've completed since October last year - not a bad stitching output for four months. I'm currently working more blackwork - a picture of two Japanese kimonos and some miniature cushions. I'll show you those when they're finished.

New displays in the cake shop

And here's a quick reminder about the giveaway, which closes on the 28th. I realised that the photograph I showed before didn't actually show the cushion. The prize is the chair, the cushion and the little doll. The second photograph shows that she's fully dressed with matching pink bloomers under her skirt. If you haven't already let me know you want to take part, leave a comment under either this entry, or the original one and become a follower of my blog.

I know I should be making curtains for the manor house but I'm suffering from a definite case of procrastination with that house at the moment. I've ordered some more accessories for it which the postman tried to deliver today while I was out meeting a friend for lunch. When I collect them from the post office on Friday I'm hoping that they will bring back my enthusiasm for the project and that I'll make some more progress over the weekend. That's the plan, anyhow.

While I was searching for 24th scale manor house bits, I also treated myself to some new display cabinets for the cake shop part of the Attic tea rooms. The tea rooms face the chair where I sit to eat breakfast every day and I've been thinking about renovating it a little for a while now. Decisions on what to do with it finally made, the parcel of display units arrived in the post yesterday, so of course today I had to play and put in all my cakes and bread. While I was at it I sorted out the shelving unit for behind the counter too.

This is the unit which stands behind the sales assistant to display the collection of teapots. There are packets of Twinings tea for sale too. The left hand drawer (which I forgot to open for the photograph) contains menu cards for the tea rooms. On the bottom shelf are tins of biscuits for use in the tea rooms and cake boxes ready for when a customer makes a purchase in the cake shop.

This tall unit contains swiss rolls, jam tarts, iced fancies and battenburg slices as well as an iced birthday cake and a selection of bread loaves and rolls.

This is the glass topped counter complete with cake display and a three tier wedding cake on top. The assistant is wrapping a loaf in a paper bag ready for a customer.

This is the cake shop at the moment with the shop assistant/waitress and all the displays in position. I know the wood doesn't match but I'm quite happy about that. I may tone down the new cabinets anyhow as they are quite red, but for the moment I'm living with it as it is.

And this is how it looks through the window - far more enticing to passers by I think than it was before.

Charity shop finds

I called in at one of the many charity shops when I was in town the other day where I know that they have a rummage bin of old home textiles - lace and embroidered pieces along with crochet doileys and the like. I thought you might like to see what I bought. None of these pieces cost more than a couple of pounds.

This little piece of patchwork is actually the perfect size to make a 1/12th scale table topper so I'll tidy up the outer edge and use it in the retreat.

I never learned to do tatting, but that's what this beautiful old doiley is - beautiful sitting on the sideboard with a small planter on top ... or I may use it as a centrepiece in some piece of embroidery - maybe applique it onto the front of a bag. What do you think?

There was a whole set of these chrocheted mats - two large oval ones like this and two small round ones. Again, those flowers may end up decorating a bag.

I fell in love with this pretty little embroidered mat with lace inserts - the price? 50p!!

And this sweet embroidered napkin was the same price.

This long table runner is pretty worn but there are lots of usable motifs here ...

 These circular motifs will make lovely lace tablecloths for my 12th scale tea rooms

 and there is well over a yard of this beautifully worked edging to remove and attach to my full size household linens.

Oh, and by the way, the front is attached to the manor house.

I was planning to show you the (almost) completed kitchen but the photos have turned out to be too blurry so I'll try again another day.