Wedding photos

This post is seperate so for those of you who wanted to see photos can, and for those who dont want to dont have to!  : )  I ended up with over 500 professional wedding photos, so added to all the photos which I will eventually add up with from friends and family, plus what we took over the weekend I will have approximately 1000 photos!  Scary! 

But I have choosen some of my favourites from the professional shots to post here, so I hope you enjoy.  Looking at them makes me smile.

Below is the invitations that I made.  Yes they took forever but I think theyre gorgeous so they were well worth it!  The purple one on the left was the original save the date, for the wedding next year.  The pink one on the right is the one we sent out as our hens/bucks night, so that we could have our surprise wedding.





The below five photos were all taken at our bed and breakfast before the ceremony.  They had absolutely beautiful grounds and we were so lucky they allowed us to have photos there.

 The bridal table - I just love the little laterns!  They will now be used on our outdoor deck.

Me with my dad.

The butterfly release was perfect.

 The ceremony.

After the ceremony, at Rye foreshore.

I am making a photo book on my laptop from all hundreds of images I have, and will get that printed up as our wedding album.  I scrapbooked our engagement party but would rather have the professional looking photo book for our wedding.  Its coming up really well so far, Im just short a few photos from the reception, which Im hoping some of my friends will have.

I asked my hubby on the weekend if we could get married again - he didnt seem to keen on the idea!  It was fun, but I do admit the organising by the end was stressful.  When we hit 10 years we'll do a recommitment ceremony just so that I have an excuse to head up to Queensland and do what we were originally planning for the wedding!!!

The bathroom is almost complete!

Another week has gone by and all my good intentions went with it!  Unfortunately I am still sick, and to add to that I am sunburnt.  Unbelievable I know, but pretty typical for me - if theres something going around I have to get it.  My husband took sunday off work (his boss had asked him to come in and my response was not very pleasant!), and we asked his dad to come over to help us put an extension on our back fence and some bamboo reed, that we had bought from bunnings with the last of our engagement vouchers.  I supervised the whole affair, as Im still not suppose to use my right wrist for lifting, and in the process managed to get a nice case of sunburn.  But on the bright side my outdoor decking area is now looking really lovely and I cant wait to have people over for a bbq.  As soon as I get over this damn flu, and my sunburn stops driving me insane I plan to do just that.

Im a little sad sack at the moment, which isnt helped by my husband working overtime every day, so I never get to spend any time with him.  Its funny, Ive been married for 2 weeks now, and nothings changed - life at times still sucks!  : )  I wouldnt mind the overtime so much, except that he doesnt get paid for it!!  So hes spending an extra 15 or so hours at work this week instead of at home with me.  Depressing.  He comes home at night, has a bite to eat, and then falls asleep on the couch.  Very unromantic.  I even tried to make last night romantic and lets just say that didnt work.  He fell asleep and I felt totally unappreciated.

But enough of my whinge - must say it feels good to get it out there though!  I so want a honeymoon, but alas we are broke so that isnt going to happen.  When I say broke, we can afford to pay all our bills, albeit a little late at times, but there is no spare money for doing things around the house, going out, or buying miniatures.

Which brings me to my dilemma.  My bathroom is looking so cute.  As I said last time the bath, toilet and sink arrived, and I have put everything in and it looks great.

Im not set on the little bath mat - that just came with the shower and I am yet to make a replacement.  But other than that I am really happy.  The last thing I need is some little rails - a towel rail and a toilet roll holder.  However having no money prevents buying these things.  Hence my dilemma.  I can try making them, but I must say my confidence in mini making is pretty much zip right now.  I follow lots of talented ladies blogs and am a member of several yahoo groups, and all the work I see just reinforces how bad my own work is!  I know it all comes with experience and practice, but I think Ive scared myself out of even trying.  So as bad as this sounds, can someone please tell me a bad experience they have had with mini making, so that I can convince myself that everyone had troubles at the start.  Im sure people think back to what it was like when they first started and laugh, so I just need to get over this hurdle and get on with it.

I am happy however with the little bottles I made for my cupboards.  You can see a close up below of the items on my shelving.

The other items were all bought off ebay, but I can proudly say the little bottles are mine.  I had such fun making them that I think I may have gone a little over board!!!

