I hope you are all doing well. I am so happy to be posting again and I have a lot of catching up to do. I have not worked on miniatures since December. Since then we spent every free minute working on our bathroom renovation. We did most of the work and it was a difficult experience. We only have the one bath/ shower in the house, so we had to go shower at my mom's every night for 12 weeks in the middle of winter. At one point the toilet in the basement powder room broke and we went 24 hours without a toilet. I could go on and on, but yesterday, except for touch ups and little things, the bathroom renovation came to an end.
Before (I swear it was like this when we bought the house)
We got rid of the 3 piece acrylic shower because it felt like a cave, we knocked down the closet for the washer and drier which we moved downstairs...in fact the only thing that did not change was the placement of the toilet...
After
It is hard to tell but the cabinets are a dark shade of purple. I designed the cabinets so it was great to see it come to life...however I don't ever want to tile or use epoxy grout again!!! At one point I think I had a bit of a mental breakdown. I was feeling quite flat which is when I stopped commenting on your blogs for a while. Sorry, It was a really bad patch but now I am feeling great and ready to catch up!
Back to Miniatures
The last miniature related work I did was getting the manor ready for an article in Doll's House magazine. I was so proud of the beautiful article which was in the June issue. Thank you again everyone who participated in putting it together.
Now that real life renovations are over, I can finally get back to the important things: my new wing for the manor. I have been working on the plans since it was all I could do, but I will talk more about that in my next post. I have been saving up to purchase the elements I wanted from Sue Cook, for the Ballroom and Library, and last week my order finally arrived safe and sound!
The 2 rooms will have over 180 plaster items: 17 in the library and the rest in the ballroom. I asked poor Sue Cook so many questions and she sent me many answers, suggestions and pictures to make sure I was happy with my purchase. It was a real pleasure to do business with her. If you read this, thank you Sue! I prefer waiting until a room is done to show you pictures, but since it will take a while to build the structure and get the floors done...so much flooring to do, sigh... I figured I'd give you a sneak peak:
These are the library items:
And here are a few set up pictures of the ballroom walls and ceiling:
For now, that's all you'll get to see. They are big rooms and there I say it, a little complicated in design, so it might be a while before my next post...but not as long as last time I promise. Wish me luck...and patience!
Birthday Presents
The first week of May was my birthday. I ate an obscene amount of cheesecake and I was spoiled more then ever. One of my favorite miniature artists is Randall Zadar. Jo and our families bought me the second one in the picture below, Indian Lovers. I pre-ordered the third one, Center Stage, for myself. When the time came to pay for Center Stage I decided at the last minute to add the fourth figurine in the picture, Mother and Firstborn. I was told they did not think they had any left. when I walked through the front door that evening Jo said "you had to be greedy, didn't you?" He had contacted Shoalts Collectibles and asked them to put the figurine in the box with my order as a surprise. He won big husband points! Being a gentleman, I let him pay for it and replaced it with the first one in the picture, Music Lesson!
I have several of his pieces throughout the manor, but I think I might assemble them for display in the new library.
Montreal Miniature Show
The end of March was the Montreal miniature show. Martha, Julie and Brian came over on the Friday before the show and we had a lovely visit. It really is my favorite part of the show. I was watching my budget for my Sue Cook order, but I still wanted to enjoy myself at the show and found some great pieces.
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| This is my first purchase from Karl Blindheim. I did not plan on purchasing any pets for a while, but this one just kept staring at me every time I passed the table and I had to have him. I named him one of my favorite names, Mathias. |
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| These I found at Martha Mclean's table. I love her flowers (Daffodils are one of my favorites) and she always has amazing pieces for sale. |
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| These I found at Julie's table, Westwinds Miniatures. I can never get great pictures of Julie's work! The painting on the glass pieces is phenomenal! |
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| These I found at an estate sale table and thought they would be perfect in an English manor. |
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| and these were presents. |
And that is all I have to say for the moment. It was a hard 6 months but now when I look at the bathroom, I think it was worth it. I need another 2 weeks to clean my house...so much dust... and then let the manor renovations begin!
I wish you all the best my friends and look forward to seeing your next posts. Keep the amazing work coming
Giac
