My first blog!

Well I've bitten the bullet and deceided to start my own blog!  So I warn you now I may make mistakes along the way and I apologise in advance!!!

A little about me before we begin this journey....  Im engaged to be married, live in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and finally have a job I love. 

The wedding is only 3 weeks away and its a surprise to our guests (its a small wedding - only 22 people invited) so it has been a little stressful to organise by myself (men and wedding planning do not go together!!).  Aside from that the last year has been pretty hard for me - my mum died unexpectedly late last year and I was disagnosed with PCOS (polysistic ovary syndrome) at the start of this year.  I struggle on a daily basis with both of these things - with our wedding day looming not having my mum around hurts just that little bit more.  And wanting a big family, being diagnosed with PCOS was a big blow to my plans for the future.  The thing that annoys me the most is people saying that if I just relax I'll fall pregnant!!  Medical intervention is the only thing that will allow me to fall pregnant and even that is not a guarantee.

But I decided to distract myself by making the plunge into the world of miniature.  So this is the start of that journey!

I have loved miniature for years and always wanted a dollhouse.  The closest I ever had was a barbie dream house, which I loved, but its just not the same.  So now in my late 20's I have purchased my first dollhouse.  Hopefully it will be the first of many.  I got it off ebay from a lovely girl who was heading overseas and couldnt take it with her.  Its been handmade and although its not quite to 1/12th scale it will be great after a little work.  Below is a picture of the front.

As you can see it has been well made and well looked after.  And I plan to treasure it as much as the previous owner.  The roof lifts off and both front panels open via some hinges.  It features lovley stairs at the back, downstairs has three rooms, and upstairs has another three. Inside much work was already done, including a full paint job in a pale yellow, faux wooden floors and a completed bathroom.

The bathroom was the first to go - it was cute, and made on a budget with all cardboard items (which I can completely understand, as the world of miniature is expensive!).  So renovations started today!  And for something I thought would be easy, has quickly turned into a really hard job!!  It originally had a laminate floor, one laminate wall and two walls that had "wallpaper."  Well this "wallpaper" is fast becoming the bane of my exsistance!  It is basically heavy scrapbook paper super glued to the walls.  And I originally thought it was just one layer, turns out its about 3 and it will not come off properly.  So after a lot of peeling and attacking it with a sanding block I though I had it off.  So this is what it looked like. 

Now I thought I had it all off, so I painted a coat of white paint and let it dry.  Then bubbles appeared - theres another layer of paper!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  So I have now attacked it with a knife to dig through the layer of paper and try and scratch as much off as I could.  And given it another sanding.  Now Im trying to decide whether to attack it with an electric sander or have another go by hand before I try painting again.  So annoying!

But anyway I will get it done this weekend.  I have mini tiles picked out to lay on the floor, and am planning to paint the walls the same pale green that we used in our own bathroom.  I have bought a few items off ebay to fit out the bathroom and cant wait for them to arrive - my closest miniature shop is 1 hour away and although it has lots of things, it just doesnt have alot of the things I want.  So I plan to buy alot online.  Australia sadly doesnt seem to have many miniature enthusiasts compared with the UK and USA, so the shops here are few and far between.

With my wedding so close I have a few scenes picked out in my head that will occur between renovating the dolls house - I plan a one stop wedding shop, a coffee/cake shop, and a little wedding scene mimicking my own wedding day that we can keep as a momento of the day.  For the house itself, after the bathroom, there will be a main bedroom upstairs, and the other room will be split into a nursery for a baby and a study/computer room, while downstair will feature a kitchen, a dining room and a living area.  I am considering adding rooms onto the roof but I am unsure how to go about this.  As it is basically just a board as the roof currently I thought I could add a slanting style roof which will enable a loft space for another room for a child.  But this I think is years away from coming to fruition.  As it will all be on a budget Im hoping to find bargains on ebay and make alot of bits and pieces along the way.  We dont have alot of money so it will just be a case of doing what I can with what I can. 

Im a perfectionist so this will be an interesting process!