I think I made about 60 - oops!  They were fun, and there are so many different combinations you can create.  So I think I can create my own perfume store now!!!  But since I really dont need this many, I am considering selling them on ebay.  I here people talking about etsy alot, but I am not familiar with it or how it works, so Ill try ebay first and see how that goes.  I will of course be saving some for my one-stop wedding boutique, if I just can pick which colour range to go with!

I also have my towel design to show you for the bathroom, that will go on the towel rack, when I eventually get one.

Its very simple, with just a little bit of green trim and lace, but will go perfectly with my bathroom design and colours.  I have noticed though that towels dont quite seem to be in 1/12th scale.  The one pictured above is exactly 1/12th scale - I know because I measured our towels!!  But I received a free towel with my shower and that it is quite small in comparison to the one Ive made.  So Im quite confused!  At this stage I think I may need to make a new towel when I get a towel rail, but now that I know what I want that shouldnt be too hard.

Thats all from me for now.  Hopefully I will accomplish something mini in the next week to report on, so stay tuned!  xx

Life goes on

Hello to all.  Just wanted to first of all say a quick thank you to all those who have sent me messages!!!

Another week has flown by and I feel like I have gotten nothing done!  Its been a week of highs and lows unfortunately, and I think that and the weather is the reason I have had the flu for the last few days.  Thankfully my fever broke late yesterday, and the colour has returned to my face, so I am on the road to recovery at last!  I really hate being sick, because when I do I usually get knocked on my ass, and this was no exception.

Other than that it was the first anniversary of my mums death over the weekend, so I had a number of moments during the week of feeling very sad.  Being only one week since we got married added to my sorrow, as it just reminded me that she wasnt there.  I am however very much a believer that she was there in spirit, which is why part of my ceremony was a butterfly release dedicated to her.

But on the bright side, I have seen my professional wedding photos and they are fabulous.  I will be getting a CD of all the images (approx 450) and some prints this coming weekend, so I will post some of my favourites then. 

Other than that my corner bath, toilet and sink arrived yesterday!  Yippee!!!  I will post some pictures in the next few days when Im feeling better (theres maintenance at the moment so image uploads are disabled).  I also got some toys for my nursery, which is definitely next project on the list.  And a number of wedding dresses, corsets, and other lingerie items arrived, which made me very happy. 

My recent dollhouse acquistion I have deceided will house my Bridal Boutique, which will feature a shop on the lower floor of jewellery items, perfume, bouquets, etc.  A cafe/wedding cake shop on one side of the second floor, and a wedding dress shop on the other side of the second floor.  The top floor will house a seamstress and either a stockroom, or a shop of gifts for wedding couples, depending on what I can find/make.

I have been busy reading blogs and yahoo group digests the last few days to see what everyone else has been up to, and everyone is talking about halloween.  And I must say I just dont get it!  Im in Australia, so we dont celebrate halloween here, but I have seen so many great creations the last few days I do feel a little jealous!!!  Some of you ladies out there are so creative.

Personally Im busy thinking about Christmas - Im not sure if I will be making anything mini, but I will certainly be doing something for my house.  Last year I made my now husband a Countdown Calendar, which was a series of 25 little boxes each filled with a little present, and made us both a stocking each, and a calendar for the year. 

I mentioned to my husband christmas the other day - I have already starting our shopping list for gifts (I hate leaving it till the last minute) - and asked him what I should make, and his response was not very nice.  He thinks we already have plenty of things and I disagree.  So Im not sure what to do this year.  Im hoping my mini friends will start to inspire me once Halloween is over.

Must go, until next time.  xx

Bathroom

I was planning to do a few posts this week but internet problems have prevented that!  I havent been up to much in the way of minis, just because Im still exhausted from my wedding and the weekend, but I have picked up a shower and shelving unit to fit out my cute bathroom as you can see.

I plan to fill the shelving unit with bathroom accessories, like towels, perfume bottles, toilet paper rolls, and the bits and pieces I picked up off ebay the other day.  As you can see below I got a couple of great items to complete my bathroom.

No bathroom could be complete without a toilet and sink, and they are on the way.  Ive also ordered a corner bath, just because I love them.  And I havent deceided yet if I will have a mirror above the sink - once I get all the bits and pieces in place I will make that decision.

Wedding day!

Well hello all.  Sorry for the lack of posts - it has been a busy week!

But it was all worth it... the wedding yesterday went off without a hitch!!!!!  It was glorious weather, nothing went wrong and if I do say so myself I looked beautiful.  Judge for yourself...

The happy couple pre ceremony.

Our ceremony was on the beach on a picture perfect day with only oue closest family and friends in attendance (17 adults and 3 children).

The rings

Our first kiss as a married couple!!

Yippee were married!!!

My cupcake wedding tower.  Dont the little couple on top look cute?

Our lolly buffet.  I made all the signs, placecards, etc for our reception and designed the lolly buffet and the below centrepieces.

The photos are just from guests - I wont have my professional photos for about 2 weeks.  So not that its all done and dusted I have minis to get back to and a normal life.  So as of tomorrow I will get back to blogging about minis so stay tuned.  There is mini towels on the way, and mini perfume bottles.

7 days to go & a new dollhouse to renovate!!!!

Well were now only 7 days out from the wedding and my nerves are kicking in!  But not for the normal reasons.... mainly Im nervous about how I will cope on the day without my mum there.  Its really sad for me.  But besides that Im having a little bit of a panic as I ordered some beautiful jewellery from overseas and it still hasnt arrived!!!  And the post office are so unhelpful!  They are holding it at theyre mail centre but wont tell me why or when it will be released.  And theyve already have it for 2 weeks and failed to inform me.  So Im really upset and annoyed, and it has really stressed me out as I may now have no jewellery for my wedding day.  We cant afford to buy something else at the last minute, so I have no idea what I am going to do.

But on the bright side I grabbed myself a bargain on ebay today.  Much to my fiance's dismay I bought another dollhouse!!  And it is just beautiful.  Im a very happy woman. 

Its alot bigger than my current project, but it is another half-finished project.  The lady I bought it off has put so much time and effort into building it from scratch, but she is upgrading to an even bigger one for Christmas, so she had to sell this one.

Isnt is gorgeous?!?!?!  It measures 125cm by 48cm, and is 80cm high.  And as you can see it all opens up - the middle panel is held on by magnets, which I thought was really clever. 

With 3 lovely floors to work on I have lots of room for a big family to move in!  It needs a little structural work, some dividing walls, a couple of sets of stairs, and a few windows and doors finished and it will be ready to roll.  As you can see on the middle left a room has been started and I will need to decide whether to continue or to start afresh.

Im so excited about my new house!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I just love how the front has been designed and see endless potential, and lots of fun for several years.  But it leaves me with a big question now.... what do I do with my current project.  Do I continue with the ideas I originally had for it, with the view to move any major pieces of furniture over to the new house when the current house is fully completed.  Or do I do two completely different themes/styles.  Or do I make the new "dream" house into a one-stop bridal store, complete with reception centre.

Craig has told me in no uncertain terms that I am not allowed to touch the new house until renovations on the original house are complete.  So I have told him that this weekend he is helping me construct a wall, to make a seperate nursery and study.  He just looked at me - but having a fractured wrist has its advantages - he cant say no!!!  So I will stand and watch and probably yell instructions while I nurse my wrist, and he will do all the hard work.

11 Days till the WEDDING!

So the countdown is on and its 11 days until my wedding day.  I am a little nervous - for a few reasons... the first of which is because of my wrist, which as the doctor said today just needs time to heal.  But healing is something I dont really have time for.  I have a number of things still to get done before the big day, and more than that I still have alot to pay for, and without my wage we are going to struggle.  So the added stress is getting to me, and affecting my sleeping more than ever.  Unfortunately my medical bills, which have already topped $300 in only 5 days, have come out of my wedding fund and who knows when this money will be refunded to me by work.  So at this point I dont know what we are going to do.

So I made the decision to list some of my dolls house books which I no longer use, as well as my excess engagement/wedding items.  My original thinking was to use the funds to buy some items to furnish my renovated dolls house, and Im hoping this can still happen as I have my eyes on some great items!  My bathroom items (bath, shower, sink) are on their way, which I am excited about!  Cant wait till they get here, so that I can install them in my bathroom, and then make the accessories to match.  My main accessories will be towels, miniature bottles, a little toothbrush, and a hair brush because those are the things in my own bathroom.

But as I watched my finace put the cushions in the cushion covers that I made yesterday my mind was ticking over in miniature.  I still have lots of fabric left over, and am considering making a miniature cushion set in the same colours for my dollhouse.  Below is what the real ones look like.

They are for my outdoor deck area, to be placed on the seats around our outdoor dining table.  When I first saw them they just made me think of summer and fun.  I love the colours!!!

So I plan to use the material to possibly make some curtains, as well as some cushions for my dollhouse.  Maybe with having some extra time on my hands and my love of sewing kicking back in, I may even make some extras and try my luck at selling them on ebay - who knows.

But as for now, I am going to go and play with my beloved babies who got themselves into a bit of a mess today.  It was raining so I had them inside with me - now normally I would be at work and they would be outside in the rain.  They dont actually seem to mind - they spend their time in their dog house, or under our car port playing, and when we get home and dry and happy.  So I had them in and they seemed a little sad, so I checked if they wanted to go out and as soon as I opened the door they bolted.  So I left them to it.  A couple of hours later they let me know that they wanted to come in - they jump on our wire door to say they want to come inside.  And when I saw them I wasnt sure whether I should laugh or cry.  They were not only soaked to the bone, they were filthy.  Clearly they had deceided that mums home so lets run around like crazy people and dig up the yard a bit because we wont have to stay out in the cold.  As pictured below, they got just a little dirty!!

They were muddy little paw prints all over the house - thankfully we have tiles and floor boards!!  So they both had to have two baths - the first to just get the majority of the dirt and mud off, and the second to give them a go with shampoo.  They arent the biggest fan of the bath but they were good and the result is two beautiful puppies once more.


Chloe





Benji





Another week closer to the big day!

Its been an interesting week and fingers crossed things improve from here!

My wrist aches from the hairline fracture, and Ive bruised up quite nicely.  Now I thought I had sleeping problems before - how wrong I was.  Trying to sleep with my wrist is proving to be a real pain in the butt!!

So I have been off work and hanging around at home going a little stir crazy.  But its hit the weekend, and the beautiful weather has come out and it inspired me to do a few things I had been meaning to do for a while.

Yesterday was a write off as I watched my beloved team (Collingwood) play in the AFL Grand Final.  And I couldve cried as we went from playing marvelously and winning for three quarters of the match, to ending in a draw!  I was not a happy woman!!  So bad news is, we have to replay next Saturday.  But good news is, thank god we ended up making our wedding two weeks after the grand final and not the week after, otherwise the wedding would have to be moved.  And yes I am serious!!  Myself and my family are loyal Collingwood fans and there is no way my wedding could be on the day of the grand final.  My fiance gave a very large sigh of relief when we heard that if it draws again next week they will play overtime - so the bride (me) wont be calling off the wedding due to the football!

But I digress, today was a wonderful sunny day, which I spent part of outside with my beautiful puppies.  But as I was out there I looked around my deck and thought about the material and cushions sitting inside waiting to be done.  So after a trip to my dads to say hello, and pick up my mums wedding ring (my something old and something borrowed for the wedding day), and a stop at spotlight, I took my wrist out of its bandage and got to work.  Much to my delight though I now have 8 beautiful cushion covers complete with zip closures!

And as the sewing machine was out, and my wrist was already throbbing I thought I might start on some mini towels for my bathroom.  Now they arent complete so pictures will be coming later in the week, but I think I have a good design that will go nicely with my bathroom.  I have also been playing with colours and designs for some mini bottles that will go in my bathroom too.

But for now its getting late and my wrist is killing me and a headache is setting in, so Im off to take some pain killers and rest up on the couch.  Doctors appointment tomorrow for a check up on my wrist, fingers crossed some good news for the impending wedding (2 weeks to go) and back to work sooner rather than later.

Bad day, followed by a worse day

So yesterday was a bad day.  Bad day at work, then a bad night when I got home.  So I went to sleep, and told my fiance that he should call in sick for me today because I just knew something would go wrong.  Now why I didnt trust my instinct I could now kick myself for! 

I am coming down with a cold, so was feeling pretty lousy when I woke up.  Off I went to work and I warned them that I wasnt feeling the best.  So I went about my job, thankfully fluffing pillows (no I am not joking) which required little thought. 

Half way through the day a shelf collapsed on me.  Onto my right arm to be exact.  So off to the doctor I went, and 9 x-rays later, and I have a hairline fracture on my wrist.  So I am down my dominant hand!  And two and a half weeks out from my wedding day.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh.  No cast at this point.  And Im hoping I wont have to get one.  My arm is however in a sling, so no work for the next few days. 

And as nice as it is to have a few days rest time (since I am actually getting sick, and all the stress of organising the wedding in such a short time by myself while working full time is making me suffer from exhaustion) I cant do anything without my right hand.  So my dolls house is looking at me and I am trying to figure out what I can do with my few days off without hurting my wrist any further.

So for the time being I will scour ebay for some bargains and plan what to do in my nursery, which I have deceided will be the next room I tackle.

Windows

Another day, another dollar.  An uneventful day at work which is always good but I must say I hate childrens toys!!!  :)  For everyones info I work as a merchandiser/refit/layout person, so at the moment Im working for a major department store and today the job was to redo their toy section.  Ahhhhhhh.  Far too many toys!!!

But anyway.  Onto the dollhouse.  Now its been staring at me, taunting me.  But Im a little stuck.  You see my original idea was to put a little wood frame inside the exsisting window, but as it turns out after cutting wood to the exact right size, its not flat!  So I have now temporarily ditched the idea.  I have two choices - do it anyway and just fill the gap (but I think this will be a pain!), or just do little cross bar type things to make it look like several panes of glass, and then frame it all on the outside.  Im considering the second option.  But that now will have to wait till the weekend because its going to be fiddly and after work I am not in the mood for fiddly!

So after temporarily giving up on that I thought I would try to make a little curtain for the bathroom.  This did not turn out as I had planned either.  Sigh!  I cut the material sewed it onto the dowel and thought it was all good to go.  But no.  Firstly it turned out just that little bit too short for the window as you can see below.

How annoying!  So aside from that I just dont like the way its sitting.  It wont sit closer to the window frame no matter what I do with it.  So I dont know what to do about that at the moment.  I considered ironing it to get nice little pleats, but I wanted more that natural pleat thats a little curved.

This is what it looks like out of the window - its quite cute.  So once I get it the right length later in the week I may have to somehow squash it a little to get it to sit closer to the window frame.

But for now I have wedding things to stress about, so until next time.

Painting on the bathroom!!

Im so happy it has all worked out, despite the dramas!!!

So this is my bathroom!!!!!!!!  Im actually really happy with it.  Its hard to tell from the photo but the walls are a pale lime green, with white trim, and the light mocha tiles.  Its really nice (if I do say so myself!).  Once it was all sanded I just did the undercoating, and then two coats of the lime green. 

Now the tiles - this was a slight issue!  The dramas of creating a real modern bathroom in dollhouse scale.  For everyones info the tiles are actually real mini tiles from my local bunnings - they were a pain to cut, as they are so small we had quite a few that didnt break correctly.  But trial and error and we got there.

So I got the tiles ready glued the floor (note to self, glueing tiles means glue goes everywhere - next time change clothes first - not only are my hands covered in glue but somehow I got it all up my arm and I of course then touched my clothes - oops!).  Now little did I know when I started that my room isnt exactly square.  So I was not happy, but my fiance Craig came to the rescue.  He goes, "I'll just chisel it tomorrow on the trimming to fit the tiles in."  Genius!  Now of course I didnt want to wait till tomorrow, so with a little sweet talking he did it, and he is a superstar cause they all fit and it looks really good!!!

So once that was all done I decided to paint the swinging door with a coat of white, since that forms a wall in my bathroom.  Then I got out my supplies that I got from Spotlight and Bunnings.  What I got - about 5 different types of material from Spotlight, and a few pieces of wood from Bunnings. 

So I have attached some hooks to the inside of the door above the window, and through that I put a piece of dowel which fits snugly so its perfect.

So this will be for my little curtain - Im sure my little family wont want strangers looking in when their trying to take a shower!!  I havent done the curtain yet, but it will just be a little white sheer one.  That will be my job one night after work this week. 

My next job on the list is to put a frame inside the bathroom window, which will be a little trial an error.  The width is 13mm, so I will have to cut some wood to this width and then worry about the length.  I think it will also have a dividing piece of wood down the middle, to make it look like it would be a two paned sliding window.  Now my decision is whether to leave my windows open, or to put a piece of acetate in behind them - I think that will depend on the look of it.  I also havent yet decided on the outside frame of my window and this will be a decision made after Ive seen the basic look.  It may be that I add a picture frame type edge onto the front of the house to give it a more real life look.

So we have progress and I achieved my goal for the weekend so I am thrilled - it feels so good to have done something productive and to see my handywork. 

Now on a little side note I have to say a big thank you to my followers and my little cheer squad from yahoo groups - you ladies are fantastic and Im sure will keep me motivated through this experience.  So doc, in honor of being my first follower and to continue my bathroom theme, I have a little something for you.  So I need your snail mail addy to send it off.  Just drop me an email and I will get it out to you.  Details on the prize will be later in the week, once I have taken some photos.

So I am only one follower away from 10, and I think when I hit that I will do another prize, but the question is who to send it out to.  So my question to you all is - is anyone else working on a bathroom?  And if you have completed your bathroom what is the one little miniature (aside from the toilet, sink, shower, etc) it wouldnt be complete without?

Until tomorrow....

Sanding is complete!!

Well the electric sander came out and that was it I lost my dollhouse to my fiance! 

But I shouldnt complain, he likes to play with tools (as do I) and he seemed to really enjoy doing it.  Craig just had to use both sanders - in his words the mouse does the corners perfectly.  Oh well.  So after having a little go myself I left him to it and browsed the many books and magazines I have on miniatures thinking about what I could do next.  My poor babies didnt understand what all the noise was about, as you can see below.

So they sniffed them out to make sure they were ok for use!  As pictured above, Chloe is in the background - she is a shitzu cross cavaleir, while benji in the foreground is a maltese cross shitzu.  They are my babies and I love them to death.  They have gotten me through some rough days with lots of kisses and cuddles and I think of them as an important part of my family.  They are like my kids (which helps take the sting out of trying for almost a year know with no success), and they often come with us on day trips and everytime we go to visit my dad.

Unfortunately as they are still so young (6 months) they also like to play with everything, and when we went away for a night about a month ago and left them home they managed to get into our study/craft room and proceed to destroy quite a lot.  I couldnt stay made at them long, even though they did take a bottle of craft glue and proceed to chew the top of it off and leave it to empty on our bed.  I think that was their way of telling us we are not to go away without them again.

So anyway (yes I do get sidetracked!) after about an hour my bathroom is sanded and ready to go.

So now I am off to Bunnings and Spotlight (my favourite stores!!!  For those o/s bunnings is our local hardware store that has absolutley everything and spotlight is our local craft store) to pick up some undercoat/sealer paint, some timber to have a go at making my own window frames and some material for miniature towels, curtains and maybe even a rug.  Then we plan to drop round at my inlaws (who are o/s at the moment) and borrow their tile cutter to see if you can cut mini tiles to fit that doorway space.  Im not holding my breath that it will work but theres no harm in giving it a try!!

Damn bathroom wallpaper!

So I resanded again last night before I went to bed and added a layer of white paint.

Woke up this morning and the back wall is very bumpy.  Considering this is the main wall that you see this will not do!  So I have resanded it by hand and have roped my fiance into getting the electric sander out so we can give that a go.  Ho hum.

Thankfully none of the other rooms have wallpaper!!!  This is one nightmare I dont want to repeat.  So here is the layout of the rest of the house.

The top right will be the master bedroom.  The top left will be the study at the back and a nursery at the front - I plan to construct a wall.  Then downstairs the left will be the kitchen with a door out to the backyard, the middle will be the dining room and the right will be the front entrance and living room.

The stairs are located behind the bathroom and lead out into the living room.  They dont need any work, so will probably just get a coat of paint.

So Im off to give this bathroom wall one more go - I am getting the sinking feeling my bathroom will not get completed this week :(